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CNN Saturday Morning News

Computer Games With Movie Tie Ins

Aired January 04, 2003 - 07:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN VAUSE CNN ANCHOR: And finally this hour, a new way to experience the movies. It's easy as plugging in and playing. Our technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us now to look at the games they're playing which start with our favorite roles from some of the films.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right, it's huge. Exactly, John. To have a movie-based game, which have been around for quite a while, but these days they're taking the experience you see in a movie and trying to make it more interactive so not only are you sort of watching a passive movie experience but they're trying to get you into the movie where you're the hero participating in all of the action.

VAUSE: OK, so what's the sort of the big hits? What are the big ones that are out?

SIEBERG: Yes, well one of the games we wanted to talk about first of all is one that's just been released for the XBox and the GameCube -- was released last month to the PlayStation 2, "Lord of the Rings." People are very familiar with this as a movie, of course. We should mention that it's also part of AOL Time Warner, CNN's parent company.

VAUSE: Right.

SIEBERG: Yes, but, the key with this game -- we're seeing it right now. Is that it's taking the movie action and literally taking and moving it into a video game.

So we're going to load up the game right now and you can see some of the action; what we're talking about here. So you're seeing shots from the movie, which are then translated into an animated character. Just going to load up in just as second here and you can see what I mean.

This is just telling you what you're going to use. We've got a controller in hand on a PlayStation 2, I should point out there are two different licenses for "Lord of the Rings." One that capitalizes on the movie, which is the one we're seeing here from Electronic Arts, and one from Vivendi Universal which is the literary one...

VAUSE: Yes.

SIEBERG: ... but now if you watch closely here -- right now it looks just like the movie. You're seeing shots of the movie but in a few seconds you're going to see it change from this film version right here into the animated version...

VAUSE: Well those graphics are amazing.

SIEBERG: ... right, and you're actually transported now into the characters. You're going to be playing -- I'm actually playing Aragorn who is one of the characters in the movie but there's Gimli, Legolas -- and you're playing all these different characters and participate in what is almost exactly like what happened in the movie.

VAUSE: Yes. Those graphics are phenomenal. I mean, obviously, that is -- the key selling point for these games. Is the graphics have got to look as close to the characters as possible.

SIEBERG: Right, exactly. And although these games have been around for a while, games that capitalize on movies, because the graphics have gotten so much better and there's the capability of inserting movie clips into it, it seems more realistic. You can see here -- you know -- starting the battle.

Now, beyond just being able to fight in the game and looking like its from the movie, the actors who participated in the movie also lent their voices and their acting to the -- to the video games as well.

We've got some shots of that where we can show them actually -- you know -- participating. Here's Elijah Wood as Frodo who's getting into his character for the video game itself so these actors are really going from not just in the movie but to the video game as well.

VAUSE: OK, so, you've got -- "Lord of the Rings," you know that it was huge. Huge blockbuster so does a successful movie mean a successful videogame?

SIEBERG: Right, not always and that's a great question because sometimes there are movies that are very familiar to people but they just don't translate well into a videogame or vice-versa.

There are video games out there that were made into a movie like "Tomb Raider" or "Resident Evil" -- sometimes they're successful, sometimes they're not. You know, and there are ones out there like "James Bond," for example, this latest game they've got out there -- "Night Fire," which is a totally separate story line from the other "James Bond" titles that are out there, but it is still capitalizing on the James Bond, the 007 name, and...

VAUSE: This is the James Bond game that we're looking at right now.

SIEBERG: Right, this is some of the "Night Fire" game -- as I say it's a separate story line than the "Die Another Day" movie that's out right now, but again it tries to capitalize on name recognition and people familiar with these characters and inserting you into the game.

VAUSE: Yes -- is it at the stage now where there's -- you have the huge releases for these video games much like there would be a premiere for a Hollywood blockbuster? SIEBERG: Absolutely. With about a $10 billion industry, which is what they're expecting, there's a lot of money at stake. Millions and billions of dollars. So, you know, a huge roll out and all these celebrities involved as well to try and push these games.

VAUSE: OK, thanks for that. Some pretty good games here and some good -- I'm going to be playing this later on. OK -- Heidi back to you at the news desk.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 4, 2003 - 07:54   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE CNN ANCHOR: And finally this hour, a new way to experience the movies. It's easy as plugging in and playing. Our technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us now to look at the games they're playing which start with our favorite roles from some of the films.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, right, it's huge. Exactly, John. To have a movie-based game, which have been around for quite a while, but these days they're taking the experience you see in a movie and trying to make it more interactive so not only are you sort of watching a passive movie experience but they're trying to get you into the movie where you're the hero participating in all of the action.

VAUSE: OK, so what's the sort of the big hits? What are the big ones that are out?

SIEBERG: Yes, well one of the games we wanted to talk about first of all is one that's just been released for the XBox and the GameCube -- was released last month to the PlayStation 2, "Lord of the Rings." People are very familiar with this as a movie, of course. We should mention that it's also part of AOL Time Warner, CNN's parent company.

VAUSE: Right.

SIEBERG: Yes, but, the key with this game -- we're seeing it right now. Is that it's taking the movie action and literally taking and moving it into a video game.

So we're going to load up the game right now and you can see some of the action; what we're talking about here. So you're seeing shots from the movie, which are then translated into an animated character. Just going to load up in just as second here and you can see what I mean.

This is just telling you what you're going to use. We've got a controller in hand on a PlayStation 2, I should point out there are two different licenses for "Lord of the Rings." One that capitalizes on the movie, which is the one we're seeing here from Electronic Arts, and one from Vivendi Universal which is the literary one...

VAUSE: Yes.

SIEBERG: ... but now if you watch closely here -- right now it looks just like the movie. You're seeing shots of the movie but in a few seconds you're going to see it change from this film version right here into the animated version...

VAUSE: Well those graphics are amazing.

SIEBERG: ... right, and you're actually transported now into the characters. You're going to be playing -- I'm actually playing Aragorn who is one of the characters in the movie but there's Gimli, Legolas -- and you're playing all these different characters and participate in what is almost exactly like what happened in the movie.

VAUSE: Yes. Those graphics are phenomenal. I mean, obviously, that is -- the key selling point for these games. Is the graphics have got to look as close to the characters as possible.

SIEBERG: Right, exactly. And although these games have been around for a while, games that capitalize on movies, because the graphics have gotten so much better and there's the capability of inserting movie clips into it, it seems more realistic. You can see here -- you know -- starting the battle.

Now, beyond just being able to fight in the game and looking like its from the movie, the actors who participated in the movie also lent their voices and their acting to the -- to the video games as well.

We've got some shots of that where we can show them actually -- you know -- participating. Here's Elijah Wood as Frodo who's getting into his character for the video game itself so these actors are really going from not just in the movie but to the video game as well.

VAUSE: OK, so, you've got -- "Lord of the Rings," you know that it was huge. Huge blockbuster so does a successful movie mean a successful videogame?

SIEBERG: Right, not always and that's a great question because sometimes there are movies that are very familiar to people but they just don't translate well into a videogame or vice-versa.

There are video games out there that were made into a movie like "Tomb Raider" or "Resident Evil" -- sometimes they're successful, sometimes they're not. You know, and there are ones out there like "James Bond," for example, this latest game they've got out there -- "Night Fire," which is a totally separate story line from the other "James Bond" titles that are out there, but it is still capitalizing on the James Bond, the 007 name, and...

VAUSE: This is the James Bond game that we're looking at right now.

SIEBERG: Right, this is some of the "Night Fire" game -- as I say it's a separate story line than the "Die Another Day" movie that's out right now, but again it tries to capitalize on name recognition and people familiar with these characters and inserting you into the game.

VAUSE: Yes -- is it at the stage now where there's -- you have the huge releases for these video games much like there would be a premiere for a Hollywood blockbuster? SIEBERG: Absolutely. With about a $10 billion industry, which is what they're expecting, there's a lot of money at stake. Millions and billions of dollars. So, you know, a huge roll out and all these celebrities involved as well to try and push these games.

VAUSE: OK, thanks for that. Some pretty good games here and some good -- I'm going to be playing this later on. OK -- Heidi back to you at the news desk.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com