“If I can get you licking and loving, I have my purpose.” Aw, this looks adorable. Universal has debuted a trailer for the movie called A Dog’s Purpose, directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström (who also made the movie Hachi: A Dog’s Tale ). Told from a dog’s perspective, which is provided a voice by Josh Gad, the film does indeed attempt to show what a dog’s purpose is – especially in connection with humans. The family film also stars Dennis Quaid, Peggy Lipton, Britt Robertson, K.J. Apa, Juilet Rylance, Luke Kirby, John Ortiz and Pooch Hall. There’s more than one dog and they all look so friendly. As a huge dog lover, I have to say, this plays right to my emotions. Bring on the doggie love, can’t wait to see this. ›››
As announced previously, the new maps are Temple (Warzone Assault) and Mercy (Arena), the latter of which is a reimagining of Halo 4‘s Haven map. Some of the new weapons include the Tactical Magnum, as well as Wicked Grasp and Berserker’s Claw, which are classified as rare and ultra-rare respectively.
Halo 5 senior systems designer Dan Wiksten shared more insight on the new assaults cannons in 343’s newest weekly blog post, which you can find below the video.
Assault Cannon: Wicked Grasp
“Need to protect a base against infantry? The Wicked Grasp should make it easy to hold on and defend. It fires a burst of homing plasma shots that will drop a Spartan really quick. The projectiles have a slower velocity than most UNSC weapons, so effective range is diminished and the weapon is best used at short to mid-range.”
Assault Cannon: Berserker’s Claw
“Equally effective against infantry as well as medium vehicles, the Berserker’s Claw requires a short charge up before it can be fired, but does fire projectiles that will explode on impact and possibly take out a cluster of targets with one shot. The projectiles also track flying vehicles, and are a great counter to early vehicle play.”
In other Halo 5 news, Microsoft also confirmed this week that the game’s Forge tools will be released on September 8, the same day that Anvil’s Legacy comes out. For more, check out the PC requirements here. 343 will talk more about Anvil’s Legacy and show it off during a livestream event on September 6.
Halo 5’s other expansions included The Battle of Shadow and Light (November), Cartographer’s Gift (December), Infinity’s Armor (January), Hammer Storm (February), Ghosts of Meridian (April), Memories of Reach (May), Hog Wild (May), and Warzone Firefight (June).
Everyone is thinking it and now GameStop said it: the PlayStation Neo is likely to be officially confirmed during Sony’s PlayStation news event in New York City next month. During an earnings briefing this week, GameStop management said all will become clear on September the 7th, referencing the news briefing. Sony is expected to officially confirm the Neo and also announced a slimmed-down PS4.
Authorities in Japan said this week that two people died in cases linked to Pokemon Go, believed to be the first fatalities associated with the popular game. In both cases, drivers reportedly distracted by the game struck pedestrians, who later died in hospitals. This is a terrible thing and hopefully we don’t hear more reports along the same lines.
PlayStation Plus is getting more expensive in the US and Canada. Sony announced that the subscription service, which you need to play games online, is going up in price to $60 for a year and $25 for three months. The one-month plan is staying at $10. A membership also gets you free games every month. You must maintain your membership to continue to play the PS Plus titles.
The Other Stuff (Stories We Like, But Didn’t Cover With a Standalone Post):
There is a Dark Souls easter egg in the newest Overwatch map. How cool is that? Read the story and watch the video to learn more.
A new Astro Boy game is coming. A Kickstarter campaign for the project, Edge of Tomorrow, went up this week, asking for $50,000 to make it a reality.
Sony hasn’t even announced the PlayStation 4 Slim but someone has already unboxed it. Bear in mind this is all unofficial at this point, but it certainly looks real. Get all the details at DualShockers.
Destiny’s Rise of Iron expansion is coming in September and now Bungie has shared lots of insight about the new six-player raid, Wrath of the Machine. Read all about it here at Game Informer.
What were the top-grossing console, PC, and mobile games of July 2016? This new Superdata report has all the answers, and yes, Pokemon Go was on top. Read the full report here.
Titanfall 2’s multiplayer might feel a little slower than the first game–and this is intentional. Read this Shacknews interview with director Steve Fukuda to learn more about why Respawn is changing things up for the sequel.
Who might direct the Captain Marvel movie? According to the Hollywood Reporter, the list of leading candidates has been winnowed down to three. See them here.
Where do Madden’s sound effects come from? Probably not where you’d expect! Read this awesome Eurogamer story to get all the details.
That new Star Wars Rogue One trailer, now with more of your favorite character: Jar-Jar Binks. This is quite the video…
What are the best-selling PS4 games in Japan? Now we know. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain leads the way–see the rest here.
Is actor/singer/awesome person Donald Glover going to be in the new Han Solo standalone Star Wars movie? The actor finally responded to rumors he might play Lando. Here’s what he said.
Each week we search and gather up the coolest comic book art you won’t see in actual comics. The reason you won’t is because professional artists often draw sketches for fun or commissions and post them on their websites, blogs, and Tumblrs. Some artists even arrange commissions through their sites so be sure to check them out. This is a way to see the artists working on one book draw characters from other comics or publishers.
Todd Nauck posted Superbory and Raven sketches on his Tumblr this week.
Chrissie Zullo posted another Overwatch sketch on her Facebook page.
Franco posted new sketch covers on his Instagram. You can buy his original art here.
Chris Samnee posted a Superboy and Batman sketch on his Instagram.
Kris Anka posted some commissions from FlameCon on his Instagram.
Skottie Young posted more Daily Sketches on his Tumblr. You can buy his original art here.
Mahmud Asrar posted some pre-show commissions for FanExpo Canada on his Tumblr.
Tom Raney posted some sketches from Terrificon on his Twitter.
Chris Giarrusso put up a couple new sketches for sale here. He also posted more sketch cards on his website.
Daniel HDR posted a couple commissions on his Instagram. His commission list is open.
Peter Nguyen posted some commissions on his Tumblr. His list is open for Long Beach and New York Comic Con.
Ryan Lee posted a Captain Marvel sketch on his Twitter.
Halo 5: Forge is coming to PC very soon, letting you build maps and play custom games on your Windows 10 computer. Today, developer 343 Industries announced what sort of system you’ll need to run the game.
In a post on the Halo website, 343 Industries revealed the system requirements for the title. It’s fairly demanding–the studio recommends a GTX 970 graphics card and 12 GB of RAM. You can see the full breakdown of system requirements at the bottom of this article.
In addition, Halo 5: Guardians on Xbox One is getting a new DLC pack on September 8. Called Anvil’s Legacy, it adds a new Arena map and a new Warzone map, as well as new weapons and weapon attachments. You can read more about it here.
System Requirements
Minimum:
Operating system: Windows 10 Anniversary Edition, version 1607 or later
DirectX 12
CPU: Intel Core i5 at 2.3 Ghz or AMD equivalent
GPU: GeForce 650 Ti
VRAM: 2GB
RAM: 8GB
HDD: 40GB
Recommended (1080p at 60 frames per second):
Operating system: Windows 10 Anniversary Edition, version 1607 or later
DirectX 12
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570k at 3.4 Ghz or AMD equivalent
GPU: GeForce 970
VRAM: 4GB
RAM: 12GB
HDD: 40GB
Ultra (4K at 60 frames per second):
Operating system: Windows 10 Anniversary Edition, version 1607 or later
DirectX 12
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770k at 3.4 Ghz or AMD equivalent
No Man’s Sky has been out for a couple weeks now, and players have been busy naming countless plants, animals, and planets that they have discovered. However, it seems that naming things in the game might not be as permanent as many people thought: Some players are now reporting that their custom names for plants and animals are being erased.
In a post on the No Man’s Sky subreddit, user Dark_Nexis stated that when they went back to some of the planets they discovered early on in the game, all of their names for locations, creatures, and plants were gone.
Essentially, the planet had reverted back to its pre-discovery state. Although the planet and star system still listed Dark_Nexis as the discoverer and still retained their custom names, nothing else on the planet had kept its name.
Another user, Ultrasilvanus, corroborated the issue. Apparently, when they revisited past planets after several days, animal discoveries had reverted to being listed as “?????????” In addition, Ultrasilvanus did some sleuthing and determined that the discoveries were being erased in chronological order–that is, the oldest discoveries were disappearing first. This would suggest that there might be a max number of things that a player can name before they start being erased.
Developer Hello Games has not commented on this yet, but we’ve reached out to it and Sony for clarification about what’s happening. We’ll update this article with any new info we get.
No Man’s Sky is available on PS4 and PC, but it had quite a few issues after its launch. Hello Games is working hard on fixes for these problems, and new patches will arrive soon. Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news about No Man’s Sky in the coming weeks.
The creators of Netflix’s Stranger Things have revealed some of the video games that influenced the hit sci-fi show. Matt and Ross Duffer listed these off in a new interview with IGN, beginning with Silent Hill.
The show’s Upside Down area, which is an alternate reality of sorts, is influenced by the Konami horror game. “With all the fog and the forest dripping. Obviously we were really looking at that game for visualizing this other world, so that’s a big one,” Matt Duffer said. He added that people picked up on the Silent Hill reference the most.
Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic The Last of Us and From Software’s RPG Dark Souls series also influenced Stranger Things. Matt Duffer explains:
“I love [The Last of Us] and the storytelling in that game and a lot of the imagery. We’re huge, huge fans of the Dark Souls games, and there’s something about when you’re playing Dark Souls–immediately when you’re in that world, it was to do with the imagery, it has to do with the sound design, and you’re just immediately very uncomfortable and on edge. We wanted you to feel that way when you’re in the Upside Down.”
Matt Duffer went on to say that Stranger Things is likely influenced by even more video games, some of which he may not even be consciously aware of.
“I just know that we do play and have always played a lot of video games so I feel like there is a lot of that seeped into the show,” he explained.
The show itself even contains references to video games, as there is a Christmas morning sequence when a character thinks he’s getting a new Atari console.
12-year-old Millie Bobby Brown plays Stranger Things lead Eleven, while other child actors round out the group of teenagers who make up the show’s main cast. Wynona Ryder, Matthew Modine, and David Harbour also star in the program.
Captain America: Civil War is all about Cap and Iron Man’s differences coming to the surface and clashing over what superheroes should and shouldn’t be allowed to do. However, the Marvel movie would have had a completely different story if Robert Downey Jr. hadn’t joined the production, directors Joe and Anthony Russo told EW.
The Russo brothers talked to EW about how Downey Jr.’s original Marvel contract was fulfilled by the time work started on the third Captain America movie. Joe said, “[T]here was a period of time when we explored possibilities for Cap stories that did not include [Civil War].” Despite this, the idea for Civil War came about early and “it took over [the directors’] brains.”
Speaking of taking over brains, Anthony revealed that they were thinking of revolving the third act around the Madbomb, which is a device that makes people crazy, causing them to be much more aggressive.
“It didn’t have anything to do with Civil War, and if we couldn’t get Downey–in the very, very early conversations before we nailed him–somebody pitched the idea of a third-act that revolved around the Madbomb, which makes people crazy,” Anthony said. “It almost like zombifies them–but not literally.
“The charm of the Madbomb is that you turn hordes of people into berserkers. That was the physical challenge that Cap and company would have had to face.”
Joe added that there was a moral element to the Madbomb, in addition to the physical.
“The notion of the Madbomb would have been Cap having to fight civilians and how he would he handle that,” Joe said. “We were always trying to put him into these interesting moral conundrums because of his nature. That would have made a compelling third act because if civilians are the antagonists, how could he stop them without killing them?”
An emotional component was also present, as Captain America would have had to fight his superhero friends, who would have been taken over by the Madbomb as well.
“Somebody you know has turned into a zombie and now you have to fight them,” Anthony said.
But then Downey Jr. and Marvel Studios reached a deal, and everyone lived happily ever after. The end.
Captain America: Civil War hits digital HD, digital 3D, and Disney Movies Anywhere on September 2, while the Blu-ray, DVD, and On-demand versions arrive on September 13. You can see the full list of Blu-ray bonus material here or watch the Civil War gag reel that features forgotten lines and swearing.
The latest update to Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher allows players to stream games like Overwatch, Hearthstone and World of Warcraftdirectly to Facebook.
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