The Negative Edge News Report 09.12.07
Posted by Tommy Coloma on 09.12.2007
This week I tell you what you need to know about the Halo movie script that's floating around, talk about which war is worth fighting for, explain why the White Engine will make the world right again, and More!
I took some time over the weekend to browse through some old emails that I should have gotten to earlier. One message that was sent back in December contained some questions from a reader named John Bryant. I rarely receive emails, so I should really take the time to answer whatever I receive. Here we go -
"What 2 games would you love to see a Crossover of? Perhaps Devil May Cry & Metal Gear Solid where Ocelot and the DMC big bad find a way to merge the Metal Gears with Demons? Besides, who wouldn't love to see Solid Snake shooting up Machine/demons alongside Dante? Perhaps you can come up with something."
Hmmm... Two of my favorite games from back in the day happen to be Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. Consequently, one crossover that I'd love to see would be one that features both Samus and Alucard. The storyline would be easy enough - a group of space pirates learn about the mythical being known as Dracula. They decide to use his power to resurrect Mother Brain. While trying to awaken Dracula, Samus interrupts so something goes wrong. Somehow, Alucard gets transported along with Dracula's castle to the space pirates' base. There's something strange about the castle though - somehow it got infused with technology; Dracula's castle and the pirates' base have merged together to create a new castle where magic and technology work hand-in-hand. Alucard meets up with Samus and they join forces to stop the resurrection of both Mother Brain and Dracula.
As far as gameplay goes, characters can be switched off like in Portrait of Ruin. Of course, there's a twist - Samus can only use magic and Alucard can only use futuristic weapons. Unlike in Portrait of Ruin, switching off between the two characters in this game would be required. Samus' magic abilities can only damage creatures that have magical tendencies while Alucard's plasma weapons and missiles can only damage electrical equipment and non-spiritual monsters. That way, we don't end up using only one character for the majority of the game as most people did in Portrait. The game would also follow the basic Castleroid formula where backtracking after getting the right equipment becomes necessary.
Since Samus can't use her power suite, she'd either be dressed up in old-school clothing (whatever Alucard usually wears but for women) or her Zero Suit. Alucard would wear a trench coat and would use that gun/whip thing that Samus was using in the first Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer.
And that, my friends, would be the greatest crossover ever.
The News As I See It
I know you... Your past... Your future...
Word around the campfire is that the unused Halo movie script that was penned by Alex Garland found its way onto torrent sites around the world. Naturally, I picked it up and gave it a good once-over. As far as I'm concerned, what I read was fairly entertaining. I didn't know enough about the whole Halo mythos to give you an informed response, so I got 411mania's Greg Bruno, "Halo nerd extraordinaire," to fill us in -
Way back in the year 2005, a lot of important things took place. Mainly, the White Sox won the World Series. Sorry Cubs fans, but it they did. Also, a script for the ever-popular Halo games was written by Alex Garland. Very recently, it seems a copy of that script has been leaked out onto the wonderful and always true tubes of the internet. Me being the intensely handsome Halo nerd that I am, I figured I'd give it a read through. What I found my eyes going over was pretty much an exact recreation of the first Halo game on the original Xbox. Is that a good thing? Well, sort of. Out of the 128 pages of the script, I'd say only a few things did not fit the bill. There is the fight on The Pillar of Autumn, the crash landing on Halo, the beach battle... all the good stuff that we loved about the first game. My problem, however, is that a lot of important information was left out.
Where is Sergeant Johnson? He isn't even mentioned in the script. Not even a little! This is highly puzzling since Johnson is an extremely important figure in the Halo universe. Instead, we're left with some conflicts between Major Silva, who has a mad hard on for the ODST's (Hell Jumpers), and Master Chief. It's an interesting struggle the two of them have, but ultimately not as entertaining as it could have been.
The entire Commander Keyes rescue seemed a bit off course. They make him an important character, but not one we seem to feel for. His encounter with the Chief at the end seems to answer some questions regarding The Flood's mentality, though.
Master Chief comes across as more of a smart-ass than a bad-ass in the script. While that may make for some entertaining one liners in a film, that simply is not his character. Master Chief is a no nonsense, kick ass, mostly silent, killing machine. He does not, I REPEAT, DOES NOT say things like "Hey, Cortana? Why did you choose to look so distracting?" Come on. Are you kidding me? We all know there's some weird love thing going on between Chief and Cortana, but I don't recall him ever actually hitting on her. That's not to say that Garland doesn't give him his bad-ass moments, because there are plenty. I think Chiefs actions should be speaking loud enough that he wouldn't have to say a word.
Overall, the script is a nice representation of the first game. It sheds a little bit of light on the Battle of Reach and how it affected Master Chief (Which really could be a movie in itself...possible prequel?). If you're a die-hard Halo nut like myself, give it a read through. At the end, you'll definitely feel good knowing that the script has been rewritten at least twice more since this draft.
With that said, September 25 cannot come soon enough. I have a feeling that once Halo 3 drops and makes a zillion dollars in one day, movie studios will be begging Microsoft to let them have a piece of it. I'll see you all online finishing the fight in less than two weeks! In the meantime, I'll be trying to get my uber-hot girlfriend to dress up as Cortana for the midnight launch. She's so distracting!
-Greg
The one war that everyone could look forward to
According to Insert Credit, the DS will be yet another system that is graced with a Sakura Taisen game. Never heard of the series? That's understandable, since we have yet to receive an English translated version of any of the games in this long-running franchise. While we at least got the Sakura Wars Anime, those of use who want more interactivity in our lives have so far been SOL. The new game is supposedly going to be a "dramatic dungeon RPG" which might be easier to localize. While no plans for a US release have been mentioned (the official web site has pretty much no information so far), I'd like to think that an English translation is much more likely than in the past thanks to the fact that the game is on the DS. Wishful thinking? Probably, but it helps to numb the pain...
Jumping ship using the White Engine
In a recent Austin Game Developers Conference keynote, an executive officer at Square Enix mentioned that the White Engine, which Final Fantasy XIII happens to runs on, is a "cross-platform middleware" solution. (credit: Gamasutra) The executive, Hiromichi Tanaka, went on to say that "it's safe to say that it won't be much longer before I'm able to unveil even more secrets about what the future holds for Square Enix."
Now there are two ways to interpret this - either he's referring to the connectivity between the PS3 and a PC (since he was talking about MMOs earlier), or he's talking about the ability to port any game that uses the White Engine to platforms other than the PS3... like, say... the 360. If I had access to the original discussion I'd look into it more. For now though, don't get too excited. FFXIII on the 360 is still a pipe dream.
The Week In Releases
Drawn to Life (DS)
I like the fact that players can draw their own character in addition to items that can be used to progress through the game. Even though I'm a horrendously bad artist, I really dig that concept. I just wish that there was more info about the game itself other there. It's like THQ is burying the game. Maybe there's a reason for that...
Fate/tiger colosseum (PSP / Japan)
Back in April, French Bread created a whole page which made it look like they were set to release a new 2D fighting game based on the Fate/stay night visual novels. Unfortunately, it ended up being a very cruel April Fools' Day joke. However, a little while later, it was announced that a PSP fighting game was in the works instead. I'm a fan of all things Type Moon so even though it wasn't the 2D fighting game that fans of the Melty Blood games were hoping for, they already got me. Well... They would have gotten me if I had a PSP. I'll just enjoy it vicariously through everyone else.
Here are Saber and Rider from the Fate/stay night games. They will also be playable in Fate/tiger colosseum. They won't look this good in the PSP game though. What a pity.
The Anime Circle
Hayate no Gotoku!
I spent way too much time playing Persona 3 so this section got shafted this week. If you really need an Anime fix, I'd suggest taking a look at Hayate no Gotoku! It's unlicensed so you can get it here for now. So far, only 24 of the total 52 episodes have aired. You can see what the show is about by reading AnimeNfo's description here or AniDB's description here. While you're watching, see how many video game and Anime references you can spot. Good luck!
To be continued...
That's it for this week. I just got a warning that a huge battleship is approaching fast. If I can figure out how to defeat the giant fish that just appeared, I'll be back next week.
