It came from Africa

Nov 20, 2007

In March 1898, two maneless Tsavo man-eating lions preyed on workers during the construction of the Ugandan railway. The pair, part of a testosterone-charged sub-species of lion local to the area, killed an estimated 135 people - their efforts later immortalized in the Val Kilmer film The Ghost and the Darkness.

In late July of this year five men from Ubisoft Montreal were spending a night under canvas in the same area. %26ldquo;We couldn%26rsquo;t see anything - we just heard an elephant scream in panic about 20 feet away from camp,%26rdquo; explains a grim-faced Alexandre Amancio, the game%26rsquo;s artistic director. %26ldquo;Then we realized why he was screaming. We heard one of these Tsavo lions roar - and it was between the elephant and us. It was about 10 feet away - and the vibration of that lion roar, you just felt that in your bowels%26hellip; then we heard the %26lsquo;chk chk%26rsquo; of our two guards cocking their AK47s and we just started running to the land cruiser.%26rdquo;