It is an exciting time to be a video game fan. The promise of new consoles on the horizons means we get to finally see just what next-gen means for the next 5-10 years. CD Projekt Red has released a slew of new screens from The Witcher 3 using their new engine that will also be running their Cyberpunk 2077.
The Witcher 3 will be a full open-world experience with CD Projekt Red claiming that the story will take up to 50 hours to complete. I played the Witcher 2 for around 10 hours and could not get myself to finish it. Not saying it was not a well made game, it just was not catching me. I admit that I will end up getting The Witcher 3 because I am a sucker for fantasy games and give it another try.
It appears that Bilbo, Gandalf and company have been scared off by the X-Men.
Warner Bros. have delayed Peter Jackson’s third (necessary?) film of The Hobbit from July 18, 2014 to December 17, 2014. The July date was also the opening of Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future’s Past which is turning into way more than just a sequel to First Class. It is becoming an X-Men all-star movie starring almost every character from the entire franchise.
With The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey closing in on one billion dollars, the move to December should not hurt its box office, even taking it out of a prime summer slot. As of right now the third Hobbit movie will open up in December 2014 unopposed. Much better than fighting with Professor X for moviegoers wallets.
Today Sony has announced that [amazon_link id=”B0050SX7BQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Beyond: Two Souls[/amazon_link] will release on October 8th for the Playstation 3. The game is developed by Quantic Dream, the makers of Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy. It stars Ellen Page in the role of Jodie who is quite more than she appears to be.
Quantic Dream had Page fully act out her role with the use of their motion capture technology which gives the characters unprecedented realism in their performances.
It was also announced that Willem Dafoe is a part of the cast as well. Green Goblin is portraying Nathan Dawkins, a paranormal scientist who works for the government and is fascinated by Jodie.
Way back when at E3 2012, Lucasarts showed off amazing looking footage for a brand new Star Wars game titled Star Wars: 1313. It was dark and gritty and it was beautiful. So much so that when the show was over debate began on whether this was actually our first look at a true next-gen game. Then….nothing. No developers talking up how hard they were working on it, no hints on what systems or possible releases dates. It went off the radar.
So what gives?
Seems Kotaku may have turned over the right rock and figured out where the game has been hiding. It appears that the game has been put on hold since the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm last year to focus completely on getting J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII going into production. There is no word on if the game will be moving forward after a certain amount of time or if it will simply fall onto Disney/Lucas’ immense back burner.
I do hope that the higher ups at Disney do not just think of one avenue of media to make money off of Star Wars. The Lucasarts game history is a checkered one, yes, but also one that is filled with classic games and I hope that Star Wars 1313 is given a chance to be fully realized and see the light of day.
Microsoft is releasing a new bundle for the Xbox 360 that will combine a 250 GB hard drive with Batman: Arkham City and Darksiders 2. The Spring Value Bundle will costs $299.99 and is available now at all retailers.
Along with the games you will also receive a free month of Xbox Live.
It is finally time to see the last video in the Tomb Raider: The Final Hours series. Over the past six months the series has introduced us to the actors portraying the characters, the creation of the unique music, the first hands-on for the public at San Diego Comic-Con and last time, the immense strain that the developers felt as they tried to finish final bug testing on their way to release.
This final video has host Zachary Levi interviewing the department heads on this final run until the game gets into the hands of gamers. Crystal Dynamics has done a great job with the lead up to the game and its time is almost here.
[amazon_link id=”B004FS8LYK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Tomb Raider[/amazon_link] releases on March 5th.
In case the news did not pass you yesterday, a rather huge event happened in the Bat-universe with the death of Bruce Wayne’s son, Damian. Now, the current Robin was certainly a dick for most of the time the character has been written, but really wouldn’t you be also if you were raised like he was?
Over the past year through the different Bat titles he has gone through a maturation process and embraced his role as Bruce Wayne’s son and what that meant in the legacy of the Wayne family name. So when a character turns a corner like this, the next logical step is death. Hey, it’s comics. Damian was killed by his mother Talia, well to be more specific by her monster soldier named Heretic, who was acting on her orders. For those of you who did not read Batman, Inc. #8, Damian went out like a champ making the beating Jason Todd took from The Joker look like a love tap session.
So where does Batman go from here? Yes, we understand this is the world of comics where characters can come back on a whim and death is never…well, death. But this is a life shattering event in the life of Bruce Wayne. When Jason Todd was murdered it scarred Bruce Wayne for the twenty or so years until Todd was brought back as Red Hood (again, comics). This should, and better, have a bigger resonance with Bruce. While he has always treated every Robin as his own son, this is his ACTUAL son. A test tube one yes, but Damian came from him nevertheless.
The next few issues of Bat titles will be interesting to read and see what direction this takes the Batman character. The first title to handle this will be Detective Comics #18. The title has been in the middle of a big Penguin storyline that honestly is going nowhere for me, so I hope the team of John Layman and Jason Fabok can bring their A game.
Photo courtesy comicbook.com
The title I am looking forward to the most in this post-Damian world is easily Batman and Robin #18. I bet you thought I was going to say Batman with my love of Scott Snyder right? Sorry to disapoint, but the reason I say Batman and Robin is that Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason’s title is easily my second favorite of all the Bat tiles and the one that has truly explored the father/son dynamic of Bruce and Damian better than anyone. They have tackled the issue of Damian taking his first life and shown Damian’s love for his father by sending him on a worldwide trip to rediscover Thomas and Martha’s love for each other (even though he used that to dress up as Batman). And the team is doing something unique for their upcoming issue #18.
Batman and Robin #18 will be a completely silent issue. No words will be spoken. Peter Tomasi is leaving the entire issue to artist Patrick Gleason to show how Bruce deals with the death of his son in art alone. After that, Tomasi plans to take Bruce through the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) and then the title will be renamed with whichever member of the Bat-family is in the issue at the time, like Batman and Red Hood, etc.
Ironically enough, Damian’s death is coming off the huge Death of the Family story arc spearheaded by Scott Snyder, who brought The Joker back more sadistic than we have ever seen. As Batman #17 ended, it seemed that as Bruce was coming to trust everyone with more secretive information, but The Joker put a crack in their trust in Bruce and have started to distance themselves. Will Damian’s death be a catalyst for them to band together for Bruce’s sake?
Exactly how Damian’s death will be handled in other titles are not exactly known at this time, but needless to say this should rock Batman and the entire family to the core.
Naughty Dog has started to release developer videos leading up to the June release of The Last of Us.
The first is titled “Hush” and focuses on the development process that went into creating the infected citizens. Not wanting to make them simply zombies, they took their inspiration from the fungal plants they saw on the BBC documentary Planet Earth and wondered what would happen if the fungus spread to humans.
Naughty Dog has something special looking on their hands as many have seen since E3 a few years ago.
[amazon_link id=”B007CM0K86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Last of Us[/amazon_link] releases on June 14th.
The worst kept video game secret of the past few weeks is official. Assassin’s Creed’s next installment will indeed have a pirate theme and apparently try to see how many weapons one man can have on his person at one time.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is the next chapter in the AC saga and will star Edward Kenway, who is father of Haytham and dear old grandad to Connor from Assassin’s Creed 3. It now seems likely the naval battles from AC3 were a testing ground to see if a whole game could be set around them. Let’s just hope you don’t spend the first six hours of the game as another character that is not on the cover.
As with past Assassin’s Creed installments, it was announced that the Playstation would be receiving extra content totaling about an extra hour of gameplay.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag releases this fall.
The long rumored sequel to the 2001 classic (it’s a classic, dammit) Super Troopers may finally be getting made this year. Kevin Heffernan has gone on record as saying as much.
Farva had this to say on the long gestating sequel:
“We wrote the script and handed it in to Fox, and now we’re just negotiating the time and the place and hopefully shoot it some time this year. I have to start growing my mustache now.”
Can I just go ahead and say that this has made my day. Broken Lizard has been promising a sequel for ten years, but other projects have gotten in the way. So this is big news that one of the cast has said that the script is officially done.
