Hasta La Gadget!

I didn’t even know they were working on a movie for Assassin’s Creed. I’m always leery to hear a movie studio is producing a movie based on a video game. It’s not that I don’t think video games don’t have a good enough story to make a movie because many do. However, the long, sordid history of video game-based movies proves that making good movie based on a game is very difficult to do.

Regardless of past history, an Assassin’s Creed movie is in the works and was recently given a release date of August 7, 2015. The movie has a big name actor attached with Michael Fassbender. Presumably, Fassbender will be the lead character of Desmond Miles, but that is unannounced.

The screenplay is being handled by a British writer named Michael Leslie who has a background in short films and theater. The film is being developed by production studio new Regency along with Ubisoft Motion Pictures. Ubisoft notes that it has creative control over the project and that the movie will “respect the lore and fans of the video game franchise.” It’s unclear which video game in the franchise the film might be based on.

[via Eurogamer]

If you’re a fan of cars, racing, or stupid vehicular stunts you’ve probably seen Ken Block and his Gymkhana series of videos. Gymkhana Five saw Block tearing through the streets of San Francisco and the sixth installment in the YouTube video franchise is now available for our enjoyment. It’s cool, but I don’t think it’s nearly as cool as the last one was.

In Gymkhana Six, Block streaks through a course that is set up with red and white boundaries all around making it very tight and narrow. He flies around the course in his Ford Fiesta race car and slides around hitting tetherballs with the back of his car.

He also does doughnuts around some moving Need For Speed Lamborghinis and his trademark guys on Segway scooters. My favorite part is when he slips around corners at full speed and is able to get his car lined up to make it through narrow shipping containers with the doors open. Check out the video for yourself and see if you think it’s better than Gymkhana Five.

If you ever watched a professional automotive racing event, whether it was NASCAR or something else, you undoubtedly noticed that the cars tend to bump into each other a lot. The more the vehicles bump into each other, the more their performance is degraded. Griffin has unveiled a new iOS controlled racing car called the Moto TC Rally that brings the “rubbin’ is racing” mentality to the toy world.

The Moto TC Rally is a remote control car that uses an iOS application for control. The coolest part about the car is its Bump n’ Run feature. That feature uses impact sensors around the car to know when your competitors run into you. You can score points for causing damage to competitors and the more virtual damage your vehicle sustains, the worse your car handles and drives.

You can also just race the cars and the app has a built-in lap counter. The app also offers a number of power ups allowing you to repair your vehicle and add virtual armor. You can also deploy attacks on your opponents including the ability to mix up their controls and make them go slower. The Moto TC Rally is available now for $99.99(USD).

Back when the Nintendo Wii was the hot console to have, I stood in line for an hour to buy one. Once I got it home, the controls were cool for about two days and then I went back to playing my PS3. The only game I ever played on the Nintendo Wii with regularity was Wii Sports. Nintendo has announced that it’s bringing those five sports from the original Wii Sports title to the Nintendo Wii U.

The individual sports game will be part of Wii Sports Club for Nintendo Wii U owners. Oddly, Nintendo isn’t offering all five of the original sports (bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing, and golf) at the same time. Right now, the only two available are tennis and bowling. Those also happen to be two of my least favorite; I really liked the golf game. If you remember, Wii Sports bowling was one of the top culprits in people throwing their remotes into their TV screens – that and tennis – before Nintendo started including a wrist strap with the Wii-mote.

The games have been updated with HD graphics, enhanced controls, and multiplayer online capability. Nintendo Wii U owners can download Wii Sports Club from the eStore and get a free 24 hour pass to try tennis and bowling for themselves. If you need an extra day to decide if you want to purchase, you can spend $1.99 for another 24 hours. Once you decide you want by the games and play them all you want each one will cost $9.99.

The once great console maker Atari has been reduced to a mere pixel of itself these days. While Sony and Microsoft are gearing up for a new console war, Atari is left catering to old school gamers with keychain consoles. Adam of SheekGeek made a display that matches both the figurative and literal size of Atari’s game system. It’s so small that you can barely see what’s on screen.

Yep, that’s the display, which is a module from an old Sony Handycam, next to a U.S. postage stamp. It’s so small that Adam has to use a macro lens on his camera so he can demonstrate it on video.

Now that’s what I call a counterintuitive Retina Display. Head to SheekGeek for the full details of his hack.

[via Hack A Day]