Monthly Archives: November 2015
Amazon Releases New Prime Air Teaser
The development of Prime Air was revealed in 2013, but Amazon is now giving customers another look at its progress.
A prototype is being teased in a video posted on Amazon's FAQ page. The new drone is much more polished than the previous iteration and will weigh 55 pounds. Flying at under 400 feet, the drones will deliver your cargo—up to five pounds—in 30 minutes or less, says the online retailer.
Amazon notes that safety is the biggest priority for them, and so, there is no official release date. Prime Air will only be deployed when Amazon has the “regulatory support needed to safely realize
Can Overwatch Convert a Call of Duty and Battlefield Player?
I’ve been a fan of first-person shooters since my three brothers and I huddled around a CRT computer monitor to play the granddaddy of the genre, Wolfenstein 3D. When offline body counts begat online fragging, I fell in love with the competitive multiplayer of Quake, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty and Battlefield.
Nowadays, there’s a new kind of shooter muscling its way into existence. It comes in many different descriptions, depending on which company is spruiking its specific take on the sub-genre, but I like to call it the MOBA-shooter: a splicing of classic shooting tropes with iconic hero characters, special abilities and a progression system.
Overwatch is Blizzard’s take on the MOBA-shooter sub-genre and, considering I’ve never really dabbled in MOBAs, it’s captured the attention of this diehard competitive-shooter fan. Here’s why.
Final Fantasy 7 PS4 Trophy List Surfaces Online
The trophy list for Square Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy VII port for PlayStation 4 has been leaked online.
The list of in-game achievements, courtesy of Exophase, is quite similar to that of the Steam version, which shouldn't be particularly surprising since Square is porting the PC version of its classic RPG to Sony's platform. It's important to note, however, Sony and Square Enix have yet to confirm the validity of this list.
That said, the leak could very well be an indication that Final Fantasy VII's release on PlayStation 4 isn't too far off. Plus, with PlayStation Experience mere days away, there's a good chance the publisher is planning to announce a release date during Sony's keynote this weekend.
Far Cry Primal, Quantum Break Teased for The Game Awards
The Game Awards 2015 will feature a number of world premieres, and according to show producer Geoff Keighley, both Quantum Break and Far Cry Primal will be getting some time in the spotlight.
In a post on Twitter, Keighley announced X-Men actor and Quantum Break star Shawn Ashmore will be making an appearance to unveil new footage of Remedy's upcoming Xbox One exclusive.
Thursday, @ShawnRAshmore joins us to world premiere new QUANTUM BREAK content at @thegameawards pic.twitter.com/g4Og4sUh5W
These 3 Oscar Winners Turned Down Phantom Menace
While Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace was ultimately directed by George Lucas, the film was first offered to three other top-tier directors: Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Robert Zemeckis.
On the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Hollywood Reporter), Howard revealed that Lucas "didn’t necessarily want to direct" the prequel films, saying, "he had talked to
Zemeckis, he talked to me, he talked to Steven Spielberg. I was the third one he spoke to."
However, all three directors turned him down. "They all said the same thing: 'George, you should just do it.' This is your baby," Howard added. "Nobody wanted to follow that act I don’t think at that point. That was an honor, but it would’ve been just too daunting."
Good Dinosaur, Creed Strong But Can’t Topple Mockingjay
Katniss Everdeen's last stand staved off strong competition from Pixar Animation and the return of Rocky Balboa this weekend.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 remained the No. 1 movie at the North American box office over Thanksgiving weekend, grossing an estimated $75.8 million for the Wednesday-Sunday holiday frame, $51.6 million of that from the three-day weekend alone.
Mockingjay, Part 2's domestic total stands at $198.3 million for a worldwide total of $440.7 million.
Pixar Animation's long-delayed The Good Dinosaur debuted in second place just below expectations with an estimated $39.2 million for the three-day weekend and a total of $55.6 million since opening Wednesday.
PlayStation Wins Black Friday, According to Marketing Study
Sony's gaming platform was the preferred console during Black Friday, according to a marketing study conducted by InfoScout.
The study, which tracked the purchases of over 250,000 receipts captured on mobile devices during Thanksgiving night and into Black Friday, reports that Millennial consumers (those between the ages of 18 to 35) preferred PlayStation to Xbox and Nintendo.
According to InfoScout's research via Polygon, Black Friday resulted in an 8 percent spike for interest in PlayStation among Millennials, and it came at the cost of a significant portion of Xbox's consumer mindshare. Meanwhile, middle-aged consumers were slightly more partial to Xbox; though, interest in PlayStation did see a 3 percent spike during the holiday shopping weekend.
GoT’s The Mountain Breaks His Own World Record
Game of Thrones star Hafthor Bjornsson has set a new world record, surpassing his own previous keg-tossing high.
According to Giants Live, the actor who plays Ser Gregor Clegane (aka "The Mountain") on the popular HBO series was able to toss a 33-pound keg over 23 feet in the air.
"It was easy!" Bjornsson said of the feat. "I could have broken the roof. It was amazing to do this in front of the great crowd. Bring on Europe's Strongest Man."
That's not the only record the Game of Thrones actor has managed to shatter this year, having tossed a 56-pound kettlebell over 19 feet in the air with a single arm at the Arnold Sports Festival back in March. If that weren't enough, Bjornsson also broke a 1000-year-old weightlifting record the month prior.
Portal Items Coming to Rocket League
Officially-licensed Portal items are coming to Rocket League on PC and PS4 next month.
Nine new items have been added, developer Psyonix has announced. Conversion, Propulsion, and Repulsion gels have all been converted to rocket trails. The Aperture Laboratories logo, a cake sticker, companion cube, personality core, and PotatOS have all been made into antennas. Cake is also making an appearance as a topper.
The items will be available for free, starting December 1.
Portal isn't the only famous IP to get Rocket League items, Back to the Future DLC was released back in October. Since then, a slew of DLC has come to the sports game, including free mutators, which added settings like low gravity, time warp, and the ability to change the ball size.
Force Awakens Writer: ‘Star Wars Is Its Own Genre’
According to Star Wars: The Force Awakens writer Lawrence Kasdan, Lucasfilm's beloved film franchise can't be categorized as either sci-fi or fantasy.
"Star Wars is its own genre," Kasdan told Wired in a recent interview. "It's not really science fiction. It's really something on its own, fantasy and myth and science fiction and Flash Gordon and Akira Kurosawa all mixed up together.... It can be anything you want it to be."
In addition to co-writing the screenplay for The Force Awakens, Kasdan also penned The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He's also co-writer on the upcoming Han Solo standalone movie that will explore the wise-cracking smuggler's younger days.