Category: games

Collect all 45 of these fragments for an exotic sword and sparrow.

Rumours are pointing to Amazon’s The Lord of the Ring series focusing on the adventures of young Aragorn.

A tweet from generally reliable Tolkien rumour source The One Ring says multiple sources have confirmed the new series will at least start centred around the young life of Strider.

This move makes sense as Aragorn’s history is rich for storytelling. Aragorn’s life covers a large breadth of stories in the Tolkien universe, from his humble beginnings, when his legacy had been hidden from him while his mother fought to protect her son, right up to the events in The Lord of the Rings movies.

Continue reading…

Actor James Ransone will feature as the adult Eddie in the upcoming IT: Chapter Two, and Andy Bean will play Stanley. News of each casting comes via Deadline and Variety respectively.

Ransone recently completed work on Hulu’s upcoming series, The First, which is about humanity’s first mission to Mars. Ransone stars in the series alongside Sean Penn and Natascha McElhone. He’s previously starred in Amazon’s Bosch as well as HBO’s Treme, The Wire, and Generation Kill. Andy Bean previously featured in HBO’s Here and Now, as well as Power on Starz.

Continue reading…

Fortnite has taken the gaming world by storm, and now Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two Interactive has responded yet again to the game’s success. During an earnings call today, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doubled down on what he said before: you don’t become an industry leader by following what other teams have done before you.

Speaking to analysts, Zelnick said he doesn’t expect his studios–2K Games and Rockstar Games–to follow in the footsteps of Fortnite and PUBG.

“I think if one changed one’s business to follow other people’s big hits, you’d be constantly playing catch up,” he said. “And to say you wouldn’t be in second place is an understatement. You might remain in last place. So it’s our job to innovate, and more often than not that has driven our success.”

Previously, Zelnick spoke about how Take-Two is certainly aware of Fortnite’s success, he would rather have his studios push forward with new ideas instead of being “derivative” of something that came before. Rockstar is dipping its toes in the battle royale space with GTA Online, which added a battle royale mode called Motor Wars in 2017. And just this week, Rockstar added another battle royale-inspired mode called Trap Door.

Zelnick added that what Fortnite’s success shows is that some of the most successful games are the ones people don’t see coming. As an example, Zelnick pointed out that some industry-watchers said Red Dead Redemption wouldn’t succeed because Westerns had fallen out of favour. But of course, that game was a smash hit, and the sequel due this year is expected to be a massive success as well.

“Maybe the biggest learning [from Fortnite] is just the reinforcement of the fact that big hits by their very nature are unexpected. What drives a big hit is innovation not derivation,” he said. “That’s what we’re proud of around here. When we put out Red Dead Redemption, the conventional wisdom was that western titles do not work in the video game business–and Red Dead Redemption was a big hit and we have extremely high expectations for Red Dead Redemption 2.

“So I think the fact that Fortnite surprised everyone, particularly given where Fortnite came from–after all, what is now in the market is based on a prior release that did not perform all that well. It’s just a reflection of the fact that if you innovate and give consumers what they want, you can get an extraordinary result. And while we would love to corner the market in hits, and we certainly see it as our job to do so, we don’t have all of the hits and we shouldn’t expect to.”

As Zelnick alluded to, Fortnite began its life as a paid game called Fortnite: Save the World, with the free-to-play Battle Royale iteration coming years later.

Also during the call, Zelnick said another thing Fortnite has made clear is that free-to-play as a business model has been “transformative” for gaming and helping to increase the reach of gaming overall.

“The free-to-play revolution, if you will, whether that’s mobile or fixed, has been transformative for the business,” he said. “It’s massively increased the size of the business. There are a lot people who think Fortnite has welcomed into our industry people who didn’t previously play video games. Some of that is anecdotal; it’s hard to know, but I think some of that is right. This is all good news.”

Take-Two already has a substantial free-to-play business through games released in China and through its relatively recent acquisition of mobile game studio Social Point. While free-to-play is an important part of Take-Two’s business, Zelnick stressed that big-budget, narrative-driven, and highly polished juggernauts like GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 remain “terribly important” to Take-Two as a business.

In other Take-Two news, the company announced today that a new game from 2K–potentially a new Borderlands or BioShock–has been delayed. 2K will be at E3 2018 next month, but as of yet we don’t know what the company plans to show off or discuss at the event.

If you’re going to E3 this year, consider bringing your Nintendo Switch along. The company announced it will be giving out collectible pins to anyone seen playing their Switch in and around the convention center during the event.

According to the announcement, the pins will be handed out by roving Nintendo reps while supplies last. These are made exclusively for E3, so they’ll be hard to find outside the convention center. Pins are a frequent giveaway item at booths, and this is likely to be in high demand among the attendees. Plus, bringing your Nintendo Switch is a fine way to pass the time while you wait in lines.

Public-facing promotions like this are part of the changing face of E3, as it becomes a hybrid between an industry press show and one made for consumers. Last year the convention opened its doors to the public for the first time, a trend that is repeating this year. Nintendo has been leaning into taking its messaging directly to fans for years–first by ending its stage presentations in favor of pre-filmed showcases, and then by hosting exhibition tournaments. This year the focus is Super Smash Bros, complete with its own tourney.

E3 2018 will take place June 12-14 in Los Angeles. Most of the big announcements will be packed into the days prior with press conferences from EA, Microsoft, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Sony all spread out across Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Nintendo’s showcase will debut Tuesday morning, just hours before the show opens.

David faces Farouk yet again while delusion infests Division 3. Check out Ryan and Greg’s breakdown of Legion Season 2 Episode 7, “Chapter 15”!

One of the biggest franchises from publisher 2K has been delayed until 2020.

Parent company Take-Two Interactive Software released the information its latest earnings report, revealing that a game that was set to be released this fiscal year has been pushed back.

“The highly-anticipated title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises, which had been planned for release during the current fiscal year, is now planned for launch during fiscal 2020 to allow for additional development time,” the report states.

Previously, we speculated the upcoming title – which was announced during an earnings report from last year – could be a new BioShock game, after reports suggested 2K’s work on the currently codenamed Parkside could be the next in the BioShock series.

Continue reading…

The new Super Smash Bros. game for Nintendo Switch will be playable at E3 on the show floor, which is open to the public. Given the profile and popularity of the franchise, many were understandably bummed about the idea of having to stand in line for a long time when they could otherwise be enjoying the show. The good news is that Nintendo today announced an early reservation system whereby you can secure a spot to avoid the lines.

Here’s how it works: If you buy a ticket to E3 2018 by May 31 you’ll get an email from the ESA–which organises E3–on June 5 with details on how you can reserve an electronic ticket to play. Nintendo said you’ll want to be sure to add e3expo@e3expo.com to your email so it doesn’t get associated as junk. You can reserve a “for fun” ticket to play casual matches, or a “for glory” ticket that puts you in a more competitive match. Your ticket will come as a QR code that you can either access on your phone or by printing it out.

Nintendo added that you need to sign up to play Super Smash Bros. for Switch. “No on-site registration will be available,” the company said, so you will absolutely want to do this. Nintendo added that it’s not taking reservations for other games at its booth; for those games, you can just show up and wait in line.

In other news, Nintendo is hosting a high-level Smash Bros. tournament at E3, so you’ll be able to tune in to see some impressive skills on display.

Additionally, Nintendo announced that it’s giving away a collectible Nintendo Switch pin to people that the company spots playing the system at Nintendo’s booth and throughout the Los Angeles Convention Center.

E3 2018 public tickets are available for $250 as part of the three-day Gamer Pass. In addition to access to the show floor, tickets get you into the E3 Coliseum, which is a theatre where developers discuss their upcoming projects as part of panel presentations.

The new Super Smash Bros. game for Switch launches this year, and given that it’s one of Nintendo’s biggest and most beloved franchises, it’s expected to help Switch sales improve further still.

Nintendo’s E3 2018 briefing is happening on Tuesday, June 12, as part of a pre-recorded Nintendo Direct-style video. After that, Nintendo will host its annual Nintendo Treehouse video presentation where more details and footage on upcoming games will be shared.

E3 is synonymous with giant video game ads, and this year is no different. These ads are already going up in Los Angeles, and one of the first appears to be a massive mural for the new Spider-Man PS4 game from Insomniac Games. Art director Jacinda Chew posted an image of a huge mural for the game that is currently going up in downtown Los Angeles.

The mural is truly gigantic, measuring eight storeys tall. You can see the work-in-progress mural in the embedded tweet below; right now all it shows is Spider-Man the character and the PS4 and Marvel logos. We’ll have to wait to see how it all comes together.

We’re expecting to see many, many more giant video game posters in and around the Los Angeles Convention Center soon, so keep checking back with GameSpot to see those.

Spider-Man releases exclusively on PS4 on September 7. Ahead of launch, we’re expecting to learn much more about the title at E3 this year, as the game is one of four games Sony is focusing on at E3. In other news, we recently learned the game is locked at 30 FPS, and will not have microtransactions.

For more on Spider-Man, check out all of GameSpot’s previous written and video coverage here.

Generally, the best Avengers teams are those brought together by circumstance. Way back at the beginning, Loki’s machinations compelled Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Giant-Man and Wasp to join forces for the first time. Decades later, a similarly eclectic band of heroes were brought together by fate in New Avengers #1. The latest incarnation of these series is cut very much from the same cloth. It’s building a compelling new team using the invasion of the Dark Celestials as a catalyst. And despite some concerns about the early course of the series, this new team is looking to be a promising successor to those that have come before.

Continue reading…