@JohnnytheFuture:

You raise a pretty good point!

Though yeah, Elvis, as the first "idol", was, well, just that -- an "idol". Young Elvis was built up by producers and promoters to be this perfect shiny object to be adored. And he had a hell of a singing voice. And he was gorgeous!

Hip-hop, though, is something that started on street corners by anyone with a boom box and a tape with some beats on it. Hip-hop is DIY. Hip-hop is hands-on! Hip-hop is any dude with something to say and a clever way to say it. There's a shitload of culture surrounding hip-hop, maybe as much as there used to be around rock and roll, and I'm aware that the stuff about guns and drugs doesn't exactly apply to every hip-hopper with a record deal, though that doesn't stop everyone else from believing it. Why not exploit and ridicule the stereotypes?

Remember what Cliffy B said about the easiest way to "reach out and touch someone" with a videogame is to touch them "with a gun".

I say, if you're going to do the modern-day equivalent of an Elvis film, it might as well be hip-hop (modern hip-hop is, after all, about money and cars and women, same as old-time rock and roll), it might as well be 50 Cent (he's got enough mainstream popularity), and it might as well have shooting shit. Whereas Guitar Wolf did something brilliant with romance, zombies, and schlock horror, I say putting a big bad American MC in the middle of a conflict in the Middle East is about as good as it gets.

I'm seriously counting on this game! Seriously!

108

Wait a second, Rein was nice to the guys paying his mortgage? Whaaaaat?

MrAkash

Remember this is from the man whose company showed a big block of meat rolling around at GDC expecting it to be "cool". "BLOWN AWAY!" Epic = EPIC FAIL

BryanGuitarDude

He's blown away by his own Engine? Really? How odd.

TheEngineer: Rocking the Goggles

@indiemike: Hah! Actually, it's a reference to Buddhism. As in, there are 108 earthly temptatation. (Not a Buddhist myself, though.)

Though yeah, I think LOST is referencing the same thing that I'm referencing.

@Komrade_Kayce: Well, he does have musical talent. Believe me, my "ideal date" involves sitting on a sofa with my girlfriend in dead silence and pitch darkness, listening to horribly obscure exorbitantly depressing ambient noise-metal rock music in which single notes are sustained sometimes for twenty-two minutes at a time, so believe me, i know the very essence of music; i live inside the beating heart of ROCK, and it is with great confidence that i say fiddy and his producers got something going on, even if i personally don't care to listen. ever.

in closing, hip-hop, as pop-culture, needs exploitation if it wishes to evolve. these two 50 cent games are hilarious; i remember reading about the first one and thinking, "this is the new 'elvis movie'":

in real life, 50 cent was shot nine times, and it made him give up his life of dealing drugs and focus on making music.

in the game, 50 cent is shot nine times and assembles a BAD-ASS posse (which includes the genius life-comedian eminem) to get FUCKING REVENGE.

that 50 cent OK'd this is a huge statement in and of itself.

still, it was probably too subtle for the times it was released in. this new game, however, sounds just ridiculous enough to work.

so stop hating, people! give 50 cent a chance!

108

@oosiegewolfoo: Good luck shooting yourself with a shotgun, Cobain.

Lemming To The Sea

See we are all misinterpreting it. What he means by blown away is that he literally put a shotgun to his head and blew himself away...it was just that bad.

oosiegewolfoo

I wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned out to be a halfway decent, if not completely mindless and fun shooter. Swordfish Studios (now acquired by Vivendi) has done good things for indie gaming.

alb1221

I like how all the people here are judging the new fiddy game based on the fact that it stars 50 cent and refuse to actually give the game a shot that it could be decent before completely knocking it.

And no, I'm not trying to defend it I'm just saying you guys should hold your tongue at least until we can confirm it's trash.

Lemming To The Sea

It'll be funny if this game actually turns out decent. That will be amusing.

Magic Emperor Anima

This is like.. blown away, as in under threat of bullet fire?

I fail to see how this game can be even remotely good.

huginn

I dislike the unreal engine so grimy.

Schoolimangooli

@108:

I stopped reading when you used the words 'musical talent' and assumed it was just another april fools laugh.

Komrade_Kayce

@108: I completely agree. By the way, does your name have a reference to Lost?

indiemike

@108: Musical talent? I'm not sure whether that was sarcasm or not, but the "talent" is debatable.

A movie is one thing, it can carry a story, and can be watched, enjoyed with little work involved, keeping one's eyes open. I liked that you mentioned the old Elvis films, because I loved them, I loved watching them. But would I enjoy playing as Elvis in a video game? I dunno...

Video games, are a much more finicky medium, they entail considerable investment: money ($60), time (hours as opposed to 1.5 hours), physical/emotional (story AND gameplay).

To make a video game enjoyable is very different from making a movie entertaining.

JohnnytheFuture

@108: yeah everybody read my post again :-/

108

i think the developers of the new 50 cent game don't know sarcasm when they hear it...

robokasey

Please, this is an April Fools.

Or, this actually happened, and Mark is going to call the company back tomorrow to say 'oh yeah, that was an april fools joke. your game looks like shit'.

Komrade_Kayce

Ironically, I was listening to 50 Cent right before I F5'd to this article.

Just the kind of responses I expected too. So what if he was "blown away?"

indiemike

50 did it finally. I pray it isn't a joke cus if it is, this can hurt the production of the game. I pray what the strict chocolate wearing man said, really means it and that the game will be as good as it looks.

shagari7

April Fools?

rich8606

Wait... if all the posts that were april fools were tagged it... does that mean that "nuntendo bS" game was real? I'm hoping not.

coppanuva

Prime example of when graphics don't make a game.

jihadjoe343

April Fools much?

blackadvent

yeah, i think people need to not be so childish in immediately dismissing a game because it stars someone like 50 cent.

i mean, at least 50 cent is a better-looking dude than marcus fenix!

and he has musical talent!

why not make a good game about him?

the first 50 cent game had the right idea and the wrong execution; this new one sounds hilarious, and i'm sure fiddy himself finds it funny as well.

done the right way, these games can -- and should -- be like the modern-day equivalent of a ridiculous elvis presley film, or that KISS movie.

or like the american / hip-hop videogame equivalent of guitar wolf's film "WILD ZERO"

[uk]

+ Watch video

so come on, people; think before you hate. if no one cheers these guys on, they're not going to be motivated to go completely nuts with the craziness. T-T

108

@Netnavi: I know, really!

If it's real, maybe he's just talking about the graphics. I don't see it being too difficult to get some decent images out of Unreal Engine 3.

kylenalepa

Wait, what do you mean by "blown away"? He couldn't have been serious...Could he?

JohnnytheFuture

last minute April fools from Mark?

Netnavi

@ManjiKengo: Yeah, that's what I thought. But there's no tag.

HALPP! I've died and gone to hell.

Polywhirl

.......................

Thankfully It's still april first.

ManjiKengo

NOOOO It's 50 cent... I mean c'mon

sbrumm1983

@relax_guy: bitches be tripping if they think fiddy won't go home without getting paid

ManjiKengo

yeah i'm blown away by the idea of fiddy fighting terrorists too. *rolls eyes*

relax_guy

I'm "blown away" that they're making a sequel.

symeon6

@BryanGuitarDude: Yeah, I mean the technology means nothing without a game on top of it right? They certainly didn't do it to give other creative minds a taste of what their engine was capable of to develop a kick-ass game, no...

+ Watch video

SaxxonPike

Stop stop stop! Just because it's 50 CENT doesn't automatically mean it sucks! There is a reason why most of you peons aren't Designers (then again Licensed games do tend to fall to the "oh god why" side). The last 50 CENT game did not entirely suck; it had some cool aspects but 50's persona and the whole G-UNIT vibe was more of a hindrance than an enhancement. I have confidence in the Development team and believe it or not 50 has some interesting ideas across all mediums.
You hypocrites better not buy or even play it.

elpoepFTW

The guy from 1UP (i think it's Shane) has seen it to, and beside it's crappy (very crappy) story, he said that it has awesome graphics and solid gameplay.

Garo

@108: Your point is clear, and I believe you. I really do think you're looking forward to this game.

I guess its just that you and I just don't agree on a couple points. And that's totally fine.

I love the grass roots approach that Hip-Hop allows for, I love the dominant beats, the sampling, the level to which it allows a listener to get into it, to dance. The fact that hip-hop is DIY is fantastic. It gives inner-city kids, like Curtis Jackson, something to aspire to, something to get them off the streets selling crack or heroin. That's the beauty of hip-hop.

But again, I feel like today's equivalent of an Elvis movie would be say, 50 Cent's movie, or 8 Mile. The game perhaps in storyline alone, but a game is so much more. I think that the community of gamers present here (those who regard this creation with disdain) only view this game to a ploy for 50 Cent, Sierra, etc to claw at some more cash. I mean, 50 Cent, searching for a "diamond encrusted skull" in the Middle East? Couldn't he be doing something more creative, than trying to "Get Rich or Die Trying?"

JohnnytheFuture

I just imagine Rein making rounds into offices of Unreal licensees repeating the same thing. Or scratching off at a list of synonyms. "Did I use sensational? 'That looks sensational!'"

Or perhaps he'd been waiting all day to put his calendar's Word of the Day to use.

Majeen

@108: =)

Okay picture this:

Elvis, same time period as "Viva Las Vegas" (1964)
But instead of Vegas, let's make it Korea (Korean War)
Elvis is a soldier, fighting against Communism
Also trying to find a "diamond-encrusted skull"

So what I'm trying to get at here is, 50 Cent is in the Middle East, but he's not trying to "liberate" the people of that region, nor is he working toward peace, or promoting safety or even really hunting for terrorists, no, of all the things he could be doing in that delicate and temperamental region of the world, he's finding a "diamond-encrusted skull".

Does that not strike you as preposterous? Inane even?

JohnnytheFuture

@DaiMacculate: Elvis wasn't exceptionally talented? He was only successful because he was whiter than others who performed the same type of music? That's a new one.

Captain Impulse

@108: No the Elvis comparison is quite apt; Elvis wasn't exceptionally talented either, and benefitted enormously from the musical gifts of those around him, not to mention succeeded with a brand of music many others excelled at simultaneously but lacked the appropriate level of...how should I put it...oh yeah, "Whiteness" to make it in the Music Industry at the time...;)

I wonder if Mark played this game at all, or was just commenting on how it looked? I wouldn't be shocked if it looked decent/good, we've all seen some nice looking UE3 games already. That doesn't mean it plays well at all, of course ;)

DaiMacculate

As if he'd say otherwise.

elevenoverzero

Given how bad Bulletproof was, don't be surprised if taking this game online allows Cthulhu or some other extra-dimensional evil being access to our world through your console.

@108: Um, Dre and the other DJs making 50's beats have talent. If Curtis has any I've never seen/heard it, watching tapes of him performing Live in particular is an affront to anyboy who has ever loved a TRUE live MC.

Don't hold 50 Cent against Hip Hop in general, but yeah, he is not somebody I'd defend as especially talented.

On a wholly unrelated topic, I continue to call for a Prince game! Rock Band integration, RPG-esque skill and "weapon" systems, with unlockable B-Ball and Pancake making Mini-games? How could that not be GOTY?

DaiMacculate

@JohnnytheFuture: "I mean, 50 Cent, searching for a "diamond encrusted skull" in the Middle East? Couldn't he be doing something more creative, than trying to "Get Rich or Die Trying?""

Observe here:

"Viva Las Vegas", starring Elvis Presley:

"Plot summary

Lucky Jackson (Elvis Presley) goes to Las Vegas, Nevada to participate in the city's first annual Grand Prix. However, his race car is in need of a new engine in order to compete. Jackson raises the money and mislays it when distracted by Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret). Soon, Jackson's main competition, Count Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova), enters the picture to steal both the race and Rusty."

Et cetera!

Hah!

108

I think something, or rather someone else has blown Mark Rein...

darthnader

@elpoepFTW: Besides, 50 Cent even admitted he doesn't really play games. They're just whoring out his name for $$.

Captain Impulse

@elpoepFTW: You know if you're looking forward to this game telling people to never buy or play it isn't exactly the best way to support the title or the studio making it.

Nirolak

@elpoepFTW: You're right. It's the fact that his games suck that they suck.

Captain Impulse

Everyone should know Mark will say anything for money. That's his job.

chiefpoopingpants

@JohnnytheFuture: It strikes me as plenty insane!

However, we live in insane times!

Also, I would totally buy a ticket for that Elvis movie, and then probably scalp it at the door for BIG $$$.

Man, you know what -- someone needs to make an "Elvis Movie", starring someone else as Elvis starring as an Elvis-like technicolor dude, like, fighting zombies and robots in North Korea or something.

Make it real gritty and documentary-like, with bizarre technicolor musical numbers.

. . . And then get Cliffy B to make a game about it!

108

@JohnnytheFuture: Don't get me wrong, I'm the biggest bleeding-heart vegan hippie here, but if 50 Cent was trying to feed and clothe starving Iraqi war refugee children, I'd find that just as believable as rock stars at Live 8 saying we need to hinder climate change before jumping into their stretch Hummers and then taking off on their private jets.

In fact, I think the preposterousness and inanity might even be the point here. It's supposed to be ridiculous.

Gabexmosh

Is this the same kind of "blown away" he had when he saw Too Human?

boopadoo

@Gabexmosh: Very valid. I see where you're going with that. Yeah. It could be commenting on capitalist war-mongering, to the point of excess! Interesting...Hmmm yeah i like that.

JohnnytheFuture

It's not a joke. The guy mentioned in the first IGN interview as well. Luke probably missed it due to dying from laughter at the ridiculous plot. But it isn't saying much, the game DOES look really nice. You have to give it that. Now if it plays well, that's a different matter...

Samos42

@108: Hahahahaha. No doubt about it. That would be awesome indeed.

But I'm still not going for a 50 Cent video game. I'll remain a skeptic until it is released and people are raving about it.

JohnnytheFuture

@JohnnytheFuture: Well, as long as you're a skeptic and not a flaming hater, that's good!

I'm not exactly convinced of anything, either -- just that, conceptually, these games are such good ideas. Healthy ideas, even. We need more non-serious stuff like this, and a tiny bit less Tom Clancy.

So says me!

I had a discussion with a friend a couple hours ago about what rock and roll stars, these days, deserve their own (non-music) videogames, and we just couldn't think of one with enough personality.

I mean, aside from GUITAR WOLF.

108

@108: The closest movie to that would be Buba Hotep. I would totaly buy a game based on that movie!

GUNLOC_MORIYM

@GUNLOC_MORIYM: Oh man! Bubba Hotep is fucked-up.

Though yeah, I mean, more like jolly young Elvis, surrounded by death and coping -- with music.

108

Even if this game kicked ass, I still wouldn't play it.

Pinhead

If the new 50 cent game is crap I will have lost complete confidence in Epic. They have pushed me to the limit since Gears Of War, so if they bullshit me once more I will lose my patience. I just wish they would stop pimping their engine and put out a game that really pushes next-gen. UT3 was great but my expectations weren't exceded. The first Unreal was, quite simjply, unreal. It pushed my belief's to breaking point. Since then they have done well but haven't impressed me yet. GoW2 better have some cool gameplay techniques this time or I will be pissed.

el_rezzo

@Captain Impulse: Look it up. He was literally standing in Line to get into sun records behind a bunch of Black Musicians, all of whom failed to get contracts. Elvis came in, and while the execs hated the stuff he brought (his own), they had an idea: bring back in the best of the black musicians, and have Elvis sing their stuff.

Thats why Elvis got his start, this is a factual account I'm paraphrasing from a book on the History of Sun Records...Book that is at least 10 years old BTW, so its not a "New One", its just not something most talk about.

I'm not attacking Elvis, its not his fault necessarily he just happened to be White in the right place at the right time. I'm just saying that I see merit to the 50 Cent-Elvis comparison, in the way their music and personal marketing continues to work out, Elvis deserves no deification either ;)

DaiMacculate

@DaiMacculate: I've heard remnants of this story before, and while it's sad in its own special way, I think it's undeniable how talented Elvis was as a singer. He had a really incredible voice, a pretty natural skill at the guitar, and he could jam with the best of them. I've got some recordings of him with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and others, and they just sort of jam, playing what comes to mind and going off each other... pretty incredible recordings that show the talent that all four of those guys in particular had, such innate and beautiful musical ability.

Strange Bedfellows

@DaiMacculate: I see. Makes sense. I'll have to read that book, since I've never heard anything of the sort. Gotta love this country sometimes. /sarcasm

Captain Impulse

@108: Elvis was nothing more than a marketing machine and so is 50. 50 is the adult version of Hanna Montana. He has no message in his music (something that much of rap is missing as well). Listening to a 50 album is like listening to someone brag on and on about how rich he is, how many girls he bangs, etc, etc. There is a word for that. It is called boasting.

Now if people really get excited about listening to some guy mumble on and on about how much money he has now that you have bought his game, drank his vitamin water, bought his albums, bought his movie, sporting his shoes and clothing, and bought his books (yes the fiction novels he didn't write) that is their right. People can spend there money on dog shit that looks like Lincoln as well. Still it doesn't change the fact his game will most likely suck or be mediocre knock off of other games.

I cannot wait to be sporting my 50 Cent lunch pale and backpack.

The fact is, 50 is a marketing tool and keeps peddling substandard crap with his name slapped on it. I think him and Hanna Montana should team up and release a duet album and marketing campaign so that all those uneducated fans who knocked upped their girlfriends in the trailer park when they were 15 can now got to a concert with their young daughter. Hell, maybe throw in Zack and Cody or something to bring the little boys as well.

Anyway long rant made short, the track record of licensed games is poor. The track record of licensed 50 products is poor. It is very reasonable to assume this game will be shit and that is probably a safer bet than betting Bush will not president this time next year.

ProfWho

@ProfWho: i don't think that's what 'hound dog' is about... and even if it was, how does it not make sense when a white man sings it?

adaorardor

@JohnnytheFuture:

I would love to play as a UE3 Elvis. Dual wielding banana sammiches and karate chopping and pelvic thrusting my way into the hearts of ladies. Also later levels you can play as fat Elvis. And rob banks.

Derigor

Oh and for the record I think Elvis was a tool as well. 'Hound Dog?' Really? A song about a women crying about her cheating husband? How does it make sense when a white man sings it? It is as bad as when Aaron Carter sung 'Candy.'

ProfWho

ah yeah, the elvis version is pretty silly in comparison. as for the original, i was familiar with the 'snooping 'round my door' lyric, but that was the only difference that i knew about. the 'you made me feel so blue, you made me weep and moan' line does imply the 'woman crying over a cheating man' narrative. interesting.

adaorardor

@adaorardor: Here are the original lyrics:

You ain't nothin but a hound dog, been snooping round my door
You ain't nothin but a hound dog, been snooping round my door
You can wag your tail but Lord I ain't gonna feed you no more

You told me you were high class, but I can see through that
You told me you were high class, but I can see through that
And daddy I know you ain't no real cool cat

You ain't nothin but a hound dog, been snooping round my door
You ain't nothin but a hound dog, been snooping round my door
You can wag your tail but Lord I ain't gonna feed you no more

You made me feel so blue, you made me weep and moan
You made me feel so blue, you made me weep and moan
You ain't looking for a woman,
Lord knows what you're looking for

You ain't nothin but a hound dog, been snooping round my door
You ain't nothin but a hound dog, been snooping round my door
You can wag your tail but Lord I ain't gonna feed you no more

Now Elvis:

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
cryin' all the time.
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
cryin' all the time.
Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit
and you ain't no friend of mine.

Ya, they said you was high classed,
well, that was just a lie.
Ya, they said you was high classed,
well, that was just a lie.
You ain't never caught a rabbit
and you ain't no friend of mine.

One of the co-writers of the song:
Mike Stoller recalled later, originally, the song had been written for a female singer:

"There was a group, Freddie Bell & The Bell Boys, working in the lounge in Vegas who had recorded it. They had altered the lyrics - the altered lyrics don't really mean terribly much. They made it sound like the song was written about a dog. Big Mama's record had the original lyrics, which were written about a freeloading gigolo."

If you look at the original lyrics it is clear. Now the Elvis version is about an actual dog. Not very interesting compared to the original IMHO.

ProfWho

@Strange Bedfellows: Yeah, I don't think Elvis was completely without Talent, just not a great "creator" of original works, he was neither a writer nor a choreographer to my knowledge. That again is why I think he compares to 50 (though nobody should argue he didn't have a good voice, again just not remarkable), as more of a marketing "phenomenon" than as a musical talent.

Also, I hope nobody thinks I was trying to harp on some type of racial point, as you said its a sad story, the point was more to illustrate that his talent was not unique (the line, according to the story as I read it, was around the block), he just had the right "look" to where it was easier to market than the arguably superior talents of some of his peers. He isn't the first artist who "lucked" into a career in a similar fashion, and probably won't be the last, for every Justin Timberlake for example I'm sure you could find 10 more talented singers/dancers who aren't as "attractive" to the demo JT appeals to ;)

DaiMacculate

i guess he likes rappers on the hunt for diamond encrusted skulls in the middle east. BTW 50 cent is washed up and shot up.

npa190

Chocolate Rein
Build a tent and say the world is dry
Chocolate Rein
Zoom the camera out and see the lie

oboreruhito

@108: Fitty may look better than Marcus, but Cole is a better rapper than Fitty.

Billkwando

doesnt look like its been said yet... so meh...

"chocolate Rein!"

nice jacket Mark.... :P

exion

I'd love to hope this is an April Fools joke. I can't imagine stomaching another 50 cent game. Seriously, a benefit concert? Come on fitty.

Obs1dian