Monthly Archives: June 2015
The Stand Movie May Be Accompanied by TV Miniseries
The movie adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand may be accompanied by an eight-part TV miniseries.
The Wrap reports that writer-director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars), who is making the film, is in talks with Warner Bros. and CBS Films to make a a miniseries that segues neatly into the movie. Filming is expected to start early next year, and the TV series and movie would be shot as one production.
The Stand is an ambitiously large story--large enough that late last year, Boone said it would be split into four movies. It appears now the plan is to just produce one movie, with the TV series serving to set the stage. King himself is said to be involved in meetings, and Boone is looking for A-list stars who may be interested in a TV series akin to True Detective. The series is expected to land on Showtime.
Action Henk Coming to Consoles
RageSquid's Action Henk will be coming to PlayStation 3, 4, and PS Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One.
The "lunatic" indie action game -- which is already out on Steam -- tells the tale of an action figure trying to relive his glory days. You must race through the level as quickly as possible, mastering "all the subtle tricks that the physics-based platforming has to offer, including the famous butt-slide."
Writing on the PS Blog today, The Netherlands studio also announced that it has teamed up with Curve Digital to bring the PC game to consoles, but has yet to confirm a release date.
New Plants vs. Zombies Reveal Teased for Monday
The next Plants vs. Zombies game is set to be unveiled Monday, June 8, according to developer PopCap Games' brand strategy lead, Gary Clay.
"All I am going to say is...be ready for Monday @PlantsvsZombies fans," Clay wrote on Twitter. The Tweet was accompanied by an image that reads: "Get ready to soil your plants."
While no further details were provided, the announcement is likely related to a new Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. During a recent earnings report, EA revealed it's planning on releasing a new Plants vs. Zombies game in early 2016. Additionally, a recent job posting by the publisher (spotted by Videogamer) calls for a "talented Interface Designer to help bring the UI of a new Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare game to life."
Our Hopes for WWDC 2015
This week the Tech Fetish crew sits down to discuss our wish list and expectations for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, all the news about Windows 10's July release date, Steam Machine pre-orders, and more.
Hop to the 01:25 mark to get to the tech talk.
Sam Jackson Reveals His Favorite Tarantino Character
With over 150 screen credits to his name, Samuel L. Jackson has played 'em all -- superheroes, secret agents, samurai, Jedi, hit men, and everything in between. However, some of the actor's most iconic roles were in Quentin Tarantino films, of which Jackson has starred in four -- soon to be five with The Hateful Eight. (Or seven, if you count his narration in Inglourious Basterds and small part in the Tarantino-penned True Romance.)
Recently, we got a chance to talk to Jackson about his latest movie Big Game, in which he plays the President of the United States, but we also asked him if he had a personal favorite character he's played in Tarantino's films. "I always liked
Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown Review
In the broadest strokes, science fiction has always been about testing the limits of humanity in strange or unimaginable circumstances. Jules Verne's works raised questions about our boundless curiosity. Films like Blade Runner asked us to look at the Platonic ideal of a life well lived. These questions are important, and they tap the underlying fears and hopes we all share. They are curt expressions of the human experience filtered through the impossible or the surreal.
On the whole, Shadowrun fits into this grand unifying theory of science fiction. It melds classic fantasy elements like dwarves, elves, orcs, and magic with bleeding-edge cybernetics. On top of that, it supposes a future in which corporations take the role of national governments, and the only way to make a decent living is to steal from these cyberpunk renditions of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John. With such a rendition of the future, the game makes some important points about the role of class in this world and the tensions caused by unchecked corporate power. Moreover, cybernetics, while vital to bringing the lower classes up to the same level of physical and mental acumen as their well-funded corporate adversaries, sap users' humanity. Again, we have an implicit question regarding whether the loss of pieces of our anatomy is analogous to the loss of some ethereal sense of self or our souls.
These pieces are all fundamental to Shadowrun. They are an intrinsic part of the property itself, and they cannot be extricated, though Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown certainly tries. In doing so, it betrays its namesake by incorporating a long list of technical and gameplay missteps to create one of the most underwhelming releases in a long time.
Shadowrun Chronicles has the veneer of a proper Shadowrun game. It uses a lot of the lingo, it has the right color palette, and the soundtrack is spot-on for a dystopian Boston. But on closer inspection, the façade is just that. On a minute-to-minute level, the majority of the game is spent running missions. Each one is a turn-based tactical scenario with usually one clear win condition and a few side items or collectibles. You'll infiltrate company X to steal McGuffin Y or hold off rival gang Z for some pre-determined number of turns. These missions are about as rote as they come, and they’re packed to the gills with clichés. At the end of almost every mission, some arbitrary twist occurs that is meant to raise the stakes or establish a sense of tension. However, Boston Lockdown misses too many necessities to be called an engaging drama.
You begin each mission by selecting from a list of NPC helpers to fill out your team. You can also bring other players along with you for cooperative multiplayer--one of Boston Lockdown's signature features. The game expects you to get the same feeling you might if you were playing an original tabletop role-playing game. It tries to foster a community on which players can build an interesting game, but it fails in the most basic ways. Whether you rely on NPCs or bring in outside help, your teammates are disposable and their tangible utility isn't clear. As you prepare for specific missions, Boston Lockdown never provides enough information about the coming challenges for you to make a reasonable, informed choice about which companions would be best to take along. Even worse, no explanation or rundown is given regarding the specific strengths of different classes. You know, for example, that summoners can summon some … things ... to help them in battle, but the game never tells you what scenarios that ability is useful in. I had to fumble my way through missions using trial and error to brute-force a solution to tactical troubles that didn't have easy solutions.
Boston Lockdown misses too many necessities to be called an engaging drama.
That belies a deeper problem--the lack of tactical options at any given juncture. I've said before that great tactics games need to give their characters enough skills and abilities to tackle different problems. As a player, you must be able to think your way through a problem and apply creative solutions to otherwise insurmountable problems. Games like XCOM excel at this. In XCOM, if you find that a group of enemies has you pinned down, you may use explosives to blow open a wall or retreat, forcing enemies to reserve their attacks for the first sign of movement. There is an option to fight back and win in almost any condition.
Shadowrun Chronicles isn't just limited--it's the tactical video game equivalent of checkers. You can move and attack, but not much else. There's no defensive option other than to take cover. Your teammates have virtually no items to use, and items you do collect offer little more than minor stat buffs. The simplicity is odd, because it makes classes simultaneously more and less important. If you need to take down a large group of enemies and spreading out the damage dealt by any one member of your team is of prime importance, picking a summoner is the only viable option. While that's a valid role that can encourage closer cooperation on its own, the fact that you have no other way to accomplish the same goal wholly diminishes Shadowrun Chronicles’ success as a strategy game.
To make matters worse, Shadowrun is also a terrible role-playing game. There are few characters to chat up, and those that do exist have only a handful of lines. There's no character development at all, nothing to react to, and no means through which to play a role. Exploration is limited to a tiny hub world where merchants sell you gear for lackluster missions. Boston Lockdown is set in Boston, of course, but the token references to Fenway Park and a few god-awful voice actors hamming up their Bostonian-ness don’t exude "Boston," one of the most iconic American cities.
It's hard for Boston Lockdown to escape comparisons with the other recent Shadowrun releases, which are far, far superior. They nail their settings, tell rich, deep stories with vibrant characters, and back all that with deep, interesting mechanics. Boston Lockdown, in comparison, is a barely functional demo. Without a solid draw, the game is pointless besides its online co-op, and even then, without a strong system of tactical play to back it, that mode is as pointless as any other.
When Shadowrun Chronicles was first released, the influx of players brought the game's always-connected servers to their knees. It was unplayable for over a week after the release. Now, with some of those obstacles vaulted, it's clear that the underlying game wasn't worth the wait. Shadowrun Chronicles isn't just a bad Shadowrun game. It's a bad game. That it comes from a series with such an exceptional pedigree and plenty of exceptional recent successes just makes the disappointment that much more bitter.
Brian Bendis Talks Ending His X-Men Run
With Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis attending this weekend's Special Edition: NYC comic convention, we hopped on the phone to talk to him about his appearance at the comics-only show, plus we asked him about the end of his X-Men run, the reception to the Powers TV show, and his thoughts on the newly released All-New All-Different Marvel teaser.
Project CARS Sells Over 1 Million Copies
Developer Slightly Mad Studios and Bandai Namco have revealed that Project CARS has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.
The crowd-funded racing simulator crossed the major sales milestone after coming out last month on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. There are also tentative plans for Project CARS to come out on Wii U, though Slightly Mad Studios has struggled with porting the game to Nintendo's home console.
Slightly Mad Studios head Ian Bell celebrated the sales announcement by thanking the community for their feedback and enthusiasm. "To now stand here having reached over a million players in such a short time really justifies the work both the team and the community have done over the years and solidifies Project CARS’ future as the multiplatform racing experience of choice for fans around the world," he said.
Quantum Break Release Window Revealed
Quantum Break will be released sometime between March and May 2016, according to the game's listing on the Xbox Canada website. The site lists Remedy's Xbox One exclusive as "Available Spring 2016."
Originally expected to be released in 2015, Microsoft announced in April it'd be moving Quantum Break to 2016 in order to extend its "incredible portfolio into next year with a monster new IP."
IGN has reached out to Microsoft for comment regarding the accuracy of the listing.
Quantum Break centers around Jack Joyce, a man caught "in a desperate fight to stop the fracture, that threatens to cause the end of time." The game will include an accompanying TV series which follows "the schemes and power play inside Monarch -- the corporation that’s Jack’s main enemy."
DC Movies Claim They Have a “Great Strategy”
Download Keepin' it Reel, Episode 290!
Welcome back to Keepin' It Reel! In this week's podcast, Jim Vejvoda and Chris Carle bring you the latest in genre movie news.
This week's topics include Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Spider-Man, Star Wars Anthology films, Captain America: Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Tron 3, Captain Marvel, Star Trek 3, James Bond, a Big Trouble in Little China remake, and more.