A sequel is certain, reported to have been in development as early as October 2007. The likely name of that sequel, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, puts one aspect of this teaser clip, hosted by MTV Germany’s GameOne.de, into context.

The video appears to have been shot by a Chinese restaurant’s surveillance cameras, filmed in black and white, featuring two naked men — with their unmentionables blurred out — running from gunfire. One, who appears to be Lynch, appears to have been hit by some of that gunfire, tumbles over a dining table and is attacked by a dog. The other man, possibly Kane, beats the dog away with some type of blunt object.

And that’s about it. The trailer, if it is for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, is certainly…interesting, if only a very, very brief taste of what we can expect in the sequel.

Judge for yourself. Does this scream viral marketing attempt at Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days? Or is someone pulling our leg?

2 nackte Männer hauen einen Hund [GameOne.de - thanks, unknownassassin!]

It’s been rumoured since last fall that Willis would be joining the Kane & Lynch flick.

Veteran stunt coordinator Simon Crane will make his directing debut and helm the picture, and scribe Kyle Ward will pen the script. The flick will be produced by the guys that brought Hitman to the silver screen. How did they get Bruno to sign on for the flick?

“The script has been incredibly well-received around town,” says producer Adrian Askarieh. “After Bruce Willis read it, he called it one of the best action scripts he’s ever read, and Bruce is an expert in terms of action scripts because he’s read everything over the last 20 years.” Bruce Willis knows something good when he sees it!

According to Askarieh, the movie will have the “basic premise” of the game, but the details will be different. “It’s not going to have every sequence from the game,” he says, “but it’s essentially the story of a mercenary teaming up with a schizophrenic psychopath to save his wife and daughter.”

Kane & Lynch will be filmed in South America, Europe and possibly Louisiana — “We haven’t locked down our locations,” notes the producer.

Askarieh is working on a film version of Just Cause as well as a sequel to the first Hitman movie.

Just Cause on PC Features [GameDaily] [Pic]

It sold well, we broke even and it’s still selling. We had some really harsh reviews and there was all this noise about this thing with GameSpot and it sort of went over my head whatever people were fighting about. The web has it’s own voice and it can be very loud… You know, what I see today is a lot of people picking it up, playing the free levels we put out. We get a lot of people playing online. You can argue are the graphics good enough, is it up there with the best? But it only takes two weeks and you’re no longer the best looking game out. I’ve been playing games since Pong so I take these things lightly. In the end it’s about sales and we have games like Freedom Fighters which is still selling.

Oh, it’s always about the sales Thomas. Hence the problem.

IO Interview [Games Industry] [Pic]

Kane And Lynch Movie [Variety via AICN] [Pic]

Q: Was Eidos Interactive upset by the game’s review?

Well, were they??

A: It has been confirmed that Eidos representatives expressed their displeasure to their appropriate contacts at GameSpot, but not to editorial directly. It was not the first time a publisher has voiced disappointment with a game review, and it won’t be the last. However, it is strict GameSpot policy never to let any such feelings result in a review score to be altered or a video review to be pulled.

Q: Did Eidos’ disappointment cause Jeff to be terminated?
A: Absolutely not.

Q: Did Eidos’ disappointment cause the alteration of the review text?
A: Absolutely not.

Q: Did Eidos’ disappointment lead to the video review being pulled down?
A: Absolutely not.

As we heard before, GameSpot officially cited poor production for the pulling of the video review. They also clarify that all Kane & Lynch written review alterations were made to better match the 6.0 score. Wow, so copy should be edited to represent an arbitrary f’ing number? That clarification of practice really brings the credibility back to the site? Fundamentally, I can’t agree to the logic, but it’s important that GameSpot disclosed their process nonetheless.

Also, GameSpot will be hosting a tribute to Gerstmann tomorrow. UPDATE: Apparently this tribute was sought after by Gamespot’s editors and is quite a genuine gesture.

Gamespot Statement [Gamespot]

you asked if it’s realistic for readers to expect a church and state separation between editorial and sales. Realistic or not, I think readers should demand that from a publication. Some people probably think that’s a little old-fashioned or hopelessly idealistic, given the changing nature of advertising these days, but there you go.

Notice the diction here because I believe it to be quite important: “realistic or not” and “some people might think it’s…hopelessly idealistic” didn’t need to be used here to answer Totilo’s question. Instead of responding “yes” or “no,” Gerstmann is responding to an unverified problem. In other words, Totilo is asking “do you think it’s realistic for gamers to expect a church and state separation [that may exist now or in the future]” while Gerstmann is answering something along the lines of “how can we fix this already present craptastic overlap between editorial content and advertising?” If you buy into my reading, then Gerstmann is admitting that a problem exists by responding to it. The rest of the message:

…somewhere in that complex mess of relationships is the right amount of disclosure. Gaming publications should tell their readers what to expect. If you’re running a publication and you’re comfortable running infomercials and advertorials, they should be clearly marked as such.

My head is a mess when we talk about the potential of journalistic integrity, especially when the basis of that said journalism is a subjective review to begin with. Essentially we’re searching for unbiased bias.

This whole thing is a mess.

Ex-GameSpot Editor Jeff Gerstmann Talks Standards, Suspicions Of Older Fishy Reviews [mtvmultiplayer]