Monthly Archives: March 2019
Konami Anniversary Collections Include Castlevania, Contra, and Arcade
Konami, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, will be releasing three Anniversary Collections that highlight Castlevania, Contra, and its Arcade Classics.
These Anniversary Collections will be available digitally on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC and will each include a bonus eBook that is "packed with new information about the titles, including interviews with the development staff, behind-the-scenes insights, and sketches and design documents never before revealed to the public!"
The first collection available will be the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection on April 18, 2019, and for $19.99 plays will gain access to eight games from the '80s - Haunted Castle, Typhoon (A-JAX), Nemesis (Gradius), Vulcan Venture (Gradius II), Life Force (Salamander), Thunder Cross, Scramble, and TwinBee.
Anthem Was the Best-Selling Game of February 2019
BioWare’s Anthem was the top-selling game in the United States for February 2019, according to the NPD Group.
The NPD report noted Anthem as the second best-selling game of 2019 and it holds the second highest launch month sales ever for a BioWare game, following 2012’s Mass Effect 3.
Jump Force, the anime mash-up fighting game, debuted at number two. Its launch month sales are the third highest ever for a Bandai Namco game. Kingdom Hearts III, which was January 2019's best-selling game, held tight at third and remains the best-selling game of 2019. It’s also the fastest selling game in Kingdom Hearts history, beating out Kingdom Hearts II’s two-month sales by over 80 percent.
Aerith Is the Strongest Character in the Final Fantasy Card Game
If you didn’t know already, Final Fantasy has its own trading card game which includes all your favorite characters from the series like Cloud, Yuna and even Noctis. Not only will you see characters from the mainline numbered series, but games like Crystal Chronicles and Brave Exvius are also included. Recently, the Final Fantasy card game just released its newest set: Opus VIII, where fans can now make use of a very powerful new Aerith card.
Aerith - Opus VIII Legend
Google Stadia Specs Revealed
Technical specifications for the Google Stadia streaming platform have been revealed, and if it all holds true, it will be much more powerful than systems currently available on the market.
Revealed during Google's GDC 2019 conference, Google Stadia features a custom 2.7 GHz hyperthreaded x86 CPU with AVX 2 SIMD. It also boasts a custom AMD GPU that’s capable of 10.7 teraflops of power using HBM2 memory and 56 compute units. For memory, it has 16GB of RAM with up to 484GB/s transfer speeds and 9.5MB of L2+L3 cache. On top of all of this, it includes SSD cloud storage.
BlacKkKlansman Star John David Washington to Star in Christopher Nolan’s New Film
Christopher Nolan has landed on BlacKkKlansman's John David Washington to be the lead in his upcoming film, reported by Variety.
Nolan's unknown film has a July 17, 2020 release – a slot that Warner Bros. usually saves for the director, in which four out of his past five films have released during that film slot.
The untitled project has been kept largely under wraps, with even those in the industry having no knowledge on the roles and what the film is about as they go into meetings.
Toei Shuts Down Another Dragon Ball Super Rumor
Toei Animation has shot down another Dragon Ball Super rumor. Toei Animation’s Media Representative David Syatt told IGN no new episodes of Dragon Ball Super are being produced at this time.
This comes roughly a month after Toei Animation shot down similar reports. A publication posted, then later changed, a short, vague article about Dragon Ball Super anime episodes coming, but Toei responded to IGN saying:
"We can only say that this is not true at the moment. We never mentioned or made any announcement about more episodes to Dragon Ball Super.
It’s not clear where Geekdom101 and Yonkou Productions are getting their information, but their tweets and Youtube videos have gotten thousands of likes and views, saying:
Google’s Gaming Platform Stadia Launch Window Announced
Google has unveiled its new gaming initiative, Stadia, detailing features for players, developers, and streamers, as well as giving an overall vision of Google's future game streaming platform.
Update 3/21 1:10 p.m.: Since the Google Stadia announcement, we've learned a bunch more about Google's plans for the streaming platform.
While we still don't know any official plans for a launch lineup or many potential games for Stadia, Google's Phil Harrison told IGN about why Assassin's Creed Odyssey on Project Stream indicates Google's 3rd party plans. Harrison also spoke to IGN to address those rumors about whether Google had plans for a physical gaming console.
BioWare Admits Anthem Had a ‘Rougher Launch Than Expected’
BioWare general manager Casey Hudson admits that Anthem had a “rougher launch than expected,” though he's excited for the next stage of the game.
In a frank blog post, Hudson says "It’s been a wild ride these last few weeks. On the one hand it’s been a rougher launch than expected. But then as I think back we also knew that big new online games tend to hit some kind of problem once they go live, so as much as we tested and prepared to make sure everything was ready, we were also ready for the possibility that unexpected issues might arise at launch. And we continue to be committed to responding to them."
Google Is Better Positioned for Streaming Than Anyone Right Now
Google is making a big play in the gaming space, with a new cloud game streaming service called Stadia. It’s far from the first of its kind, but it has insane potential for the future of gaming–at least, once our internet connections are mature enough to keep up.
Stadia, as Google explains, allows you to play AAA titles with high-end PC graphics on just about any platform–your laptop’s browser, your phone, or even your TV through a Chromecast. Google’s servers do the heavy graphical lifting, sending a video stream to your screen while you sit at home with your favorite gamepad or keyboard.
Black Widow Is ‘F***ing Pissed Off’ at Thanos in Avengers: Endgame
In a recent interview with Empire, Scarlett Johansson shared how her long-time character, Black Widow, is more than angry at the events that occurred at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
Since Avengers: Infinity War ended abruptly after Thanos snapped his fingers – which at first was drafted to happen in Avengers: Endgame – the remaining Avengers were not able to show their reactions to his hostile attack.
As has been shown in the trailers, the upcoming Avengers: Endgame will be focusing more on how the surviving superheroes feel about the catastrophic event.