Author: dpugh007

The organization that handles maintenance for the iconic Hollywood sign has vowed to improve security following a prank this past weekend where it was changed to say “Hollyweed.”

Chris Baumgart, the chairman for the Hollywood Sign Trust, told The Hollywood Reporter that the latest prank demonstrates that “there are opportunities to make improvements” in the area of security.

“We will be deploying additional technology to tighten up surveillance and thus deter unwanted visitors in the future,” he explained. “This is more than preventing pranks or trespassing at the sign. Our concern is the safety of the neighborhood and the trespassers that put themselves at risk because it is extremely unsafe to be on the sign, let alone traversing the treacherous hillside that is home to those 9 famous letters.”

Currently, the sign is monitored by the LAPD with a camera system. First installed in 1994, the security system has been updated “several” times since then, according to THR. The person or group responsible for the prank committed a trespassing violation, an LAPD officer told the site, but no one has been arrested as of yet.

Workers restored the Hollywood sign to its normal look by Monday morning.

In 1976, then-student Daniel Finegood altered the sign to say Hollyweed for an art project. He was not arrested.

In November 2016, California residents voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

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Crytek Black Sea, one of the five studios recently shut down by publisher Crytek, has reformed as a new studio: Black Sea Games.

The company states on its new website that it was formed in November 2016, which predates Crytek’s December studio closure announcement, suggesting the shutting of those studios could have occurred earlier than previously thought. The website also confirms that Black Sea Games is currently working on a project, but isn’t yet ready to announce anything.

The studio’s mission statement reads “Our mission is to create hard-core games that will entertain you over and over again. We believe the best gaming experiences are coming from challenging the players with meaningful choices, while giving them the freedom to create (and share) their own in-game stories.”

The new development house is headed up by Vesselin Hanjiev, who was previously managing director when the studio was under the Crytek banner. He served the same role before Crytek purchased the company in 2008, after founding what was then called Black Sea Studios in 2001.

It is unclear how many Crytek staff have remained for the return to independence.

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Frontier Developments is pursuing legal action against Atari as part of a dispute over the amount of royalties it was paid for developing Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

According to TMZ, Frontier asserts that sales of the game were higher than what Atari had led the studio to believe and, as a result, it is owed more money for its work. Frontier developed the core game as well as two expansions for PC and Mac.

According to the report, Frontier was paid $1.17 million for its work and believes it is owed an additional $2.2 million. This is based on claims it has found evidence that the game sold more than what Atari revealed it has.

In a statement to GameSpot, Frontier’s chief operating officer David Walsh confirmed Atari has denied the studio the opportunity to acquire accurate information using its right to audit, and as such is taking legal action.

“We can confirm Frontier is currently pursuing a complaint against Atari,” said Walsh. “We have attempted to resolve this issue without legal action since April 2016. We have so far been denied our contractual right to audit by Atari, and we are unfortunately left with no other way to resolve our concerns. We are unable to offer any further comment while the matter is subject to due legal process.”

GameSpot has contacted Atari for a statement.

In January 2013, Atari filed for bankruptcy but later secured $2 million in funding and has since returned to publishing games. In mid-2016 it launched RollerCoaster Tycoon World as an Early Access title on Steam. The response to his has been negative, but Atari pledged to support the game and improve it. The full game has since been released on Steam.

Frontier, meanwhile, launched Planet Coaster to critical acclaim. In GameSpot’s Planet Coaster review, Edmond Tran awarded the game 9/10, describing it as “a game focused on the positivity that amusement parks can bring.”

He added: “It’s a game that occupies your thoughts when you’re not playing it, and it’s thoroughly captivating when you are.”

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Grand Theft Auto IV‘s map, Liberty City, will soon exist right next to Grand Theft Auto V‘s Los Santos, thanks to modding team OpenIV.

The group says it’s been working on the update since GTA V’s PC release in 2015. It also says Liberty City will not replace Los Santos; instead, it will appear just across the ocean. Take a look at a teaser trailer below.

“Liberty City is finally coming into GTA V in all its glory,” the modders said in a blog post. “Liberty City will not replace Los Santos or Blaine County, but appears across the sea.”

To avoid any potential legal issues, the mod itself will not place Liberty City inside GTA V. Instead, you’ll have to own both games on PC; a downloadable tool will then extract Liberty City from GTA IV and create a custom DLC pack, which can then be patched into GTA V. No release date has been announced for the mod.

As well as extensive mod support, both GTA IV and V continue to receive official content updates and fixes. GTA V recently received a new mode and a double XP event, while not too long ago publisher Rockstar updated GTA IV with its first patch in six years.

The latest in the series, GTA V, sells well to this day, and has now reportedly sold over six million copies in the UK alone.

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