Monthly Archives: April 2017
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Could Be 10 Hours Long
It sounds as though Naughty Dog isn't skimping on upcoming standalone story DLC, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, with original pitches for the expansion coming in at around 10 hours long.
Speaking to IBTimes, Naughty Dog director of communications Arne Mayer explained that the studio had been asked whether it would make a single-player expansion for Uncharted before, but always declined because the impulse to make a full-length game would be too strong:
"There's no way we could, sort of, constrict and restrain ourselves," said Mayer, "and that's exactly what was happening here. When we were doing story pitches, we were coming up with a game that would be over ten hours long and so we suddenly realised everything we said was true and we couldn't keep it short."
Smurfs Stomped by The Boss Baby at the Box Office
Smurfs: The Lost Village had an underwhelming opening weekend, placing third at the domestic box office with an estimated $14 million.
As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Smurfs: The Lost Village cost $60 million to make and had one of the worst openings for a big-budget Hollywood animated production in quite some time. It now stands as the lowest debut in Sony's animated franchise, behind The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2's $35.6 million and $17.5 million respective opening hauls (via Box Office Mojo).
Xbox Kept Its Promise
Don Rickles Hadn’t Recorded Any Toy Story 4 Dialogue
It would appear that we may not hear Don Rickles voicing a potato-based character ever again.
Rickles, who passed away at the age of 90 on Thursday, had not recorded any dialogue for the upcoming Toy Story 4 at the time of his death, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Though Rickles was frequently remembered as a cutting comic with a flair for insults by many upon his death, to a generation of people he is probably best known as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story movies.
The plan was for Rickles to once again bring his particular brand of energy to the character for the fourth Toy Story film, which is scheduled to be released in 2019. Alas, since Pixar is still working on rewrites of the film, Rickles had not had the opportunity to record any new dialogue for the movie.
Star Wars: Episode 9 May Use Recent Carrie Fisher Footage
Todd Fisher, Carrie Fisher's brother, says that the late actress will make an appearance in Star Wars: Episode IX.
Fisher told New York Daily News that the family has granted Disney the rights to utilize recent footage of Carrie for the last movie. The outlet additionally reports that CGI will not be used for her appearance.
He explained that in a conversation with Carrie's daughter, Billie Lourd, they came to the conclusion that Carrie was too large a part of the franchise to not feature in the finale.
“She’s as much a part of it as anything and I think her presence now is even more powerful than it was, like Obi Wan — when the saber cuts him down he becomes more powerful. I feel like that's what's happened with Carrie. I think the legacy should continue," Fisher said.
Assassin’s Creed 3, Far Cry 4 Director Leaves Ubisoft
In a series of tweets, game director Alex Hutchinson has announced that he is leaving Ubisoft to found a new company called Typhoon Studios.
"So! I left Ubisoft after 7 years. Extremely proud of all we achieved on Far Cry and Assassins but very excited to build something new," Hutchinson wrote.
His tweets also relay that although his new company, which he is founding with developer Reid Schneider, won't have much to announce, for now, they are working on "...a brand new world to inflict on all of you, so stay tuned."
The Typhoon Studios website is currently quite bare, only stating that the studio is looking to hire "OUTSTANDING talent who want to make waves in the industry" and "people who are not afraid to be BOLD!"
This Anime Malware Forces You to Play a Game
An undergraduate student based in Korea has developed anime malware that demands the infected play a game to regain access to their files.
The malware is a kind of ransomware, which will usually instruct the user to hand over money in order for the program to be removed. In this case, it was rensenware, a pun on the on the game Touhou Seirensen (Undefined Fantastic Object) in which users must score over 200 million points on Lunatic difficulty to be free of the program.
When asked by Kotaku about his creation, the student explained that he had made it as a joke for other fans who like the anime games from the Touhou Project Series. He never expected the malware to spread as it had, and even infected his own computer.
Hearthstone Exploit Lets You Skip Your Opponent’s Turn
During one of his Hearthstone streams, Disguised Toast stumbled upon an exploit allowing him to skip his Opponent's turns.
The streamer orchestrated a situation in which the in-game animations caused by the cards he was playing effectively locked the other player out of their turn. This is possible because the countdown timer starts as soon as an opponents turn is over, however, all animations must finish before an opposing player can make any moves.
In this case, Disguised Toast was using a combination of the cards, Shadow Vision to make copies of itself, and Radiant Elemental to make this process free of mana. This created a loop, which, when done quickly enough, allowed him to spam cards until the animations built up to the point he could deny the other player a turn.
Deathstroke Actor Developed a Dungeons and Dragons Script
Deathtroke actor Joe Manganiello wants to make a Dungeons & Dragons movie, and he's already helped develop a script for one.
While appearing on MTV's Josh Horowitz's "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Manganiello revealed he has developed a Dungeons & Dragons script with John Cassel, and is actively looking to get the project off the ground. The source material the script is based on is the first 1984 Dragonlance novel, “Dragons of Autumn Twilight," according to a tweet by Manganiello.
GameStop Credit Card Data May Have Been Compromised
Payment information from credit cards used on GameStop's online store may have been compromised.
The video game retailer confirmed to IGN it was recently notified by a third party that payment data from cards used on GameStop.com was listed for sale on a website. GameStop says these claims are currently being investigated and advises consumers keep an eye on their bank statements for any potential charges they didn't authorize.
The following statement was provided to IGN by a GameStop representative:
At GameStop, the security of our customers’ payment card data remains a top priority. GameStop recently received notification from a third party that it believed payment card data from cards used on the GameStop.com website was being offered for sale on a website. That day a leading security firm was engaged to investigate these claims. GameStop has and will continue to work non-stop to address this report and take appropriate measures to eradicate any issue that may be identified.