The Borderlands and Brothers in Arms developers, who first announced that they'd be making a game based on the movie all the way back in 2006, sound like they've all but given up on not just this current project, but any future Heat game, with Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford telling GameSpot:

In a nutshell, we're nowhere. We have passionate game makers that would love to do it. We've got filmmakers that think it's a great idea that would love to see it done. We have publishing partners that would love to publish it. But we have no time. That's the limiting factor.

Because of the situation, we're not keeping the IP locked down anymore. So if somebody else were in a spot where they could do it, and everybody was comfortable with that, then conceivably that could happen.

Bummer. Remember, though, if you're dying to get your Heat fix, you could always play the bank robbery mission from Grand Theft Auto IV. It's basically the same thing, only with less Val Kilmer.

Gearbox keeping Heat on ice [GameSpot]

Gearbox Explains Why ‘Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway’ Has Taken So Long [MTV]

HMV is currently listing the game and maraca combo for £34.99 (about $70 USD). We've contacted Sega to find out more and have expressed our genuine excitement, hoping that they'll get back to us sooner rather than later.

Samba De Amigo: Including Maracas [HMV via GoNintendo]

But how true to the original will Sega's casual-friendly music game ultimately be?

The alpha version of Samba de Amigo for Wii looked to borrow heavily from the Dreamcast classic and its semi-sequel Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000, as a good portion of the stages were lifted from the original with the "Hustle" mode from 2000 included as a gameplay option. (For those unfamiliar, it adds more "dancey" arm swinging moves to the violent, rhythmic shaking that made the game famous.)

While the game's soundtrack is still to be finalized, a grouping of classic Samba jams was already in place, including "Samba de Janiero," "Cup of Life," "Hot Hot Hot" and "Vamos a Carnaval." We heard that over three dozen tracks would make it into the final version, but Sega reps were mum about what exactly those songs may be.

The game played as one would expect Samba de Amigo to play—simply shake the controller in time and in the right position for maximum monkey satisfaction. A handy calibration mode makes things more accurate, but even factoring that in, there were more than a few shakes that felt a touch off. That may be due to the way that Gearbox is determining the location of the controller, but whatever they're doing, it's better than not having Samba at all.

Samba de Amigo's Wii port was obviously still in the very early stages of development, yet it still remained to capture the gleefully fun experience of flailing about to Ricky Martin songs with plastic controllers in-hand. That said, not having actual maraca controllers, ones that rattle realistically, hurts the experience somewhat. We sincerely hoping that Sega and Gearbox Studios release a proper maraca controller alongside the game for the million of Wii owners who will want the authentic feeling that only maraca shaped controllers can provide.

Check out a new batch of screen shots—portions of which look suspiciously crisp—in our gallery.

Reality, however, leveled off my personal expectations, as the game seems to be more accurately described as "Hellgate: London meets Firefly meets Pitch Black". That's the reality of it, a franchise step down that's very grounding. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Jesus. No. While Borderlands may not be a wet dream blend of two uber-franchise favorites, it still has plenty going for it—over 500,000 guns for example. Bullet point alert!

Half a million guns may seem like a bullshit claim, but it's the Diablo II-style item randomization system that makes such a thing possible. The debug build of Borderlands that Gearbox showed us had a nice cheat that let the dev team fire an endless stream of random guns when the Xbox 360's select button was held down. After showering the ground with a few dozen guns, just to illustrate how different they all were in appearance, one could see where the Diablo came in.

In addition to thousands upon thousands of firearm combos, ones that vary in capability based on their stock, color, material, sight, barrel size, chamber and a handful of other stats, it was clear that gun nuts will drool over the game's gun gamble feature. There's clearly plenty to play with here.

That randomized content also applies to the game's other usable items, including armor, helmets and even whatever you've got stashed in your garage. We saw a half-dozen or so unique looking vehicles, some with mounted turrets, some with tank treads, all of which sported a well-used look.

Borderlands also features randomized "level" layouts when one is removed from the New Haven's confines. We were shown some of the game's co-op action as two of the Gearbox guys tooled around in one of the ATVs, encountering an unfriendly group of fellow settlers looking to make their own fortunes on the planet of Pandora. This ultimately played out with an firefight that saw the characters Gearbox controlled taking out a trio of bandits in a Mad Max-style battle caravan.

While some of your encounters will be with your fellow human transplants who have sought shelter at the edge of space, you'll also come face to face with Pandora's original inhabitants, the Rack.

The Rack's emergence from hibernation will drive much of the game's storyline and we were shown a few moments of how some of their reveal will pan out. I'll save you the spoilers, but Borderlands looks like it will satisfy sci-fi fans with its narrative.

The only complaint I'll issue about the game's presentation is that the visual design didn't quite live up to my individual aliens-plus-desert bandits tastes. I was genuinely hoping for Mad Max 80s-era flamboyance, all shoulder pads, facepaint, grime, and feathered feral mohawks. Instead, some rather me-too futuristic character design prevailed. Probably shouldn't have gotten my hopes up—it's dangerous.

Plus, I saw that giant vagina mouth monster coming a mile away, guys. And I really wish I hadn't.