Movie directors making video games tends to be a mixed blessing. For every amazing prospect like Guillermo del Toro on inSane or Silent Hills there's Stranglehold, the pretty average video game sequel to Hard Boiled that was produced in collaboration with the film's director and star, John Woo and Chow Yun Fat. One director who has a pretty excellent track record with games is Steven Spielberg, whose Indiana Jones trilogy (yes, trilogy) was adapted into a couple of top drawer adventure games by LucasArts back in the day, as well as the original title The Dig which he developed with the same people. He went a little off the boil by lending his name to average party game Boom Blox on the Wii, but for the most part he's one of the few Hollywood directors who seems genuinely enthused about games and their potential, and who usually finds the time to actually work in the titles which carry his name. Doesn't sound like a lot but, honestly, it's more than most manage. Even his failures, like Jurassic Park spin-off Trespasser which didn't quite live up to its promise to revolutionise PC gaming, were at least ambitious. One of the most ambitious games Spielberg worked on was LMNO, the working title given to a title he was developing with EA back in 2005. The aim was for LMNO to be an action game with that would evoke genuine emotions from the player, described at the time as "a mix of first-person parkour movement with adventure/RPG objectives and escape-focused gameplay, all based around the player's relationship with an alien-looking character named Eve". All of which sounds pretty intriguing, and the few images we saw from the game - with said alien-looking creature front and centre - had a cool, otherworldly feeling that's so often in Spielberg's movies. Sadly we'll never find out how exactly the game would've toyed with our emotions, or what "escape-focused" gameplay means, since the project officially ceased to be in 2010 (with rumour stating it had died a death a year prior to the actual announcement).
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
