SDCC: New Poster for The Hobbit

Director Peter Jackson has revealed via his Facebook page a sweet new poster for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey just in time for next week's San Diego Comic-Con. Check it out:

Source : ign[dot]com

The Hobbit: It's a Wrap!

Director Peter Jackson announced on Facebook that his forthcoming two-part adaptation of The Hobbit has completed principal photography:

"We made it! Shoot day 266 and the end of principal photography on The Hobbit. Thanks to our fantastic cast and crew for getting us this far, and to all of you for your support! Next stop, the cutting room. Oh, and Comic Con!

Cheers, Peter J"

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14. The Hobbit: There and Back Again opens December 13, 2013.

Source : ign[dot]com

Stormwatch #11 Review

Peter Milligan has a great story for Stormwatch here, but the clunky execution has it buried beneath an unclear plot and forced dialog. The Hidden People, a group of super powered survivor Neanderthals, have hatched a plan to devolve humanity with a powerful cube device. Sounds Stormwatch-y enough for me, but between the truncated history lesson in the beginning, the confusing action sequence in the middle, and the hokey mustache-twirling end, the team has seen better days.

There are a total of nine artists on this issue, and it shows. The flashbacks are done in one penciller’s toned down realistic style, while the present day scenes are in a style fit for a Saturday morning cartoon. Neither style looks bad, per se, but meshed together like this they disrupt the flow of the book, even in its divided format. With the already jumbled story, the art only serves to make matters worse. DC should be praised for getting almost every book out on time since the New 52 began, but products like this make me wonder about how maybe we don’t always want what we complain about on message boards.

All that said, there are a few good moments to be found. The entire team wears disgusted faces as Angie vomits on the floor, but Midnighter stands apart looking amused. A short sequence reveals Angie’s origin as the Engineer that hits a note of shock and sympathy. Apollo banters with Midnighter in a cheesy way that still manages to make me smile despite myself.

Joshua is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter or IGN, where he is hell-bent on making sure you know his opinion about comic books.

Source : ign[dot]com

EA's Peter Moore: Free-to-Play is an "Inevitability"

EA's chief operating officer has expressed his belief that free-to-play is an "inevitability" for all mainstream games.

Speaking with Kotaku, Peter Moore suggests that a F2P future would be a good thing, as it would constantly bring in new players and potential customers.

“ I think, ultimately, those microtransactions will be in every game, but the game itself or the access to the game will be free.

He explained, ""I think, ultimately, those microtransactions will be in every game, but the game itself or the access to the game will be free.

"I think there's an inevitability that happens five years from now, 10 years from now, that, let's call it the client, to use the term, [is free.] It is no different than... it's free to me to walk into The Gap in my local shopping mall. They don't charge me to walk in there. I can walk into The Gap, enjoy the music, look at the jeans and what have you, but if I want to buy something I have to pay for it."

It comes in the wake of rumours that Bioware's MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which EA publishes, is looking at the viability of adopting a F2P model.  If EA were to roll it out to their other titles though, it begs the question of how it would work.  Microtransactions could be easily integrated into the likes of Madden NFL 13 or SimCity, but it's less apparent how they'd work with titles such as Mass Effect 3.

While Moore accepts that the proposed F2P revolution may not be imminent, that's not to say he didn't suggest changes are happening right this instant.  Prefacing his claims with the warning that "hardcore gamers won't like to hear this", he explained that companies are increasingly taking notice of platforms other than the consoles.

“ Hardcore gamers won't like to hear this.

"We're going through, as an industry, just an unbelievably difficult transformation, that is not from one business model to another but from one business model to a myriad of different business models," he said.

"Consoles are still going to be a very important part of what we do. But so are browsers. So are iOS devices. So are Android mobile phones. So are PCs, which are feeling a renaissance. It's all coming together in this potpourri..."

None of this is hugely surprising.  When we recently spoke to Moore about the public perception of EA, he revealed to us that he feels "The $60 game is dying. The mid-range game is no longer profitable. EA has to focus its energies elsewhere in order to meet those quarterly targets."

Source : ign[dot]com

E3 2012: Peter Molyneux Reveals New Game

Peter Molyneux has revealed Curiosity, the first project from his new company 22 Cans. The project is an app that features a giant black cube players will tap to break into.

The cube will actually be made up of thousands of smaller cubes, each of which is being tapped into by other Curiosity players. Curiosity will be the first of 22 “experiments” he forms under the 22 Cans monkier. It will hit PC and mobile.

Molyneux formed 22 Cans earlier this year after departing Microsoft.

Source: Eurogamer

.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/e3-2012-peter-molyneux-reveals-new-game

Disney's New Peter Pan

Disney will soon be adapting Peter and the Starcatchers, a new Peter Pan story based on the best-selling children's book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The studio has hired Jesse Wigutow (The Osterman Weekend) to pen the screenplay.

The book was recently adapted into a Broadway play, which has already turned out to be a huge hit -- it was nominated for nine Tony Awards earlier this month. So it's no surprise that Disney has decided to fast-track a feature film. And since Barry and Pearson are gearing up to write more books set in the same universe, it's likely the movie will have franchise potential.

No word yet on a director or production start date.

Via ComingSoon.net

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/18/disneys-new-peter-pan