Electronic Arts today announced the results of its annual Super Bowl simulation. The results for Super Bowl 52 may not surprise many but will surely irritate many football fans outside New England and plenty within the region as well. The simulation predicted that the New England Patriots will beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-20 in a wild, come-from-behind victory.
In the simulation, conducted using Madden NFL 18, the Eagles struck first with a touchdown run from Jay Ajayi. They held the Patriots scoreless until the second quarter, when Brady completed touchdown passes to Rob Gronkowski and Brandin Cooks. The Eagles added a field goal before the half to keep it close.
The Eagles came alive in the second half, blitzing on defense and getting two sacks on Brady. Also, Brady threw an interception that led to a touchdown by Alshon Jeffery. The Eagles led going into the fourth quarter.
Brady connected with Danny Amendola to put the Patriots back ahead. The Patriots then tried to drain the clock with run plays but Eagles safety Malcolm Jennings stripped the ball away from Patriots back Dion Lewis leading to a fumble recovery by the Eagles. The Eagles could not get it done, however, as a last-minute throw from Eagles QB Nick Foles to wide receiver Jeffery was knocked away by Patriots defensive back Stefon Gilmore to seal the win for the Patriots.
Brady took home Super Bowl MVP honors on the back of 342 passing yards and three touchdowns. Gronkowski was the top receiver in the game with 107 yards on four catches with one touchdown. The Patriots run game struggled, with Lewis the leader, despite only having 41 yards and the aforementioned fumble.
Many of this generation’s biggest video game franchises are receiving the comic book treatment courtesy of Titan Comics. The publisher has already adapted Wolfenstein II and Tekken into graphic novels, with a Bloodborne comic on the way in February. That won’t be the only one gaming fans have to look forward to next month, however.
Titan has announced it is releasing a new graphic novel series based on the latest installment in Ubisoft’s stealth-action franchise, Assassin’s Creed Origins. The first issue of the Assassin’s Creed Origins comic debuts in February and ties directly into the game. Titan hasn’t shared many plot details from the graphic novel, but the series is set after the events of Assassin’s Creed Origins and features historical figures such as Cleopatra.
Ahead of the comic’s release, Titan has shared several variant covers for Assassin’s Creed Origins #1, along with a handful of pages of interior art from the debut issue–you can take a look at all of the artwork in the gallery above. The primary cover for the issue is designed by Stephanie Hans, whose previous credits include The Wicked + The Divine, Angela: Queen of Hel, and Jean Grey.
Both Assassin’s Creed Origins and Bloodborne graphic novels will be available in physical stores and online in February. Additionally, Titan is releasing a new comic based on the Xbox One pirate game Sea of Thieves. That series is set to launch around the time of the game’s release in March.
Microsoft has acquired backend cloud-based service provider, PlayFab.
The company announced via a blog post that the acquisition will help Microsoft to build on Azure, its current cloud service tool and will allow the extension into the larger gaming market across all platforms.
PlayFab provides developers with already established backend services to power cloud-connected games. This allows developers to build and operate games without their own intelligent cloud infrastructure as well as provides tools for monetization and analyzing gaming data.
There may not be a title for the third Cloverfield movie just yet, but the fourth film in the anthology series is already in the can. That’s right, though it has no release date or official announcement, Cloverfield 4 has already been filmed.
That bit of news comes from Slashfilm, which reports that the working title for the film is Overlord and it’s set during World War II–far different from the space station setting of the third Cloverfield movie that’s coming later in 2018. A synopsis for Overlord reads, “On the eve of D-Day, American paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion’s success. But as they approach their target, they begin to realize there is more going on in this Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation. They find themselves fighting against supernatural forces, part of a Nazi experiment.”
Like Cloverfield 3, which was originally titled God Particle, Overlord started out as a film not set in this franchise’s universe. It’s possible that aspects of the movie were changed to line up with the Cloverfield universe.
Overlord is directed by Julius Avery and stars Wyatt Russell and Jovan Adepo. According to Box Office Mojo, the film is currently set for a theatrical release on October 26, but there’s no telling if that is official.
As for the next Cloverfield movie, Netflix is in talks to acquire the film previously known as God Particle, according to The Hollywood Reporter. All that’s been announced thus far is an April release–following several delays. Whether it ends up in theaters or on Netflix remains to be seen.
Syfy series Happy! starring Christopher Meloni has been renewed for a second season, the network announced today.
The show is based on the best-selling graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson, and its December 2017 premiere is Syfy’s best series launch since January 2016 across all key demos. A release date for Season 2 has not been set yet.
Happy! follows Nick Sax (Meloni), a corrupt ex-cop turned hit man who, after a hit gone wrong, starts seeing an imaginary blue winged horse named Happy (voiced by Patton Oswalt).
As always, change is afoot in Overwatch. Blizzard has released a new developer update video (above) in which game director Jeff Kaplan discusses some hot-button issues in the community, including potential balance changes to a variety of characters. He also touches on toxicity, which the company has been attempting to address for some time now.
In terms of balance, Kaplan first brings up Mercy, the game’s most-played hero “by far.” He references the changes currently in testing on the PTR version of the game, which he says are primarily intended to “tone down the impact of Resurrect and make Mercy more manageable when she’s in her Valkyrie state during her Ultimate.” There have been concerns among Mercy players that she could be nerfed too hard; if that happens, Kaplan says that they will be paying “very close attention” to these changes and will provide her with buffs if necessary. He notes that Blizzard isn’t considering removing her from Competitive Play or replacing the Resurrect ability, as some players have suggested. “We do think it’s a balanceable ability,” Kaplan says.
Also in line for a nerf is Junkrat. This will start by adding damage falloff for Concussion Mine, so that it doesn’t deal as much damage to targets who are further away from the explosion. As it stands, it deals an equal amount of damage to all enemies who are within its range regardless of how close they are. Kaplan says the goal is to make Junkrat players “be more accurate.”
On the Hanzo front, it’s Scatter Arrow that has Blizzard’s attention. The studio wants to avoid situations where aiming the ability at a character’s feet leads to an easy one-shot kill; Kaplan specifically notes this happening to Orisa. Blizzard is looking to balance the ability but also has ideas for things that could potentially replace the ability. Kaplan says Blizzard hasn’t decided which of the two paths it will ultimately take.
Mei is also discussed, and Kaplan says he believes she is not in a “horrible place.” That said, she may need a “slight adjustment to make her a little more relevant. Mei I put into this category of heroes we need to be really careful with. She can feel very oppressive to play against if she’s too powerful.”
Kaplan goes on to restate that Blizzard views Mei as a “more situational” character who isn’t necessarily going to be a great pick in all situations. He also makes a similar point about Symmetra; she’s being discussed, but the studio thinks she doesn’t “need major buffs.” Like Mei, “there are going to be occasions where Symmetra is not the right pick.” Kaplan agrees that “she doesn’t have enough usefulness across the board” currently, and while the intention is to help her out, Blizzard doesn’t anticipate that her pick rate will ever skyrocket from where it currently stands.
Finally, Kaplan talks about toxicity. The added ability for console players to be able to report others has seen “great results,” and the warnings for players who about to be subjected to discipline has “helped a lot.” Combined with in-game notifications that tell you when action has been taken again someone you’ve reported, Overwatch has seen abusive chat decline by 17% in Competitive Play. Additionally, the number of player reports has increase by 20%. Kaplan sees these as positive signs but admitted they aren’t as strong as they could be, nor does he think the problem has been resolved. He also noted that Blizzard is proactively seeking out evidence of toxic behavior on places like YouTube and is taking action before those players are even reported in-game.
Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the episode.
With Dyspo knocked out, it falls to Toppo to battle our heroes from Universe 7. While we’ve already seen lots of Toppo before, the amazing interactions that he has with Frieza, along with his epic, drawn-out battle with Android 17, make this a thrilling episode and leaves me excited for the conclusion.
It’s no surprise that everytime Frieza is on screen, something awesome happens. Episode 125 takes Frieza’s arc to its natural conclusion as we see him be his cocky, boisterous self now that he’s happily eliminated Dyspo and Gohan in one blast. Wisely then, Super immediately throws him against a foe who utterly crushes him, as God of Destruction Toppo wastes no time putting Frieza in his place not once, but twice. Episode 125 wasn’t content to just physically beat him, though, and it’s the breaking of Frieza’s psyche that made things truly unique. In many ways, Frieza’s defeat mirrored his original one at the hands of Goku on Namek, and it’s interesting to see after all the changes he’s gone through, at his core, Frieza is still the terrible villain we know him to be.
Decades after Jaws cemented our cultural fear of the deep ocean, Subnautica emerges from Steam Early Access to fuel a new breed of underwater nightmares. This first-person survival epic by Unknown Worlds Entertainment dumps you into the water with not a great white shark to watch out for, but an entire alien world full of monstrosities ready and able to swallow you whole. Subnautica expands into an intense and challenging game that maintains considerable beauty and mystique across its massive environments. It’s so magical and otherworldly that it practically pains you to stop playing, even when you’re filled with dread.
Despite its scale and demanding ecosystem, Subnautica is one of the most approachable open-world survival games around. Where most of this sort have a steep difficulty curve to climb, this underwater alien world is easy to get into. The solo-only campaign begins when your ship crashes onto a flooded planet. You awaken, floating in your pod with only the fiery ruin of your former starship to break up the monotony of the ocean that rolls on endlessly to all points of the horizon.
From here, your goal is a simple one–survive, discover what else is on this world, and do your best to find a way off of it. Thankfully, you come from a Star Trek-style federation. Your lifepod is tricked out with a fabricator, a nifty wall-mounted device that can make pretty much anything, provided you feed it the necessary raw materials. Bladderfish are needed right away to provide potable water, while smaller finned creatures are best for fast frying and eating.
Compared to other survival games, gathering up items is easy. Want to see what mineral is hiding in that rock? Punch it or whack it once or twice with whatever you have in your hand. Need to cut plants or coral? Right-click to slash with your knife. Considering other survival games force you to do things like bash your fists bloody against trees to collect wood, you get by pretty easy here, and the entire game is better for it.
Because the crash has corrupted a lot of your databank, you also have to find and scan fragments and crack open data boxes scattered across the ocean floor before you can build bits of technology. You can even fabricate additional fabricators that make components for vehicles like the zippy Seaglide or Seamoth mini-sub, and even seabases straight out of Octopussy. These are not only cool to look at, but useful in the long run, with ’70s-style observation bubbles, solar panels, and high-tech hardware to refine and manage your supplies.
Of course, there are still some significant challenges here. While you start off in the appropriately named Safe Shallows, home to mostly friendly fish and readily available materials required to craft basic items like swim fins and oxygen tanks, you soon need to venture farther afield. The world consists of many biomes, distinct geographical regions with their own flora and fauna. Most of the better goodies in the game come from more extreme and far away places, which forces you to steadily upgrade your equipment to handle greater depths and highly aggressive sea life that look more like monsters of myth than fish at your local aquarium.
…there is a real push-pull dynamic at large that makes you feel like you’re constantly achieving one new goal after another.
Aggressive creatures are a continual presence. You have to respect them and keep your distance, knowing what they can do. With that said, creatures are not unduly punishing. Running into something aggressive doesn’t result in instant death. You’ll likely die far more often as the result of drowning during an exploration dive, or starving to death because you took too long during an expedition.
Diving into wrecks makes for the most intense moments in the game, especially when you’re at significant depths. Bigger wrecks almost always seem to be in the neighborhood of the nastiest monsters on the planet, which means you need to sneak in and out. Caves are almost as nerve-wracking and contain an even stronger likelihood of drowning due to their labyrinthine nature. Further investigation rewards you with rarer natural resources like diamonds, nickel ore, and Blood Oil. Caves aren’t as enjoyable to explore as wrecks, though, because the sheer danger makes them too risky to have much fun in. At least the game eventually allows you to craft things like a compass and the pathfinder tool that lets you lay down a trail of electronic breadcrumbs.
While routine scavenger hunts for more basic survival needs can grow routine (though you can turn off the need to eat and drink at the start of a game–or go in the other direction and turn on a hardcore permadeath mode), there is a real push-pull dynamic at large that makes you feel like you’re constantly achieving one new goal after another. Even something as simple as grabbing a dozen or so bladderfish and peepers and turning them into bottles of water and salted fish snacks can be rewarding, because you know those supplies are essential for extended exploration missions.
Your development as a scavenger is nudged along by a story that loosely guides your exploration. Getting the lifepod radio repaired reveals a number of distress calls from other lifepods that went down along with you, along with coordinates of their current or approximate locations. This even opens up a possible rescue attempt, which leads to another interesting part of the planet. Venturing to these locales uncovers an unexpectedly deep story, but it also moves you to various locations where you find vital resources at just the right time. Progress moves quickly if you follow the story, though this is still a huge game that requires a lot of time, patience, and exploration.
Some patience is also required when you bump into the game’s rare technical issues. Loading save files takes a very long time, there are regular sound glitches where audio vanishes while leaving the water, and crashes can occur when loading your save. Given that you’re only allowed a single save slot per campaign, these moments are stressful, though thankfully no saves were lost during our time with the game.
Subnautica’s story, scares, and beautifully rendered underwater setting make it one of the most fascinating survival games around. You will always have to grind away to a certain extent to gather necessary resources, but the overall experience is both accessible and refined. Subnautica may not make you eager to get back to the beach this summer, but right now there is no better virtual way to experience the beauty, and the terror, of the deep blue sea.
TriStar Pictures has announced the acquisition of the rights to You Are My Friend, based on the “real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and award-winning journalist Tom Junod,” with Tom Hanks signed on to play the inimitable Mister Rogers. Diary of a Teenage Girl’s Marielle Heller will direct.
You Are My Friend is described as “heart-warming,” telling the tale of a “cynical journalist” who “begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write a profile piece on the beloved icon and finds his perspective on life transformed.”
