Monthly Archives: January 2018
Toys R Us to Close Nearly 200 Stores This Year
Toys R Us is set to close 182 stores across the US, the company announced today in a statement.
The shut downs are expected to begin in early February and will be mostly completed by the end of April. This'll see Toys R Us shrink its outlets by roughly 20 percent if all 182 stores close, as the company tries to reinvent its brand. Additionally, Toys R Us will convert a handful of locations into co-branded Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores.
"The actions we are taking necessary to give us the best chance to emerge from our bankruptcy proceedings as a more viable and competitive company that will provide the level of service and experience you should expect from a market leader," Toys R Us CEO Dave Brandon said in a statement. Check out a full list of stores closing at the end of this post.
World of Goo Developer Reveals New Game 7 Billion Humans
World of Goo developer Tomorrow Corporation's next game is 7 Billion Humans, and it's coming soon to Steam and Nintendo Switch.
As detailed on Tomorrow Corporation's website, 7 Billion Humans is a followup to 2015's Human Resource Machine and has players setting up logic routes to solve puzzles. You'll control a swarm of office workers to solve puzzles inside your computer made of people.
A release date for the game hasn't been revealed yet, but you can check out the announcement trailer below.
7 Billion Humans will offer over 60 levels of programming puzzles, a new soundtrack by Kyle Gabler, and an all new programming language tons of workers can execute at the same time.
Riverdale Plans Musical Episode Based on Stephen King’s Carrie
Riverdale is putting on a high school musical, and it promises to be a bloody good time.
In the April 18 episode of Riverdale's sophomore season, titled "A Night to Remember," the high school drama department will mount a production of Carrie: The Musical, described as "a dark-yet-catchy cautionary tale exploring the gritty realities of small-town high school life."
Sadly, unlike Buffy's iconic "Once More with Feeling," this musical episode won't feature original songs -- Carrie: The Musical was a real Broadway show based on Stephen King's novel, written by Lawrence D. Cohen, with lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and music by Michael Gore. The short-lived production first debuted in 1988 but only lasted 16 previews and 5 performances, before being given new life in 2012 as an Off-Broadway revival, after being reworked with new songs by Cohen, Pitchford and Gore.
Sea of Thieves Contest Lets You Create an Achievement
The Sea of Thieves closed beta kicked off today for players who participated in the technical alpha, and everyone who preordered the game. If you didn't manage to get in, you can still join in the fun, albeit in a different way that doesn't involve playing the game, but will net you some sweet Sea of Thieves booty.
The "Design an Achievement" contest gives you the chance to do just that, and you can submit your ideas in the specially created forum for the duration of the closed beta.
To take part in the contest you'll need to come up with an achievement name (no more than 44 characters), along with a description of no more than 100 characters. As an optional extra, you can suggest an image to go alongside it.
15 Things We Learned on the Set of Black Panther
Last year I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to visit the set of Marvel’s Black Panther. The Ryan Coogler-directed film promises to showcase T’Challa and his homeland of Wakanda in all of it’s Afro-Futuristic glory.
On a cool Friday morning in February, a group of 19 journalists gathered on folding chairs under a pop-up tent (that was surrounded by tarp behind us and on each side) to look at a TV. What we saw on the screen was the filming of a scene featuring CIA Agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) interrogating arms dealer and mercenary, Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) in a safehouse, while T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and later Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) watched the conversation from behind a two-way mirror.
Uncharted Director Joins The Avengers Project Game
Former Uncharted director Shaun Escayg and Dead Space producer Stephen Barry have joined The Avengers Project game, developer Crystal Dynamics announced.
Escayg joins the team as creative director, while Barry will serve as director of production. Escayg is the creative director and writer of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and worked on The Last of Us as the director of photography and animation supervisor. He was also an animator at Industrial Light & Magic. "I'm thrilled to join Crystal as Creative Director and be aligned with a team as passionate about telling great character based stories as I am," Escayg said.
Barry held several positions at Electronic Arts, with his latest role at the company being the director of product development at Visceral Games. "Crystal's been around almost as long as I've been in the business. The immediate chemistry and camaraderie has been exactly what I'd hoped for," Barry said.
Black Dynamite to Return This Year
Black Dynamite is coming back in 2018.
Martial artist and actor Michael Jai White teased on Twitter the return of the nunchuck-wielding blaxploitation parody protagonist for what appears to be a new live-action project. You can check out the teaser trailer below.
"Black Is Black"#thisisjaigantic #blackisback pic.twitter.com/MwW6qly3ze
Why John Wick Shouldn’t Be in the John Wick TV Show
The John Wick films are interesting not just because of Wick himself and Keanu Reeves' intensely-watchable portrayal of the character, but because of the mysterious world established around him - one filled with assassins and centered on a hotel called The Continental. And now, a television show named after the hotel is in the works with Reeves himself executive-producing the whole affair. We love John Wick, so we're nervous. Let’s talk about what Starz has to do to get this show right…
Here’s how to make the John Wick TV show work!
Let’s make a comparison to the legendary sitcom Parks & Recreation. In one particularly amazing recurring bit, the show's resident nerd Ben Wyatt creates his own game, the Cones of Dunshire. It's an absurd concept with complicated rules, including a player who serves as the Ledgerman, a person who wears a sea captain's hat and keeps score.
PUBG’s New Anti-Cheat Measures Are Rolling Out On PC
PUBG has a problem with cheaters. We all know it. We even encountered one on our livestream. But anti-cheat measures are being implemented to stamp out this behaviour and ban players who are spoiling the fun for the rest of us.
The current test build of the game will be moving to the live servers on PC, according to a Tweet from the official PUBG account - and a lengthier update over on Steam details that new security measures are a part of this patch.
Dragon Ball FighterZ Network Issues Fixed For One Last Beta
Mere days before launch, Bandai Namco has announced one last 24-hour Dragon Ball FighterZ beta for Xbox One players to dive into.
The Dragon Ball FighterZ beta on the Xbox One has had more than its fair share of problems. But hey, that's what they're are for. The initial beta, which ran from January 13 to 16, experienced a multitude of "network issues" which Bandai Namco acknowledged, and they followed it up with a 24-hour open beta on January 17 which promised "improvements to the experience".