Monthly Archives: April 2015
New Images Released from X-Men: Apocalypse Set
A number of photos from the set of X-Men: Apocalypse have given us a look at the film's depiction of several classic X-Men characters.
Including looks at Jean, Scott, and Jubilee (whose costume looks almost identical to the way it's seen in the comics), these images come to us courtesy of X-Men: News on Twitter.
1st Unofficial Look At Jubilee In X-Men: Apocalypse #XMenApocalypse #XMen @Nypopcorn2 @M101_Mutant101 @XMenSaga pic.twitter.com/2m7Oi1jACS
Hitman: Agent 47 to Get a One-Shot Prequel Comic
The upcoming film Hitman: Agent 47 is getting a one-shot prequel comic courtesy of Boom! Studios.
In it, the eponymous Agent 47 will hunt an adversary, with the conclusion of the comic tying in with the start of the upcoming 20th Century Fox film. The book will be written by F.J. DeSanto with art done by Jesus Hervas.
According to Hollywood Reporter, this is the latest in a string of comics released from the partnership between Boom! Studios and 20th Century Fox. The comics publisher has also released books for The Maze Runner, Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow and Sons of Anarchy.
Tons of Star Wars Games Are on Sale for Star Wars Day
The new Battlefront game is still far out, but several modern and classic Star Wars games are now on sale for cheap on services like Steam, PSN, Xbox Live, and Good Old Games.
As Star Wars day approaches – May the 4th be with you – we'll update this page with any new Star Wars sales that spring up. Here are all of the deals we've seen so far, including sale prices and end dates.
All figures below are in USD and include the regular price, followed by the sale price in parenthesis.
Sale ends May 7.
Steam has added the X-Wing series to its library. Each entry in the classic space combat simulator is discounted by 10%.
New Batman & Joker Movie Rumors
Photos of actor Ben Affleck purportedly arriving in Toronto and making his way onto the set of Suicide Squad have found their way online, leading to further speculation that Batman (and/or Bruce Wayne) will cameo in the DC Comics supervillain movie.
Previous reports claimed that Batman would cameo in Suicide Squad via surveillance or security camera footage. The spy photo below shows Affleck dressed in a suit and sporting grey temples as he also did in the new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
X-Men: Apocalypse Might Mark the End of the Series
X-Men: Apocalypse could be the film to finish the X-Men series continuity that Bryan Singer originally began with the first movie.
Screen Crush reports that according to a tipster, Apocalypse and Wolverine 3 will close out the series. That would make Apocalypse the last X-Men film, and Wolverine the last of the character-based spin-offs.
In some ways this makes sense. Hugh Jackman has said he will no longer play Wolverine after the next character film, and Apocalypse has the X-Men facing a mythical, global threat. Naturally, of course, this wouldn't prevent FOX from restarting the franchise from scratch outside of the Singer continuity.
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved Review
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved, the free update to last fall's Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions, is a tale of two radically different tapes. On the first tape, you have a twin-stick shooting level design and potentially supernatural reflexes pushed to their limits in beautiful, technicolor harmony. On the other tape rests some of the most punishing, unfairly designed boss fights this side of a SNES side-scroller. That Geometry Wars 3 remains a great game despite boss fights that transformed me into an apoplectic, rage-fueled, profanity-spewing monster is a testament to just how much Lucid Games has perfected its score-chasing, polyhedral exploding craft.
Let's talk about the first tape. The first time I saw the score required to pass "Super Sequence," the penultimate level of Geometry Wars 3's new Hardcore Mode, I let out a weak laugh. 20 million points … I consider myself to be an above-average Geometry Wars player, but 20-million-point runs tend to be reserved for my best Pacifism performances. My laugh was premature. It should have been reserved for the level itself. Countless swarms of purple pinwheels, yellow flowers, pink twin cuboids, magnetic blue octahedrons, and yellow rockets filled my screen in a flash of color that would make the opening credits of Enter the Void blush. And I died. I died very quickly.
But, as Geometry Wars has always shown, there is a pattern to this madness. The pattern involves dozens of enemies coming to life at once and forcing you to channel your inner "Luke Skywalker on the Death Star run" persona while playing more aggressively and dangerously than you ever have before. Geometry Wars gave me the tools to survive, though, and after far fewer attempts than I would have ever guessed, I breezed to 50 million points, which was still 100 million points shy of a two-star score (and 250 million points shy of a three-star run). Surviving pushed me to my very limits in a way that few games ever have, but I felt satisfied that I had earned my victory.
Let's move on to the second tape: "Aventurine." Oh, "Aventurine." I will remember your name for the next 10 years. One of the most maligned elements of Geometry Wars 3's original release last year was its boss fights. Dimensions Evolved only makes it worse. "Aventurine" is the second boss fight (of four) in the game's "Ultimate" campaign, which adds 40 new levels to the Adventure Mode. I'm ranked in the top 50 in the world right now on that level with a score I obtained without ever even beating the boss. Similarly, I'm ranked 27th in the world for a run on the final and only boss on Hardcore Mode, and I still haven't beaten it. I suspect I never will.
It took me multiple hours to conquer any given boss in Geometry Wars 3's Ultimate Mode, but "Aventurine" was my own personal Rubicon. I spent over four hours with the spawn location and attack patterns of every single damn enemy on that level memorized -- which occurred after about half an hour or so -- sitting straight up and staring at my TV with such intensity that I saw explosions in the back field of my vision any time I looked away. Geometry Wars had burned itself into the essence of my vision. But I couldn't beat the son of a … word that's inappropriate for a family-friendly publication. When I finally did persevere -- after escaping from near collisions and deaths by mere pixels -- I didn't feel like Rocky toppling Apollo Creed, ecstatic in my triumph and hard work. I felt like a war-torn veteran crawling out of the foxhole after months of nightly bombardments. I never want to fight that boss again. I never want to play any of those boss fights again.
I would rather fight Bloodborne's Cleric Beast with just my fists and no blood vials than ever touch "Aventurine" or Hardcore Mode's "Topaz" ever again. Yet, despite the most agonizing video game bosses I've ever forced myself to overcome--minus "Topaz" because there's only so much I'm willing to let my blood pressure rise for the sake of a video game achievement--Geometry Wars 3 is better than ever before. Dimensions Evolved has all the content of a minor expansion pack at the price of a free update. This is the standard version of the game moving forward, and minus the abysmal boss fights, Geometry Wars 3 is better, more dynamic, and bigger than ever before.
Hardcore Mode addresses the second biggest complaint that long-time Geometry Wars devotees had with the base game: unlocking drones. Drones and drone supers marred the inherent purity of Geometry Wars' scoreboards. Players who spent more time upgrading their drones had an advantage when trying to reach higher scores. Hardcore Mode does away with drones so only you and the phantasmagoric-colored battlefield determine your performance. Many of these levels were designed with drones in mind, however, so the game supplies plenty of super states to help level the playing field in your favor, which you'll appreciate when well over a hundred enemies are on the screen at once. With the exception of the last level, "Topaz," the 20 remixed Hardcore levels send a jolt of adrenaline right into the veins of long-time series fans.
Ultimate Mode is a larger addition, featuring 40 new levels and a host of new level types and enemies. While the continued presence of drones in Ultimate Mode may displease fans who can't abide that gameplay addition, the excellent level design should soothe most other fans’ concerns. Whether you’re on the level that plays out like an old-school, bullet-hell, Ikaruga-style shooter with fatal red walls pushing you ever forward or playing the new "Scorpion" mode, which feels like Centipede on steroids, Ultimate Mode constantly pushes the play palette of the series forward while maintaining the breakneck challenge and pace the series is loved for.
I put more than a dozen hours into Dimensions Evolved, but I already fear the dozens of hours more that I'm going to dump into Ultimate and Hardcore Modes as I try to best my own scores and those of my friends. The boss fights remain a titanically poor decision for a series focused on lightning-fast, frenetic gameplay, but when the rest of the package has only gotten better and more varied, they're a frustrating but small price to pay.
Become a Whale in Grand Theft Auto 5
They're here! The Grand Theft Auto 5 mods are really happening the way we all imagined: drive an ATV as a deer, pummel into traffic as a humpback whale, take a walk around town as John Marston's... disembodied upper half.
Two weeks ago we checked out the LinGon Trainer, which let you enable common Grand Theft Auto cheats on the fly. Today, we dove in to the Native Trainer, paired with modder Alexander Blade's Script Hook V library. Check out the slideshow down below or our playthrough video up top.
13 Best Batman vs. Joker Battles
Joker isn't just the greatest Batman villain, he's one of the greatest villains in all of pop culture. Lately, DC's ongoing Batman comic has been exploring the latest epic confrontation between these two enemies. With the long-awaited release of Batman #40 this Wednesday, we'll finally see how Batman stops his most deadly foe.
In celebration of this issue, we've picked out 13 of our favorite Batman/Joker battles from the comics, movies, TV series and video games. This wasn't simply about choosing the most iconic Joker stories, but rather those that feature a physical confrontation between the two characters. Check out our picks and let us know your favorite showdowns in the comments below.
Game of Thrones is Even Cooler in Japan
Just when you didn't think Game of Thrones couldn't get any better, Japan has to go and prove us all wrong. If you're in Tokyo and want to pick up any book in George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, you might just find a super rad, manga-style cover by artist Noriko Meguro. Take a look at the gallery below.
You can expand the slideshow above to view images in higher resolution. You can also view much larger images in our Japanese Game of Thrones Cover Gallery. Also, if you think these covers are different than ours, check out the crazy amount of differences in the HBO series compared to the books.
Zen Studios Teases Valve Pinball
Zen Studios' next pinball table will be themed around the works of Valve Software.
Via Twitter, the developer released an image displaying Valve's logo alongside theirs at the foot of a pinball table.
Which of Valve's franchises will be featured on the table remains unclear, and no release date has yet been announced.
Zen Studios' pinball games are currently available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PC, mobile, and PlayStation Vita. They have announced several new tables recently, including Star Wars Rebels and Avengers: Age of Ultron.