Why do video games make such bad movies?

Do you think the idea of Jake Gyllenhaal playing a time-traveling Arabian swordsman seems far-fetched? Then consider Raul Julia as a gravity-defying, Third World despot, or Sir Ben Kingsley taking on the role of a bloodsucking vampire king. Sadly, as illustrated by "Prince of Persia," the latest film adapted from a popular video game, the more things change, the more they play the same. Decades after the debut of "The Wizard," a thinly disguised, feature-length Nintendo commercial, the marriage between Hollywood and gaming remains rocky at best. In other words: Movies based on video games stink. "It often comes down to money, as movie studios frequently choose to make films based on the franchises that sell the best, not those with the most cinematic potential," said Corey May, co-founder of Sekretagent Productions.

2009 BAFTA Video Game Award Nominees Are In

The annual British Academy Video Game Awards has revealed this year's nominees, with Assassin's Creed II, Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Arkham Asylum poised to win big, and the GAME Award of 2009 awaiting your votes.

2010 Writers Guild Awards Video Game Writing Nominees Announced

Los Angeles and New York – The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in videogame writing during the past year. The winner of this year’s WGA’s Videogame Writing Award, which recognizes writers as a major creative force in today’s burgeoning gaming industry, will be announced at the upcoming 2010 Writers Guild Awards to be held on Saturday, February 20, 2010, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.

Time Travel Gets Closer to Reality

Ubisoft A rendering of Piazza San Marco, in Venice, from Assassin's Creed II.

We go to look at old cities and ancient buildings, in large part, for the visual glimpse they offer into the life of their time. But new buildings and tourist hordes often blur the experience. Seeing the past re-created in movies has a fatal flaw, too: The audience is a passive observer. While the advent of videogame technology gave us interactivity, videogames haven't labored to reproduce historical settings with great precision. Consumers were too young to care about details, and the programming technology had a way to go.

On the Scenic Trail of Intrigue: Adventures in 15th-Century Italy

Whatever the Italian tourism board is paying Ubisoft for making the spectacular new game Assassin’s Creed II, it isn’t enough.

O.K., that’s a joke. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that any secret payments are flowing from Rome to Ubisoft’s headquarters in a Paris suburb.

But perhaps there should be. That’s because Assassin’s Creed II may interest more young men around the world in visiting Italy than any advertising campaign or entertainment sensation since Sophia Loren.