Monthly Archives: April 2018
Adult Swim’s Aussie Rick and Morty Parody Special Is a Wild Ride, Mates
While Adult Swim’s 2017 April Fools’ “prank” was the surprise launch of the much-anticipated first episode of Rick and Morty season three, this year’s April 1 Rick and Morty treat was a little weirder: an anarchic re-imagining of the show from Australian animator Michael Cusack.
Cusack’s 11-minute Rick and Morty tribute episode “Bushworld Adventures” turns the titular pair into Australians and sees an entirely unhinged Rick force Morty into joining him on an eight-hour road trip to Bendigo in order to get a “green cube.”
The best animated trip down under since Bart vs. Australia.
Constantine is Officially Coming to Legends of Tomorrow as CW Renews 10 shows
Constantine is joining DC's Legends of Tomorrow as The CW has renewed it and 9 other shows for next season.
The Hollywood Reporter confirms The CW will be renewing Arrow, Black Lightning, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Dynasty, The Flash, Jane the Virgin, Riverdale, Supergirl and Supernatural.
In May The CW will officially decide whether to continue with The 100, iZombie, Life Sentence, and Valor, as well as determine new series orders. "We have a terrific selection of programming to choose from when we set our fall schedule in May," CW President Mark Pedowitz said, "with more still to come."
Shadow of War Permanently Removes Microtransactions
Several months after its release, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is permanently removing all microtransactions.
Posted on WB Games' official website, the announcement stated that being able to buy orcs with real-world money undermines the experiences born from Shadow of War's Nemesis System.
"The core promise of the Nemesis System is the ability to build relationships with your personal allies and enemies in a dynamic open world," reads the post. "While purchasing Orcs in the Market is more immediate and provides additional player options, we have come to realize that providing this choice risked undermining the heart of our game, the Nemesis System. It allows you to miss out on the awesome player stories you would have otherwise created, and it compromises those same stories even if you don’t buy anything. Simply being aware that they are available for purchase reduces the immersion in the world and takes away from the challenge of building your personal army and your fortresses. In order to fully restore the core promise of the Nemesis System, we’ll be permanently removing Gold, War Chests and the Market from Shadow of War. This means the option to purchase Gold with real-world money and the ability to gain Orc Followers from War Chests will be removed."
How the Minds Behind Hitman Are Mutating the XCOM Formula
I wasn’t sure what to make of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden when I first saw its cinematic reveal trailer, mostly because of the giant duck. Based on a classic Swedish pen and paper RPG, it gave a glimpse of a very strange kind of post apocalypse. And while the trailer was cool, it didn’t really tell me what kind of game it was. But after seeing Mutant’s mix of real-time exploration and XCOM-inspired combat in action, I knew the duck didn’t stop there.
Mutant is being made by a small Swedish team called The Bearded Ladies, and while you may have never heard that name, you’ve definitely heard of the last game they worked on. About half the studio came over from Io Interactive’s Hitman team, including Hitman’s game director David Skarin and lead level designer Lee Varley. So it should come as no surprise that a key part of Mutant is stealth. Or more specifically, using real time stealth to set up characters before you spring your trap and initiate combat.
Frank Miller’s 300 Prequel Is (Finally) Coming Out This Week
With dozens of comic books to choose from, let us show you which are the best coming out this week. Take a look at this list spotlighting our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent and new books that look cool and are backed by some top-tier talent.
Once you check out our picks, head to the comments to let us know what you’ll be buying this week!
By Frank Miller (Dark Horse Comics)
FLCL: Alternative’s Episode 1 Proves an FLCL Sequel Was a Good Idea
Adult Swim is bringing FLCL back for two new seasons featuring different protagonists: FLCL: Progressive airs in June, and FLCL: Alternative will get its six-episode run in September. In celebration of April Fool’s Day, Adult Swim aired the first episode of FLCL: Alternative in Japanese with English subtitles on Toonami. Below are our first spoiler-free impressions of what the Alternative sequel series has to offer.
When I think about FLCL, I think about it moving a million miles per hour as I frantically ingested Naota’s insane coming-of-age story. I think about Haruko Haruhara pulling out extraterrestrial beings from the 12-year-old’s head as they take on Medical Mechanica’s dangerous robots. FLCL: Alternative’s first episode mirrors the original anime’s speed and Haruko’s enthusiasm for meddling with other’s lives for her own benefit, but shifts its focus to 17-year-old Kana and her three other friends as they approach the end of high school.
MCU Characters John Boyega Could Play
Word broke recently that Star Wars star John Boyega has had talks with Marvel about appearing in one of the studio's upcoming superhero films. It makes sense, as not only do Marvel and Star Wars both fall under the corporate blanket of Disney, but also because Boyega is the perfect sort of fanboy-friendly actor to take on a role in the MCU.
Details on the discussion with Marvel are vague, but it sounds as though this isn't something that would be happening anytime soon. It's also not clear whether the potential role would specifically be for the MCU or possibly lap over into that kinda-MCU that's developing at Sony for Spider-Man's supporting characters. That said, it's still fun to speculate about who Boyega could possibly play, so check out our list of potentials in the slideshow below...
Spyro the Dragon Return Possibly Teased by Mysterious Package
Update #2: A new tweet from the Falcon McBob, which the official Crash Bandicoot account followed yesterday, could be offering yet another clue of Spyro's return, or a well-placed troll.
"Good times," @SpyrotheDragon has tweeted at the official Crash account, with a close-up photo of Crash's face, seemingly from a Bandicoot costume used in some of that character's live-action commercials.
.@CrashBandicoot Good Times. pic.twitter.com/we1PmOrq94
— Falcon McBob (@SpyroTheDragon) April 4, 2018
Sea of Thieves’ First ‘Pirate Legend’ Speaks Out About Claims of ‘Boosting’
Update: Prod1gyX spoke to Polygon about his experience playing Sea of Thieves, explaining that he believes much of the ire came from people who jumped into his streaming late in the game, rather than watching from the beginning.
"I can tell a lot of people didn’t watch from the beginning, which is understandable. But you can’t say that I wasn’t playing it right from the very beginning of the game," he told Polygon.
According to Prod1gyX, he has been more concerned with pleasing his built-in community of viewers than the community at large, as he mentioned to Polygon he was not bitter about the reception of another Pirate Legend streamer, SniperNamedG.He also pointed to stats on Reddit, that indicate he "boosted" his play alongside other players only about a quarter of the time.
Revisiting God of War With Ascension Livestream
We're about to stream two hours of God of War Ascension to look back on God of War in preparation for the new game on April 20! Come hang out with me over at twitch.tv/ign and youtube.com/ign
