Month: December 2019

Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, the spin-off visual novel with RPG elements announced shortly after Vampire: The Masqerade – Bloodlines 2, has faced a slight delay. The game, which was due to release for PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on December 4, will now arrive a week later.

The delay was announced via the game’s Steam page, and has been attributed to a need to deal with a few bugs and sharpen up the visuals in a few spots. It will now release on December 11, at 6PM CET / 5PM GMT / 9AM PT.

The game is developed by Draw Distance, best known for their game Serial Cleaner. It’s set in the universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, and focuses on the conflict between the Camarilla and Anarch vampire factions. You’ll be able to choose a character from among numerous different clans and choose between different approaches to the situations your character finds themselves in. It’s designed to be played through more than once, with numerous different endings.

Bloodlines 2 was recently delayed into late 2020. Fans of the series will be able to delve into Coteries of New York very soon, though.

Death Stranding, Sony’s big holiday 2019 release, is the first game from Hideo Kojima in the wake of his split from Konami. The game received mostly positive reviews (including our own 9/10 review), and seems to have pleased many fans of Kojima’s previous work on the Metal Gear Solid series. In a recently-published discussion, held shortly before the game was released, Kojima has briefly touched on the possibility of a sequel.

In a discussion with Variety, Kojima discusses his friendship with Norman Reedus, and talks about wanting to work with Reedus again. Kojima said that he would consider making a Death Stranding sequel with Reedus, but that he would “start from zero;” it seemingly would not follow on directly from the first game. There are no further details or thoughts given (although Kojima does share a charming anecdote about Reedus’ cat throwing up.)

Another great tidbit casually dropped in this piece is that Helen Mirren attended the game’s launch event because her stepson, Alex Hackford, worked on it as the head of Creative Music Affairs at PlayStation.

Kojima has also hinted on Twitter that he might return to horror after the cancellation of his much-anticipated Silent Hills, which also would have starred Norman Reedus. Nothing specific has been announced about the next game from Kojima Productions, although Death Stranding will receive a substantial update in the middle of December.

Star Citizen, the ambitious PC space sim from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, has reached yet another significant funding milestone. The game’s public funding page shows that Star Citizen has eclipsed $250 million in funding since the campaign began all the way back in 2012.

$9 million alone came in during November, which makes it the biggest month ever for funding in Star Citizen’s history, according to PC Gamer. The uptick in support for Star Citizen no doubt surged due to the hype leading up to the game’s fan event, CitizenCon, which took place at the end of the month.

CitizenCon brought a lot of big news about Star Citizen, including the announcement of the newest planet, microTech, and a new 20v20 multiplayer mode for Star Citizen’s FPS game, Star Marine.

In other news, Star Citizen is free for everyone to play through December 5 as part of the game’s latest “Free Fly” event. This event allows players to fly every ship in the game (of which there are more than 100) instead of only a limited selection like in previous Free Fly campaigns.

Star Citizen supporters can spend money on things like ships and ship upgrades, as well as various subscription packages and extras like ship and weapon skins, among other things. The game, which spans a single-player campaign, a persistent, shared multiplayer universe, and a head-to-head PvP game, is playable in various stages of development for backers.

Star Citizen is the most successful crowdfunded project of any kind in the history of crowdfunding. The game started its life on Kickstarter back in 2012–where it was enormously successful–before launching its own website to continue accepting funds from fans. The game originally had a $500,000 funding target, so the $250 million it’s made now is 500X what it originally asked for.

Well, is there actually life on Mars?

If you were somehow under the impression that HBO’s Watchmen couldn’t get more insane, Episode 7, “An Almost Religious Awe” definitely proved you wrong. This week was full of bizarre twists, from revelations about Lady Trieu and her family to the insane truth about Doctor Manhattan–and naturally, plenty of Easter Eggs and references, both to the original comics and to the first six episodes of the show.

We’ve pinned down 10 of them this week. Which ones were you able to catch? Let us know in the comments below.

1. Sister Night

Laurie cracked a joke at Angela’s codename back in Episode 3, asking if her parents had been killed by a nun and that’s why she’d picked Sister Night. Angela had, predictably, deflected, but this week we learned the truth–and it turns out Laurie was actually almost right. Sister Night came from the title of a ’70s Blacksploitation movie baby Angela rented back in Saigon. The movie’s tagline was “Nun with a motherf@!#ing gun,” which also happens to be the title of Angela’s theme song on the official show soundtrack.

Sadly, Angela herself never actually got to watch the movie because her entire life was derailed by a suicide bomber that killed her parents and landed her in an orphanage, followed by her grandma dropping dead.

2. Genetic Trauma

Young Angela experiences a very literal version of genetic trauma–an idea first posited in the show back in Episode 5 during Wade’s support group–when she flashes back to Will’s memories of the Tulsa massacre during the suicide bomber attack. Genetic trauma is the theory that a person’s traumatic memories and experiences can actually be passed down throughout generations.

3. Silk Swingers

One of the videos available in Saigon that Angela browses by is Silk Swingers, a movie mentioned in the Watchmen comic as a sort of clumsily put-together “documentary” about Sally Jupiter, the first Silk Spectre.

4. Living In America

In case you forgot, in the Watchmen universe Vietnam became an American state following Dr. Manhattan’s intervention in the war. This point is driven home by James Brown’s Living In America playing over the scenes in Saigon.

5. Is There Life On Mars?

Watchmen actually has an answer to David Bowie’s question here, posed in song form as the episode ends. Is there life on Mars? Nope. Doctor Manhattan has been here all along.

6. Manhattan Phones

Remember Laurie’s “joke” from Episode 4? It turns out those phone booths for Doctor Manhattan are all over the world, not just in the USA, and they haven’t been going to Mars at all–they’ve been going right to Trieu Industries.

7. Burgers ‘n’ Borscht

A chain restaurant that exists within the Watchmen comics, Burgers ‘n’ Borscht could be seen in New York City following the Squid attack in Manhattan. Apparently, they were going strong even across the Pacific, because there’s one in Saigon as well.

8. For Whom The Bell Tolls

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for Cal, apparently. Angela finds him after he fell asleep on the couch reading the Earnest Hemmingway classic, right before she murders him to reveal his true identity.

9. Pachyderms

Lady Trieu’s mother wrote a book on parenting called “Pachyderm Mom,” which became a best seller in Vietnam and other Asian countries. According to the Peteypedia, the title was some kind of joke and it’s possible this episode gave us the punchline–the “donor” of Angela’s memory dialysis was an elephant. Maybe there’s more to Lady Trieu’s mother than we originally thought.

10.Trieu’s logo

In the Peteypedia, we learned that Trieu actually named herself after a figure from Vietnamese history who rode an elephant into battle–and it turns out, her company logo actually looks like an elephant’s silhouette. Add this to the elephant dialysis donor, and things just get stranger.

Episode 7 dropped a major bombshell on us about the classic Watchmen comics character. Did you see it coming?

This week’s episode of HBO’s Watchmen, “An Almost Religious Awe,” gave us the most mind-bending revelation of the series so far–and if you haven’t seen it yet, this is your cue to stop reading, because we’re about to get into some serious spoiler territory.

Consider this your final warning.

We learned this week that Doctor Manhattan, the original Watchmen comic character famous for being god-like, blue, and totally naked, has in fact been in the show from the very beginning, hiding in plain sight among normal human beings. Remember when Angela insisted that he definitely couldn’t do that? It turns out she had a good reason to say that–and that she was lying–because Jon Osterman is, in fact, Cal Abar, Angela’s mild-mannered husband.

Obviously, this revelation was a shock–but it wasn’t entirely from out of left field. As it turns out, Watchmen has been peppering in clues (some more subtle than others) from the very beginning. With this new knowledge fresh in our minds, we went back and found 15 of them–how many were you able to catch?

1. Is There Life on Mars?

Our first look at Doctor Manhattan in the show is something of a red herring. In a brief news clip that seems like it’s there only to remind us that this is indeed a Watchmen show and not some new HBO original sci-fi, we see him building sandcastles on Mars. What was easy to miss about the moment, however, is just how innocuous it seems–the news reports are establishing that Jon is simply still there, and apparently has been there for quite some time. Even going off of what little we know about Jon’s plans immediately after the end of the Watchmen comic, this seems odd. Why would he simply stay on Mars when he could go anywhere in the universe? Why would he have remained there for so many years doing nothing but the exact same thing he’s been doing since the ’80s?

2. Cal/Kal

Cal may be short for “Calvin” in this show but it’s also a homophone for “Kal,” the shortened form of Superman’s real name, Kal-El. Watchmen hasn’t been subtle with its Superman references when it comes to Will and Hooded Justice, but it turns out it snuck this one in under our noses.

3. Brides of Christ

Angela’s secret identity, Sister Night, may have been inspired by a movie she never got to watch as a kid, but it’s also no coincidence that she’s based on a nun. Catholic nuns are said to be “married to God.”

4. Twas the White Night before Christmas

The aftermath of the White Night attack on the Abar household has been bothering us since we saw the flashback. Not only did Angela mysteriously survive when she was pinned to the ground with a shotgun pointed directly at her head, Cal did as well. This is especially strange when virtually every other White Night victim was murdered along with their entire family, save for a very lucky few. It makes a whole lot more sense if you consider there was likely some literal divine intervention.

5. Will’s Suggestion

Will’s cheeky suggestion that he might be Doctor Manhattan when she first brings him into the bakery for questioning has a whole new meaning in light of this revelation. He was baiting her because it’s possible he somehow knew–and knew that she knew, too.

6. What Can’t Doctor Manhattan Do?

One of the more confusing conversations about Doctor Manhattan’s powers happens between Cal and Angela where they both adamantly agree with one another that he cannot look like a human being. There’s never been any indication in the Watchmen comics that that was somehow beyond Manhattan’s capabilities–so why were they both so sure? Turns out they both know about his powers intimately.

7. The Girl Who Threw the Brick

The punchline of Laurie’s “joke” throughout Episode 3 is that a little girl would throw a brick, unnoticed by God, and wind up killing him. This takes on new meaning in light of Doctor Manhattan’s current status and Laurie’s predicament at the end of Episode 7.

8. Lessons in Parenting

Cal’s extremely nihilistic view of the afterlife–or total lack of afterlife–seemed like a nonsequitur for his character when he was having a nice conversation with his daughters at the breakfast table. It wasn’t. If anyone knows how life and death works, it would be him.

9. “He’s No Cal”

Laurie plays off her connecting Cal to Doctor Manhattan as a joke–she just thinks Cal is hot–but the comment hits Angela too strangely to not be suspicious. Also, that whole conversation in the car where Angela pretended not to be aware of Laurie’s personal history? All a lie, it would seem–if Angela is married to Doctor Manhattan, she must know who Laurie is.

10. Sexual Tension?

At the funeral, there’s more tension between Cal and Laurie. We’re supposed to assume that it’s just because she thinks he’s attractive and wants to get Angela’s hackles raised, but we know now that the awkwardness actually may have gone both ways. Cal even asks Laurie, “Do I know you?” as she approaches.

11. Cal’s Accident

Angela was terrified that Cal may have told Laurie about his “accident,” which would jeopardize everything for them. He didn’t, he said, but we were left wondering just what the accident was and why it was so important for Laurie not to know. Turns out Angela was worried Laurie had already caught on.

12. Excalibur

Laurie’s hilarious giant blue dildo has an actual name, and it’s “Excalibur.” Deconstruct that word a little and you’ve got “ex-Cal-Abar.” No, we’re not kidding. Yes, we’re betting that wasn’t an accident.

13. Will’s Worry

Will’s concern for his plan ruining Angela’s family certainly takes a whole new context now. We were struggling to figure out what, exactly, Will could be planning that he was so sure would not only make Angela hate him but ruin her family–but if he’s known about Cal all along, he had very good reason to believe it. He tells Trieu he’s “betrayed” her, and now we know why.

14. “A God Walks Into a Bar”

If you remove a single space, Episode 8’s title is not “A God Walks Into A Bar,” but “A God Walks Into Abar,” as in Angela Abar. Coincidence? Once, we might have thought so, but not anymore.

15. The Knuckles

Lastly, the most damning evidence for the “Cal is Manhattan” theory actually came from a Redditor who went beyond the bounds of the aired episodes and examined the blue knuckles glimpsed in a previous “next week on Watchmen” preview. The Redditor then compared those knuckles to actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s, and noticed some convincing similarities. How could we have ever missed it?