Monthly Archives: November 2016
Rogue One International Trailer Reveals New Footage
A new international trailer for Star Wars: Rogue One is out and it contains some never before seen footage.
The trailer is roughly two minutes long and offers a brief look at Darth Vader’s front up close for the first time. Jyn Erso’s (Felicity Jones) mother Lyra Erso, played by Valene Kane, makes her debut as well, handing Jyn a curious necklace containing some kind of crystal. There are also some additional scenes with space combat, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), and Jyn Erso as a child.
Rogue One opens in theaters December 16 in the United States.
While you wait to watch the Rebels steal the Death Star plans, check out four new pieces of artwork that were recently released for the film, and a new TV spot.
Pokemon Sun and Moon: Everything You Need to Know
The 20th anniversary of the Pokemon franchise brings with it the seventh generation in the main franchise — Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. Revealed as part of the series' milestone year celebration, Sun and Moon look to be both the next step forward for Pokemon as well as a nostalgic look back at where the franchise began.
Over almost 11 months, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company revealed a host of new features, new Pokemon, and new takes on classic aspects of the series. Read on to find out everything you need to know, from every piece of news to every trailer, ahead of Pokemon Sun and Moon's release on November 18.
As part of a Nintendo Direct celebrating the Pokemon franchise’s 20th anniversary, Sun and Moon were officially unveiled via a teaser trailer that kept specifics, and actual footage, to a minimum. Despite little of the actual game being shown, however, IGN did still pick out five cool things in the teaser.
Xbox Holiday Update Adds Clubs, Group Messaging, and More
A new holiday update going live today will bring Clubs, Looking for Group, Group Messaging, and Achievement Rarity to Xbox One and the Xbox One app on iOS, Android, and Windows 10.
Clubs on Xbox Live will let players create and join their own communities, making it easier to form parties for multiplayer games and chat with other group members. The Looking for Group feature also aims to make joining up with other players easier, like a "gaming 'want-ad,'" according to the official Xbox blog. Group Messaging allows multiple users in a single chat message, and is available across Xbox One and its desktop and smartphone apps.
Achievement Rarity allows you to see which achievements out of a game's achievement list are the rarest, and grants you a special notification and icon if you've unlocked one.
How Ghost in the Shell Recreated the Anime’s Iconic Opening
The opening sequence of the Ghost in the Shell 1995 anime films remains one of the most iconic scenes in the franchise. The movie begins with the creation of a cyborg -- a being revealed to be the Major, the main character of the story -- and moves through the complicated process of building her.
Watching the sequence play out now, it's clear how that "shelling sequence," as it's known, had such a huge impact on everything from The Matrix to HBO's Westworld. So when the special effects team working on the Ghost in the Shell live action film decided to recreate the sequence for their adaptation, they knew it was something they would have to do right.
The live action version of the shelling sequence, which can be seen in bits and pieces in the exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette below, started by being mapped out as a joint effort between director Weta, Rupert Sanders, producer Avi Arad and the animation house the film is using. From there it was a matter of making a physical replication of the different steps of the creation of a cyborg so it could be brought to life.
Thumper Gets Permadeath Mode and PS4 Pro Support
Drool's hyper-challenging rhythm action game Thumper is receiving a free update today that will add a new, harder game mode and day one PlayStation Pro support.
Thumper's new PLAY + mode lets you replay the entire game (nine levels in all) for more points, and at even faster speeds as the new golden beetle. But die once at any point, and it's game over.
The update also brings day one PlayStation Pro support, allowing you to play in native 4K with no upscaling. According to developer Drool, high quality supersampling and anti-aliasing on PlayStation Pro and PlayStation VR enhance the graphics while still maintaining a stable 90 frames per second.
For more, don't forget to check out our review of Thumper and other PlayStation VR launch games, as well as our review of the PlayStation 4 Pro.
Nintendo Officially Announces Wii U Production Is Ending
UPDATE: A Nintendo representative has further clarified the end of Wii U production, providing the following statement to IGN:
“As recently posted by Nintendo on the Wii U website in Japan, Wii U production will end in the near future for the Japanese domestic market. We have nothing to announce in terms of exact timing.
We can confirm that as of today, all Wii U hardware that will be made available in the North American market for this fiscal year has already been shipped to our retail partners. We encourage anyone who wants Wii U to communicate with their preferred retail outlet to monitor availability.”
Legends of Tomorrow Teases Green Lantern Connection
Tonight's new episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Compromised," takes the team to 1987 as they battle Damien Darhk and protect President Ronald Reagan. Fortunately, they'll have a ally in that fight, and one viewers have met before this season. Justice Society of America member Obsidian is returning in this episode, albeit in a much older form. And this time he'll be played by geek legend Lance Henriksen (Aliens).
We recently had the chance to chat with Henriksen about his guest appearance. He hinted at what's to come for Obsidian as he encounters the Legends once more and reunites with his old teammate, Vixen. Henriksen also teased that viewers might learn a bit more about Obsidian's father, Green Lantern Alan Scott. Scroll down to find out what he had to say.
Comic Book Reviews for November 9, 2016
It was another big week of comics, as Marvel debuted two of the bigger guns in its new Marvel NOW lineup - Invincible Iron Man and Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows - and kicked off a second Black Panther series. DC completed the Young Animal lineup with the release of Mother Panic #1, and they re-teamed with IDW for a brand new Batman/TMNT crossover. Elsewhere, Titan Comics launched a new Assassin's Creed manga and BOOM! Studios offered readers a promising glimpse of their new WWE comic.
Scroll down to see 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.
DC COMICS
Diddy Kong Racing Canceled Sequel Footage Revealed
A sequel to Nintendo 64's Diddy Kong Racing was in development for Nintendo GameCube in 2004, and footage of the project has surfaced online.
The latest episode of Past to Present Online (via Polygon) sheds light on the project, which was in the works at Climax Studios and titled Diddy Kong Racing Adventure.
Instead of having a multiplayer-focus like the Nintendo 64 original, Diddy Kong Racing Adventure would have reportedly been more of a single-player oriented game. In addition to karts, Diddy could ride other types of vehicles, including a rhino, as seen in the footage above.
PS4 Update Now Lets You Make GIFs From Game Clips
The ShareFactory application has been updated on PlayStation 4, and a new change means you can now turn game clips into animated GIFs.
According to Kotaku, who also has a handy tutorial, if you've patched up to the latest version, you can now make GIFs from any videos, including ones you've already captured on the system, as well as ones you've already edited in the app before.
Simply select a start point for your GIF and the app will create a nine second loop which you can then trim down to the length you'd like.
You'll have to press the Share button to actually save your GIF, which will bring up the option to Tweet it out. However, you can select Share Later instead and the GIF will be saved to your system in the ShareFactory folder of your Capture Gallery.