As strange as it sounds, Minecraft got the novelization treatment, and the final product is now out for purchase. The good news is that the Mojang team put Microsoft's millions to good use by commissioning Max Brooks, author of the apocalyptic zombie novel World War Z. Minecraft: The Island apparently tells the story of a hero who got stranded on a mysterious island and ends up unraveling its secrets.
Source: Microsoft
Bandai Namco announced today that the upcoming Gundam Versus will be receiving an open beta before release. While no date has been announced, details will be provided soon. In addition, pre-order DLC was finally confirmed for the game, which will be the current DLC mobile suits in Japan.
However, it also came with the nasty surprise that one of them would only be available to those who pre-order.
That was fast. After more than two decades of Sonic adventures at Archie Comics, Sega has decided to end its partnership and start a new one -- with none other than IDW Publishing.
SEGA and IDW are thrilled to announce a partnership to bring Sonic Comics to fans new and old. The new series arrives 2018! http://pic.twitter.com/neT3oAMNUE
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) July 21, 2017
Shout-out to Destructoid commenter Austyn Wiles for totally calling the IDW team-up. The company's name is attached to everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Transformers to Jem.
"We've been speaking with beloved Sonic fan-favorite creators and new creators alike," said IDW chief creative officer Chris Ryall, who added that specific plans will be shared "in the near future."
Sonic the Hedgehog [Twitter]
Rocko's Modern Life wasn't my favorite Nicktoon. It came out in the second (or third?) wave of Nicktoons where I was just getting a bit too old and "cool" to watch (until I got older and "cooler" and started watching again). Anyway, some folks love it, so they'll be chuffed that the ol' Wallaby with the super '90s shirt is coming back for an hour special.
Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling brings back the entire cast, as you can probably tell from listening in the trailer. Evidently Rocko, Heffer and Fillburt were in space so they haven't been around since the '90s resulting in Rocko having a hard time acclimating to the modern world. So... basically the original, but with smartphones.
Maybe it's just my bad memory of their voices, but everyone sounds drastically older in this trailer. I mean obviously they are, but it's a bit weird hearing it alongside animations that haven't changed.
Check out the trailer and be reminded just how dangerous laundry day can be.
Like comic books, fighting games are ripe for the crossover treatment. Nintendo has done it with good success in the Super Smash Bros. series, bringing characters from disparate franchises like Street Fighter and Fire Emblem together to brawl on the Wii U and 3DS. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe mixed up heroes from video games and comic books into its arenas, as well. Really, any announcement of new playable characters in upcoming fighting games are sure to please fans across the board.
Now we're seeing a couple of big-name reveals at Comic-Con for two upcoming games, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Dragon Ball FighterZ. Frank West of Dead Rising fame is headed to the former, along with Spider-Man, Mike Haggar (from Final Fight) and Nemesis (from Resident Evil). Dragon Ball Fighter Z fans will be able to play both Piccolo and Krillin, longstanding characters in the anime universe.
Via: Polygon
Source: Bandai Namco, Capcom/YouTube
Grumpyface Studios is back with another Steven Universe video game adaptation, and even if you only have a passing familiarity with the show, I think you'll be able to appreciate Save the Light's charming aesthetic. I sure do! As Nick noted before, it has this pleasant Paper Mario vibe in motion.
Here's a fresh look at the turn-based RPG from San Diego Comic-Con:
So, Peridot is in as a party member, and Squaridot is a new-to-the-game gem. That'll do for now.
You're here for Mega Stones, and we've got just the ticket.
Start up your copy of Pokémon Sun or Moon, hit "Mystery Gift" from the main menu, and enter the code "SABLEVOLANT" for the stuff you'll need to Mega Evolve your precious Tyranitar, Abomasnow, Manectric, and Aggron. From there, just pop into a Pokémon Center and pick up your loot.
Is there a Pokémon huggability ranking floating around the dark corners of the net? It's an off-kilter pick, but I'd probably place Mega Manectric pretty high up there (at severe risk to my health, I'm sure).
Pokémon [Twitter]
Steam's Summer Sale has been over since July 5, but if you're still in the market for some cheap PC games this season GMG's 2017 Summer Sale just went live. They're following the old Steam Sale formula of 12-hour flash deals on top of a huge 1,600 game main sale.
As one would suspect, the flash deals are going to be the best prices and nearly all are at their cheapest ever price. The rest of the sale is just as good as Steam or even better pricing.
We're on batch 2 of GMG's Flash Deals at the time of writing and are seeing the best price online for XCOM 2, South Park: The Stick of Truth, the Orange Box, Yooka-Laylee, and The Escapists. These six deals all carry instant savings up to 80% off plus a stacking 25% off coupon. We should note that to use coupon codes at GMG you'll need to login to an existing account or create a new one.
The rest of the main 2017 Summer Sale ignores the coupon code. Even without the code there are some great deals like the lowest price ever on The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition, Stellaris, The Evil Within, and more.
Flash Deals + Free Mystery Game
Use Code: SUMMER2017
(These deals expire 7/22 at 5am Eastern Time)
Main Sale Top Picks
As an added bonus those who buy one of the flash deals will get extra incentives. First, you'll get an email worth a 10% off site-wide coupon code. Second, another coupon code valid for upcoming games like the Life is Strange sequel worth 20-25% off. Third, you'll receive a free random mystery game (generally an indie title, but if you're lucky you'll score a free triple-A title).
The GMG flash deals are only valid for 12 hours at a time. The posted batch will only be valid now through 5:00am Eastern. After the flash sale timer is up, the 25% off coupon code will simply stop working and you'll be left with instant savings only.
The main GMG 2017 Summer sale deals will continue through August 3. That gives you about two weeks to pick up any of the aforementioned titles on the cheap. The sale consists of over 1,600 PC games, so if you had another title in mind it's probably a search away at GMG.
You Gamers probably only know the WASD keys, but a wordsmith like me has to have full command of the whole keyboard. I got all 26 letters memorized, the space bar, the commas and apostrophes, the shifts, and sometimes even the numbers. Impressive, I'm aware.
There was one time in college where I was struggling to find a summer job so I went to one of those job placement center things. Part of the process was that I had to take a typing test. Halfway through, some old lady who was taking the test next to me loudly complained to everyone that I was typing too fast and too loud for her to concentrate. Yeah, I'm that good. I think I got a job landscaping for the summer or something.
Please sit down before you consider this: I have only gotten better since then.
Every professional athlete eventually wonders how elite they actually are. Quantify it. Strip it of the intangibles and boil it down to a raw number. Leadership and grit don't count for shit. I want to know that you averaged a triple-double for a whole season.
So I took a typing test -- this one, the typing test with the best SEO. Free of the burden of that job placement lady, I did pretty dang well. Put this on the back of my rookie card:
Eiichiro Oda's One Piece is arguably the most popular anime series in Japan, so with how much anime has garnered interest in the West it was only a matter of time before some Western company wanted to try their hands at a live-action version. The major question, however, is how exactly is this supposed to happen?
According to the Japan Times, Weekly Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief Hiroyuki Nakano announced that Tomorrow ITV Studios with Marty Adelstein (the producer behind Prison Break, Last Man Standing, and uh, Cristela) will be handling the live-action TV series with Adelstein noting just how damn expensive a show like this will have to be.
Series creator Oda apparently is alright with the project as long as "it never lets down the fans that have been supporting the series for 20 years." But seriously, even with Oda's support, how is this going to work? One Piece is one zany piece of fiction, and in a world with rubber band men, soap bubble ladies, and dudes with exploding boogers, how is any of that going to translate?
There aren't any concrete details for this series yet, but hopefully we can avoid another 4Kids-like botch. Oh, and Adelstein is also working on the live-action Cowboy Bebop series too. Jeez, man.
Popular manga 'One Piece' to be remade into live-action TV drama [Japan Times]
Revealed a few weeks ago as the last of the initial batch of new character additions to Injustice 2, Starfire, the former Teen Titan, follows Sub-Zero and Red Hood in having an impressive reveal trailer. Along with her burning hair and green energy beams, Starfire just has quite a few interesting set-ups.
Short bolt projectiles, a slower bomb-type (which is probably going to be one of the unlockable moves), moves that knock away opponents, and it seems like she's going to be more powerful up close with a few command grab options. On top of these moves are her fluid animations, so I'm pretty much sold.
The one hilarious thing? I was watching the live stream where Ed Boon officially launched the trailer, and the DC VJ at the end of the stream said the next batch of DLC fighters (with Boon confirming a trailer coming sooner rather than later) "is gonna be a hot one." What a fitting way to tie all of this together.
Jordan, Brett, Ray and I have been having a blast with the unwieldy-named 100-person battle royale PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. We want to share that blast with you.
Please join us, The D-Team, in our quest to win, win a chicken dinner, and enjoy all the accidental team-killing, condiment-ranking (ketchup does kinda suck, to be honest), competitive table jumping, and sweet motorcycle flips along the way.
We're also going to be bumping things up to 1080p next time. Please understand.
A legal battle against AR games like Pokémon Go has been brewing in Wisconsin and this week, the games scored a win. In February, Milwaukee County introduced a new law that required AR game makers to get a permit before their games could be designed for use in the county's parks. The move came after the parks saw large increases in traffic after the release of Pokémon Go last year.
Source: Ars Technica
Ghost Recon Wildlands players will soon have the opportunity to turn their firearms toward a new enemy: Other players. The four-player squad-based cooperative shooter is adding a free competitive multiplayer mode sometime this fall.
Ubisoft recently released this trailer for the new mode, which is called Ghost War. The PvP retains the squad feel, as it's limited to four people per team. Roll in with the same cowboys that help you tackle the cocaine cartel in the campaign.
While Ghost War is coming at some unannounced time later this year, Ubisoft's holding an event to help iron out the wrinkles. There's going to be an open beta later in the summer so that people can get a taste of the competitive mode. However, that's also at an unannounced time, so we're really only working in vaguities here.
It feels like time has passed over Ghost Recon Wildlands at this point, but that idea's probably misguided. Despite mostly middling review scores (our score was on the low end; OpenCritic has it sitting right around the median when compared to all other games), Wildlands sold incredibly well. In March, it outperformed Zelda: Breath of the Wild according to the NPD figures. It has held its own on the charts ever since, most recently clocking in at 11th place on June's best-sellers.
It's useless to try to predict how many people will care about competitive multiplayer coming to a game that's nearly a half-year old. All we know is that enough people have the game. The question lies in how many of them will come back to it.
I still remember sitting in a booth for a Splatoon preview event and thinking "I don't know if this is going to catch on." It was lovely and vibrant, par for the course for Nintendo, but it could have easily been a flash in the pan for the Wii U, a system that was quite literally gone in a flash.
But then the fan art came. And the real working Splattershot cosplay. The squids and kids were stars, and now they're getting a new lease on life on a system that can support their growth.
The last we heard from Bandai Namco on .hack//G.U. Last Recode, the remastered trilogy was only going to get a digital release in the West. I suppose due to fan feedback on the absence of a physical copy, we'll now be seeing one for PS4 when the collection launches later this year.
There are no pre-order bonuses to getting the disc based version, but I'm sure many fans will be happy to just have a disc and box to look at. I know I still tend to get physical copies for my console games, but I mostly don't trust Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo's online services.
It would be neat if we could see a steelbook release for this. I'm in love with steelbooks, so I tend to grab them even for games I don't care about. They are just too sexy to pass up on.
Razer is known for its high-end gaming devices. The company has desktops and laptops, keyboards and mice, power banks and even projection systems aimed at core gamers. This past January, however, Razer acquired Nextbit and its "cloud phone" called the Robin. According to Bloomberg, that acquisition may pay off soon, as sources close to Razer say that the company plans to make a mobile phone targeted at gamers.
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Bloomberg
It's Friday and we're recording Podtoid! Why so late? I don't know! Something about Darren's air conditioner. A sweaty Darren makes for a sad Darren. It ain't the heat, it's the dang humidity.
We need some questions from you to make this thing run right. You know the drill by now. Inquiring minds should leave some stuff in the comments.
Make it good or you have to wait an entire week to try again. No pressure but there is seriously a ton of pressure on you right now. Come through clutch.
As part of Bandai Namco's upcoming onslaught of games based on anime, something I didn't expect to see was a title based on Girls und Panzer, a series where schoolgirls compete against other schoolgirls in large World War II tanks.
Now we'll be able to do the same! Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match is slotted for a Japanese PlayStation 4 release later this year, and there aren't many details known beyond this teaser for it. Tank battle games in general are a rare breed, and I've been hooked to them ever since playing cheap desktop games on my PC, so I'm all in on whatever this is.
Look, a tank drifts in this teaser. That's just great.
Splatoon 2 is out today and with it came the announcement of the next Splatfest. Mayo and ketchup will be going head to head to decide who is the king of condiments.
Ice cream dominated cake in the game's pre-launch Splatfest, but who can say for sure who will triumph in this battle of burger toppings. I'd wager on whichever one Marina likes.
The next Splatfest in #Splatoon2 takes place during the first weekend in August. What's your condiment of choice: Mayo or Ketchup? http://pic.twitter.com/K56M8YAlDD
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) July 21, 2017
San Diego Comic-Con is heating up in the lead in to the big weekend with some trailer tapas to hold us over until the main course of the big panels. This teaser trailer for Pacific Rim: Uprising may be a bit light on any story elements, but it does give us a nice look at some of the Jaegers that could be present in the movie and it's always great for Ellen McLain to get more exposure. With the trailer being designed like a military recruitment ad is it too much to ask for Uprising to be a remake of Full Metal Jacket but with robots?
Pacific Rim: Uprising will be out on February 23, 2018 and while produced by Guillermo del Toro will be directed by Steven S. DeKnight who doesn't have an extended resume but did work on Dollhouse and Daredevil (don't worry it was the TV series).
The vibrant and colourful world of Shantae, her friends, enemies and frenemies, is to be immortalised in an art book, announced on twitter by game creator Matt Bozon.
Little is known about the upcoming release, other than it will feature art from across the series, it is coming sometime next year, and it is being published by the reputable Udon, who are renown for their great art books past. This book is not the same as the compendium being published for game backers.
I don't smile much, rarely in fact, but I always smile whilst playing the Shantae games. The world, characters, colours, even villains bring joy and pleasure to my eyes. The games genuinely make me grin like a dang fool. I'm very much looking forward to this release, and I will try to keep you guys updated as further details unfold.
Christopher Nolan is a well-known name. As modern-day filmmakers go, his name is near the top of the list of directors studios will trust with boatloads (literally in this case) of money to bring projects to life. Strange then, that in many marketing materials Nolan’s name has been conspicuously absent. In interviews, Nolan discussed that while he’s had the idea for Dunkirk for more than 20 years, he opted to wait until he had this sort of clout with studios to make the film, and, well, it paid off.
Even as I watched, I knew this was a very different sort of film and one that doesn’t draw easy comparisons with other movies, even other war movies. Perhaps the most obvious recent comparison would be to 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, owing purely to a concurrence of beach scenes taking place in World War II while tensions run high. But that’s an over-simplification that does Dunkirk no justice, as it is standalone one of the best films you will likely see.
Dear Esther Live, off the back of it's acclaimed performance at The London Game Festival and The Barbican, will be touring the U.K. at the end of the year.
The show features a playthrough of the game by freelance writer Thomas McMullen, with indicative music provided by a full orchestra. Narration and poetic content complete the live experience of the critically-acclaimed walk-em-up, which was released back in 2012.
"Dear Esther really has stood the test of time," says score composer Jessica Curry. "Going back to it, we still felt so passionate about it. We realized that we’re missing a trick here, in not playing it live, as it has so many advantages that way."
The tour beings in Birmingham November 28, and will continue through Scotland and Wales, finishing up in Brighton on February 2. Info and full listings are available at the link below.
Dear Esther Live tour [The List]
Inti Creates did what Comcept couldn't with Mighty No. 9 -- give us another quality Mega Man game from a studio not named Capcom. Yes Inti Creates did help work on Mighty, but given that they've been churning out hit after hit on their own and Comcept's recent history has been dicey, it's hard to put the burden on the former.
Mighty Gunvolt Burst was another bonafide hit, as it felt like a natural evolution of the 8-bit Mega Man formula with a little modern spice to it, by way of mechanics like "create your own buster shot" and miniature RPG elements picked from Mega Man like V's or 7's collectibles. Given that most of them are former Capcom developers that worked on the series (you gotta love ex-Capcom studios, Platinum included), it makes sense why they'd be so in tune with it -- even more so than the father of Mega Man these days.
To cap off this rant, Inti Creates just released a new trailer for Ekoro, a DLC character from Gal Gun that's complimenting the default roster of Beck and Gunvolt. Ekoro was originally a part of the bite-sized Mighty Gunvolt downloadable game for 3DS and Wii U, but didn't make the cut at Burst's launch.
She'll be out on July 27 in Japan for 200 yen, which roughly translates to $1.70. Given that Inti Creates brings basically everything over eventually, she'll probably be $2 in the west.
According to a tweet by NetherRealm scamp Ed Boon, there will be a livestream event at SDCC today, July 21. It's seemingly based around DC hero Starfire, which would hint at a trailer for the arriving Injustice 2 warrior.
The livestream, which will feature Boon himself, will be on DC All Access, and is scheduled for 1pm PDT. It's likely that we'll be seeing the not-so-Teen Titan in action, utilising her mad ultraviolet skills to lay waste to her DC brethren.
There are still six more DLC characters to be revealed for the comic-based bust-up. Maybe if Boon's feeling generous, we might see someone else as the weekend progresses, but I really wouldn't hold my Super-Breath for that.
Live from #SDCC2017 - a special livestream event tomorrow with @noobde on #DCAllAccess at 1 pm PDT! https://t.co/AYA3u66dTe #injustice2 http://pic.twitter.com/kaxldp3I19
— Injustice2 (@InjusticeGame) July 20, 2017
