Monthly Archives: April 2015
Metal Gear Online Supports 16 Players on PS4, PC, and Xbox One
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain’s multiplayer component Metal Gear Online will support up to 16 players on PS4, PC, and Xbox One, and up to 12 players on PS3 and Xbox 360.
The details were revealed via Konami’s official Japanese website, reports Videogamer.
Metal Gear Online was first showcased back in December last year during The Game Awards. The initial gameplay footage teases a tactical multiplayer experience with a significant smattering of MGS’s endearingly absurd flavour.
Daredevil: Here’s Why Kingpin Is the Best MCU Villain
Spoiler warning for all three seasons of Marvel's Daredevil on Netflix...
Back when Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk burst onto the MCU scene in Daredevil: Season 1, as the towering-yet-reclusive crime lord bent on leveling Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen and rebuilding it as the neighborhood's secret savior, fans were blown away.
D'Onofrio's scarily tender performance, as a socially awkward mastermind with a preference for killing people with his bare hands, gave viewers a villain with depth and layers that the Marvel movies simply didn't have time to explore. Fisk was lauded at the time for being the best bad guy ever produced by the MCU.
And now, two seasons later, he still is.
Daredevil Renewed for Season 2 But with New Showrunners
The Man Without Fear is coming back for a second season. Netflix and Marvel have announced that Marvel's Daredevil has been renewed for Season 2, which will debut in 2016.
However, in a notable change up, the series will have new showrunners. Steven S. DeKnight, who was showrunner for the first season, will not be returning, with Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez now running Daredevil together. Both wrote for the first season of Daredevil, with Ramirez previously writing for Sons of Anarchy and Petrie another alum of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, along with DeKnight and Daredevil executive producer Drew Goddard.
New Halo: The Master Chief Collection Patch Includes ODST Details
343 has released a new patch for Halo: The Master Chief Collection which includes fixes for matchmaking, stability, and more.
It also says the remade Halo 3: ODST campaign and the Relic MP map remake are both "on track" to release in next month's content update.
If you don't remember, as a thank you for dealing with MCC's launch issues, 343 is giving away the ODST campaign for free to anyone who purchased the game on or before December 19, 2014.
Below is the full list of changes included in today's Halo: The Master Chief Collection update, including four new screenshots of ODST and the remastered Relic map.
- Made a variety of improvements to ranking consistency and penalties.
BvS: Here’s a Closer Look at the Batsuit
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder has released a closer look at the Dark Knight's new getup for the highly anticipated DC Comics film.
In a post on Twitter, Snyder thanked everyone who attended last night's special IMAX screenings for the new trailer and accompanied it with the following photo of Ben Affleck's flashy, and incredibly intimidating, new Batsuit:
Dungeons 2 Review
For all of its chummy quips and hordes of orcs battling My-Little-Pony-esque unicorns, Dungeons 2 comes off as slightly cynical. The first entry tried to revive Dungeon Keeper in 2011 (well ahead of EA's free-to-play debacle last year), and it valiantly attempted to make the franchise its own by giving you direct control of the Keeper and focusing the gameplay on luring heroes in and entertaining them before harvesting their souls. It didn't turn out too well, but developer Realmforge Studios has resolved to give us what it thinks we want. The core dungeon game is almost lifted straight from Dungeon Keeper, the narrator reflects on your actions in a bemused British accent, and dungeon maintenance is paired with an overworld real-time strategy element that closely resembles Warcraft III. Sales figures and reviews have proven that we like these things, yes, but too much gets lost in an ambitious attempt to mash them all together.
“You wanted Dungeon Keeper,” Realmforge seems to say, “so here you have it.” There's little to none of the original Dungeons' innovations here. Happily, this means that veterans of Peter Molyneux's 1997 game will find much that's familiar, whether it's the throne room and the hole from which you summon minions or the surrounding dungeon that's packed with gold veins and potential tunnels just waiting to be dug out. Should one of the "little snots" who do your bidding stop to break the fourth wall and wave at the camera, you can slap them around with the giant, disembodied hand you use to guide progress and set minions to new adventures and tasks. Dig out a square or rectangular space and slap down, say, a brewery to attract orcs to hack and slash for you. The production process is slow at times and the AI is responsible for making the little snots work, but this is Dungeon Keeper in all but name.
It's kept from being a straight clone by a new overworld RTS mode that sends you and your minions off to the world above to mess stuff up and occasionally nab MacGuffins from other, smaller dungeons. The world certainly looks good, and there's a pleasing visual element to the whole affair in that the landscape shifts from grassy and sunny to hellish and reddish as your hordes move through it. "Horde" is an appropriate word--the game itself calls them that, and it sends you off to fight the forces of the "Alliance," right down to the familiar blue-and-white fortifications from the Warcraft series.
Alas, Dungeons 2's RTS element is undercooked. Regardless of which stage of the campaign you're on, the basic strategy never deviates far from amassing a swarm of orcs, goblins, trolls, and snaky naga in the dungeon to attack the Alliance, and you accomplish this most effectively by selecting the whole pile and right-clicking on units to attack. There's some fun involved in watching the world change as you pillage and plunder (even if my GTX 780's performance dragged when too many enemies were on the screen), but the act of guiding your army is complicated by an awkward shift in control schemes from the underground. Deep in your dungeon, you can't control minions directly, which led to some frustration when I realized my little snots were just loitering around because I hadn't dug out a room large enough for my intended project. In the overworld, you can control your units, although singling out the few minions that have special powers involves trying to pinpoint them from the swarm with your mouse and selecting them independently.
The chief surprise I encountered while playing Dungeons 2 was that I enjoyed it despite these downsides. I suspect a lot of that has to do with the near-constant humorous narration, voiced by Kevan Brighting. It sounds like he's playing the exact same role that won him such acclaim in The Stanley Parable. Brighting's voice work never fails to hit the proper notes here, even if the script pours on the self-awareness too thick (at one point, your overworld minions encounter and slaughter a bear, and you're told that it was pointless because bear meat isn’t used for anything in the game). Sometimes, it feels as though Realmforge is trying too hard, although the narrator's always good when he's used as a tutorial of sorts to correct the Ultimate Evil--as the main character's called--when he goes in the wrong direction.
All of this might be much more fun when you take advantage of the LAN and online multiplayer content, which gives up to four players their own dungeons and lets them fight over a shared overworld. Unfortunately, this review arrives prior to the game's full release, so other players are as hard to find as original, sealed copies of Dungeon Keeper from 1997. Its directions are sometimes muddled, and the whole affair feels like it was oversimplified to cut down on micromanagement, but the beauty of Dungeons 2 is that it never fails to let us take some glee in sowing discord. It's not quite a keeper, but it's an improvement over the original.
First Look at Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean 5
Film producer Jerry Bruckheimer has revealed the first photo of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
The photo (seen below) shows Sparrow tied up by two other pirates. Along with unveiling the picture, Bruckheimer wrote on Twitter: "Captain Jack is back, and we're not letting him go."
Courtesy of Jerry Bruckheimer
BB-8 Star Wars Droid Toy May Be Yours This September
Update: Sphero declined to comment on the listing, though it did say the image posted on the site (shown below) is not official. It is, however, excited to work with Disney to bring the droid to life, as shown in their statement below:
“What an incredible honor it is to work with the team at Disney on one of the most interesting new characters in the Star Wars franchise,” said Paul Berberian, CEO of Sphero. “Opportunities this significant are rare. If anyone can execute and deliver on an exceptional BB-8 experience, it’s our Sphero team in Boulder.”
“This is the beginning of a whole new category of consumer products," said CCO Rob Maigret. "You can own a piece of the movie, have it in your home, and relive an experience that is authentic to the entertainment on the screen. Our hardware and software technology advancements make it possible to build the toys of the future now. We are deepening the user connection in ways that, until today, have only been portrayed in science fiction.”
Harold Review
Harold is a cleverly crafted, personality-packed infinite-runner platformer with visual style to spare. Its title character, however, is an awkward athlete and a bit of a loser, both literally and figuratively. Despite Harold's unwavering determination and enduring spirit, he does dumb things, like getting stuck in frozen dog pee and high-fiving a cactus. Thankfully, you don't assume the role of this doomed underdog, but of his equally-determined guardian angel Gabe. As this anime Zac Efron lookalike with wings, you help Harold complete a series of increasingly hazardous, side-scrolling races by manipulating environmental objects, messing with competitors, and giving the slow-moving marathoner an occasional speed boost.
The monkey wrench in this race is that you have no direct control over the perpetual runner, so clearing and altering his path via divine intervention is the key to ensuring that the lanky, bespectacled competitor finishes in at least third place. Earning the bronze is no simple feat, though, as Harold is an intentionally difficult game, one that ultimately has hardcore completionists and seasoned speed runners in mind.
The courses sport the usual platforming elements and obstacles, from moving blocks and slippery surfaces to spiky walls and bottomless pits, but Harold goes beyond the tried-and-true template with some especially inspired touches; Using an ethereal mallet to transform a chomping crocodile into a belly-up bridge and flinging Harold forward with a sling-shotting noose trap never gets old.
Interacting with these hazards involves using the left analog stick in a variety of ways: a single level could see you pushing, pulling, flicking, and rotating the stick over the course of just a few seconds. Given how you also cycle through obstacles by squeezing the triggers, Harold puts your nimble fingers through the paces. It feels fantastic when you're in the zone--circumventing traps, swinging on ropes, and hitting the ground running with a speed boost--but getting to that point takes some serious practice.
While playing guardian angel for Harold usually involves protecting or helping him, you can also harness your heavenly powers to hinder the more seasoned speedsters. In addition to shifting platforms beneath their swift feet to ensure that they jump to their deaths, you can cut ropes just before they grab them, raise ramps they’re about to ascend, and generally make their lives a living hell. If you've ever envied Lucy’s habit of pulling that football from poor Charlie Brown's path, you'll have as much fun tricking these clueless humans as you do helping Harold.
As satisfying--and sadistic--as it may be to pull the rug out from under the competition, they sometimes spawn right where they left off or, worse, further ahead of Harold. This odd design choice doesn't affect the races' pace unfairly, as Harold enjoys this benefit as often as his competitors do. Still, it would be more visually satisfying to see your targets consistently trailing Harold after falling victim to your well-timed traps.
In addition to altering the world to keep Harold on the quickest, safest route, you must carefully monitor and manage puff power. This collectible gift from the gods not only fuels Harold's speed boost--via a swift lightning bolt to the backside--but it also grants extra lives. I found myself using it more for the former, as it's the most effective way to put the pokey protagonist in the lead. Plus, the punishment for dying isn't so severe that bonus lives are a big deal; quick respawns and restarts ensure that you're never out of the race for long. Regardless of how you decide to use puff power, though, managing the scarce resource quickly becomes as important as ensuring that Harold doesn't get a face full of spikes.
Harold's gameplay is complemented by a hand-drawn art style that wouldn't look out of place in a 90s era Disney film. Seriously, swap the runners--during the jungle races--with the cast of The Lion King, and the action wouldn't miss a visual beat. The pop-off-the-screen art style isn't limited to static backgrounds, either; characters animate in amazing, cartoony detail, and gameplay elements, like rope bridge planks that can be popped to persuade Harold to pick up the pace, bring the pretty presentation to life. Sadly, Harold's steep difficulty doesn't leave you with any time to ogle the gorgeous surroundings like a first time tourist. As aesthetically pleasing as the presentation is, only the most skilled players will enjoy having their eyes and reflexes engaged simultaneously.
Harold is at its fleet-footed best when everything clicks; when your divine guidance not only propels the protagonist to victory, but also leaves his cocky competition on the wrong end of a devious trap. But these momentum-fueled moments will be experienced by only the most dedicated players. And even genre enthusiasts will occasionally be let down by the gamepad-only controls; the inputs are generally spot-on, but the mouse-and-keyboard crowd might miss the precision of their preferred set-ups when they're called upon to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
Although this genre's been done to death, Harold's inspired levels, imaginative mechanics, eye-popping presentation, endless charm, and steep challenge separate it from the pack. It's only that latter element that crosses the line, sometimes making Harold more frustrating than fun. This game’s reflex-taxing level of difficulty isn't for the faint of heart. However, if you're not afraid of a few laps on the trial-and-error treadmill, Harold might just become your next endless-runner fixation.
Galaxy Quest TV Series in the Works
It looks like, once again, the red thingy will move toward the green thingy. A TV series based on the 1999 Tim Allen/Sigourney Weaver comedy Galaxy Quest is currently in development.
Variety reports that original co-writer Robert Gordon is in negotiations with Paramount Television to work on the project (which is currently being shopped around) - as are original director Dean Parisot and executive producers Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein.
The TV version would keep the same premise as the movie - a "has-been cast of a beloved 1970s Star Trek-esque TV series inadvertently get reunited for a real space mission to help an alien race."