On this new episode of The Golden Briefcase2.0, Tim and Jeremy share a bunch of recent Picks of the Week and touch on a variety of interesting topics including Orsen Wells, May the 4th (aka Star Wars Day!), the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the adorableness of Martin Freeman (who has just joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Avengers: Age of Ultron in-depth. From there the guys get into a deeper discussion on Marvel Studio’s Second & Third Phases and so much more about Marvel. We hope you enjoy. Send us topics, arguments, whatever, and we will do our best to talk about it. This episode entirely dog snoring free.›››
“What if there was a place… where nothing was impossible?” Mondo has unveiled some stunning new art that they’re selling in promotion for the upcoming release of Disney’s Tomorrowland, directed by Brad Bird. The new art piece is 24″ x 36″ screen print designed by Kevin Tong (visit his website), and boy is it gorgeous. The art depicts Tomorrowland in the movie Tomorrowland, complete with transformation from the “real” world in the lower left featuring Casey Newton, played by Britt Robertson. Each of these will go so on sale on Friday, May 22nd when the film opens in theaters. And I’d say they are must have, especially if you’re excited for this movie like we are. The variant version, in the evening it looks like, is my favorite one. ›››
“Something lives in our woods… And it’s looking for food, and it found us.” Put away the children, and hide under the floorboards. Image Entertainment has debuted a full trailer for the film Dark Was the Night, a small-town horror thriller about a sheriff who struggles to handle a “new breed of raw terror” found in their woods. Kevin Durand stars along with Lukas Haas and Steve Agee in this very dark, very indie thriller that has an intriguing slow burn werewolf, or monster movie, vibe to it. I’m always glad to see Kevin Durand in more and more challenging roles, especially a lead role, but I’m not sure there is much substance to this one beyond the monsters-within theme. It might be worth a look, give it a shot especially if you like horror. ›››
Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider publisher Square Enix on Tuesday announced financial performance for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2015–and the results were strong.
Square Enix’s video game division, called “Digital Entertainment,” posted yearly revenue of ¥111.9 billion ($932.7 million), up 18.4 percent from last year.
Meanwhile, operating income was ¥17.3 billion ($144 million), which represents an even more dramatic increase of 61.3 percent compared to the prior financial year.
The publisher cited “strong” sales of catalog titles, which was particularly important since Square Enix also noted that it released fewer console games during the fiscal year compared to the year before.
In terms of smartdevices and PC games, Square Enix said Sengoku Ixa and Dragon Quest: Monsters Super Light “continued to show strong performance.” Meanwhile, smartphone games like Schoolgirl Strikers, Final Fantasy Record Keeper, and Kai-ri-Sei Million Arthur also did well during the year.
What’s more, Square Enix said MMOs Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X “have been making favorable progress,” though no other details were divulged.
Overall, Square Enix–which also runs various non-gaming business units–posted revenue of ¥167.9 billion ($1.4 billion) for the year. That’s up 8.3 percent. Profit, meanwhile, rose a healthy 49 percent from ¥6.6 billion ($55 million) to ¥9.8 billion ($81.6 million).
CD Projekt Red’s highly anticipated role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is now available to pre-load on PC through Steam and GOG, as well as Xbox One. The PC edition on Origin and the PlayStation 4 version will be ready to pre-load “soon,” the Polish developer explained in its announcement today.
Pre-loading, of course, applies to digital copies of The Witcher 3 only. The appeal of pre-loading is that you can download the 35GB game ahead of time so that you can play the second it unlocks.
Digital copies of The Witcher 3 unlock at 1 AM CET on May 19, which is actually the afternoon/evening of May 18 in the United States. Boxed copies of the game arrive on May 19.
Check back soon for lots more on The Witcher 3, as we’ll post our review at 7 AM PDT / 10 AM EDT today.
Playtonic Games, developer of Banjo-Kazooie spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee, has revealed a new innuendo-filled character called Trowzer.
The trouser-wearing snake is the first supporting character the developer has revealed, and has been described as a “flash, wheeler dealing serpent.”
“Trowzer is a business-snake whose career never took off,” Playtonic’s creative lead, Gavin Price, explained on the official website.
“Not that he knows it – the smug, serpent salesman thinks he’s the bee’s knees (not that he has knees), and for a little dosh he’ll teach you some of the slick moves he picked up on the high-stakes sales floor.”
Along with his trousers, tie, and fedora, the character completes the out-of-touch business-snake look with a large “Brickcom” phone.
“He’ll take your money and count it (he’s an Adder…) and because he knows best he’ll even demonstrate the moves you just bought for you to replicate… if you can follow his jiggling.”
Playtonic’s character artist Steve Mayles also explained the design process behind Trowzer and attributed the idea of the snake wearing shorts to Price himself.
“I didn’t want him to be a snake in the traditional sense, and when Gav suggested he should have shorts on (do I have to add shorts to all of my characters?!), a great idea for this was his body could curl back up through the other leg hole. So he’ll move with a certain springiness, which will be fun to animate.”
The crowdfunding campaign was launched with a $500,000 goal, with Igarashi explaining that he had already raised some funds for development. The Kickstarter campaign was to increase the overall budget, secure funding for bonus features, and release physical Xbox One and PS4 discs as backer rewards.
Igarashi will be serving as the game’s director and producer, with Michiru Yamane– another Castlevania veteran– composing the music. Development will be handled by Inti Creates, the studio behind Mega Man 9 and Keiji Inafune’s upcoming Mighty No. 9.
World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Heroes of the Storm developer Blizzard has apologised to European players of its online card battling game Hearthstone for recent connection issues, and offered free content as recompense.
Posting on the official Hearthstone forums, Blizzard admitted the online multiplayer aspect of the game was “spotty last week” and revealed two free Classic Hearthstone card packs would be offered as an apology.
“Sorry about that, and we really appreciate your patience as we worked to get the tavern back into shape,” the studio said.
“As a thank-you for bearing with us, ALL Hearthstone accounts in the European Hearthstone region created prior to May 3, 2015 will enjoy two free Classic Hearthstone card packs, free of charge.”
In order to claim the two packs, players need only to log in to Hearthstone “at [their] convenience” to find the card packs in the Open Packs section. The packs will not expire, so there is no time constraint.
In April, Blizzard updated the iOS version Hearthstone to officially support iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android devices. The latest version of the game is said to feature “an all-new intuitive interface handcrafted for the mobile experience. You can see a few screenshots of the iOS version below.
The face of masked murderer Jason Voorhees has never been revealed in fighting game Mortal Kombat X. However, a forum post on the Testyourmight forums shows a preview of a mod called Camera Hack being developed for the PC version of the game. The hack unmasks Jason to reveal that developer NetherRealm Studios did put effort into modelling the character’s facial appearance, despite the fact that it was never meant to be seen in-game.
Jason in Friday the 13th (2009 remake)
Granted, the Mortal Kombat X version doesn’t look as disfigured as other iterations of the character that have been present in the movies, but he does sport a few scars. It’s likely the character’s facial model was animated so that it would not look out of place during fatalities. Voorhees was added to the character roster in Mortal Kombat X through the Jason Voorhees bundle. Players who own the $30 Mortal Kombat X Kombat Pack were able to access the character from May 5. The Jason Voorhees Bundle can otherwise be purchased on May 12 for $8.
Mortal Kombat X enjoyed a record-breaking launch back in April. The game scored an eight in GameSpot’s review, praised for its solid fighting mechanics and the challenges offered, but criticized for its monetization model.
