An excellent 10 minute film based on Lucas Pope’s powerful 2013 game Papers, Please is out now.
The film, which is free to watch on YouTube and Steam, does a wonderful job at capturing the bleak tone of Lucas Pope’s frantic puzzler and the moral quandaries suffered by his border crossing immigration officer in the made-up state of Arstotzka.
In our review, we called Papers, Please “a simulation of that moment that a cog in the machine’s heart finally stops beating, or a kind of hidden object game where what you’re mostly looking for is a glimmer of hope.”
GTA Online, the multiplayer mode for GTA V that basically prints money, is still proving to be incredibly popular some four years after it originally launched. Now, it looks like Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two may have further plans for the game.
Earlier this month, Take-Two filed a pair of new trademark applications related to Grand Theft Auto logos, one of which appears to be for GTA Online. The trademark application shows the familiar “G,” “T,” and lowercase “a,” along with an “O” for the first time. Take-Two already holds the trademark for “Grand Theft Auto Online” written out, so this move appears to be Rockstar looking for something shorter, potentially as an option and not a replacement.
The other new trademark filing was for the standard “G,” “T,” and lowecase “a.” Both were initially filed in the first week of February this year. Both were submitted with a “specimen” of the Xbox One edition of Grand Theft Auto V. According to the USPTO, a specimen is “generally what consumers actually see when they are purchasing your goods or services.” The physical edition of GTA V for Xbox One was shown as the specimen, because, according to the USPTO, “a label must be the physical label that is being used on the product or packaging in the marketplace where the goods are actually being sold or transported.”
It is not immediately clear why Rockstar, through its parent company Take-Two, filed for these new trademark applications, or if it means the game’s logo on physical boxes will change going forward. Rockstar is usually very tight-lipped about everything it does, so we wouldn’t expect the company to have a public comment on these new filings. Whatever the case, we have followed up with the company in an attempt to get more details.
GTA Online has been immensely popular following its launch in October 2013 (a month after the main game launched in September that year). Through its microtransactions, the game makes lots and lots of money, and it continues to do so, even multiple years after release. In fact, December 2017 was the game’s biggest month ever in terms of players.
Take-Two could have filed the trademark applications for Grand Theft Auto Online and GTAO as a means to protect its future interest in using those terms. Considering they are not tied to a number, the terms Grand Theft Auto Online and GTAO could theoretically be used to refer to the online mode for the next GTA title. Also worth noting is that trademark filings are not necessarily an accurate indication of an upcoming product announcement or change.
While on the road to Wrestlemania, WWE is making a stop at Elimination Chamber, a yearly event that features a hellish main event consisting of six competitors in an enclosed structure, getting eliminated one by one. 2018’s PPV is the first time the women will have their own Elimination Chamber match, so that means the WWE Universe will get two Chamber contests for the price of one.
In addition, former UFC star Ronda Rousey will be officially signing her WWE Raw contract during the event, so while Elimination Chamber isn’t stacked with matches, there’s still a lot to look forward to. The event will be coming to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, February 28 on PPV and the WWE Network. The show will consist of six matches, one of which will take place on the Kickoff show. You can check out an in-depth look at the match card and our predictions here.
Here’s the card lineup for the event:
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. The Miztourage (Kickoff Match)
The Bar (c) vs. Titus Worldwide (For the Raw Tag Team Championship)
Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt
Asuka vs. Nia Jax
Women’s Elimination Chamber
Men’s Elimination Chamber
The Kickoff Show starts on the WWE Network at 7PM ET/4PM PT. The actual Elimination Chamber event begins at 8PM ET/5PM PT on the WWE Network and on PPV. Below, you’ll find the winners of each match as it happens.
In case you’re not caught up, don’t worry; we put the final results in spoiler blocks.
Kickoff Show
The Good Brothers vs. The Miztourage
The Good Brothers get the win at 8:52.
Main Card
Women’s Elimination Chamber Match
Mandy Rose eliminated first.
Sonya Deville eliminated.
Mickie James eliminated.
Bayley is eliminated
Bliss pins Banks at 29:36.
The Bar vs. Titus Worldwide (For the Raw Tag Team Championship)
So it was all a dream! Or was it? Or…I don’t know.
I guess the mystery seasonal “flash-forward” snippets weren’t a flash-forward at all – which many fans started doubting back when Carl revealed he was bitten (and therefore couldn’t be in the bearded-Rick future like he was, off-screen, in the season premiere). It was all Carl’s idealized endgame. It’s the world of mercy and forgiveness and cooperation he’s been dreaming of. Which was basically the future Rick once wanted for everyone, particularly Carl and Judith, back before he became consumed with eliminating Negan.
And the little girl we thought might be baby Grace, because of how much older Rick looked in these scenes, was actually Judith. Carl, as it turned out, was just imagining an overly-aged version of Rick even though it was only supposed to be six or seven years from now. And a Rick a mysterious limp too (a nod to the comics here…designed to make some fans think it was a time jump?).
This week’s Xbox One news is a doozy. As always, there’s plenty of news on your favorite games, but a lot went down for the system as well.
Mike Ybarra talked mouse and keyboard support, and there are some pretty good deals on the Xbox One S and X systems right now. You won’t have to just watch let’s plays anymore; if you’re on Xbox One’s Mixer, you’ll soon be able to buy games directly from streamers. Fable Fortune is now out on Xbox One and PC in its full glory. You’ll have to wait a bit longer on Assassin’s Creed Origins‘ next DLC pack, The Curse of the Pharaohs, as it was just delayed. EA is fixing a listing mistake with its forthcoming Burnout Paradise remaster stating it will not have microtransactions. March’s Games with Gold titles have been revealed, and there are also three more backwards compatible titles available for Xbox One right now.
At the start of 2015 I was in the middle of my third university degree after dropping out of the previous two, had just come out of my most serious relationship to date and had moved into a share house to live independently for the first time.
It was a period in my life in which I was going through significant change and learning; dealing with the slow and often confusing transition from childhood, school and lack of responsibility, to well, adulthood. At the same time, and on the other side of the planet, a relatively unknown French studio called Dontnod Entertainment was gearing up to release the first episode of its next big project, an episodic game that would be a beacon for their success and own growth as a studio.
From convenience and freebies, to delayed DLC, this week’s PS4 news is a bit of a wild one. The PlayStation Network is making it a little easier to get in touch with your pals and there’s plenty of news to go around about deals on your favorites and forthcoming releases.
No longer will you have to fire up your PS4 or grab your phone to hop on the PSN app, as you’ll be able to chat with your friends straight from your browser. Kojima’s mysterious Death Stranding revealed some new cast members that you may know from Days Gone and The Last of Us. Persona 5 fans will get to see the anime this year, and both Persona 5: Dancing Star Night and Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night will have PSVR support. Speaking of PSVR, there’s a pretty snazzy deal on the system going on right now until March 3.
