Monthly Archives: June 2016
Michael Bay to Direct VR Project
Michael Bay is partnering with Los Angeles–based startup The Rogue Initiative to direct and produce a "gritty, danger-close action" virtual reality project.
Bay will also serve as a strategic adviser along with Interstellar producer Linda Obst. The Rogue Initiative is reportedly looking for additional investment and strategic partnerships, and is planning to distribute its projects through Sony PlayStation, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung GearVR, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.
"I'm excited about building new visual worlds for this innovative medium with them," Bay said in a statement, and as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
We Happy Few Looks Like BioShock, But Is a Different Beast
The intro to Compulsion Games' We Happy Few comes straight out of George Orwell's nightmares, with people taking pills of Joy to ignore the fact that their dystopian world is so terrible. It's an aesthetic that immediately drew comparisons to BioShock, a franchise with a similar style and tone, but the setting is where the similarities both begin and end.
Compulsion debuted the opening of We Happy Few at E3 2016 and introduced people to Arthur Hastings, an employee at City Hall's Department of Archives, Recycling and Printing in the not-so-happy town of Wellington Wells. He proves to be a Downer, a person who refuses to take the Joy drug that prevents them from seeing how dystopic the world has become, and his escape from Wellington Wells drives a big portion of the game.
WB Games President on Health of the Toys-to-Life Genre
As Lego Dimensions prepares for its second year of content, it enters a Toys-to-Life genre that features one less competitor with the recently announced end to production of Disney Infinity. But despite that loss, WB Games isn’t making the genre less of a priority.
“We still view
as a large and important category for us to participate in,” WB Games president David Haddad said in an interview with IGN.
Wild Dog Joins Arrow; Dr. Nate Joins Legends of Tomorrow
The fifth season of Arrow will introduce another character from the DC Comics' universe, as Rick Gonzalez (Rosewood, Mr. Robot) has been cast as Wild Dog.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Gonzalez's character will appear as "a new vigilante in Star City whose reckless and cocksure nature prompts Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) to take him under his wing." Gonzalez will make his debut as Wild Dog during the Season 5 premiere and will appear in "multiple episodes" of Arrow thereafter.
Rick Gonzalez as Isaac Vera in Mr. Robot
Ricky Gervais’ Office Spinoff Movie Coming to Netflix in the US
David Brent: Life on the Road will be coming to Netflix in the US in 2017.
It won't be on Netflix in the UK, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand, but the film will be getting a theatrical release in those territories this August.
Life on the Road is a spinoff documentary from The Office, which catches up with Ricky Gervais' character, David Brent, 12 years after the original show. Brent is now "a travelling salesman, chasing his dream of rock stardom by self-financing a UK tour with his band, ‘Foregone Conclusion’."
The cast also includes Ben Bailey Smith as Dom, and Tom Basden as road manager Dan. New office colleagues for Brent include Jo Hartley as Pauline, Tom Bennett as Nigel, Andrew Brooke as Jezza, and Nina Sosanya as his therapist. The drummer in Brent's band is Andy Burrows of Razorlight and We Are Scientists.
Henry Rollins Auditioned for Negan Role in The Walking Dead
The comic book version of The Walking Dead's Negan is reportedly based on musician and actor Henry Rollins.
Speaking to Forbes, Rollins said artist Charlie Adlard—"who worked on the comic book"—based the character on him, so he considered himself a "shoo-in" for the TV adaptation. "The internet was wild with speculation because in the upcoming season they were going to introduce the character," he said.
Henry Rollins
Skylanders Academy to Debut on Netflix This Fall
The Skylanders are heading to school later this year in Skylanders Academy, the first animated series from Activision's new film and television division.
Activision has announced that Skylanders Academy will debut on Netflix this fall and will have at least two seasons on the streaming service. Starring Justin Long as Spyro, Ashley Tisdale as Stealth Elf, Breaking bad's Jonathan Banks as Eruptor and Norm MacDonald as Glumshanks. The show will focus on the Skylanders as they train a new generation of cadets and protect the Skylands from evil.
Susan Sarandon, Parker Posey and James Hetfield are among the additional voice talent featured on the show.
Comic Book Reviews for June 15, 2016
E3 may be dominating all the headlines right now, but it was a huge week for comic lovers as well. DC delivered a trifecta of major Batman comics, including the new Batman #1, the Dark Knight Returns prequel The Last Crusade, and Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso's graphic novel Dark Night: A True Batman Story. If that weren't enough, they also released Titans Rebirth #1 and debuted several key ongoing series with Superman #1, Green Lanterns #1 and Green Arrow #1. Elsewhere, Marvel expanded the scope of Civil War II and kicked off a new Star Wars mini-series and readers got new installments of fan-favorite books like Invincible, Lumberjanes, Lazarus and Jughead.
Scroll down to read our reviews for these and various other new releases, and be sure to let us know your favorite books of the week in the comments below.
Steam Summer Sale 2016 Dates Revealed
PayPal has revealed the Steam Summer Sale will begin on June 23.
An email from PayPal reads: "Brace yourself. We can exclusively reveal that the Steam summer sale will go live on 23rd June. Now you know when it's going to happen, you can get ready for the savings."
In the past, PayPal has leaked the dates for Steam's autumn and winter sales. This year, it has changed season once again, however it seems to be in a more official capacity this time.
There's no end date listed, but the summer sale usually lasts for over a week.
The 8 Things We Learned While Playing Horizon: Zero Dawn
After a couple of very impressive - if rather overwhelming - E3 demos, Guerrilla Games' Horizon: Zero Dawn finally clicked into place once the controller was in my hand. It’s a huge game with a lot of complex, disparate systems, so I've compartmentalised the 8 things that left the biggest impression on me after my 30 minutes in its world.
Every machine type Horizon: Zero Dawn has its own strengths and weaknesses and must be approached with these in mind. With her focus ability (activated with a click of the right thumbstick), protagonist Aloy can assess which ammo type - explosive, fire, etc - is right to use in any given encounter, and see weak spots to target on the machine’s body. She can also use the environment to her advantage - before taking on a particularly tough enemy I was able to use long grass to pop off a few shots in hiding, while it was distracted by a herd of smaller machines.