If WolfTeam’s too intense for you, you can still get your first person shooter werewolf action in Battlefield Heroes, which has introduced werewolf and vampire sets with which to trick out your heroes. If you want to rock Grim’s Varg werewolf set you’ll need to have a hero in the Royal Army and 1,800 Battlefunds to spare. Your purchase will gain you these fine items, plus a Wold Howl gesture and a Claw Attack:

With the premiere of “The Wolfman” only days away (remember when it was supposed to come out in 2008?) the web is sprouting Wolfman stories like so many tufts of fur from the collar of Benicio del Toro’s vest. Rather than spamming the site with a new post every time something interesting comes up, I thought I’d collect them all here. Enjoy!

• As part of a big press push last week, there were a lot of cast / crew interviews. Dread Central’s got interviews with Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, and ShockTillYouDrop.com had a nice chat with director Joe Johnston.
• Namco has released a Wolfman side-scrolling game for mobile devices. If you have a supported phone, you can “play through 10 thrilling stages as both Lawrence Talbot and The Wolfman and experience the brute strength and insatiable bloodlust that launched a legacy of horror!” My carrier isn’t supported, so, uh, if it’s good, let me know. It certainly looks cool!
• Bloody-Disgusting was one of several horror media web sites to get their paws on a recording of the vaunted Wolfman howl. Effective, and much better (in my opinion) than the shrill American Werewolf in London howl!
• Way back in November, Universal released a short “behind the scene” featurette. There are some comments from Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and producer Scott Stuber, and some trailer-style footage.
• As long as we’re talking about stuff from November, here are two rambling but worthwhile interviews from Ain’t It Cool News: one between Joe Johnston and Harry Knowles and another longer, rambley, spoilerific but fascinating conversation between some of the AICN guys and Rick Baker.
• Internet-to-TV providers Boxee have developed a Wolfman app as part of their public beta.
• Early reviews are starting to arrive. Here’s one from the New York Observer [warning: spoilers!].
• A fifth TV spot has surfaced, but it’s nothing we haven’t already seen: a silhouette of a claw, Del Toro getting dunked in ice water, and Rick Baker’s old-gypsy-guy-getting-killed cameo.

If all of this isn’t enough to keep you busy, stay tuned for more as we get closer to Friday!

Sega Saturno and Hidden Palace have a Christmas present for you: a torrent of the previously unreleased Werewolf: The Apocalypse game for the Sega Saturn. These two great gaming communities raised the funds to legally obtain the rights to distribute this prototype, just so you could have it. Capcom was working on this back in 1996, but for whatever reason, the game didn’t get beyond this prototype. You can torrent the ROM right here, although you’ll need a Saturn emulator to play it. You may also want to check out this GameSetWatch article about the release. Hat tip: ArcLight.

Here’s an assortment of items that have hit my inbox over the course of October, but that I’ve been too busy or distracted to post.

• The Yorkshire Post has an interview with Jenny Agutter, who played nurse Alex Price in An American Werewolf in London. She discusses her role in AWIL and talks about how the audience reacted to the initial screening of the film.
• The Grosse Pointe Farms Department of Public Works in Michigan is home to a boulder that bears the footprint of Le Loup Garou, the werewolf of Grosse Pointe. Hooray for urban legends!
• Here’s a printable 3D werewolf paper craft, in case you’re locked in a room with a colour printer and 15 minutes to kill. I may have crafted one of these for my office desk.
• pjstar.com has an interview with Professor Leslie Sconduto, author of “Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity through the Renaissance”. Choice quote: “There’s a werewolf for everyone. Each to its own. One to suit each taste.”
• Champions Online is running a game event called “Blood Moon“, wherein the game’s world is overrun with werewolves, vampires and other monstrous creatures. Players can battle (and become) these monsters, and of course there’s a number of werewolf-related items to be had. There’s a free trial available for anyone who wants to try the game out, but it expires at 10 AM Pacific on November 2nd. That’s in, like, 10 hours. Hurry! HURRY!
• The BSC Beat has an interview with Mark Chadbourn, author of the recently-released Hellboy novel Hellboy: The Ice Wolves. You can read a preview of The Ice Wolves at the Dark Horse web site.
• Scribblenauts is an interesting game that’s just come out for the Nintendo DS. The idea is to solve puzzles by typing in the name of virtually any object you can think of that might help. That object then appears in the game and does its thing, whether it’s a ball, a chainsaw or a platypus. You can probably guess where I’m going with this… yes, you can summon werewolves. Here’s a Youtube video of two garlic and stake-infused werewolves scaring a vampire to death. I want this game just so I can do that, over and over.
• Cinematical explains why it’s worth it to replace your DVD copy of An American Werewolf in London with the recently released Full Moon Edition on Blu-ray. Apparently the new bonus content alone is worth the cost! I wish I had a Blu-ray player.
• I also wish I had an Xbox 360. The LIVE Marketplace has got werewolf costumes for your Xbox 360 Avatar.

Many thanks to people who submitted these items!

I’m not sure what this old axiom (The voice of the people is the voice of God) has to do with this contemporary throwback videogame. Nevertheless, the game is awesome enough to feature here… in spite of the fact that the werewolves are the ones getting the beat-down.

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei” is part Metal Gear Solid and part Super Mario Bros. You play a bad-ass little 8-bit ninja sent to infiltrate a werewolf-guarded base and rescue a weeping naked child. So I guess you could say the game is part Michael Jackson as well.

Surprisingly addictive and fun. Begin your venture into Real Ultimate Power now!

The official presence of the werewolf-like Worgen as playable characters in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has been confirmed by everyone and their mom, including Blizzard. Check out the official Cataclysm site for more details on the Worgen, including backstory, player models, screenshots and concept art. The official sites seem to be suffering periodic downtime as a result of all the interested visitors, so be gentle. Below are some locally-hosted (hi-res!) copies of the Worgen concept art, in case your refresh button isn’t working.
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Blizzard is getting ready to release an expansion for World of Warcraft, and rumour has it that one of the new playable races will be werewolves in all but name. WoW.com is reporting that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will allow players to play as Worgen, “large, lupine humanoids reminiscent of a werewolf that walks upright, but lopes on all fours to run.” At the moment Worgen are merely NPCs, but if the rumours are true and Cataclysm really does let you choose Worgen as a race, I might have to close down Werewolf-News.com and quit my job, because there won’t be time for anything other than World of Warcraft.

I’m still getting caught up on all of the cool werewolf stuff that’s gone down over the past two weeks. Here’s a few bones for you lycanthrope fans to chew on until tomorrow!

• Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way has obtained the rights to a “gothic reimagining” of Little Red Riding Hood by Orphan screenwriter David Leslie Johnson. No further details yet, other than the fact that DiCaprio probably won’t be starring.
• ShockTilYouDrop.com’s sources indicate that Underworld 4 may be the first film of a new Underworld trilogy that continues the modern-day story of Selene, the vampire played by Kate Beckinsale in the first two Underworld films.
• Game developer Destineer announces “Alien Monster Bowling League” for the Wii, out this fall. “Take to the lanes against various aliens and legendary monsters like werewolves, vampires, zombies and more!” Sounds like bowling with a Mutant League Football twist, which means I’ll be buying it the minute it’s out.
• There are some new production stills from the oft-delayed Wolfman movie, starring Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. No werewolf (sorry, wolfman) content other than a menacing silhouette in one of the photos, but it’s nice to see some movement where this film is concerned. Visit the official Wolfman move site to check out the photos.
• According to Cinematical, House of the Wolf Man, which made a tremendous impression at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, is getting a limited theatrical release on October 1st. I don’t see any mention of this on the film’s MySpace or Facebook pages, but I hope it’s true!

This afternoon I received a message from Melodie Leonard at Aeria Games out of California. She sent me a press release announcing that Aeria has acquired the license for Wolf Team, a post about which you might recall from last month. Read on for the full text of the press release, or dig on this summary: Aeria is one of the top publishers of Free-to-Play online games in North America and Europe, and they will be releasing English- and German-language versions of Wolf Team later this summer. Here’s hoping for an OS X client!
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According to this exclusive by IGN, High Voltage Software has a new game planned for next year, titled “The Grinder”. It’s a first-person shooter for the Wii, designed with a multiplayer experience in mind (similar to Left 4 Dead). HVS Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger describes the game’s setting:

…the game takes place in a world we’ve imagined where monsters are real. Vampires, werewolves, and undead are all a part of everyday life and this world has adapted to their presence. Our group of heroes is a sort of the cryptobiological A-Team of going into areas with infestations and killing everything that moves. We’ve definitely been influenced by lots of great horror movies and the grindhouse style is something we’ve tried to incorporate into our characters and storyline.

I’m really excited about a game like this being developed for the Wii, especially after reading about the game engine, the AI and the lovely array of weapons on offer. The IGN article even has a few samples of background music from the game, including a “Trent Reznor meets Ennio Morricone” track called “Werewolf“.

The Grinder is still under development at the moment– apparently they’re still working out some of the online multiplayer options and the single-player campaign details. The plan is for a Holiday 2010 release, but if you want a sneak peak, check out the article or get yourself to E3 next week for an in-person demo.