Month: April 2018

Update: Somehow, Avengers: Infinity War smashed its own record. Though it was previously believed to have the biggest opening weekend of all time with an estimated $250 million dollars domestically, the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe venture actually made considerably more. According to Entertainment Weekly, Infinity War actually grossed an estimated $258.2 million over the weekend. Adding that to the $282.7 million in ticket sales internationally puts the film at $640.9 million in its first few days alone–well over halfway to a billion dollars. There’s clearly no stopping Thanos and the Avengers. Original story continues below.

Avengers: Infinity War is the new record-holder at the domestic box office. The movie is expected to make $250 million by the end of Sunday in the US and Canada, which would be a new first-weekend record, surpassing Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($248 million). It’s made $380 million from overseas markets for a total of $630 million worldwide. That’s the biggest global first-weekend in the history of film.

Previously, The Fate of the Furious held the record with $541.9 million. According to EW, Infinity War cost around $300 million to make.

Infinity War‘s box office performance stands to improve further still, as the superhero movie has not yet opened in China–the world’s second-largest area for movies.

One other staggering number made possible by Infinity War is $15.4 billion. That’s how much money the 19 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have made since 2008’s Iron Man.

GameSpot’s Infinity War review said, “Marvel has accomplished something truly incredible here, although at this point it’s no more than the absurdly high-quality bar Marvel fans have come to expect. It’s been a long road getting here, but it was worth it.”

Rounding out the top five at the domestic box office this weekend were A Quiet Place, I Feel Pretty, Rampage, and Black Panther. You can see the full projections for the April 27-29 weekend below, as rounded up and compiled by EW.

April 27-29 US/Canada Box Office Projections:

1. Avengers: Infinity War — $250 million
2. A Quiet Place — $10.7 million
3. I Feel Pretty — $8.1 million
4. Rampage — $7.1 million
5. Black Panther — $4.4 million
6. Super Troopers 2 — $3.6 million
7. Truth or Dare — $3.2 million
8. Blockers — $2.9 million
9. Ready Player One — $2.4 million
10. Traffik — $1.6 million

This post contains spoilers for the events of Avengers: Infinity War and the April 27 episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, titled “Option Two.”

The ending of Avengers: Infinity War has massive repercussions for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, as multiple superheroes – and trillions of other souls across the universe – were wiped from existence by Thanos with a simple snap of the Infinity Gauntlet.

Continue reading…

Star Trek captain Jean-Luc Picard’s classic facepalm pose has finally been turned into a statue.

The bust, from IconHeroes, is available exclusively from ThinkGeek. It captures the USS Enterprise-D captain executing his glorious facepalm maneuver. Priced at $65 USD, the statue measures six inches tall and four inches wide.

Jean-Luc Picard facepalm stature, via ThinkGeek

Continue reading…

May is right around the corner, which makes today the last opportunity to grab April’s free PlayStation Plus games while they’re still available. PS Plus subscribers have a few more hours to download this month’s batch of free titles for PS4, PS3, and Vita before they return to their regular prices and are replaced by a new round of freebies.

As usual, April’s PS Plus lineup consists of six games spread across all three of Sony’s platforms. Headlining PS4’s offerings is the arcade racer TrackMania Turbo, which is also compatible with PSVR. It’s joined by Mad Max, an open-world car combat game based on the film series of the same name.

On PS3, subscribers can still download the colorful racer Toy Home and the top-down twin-stick shooter In Space We Brawl. Vita owners, meanwhile, can grab the side-scrolling brawler 99Vidas and the Q-Bert: Rebooted. The latter three titles are also available on PS4 via Cross Buy, giving PS4 owners a total of five potential freebies to claim this month. You can find the full list of April’s free PS Plus titles below.

All of the aforementioned games will only be available until May 1, when they’ll be replaced by May’s PS Plus lineup. That likewise consists of six titles spread across PS4, PS3, and Vita, including Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream’s previous game, Beyond: Two Souls, as well as Rayman Legends, Eat Them, and Risen 3: Titan Lords.

Any free PS Plus titles you’ve download will remain playable as long as you have an active subscription. However, this will be the last year that Sony offers PS3 and Vita titles as part of the service. Beginning March 8, 2019, each new monthly batch of PS Plus games will only consist of two titles for PS4.

April 2018 Free PS Plus Games

PS4

• Mad Max
• TrackMania Turbo
• In Space We Brawl (Cross Buy with PS3)
• 99Vidas (Cross Buy with PS3 and PS Vita)
• Q*Bert: Rebooted (Cross Buy with PS3 and PS Vita)

PS3

• In Space We Brawl (Cross Buy with PS4)
• Toy Home
• 99Vidas (Cross Buy with PS4 and PS Vita)
• Q-Bert: Rebooted (Cross Buy with PS4 and PS Vita)

PS Vita

• 99Vidas (Cross Buy with PS3 and PS4)
• Q*Bert: Rebooted (Cross Buy with PS3 and PS4)

The Xbox One X is the most powerful game console on the market right now. It can push 4K graphics, run games at impressive frame rates, and play 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. But all that power comes at a price–$500, to be exact. Thanks to a promotion running today only at Best Buy, you can get more than just an Xbox One X for your $500–you can also get three games for free.

Two of the games come with the deal automatically, so you don’t get to choose them. They’re Destiny 2 and Madden NFL 18, both of which are Xbox One X-enhanced and received high marks in their GameSpot reviews. Fortunately, you do get to pick the third game from a selection of other Xbox One X-enhanced games.

To take advantage of the deal, first visit the sale page and click “Add to Cart” on the 1TB Xbox One X console. That puts the console in your cart, along with a physical copy of Destiny 2 and a download code for Madden NFL 18. Next, select your choice of game from the list. You can choose from recent hits like Sea of Thieves, Monster Hunter World, and Far Cry 5, or any qualifying Xbox One X-enhanced game.

In GameSpot’s Xbox One X review, Jimmy Thang wrote, “While the Xbox One X is an expensive box, from a hardware standpoint, you’re getting a very powerful and capable machine. You’ll be hard pressed to build a comparably powerful PC for $500. On top of that, you get a 4K HDR Blu-ray player, which can cost several hundred dollars on its own.”

And if you need some help deciding which model of Xbox One is right for you, the review offers various scenarios and advice.

“Should you get an Xbox One X? That answer should largely depend on whether you’d be happy with the console’s library of games. You can check out a list of all the Xbox One X-enhanced games here. If you’re happy with the lineup and are thinking about jumping in, allow me to outline three different scenarios for you. If you game on a 1080p TV and don’t have any plans to upgrade to a 4K one, the Xbox One S is going to be a better fit for you. While you will get some graphical enhancements with the X, you don’t really get your money’s worth if you don’t have a 4K HDR TV. But what if you already own a 4K HDR TV and an Xbox One? In this case, I’d only recommend getting the X if you have the disposable cash to spare for the increased visual fidelity and performance benefits. If you have a 4K HDR TV, don’t have a current gen console, and are looking to purchase one, however, the Xbox One X is a great choice.”

Some links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.

The men’s football World Cup starts this June, and fans of the beautiful game now have an official video game to get themselves warmed up for the biggest sporting tournament in the world. EA has revealed its World Cup expansion for FIFA 18, and it’s coming to PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on May 29.

For the first time, EA has opted to not release a standalone World Cup game and will instead release a free update for its most recent yearly soccer game, FIFA 18. The expansion includes all 32 teams competing in the tournament this summer, along with all 12 Russian host stadiums, official team kits and badges, and more.

Online Friendlies and Tournaments will be playable within the World Cup expansion, while Custom Tournaments will allow you to create fantasy versions of the finals where other teams qualify–helpful if you want to imagine teams such as Italy, the Netherlands, and USA did manage to get to Russia after all.

Ultimate Team, meanwhile, will receive special World Cup cards–including World Cup Icons–and a revamp to Chemistry that sees players benefit from playing alongside players from the same nation or confederation. FIFA Mobile will also get a limited-time World Cup update from June 6, though EA hasn’t said much else about the smartphone version as yet.

Being an expansion, the update is built upon the core of the FIFA 18 base game. We awarded that game a 7/10 in our FIFA 18 review. “It’s off the pitch that EA excels,” we said. “From the variety of game modes on offer and how everything’s presented, to the constant updates in FUT’s Team of the Week, Daily Objectives, and discussion of real-world happenings in commentary, FIFA 18 captures the world of football and confidently translates it into a video game. On the pitch, however, EA’s soccer series is still lagging far behind PES 2018’s more fluid, satisfying football. This year’s improvements are welcome, but more needs to be done in the coming years if FIFA is to be a world-beater once again.”

Fear the Walking Dead Season 4 showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg revealed one of the actors in the AMC series requested to be killed off last season.

Warning: Fear the Walking Dead spoilers follow.

Fear the Walking Dead lost a cast member in the latest episode, and it turns out that they’d been eager to leave the series for a little while.

Nick Clark was the latest victim in shocking deaths, gunned down by the 12 year-old Charlie just three episodes into the fourth season. But it’s not all doom and gloom. In an interview with THR, Chambliss and Goldberg revealed that actor Frank Dillane wanted to leave the show.

Continue reading…

Season 3 of Fortnite: Battle Royale wraps up this week, and it’ll be followed immediately after by the start of Season 4. Epic Games has teased that it might be superhero-themed and tied to the ongoing meteor happenings, but it appears to be finally set to reveal the full details on Tuesday, May 1, alongside its launch.

Recent days have seen Epic continue to update a single piece of Season 4 artwork to feature additional superhero-looking characters. There are now a total of four who we’ve gotten a look at, while a newer piece of art (below) showcases the silhouettes of all four. Like Epic’s other teases, it features the words “brace for impact,” and the image suggests the long-awaited meteor crash will happen and bring with it these characters.

Small meteors recently began to hit the island, although nothing of any significance has come of that yet. It looks as if the big meteor was meant as a setup for Season 4, which is expected to bring another Battle Pass, complete with weekly challenges and new skins and other cosmetic rewards.

Epic still has provided very little official information about what to expect from Season 4, including what the Battle Pass will cost. Prior ones have only been purchasable for 950 V-Bucks, a premium in-game currency. Plans to sell Season 3’s Battle Pass directly for real-world money were scrapped just before it debuted. That was viewed as less than ideal because it meant you could have to purchase more V-Bucks than are needed for the Battle Pass. On the bright side, you could use the small number of V-Bucks that can be earned by playing to put toward the Battle Pass’s cost.

With Tuesday marking the end of Season 3, that makes this your last opportunity to complete Season 3’s weekly challenges. If you own the Battle Pass, you’ll want to crank out as many as you can to earn this season’s rewards while they’re still available.

Texas Frightmare Weekend is one of the most popular horror movie events on the calendar, and this year’s convention will be the biggest one yet. The event is now in its thirteenth year, and fans attending the convention in Dallas-Fort Worth can enjoy two big classic horror movie cast reunions, as well as buy some fantastic new posters from poster specialists Mondo.

The casts of the ’80s favorites Hellraiser and Child’s Play will be getting together to introduce and discuss those much-loved movies. In addition, the new Mondo posters feature such classic films as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Big Trouble in Little China, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Nightbreed, and Child’s Play 2. They will be available exclusively when doors of Texas Frightmare officially open at 6 PM on Friday, May 4, and any remaining posters will go on sale online after the convention. Check all the posters out exclusively below, with full details of the artists and how many will be available at the end of this story.

These two special screenings will kick off Texas Frightmare on Thursday, May 3. The Child’s Play 30th anniversary screening includes actors Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif, Alex Vincent, and Catherine Hicks, plus VFX expert Kevin Yagher, in person for a special post-movie Q&A. Hellraiser, meanwhile, screens later that night and will feature the reunion of the actors who play the movie’s terrifying Cenobites, namely Doug Bradley, Simon Bamford, Nicholas Vince, and Barbie Wilde. Get your tickets for Child’s Play here and Hellraiser here.

The convention itself takes place at the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport, but these cast reunion screenings are happening at the Alamo Drafthouse Las Colinas, which is the latest addition to the Drafthouse family of theaters. The specific location of the theater has an extra horror link too, as it is located on John Carpenter Freeway. Although the road is named after a Texas businessman, rather than the revered horror director, the theater’s creative team realized that this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

As a result, the theater has an interchangeable photo opp wall that features various homages to some of Carpenter’s most iconic films, such as Halloween and The Thing. There’s also a complete Carpenter-themed Mondo poster gallery lining the various hallways of the theater. Check out the image below:

For more information, check out the the sites for Texas Frightmare Weekend and the Alamo Drafthouse Las Colinas.

Child’s Play 2 by Matt Ryan Tobin

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 225

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Version 1) by Robert Sammelin

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 275

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Verison 2) by Robert Sammelin

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 275

Nightbreed by Sara Deck

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 175

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master by Mike Saputo

• 36″x24″
• Edition of 225

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child by Mike Saputo

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 225

Big Trouble in Little China by Phantom City Creative

• 18″x24″
• Edition of 275

Big Trouble in Little China (Variant) by Phantom City Creative

• 18″x24″
• Edition of 175

May means it’s time for Dark Souls Remastered, State of Decay 2, Detroit: Become Human, and more.