Vblank's open world action heads to the tropics, in Shakedown: Hawaii. From the boardroom to the streets, Shakedown parodies big business and the white collar crimes that go alongside. Build your empire, monopolize the markets, and collaterally re-zone the island's destructible sandbox.
MORDHAU is a multiplayer medieval slasher. Create your mercenary and fight in brutal battles where you will experience fast paced combat, castle sieges, cavalry charges, and more.
It: Chapter 2 (2019) Trailer Is A Terrifying Journey Back To Derry
As promised earlier this week, the first trailer for It: Chapter Two is here. The sequel to 2017's blockbuster Stephen King adaptation It is set 27 years later and features a new cast playing the adult versions of the kids in the first movie. Check our our full breakdown of the footage.
The trailer opens with a fairly long sequence in which Beverly (Jessica Chastain) returns to her home town of Derry and visits her old apartment. There is now a weird old lady living there, who seems to hold a dark secret. It's a really effectively creepy scene, and is followed by a quickly-cut montage that alternates between the new cast and their younger counterparts--plus a scary appearance from the evil clown Pennywise. There are some teases that we'll learn more about Pennywise's origin story, with the old woman talking about her father (who looks a lot like Pennywise) working at the circus. Check it out above.
It: Chapter Two also stars James McAvoy as Bill, Bill Hader as Richie, James Ransone as Eddie, Andy Bean as Stan, and Isaiah Mustafa as Mike. Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise, one of the guises of the terrifying interdimensional entity of the title. The movie hit theaters on September 9.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Skarsgård spoke about how Pennywise has changed in the years between the two movies. "He's been doing this forever really, so he doesn't change in the sense that you would look differently," he explained. "He looks however he wants to look for any particular prey at the time, but I do think there's a change. His last line--‘Fear' --is him experiencing it for the first time, and he's sort of shocked and perplexed and surprised. Like, what is this?
"It fuels hatred and anger towards the kids, who will be adults in this one, so I think there might be an even more vicious Pennywise. He's really going after it."
In related news, a new TV version of King's fantasy series The Dark Tower is on the way. A movie adaptation arrived a few months before the first It movie in 2017 but flopped at the box office. This new version is being overseen by former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara and is being produced for Amazon.
Video: Detective Pikachu Movie Trailer Reimagined As A Game Boy Color Game
Before you head off to your local cinema tomorrow to catch Pokémon Detective Pikachu, you might want to give this fanmade demake video a watch. You know, for a healthy mix of fresh excitement and nostalgia.
The folks over at Nintendo Wire have shared this Game Boy Color-inspired demake of the film’s first official trailer, reimagining particular scenes in the style of the early Pokémon games. The use of Pokémon Yellow‘s Pikachu face box to show emotion is a nice touch – as is the chiptune version of The Turtles’ ‘Happy Together’.
You can compare it with the real trailer below if you like; the opening scene in Nintendo Wire’s version kicks in at around 0:34, with other scenes being chosen throughout.
What do you think? A clever little project? We’d happily buy a copy of Pokémon Yellow: Detective Pikachu Edition based on this…
Taito’s Ninja Warriors Will Once Again Hit Our Screens This July
Remember that Ninja Warriors sequel we reported on a while back? We’ve not heard anything about it for a while, but last month (sorry, we must have been asleep) Taito confirmed that the game – which is being developed in conjunction with Natsume Atari – will hit Japanese PS4 and Switches in July of this year.
Taito has also released a bunch of screenshots for Ninja Warriors Once Again which show new characters Yaksha and Raiden getting in on the action with the original three Ninja Warriors. As you can see, Raiden is an absolute unit.
Here’s some PR:
Based on the 1994-released The Ninja Warriors: Again, which is a Super Famicom arrangement of the 1987-released arcade game The Ninja Warriors, The Ninja Warriors: Once Again is a 25-year-later remake from the Tengo Project main staff that brought you the original games. While retaining its 16-bit style, The Ninja Warriors: Once Again significantly enhances the character resolution, pattern amount, and more to match the latest hardware. In addition to two new playable characters, The Ninja Warriors: Once Again implements a two-player co-op mode that was not available in The Ninja Warriors: Again.
There’s no word on pricing yet, but will you be downloading this when it launches in Japan? Let us know with a comment.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-10-2019, 07:31 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Anthem fell short of EA’s sales expectations
Electronic Arts had been banking on BioWare’s Anthem and Respawn’s Apex Legends to lead its Q4 but, while Apex Legends performed well, Anthem didn’t meet EA’s sales expectations.
In a conference call covering its latest earnings report, EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen noted that the game hasn’t lived up to its sales goals, but didn’t share any specifics on how many copies Anthem sold beyond that comment.
However, a previous goal shared by EA last quarter (and picked up by GameSpot) had the company estimating that Anthem would move between 5 and 6 million copies before March 31, 2019.
While Anthem didn’t set any sales records for EA, Jorgensen did say that the game saw the largest percentage of digital purchases for any of the company’s games to date and that it (along with the free-to-play Apex Legends) helped the company’s full-year digital net bookings increase by 14 percent year-over-year to $1.19 billion.
Despite that underperformance, EA leadership said that the company continues “to invest heavily in Anthem, with developers working on game quality, content, systems and game mechanics. It’s great original IP and we’ve doubled down on the product.”
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-10-2019, 07:31 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
EA in ‘advanced negotiations’ to bring Apex Legends to China and mobile
During a call with investors (transcribed by SeekingAlpha), EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen shared that the company is currently in talks to bring Apex Legends to China and mobile platforms.
The Chinese government is infamously strict about what games it will approve for monetization and release in the country, and those regulations have only strengthened this last year. But, for the games that can get approved China can be a valuable market given the fact that the country represents a $30 billion video game industry and over 600 million players.
“We are in advanced negotiations to bring Apex Legends to China and to mobile,” said Jorgensen, “And we will update you on timeframes when those negotiations are concluded.”
Beyond that, details are unclear. Fellow battle royale games PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite followed similar paths after first releasing on PC and consoles, though Tencent just this week had to pull support for the PUBG mobile game in China due to licensing complications.
Even without a mobile version of the game or a release in China, EA says that Apex Legends is “easily the fastest-growing franchise we’ve ever had.” The company’s current forecasts see Apex Legends bringing in net bookings in the range of $300 million to $400 million in the 2020 fiscal year, and that’s before even considering income from a mobile or Chinese release of the game.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-10-2019, 07:31 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
This Week At Bungie – 5/9/2019
This week at Bungie, TR3-VR was waiting for you.
What was once [Redacted] is now live. Some of our favorite moments in the studio happen when players uncover the secrets in Destiny, whether it’s a new dungeon in the Dreaming City or something much more sinister, hiding within eyeshot of the Traveler. With the release of Zero Hour, we got to enjoy that all over again, right alongside many of you. The team who brought this experience to life has a short message for you:
Dev Team: Experiences like these are a salute to our inquisitive, skilled, and close-knit Destiny player community. We couldn’t make these without the right audience to discover and enjoy them. Thanks for being awesome, and don’t forget TR3-VR is waiting for you down there.
It’s time for your weekly dose of Bungie Blog content. We’ve got some information on the upcoming season and your final chance to take on the Iron Burden. Let’s dive in.
Season of Opulence: Getting Raid Ready
Starting June 4, 2019, Season of Opulence kicks off for all players of Destiny 2. Many of you are familiar with how raids can launch with new content—usually on a Friday at reset. This season, we’re doing something a little different. Owners of the Annual Pass will be challenged to conquer a new raid on day one. Here’s some context on this new plan and changes to the upcoming Power climb:
Dev Team: The world’s first race for a raid is a competitive event. The raid is a challenge geared toward testing a fireteam’s ability to learn and execute on the mechanics, as well as their ability to overcome enemies and bosses together. Having a short window of time between release and launch allows us to preserve the combat challenge for players making their attempt on day one and get people playing the raid content right away.
Crown of Sorrow
June 4, 2019: 4 PM PDT
Recommended Power for first encounter: 715
With this race, there will be a few minor changes to current investment systems to ensure an even playing field while players are increasing their Power at the launch of the Season.
Last Wish and Scourge of the Past will be unavailable until Crown of Sorrow has been beaten
This prevents players with a stash of Ethereal Keys from having a leg up in the race
Prime Attunements will be reset to two charges per character on day one
While characters build Prime Attunement charges over time, these are being set to two per character upon logging in after the new season begins.
All level 50 characters can earn Prime Engrams after signing in and playing during the Season of Opulence
Players may continue to build Prime Attunements over time after the reset occurs
As a reminder, any powerful bounties acquired prior to Season of Opulence will have a Power cap of 700. For additional information, see the “Cleaning House” section of this article.
If you’re the type to take a day off work to celebrate the start of a new Season, get that request in now! We’re officially four weeks away from Season of Opulence. We’ll have more information on what’s changing in the Destiny 2 experience in June, so keep your eyes set on the blog for updates.
Stoke the Fire
The final Iron Banner of Season of the Drifter takes place next week. Lord Saladin returns to the Tower, which is now clean of Revelry decorations, and invites you to participate in Power-enabled combat.
Iron Banner and Increased Valor
Start: 10 AM PDT on May 14
End: 10 AM PDT on May 21
Destiny 2 Update 2.2.2, released earlier this week, fixed an issue where the Iron Ruby shader was not being rewarded when dismantling Iron Banner rewards. If you’ve been looking to acquire this shader, you can either dismantle a reward that’s already in your inventory or dismantle an Iron Banner reward next week. Lord Saladin will also feature the following weapons for direct purchase when completing their associated weekly bounties:
NOTE: This will be your final chance to participate in the Iron Burden experiment of Season 6. If you’re currently on the path to earn 2,500 burdened kills and the “Heavy as Death” emblem, you have seven days to complete the “Now You’re Just Showing Off” Triumph.
Additionally, this will be your final opportunity to unlock Season 6 Triumphs or armor sets related to Iron Banner. Get out there and make Saladin proud.
Player Support, Reporting In!
This week brought a list of issue resolutions to Destiny 2, and a few issues have been discovered since the deployment of Destiny Update 2.2.2. Player Support is at the ready to give you the information you need for success.
Destiny 2 Update 2.2.2
On Tuesday, we rolled out Destiny 2 Update 2.2.2. This update included a sandbox tuning pass and resolved the following issues:
Fixed an issue in which Combination Blow was unintentionally magnifying damage of the Arc Staff Super
Fixed an issue where Warlocks were unable to Blink after going through a teleportation portal
Fixed an issue where Chaos Reach would not deal damage to enemies affected by other status effects (such as Thorn’s Soul Devourer or Hunter Tethers)
Fixed an issue where Actium War Rig would prevent Auto Rifles with the Grave Robber perk from being able to generate Masterwork orbs
Fixed an issue where Vestian Dynasty could not be Masterworked
Fixed an issue where Dreaming City lore was not being awarded when completing an Ascendant Challenge
Fixed an issue where the “Collect Vex Samples” objective of the Xûr bounty “The Tower” could not be completed in the Warden of Nothing strike
Fixed an issue with the Gambit Prime bounty “Sentries Hold the Line” where all boss enemies were unintentionally contributing toward bounty progress
Fixed an issue where Massacre and Locksmith medals were not appearing in Gambit Prime
Fixed an issue where the Iron Ruby shader was not dropping
Fixed an issue where Legendary Eververse Ghost Shells were dropping with only Mercury perks
Fixed an issue where the “Good Doggo” emote was dropping from unintended sources
Players can find the full Update 2.2.2 patch notes here. For future patch notes as they are made available, players should keep an eye on our Updates page.
Known Issue Callout: Zero Hour
This week, players discovered the Zero Hour mission in Destiny 2. While we will not divulge the details of this mission for the uninitiated, a known issue has emerged that we would like to touch on.
Currently, we are investigating an issue where players are not receiving their reward drop when completing the Zero Hour mission on secondary characters, blocking access to the Heroic version of this mission.
Players should rest assured that they will receive this reward drop as expected for their first character who completes this mission, and this character may then move forward to the Heroic version. In the meantime, we will continue to investigate this issue.
Destiny 2 Maintenance: 5/9/2019
Today, Destiny 2 underwent maintenance to resolve an issue where players may lose their Key Cards during the Heroic Zero Hour mission when using Destiny Companion features.
While we expect this to be resolved, players who still encounter this issue should report it to the #Help forum.
Destiny 2 Known Issues
In addition to the known issues described above, we’d like to touch on the following issues being investigated in Destiny 2.
Bergusia Forge Crashes on PC: We are investigating an issue where PC players may experience crashes in the Bergusia Forge with the Zero Hour reward equipped.
“Lost Connection” on PC: PC players receiving a “lost connection” server error may need to exit Destiny 2 and check for updates in their BattleNet launcher. If this issue persists, we recommend that players perform a Scan and Repair.
This May Never Happen Again
We always love to see players leveraging nuances of the sandbox to claim victory. With a mix of Reveler’s Tonic, armor swapping, Arc Strider tomfoolery, and a cheeky teleport, a lone Guardian found success when challenging an ahamkara to battle.
Movie of the Week: Solo Riven
Honorable Mention: Gambit Shark
If you’d like a chance at the Lens of Fate emblem, be sure to submit your footage to the Community Creations portal on bungie.net.
Every time new content enters the game, an email is sent studio-wide reminding the team that the mysteries of Destiny are hand-crafted for you, the player, to uncover. We watch. We wait. We count the minutes until the first player notices something unique in a corner that has never been seen before. We monitor the conversation as players make progress toward their unknown prize. Then, we celebrate.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-10-2019, 06:26 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Fortnite Season 9 Fortbytes: New Challenges Explained
Fortnite players are used to having challenges and mysteries thrown their way regularly and, with the start of Season 9, Epic Games has a new way to keep players on their toes. For the new season, a collectible called Fortbytes is being introduced for those who purchase the Battle Pass, and they're the key to solving the mystery of Season 9. Here's how they work and what you need to know.
When you load up the game and head to the Challenges section, you'll now find a new entry in the events category. Here you'll find the Fortbyte challenges, which task players with using clues to find the new, special items on the island. These items are small, glowing computer chips and, once acquired, will uncover a small piece of a larger picture. Some of these Fortbytes are also unlocked by meeting certain conditions such as earning 175,000 XP, reaching specific Battle Pass tiers, or going to certain areas. The ultimate goal is to collect all the Fortbytes from across the season and decrypt the mystery. You can find a list of Fortbyte challenges below.
Fortnite Season 9 Fortbyte Challenges
1: Awarded for gaining 175,000 XP
10: Awarded for gaining 60,000 XP
13: Found at a location hidden within loading screen number 2
25: Awarded at Battle Pass tier 40
35: Awarded for gaining 225,000 XP
36: Accessible by Sentinel on a frozen island
39: Awarded for completing six challenges from Week 2
44: Awarded at Battle Pass tier 20
46: Awarded at Battle Pass tier 100
57: Awarded by finishing top 10 in squads, duos, or solo 25 times
66: Awarded by finishing top 10 in squads, duos, or solo 75 times
71: Awarded for completing six challenges from Week 1
84: Awarded at Battle Pass tier 60
85: Awarded for gaining 30,000 XP
87: Awarded by finishing top 10 in squads, duos, or solo 50 times
90 Awarded by finishing top 10 in squads, duos, or solo 100 times
96: Awarded at Battle Pass tier 80
99: Awarded for gaining 125,000 XP
It's important to reiterate that Fortbytes and are exclusive to those that have spent V-Bucks on a Battle Pass. They are, effectively, another set of unique challenges that function similar to the way as the Battle Pass-exclusive weekly challenges, which means if you don't own the Battle Pass, you won't be able to see any of it. You can read our Fortnite Season 9 Battle Pass guide to find out how it works and what it includes.
Fortnite Season 9 brings a number of other new additions, tweaks, and changes to Epic Games' battle royale title. You can read the full Fortnite Season 9 update patch notes to get a breakdown of it all. If you haven't already seen it, check out the first trailer for Fortnite Season 9, as it sets up all the weird changes that have happened on the island through a short and sweet story about a couple of lads getting locked in a vault.
New Book Aims To Chronicle The Unseen History Of SNK’s Metal Slug Series
UK publisher Bitmap Books has announced that it is producing an officially-licenced history of SNK’s beloved Metal Slug franchise, and has been given “unprecedented access” to the company’s archives in order to compile the publication.
Metal Slug: The Ultimate History is the first officially-licenced book of its kind, and covers the history of the series from its inception in 1996 all the way up to the present day. It will showcase original art, concept material, screenshots and 11 “exclusive and incredibly detailed interviews” with key members of the development team, including Kazuma Kujo and Toshikazu Tanaka.
Bitmap Books, as you may recall, has previously published the excellent NEOGEO: A Visual History, another book that was given SNK’s official blessing. It is also the company behind Super Famicom: Box Art Collection and the long-running Visual Compendium range, which has covered the NES and SNES so far, with a Master System edition shipping this year.
Metal Slug: The Ultimate History will be available to pre-order in July, and is expected to ship in September.
