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Telltale's Jurassic Park games to be 'cinematically much more serious'
Ever since Telltale announced an agreement with NBC Universal to develop an episodic series of games based on Jurassic Park, we've been kept awake at night, wondering just how one goes about defeating a Tyrannosaurus Rex using nothing but an umbrella handle, a lightbulb and a unicycle. There are at least seven ways to do it -- trust us -- but Telltale design director Dave Grossman informed us at E3 that Jurassic Park won't quite fit the company's traditional adventure structure. "... in the case of Jurassic Park, we've wanted to kind of step out and do something that's cinematically much more serious than the kind of.... you know, we feel like we're getting pigeonholed a little bit as a company that makes funny cartoon games about talking animals, whereas really what we think of ourselves as is a company that makes games about cinema," Grossman said. "And so we want to explore some different territory. How is the gameplay supporting the tension of the scene, and what kind of tension is it? How is the game paced? And so you're going to find all of that stuff in the Jurassic Park series." While Jurassic Park will feature adventure mechanics deemed "appropriate," it seems its focus won't necessarily be on laid-back lateral thinking. "I don't want to have it be a game about hanging around and solving thinky puzzles at your own pace," Grossman explained. "It just doesn't seem like the right thing to do for that." And while that might seem to suggest an action-oriented approach, Grossman wasn't willing to characterize it to such a simple degree. "You can definitely expect tension elements, let's say. Whether they're action or, well, there are a lot of ways to do that. I think there'll be a liberal mix of stuff in that game." Let's hope we learn more before Telltale's Jurassic Park begins its monthly excursions from Isla Sorna Nublar this winter.
Episodic Jurassic Park game due from Telltale this year
The episodic adventure aces at Telltale Games have set sail from Monkey Island and are soon to arrive at Jurassic Park, Game Informer reports. According to the magazine, Telltale has struck a deal with NBC Universal to develop games based on the media giant's properties, with the Michael Crichton created "dinosaurs in modern day" franchise being the first to get the interactive treatment. The Jurassic Park games will make up one "season," which has -- as GI points out -- historically meant as many as six monthly "episodes" where series such as Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People were concerned. No word on a platform or platforms, but it has been confirmed that what Telltale boss Dan Connors calls "the ultimate cinematic adventure" will be uncaged before the year is out.
Grammy-winning Up composer got his break in video games
You may have heard of mild-mannered Michael Giacchino, who ended up winning two Grammys this past weekend for his work as the composer for Pixar's tear-jerking animated romp, Up. However, you might not know that he found his humble beginnings in video games -- according to his recent interview with Variety, he was hand-picked by Steven Spielberg to do the soundtrack for the Jurassic Park: The Lost World game. J.J. Abrams played said dino-platformer, and ended up contacting Giacchino to do the music for Alias -- it was all uphill from there. It's a really cool story, if only because it finally proves that The Lost World actually had a soundtrack behind all those raptor squeals and Wilhelm screams.
VEDIA Idunn A10 luxury MP3 player made with amber, dino DNA probably not included
We're a bit light on specs here, but the VEDIA Idunn A1 is really going more for style points here, anyway. Designed by Polish jeweler Jaroslaw Westermark, the luxury MP3 player's hand-made and features 18 carat gold, high-grade silver, and our favorite, Baltic amber. There's only 10 of these being made and you'll have to pre-order and wait two months. No word on price or what half-strain of genetic dinosaur code you'll unwittingly find inside, splice with frog DNA, and ... well, you know the rest.[Via GadgetsCrunch]
Around Azeroth: Jurassic Zombie
If they make yet another sequel to everyone's favorite modern-day dinosaur movie, Jurassic Park, we at WoW Insider feel that the film would best be served by being shot entirely in World of Warcraft. The Devilsaur, of course, would have a starring role. And did we mention the zombies? Yes, such a cinematic jewel would, by necessity, feature zombies. We had a screenplay half-finished when this screenshot from Cinate of Sasquatch Vanguard on Azgalor arrived, showing us that our Jurassic Zombie concept had already been done, and better than we could have ever imagined it. In the meantime, our search for fame and glory continues. Raiders of the Lost Zombie, perhaps?Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards.%Gallery-1816%
Dreamworks (& Steven Spielberg) sign distribution deal with Universal
Finally separate from Paramount, DreamWorks doesn't appear to have wasted any time inking a seven year distribution deal with Universal. While we shouldn't expect anything to change too drastically -- the deal kicks in next year, with the first Universal-distributed DreamWorks flicks likely hitting theaters in 2010, while Paramount hangs onto sequel and remake rights for films it's already distributed -- it does mark one change that could have an effect on the high definition landscape: the return of Steven Spielberg (quoted saying "Universal has always been my home base, so this agreement starts a new chapter in what has been a long and successful association") to Universal. After several Spielberg movies were erroneously listed as Coming Soon to HD DVD, we're still waiting for Jurassic Park, E.T. and Jaws on high definition discs. If they're not already in the works, lets hope someone (where is Michael Bay when we need him, since Jeffrey Katzenberg's never going to bring it up) thinks to mention this to Mr. Spielberg before the ink dries on the new deal.
RipIt yanks your DVDs right off the disc
HandBrake handles most of my DVD-ripping responsibilities just fine, but RipIt came to our attention recently, and as a simple one-touch way to get a movie off of a DVD and on to your hard drive (in order to, say, watch it on a laptop without lugging the disc itself along), it looks pretty simple. In fact, it's about as cake as these things get: load up the app, throw a disc in your drive, and press Rip -- a few minutes later (a 7.9gb rip took about 30 minutes for me), you've got a DVDPlayerMedia file on your hard drive to watch at your leisure. It's $18.99, which is pricey, especially (again) compared to HandBrake, which is conveniently open source, and provides tons more ways to rip things. But if you do a lot of movie ripping and want to have one single button rather than worrying about formats or encoding, that $19 might be well spent.
