On the heels of a pair of high-profile firings from NBC’s Heroes comes news that Ubisoft is dropping plans for a video game based on the once red-hot TV series.

“The rights to the Heroes video game have reverted back to NBC Universal,” a Ubisoft spokesperson told MTV’s Multiplayer blog. “Ubisoft will no longer produce a video game based on the TV series.”

The game had been announced in July 2007, when the show was riding high after a well-received first season. But that was before producers dropped the ball with Season 2 — it was, perhaps thankfully, shortened by the writers’ strike — and NBC canceled the planned Heroes: Origins spinoff series.

According to Variety, Heroes is averaging 10.4 million viewers, a drop of 21 percent. Still, it’s NBC’s highest-performing scripted series.

Here’s a Halloween treat for fans of LEGO Batman: The Videogame, Ace of Cakes and Food Network Challenge: a behind-the-scenes video detailing the creation of that fantastic Gotham City cake we blogged about last week.

(Via The Feed)

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, of Penny Arcade fame, have been making an online storybook based on the characters in the upcoming Prince of Persia game. (hat tip: The Ephemerist)

Comedian Rich Kuras ventures inside the World of Warcraft to gauge opinions on Election ’08. How many electoral votes does Azeroth have, anyway?

(Via Andrew Sullivan)

Here’s a new trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe that offers a glimpse at the game’s story:

Remember that video I posted about back in August that featured the Joker’s fatality move in the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game? (It’s been awhile, so go watch it … I’ll wait).

Well, it’s been altered for the final game, per a discussion the gaming blog Kotaku had with Midway’s Ed Boon. In order to be rated “T” for teens, they’ve had to make some changes to the game. Kotaku writes:

We asked Midway’s Ed Boon about the difficulty in getting that T-rating, something he said the team has been working closely with the ESRB on. They’ve sent “at least three” submissions to the ESRB, going in with something that’s full of M-rated content, getting feedback and “scaling it back.”

Another Fatality that’s seen some revision was Kitana’s, one that involved her opponent being impaled by her trademark blade-fans. Initially, the first fan went into the torso, the other into the forehead. That second was a T-rating no-no. Double fans delivered to the chest, however, that’s a T-rated way to end someone’s life.

It kind of makes you wonder why they don’t just release a mature-rated “director’s cut” at some point.

Confetti Cakes created this cake for the Warner Bros. premiere party for LEGO Batman: The Videogame:

This recreated cityscape from the new game is entirely edible and made of vanilla, chocolate and red velvet cake. It’s the heaviest cake they’ve ever made and took 12 days to create. Very cool.

Editor’s Note: Paul Levitz returns to Blog@Newsarama to talk about a variety of recent topics.

by Paul Levitz

Sorry for having been absent from this space for the past two months, but family matters dwarfed my ability to balance life, work, and incidental pleasures like writing. My dad passed away after a merciful short battle with cancer at age 88, and that started a chain reaction of family travails, still ongoing, but mercifully slowing in their ability to consume my life.

I’m not going to go back and try to hit on the various DC activities and controversies of the ‘missing’ weeks, because I’ve been viewing them through a very different lens than my usual, and I’m not sure how much that’s been the wiser perspective that a touch of mortality provides (always loved the Samuel Johnson quote, “Nothing so concentrates the mind as knowledge that one is to be hanged in a fortnight”) or the fuzzy judgment of someone stepping off a roller coaster and trying to decide where to throw up. So let me warm up with a few small bits from the recent calendar.

* * *

Anyone who’s seen me knows I’m far from a native of the fashion world, to the extent that my longtime assistant Linda Fields years ago suggested I try an adult version of the Garanimals system for getting dressed. My only affectation is a leaning towards wearing ties of our characters, or similar such visual theme pieces (e.g., a NYC subway map tie for events for my old high school, Stuyvesant, to which nearly all of us commuted by train). Other than that I stick with very standard business gear for the office, and basic jeans and a shirt when I have a choice. All of which is a roundabout segue to point out that it was odd to find myself at Diane von Furstenberg’s signature store in Manhattan’s meatpacking district last week, for a special event to kick off her new line inspired by Wonder Woman. The project was spearheaded by a team from Warner Bros. Consumer Products and our own Cheryl Rubin, and as part of it we produced a unique tabloid comic including some classic WW material and an original story by Diane von Furstenberg and artist Konstantin Kakanias. Not sure how easy it is to track down, but I have confidence that Andy Mangels has already found one for his WW collection. The dresses, tops, tote bag and journal are available at the high end retailers who carry the DVF line, for those so inclined.

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I got a little dizzy watching this, but it still looks like a lot of fun … courtesy of G4, here’s another Spider-Man: Web of Shadows video, featuring gameplay and some commentary from Activision Senior Executive Producer Graham Fuchs:

The game comes out on Tuesday.

Marvel.com has five new images from the upcoming Punisher: No Mercy game, which will be a PlayStation Network-exclusive.

The artwork, which the site says will “help drive the downloadable title’s story mode,” is by Mike Deodato. And while I chose the one piece of art that doesn’t feature the Punisher, opting for a Silver Sable shot instead, rest assured that he’s in the other four.

• Westfield Comics in Madison, Wis., is using IDW’s Presidential Material to divine the outcome of the election. Well, sort of. The retailer is keeping a tally of which candidate biography sells more: John McCain’s or Barack Obama’s. Heck, it’s probably as accurate as some of the polls. [The Isthmus]

• The spotlight is on Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson today as he’s interviewed about donating copies of all of his company’s books to Portland State University, and about the state of the industry. [The Oregonian, ICv2.com]

• In her “All the Comics in the World” column, Shaenon K. Garrity ropes in a panel to decide which American cartoonists draw attractive men. Finder creator Carla Speed McNeil gets the most mentions. [ComiXology]

• Rapper Percy Carey, writer of the Vertigo graphic novel Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, chats with comics blogger and analyst John Mayo. [Complex.com]

• A new graphic novel focuses on little-known Confederate general Patrick Cleburne. “He is the perfect vehicle to tell a story from the Confederate point of view,” says creator Justin Murphy. [Trumann, Ark., Democrat]

• Penny Arcade co-creator Mike Krahulik talks about the Penny Arcade Adventures video games. [GamePro Arcade]

Warner Bros. picks up film rights to second Nolent comic

Comic creator Alexis Nolent’s Headshot has been snatched up by Warner Bros. Headshot, or Du plomb dans la tête in French, is a graphic novel series that was published in France by Casterman and drawn by Colin Wilson.

As we mentioned back in March, Nolent’s Cyclopes is also being adapted into film by Warner Bros. Meanwhile, Nolent’s The Killer is being adapted at Paramount.

The Ticker

• The big Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game hits North American stores on Nov. 16 and European stores on Nov. 21, just in time for the holidays.

• If you live in Canada, you can watch for several of the upcoming Marvel Comics animated shows, like Iron Man, Avengers and Wolverine, on Teletoons next year. [Variety]

• An animated Hot Wheels show will rev its engines on the Cartoon Network next year. [Variety]

Rumors of a rerelease for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 received a boost yesterday when a poster at NeoGAF discovered a rating for the title on the ESRB database.

The entry has since been removed, but not before Joystiq and other sites grabbed screencaps. The game, which is listed for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, received a “Teen” rating for “Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence.”

It’s possible the title is heading for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. However, no official announcement has been made.

Originally released in 2000, MvC2 received only a limited print run because Capcom lost the Marvel license.

If you’ve been following any of the development stories about Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, then you know it’s being slapped with a T for Teen rating instead of the usual M for Mature, which means you’re probably not going to see any images of Scorpion pulling out Batman’s heart any time soon, unless you’ve got some crayons handy.

Gamasutra has a story on the development of the game and the ratings change:

It’s the first Mortal Kombat game in the history of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (which dates back to 1994 and whose founding was spurred by congressional hearings surrounding games such as the original Mortal Kombat) to receive less than a Mature content rating — “and the first Teen rated game this team’s done,” Garcia points out.

Still, the designer thinks the series’ ultra-violent reputation may not be as stark as it once was relative to the industry. “I think [with what's] going down nowadays — besides decapitations and stuff — Mortal Kombat‘s sort of tamed down compared to what other games are doing that have M ratings nowadays,” he says. “We’re still going to have fatalities in there, but they will be toned down fatalities. Scorpion will have his ‘toasty’ fatality, where he burns the guy, but he won’t have, say, ‘cut the guy open’ fatalities.” And while DC Universe villains will have their own fatalities, DC Universe heroes will only be shows brutalizing — but never killing — their opponents.

That’s quite a change for a series that, in its arcade hey day, all but single-handedly brought about the creation of the ESRB. It’s a change that Nate Ralph at Wired questions:

So is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe an honest attempt at ensnaring a new generation of fighter fans by toning down the violence and putting a focus on fun? Or is it just an attempt to cash in on the series’ waning popularity by ditching the violent, Mature ethos for a rating that’ll ensure the widest access to consumers’ wallets?

There’s really no way to know until the finished product actually hits shelves. But here’s the question that’s troubling me: Are any of the folks who predicted that young gamers like me would grow up to become violent psychopaths going to take notice?

Via G4, check out the new trailer for the upcoming video game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, which comes out Oct. 21:

Last week Midway revealed the box art for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, but now it’s rolling out the special North American Kollector’s Edition — featuring with hand-painted art by Alex Ross.

The Kollector’s Edition comes with a removable print by Ross, and a 16-page comic by Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias.

The full press release, and the Xbox 360 cover, can be seen after the break.

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After much back and forth in the online rumor mill, it’s now confirmed that Punisher: War Zone has received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.

According to CHUD, the rating is for “pervasive strong brutal violence, language and some drug use,” which should please fans hoping to see Frank Castle strew Marvel MAX-style carnage across the big screen.

It also may satisfy director Lexi Alexander, who was the subject of another long-running rumor. When Alexander didn’t attend Comic-Con, word circulated that conflict with Lionsgate over the movie’s rating — the studio supposedly had wanted a toned-down PG-13 — had led to her departure from War Zone.

Punisher: War Zone opens on Dec. 5.

The Ticker

• Tom Rothman, co-chairman of 20th Century Fox, says the studio is “thinking very seriously about” about a reboot of 2003′s Daredevil: “… I think that the thing the Hulk showed although, it did what it did, is that it is possible, that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance. That it is possible. And I think that you see that when they did Batman Begins, the first Nolan movie, that you can have made some mistakes along the way or movies that the audience wasn’t that crazy about and then given the proper amount of time and the right creative vision behind it, you can, to use your word, reboot.” [IESB]

• Warner Bros. is investing heavily in marketing LEGO Batman: The Videogame, which hit stores last week. TV spots, print ads, McDonald’s Happy Meals, and a toy line are all supporting the game. [Variety]

Midway has released more screenshots and the box art for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the big crossover fighting game due out next month.

Kotaku has more images, but you can see Captain Marvel taking on Raiden after the break.

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I’ve been playing the new Lego Batman video game (PS3 version), working on a review for the newspaper, and thought I’d share some of my initial impressions about the title:

* I haven’t played any of the previous “Lego” games, but I imagine they follow the same basic, stripped-down formula: button-mash battles, platform climbing, a bit of puzzle-solving, collecting lots and lots of “studs” (keep your mind out of the gutters pal) to purchase special items and extras, and some sections where you “build” stuff out of Legos (and by build I mean hold down on the circle button).

* Overall it’s a pretty decent, if overly simplistic formula. There’s some variety in that by moving the controller stick this way or that while button-mashing you can pull off some fancy moves, like making Robin do backflips. But overall this is an average action/puzzle game with a cute makeover, and I can see the combat aspects becoming repetitive very quickly.

* I’m a bit slow, so I always appreciate a good tutorial when I start a new game to show me the ropes. Lego Batman has a horrible one though. The instructions show up for a few seconds and then disappear, never to return, even when you pause the game. As a result, I had to restart the first level, because I couldn’t figure out (or remember, take your pick) what I was supposed to do to get to the next section (more on that later).

* One obvious new addition is the ability to throw batarangs at far-away objects and enemies. You do this by holding down on one of the buttons, moving the cursor to the stuff you want smacked and then letting go. It sounds simple, but it doesn’t handle well and could have stood some tweaking.

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PlayStation releases some screenshots from The Punisher: No Mercy video game announced earlier this week, and answers questions from readers.