The first teaser trailer for Zack Snyder’s highly anticipated sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was unveiled on Friday – and expectedly, there were plenty that loved it and plenty that didn’t. There were some that praised the trailer’s dark tone but some that argued the trailer was too oppressively bleak. At the center of this debate lies a microcosm of Warner Bros. and DC Comics‘ approach to how they are handling their cinematic universe – which has created plenty of detractors, including those on Marvel’s side already accustomed with how to build a comic universe on film. However, I believe the trailer represents what WB and DC are trying to do in direct contrast with what Marvel has done, and that’s okay. ›››
Over the last few years, Disney has been buying a few big studios or partnering with them, between Marvel Studios, Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks and most recently Lucasfilm. This one Hollywood studio now has an incredibly diverse slate, and at their annual presentation during the movie theater owners’ convention CinemaCon this week, they included a slide of their upcoming releases through 2017. We already know all of these release dates, so there’s nothing new coming from this, but it’s cool to see everything presented in this visual way with all of the logos included. Hell of a line-up, from Marvel mania to Star Wars galore, Toy Story 4, two Spielberg films, and even Ghost in the Shell. Take a look + click for bigger. Cue Disney theme. ›››
On shopping sites such as Tecsco, Amazon, and Argos, both black and white PS4 units are listed at £289.99, down from the previous standard price of £330 (the official RRP remains £350). Meanwhile, retailer GAME is offering a PS4 bundle with Minecraft for £290.
These retailer deals were not enacted independently from Sony; The platform holder has even promoted the offers on its official Twitter account.
The deal arrives nine days after Microsoft reduced the price of the Xbox One from £330 to £300. Both platform holders say their respective discounts are a “limited time” offer; Sony states its promotion will cease April 28, while Microsoft has not yet provided a clear date for when its deal will end.
Such offers also arrive during a seasonal reduction in video game sales, as Britain crawls into the summer months. According to NPD data, total game retail sales across the US declined 20 percent in February.
Daybreak Game Company’s PC zombie MMO H1Z1 is aiming to introduce female characters models in the next two weeks, CEO John Smedley said in a post on Twitter. Once female avatars arrive, H1Z1 will catch up with another popular zombie title, DayZ, which already has female avatars.
“Hoping to get the female model into H1Z1 in the next two weeks,” he said. “Trying for late next week.”
Development on female H1Z1 character models began in March as part of a wider effort to overhaul the look and diversity of both male and female avatars. As you can see in the image below, Daybreak has designed its female characters to look “relatively typical,” if not somewhat athletic.
“The female model will be relatively the same height as the male model, so there will be no advantage in terms of hit target space,” Daybreak art director Sebastian Strzalkowski said. “We are also creating male and female equivalent clothing. If you find a pair of jeans in H1Z1 as a male PC and wear them, you’ll have the male version visually; if you find that same pair as a female PC, you’ll have the female version visually.”
Strzalkowski added that in-game H1Z1 clothes will be “basically” the same, though modified slightly to fit each gender. “Nothing will be restricted to either gender and there will always be a 1:1 equivalent for each one,” he explained.
H1Z1 released through Steam Early Access back in January. Though the game experienced some server woes at launch, it has since gone on to sell more than 1 million copies in its unfinished state.
With just two months to go before Rocksteady Studios releases Arkham Knight, the final entry in its Batman trilogy, the developer has now revealed the game’s PC system requirements.
As listed on Nvidia’s website, Arkham Knight will require at least 6 GB of RAM and 45 GB of hard drive space for the minimum settings, while players will need 8 GB of RAM and 55 GB of space to run the game at the recommended or ultra benchmark.
The full minimum, recommended, and ultra PC system requirements for Arkham Knight are listed below.
Patrice Desilets resigned from Ubisoft in 2010, rejoined the publisher in 2013, and was dismissed by the company several months later.
Patrice Desilets, the man credited with creating the first Assassin’s Creed game, has revealed first details of his new independent project since his departure from Ubisoft two years ago.
His new game, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, appears to be an episodic series based on various milestones in human progress and evolution. On Thursday, during his speech at the Reboot Develop conference in Croatia, Desilets aired a trailer showcasing key breakthrough moments in human history. No game content was shown, but the trailer showed a message that appears to explain the purpose of the project.
Blockbusters won’t die. Triple-A won’t die. They will transform and change themselves.
Patrice Desilets
It read: “The minds that made you jump from rooftop to rooftop. Climb a campanile with your brother. Run on walls to avoid traps. And rewind time for your love. After having fought millions of templars, hidden in haystacks, and chased a pope, it is time for something new. For the greatest adventure of all is our own.”
This message contains many references to the Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia series, though it’s unclear how closely Ancestors will resemble these flagship Ubisoft series. Desilets’ new studio, Panache Digital Games, currently employs about half a dozen developers, meaning it’s highly unlikely that Ancestors will retain the scale of the Assassin’s Creed series.
According to the game’s description on the Panache website, Ancestors is a “third person action-adventure survival episodic game.”
It adds: “Through each episodes, we want the player to relive the greatest moments of mankind with a documentary twist. Our civilisation is one idea away from extinction… or evolution.”
So far, the only official art for the Ancestors project is the logo
When back with Ubisoft, Desilets’ relationship with the publisher appeared to have broken down. In May 2013, several months into his new role, Desilets claimed he was fired by Ubisoft, and went on to sue the company.
Speaking to a gathering of games industry professionals on Thursday, Desilets explained that his independent studio wanted to deliver triple-A quality, but not to the scale of his previous projects.
“What’s too short?” he asked, as quoted by Gamasutra. “These days with my team this is the question, what’s too short? Why do games need to be 35 hours? Right now we’re using big TV shows as examples, so episodic is 2 hours, now. Why is 30 minutes too short?”
“We’re at a crossroads,” he said. “In fact we’re always at a crossroads. Don’t do what was popular last year. Blockbusters won’t die. Triple-A won’t die. They will transform and change themselves.”
A new update to the PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne has significantly reduced loading times, with the wait between deaths now cut by as much as 15 seconds.
Previously, waiting times in areas such as Central Yharnam lasted between 40-45 seconds, which has proven to be a patience-testing number given the frequency of deaths that players were subjected to. From Software, the Tokyo based studio responsible for the game, announced in March that it was “exploring” possibilities to expedite wait times, the result of which is this new patch that reduces loading screen durations by 5-15 seconds.
The 1.03 update, which has begun to roll out across North America, Japan, and Europe, weighs 2.7GB and brings a number of other improvements and tweaks.
Among the new changes is the implementation of text pages displayed during loading screens. Whereas before loading screens used a basic image of the Bloodborne logo, now they cycle through various descriptions of items that players encounter throughout the game.
Bloodborne’s patch notes can be found below:
Reduced loading times (approx 5-15 seconds; May vary by circumstance)
Fixed bug that left certain lifts and elevators inoperable
Fixed bug that resulted in bosses becoming immobilized
Fixed bug that left players unable to advance NPC events during multiplayer
When the PS4 is put into Rest Mode during online play, the game will now return to the main title screen upon resuming play. This will resolve matchmaking issues related to Suspend/Resume.
Less than a week after a second place finish in the North American League of Legends Championship Series, team Cloud 9 has announced the retirement of Mid Laner Hai Lam. Citing health issues related to a wrist injury and team atmosphere as the primary reasons for his departure, the organization has yet to officially announce a replacement.
While the change does mark the end of his professional run as a player, it will not mean the end of his time on Cloud 9. The former team captain will be staying on to assist owner Jack Etienne with partner management and team expansion.
Hai has led Cloud 9 since its entry into the LCS in 2013, garnering fame with some of the greatest successes in competitive North American League of Legends history. These include a record 25-3 performance in the 2013 summer split, and qualifications into both the 2013 and 2014 World Championships.
Despite a shaky start to the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split and a poor placing at IEM Katowice, Cloud 9 managed to finish second in the final standings and in the playoffs. However, the last-minute recovery was not enough to prevent analysts from speculating that roster changes might occur before the start of the summer split, especially following a report from the Daily Dot that famed (and newly unbanned) European Mid Laner Incarnation had been acquired by Cloud 9.
Hai’s retirement occurs days after the team set the record for the longest unchanged roster in the history of League of Legends esports (via Reddit).
In the coming days, GameSpot will be interviewing Hai to discuss his career, retirement, and what’s next.
So, yesterday, I posted some animation work and said we needed to do more of it here on Fine Art. Tonight, then: more awesome animation work from people who make video games.
