Month: January 2019

A second season of She-Ra and the Princesses Of Power has been announced. The Netflix exclusive will be returning this year on April 26.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a reboot of the 1980s She-Ra: Princess of Power, which is a spin-off of the popular He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. The new Netflix animated series is helmed by Noelle Stevenson, with protagonist Adora and antagonist Catra respectively voiced by Elena of Avalor’s Aimee Carrero and Steven Universe’s AJ Michalka.

In Season 1, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power follows the adventures of Adora, a young woman raised by the Evil Horde. Adora leaves behind all she knows after meeting and befriending rebel fighters Glimmer and Bow, both of whom show Adora the horrors that the Horde have enacted on the rest of the world of Etheria. Armed with a magical sword that can transform her into an amazonian warrior known as She-Ra, Adora sets out with Glimmer and Bow to create an alliance amongst Etheria’s princesses to defeat the Horde. All the while, Adora’s childhood friend Catra–feeling betrayed after being left behind–enacts a plan to rise within the ranks of the Horde and destroy the Princess Alliance.

Although the first season ended with the immediate threat thwarted, there are still several storylines that have yet to be addressed. Hopefully Season 2 continues most of these lingering threads. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power developed a fierce fanbase with its first season, with most critics pointing to the show’s diverse cast of characters and portrayal of Adora and Catra–whose relationship fluctuates between friendship, bittersweet love, and murderous intent–as the highlights.

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Here’s an item Magic: The Gathering fans will want to check out. Wizards of the Coast has just release the Ravnica Allegiance Mythic Edition, a gorgeous box set of the collectible card game’s new expansion that comes with a few special cards of its own. The set went on sale today exclusively on Hasbro’s eBay Store. Quantities are limited, so you’ll want to grab this quickly before stock runs out.

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According to a recent report, about 18 percent of developers are working on next-gen games in some form.

This data comes from GDC’s State of the Game Industry 2019 report, which polled nearly 4,000 developers, giving an indicative, but not perfectly accurate, look at what many developers around the world are up to. Specifically, about 16 percent of developers said they are working on games for both existing and unannounced platforms, while only 2 percent said they are working exclusively on unannounced platforms.

Naturally, this leaves the majority of developers working on currently announced platforms, as 46 percent of respondents said they are making games exclusively for existing platforms, and the rest said they didn’t know at this time. Naturally, with no next-gen consoles having been officially unveiled, it makes sense that most developers are focusing on the current generation.

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Overwatch Lunar New Year 2019 – Year of the Pig Update Skins

Overwatch‘s latest event, the annual Lunar New Year celebration, is now live with the release of a new update on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. This event is modeled after Chinese culture, with references to important historical or cultural figures. The newly dubbed “Year of the Pig” will last through February 8.

The real star of any Overwatch event is the new cosmetic items, and this one is no different. The new skins largely pay homage to historical figures, especially Han dynasty generals: Lu Bu Reaper, Huang Zhong Hanzo, Guan Yu Reinhardt, and Zhang Fei Torbjorn. Others include Zhuge Liang Zenyatta and Hong Gildong Tracer, and the Epic skins Sanye Orisa and General Brigitte.

Past Lunar New Year skins are available again, along with other cosmetics like emotes and sprays. This year’s event also offers a festive take on the Busan map for a capture-the-flag mode.

This all comes alongside new patch notes and balance changes. While not a huge update, it does make changes to multiple characters, providing a buff to Reaper’s life steal and increasing the cooldown on D.Va’s Defense Matrix. Brigitte’s Rally also has a new cap–it can now only last a maximum of 30 seconds. Blizzard says this is because, “Sometimes Rally could cause a snowballing effect, making it too difficult to deal with the increased health of Brigitte’s allies before she built up another one.”

Alongside that adjustment, armor now works a bit differently; the damage reduction it now provides is -3, rather than -5. Blizzard explains: “Before this change, armor reduced all incoming damage by up to 5, maxing at half of the normal amount. This change reduces the damage reduction to 3, while still capping at half. This change will be most noticeable for heroes who fire quickly or in bursts, such as shotguns, and do more than 6 damage per shot. For example, Soldier: 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle will now do 16 damage per shot to armored opponents, up from 14 (an increase close to 15%). Armor was a bit too strong overall, especially when heroes were being healed quickly and often. This change will help more heroes fight against higher-armored enemies.”

The most recent Overwatch happening was an Ana-focused mini-event consisting of a short story and a single skin. Blizzard hasn’t detailed how often it expects to do these smaller-scale events compares to the larger ones like the Lunar New Year and Winter Wonderland ones.

Microsoft has announced that two more games and their corresponding expansions are now backwards compatible on Xbox One. All four titles are a part of EA’s Command and Conquer franchise.

As is the case with most new backwards compatible games, the announcement was made via a tweet by Xbox Live director of programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb. The two new games are Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3. The former’s expansion, Kane’s Wrath, as well as additional content for the latter, titled Commander’s Challenge, are also now backwards compatible.

In our Tiberium Wars review, Kevin VanOrd gave the game an 8.7/10, writing, “Not only is [Tiberium Wars] a great game, but it’s a great example of a console RTS done right. If you’ve never played a Command & Conquer game before, there’s no better time than the present.” VanOrd did not offer as much praise in our Red Alert 3 review, but also remarked that the Xbox 360 version of the game has “enough good, crazy fun that it might just charm you into forgiving its flaws.”

EA is currently in works with Petroglyph Games in development of a Command and Conquer Remastered Collection, which will include new versions of 1995’s Tiberian Dawn, 1996’s Red Alert, and both games’ expansion packs. EA stressed that the collection would launch “without microtransactions” on PC, and will attempt to recapture the “authenticity” of the original games. No exact timeframe has been announced for when the Command and Conquer Remastered Collection will launch, but EA has hinted it will release on the franchise’s 25th anniversary in 2020.

If you’re curious as to what games are backwards compatible on Xbox One, we’ve compiled the full list. We’ve also highlighted our personal favorites if you want to know the best games to play.

It’s no secret that theater attendance in the US has been steadily dropping over the past few years, as prices rise and the old-fashioned theatrical experience faces increased competition from streaming services. However, it has been reported that ticket sales rebounded in 2018, making it the most successful year for some time.

As reported by Variety, movie admissions rose by 5.5% on the previous year, to a total of 1.3 billion tickets sold. In terms of money, $11.85 was spent at the box office, which was a 6.9% rise on 2017. The figures come from the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). The hugely successful movies that helped these numbers include Black Panther, Avengers Infinity War, and Incredibles II, all of which were made by Disney.

2017 was the worst year at the box office since 1995, with a number of high-profile movies underperforming, including the commercial failures Transformers: The Last Knight and The Mummy. Even though 2018 had a few disappointments–most notably the Star Wars spin-off Solo–the huge moneymakers were more than enough the push the figures high.

Overall ticket sales peaked in 2002, the year of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Spider-Man, and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. There were 1.57 billion tickets sold that year, and while the subsequent two years saw a decline, these three consecutive years remain the highest over the past three decades.

While it is obviously too earlier to know how 2019 will pan out, there have already been some major successes. Aquaman opened at the end of December, and has made $307 million in the US so far; worldwide it is already the most successful DC movie of all time. Later this year, films such as Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Dark Phoenix, and Star Wars Episode IX will open, making it very possible that 2019 tops 2018’s admissions.

Kingdom Hearts series director, Tetsuya Nomura, says that he is “reconsidering” simultaneous worldwide releases for his games.

Last month, four copies of Kingdom Hearts 3 were sold ahead of the game’s release, and despite the damage control and efforts from the community to shut down any leaks before they became widespread, the experience has given Tetsuya Nomura second thoughts about how to handle the launch of his games going forward.

“Because of what happened, the risks for a simultaneous worldwide release are high, for any games that I work on henceforth, currently I cannot help but reconsider a simultaneous worldwide release for at the very least the retail package version,” he said in an interview with Famitsu, via Kotaku.

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