GAME OF THRONES adventure game confirmed, FALLOUT 4 marketing exposed as a hoax

Following previous rumours, Telltale Games have confirmed that they will be releasing a Game of Thrones episodic adventure game in 2014.

Telltale, formed out of the collapse of LucasArts's adventure game division in the early 2000s, are the critically-acclaimed creators of Tales of Monkey Island, The Walking Dead (the best piece of media set in that universe to date) and their current ongoing release, The Wolf Among Us, as well as three well-received Sam and Max games. Their other games, of varying quality, include titles set in the Law and Order, CSI, Wallace and Gromit, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future franchises. Telltale have also announced another new game, Tales from the Borderlands, set in the Borderlands video game universe.

This is promising news. With both The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, Telltale have gained a reputation for well-written stories with exciting twists and unusually good characterisation. These are all things that will apply well to the Game of Thrones setting. No word on story or character yet, although Telltale usually prefer to use new characters in a setting where there is ongoing material. They are hoping to use some of the TV voice cast, so some locations and characters may overlap, but I suspect this will be mostly a new story.

"There are sex scenes on the show?" - Kevin Bruner, Telltale Games

According to Telltale there will be some sword-swinging and action, but this will not make up a lot of the gameplay. They were coyer on whether the show's sex scenes would make the translation to gaming.

Unfortunately, the promising ARG for Fallout 4 has been exposed as a hoax. Whilst Bethesda are still widely believed to be working on the game, it does not look like any formal announcement is imminent. Bethesda have faced some criticism from fans for not exposing the story as a hoax when it first appeared a month ago.

SHANNARA to become a TV series at...MTV?

Somewhat unexpectedly, MTV has bought the TV rights to Terry Brooks's Shannara series of fantasy novels. John Favreau, the director of the first two Iron Man films, is fuelling the adaptation and may direct the first episode. Smallville showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar would helm the show on a week-by-week basis. Apparently, MTV has agreed a straight-to-series deal if they like the initial scrips, bypassing the pilot stage.

The plan is to adapt The Elfstones of Shannara, the second novel (the first, The Sword of Shannara, infamously sails a bit too close to the Tolkien winds) as the first season and proceed from there.

The hyperbolic Hollwood Reporter article contains some interesting factual errors:

"The Shannara books are estimated to be the highest-selling un-adapted fantasy book series in the world."

Apart from The Wheel of Time, the Drizzt Do'Urden books and The Dark Tower, of course.

"Brooks is considered to be the second-highest-selling living fantasy author, trailing only Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling."

Not even remotely true. If the previous figures are accurate (26.5 million sales worldwide, 15 million or so in the USA alone), then Brooks has been outsold by Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, R.A. Salvatore, Christopher Paolini, Anne Rice, Stephanie Meyer, Charlaine Harris and George R.R. Martin have outsold him. If, as the article suggests, Brooks's sales are 26 million in the USA alone, that puts his world wide sales likely in the 40-50 million bracket. Even in that case, he's still been outsold by King, Pratchett, Rice and Meyer, and is at parity with Paolini.

Inaccurate reporting aside, this is interesting news. Avoiding The Swords of Shannara, which is both diabolically awful and 'similar' to Lord of the Rings, is a very good idea. The quality of Brooks's writing improves immensely after that first novel. However, given the quality of the source material (readable popcorn entertainment) and the creative forces involved (Smallville was watchable hokum at best), we're probably talking something a lot closer to Legend of the Seeker than Game of Thrones in tone and styling.

Man of Steel

Man of Steel is, technically, the first on-screen reboot of the Superman mythos since 1978's Superman: The Movie. Produced by the Christopher Nolan, written by David Goyer and directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen), it's an attempt to bring the moral ambiguity and 'grittiness' of Nolan and Goyer's Dark Knight trilogy of Batman films to the Superman franchise, and set up a new shared universe of films based on DC comics characters.

Things start promisingly with a visit to Krypton, depicted as something between Avatar (the Cameron movie) and Dune, with a mixture of ultra-advanced technology and feuding nobles. Russell Crowe plays Jor-El, here depicted as a scientist trying to save his world from imminent destruction but, in typical Russell Crowe style, is also capable of laying waste to entire platoons of soldiers single-handedly. Crow runs afoul of Michael Shannon's General Zod during a coup but still manages to blast his infant son (eventually a capable and reasonably good Henry Cavill) into space before the planet explodes. Zod and his cohorts are sentenced to eternal imprisonment in the Phantom Zone, which works out about as well as it ever does.

The infant Kal-El arrives on Earth and is found and raised by Kent family near Smallville, Kansas. Kal-El aka Clark's crazy powers and abilities soon manifest and his human parents (ably played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) are soon spending their time running around quashing rumours that their son is a space alien and instilling him with noble human values. Clark attempts to lie low in a number of fairly innocuous jobs but his tendency to rush into dangerous situations to rescue people soon attracts the attention of a reporter, Lois Lane (Amy Adams). Clark discovers a Kryptonian ship which he can use with technology from his own crashed vessel to create an interactive AI based on his father's personality. This allows him to learn about his heritage, but also sends out an automated SOS which lures Zod and his crazy crew to the planet. Cue a lot of carnage as showdown follows showdown until the film climaxes.

The storyline is, in principle, a good idea. The film avoids any mention of Lex Luthor or Kryptonite, and the use of Krypton, Zod and Jor-El as an AI are all good notions that give the story a personal investment for Superman whilst allowing the origin story part of the narrative to flow into the actual present-day storyline. Unfortunately, this doesn't work out in practise. The film's first hour, just under half the total running time, is overwhelmed by backstory and exposition. The Krypton sequences with Russell Crowe are pretty good, with a strong visual identity and Crowe - easily the best performer in the movie - doing some excellent work, grounding the fantastical landscapes and events in more relatable issues of family. Michael Shannon is a bit thuggish and lacking in nuance as Zod (especially as the film goes on and he gets more shouty), but he has credible motivations and presence. The Krypton sequence is imaginative and involving, but also overlong.

Once on Earth, the film becomes a confused morass of flashbacks (many of them pretty pointless) and present-day story. Kevin Costner is very good as Superman's human father, right up until he gets what is, by a considerable distance, the stupidest, most pointless and most unconvincing death scene in the history of cinema. The overwhelming stupidity of this sequence, not to mention that it was completely unnecessary, may be the film's lowest point. Some individual sequences such as Superman saving the crew of an oil rig or learning to fly by first jumping really high (a nod to early versions of the character who couldn't fly at all, only jump miles at a time) are much more successful. Amy Adams's Lois Lane, who soon enters the story, is also really good. She plays Lois as a smart, intelligent reporter in her thirties who is more plausible than other takes on the character. Crucially, she is also aware of who Superman is from the off. This is an obviously different take on the character relationship, avoiding the whole 'wears glasses as a disguse' cliche, even if it makes no sense whatsoever (Perry meets Superman but later falls for the old 'glasses' trick hook, line and sinker). But still, points for trying on that score. More disappointing is that Adams and Cavill don't really have much chemistry, and their eventual romance is utterly unconvincing.

The film continues to try hard to succeed: Zod's plans for Earth are actually somewhat logical and make sense. They also give hope to Clark that one day Krypton can live again, which should lead to greater moral confusion over what is the right thing to do. But this never happens: Clark decides early on to defend Earth no matter the cost and never budges from that, making these attempts to complicate things fail outright.

This leads into the film's climactic action sequences which are, on the whole, highly disappointing. The action sequences are over-indulgent and seem to go on forever. They also frequently lack context or conviction: seeing two invulnerable beings fight one another knowing they can't hurt one another makes for zero tension. The CGI is also flat-out terrible in these battles, rather bafflingly since Krypton is so impressive at the start of the film. The character-replacement CGI is unconvincing, the placing of the actors' faces on CGI bodies is amateurish and some of the flight and movement CGI is worse than the twelve-year-old original Spider-Man movie. Usually in 2013 the very least you can say about an otherwise terrible movie is that the effects are good, but Man of Steel can't even manage that right. The final battle also indulges in some dubiously lingering shots of collapsing skyscrapers with hundreds of people in them (or about to be squashed by them) which makes for uneasy viewing in a Superman feature.

Man of Steel (**) shows hints of a fertile imagination and originality (mostly in the opening act set on Krypton) whilst showcasing a few good performances, but these are soon buried by inane dialogue, terrible action sequences, poor CGI and a total collapse in logic at several key points in the film. Man of Steel is not only not very good, but even manages to make Superman Returns look like a capable and competent film in comparison. Overall, not recommended.

Greatest movie of all time reaches 33rd anniversary today

And if anyone disagrees, I will dispatch War Rocket Ajax to recover their bodies.

DIIIIIIIIIIVE!

The film is noted for its subtle use of visual metaphor.

First ORPHAN BLACK Season 2 promo pic and interview

Entertainment Weekly have the first interview with the producers of Orphan Black, John Fawcett and Graeme Manson, and the first official publicity photo from the first episode of Season 2.

If you've seen the Season 1 finale, you may have an inkling of why Sarah might be a 'little vexed' at her clone.

We're still four months from transmission, but it's good to see BBC America and SPACE are publicising the show well ahead of time (for comparison, we're closer to the start of Season 4 of Game of Thrones, and almost no material at all has been released for that).

CHUNG KUO to be put on hiatus?

According to author David Wingrove, the Chung Kuo series may be put on hold after the eighth volume, The White Mountain, is released on 6 March 2014. According to the publishers, Corvus, the series has not been selling as well as they'd hoped (after the apparently initial solid performance of the first volume or two). Wingrove attributes the problems to difficulties in getting the books on the shelves of the UK's biggest chain, Waterstones (I certainly haven't seen any since the second volume, Daylight on Iron Mountain).

I would add my own theories to why the series has not sold well: surprisingly little interest from bloggers (myself and a couple of others excepted), the lack of a US publisher, and the highly unwise decision to publish the series as twenty relatively short volumes (300-350 pages or so) instead of ten reasonably-sized ones (600-700 pages, still vastly shorter than most novels by say Steven Erikson or Peter F. Hamilton). There also appears to have been a decline in interest in the series since Wingrove's original editor at the company left: the hardbacks stopped being published and the sending out of review copies has become spottier.

Still, Wingrove has confirmed that, even if Corvus do drop the series altogether, it will still see the light of day somewhere else or as a self-published work. And, somewhat bizarrely, the series has attracted the interest of Hollywood even as the publishers seem to have lost faith (more at the link).

In the meantime, Wingrove will be published a major trilogy through Random House, entitled Roads to Moscow. The first volume, The Empire of Time, will be released in April 2014. It will be followed by The Ocean of Time and The Master of Time. This work will focus on a war using time travel technology ranging through history (mostly European) from the 13th Century into the future.

FALLOUT 4 incoming?

For the past month or so, there have been growing signs that Bethesda are close to announcing the next Fallout computer role-playing game, likely to be called Fallout 4. Having published their last game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, two years ago, it's certainly about the right time for them to be announcing their next title.

On 14 November, this site - The Survivor 2299 - appeared without explanation. The typeface is reminiscent of that used in the previous two Fallout games and '2299' is a date close to those games: Fallout 3 took place in 2277 and Fallout: New Vegas in 2281. A countdown soon appeared on the site, apparently counting down to 11 December this year, when it is theorised the game will be formally announced.

However, doubts over the site's authenticity grew when a number of apparently related sites on Tumblr, Reddit and Twitter were exposed as fakes. There was also confusion over a simultaneous trademarking of the 'Fallout 4' name by Bethesda in Europe, which appeared to disappear soonafter (however, it was later revealed that the 'Fallout 4' trademark would probably be rolled into the generic 'Fallout' trademark listing, explaining why it cannot be found; a separate 'Fallout 3' trademark also does not exist, for example). There were also suggestions that the site was a fake concocted by the same person who recently faked trademark claims and announcements for both Shenmue 3 and Half-Life 3.

That said, in both those cases the sites were exposed as being fake very quickly and the official licence-holders confirmed they were fake. Bethesda has remained conspicuously silent on the subject of The Survivor 2299. It has also failed to take any kind of legal action against the site, despite being fairly litigious when it comes to its trademarks being used without its permission. As the weeks have gone by, the text on the front page has changed and morse code messages have also been added. In some cases, these have been backed up by odd radio transmissions in the Boston, Massachusetts area which are tied to clues on the site. These suggest that an Alternate Reality Game is actually going on, laying down clues to the storyline of Fallout 4 before its official unveiling. It should be noted that strong rumours circulated last year claiming that Bethesda researchers had been seen in and around Boston taking photographs and making notes.

This document (constantly updated) outlines what is known so far, including translations of the morse code and broken text messages. The Fallout Reddit community is tracking developments, and has created the following map which shows all the locations mentioned so far.

Based on the information revealed so far, the following conclusion can be reached:

Fallout 4 would appear to be set in 2299, eighteen years after the events of New Vegas. It opens with Vault 119, located near the Quabbin Reservoir west of Boston, being destroyed by forces unknown. You play 'the Survivor' (following on from the previous game character titles: the Vault Dweller, the Chosen One, the Lone Wanderer and the Courier), presumably the last survivor of Vault 119. By all indications, the Survivor travels to Boston, where radio signals indicate that the settled area of Black Row (presumably located in the former Boston area of Merchants Row) is also threatened. It is suggested that the Institute (formerly the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), mentioned in Fallout 3 as a site of scientific research and the home to some advanced androids, might be involved with or behind the attacks. The area around Boston is known as the Commonwealth, although this is a historical term (to the New England Commonwealth, which in Fallout's alternate history controlled the northern half of New England as an additional division between the federal government and the individual states), not a reference to the civilisation level of the area.

It is assumed that Fallout 4 will be, like most Bethesda games, an open-world title where you choose which quests to pursue and how to customise your character against a big background story. You will be able to get involved with this story or not as you choose. Fallout 4 will almost certainly be released on PC, X-Box One and PlayStation 4, though cut-down versions for the X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3 are possible. It is assumed, based on Bethesda's previous comments, that Fallout 4 will continue to use the Creation Engine used for Skyrim (and, in an earlier form called GameBryo, all of Bethesda's games since Morrowind in 2002). However, if the new game is not going to be released on the XB360 and PS3 it will be free of the memory limitations of those machines, and may feature a considerably larger playing area and 'open' cities which do not need to be broken up into smaller zones (a notable problem with both previous games, particularly within the cities of Washington DC and New Vegas themselves).

What is interesting is that Skyrim was announced at the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2010 (before its release in November 2011), but the countdown is to a time after the 2013 VGAs are finished. This indicates that the announcement, if true, will be made as a special, possibly online-only event.

If this does turn out to be a hoax, it's an impressively elaborate one and one that Bethesda themselves seem to be indulging. We should know for sure in less than two weeks.

Blogosphere SOS

My fellow SFF blogger Bookworm Blues has had some major problems just drop on her and is looking for some help. If you can, either through financial donations or are able to provide info or leads on jobs, please check out her post. Many thanks.

Parasite by Mira Grant

2027. Millions of people across the world are enjoying unprecedented good health thanks to a genetically-engineered tapeworm designed by the SymboGen Corporation. One of the poster children for the treatment is Sally Mitchell, put into a coma by a near-fatal car crash but whose tapeworm repairs the damage and allows her to live again. Six years on from her accident Mitchell has made an almost-full recovery, but is at the centre of events when other people with the Intestinal Bodyguard start behaving very oddly indeed.

Mira Grant is a pseudonym of SF writer Seanan McGuire, winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. As Grant, McGuire has published the zombie-based Newsflesh trilogy as well as a series of urban fantasies under her own name. Parasite is the first novel in a new series called Parasitology, which is important to know going in: the book doesn't actually climax but instead is cut off almost in mid-flow as soon as an appropriate cliffhanger is reached; those looking for a complete novel best look elsewhere.

The book is told almost entirely from the POV of Sally Mitchell. Since her life was apparently saved by the SymboGen Intestinal Bodyguard, she has contacts that allows her to observe the growing crisis from both inside the company and outside. This is rather handy, since it means she has a clearer idea of what is going on than almost anyone else in the world, but it also negates one of the points of having a limited POV in the first place: that they only have part of the puzzle and must work out the rest themselves. Since Sally is on top of everything from the off, this limitation does not apply and indeed makes for a curious structural choice, as it lessens tension from the narrative.

In terms of prose, Parasite is acceptable and probably a bit above average for this sort of biological thriller. In particular, McGuire does a good job of nailing the different voices of the feuding scientists whose biography extracts open every chapter. This doesn't extend too well to the dialogue, which often feels clunky and falls into the cheap Lost trap of having characters not ask the blindingly obvious questions and as a result delaying the delivery of vital information to the reader for quite some time. It also doesn't help that Sally is a bit of a blank character, a recovering amnesiac who appears to be extremely rational but also a bit on the slow side: almost every major plot twist (including the Shyamalan-class example at the end) is so heavily foreshadowed that even less-than-careful readers will likely predict most of the things that are going to happen chapters (or in the case of the big one, three-quarters of the book) ahead of time.

Beyond Sally, most of the characters are uninteresting; I spent most of the novel more worried about the fate of Sally's newly-rescued dog than any of the other humans. I also found the fall-back on zombies to be tedious, especially from an author who's already written a major zombie trilogy. It may turn out that the 'sleepwalkers' are rather different to traditional zombies (and there are hints to this effect), but for most of the book they are employed in a similar enough manner to make such differences moot.

Despite predictable plot twists, clunky dialogue and dull characters, the book moves with a fair bit of pace and McGuire is pretty good at action sequences and occasional moments of suspense. These prevent the book from bogging down in its numerous flaws. The book also has a big ask of its readers: the revelation of what is actually going on is so utterly implausible - especially given the robust science the author employs up to that point - that it will likely cause many to throw it down in disgust whilst others swallow it down and press on (also known as the 'Night's Dawn Trilogy Effect').

I found myself vaguely enjoying Parasite (***) despite it having a huge number of flaws. Ultimately, McGuire is an effective thriller writer and keeps the action and suspense beats coming at enough of a clip that it maintains just about maintains interest even over the problems with dialogue, characterisation, predictability and plausibility. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

An Adventure in Space and Time

London, 1963. The BBC's new, flamboyant Head of Drama, Sydney Newman, is alerted to a crisis in scheduling: a 25-minute gap has opened between the daytime sports programming and the evening pop music show. He needs to find something that will retain the adult audience whilst warming up the kids for the evening's entertainment. He hits on the idea of a science fiction series that will educate, scare and entertain, in which characters travel to different worlds and times. The show will alternate between historical dramas set in the past and serials set on alien worlds or in the distant future.

To develop the project, Newman upsets the old guard at the BBC by bringing in the young, talented and notably female Verity Lambert to produce the show. The even younger Waris Hussein, the first BBC director of Indian descent, is assigned to helm the first episode. All they need is their star, and in the distinguished film actor William Hartnell, eager to escape being typecast in military roles, they may have found a very unconventional one.

An Adventure in Space and Time is a one-off TV drama about the creation of Doctor Who, the world's longest-running science fiction TV drama. Written by long-term Who writer Mark Gatiss (who has been writing in the Who universe in one format or another for over twenty years), it's a tribute to the programme and to the many people involved in its creation. Gatiss walks a fine line between over-lionising the programme in its early days and giving a warts and all account. Some of the more controversial elements (the outrageous sexism and racism that Lambert and Hussein respectively faced in the early days of the show) are present, but William Hartnell's contradictory prejudices - speaking dismissively of a Jewish crewmember but being extremely close to both Lambert and actress Carole Ann Ford, who were both also of that faith -aren't examined very far. However, Hartnell's irascibility and grumpiness are present and correct.

David Bradley, most recently seen in the most controversial TV episode of 2013 (on Game of Thrones), plays Hartnell with the required mix of irritability, charisma and sparkle. It's a difficult role to pull off, making Hartnell sympathetic without playing down his negative sides (though, as mentioned earlier, his prejudicial side is all but missing), but Bradley's performance is sublime. He doesn't sound much like Hartnell, but he commands the screen and the make-up and costuming give him an uncanny resemblance to the role he's playing. This is more impressive given that Hartnell was actually only 55 when cast as the Doctor, whilst Bradley is 71. Bradley's performance is faultlessly brilliant and easily worthy of awards.

Other castmembers are also excellent: Jessica Raine (recently seen on Doctor Who itself ) gives the role of Verity Lambert - one of British television's most famous and influential producers - the required mix of command and steel. Brian Cox brings all of his formidable presence and charisma to the role of Sydney Newman, the larger-than-life figure who dragged the BBC kicking and screaming into the 1960s, and his interactions with Raine are superb: seeing him admit he was wrong about opposing the introduction of the Daleks after they triple the show's ratings is a satisfying moment. Lesley Manville has a small but critical role as William Hartnell's wife Heather, whose well-judged interventions with the production crew allow them to spot his declining acting abilities in time to do something about it. In fact, of all the castmembers only Reece Shearsmith hits the wrong note as Patrick Troughton, Hartnell's successor, failing to evoke almost anything at all about the real-life figure. Fortunately, his appearance is extremely brief.

But where the drama really succeeds is in building a gripping story about the creation of a TV show and making what sound like dreary production meetings explode into life. There's a mild coating of social commentary on the mores and prejudices of the 1960s and the over-conservative nature of the BBC, but what really makes this tick is the unlikely story of how Doctor Who was created and brought to the screen. That it actually made it in the face of opposition from the serious BBC executives, an awful pilot episode (which had to be reshot) and the first episode tanking in the ratings due to the news of John F. Kennedy's assassination breaking just the day before is incredible. The fact it's survived for fifty years (a fact nodded at in a scene that could have been mawkish but manages to be appropriately touching instead) is even crazier.

An Adventure in Space and Time (*****) is a brilliantly-acted, superbly-written drama that features one of the strongest performances of the year with David Bradley in the central role. He is ably supported by a superb supporting cast and the whole thing acts as an appropriate tribute to the TV show it's celebrating. The TV movie is available now on DVD in the UK. Despite being shot and shown in HD, there is inexplicably no Blu-Ray release currently listed. Shamefully, there no American release currently listed either.