“These girls have broken down every single barrier in their path.” After giving the Green Bay Packers the spotlight for their cameo in Pitch Perfect 2, the full theatrical trailer for the a capella sequel has arrived. This time Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and the rest of the Bellas are heading to the World Championships, basically the Olympics of music made with mouths because it only happens every four years. As you’ll see in the trailer, the Bellas need this win to make up for an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction that happened during a performance in front of the President of the United States. Watch it! ›››
Director Joe Swanberg is known in the indie world for films like Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas and his latest Sundance selected Digging for Fire, but now he’s going to make the jump to studio comedies. The Wrap has word that Swanberg has signed on to direct a comedy called Work Wife for New Line. The script comes from “Trophy Wife” TV series writers Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins and follows a pair lawyers in their 30s who try to find out if they can actually date a co-worker. There has to be some kind of comedic catch other than that, because that description sounds pretty vague and not very amusing. Read on! ›››
Anton Corbijn is a remarkable photographer. But I’m not so sure he’s that great of a filmmaker, especially after his most recent film. I’m not usually one to bash films, but Corbijn’s latest work – titled Life – is such an exceptional let down I can’t help but express my disdain. The film feels so lifeless, and is devoid of any impressive features at all, which is odd considering it’s a story about James Dean starring two very talented actors. But why does it suck so much? It’s bland and boring, a misfire on all counts, from the story to the casting to the photography itself. I had hoped I’d feel some–any–emotion, but never did. Instead, during my Berlinale screening, the only nagging feeling I had was that I wanted it to end right away so I could bolt. ›››
Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late for the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system is the newest 2D fighting game from the companies that brought you BlazBlue and Guilty Gear
Sony will discontinue online support for 2009 PSP game Resistance Retribution in May, the company announced on Twitter. All online services for the game, including its eight-player multiplayer mode, will no longer work as of May 15, 2015. “Thanks for playing!” Sony wrote.
Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive has announced that its SimCity-style game, called Cities: Skylines, will be released on March 10 across PC, Mac, and Linux. The game was developed by Finnish outfit Colossal Order (Cities in Motion) and will sell for $30 at release.
Paradox has also announced that players can now pre-purchase the game’s $30 standard version and its $40 Deluxe Edition, which comes with bonus in-game items and a soundtrack. Head to Paradox’s website here for more information.
To mark the announcement of Skylines’ release date, Paradox has published a new gameplay trailer, which you can watch above.
“It is no exaggeration to say everyone internally at Paradox has been playing this game for months through every stage of development–it is quite addictive,” Paradox chief executive Fredrik Wester said. “And we are genuinely thrilled that Cities: Skylines will soon be in the hands of players everywhere.”
Skylines is described as a “modern take” on the classic city-simulation genre, featuring sandbox gameplay elements and extensive modding support.
The game’s minimum and recommended PC system requirements are below.
Minimum:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 (64-bit)
A group of decorated Rare developers, who were instrumental in creating some of the studio’s most iconic games during the ’90s, have formed a new indie studio with grand plans to create a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie.
The new studio, called Playtonic, was formed by Gavin Price and Chris Sutherland, two highly experienced Rare developers who were laid off in the summer last year.
Chris Sutherland, meanwhile, is a coder whose influence at the studio dates back to the late ’80s when he was hired as an engineer. Sutherland, who also provided the voices of Banjo and Kazooie, was instrumental in coding Rare’s most iconic games, such as Donkey Kong Country.
The two are joined by Steve Mayles, a renowned artist who created the Banjo Kazooie characters. Three other developers currently work at the studio, while Grant Kirkhope–a famed composer for many Rare games–has been hired for Playtonic’s first game.
According a new article in Edge magazine, the current plan is to expand the team to around 15 people. It is expected that many of them will be former Rare developers.
The studio’s debut game is called “Project Ukulele,” and while details are thin for now, the game is expected to be a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. A teaser image of the game has been posted online, and fans have already begun to speculate what characters it will depict.
A group of artists at Bungie have flaunted their creative flair with a series of galleries of various weapon models and characters in Destiny.
David Stammel, a hard surface artist at Bungie, has published nearly thirty high fidelity renders of in-game Destiny items, from exotic sniper rifles to shotguns, Vex weapons, and Fallen arms.
A sample of his work is found below, with a full collection available here.
Click thumbnails below to view in full-screen
Meanwhile, Bungie’s senior artist Mark Van Haitsma has also published some of his work online. His images, which can be found here, include other in-game miscellany such as turrets and a Hive throne.
Click on the thumbnails below to view in full-screen
Rajeev Nattam, the studio’s art lead for hard-surface models, has published a whole range of images, and in particular has artwork for the game’s unusual and arresting vehicles.
Click on the thumbnails below to view in full-screen
Finally, senior artist Milton Cadogan has published a gallery of heavy weapon renders, as well as fallen relic models.
Click on the thumbnails below to view in fullscreen
Sega has announced a new downloadable content pack for its action-horror game Alien: Isolation. The DLC pack, named Lost Contact, is available for purchase from today and adds a new Salvage Challenge to the game’s Survivor Mode.
Lost Contact also adds the second Survivor Challenge in which players only have a single life with which to complete their objectives. Completing challenges grants rewards and points that can be used to access new items. If enough points are gathered, players can spend them on a save slot, but their final score and position on the Alien: Isolation leaderboards will be lower.
The DLC pack features Axel, who is stranded on a more remote part of the Sevastopol space station. The player must complete ten tasks which become increasingly more challenging to escape.
Game developer Cryptozoic announced an official Ghostbusters board game earlier today. The crowd-funded project is running right now on Kickstarter, and it will feature “ghosts from the movies, cartoons, comics, and toylines.”
Campaigns for the miniatures-focused game will take between 30 minutes and 2 hours, depending on the difficulty selected. And the game’s figures design comes from IDW Ghostbusters’ comics illustrator Dan Schoening. But the game is still an officially licensed project, so you’ll take on the familiar roles of Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman, and Winston Zeddemore, fight Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and ride around in the iconic Ecto-1.
The Ghostbusters Kickstarter runs until March 11, but given the current funding amount, it looks like they’re on track to hit the $250,000 goal way before that.
Cryptozoic is keeping it simple with pledge levels: $80 (plus shipping) will get you the base game plus stretch goals. The $125 (plus shipping) level includes the base game with a custom box, additional episodes, and some other backer-exclusives items.
The early bird discount pledges are already sold out, and the “retailer pledge” level, which includes six copies of the game, is only for verified game sellers.
Click through this gallery to see the character art and miniature scuplts
The Ghostbusters board game is expected to ship this October, but Cryptozoic adds the caveat: “Please keep in mind that this is a projected date. As an experienced board game company, we at Cryptozoic know that unexpected delays can occur during the production and shipping of a game. … In the highly unlikely event that we are not able to deliver the game for some unforeseeable, calamitous reason, we will refund all pledges.”
Personally, I’ve already backed the game, and I’m curious to see what kind of stretch goals the developer puts together. But hopefully one option down includes the line is the glow-in-the-dark Slimer boss (which is currently just a retailer pledge exclusive) as an add-on for everyone.
