News for Nov. 14, 2005

King Kong Final Version Hands-On

11/14/05, 11:27 pm EST - Xoanon

Ubisoft's giant-ape adventure game is finally in the can, and we plowed through the first two hours of the Xbox 360 version right from the title screen. Translating a big-budget film to video game form is no exact science, and over the years we've seen one developer after another fail to fully capture the essence of a particular movie in the licensed game of the same name. In other words, a lot of movie games suck. So when Ubisoft recently plopped us down in a dark room with the final version of King Kong on the Xbox 360, we understandably went in with a little skepticism as to the effectiveness of the translation from the yet-unreleased film remake. The game's pedigree is strong enough, what with the involvement of famed Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel--but has the team been able to re-create the excitement of a big-screen action movie in playable form? [More]