Monthly Archives: August 2015
Blizzard on the Possibility of World of Warcraft 2
Blizzard has revealed it has no plans to create a sequel to its highly-successful MMO World of Warcraft.
Speaking to IGN at Gamescom 2015, executive producer J. Allen Brack explained he doesn't believe MMO sequels traditionally work, and admitted the company is already thinking about the expansion that'll come after the recently-announced Legion.
"You know, there’s not really a great model for a successful sequel MMO," he said. "Virtually all of them have been very significant failures and I think we’re very conscious of that – not just small failures, either.
Crackdown 3, Quantum Break and Scalebound Could Hit PC
Microsoft's head of Xbox has admitted there's a small chance its recently-announced raft of Xbox One exclusives could one day crop up on PC.
Speaking to PCGamer following the company's renewed interest in PC gaming after the launch of Windows 10, Phil Spencer acknowledged the likes of Scalebound, Crackdown 3 and Quantum Break may one day appear on PC, but the focus right now is on getting the Xbox One versions out the door.
“In the case of things like Scalebound or Crackdown or Quantum Break, you know, just to be completely honest with you, we started those games before we really looked at expanding into Windows in the way that I wanted to bring as part of becoming head of Xbox,” he said.
‘Mother’ Robot Taught Natural Selection
Scientists at Cambridge University and ETH Zurich have collaborated to build a robot which can "have babies".
According to the research published in journal PLOS One, the 'mother' robot is able to build its own babies out of blocks with motors in them. It then watches them take their first steps, and changes its next baby so it can go further.
Image credit: Cambridge University
Skyrim Sequel Won’t Be Discussed for ‘A Very Long Time’
Anyone hoping for a sequel to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is in for a bit of a wait according to Bethesda’s VP of Marketing.
Speaking to DualShockers at Gamescom, Pete Hines explained the company is focusing all its energies on the upcoming Fallout 4, with it looking like "a very long time" before the team even talks about what its next project will be.
Hines goes on to explain Bethesda Game Studios usually focuses on one title at a time, and doesn't like to split its team. Considering Fallout 4 is still being finished off, with mod support due to be focused on next, it's not surprising The Elder Scrolls VI isn't on the horizon. This is before we even begin to think about the possibility of Fallout 4 DLC.
Sword Art Online: Lost Song Gets Western Release Date
Bandai Namco has announced Sword Art Online: Lost Song will be available in Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and Australasia on November 13, 2015.
The publisher has confirmed the game will be available on both PlayStation 4 and Vita on that date, with a Japanese voiceover and English, French, Italian, German and Spanish subtitles. We don't have a North American date beyond later this year, but we're working on nailing one down.
Sword Art Online: Lost Song is an action-RPG based on the plot of the light novels and anime series Sword Art Online. Fans can explore the worlds of Aincrad and Alfhiem Online as their favorite characters, including Kirito, Leafa, and Asuna.
AT&T Wi-Fi Calling Now Available to iOS 9 Beta Testers
iOS 9 beta testers can now make and receive calls using a Wi-Fi connection, provided they're also AT&T customers.
9to5Mac reports that the feature was spotted last week when the latest iOS 9 beta released, but AT&T had yet to enable the feature on its end. As of yesterday, however, some beta users have been able to access the feature, implying the carrier has begun rolling it out to people.
The Wi-Fi Calling setting can be found under the Phone section in the Settings app, and enabling it will require users to go through a bit of a setup process, which includes accepting a user agreement that warns against using Wi-Fi over cellular when making a 911 call.
Early J.R.R. Tolkien Work to be Published
An unfinished manuscript from Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien will be published later this month.
CNN reports that Tolkien began writing the book, titled The Story of Kullervo, when he was a student at Oxford University in 1914. He had based it on a character in the Finnish poem, The Kalevala. According to the publisher, Tolkien credited the story as his first attempt to write his own legend, and said it was "a major matter in the legends of the First Age."
In the poem, the Kullervo's tribe is slaughtered and he's taken as a slave. He ultimately kills those responsible, then commits suicide. Tolkien reportedly puts a more fantastical spin on it, having Kullervo raised by Untamo, a dark magician. Untamo killed his father and kidnapped his mother, and attempted to kill Kullervo multiple times.
Comic Book Reviews for August 12, 2015
Check out all of this week's comic reviews, then let us know your thoughts in the comments.
DC COMICS
Written by Greg Pak | Drawn by Aaron Kuder
One of the nice things about Superman’s new status quo is that it gets the hero back to his Golden Age roots as a social crusader and defender of the common man. Nowhere is that shift more apparent than this series, as Superman bonds with his new neighborhood and battles a corrupt and misguided police force. This issue offers a rousing conclusion to the current conflict, one that plays well on Clark’s more vulnerable state and the way he continues to inspire those around him. Aaron Kuder’s expressive yet down-to-earth style seems to suit the book more than ever given all these changes. Unfortunately, the story loses some of its punch as this issue wears on. At some point the conflict with the Metropolis police stops reading like a relevant reflection of the real world and more like yet another battle between the man of Steel and a super-powered villain. This is one conflict that shouldn’t be so straightforward. -Jesse
Leaping Tiger is the New App Bringing Gamers Together
In the age of Tinder and Grindr and every other app offering to connect people (ahem) ending in r, it’s a wonder we haven’t seen a tonne of similar apps created specifically for matchmaking gamers. Not that kind of matchmaking - though someone should really get onto that - but an app that finds friends to play the same game as you at the same time.
I’m not alone in this thinking. New Zealand-based start-up company Leaping Tiger has just launched an app of the same name that serves to fill this gap. “Leaping Tiger started as a problem both Jordan
and I had in common, and the more gamers we talked to the more we realised we had a really great solution in our heads,” says co-founder Amy Potter. “We had to build it. So a couple of months later we quit our jobs and did!”
Childhood’s End: GoT’s Charles Dance Had to Play Karellen
On December 14th, Syfy will air the first‑ever adaptation of one of the most influential science-fiction novels of all time, written 60 years ago by Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End.
Starring Mike Vogel (Under the Dome), Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black), Colm Meaney (Star Trek: DS9), Daisy Betts (Last Resort), and Game of Thrones' Charles Dance as "Karellen," the story unfolds with a peaceful invasion of the Earth by a mysterious alien race called the Overlords. Under the rule of the Overlords, war, poverty, and disease are all eradicated from the Earth. And instead, peace, health and prosperity are created for all of humankind. But what price will humanity have to pay for this utopia, and why are the Overlords really here?