Monthly Archives: October 2015
Burnout Spiritual Successor Coming from Criterion Founders
The co-founders of Criterion Games, the studio best known for creating hit arcade racing franchise Burnout, have announced they're working on a spiritual successor to the series.
Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry departed Criterion back in 2014 to set up Three Fields Entertainment, leaving the rights to the Burnout franchise behind them. Despite this, they're clearly aware there's a demand out there for a new entry in the series that EA and Criterion aren't interested in fulfilling.
"Two things. Our first game is a multiplayer sports game. Coming Spring 2016. Then we make a driving game," a series of Tweets explains. "What sort of driving game you ask? A spiritual successor. Speed. Traffic. And Crashing. Lots and lots of crashing.
Batman: Arkham Knight on PC Returns to Sale in Late October
Warner Bros. has announced its intention to return the troubled PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight to sale at the end of October.
A post on the game's Steam page also confirms all the additional downloadable content that's been released for the console versions of the game will also be available at that time should you wish to purchase it.
An interim patch for the game was released in August, designed to fix a host of issues plaguing the game. This update was originally meant to be available in August.
Japan Will Begin Testing Self-Driving Taxis in 2016
Japan will begin testing autonomous taxis with passengers on city roads in 2016, the government and Robot Taxi Inc. announced on Thursday.
The trial robot taxi service will first be offered to fifty residents in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture to run errands like grocery shopping, The Wall Street Journal reports. Running no more than 3 km (roughly 2 miles), the trips will run along major city roads and will be accompanied by crew incase something goes awry.
The robot taxis are retrofitted Toyota Estima hybrid minivans from Robot Taxi, a venture between Sony-owned ZMP and DeNA Co, the same company that is helping develop Nintendo IP-based smartphone games. Japan hopes to commercialize the driverless taxi service by the 2020 Olympics.
Stephen Hawking Says Advanced Alien Life Could Wipe Out Humanity
Theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking believes that a visit from an advanced alien species may end in Earth being invaded.
"If aliens visit us, the outcome could be much like when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans," Professor Hawking said in an interview with Spain's El Pais. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach."
"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."
New Street Fighter 5 Character Laura Leaked
Street Fighter V is reportedly getting an all-new Brazilian female character.
Japanese video game magazine Famitsu has posted images online of Laura performing various moves and grappling with Ryu. Based on the images and the types of strikes and holds she's using, it appears her fighting style might be some form of Brazilian jiu-jitsu as opposed to the series' other Brazilian mainstay Blanka, who practices his version of capoeira.
It does appear Laura might share some similarities with Blanka as she also appears to have some lighting-based attacks, including what appears to be some sort of projectile.
A Ghostbusters Animated Movie is in the Works
An animated Ghostbusters movie is in the works at Sony Pictures Animation.
Variety reports that the film will be produced by original Ghostbusters helmer Ivan Reitman, while SPA president Kristine Belson and Michael Lachance will oversee the project.
No plot details have been revealed, so it's unknown whether or not the film will follow on from Paul Feig's upcoming live action reboot in any way,
The announcement suggests we might see more animation extensions of Sony's live-action film franchises in the future, considering the company is also making an animated Spider-Man film produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie).
Terminator Sequels on Hold
Looks like we won't be seeing another Terminator movie any time soon.
In a recent article from THR on the dangers of financiers-turned-creatives, the publication noted that though Terminator: Genisys racked up $440 million worldwide, the film - at a $150 million-plus budget - will still probably lose money, and sources say "the notion of a Terminator universe is on hold indefinitely".
Terminator: Genisys was planned as the first of a series of Terminaor films intended to bring about a universe franchise and of course, breathe new life into the series. Unfortunately, it tanked domestically (most of that earlier figure came from an $112 million gross in China) and was reviled by the majority of critics. In our review, we said "it’s hard not to think maybe this should be the end of the line for this series."
Just Cause 3 Map One of the Biggest Ever In Gaming
The setting for Just Cause 3, the fictional island of Medici in the Mediterranean Sea, is over 400 square miles, according to the game's developer Avalanche Studios.
"I think we still have one of the biggest maps ever," said game director Roland Lesterlin. The island will be comprised of 3 major regions. Region 1 is described as a "medley of wealthy and poor towns" with agricultural areas. Region 2 is dotted with military bases and "very poor fishing towns."
Region 3 is a heavily forested, mountainous wilderness region. "It's sort of our Game of Thrones," art director Zach Schlappi said.
The environment for the game grew out of two factors. "We started off thinking about what the gameplay was, who Rico was," Lesterlin said. This led to what he calls a "very vertical" environment. The developers wanted a map that allowed for Rico to get "very quickly into the air," and the Mediterranean setting grew out of that desire for verticality.
Iron Banner, Trials of Osiris Coming Back to Destiny with Updates
On October 13, Destiny's Iron Banner will return after an extended hiatus for The Taken King release. Trials of Osiris, the equally popular mode will also be returning on October 16th, but each will have some changes.
Some notable changes to the Iron Banner includes an automatically tempered buff that will increase as days pass, weapons and armor will now drop during the event, and Legendary Marks will now be required to purchase items instead of glimmer. Full notes are below.
- The tempered buff is now automatically applied and continues to grow in effectiveness each day of the event.
- The alt catch-up buff and Iron Medallion mechanics are unchanged.
The Top 10 Supernatural Episodes
The Impala has driven across thousands of miles in the 11 years the impressively durable Supernatural has been on the air, and it's going to keep going because The CW series is returning for Season 12 in October. Sam and Dean Winchester have to keep their weaponry sharp and stock up on more salt because these wayward sons must keep on carrying on.
With Season 11 hitting Blu-ray and DVD this coming week, we decided it's time to revisit our choices for the top 10 episodes of Supernatural and update our list accordingly. Don't forget to head to the comments and tell me about your picks for the best episodes.