Monthly Archives: July 2016

The Top 10 Dungeon Crawlers of All Time

Players have been diving into dungeons since the very earliest days of video games, slaying dragons, stealing treasure, and descending to ever-darker depths in search of fortune, glory, and fun. Today, we’re counting down the top 10 dungeon crawlers of all time.

For the purposes of this list, we're defining “dungeon crawler” as a game mostly confined to a multi-floor dungeon area, featuring plentiful loot and favoring combat and exploration over platforming or deep storytelling.

Wizardy

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Star Trek Beyond to Reveal Series’ First LGBTQ Character

Hikaru Sulu will be openly gay in Star Trek Beyond, the actor playing the character, John Cho, revealed in a recent interview.

Speaking with Australia's Herald Sun, Cho explained that Sulu will have a same sex partner, which the Herald Sun notes is a nod to George Takei, the original actor to portray Sulu, and a daughter in the upcoming film. Takei is openly gay in real life and began playing Sulu in the original 1960's Star Trek series.

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Why AfterShock Comics Wants to Stay Small

After working for Marvel and DC as an editor for nearly 10 years apiece, Mike Marts decided to do his own thing, and last year, alongside Publisher Joe Pruett, he did just that, co-founding AfterShock Comics as Editor-in-Chief. Today, AfterShock announced a new six-issue mini-series by veteran Warren Ellis and artist Phil Hester called Shipwrecked (out October 5, 2016). It's weird, unique, and creator-owned -- something that can be said about every comic in AfterShock's small line.

We conducted a phone interview with Marts to learn why he left the Big Two to start AfterShock, what makes their comics different from other publishers, what lessons (good and bad) working for the Big Two taught him, and what books are AfterShock's biggest success.

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The First Star Trek Film Could Have Had Captain Kirk Punch Jesus

William Shatner could have had a fist-fight against an alien that had shapeshifted into the form of Jesus.

This is according to an unauthorised oral history of Star Trek put together by Edward Gross and Mark. A. Altman and excerpted by the Hollywood Reporter. Author Michael Jan Friedman recounts the tale of being asked to adapt the original spec script for 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture into a novel after Roddenberry's death:

"When I read the material, I was dismayed. I hadn’t seen other samples of Gene’s unvarnished writing, but what I saw this time could not possibly have been his best work.

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Hitman Has a New App, and His 6th Elusive Target Has a Twin

Io Interactive has released the Hitman Companion, a free mobile app for iOS and Android which will help you keep up to date with all the live Hitman content.

All the details on the Elusive Targets, as well as the Escalation and Featured contracts will be updated here.

In addition, Hitman's sixth elusive target has been revealed, and it has a slight twist to it.

The Elusive Targets are missions where you have one objective, and if you fail it, you can never attempt it again. The next target will be Dylan Narvaez in Sapienza, however Io Interactive has made things even more tricky by giving him a twin.

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Activision – Call of Duty: Roman Wars ‘Was Not Seriously Considered’

The Roman-themed Call of Duty game revealed this week was never likely to be made, according to Activision.

"The game concept was proposed by a former employee while working at the studio," said an Activision spokesperson in a statement to IGN, "but was not seriously considered nor requested to move to prototype.”

Apparently proposed by Skylanders studio Vicarious Visions, the concept centred around both first- and third-person gameplay, and would have had players taking on various military roles throughout the Roman Empire. Only a single level was created, however.

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Here’s How to Get Dragon Ball Z Season 1 for Free

Remember watching those episodes of Dragon Ball Z where it'd just be two muscly people straining lasers out of their pores like effulgent sweat and maybe punching each other once before "TO BE CONTINUED" filled the screen? Remember how furious - how powerless - you felt? Take revenge on the past today by getting the entire first series for free, courtesy of Microsoft.

By heading to the Microsoft Store you can grab all 39 episodes of the 1996 series (that's 16 hours of screaming and kicking and robe wearing), in HD, for free. I don't know why they're doing this, but I appreciate it.

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July’s Free Ubisoft Game Revealed

To celebrate Ubisoft's 30th anniversary, the company is giving away free PC games every month until December.

Currently, you can grab Prince of Persia: Sands of Time free of charge. This month's game will be the original Splinter Cell, and it'll be available from July 13.

All you have to do is register at the Ubisoft Club using your Uplay account, download the game, and it'll be yours to keep forever.

Only one game will be free at a time though, so make sure you check back every month to get them all.

If you want to take a trip to the past, check out IGN's review of the original Splinter Cell from way back in 2002. It was excellent back then, how does it hold up today?

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