Since Gametap isn't quite the original content developer they used to be, the six animated shorts now appear on the Gametap YouTube channel, rather than getting the sort of attention the first season of Re/Visioned did with its unique takes on the Tomb Raider franchise. Still, fanfare or no, these are some brilliant cartoons. I particularly like comic book writer Christos Gage's take on Cosmic Ark, which was technically an Imagic game, but who's counting?

Below you will find comic legend Mark Waid's take on Kaboom, along with shorts for Pitfall, H.E.R.O., Freeway, and Pressure Cooker. You'll never look at your old favorite 2600 games the same way again.

So they've enlisted the assistance of Film Roman (the same team behind Dead Space's Downfall) to oversee a Dante's Inferno animated feature. All that's known at this stage is that the film will be straight-to-DVD, will ship alongside the game and that, like the Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight, will be worked on by a number of studios/artists, as "separate anime studios are being tapped to create the nine different levels of hell".

Dante's Inferno matching Dead Space movie-for-movie [Cut Scene]

“We are thrilled to have the world television premiere of Dead Space: Downfall on Encore Action,” said Nancy Silverstone, vice president of program acquisitions for Starz Entertainment. “The feature sets a new standard for animated horror that our audience will love. It provides the story thread from the comic books to the newly released game, using the background and sound design from the game and the same artistic spirit of the comic book series.”

The feature starts up where the Dead Space comic books left off, leading up to the beginning of the video game storyline. If anything, it's bound to be 10 times more entertaining that anything else on television late on a Sunday evening, and there's also DVR in case it airs past your bedtime.

ENCORE ACTION PRESENTS WORLD TV PREMIERE OF DEAD SPACE: DOWNFALL

Feature-Length Animated Movie Produced By Starz Media’s Film Roman And Released in Tandem With the Highly Anticipated Electronic Arts Game

Englewood, Colo., October 30, 2008 – Starz Entertainment presents the world television premiere of Dead Space: Downfall, which will air on Encore Action Sunday, Nov. 2 at 10 p.m. (ET/PT). The film, developed by Starz Media’s Film Roman (Starz Entertainment’s sister company), is a feature-length animated movie based on the highly anticipated game “Dead Space” from Electronic Arts that was released on Oct. 14. The movie was released on DVD by Starz Media’s Anchor Bay Entertainment on Oct. 28, just in time for Halloween.

“We are thrilled to have the world television premiere of Dead Space: Downfall on Encore Action,” said Nancy Silverstone, vice president of program acquisitions for Starz Entertainment. “The feature sets a new standard for animated horror that our audience will love. It provides the story thread from the comic books to the newly released game, using the background and sound design from the game and the same artistic spirit of the comic book series.”

The story begins with the Dead Space comic books. The feature picks up the plot where the original comic book series, written by Antony Johnston and illustrated by Ben Templesmith, ends and leads up to the beginning of the “Dead Space” game. The story focuses on the disturbing events aboard a futuristic mining spaceship, the USG Ishimura, after it pulls a mysterious artifact from a remote dig site on a planet in the far reaches of the galaxy. The artifact triggers the sudden invasion of a long-dormant alien presence, and the Ishimura crewmembers find themselves locked in a frantic struggle to survive.

Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 17.4 million and 31.6 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Entertainment Group, a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.

Just imagine your favorite player starts taking off, making a real name for themselves in the game. Kids on the playgrounds (they still have those, right?) start mimicking their moves, the team they're in becomes a showcase for their talents. The Living Roster system will allow 2K to deliver their moves into the game, changing as often as the whims of the hardcore basketball crowd. Of course some of us won't be satisfied until we get real-time facial hair growth, but it's a good start.

2K Sports Gets More Real with Living Rosters in NBA® 2K9

Fans will receive the most up-to-date player attributes, player tendencies, and unlockable animations

September 22, 2008 – 2K Sports today announced details on Living Rosters, an exciting new innovative online feature for this season’s highly anticipated basketball title, NBA 2K9. Living Rosters will ensure dedicated fans are playing with the most up-to-date and complete basketball experience ever available in the NBA 2K franchise. In addition to delivering constant updates to player ratings and player tendencies, Living Rosters will also offer exclusive access to unlockable animation packages for players in the game. When a player starts to heat up and takes his game to the next level on the real courts, new animation packages will unlock for that player in the video game. As the NBA season progresses, so will NBA 2K9, as players will have the ability to pull off new moves never seen before in the video game, adapt their offensive and defensive rotations, and shift starting lineups as they occur. If it happens during the regular NBA season, it will happen in NBA 2K9 thanks to Living Rosters.

When the Living Rosters feature is activated and a gamer signs in online, the game automatically checks for Living Roster updates in order to download the latest real-life player information in a seamless process behind the scenes. Gamers will have an option to either have Living Rosters automatically update their in-game roster information, or they can choose to download new roster data manually.

Once Living Rosters has successfully completed an update, NBA 2K9 fans can then review the different player and gameplay updates from the NBA 2K Insider – a real person working behind the scenes, pouring over the stats and spreadsheets, and who is ultimately responsible for the content and accuracy of the Living Rosters updates. However, the Insider’s job is much more than just crunching numbers - they will interact with the community and listen to roster update suggestions to determine what the fans really want in each update. The NBA 2K Insider’s analysis and commentary will be available in-game and on the 2K Sports website, www.2ksports.com.

Still, we're a long way off from seeing Castlevania: Dracula's Curse for ourselves, as Ellis points out.

Notes [Castlevania: Dracula's Curse]

GAMETAP LAUNCHES RE\VISIONED: TOMB RAIDER JIM LEE FINALE

Announces Season Two will explore the worlds of Activision

GameTap launched today "A Complicated Woman," the final episode in the premiere season of its new animation series "Re\Visioned" which features story and art from legendary comic book illustrator Jim Lee of Wildstorm/DC Comics.

Launched in late August, the first season of "Re\Visioned" features ten episodes focusing on the legendary Tomb Raider franchise and the adventures of popular video game heroine Lara Croft. Academy Award-nominated actress Minnie Driver provides her unique voice for leading lady Lara Croft, while Jim Lee, Warren Ellis, Peter Chung, Brian Pulido, Gail Simone, Michael Stackpole, Ivan Reis, Cully Hamner, Christos N. Gage, Louie Del Carmen, David Alvarez, and Six Point Harness, have provided their 'Re\Visioned' view of the famous video game heroine.

GameTap has also announced that the second season of "Re\Visioned" will feature six animated episodes that spotlight games from the golden age of Activision. For the new season that launches in December, GameTap has partnered with The Hero Initiative to develop episodes that will feature the work of top industry writers, including Mark Waid (Flash, Kingdom Come, Legion of Superheroes), John Ostrander (X-Men, Punisher, Star Wars Republic) and Paul Jenkins (Spectacular Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Civil War: Front Line).

The Hero Initiative is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators in need. "We're thrilled that GameTap is continuing to support comic book creators with this second season of the 'Re\Visioned' series, especially since so many creators are video game fans," said Jim McLauchlin, President of Hero.

Episodes in Season Two will revolve around the worlds and characters featured in Activision's most iconic titles such as Pitfall, Kaboom and Pressure Cooker.

"Re\Visioned" is exclusive to GameTap and visitors can watch the finale and previous episodes from the first season absolutely free. For more information and to see the latest episode of Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider, visit www.gametap.com/tombraider.

the everyday happenings of weebl - cube [Weebl's Stuff - Thanks William!]

I'm still upset this series didn't air longer in the US. It had everything! A quirky animation style, likeable characters, fantastic creature designs and a theme-song performed by The Cure. THE CURE! Silly uncultured Americans. *hides*

Playlogic Signs Game Deal with Futurikon for "Dragon Hunters"

(Amsterdam, The Netherlands) June 28, 2007- Publisher Playlogic Entertainment, Inc. (OTC BB: PLGC) announced that it has signed a worldwide 3 year license with a 2 year extension, on all platforms, based on the popular franchise Dragon Hunters with Futurikon (France). The animated television series is on air and there is also a full feature-length animated movie based on the series scheduled for release early next year.

"We really enjoy starting this ambitious collaboration with Playlogic. The Universe of Dragon Hunters has a high creative value. Moreover the hunting stories, the humour and the variety of the Dragons allow for the creation of great videogames. We are sure that the Playlogic team will reach this goal!" states Philippe Delarue, CEO of Futurikon.

"We are very pleased to have entered into an agreement with Futurikon," comments Stefan Layer, Playlogic's VP of Sales and Marketing. "This cooperation enables Playlogic to exploit the Dragon Hunters universe on various platforms. Playlogic will be able to use material from the Dragon Hunters CGI movie out in cinemas in 2008, as well as from two seasons of the Dragon Hunters TV series."

Playlogic plans to publish the game version of Dragon Hunters on Nintendo DS in line with the movie release, scheduled for Q1 of 2008.

"The Dragon Hunters universe is a perfect match for a video game," states Dominique Morel, CTO of Playlogic. This concept is not only graphically very creative and original; Dragon Hunters is also a superb opportunity to create rich new interactive content, with hilariously fun game play. Playlogic and the developers already working with us on this game are totally enthusiastic about its potential. Hunting will never have been more fun!"

Just when you thought it was safe to go DVD shopping again we get this terrifying news from the the bbps. The Adventures of The Super Mario Brothers 3 cartoon series will be arriving in stores on June 5 in a 3 disc set. I really would like to say I'm sure this is going to be awesome, but I think that might be a bit misleading.

At Dragon-Con this year, I bought a copy of the Super Mario Bros Super Show on DVD complete with a personalized autograph from Capt. Lou Albano himself. I should have just left well enough alone, but I had to at least check it out. I lasted all of five minutes before I returned the disc to it's case, never to be watched again. It's really sad watching cartoons and shows that you loved as kid when you are an adult. Nine times out of ten they just don't hold up. So, in the case of The Super Mario Brothers 3, I think I'll just let it remain a happy memory.

More Nintendo Animated Eye Filth [the bbps]

One of my earliest arcade memories involves shoving an endless supply of quarters into Dragon's Lair and getting really really honked off. Nobody could figure the game out! And, from what I remember, there was actually an episode of "That's Incredible" in which someone cleared the game.

As Brandon at Insert Credit points out, the game has already hit HD DVD. And now, Don Bluth's arcade game is coming to Blu-ray. Well, not just Blu-ray, but BD-J (AKA "Blu-ray Disc Java") — That's the way they get interactive content on Blu-ray. Looking forward to it!

That's not that the Blu-ray version above, but the original arcade version. Yes, the one that used to piss me off. Brian Ashcraft

Dragon Lair [Insert Credit]

Filmmaker Guillaume Reymond from NotsoNoisy.com has impressed us before with his amazing live action, stop action animation hybrids. So far, his "Game Over" video series has included such classics as Space Invaders and Pong. Now Reymond brings us his version of Pole Position. It was created the same way the other two were, using real people sitting in a large theater to create the illusion of the pixelated graphics. Pretty great stuff, especially when the lights go out. Flynn De Marco

Character movement is one of those things that can make or break a game's realism, even moreso than character design. Good movement will get you through times of bad design more often than good design will get you through bad movement.

I hearken to Grand Theft Auto as an example: despite the oven mitt hands, low-poly bodies and nearly expressionless faces, the combination of well-animated (or captured, I'm not sure) movement and exquisite voice acting makes those characters come alive.

So I was not surprised (but still horrified) to learn that the traditional method of character model construction was from the outside in, that is to say, drawing the outlines first and not worrying much about skeletal or muscular structures. Any freshman figure drawing student can tell you what a massive mistake this is, how truncated and stiff your creations will be if you jump right into the outline before knowing how the skeleton works.

But this is apparently a revelation in game animation.

A more accurate method, Zhang says, is to build a character's muscles first and then add the skin on top of them. It's more natural looking, he says, but it requires detailed knowledge of anatomy, and it's counterintuitive for an artist who has the external appearance of a character in mind. For those reasons, he says, the muscle-based approach has been mostly an academic curiosity.

"Counterintuitive" my ass. How is it counterintuitive to think of a body being moved by its muscles, or supported by its skeleton? If this is truly the mindset of the current generation of game artists, then no wonder the vast majority of titles have such appallingly canned movement.

Let this be a lesson to aspiring game designers, cartoonists, and artists of all stripes: learn to draw. More specifically, learn to draw traditionally, from the anatomy out, like the old mastas used to do it back in the day.

Remember, life drawing class = staring at naked people for a long, long time. And many of them, I can tell you from personal Art School experience, are middling-to-extremely attractive. Eliza "it doesn't matter how bad it sucks as long as the director wears a beret" Gauger

Beefing Up Animation Software [Technology Review, thanks Jason]

Game Over [PES]

The Phillips CD-i is a console best known for outsourcing its animation to a Vietnamese Animation Workshop / Veteran's Home for Amputees. But these guys didn't just take a crayon in mouth to animate the intros to the lousy Zelda and Mario CD-i games... they did intros for other, less well known games. And the intro to Mutant Rampage: Body Slam? A masterpiece from the moment the bird baby attacks the delivery room doctor.

Unfortunately, the sublimity of the experience is somewhat sullied by the knowledge that as soon as the exotic cat mutant shows up on screen, there's a furry out there who has already dropped his shorts around his ankles. Florian Eckhardt

MarioKart goes Zen in one of my favorite Annecy entries evarrrr. Gorgeous animation with a delightful ending. Thanks to reader Rustybret for reminding me about this one; it's been sitting on my HD for a while but Kotaku hasn't seen it yet so it's mine all mine! Moo hoo ha ha!

I would dig an actual game based on this little thing. Get on that, would ya?

Jerry "Tycho" Holkins from the little, up-and-coming webcomic Penny Arcade talk movies with game site FiringSquad. Are there plans for PA: The Movie? Tycho lays out the situation:

We've been in quote talks with three separate entertainment entities, and in every case these people imagine that they are descending from heaven in a shaft of light, hand outstretched, offering to raise us from the ghetto squalor of comics and the Internet. They offer terrible money for a tremendous amount of work, and we're supposed to accept whatever they say because they are from Los Angeles or New York. We don't need them, and never will. Our readers have assured this. The next emissary from those debased kingdoms can fall to one knee before my golden throne and kiss my signet ring.

I'll take that as a "no." Brian Ashcraft

More Here [FiringSquad]