14 | January | 2010 | Through the Shattered Lens

Source: ‘Terminator’ bidding: Sony, Warner, Summit, Legendary may soon vie with Lions Gate

It looks like for the 5th time in the history of the Terminator franchise there will be a new owner. Lions Gate was an early bidder for the franchise’ rights which has been put up for sale by it’s current owner, Halcyon Group. Now that Lions Gate’s initial bid of $15million has set the starting price big -name studios like Sony and Warner in addition to mid-level ones such as Summit and Legendary have made their interest known that they may join in the bidding.

Whoever ends up with the rights to the franchise have much work to do in righting the ship. While Terminator Salvation made money even after factoring in it’s $200million budget it wasn’t the huge blockbuster Halcyon Group was hoping for thus the sale of the rights. Fans of the franchise have been fine with the series ending after the second film, but then a third was made and even that one most fans were on-board since it introduced the opening salvo of “Judgement Day” which have always been seen only in clips or as backstory exposition. Terminator Salvation was suppose to sate that interest, but instead might have sunk the franchise for good.

While future films in the franchise will always hold an interest for me I do think that the series (plus the rights to it) really should just go back to the man who began it all: James Cameron. He has made no effort to have his legal representatives even make an offer for the rights even though he could definitely afford to buy it back. I’m sure any studio would help him get it back if it meant a partnership in getting an iconic sci-fi franchise back to prominence. Cameron wouldn’t even have to be directing the film to get fans back on-board. As producer he would bring in the sort of dedication to get things right he always brings to all his projects.

The only problem is that Cameron seem to have moved on from the series and couldn’t care less what people do with it. Early naivete about how Hollywood worked in his early years in the business seem to have soured him on the franchise. Here’s to hoping that whoever does end up with the rights, at the very least, approaches Cameron about ideas and how they can get the franchise back on track.

Posted using ShareThis

2010 is not even a month old and it already has two quality games already in the books with Platinum Games’ Bayonetta and Vigil Studios’ Darksiders. The end of January brings the heavily-anticipated follow-up to BioWare’s critically-acclaimed Mass Effect. Following in Mass Effect 2‘s wake will be Take-Two’s own sequel with the February 9th release of BioShock 2. The one game which seems to be running under most people’s radar is a little title from UK-based developer, Rebellion Developments. The game I speak of is the FPS-shooter simpy titled, Aliens vs. Predator.

That name alone should bring excitement to gamers who have played previous iterations of that very game on the PC years ago. Let’s just forget that the two films using that same name doesn’t even exist and concentrate on just how awesome this game seems to be turning out. The game’s premise is pretty simple from released info by the studio. It’s a FPS where three factions (Aliens, Predator and Colonial Marines) each have their own single-player campaign which would make-up the overarching storyline. Rebellion Developments knows that the single-player campaign shall be as epic as the films they’re based on, but in the end it is the multiplayer campaign where players get to play on-line with other players either as an Alien, a Predator or a Colonial Marine. I have a feeling that very last faction will be dying quite a bit when chosen by poorly-skilled on-line players.

The game will be coming out on February 16th here in North America with a February 19th release for Europe. The publisher handling it’s release will be SEGA with Rebellion Developments handling any updates, patching and future DLC for the game’s lifetime. As a special, albeit very pricey, extra for the gamer completist it looks like SEGA will be making available for pre-order a limited Hunter Edition of the game with loads of extras that may or may not justify a 99.99 dollar price tag.

Yes, my friends that is a fully-articulated face-hugger in that Hunter Edition. I think the only thing which would make it even better is if it could be remote-controlled to scuttle around. Other things in the Hunter Edition will be the collected edition of the original Dark Horse Comics’ Aliens vs. Predator mini-series. The game will be released on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. Sorry, there’s no plans to release a Mac-version of the game. Sorry, Apple peeps.

I, for one, will be pre-ordering the Hunter Edition because that’s just how we player’s roll. here’s to hoping this game delivers on all that Rebellion has shown and promised the last couple years of its development.

Official Site: http://www.sega.com/games/aliens-vs-predator/