Monthly Archives: February 2017
Oculus, Insomniac Heads on VR Industry, Year One Sales
Today at DICE Summit 2017, Oculus VP of Content Jason Rubin and Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price discussed the VR industry, year one sales and what the future holds for the platform.
When asked by Price about the large gap between the initial expectations for VR and the current state of platform, Rubin reaffirmed Oculus' "unwavering belief" that VR is the "next big thing." He then explained that "when it comes to year one sales," he thinks "there was a disconnect between what the industry was saying" and the expectations from "peripherals of the industry that were following the normal hype curve of technology."
Blizzard Details the Rough Road From Titan to Overwatch
Jeff Kaplan, the Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment, took the stage at DICE 2017 this morning to discuss video game world building, and wound up talking about Project Titan - Blizzard's cancelled MMO that went on to become Overwatch. While the relationship between the two is by no means a secret, Kaplan went into greater detail about the stressful transition period than he has previously.
As has been widely reported, Project Titan was in development for nearly seven years, and was officially cancelled in May of 2013. Kaplan spoke briefly on the difficulty of walking away from a project after emotionally investing in it so heavily for so long. He then went on to outline what happened to the Titan dev team once the decision was made.
Fargo: Season 3 Debuting in April
FX's acclaimed series Fargo will return on April 19.
Now filming in Canada, Fargo: Season 3, set in 2010, stars Ewan McGregor, alongside The Leftovers' Carrie Coon, 10 Cloverfield Lane's Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Harry Potter's David Thewlis.
McGregor will actually play two roles: "Parking Lot King of Minnesota" Emmit and his younger brother Ray. Their rivalry in Fargo will lead to "murder, mobsters and cut-throat competitive bridge," according to FX.
Jordan Peele Is Toying With Your Expectations in Get Out
The less you know about Get Out before you see it, the better -- but even once you start watching the film, director/writer Jordan Peele intentionally wants to subvert your expectations.
The movie, which Peele describes as a "social thriller," starts with a simple premise: a young interracial couple goes to meet her parents for the first time. While Rose (Allison Williams) initially dismisses her boyfriend Chris's (Daniel Kaluuya) concerns that she hasn't told her parents that he is black, a trip to their upstate New York home reveals there's something much more sinister at play than just racial tensions. But even that short synopsis probably will cause you to make some false assumptions about what this film will be, which was something the first time director and former Key & Peele star wanted to take advantage of.
Homeworld Creators Reveal Collaboration With NASA’s JPL
The pairing of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with Blackbird Interactive, Inc. has given us a glimpse into humanity's future on Mars.
Project Eagle is an "interactive model of a Mars colony in Gale Crater" produced by the collaboration.
The simulation is set in the year 2117, "44 Martian years" after the first humans set foot on our nearest neighbor.
The interactive model was first presented live at DICE by members of both the JPL and Blackbird Interactive.
Earlier today, NASA held a press conference to announce the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same distant star.
Mass Effect-themed Cards Against Humanity Expansion Now Available For $1
Cards Against Humanity has teamed up with BioWare to create a limited-release, Mass Effect-themed expansion pack for the popular card game, including 14 new cards.
The expansion pack is currently available on MassEffectPack.com for $1 USD, including free shipping in the U.S.
This is Cards Against Humanity's second co-branded expansion, but their first collaboration with a videogame. The first co-branded expansion was for Netflix's House of Cards, and the limited edition pack sold out in less than 24 hours.
Cards Against Humanity events director, Trin Garritano, said, "We agreed to do this because Mass Effect is the only good AAA video game... we thought that if we made this pack of cards, they’d let us play Andromeda early. Unfortunately, that did not happen."
Lethal Weapon Renewed for Season 2
One of this TV season's success stories, Lethal Weapon has now been renewed for Season 2 by FOX.
Said FOX Entertainment president David Madden in a statement, "Lethal Weapon continues to fire on all cylinders. Every week, it delivers a big, fun rollercoaster ride, but also remains touchingly human and genuinely emotional, and that’s due to the chemistry that’s developed not only between Damon Wayans and Clayne Crawford, but the entire cast.”
Overcoming skepticism about adapting the popular film series for TV, Lethal Weapon debuted to strong numbers and solid reviews this past fall. Season 1 was 18 episodes, though it's not clear how many Season 2 will be as yet.
The renewal comes on the heels of another new FOX show, the Kaitlin Olson comedy The Mick, getting a Season 2 order this week.
Dead Rising 4 Release Date Revealed for Steam
Dead Rising 4 will release on Steam on March 14.
Capcom made the announcement on Twitter, accompanied by a new trailer for the action game (seen below). Dead Rising 4 was a timed exclusive on Xbox One and Windows 10.
It's supposedly exclusive to Xbox One for up to a year, possibly hinting at a PlayStation 4 release in the future. Though to be clear, nothing is official on that front.
For more on the action game, be sure to check out IGN's review of Dead Rising 4.
NASA Announces New Exoplanet Discoveries
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration held a press conference today announcing newly discovered Earth-sized planets orbiting a single star in the Trappist-1 system.
Three of the seven Earth-sized planets are found within the star's habitable zone, meaning liquid water, and even more amazingly, life, could exist on the planets' surfaces.
Trappist-1 system image courtesy NASA
Pillars of Eternity 2’s Has Customizable Boat Forts
Having reached its initial crowd-funding goal in record time, it would be fair to say that lots of people are excited for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. Its predecessor was both a critical and commercial success, and we got a chance to chat with its director, Josh Sawyer, about one of the biggest new features coming to the RPG sequel: a customizable boat stronghold that will serve as your mobile base throughout the game.
“When we looked the strongholds from Pillars, lots of people were disappointed by them,” said Sawyer during our phone interview.. “They didn’t really integrate with the story very well.” Due to the setting of Deadfire (which is a huge archipelago) it just didn’t make sense to him or the team to try and root players on a single land mass, when the game takes place across a bunch of different land masses separated by water.