Just when you thought Hollywood would be turning to more real-life based stories like The Social Network, news is now coming in that the video game franchise Just Cause is getting optioned into a major motion picture. Variety has the lowdown.

When most comic properties dry up, the obvious next medium for Hollywood to take advantage of would be video games, we’ve seen where it can go well (at least financially) with Disney’s Prince of Persia, and where it can go awry with something like Silent Hill.

We’re holding out for the recently announced Kane & Lynch adaptation, based on the game by Eidos. It was originally announced that stunt coordinator Simon Crane was taking on directorial duties for the film, but that seems to have changed, as the studio is looking to director F. Gary Gray to take over. From Variety:

F. Gary Gray (“Law Abiding Citizen”) is in early talks to direct Lionsgate and Nu Image/Millennium Films’ bigscreen adaptation of the Eidos videogame “Kane and Lynch: Dead Men.”

Bruce Willis has long been attached to play the mercenary Kane in the actioner, and Jamie Foxx came on to play the rage-prone killer Lynch earlier this year. Foxx worked with Gray in “Law Abiding Citizen.”

XBox 360 (Also Available on PC and Playstation 3) – Square Enix – $59.99

Most gamers playing now can look back and remember their first time stepping in to the ultra-violent sandbox of Grand Theft Auto III. Given run of a city where ever car could be stolen and every pedestrian was a target to run over and every cop could be shot at. It quickly brought out the dark side of many people who were just looking to live life on the other side where they finally got to be the bad guy. Even though the game’s narrative didn’t require the player to become a violent terrorist who got hookers and then killed them after to get their money back, that’s pretty much what all of us became.

Just Cause 2 takes that to a whole new level. Taking that original Grand Theft Auto III formula and adding helicopters, planes, boats, a grappling hook and unlimited parachutes, the mayhem that can be caused is elevated even further. Add in a story and game mechanic that not only encourages but actually requires destruction and chaos, you have a recipe for disaster (the good kind that is).

Gameplay:

The fictional patch of islands known as Panau stretches across 400 square miles of in game world. Every inch of it, be it desert, mountain, city, swamp, beaches and all of the airspace above it are areas for mayhem. Using the game’s 200 vehicles and a variety of upgradable weapons from handguns to rocket launches, players are given the opportunity to cause chaos (measured by an on screen Chaos meter which unlocks more missions and black market shopping opportunities) by destroying statues, oil tanks, gas stations and weaponry of the Panau government. In the process, government forces are summoned depending on the level of chaos being caused. A few frag grenades can quickly lead to helicopters raining down machine gun fire on our protagonist.

Fans of Just Cause will be pleased to find out that they will get a sneak peek of the sequel which is set to release on March 26th. Just Cause 2, which featured one of the most creative interactive trailers, will have a demo available for the PC, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 on Thursday, March 4th.

Just Cause 2’s demo looks to set itself out from the crowd with a massive 35 square mile area of the game’s 400 square mile locale. Lee Singleton, General Manager of Square Enix’s London Studios said that “The Just Cause 2 demo is simply massive and with so much to do, the replay value is enormous… It’s easily one of the biggest freeroaming demos of all time and for fans of openworld games, it’s unmissable.”

From the looks of things, Square Enix and Eidos don’t believe in the “less is more” mentality and want to show everyone just what they have to offer. As seen in the trailer, Just Cause 2’s demo will allow players near limitless combinations of ways to tackle situations at hand or just provide a pure freeroaming balls to the wall action experience.

For those that have played it, they know that Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the best comic book video games ever made. It is without a doubt the best Batman title and to some arguably the best comic book game ever. With so many players trying to take in all the content they could as fast as they could, Warner Bros.

Interactive Entertainment and Eidos wanted to throw one more bone to their faithful players with the “Insane Night” map pack, a free two pack of challenge maps coming today to XBox Marketplace, the Playstation Netowrk and soon to the Games for Windows Live Marketplace.

The first map, “Totally Insane”, is a FreeFlow Combat map set in Arkham’s secure records facility where players must defend themselves from wave after wave of insane escaping inmates. Of course instead of being content with escaping the asylum, the inmates each decide to take a stab at being the one who took down the Batman instead of running for the hills.

After seeing some of the brutal combat that happens in Arkham Asylum, it only makes sense that these waves of attacks would have to be insane to want to take on the Dark Knight in hand to hand combat.

On Monday, we brought readers a first look at the adventure they’d encounter as the Dark Knight in his upcoming title, Batman: Arkham Asylum. This Friday August 7th, XBox 360 and Playstation 3 players will get a chance to have a crack at this new game.

Things start off with the opening cut scene that has made its way around the internet for the past few months. In classic Batman formula, the master detective (voiced by Kevin Conroy) brings his nemesis Joker (Mark Hamill) in to Arkham custody, things go wrong and the Joker escapes. Who would’ve thought?

The demo then takes the player through Arkham Asylum‘s Free Flow Combat, allowing the player to see how the combinations of moves flawlessly tie in to each other during the game’s numerous fights. Following that, Detective Mode comes in to play as the player must investigate the area around them to continue in their pursuit of the mad jester that has literally allowed the inmates run of the asylum.