Monthly Archives: February 2018
Disney Reportedly Developing Muppets Reboot for Streaming Service
Disney is reportedly developing a The Muppets reboot for its streaming service, among several other projects.
THR reports Disney is looking to revive Kermit the Frog and friends for a new series to premiere exclusively on its upcoming streaming service, which is expected to launch domestically in the fall of 2019. Not much about the potential project is currently known, but a search for a writer is currently underway.
Shining Resonance Refrain Announced for the West
The latest entry in the long-running Shining series, Shining Resonance Refrain, is coming to the West, and will land on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC this summer.
In a PlayStation Blog interview with Localization Producer James Kuroki, Kuroki confirmed Shining Resonance Refrain is a remaster of PS3 game Shining Resonance, which originally released only in Japan. It will feature improved graphics, bringing it up to 1080p resolution, and includes all the DLC for the original game. A price and release date have not been announced at this time.
Black Panther Has Highest-Grossing Tuesday in MCU History
Thanks to a stellar first Tuesday at the domestic box office, Black Panther has broken even more records.
As reported by Deadline, the film earned an estimated $21.1 million yesterday, topping Beauty and the Beast ($17.8 million) for the best pre-summer Tuesday of all time, as well as surpassing The Avengers ($17.6 million) with the best Tuesday ever for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens still holds the number one spot, with a Tuesday haul of $37.3 million.
Black Panther is expected see a 55-57 percent decline in its second weekend, making somewhere between $104 million and $109 million. The film had the second-biggest four-day domestic debut of all time and set a new record for the Monday box office, surpassing The Force Awakens ($40.11 million) with a whopping $40.167 million haul.
The Best Trivia Board Games
Trivial Pursuit's stale wedges have given trivia games a bad rap among gamers, but it doesn't have to be this way. There are a whole host of trivia board games that offer more replay value, better balance and fairness, and game design that helps keep everyone engaged. At their best, these are simple games of skill that anyone can enjoy. They also have the potential to be hilarious. And if you're okay with attempting a higher hurdle of complexity, you can get some strategy along with your skill and slapstick.
In a market dominated by cheap copycat titles, finding the gems can be harder than the toughest historical fact question. So we've done the research for you. These are seven of the best trivia board games, ranging from the fiendish to the funny to the family-friendly.
Unity Partners with IBM to Bring Watson AI to Games
Game engine developer Unity has teamed up with IBM to bring their powerful Watson AI to games.
The collaboration was revealed in a post on the Unity3D blog, which includes a number of examples and resources for prospective developers.
The 'IBM Watson Unity SDK' has been added to the Unity asset store, allowing developers to integrate the cloud-based artificial intelligence into their games.
Unity's Nathan Ventura believes the partnership will help to build "the future of enterprise AR and VR."
"This partnership exemplifies IBM and Unity’s commitment to accelerating the enterprise developer journey and equipping them with the tools and resources they need to build powerful new AR and VR apps."
Everything We Know About Nintendo’s Paid Online Subscription Service
The following article was originally published in May. It's since been updated with new information following September 13's Nintendo Direct.
Nintendo first announced a paid online service for Switch in January 2017. Guess what? It’s still not here. But the service is slowly coming into view as Nintendo continues sprinkling out the details. To cut through the weeds, let’s take a look at everything we know about Nintendo's paid online service.
It’s Called Nintendo Switch Online
The name isn’t as flashy as Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus, but Nintendo Switch Online gets the job done.
Far Cry 5: Boomer Is A Good Boy – IGN First
Our IGN First game for February is none other than Far Cry 5, the highly anticipated open-world chaos shooter, developed by the Far Cry 3 team. As you may already know, this Far Cry is set in Montana, where a small-town cult clashes with the law and you're thrust straight into the middle of the action.
We've already looked into the different ways to play, what's new in Far Cry 5, and the charismatic villain John Seed, but today we're taking a closer look at a friend of yours, Boomer, the trusty canine companion and how he came to life.
9 Things We Learned on the Set of A Wrinkle in Time
Last year, I was among the press invited to visit the Los Angeles set of A Wrinkle in Time, the film version of the beloved children’s book by Madeleine L’Engle. The Ava DuVernay-directed film, which opens March 9, is the story of young Meg Murray (Storm Reid) who goes on a magical journey to rescue her father, with help from some supernatural beings along the way.
The book has pretty heavy themes about the concept of goodness vs. evil, and what we can do to change the world. There is also, however, a simple story of love and friendship at its core. We observed a scene being filmed between Reid and Levi Miller, who plays Calvin, where they share their first kiss. The scene was very short, but it gave us a good look at both the poise of two young actors and the way the kids got to joke around between takes. Oprah Winfrey, who plays Mrs. Which, told us that the other actors loved the days they were on set with the kids because they “pumpkin” early, meaning that everyone got to end the day when the kids were legally required to.
Diablo Creator on Difficulty Bringing Diablo 2 to Modern PCs
David Brevik, the co-founder of Blizzard North and creator of Diablo, recently shared his thoughts on the potential of Diablo II coming to modern PCs and the challenges involved in making that happen.
"I can say from a technical standpoint it's gonna be extremely difficult," Brevik said on the latest episode of our monthly interview show IGN Unfiltered. "You will not be able to capture it exactly the way it was, and the number one reason is because of the shape of the screen."
Brevik went on to explain that because the screens during the time of Diablo II's release were 800x600 resolution in a 4:3 aspect ratio—which is much different in shape than the 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio screens we have today—many of the programming tricks they used when developing Diablo II would no longer work.
New Art Book Celebrates 30 Years of Street Fighter
Kadokawa Corporation will release Street Fighter Memorial Archive: Beyond the World in Japan on March 24, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Street Fighter series. It will be priced at ¥3,900 (about $36, not including tax).
The book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon Japan.