Hateful Eight: Full Cast Revealed
Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight -- the Academy Award-winning director's Western that almost didn't happen -- has begun filming in Telluride, Colorado, for The Weinstein Company. Additionally, the film's full cast has been revealed and includes several Tarantino alumni.
According to Variety, The Hateful Eight cast now includes several faces familiar to Tarantino fans, including: Django Unchained's James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Keith Jefferson, Lee Horsley, Craig Stark and Belinda Owino, as well as Zoe Bell (Death Proof) and Gene Jones (No Country for Old Men).
Destiny’s New Crota’s End Hard Mode Raid Stats
Destiny's updated Crota's End raid, which added a Hard Mode, went live on January 21. In the following 24 hours, 557,354 raids were launched, with 3,344,124 players taking part, according to stats from Bungie.
Those numbers represented the single largest event launch in Destiny's history, with "more than double the population of the very first run on Atheon," Bungie said.
Fire team One and Done were the first to complete the new raid, besting Crota in just under 27 minutes. The next team to complete the raid was WRECKnation, led by team leader Ari with 39 minutes. They were also the first team to beat the raid live on Twitch.
Why Marvel Still Needs the Ultimate Universe
Marvel readers have speculated for years that the Ultimate Universe would be folded up and eliminated in the wake of stories like Ultimatum and Cataclysm. Now it seems that 2015 will mark the end of that imprint, as Secret Wars destroys both the regular Marvel and Ultimate Universes and leaves... something in their wake. However, even though the Ultimate Universe doesn't have the luster it did a decade ago, I'm disappointed at the thought that it will no longer exist. There remains a need for the Ultimate Universe and its characters within Marvel's publishing lineup.
There's no real reason to assume every single piece of the Ultimate Universe is going away. It's clear from what little Secret Wars art that's been revealed so far that Miles Morales and some of the Ultimate FF will be playing a role in Secret Wars. And these characters may find a place in whatever new Marvel Universe is being formed in the wake of Secret Wars. It's widely believed that, at the very least, Miles will find a permanent home in the core Marvel Universe even if the rest of his world is wiped.
Would You Buy a Heart-Shaped Cell Phone?
A unique, heart-shaped cell phone from Ymobile is set to hit the Japanese market in March.
The Heart 401AB features a monochrome 0.9-inch, 128 x 36 display, while lacking a camera, web browser, e-mail, and SMS functionality, according to The Verge. It isn't intended to replace your smartphone, but rather compliment it as a fashionable secondary phone for voice calls.
A special Sailor Moon edition of the Heart 401AB will also be available. Check it out in the slideshow below.
A smartphone app will allow your contacts to be transferred to the Heart 401AB. The phone itself is navigated using built-in touch sensors. When it's time to make a call, the phone must be twisted into its more practical "straight" mode.
PSN Class Action Settlement: Do You Qualify?
If you were affected by the PlayStation Network outage of 2011, you may qualify for benefits agreed upon in a class-action lawsuit against certain "Sony Entities."
The Class in this case includes anyone in the US and its territories who had a "PSN account, a Qriocity account, or an SOE account," during any time before May 15, 2011.
If you were an account holder of one of the qualifying Sony Entities during the time period specified, you may be entitled to certain benefits from the suit. The benefits include a free PS3 or PSP game, 3 free themes, or 3 months of PlayStation Plus membership.
Anyone who suffered identity theft from the incident that led to out-of-pocket expenses can submit supporting documentation to claim reimbursement of up to $2,500.
Rainbow Six Siege: 5v5 or Bust
Our love for the Rainbow Six reboot is hardly a secret: we loved what we played at E3 2014, naming the destruction-tastic, 60fps first-person shooter our Game of the Show. It went dark shortly after its unveiling, though, with the Ubisoft Montreal development team quietly toiling away on the return of the beloved franchise ever since. Our interview with game designer Andrew J. Witts marks the first noise the team's made about the game in a while.
"'House' was simply the first map that we felt showed how different and claustrophobic Siege’s
Black Sails is Back! Here’s What to Expect…
Starz's pirate series Black Sails returns Saturday night for Season 2 with a bevy of plotlines in motion. When last we saw the characters, Flint (Toby Stephens) had been usurped as Captain thanks to a mutiny, while Vane (Zach McGowan) had returned to Nassau, accompanied by a new army of followers - and disrupting Eleanor’s (Hannah New) plans in the process.
I sat down the show’s creators, Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine, to find out what to expect as the new season begins, including the inclusion of flashbacks, some dangerous new enemies and much more.
IGN: You got the Season 2 renewal pretty early. Was that great for you as far as the ability to really plan ahead and getting to look at where you wanted to go?
DC’s First Month of Convergence Revealed
DC released their full solicitations for April 2015 this week. As you can see, big changes are afoot as the New 52 takes a two-month break and the Convergence event takes over the spotlight. The weekly Convergence mini-series will be accompanied by 40 two-issue books exploring various past incarnations of DC's heroes.
New Series:
- Convergence #1-4
- Various Convergence tie-ins
- Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest HC
- Vertigo Quarterly: SFX #1
- Wonder Woman '77 Special #1
The Art of the Uncharted Trilogy Preview
Dark Horse is set to release another entry in their growing lineup of video game art books. And even though they've already put out a book focused on Naughty Dog's library, they're hard at work on a volume focused specifically on the Uncharted series. The Art of the Uncharted Trilogy will include concept art and designs from the first three Uncharted games, as well as plenty of commentary from the developers. Consider it one way to tide you over until the release of Uncharted 4.
Is it Time to Rethink Our Loathing of Free-to-Play Titles?
The last few years have been an interesting time to be involved in the games industry. Where once there was a clearly established business model, where gamers would drop a one-time fee for all of a title’s content, increasingly we’re seeing a shift towards DLC, microtransactions and the fragmentation of features we’re expected to pay for in addition to our initial purchase if we want to experience them. Giving this, it’s hardly surprising to find the free-to-play label provokes a strong reaction from many gamers.
But is the tide starting to turn? As a slew of broken and bug-riddled games released at the tail-end of 2014 shows, unfortunately we’re now living in a world where an up-front fee for a triple-A game regrettably doesn’t guarantee quality.Could free-to-play offer a convenient try-before-you-buy alternative? According to Gameforge’s Jörn Fahrbach, attitudes in the rest of the world are slowly starting to catch up with those in mainland Europe. The F2P giant oversaw TERA: Rising’s removal of its sub fee in the EU and, with the recent launch of the Fate of Arun expansion pack, it seems more people than ever are expressing an interest in the MMO.