Category: Gamespot

The upcoming DC superhero team-up Justice League has been filming in London since April, but production there has now wrapped. Aquaman star Jason Momoa posted a new image on Instagram, congratulating the crew and apologising for having to miss the movie’s wrap party. Check it out below:

Momoa wrote: “There’s too many people to thank for all their hard work [on] JL. Tonight is our wrap party. I am so thankful for my cast and crew. I love you. I have never in my life missed a wrap party, as you all know I’m a huge fan of the food and merriment!

“Unfortunately I prepare for the north. For those that will be there, I WON’T let you down. See you Monday.”

Mamoa’s comments imply that production hasn’t entirely finished, and some location work will continue this week.

Last week, director Zack Snyder tweeted an image that teased Deathstroke’s appearence in the movie. The armored mercenary has already been announced as the main villain in Ben Affleck’s standalone Batman film, but the Justice League storyboard that Snyder was working on also featured an illustration of Slade Wilson, Deathstroke’s alter-ego.

Justice League hits theaters on November 17, 2017, and also stars Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Willem Dafoe, and Amber Heard.

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The World of Tanks had always been a foreign one to me. It was a game that mystified me on two levels. The first stemmed from its success as a free-to-play tanks game. Gameplay places a player in control of an armored vehicle from a first- or third-person view. Multiple game modes are available, with players able to group up with others for a variety of team fight modes. Driving and shooting a tank is fairly straightforward, but the bulk of the gameplay strategy comes from positioning, map and terrain awareness, and knowing the best spots to target on an enemy tank. At first glance, it was standard artillery warfare gameplay.

Outside of the game, I frequently came across large-scale, well-produced World of Tanks events for the public and media. I repeatedly heard about the game’s popularity, read about how it topped various worldwide free-to-play lists, driven by the large size of its active player base. How the revenue it generated was among the top five free-to-play PC games in the world.

As if the game’s placement on these charts wasn’t proof enough of its success, Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi is one of the three gaming executives to be inducted into the industry’s billionaire club, sharing company with Gabe Newell and Markus “Notch” Persson. Think about that for a moment. Kislyi is part of a club whose only other company is the co-founder of Valve (and one of the key people responsible for digital-distribution platform Steam) and the creator of Minecraft, the best-selling PC game of all time.

And yet, when I reached out from within my inner circle of gaming friends to other, outer gaming communities, I didn’t come across a single active, dedicated World of Tanks player. Most gamers I quizzed had never even been exposed to the title. While the game is supposed to have an expansive, active player base, it seemed that the people actually playing it eluded me no matter where I went.

The second manner in which World of Tanks confounded me came from the size of its competitive events. Over the years, I’ve followed the esports scenes for multiple games: StarCraft 2, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and the fighting-game scene, to name a few. I played all these games and understood their popularity–and the ways in which they appeal to a spectator. The effects of these esports scenes would often cross paths in coverage or be represented at the same major events. For example, even if I didn’t follow League of Legends very closely all the time, I’d hear about the game’s major competitive events, or when something controversial was making waves on the Internet. News trickled into sight via my social media feeds, through online communities I was a part of, or was highly visible in the websites that I frequented.

However, World of Tanks existed in its own, seemingly separate space. Sure, some major esports organisations established teams in the Tanks scene, lending the familiarity of their brand to the landscape. But outside of that, news never crossed over into the feed of other competitive games I followed. I never heard about the results of competitive events for World of Tanks, nor about teams that were making the big plays. I couldn’t fathom why. How could an entire esport with a community this size, with a scene so established, and financial backing so solid, always evade my notice? How did I not already know who the major teams, tournaments, and players were, when I was easily exposed to all this information in other esports games?

Understanding of World of Tanks as a game, and as a competitive esport, would dawn on me much later–after I’d I touched upon the history and culture of two very different countries, immersed myself into the game’s real-life esports audience, and conversed at length with Wargaming staff in different departments from around the world.

Looking at the game sans its competitive element, let’s examine World of Tanks’ base audience. To begin with, the game’s community is very skewed in its gender breakdown. In the time I spent interviewing players and developers and observing its audience at community events, the game’s male-dominated player base became obvious. Even when compared to my own experiences in other popular gaming communities, World of Tanks’ audience was very, very, noticeably one-sided in its gender balance. This was not accidental.

Speaking to me in an interview, Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi himself was up front about the audience World of Tanks has intentionally captured.

“The game was targeted to a slightly older male audience,” he said. “Older guys, who usually have a family, work, and [have] an extra couple of dollars in their pocket for their favorite game but don’t have that much time. Plus it’s a little slower than your typical shooter or Dota-style game. So you don’t have to be clicking 70 times per second to be good at World of Tanks. It’s slower, it’s…OK, manly. It’s historic, it’s metal, it’s scary in a good sense, and it’s photorealistic. There aren’t many photorealistic, really cinematic-looking games in esports. Most of them are cartoonish.”

Is he interested in shifting the game’s gender disparity?

“Not necessarily. I think there’s very little we can do to make photorealistic tanks appealing to females,” he answered frankly.

When I brought up the question of the game’s demographic to Deon Pek, head of customer relations at Wargaming for Asia, he, too, spoke frankly of the heavily male-dominated player base in the region.

“Previously we saw, like, 99.9 percent male players,” Pek said, “But now I think because of esports, we’re starting to see more females. I wouldn’t say it’s growing a huge amount, but during tournaments in Asia, you’ll see female fans and such.”

It was interesting to hear Pek’s insinuation that World of Tanks’ esports scene was encouraging growth among its female demographic, especially in light of my experience watching the game’s global Grand Finals in Warsaw, Poland. The event saw 12 of the best World of Tanks teams in the world compete on the biggest stage, having fought their way to the top in their respective regions: Asia-Pacific, CIS, Europe, North America, China, supplemented by two chosen Wild Card teams.

Wargaming and esports company ESL hosted the Grand Final in Warsaw’s Torwar Hall, a venue with a capacity that exceeds 5,000. I found myself among them, in a stadium environment that brimmed with an energy not unlike that of a major sporting event. Families with children and couples were present in the crowd, though my observations did confirm Pek and Kislyi’s comments–men far outnumbered women, and the average age was above that of the usual group of young adults I was accustomed to seeing at esports events.

It would appear that Wargaming was well aware of its audience, employing attractive young women to pose silently on stage during the Grand finals. Wearing nice dresses in World of Tanks’ blue or red team colors, the women stood in place and smiled for the audience and live broadcast. That was as far as their role went, and it spoke volumes to Wargaming’s awareness of its audience–and how the company encouraged the direction of its growth.

Despite this, female presence wasn’t completely absent from the event. Shoutcaster Lauren “Pansy” Scott provided commentary throughout, and she was well versed in the game, with more than three years of providing professional shoutcasting in the World of Tanks scene under her belt.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?” she responded when I voiced my observations on game’s player base. “I think this comes up in every game, though. That is, how do you tap into the female market? But Wargaming seems to have found another market that’s not just the normal 15-to-25 [audience]. Generally, what you see in [World of Tanks] is…older, I guess, from 25 and up. People with disposable incomes [that] maybe have more of a family life. I think the demographic is very unique to this game”

Scott said that despite the game’s gender disparity, she hasn’t felt pushed away by the community.

“I’ve got to say that personally, Wargaming has always been very welcoming to me in casting,” she said. “There aren’t that many other female casters, from what I understand. I think there are a couple…but it’s few and far between.”

Veteran World of Tanks caster Luke “Dorjan” Kneller pegs the demographic at the more senior end of the spectrum. “It’s old,” he told me. “A much larger population of elderly people play it. I don’t want to say super-old, but up to 50, 60-plus can actually be playing this game. It’s a much slower game, it’s not based on twitch reactions as much, and it’s a much more steadily paced game.”

The game’s pace plays strongly into its competitive scene, the format of which pits teams of seven players against one another. In a reflection of the game’s key demographic, the age of competitors ranged from teenagers to men in their mid-30s. The 2016 competition format featured maps containing capture points and rounds that lasted no longer than 10 minutes. It was surprising how quickly each round concluded, and the grand final saw two teams face off against each other in a best-of-nine format.

While watching all these competitive matches take place live, it dawned on me that World of Tanks is truly a game that benefits a team that works together. The gameplay formula minimized “hero” moments, where a single player could singlehandedly secure victory for his team. Players worked strategically as a cohesive unit. Because tanks weren’t able to travel over the large maps quickly without overexposing themselves, positioning was crucial to a team’s strategy. Despite the game’s steady pace, matches could still be quick to sway in either team’s favor. This resulted in an emphasis on team tactics over individual skill. Because the spectator camera provided an overall view of what was happening on the battlefield, it was easy to keep up with the action, even with 14 participants playing at once.

Despite my own skill being nowhere near that of the professional players, it was easy to get swept up in the excitement of those matches. Teams executed bold strategies that required hiding tanks behind hills. Matches came down to the wire, with seconds left to secure a capture point. These competitive matches were far from the lumbering, drawn-out tank battles I’d expected.

“It’s these sort of things that I think World of Tanks really highlights more than any other game,” Scott described in the lead-up to the Grand Finals. “You can’t just win on your own. You really do need everyone on the same page, and you see some brilliant strategies.”

“It’s the preparation that goes into these tactics. In the spectator client, you can see everything; you get a full picture of what’s going on. But to really understand how brilliant these teams are, you need to play from their perspective, and you get the idea of how damn good they are–it’s unreal. For me, there’s a lot of very small nuances that set World of Tanks apart, and a lot of it comes to the forefront at events like this.”

The World of Tanks 2016 Grand Finals saw teams Navi and Hellraisers go head-to-head in a nail-baiting series of matches. Both teams are a part of professional esports organisations formed in Ukraine. Since the game’s early days, the competitive World of Tanks scene has been heavily dominated by Eastern European countries. Of the teams that made it into the top eight placements of the tournament, six were from Eastern Europe.

The game’s popularity in the region can perhaps be partially attributed to its first launch in Russia. Wargaming is headquartered in Cyprus and was first formed in Belarus. World of Tanks was first released in Russia in 2010. A North American release followed in 2011. That year, Wargaming announced that it had reached 3 million registrations for World of Tanks, and that two-thirds of that was from the Russian server.

Evidently, World of Tanks resonates with certain regions much more than others. The game has been designed with what Kislyi has described as “photorealistic” accuracy. The tanks themselves are the stars of the game, re-creations of real-life machines designed for use in war. And, in turn, their in-game counterparts are designed to draw in a specific audience.

This point was driven home when I visited a war museum in Warsaw. It was daunting walking among the hulking, powerful metal machines. Despite the fact that they had long since been retired, the tanks were still impressive. It was my first exposure to real-life tanks. I grew up in Australia, where tank warfare was hardly mentioned in history class and had little influence in the country’s timeline. By contrast, the machines played a critical role in Europe’s history, as I learned in the museum that day.

Similarly, when I visited the museum in the War Memorial of Korea, the English-speaking tour guide mentioned tanks as the major force behind a key turning point of the Korean War. The guide explained that North Korea received multiple tanks from Russia, which turned the tide of battle in their favor. South Korea, on the other hand, didn’t possess any tanks, and they were quickly driven back by the enemy’s numerous machines.

Wargaming seems to have found another market that’s not just the normal 15-to-25…

Even though tanks have had a large impact in historical battles around the world, I felt the vast differences in World of Tanks’ player base between regions. While I encountered enthusiastic fans in attendance at the Asia-Pacific region finals in South Korea, their numbers paled in comparison to the audience I witnessed at the World of Tanks global Grand Finals in Warsaw. There, hundreds of fans had cheered their favorite teams loudly and waved large national flags in the audience. Outside the venue entrance, a full-sized tank was parked for display. I saw attendees climb on it and pose happily to take photos. One group of men even yelled loudly while posing in front of the machine for a photo, fists raised to the air. To these people, the tank’s presence was something worth commemorating in pictures.

“The history is also quite important. In some regions, tanks were popular and the kids were playing with tank toys from childhood,” World of Tanks head of offline competitive gaming Alexey Kuznetsov told me. Like the other Wargaming staff I’d spoken to, he described a large portion of the game’s demographic as within the 16-to-35 age bracket–with more players leaning towards an “older audience.” However, he also noted that some of these players had perhaps transitioned to the game after playing with tank toys as children. It’s a simple analogy, but it made sense.

“The tanks themselves [bring new players in],” he said. “It’s like the great machine, it’s very heavy. What brings people to buy cars? It’s a similar thing.”

Despite hailing from a different region, that sentiment was echoed by North American professional player Ian “Masterpupil” Taylor. I sat down with him at the World of Tanks Grand Finals in Warsaw.

“I first saw the game’s ad [online] and clicked on it because it had World War II tanks,” he said. “I love history, [and] being able to play tanks [in a game] that were made to be used in war was just so interesting to me.” For Taylor, World of Tanks was his first real “strategic war game.”

“The Russians love it because of their love for armored divisions.” added his teammate and captain, John “TigersLovePepper” Caljouw.

Despite the game’s vast audience, Kislyi revealed that the majority of players never spend money on World of Tanks. Speaking about users who did choose to invest their real-world cash, Kislyi was frank: “It varies from region to region, but 75 percent of people never ever pay us anything. We still love them.” However, he was adamant that players who spend money don’t have a significant advantage over those who choose not to pay.

“We don’t have anything that you can buy and have an advantage with in the game,” he said. “That’s why we call it ‘free-to-win.’ Most of our sales go through items that speed up your general progress. It’s pretty much exchanging time for money.”

Real-world cash can be used to buy in-game gold, which can then be spent on research to unlock new tanks, earn experience faster, or purchase consumable items like shells. However, players can still unlock the same tanks by playing the game, albeit by spending a little more time than if they’d chosen to pay.

Even so, the large majority of the professional players I quizzed spoke candidly about how much money they’d invested into World of Tanks. Almost all of them had started off by putting money in the game–values ranged from $20 to “hundreds.” However, all players agreed that investing real-world currency isn’t crucial to becoming good at the game, although it certainly helps by speeding up the leveling process–which, in turn, unlocks access to stronger tanks. It would make sense that the option to pay to speed up the leveling process would be lucrative to a demographic that doesn’t have a lot of free time but does have a little extra money to spend on the game.

Wargaming’s audience targeting has evidently been crafted with a laser focus, and it’s seemingly paid off with World of Tanks’ phenomenal success. It favors teamwork over individual skill, and it’s armed with photorealistic tanks have appeal not just for their visual aesthetic, but also for their ability to resonate with cultures whose histories have seen strong influence from tank warfare. The game’s success sees it continue to receive updates, and Wargaming has even expanded its reach via other platforms, such as comics and anime.

Seeing the cultural relevance of the game combined with the appeal of its gameplay has unravelled some of the mysteries that World of Tanks presented to me. It is a game whose success consists of very specific parts. The understanding of its cultural relevance dawned on me when as I read about war histories presented in very different war museums. It came to me as the noise of a shouting audience washed over me at competitive events. It became clearer every time I spoke to a player or caster from the scene. The World of Tanks audience may be a niche one, but Wargaming’s focus has made it work. Coupled with the growing size of the game’s competitive scope, I do believe the World of Tanks machine will rumble onward for many more years to come.

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The official plot synopsis for the next Planet of the Apes movie, War for the Planet of the Apes, has been released–and the movie’s story has some seriously high stakes.

According to the description, as posted on Collider, Caesar the ape and a human character named the Colonel will engage in an “epic battle.” The fate of each species and the entire future of the planet will be decided by this showdown, apparently. Andy Serkis reprises his role as Caesar, while Woody Harrelson will play the Colonel.

Here is the full plot synopsis: “In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins this own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.”

In other news about War for the Planet of the Apes, producers have confirmed that Serkis, along with director Matt Reeves and producer Dylan Clark will show off some new footage from the movie at New York Comic-Con next week.

The new Planet of the Apes series began with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. A sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, came out in 2014. Together, the films have made more than $380 million.

War for the Planet of the Apes debuts on July 14, 2017.

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2018’s Jurassic World 2, the second installment in a new trilogy, will be “more suspenseful and scary” than last year’s blockbuster smash. This is according to producer Colin Trevorrow. He appeared on a new episode of the Jurassic Outpost podcast where he shared this comment and more.

Jurassic World 2 is being directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, who is no stranger to suspense and scares, as he directed the 2007 horror movie The Orphanage.

“It will be more suspenseful and scary,” Trevorrow said, as reported by EW. “It’s just the way it’s designed; it’s the way the story plays out. I knew I wanted Bayona to direct it long before anyone ever heard that was a possibility, so the whole thing was just built around his skill set.”

Bayona also appeared on the podcast, teasing that Jurassic World 2 will contain “things you really don’t expect and it is very exciting.”

In a more general comment about Jurassic World 2, Trevorrow added that the filmmakers are not necessarily going “bigger” when it comes to the size of the dinosaurs and the action.

“I don’t think that bigger, better dinosaurs or bigger, more epic-in-scope action sequences are what people are necessarily looking for from this franchise and what they love about it,” he said.

This matches up with what Trevorrow said last year about Jurassic World 2.

“It will get to be a different kind of film,” he told the Jurassic Cast Podcast. “The audience has given us permission to a certain extent to take this to the next level, and I don’t necessarily mean in scale, I feel very strongly that it’s not about more dinosaurs or bigger and better dinosaurs, it’s about using this as a starting point for a much larger story about our relationship with these animals.

“Jurassic World was very much made with the fans in mind, and I’m not going to forget it, but now we’ve seen a lot of ‘dinosaurs chasing people around on an island’ movies. I think you guys and also the general audience is going to be down to explore where else we can go.”

Jurassic World 2 is set to hit theaters on June 22, 2018.

Trevorrow directed the first Jurassic World, which currently stands as the fourth biggest movie of all time, bringing in $1.6 billion at the global box office. He directed 2017’s The Book of Henry and will also direct Star Wars: Episode IX.

Jurassic World was the first new entry in the series since 2001’s Jurassic Park III. The franchise is based on Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park series.

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343’s ongoing support for Halo 5, which launched one year ago this month, has been steady and impressive. The developer continues to support and update the game, the latest example being some changes to the game’s love-it-or-hate-it multiplayer mode, Breakout.

As outlined in 343’s latest weekly blog post, the most noticeable changes include new starting weapons and giving players full shields. Additionally, all five of the original Breakout maps are redesigned, while a new one called Knell, which was made by the community, has been added to the hopper.

The full-shields gameplay element is particularly interesting, as the previous setup was no shields at all. Matches could end very quickly if a team wasn’t organized–or if the other side was just really good.

Discussing the changes, 343’s Quinn DelHoyo said the developer enjoyed “a lot” of what the original version of Breakout was, but it wasn’t the best it could be.

“We felt that the combat engagements always sat in a gray area between the ultra-lethality of no-shields SWAT and the classic gameplay of full-shields Halo,” he said. “We’re still very committed to the original spirit of Breakout, and for the update we wanted to maintain the high stakes of single life elimination but make it feel more at home with Halo players by enabling full shields, as well as motion tracker to more closely match Arena settings. Now you’ll have more time to react when getting shot or survive a blast from a frag grenade. The encounters will have that unique ‘dance’ that only Halo combat offers.”

As for the weapon changes, Breakout players will now see their Magnum’s power increased with a “slight buff,” while it gets an extended magazine that holds 18 shots instead of the previous 12. Players will also have a shotgun–and for good reason.

“The Shotgun’s role in all of this is to augment the playmaking ability of a single player,” DelHoyo said. “Every Spartan must be respected and we’ve found that 1v2s and 1v3s are very viable when that lone player has a shotgun in their back pocket.”

Additionally, the max frag grenade capacity is rising from two to four. “The reasoning behind this is to give players another way to gain the advantage over their opponents,” DelHoyo said. “Savvy players will go out of their way to locate grenade caches on certain maps to stock up on a handful of grenades to use at their disposal. Note, players will still spawn with one frag grenade–that aspect remains unchanged.”

Another major change is the flag-capture objective setup. Before, you had to capture the flag and bring it to the opposing team’s side to win (or kill all enemy combatants), but now, teams have to take the flag to their own side of the map to win.

“This now forces teams to be mindful of the flag and push out for position early,” DelHoyo said. “We’ve found that opening rushes are more exciting and offer more viable strategies. Does a team put all their focus on grabbing then protecting their flag carrier? Or do they setup and bait the flag? Which power weapon do they rush for? It’s been fun to see all of these possibilities–and more–play out in our internal playtests.”

As for the map design overhaul, 343’s Alex Bean explained that the idea was to support the new starting weapons and full-shields experience. “It was our goal to give each map a design that facilitated a different kind of gameplay, while bringing increased verticality and a more classic Halo map feel to each one,” he said.

You can see all of the redesigned Halo 5 Breakout maps, along with the new one, Knell, in the gallery above. After you’ve played the new Breakout mode, you can leave feedback for 343 here.

Also in the blog post, 343 teased Halo 5’s future DLC. The developer said some “particularly interesting things [are] in the works in the sandbox and Forge departments, just to name a few.” This follows a tease from last week, when 343 suggested that September’s Anvil’s Legacy expansion may not be the Xbox One game’s final piece of add-on content.

“We’re not done just yet,” the developer said at the time. “Various teams here at the studio are hard at work finishing up a few different flavors of goodness, and we’ll be talking about all of that and more in the near future. I am particularly excited about that part.”

Given that Halo 5’s playerbase is still reportedly very strong, it makes sense that 343 would want to keep the ball rolling with more content.

Anvil’s Legacy was Halo 5’s ninth free expansion. 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).

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It’s the weekend again…here’s a roundup of the week’s biggest stories and some you might have missed.

THE BIG STUFF:

The Xbox One is on a roll, especially in the UK, it seems. The latest weekly numbers came in, and Xbox One sales rose by nearly 1000 percent week-over-week. The launch of the FIFA 17 Xbox One bundle might have had something to do with it. PS4 sales were up as well, but only by 22 percent. When comparing the launch weeks for the Xbox One S and PS4 Slim, Microsoft’s console enjoyed sales that were more than 300 percent stronger than Sony’s. [Full story]

Kotaku published a big report on Destiny 2 this week. Among other things, it’s reported that the sequel, which has been confirmed for 2017 but is not yet officially announced, will come to PC in addition to Xbox One and PS4. It’s also claimed that the game may not support your existing characters, since Bungie apparently wants it to feel like a completely new game. [Full story]

Ubisoft may not release new Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games in 2017. VP Tommy Francois said this week that both Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games are in development but the company is not committed to releasing them in 2017.

“We believe Alpha for these games needs to be one year before release,” he explained. “We’re trying to achieve that. That’s super f***ing blunt, I don’t even know if I’m allowed to say this. This is the goal we’re going for: Alpha one year before, more quality, more polish. So if this means biting the [bullet] and not having an Assassin’s game or a Far Cry [in 2017], f*** it.” [Full story]

THE OTHER STUFF:

League of Legends is finally on console…sort of. The game came out for Tencent’s new console in China recently. Get all the details here at Rift Herald.

Gang-battle game Smash + Grab came out on Steam Early Access this week. Check out a trailer below, while you can learn more and pick up a copy here on Steam with a 15 percent discount.

ESPN FC has a wicked cool feature up now that dives deep into the science (and subjectivity) of how EA’s FIFA’s ratings are decided. Read it here.

Curious about WWE 2K17’s Universe mode? This in-depth blog post covers just about everything you might want to know.

New crowdfunding site Fig announced its newest campaigns this week. Make Sail, a physics-based boat construction and sailing game, is live now with a $50,000 target. The other game is called Trackless. It’s a “mysterious text-based adventure” title. The campaign will begin on Fig on October 11, but for now, you can learn more at the title’s website.

In other news about Fig, the site finally has been granted qualification by the SEC to allow people to buy “game shares.” Now, non-accredited investors can back a project and enjoy a share of the profits if the game is successful.

We don’t often get too excited about ESRB rating descriptions, but the organization has now posted its description for The Last Guardian. You can read it here.

It’s always a mixture of sadness and intrigue when we hear about cancelled games. We learned this week that EA was working on, or at least planning, The Saboteur 2. Get all the details here.

Here’s a cool interview that Blizzard director Jeff Kaplan gave to BusinessInsider where he talks about the origins of Overwatch and a lot more.

Microsoft’s news site has put out a great feature that talks all about how Gears of War 4’s IT services work. If that sounds dull, don’t believe it–it’s actually a pretty good read.

In the run-up to BioShock: The Collection’s launch last month, 2K asked fans to send in their ideas for Vigors. Ernesto Moreno’s “Parasite” idea was so good that 2K actually produced it. Get all the details on the story at the 2K blog.

Maybe it’s not so big a surprise, but scientists have now confirmed that if what happened in The Last of Us actually happened in real life, we’d be dooooomed. Get all the details here at IGN.

Bethesda has announced a $5 Starter Pack for The Elder Scrolls Legends to help you get…started faster. Here’s everything it comes with:

• 10 packs of cards at a special price, including one guaranteed Legendary card
  • Standard pricing for card packs is $2.99 for two packs and $7.99 for seven packs
• An exclusive in-game Player Title: “The Founder”
• Three exclusive premium alternative art cards

Have a wonderful weekend!

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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.

The Stranger Things art continues. Franco posted a piece on his Instagram along with a jam piece with Art Baltazar, Scoot McMahon, Kurt Wood, and Ale Rosado. Both are up for sale here.

Todd Nauck posted a bunch of commissions from Cincinnati Comic Expo on his Tumblr.

Sara Pichelli posted a Scarlet Witch piece on her Tumblr for a charity auction.

Skottie Young posted more Daily Sketches on his Tumblr. Original art goes up for sale here.

Paolo Rivera posted a couple recent commissions on his blog. He’ll be at New York Comic Con next week.

Kevin Wada posted a couple commissions from earlier this year on his Tumblr.

Chrissie Zullo posted new art on her Facebook page. She donated the Harley Quinn piece to the NYCC charity auction.

Marcus To posted some commissions on his Instagram.

Denis Medri posted a Dylan Dog piece on his Deviant Art page.

Dustin Nguyen posted new art on his Instagram. He’ll be at NYCC.

Joel Gomez posted new sketches and commissions on his Tumblr.

Tom Raney posted commissions from Cincinnati Comic Con on his Twitter.

Chris Giarrusso put more sketch covers for sale here. He also posted more sketch cards on his website.

Jim Cheung posted new sketches on his Instagram.

Rod Reis posted NYCC pre-show commissions on his Instagram.

Mike Maihack posted a Supergirl piece on his Tumblr which will be auctioned later this year.

Mahmud Asrar posted NYCC pre-show commissions on his Tumblr.

Mike Henderson posted Iron Fist and Power Man drawings on his Tumblr.

That’s it for this week. Let us know which ones you dug. We’ll have more awesome art next time.

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