Deus Ex to have its own cinematic adaptation

They've picked up one of the greatest franchises in videogame history, but can CBS deliver a movie that stands up to the original?

Deus Ex is one of the few videogame franchises that could effectively be cut-and-paste into cinema with minimal stylistic or narrative changes and still manage to work, which is why it's a relief that the rights to a big screen adaptation have finally been bought up by CBS; a co-president Terry Press praised the team's accomplishments and emphasised that he was keen to work with them "from day one, to make a film adaptation worthy of the Deus Ex name."

Last year's Human Revolution was a highlight amongst a crop of truly excellent games, combining elements of Robocop and Blade Runner into a sleek yet unsettling world that was neither utopia nor dystopia, covering every base of the socio-economic factors that underpinned its augmentation technologies and presenting them in a detached and impartial manner. We saw the poor, the rich, the gangs harvesting 'Augs' for their parts and the divisive battles, political or otherwise, between the humanists and the pro-augments. Individuals from all walks of life had their own view to impart, and no stone was left unturned in picking apart the hopes and fears surrounding this god-like tech, while maintaining an ambiguity and freedom of choice that never pushed the player towards any conclusion but the one they came to themselves.

It was a relatively easy feat to portray this in videogame form, as the open nature of the gameplay allowed players to mingle with the populace and chew over the many conflicting viewpoints that bombarded them, but it is going to take an extremely tight script and a gentle yet confident touch for Human Revolution's big screen adaptation to match the original. More to the point, I worry that the film might suffer from the same pitfalls that too many literary adaptations do, namely that condensing such a rich source into a tighter product is going to prove too much.

However, I shall choose to take that as validation of Human Revolution's strengths rather than an indictment of the team that CBS chooses to handle the project. Deus Ex has enormous potential to provide a brilliant and thought-provoking movie; on that basis, I will most definitely be looking forward to the finished product, as should anyone who loves intelligent and stylish sci-fi.

Spotlight On: Sonic For Hire

Sonic's all washed up, so I guess that makes him... Hog-washed? Does that work? Whatever

Some might say that, in the wake of Sonic Generations, a parody featuring Sonic as a washed up, down-and-out douchebag has come a little late, but fuck it - Sonic still has a few years of shovellin' ahead of him if he wants to truly be free from the spectre of the notorious 'Sonic Cycle', plus a proper, long-form series from the LowBrow team (they of Dorkly fame) is always welcome.

Far from being a star, Sonic is jobless, barely scraping rent and spends his days watching his favourite poster in lieu of owning an actual television. Taking jobs in a variety of videogames, Sonic fathers an illegitimate monster-child with the Mother Brain, falls into debt with mafia godfather Mario and eventually takes on his own empire with a pants-less Eggman and a murderous, demented Kirby.

Sonic For Hire displays the same quality production values of Dorkly Bits, but has the benefit of a coherent, multi-episode storyline. Three series in, the creators appear to be putting off the next batch of episodes while they make a Mega Man-centric animation, but click here to start watching the run so far.

4 Videogame Side Characters We Love to Hate (But Should Still Love Anyway)

You know you do really. It's okay. I understand

Videogames aren't exactly known for their deep and subtle narratives, so it should come as no surprise that games have more than their fair share of punchable little scrotes lumped on the unwitting player. It definitely came as a surprise to me, since I struggled to find a minimum of five oft-hated side characters who I could actually defend with a straight face, which probably doesn't bode well for my inaugural Generic List Article.

However, after much Googling and two cups of coffee, I managed to unearth four heavily derided characters whose status as second fiddle is more than made up for by the frothing hatred spewed forth by gamers everywhere.

Spotlight On: Wizard School

When destiny throws you a curve ball, take it for all the free booze you can magic up

This unashamed rip-off of the Potterverse begins with the chosen one being gunned down by his mortal enemy; despite casting every protection spell known to man, he forgot to protect against physical projectiles, like bullets. These opening pages set the tone of Wizard School right off the bat and promise a pretty good endgame somewhere down the line, because if the dark lord in question is a sarky, evil-minded bastard who's read a bit too much of the Evil Overlord List, then he has nothing on lead asshole Russell Graham.

Spotlight On: Warbot in Accounting

We're an equal opportunity employer here, even for instruments of death. Especially for instruments of death

It's never made clear why a hulking war machine needs to make ends meet as an office schlub, but it's both achingly cute and heartbreakingly sad to see him try so hard, yet fail to often. A trip to the fax machine takes him several hours, while his attempts to save a cat from being run over result in a front-page massacre.

So easily could he have made his problems go away with gunfire, but not this Warbot; whether attempting a date or building a child for Take Your Daughter to Work Day, he takes the obstacles presented by his enormous frame, stubby arms and lack of speech functions in his stride. That his prospective girlfriends occasionally suffer tragic deaths and his blind, crippled daughter now sits in a bin, praying for death, doesn't seem to slow him down. Or possibly he can't find his auto-destruct.

Warbot in Accounting isn't updated often, but Nuklear Power is home to several comics, including the now finished 8-Bit Theater, so blast your way through Warbot's short run and check out the rest of their portfolio here.

Digital Remix: Maverick Rising

Sometimes, you really can have too much of a good thing

I definitely have a soft spot for OverClocked ReMix, partly because I'm a gigantic nerd who loves him some videogame music, but also because it's a fascinating experiment in producing a crowd-sourced music label. Not that it is a label, per say, but with over thirty albums under their belt, complete with album art and all created by an immensely talented and enthusiastic community who sweat blood and tears for moderate fame and zero pay, it's clearly a model that has something to it.

Spotlight On: Lackadaisy

A story of a time gone by, in many shades of brownish-grey

Lackadaisy shares a few of the same elements as published comic Blacksad, from an anthropomorphic cast to a pleasingly realistic period setting, in this case the height of prohibition and the speakeasy. The sepia-toned setting is contrasted by a big-eyed, cartoonish cast, but a stylistic choice that could have turned the series into complete farce is always bound by reality, adding a slight but tangible layer of levity to even the darkest of moments while never descending into physics-defying slapstick.

Lackadaisy tells the story of the eponymous speakeasy, fallen on hard times since the none-too-peaceful death of its owner, Atlas May; under the ownership of his wife Mitzi, the security of angry, crippled man-monster Viktor and the unpredictable lunacy of Rocky, the hired guns of Lackadaisy have to get back on their feet the only way they know how - sabotage, trickery, good old fashioned thievery and a shy tiger who gets a screaming case of the crazies whenever he grabs hold of a gun.

Digital Remix: Super Mario Buskers - the Lost Subway Levels

Now ordinary commuters have to suffer the wrath of the musical nerd

Here in my fortress of everlasting damnation, it's easy to forget that there's a whole world of people out there who just aren't as into stuff as I am. Only last week I dropped by the peasants in the scorpion pit, and not one of them cared for the 8-bit rendition of Smile.dk's Butterfly that I'd found. Simply incredible.

Suffice to say, I was stumped. Stumped, that is, until I found these crafty minstrels, demonstrating a maxim in which I firmly believe - if you can't lead a horse to water, grab a bucket and stick his nose in it. These blameless commuters will be busked at by Super Mario whether they like it or not, and if only more musicians had such good taste, the world would be better for it.

Tim Schafer Funds New Game in Just Eight Hours

The nicest man in gaming appeals to the fans - and is repaid several times over

Two days ago, video game industry veteran Tim Schafer started a campaign on Kickstarter, hoping to raise $400,000 to fund a brand new point-and-click adventure game. In eight hours, the total had been reached. At the time of writing, just two days later, Double Fine Studios have been pledged almost $1.5 million by 37,000 backers, and the total just keeps on climbing.

For the uninitiated, Kickstarter is a portal where budding inventors, artists and other assorted entrepreneurs can appeal for funds, making their case on the project's page while requesting a funding amount and a date by which the limit must be reached. Kickstarter can be used to fund theoretically anything, from comic book veterans looking to break into children's literature to films about sexuality and disability. Some bids are more successful than others, but Schafer's has set a new record for the site.

As Kotaku's Luke Plunkett explains, Double Fine's success is pretty understandable. Although Call of Duty and its ilk continue to smash worldwide sales records, the success of Schafer's Kickstarter bid shows that there is a core of increasingly disenfranchised gamers who feel that gaming is moving away from its roots, losing its diversity and creativity as it goes.

In isolation, it's unlikely that Double Fine Adventure signals a sea-change in the way that media is funded; this is only one game, after all, and Schafer is already a much-loved industry figure. His venture into the uncertain waters of cheap, download-only games was a very public one, and the critical success of titles such as Costume Quest and Stacking mean that his position as a modestly-funded indie developer has never been far from the public consciousness.

Nonetheless, the success of this bid is one that indie artists of all flavours should take note of; funding for Double Fine Adventure is not the only Kickstarter project to wildly exceed its goal, with webcomic The Order of the Stick raking in an astonishing $600,000 for paper reprints. These are not just successes for Kickstarter, but for the old adage of putting your money where your mouth is.

See the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter page here.

Retro|Spective: Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Not actually S3&K, but let's thank Nerkin
anyway for daring to dream the HD dream

There's more to this 16-bit classic than slick gameplay - so, so much more

I'm not going to spend long waxing lyrical about S3&K's lock-on technology, as it's pretty well known by now; originally planned as one game, Sega realised that they couldn't fit Sonic 3 on to one cartridge without having to spend ridiculous amounts of money making a bigger one. Instead they split the game into two, renamed the second part to Sonic & Knuckles and gave it a slot on top of the cartridge itself, allowing players to plug in the preceding game and combine them into one single, seamless experience.

The result was legendary; not only could players get the full Sonic 3 experience, but they could also play through Sonic 2 as Knuckles, making Sonic & Knuckles an expansion pack for not one, but two games. Three in fact, if you count the ability to lock on to Sonic 1 and play a selection of brand-new special stages.

But this is old news; Sega have re-released the 16-bit Sonic games every single console generation, including the ability to 'lock-on' with Sonic & Knuckles, so there isn't much that needs saying about that particular innovation. But what does need talking about is that S3&K is an early and still extremely relevant example of voiceless storytelling, the kind that video games excel at and Sonic has proven to be a prime example of.

Ubisoft officially insane

We're not mad, we just really, really hate you, publisher protests

DRM has had a patchy time in recent years, with measures designed to prevent piracy instead driving consumers towards it in droves. But while Valve have won over digital gamers through fair policies that don't impinge on the player's experience, Ubisoft have been engaged in an ongoing series of bizarre experiments, which include freezing Assassin's Creed 2 whenever the user's net connection cuts out, even if only for a second. Sometimes it happens for hours at a time, as happened back in 2010.

Such batshittery was only the start though, with hardware site Guru3D learning during their testing process that swapping out even a single component of their PC caused Anno 2070 to completely lock them out.

Ubisoft's response? Well, you shouldn't be swapping out hardware components, should you?

What's a PC, anyway? We only use Macs around the office.

Nintendo in crap online shocker

It barely qualifies as news by this point, but once again Nintendo has made good on its commitment to always be several years behind the curve.

Our debacle du jour comes from Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS; while Nintendo were powerless to do anything about the infamous snaking glitch in the DS iteration of the racing series, they have every power to patch an oversight in MK7, in which powering into the water at a specific point of Wuhu Mountain Loop allows you to respawn across the other side of the lake, neatly skipping a healthy portion of the track.

Nintendo have refused to apply a patch, saying that it would create an unfair advantage for patch-less players, but this means that either Nintendo can't force updates on players before they take their games online, despite being common practice on pretty much every other gaming device on the market, or they genuinely think that people playing over local multiplayer are going to be powerless to stop cheaters despite being within punching distance of them.

Or maybe they're still not quite getting this online deely. This is starting to get pretty tragic, Nintendo.

Half Life: Portal - the next major Valve release?

vadeg

Let the baseless conjecture begin

As one of the most important, genre-defining FPS series ever created, the Half Life rumour mill is always in business, with rumours still flying fast and thick of a 2012 announcement of the next series instalment. Just like in 2011, in fact. And 2010. Every year since 2007, really.

So, to get in the spirit of things, I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and explain why I think the next instalment of the series could involve a Half Life/Portal mash-up:

Digital Remix: Bit Brigade

Pray silence for the finest in guitar-shredding, speed-running goodness

Once in a while you come across something that makes you glad to be alive. Something where you really feel the privilege of being a sentient creature with the sensory faculties to enjoy said something. It's all subjective of course, and unless you really crave the electric mixture of live bands, retro game music and 8-bit speed runs, the following video is probably going to leave you a bit cold. But if all three float your boat, then the following video is about as perfect a blend as is ever likely to exist. So, if you have forty-five minutes to spare and a head in need of some banging (so to speak), then it is my pleasure to introduce you to the truly magnificent Bit Brigade.

Until next time, and a happy new year to all.