Monthly Archives: December 2015
Tarantino Almost Made a Luke Cage Movie Before Pulp Fiction
Writer and director Quentin Tarantino very nearly made a Luke Cage movie before Pulp Fiction, according to an interview with Chris Hardwick.
The news comes from the latter's Nerdist Podcast (via Polygon), wherein Tarantino explained that he was interested in making a film about Luke Cage. The director — who had yet to become a household name with Pulp Fiction — was apparently eyeing Laurence Fishburne for the starring role. The studio wanted Wesley Snipes, and Tarantino began to worry about typecasting either actor.
Daily Deals: Just Cause 3, The Force Awakens on Blu-ray
Just Cause 3 for $44.99 from Amazon
Move fast! This one-day-only sale price has knocked 15 bucks off the normal $60 MSRP for Just Cause 3 on both PS4 and Xbox One. (And the Collector's Edition is discounted as well.)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray for $24.99 from Amazon
This Is What Computers Think Humans Look Like
Scientists have trained an artificial neural network to create images of human faces on demand.
According to New Scientist, Alec Radford from Indico and Facebook's AI research lab in New York have performed experiments with a generative adversarial network. One part of the system creates fake data which tries to fool the other part into using it as actual training data.
Volume PS Vita Release Date Announced
Developer Mike Bithell has announced a release date for Volume on PlayStation Vita.
According to the game’s official site, Volume will launch on January 5, 2016 in North America and January 6 in Europe. The stealth-action game was released for PlayStation 4 and PC back in August, but had been delayed due to development “roadblocks”.
“I know many of you have been waiting eagerly for this version of the game,” Bithell said. “It’s been a source of frustration for me that we didn’t get to release it alongside the other platforms. We missed our launch day for personal reasons, but having missed that date, we decided to take the opportunity to pour a great deal of attention into the Vita version.”
Russian Man to Sue Fallout 4 Dev for Video Game Addiction
A Russian man is suing the creators of Fallout 4 because he didn't know the game would "become so addictive." The 28-year old man from Krashnoyarsk claims he lost his job, friends, and wife because of the game.
Russian news outlet RT reported that the plaintiff is asking Bethesda for 500,000 roubles—around $7,000 USD—to pay for the emotional distress that the game brought on.
The man claims had he know the game would have hooked him so completely, he "would have become a lot more wary of it."
"I would not have bought it, or I would have left it until I was on holiday or until the New Year holidays," the man said in a statement.
Deadpool Exploits the Allure of Chimichangas in New IMAX Trailer
Deadpool's latest teaser trailer is here to remind us all to see his film in IMAX in 2016.
Just under 30 seconds long, the trailer primarily features star Ryan Reynold's in-character gags as Deadpool (though there is just enough sword-on-ax action between the merc with a mouth and the even more villainous Ajax to whet one's appetite).
The teaser is the latest entry in the movie's "12 Days of Deadpool" promotional campaign, which is leading up to a newer, fuller trailer on Christmas Day.
In the meantime, enjoy your enormous chimichanga.
Steven Strom is a freelance games writer whose name and face are plastered across the internet. One such place you can find him is Twitter.
Steam Winter Sale Discounts MGS5, Witcher Series, More
Valve has kicked off its annual Steam Winter Sale, discounting a wide array of PC games, including Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the entire Witcher franchise.
Konami's critically acclaimed stealth-action game is has been discounted to just over $40. Meanwhile, role-playing fans can pick up Skyrim for a whopping 75 percent off both the Legendary and standard editions, which are now $10 and $5, respectively.
Additionally, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is on sale for $30, while the Enhanced Editions of both The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings have been discounted 85 percent, slashing the price of the former to $1.50 and $3 for the sequel.
The Simpsons’ 25th Anniversary Toys Arrive
The Simpsons are celebrating their 25th birthday, which essentially means that if the show were a person, they could rent a car and subsequently have no one care about any of their birthdays thereafter. Thankfully, it’s a TV show, so people will still love it until the end of time… you know, unlike people.
A complete collection with all variants.
Kidrobot’s most successful vinyl toy crossover to mainstream media has, of course, been the Simpsons. With several different lines of Simpsons Mini Figures available, including the Treehouse of Horror, Kidrobot has unleashed this 25th Anniversary Edition line-up featuring variations of popular characters that will no doubt be highly collectible. The blind box toys (meaning you don’t know which one you’ll get until you open them) are currently available on Kidrobot’s website at $11.99 each.
Roddy Piper, Trish Stratus Coming to WWE 2K16
WWE 2K16's Legends Pack is available now and brings six new playable characters to the roster, 2K Games has announced.
Included in the pack are WWE Hall of Famers Dusty Rhodes, Lita, Mr. Perfect, Roddy Piper, and Trish Stratus, as well as WWE Legend Big Boss Man. You can watch the characters in action in the trailer below.
The Legends Pack will be available on PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One for $9 or as part of the WWE 2K16 Season Pass for $25.
Also available for standalone purchase today is WWE Hall of Famer Arnold Schwarzenegger, playable as T-800 from the Terminator film franchise. The two-character pack is available for $5 or for free for those who pre-ordered the game. Schwarzenegger sat down with IGN earlier this year to discuss T-800 coming to WWE 2K16.
Yokai Watch Movie Outperforms Force Awakens in Japan
While Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been breaking records left and right, the film was no match for the selling power of Yo-Kai Watch in Japan.
According to Yahoo! Movies (via Kotaku), Yo-Kai Watch the Movie 2: King Enma and the 5 Stories, Nyan! was the number one movie in Japan over the weekend, selling 975,000 tickets. Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams' space epic placed second with 800,000 tickets sold.