Sci-Fi Storm

After the success of Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, an unauthorized viral video that breathed life back in to the Mortal Kombat franchise, at least from a feature perspective, led to Warner Premiere asking writer Oren Uziel and director Kevin Tancharoen to create a 10-part web series earlier this year. Now, New Line Cinema has approached the duo to create a feature film. Can they take it to the big screen?

Defiance, and open world shooter MMO developed by Trion Worlds (who also created [asin=B002I0HIC8]RIFT[/asin]), is currently getting some behind-closed-doors demos at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, but the game itself wasn’t the big news – the big news is that the game will also tie in simultaneously with a TV series on Syfy.

Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet transformed by decades of conflict. The game combines the intense action of a “AAA” console shooter, with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart weaves the rich tapestry of the world into a series with the scope, characters, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence each other and evolve together over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story of Defiance.

On the television side, the Defiance series, to be produced by Universal Cable Productions, will be penned by Rockne S. O’Bannon, a legendary sci-fi TV writer best-known for his work on Warehouse 13, Alien Nation, seaQuest DSV, and Farscape.

The game will be available for the PC, Xbox 360®, and PlayStation® 3. Release dates are not yet available, but more information will be released at the official web site when available.

OK, this may only be for a game…but this looks awesome! Check out the cinematic introduction for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO game from BioWare and LucasArts below! No release date has yet been set.
(continue reading…)

Felicia Day, the darling of geek culture since appearing a number of times on Buffy the Vampire Slayers and since then appearing in all sorts of genre media such as web series (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and the long-running comedy series The Guild, which she also created) and video games (her character is my current companion in Fallout: New Vegas), announced her next web series creation: Dragon Age: Redemption, a six part series set in the world of BioWare’s Dragon Age video game series. Day will star as Tallis, an elven assassin who goes on a quest to capture a renegade magician. Along the way, she gathers her own fellowship. “She can’t accomplish her mission alone, so finding allies is tricky,” Day says. “The success or failure of the mission will have a big impact on her future and her freedom.”

A gamer herself, she knows that game-to-movie adaptations haven’t gone well (has there really been a good one?) “I put every single effort into making this something that gamers will be proud of. Even though we were constrained a lot as a Web series, none of the people who were involved took that as a constraint. They took that as a challenge.”

Peter Winther (The Librarian: Quest for the Spear) directed.

Dragon Age II, the next installment in the game franchise, comes out March 8th for [asin=B0047TG2R0]XBox 360[/asin], [asin=B0047TLIBU]PS3[/asin] and [asin=B0047THYWC]PC/Mac[/asin].

Warner Premiere (a division of Warner Bros, which specializes in the development and production of both features and digital content for home entertainment platforms) is producing a live-action digital new media series “Mortal Kombat”, based on the iconic gaming franchise which has already spawned multiple arcade and console games, two movies, two TV series and an animated series, and yesterday they announced the initial cast which will include Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager) as Lieutenant Sonya Blade (reprising her role from the unofficial short film “Mortal Kombat: Rebirth”), Michael Jai White (The Dark Knight) as Major Jackson ‘Jax’ Briggs, and Darren Shahlavi (300) as Kano.

Kevin Tancharoen, who directed and produced the popular, unofficial “Mortal Kombat: Rebirth” fan short that garnered over 10 million views worldwide, is bringing the same immersive directing style to this live-action digital new media series. Fans will be able to delve deep into the history of the warriors they know and love including “Sub-Zero” and “Scorpion.” Shooting for “Mortal Kombat” is currently underway in Vancouver.

In addition to the digital series (details on distribution have not been released yet), a new game will be released on April 19th, 2011, on both the [asin=B003O6E1JS]Playstation 3[/asin] and [asin=B002I0J998]XBox 360[/asin], in Standard, Kollector’s and Tournament Editions. (link fixed for PS3 version)

EW has an exclusive trailer for the upcoming Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars video game, the latest in the popular Lego video game franchise. I’ve liked the [asin=B000R39GGE]Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga[/asin] above the rest (except perhaps for the more recent [asin=B002BRZ712]Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4[/asin] – undecided between the two right now), and with a Clone Wars fan kid and the Clone Wars voice artists providing their voices – or at least their grunts – to the game, this could be real fun! The game will be released on March 22nd for the [asin=B0037UCT0O]Nintendo Wii[/asin], [asin=B0037UCTCW]XBox 360[/asin], [asin=B0037UCT7C]Sony Playstation 3[/asin], [asin=B0037UCSJG]PC DVD-ROM[/asin], [asin=B0037UCSUU]Sony PSP[/asin] and [asin=B0037UCSQ4]Nintendo DS[/asin].

Players can get into the open beta for the upcoming browser-based MMO Battlestar Galactica Online starting February 8th by visiting Syfy.com and Syfy.co.uk, for a one week period. Also available to players only at Syfy.com – and international Syfy Universal websites – are a frakkin’ awesome set of Syfy-inspired Viper and Raider designs, which players can choose to represent them in the on-going battle between the Colonial and Cylon fleets.
(continue reading…)

The Thunder Child SF & Fantasy webzine has a new sponsor, the online role playing science fiction game, Reborn: The Invessi Chronicles.

The creator, Gary Allen, also gave us an interview, and you can read all about the game at thethunderchild.com/Games/Reborn.html
(continue reading…)

So it appears that the Stargate: Resistance game was not as immune after all to the fallout from the Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment bankruptcy and losing the license. According to the official web site (via Gateworld), Cheyenne can no longer sell the game – which was an online-only game. They will, however, continue access to those who already purchased the game through January 15th, 2011. But in reading the Gateworld article, things are far from clear of the overall state of things in general…

AirlockAlpha has an article about the win-lose situation involving the Stargate Worlds MMOPRG game that has been in development for years and put on hold earlier this year – and now will likely never see the light of day. Developer Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, won a court ruling that says it owns all the intellectual property for the game, which former employees tried to walk away with and form a rival company. However, MGM has revoked their franchise license – so all the materials regarding Stargate can no longer be used. However, Stargate: Resistance was apparently not affected by the license.