Since it’s not only the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future, but also the actual year in which Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to the future in Back to the Future Part II, we’re in store for a lot of celebrating in honor of the time travel franchise. We’ve already featured a cool time machine iPhone case, an awesome trilogy of fantastic prints, and there’s supposed to be some kind of huge anniversary screening this year too in Los Angeles. But just like Ghostbusters had last year, it appears there’s much more merchandising in store as well. At the Toy Fair earlier this month, some new products were unveiled, including Back to the Future versions of popular games like Monopoly and Yahtzee, and more. Look! ›››
For the fanbase out there who’s still interested to see Relativity Studios reboot the cult comic book property The Crow, the film is finally making progress again. While Luke Evans was linked to the project back in 2013, more recently the actor revealed that he wasn’t part of the production anymore. This came along with news that F. Javier Gutierrez was no longer directing and had been replaced by Colin Hardy. And with a new director on board, it sounds like a new star has been found as well. Deadline reports “Boardwalk Empire” star and future Ben-Hur leading man Jack Huston is now in early talks to take the lead role. More below! ›››
What’s next for the Oscar winner? How about another challenging role. The Daily Mail has revealed the first look photo of the most recent Best Actor Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne in the new film The Danish Girl, from director Tom Hooper (of The King’s Speech, Les Miserables). In the film Redmayne plays Einar Wegener, a painter in the 1920s who decides to transform into a woman after he poses in their clothes when a model doesn’t show up. He later became Lili Elbe, and this first photo shows Redmaybe in full make-up and clothing as Lili. It will make anyone do a double take. “We’re looking at everything from a feminine perspective,” Redmayne told them. “I think it’s the most sensitive role I have played.” Take a look. ›››
As of last fall, we learned that Blade Runner 2 was still very much in the works, but it looked like Ridley Scott would not be at the helm. And now that’s been confirmed as a press release from Alcon Entertainment has announced that Prisoners, Enemy and Incendies director Denis Villeneuve is now in talks to be at the helm of the sequel that is aiming to being shooting in the summer of 2016. The script is still coming from Hampton Fincher, co-writer of the original Blade Runner, with Green Lantern writer Michael Green also having a hand in the screenplay. Details are scarce, but the story unfolds “several decades” after the original. ›››
A low quality image giving us a first look at the 80s cartoon come to life in Jem and the Holograms has been making the rounds after appearing in a magazine, and now Universal Pictures has released an official high-resolution version that we can check out. The original animated series began airing in 1985 and ran for three seasons, following the adventures of the Jem, the musical superstar alter ego of a young woman named Jerrica Benton who, with the help of a holographic computer called Synergy, is able to clandestinely perform rock concerts with her friends. But the movie may end up a little different than that. Look below! ›››
We just love original artwork, and every week there’s always some kind of cool creation paying tribute to our favorite movies that’s worth highlighting. This week is no exception, and there’s actually a whole gallery to look forward to thanks to Hero Complex. Over in Los Angeles they have a new show called Quotes, Lines & Lyrics with art pieces inspired by just that, quotes from movies, lines from TV shows and lyrics from songs. Obviously, we’re more interested in the movie quote inspired pieces, and there are plenty of those, ranging from Star Wars to Jurassic Park to The Blues Brothers and Forrest Gump. Look! ›››
Microsoft could be on the verge of a graphics card breakthrough with the arrival of DirectX 12, as the new API will allow PC users to combine GPUs from different manufacturers.
Presently, PC users who want to double the number of graphics cards attached to their motherboard are restricted by the manufacturer. So, two Nvidia GeForce cards of the same type would work via SLI, and two AMD Radeon cards can unite via Crossfire, but these cannot be mixed and matched.
However, Microsoft is preparing a major announcement at the Games Developers Conference, where it is expected to explain that DX12 can combine all the different graphics resources in a system and treat them as though they were a single card.
The rumour first emerged on Tom’s Hardware earlier this week. A source connected to the matter, who asked not to be named, has since explained to GameSpot that the feature is genuine.
Microsoft is already preparing to bring many of its Xbox One games to PC
Key to the new process is how DirectX 12 will bind multiple GPUs together. According to Tom’s Hardware, the tech then “treats the entire graphics subsystem as a single, more powerful graphics card. Thus, users get the robustness of a running a single GPU, but with multiple graphics cards.”
Such a breakthrough could bring about new levels of convenience for PC enthusiasts and developers alike. For the first time, it will also mean that multiple GPUs can pool their memory. In theory, this means that installing two 2GB GPUs into a system will get the end user a useable 4GB of memory, unlike the current system, which would only give a user 2GB of memory.
Tom’s Hardware notes that the API includes a “frame rendering method called SFR, which stands for Split Frame Rendering.”
It explains: “Developers will be able to manually, or automatically, divide the texture and geometry data between the GPUs, and all of the GPUs can then work together to work on each frame. Each GPU will then work on a specific portion of the screen, with the number of portions being equivalent to the number of GPUs installed.”
AMD’s Mantle API, which similarly sits much closer to the hardware than DirectX 11, already allows for this feature, with Civilization: Beyond Earth being one of the most recent games to make use of it. Speaking to GameSpot, AMD’s Game Scientist Richard Huddy confirmed that it’s “possible” this technology can significantly reduce latency and allow for the pooling of memory, but emphasised that the onus is on developers to make use of it.
A new Hearthstone patch appears to include hints regarding the game’s next major expansion.
Data found within the update, now live, points to three new card backs; one named as “Molten Core”, another named after the feared legendary Ragnaros, and one called the Golden Celebration.
Every month, Blizzard adds a new card back to Hearthstone, and in this case it appears that Ragnaros will be the latest design. However, the internal developer notes attached to the other card backs appear to hint at the rumoured next adventure mode.
According to a decryption of the patch data, undertaken by Hearthhead, the Molten Core card back is fixed with a developer note which reads “purchase brm presale”.
Ragnaros
Fans analysing this believe it’s a reference to Blackrock Mountain, a zone on World of Warcraft, which is suspected to be the setting for the new adventure mode. Blizzard has yet to comment on this, but PCGamer notes that Blizzard will make a “PAX East announcement next Friday”.
Hearthstone’s previous adventure mode, The Curse of Naxxramas, was also based on a zone in World of Warcraft.
A previous, unconfirmed rumour suggested that the next Hearthstone expansion is due to ship in April. It should be noted that some of the details coming from this rumour have already proven to be false.
One of the game’s key developers, Ben Brode, recently told GameSpot that adding a new adventure mode was a case of correct timing.
“Our goal going forwards is to figure out the right pace of adding in more expansions and adventures,” he said.
“We have to time it so that players are ready for a new batch of cards. We’re not going to go in too fast either.”
The third card back, called the “Golden Celebration”, is likely to be a reward marking the one-year anniversary of the game. Hearthstone officially launched on March 11 last year.
Looking at digital sales for the top 10 best-selling games of January (listed below) the PS4 and PS3 accounted for 43% and 20% respectively of total purchases. By comparison, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles totaled just 37% altogether.
It’s worth pointing out, again, that the data doesn’t take into account all digital sales data, only the top 10 games. Data for PC, Nintendo consoles, and mobile was not included in this study.
According to SuperData, the top 10 digital games for January 2015 were:
That contrasts with physical retail data from the NPD for January 2015 where Dying Light came out as the number one game. Collectively, digital game sales accounted for $133 million in revenue according to SuperData. These figures were pulled from from spending data for 37 million customers and include both full game downloads and DLC. Physical retail games according to the NPD generated $235 million.
