Monthly Archives: March 2018
Fortnite Dev Banning Players Who Team Up in Solo Matches
Fortnite Developer Epic is taking action against players teaming up in Battle Royale's solo game mode.
PCGamesN reports the response comes after a Reddit thread featured a video in which five players were working together in the solo mode. Comments on the thread revealed players were able to team up somewhat reliably by joining a game of Battle Royale at the same time.
This put those playing the mode as an intended free-for-all on the back foot with teams having an easy advantage over solo players.
When Will the Oscars Recognize Andy Serkis and Doug Jones?
We have long since entered a new age of motion picture history, in which live-action performances and computer-generated imagery regularly combine to create characters whose existence would have seemed nearly impossible only decades ago, in films like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Jungle Book and War for the Planet of the Apes.
Now, would someone please tell the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Because it doesn’t look like they’ve noticed, does it?
It’s been over a decade-and-a-half since Andy Serkis’s astounding performance as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was passed over for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It’s a fate which also befell all three of his performances in the rebooted Planet of the Apes series, and while we’re at it, it’s a fate that keeps befalling other talented motion capture actors (like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' Toby Kebbell ) and even makeup effects actors, such as Doug Jones (The Shape of Water).
My Hero Academia Season 3 Dub Will Air Alongside Subtitled Simulcast
Just like with Season 2, My Hero Academia's upcoming third season will premiere in both Japanese and English on April 7.
Funimation will air the first six episodes of the English SimulDub and the English-subtitled simulcast on its streaming service FunimationNow the same day they broadcast in Japan. The first six episodes will stream simultaneously in the United States, Canada, Japan, Ireland and the UK.
Additionally, all 25 episodes of Season 3 will stream in SimulDub on FunimationNow and in subtitled simulcast on both Hulu and Crunchyroll. As announced earlier this year, the third season premieres on April 7.
Disney Investigating Alleged Theft of Solo Poster Designs
French artist Hachim Bahous has accused Disney of borrowing his art designs for Solo: A Star Wars Story posters without his permission.
THR reports Bahous made the claim over the weekend via a Facebook post, stating the work he did on a series of albums in 2015 looks too similar to the Solo posters released earlier this year. Disney is said to be looking into the allegations and provided the following statement to THR: "The posters were created by an outside vendor and it’s something we are currently looking into."
Bahous' post has since been set to private, but THR was able to nab a screenshot in time. The post includes images of the Solo posters and Bahous' album covers.
Tekken 7’s Competitive World Tour Kicks Off Next Week
The Tekken World Tour begins on March 16, Bandai Namco announced.
The competitive league will kick off at Final Round in Atlanta, Georgia. There will be additional North American stops in California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Toronto, Canada. The international stops include Thailand, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Korea, Italy, Australia, Peru, United Kingdom, and more.
You can register to compete through each regional event's registration pages and make your way up the World Tour's leaderboard system. The league will take on a broader global format, as participants will be awarded Ranking Points in one global pool, which will be based on local performance results.
Man Arrested After Trying to Steal McDormand’s Oscar
A man has been arrested for felony grand theft after allegedly attempting to steal Frances McDormand's Oscar at the Governors Ball after-party.
According to Variety, Terry Bryant, 47, allegedly took McDormand's Academy Award, which she won earlier in the evening for Best Actress, off her table at the after-party. A photographer at the event reportedly took the trophy from Bryant and returned it to McDormand, who subsequently told security to let him go.
"After a brief time apart, Frances and her Oscar were happily reunited last night," McDormand's rep, Simon Halls, told Variety. "They celebrated their reunion with a double cheeseburger from In-N-Out."
Microsoft Announces Monthly Streaming Show Inside Xbox
Microsoft has announced that this weekend it will premiere a new monthly live show called Inside Xbox.
Xbox director of programming Tina Summerford shared the news on Xbox Wire. Inside Xbox will debut this Saturday, March 10 at 12:00 p.m. PT/3:00 p.m. ET/8:00 p.m. UK (March 11 at 7:00 a.m. AET) with a behind-the-scenes look at Sea of Thieves.
Rare will discuss the core design concept of Sea of Thieves, as well as how player feedback from the closed beta helped shape game. The studio will also cover what players can expect from the game when it launches on March 20 and offer a tease at what lies ahead in terms of post-launch content.
Fortnite Developer Working to Match Controls Across Modes
Fortnite developer Epic Games is currently working to bring control scheme parity between the game's two modes.
Darren Sugg, Creative Director for Fortnite, told USgamer the developer is working on creating a unified control scheme for Fortnite's Battle Royale and Save the World modes, following player feedback that switching between control schemes is difficult.
"Because Save the World features class-based abilities that require additional buttons, it's not as easy as simply adapting the default Battle Royale, 'Combat Pro' control scheme," Sugg says. "The team has some ideas, though, so players should see updates in the future."
Stardew Valley Publisher Talks Next Game
Chucklefish, the publisher behind popular farming sim Stardew Valley, has revealed more details about its upcoming game Spellbound, which Chucklefish CEO Finn Brice described back in September as "Stardew Valley meets Harry Potter."
Brice elaborated on the concept in an interview with Red Bull last week, where he described Spellbound as a "wizard-school sim" inspired by a host of popular fantasy series. There's a bit of Harry Potter in there, but also Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series, Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series, and Studio Ghibli's animated films, with a dash of Steven Universe.
Everything the U.S. Government Has Said About Video Games Since the Florida Shooting
Over the past few weeks, video games and the U.S. government have overlapped more than usual, with conversations taking place in response to a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Here’s a run-down of the recent political news updates that have potential to affect video games.
On February 22, U.S. President Donald Trump pointed to mature content in video games as a potential cause of youth violence during a meeting on school safety. He said, “I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts. And then you go the further step, and that’s the movies. You see these movies, and they’re so violence, and yet a kid is able to see the movie if sex isn’t involved, but killing is involved, and maybe they have to put a rating system for that.”