Monthly Archives: July 2019
How League of Legends Connected Me To The World in the Face of Heart Disease
I always imagine the jersey: its colors, the logo. The team’s name, Vape Treatment, wraps around the emblem on the front, all caps. The font’s something reasonable… Helvetica, maybe. The logo is a little abstract, a rendering of the breathing exercise apparatus I was gifted at the hospital. Two handles, like ears, frame the main tube, which acts as a game—you blow into a separate tube to keep the ball raised at a certain level. It’s called an incentive spirometer, and it’s supposed to keep your lungs healthy during recovery. My name’s on the back of the jersey, of course, though I’m not exactly part of my League of Legends fantasy team—just the illustrious owner.
The League of Legends fantasy draft for the North American Championship Series is just a few days before the summer season. I know the names of the teams, a few of the players’ handles, but I’m not a League of Legends fan. I don’t actually understand the genre—the MOBA, or multiplayer online battle arena. It’s a five-on-five game that takes place in a virtual area called the rift. League of Legends has nearly 150 playable characters, though only 10 different ones can play in a single game. It’s a free game, one that I’ve tried and failed to play. At a very base level, it’s a simple premise: the first to destroy the other team’s base wins. The challenge is in attacking the other team’s base while protecting your own, and in facing the unique obstacles that League of Legends’ different characters add to the game’s complexity.
33 Amazing Collectibles You Can Only Get at Comic-Con
For many Comic-Con attendees, the show is less about attending major panels or scoring celebrity autographs - it's all about the exclusive merch. This year's Comic-Con is once again full of items only available to purchase on the show floor, so we're here to spotlight the coolest and most unusual exclusives being offered in 2019.
From elusive Funko POP toys to unique art prints to some truly amazing action figures, here are 33 Comic-Con exclusives in 2019 you should be on the hunt for this year. Check out our slideshow below or scroll down to see them all.
The Magicians: Alice's Story HC - 10th Year Anniversary Exclusive
Jon Favreau Is Currently Writing the Script for The Mandalorian Season 2
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live for The Lion King, director Jon Favreau revealed that he is already working on the script for Season 2 of The Mandalorian TV series.
Following Kimmel's question of, "Can ya tell us anything about The Mandalorian or is it secret?" Favreau responded, "well it's secret, but I'll tell ya."
"It's about a bounty hunter, it's after Return of the Jedi. So the Empire's gone and all hell's breaking loose in the outer rim and its about the scum and villainy, that now once you take out the rule of law – what happens?" Favreau continued, "Chaos takes over and you have a lot of the unseemly characters. It's kinda like, ya know, when you meet Han Solo at the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope."
Legion Season 3 Just Introduced a Very Different Professor X
This interview contains spoilers for Legion Season 3, episode 3, which aired on July 8 on FX.
We all have daddy issues, but David Haller might have the biggest of all. In its third and final season, FX’s Legion is doing what we weren’t sure it would ever do: giving us a young Professor Charles Xavier—David Haller’s father—on TV. It makes sense in the context of the story Noah Hawley is telling in his trippy adaptation, but we all know how the great big Marvel Machine works: none of that stuff is guaranteed for the small screen, particularly in the midst of the Disney-Fox merger (which is finally bringing the Fox-owned X-Men back to the Marvel Studios universe). But Legion is unique to Marvel TV in more ways than one, and about as far off the beaten Defenders/SHIELD path as you can get. So why not go for broke and throw a young Professor X into the final season?
Mindhunter Season 2 Release Date on Netflix Confirmed
True crime fans won’t have to wait long for the next season of Mindhunter to drop on Netflix. Series producer David Fincher confirmed the date during a podcast appearance and let slip that Mindhunter season 2 will be available on Netflix on August 16.
Speaking on KCRW’s “The Treatment” podcast, Fincher confirmed that the second season of Mindhunter has an official release date. “I’m not sure, I guess I’m allowed to say it, but, yeah, it’s gonna be the 16.” EW confirmed the release date with Netflix.
Nintendo Switch Lite: How Its Size Compares to Other Handhelds
Earlier this week, Nintendo announced Switch Lite, a handheld-only version of its popular hybrid console. Opinions on Switch Lite were mixed out the gate: some mocked Nintendo's decision create a Switch incapable of switching between home and on-the-go play, while others expressed excitement over its lower price point and increased portability.
The new system's monicker references both its lighter build and lower cost, but just how "Lite" is Nintendo's latest piece of hardware? To answer that question, we measured its specs against those of other recent handhelds, including Switch, 3DS XL, Vita, and more. Check out the gallery below or scroll down to see how Switch Lite stacks up against the competition. (Thanks to Reddit user bad_buoys for the inspiration.)
TurboGrafx-16 Mini Preorders Are Now Live
UPDATE: Preorders for the TurboGrafx-16 Mini are now live at Amazon.
The next device to take up a slightly-smaller than normal amount of space in your entertainment center, the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, has a release date of March 19, 2020.
Additionally, Konami revealed the full list of games coming to the system, 26 of which are "PC Engine titles in their original Japanese language."
Here's the full list of English-language games coming to TurboGrafx-16 Mini:
This 75-inch Samsung QLED 4K UHD TV Might Be the Best TV Deal Walmart Has Ever Had
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Walmart doesn't want you to visit Amazon for Prime Day, at least if you want to score an unbelievable deal on an enormous new television.
Samsung 75-inch QLED 4K UHD TV Deal
Samsung's QLED displays are astonishing. Seriously, the colors and clarity they produce are just fantastic. I reviewed one of Samsung's QLED monitors a while back, and when I went back to my regular monitor, it felt like I went to a black-and-white screen. The reds and blues are so vivid and bold, without looking over-saturated or blown out.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Player-Made XP Quests Are Now Banned
Ubisoft has made the decision to ban some user-created quests in Assassin's Creed Odyssey after a surge in community created content designed for XP Farming.
Last month at E3, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey received an update that added Story Creator Mode. Released in Beta, this mode allows players to create and share their own massive map-spanning quests, complete with branching narratives and a surprising level of complexity. However, after noticing a surge in easy quests that are simply designed to let players farm experience points, Ubisoft took to their community page to talk about banning them.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses – Fire Emblem Is Kind of a Persona Game Now
I went into Three Houses excited to see how its traditional tactical RPG battling had changed. Trailers have shown off seemingly tile-less battlefields, covered in armies of soldiers led by the series’ traditional permadeath-threatened heroes. Combat animations are more detailed than ever, and seem to involve more than just individuals facing off against one another. From some angles it looked more like Total War, or even the long-forgotten Kessen, than a Fire Emblem game. But after playing its first five chapters, the most striking comparison for Three Houses isn’t its fellow strategy games, but Persona. I was not expecting that.
In typical Fire Emblem fashion, Three Houses begins as a mercenary hero with a mysterious past begins to discover their destiny. In this case, that involves finding out that there seems to be a magical girl with time manipulation powers living in your head - you know the drill. Soon, for initially unexplained reasons, you’re drafted in to become a professor at Garreg Mach Monastery, an officer’s training school for the continent of Fódlan’s three (relatively) peaceful countries - the Adrestian Empire, the Kingdom of Faerghus and the Leicester Alliance. Each country has a house at the school, and each house comes with its own strengths and weaknesses - you’re asked to choose one and become its head professor, steering the students’ education in the art of war. Imagine a version of Harry Potter where he was chosen to come in and teach instead of learn, essentially.