From here to the video game

CONSOLIDATION between movies and video games continues apace. It's not unusual now for a big movie to be scripted with a game in mind (the pod racing sequence from Star Wars: Phantom Menace is a good example). How much longer can it be before the truly interactive movie is with us?

With pretty much every summer blockbuster already signed to games publishers months before it hits our screens, some programmers are turning their attention to older classics.

From Dusk Till Dawn is the kind of movie you either love or loathe.

Folks went along expecting to see a thriller and that's what they got - for the first 45 minutes at least.

From Dusk Till Dawn really happens to be two films in one. The first is a pretty standard gripper about a couple of bank robbers who kidnap an all-American family. The second is a full-on gore movie about vampires who hang out in a bar somewhere down Mexico way, waiting for unsuspecting humans to drop by for a bite.

Based on a Tarentino script written way before he was famous, the film has spawned two sequels and now a video game from French publisher Cryo.

The game could almost be another sequel. It's set on an old tanker ship called the Rising Sun which has been converted into a top security prison run by the US Department of Justice and a private concern, Sek Tek.

Just like a floating Alcatraz, the Rising Sun is home to the most dangerous criminals in the whole of North America and, because it's surrounded by sea, no one can escape. New inmates are dropped in by helicopter and the whole place is ruled by savagery.

Only the brutal guards haven't reckoned with a bunch of vampires dropping by and starting a bloodthirsty mutiny.

Your character, Seth Gecko, played by George Clooney in the original film, is a prisoner aboard the Rising Sun. He's been imprisoned for killing vampires. When all hell breaks loose, it's up to you to get out, saving any human survivors en route.

As you can tell, the plot plays an unusually strong part in From Dusk Till Dawn (for a video game) and there's many an unexpected twist before the final confrontation with chief bad guy Clarence Wilson.

Wilson is the head vampire who is usually accompanied by a psychotic red-neck lumberjack called Leroy Dogger, who has graduated from felling trees to chopping up humans instead.

Luckily, the poor souls aboard Rising Sun who have turned into vampires aren't anywhere near as tough as Clarence (puny name for a baddie). Simply opening fire with a trusty machine gun will send them back to hell pretty quickly. But vampires are the least of Seth's problems.

Along the way you'll encounter giant hounds far worse than those infernal dogs in Resident Evil, giant snakes (any of this starting to sound familiar?) and even old Nosferatu himself. If some of the enemies are recognizable to players of the Resident Evil games, and you liked that series, then From Dusk Till Dawn will be right up your abattoir.

For the most part, you'll be playing from a third person perspective, switching to first person when the action really hots up, although you can change at any moment. Weapons at your disposal include the usual guns, plus a flame thrower, a sniper rifle, a crossbow and others. You can also pick up medi kits and store them in your inventory.

The script is by Hubert Chardot, the grandfather of gore who created the survival horror genre with Alone in The Dark, a PC title that came out years before the original Resident Evil. From Dusk...is a very different game from Chardot's last outing in the genre, Alone in The Dark 4. By mixing stealth into the usual mix of exploration and blood letting, Chardot has crossed the frontier between games like Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid.

Fans of the film won't feel short changed and horror video gamers will enjoy the change of locale. From Dusk Till Dawn is a winner.

l* Fans of the film not satisfied by last Sunday's showing on BBC 2 may be interested to know that a two disc DVD collectors edition is due out on September 24.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica X. Format: DVD ROM for PS2. Publisher: Capcom. Price: £39.99.

ANYONE who missed out on the original Resident Evil for PlayStation and wants to find out what all the fuss is about should snap up a copy of Resident Evil: Code Veronica X for the PS2. Set after the events of Resident Evil 2, Code Veronica was one of the biggest titles ever to hit the Sega Dreamcast and many gamers still reckon it remains unsurpassed on the Sega system. Code Veronica X is a pretty straightforward conversion of that original game to the PS2. The graphics are as before (ie. knockout) and the story remains pretty much the same (although 18 months have passed since I played it on the DC). It comes on one DVD this time, instead of two GD ROMs, and some of the hidden extras are available from the off.

Code Veronica X remains a state-of-the-art survival horror game and is pretty much unchallenged on the PS2 at the moment. The opening movie sequence is worth the price of the disk alone.

GIZMO OF THE WEEK

Philips has come up with a TV addicts' dream: a television that can cut out irritating adverts. When you see a commercial that really bugs you (such as one of those irritating debt consolidation ads) all you do is press the "No" button. The TV's built in hard disk actually records your telly programmes and plays them back a few seconds later. So when the ad reappears the telly recognises it and plays something else instead. It's an ingenious system and - although only in prototype form at the moment - the feature is sure to appear on a Philips set in the near future.

Published: Saturday, September 22nd, 2001