EGM is stirring it up again with a bunch of hot new rumors from Quartermann. Looks like we're in for a pretty sweet season: Quartermann's latest gossip includes word on a Halo spin-off coming late next year, a Grand Theft Auto MMO, and a whole lot more. Rumors galore in the full article!

According to an official announcement made by France-based Ubisoft, the video game publisher is planning to expand its employee base for its studio in Casablanca, Morocco. Spurred by a local government incentive program for high quality jobs in technology, the studio established back in 1998 will open up 150 seats for interested applicants.

 

The Moroccan studio has been active in delivering titles under Ubisoft's umbrella, featuring a portfolio of games such as Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie and Prince of Persia The Two Thrones. They were also responsible for bringing Rayman Raving Rabbids to the DS, together with Star Wars: Lethal Alliance.

And although mostly lacking in the manpower as opposed to Ubisoft's Montreal studios, the 50-man team is currently at work on Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 for the Nintendo DS. And while the studio is the only game developer studio in Morocco or in Northern Africa, the team is mostly staffed by local people - artists and engineers from the local populace.

Managing director of Ubisoft's Casablanca studio, Cyril Vermeil, stated that many of the young people in Morocco are passionate about games: "Our task will be to recruit people who want to grow with Ubisoft to become leading specialists in an industry offering an increasing number of career opportunities for local talent."

Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, said that the studio was established because Ubisoft knew local education system would provide talented people for game development. He concluded the announcement saying:

It is an honor to work with the Moroccan government to significantly expand our presence in the region. Both the video game industry and the Moroccan economy are strong and growing, and we look forward to pioneering the industry in this exciting region.

 

While it isn't uncommon for real world actors and actresses to lend their hand at video game development, other Hollywood talents are also migrating to the gaming industry as well - one area of which, aside from voice casting, is music scoring. Video games these days get a bit of the "epic soundtrack" treatment too. And for a game like Lair (dungeons, dragons, air-based war campaigns, and all) you should expect nothing less of a soundtrack that could compete with that of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy.

John Debney of "Sin City" and "The Passion of the Christ" fame had an interview with IGN of what it was like bagging the role of music composer for Factor 5's dragon flight title. After sitting down with the Sony creative team, he had this to say:

I was really struck by the idea that they had, which was to create music that was really very cinematic in approach... They were also interested in creating very specific themes for the different characters. So, in a way, it was very much like doing a film for me in that I created themes and then once those themes were approved sort of extrapolating from them and going from there.

To give you an idea of how massive and ambitious the project was, Debney notes that they had eight full CDs to work with. "We recorded for three days in London at Abbey Road Studios with a 90-piece orchestra," he continues. The creators of Lair were trying to achieve something new in terms of integrating music into the game - an important aspect of which is getting themes to flow from one to the other as the game progresses. As certain moments in the game will suddenly shift, the music has to fit into that, sometimes requiring a 4-minute track to change in theme after only 2-minutes.

Apparently, dragons don't just breather fire, they sing quite well too. Click the "Read" link below to check out the full interview with John Debney.

At last year's E3, Konami revealed that work on a live-action movie based on Metal Gear Solid is now underway. We all found out about this via a pamphlet for Studio Kojima, the development house headed by Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima.

Since then we haven't gotten much details about the project, much less any word on who will be will be working on the movie. This has changed recently as Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman Yair Landau revealed that his studio is developing the project. After Landau delivered a keynote address in Las Vegas, Landau told this to GameSpot:

We're working with the Metal Gear guys.... It's a very cinematic game, it really lends itself to movie telling. But the question is, How do you translate Snake's experience into a full arc that conforms to what audiences expect on the large screen?

Landau also hinted that the "Metal Gear Solid" movie may just be the beginning. Landau hints that they're working on ideas for a possible EverQuest movie.

The "Metal Gear Solid" movie is currently the highest-profile game-film project in Hollywood. Top spot used to be held by the Peter Jackson-produced Halo adaptation, which is now unfortunately in development limbo.

Given how much we've been burned before by Uwe Boll (we're not saying he sucks, that's a matter of opinion, we believe it's safe to say though, that we all expected a lot more from his films), we urge caution. Let's see...what else has Sony Pictures Entertainment done before? As a distributor, they've had their hands in the Spider-Man franchise. What else? Oh, and as a production company they've done what? Hmn...oh yeah, "Spider-Man 2".

We're now asking you folks: Should we all be hopeful? Should we expect something that is miles away from the fan-made film we embedded above?

As sure as we are that the sun will rise in the west east tomorrow morning, we know that it's a fact of life that video game movies have a tendency to suck. Surely, a number of you guys have seen at least one video-game-turned-movie in the past, and quite possibly, a number of you had regretted it. Sometimes, even loyal fans of a video game franchise would turn tail from the game series after watching its film adaptation. Yes. The plight that us gamers go through...

Now, DickMcVengeance saved us some time searching IMDb by compiling a list of video games that are being brought to life on the silver screen. Some of these, you might already have known. But here's the list of movies getting the "big screen" treatment (in alphabetical order):

• Alice (as in American McGee's Alice - stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as Alice)
• Carmen Sandiego
• Castlevania (from the writer/director of AVP, Resident Evil, and Mortal Kombat)
  
• Clock Tower
• Dead or Alive (comes out October 20 in the US)
  
• Far Cry
• Fear Effect
• Halo (with Peter Jackson as Executive Producer)
• Hitman (Vin Diesel as Agent 47, pic above)
  
• Hunter: The Reckoning
• Max Payne
• Mortal Kombat: Devastation
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (with Jerry Bruckheimer as Executive Producer)
  
• Resident Evil: Extinction (starring Ashanti)
  
• Splinter Cell: The Movie
• Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run (starring The Rock)
  
• Tekken (written by the same person who wrote Tomb Raider)
  

Now, we're wondering. Are most of you actually whooping with joy to see your favorite characters (Sam Fisher? Jin Kazama? Master Chief?) in a movie, or are you groaning in agony? Well, judge as you will. We won't. But it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts, though, so go ahead and comment!

Activision announced today that Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Raven Software's highly anticipated action/RPG, has just been scored by a trio of award-winning composers.

Chance Thomas (Peter Jackson's King Kong, Lord of the Rings series), Cris Velasco (God of War) and Mark Griskey (Best of LucasArts Original Soundtrack) produced over 50 minutes of original music for the game, including the superhero and boss battle themes, multiple game level themes, and in-game cinematics.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will be the first superhero game available this fall for all next-gen gaming systems. If you're interested in knowing about musical scores for other games, you might find this previous article interesting. Check it out.