2010 Vampire Showdown

16 Bloodsuckers

One Winner

Let’s read :p

Hello fellow mates who are sick of hearing about vampires! So today, is the release of the so-not fantastic Ecplise, and because of that here’s a little tournament between the 16 most epic vampires! :p anyway see it, it’s fun.

*some results may be corrupted due to my preference* just kidding! :p

I would have put an image showing the tournament table, how do I say it, changing with the progression but that would require a lot of images and it wouldn’t turn out that well so here’s only two :p

Round 1:

1). Eric (True Blood) VS. Rayne (BloodRayne)
After long, hot, sweaty hours of…um… fighting, Rayne finally surrendered to Eric’s enormous…talent. We can’t blame her; few women can resist his blond, muscular Viking mystique.

2). Bill (True Blood) VS. Lestat (Interview with a Vampire)
Much like the actor who portrays him (Tom Cruise), Lestat de Lioncourt’s best days are behind him. If Brad Pitt and a little girl can finish him off, then Bill Compton is certainly more than capable of staking this frou-frou Frenchman.

3). Caleb (Bordello of Blood) VS. David (The Lost Boys)
Kiefer Sutherland’s undead ringleader already clashed with a Corey Feldman character in Joel Schumacher’s dark action film, but the former child star’s own vampire Caleb Verdoux is no match for the biker bloodsucker. Sorry Caleb, the clock has run out for you!

4). Selene (Underworld) VS. Satanico Pandemonium (From Dusk Til Dawn)
Behold the battle of the bloodsucking babes! These two vamps are not to be trifled with – one lays waste to werewolves while the other slays scumbags at sleazy strip club. Satanico tried to seduce Selene with her sultry dance act, but Selene doesn’t swing that way, so she put a couple of silver bullets in her head and put an end to the Pandemonium.

5). Blade VS. Amy Peterson (Fright Night)
There’s really no question about the outcome of this duel. Blade is a stone cold killer; he lives to vanquish vampires and sweet Amy Peterson from Fright Night is relatively new to the whole undead thing, so the Daywalker put her down quickly.

6). Eli (Let The Right One In) VS. Edward Cullen (Twilight)
Eli may be pretty tough for a 12 year old, but if Edward is effective against anything, it’s pre-teen girls.

7). Dracula (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) VS. Spike (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Buffy’s most badass vampire tried his best, but couldn’t beat the original dark master (bator). Guess he’ll never get those 11 pounds back.

8). Blacula VS. The Count (Sesame Street)
What is there to say? The Count’s obsessive compulsive counting was a pretty big liability in this fight. “One, two… two vampires! AH AH AH AH AH!” Not for long, Von Count. Blacula has an insatiable thirst… even for synthetic muppet flesh.

Round 2:

9). Eric VS. Bill
Bill can whine all he wants about our decision, but we all know Eric is way cooler. For one thing, he can go more than 10 minutes without getting kidnapped. For another, Bill’s so short Eric can probably just hold the top of his head and Bill won’t be able to reach him.

10). David VS. Selene
Both David and Selene have taken their share of lives, but the former generally preys on weak humans while the latter takes on all sorts of supernatural beings. Her fighting skills (and arsenal) are therefore vastly superior to David’s, making the battle pretty painless for Selene.

11). Blade VS. Edward Cullen
Edward looked around, forlorn, his perfect eyes haunted by repressed lust and an unquenchable thirst. A footstep sounded in the darkness behind him. “Bella?” he whispered, his undead pout spreading to a grin. “I don’t think so, motherfucker.” Edward had just a second to turn before he felt the stake tear through his sparkly flesh. He looked up into the face of death and saw its cruel smile. “Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill.”

12). Dracula VS. Blacula
You’d think that Blacula could take down Dracula because he’s younger, hipper, and lives in Los Angeles instead of some decrepit Eastern European castle, right? Wrong. Dracula brought Blacula into this world, and he can take him out just as easily. That’s just the way things tend to work in the vampire world. Deal with it.

Round 3:

13). Eric VS. Selene
Unlike Rayne, Selene is too hardcore to be confused by Eric’s demonstrable sexual charms. Nevertheless, Eric Northman, the most powerful vampire in Area 5, is no Lycan. The former Viking is over 1000 years old, can rip a man into pieces, and flies. Selene, sadly, doesn’t stand a chance.

14). Blade VS. Dracula
Blade battled a bogus Dracula in his third cinematic outing, but he’s never faced anyone or anything quite as terrifying as Gary Oldman’s Prince of Darkness. Though he’s put an end to vampire villains like Morbius and Deacon Frost in his time, he finally succumbed to Vlad III Draculea.

Final Battle:

Stats: Eric Age: ~1000 Height: 6’4″ Weight: 190 Strengths: Super strength, flight, super speed, hypnosis, sex appeal Weaknesses: sunlight, staking, silver, Sookie Stackhouse	Stats: Dracula Age: ~500 Height: 5’9″ Weight: 160 Strengths: Super strength, shape shifting, flight, hypnosis, originality Weakness: Water, garlic, sunlight, has to carry hometown dirt, eucharist, staking, decapitation, a penchant for capes

Eric VS. Dracula
Dracula’s been the top vampire for centuries, but bloodsuckers have changed a lot since the Count’s days. While Drac could be taken down with some garlic bread or a swimming pool, today’s vampires are made of sterner stuff. Plus, if one hour of sex burns 350 calories, you can image how much exercise Eric is getting a day.

Winner: Eric Northman

Oh yeah this is ONE OF the surprises, yes there are others, the next one is in the next week, well this isn’t much of a surprise is it? :/

Konami’s gamescom line-up revealed!!

Boom. E3’s may have gone by two weeks ago, but we’re a month-and-a-half away from gamescom. Konami is the first publisher to reveal its line-up for the mega-German event.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is the big one, with PES 2011 and Def Jam Rapstar also announced to be in Cologne in August.

The Google Translated Konami page also mentions it’ll be showing off titles that will support Kinect. More details on them will be coming soon according to the publisher.

No mention of Metal Gear Solid: Rising or Metal Gear Solid 3DS on the page, though.

Gamescom takes place in Cologne between August 18-22.

ShopTo lists Kinect for £130, November 19 launch

UK online retailer ShopTo’s mentioned a £129.99 price point for Kinect when it launches in the UK. November 19 is the magic date, according to them.

It comes as American retail, including Microsoft’s own online shop, had given the motion-tech a $150 price point, something which has not been confirmed as yet by the firm.

Full details on the European launch are expected to be confirmed at gamescom in August.

Also mentioned by ShopTo and other retailer Play.com is that Kinect will come packaged with the tech itself, power supply cable, manual, Wi-Fi cable and a title that supports the camera. It isn’t specified what game, though.

UK retailers have said in the past that it would like to see it go on sale for “sub-£100″.

Microsoft confirmed at E3 that Kinect would launch in the US on November 4, as well as having 15 launch titles to boot.

It hasn’t launched yet and the price keeps lowering..eheh

Rumour – PlayStation Plus needed for Hulu Plus PS3

Technologizer’s discovered that PlayStation Plus might be required for the recently announced Hulu Plus for PS3.

The source code from the Hulu site reads: “The instructions below will help you install Hulu Plus on your PS3. Note: you must be a subscriber of the PlayStation Plus Network.”

The source code from the website also shows a “PlayStation 3 Activation Procedure”, where users are asked to redeem a code onto the PlayStation Store to use the service.

Not to mention that when you put a year-long sub of PS Plus and how much Hulu costs per month together, it would come to $170 a year, as mentioned by Kotaku.

SCEA hasn’t formally revealed anything on how the service would work on PS3, nor has Hulu, but it did tell VG247 last night that details were coming “shortly.”

Well, seems the “free” services of PS3 will come to an end :p but hey it is obvious that seeing how much MS wins with the Live Gold that they would want to win some too, and they need to put something in PS+ that will atract people.

Hulu Plus comes to PS3 next month, with a 2011 release for Xbox 360.

Mafia II loses multiple endings

Mafia II producer Denby Grace has revealed to IncGamers that the game will now have just one ending instead of having “OK” multiple endings.

He said the endings just weren’t up to scratch, and decided instead to go for “one great ending.”

“We had four multiple endings at one point in the game, and then we looked at it and we had one really outstanding great ending to end our story,” he said.

“We worked on these things and we have our players that focus test [the game] and we found that people were just replaying and ultimately only felt satisfied when they got to the one GREAT ending.”

He went on to add: “We just said ‘You know what? Let’s just ditch these other endings, this is the ending everyone wants’ and that’s one thing we’re happy with making that choice.”

Marvelous =D

Mafia II releases on August 27  for PS3, 360 and PC.

Reeves: New consoles coming in 2-3 years

Capcom Europe boss David Reeves believes that the big three will release new consoles within two to three years.

Speaking with GI.biz, Reeves stated that Kinect and Move will “revive and pique interest” in games until there’s another “clash of the titans in two years time”.

“Two to three years, I reckon so,” he said when asked for an approximate time-frame.

“I don’t have any inside information. All the first-parties have got to be working on something. The tricky thing is when do you put a stake in the ground on technology? That’s the problem.

“You can be waiting a few extra months to implement something, but you’ve got to set a date to go with a certain chip at a certain point otherwise you’re going to miss the key milestones.”

As for Xbox 360, European Microsoft executive Chris Lewis told VG247 during E3 that the redesigned 360 along with Kinect would extend the machine’s life-cycle by five years.

“It is, in many ways for us, mid-lifecycle,” he said. “With this new, sleek design and Kinect for Xbox 360 we’ve got at least another five years of this generation, where we continue to offer great experiences for people.”

Meanwhile, Sony has said time and time again that PS3 has a 10-year life-span, with SCEA’s Peter Dille going so far as to say that it will beat out Xbox 360 in lifetime sales.

“I don’t think [360 will] be around in 10 years so I’m very confident we’ll pass them within that time-frame,” said the exec, speaking in an IGN interview.

“I mean, we’ve got 31 million [units sold] worldwide right now — they’ve got 39 million [units sold]. I don’t even need to go out 10 years.”

Nintendo has remained quiet on when to expect a new console let alone and upgraded version of Wii, but NOA’s Reggie Fils-Aime has said that the company is not ready for Wii 2 yet.

Surprise Update..

Aw hell, the surprise has been delayed to next week.

Serkis Signs On To Rise Of The Apes

Andy Serkis, the man known for not playing human, has got his stinkin’ paws on a role in Rise Of The Apes. Serkis has been cast as Caesar, the lead chimp who leads a revolt against the humans, in the Planet Of The Apes prequel.

Rise Of The Apes will be set in the modern day and serve as an origin story for the primate franchise. The story follows a scientist (James Franco) whose genetic engineering accidentally creates an advanced race of apes.  Frieda Pinto and John Lithgow have also signed on for supporting roles.

Serkis is best known for his motion capture roles, such as Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings and the titular Kong in King Kong, in which his performance is digitally captured and generated into the film. Weta Workshop, the CGI wizards behind Serkis’ previous motion-capture performances, is also providing the visual effects for Apes. Let’s hope that they didn’t throw out Serkis’ golf-ball suit.

Rupert Wyatt, of The Escapist, is directing the 20th Century Fox production. Rise Of The Apes is due out in June, 2011.

Microsoft’s Greenberg: Milo “absolutely” still in development

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg has confirmed that Milo & Kate is still in development and is merely a product not slated for release this Holiday, despite earlier reports claiming the Kinect title would never ship.

According to Greenberg, the game is definitely still coming.

“Project Milo absolutely continues in development at Lionhead Studios,” he told Kotaku. “It is just not a product we plan to bring to market this holiday. The team at Lionhead has always been a center of innovation and will continue to deliver against that charter.”

Earlier, a report from ABC TV’s Good Game quoted Greenberg as saying Molyneux’s mildly creepy virtual son would never be released.

“Milo; he’s safe and sound back in England. No… the Milo Project is something that Lionhead Studios in their labs had developed. Last year we unveiled the Project Natal technology, we showed a bunch of technology demos as part of that,” he apparently explained.

“And obviously [Milo] is a technology demo that continues to exist, but right now it’s not a game that we’re planning to bring to market.”

Molyneux told VG247 that we’ll be seeing more of Milo and his gal pal Kate next month.

Hulu Plus for PS3 next month, 360 next year

Hulu Plus has been confirmed for PS3 and Xbox 360 via Hulu’s official site. Looks as though Sony got its claws in first.

The service will run you $10 per month, and is already available for iPhone and iPad, with PS3 getting it in July.

Internet-enabled televisions and Blu-ray will get the service in the fall, and it’s coming to Xbox 360 in early 2011.

Microsoft said the reason for the 360 delay was due to a “customized experience” being created for the service via Xbox Live.

“We are taking the time to ensure that the Hulu Plus experience for Xbox 360 is the best on TV,” said Major Nelson in a statement, “and like our other entertainment experiences, it will not be a port, but rather a custom experience that leverages the Xbox Live community features”.

An official response from Microsoft added that Hulu Plus works with Kinect for a controller-free experience, and it will incorporate Xbox Live Parties so you can watch shows with friends “no matter where they are”, with more details to be announced at a later time.

Hulu Plus will be available for US Xbox Live Gold Members only.

Meanwhile, Sony has confirmed to VG247 that Hulu Plus will be coming soon to PS3, and that more specific information would be announced “shortly”.

Hulu was rumored for Xbox 360 earlier in the month, while word that the service was to be added to PS3 hit last week.

THQ: Metro 2034 coming in 3D

THQ’s core’ games VP Danny Bilson has said Metro 2034 is on the way; in 3D.

Confirmation of a sequel comes after the release of Metro 2033 back in March for Xbox 360 and PC.

“We’re going to be doing a 3D version of that on Metro 2034 – the sequel,” Bilson told CVG at E3.

“And there will be some engineering costs there, but that’s in our lowest cost centre in the world. Those games are unbelievably reasonable; they’re built in Kiev.”

The original Metro was also in 3D for PC, but not on 360.

Molyneux’s Milo & Kate TED talk detailed

Details for Peter Molyneux’s TEDGlobal seminar, which will feature a re-reveal of Kinect oddity Milo & Kate, have been confirmed.

The talk, entitled “Human Systems,” will see the Lionhead boss lecturing alongside the likes of singer Annie Lennox, and will take place between 4.45-6.30pm on July 13.

Get full details here.

Molyneux told VG247 at E3 that he intends to show off the mysterious Kinect game, which Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg said this week is not planned for retail release, at the event in Oxford next month.

Milo & Kate was shown for the first time at E3 last year alongside Project Natal’s announcement. Lionhead staffers were seen talking and interacting with Milo, a young boy, through the motion sensor.

Molyneux’s said in the past that Milo plays a major part “in a more dramatic story”.

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ Trailer Debuts Online

The first full-length trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the two-part finale of J.K. Rowling’s blockbuster teen wizard saga, is set to debut in theaters on June 30th, prior to showings of the latest chapter of that other billion-dollar literary phenomenon, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (which is NOTHING compared to harry potter, Twilight sucks). For those muggles ill-inclined to wait in line for hours with hordes of screaming Twi-hards just to get a two-minute glimpse of Harry and the gang, Warner Bros. was kind enough to release the clip online today:

watch it!! most EPIC.TRAILER.EVAR!!

And yes I’m a fan of Harry Potter but I have to admit this is epic

epic…

EPIC..

EPIIICCCCCC!!!!

I seriously cannot wait until november, please help me..

Thank god I have not read the books, this is why I don’t read books, because this is EPIC and I want to enjoy its epicness until the end.

I so need to create another tag and category for this: EPICNESS

Part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows opens November 19, 2010. The film is directed by David Yates and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.

iPhone 4 sells 1.7 million in first week

Apple’s announced that 1.7 million units of the fourth generation iPhone have been sold since its worldwide release last week.

CEO Steve Jobs has said the launch of the tech has been “the most successful” in the company’s history.

That’s despite recent reports of issues such as bugs and the “grip of death,” with signal being affected by the way the device is held.

“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. Even so, we apologise to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply,” said Jobs.

*overated product* there are better, cheaper and more wicked technologies and small too around.

BioShock 2 was not “hugely successful”

Take-Two CEO Ben Feder has admitted that BioShock 2 wasn’t the smash it should have been.

“It was ultimately successful, but not hugely successful,” he said, talking to VentureBeat at E3. “We are also looking forward to other hits coming this year.”

Feder added, though, that the game had made money.

“BioShock 2 is profitable for the company and is a great success. The franchise is viable and has a lasting impact on consumers,” he said.

The exec pointed towards a lack of “surprise” as a reason for the relative flop.

“The surprise factor is always going to be there,” he said. “Sometimes they work for you and sometimes they work against you. Our goal is to have them work for us. More often than not. We are in the business of creating huge franchises and launching hits.”

BioShock 2 released on February 9 for 360, PS3 and PC. The 360 version scored 562,900 sales in the US in its launch month, while the PC and PS3 versions failed to chart.

Take-Two said at the beginning of March that more than 3 million units of the title had shipped to retailers.

Red Faction: Armageddon prequel hitting PSN/XBLA

THQ VP of publishing Danny Bilson has said a downloadable prequel to Red Faction: Armageddon will release before the main game hits in March next year.

He told CVG he expects the title to launch in late 2010.

“There’s going to be a Red Faction Arcade game that ships about three or four months before Armageddon,” he said.

“What’s interesting is that we will sell it to the fans, it will have content you can download that is TV show-related, it will build up to the new game and also we can use it to drive pre-orders, too; we can give codes and aspects of it, we can give the whole thing away.”

Bilson added that this sort of thing will be part of a future strategy to other IPs from THQ, like Saints Row.

The exec said in March that “up to six” downloadable titles of this sort would release from THQ in the current FY.

Red Faction: Guerrilla releases next March for PS3, 360 and PC.

MS: Hardcore will buy Kinect first

Worldwide product marketing manager of Xbox, Ryan Moore, has told CVG that hardcore gamers, and not the casual massive, will be the first to buy Kinect this November.

“I think we know that hardcore gamers will be the first to go out and buy it, as they are with any product,” Moore told the site at E3.

He went on to add: “We know we have to have a wide range of experiences, from things like the animals game you saw today to… games that are more geared towards the core.

“I would expect a wide range of products to be released this holiday.”

No European release date has been given for the motion camera, nor has the price for either Europe or the US. Speculation is pointing at a $150 RRP.

Expect pricing to be announced in Cologne during gamescom in August.

Kinect launches in the US on November 4.

Interview: Activision studio head, Dave Stohl

Activision’s development ethic is one of stability, based on large franchises capable of longevity and market leadership. The shocking news of Infinity Ward’s meltdown earlier this year, can only have been intensely troubling for the publisher’s EVP of studios, Dave Stohl, but the “unfortunate thing,” as he describes it, appears to be in the past for the exec. Talking to VG247 at E3 earlier this month, he looked only to a future of rebuilding the studio and reattaining former glory.

There was some little Bungie deal to chat about as well. Frapper le lien.

VG247: There’s been a very big shake-up recently with Activision studios in general. Obviously, you’ve had some very good news and some not so good news in the past six months. How do you feel about the general structure of Activision’s development at the moment?

Dave Stohl: I feel really good. I’m really excited about the partnership with Bungie. Obviously, I think that’s great, and it’s something that a lot of us worked on for a long time, and that’s exciting. I feel really good about the way people are reacting to what we’re doing with Black Ops, and just the general reception. I’m really proud of the work that Treyarch’s doing. It’s not a great position to have to follow up such a massive title. It scares me every day. But they’ve really risen to the challenge. It’s great to see the reaction to it, you know what I mean?

This title has been so driven by Treyarch from a creative standpoint. It’s been really nice to see it.

On the IW side, what I feel good about it the way we’re able to… People ask me this all the time. It is still a huge recruiting drive. I’ve been a development guy for a long time, right? Recruiting at IW is not a problem. What we’re trying to do is say that IW is a culture, it’s a way of doing things, there’s a lot of people there and there’s still a lot of passion for doing it. We’re trying to rebuild, trying to help them and support them to rebuild. So people are stepping up, new people are coming in and we’re setting the bar so high. And we’re making sure it fits with the culture of what IW actually is. So far so good.

The fallout of what happened with Vince and Jason; does it worry you beyond “the internet”? Do you think there’s a perception that Infinity Ward will never get back to its glory days, and that that perception will impact what they do next?

Dave Stohl: They being?

Infinity Ward.

Dave Stohl: Infinity Ward. Look: it was a really unfortunate thing, for sure. We are a big company, you know what I mean? Forget about a company; we’re a development organization and we have a lot of good people in it. We’ve got a lot of really, really hard-working people that are so focused on what they’re doing now. And, at the same time, we’ve got a lot of good people that are helping to support them get back to hopefully where they’ll get to, and I think that they will.

You know, to me, rebuilding IW is about culture and talent, and we have the wherewithal to help them get there. I think there’s a real desire. There’s a real desire to do it. I think they’ll get there, and we’ve got a ton of hard-working super-talented people. People say “Activision,” but it’s Neversoft and Treyarch and it’s VV in Albany and it’s Bizarre Creations; it’s people all over. There’s just a ton of talented development.

I’m not taking anything away from what Infinity Ward was or is, but all I can do it focus on supporting them and setting the bar so high that they keep what they have and what they had, and that’s a focus on excellence and a culture that works the way it does.

Is there still a focus on Call of Duty, though?

Dave Stohl: We’re not saying right now. There is definitely a strong shooter philosophy there, for sure. And I think that there’s a short- and long-term view on the whole thing. But I think we’re rebuilding a studio that can go off and build great new franchises in the future.

There seems to be something of a land-grab going on at the moment. The bigger third-party developers that were affiliated to single-platforms are going multi-platform en masse. What it’s like to be in an environment where you have these large, established developers saying, “Hey, we want to go multi-platform. Are you the right guy?”

Dave Stohl: It’s a good place for us to be, because, in the case of Bungie, you’ve got someone coming from a single-platform background, but we have spent a lot of time with this central Demonware network portal. We have a network back-end that supports Call of Duty across platforms, so they know what we’re doing, and how well we can support. When we start talking to them about what they’re doing, or how we can partner with them or how we can bring support to it, I think in this day and age everyone needs this kind of support. It’s not just platform support; it’s platform and network support, experience outside Xbox Live or whatever platform they come from.

Over the months we talked it became such a great partnership, because they are so buttoned up, and they are so passionate about their idea, and they’re so passionate about not just their development but how they reveal it to the consumer and they so get what is cool about the concept. I love that. There’s so much passion. They think about what it looks from the inside, about what it looks like from the outside; the whole thing. They really have a great, comprehensive plan for the game and the release.

The thing that was really exciting for me was the long-term aspect of it. That enables us to work together in a much closer way than you would otherwise in a normal contractual relationship. They’re incredible, but we’re there when they need it.

To go back to your question, I think that with people looking for that type of support and partnership, we’re in a great position right now, because we’ve spent so much time on a cross-platform network, on all that stuff that people need. It’s very hard to build. Not only do we have it, but we’ve shown what we can support with it, with a back-end the size of Call of Duty.

Do you think we’re seeing a change in the publishing landscape in general? You’re starting to enter into these types of contracts with bigger developers and we’ve just seen Insomniac sign with EA. We’ve seen Itakagaki-san and THQ announce the first deal in the THQ Partners project. Do you think it’s a trend?

Dave Stohl: I don’t know. I think it’s interesting that it’s all just happened. I personally don’t think it’s a trend. For me, I think the important part of our partnership with Bungie was the longevity of it. I think that, to me, makes it something beyond. It’s not a one-off deal kind of thing. It’s a partnership. For Activision that’s really important, and it was really important for me. I don’t know the nature and the specifics and the nature of the other deals, so I can only answer for us: a key piece of the partnership was that, while it’s not an acquisition, it’s a partnership to the point where we feel very comfortable actually partnering, instead of having maybe an old skool, one-off contractual relationship.

Would you consider the relationship with Bungie going forward a bit more going forward a little more like the relationship Activision has with Blizzard, where you’re working on an integral level with all your processes?

Dave Stohl: Obviously, Blizzard is part of Activision, so there’s less contractual issues in terms of ownership and things like that. I will say that my hope and intention – and I know this is Bungie’s intention – is for us to work very closely, much more like we work with Blizzard in that sense, but obviously it’s a little bit different. Right now they’re really focused on launching Reach which is important, but that said, the integration has been great and the partnership with the people has been great.

We want to integrate them more than maybe an outside developer would usually be integrated.

How significant for Activision as the company is the Bungie deal? Obviously there are very few developers of that size in the world, but are we going to see you sign any more similar deals over the next 12 months?

Dave Stohl: I don’t know that. What I will say is that any deal that we do like that would have to be something where we have a long-term partnership. As you say, there are very few of those deals to be done, but I think those are the kind of deals we need to be focused on. That’s in addition to our own internal development. I think that the deals need to reflect that kind of structure for us.

Bungie was large enough to match your philosophy?

Dave Stohl: Yeah. Large and long-term. As we all know, the development times are longer now, the commitments are greater. Supporting the back-end requires all sorts of expense, work, blood sweat and tears. It needs to be a long-term partnership, I think, for it to have that type of structural work. And you want to see it through, too. I’m super-excited about it. Obviously, we haven’t announced timing, or anything like that: they’re focused on launching Reach. But the process is going to be cool, the launch is going to be incredible. I’m really excited.

When are we going to get any kind of information on it?

Dave Stohl: I don’t want to say anything because I don’t know exactly. Not now [laughs]. But it’s going to be cool when you hear about it. You’re going to be stoked.

Molyneux would “love” to make Kinect-centric Black & White

Kinectimals is great and all, but we’re tough, manly gamers’ gamers at heart. Why cuddle with and giggle at the antics of  normal-sized animals when you can have fuzzy friends the size of skyscrapers?

Hey wait, didn’t Peter Molyneux basically invent the tickle-giant-animals-with-a-floating-hand genre years ago? And isn’t Kinect in dire need of a killer app? Do you get where we’re going with this yet?

“The Black & White series is really interesting,” Molyneux told UGO during E3. “Maybe it is something I should re-visit, but that’s just me thinking, here now.”

“The original Black & White – with the hand, reaching in and touching and stroking, you can really factor that with Kinect, and it could be really super cool,” he said. “It’s purely me just thinking about it, and thinking about what Black & White means. I love the idea of that connection the hand gave you into the world, the feeling of power, the feeling of nurturing.”

It makes perfect sense and Molyneux loves the idea, so why wasn’t this thing the cherry atop Microsoft’s beginning-to-melt sundae of an E3 conference?

“The trouble with being a designer now is that there are way too many ideas than there is time to develop those ideas,” Molyneux explained. “I would love to do something like a Black & White again. I would love to do a Fable 4. I would love to carry on doing Milo, but there is only a certain amount of resources and a certain amount of time.”

God I would love to see this, I love the Black & White series, LOVE IT!

The Little Fockers Have Arrived!

If you’ve been missing Jack Byrnes, Bernie Focker and the entire extended Focker family, then you’re in luck today because Universal Pictures has finally unveiled the first teaser trailer for the anticipated comedy Little Fockers!

In the film, the test of wills between Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) and Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) escalates to new heights as the entire extended family descends for the twins’ birthday party. Greg must prove to the skeptical Jack that he’s fully capable as the man of the house. But with all the misunderstandings, spying and covert missions, will Greg pass Jack’s final test and become the family’s next patriarch… or will the circle of trust be broken for good?

I certainly don’t think so. Universal needs the Focker franchise like Americans need fast food – they can’t live without it! Expect to see something like Four Fockers in the next few years, because I doubt that the studio will let this series die anytime soon. Little Fockers will hit theaters on December 22nd, but I know you can’t wait that long to see the threequel, so check out the trailer below