Word is out that Hollywood screenwriters David Weisberg and Douglas Cook (responsible for blockbusters such as Double Jeopardy and The Rock) are set to bring the videogame Darkest of Days to the big screen. Hotshot producer Joe Roth is said to be behind the project.

Adapting a videogame for the big screen has always been an exciting project, but some videogame fans don’t know how to feel about this latest adaptation yet–given the fact that the game is not exactly garnering positive reviews in the gaming world.

The plot of the game revolves around a soldier named Alexander Morris who is fighting in the Civil War. When he is wounded, he is rescued by a man who takes him to a futuristic portal called Kronotek. Apparently, the people at Kronotek have found a way to make time travel possible, allowing them to protect history at all costs. Morris is then invited to participate in this cause by helping protect people who have key roles in history.

Despite the potential of the game’s premise, many gamers found themselves questioning the game’s plausibility especially since the main character does little to question the unusual situation that he finds himself in. The mechanics of the game are not much better. The players spends long stretches of time walking and the weapons are poorly designed.

There is no doubt that gamers are hoping that the skills of the screenwriters and producer combined will turn Darkest of Days a better movie than it was as a game.

If you’ve been anticipating the release of Final Fantasy XIII since you’ve heard of its inception then you don’t have to wait long anymore. The release of the game is bound to be one of the hottest launches in the videogame industry especially now that it has been announced that it will be heralded by an event.

On March 8, an event called the Final Fantasy XIII Experience will be celebrated in San Francisco. If you’re a hardcore fan of the entire Final Fantasy franchise then this is one event that you don’t want to miss.

Guests will have the chance to be the first ones to play the game. Trailers and artwork will also be featured in the event. You will also have the chance to meet the designers, developers and other creative masterminds behind the game. A raffle will also be held where lucky winners will receive various Final Fantasy prices.

Square Enix announced that 200 of its members will have the special opportunity to attend this event. On top of that, members that already have Bronze Tier memberships will have a chance to enter a special sweepstakes. 50 winners from the sweepstakes will have the chance to attend the actual launch party of the game.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was released last October and has sold over 2.5 million copies to date—an astounding feat for a videogame that has only been in the market for four months. Not only that, but the game has also received 15 nominations in what is considered the Oscars of videogames—the Interactive Achievement Awards.

Fans may know the game, but few of them know about the man behind the game—or rather, the woman. 45-year old Amy Hennig is the creative director over at Naughty Dog Studios which is a property of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

Hennig was actually an English Literature major in UC Berkeley. After graduating, Hennig started to attend film school. It was while she was studying film that she took a job in a videogame company in order to make ends meet. Little did she know that it was this job that would change her life forever. Hennig discovered that she was more interested in the gaming industry than in film. It wasn’t long before she dropped out of film school to focus on developing games on a full-time basis.

For a couple of years, Hennig worked hard for the company Electronic Arts, striving to prove herself to be a competent designer. Her hard work paid off in 1993 when a lead designer of one of the games quit and Hennig ended up as the replacement. Hennig’s first project is a game that perhaps many videogame fanatics remember, called Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City.

Now, with the whopping sales of Uncharted 2, it’s not hard to see that Hennig has come a long way.

Although most people believe that Dungeons and Dragons is the first role-playing game, they are incorrect. In 1966 the Society for Creative Anachronisms, or SCA, was established. The group formed to protest against the vulgarity of the 20th century. They published a “how-to” guide in 1968 and had fully established their first three “kingdoms” by the end of 1969. This was the first real attempt to develop the act of playing specific roles for the entertainment of the individual.

Then, in 1974 Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, two avid War-games players, decided to attempt to use their war-gaming figures on an individual level, and have each player run a single character. They developed and sold the game Dungeons and Dragons. Since then, this game has gone through several evolutions, and is currently in its Fourth Edition (which is actually something like the sixth or seventh iteration, depending on how you count).

Early Dungeons and Dragons was a very imbalanced game; the fighter and the wizard were by no means equal at any point, as the fighter excelled in early levels and the wizard (if he lived long enough) was supreme at higher levels. Steve Jackson sought to correct this issue, and developed a new and massive system, GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System), in 1986.

Many critics of these systems see them as system based, while the emphasis should be on the story and the players roles. White Wolf Studios created Vampire: The Masquerade, to be a story-oriented system, significantly simplifying the rules and forcing the players to act and describe details in order to fulfill objectives.

Finally, Indie Gaming has grown to a new height. These are games developed and published by small companies, often given away or sold at very low mark up, such as Cheap Ass Games.