Monthly Archives: June 2017
Destiny 2: Hands-On with the Beautiful PC Version
If you’re a console Destiny player, Destiny 2’s performance on PC will amaze you. Trust me; I’ve played over 700 hours of Bungie’s shared multiplayer shooter in the last three years, but none of that experience prepared me for the PC’s unbelievably high resolution and snappy 60 frames-per-second performance. If teraflops and raw processing power are your thing, the demo I played points to an absurdly bright future and a great new home for a game that was practically built for the PC anyway. But outside of these bells and whistles, what does Destiny 2 feel like from the perspective of a grizzled veteran like myself?
The E3 2017 demo is the opening mission of the campaign, called Homecoming, and it’s a reminder of all of the lessons Bungie learned in lead up to this sequel. When Destiny launched on consoles in 2014, it spelled out its villains and story sequences in broad strokes. The Darkness was the name of the enemy, but it didn’t have a consistent face. The Guardians had three key leaders named Cayde-6, Ikora, and Zavala, but none of these heroes were given actual screen time to give you an idea of who they were. The hodgepodge of storytelling delivered an underwhelming story and few standout heroes or moments.
PlayStation 4 Grabs the NPD’s Top Spot for May 2017
Sony took its spot at the top of the NPD sales list back again, with the PlayStation 4 coming in as May 2017's best selling hardware platform.
Nintendo Switch, which was the top-selling console for April 2017, was credited with being the "primary catalyst for hardware spending gains" over the same period last year.
In its release, NPD said "the combined installed base of Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One" beats the combined base of the previous generation "by 29 percent."
May's best-selling game was Injustice 2, followed by last month's best-seller, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Somewhat surprisingly, the third best selling game by revenue for May 2017 was September 2013's Grand Theft Auto 5.
Batman and Harley Quinn to Premiere at SDCC 2017
Warner Bros.' upcoming Batman and Harley Quinn animated movie will premiere at San Diego Comic-Con 2017 on July 21.
Since 2007's Superman: Doomsday, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has been premiering its films at Comic-Con at the San Diego Convention Center's Ballroom 20. The Batman and Harley Quinn premiere will include a post-screening panel discussion featuring the film's core cast and crew.
If you're not able to attend Comic-Con 2017, you can watch Batman and Harley Quinn when it arrives August 15 on Digital HD and August 29 on Blu-ray. Based on an original story by Bruce Timm (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), the film follows Batman and Nightwing teaming up with Harley Quinn to take down Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue (a.k.a. The Floronic Man).
Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Hard Mode Has Separate Save
Don't worry about overwriting your normal save file in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild while tackling the upcoming Hard Mode.
The Nintendo U.K. website says there will be a separate save slot for the mode, which is part of the first DLC pack for the game called The Master Trials. Breath of the Wild's Hard Mode (named Master Mode overseas) will only offer two save spots, though, compared to six in the normal game.
Everything Revealed So Far About Xbox One X
Final Fantasy XV Episode Prompto Release Date Announced
Episode Prompto, the next character-focused story DLC for Final Fantasy XV, will be released on June 27, Square Enix has announced.
For a sneak peek at Episode Prompto, check out the gameplay footage below:
In this story add-on, which Square Enix previously confirmed would launch sometime before the end of June, players will assume control of Prompto, who finds himself alone in the arctic on a mission to uncover the truth behind his origin.
The launch of Episode Prompto follows the story DLC for Gladio, which released earlier this year. Like Prompto and Gladio, a story add-on for Ignis is on the horizon, as well as a co-op multiplayer expansion called Comrades.
Stranger Things, The Leftovers Among TCA Awards Nominees
Stranger Things, The Leftovers and Atlanta are among the nominees for the 33rd annual Television Critics Association Awards.
Atlanta, This Is Us and The Handmaid's Tale each received four nominations, including Program of the Year. Stranger Things, which netted three nominations, and The Leftovers, which was nominated twice, were nominated for Program of the Year as well.
For the second year in a row, HBO leads with a total of 12 nominations, while FX has 11 and Netflix received 10.
The invitation-only presentation will be held on Saturday, August 5 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
The full list of nominees is as follows:
PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
Negan Stars in Walking Dead Graphic Novel
The Walking Dead fans have a new graphic novel to look forward to this fall. Image has just revealed first details about The Walking Dead: Here's Negan!, a new hardcover chronicling the origin of the popular villain.
Here's Negan! will reprint the serialized story that's been running in the pages of the Image+ magazine over the past year. The book features the same creative team as the main series - writer Robert Kirkman and artists Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn.
Every Pixar Movie’s Opening Weekend Box Office
(This is an update to a Pixar box office article originally published in 2017.)
Toy Story 4 opened to an estimated $118 million at the North American box office, easily debuting at No. 1. While that amount is well below industry expectations for the film -- which had been widely pegged as opening with as much as $140 million -- it’s still the biggest opening weekend ever in the Toy Story franchise. It’s also the third biggest opening weekend (domestically) for a Pixar release.
Last year’s Incredibles 2 remains the highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar movie, earning $182.7 million when it bowed in June 2018. That’s followed by 2016’s Finding Dory with $135.1 million.
What Was May’s Best-Selling Comic?
Diamond Comics has released its sales figures for May 2017. According to Diamond, Secret Empire #1 was the best-selling comic of the month, with an estimated 157,517 copies sold (according to figures from Comichron).
Secret Empire was followed by Venom #150 (141,757 copies sold) and the lenticular editions of Batman #22 (114,173 copies sold) and The Flash #22 (104,506 copies sold). However, as was the case with April's controversial sales numbers, Batman and The Flash were actually the two top-selling comics of the month. Because the lenticular and standard versions of those two issues were priced differently, Diamond listed sales figures for each version separately. When both versions are added together, Batman #22 comes out on top for May with a combined 186,914 copies sold, with Flash following at 163,767 copies sold (again, based on Comichron's estimated figures).