Late Night Consoling

Today, the long awaited announcement of who will be directing the upcoming Halo movie adaptation was made on Xbox.com (the announcement now seems to have been removed). Taking directorial honors will be first time feature film director Neill Blomkamp. Much of Blomkamp's screen production has been as a 3D animator on various television series such as Smallville, Dark Angel, and Stargate SG-1. He has also worked on a variety of television commercials. Among other filmmakers, Blomkamp is mainly known for his short film Alive in Joburg, which deals with subject matter not dissimilar to the situations found in the Halo universe. Alive in Joburg contains an alien invasion borne out of necessity, armed futuristic soldiers, and huge spaceships.

During its Atari Spotlight event, currently taking place in Las Vegas, Atari announced that it will be publishing Cavia's upcoming Xbox 360 action title Bullet Witch, being published in Japan by AQ Interactive. Bullet Witch, set in 2013, portrays a desolate Earth with demons running rampant and humanity on its last legs. As a powerful witch named Alicia, the player must (you won't see this coming) save the world from becoming overrun. The game mechanics include both shooting and spell casting, with a wide range of magic and physics interactions. The developer also plans to support the game after launch via Xbox Live with additional content including new character costumes and levels.

In addition to its Bullet Witch deal, Atari announced that it has signed a longer term agreement with AQ Interactive to publish the company's games in non-Japanese territories.

No North American release date for Bullet Witch was given; the game has already been released for Xbox 360 in Japan.

Sony Online Entertainment today announced Cash Money Chaos, a new arcade-esque 3D action title for PSP. The premise of the game seems similar to that of the classic SmashTV: players are participating in a brutal game show which has them trying to survive fifty levels comprising varied environments and inhabited by bizarre enemies. "CMC will have players scratching their heads, asking themselves if they really just saw--and shot--what they think they did," said SOE's senior global brand manager Chris Sturr. "Of course, taking your hands off the controls to scratch your head may be detrimental to surviving the next wave of killer gorillas or demented clowns." The game will have multiplayer support for up to eight players, in both local wireless and online modes.

Cash Money Chaos is slated to ship in Q1 2007.

Leipzig's annual Games Convention is only a few weeks away, and today publisher Ubisoft revealed its game lineup for the show. A few games were notably absent from the lineup, including the anticipated Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (PS3, X360) and any games for Nintendo's upcoming Wii console; Ubisoft recently announced that it will be shipping seven Wii launch titles. Ubisoft's GC 2006 lineup is as follows:

- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Fall 2006; Xbox 360 version present, also coming to PS2, Xbox, GCN, PS3, PC)
- The Settlers (Fall 2006, NDS)
- Open Season (Nov. 2006; PS2 version present, also coming to Xbox, GCN, X360, NDS, PSP, GBA, PC)
- Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (Fall 2006, PC)
- Call of Juarez (Sep. 2006, PC)
- The Settlers II - The Next Generation (Sep. 2006, PC)
- Horsez (Late 2006, PC)