The Golden Compass

1UP expects most movie videogames to be less-than-memorable. Occasionally, a few that break the mold (King Kong, Lord of the Rings), but traditionally they exist solely to pad a publisher's bottom line. Such expectations mostly played true with the adaptation of The Golden Compass, which was actually an adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials children's fantasy series. With King Kong, Ubisoft tried to break the mold by putting one of their best designers, Michel Ancel (Beyond Good & Evil), at the helm. It mostly worked. What if something similar had happened to The Golden Compass, a universe full of richly complex characters and mythologies? There's plenty to play with, given the right creative minds. Of course, that didn't happen, but apparently System Shock and Deus Ex designer Warren Spector, now working on a to-be-revealed project with Disney, was interested in bringing His Dark Materials to life.

Sega sent out an email today, confirming the release dates for a number of their upcoming games. Among others, relase dates for such highly anticipated games like The Club (Feb 8th '08), Condemned 2 (Feb '08) and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nov 23rd '07) were confirmed.

Much-anticipated Sega title The Club will miss the Christmas release window, after the publisher admitted that its release has slipped until next year. The 360, PS3 and PC action title, which was developed by Project Gotham creators Bizarre Creations, was previously due for release at the end of this year.

In years past, publishers have used the Electronic Entertainment Expo to announce new games, taking advantage of the global audience tuned in to the trade show. However, as it did last year, Sega has played the bricklayer, paving its road to E3 well in advance with announcements for games such as Mario & Sonic at the Olympics, Ghost Squad, and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. However, while the publisher isn't using the annual trade show as a venue for its big reveal, Sega's lineup includes many games whose details have been sparse at best.

Filling this year's obligatory fantasy film slot at Christmas, is a movie based on Philip Pullman's excellent The Golden Compass (a.k.a. Northern Lights for us Brits). SEGA's developing the equally obligatory video game tie-in and has today divulged both platform and gameplay details for the title.

New details on Sega's videogame tie-in with movie The Golden Compass, which is based on the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, have emerged. Sega's game sticks closely to the screenplay adaptation of the novel. Players will assume the role of the trilogy's main character Lyra as well as Iorek Byrnison, a warrior polar bear whom Lyra befriends during her adventure. Accompanied by her demon Pantalaimon, Lyra's adventures begin when she goes in search of a friend kidnapped