I like it when people advertising a game go that extra step in their promo material, and the powerful short documentary “How far would you go?” is an interesting way Quantic Dream have come up with to help launch their new PlayStation 3 title Heavy Rain.

Directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Neil LaBute, the seven minute short was filmed in London, LA & Paris and asks leading luminaries, ‘How far would you go to save someone you love?’. Examining the role of emotional decision-making in storytelling, the documentary explores the central theme of Heavy Rain, giving the documentary its title. Respondents to the question include: Nic Roeg, Hanif Kureishi, Nicholas Hoult, Samuel L Jackson, Stephen Frears, Peter Bogdanovich, Jean Marc Barr, Chris Weitz & Ben Chaplin.

I was a massive fan of Quantic Dream’s previous game, Fahrenheit (also known as Indigo Prophecy), as it’s one of the first games to really live up to the fabled ‘interactive film’ moniker. Like Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain takes many of its cues from film-noir thrillers, and decisions taken within the title are emotionally charged with added importance. The smallest of actions can have drastic and unforeseen consequences. The gameplay focuses on story, emotional involvement, and the player’s decisions and interactions, rather than high-scores, combat and competition.

Heavy Rain’s writer & director David Cage states ‘In Heavy Rain you don’t watch the story, you play it with unprecedented responsibility over the fate of the game’s characters the whole DNA of the game has been created to provide an emotional experience unlike any other. It dares you to tackle subject matter and themes rarely touched upon in video games’.

Neil LaBute commented on the experience of creating the documentary, “It was fascinating to sit and listen to the intimate thoughts of so many people that I’ve admired-both professionally and personally-for years. Constantly surprising, each of ‘the witnesses’ were refreshingly candid as they discussed creative elements from their work and how deep the emotion of love runs through their own lives. I thought a simple approach– shot in a stark ‘interrogation’ style–would mimic both the style of the game Heavy Rain and would also be a very successful way of capturing a series of snapshots from the lives of these fascinating working artists from around the world.”

You can find more on Heavy Rain and “How far would you go?” at www.heavyrain.com.

Andrew Koenig

As many of you will have heard, after having been missing for 2 week, the body of Andrew Koenig, son of Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov in Star Trek), was recently found in Stanley Park in Vancouver. Sadly, it appears that he took his own life having been suffering from depression.

When twitter first starting going into overdrive with tweets of his disappearance, the name Andrew Koenig sounded familiar, so I did a bit of googling, and realised where I’d first heard it. Sandy Collora’s brilliant 2003 fan film ‘Batman: Dead End‘, where Andrew put in a superb performance as Joker. As much as i loved Ledger and Nicholson’s versions of Joker in the movie versions, Andrew’s portrayal in Dead End is, by far, the truest to the actual comic books.

Batman: Dead End was made for $30,000, and shot in 4 days on 35mm as a director’s demonstration reel for Collora. He followed it up in 2004 with ‘World’s Finest‘, using most of the same cast and crew.

Batman: Dead End pre-dates Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ by 2 years, and at the time, the last thing we’d seen of Batman on screen was Clooney and O’Donnell haming it up in ‘Batman & Robin’. Collora was the first person to give us a gimse of the tone the movie franchise should have been taking.

Click the clip below to see Batman: Dead End in full.

Posting this for it’s muliple levels of utter awesomeness. ‘JOHN WILLIAMS IS THE MAN!’ A Star Wars-themed four-part a cappella musical tribute. Written and performed by Moosebutter (music by John Williams…)

Click here for your ‘Joss Whedon is My Master Now! t-shirts.

If your wondering about the themes used (in order of appearance):

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Indiana Jones
• Superman
• E.T.
• Jaws
• Jurassic Park
• Indiana Jones (reprised)

adidas Originals is kicking off 2010 by welcoming you to the neighborhood, the street where originality comes to life as artists, athletes, and celebs celebrate their style. Everyone’s invited to our street corner along with some special guests, who traveled from a galaxy far, far away to launch a year’s worth of celebrations.

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. Partly due to one of the games in our upcoming Games of 2009 list, and partly due to the UK going through a new ice age…

NASA satellite image of the UK snow

Proof that everything can be improved by the addition of Muppets.