The Road to Wrestlemania is long, tough, and tiring, and not just for WWE superstars. GameSpot has been keeping you up to date with everything revolving around WWE’s biggest event in 2018, Wrestlemania 34. This year’s edition is coming to you from the Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, April at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT. Believe it or not, there are still tickets available for the event, with the cheapest going for $50 and the most expensive costing $7,350.
This year’s card is extremely stacked, with 14 matches–including Cena/Undertaker–happening over the course of seven hours. One of the biggest pieces of news to come out of the lead-up to Mania is Daniel Bryan being cleared to return to wrestling, which led to him teaming with Shane McMahon to take on Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. In addition, John Cena has been begging Undertaker for a match at Wrestlemania 34 for the past month, and no match has been confirmed yet, but it’s totally still going to happen, right?
Here’s a collection of our biggest stories revolving around Wrestlemania to get you pumped up for the April 8 event on the WWE Network. Make sure to come back to GameSpot for live coverage of Wrestlemania and individual full match recaps right after they air on Sunday.
If you’re planning on watching Wrestlemania 34 on Sunday, April 8, you might want to make sure you have comfortable seat, food on hand, and a bedpan ready because this is going to be one long show. Last year’s show–including the preshow–was rumored to run for six and a half hours and actually ran for over seven. This year’s Wrestlemania 34 is on track to run just as long, if not longer.
According to the upcoming schedule on the WWE Network, Wrestlemania’s Kickoff Show will start at 5 PM ET and run for two hours. Then, at 7 PM ET, Wrestlemania will begin and is slotted to run until 12 AM ET. In total, that’s 7 hours, but since WWE Network obviously controls its own programming and a replay of the event is scheduled to follow, Mania going over the seven hour mark shouldn’t be a problem if the time is needed.
The “Big Four” of WWE PPVs–Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and Survivor Series–all tend to be longer shows, with each of them lasting at least six hours, including the preshows. Mania always pushes the envelope in terms of the amount of time it wants to keep you glued to the television.
While Wrestlemania 33 was the longest WWE event to date, 2018’s PPV will surely top that. As of this writing, there are 13 confirmed matches on the card, with at least one more expected to be added this week: John Cena vs. Undertaker. Even though this is going to be a long event, it should move pretty quickly to fit in all these matches.
This year’s event will be held in New Orleans at the Superdome, and in addition to Mania itself, WWE will air an NXT Takeover on Saturday and the Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday. It will be a jam-packed weekend, but we have you covered. Make sure to keep checking back with GameSpot during the week for more Mania news and predictions, and come back Sunday for live coverage of the event.
“That was sooner than I expected.” Universal has revealed the first trailer for spy spoof comedy Johnny English Strikes Again, the third movie in the Johnny English series, returning after a seven year hiatus. Rowan Atkinson (who also plays Mr. Bean) is back again as Johnny English, the “man with few skills” and wacky, loser spy who helps save Britain, again. This time, a cyber-attack (yes, indeed) reveals the identity of all active undercover agents in Britain, and English is the only one who can help them get everything back in order. The cast in this includes Emma Thompson, Olga Kurylenko, Ben Miller, Jake Lacy, Adam James, and Miranda Hennessy. There’s always room in the cinemas for a new spy spoof, right? Or have we seen enough of these kind of comedies recently? Not sure if this will actually be any good, but why not. ›››
There’s been something of a horror-sance (a horror renaissance) at work so far in 2018. Never mind the fact that a horror film (The Shape of Water) won Best Picture at the Oscars, and another horror film (Get Out) was a very strong candidate for the trophy. The genre output so far in 2018 has been stellar with filmmakers delivering effective chills and believable characters through quality storytelling. In a nutshell, it’s a good time to be a fan of horror cinema, and the good time continues with A Quiet Place. It has everything fans of the genre would want: likeable and well-written characters; decent pacing throughout; and, most importantly, an absolutely terrifying premise with equally scary moments. A Quiet Place is a monster movie that plays the sub-genre to a T, and shows once again there is still some art to be had in the horror genre. ›››
“Witness how it all began.” Universal has unveiled the first official trailer for the next movie in the ongoing Purge horror series, this one titled The First Purge, a new prequel taking us back to the very first “Purge” experiment. “To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community.” But, of course, it takes over the nation and eventually it becomes the annual event that the other movies show us. The First Purge stars Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez, and Marisa Tomei. This is technically the fourth Purge movie, but like other horror series, they’re going back to tell the origin as a prequel instead of another sequel. Who’s still into these? Maybe this could be the best? ›››
Given the massive popularity of games like PUBG and H1Z1, you might be familiar with the battle royale genre. However, Fortnite: Battle Royale is a tad different from its competitors. The game takes the base premise of the genre and gives you the ability to rapidly construct fortifications, like walls and stairs, allowing you to protect yourself and create your own tactical environmental-based strategies.
Since its debut as a free-to-play mode last year, Fortnite: Battle Royale has been quickly increasing in popularity. As a result, there’s no shortage of new players jumping into the game for the first time every day–you might be one yourself. To assist those looking to come out on top, we’ve detailed in the video above some of the common mistakes new players make, as well as ways to improve.
The most common mistakes we highlight in the video above include:
Not Mapping Building Actions To Hotkeys
Forgetting To Build Under Fire
Forgetting To Knock Down Enemy Forts
Landing In Hot Spots
Forgetting To Share Health Items
Picking The Wrong Weapon
Of course, preparation and being a team player when playing cooperatively are proper solutions to these starting behaviors, but if you want more specific details on each of these points, be sure to watch the video above.
These past few years have yielded an amazing roster of games that we personally love. With so many fantastic experiences out there, we began to grow curious over what games developers particularly enjoy. During our time spent at this year’s GDC, we had the opportunity to interview a wide variety of game developers and key figures in the industry, so we decided to ask what current game they find inspiring and admire the most, and why.
As you’ll see from the responses below, the games each developer adores might not come as a surprise to you, especially if you’re familiar with their work or tastes. Others had some surprising picks that you probably wouldn’t expect. What current games do you admire the most? Let us know in the comments below. And be sure to check out feature detailing the 25 best games you might’ve not heard of that we saw at GDC 2018.
Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, Directors of Cuphead
Jared Moldenhauer (left) and Chad Moldenhauer (right)
Jared Moldenhauer: I have a library of 100+ games that I’m working towards currently. But one of the earlier games that I chose and found very rewarding was Hollow Knight. It’s an interesting and challenging Metroidvania. And the visuals and the universe that they created, and the feeling within all the characters; I was happy playing every minute of it.
Chad Moldenhauer: I recently started and really enjoy The Witness. I was looking forward to that for a long time!
Yoshinori Terasawa, Danganronpa Series Producer
Yoshinori Terasawa: I love the Persona series. I adore the sense of personality that those games have. I really like how cool and stylish they are.
Rami Ismail, Producer of Nuclear Throne
Rami Ismail: So many games have really sparked me. Games that really stand out to me are Engare and Farsh, by Mahdi Bahrami, both games based on this Iranian heritage. I was very impressed by This War of Mine, which gives a unique perspective on war. Just seeing that tremendous shift in perspective translated into a game that is so powerful and poignant, that reminds me that there is so much more out there.
Tom Kaczmarczyk, Producer of Superhot
Tom Kaczmarczyk: Our game director [Piotr Iwanicki] who actually came up with the idea, he often cites an indie flash game called, Time4Cat, as one of the inspirations, because it did have the same sort of time automation mechanic. For me, I love Hotline Miami because of its action sequences. A lot of what we pick up come from action movies, and from the way people design cinematic experiences where you fall into a certain archetype of a situation, and you immediately understand what’s going on.
Tim Schafer, Founder of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend)
Tim Schafer
Tim Schafer: Lately, a game that really made a big effect on me–it sounds really cliché–but Breath of the Wild was a huge thing. I just loved it. Everyone loves something different about games, there’s no one game that’s perfect for everybody, but it made me realize that my number one thing is exploration. I’m constantly exploring and surprised and I just love it and I play it all the time. I also love Loot Rascals, which is a great roguelike, and I’ve recently been playing Persona 5, which is just amazing. Amazing style and tone, it’s so polished.
Jason Roberts, Director of Gorogoa
Jason Roberts: In 2017, I was a big fan of Inside and Night in the Woods; those were big games for me. I’m big on tone, mood, atmosphere. These are important to me. And I love those games. And I also, this year, I think Florence and any game from Annapurna are just very carefully, precisely created with tone and atmosphere. That’s what I value.
Dean Ayala, Hearthstone Senior Game Designer + Dave Kozack, Hearthstone Lead Narrative Designer
Dean Ayala: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It’s a roguelike released back in 1997. A lot of the Hearthstone design team plays it. It’s super old-school.
Dave Kozack: It has been in continuous development; it’s one of those community projects. That’s why the name, Stone Soup. But we played a lot of rogue-likes while we were working on Dungeon Run, and that was one of our favorites. It’s just something we keep coming back to as a team. It’s a lot of fun.
Ian Dallas, Creative Director of What Remains Of Edith Finch
Ian Dallas
Ian Dallas: For me, the last game that affected me emotionally in a strong way was Universal Paperclips. A game about clicking on buttons and manufacturing paperclips that I just found myself lost in for 8 hours. It was really like a troubling emotional experience, and it’s amazing that it comes out of just text on a webpage. It reaffirms the power of video games and the way that they can teach you things about yourself and about the world that you couldn’t really internalize in any other way.
Chelsea Hash, Technical Artist of What Remains Of Edith Finch
Chelsea Hash: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Their commitment to the multimedia format and drawing from different rendering styles to support their vision was something that I was glad to be able to experience, something that was willing to think outside the box.
Damon Baker, Nintendo Publisher and Developer Relations
Damon Baker: I can’t choose one game. It is like choosing my favorite child! There are so many different types of experiences. Most recently I am working my way through Night in the Woods. I haven’t been able to play that previously, and having a lot of flights lately has given me more flexibility to get through a lot of indie content. Of course, I totally enjoyed Celeste. I vowed not to use assist mode on that game at all and beat it; but it took me 1800 deaths or something to get through it, but it was a beautiful game.
Matt Thornson, Director of Celeste
Matt Thornson: I’ve been really enjoying my time with Into the Breach. It’s amazing!
Victor Kislyi, Wargaming CEO (World of Tanks)
Victor Kislyi: Civilization. All of them, because I started playing from Civ I. Now, believe it or not, before playing World of Tanks last night I was playing Civilization and I was playing on the plane on my way here. Civ 6 is amazing, and it was my MBA. I’m a physicist by education but, playing Civilization, all those layers, economy, exploration, politics, military, science, religion–your brain is trained to juggle those multiple layers like almost instantly, or at least very, very correctly. And, that’s a good analogy with business, people, finance, media, failures, exploration, etc., etc. I think Civilization, as a concept, as a game, actually, is more valuable to humanity than Mona Lisa.
Yoko Taro, Director of Nier: Automata
Yoko Taro: I think that Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Mario Bros. are two big games that influenced me when making Nier. But with games from the past–not modern games–I felt more freedom or challenge as a player. Let’s say we have a black background with a white dot on it and let’s call it the space. I feel like that really creates freedom, especially in terms freedom of imagination, and challenging the dev team to create a world without really being able to express that world visually. In that sense, I feel that in the past, game developers were trying to create a new frontier. They were trying to expand the world, expand the universe of gaming industry.
Yoko Taro (left) and Takahira Taura (right)
Now that the game industry has matured pretty much now, a lot of people actually go for a more safe game. They try to make all the consumers happy with that one game. I think that that actually limits to what they can do and I feel that no one is really trying to expand that arena or expand that world anymore. I am a little bit sad about that.
Takahisa Taura, Designer Of Nier: Automata + Metal Gear Rising
Takahisa Taura: When The Witcher 3 came out, we all played it and had fun with it, but we also looked at it to see what would we do if we created a game like this. We were using The Witcher 3 as a learning experience on how to create an RPG. I think that’s where it all started. Well, that’s where we came from, so it wasn’t too difficult of a task to create a JRPG.”
It’s pretty well established at this point that Fortnite is popular–like, ridiculously popular. So popular that schools are having to ban it from class, and hip-hop artists and professional athletes are talking about it and playing it. But the hours and hours of gametime that some players are logging is creating a bit of a backlash to the game–and some people have banded together to try and resist it.
Frustrated with how engrossed their loved ones have become with Fortnite, hundreds of people have signed a petition simply titled, “Get rid of Fortnite.” Its mission is to ban the game so that significant others’ free time can be reclaimed.
As reported by the Washington Post (which, it should be said, is itself evident of Fortnite’s popularity), the Change.org petition has accumulated about 730 signatures at the time of this writing. Most express frustration that their loved ones are neglecting them in favor of the game; as Chloe DePalma wrote, “It’s taking over our boyfriends lives and brainwashing them.”
This petition is obviously meant in jest; Fortnite will in no way be banned, and it’s likely that the majority of petitioners know that. But it’s a testament to the Fortnite phenomenon that this petition has resonated with many people across social media. As for the anonymous creator of the petition, they updated the change.org site with an explanation that it was started as a joke–and, recently, they’ve begun playing Fortnite and actually enjoy it.
Conan Exiles has been playable for some time through Early Access on PC and the Game Preview program on Xbox One, but its full launch is rapidly approaching. The open-world action game has a bunch of supernatural creatures as well as various mechanics, such as castle-building.
Recently, we were able to check out Conan Exiles’ pre-launch build and see some of its more complex systems. In the video above, you can see gameplay from a castle siege and the scale of combat that you can expect.
Specifically, the video shows off the GameSpot team defending its fortress from enemy players with the help of enormous demi-gods. In the full game, you can also lay siege to cities yourself, utilizing an array of different siege engines. These are pretty high-level, late-game mechanics, however; Conan Exiles’ gameplay initially focuses on survival, combat, and crafting.
Conan Exiles fully launches on May 8 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC; it’ll be the first time the game is available to PS4 players. It’ll cost $30 on PC and $50 on consoles. If you pre-order Conan Exiles, you’ll get the Conan’s Royal Armor when the game is released.
When developer Psyonix announced a partnership with WWE a few months ago, it mentioned that wrestling-themed items would be coming to Rocket League. Now, we know what those items are, when they’ll be available, and how you can get ahold of them.
There’ll be 11 WWE items in total coming to the game this week, although you won’t be able to get all of them right away. On Sunday, April 8, during Wrestlemania 34, Psyonix will release a special code that’ll unlock two random items from the group of 5 banners, 5 flags, and a set of wheels.
The studio also promises that more items will be added later on, and it’ll release more codes in conjunction with other WWE events throughout the year. All the WWE items are tradeable, as well. You can see the WWE-themed cosmetics in the gallery above.
This set is the latest in a line of tie-in cosmetic items that Psyonix has released over the past few years; the DC Comics pack was the most recent DLC to be added. It includes a bunch of banners and decals as well as two cool-looking Batmobiles.
