Month: January 2019

BioWare has shared thoughts on the weekend’s Anthem VIP demo, and outlined bug fixes it has in the works before the public demo kicks off. It also sought to assuage concerns about the final release, which will include fixes not seen in either demo.

In the blog post, BioWare’s Chad Robertson says that entitlement bugs, server performance updates, platform bugs for Javelin unlocks, and client bugs were either addressed over the weekend, or will be addressed before the public demo begins. It also notes that it will be doing more scale testing to prepare for the influx of new players coming on Friday, and it plans to especially focus on the frustrating infinite load problem. The public demo will run February 1-3.

The post also mentions that preparations for the full launch have been in the works for a while, and as a result, “that version of the game already has a long list of things that are already fixed that won’t make the public demo weekend.” That includes weapons with 0% infusions, changes to Javelin unlocks, fixes to XP loss at the end of missions, stability and performance issues, and more. It promises a look at Anthem’s future to come on Sunday afternoon.

“As I shared on Saturday, it started rocky, but we stabilized that afternoon and maintained it until we turned servers off Sunday evening,” Robertson wrote. “We learned a ton about our game, our service, and you, our community. We’re working hard to ensure everyone can enjoy the game exactly as we’ve designed it.

“We had an extended look at Anthem and passed along what we learned, including some insights about the end-game. There’s no teacher like experience, though, and the VIP test was the first chance many players had to try it out. Unfortunately it was plagued by server issues, and the fixes that rolled out to mitigate them didn’t seem to solve the problem for everyone. BioWare has been communicating throughout, though, so its promise of more bug fixes to come over the weekend and then prior to launch should ease some worries.

February 3 is Super Bowl Sunday, where the L.A. Rams will take on the New England Patriots to determine who is the best in the NFL. Will Tom Brady’s Patriots or Jared Goff’s Rams come out on top? Regardless of the outcome, plenty of people watching the game are not football fans, and they’re more interested in things like commercials and what’s happening during halftime. While you could watch Maroon 5’s halftime show, WWE would rather have you tune in to its show, Halftime Heat.

In a video where Maroon 5 gets Roman Reigns-level boos, WWE proclaims it’s bringing back its halftime show, which only happened once before in 1999. It’s called Halftime Heat, and WWE knows how to get the attention of its fanbase, by bashing a pop rock act that wrestling fans probably would have skipped watching anyway, and you can see the promotional video for it below.

WWE has tried this before, in 1999, when Mankind fought The Rock in an empty arena for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Personally, I have very fond memories of this and remember it being a big success, but it hasn’t happened since then. 20 years later, WWE looks towards the future by focusing on its NXT brand.

Revealed during the Royal Rumble Kickoff Show, this year’s Halftime Heat will be a six-man tag team match featuring Aleister Black, Velveteen Dream, and Ricochet vs. Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, and Adam Cole. The show will air during halftime at the Super Bowl on the WWE Network, WWE.com, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Hopefully, this time around, the area will have an audience. (But the empty arena match was pretty cool)

This is a really smart move for WWE, as these six competitors are some of the best in the company’s developmental brand. Both Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano were surprise entrants into the men’s Royal Rumble match on January 27 and both proved they are ready for the main roster–a roster that’s already a bit too crowded. Regardless, this will be a fantastic match, and it’s nice to see WWE put the focus on the best wrestling in the company, NXT.

You can watch Halftime Heat on February 3 on the WWE Network during the Super Bowl halftime, and for more on Royal Rumble, check out the results and our review of the show.

Despite very mixed reviews, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass held onto the top slot on this week’s US box office, with an estimated $19 million taken over three days. This brings the movie’s US total to $79 million, off a modest, self-funded production budget of $20 million. While it is unlikely to hit the heights of its 2017 predecessor Split, which made $138 million in the US, it’s still another hugely successful movie for Shyamalan.

The week’s new movies did not fare nearly as well. The family adventure The Kid Who Would be King entered the chart at No.4, making $7.2 million, while the thriller Serenity fared even worse, grossing just $4.8 million to debut at No.8. Serenity, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, was hit by particularly bad reviews and currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 21%.

Elsewhere, the comedy The Upside and DC’s Aquaman remained at No.2 and No.3 respectively. Aquaman has now grossed $1.09 billion worldwide, which makes it the most successful DC movie ever made, eclipsing Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, which made $1.085 billion. The season’s other big superhero hit, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, maintained its position at No.5.

In the lower half of the chart, the drama Green Book returned to the Top 10 on the back of its Oscar nominations, rising to No.6. A Dog’s Way Home dropped one place to No.7, while the horror movie Escape Room is at No.9.

You can see the full Top 10 list for the January 25-27 US box office below, as compiled by Box Office Mojo.

January 25-27 US/Canada Box Office:

1. Glass — $19.0 million
2. The Upside — $12.2 million
3. Aquaman — $7.3 million
4. The Kid Who Would be King — $7.2 million
5. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse — $6.1 million
6. Green Book — $5.4 million
7. A Dog’s Way Home — $5.2 million
8. Serenity — $4.8 million
9. Escape Room — $4.2 million
10. Dragon Ball Super: Broly — $3.6 million

The Blackout Club is a co-op horror game where the adults have been brainwashed, and it’s up to the kids to figure out what’s going on.

Another one of this year’s biggest releases is skipping Steam in favor of the Epic Games Store. Publisher Deep Silver has announced that the PC version of its upcoming first-person shooter, Metro Exodus, will be available exclusively through Epic’s digital storefront when it launches next month on February 15.

Prior to this announcement, PC players were able to pre-order Metro Exodus through Steam. These pre-orders will still be honored, but the game will be delisted from Valve’s storefront today, January 28, due to the new exclusivity agreement, which Valve blasts as “unfair to Steam customers.” In a statement on the Metro Exodus Steam page, the company wrote:

“Later today, sales of Metro Exodus will be discontinued on Steam due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store. The developer and publisher have assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam. We think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period. We apologize to Steam customers that were expecting it to be available for sale through the February 15th release date, but we were only recently informed of the decision and given limited time to let everyone know.”

One of the major factors that has enticed developers away from Steam and to the Epic Games Store is its revenue terms; unlike Steam, the storefront gives companies 88% of their revenue while Epic only takes 12%, and it appears that split had a bearing on the decision to bring Metro Exodus exclusively to the platform.

“Epic’s generous revenue terms are a game changer that will allow publishers to invest more into content creation, or pass on savings to the players,” Deep Silver CEO Klemens Kundratitz said. “By teaming up with Epic we will be able to invest more into the future of Metro and our ongoing partnership with series developer 4A Games, to the benefit of our Metro fans.”

As another consequence of Epic’s more developer-friendly revenue terms, Deep Silver is selling the PC version of Metro Exodus in the US for $50–$10 cheaper than the usual $60 price tag most new releases carry. However, the game will still cost €60 in most European countries.

Metro Exodus isn’t the only major PC release that will be bypassing Steam entirely. Earlier this month, Ubisoft announced that its upcoming shooter, The Division 2, will also skip Steam in favor of the Epic Games Store and its own storefront.

Netflix is closing out one month and welcoming the new one this month, and that means lots of turnover. The streaming service welcomes a few big sequels this week, as well as a host of classics, while bidding a fond farewell to some others that have been on it for some time.

On Tuesday, Ant-Man and the Wasp will join, along with the new stand-up special “One Show Fits All” from Gabriel Iglesias. Then on Wednesday we’ll get The Incredibles 2, the long-awaited sequel to the Disney Pixar family superhero film.

As we welcome in February, a load of new movies and original shows are being added. The entire Jaws series is coming, along with the several American Pie movies, and some critical hits like As Good As It Gets and Billy Elliot. Those are joined by Netflix Originals Russian Doll, True: Happy Hearts Day, and Free Reign: Valentine’s Day, among others.

But as Netflix giveth, Netflix taketh away. Several movies are leaving the service, especially upon the February rollover, including Children of Men, Shaun of the Dead, The Big Lebowski, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Ella Enchanted. If you want to watch any of those for the first or the last time, now’s your chance.

Check below for the full line-up of movies coming and going this week, and read up on the entire February 2019 listing to plan your long-term binging.

Avail. 1/29/19

• Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias: One Show Fits All– NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp

Avail. 1/30/19

• Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles 2

Avail. 2/1/19

• About a Boy
• American Pie
• American Pie 2
• American Wedding
• As Good as It Gets
• Billy Elliot
• Dear Ex– NETFLIX FILM
• Final Destination
• Free Rein: Valentine’s Day– NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Hairspray
• Hostel
• Jaws
• Jaws 2
• Jaws 3
• Jaws: The Revenge
• Personal Shopper
• Pretty in Pink
• Russian Doll– NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Siempre bruja– NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• The Edge of Seventeen
• True: Happy Hearts Day– NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Velvet Buzzsaw– NETFLIX FILM

Avail. 2/2/19

• Bordertown: Season 2– NETFLIX ORIGINAL
• Romance is a Bonus Book (Streaming Every Saturday)– NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Avail. 2/3/19

• Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Leaving 2/1/19

• Black Dynamite
• Bride of Chucky
• Children of Men
• Clerks
• Disney’s The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
• Ella Enchanted
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
• Queer as Folk: Seasons 1-4
• Queer as Folk: The Final Season
• Shaun of the Dead
• The Big Lebowski
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Woman in Gold

Leaving 2/2/19

• Cabin Fever

Leaving 2/3/19

• Sing