Called The Defenders, it's a family adventure based on Oka's own experiences playing MMORPGs, and follows a group of gamer teens who only know each other via their online identities. An unnamed threat rears its ugly head, and the group must meet up in real life to save the day. Seems familiar...

"You can be whoever you want to be," Oka said. "The question came to me: What if you had to live up to the person you created in the virtual world?"

The project is supposed to along the lines of what Spielberg's "Amblin [Entertainment] used to do, that combined an innocence with the adventure." We assume that means something along the lines of The Goonies or Innerspace or Back to the Future. Oka will be producing the film, and The Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta will be penning the script. Eagle Eye director D.J. Caruso is "in talks" to helm the picture.

And yes, DreamWorks will develop a game tie-in.

Masi Oka project set at DreamWorks [The Hollywood Reporter via MTV]

"The rights to the ‘Heroes’ video game have reverted back to NBC Universal," said a decisive Jaime Cottnic, Ubisoft's PR director, "Ubisoft will no longer produce a video game based on the TV series.”

It's a bit of a shame - especially as Ubisoft can seemingly bang out games about all kinds of random subjects on a seemingly daily basis - but perhaps understandable now that Season 3 seems to be dropping Nielsen points like they burn it's very flesh.

While the overcooked time travel plotlines and surfeit of characters with daddy issues could do with a trim on TV, I can't help but think that it would work really well as a multi-character RPG or thoughtful action adventure. Any developers out there want to pick this one up for cheap?

Ubisoft Drops Plans For ‘Heroes’ Game [MTV Multiplayer]

Jamil Moledina, the executive director of the annual Game Developers Conference, kicked off his GDC blog last night by announcing that Jesse Alexander, the executive producer of TV show Heroes, will be giving a talk on creating each season of the show.

How Heroes Are Made: A Collaborative Approach to Serialized Content in a Transmedia World will look at how Alexander uses game development processes to manage the writing on Heroes. Sounds pretty interesting.

Moledina also unveiled in his blog that Tim Bennison and Eric Holmes will be talking about their upcoming game Prototype and how they are trying to produce gameplay that mimics true behavior.

Sounds like this GDC will be as much a must see as ever year's is.

Director's Cut: Save the Cheerleader! [GDC Director's Cut]

We struggled with this one somewhat. Greg was a pleasure to work with, and he was willing to make the time to work with us on “Condemned 2,” but we felt we wanted a darker, edgier tone...We loved Greg’s work on “Condemned; Criminal Origins” and found him to be a great voice talent as well as a fantastic person to work with. It was purely a directional choice.

GAMES: Condemned 2: Bloodshot [via gamelife]

Comic-Con's just underway and Ubisoft is already rolling out the big news, about 40 minutes ago they released the first-ever in-game clips and screens for Beowulf and now they're confirming what Variety broke days ago, they are indeed working on a video game based on the television show Heroes.

The press release (posted after the jump) is super light on details, spending more time on the successes of the show than on what bits of it will be turned into the game. In fact, I believe there is no information. Go look for yourself.

Ubisoft to Create Video Game Based on Hit TV Series

SAN FRANCISCO - July 26, 2007 - Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group to develop and publish a video game based on the television drama series "Heroes®."

The first season of Tim Kring's hit TV series has attracted over 14 million viewers each week and is one of the most popular shows among 18-49 year-olds. Time magazine named "Heroes" one of the Top 10 TV shows for 2006, and the phenomenon is now broadcast in more than 30 countries across the globe.

"Heroes" is an epic drama that chronicles the lives of ordinary people across the world who discover they possess extraordinary abilities, such as telepathy, time travel and flight. They will soon come to realize that the fate of the world depends on them, and be forced to team up against someone seeking to eliminate them.

"With a gripping storyline and rich characters, Heroes lends itself naturally to a video game format," said Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. "By offering people the chance to interact directly with the show's captivating universe, there is no doubt that the game will appeal to both fans of the series and avid gamers."

"We are very excited to be making the 'Heroes' video game with Ubisoft," said Tim Kring, executive producer and creator of "Heroes." "Time and again, Ubisoft has proven they can turn licensed properties into fantastic games."

Variety reports that Ubisoft is in the midst of closing two, not one, deals for writes to make games based on Hollywood properties.

We reported yesterday that Ubi had signed a deal to create a game based on James Cameron's Avatar, bu Variety says that Ubi is also closing a deal to make a game based on Heroes with plans to announce details at this week's Comic-Con.

Ubisoft, Fox pact on 'Avatar'
Co. also closing deal to produce 'Heroes' game [Variety, thanks Ben]

"The team at Smoking Gun has worked passionately together for over 7 years, building teams that have created the most critically acclaimed games in their genre." said John Johnson CEO and Creative Director, "As the industry evolves so do the ways that people interact with video games. With our collective input Smoking Gun will be at the forefront of producing innovative best-selling titles, that really push the envelop further than we've gone before",

Premier Development Studio Smoking Gun Interactive Formed By The Creators Of The Award Winning Company Of Heroes

Creative forces behind the highest rated strategy game* of all time reveal new development studio

VANCOUVER, CA (June 4, 2007) - The creators of the critically acclaimed game Company of Heroes today announced the formation of their new interactive entertainment software development studio, Smoking Gun Interactive Inc. The development studio will focus on creating innovative award winning cross platform games based on original or company owned intellectual property.

Smoking Gun Interactive Inc, has been founded by John Johnson, Angie Radwan-Pytlewski and Drew Dunlop all former senior staff from Relic Entertainment. The studio is led by CEO and Creative Director John Johnson who was previously the Director of Franchise Development and Producer on Company of Heroes, while Angie Radwan-Pytlewski served as Art Director and Drew Dunlop as Lead Programmer on the critically acclaimed real-time strategy hit.

"The team at Smoking Gun has worked passionately together for over 7 years, building teams that have created the most critically acclaimed games in their genre." said John Johnson CEO and Creative Director, "As the industry evolves so do the ways that people interact with video games. With our collective input Smoking Gun will be at the forefront of producing innovative best-selling titles, that really push the envelop further than we've gone before",

Working with Smoking Gun Interactive are key personnel from the team that created Company of Heroes including the Audio Director Crispin Hands and Story and Script Writer Duane Pye. Collectively the management and executive team have over 30 years of experience and have worked on best-selling franchises including Company of Heroes™, Impossible Creatures™, Homeworld™, Need for Speed™, NHL™, NBA Live™ and FIFA Soccer™. With their collective experience in leading passionate teams and creating award winning products, Smoking Gun is destined to become one of the industry's leading premier development studios.

For updated news and additional company information, please visit the official Smoking Gun Interactive site www.smokingguninc.com

This is Smoking Gun...

Viewers of tonight's episode of the NBC hit Heroes ("Like Any Parasite") will have one more reason to geek out, as brand new footage of the upcoming PLAYSTATION 3 game Heavenly Sword will be shown.

About 8 seconds of real-time footage will be shown of Ninja Theory's hack and slash action game, most of it focusing on the timed button pressing cinematic moments similar to Shenmue's quick time events or the boss battles in God of War. How's it look? From what I've seen of last night's early Canadian broadcast, pretty freakin' amazing. YouTube doesn't do it justice.

Thanks for the heads up, Kyle. Michael McWhertor

This time around, besides the hidden hack fix, the upgrade includes a way to conserve memory while surfing websites. So if you hit up a porn site, you should be A-OK.
Also, and about as unexciting, the firmware will add dynamic normalizing. In other words you will now be able to have automatic volume adjustment while listening to music tracks.

Yah, so the update is pretty much about their neverending fight against hacks.

They are releasing some new PSP demos as well, which is nice. This time around you can get your hands on Killzone: Liberation, which you should def check out, and SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2 and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror down the line.

Where's my downloadable episodes of LOST Heroes, dammit? Brian Crecente

Upcoming Wii game Heroes has been retitled to No More Heroes. The irony is divine. The game was developed by Suda 51, who also brought us the stylized Killer 7 and sounds intriguing. The plot? You're geeky Travis Touchdown, who wins a Light Saber-type weapon called a Beam Katana and kicks off a new career as a professional killer. It takes place in a fictional city in the Western United States. There's a French chick. It's a sandbox-type game. And the game's hero wears otaku-type shirts which were created by Okama, the character designer behind TV hit Densha Otoko's opening scene (above). Cool t-shirts and Light Sabers, can Suda 51 read minds or what?! Brian Ashcraft

Another Rad Grasshopper Game [VGB]

While the visual style is nothing short of impressive, the voice over work is, in a word, awful. Obviously the biggest question on most gamers minds, especially those familiar with the ups and downs of K7 is "How does it play?". Details are scarce, but we'll know better when the game ships in Q3 of 2007. Keep your eyes peeled for more details and check out The Wiire for more. Michael McWhertor

[Editor's note: If you're having issues viewing the video, VLC media player comes highly recommended.]

Heroes First Footage and Details [The Wiire]
YouTube Version [Yep, The Wiire couldn't handle it]