The Independent du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 118

Game on You're my hero Pac-Man Originally Puckman from the Japanese pafo)ari, meaning To flap one's mouth open and Renamed after arcade vandals took to substituting Puckman's first consonant. The dot-munching, ghost-fleeing, maze dweller and adorned duvets and coffee Mario In 1981. this fella right made Nintendo the company it is today. When a game based on Popeye had to be dropped after a licensing row, the central character was made-over into the Quonicles of Ruddick; Escape From Butcher Bay will be released simultaneously with the film The Chronicles of Ruddick, the follow up to 2 000 Pitcb Black Vin Diesel will star in both. While fighting, shooting and driving games are the three most popular genres; gaming isn't limited to apparently mindless violence and thrills, or the male demographic, Sims, for example, is a game where the player has to guide a set of human avatars through their meticulously detailed real-time lives (they go to work, fall in love).

The Sims franchise has now exceeded $lbn. Its core audience is teenage girls. "We're in a period of great growth and expansion, says Robertson Hliings are moving incredibly fast The standard of good games startles me every single month. Things that I found unbelievable before Christmas, I'm already taking for granted." Gard fires up the Xbox in a corner of his offices and Galleon rolls into life. Tliere are immediate similarities with Tomb Raider, The player controls a third-person character, in this case Captain Rhama Sabrier.

The action is viewed from over Sabrier's shoulder' And Sabrier has to explore a kbjyrinthine terrain, picking up clues and fight-ingoff baddies Pirates, in this case. Though like Tomb Raider, the fighting takes a back seat to the exploring. The plot is its own reward. "I wanted to have a visual language that was quite comic book," says Gard. "I realised the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films were the way to go.

Also those Burt Lancaster films like The Flame and the Arrow and The Crimson Pirate where he comes across as heroic but, when you look in Ms eyes, he's sort of laughing at himself. li He catches himself. "But notafotf thigh-4lapping. There are plenty of differences to Tomb Raider, too. Galleon is vast Gard estimates it will take 40 hours of playing to complete the game and even then the terrain is so big, when you do finish it you'll have Only seen 3 5 per cent of what's on offer and will want to go back and explore the rest And it's visually a far superior, and much fester beast Will Galleon be another Tomb Is Captain Sabrier a new Lara Croft? Itfc unlikely.

For a starts he's male Secondly, with Gard in charge, you wont see him quaffing Lucozade. "People always say; You must be gutted about Tomb Raider, AH that money you've thrown Gard says. "But I'm not If Fd have stayed I might have become rich. But Fd have been so arrogant Plus he says, Td never have made Galleon, this earth-shatteringly cool game." When Galleon is released, Gard says he's going to have a big party. He also promises to finish his next game more quickly.

to develop, but then Card was typically working with just five other people. The recent Japanese title Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, took four years to make and involved over 100 people. A top-quality platform game costs the same to produce as a low-budget movie. It is the rights to license an established film, television show or comic book that is the real wallet-buster: both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rjngy cost their developing houses over 12m. Furthermore, video games are starting to look more and more like films The advertising strapllne for Broken Sword: the Sleeping Dragon, a 3D adventure game, isTtfc the game that plays like a movie- Really!" Gaming companies not only ape Hollywood production values, they employ its scriptwriters, actors, soundtrack musicians and sound-effects teams, too.

The game James Bond 007; Everything or Nothing, released this month, features the voices and likenesses of the actors from the Bond movie franchise: Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, Willem Dafbe, John Cleese and Heidi Klum. Its plot was written by the veteran Bond screenwriter Bruce Feirstein. The producers of the Atari game Driv3r released this June and featuring the voices and likenesses of Mickey Rourke, Ving Rhames and Michael Madsen have commissioned Ridley Scott Associates to produce a movie "inspired" by the game. And a tubby plumber with a moustache. Named after Nintendo's then landlord, Mario is still popular.

Bob Hoskins even played him in a film The Doomguy Fronted by a nameless ex-marine, in 1993 Doom invented the excessively violent first-person shooting game, playable online, its gore and moral lassitude sawthe Califomian State Assembly introducing a bill making it ilegal for minors to purchase Doom. Tommy Vercettl In 20X12, Ray Liotta voiced the former Mafia hitman star of Grand Theft Auto: Vied City. The action takes place in a fictional Florida city in 1986 and unravels with the wit, colour, sex and swearing of a gangster film. A huge hit, especially with the 30-plus market CW Mjim in tbclttr etMy turMnmier. tier mfitmltvMjmMtm.

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