We live in exciting times. There's a lot of interesting stuff and new ideas just arrived on the videogame market, and some more things just starting to appear on the horizon. Here are some things that I, (And I think many others) are looking forwards to in the immediate, or very near future.
Head Tracking
Johnny Lee is a genius. Let no man say otherwise. Taking one Wiimote, and a few dollars worth of equipment from a radio shack, then combining them in a way a five year old could do (unscrupulous employers take note), he's managed to achieve possibly the greatest 3D special effects I've yet seen. Such a simple idea Here, have a butchers:
Given the fact Nintendo seem to want to try and create an immersive console with the Wii (Motion sensing, the Wii fit, the Wii me and so on), I'm amazed no one in their company came up with this idea! Think of it, one spare Wiimote for the head tracking, and one to play. Anyone who was moving their head to try and get a better look around when 3D games first came out (God I feel old), will be able to appreciate just how interesting this technology could be.
And that's not all, here's Johnny (hehehe) at the TED conference, showing off another one of his uses for the Wiimote. Without a doubt, the most well earned applause in recent times:
UPDATE:Spore has been released! For my review, click here.
It seems to me in recent years that new ideas have become something of an endangered species in the videogames industry. Stroll down to your local videogame store and see how many sequels, prequels franchises, re releases and ports you can spot. So when a new idea comes out, I always pay rapt attention. A couple of years back, I was attending a massive LAN party (the insomnia series if you've heard of it), and while I was
wondering past a magazine stand in Newbury, I noticed a headline that for some reason grabbed my attention. Spore. Curious, I picked up the magazine and leafed through a few pages, then like a diligent little consumer I bought the magazine and read the article. I knew right away I was hooked. And it seems I was not alone.
Spore, is quite simply the concept behind the Sid Meir's Civilization series taken to a whole new level. You start the game as a single celled organism, and finish it with a sprawling space empire of highly evolved aliens. Evolution plays an important part as your creature evolves with each generation. Also, rival creatures, various tools and buildings are imported from other players, and the program learns the "style" of your race. A fantastic idea if there ever was one. My spirit was slightly dampened by the fact EA will be publishing it, but I still look forwards to the release date with baited breath.
Will Wright delivers a talk on spore while he plays an early version of the game. This video shows some amazing feats of programming, such as social dynamics, and how the program recognizes different skeletal structures and different creatures to create realistic movement, as well as the sheer epic scale of the game:
The creature creator was recently released, a tool you can use in the full game to customize and create your own race of freaks. Given how interesting ten minutes of playing with this was, my passion for this game is still growing. After the release of the creature creator, interest online skyrocketed to brand new heights, and now there are many, many spore sites all looking at this game. Even the big sites like IGN and Gamespot are looking seriously at this game now, most of them eager to snatch any scrap of information released about it.
Videogame To Film Adaptations- That Might Not Suck!
If I was going to be polite I'd say that the videogame to film concept has been "flawed" over the years. But since I'm not always polite, videogame to movie adaptations have, for the most part, been a pile of festering junk. But, for every few Doom and Dead or Alive movie, we've had the occasional Tomb Raider. However for the most part they've been God awful.
Two upcoming movies however, show some promise. A Gears of war film, and a God of war film.
The former is being directed by Len Wiseman, the guy behind Underworld: Evolution. Not as good as the original Underworld, but still a solid film. As for directing God of war, all eyes are currently on Brett Ratner, the director of X-men: the last stand and Red Dragon. Both have also been picked up by Legendary pictures, who where behind such films as Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and 300.
