Inside Movies & DVD with Drew McWeeny

Roland Emmerich directing 'Asteroids'? Someone just won movies forever

A ridiculous idea and a ridiculous filmmaker could be the best match ever

By Drew McWeeny Wednesday, Jun 8, 2011 7:10 PM

Sure, it doesn't look like much, but imagine John Cusack trying to outrun it in a limosene, and you've got yourself a blockbuster

Credit: Atari

One of the benefits, if you can call them that, of the PlayStation Network getting hacked and being down for a few weeks is that they are fairly desperate to make it up to customers now that they're starting to restore the service. One of the things they're doing is offering customers two free games from a fairly short list, and I picked "Super Stardust HD" as one of my games.

If you've never seen it, it's basically "Asteroids" cranked up to the point of madness, and it's a perfect "I have fifteen minutes and just want to play one quick game of something" title. If you've got a 3D TV, you can even play the game in 3D, and it is totally lunatic when you do so. Playing the game, I've been impressed by the way it is basically just one of the first arcade games of all time, with graphics that are updated but gameplay that is pure throwback. I didn't even realize how much I loved "Asteroids" until I started playing this.

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It's funny that "Asteroids" would be on my mind this morning, since Universal appears to still be serious about making and actually releasing a movie based on the game And now, it appears they are trying to hire Roland Emmerich to direct the movie, which may be the single greatest match of filmmaker and material in the history of cinema. He has spent much of his career determined to destroy the Earth, and now, he's going to make a movie in which that event has actually happened, and now mankind makes its home in an asteroid belt, side-by-side with an alien race that may have a sinister secret.

Matt Lopez is the writer on the film, and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is set to produce, and I am guessing that we won't see a greenlight on this until Universal releases "Battleship" to test the waters on the whole "let's add aliens to a game title I recognize from several decades ago" market.

Oh... and regarding the PlayStation Network, one of those two free games they offered me to make up for the crappy technical service and poor security? Vanished completely when I tried to redeem it. Way to go, PlayStation. It just does everything... sometimes.

Related Searches: Asteroids, Roland Emmerich, Atari, video game, Adaptation, Matt Lopez, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura

Matt C.

There's a lesson in here somewhere. Something about how XBox Live is far and away the premiere and best platform for online gaming and everything else that comes with it.

You get what you "pay" for, PS3 fanboys. You get what you pay for.

And of course, the awesomeness that is the Kinnect and everything it can and will do (in the very near future).

Ever want to know what's it's like to gesture at an object and move it with the power of the Force?

You can on XBox. Can't on PS3, with their little wands.

You know why PS3 HDD's need to be so big? Because the system automatically partially downloads every game you play (5 to 10 GBs of space each time) because otherwise, it'd have PS1-like load-times.

Yeah, it plays BDs, but you can buy an XBox and a BD player for the same price.

I can't wait to play all the Kinnect-realized sports games like Tiger Woods.

It'd probably take a few strokes off of my real golf game! :-)
June 8, 2011 at 11:40PM EST Reply to Comment
- Brad Bill Gates thanks you for your being such a loyal and vocal subject.
  June 9, 2011 at 12:24AM EST
- Matt C. Surprisingly, Brad, I couldn't care less about Microsoft itself (besides the price of its stock).
  
  I just like things that work as they should and as I expect them to.
  
  That's why I only buy Apple MacBooks & iPods.
  
  It's why I loved my Honda Accord EX-V6 Coupe.
  
  And it's why I will sing the praises of XBox & XBoxLive over the PS3 & PSN every day of the week if I can.
  
  BTW... buy a Honda Accord EX-V6 Coupe. You'll never want to drive anything else. :-)
  June 9, 2011 at 1:02AM EST
- Alex ...Who cares?
  June 9, 2011 at 2:55PM EST
Brad

Heh... my first car was an Accord. I'll stand by Honda any day.

I got burned by Sony with the PSN debacle. I'm very unhappy about it all. That said... I've always been happy with my PS3. The main reason I use it isn't because I'm a PS3 fanboy (I am, however, an Apple fanboy), but because I'm comfortable with the controller, having used Playstations since 1st Gen. I suspect that a lot of casual gamers choose their next gen consoles based on what they've used in the past.

In any case - I'm torn on Playstation right now. I'm unhappy with Sony's handling of the situation, but I still like my PS3's performance (I'm not a big online gamer anyway), and I realise that what happened to the PSN could just as easily happen to Xbox-Live or (god forbid) iTunes.

Oh god, the idea of hackers getting into iTunes makes my scrotum
retract.
June 9, 2011 at 2:04AM EST Reply to Comment
Dave S

Should be a fix for your vanishing games issue, I had the same thing:

1.On your PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Portable navigate to the PlayStation Network icon on the XMB
2.Log into your PlayStation Network account and choose Account Management > Transaction Management > Services List
3.Choose â€œPlayStation Network Promotionsâ€ from the list of services displayed
4.Select either â€œPS3 Free Gamesâ€ or â€œPSP Free Gamesâ€ and then choose â€œSelect Contentâ€
You will be taken to the store to choose your remaining free games.
June 9, 2011 at 2:50AM EST Reply to Comment
- drew Sure enough. Thanks for the step by step.
  June 9, 2011 at 3:53AM EST
BigAl6ft6

Yeah, I knew I was going to get inFamous and I was torn on the second game got Super Stardust as well. I can't get past the first world on Normal Arcade mode, it's maddeningly addictive in short, controlled bursts.

Make sure you redeem your Playstation Plus for a month, I got me Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for free and there's only a few more days until that freebie goes away. Hell, I think they hooked me on Playstation Plus after my month runs out. :( Evil Sony, giving me the first taste for free...

I dunno what y'all in America got for the Free Movie Weekend on the Ps3, but here in canada we got 3 free movies: Click, Underworld: Evolution and Hitch. Seen the first two and I almost got the last one just because A) it was free B) I wanted to test out the quality of the HD download C) Will Smith has done some good stuff but I got distracted that weeekend and never downloaded it. Not that I'm all broken up about it.
June 9, 2011 at 7:48PM EST Reply to Comment