Monthly Archives: February 2020
Friends Reunion Special at HBO Max Officially Confirmed
Dreams Review – Create And Play
The first game I played in Dreams was a cute Captain Toad-inspired puzzle platformer called Pip Gemwalker. It's about a Sloth who has to collect hidden gems across seven increasingly-complex levels. The second game I played was Blade Gunner, a Resogun-style twin-stick shooter with upgrades, an in-game store, and online leaderboards. After that I hopped into Art Therapy, a first-person game where your goal, as a disgruntled artist wielding a baseball bat, is to smash your way through a museum without any of the guards catching you in the act. The fourth was Shadows Dance at Olivetop Reach, a fantasy RPG with turn-based combat and an XP-based levelling system.
Each of these games is vastly different from the last, not just in terms of genre and gameplay mechanics, but their use (or disuse) of cutscenes, voice acting, art style, music, narrative, and so on. The one thing they each have in common is that they were all created using the exact same set of tools. That's Dreams in a nutshell: a platform where you can create pretty much anything you can put your mind to. Developer Media Molecule has continued the mantra of "play, create, share" that it used to define the LittleBigPlanet series and applied it to a much more ambitious concept with a significantly broader scope. Metaphorically speaking, if LittleBigPlanet is a single country, then Dreams is the entire universe. There's just so much promise and potential for the burgeoning Dreams community to create some innovative and inspired art, all by using an intuitive toolset that's made accessible via a streamlined creation suite and the use of informative hands-on tutorials. Whether these creations take the form of an hour-long video game, a short film, a simple visual spectacle, or something as simple as a sound effect that another player can use in their own project. The possibilities are endless, which I know is a tired cliché, but in Dreams--more than anywhere else--it actually applies.
There are two parts to Dreams which both branch out like roots from a tree. DreamShaping is where you can begin creating your own projects and find myriad tutorials that will teach you how. DreamSurfing, meanwhile, lets you find other people's creations and play them for yourself. It's also where you'll find Media Molecule's own creations, including Art's Dream. If you want to construct a level in LittleBigPlanet, you are always confined to the base template of a side-scrolling 3D platformer. Inevitably, some people found inventive ways to circumnavigate this template, but compared to what you can do in Dreams it's overly restrictive. To demonstrate the monumental shift between LittleBigPlanet and Dreams, Media Molecule has created a showcase of sorts, placing Art's Dream front and centre when you jump into DreamSurfing for the first time.
Continue Reading at GameSpotDreams Review – Create And Play
The first game I played in Dreams was a cute Captain Toad-inspired puzzle platformer called Pip Gemwalker. It's about a Sloth who has to collect hidden gems across seven increasingly-complex levels. The second game I played was Blade Gunner, a Resogun-style twin-stick shooter with upgrades, an in-game store, and online leaderboards. After that I hopped into Art Therapy, a first-person game where your goal, as a disgruntled artist wielding a baseball bat, is to smash your way through a museum without any of the guards catching you in the act. The fourth was Shadows Dance at Olivetop Reach, a fantasy RPG with turn-based combat and an XP-based levelling system.
Each of these games is vastly different from the last, not just in terms of genre and gameplay mechanics, but their use (or disuse) of cutscenes, voice acting, art style, music, narrative, and so on. The one thing they each have in common is that they were all created using the exact same set of tools. That's Dreams in a nutshell: a platform where you can create pretty much anything you can put your mind to. Developer Media Molecule has continued the mantra of "play, create, share" that it used to define the LittleBigPlanet series and applied it to a much more ambitious concept with a significantly broader scope. Metaphorically speaking, if LittleBigPlanet is a single country, then Dreams is the entire universe. There's just so much promise and potential for the burgeoning Dreams community to create some innovative and inspired art, all by using an intuitive toolset that's made accessible via a streamlined creation suite and the use of informative hands-on tutorials. Whether these creations take the form of an hour-long video game, a short film, a simple visual spectacle, or something as simple as a sound effect that another player can use in their own project. The possibilities are endless, which I know is a tired cliché, but in Dreams--more than anywhere else--it actually applies.
There are two parts to Dreams which both branch out like roots from a tree. DreamShaping is where you can begin creating your own projects and find myriad tutorials that will teach you how. DreamSurfing, meanwhile, lets you find other people's creations and play them for yourself. It's also where you'll find Media Molecule's own creations, including Art's Dream. If you want to construct a level in LittleBigPlanet, you are always confined to the base template of a side-scrolling 3D platformer. Inevitably, some people found inventive ways to circumnavigate this template, but compared to what you can do in Dreams it's overly restrictive. To demonstrate the monumental shift between LittleBigPlanet and Dreams, Media Molecule has created a showcase of sorts, placing Art's Dream front and centre when you jump into DreamSurfing for the first time.
Continue Reading at GameSpotReport: EA Canceled a Star Wars Battlefront Spinoff Last Year
Report: EA Canceled a Star Wars Battlefront Spinoff Last Year
New Star Wars Movie Reportedly Coming From the Director of Sleight
New Star Wars Movie Reportedly Coming From the Director of Sleight
DC Comics Co-Publisher Exits Company After 18 Years
Dan DiDio. Image courtesy of DC.[/caption]
IGN spoke to a source with knowledge of the situation who said that DiDio has always been known for being a traditionalist whose primary focus was taking care of the direct comics market, but now the company is moving its focus more towards brands and franchises. A restructuring within the company is a possibility but nothing has been decided as of yet. In January 2019, DC laid off three percent of its workforce in a company restructure.
DiDio’s legacy is a long one, but his most prolific project was The New 52, a line-wide relaunch in 2012, of which he was a key figurehead. While initially considered a success that saw DC eclipse long-time competitor Marvel in sales, that response soon faded. Fans were left displeased with the removal of many key elements they felt were important to the DC Universe. Four years later, another relaunch under DiDio called DC Rebirth restored many of those missing elements.
Before his departure, DiDio had been teasing another line-wide initiative that looked to recontextualize the history of the DC Universe into different “generations,” but given his sudden exit, it’s unclear whether DC will move ahead with that project. Generation Zero: Gods Among Us is currently solicited as one of DC’s Free Comic Book Day offerings on May 2.
DiDio started work at DC in 2002 as VP of Editorial, received a promotion to VP/Executive Editor in 2004, and then became Co-Publisher in 2010. DiDio also wrote comics on occasion, including The Phantom Stranger, Sideways, and the currently-running 12-part series Metal Men.
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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.DC Comics Co-Publisher Exits Company After 18 Years
Dan DiDio. Image courtesy of DC.[/caption]
IGN spoke to a source with knowledge of the situation who said that DiDio has always been known for being a traditionalist whose primary focus was taking care of the direct comics market, but now the company is moving its focus more towards brands and franchises. A restructuring within the company is a possibility but nothing has been decided as of yet. In January 2019, DC laid off three percent of its workforce in a company restructure.
DiDio’s legacy is a long one, but his most prolific project was The New 52, a line-wide relaunch in 2012, of which he was a key figurehead. While initially considered a success that saw DC eclipse long-time competitor Marvel in sales, that response soon faded. Fans were left displeased with the removal of many key elements they felt were important to the DC Universe. Four years later, another relaunch under DiDio called DC Rebirth restored many of those missing elements.
Before his departure, DiDio had been teasing another line-wide initiative that looked to recontextualize the history of the DC Universe into different “generations,” but given his sudden exit, it’s unclear whether DC will move ahead with that project. Generation Zero: Gods Among Us is currently solicited as one of DC’s Free Comic Book Day offerings on May 2.
DiDio started work at DC in 2002 as VP of Editorial, received a promotion to VP/Executive Editor in 2004, and then became Co-Publisher in 2010. DiDio also wrote comics on occasion, including The Phantom Stranger, Sideways, and the currently-running 12-part series Metal Men.
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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.Star Wars: The Clone Wars Finale Will Premiere on May the 4th
When Does The Clone Wars Season 7, Episode 12 Come Out?
Disney+ is releasing new episodes of The Clone Wars weekly rather than all at once, just as it did with The Mandalorian and all of the other upcoming Disney Plus original shows - a distinct difference from Netflix and Amazon's binge model of releasing a whole season on the same day. Season 7, episode 11 of The Clone Wars was released on Friday, May 1, and Season 7, episode 12 of The Clone Wars, "Victory and Death" will release just three days later on May 4 - here's the official plot synopsis for the series finale: "Ahsoka and Rex must use their wit and skills to survive the turbulent end of the Clone Wars."The Clone Wars Release Schedule
For those keeping track, here's the full Clone Wars release schedule for all 12 episodes of Season 7. Unlike The Mandalorian's confusing release schedule, Clone Wars' final season has aired Friday without a break until the series finale, which will air several days ahead of schedule on Monday, May 4, to coincide with May the Fourth - Star Wars day.- Episode 1: "The Bad Batch" - Friday, February 21
- Episode 2: "A Distant Echo" - Friday, February 28
- Episode 3: "On the Wings of Keeradaks” - Friday, March 6
- Episode 4: "Unfinished Business" - Friday, March 13
- Episode 5: "Gone With a Trace" - Friday, March 20
- Episode 6: "Deal No Deal" - Friday, March 27
- Episode 7: "Dangerous Debt" - Friday, April 3
- Episode 8: "Together Again" - Friday, April 10
- Episode 9: "Old Friends Not Forgotten" - Friday, April 17
- Episode 10: "The Phantom Apprentice" - Friday, April 24
- Episode 11: "Shattered" - Friday, May 1
- Episode 12: "Victory and Death" - Monday, May the 4th
What Time Does The Clone Wars Come Out?
Each episode of The Clone Wars will be released around 12:00 a.m. PT/3:00 a.m. ET, although some Disney+ users were complaining that episode 1 wasn't showing up for them as late as 12:45 a.m. PT on Twitter, continuing the trend of technical issues Disney+ has been experiencing after its initial launch back in November 2019 with The Mandalorian.
For more on Clone Wars, check out our reviews of Season 7, learn everything there is to know about the legendary Ahsoka Tano, and find out why Dave Filoni made that surprising character reveal in "The Bad Batch" episode.
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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.