Borderlands 3 E3 Speculation Potentially Shut Down

Gearbox Software CEO and co-founder Randy Pitchford has seemingly closed the door on the possibility of Borderlands 3 appearing at E3 2018.

In a string of tweets, Pitchford, a well-documented magic enthusiast, laid the groundwork for the implication that Borderlands 3 will skip E3 with a magic-related metaphor. He described a performer who practices feats both real (“like hammer a nail into his face”) and fake (like a magic trick). “

once said (paraphrased), ‘When I make something vanish (which is a magic trick, and fake), people will swear that it is real. But when I eat a light bulb (which is not magic, and is real) people will swear that it is fake — a trick,’” said Pitchford.

Continue reading…

The Flash Gears Up for an Epic Finale

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Given where last week’s episode left things, it feels like The Flash could have moved directly into its Season 4 finale this week. The fact that it didn’t is somewhat of a knock against “Think Fast.” Fortunately, there were enough strong moments this week to ensure that this episode didn’t merely play like filler.

In fact, the opening sequence may be one of the most memorable of the entire season. There’s nothing quite like seeing Clifford DeVoe unleash every one of his ill-gotten powers on a group of unsuspecting ARGUS soldiers. DeVoe’s attack was very stylishly presented, with the camera angles, in tandem. It’s a shame we haven’t seen DeVoe unleashed on this scale more often this season. Though to be fair, that sequence can’t have been easy or cheap to put together.

Continue reading…

Candy Crush Dev Working On New Call Of Duty Game For Mobile

Candy Crush developer King is working on a new Call of Duty game, it seems. A recently discovered job ad is looking for a level designer to work on an “exciting new project” out of the studio’s office in Stockholm, Sweden. The game is being development in collaboration with Activision Blizzard, which acquired King for an incredible $5.9 billion back in 2015.

“The aim is to create a Call of Duty experience on mobile, while also breaking new ground for mobile and redefining the genre,” reads a line from the ad. “The approach and ambition is to be fresh, social, and highly accessible, while providing a very authentic game experience.”

A desirable candidate will have experience working in the shooter space, which suggests–not surprisingly–that King’s game will be a shooter of sorts. The job ad also states that you have a better shot at getting the job if you have “some understanding of the casual and midcore markets.” You can see the full job ad here (via Game Informer).

There are at least two other job ads at King related to Call of Duty; the others call for a senior network engineer and a senior tools developer.

Just a few weeks ago, Activision Publishing president Coddy Johnson teased that the company might be investing more heavily in the mobile space after seeing the huge success of Fortnite, particularly on mobile.

Activision has already released multiple Call of Duty games for mobile, one of the most recent of which is Call of Duty: Heroes. A 3D strategy game, Heroes lets you control heroes from Call of Duty games such as Call of Duty: WWII and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

The next mainline Call of Duty game is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which comes out in October. Activision will officially reveal the game on May 17 during a livestream event, so keep checking back with GameSpot for lots more on the shooter.

Cobra Kai Receives Highest Ratings Ever for YouTube Red

The Karate Kid TV spin-off Cobra Kai has shown no mercy to its streaming competition, reports Variety, based on data provided by TV measurement and analysis firm Parrot Analytics.

Like many other streaming services YouTube Red does not share audience data or ratings results for its content but, according to Parrot Analytics, Cobra Kai swept the legs of all streaming rivals for the week of May 6-12. This includes 13 Reasons Why and Arrested Development from Netflix, plus Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

Continue reading…

Gears Of War Designer Reveals Cool Ideas And Intriguing Art For Games That Were Never Made

Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski’s studio, Boss Key, has closed its doors. The closure came after the North Carolina studio’s two games, LawBreakers and Radical Heights, failed to find a big enough audience to support the team going forward. Now, Bleszinski–who is stepping away from gaming for the time being–has shared some ideas and early design images from other games that the studio considered making. It is almost always fascinating to get a peek behind the curtain in an industry so obsessed with hiding these things from the public–and this case is no different.

Bleszinski posted a few of Boss Key’s other game ideas on Twitter, one of which was a game called “Donuts.” A spiritual successor to Toobin for VR, Donuts was an arcade-style racing that would have had you playing as animals. Basically, it was “Mario Kart on water with animals in VR,” Bleszinski said. He added, “You could drink (ginger) beer for health, crush cans on your head, or shake up full ones for AOE attacks. Slam both hands to jump logs. Roman candles to pop tubes etc.”

Bleszisnki went on to say that he envisioned Donuts as a game that people might actually play in a real inner tube with a VR headset strapped to their face.

Another one of Boss Key’s ideas was for a game codenamed “DragonFlies.” You would play as a ninja/samurai in a giant airship while riding dragons and fighting zombies. It aimed to offer a PvE experience set in a “feudalpunk” world on floating islands. The airships would have been aircraft carries and the dragons your planes, in essence.

You can use melee and guns, while Bleszisnki and the team also envisioned allowing to your customize your dragons. “Basically do for dragon riding what Halo did for vehicles,” he said. You would also come across dragon eggs and hatch them. Bleszinski said the team aimed to learn from the “mistakes” of games like Scalebound and Lair. The developer added in other tweets that he pitched this game to Microsoft, Sony, EA, 2K, Activision, and Warner Bros.–and none wanted it, apparently.

Yet another idea was for a game called “DogWalkers,” which was aiming to be a World of Tanks/Tokyo Wars type of game where players fought against each other in giant vehicles. DOG, in the context of this game, stood for Destructive Ordnance (on the) Ground. “The air in the world’s fiction was toxic so any leaks on your walker you’d have to repair quick or get gas masks on etc. Rappel outside to weld legs too, toss wrenches to each other etc…” Bleszinski shared.

So why did these games never happen? Bleszinski suggested that publishers did not see enough novelty–or too much–for them to want to sign on. What’s more, he said at least some of these games would have had a budget of around $40 million, which he said is “not cheap.”

“One problem with publishers, generally? You pitch something and the response is often ‘too similar to something we have or out there so no’ or ‘this is too unique so we can’t do a proper financial model for it.’ I respect them but as a creative it’s frustrating,” Bleszinski said.

You can see all of Bleszinski’s relevant tweets below.

The servers for Radical Heights, a battle royale game with an ’80s twist, will remain online for the time being, but are expected to eventually shut down for good. Bleszinski himself said he is going to “take some time off and reflect.” He added that he hopes to return to gaming to “make something new again,” but it won’t be for a while.

Bleszinski left Epic Games in 2012 before setting up Boss Key in 2014. An interesting piece of video game trivia is that it was Bleszinski who announced Epic’s Fortnite during the Video Game Awards in 2011.

Here’s How Much Money Deadpool 2 Is Expected To Make For Its Opening

As you would expect, Fox’s new superhero movie Deadpool 2 is expected to have a massive opening weekend. According to analysts speaking to Deadline, the Ryan Reynolds-starring action movie could make as much as $350 million worldwide for its first weekend.

This would be $130 million-$150 million domestically and $175 million-$200 million from international markets for a total in the range of $305 million-$350 million.

The first Deadpool opened in February 2016 to an domestic opening-weekend haul of $132.4 million over its first three days and $152.1 million over the first four (it was released on the four-day Presidents Day holiday weekend). Internationally, the original movie made $149.9 million for its opening weekend, Deadline reports, so the sequel is poised to be bigger.

Deadpool 1 went on to make a total of $363 million in the US and Canada, which is good for the second-highest haul for an R-rated movie, behind Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ ($370.7 million), according to Box Office Mojo. The movie made a further $420 million worldwide from international markets for a total of $783.1 million.

This is all to say, Deadpool 2 has big shoes to fill.

GameSpot’s Deadpool 2 review from Michael Rougeau said the film “mostly works for all the same reasons that the original did. Reynolds carries the movie on his back–although this time around he should have shared the load a little more evenly with some of his talented co-stars. But Reynolds’ Wade Wilson is just as charming as ever, in his own twisted way, and Deadpool 2 delivers the laughs, action, and gruesome maimings that fans want.”

For more on the critical reaction to Deadpool 2, check out GameSpot’s roundup of reviews from other critics. The movie, which is directed by John Wick‘s David Leitch and also stars Josh Brolin, hits theatres in the US on May 18.