Here we are at the weekend again. Did you step away this week? Here’s a recap of some of the week’s big stories and others you may have missed.
THE BIG STUFF
Square Enix made a big, surprise announcement this week when it revealed that it reached a multi-game partnership with Marvel for Avengers games. Unfortunately, it sounds like these games are a long time off, as Square Enix said it won’t have more information to share until 2018. Square Enix is putting two of its top studios, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, to work on the games. [Full story]
A pretty excellent Mass Effect: Andromeda trailer arrived this week. The video showed off the game’s supporting cast and also teased more of the main bad guy, Archon. Watch it here.
After years of development and rumors of its cancellation, Bethesda’s new Prey game, simply titled Prey, will launch on May 5. A new trailer was released to celebrate the release date news. [Full story]
THE OTHER STUFF
A new story trailer for 2Dark, the next game from Alone in the Dark creator Frederick Raynal, has arrived. Take a look at the video below. 2Dark comes out “soon” for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
To promote the new horror movie Rings, the marketing team got creative and, well, check out the video below to find out how it went down.
The video game voice actor strike has now been going on for more than 100 days, making it the second-longest in the Screen Actors Guild’s history. And there is no end in sight. Get more details on the story here at Deadline.
Deus Ex Mankind Divided’s Breach mode launched this week as a free-to-play standalone game on Steam. Pretty rad. Download it here on Steam right now.
Here is a quick little video that dives into MLB The Show 17’s new Retro mode. It’s a slimmed-down arcade mode that looks pretty cool and fun.
According to an unconfirmed rumor, Rockstar might be considering porting its detective game LA Noire to the Nintendo Switch. This is a rumor for now–read more here at NeoGAF.
IGN has a cool interview up with the CEO of Obsidian Entertainment, who talked about a Fallout game the studio conceived but never released–read the story here.
Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread developer Bossa Studios has announced a new game, Decksplash. Created out of a gamej jam, Decksplash is a 3v3 competitive game where players “grind, spin, and splash their way to victory.” Check out a trailer for the rad-looking game below.
According to Variety, Brown has closed her deal for the movie. She is the first cast member to be announced–Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olson starred in 2014’s Godzilla, but their involvement with the sequel remains unknown.
Brown won much acclaim last year for her role in Netflix’s sci-fi hit Stranger Things, playing the mysterious, superpowered Eleven. In November it was confirmed that she would be returning for the second season, which is expected later this year.
Godzilla: King of Monsters is set for a 2019 release. Krampus director Dougherty had already been announced as co-writer and was rumoured to be under consideration as to helm the Godzilla sequel back in October. At the time, it was reported that this job depended on Legendary’s approval of his and co-writer Zach Shields’ screenplay.
In May, Edwards left theGodzilla sequel amicably, with Deadline reporting that he would instead focus on smaller projects. His Star Wars spinoff Rogue One was released in December.
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.
Paolo Rivera posted some recent commissions on his blog.
Skottie Young posted new art on his Tumblr. He’ll be putting up this month’s Daily Sketches for sale here on Sunday January 29.
Almost two years after its initial release, a big new update for Galactic Civilizations III has arrived.
Among the key additions in the 2.0 update are Starbase Administrators and diplomacy improvements. Administrators are a brand-new resource needed to construct Starbases. Developer Stardock said this “will take some of the pressure of feeling like you need to mass-produce Starbases off your shoulders.
“You’ll start with a number of Administrators based on the size of the map, and each Starbase will consume one. Researching certain government-related techs will allow you to hire more Administrators. This new resource gives some advantages to smaller empires who can now choose to use Starbases to improve morale and productivity in their home systems.”
Diplomacy, always an area in need of improvement in strategy games, receives what Stardock calls “some major work.” AI players now factor in more things–such as how much they like you–when deciding on trades. Additional information will also be provided to explain why a trade was or wasn’t accepted. In a press release, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell said, “[T]he diplomatic AI is more sophisticated and plays a lot like a human would both in terms of trading and how they deal with the complex web of foreign relations.”
You can check out the full patch notes below for a more in-depth rundown on what’s been adjusted in version 2.0.
Coinciding with the release of this update, Steam has discounted Galactic Civilizations III. From now until January 30, you can pick up the base game for $13.59 (down from the usual $40). Its DLC is also on sale, most of it for half price. Its most significant piece of DLC, the Mercenaries expansion, is 75 percent off, bringing it down to $5.
Galactic Civilization 2.0 Update Patch Notes
Starbase Administrators
Starbases are under new management. Each Starbase now requires an Administrator to run it. Your starting number of Administrators is proportional to your galaxy size. You can also research techs in the government tree to train more Administrators. As part of this change, we’ve greatly decreased the minimum distance between Starbases.
Diplomacy Improvements
We reworked the AI to make it more active and smarter in trading. Be careful you don’t loose your shirt while trading!
Change Log
Administrators
Starbases now require one “Administrator” to build
Number of starting Administrators depends on galaxy size
Research certain Government Technologies to increase the number of Administrators
Current number of available Administrators can be seen on the resource bar or the Starbase list tab.
Diplomacy
General pass on conversation weights such that the AI will talk more and offer more interesting trades.
AI players who dislike you will charge you more in diplomacy
Changed diplomacy attitude label from “allied” to “loves” (they’re not allied)
Changed diplomacy attitude from label “war” to “hates” (they’re not at war)
AI should be better at focusing on a given weapon or defense tech rather than trying to research multiple paths.
AIs will heavily weight their relations with other players based on who is at war with whom and why
AIs will tend to come to the aid of their friends even if the enemy is more powerful
AI now has the capability of explaining in detail why they rejected (or accepted) a trade offer (though will require translation of new strings)
AI will use a redlining system of evaluating proposals such that each sub-AI routine will add marks to the proposal with potential veto power.
AI now has the capability of explaining in detail why they rejected (or accepted) a trade offer.
Balance
Home planet production points base increased from 1 to 10
Significantly reduced starbase spacing radius to 2 tiles, allowing you cluster them closer together.
AI is substantially better at evaluating what ship to build, when and where
Early game improvements made less expensive
Late game improvement benefits reduced slightly
Research improvements have been rebalanced.
UI Improvements / Bugs
By default, the auto-generated military ships will have their categories folded for easier UI navigation.
When a player designs a ship, it will, by default, be added to the favorites
Added the currency, morale, population, and turns information to the planet and shipyard window
Changed Terran and “space monster” fighters size from small to tiny, matching the sizes for other factions. This change prevents a crash in the ROT campaign
Map Editor: Fixed a problem that prevented the Mini-map Preview from working.
Replaced Diplomatic Specialization 3 to be “Efficient Administration” on all trees. (Base Game and Campaigns.)
Fixed bad Matter Disruption Cost multiplier that was making Matter Disruption 2.6 times more expensive than it should have been.
Changed the width of the asteroid tooltip window and “nearest owned planet” value so that the value can no longer overlap
Changed the width of the “nearest owned planet” value in the asteroid context window so that the value can no longer overlap
Updated map lighting settings to decreased ambient light and increased key light to make the ships look less flat.
Mercenaries: Ships that you can’t afford are greyed out.
Fixed issue where Ancient Kinetic Augmenter had weapon FX even though it is a support module.
Removed military ring Starbase range boost now that we have implemented Administrators.
Fixed a problem that was causing rebellions in peaceful corners of the galaxy.
State of Decay 2 developer Undead Labs has shared a new image from the upcoming zombie game. The image shows a group of survivors growing food in an indoor garden. According to Undead Labs, the image is reflective of how video games are made.
“The team bringing State of Decay 2 to the world is bigger than it was the first time, and not all of the new people knew the game as intimately as you all know it,” Undead Labs explained. “We needed something that would illustrate how base-building means the people in our world are responsible for their own survival. It needed to make the act of choosing to grow food into something inspiring.”
Undead Labs is planning to share new images every week until PAX East in March. Last week’s image shows the dilapidated world that players can expect from State of Decay 2.
In December of last year, Undead Labs said it would share more details, including the game’s release date, information on gameplay systems, and “so much more” at E3 2017.
Square Enix today released the first trailer for Hitman‘s upcoming bonus mission, Landslide.
Set in Sapienza, the mission sees players going after the wealthy businessman Marco Abiatti. He has ties to the mafia and is described as a “right-win politician” with ambitions to become mayor. As Agent 47, you must stop this from happening by using lethal force. Check out the trailer below, which does not feature the song “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac.
Also arriving on January 31 is a patch that introduces the new difficulty level, Professional,” which aims to make the game substantially more challenging. You can get a rundown of Professional difficulty here or in the image below.
Facebook has appointed a new leader for its virtual reality endeavors.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Facebook that Hugo Barra, a former executive at smartphone company Xiaomi, will “lead all of [Facebook’s virtual reality efforts,” including Oculus.
“Hugo’s in China right now, so here we are together in VR. It seems fitting,” Zuckerberg said about the picture above that he shared on Facebook.
Before joining Xiaomi, Barra worked at Google where he helped developer the uber-popular Android operating system.
“Hugo shares my belief that virtual and augmented reality will be the next major computing platform,” Zuckerberg said. “They’ll enable us to experience completely new things and be more creative than ever before. Hugo is going to help build that future, and I’m looking forward to having him on our team.”
According to Financial Times, Barra said this week that his constant travel and the smog levels in Beijing had taken a “huge toll on my life and started affecting my health.”
Microsoft’s ongoing support for Halo 5 has been impressive, and that continues with more DLC coming in February and a new playlist this weekend, among other things.
In developer 343’s latest weekly blog post, the studio revealed the “Classic Helmet” Req pack, which is slated to come out on February 9. That date could slip due to the fluid nature of game development, 343 cautioned, but February 9 is the date that 343 has in mind right now. The Req pack comes with all of the helmets in the image below, though pricing was not announced.
Also in the blog post, 343 announced that a new playlist, “Warlords,” is coming to Halo 5’s Warzone mode today, January 27, starting at around 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET.
This playlist, which will only be available this weekend, lets you play Warzone with a 12-person roster, instead of six. 343 stirred up some controversy when it reduced the fireteam size to six last month.
“This is being viewed as a test internally because frankly it may not be a great experience, especially if the popluation of pre-made 12-man Fireteams is low, resulting in longer-than-desired wait times for matchmaking,” 343 said. “Still, we’re looking forward to rolling this out and seeing how larger teams respond and what the experience is like!”
You can only enter matchmaking if you have a 12-person team, so you may want to consider joining the “Halo” Club on Xbox One and make use of the Looking for Group feature to make a team. Additionally, 343 said everyone who plays Warlords this weekend will see an XP boost for their account.
Finally, 343 said the response to the change to six-person fireteams for Warzone has had a “positive effect” on the game. There are no plans to boost the number back to 12, except for this weekend’s Warlords test playlist.
“The change to 6-person fireteams has had a positive effect on Warzone results for a large majority of matches played and our current plan is to keep it in place and monitor as we do with every list we run,” 343 said. “There is a very obvious problem with the limit of 6 though and that relates to the passionate fans in large clubs and companies who truly enjoy the coordinated tactics and team efforts that unfold when 12 Spartans blitz a goal together. Many of us here in the studio love and miss this as well. Hence Warlords. We don’t want to set back the improvements made with 6-person teams, nor do we want to lose the 12-person spectacle either.”
The full 343 blog post contains a lot more details and specifics about all the latest Halo news–read it here.
Promotional behind-the-scenes featurettes for upcoming movies are common, but the one for The Lego Batman Movie is a little different. Titled “Behind the Bricks,” it’s a spoof look at the making of the film. Check it out below:
The film is a spinoff from 2014’s hugely popular The Lego Movie. It is directed by Chris McKay, and produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who helmed that earlier film, as well as the Jump Street films and the upcoming Star Wars Han Solo movie.
Bruce Wayne is played once more by Arrested Development star Will Arnett. The film also features Michael Cera as Robin, Rosario Dawson as Batgirl, Ralph Fiennes as Alfred, and Zach Galifianakis as The Joker.
The sixth and potentially last Resident Evil movie, The Final Chapter, arrives in theaters today. To help you get an idea for if it’s worth your time and money, we’ve rounded up review excerpts.
Director Paul W.S. Anderson and star Milla Jovovich return–they have directed and starred in every film, respectively–for what Anderson says is the best, scariest movie of the entire series.
The Final Chapter is really (maybe) the last movie, according to Jovovich. It ties up loose ends about her character, Alice, with the story going back to where it all began–Raccoon City. If you need a primer on the story so far, check out this video in which Jovovich recaps the events of the series.
For more on the critical reaction to The Final Chapter, go to GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
The newest Resident Evil game, Resident Evil 7, launched this week for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC–read GameSpot’s review here.
Film:Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Release Date: January 27
Starring: Mila Jovovich, Ali Larter, Iain Glen, Ruby Rose, Shawn Roberts, Eoin Macken, Fraser James
Directed By: Paul W.S. Anderson
Rating: R
Runtime: 106 minutes
GameSpot
“Resident Evil: The Last Chapter has numerous flaws, the most significant of which are its frantically-edited action scenes, but Milla Jovovich remains a likeable hero who is enjoyable to follow. When the film eventually settles down and finds a more suitable skin for itself towards the end, it becomes a little more palatable, a little more fun, and at the very least, will leave you with a few memorable moments.” — Edmond Tran [Full review]
IGN
Like most of the previous Resident Evil films, The Final Chapter is a pointless mess from beginning to end, and acts as an unfortunate reminder of why January gets such a bad rap amongst moviegoers. The film breaks its own rules, and undercuts any chance it has at creating anything even remotely close to feeling real. In the end, it’s not all that different from being bitten by a zombie; you hope to God that it never happens, because of how painful it is to endure, but once it starts, you just want it to end as quickly as humanly possible.” — Alex Welch [Full review]
The New York Times
“Among Alice’s foes are hordes of flesh-eating undead, and it’s to Mr. Anderson’s credit that even in a pop culture glutted with postmodern zombies, he can make his creatures startle viewers. But the blindingly fast cuts and the inflated reprises of the franchise’s greatest hits–the startling undead Dobermans of the first film are back–yield diminishing returns. This is, I think, the weakest picture in the franchise. Nevertheless, the movie percolates enough that even when, at its climax, it shamelessly recycles a grisly punch line from 1987’s RoboCop, it’s kind of endearing, not least because Mr. Anderson and company make it work.” — Glenn Kenny [Full review]
Den Of Geek
“In the end, this film is probably no worse than most of the Resident Evil sequels, which in itself is still a missed opportunity. Indeed, six movies in and the video games on which this series is based have inexplicably continued to have better plotting and characterization in their filler cutscene moments than a single one of these big Hollywood spectacles. After 15 years, it’d be funny if it wasn’t also the scariest thing about these damn things.” — David Crow [Full review]
Variety
“A few individual scenes of hand-to-hand and foot-to-face combat are undeniably exciting, and Jovovich once again impresses with her kinetic athleticism. Overall, however, the repetitiveness and occasional incoherence of the nonstop action leave the audience exhausted for all the wrong reasons. And it doesn’t help that the special effects–especially during the many, many fiery explosions–often appear at once expensive and unconvincing. Maybe it is time for everyone involved with the franchise to really, truly and absolutely call it a day.” — Joe Leydon [Full Review]
Bloody Disgusting
“Although the franchise could’ve ended with a bit more gusto, The Final Chapter still packs quite a punch, and manages to be both satisfying for diehard fans, while still entertaining everyday movie goers who are just looking for a few hours away from reality. The decision to make this final film a return to the first is an intention that seeps into every aspect of the movie, from the grittier locations, to the more human, powers-stripped-away Alice, to the darker palettes, and it plays well. For a person who has never really been a huge fan of this series, this is definitely, objectively, one of the better installments, if not the best one since the original. Basically, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is hella fun, a proper send-off to the series, and most importantly, shows that Milla Jovovich still kicks all kinds of ass, and can lead a successful franchise all by herself, no man needed to pick up the slack. There’s no one out there quite like Alice, and if this really is the end, she will be dearly missed.” — Kalyn Corrigan [Full review]
