Monthly Archives: August 2018
Check Out This Amazing Firefly Artwork
The Firefly franchise is finding a new home at comic book publisher BOOM! Studios, and on this latest #MalCrushMonday, we have an exclusive first look at one of the covers for the first issue. Check out this image by artist Joe Quinones, which spotlights Mal Reynolds and the heroic women who keep the Serenity chugging along.
Firefly #1 variant cover by Joe Quinones. (BOOM! Studios)
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Chris Hardwick ‘Appreciative’ to Be Back on Talking Dead in Emotional Return
Chris Hardwick made an emotional return to Talking Dead on Sunday night, days after several staffers reportedly quit the series following the host's reinstatement.
Hardwick didn't directly address the allegations that led to his suspension during Talking Dead, after his ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra published a Medium post on June 14 alleging sexual and emotional abuse during their relationship without mentioning Hardwick by name. Hardwick denied the allegations in a statement the following day. Hardwick was reinstated by AMC in July following a network investigation, which Dykstra Tweeted that she "chose not to participate in ... I do not believe in an eye for an eye, and therefore I have only shared my evidence with those who I felt should see it."
Batwoman Star Ruby Rose Exits Twitter Following Fan Casting Backlash
Ruby Rose has deleted her Twitter account in the wake of backlash to her recent casting as Batwoman in The CW's Arrowverse. Rose remains on Instagram though appears to have disabled comments from anyone she's not following.
Rose rebuked her critics in a series of tweets before leaving the platform, collected by The Sydney Morning Herald, venting to her followers that she wished “women and the LGBT community supported each other more.”
Why Quake Champions Didn’t Leave Early Access When It Went Free-to-Play
Quake Champions became fully free-to-play this weekend, but that doesn’t mean it’s done yet. The arena FPS is still in Steam Early Access, and developer id Software tells IGN that they aren’t quite ready to take that label off.
“I’d say we were at a crawl
and we’re at a walk now,” community developer Joshua Boyle told me at QuakeCon 2018. While tons of performance improvements and new content has been added, Boyle said they didn’t want to leave Early Access “until we get to the point where we’re at a sprint.”
Could Quake Champions Become Bethesda’s Version of Smash Bros?
Quake Champions already has Doom’s Doom Slayer and Wolfenstein’s B.J. Blazkowicz as playable characters, but IGN asked developer id Software whether or not it could slowly become the Bethesda equivalent of Super Smash Bros, which they said was “in high consideration.”
“As soon as I got hired on, I was like ‘we’re doing that, right?’” community developer Joshua Boyle told me with a laugh at QuakeCon 2018. “This is something that somehow hasn’t existed in FPS, and we have such a great space for it.”
Last year, studio director Tim Willits notoriously said he’d enjoy seeing Skyrim’s Dragonborn added to Quake while speaking with GameReactor at QuakeCon 2017. During that same interview, he also discussed what it would be like to add Corvo or Emily from Dishonored, or the Vault Dweller from Fallout, but so far none of those ideas have shown up in the actual game.
The Meg Devours Its Box Office Competition
With the dog days of summer upon us, The Meg has overperformed at the box office with what is likely the last big summer hit of the season. The Meg more than doubled most analysts’ predictions, easily taking the top spot with an impressive $44.5 million.
This shark tale also opened big overseas, with a cool $97 million from foreign markets, bringing its worldwide debut to $141.5 million, already eclipsing the $130 million budget. With the rest of the summer slate looking rather soft, The Meg could easily coast through August and it might even win the next two weekends in a row.
While critics were split on The Meg (49% on Rotten Tomatoes), the fans came out in full force, with a solid $10,806 per-screen average from 4,118 theaters. The Meg knocked Mission: Impossible - Fallout from its two-week stint atop the box office, with Fallout dropping to second place with $20 million (dropping just 43.7% from last weekend), while Disney’s Christopher Robin was bumped down to third place with $12.4 million (a 49.4% drop from last weekend).
Doom Eternal’s Most Exciting New Weapon Is a Game Changer
Doom Eternal’s QuakeCon gameplay reveal proved it’s doing far more than just more of the same. Destructible demons and a deeper story quickly set it apart from 2016’s Doom reboot, but the most exciting thing for me was its new tools for even faster movement.
The Doom Slayer now has a rechargeable dash, can climb some walls, and even bust through other ones. The crown jewel, however, is the new Super Shotgun, which comes equipped with a grappling hook called the Meat Hook that lets you pull yourself toward demons. It’s an incredibly fun looking addition to your arsenal, and one developer id Software tells me is a game changer.
How the Star Wars: Clone Wars Revival Will Honor the Past and Explore New Stories
When it comes to the animated corner of the ever-expanding Star Wars Universe, Dave Filoni has emerged as the Jedi Master, first as a principal writer, director and creative force on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and then as the creator and executive producer of Star Wars Rebels, which just completed an epic four season run on Disney XD.
During Filoni’s Rebels reign, many changes were afoot within the Star Wars Universe, steered by the Lucasfilm Story Group - including the development and release of several new film installments and the canonization of new tie-in media like comic books, novels and games. Rebels increasingly demonstrated its willingness to connect with each: the droid Chopper was just one of a few Easter eggs to be found in Rogue One; Kanan Jarras’ Jedi backstory was revealed in a Marvel Comics limited series; and Ahsoka Tano headlined her own novel that led into her Rebels appearance.
Why Doom Eternal Isn’t Called Doom 2
Speaking to IGN at QuakeCon 2018, Doom Eternal developer id Software revealed why the upcoming sequel to 2016’s Doom reboot isn’t named Doom 2.
Executive producer Marty Stratton said they thought about calling it Doom 2, but one reason they avoided it is because of the same problem that stemmed from the last Doom’s name. “You hear us say it all the time, we call it Doom 2016, and the internet has called it Doom 2016,” Stratton explained.
“We go back and forth on whether it was a mistake to call it Doom,” Stratton said. “I still don’t think it was a mistake, because we really were kind of drawing a new line in the sand.” And while he stands by that reasoning for Doom, he recognizes that “coming out and saying ‘we’re going to do Doom 2,’ we would have ‘Doom 2: Year of Release Date.’”