Marvel Studios is sitting out San Diego Comic-Con 2018, but that isn't stopping one of its most prominent directors from taking the stage in Hall H. James Gunn, the director behind the first two Guardians of the Galaxy films, is heading to Comic-Con with a secret film project.
The director first started teasing the Comic-Con reveal with an Instagram post. In it, Gunn writes, "I will see many of you at [San Diego Comic-Con] one week from today (Friday, 7/20) with something dark, sweet, and special." He followed that up with a mysterious tweet, which you can see below.
The image is presumably the logo for whatever project he's going to announce, but what's most important it the location and time he lists. Friday in Hall H at 6:15 PM PT, the Sony Pictures panel will begin. It was already announced that that particular panel will have new information about the upcoming Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movies.
While both are technically Marvel projects, neither is expected to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So don't expect Gunn to be associated with either of those. However, we have an idea about what his tweet could be referencing.
Though he has been very busy with writing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Gunn does have another project in the works. It was announced in December that the director would be stepping in to produce a horror movie script written by Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn--his brother and cousin, respectively.
A plot for the horror film has not been revealed, but it's quietly built a rather impressive cast. Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games), David Denman (Logan Lucky), Meredith Hagner (Ingrid Goes West), and Matt Jones (Breaking Bad) were all previously announced as being cast in the project, which is being directed by David Yarovesky, who has collaborated multiple times with Gunn.
Whether this is the project Gunn plans to unveil at Comic-Con or not, it's a movie horror fans should keep an eye on. After all, he's no stranger to the genre. In addition to writing the screenplay of the 2004 Dawn of the Dead reboot and 2016's The Belko Experiment, Gunn also wrote and directed the 2006 cult classic Slither.
For more about what to expect from this year's San Diego Comic-Con, make sure to check out our list of must-see panels, as well as the exclusives you'll want to buy from both Funko and Mondo.
Here's something that will make you feel old: the acclaimed Batman movie, The Dark Knight, came to theatres 10 years ago this month. To celebrate the anniversary, Warner Bros. is bringing the film back to theatres for a "exclusive, one-week engagement" at select locations.
The movie will play on IMAX at four theatres in the United States. That's notable because The Dark Knight was one of the first major movies to use IMAX 70mm film; director Christopher Nolan used IMAX cameras again with The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, and Dunkirk.
The new screenings will play the movie in 70mm IMAX film, which Warner Bros. says will deliver a "uniquely immersive cinematic experience."
The four theatres that will play The Dark Knight for this anniversary event are:
AMC Universal Citywalk IMAX in Universal City, California
AMC Lincoln Square IMAX, in New York City
AMC Metreon IMAX in San Francisco, California
And Ontoario Place Cinesphere IMAX in Toronto
The screenings, which run for a week, begin on August 24. There will be one screening per day, and you can check with your local theatre for specific times.
The Dark Knight, which is a sequel to Batman Begins, stars Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as The Joker. Ledger died before the movie came out, and he won a posthumous Oscar for his performance as the Prince of Crime. The film also stars Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine.
The next Batman movie is on the way from War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves. Reeves was hired to work on The Batman in February last year. At that stage he was replacing Ben Affleck as writer and director, with Affleck choosing only to star in the movie. Since then there have been multiple rumors that Affleck will step down as Batman following the shortcomings of Justice League at the box office. However, the role has not yet been officially recast.
By Anonymous on Jul 18, 2018 11:52 pm Join Aaron and Erick as they check out the latest survival shooter Vigor from the studio that brought your Arma and DayZ now on early access.
Perhaps you missed out on the 2016 game Hitman. Maybe you didn't care for its episodic release schedule, or maybe you were waiting for the full game to come out the following year and let it slip by without playing it. Whatever the case, between now and July 31, you can play the game's third episode, Marrakesh, for free on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The free version is called Hitman - Summer Pack, and you can find links to it in the various digital stores below.
Each episode of Hitman is a new self-contained level that acts as a sandbox in which your job is to commit creative assassinations. The third episode brings players to Marrakesh, Morocco, where they can play through "The Gilded Gage" campaign mission, complete eight Escalation Contracts, earn 20 levels of location mastery (including six weapon/gear unlocks), and complete more than 90 challenges. Any progress you make will carry through if you purchase the full game, but you will lose access to Episode 3 once July 31 rolls around.
According to an IO Interactive blog post, "Offering two targets, the 'Gilded Cage' mission challenges players to eliminate private banker Claus Strandberg, held up inside the secure Swedish Consulate, and army General Reza Zaydan, protected by his elite squad of soldiers at a temporary headquarters in the heart of the city. Both targets will be challenging to reach and both will, of course, have some entertaining special moments attached to them that will allow players to dole out some poetic justice."
Also included in the Summer Pack is the ICA Facility location, a training ground that essentially acts as a tutorial for the game. It includes a good deal of content on its own, with two story missions, two Escalation Contracts, and over 40 challenges.
From GameSpot's Hitman review: "This 2016 take on Hitman is a brilliant game. Expansive level design and nearly unlimited replay value courtesy of so many routes to your assassinations (and so many methods with which to carry them out) make the experience almost completely different each and every time you play."
At E3 2018, Square Enix announced a sequel to Hitman, coming November 13. Unlike the original, it won't be released episodically. You can pre-order Hitman 2 now.
A new assortment of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games are now on sale in the Microsoft Store. As per usual, a number of these deals are only available to those who have an Xbox Live Gold subscription, but even players without one will be able to pick up a handful of great titles at a discount this week.
Anime fans in particular have a lot of great deals to choose from right now as part of the Microsoft Store's big Anime Sale. The Dragon Ball brawler-RPG, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, is discounted to $10 / £10, while the Deluxe edition of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is $29.70 / £22.93. Those who'd like to pick up both games can get the Dragon Ball Xenoverse Super Bundle for $34 / £26.
On top of that, all Xbox One owners can grab the acclaimed Zelda-like adventure Okami HD for $14 / £11.19. Additionally, both Standard and Deluxe Fortnite founders packs are on sale for everyone; the former is available for $24 / £21, while the latter can be yours for $36 / £30. Xbox Live Gold members, meanwhile, can get the beautiful platformer Fe for $10 / £9 and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 for $5 / £4.50.
You can see some other notable games on sale for both Xbox One and Xbox 360 below. Most of the aforementioned deals will only be available through the rest of the week and expire at 3 AM PT / 6 AM ET on July 24. The full list of this week's discounted titles is available on Major Nelson's blog. If you're looking for additional deals, Microsoft will also kick off a special Ultimate Game Sale later this week, on July 19.
By Anonymous on Jul 18, 2018 11:19 pm Shadow of War's marketplace has been removed from the PS4, Xbox One, and PC title, while Microsoft teases new hardware for Gamescom.
In the market for some new Xbox games? A big sale is coming up soon, it seems. A post on the Xbox website reveals that Microsoft is bringing back its "Ultimate Game Sale" this week. It'll run July 19 through July 30, according to the post. [Update: Major Nelson has shared additional details and formally announced the sale. It will bring discounts of up to 65% on more than 700 games--presumably across Xbox One and Xbox 360--with Xbox Live Gold members able to save an extra 10%. This all begins on July 19 at 12:01 AM PT / 3:01 AM ET / 7:01 AM GMT. PC gamers may also benefit, thanks to Play Anywhere support in certain digital Xbox games.]
Microsoft hasn't actually announced the sale yet, as it was only referenced as part of a sweepstakes event called the "Ultimate Dopplegamer Sweepstakes." As part of this, you can dress up like an Xbox character for a chance to win a trip to PAX West in Seattle.
Last year's Ultimate Game Sale, which also ran during July, offered discounts on more than 300 titles, though there is no word on how this year's sale will compare. If it does indeed begin on July 19, we expect to learn a lot more about it very soon.
There are few film genres as wide and diverse as science fiction. Some of the most popular movie franchises in Hollywood--Star Wars, Marvel, Jurassic World, The Terminator--have their roots in sci-fi, while on TV, shows like Westworld, Altered Carbon, and Black Mirror show that audience's interest in futuristic storytelling remains as strong as ever. Sci-fi can simply entertain, but it can also ask questions about society and our use of technology, and make predictions about the direction that mankind is heading.
But while the biggest sci-fi films make use of huge budgets and lavish special effects to tell their stories, the best ones don't always need them. Netflix is packed with great sci-fi movies, many of which take the genre in strange and fascinating new directions. We've picked 15 of the best--some are hugely ambitious with budgets to match, and some are simple and smaller in scale, using bold, imaginative ideas instead of VFX and big stars.
From time travel and AI to parallel realities and humans coming to terms with new abilities, these films can sometimes be thrilling, exciting, confusing, and disturbing. But all attempt to deliver something we've not seen on-screen before. Let's take a look…
15. Tau (2018)
A Netflix original which arrived in June, this tech-thriller stars rising star Maika Monroe (It Follows) as a woman who is held hostage by a mad computer scientist (played by Deadpool's Ed Skrein) who is harvesting her mind to develop a highly advanced AI. Tau is the name of the older AI that controls the house in which she is imprisoned, which is voiced by Gary Oldman. It's essentially a B-movie thriller about a woman trying escape using technology against itself, and is unpredictable, if ridiculous, fun.
14. They Call Me Jeeg (2015)
Like Psychokinesis elsewhere on this list, the Italian film They Call Me Jeeg is a strange take on the superhero movie. The title is both an homage to the anime and manga series Steel Jeeg and the spaghetti western movie They Call Me Trinity, which sums up its unusual mash-up of genres. It's a stylish and unpredictable movie about a lonely criminal who gains superhuman strength after he is exposed to radioactive waste. It's sometimes quite starting in the way it uses violence--this is not the comic book fighting we are used to in Marvel and DC movies, but realistic and brutal, which helps in making the stakes for its hero very real.
13. Mr Nobody (2009)
Mr Nobody is a dense and complex movie that is sometimes baffling but remains utterly engrossing despite its 140 minute running time. A Belgian/Canadian/French co-production, it stars Jared Leto as Nemo Nobody, a 118-year-old man who is the last person left alive on Earth after the rest of the population has achieved some form of quasi-immortality. The movie crosses multiple timeframes and parallel realities as we see Nemo as both a young and an old man facing multiple dilemmas throughout his life.
12. 9 (2009)
This animated feature features a high-profile voice cast, including Christopher Plummer, Elijah Wood, John C Reilly, and Jennifer Connelly, plus Tim Burton as producer, but failed to make much of an impact when released in 2009. But it's well worth a watch; it's an imaginative, visually stunning story of nine humanoid dolls--known as Stitchpunks--who must survive in a hostile, post-apocalyptic world and escape from the red-eyed monster known as the Beast. 9 is based on director Shane Acker's short film version, and at times the story does feel a little stretched to feature length. However, it's an incredible looking film, with some amazingly inventive character designs and surprisingly scary sequences.
11. Cloud Atlas (2012)
Cloud Atlas is a massive, sprawling, expensive movie that divided fans and critics, with some loving its bold ambition, and others considering it a huge waste of time, money, and talent. It certainly delivers on the ambition front--three directors (the Wachowskis and Tom Twyker), six storylines set cross across 500 years, characters playing multiple roles, and a cast thar ranges from Tom Hanks and Halle Berry to Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant. It's a stylish action movie, a '70s conspiracy thriller, a post-apocalyptic cannibal movie, a farcical comedy, and a moving drama. Sometimes funny, sometimes gripping, and other times very silly. Whatever you think of Cloud Atlas, there's no other film quite like it.
10. Embers (2015)
Amnesia has long been a popular cinematic device for directors who wants to create a sense of mystery for their characters. Embers takes the theme a step further by setting its story in a future where a virus has wiped out much of the human race and left the survivors with different degrees of memory loss. Embers is not a thriller, but instead uses the amnesia concept to look at the lives of various people; a couple who must rebuild their relationship daily, an old man who holds onto reality by rereading the same books, and a woman who has managed to retain her memory but only by entirely isolating herself from the outside world. It's quiet, thought-provoking film that, like much of the best sci-fi, uses its futuristic story to explore themes very relevant to our lives.
9. The Signal (2014)
Director William Eubank got rave reviews for his affecting sci-fi drama Love in 2011, and followed it three years later with this dark story. It's one of those movies that works best going in with little knowledge beforehand; it starts as a found footage thriller with two hackers tracking a mysterious online presence, but it becomes something else very different and more disturbing as they are captured by a sinister government agent. It's got an edgy and paranoid atmosphere, an enigmatic performance from Lawrence Fishburne, and a tremendous twist in the tail.
8. What Happened To Monday (2017)
This dystopian thriller features Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) in no fewer than seven roles, as seven twin sisters who were born into an overcrowded future where only one child is permitted. Each is named after a different day of the week and must live in hiding, taking it in turns each day to play their "alter ego" in the outside world. When Monday goes missing, the other six realise that they must risk everything to track her down. This visually impressive, hugely entertaining mix of cerebral sci-fi thrills and gory action sequences features seven great performances from Rapace, a cameo from Willem Defoe, and wonderfully villainous turn from Glenn Close.
7. Under The Skin (2013)
Scarlett Johansson might be best known for playing Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but in 2013 she took on a very different role. In the disturbing Under the Skin, she plays an mysterious alien who preys on men in the towns and countryside of Scotland. It's a unique movie, free of all virtually all the conventions of modern sci-fi, and many of the cast are non-actors who didn't know they were being filmed. It has an incredible brooding atmosphere, and Johansson delivers a brave, career-best performance. There are some truly nightmarish sequences too, including the notorious beach scene, which linger in the mind long after the credits roll.
6. Psychokinesis (2017)
South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho's 2016 zombie thriller Train to Busan was a huge worldwide hit, and is one of the most successful Korean movies ever made. Psychokinesis is his recent follow-up, and following a successful domestic run was picked up by Netflix for release back in April. It's a wild superhero tale about a security guard who gains telekinetic superpowers after drinking water from a mountain spring affected by a meteor. Like many Korean genre movies it has an underlying social commentary, and deftly balances several genres at once--family drama, knockabout comedy, corporate thriller, and superhero action movie. It's weird and funny and is a refreshingly original antidote to more generic Hollywood superhero movies.
5. Cube (1997), Cube 2 (2002), Cube Zero (2004)
Cube was the directorial debut of Vincenzo Natali, who has subsequently made sci-fi thrillers such as Cypher and Splice, and directed several episodes of HBO's Westworld. It's an ingenious, gripping film about a group of people who must cross through a series of booby-trapped cube-shaped rooms, contained within some mysterious building. The first film's success led to two follow-ups, both of which you can find on Netflix. Cube 2: Hypercube follows a similar set-up, but replaces the small, industrial rooms of the first movie with large, bright chambers that caused its victims to experience altered perceptions of reality. Cube Zero is a prequel that reverts back to the booby-trapped rooms of the original, while providing some backstory for the whole set-up. All three are well worth checking out.
4. Radius (2017)
Many of the best sci-fi movies revolve around a simple idea, and this acclaimed Canadian film is no exception. A man wakes up after a car accident to discover that anyone who comes within 50 feet of him suddenly dies. Soon after he encounters a woman who nullifies this effect for others if she remains within his radius. From there it's gripping race against time to find out what has caused this effect while attempting to limit the number of people who drop dead. Radius is a great example of how a unique sci-fi concept can be realised on a small budget without the need for lavish special effects.
3. Donnie Darko (2001)
A commercial failure on its initial release, Donnie Darko has since become one of biggest cult movies of the past decade. It launched the career of Jake Gyllenhaal and remains a bold, perplexing mystery that explores issues of teen alienation alongside outlandish concepts of time travel and questions of mortality and fate. Gyllenhaal plays Donnie, a troubled teen who is informed about the impending end of the world by a terrifying figure in a rabbit costume called Frank. It's dark, funny, and ultimately very moving, and demands multiple viewings to unpick its mysteries. Curiously, this is one movie where the theatrical release is far superior to the subsequent director's cut, which explains far too much and makes the story a lot less engrossing in the process.
2. The Discovery (2017)
One of several Netflix originals on this list, The Discovery was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival and is director Charlie McDowell's follow-up to the surreal sci-fi comedy drama, The One I Love. This film is set in a world where the existence of the afterlife has been proven, and humanity is beset by people attempting to hurry the process of death along. Robert Redford plays the doctor who discovered the existence of life after death, while Jason Segel is his son, who wants to hang onto life on Earth. It's a haunting mindbender that asks fascinating questions about what we are looking for out of life.
1. Moon (2009)
Duncan Jones's Moon remains one of the best sci-fi debuts of all time. The simple set-up--a scientist called Sam is nearing the end of a three-year mining mission on the moon--becomes a brain-warping mystery when he encounters his doppelgänger on its surface. Is this his clone? Or is Sam the clone? And who is the people he keeps hallucinating about? Sam Rockwell gives in incredible performance in multiple roles, and Jones delivers a perplexing, gripping, and ultimately deeply moving film that just gets better on subsequent viewings.
Fortnite is the biggest game around right now, and what better way to immortalize its success than with a set of collectible figurines? Epic Games and Funko are partnering up to release ten different product lines this holiday, including Pop figures, Pint Size Heroes, Vynl, keychains, 5 Star Figures, and Pop apparel. All of it will be rolling out this holiday season.
Which characters would be immortalized in plastic and vinyl have yet to be seen. Fortnite is known for a constantly shifting story with large-scale events that dramatically change the world roughly every two months. By the time the holiday season rolls around, it will switch over at least a couple more times. So either Funko is getting a very advanced look at Epic's long-term plans, or it's relying on iconic figures like the Fortnite llama.
"We are thrilled to collaborate and partner with Epic Games to create the inaugural Fortnite product collection and to bring these characters to life for the first time," said Funko CEO Brian Mariotti, in a statement. "This collection will be a true celebration of Fortnite's incredible popularity and cultural significance, and we believe our Funko Fortnite collectibles will strongly resonate with fans of the game."
Right now Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners can grab a great deal on an Xbox Live Gold membership. Instead of the usual annual price of $60, you can get a 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription for $40 from the Microsoft Store. That's a 33% savings on what's already a pretty great deal for Xbox owners. The offer ends August 1.
The deal is good for new members and current members alike. If you're already in the middle of an Xbox Live Gold subscription, buying this will add 12 months to it.
Xbox Live Gold is Microsoft's paid online service for Xbox One and Xbox 360. In addition to letting you play your games online, it also gets you free games each month through the Games With Gold program. These include two Xbox One and two Xbox 360 games each month, and the 360 games are always backward compatible and playable on Xbox One.
Additionally, Gold members get exclusive discounts on the Microsoft Store each week, often on popular games. As a matter of fact, Microsoft's annual Ultimate Game Sale is running July 19-30. All told, Xbox Live Gold tends to be a very good deal, even if you only play a fraction of the free games in a given year.
You're not likely to find a better deal than this anytime soon; $40 is about as low as this annual subscription ever goes. So if you're planning to start (or keep) an Xbox Live Gold membership, take advantage of the offer here before August 1.
Only a couple years after Fallout 4's release, Bethesda surprised fans by officially announcing Fallout 76, the next entry in its beloved post-apocalyptic RPG franchise. The new game was revealed in a trailer after a series of teases, and Bethesda discussed it in more detail at E3 2018. While there's still so much we do not yet know about Bethesda's upcoming game, the company has offered some clarity on Fallout 76's most curious features and additions to the Fallout formula.
To ensure you're kept up to date on everything there is to know about Fallout 76, we've compiled all the information we have on the game so far: the platforms it's on, its online functionality, its anti-griefing features, and where the game falls in the series' timeline.
Fallout 76 is a prequel to all of the previous Fallout games. Set in 2102, you play an inhabitant of Vault 76 who emerges from the shelter 25 years after the bombs fell on America. Your task is simple: explore what remains of post-apocalyptic America and rebuild civilization.
Longtime fans will likely recognize Vault 76; although it's not a place we've visited before, this isn't the series' first mention of it. Both Fallout 3 and 4 reference it and, according to the Fallout Wikia, this West Virginia-based vault was occupied by 500 of of America's best and brightest minds. Unlike the more grotesque experimental vaults in the Fallout universe, Vault 76 is a control vault intended to be opened 20 or so years after a nuclear war. But if the Vault was supposed to open 20 years after the bombs fell, why have 25 years gone by? The story likely has a few surprises in store.
Fallout 76 uses the Creation Engine, the same engine used to make Fallout 4, but it will purportedly feature much more graphical detail than its predecessor. Game director Todd Howard has said that Fallout 76 has new rendering and lighting technology, which allows for "16 times" the detail.
Is It An Online Survival Game?
Fallout 76 is a much different sort of game from its predecessors. It's "entirely online," but don't worry, you'll be able to play it solo too. According to Bethesda, the idea to take this approach to open-world survival came four years ago, when it started to work on building a multiplayer Fallout experience. Howard described the game's approach to survival as "softcore," which means death doesn't equal loss of progression.
You can form a party with up to three other players. You won't be able to manage your placement in servers when you login, as you'll automatically be inserted into a session with others upon booting up the game. Of course, you also have the option simply join alongside your friends and play together.
Howard commented that Fallout 76 will have dedicated servers that will support the game "now and for years to come." At launch, there will only be public servers, but Bethesda plans to introduce private servers that will allow players to invite friends to play in order to prevent undesirable behavior. According Bethesda Senior Vice President Pete Hines, it will actually be incredibly difficult to participate in ill-behavior. For instance, the game's PvP works more like issuing a challenge to somebody, preventing folks from pushing any attempts at griefing too far.
Some classic mechanics from past games will be changing to accommodate the shift to online play. For example, V.A.T.S has been reconfigured to work in real time, while still allowing players to target specific enemy body parts.
How Big Is The World?
According to Howard, Fallout 76's world is four times the size of Fallout 4. There are six different regions to explore, and each has its own unique style, risks, and rewards. Confirmed areas include the West Virginia State Capitol, The Greenbrier, Woodburn Circle, New River Gorge Bridge, and Camden Park. Contained within each area is a variety of new creatures to encounter, some of which are based on West Virginian folklore.
What Can You Do?
Like previous games, players will spend the majority of their time exploring and completing quests. However, Fallout 76 will not feature any human non-player characters, as all surviving humans will be controlled by active players. Instead, the game will use combination of robot NPCs, collectible recordings, and environmental storytelling in order to give players what they need to piece together quests and the story at large.
Given the game's premise of rebuilding the world, there will be base-building elements similar to Fallout 4. You will be able to set up a bases anywhere using an item called the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform, or CAMP. These can be placed down in the world and allow you to construct an impromptu camp. At E3, we got to see the player laying down walls and decorating the base with pool tables, toilets, and other household objects. As the "mobile platform" part of the name implies, your CAMP can also be picked up and relocated, allowing you to move your base anywhere in the world.
While you can help build the world, you can also destroy it. If you have the necessary nuclear launch codes, it's actually possible to access a missile silo to fire a nuke at any point on the map. Doing so irradiates the chosen area, but it also allows for the opportunity to discover rare weapons, gear, and items. Be wary; nuking an area also causes more powerful enemies to show up, making it more difficult to survive.
As an online experience, player choice is said to be incredibly important, going as far as giving players the freedom to choose who are the heroes and who are the villains. Early footage showcased multiple players engaging in combat and participating in friendly activities, which seems to indicate that players have the freedom to choose their paths in the world of Fallout 76.
Who's Developing It?
Bethesda Game Studios, the Maryland-based developer responsible for the Elder Scrolls series and both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, is at work on the game. In addition, Bethesda Game Studios Austin--formerly BattleCry Studios--assisted in fine-tuning the Creation Engine to support multiplayer functionality.
Release Date
Fallout 76 is being developed for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and is currently scheduled to be released on November 14. Howard confirmed that a beta is scheduled to occur sometime before the game's release, but no further details have been announced.
Unfortunately, there's no word about a Nintendo Switch release, which didn't seem out of the question after the Skyrim re-release made it to that platform.
World of Warcraft's seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is only a few weeks away. In addition to rolling out a big pre-patch that implements new features and sets the stage for the upcoming expansion, Blizzard has now lowered the barrier of entry for players interested in just jumping in to the long-running MMO.
Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft and all of its current six expansions are now included in the game's monthly subscription fee. Previously, players had to at least purchase the base game and subscribe in order to play, but now they'll get access to all of the game's content through the 2016 Legion expansion simply by paying WoW's $15 per month subscription.
For players who have yet to take the plunge or have since fallen out of WoW but are interested in its upcoming expansion, this is a good opportunity to catch up on the game before Battle for Azeroth arrives. However, those who'd like to play the upcoming expansion will still need to purchase it when it releases. The standard edition of Battle for Azeroth costs $50, while the Digital Deluxe edition runs for $70 and includes two mounts, a pet, and WoW-themed content for other Blizzard games such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.
Battle for Azeroth launches next month, on August 14. It adds a variety of new content and areas to explore to the long-running MMO, including two continents--Kul Tiras and Zandalar--as well as several new islands. It also raises the game's level cap to 120 and introduces a number of new dungeons and raids to undertake.
Ahead of Battle for Azeroth's release, Blizzard recently rolled out a big pre-expansion patch for the game. Most notably, the patch implemented the new War Mode system, which allows players to toggle PvP on or off from Orgrimmar or Stormwind, and reworks the PvP talent system. New events in Teldrassil and Lordaeron are also slated to begin the week of July 24 and continue until the expansion launches.
The Culling 2 launched recently, but it went so poorly that the studio is issuing a mea culpa and reversing course entirely. In a statement from Xaviant director of operations Josh Van Veld, he acknowledged that the sequel was not up to snuff, and promised to do better.
"That launch was not successful," he said in the video above. "The Culling 2 is not a game that you asked for, and it's not the game that you expect as a worthy successor to The Culling." As a result, he said, Xaviant is in touch with the various storefronts to pull the game and issue refunds.
Going forward, Xaviant will be going back to the original The Culling. That's not just relying on the older game--Van Veld said the studio "changed too much too fast" in the first game, and in the process disrupted what fans had enjoyed about it. For that, he apologized, and said that the original game is coming back. The original build, before it had undergone any changes, will be coming to test servers for PC players, and remain there and playable for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, the team will be making the current version that's on regular servers and modifying it to imitate the original build and using that as its platform to build upon. That version will be made free-to-play once the update comes, to invite back lapsed players and grow the audience. Fans had expressed dissatisfaction since the studio moved on from the first game very quickly, and then launched The Culling 2 without an Early Access version first.
"It's definitely been difficult to deal with the launch of The Culling 2, but it's been valuable for us in terms of making us look inward and look backward and see how we got here as a studio and as a team," Van Veld said.
This follows a week of some very frank admissions on social media, first saying it needed to do some soul-searching, and then following up the next day with a meme poking fun at its problematic game launch:
By Anonymous on Jul 18, 2018 09:30 pm Xaviant Director of Operations Josh Van Veld addresses the current state of the studio and the future of The Culling.
Microsoft is preparing for Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, and has started to tease what we can expect out of the show. Among other surprises, the company is promising "new hardware and accessories" for Xbox. But don't get your hopes up for a massive console reveal just yet.
The tease comes from a Major Nelson blog post detailing the company's Gamescom plans. It will be hosting a live Inside Xbox show from the Xbox booth on Tuesday, August 21, which boasts "lots of news, all-new Xbox hardware and accessories, and features on upcoming titles that we can't wait to tell you more about and perhaps even a few surprises." It's doubtful the company would out the successor to the Xbox One X this way, so set your expectations around possible hardware revisions or controllers.
Last year, Microsoft's Gamescom presentation included a special Minecraft Xbox One X and a special "Project Scorpio" special edition that paid homage to the first Xbox.
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Join Aaron and Erick as they check out the latest survival shooter Vigor from the studio that brought your Arma and DayZ now on early access.
Shadow of War's marketplace has been removed from the PS4, Xbox One, and PC title, while Microsoft teases new hardware for Gamescom.
Xaviant Director of Operations Josh Van Veld addresses the current state of the studio and the future of The Culling.
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