Beloved author Dave Eggers tries his hand at two screenplays, the Game Developers’ Choice Awards highlight creators’ favorites, and possibly the first truly great Batman game in ‘Arkham Asylum’.

If success for an online movie trailer debut can be measured in any meaningful way, one might extrapolate potential ticket sales from the deluge of excited messages via various social technologies to the tune of:

“Did you see this Where the Wild Things Are trailer yet? Oh man it looks so cool!!!”

In which case, the award for 2009 goes to you, Spike Jonze and team, because I’ve never been so unanimously recommended an internet video link that didn’t involve someone hurting themselves. I’m not convinced that the much-needed release of tension, built up over years of anticipation of finally getting a peek at Jonze’s long-awaited next movie, is the same as excitement for the movie itself. As fondly as we remember the book, or Jonze’s previous films (and put me in the latter camp; I loved Adaptation and Malkovich, but honestly, are we maybe over-enthusing about a kids’ book we don’t really remember other than some nifty character illustrations?), it’s hard to predict if the result will be a quality film beyond the  well-deserved, “Whoa, those monsters are neat looking”.

More interesting — and until seeing the trailer, previously unknown to me — was the less-publicized fact that it was co-written by Dave Eggers of McSweeneys fame. How did that slip by?

Not only that, but he wrote another movie called Away We Go, also coming out this year?

Now I am genuinely excited about both. Pairing a talented writer with talented directors (Sam Mendes on Away We Go, also co-written by Eggers’ wife) makes doubly sure neither of their skills go to waste. Eggers’ ability to capture both sad and sweet moments with honesty and humor should serve both these movies well. Assuming, of course, neither the animatronic beasts nor Jim from The Office’s mugging distract too heavily from the heart of the respective stories. For fans of Heartbreaking Work… or You Shall Know Our Velocity, his short stories or his fantasy-fronted writing workshops, a kids’ adventure movie and a couple’s finding-themselves road trip are not hard to imagine him pulling off. As one of those fans, I hope Eggers continues his hot streak, so neither of these films end up just quirky oddities when they could be much more.

……….

Last week all the major personalities that create games, and the people whose full-time job it is to cover the industry (Under Culture can only dream), gathered in San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference. Aside from a bunch of panels normal people may not understand or be interested in about the actual making of games, they also take the time to recognize the best of their peers’ work at the Game Developers’ Choice Awards.

This year’s big winners were Fallout 3 for Best Game and Best Writing, LittleBigPlanet for Best Innovation among several others, and World of Goo for Best Downloadable.

Congrats to all for the well-deserved kudos. If you look down the roster of nominees, more than any laughable Spike TV awards show or nebulous magazine/website-based ‘Games of the Year’ list, these really are the games people need to be playing. This is the one occasion where the people most involved in the industry pick the games that impressed them the most. Though a lavish spectacle on the order of the Oscars is probably neither wanted or needed for the games industry, I would love to see this event become a little more accessible to audiences. Surely enough game players would love to see the minds behind their favorite titles stand up and get credit, and these are not the nerdy non-personalities you’d expect. These are clever, fascinating people. With a little production help from a G4 or SyFy network (still going to laugh every time I see that), it could be an enjoyable and inspiring couple hours of television, seeing and hearing from some extremely bright and creative figures.

Either way, check out the list and play these games. Despite a minor grievance discussed in our Fallout 3 review, it was definitely in my top 3 of last year and you’d be neglecting an incredible experience if you haven’t played it yet. Sad to see Mirror’s Edge didn’t appear anywhere here, because that’s one game that seemed both innovative and overlooked. And though I have yet to finish it, I can say that World of Goo is an excellent package that is worth your dollars. For my part, the list confirms that I do indeed need to loop back and pick up Far Cry 2 at some point this summer when the dry spell hits.

……….

Speaking of the dry spell, one game which may help pass the slow months they year is the next attempt at the fabled ‘Good Batman Video Game’, a mythical piece of interactive entertainment which has been theorized about but never captured alive.

This one’s called Batman: Arkham Asylum, and MTV Multiplayer has the exclusive new trailer:

Though sharing a title, this game is not based on the Grant Morrison Batman story of the same name, which is probably good since that book is mostly psychological and involves a cross-dressing Joker (though the art by Dave Mckean is spectacular and would make for a bizarre and interesting aesthetic in motion). Neither is it related story-wise to the wonderful Nolan films, which in terms of freedom to create an independent, self-sustaining game world is probably also a good thing. Especially if you’ve ever tried to play one of the dozens of half-assed movie tie-in games.

It does, however, feature the voice talents of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, whose work on the animated series, as Batman and Joker respectively, essentially redefined the characters in our lifetimes. This is a good start. But judging by another piece by MTV’s Totilo on why he’s excited about this game, it’s the approach to Batman that might make this one work.

Taken with a grain of salt of course, as very little playtime has been granted anyone at this point, the tactic seems to be a focus on not just ‘doing the cool shit Batman does’, but making players think like Batman. This is they key ingredient that’s always been missing. It’s not difficult to drive a cool car, swing from things, swoop down on bad guys, or throw batarangs at shit. All previous attempts have done those and resulted in thoroughly average games. Creating a play environment where people have to actually become Batman — plan out their sneaking attacks, not just kick ass but inspire fear as a tactic, use all the tools in his arsenal to be the most Batman they can be — could end up breaking the curse that has plagued the license like a childhood trauma. Plus, putting it in Arkham means cameos by all the rogues’ gallery greats (including Harley!). I’m too cautious to get my hopes up fully, but will definitely be keeping an eye on this one.