soon we'll be playing games with John Wayne and James Dean

[Anthony1]

Have you guys seen recent issues of Game Informer?

It seems like every issue they are spotlighting a game that features characters from old movies. The old movie is licensed, along with the characters in the movies and the models of the people are actually modelled after the way the people looked in that movie at the time.

For example, there is a James Bond game comming that stars Sean Connery, there is a game called "The Warriors" that has all the guys from that movie, you also have "The Godfather", etc, etc. etc.

It's just kinda strange that we are now at a graphical level with the characters where you can take a old movie and make the game character look damn close to what the guy looked like in the old movie. Even if the guy is dead, or much much older now. They are using the version of the guy at that time.

It's kinda weird.

It makes me wonder when we will be playing games where we are John Wayne or James Dean or Charleton Heston or whatever.

What do you guys think about this recent trend that's developing?

[pacmanhat]

I don't see it as a trend in the gaming industry at all. I DO see it as a trend that Game Informer hasn't gotten a good cover story in AGES. Honestly, they get exclusives but it's never for anything that interesting. Hence, games based on old movie actors a/o characters.

And we all know how good movie games usually are... :roll:

[Leo_A]

I very much doubt this would ever become common place, for the game reasons titles such as NASCAR Legends and Grand Prix Legends failed commercially.

[SirDrexl]

I think we could maybe call it a trend. Capcom made a game with the likeness of Toshiro Mifune (Onimusha: Blade Warriors?), and there was a game of The Great Escape with Steve McQueen. There was also that awful Bruce Lee game. Soon, Clint Eastwood will be lending his voice to a Dirty Harry game. Do the "Dukes of Hazzard" games feature the likenesses of the actors in the show? I think they do.

John Wayne I could see happening, but James Dean? What would you do in it? He didn't make any action movies. Maybe a Porsche Spyder racing game? (sorry, that was bad.)

[Anthony1]

I think we could maybe call it a trend. Capcom made a game with the likeness of Toshiro Mifune (Onimusha: Blade Warriors?), and there was a game of The Great Escape with Steve McQueen. There was also that awful Bruce Lee game. Soon, Clint Eastwood will be lending his voice to a Dirty Harry game. Do the "Dukes of Hazzard" games feature the likenesses of the actors in the show? I think they do.

John Wayne I could see happening, but James Dean? What would you do in it? He didn't make any action movies. Maybe a Porsche Spyder racing game? (sorry, that was bad.)

Only reason I said John Wayne and James Dean was just to pick two actors from the past that are no longer with us. But I must say that this seems to be the new "cool" thing for developers to do. License a old movie from the 60's or 70's or whatever and make a game out of it, and actually license the likeness of the actors in that movie, so that the lead character actually looks like the real guy that was in the movie.

I'm not saying that I'm very happy that this trend is happening, because I honestly don't give a damn either way, but I was just noticing that I've been seeing pics of upcoming games based on older movies and the characters in the game looking pretty much dead on to the guys in the movies.

I just thought that it's kindof an interesting trend. At least if you subscribe to Game Informer you would think this is somekind of trend. Maybe it's just what Game Informer has chosen to focus on for whatever reason, and it's not any kind of industry wide trend.

[zmweasel]

What do you guys think about this recent trend that's developing?

Games are just following in Hollywood's footsteps. Dead celebs have been appearing in TV commercials for years. The late Sir Laurence Olivier appeared in "Sky Captain." CG wizards use face-mapping technology to plop stars' mugs onto stuntmens' bodies (like Kate Bosworth not really doing her own surfing in "Blue Crush").

Some celebs are excited about it, like Bruce Campbell, who thinks it's cool that he's "starred" in several Evil Dead videogames, appeasing fans of the franchise who'll never get another feature film. And some celebs are terrified of it, like control freak Tom Cruise, who's never let his likeness appear in a game. But it's ultimately all about the Benjamins: Vivendi Universal threw a ton of money at Al Pacino to get his likeness for the upcoming Scarface tie-in.

Personally, I think it's great when a tie-in gets the real actors to supply their faces and voices. You're buying a tie-in to immerse yourself in a movie-world, after all.

-- Z.

[GarrettCRW]

Some celebs are excited about it, like Bruce Campbell, who thinks it's cool that he's "starred" in several Evil Dead videogames, appeasing fans of the franchise who'll never get another feature film.

Actually, Evil Dead fans *are* getting their wish....

If anything, though, movie-based games are following the leads from sports games. Remember Legends of the Diamond for the NES? Or how about the hidden old teams/players in games? Such things are actually quite popular in the sports games, which appeal to the same wide audience as film-based titles.

[zmweasel]

Actually, Evil Dead fans *are* getting their wish....

What, you mean the rumored Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason flick? I understand that Campbell declared on his own website (down at the moment, otherwise I'd verify) that it's not happening.

-- Z.

[ubersaurus]

Actually, Evil Dead fans *are* getting their wish....

What, you mean the rumored Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason flick? I understand that Campbell declared on his own website (down at the moment, otherwise I'd verify) that it's not happening.

-- Z.

Nah, I believe this was more along the lines of Evil Dead 4 finally being made by Sam Raimi, if I heard right. Plus there's the Evil Dead remake that no one will care about.

[zmweasel]

Actually, Evil Dead fans *are* getting their wish....

What, you mean the rumored Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason flick? I understand that Campbell declared on his own website (down at the moment, otherwise I'd verify) that it's not happening.

-- Z.

Nah, I believe this was more along the lines of Evil Dead 4 finally being made by Sam Raimi, if I heard right. Plus there's the Evil Dead remake that no one will care about.

The website Bloody-Disgusting.com claimed on Feb. 4 that "Raimi will be directing and producing Evil Dead 4, which will star Bruce Campbell as Ash and will also have many of the actors from the previous Evil Dead movies."

Sci-Fi Wire quotes a Feb. 9 interview with Raimi: "'I'd like to [make ED4] one day,' he said. 'I can't promise that I will, but that is something I'd really like to do, and I'd like to pursue that. My brother [Ivan Raimi, a physician and Sam's frequent behind-the-scenes collaborator] and I have written down some ideas, but I think that's what we'll do. When the time comes, when we're done with the Spider-Man films, we'll sit down and write the script.'"

And BC said this in a March interview with The Beat: "I've already played the character for 12 years and how much longer do I need to do that? Because I'm a human being and I get bored. So that's just kinda how I work. Fans want more, but isn't the old saying leave 'em wanting more? Because if you give 'em too much, they get stuffed and they barf it all back up again."

So ED4 isn't exactly a lock yet. But we're getting another Evil Dead game from THQ later this year, with BC's voice and likeness...

-- Z.

[Dahne]

Ooooh, games with John Wayne and James Dean in them. I was thinking, woah, gaming zombies. Awesome.