This fall, get ready to pick up the scalpel and become the surgeon of your dreams (or nightmares) once again--and with a friend. Surgeon Simulator CPR is headed to Switch.
It's been five years since Bossa Studios first let us near the operating table. The Switch port is in celebration of that anniversary, and it will include features of the previous iterations, from the notoriously challenging and awkward controls to the most successful heart-in-mouth transplants.
CPR will include motion controls and HD rumble support, as well as every original operation and the eye and teeth transplants from A&E. You'll also be able to get your hands on the classified Alien Autopsy operation.
What's one clumsy surgeon without another? New to CPR is co-op. No matter where you are or how you're playing, hand a joy-con to a friend for drop-in, drop-out co-op play.
While we don't have an exact release date for Surgeon Simulator CPR, we do know it will be dropping sometime this fall. You can also find previous ports of Surgeon Simulator of PC, PS4, PSVR, and iOS.
A majority of indie games are developed by teams of creators, but every once in a while, someone comes along and builds an entire game by themselves. It's not an easy task, but it's possible with the right amount of hard work, passion, and luck.
Over the years, we've seen hundreds of indie games developed by one person. Many are passion projects, designed and developed in a few weeks to scratch a creative itch, fulfill an academic requirement, or realize a dream. However, some developers take the extra time to make something that can compete with a triple-A title in terms of length, graphics, or cultural impact. The best of those games have been highlighted in this gallery.
These games encompass a variety of genres and popularity, so we've simply listed them alphabetically. A third of the games take inspiration from Metroid or Castlevania, while the rest range from survival horror to life simulator. One of them can be completed in five minutes, while two others never really end. But one thing remains the same for each of these games: they are all developed by only one person--and sure, there might have been a little help from their friends along the way.
What's your favorite game that was developed by only one person? Let us know in the comments below.
Axiom Verge, 2015 - Thomas Happ
Axiom Verge is developed by Thomas Happ. This Metroidvania game originally released for PS4, before launching on PC, PS Vita, Wii U, Xbox One, and Switch. Taking inspiration from Metroid and Contra, Axiom Verge is a side-scroller that focuses on both exploration and combat. Players take on the roll of Trace, a scientist tasked with saving an alien world from a mad man. Scattered items and power-ups improve Trace's attacks and his ability to navigate the world.
Prior to his work on Axiom Verge, Happ worked on several different types of video games, such as End of Nations and NFL Street. His work in game design started well before that though, including an incredible reimagining of the original Metroid--which Happ refers to as Orn--that he designed back in 2004.
Axiom Verge originated as a side project that Happ started in March 2010. The game was scheduled to launch in a year, but after gaining attention, Happ put additional time and energy into development and Axiom Verge was pushed to a 2013 release for PC and Xbox 360. Happ delayed the game once again after that to work out the last few kinks. Despite the workload, Happ remained the sole contributor to the game's design, art, and music throughout the entire five-year development cycle.
His effort was worth it though, as Axiom Verge launched to near universal critical acclaim. In our Axiom Verge review, Peter Brown praises Happ's game for its mysterious sci-fi setting and the "seemingly endless number of abilities" available for the player to find, before concluding that Axiom Verge "is better than the games that inspired it, because it's so inventive and thoughtfully crafted."
Braid, 2008 - Jonathan Blow
Braid was originally only developed by Jonathan Blow. The first version of this puzzle platformer launched for PC in 2005. In the three years that followed, Blow was joined by webcomic artist David Hellman, who finalized the art for the Braid that most people played, which initially launched on Xbox 360 in 2008. This version of Braid would make its way onto PC as well, and also later on PS3.
Even before Hellman finalized Braid's artwork, the indie game was still a masterpiece. The 2005 version of Braid incorporates the same worlds, puzzles, and story as what released in 2008, winning it the Independent Games Festival game design award at GDC 2006.
In Braid, players take control of a man named Tim who is searching for a princess captured by a monster. Why he's trying to save her isn't clear at the beginning of the game, but the player receives small clues at the start of each world that slowly hint towards Tim's motivations. Each world Tim visits affects how time works in a different way, and the player must master new strategies to overcome a wide range of platforming challenges.
Blow originally came up with the concept behind the game in December 2004, started work on the game the following year, and finished the first version of Braid in December 2005. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Blow reported he then invested over $180,000 of his own money into further development, most of which went towards paying Hellman.
It was money well spent, as Braid went on to receive both critical acclaim and financial success as one of Xbox Live Arcade's finest titles. The money he made off Braid would fund Blow's next game, The Witness, and Braid's mainstream success would go on to be the turning point for independent game development. Players suddenly wanted more games like Braid to play between the triple-A releases, and this inspired a whole new generation of creators to start looking at the indie scene as a reliable source of income. Without Braid, we probably don't have many of the other games in this gallery.
Braid is a deconstruction of the trends Blow noticed in video game development. Believing current video games are too easy and congratulate players for the smallest of victories, Blow purposely created Braid to challenge how players think about completing a level. It was a point of contention between him and Microsoft, as the company repeatedly asked Blow to add in-game hints to assist players. Blow wouldn't budge, and Braid remains a difficult game that tests a player's ingenuity to this day.
Cave Story, 2004 - Daisuke Amaya
Cave Story is developed by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. The game launched on PC in 2004, before later releasing on PSP, Wii, and Nintendo DSi. An enhanced version, called Cave Story+, came out on PC in 2011 and Nintendo Switch in 2017. A 3D remake, titled Cave Story 3D, was made for Nintendo 3DS. The game puts players in control of a nameless, amnesiac protagonist, who finds himself thrust into the center of a convoluted drama upon a floating island inhabited by sentient, rabbit-like creatures.
Amaya programmed, illustrated, designed, wrote, and composed every aspect of Cave Story in his free time as a love letter to the games he played as a kid. Development took five years, with Amaya starting in college and continuing to work on the game once he started a full-time job. And then, after all that work, he released Cave Story for free. The game rose to prominence in Japan, was eventually translated into English, and found an audience in the West. Amaya became players' initial perceived definition of an indie dev prior to Blow popularizing the profession as a paying career: a person who builds a game solely for passion, not cash.
The ports to console and handheld do cost money, but charging players for the game didn't diminish Cave Story's popularity. People seemed happy they could finally support the developer behind one of their favorite games. Cave Story is still remembered as one of the best Metroidvania games out there, and has earned widespread critical acclaim for the sheer size of its scope and compelling narrative.
Amaya has spoken at length at GDC about his time developing Cave Story. He created the game piece by piece, starting with title screen music and character movements. The main reason the game takes place in a series of interconnected caves is because Amaya originally built a bunch of enclosed spaces like the ones he remembered from Metroid and Castlevania. Amaya just ran with these similarities, and implemented further level design decisions that resemble those seen in Metroid, like an intro level with two paths and an item down path one that unlocks the ability to further explore path two. Amaya felt this was necessary to teach players that they could solve problems on their own without a series of tutorials, something he believes is important for all Metroidvania titles.
Of course, Amaya's method of design wasn't without its issues. In an interview with The Independent Gaming Source, Amaya admits that building the game piece by piece without a strategy or overall plan beforehand went on to cause unforeseen problems. By the time he realized that dedicated map editing and data management tools would have proven useful, he was already too far into the game's development to turn back without losing a lot of his work.
Dust: An Elysian Tail, 2012 - Dean Dodrill
Dust: An Elysian Tail is developed by Dean Dodrill. The game launched on Xbox 360 in August 2012, before being released on PC in 2013, PS4 in 2014, and mobile in 2015. A Switch version has been announced, but there's no release date yet. Dust: An Elysian Tail takes place in the fictional world Falana. Players take control of Dust, one of the anthropomorphic animals that lives there, whose discovery of a sentient sword and its playful guardian leads him on a journey to stop a villainous general.
Though he didn't write the soundtrack or voice the characters, Dodrill is responsible for designing and programming the entirety of Dust: An Elysian Tail. Dodrill told Polygon that he taught himself everything he knows about both illustration and animation, and began on An Elysian Tail as an independent animated film called Elysian Tail. When he decided Elysian Tail's story would better serve as a video game, Dodrill dropped the movie idea to focus on game design.
In an interview with Ars Technica, Dodrill admitted that he first thought the process would only take three months. In actuality, it took Dodrill almost four years to finish the game. The workload took its toll on Dodrill, who tweeted out close to An Elysian Tail's launch date that he was still working and had discovered the "perfect diet" for losing weight: game development. Dodrill also tweeted he lost 15 pounds in the final two months working on An Elysian Tail, and he'd had days where he'd sit at a computer for 18 hours just to meet his deadline.
Early concepts of An Elysian Tail played out as a mere 2D platformer, but Dodrill implemented combat, RPG, and exploration elements that were inspired by the games he enjoyed playing as a kid, like Metroid and Ys I & II. Critics weren't wild about the game's combat--we also criticized the voice acting and story in our review--but An Elysian Tail has near universal praise for its character art, animation, and backgrounds.
Iconoclasts, 2018 - Joakim Sandberg
The newest game in this gallery, Iconoclasts is developed by Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg. The game released for PS4, PS Vita, and PC in January 2018, and launches on Nintendo Switch on August 2. Players take on the role of Robin, a naive and rebellious mechanic whose desire to always help others leads her to be increasingly involved in the religious and political conflicts that plague her planet and threaten her friends.
Sandberg worked on Iconoclasts for eight years. When he first started in 2010, the game was called Ivory Springs and was exclusively for PC. The name changed to Iconoclasts when Sandberg officially announced the game in 2011. Sandberg followed up with semi-regular updates on his progress until 2012 and went mostly silent after that. Then in July 2015, Sandberg announced in a PlayStation Blog post that the game was still in development, and now also scheduled for both PS4 and PS Vita.
Sandberg also used the opportunity to write about his inspiration behind the Iconoclasts. He wanted to create a game that mixed the strong narrative and detailed world-building seen in Metroid Fusion and Monster World IV, and also featured the types of characters that evoked the same levels of charm and emotion found in Final Fantasy IX.
Iconoclasts was positively received. In our review, we commended the game for its art style and mechanics that call back to old-school Metroidvania, as well as its gripping story and numerous unique boss battles.
Lone Survivor, 2012 - Jasper Byrne
Lone Survivor is developed by Jasper Byrne. The game originally released for PC in 2012, and a Director's Cut was ported to PS3 and PS Vita in 2013 and then to PS4 and Wii U in 2014. It is a post-apocalyptic survival horror game where players take on the role of a nameless protagonist who must survive a world overrun by an infection that turns humans into mutants. The protagonist suffers hallucinations, making it difficult to discern what's real and what's not.
In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Byrne confirmed Lone Survivor is a post-9/11 game. Byrne took inspirations from David Lynch's films while developing Lone Survivor. Like Lynch, Byrne wanted his characters' motivations and life history to simultaneously be the most important themes of his story and the most difficult details to define. Lone Survivor has three different endings--the director's cut adds two more--and each is a confusing piece of a much larger story. Byrne deliberately kept Lone Survivor's narrative a secret throughout development, and still hasn't revealed the exact message the game is trying to present.
Byrne has expressed that one of the hardest parts of developing Lone Survivor was advertising the game, as most of its enjoyment comes from knowing nothing about the game before diving into it. Trailers exist, but Byrne hopes people don't watch them before playing.
Mainichi, 2012 - Mattie Brice
Mainichi is developed by Mattie Brice. Released in 2012 for PC, Mainichi allows players to roleplay as Brice, a transgender woman, and temporarily experience the difficulties of trying to pass as the gender you identify with within a world that largely believes gender is determined by the body you're born with.
Mainichi was an integral part of the 2012-2013 movement centered around personal lived experiences, or "personal games" as they are usually referred to as today. These type of games are typically on the shorter side--Mainichi can be completed in one sitting--but they capture the emotions and mind-sets of a particular person or disenfranchised group.
Brice was an active video game critic prior to developing Mainichi, and she continues to speak out and write against the industry's lack of diversity to this day. In her critique of Spec Ops: The Line, Brice writes about how most shooters are designed with the assumption that players need a war zone to feel the pressures of violence, and that players wouldn't recognize a game featuring a character without "a weapon, [who isn't] able to do much damage, and [has] to get from [their] house to the grocery store without being assaulted by men" as a violent one.
The gut-wrenching reveal in Mainichi works off of that assumption, as well as the knowledge that most players expect a game that quickly starts over--without an end credits scene--is probably hiding secrets. When players jump into another playthrough to find them, all they discover is a slight variation on the same day they played before. By the time they've beaten the game three or four times, they'll realize the immediate repetition isn't a gimmick, it's an imitation of Brice's life and the constant threat of violence she has to live with every time she wakes up. Her days aren't a game for her that she can just complete and move on from.
Minecraft, 2009 - Markus Persson
Minecraft is developed by Markus "Notch" Persson. One of the most well-known games in the world, Minecraft launched on PC in 2009 and has since been ported to multiple mobile, handheld, and console platforms. This RPG sandbox tasks players with surviving a blocky world by building shelters, cultivating farms, and conquering dungeons. Vicious monsters hunt the player at night, and a loose narrative provides players with a quest to hop between dimensions and kill a dragon. However, Minecraft is meant to be a game that never ends, featuring procedurally generated worlds that provide near endless opportunities to explore.
Minecraft takes inspiration from Infiniminer. According to his blog, Persson was working on RubyDung--which was never released--at the time, and thinking about also developing some sort of zombie survival game. RubyDung was supposed to be a building game in a similar vein to Dwarf Fortress. Then Persson found Infiniminer, fell in love with it, and decided to start developing something just like it. He took the concept of Infiniminer and gave it a fantasy twist and first-person perspective, while also reusing a few assets from RubyDung. That prototype became Minecraft.
Although he created the game completely by himself, in a Gamasutra interview, Persson said that some of the game's features came from the community. Persson would implement features from suggestions he liked and patch mistakes discovered by other players.
As stated before, Minecraft has released for a lot of platforms--nearly a dozen all said and done. We've actually reviewed the game on five different systems. Every time, we've complimented Minecraft's core concepts of exploration, experimentation, crafting, and surviving. As we wrote in our review of the original PC version, "it's a game changer to be sure and one that will live on in the annals of gaming history for a long time to come."
Minecraft is one of the earliest examples of a successful Early Access game.
Papers, Please, 2013 - Lucas Pope
Papers, Please is developed by Lucas Pope. The game has players taking on the role of a nameless immigration officer of a fictional country called Arstotzka, currently experiencing hostile action from neighboring countries. As the officer, the player must review the paperwork of immigrants attempting to enter Arstotzka and determine whether someone is accepted, detained, or rejected. Meeting a quota earns the officer their paycheck, while making mistakes results in fines.
After Pope left Naughty Dog, he wanted to focus on smaller games. He and his wife moved to Japan, briefly relocated to Singapore, made a few return trips to the United States, and traveled throughout southeast Asia. In an interview with Edge, Pope said that through his and his wife's travels, he became interested in immigration and passport inspectors. Though a repetitive job, Pope recognized it as an overwhelming tense one, which he figured would make for a fun video game.
Argo and the Bourne films, movies where secret agents repeatedly need to sneak past border checkpoints and immigration desks, were the inspiration behind the story in Papers, Please. The setting, Arstotzka, is one of the countries at war with Republia, the location of one of Pope's earlier games, The Republia Times. When talking with Gamasutra, Pope said he went with a fictional country so he could write without being limited by a real country's history and to prevent preconceived assumptions from informing players' decisions.
Pope completely funded Papers, Please himself and started work on the game in November 2012. He posted updates to his progress to TIGSource, and regularly received feedback he'd later implement into the game. His work continued until April 2013, when Papers, Please was submitted to Steam Greenlight. The game was voted through in a few days, and Pope finalized Papers, Please over the next few months.
The game released in August 2013 to positive reviews. In our Papers, Please review, we admitted the game will stress players out, but is still worth playing for the same reason someone occasionally reads a depressing novel or watches a bleak movie: "if only to remind ourselves how much worse off we could be."
Despite the game's popularity, in March 2014, Pope told VG247, "I'm kind of sick to death of Papers, Please," citing a desire to move on to other projects and distance himself from repeated requests for a sequel or DLC expansions.
River Raid, 1982 - Carol Shaw
River Raid is developed by Carol Shaw. Released for the Atari 2600 in 1982, River Raid is the oldest game on this list. Players take control of a fighter jet flying over the River of No Return, and maneuver left and right to avoid obstacles and shoot down enemy aircraft. The game ends when the player's jet is destroyed, crashes, or runs out of fuel. In the event a player avoids all three outcomes, River Raid theoretically continues forever.
A programming pioneer, Shaw built a name for herself for the games she helped develop for Atari back when video games were still in their infancy. She'd later go on to work at Activision where she worked solo on River Raid. The game went on to sell one million copies and earn awards for best action game.
River Raid's legacy is still felt today as a major inspiration for many top down shoot-em-ups. It was also the first game banned by Germany's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons for displaying "military content," making it an early precursor to today's argument that video games corrupt the minds of young children.
Spelunky, 2008 - Derek Yu
Spelunky is developed by Derek Yu. Originally released as freeware on PC, it was remade for Xbox 360 in 2012. This remake was then ported to PS3, PS Vita, and PC in 2012, and then to PS4 in 2014. Players control an unnamed spelunker who must gather as much treasure as he can from the caves he explores while also avoiding deadly traps and fighting off vicious creatures. Damsels in distress also populate the cave, and they can be saved in return for health regeneration.
In an interview with Polygon, Yu referred to the Super Mario series as one of the major influences behind Spelunky, specifically "in terms of the feel and physics." Yu also said the visual styling, character designs, gameplay elements, and mechanics were all inspired from La-Mulana, Rick Dangerous, and Spelunker.
Although a dungeon crawler, Spelunky incorporates roguelike elements, such as randomly generated levels, a high difficulty, and a lack of save points. This makes Spelunky one of the first roguelike-like titles, a type of game that borrows roguelike elements without committing wholeheartedly to the genre.
Spelunky launched to universal praise. Critics describe Spelunky as something that's both easy to hate and easy to love. Spelunky almost seems to goad the player into trying to overcome its challenge. As we concluded in our Spelunky review, "When you finally conquer something that has been hounding you for hours, you feel like the best darn explorer on the planet, and that feeling overshadows all the hardships you overcame down the troubled path you traveled."
Stardew Valley, 2016 - Eric Barone
Stardew Valley is developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone. The game released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2016 and was ported to Nintendo Switch in October 2017 and PS Vita in May 2018. Players manage the life of a character who, trying to get away from the never-ending stress of their office job, takes over their late grandfather's farm in a fictional place called Stardew Valley.
In a PC Gamer interview, Barone said he originally started on Stardew Valley in 2011 so he could get a job. Graduating with a degree in computer science, he couldn't find a way into the industry and decided to develop a game to improve his prospects. Growing up, Barone had been a fan of the Harvest Moon series, so he wanted to make something similar. However, he also felt like the franchise had gotten progressively worse since the release of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, so he used Stardew Valley to fix the problems he saw in the series. He took elements from other games, like Minecraft and Terraria, to construct his crafting, quest, and combat mechanics.
Barone told Gamasutra that his initial plan was to get Stardew Valley to launch as part of the Xbox Live Indie Games program, but as his scope for the game grew, Barone realized his game was going to take a lot longer to finish than he thought. Stardew Valley was approved for Steam Greenlight in September 2012. Barone turned to both Reddit and Twitter to provide feedback on his process and garner feedback on his game.
In April 2015, Barone announced that he had no intention of releasing Stardew Valley in Early Access and would only launch the game once it was 100% complete. The game launched the following year to favorable critiques. In our Stardew Valley review, we celebrated its heartwarming charm and wrote about how the game's "meditative activities often lead to personal reflection in the real world."
Thomas Was Alone, 2012 - Mike Bithell
Thomas Was Alone is developed by Mike Bithell. It originally released as a Flash-based browser game in October 2010, before being expanded for a PC release in July 2012. PS3 and PS Vita versions released in 2013, and the game launched on mobile devices, Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U in November 2014. The player platforms through levels as rectangles, each one representing unique artificial intelligence entities that possess different abilities and traits.
Bithell came up with the concept behind Thomas Was Alone in October 2010 during a 24-hour Blitz Games' jam session. Much like Jonathan Blow and Braid, Bithell wanted to create a more complete version of his game. Danny Wallace was brought on to voice the narrator that Bithell wrote into the game, and David Housden helped out with the soundtrack. In an interview with Eurogamer, Bithell reported having spent £5000 to finish development on Thomas Was Alone.
Thomas Was Alone's storytelling, characters, and soundtrack were met with a positive reception and the game sold over 1 million copies. The Penny Arcade Report wrote that Bithell attributes that success to the exposure Thomas Was Alone received on YouTube upon its release. In our Thomas Was Alone review, we praised the game as "a worthwhile experience that rises above its basic mechanics to prove heartfelt and engaging in unexpected ways."
Undertale, 2015 - Toby Fox
Undertale is developed by Toby Fox. The game released on PC in September 2015 and was then ported to PS4 and PS Vita in August 2017. A Switch version has been announced, but no release date has been revealed yet. In Undertale, you take control of a human child who falls into the Underground, home to various monsters. The child wants to escape the Underground and go home, and the player determines whether or not they do so violently. Depending on the player's choices, the dialogue, characters, and story in Undertale change.
Fox worked on Undertale for nearly three years, starting on the game after it was successfully crowdfunded--about 1022% above the original goal--through Kickstarter in 2013. Other than a few pieces of art, Fox developed Undertale completely on his own, not wanting his creativity to be influenced by others.
Undertale draws from several games Fox played as a kid. Fox worked on Earthbound ROM hacks in high school, which may explains why the writing and music in Undertale matches that of the Mother franchise. Fox built the defensive segment of the battle system off of what he enjoyed from Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
Undertale released to critical acclaim and achieved a near cult-like following in a matter of months. Our Undertale review concludes, "Without spoiling the many ways it will screw with your expectations, it isn't possible to truly capture how wonderful Undertale is. You wouldn't know it with a passing glance, but it's one of the most progressive and innovative RPGs to come in a long time, breaking down tradition for the sake of invention, with great success."
One of the big new features coming in Battlefield V is Grand Operations, an "upgraded version" of the Operations multiplayer mode introduced in Battlefield 1. However, it appears players won't be able to participate in this new multiplayer experience until after the game releases. [Update] EA has clarified that the Battlefield V website had outdated information and confirmed Grand Operations will be playable at launch.
"A previous version of this article stated that Battlefield V Grand Operations would be available shortly after launch, based on development plans as of June 9, the date the story published," reads the statement. "The article has been updated to reflect that Grand Operations will be playable at launch and as part of Tides of War." Original story follows.
EA shared more details about Grand Operations in a new post on the official Battlefield V website. Most notably, the post reveals that the first Grand Operation will be available "shortly after launch." No other timing details were shared in the post, so it remains to be seen how long players will have to wait to play the first one.
EA says Grand Operations are "designed to seamlessly showcase the maps and modes of Battlefield V." Each one lasts roughly an hour and takes place across three in-game "days," beginning with an insertion. In the Norway Operation, that will take the form of the new Airborne mode, which has one team parachute onto a map to destroy a group of artillery cannons while the other defends against their attack.
How well your faction performs will determine how the remaining days of the Grand Operation begin. As EA explains, "Play well on the first day and deploy with an adequate supply of ammo or vehicles when the map shifts, for example. Do poorly, and you'll deploy the next day with perhaps fewer respawns, vehicles, or other resources."
Battlefield V launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 19, but those who purchase the game's Deluxe edition will be able to jump in three days early, on October 16. Like the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, it will feature its own battle royale mode. For more on the upcoming shooter, be sure to check out our roundup of everything we know about Battlefield V.
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2018 09:30 pm A brief look at the new No Man's Sky patch, and our perspective on starting a new save to get the most out of the massive updates.
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2018 09:30 pm Even though we didn't see a new Splinter Cell at E3 2018, Michael and Jake decided it was time to give the first one another shot.
No Man's Sky is back and bursting with new opportunities following the release of the Next update. For the first time you can embark on missions or traipse around the stars with friends in tow. You can all kick back and plan missions from the deck of your capital ship and command a fleet of AI fighter craft should a gang of space pirates attempt to plunder your coffers. New planet types and overhauled visuals add a layer of freshness to it all. If you thought NMS was marvelous before, prepare to be wowed all over again.
If you're like me, there's no question about whether or not you should jump back in, but rather if you should continue playing your existing save or start over from scratch. There isn't one correct answer, and my reasoning may seem frivolous depending on how you play the game and what your ultimate goals are, but judging by my experiences so far this week, taking a step back isn't as detrimental as you might think.
Regardless of what you hope to accomplish, odds are that if you haven't played No Man's Sky in a while you will be confused by the revamped resources and their associated survival systems. Upon booting up my PS4 save, with dozens of hours behind it and millions of units waiting to be spent, I immediately struggled to wrap my head around everything that's been added to the game over the last two years. I had a ship I loved. I had great gear and ample cash flow with which to establish a new life among the stars. But I lacked the most important thing of all: a clue.
It was at this stage I considered putting the past behind me. Starting over would afford me the chance to ease into the game's new rules and systems. It is, after all, about the journey rather than the destination. I thought of transferring my riches to a friend and recouping them after starting a new game to lessen the blow, but that felt like cheating myself out of the full experience. I gave myself one concession: I would pick up an existing save on PC that was set just after acquiring the warp drive, one of the game's earliest milestones. That would save me an hour of tutorialized quests and put me at the start of the game's two main quest lines, which both provide structure and advanced instruction.
Booting up my immature PC save was a bit demoralizing at first, but that momentary doubt quickly gave way once a couple of friends loaded in. In that instant, No Man's Sky was less about my journey and more about reveling in the splendor of it all with a couple of goofy partners. No Man's Sky is not a humorous game, but it can be with the right friends in tow. Light-hearted banter goes a long way to make less-inspiring activities, such as harvesting resources, far more enjoyable.
After a few minutes of questions and answers with my comrades it didn't take long until I felt confident in my ability to understand No Man's Sky's revamped systems. I knew where to get the materials I wanted and how to convert them into fuel for my ship and energy for my survival gear--the most basic and critical skills to master.
That's when it hit me: I really wish I had all of my old stuff again. Here I was, feeling confident about my ability to operate under a new set of instructions but with nothing to show for my otherwise extensive experience. I could jump back to my PS4 save and leave my friends behind, but committing to that would be cutting myself off from one of the things that has made my time back in No Man's Sky so enjoyable in the first place. I honestly can't choose between my kickass starship on PS4 and a couple of knuckleheads on PC because they both bring different things to the table. But one thing is for sure: starting over afforded me the knowledge to make my old save worth playing again.
No Man's Sky is a platform that can be used for a lot of different things, and that's more true than ever before with the addition of multiplayer. The question of whether or not you should start a new save is pretty personal, and in my case, I simply found a temporary trip back to square one to be worth the effort. If you already own No Man's Sky and are wondering if you should start over,, consider that you'll be far better off equipping yourself with the necessary knowledge to succeed in the long run than to assume you picking up the game where you left off years ago is actually giving No Man's Sky Next a fair shot.
The PlayStation library is home to countless iconic games, but few are as synonymous with Sony's first console as Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot. Last year, Activision remastered the Crash trilogy and it was a massive success, but the company has since set its sights on Spyro the Dragon with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. As one of Sony's historic flagship franchises, the purple dragon has a substantial legacy, which has understandably made the task of modernizing his most well-known adventures a tall order for California-based studio Toys For Bob.
There's a great deal of challenge involved in remastering the visuals and mechanics of the original Spyro trilogy. How do you imbue new life into worlds and characters who were originally created under the pressure of hardware limitations? Technology has advanced astronomically since Spyro's debut in 1998; you can't just touch up these graphics and hope the same charm is expressed. According to the Reignited Trilogy's developers, the solution is far more complex.
"When you look at the original game and you squint your eyes at it, there's a lot of imagination that you had to do at the time to fill in the blanks." said Toys For Bob co-studio head Paul Yan. "For us, it's taking the game, and asking: What do people remember about this? It was important to start with the memories as opposed to how do you interpret exactly what's on the screen."
It's undeniable that memory plays a huge part in our fondness for 3D 32-bit console games. From a visual standpoint, you can argue that graphics from this generation have not aged well at all. Yet we still possess an unwavering affection for these 3D games. Call it rose-tinted glasses, but it's precisely this view that keeps games like Spyro front-of-mind for so many.
Fortunately, Toys For Bob has steered clear from interfering too much with our fondest recollections of Spyro, instead opting to harness the personal accounts and memories of both fans and the game's original creators to create a new yet familiar vision of Spyro and his world.
"We didn't approach [the games] with, 'How can we add all these new ideas?'" commented Yan. "It's really about, how do we understand the truth of them and then bring that up and find opportunities to embellish and add more lushness and detail?"
There's an intensity and boldness in the Reignited Trilogy's remastered visuals, as if an otherworldly force motioned its hand to sprout an abundance of life and color across every inch of the original environments. These new details seem to close the gap on what our minds once filled in, enhancing and making real everything we once imagined for ourselves staring at the primitive polygonal edges of Spyro's world.
Elder dragons have been redesigned to give them their own unique appearances and personalities.
This is reflected best in the way Toys For Bob has approached redesigning the first Spyro game's 80 collectable elder dragons. In the original, they had some size, shape, and color diversity, but their designs eventually started to blend together. To combat this, Toys For Bob has given each of the elder dragons their own unique design and personality. For example, Beast Maker dragons act more shamanistic and speak in Cajun accents due to their home being much like the Louisiana bayou. Additions like this elevate our understanding of Spyro's cast and better connect us to the worlds in which they live.
"Our philosophy was to try to understand the key style points of the character, and understand what the intention was," Yan said. "We'd ask what was the story Insomniac were trying to tell? Once we felt like we understood that, we'd then try to inject as much new storytelling as we could into both the environments and the characters."
We didn't approach [the games] with, 'How can we add all these new ideas?' It's really about, how do we understand the truth of them and then bring that up and find opportunities to embellish and add more lushness and detail?
Paul Yan, Toys For Bob co-studio head
While visuals have been enhanced with new details and narrative threads, other aspects, like environment layouts, had to remain exactly the same. "The one thing that we were always extremely adherent to was the feel and the gameplay because we wanted that to be as referential and one-to-one to the originals as possible," Reignited Trilogy art director Josh Nadelberg said.
And it's not just the level geometry that needs to stay the same, it's the sounds too. Prolific voice actor Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants, Adventure Time) reprises his role as Spyro for the Reignited Trilogy, and from early footage, he hits the notes we all expect him to. But even he faces his own unique struggles in the remastering process. According to Kenny, matching line reads he did 20 years ago, while trying to incorporate lessons he's learned since voicing Spyro in 1998, has proved difficult.
"You want to be very respectful of the way people remember Spyro, but you still want your acting to be zesty," commented Kenny. "You still want Spyro to live. But you don't want to be so concerned with matching syllable for syllable that it becomes a total left-brain exercise."
It's a tough balancing act that those involved in the remastering process must follow. But there are moments when the solution is simply to go both ways. The Reignited Trilogy faithfully recreates the instrumentation of the original soundtracks but adjusts them to dynamically shift with the player's actions during gameplay. However, if players want a more faithful experience, they can choose to switch back to the original scores composed by music legend Stewart Copeland (The Police).
Even for a high-profile musician like Copeland, Spyro has a special, unshakable meaning. "When I went down [to Toys For Bob], I was hugely relieved because I was actually very emotionally invested in the Spyro series, musically and with the visuals too," said Copeland when asked about his thoughts on the remaster. "I went down there with my hackles up and left with a glow of joy. It was actually kind of emotional to see it brought forward in this way."
There's always the original games that they could play and have that experience, but what we've done is we've tried to make the game richer in a way that we feel is honoring the spirit of the originals.
Josh Nadelberg, art director
Reignited Trilogy music remixer Stephan Vankov and the team were intentional in their approach to offer players options in listening to the series' iconic musical score. "We wanted to provide a fresh way to experience the same music tracks where both new and old players can hear the work and it would be clearly transparent, the updates we've done to the music, and to take advantage of the latest technologies in game audio," said Vankov. "But we also wanted to give players the ability to switch back because the original soundtrack was so beloved, and we know that maybe not everybody's going to like the work that we've done."
It's a hard-hitting truth that not everyone is going to love the changes made, a reality that Toys For Bob has come to terms with. In a remastering process as deep as the Reignited Trilogy, there are changes that simply won't fly with some fans. A game like this will inherently trigger division, and after a while, there's only so much you can do to accommodate the tastes of everyone. When working on any creative project, tough calls need to be made, but what ultimately matters is that these decisions are made from the heart and with the best of intentions.
"There are folks that really don't want things to change. We respect that," concluded Nadelberg. "There's always the original games that they could play and have that experience, but what we've done is we've tried to make the game richer in a way that we feel is honoring the spirit of the originals. We hope that the fans give that a shot and fall in love with the world as much as we did while we were recreating it."
Netflix has purchased the rights to Mowgli, the live-action Jungle Book adaptation from director Andy Serkis. The darker take on the Rudyard Kipling classic was in a race with Disney's own live-action adaptation, which Disney won by releasing in 2016.
This version was originally slated for 2016 as well, but has since suffered multiple delays. It recently released its first trailer with a theatrical release planned for October 19, 2018. EW reports that this acquisition delays it once again, as now Netflix will premiere it on its streaming platform sometime in 2019.
Serkis is best known for his variety of motion-capture work in films like The Planet of the Apes and The Lord of the Rings trilogies. He dons the motion-capture suit in Mowgli as well to play Baloo the bear, while also taking duties behind the camera as director.
The director told Deadline that he needed extra time for his performance capture work, and decided to "let the other film have its moment." He also suggested that Netflix will help them avoid direct comparisons between the two films, and give it more creative freedom to have darker themes and to explore the violence between the animals.
Mowgli stars Rohan Chand in the title role, alongside Christian Bale as Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as Kaa, Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan, and of course, Andy Serkis as Baloo.
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2018 06:00 am Find out what's coming to the streaming platform in August as we list our top recommendations, including Disenchantment, The Good Place season 2, and Ozark season 2!
Fortnite might currently be celebrating its first birthday with exuberantly large in-game cakes and additional challenges, but the jubilation was somewhat dampened by the issue of ghost peeking, which has been a troublesome exploit affecting the game's loot-loving, trigger-happy player base. The folks at Epic Games have been trying to fix it for months now, and had mixed results.
If you're unaware, ghost peeking essentially lets players fire over cover without being seen and exposing themselves to the enemy. This is particularly problematic in a game where you can build your own cover at almost any time. It comes into practice when a player crouches uphill. As Fortnite's animation system makes adjustments to ensure your character's feet are correctly positioned on slopes, it also alters their mesh--even when your relative position hasn't changed--allowing you to remain completely behind cover while also being able to shoot over it.
If you've ever been shot by that sniper in the opposite tower without seeing his head peek out, the handy diagram below (posted on Reddit by Epic's Nick Donaldson) shows you why. "The yellow line is a trace from the center of your camera. The green line is supposed to be the bullet trace," he explained. As you can see, ghost peeking effectively removes the risk inherent in sticking your neck out of cover to pop off a shot.
Ghost peeking has been a widespread issue; you only need to search for the term on YouTube to uncover myriad video tutorials teaching players how to successfully pull it off. In the latest v5.1 update, however, Epic claimed to have fixed it, and based on the current evidence that seems to be the case. Huzzah! But don't get too excited just yet: this solution comes with a caveat. Fixing ghost peeking has had an adverse side-effect that impacts your ability to aim down sights.
Reddit user Grass---Tastes_Bad first pointed this out, showing how the Cuddle Team Leader premium skin will cover half the screen and your aiming reticle when you're positioned sideways on a ramp. The effect isn't always as pronounced with other skins (though hunting rifles seem to be universally bad as they zoom into the back of your head), but it still blocks the entire left-hand side of the screen, forcing you to disengage from these kinds of situations unless you want your viewpoint to be severely hampered.
Ghost peeking was a problem that needed to be fixed, but the current solution has introduced a more serious issue. It's bad enough getting killed by the new already-nerfed-but-still-really-powerful P90 Compact SMG, without having to also struggle to keep the enemy player in view.
Epic has been quick to fix any issues with Fortnite so far, and they're aware of this one, so there's hope this will be rectified soon. Whether that means ghost peeking returns in some form remains to be seen, but we might not be out of the woods just yet.
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2018 04:30 am Coming to PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC, Blade Strangers brings characters from Code of Princess, Cave Story, Shovel Knight, The Binding of Isaac, and Umihara Kawase together in an epic 2D fighting game.
After an unfortunate debacle that vexed movie goers hoping to see Mission Impossible: Fallout on opening night, MoviePass released a lengthy statement apologizing for the problem, which was essentially that it ran out of money, and explained the new pricing model going forward.
The statement opens with an apology announcing that the issue had been resolved, calling it an "outage in the app". It went on to speak about the new peak-pricing model and explained that it is the alternative to raising subscription prices. The idea is that it will be more expensive to see a popular movie on opening weekend than it will be if you wait until the hype dies down.
The real kicker, though, is about what movies and theaters are available. Part of the statement reads, "certain movies may not always be available in every theater in our platform." Which is to say that in some cases, you may not even be able to see popular movies at all. It then tries to lessen the impact of this by comparing it to streaming sites where not every movie is on every platform, but that seems like a pretty different set of circumstances.
Blackouts for popular movies aren't new for MoviePass, but they're going to be a more common practice from now on. Basically, you might not get to see Mission Impossible: Fallout in your local theater this weekend.
The statement ends by talking about how much good the service does for the entertainment industry by encouraging people to go see movies at non-peak times. At the end of the day, though, the MoviePass restrictions are only growing, and with more subscription services coming out, it doesn't look good for MoviePass.
By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2018 04:00 am ust three episodes in Greg and Ryan have a favorite character! Molly Strand is the focus of "Local Color", but there are some revelations and goings on for Henry Deaver, too. We talk through the plot, characters, and some of the references we (think) we found in this episode.
San Diego Comic-Con is a weekend loaded with new movie trailers, exciting celebrity appearances, and so much cosplay. Every single year, though, thousands line up for hours hoping to experience the holy grail of Comic-Con: exclusive footage.
With each Con, Hall H fills up with some of the world's biggest nerds as they gather in hopes of seeing something that the rest of the world will not be privy to. Whether it's the first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War at 2017's Con or the reveal of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at the 2013 installment of the event, there's something special about being the very first audience to see something you're a fan of.
the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con was no different. In fact, even though Marvel Studios and HBO sat out for this year's event, there was a ton of exclusive content to be seen throughout the convention. Whether it was extra clips from Bumblebee and Halloween, or bonus footage from Aquaman and the first sneak peek at Wonder Woman 1984, there was plenty to be excited about.
What about those who were unable to attend Comic-Con, though? Unfortunately, a lot of this footage won't be officially released for some time to come. Thankfully, GameSpot made a point of being in the room where it happens to bring the best descriptions possible to you. It won't quite make up for missing out on the footage in person, but there are plenty of secrets and teases about major upcoming projects found in these descriptions.
Inside a theater on the 5th floor of a labyrinthian outdoor mall in San Diego, director Robert Rodriguez and producer Jon Landau showed off 18 minutes of exclusive footage of Alita: Battle Angel, all of which was in 3D. For those who were fans of the OVW--like myself--or of the manga, we saw pretty pivotal moments tied to Alita's journey, from her being Ido's found object art project to her transformation into a badass Hunter Warrior. Included were two fight sequences that looked really clean for CG but were hard to follow for the same reasons. Additionally, we saw the scene in which Alita gets her second body. It diverges from the source material, but it works.
3D movies are typically not something I enjoy, and many using this tech fall flat. And while there are some "gotcha" moments for the crowd, I haven't seen 3D this good since James Cameron's Avatar, and what do you know? Cameron is the producer of Alita and wrote the first script. I still can't get over how weird the CG faces look pasted on some of these cyborgs, though.
The best thing I can say about the footage was that it got me interested in reading the manga, which has been fantastic so far. After reading some of it, you can see how much Rodriguez and company are trying to fit into this movie. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know, but I am hoping the completed film doesn't move at a breakneck speed by trying to fit in too many plot points. - Mat Elfring
Halloween
Upon taking the stage at San Diego Comic-Con, Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis identified what made Michael Myers so scary in the first film: his killing was random. The movies that followed changed that, with Michael becoming Laurie's (Curtis) brother, but the newest film is undoing all of that. What's more, the footage shown during the panel proves Halloween is getting back to its roots--a psychopath with a knife is on a killing spree.
A new scene was screened for the Hall H crowd that is one single take, in which an escaped Myers is haunting the streets of Haddonfield on Halloween night. After grabbing a hammer, he simply walks into a house and kills a woman preparing dinner for her family. From there, he takes the knife she was using to carve up a ham and heads off to find his next victim.
That person is a woman handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. As she goes to close her curtains for the evening, Myers suddenly appears behind her, moving forward and plunging the knife into her back. The blade slices through the front of her throat in a ridiculously graphic moment.
The footage goes to show that Blumhouse is pulling no punches with its take on the Halloween franchise. Fans or the original should be very excited. If, however, you're more of a fan of the Halloween movie with Busta Rhymes, this might not be the film for you. - Chris E. Hayner
Bumblebee
Quite a bit of Bumblebee footage was shown in Hall H. The first clip features Bumblebee on the run from the government, led by John Cena's character, when he comes face-to-face with Blitzwing--the movie's primary robot antagonist. Blitz claims that Bumblebee is a criminal he's hunting. In the ensuing battle, Blitzwing completely dominated Bumblebee before kicking the Autobot off a cliff, presumably to his death. Instead, Bee scans a nearby Volkswagen Beetle, showing viewers how he first took that shape.
Another clip showed Hailee Steinfeld's Charlie giving Bee his name, while yet another saw Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick speak with Cena's Agent Burns as the evil bots attempt to work with the military to capture Bumblebee. There's also a shot of an Optimus Prime hologram. Instead of being the Prime from the previous movies, though, his design is heavily inspired by the first generation design of the toy and cartoon character.
The major takeaway from these scenes is how cohesive they were. While it's easy to be confused by Michael Bay's Transformers movies due to the amount of action happening in any given shot, Bumblebee is keeping things simple by having just a few robots and balancing the action with a heartfelt story between Bee and Charlie. - Chris E. Hayner
Supernatural
The Supernatural panel began with a long recap video of Season 13 that ended with the Archangel Michael taking over Dean's body. Then the new footage began, showing one of the only seasons filmed for the new season thus far. In it, Michael is still very in-control of Dean's body and that's a bad thing. In the clip, he found a religious believer and explained who he is, before asking the man what he wants in the world.
Michael's goal, it seems, is to find out what humans want from the world. "Love and peace," the man told him. That, of course, leads to Michael listing the man's sins and misdeeds, proving that's not what he truly wants. "He's curious as to what humans want out of this," executive producer Brad Buckner teased.
If this short look at Season 14 tells us anything, it's that Michael isn't going anywhere. - Chris E. Hayner
Preacher
The trailer for the second half of Preacher Season 3 that debuted during Comic-Con showed glimpses of Grandma's meeting with Satan, Cassidy's run-in with the Children of the Blood, and, of course, the Allfather. But during the show's Hall H panel, SDCC attendees got to see a little bit more: an exclusive look at an upcoming episode's fight scene between Jesse and Tulip, and TC and Jody.
The fight takes place after TC and Jody discover Cassidy has escaped. It turns into an all-out brawl, with Jesse and Jody slamming each other with pro wrestling moves while Tulip and TC attack one another with "found object bathroom weaponry." Yes, that includes a flamethrower made from a hairdryer and a toilet paper roll. Of course, if you watched Sunday's episode, you saw all this--but Hall H attendees saw it a couple of days early.
That wasn't the only great thing in the Preacher panel--that would probably go to Seth Rogen's Subway joke (who's worse--Hitler or Jared?), or the moment when Dominic Cooper revealed he'd actually been shut in a coffin and dunked underwater while filming. For a more in-depth breakdown of everything we saw during the panel, check out Mike and Ryan's video. - Mike Rougeau
Aquaman
The exclusive Aquaman footage was a 10-minute extended trailer featuring a few protracted moments from the wide release cut. It kicked off with Arthur and Mera trekking through the desert (probably immediately after the scene where they jump without parachutes in the trailer) to find an old Atlantean ruin that looked like it had been abandoned centuries ago. Arthur struggles to wrap his head around Atlanteans being this far inland for obvious reasons but Mera seems totally nonplused.
They find what looks like a throne room with an ancient device but aren't able to get it to work. Mera realizes it's the lack of water causing the problem and uses her power to draw several beads of sweat away from Arthur's body to activate the machine. Finally up and running, the machine projects a hologram of an old Atlantean king explaining the power of the trident to unite the warring kingdoms of land and sea.
From there things get a little jumpy. We see more of Orm and Arthur fighting like gladiators, more of the large-scale fights between different underwater armies, and a long chase scene where Arthur and Mera flee from Black Manta (who uses the full extent of his suit's powers--yes, even the eye beams) and his henchmen. Finally, we get a nice close-up shot of Arthur arriving in the classic gold and green Aquaman costume right before the footage cuts to black. - Meg Downey
Wonder Woman 1984
Even though Wonder Woman 1984 just started filming, director Patty Jenkins was kind enough to bring a very brief clip of the work they've finished so far exclusively for Hall H. Clocking in at around a minute or so, we first see a montage of Diana sprinting into action, running down populated streets towards somewhere unknown. Things then cut to a meatier moment where we see Diana interrupting a heist in a very '80s-flavored mall. Three armed gunman in broad daylight attempt to hold up a store before she springs into action, first saving a little girl by sliding her across the flood into the plush embrace of some giant storefront teddy bears, then using her lasso to round up the criminals. We get a nice, pointed shot of Diana breaking their guns with her bare hands before she sets off. - Meg Downey
Venom
In the exclusive Venom clip shown during Sony Pictures' Hall H panel, Tom Hardy's character Eddie Brock struggles to get the Symbiote under his control. He tries meditating, but there's footage of more violent scenes interspersed as he attempts to clear his mind. "You cannot change the past. But in the present moment, you are in total control," a voiceover says, but clearly, that's not the case.
The footage showed Riz Ahmed's character, Dr. Carlton Drake, demonstrating the Symbiote's effect on an unwilling patient/victim. He's intent on forcing humanity to evolve. In another scene, Eddie races down the street on a motorcycle while the Symbiote erupts from his body, attacking nearby cars. Eddie speaks to the Symbiote, which can project words directly into Eddie's mind, or appear as a CG Venom head protruding from Eddie's body. In another scene, the two appear to have melded and reached some sort of balance; the Symbiote face peels partially away from Eddie's, and the two proclaim together, "We are Venom."
The footage looked OK, but the real highlight of the panel was moderator Jessica Chobot asking Hardy and director Ruben Fleischer when Spider-Man will enter the Venom universe. "I have to think that the studio's thinking the same way and that at some point down the road they're going to run into each other's paths," Fleischer said.
"What, me? Go toe-to-toe with Tom Holland? I'll have a go, yeah," Hardy added. "He's an awesome actor and I'd love to work with him, and I love Spider-Man. Who knows?" - Mike Rougeau
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Our exclusive look at Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse started with a look at Miles Morales in his world where, sadly, Peter Parker is no more. It's not made clear just what killed him, but his grave is a public site surrounded by mourners. As the public copes with the loss of their hero, Miles struggles with his newly emerging powers, including inadvertently getting his hand stuck in a classmate's hair during school.
Confused and forlorn, Miles visits Peter's grave only to find he's not alone. A disheveled, "disguised" Peter is there with him--which would be impossible, considering the circumstances. Panicked, Miles attempts to chase after him but inadvertently knocks Peter out in the process. What follows is a Weekend at Bernie's-style montage of Miles clinging to the unconscious Peter, trying to use his web shooters, and getting hilariously dragged all over the city by trains and cars.
When things finally calm down we see Miles with Peter tied up as Pete regains consciousness. They talk, Miles quickly putting two and two together and figuring that this Peter is from an alternate reality, Peter is already extremely over the whole situation. Miles wants training; Peter wants to be left alone.
From there, things pick up the pace and we see a bit more of the "training" montages from previous trailers, including an extended look at Spider-Gwen and later the arrival of even more Spider-Verse heroes: Spider-Man Noir (done in rain-slicked Sin City style animation), Penny Parker (done in anime style) and Spider-Ham (animated like a Looney Toon, of course). - Meg Downey
Predator
The Predator panel was reportedly one of the most exciting of the entire convention. Over at our sister site Comicbook.com, they broke down the two exclusive clips shown to Hall H guests. The first doesn't sound too exciting--it's mostly the characters sitting around a motel room arguing about Olivia Munn, apparently--but the second is a different story. As they described it:
"Holbrook and Munn try to hide with a young kid as a Predator approaches. They're looking at it through a window but one comes up behind them. After it grabs Holbrook, something rips it through a window. An unmasked Predator reveals itself in front of the armed cast. They look at one another with heat vision. The much larger, apparently friendly Predator, fights the smaller one and tosses it around with ease while the humans flee into an RV. The larger Predator takes the other's mask off, punches it, and rips its head off. Green blood falls. It tosses its head. "What are they hunting each other now? Munn asks."
That was followed by a sizzle reel full of "violence" and "quick cuts." Now, who's excited about The Predator? - Mike Rougeau
Lego Movie 2
The unfinished, exclusive LEGO Movie 2 footage shown during Warner Bros. panel in Hall H gave attendees a new glimpse at the now-apocalyptic LEGO world--basically, it's Mad Max with LEGOs. "Everything was awesome. Now, everything is bleak," Wyldstyle says. Of course, Emmet quickly breaks the mood by cheerily showing up with coffee.
In the footage, the movie's new villain, General Mayhem, kidnaps Wyldstyle. LEGO Harley Quinn points out that rescuing her is a "suicide mission," a tongue-in-cheek reference to Suicide Squad. Naturally, Emmet goes after her anyway--but he has help.
Most importantly, the clip introduced us to Rex Dangervest, a new character also voiced by Chris Pratt, who among his many jobs is a "raptor trainer," a cute little Jurassic World joke. The two characters show the dual sides of Pratt, who, as the actor pointed out during the panel, started his career as the hapless Andy on Parks and Rec and is now a superhero and action movie star. - Mike Rougeau
Over the course of its inaugural season, Overwatch League has shown solid growth throughout the 200+ games played since its debut. While Blizzard's esport experiment has seen its fair share of ups and downs--resulting in some unexpected roster shakeups, changes to the flow of the schedule, and some controversies surrounding players--the league's success with turning the hero shooter Overwatch into an event game has been a sight to behold. The tournament will culminate in a battle between fan-favorite teams the London Spitfire and Philadelphia Fusion. And with plans to expand further in the next season, including two new teams in Paris and Guangzhou, along with a substantial distribution deal with ESPN, the future looks bright for Overwatch League.
Spanning July 27-28, the Grand Finals will see the London Spitfire and Philadelphia Fusion compete in several games, with the champion crowned after a best two of three matches contest. While the first day will only have one match, the second day of the Grand Finals will decide the winner.
While both teams are fan-favorites and the best the season had to offer, they each faced many challenges that nearly kept them out of the finals. The 2017 pre-season provided ample opportunity for the teams to get their footing ahead of the official start in Season 1. However, the Fusion unfortunately missed out due to issues with scheduling and visa clearance for its roster. When they debuted at the open of Season 1 in January, they had a particularly poor showing during Stage 1 and 2. Eventually, the Fusion found their footing thanks to a roster change and solid performance from key players Georgii "Shadowburn" Gushcha, Josue "Eqo" Corona, and Alberto "Nepturo" Gonzalez Molinillo. Currently, the Fusion have a 24 win and 16 loss match record under their belt.
In the latter half of the season, the London Spitfire have become one of the league's most popular teams. With a strong start in Stage 1, they quickly made themselves known as the team to watch out for. But they struggled to maintain momentum, resulting in several disappointing games in Stages 2 and 3. After an unsuccessful start in the first week of Stage 4, the team management made the surprising move to remove four players from its active roster--Hyeon-woo "HaGoPeun" Jo, Jang-hyeon "TiZi" Hwang, Seung-hyun "WooHyaL" Sung, and Seong Dong-eun "Hooreg" Lee. The reason for they stated in a press release was to craft a smaller, "championship-caliber" team. Amazingly enough, this allowed the team to regain the same buzz they had in the pre-season, leading to some memorable matches against the Fusion, and the Spitfire's rivals, the Los Angeles Gladiators--whom they were able to knock out in the playoffs. Much like the Fusion, the Spitfire also has an identical match record of 24 wins and 16 losses.
London Spitfire owner Jack Etienne was candid about the team's challenges over the course of the season, including their important decision to make changes to the roster.
"For me personally, the biggest challenge this season was for me to understand that you can't just put the best 12 players on a team and expect things to go well," he said. "The thing is, when you have only six of those players be on the stage, the other six are not gonna be happy being backup. I've always believed that the teams that win at playoffs are the teams that are peaking at the right time. When we were down and out, like after Stage 3 and not doing well, and then going into Stage 4 and not doing well, and sending players home after--my players were miserable. We talked about it, and I told them that, 'Hey, this slump hurts, it sucks to be here right now, but this is the time, the best time, to figure out what is wrong with us, and come back strong.' Other teams that have those slumps later on didn't have time to fix it; we actually had time to fix what's going wrong."
"The Fusion in particular have played strong against us, they're a really solid team," he continued. "And through our [earlier games], they're by far the best--we're the best two teams in the league. I have a huge amount of respect for them, and it's really good that things ended up the way they did in the bracketing, because it would've been a real shame if we had to play each other in quarter-finals or semi-finals, and one of us just lost from the other teams, it would've sucked. That would've been a bad finals. But the way things ended up, with the brackets, [the League] ended up with the two best teams, peaking at the right times, to be here."
With the Grand Finals, Overwatch League will up the scale of the event. Along with the change in venue from the Blizzard Arena in Burbank to the Barclays Center, the increased reach that Blizzard has planned for its final games will give viewers more ways to view the deciding matches between the Spitfire and Fusion. In addition to its online audience on Twitch and other streaming platforms, the league will also be broadcast on ESPN and the Disney Channel in North America. The exposure these last games of the season are getting show a clear payoff in the gamble Blizzard has taken with the making of its own esports league, and this will likely set tone for how it expands in the seasons to come.
Jon Spector, OWL director of franchises and competition, spoke about what he wanted to do with the league's reach, and the goal to expand the OWL audience even further.
"We've always wanted our content to be as accessible as possible to fans," said Spector. "That meant you can watch Overwatch League on Twitch, you can watch it on our website, you can watch it on the app, we're making it now with the ESPN partnership, you can watch it on TV in parts of the world. So I think if you look at what we're most excited about, for the ESPN/Disney relationship, it is that ability to bring Overwatch League to a new group of fans that maybe hadn't watched us on Twitch before, and hadn't even checked out our website. This is a chance when we're on for the finals and prime time on ESPN to introduce the league to some new fans. So I'm really excited about that but I think it mirrors our core strategy of making the content as widely accessible for fans. However they want to consume it, we want Overwatch league to be there."
Season 1 of Overwatch League has already a been solid start for Blizzard's venture into esports territory. As more teams are drafted, and with additional arenas being added into the mix, there's a greater sense that the league is just getting started. For Blizzard, what makes the Overwatch League work is not only the design of the hero shooter itself, which focuses on a diverse and skilled group of people that come together to form a team, but also the passionate community that has become drawn to its hopeful and optimistic view of what the future could be, where people of all ages and backgrounds come together to find joy in something great. This is something that people are naturally attracted to and constantly seeking out, and it's what will be the driving force behind Overwatch League's growth.
Recent Articles:
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website.
A brief look at the new No Man's Sky patch, and our perspective on starting a new save to get the most out of the massive updates.
Even though we didn't see a new Splinter Cell at E3 2018, Michael and Jake decided it was time to give the first one another shot.
Find out what's coming to the streaming platform in August as we list our top recommendations, including Disenchantment, The Good Place season 2, and Ozark season 2!
Coming to PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC, Blade Strangers brings characters from Code of Princess, Cave Story, Shovel Knight, The Binding of Isaac, and Umihara Kawase together in an epic 2D fighting game.
ust three episodes in Greg and Ryan have a favorite character! Molly Strand is the focus of "Local Color", but there are some revelations and goings on for Henry Deaver, too. We talk through the plot, characters, and some of the references we (think) we found in this episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment