Previously we’ve seen a couple of impressive short films from producer Ari Shankar from the comic book universe. Joe Lynch directed Truth in Journalism, a take off on the Spider-Man character Venom, and Mike Pecci directed The Dead Can’t Be Distracted, which was a bootleg version of The Punisher. Now Shankar is back with Power/Rangers, a gritty, R-rated, 14-minute short film directed by Joseph Kahn (Torque) that adapts “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.” The film certainly puts an interesting twist on the mythology of the Japanese imported action adventure, and it’s much different from the eventual big screen take on the way. Plus, it stars James Van Der Beek and Katie Sackhoff, which is just completely surreal. Watch! ›››
Director James Gunn has quickly become an idol behind the camera after bringing Guardians of the Galaxy to the big screen for Marvel Studios. It was a refreshing sci-fi adventure that defied the expectations of everyone, and it was one of my own favorite movies of 2014. However, there’s always those who are perpetually against blockbuster films like that, whether it’s The Avengers or Star Wars or The Dark Knight or any big budget movie that rakes in the dough. And after a couple jokes and remarks from this past weekend’s awards shows, Gunn took to Facebook to talk about genre elitism from the “serious” filmmakers. ›››
Last night it was Birdman that took home Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards. The film from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is certainly deserving of praise and reward, but there’s part of me that thinks Boyhood will be the film that stands the test of time a little better. Even though Richard Linklater went home empty-handed last night, he delivered a film that already means a lot to many people. It’s a touching story, and a grand achievement in filmmaking. And editor Joel Walden wanted to pay tribute to Linklater and his whole filmography, which includes Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise and more. Watch it! ›››
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or you just don’t care, you’ve probably heard that Sony Pictures and Marvel Studiosreached a deal to shareSpider-Man so the character can enter the cinematic universe of The Avengers while still having his own film franchise that’s controlled by Sony and produced by Marvel. Shortly after the news broke, it was revealed that a younger Spider-Man was desired this time, and we had some suggestions as to who should play the wallcrawler. Names like Dylan O’Brien and Logan Lerman were said to be in early consideration, but we might see a completely different approach. Read on! ›››
In January, we learned that Nvidia incorrectly labeled its GTX 970 card, leading to fans accusing it of exaggerating the card’s specs. Since then, the GPU manufacturer has been hit with a class action lawsuit for false advertisement.
GTX 970 cards are marketed as having 4 GB of video RAM, but many gamers have found that if the card demands more than 3.5 GB, in-game performance begins to drop off. Nvidia has acknowledged the issue and said that this happens because the card splits its memory into two chunks–one with 3.5 GB and one with 500 MB. When the system needs more than 3.5 GB, it has to use a slower process to access the remaining memory, and that can cause framerate dips and generally slow performance.
For the most part, the issue only affects those playing games at very high resolutions, typically 1440p or 2160p, but the GTX 970 was directed at gaming enthusiasts that wanted a slightly cheaper option than Nvidia’s flagship card, the GTX 980.
The lawsuit also lists inaccuracies in the reviewer’s guides it sent to hardware critics. This second part is a much bigger problem, because while the 970 does technically have 4 GB of video RAM, it doesn’t actually have the 64 render output units (ROPs) or the 2048kb of L2 cache that many publications claimed.
As we explained in January, that discrepancy is key, as it represents an oversight by Nvidia’s marketing department and explains why the card can’t access the last chunk of its video RAM effectively.
The lawsuit alleges that Nvidia “engaged in a scheme to mislead consumers about the characteristics, qualities, and benefits of the GTX 970.” The suit seeks an injunction against Nvidia, legal fees, full refunds for those that purchased the card, as well as restitution.
Developer Four Funnels Entertainment is completely reconstructing every nook and cranny of the most infamous cruise liner in history and turning that into one massive video game level.
Titanic: Honor and Glory will encompass the entire five-day trek of the ship across the Atlantic with an eye for extreme historical accuracy.
The team has launched a successful crowdfunding project before. The money they’ve raised went to consulting experts–including history professors, authors, and even Titanic wreck divers. Together they’ve already rebuilt about 1/4 of the huge ship in Unreal Engine 4.
They’re asking for $250,000 to help move the project forward. That might sound like a lot, but the team feels that the final cost of the game will eventually cross the $1,150,000 mark.
In addition to simulating the ship, Four Funnels wants to recreate the city of Southampton, where the Titanic began its voyage, and each of the 2,200 people that were on the cruise liner.
According to the developer’s plans for the project, players onboard will try to stop a fictional murderer and solve mysteries throughout the journey until the cruiseliner begins to sink and the game opens up into a “free-roam, collapsing super-level which is nearly 900 feet long and 12 stories tall.”
Have you ever wondered just how many Kickstarters have actually delivered on their promises? NeoGAF moderator Stumpokapow has decided to log every game-related Kickstarter project that pulled in more than $75,000 as of June 2014 in one large spreadsheet.
The document not only lists games, but also grades their progress on a scale from “admitted failure” to “released.” There’s also a nine-month grace period to give developers a reasonable amount of time to make progress before assessing their progress.
At time of writing, of the 186 of the successfully funded projects, 63 have made their way to market, while ten have been classified as failures. Some of the more infamous disappointments include Code Hero, The Stomping Land, and Yogventures
The next scheduled update will be in late March, but for now the majority of games on the list have been released or are making progress. Even so, the document’s creator notes that “virtually no Kickstarter games from any dev at any budget level with any final release quality have released on time.”
Instead, Stumpokapow suggests basing decisions on whether the money developers are asking for is in “the realm of sanity.” Adding, “A dev that asks for $20k to fund a dev team of 10 for a year cannot guarantee the project will release. A dev that claims their game will go from concept art to release in 4 months when the game has any scope at all is simply wrong.”
Shuhei Yoshida, the head of Sony’s worldwide games development studios, believes that the industry must strive to create more unique content instead of just repeating successful formulas.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Yoshida said “the industry’s focus has narrowed too much. Can we continue producing interesting new products? That’s become a real concern.”
According to sales monitor NPD, only two of the ten best selling games of 2014 in America were a new IP (Destiny and Watch Dogs), one a sci-fi first-person shooter and the other an open-world action title. Other games on that list include sequels to Madden, NBA, FIFA, Grand Theft Auto, Smash Bros, as well as ports of Minecraft, along with two different Call of Duty games.
In 2012, the company released Tokyo Jungle, an idiosyncratic animal survival game, which sold more than 231,000 copies.
The game’s director, Yohei Kataoka said “if it wasn’t for Sony, there is no way I would be doing this now. It was like an angel investment, something unheard of in the games industry.”
Activision is getting the band back together, according to a new report.
The publisher is working on an all-new, “more realistic” Guitar Hero game for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, according to Kotaku UK, which cites two different sources.
The new Guitar Hero game, which wasn’t given a name, will be announced at E3 in June, according to one source.
The music game, which would be the first since 2010’s Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, will sport a “more realistic” visual look, compared to the “cartoonish” style of past games, according to another source. Expect more authentic-looking artists and even crowds.
In addition, the report claims that Activision is making new guitar peripherals to launch with the Guitar Hero title, though no further information was provided. The new Guitar Hero game is reportedly scheduled to launch before the end of 2015.
An Activision representative said: “We don’t comment on rumor or speculation, but have previously said, that as one of the most beloved entertainment franchises, we would only bring Guitar Hero back if we developed the right innovations to usher the franchise into the new generation of gaming.”
Activision officially put the Guitar Hero franchise–as well as the Tony Hawk series–on hiatus in early 2011. It was already confirmed that Tony Hawk will return this year on Xbox One and PS4, and now it sounds like Guitar Hero is making a comeback too.
Previous Guitar Hero developer Neversoft and RedOctane are no longer in operation. Kotaku’s report doesn’t name a developer for the new game outright, but does say the title is coming from one of Activision’s developers on the United States west coast.
Sony has issued a notice reassuring fans that the free PlayStation Plus version of Driveclub has not been cancelled, following an interview with a company executive that had casts doubts over the project.
In a statement sent to GameSpot, Sony explained that it is trying to create a network that can handle the estimated stresses of releasing an online-centric triple-A game for free. The corporation could not, however, provide a timeline for completion of its work.
“Although currently we do not have an update regarding the timing for the launch of the PS Plus Edition, we are continually working on improving the server capacity to enable us to launch the PS Plus Edition as quickly as possible,” the statement read.
Sony’s statement comes amid doubts over the prospects of the PS Plus edition–which was first promised in June 2013–after a PlayStation executive appeared to hold off making any promises.
Jim Ryan, the chief executive of PlayStation Europe, was asked in a recent interview whether the release of the free version would arrive soon.
“That’s still being looked at,” he replied.
When asked whether the free version would ever ship, Ryan replied: “I can’t say anything at this stage.”
PlayStation Europe boss Jim Ryan initially couldn’t discuss the release of the PS Plus Edition of Driveclub
At E3 2013, months ahead of the release of the PlayStation 4, Sony made a pledge that PlayStation Plus subscribers would be given a free abridged version of Driveclub as a reward for their membership.
But the matter was complicated on several occasions, first in October 2013 when the racing sim was delayed just weeks ahead of its launch. It was delayed again in early 2014, and when finally released in October that year, it launched with major server issues that knocked its network infrastructure offline.
Months of waiting followed while fans hoped that the free version would still ship. Then, in early February this year, a representative for the game’s developer, Evolution Studios, told a fan that the build “still needs a lot of work“.
