Monthly Archives: June 2016
Overwatch is Getting a Ton of Tweaks
As with any thriving online game, tweaks will always be coming to Overwatch sooner rather than later, but Blizzard's new shooter is planning for a raft of changes already.
The game's official forums are predictably stuffed with comments and suggestions applying to the length and breadth of the 21-character roster, but three characters have been singled out by the designers themselves.
In a post complaining about the power of revolver-toting Offense standout, McCree, Blizzard principal designer Geoff Goodman indicates that changes are coming. Referring to the character's ability to stun and kill many characters with a flashbang-fan the hammer combo, Goodman says:
Why The Rock Won’t be Fighting Al-Qaeda in Doc Savage
IGN recently caught up with Shane Black to discuss new movie The Nice Guys, and while we had him cornered, we asked about Doc Savage, his forthcoming superhero flick that will star Dwayne Johnson as the title character, and most definitely won’t feature ‘The Man of Bronze’ fighting Al-Qaeda in the present day.
“There’s 182 stories in the original cannon, and I must confess I’ve only read 107 of them” he explained. “That’s going to be a blast… Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry are working on the script with me, just seeing those characters that represented my childhood so vividly come to life in a way that I can control is a dream.”
As for whether it will be a period piece, Black is pretty adamant.
New Screenshot Seems to Show Liberty City in GTA 5
A Rockstar artist's portfolio website seems to have revealed an area from GTA IV's Liberty City remade within GTA V's version of the RAGE engine.
Discovered by GTA Forums users Spider-Vice and BlackScout, Adrian Page - who currently works at Rockstar, going by a LinkedIn page - uploaded a series of what appear to be in-engine concepts to the portfolio, of which one appears to be GTA IV's Middle Park location:
PES 2017 Feels Very Similar to the Last Game, and that’s Great
A peek behind the curtain: to preview an established annual sports game is something of a farce. You sit down in a whitewashed room, buoyed only by the gentle waft of supermarket pastry, and play a few scant matches of a game that fans will eventually sink hundreds upon hundreds of hours into. It doesn’t really make sense in the usual “this does this! That does that!” preview format, because a sports game’s quirks and brilliances rarely become clear until you’ve hammered the thing for months.
In the case of PES, there are two options here. I could analyse what I played against each of Konami’s own bullet-pointed new features, buzzword-y shout-outs like “Adaptive AI” (unprovable), or weirdly straightforward stuff like “Goal Keeping” (I’m absolutely positive that was in the last one - yes, I checked, there are several goalkeepers in it).
Person of Interest Creators on Episode 100’s Big Twist
Warning: Full spoilers for the May 31st Person of Interest, “The Day The World Went Away,” below.
The 100th episode of Person of Interest was a hugely eventful one, and ultimately a tragic installment that saw the team losing one of their own - even as the Machine took on a very familiar persona.
I spoke to Person of Interest’s executive producers, Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman, about the death of Root (Amy Acker) in “The Day the World Went Away,” how and why they chose to kill her and how Root lives on, in a way, thanks to the Machine taking on her personality (and voice) for itself.
For more on Person of Interest's 100th episode, check out our review, along with our interview with Amy Acker about what occurred.
Person of Interest Actor on the Huge Change to Their Role
Warning: Full spoilers for the May 31st Person of Interest, “The Day The World Went Away,” below.
The 100th episode of Person of Interest was a huge – and hugely sad – one, as Root (Amy Acker) was killed protecting Finch (Michael Emerson). But with just three episodes left, it was also clear this wasn’t the end for Acker on the series, as the Machine, which Root worked so hard to help, took on her voice and persona, becoming more of a full character than ever before.
I spoke to Acker about this big turn of events, when she found out and what she felt about Root’s fate. We also discussed the incredibly popular Root/Shaw relationship in relation to this twist and what it was like to find herself for the second time, after Angel, finding out she was being killed off on a series, yet would continue on as a god-like entity.
Powers TV Series Finally Available on PSN in Australia & UK
Sony Computer Entertainment Australia has today confirmed the Sony Pictures Television series Powers is available now on PlayStation Network in Australia.
All episodes of the first season, plus the initial three episodes of season 2, hit the PSN today. They can be streamed for no additional cost for PlayStation Plus members. It's also being reported the first three episodes of season 2 are available on the UK PSN (via Videogamer), but the first season is not (absurdly Powers season 1 is only currently available in the UK via Spike TV, and only three episodes have aired at the time of writing.)
James Bond 25 Eyes Series’ First Female Director
The Night Manager director Susanne Bier is one of a "handful" of names being considered to helm the next James Bond film.
According to RadioTimes, Bier is among producer Barbara Broccoli's favorites for the gig—a job that would make her the first woman to director a James Bond movie. If chosen, she'll take over for Sam Mendes, whose last Bond film was Spectre.
Last week, rumors emerged that The Night Manager star Tom Hiddleston was in talks to replace Daniel Craig as Bond. And if Bier takes over, it certainly tips the scale in the actor's favor. However, Broccoli reportedly also met with Fantastic Four actor Jamie Bell for the title role.
Road to E3 2016: Watch Dogs 2
Brace yourselves: E3 2016 is nearly upon us. From June 12-16, the entire gaming industry will converge on Los Angeles to showcase the biggest games that we’ll be playing for 2016 and beyond. We’ve been updating our Games of E3 List whenever news drops, but now we’re going to go even deeper. Every day leading up to the show, we’re going to highlight one of the biggest games that we hope to see more of at E3. Up today: Watch Dogs 2!
Former EA CEO on VR
Former EA CEO John Riccitiello has elaborated on his prediction that we'll see a “gap of disappointment” in the VR market.
Speaking at VentureBeat's GamesBeat summit, the Unity CE said 2016 is a "masking tape and twine year" for VR.
“The truth this year is that from a hardware and a software perspective, it’s a masking tape and twine year,” he said, as recorded by VentureBeat. “These things are barely making it to the shelf. They’re barely making it to the consumer. They do magical things. I’m a giant bull on the long-term opportunities for VR and AR. But these revenue forecasts for the early years—they’re going to miss their numbers in 2016 by 80 percent. They’ll miss them again in 2017 by 60 percent or more.”