Jonathan Frakes Hints at Riker’s Unexpected Return
With the official Star Trek Las Vegas Convention happening next week, it’s safe to say that an untold number of Trekkies, Trekkers and Treksters will be beaming in to attend panels featuring all Trek stars past and present, dress up as their favorite characters in hyper-specific cosplay… and of course buy lots and lots of swag.
Jonathan Frakes is certainly no stranger to the convention scene. Having played Commander William T. Riker on seven seasons of The Next Generation and in four movies, he’s also directed a ton of Trek -- including two of the aforementioned films -- which is something he began on Next Gen and continues to do now on Star Trek: Discovery and the upcoming Star Trek: Picard.
Netflix’s Big Mouth Renewed for Three More Seasons
Today, Netflix has ordered three more seasons of its raunchy adult animated series, Big Mouth. Series creators Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett will also develop movies for the streaming giant, under their newly formed animation company, called Brutus Pink.
Per Netflix, Big Mouth is "about the glorious nightmare that is puberty. Inspired by Kroll and Goldberg’s childhood, it follows a group of friends and their hormone monsters as they navigate adolescence, human sexuality, and coming of age."
“Big Mouth brilliantly captures the most awkward phase in a person’s life, puberty, in a hilarious yet heartwarming way,” said Mike Moon, head of adult animation for Netflix. “We couldn’t be more excited to continue our relationship with Brutus Pink and bring more stories, more humor, and more hormones to Netflix members around the world.”
Every Video Game Appearance in Veronica Mars Since 2004
Did you know that there's a shocking amount of fairly relevant video game references all throughout the uniquely dark and charming Veronica Mars series?
I combed through every episode from its first three seasons in 2005-2007, as well as the brand new Season 4 to find every game ever played (or, in one occasion, name-dropped). The showrunners even do a pretty good job of pairing the right games with the right consoles, even if they aren't always paired with the right controllers or player inputs, with their non-sensical button mashing. Still -- I'll take what I can get as far as accuracy of video game references in mainstream media goes.
Check out the slideshow above for every game reference in Veronica Mars. Bonus: We've included the original IGN review scores for each game unearthed, too.
How to Watch the Fortnite World Cup
Fortnite's World Cup finals weekend is finally here. This weekend's penultimate tournament is bringing together 200 of the title's best players from around the world to have them compete for a piece of the $30 million dollar prize pool.
Creative Finals will take today's stage from 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, with Creative Pro-Am following at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET. The Pro-Am tournament is a pairing of 50 celebrities and 50 pro-Fortnite players competing for a $3 million dollar charity prize. The tournament's two main competitions will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Duos taking the limelight on Saturday, and Solo on Sunday. The full schedule for the tournament is below.
Disney’s Aladdin Has Officially Earned $1 Billion at Global Box Office
Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin has officially earned $1 billion at the global box office today, after almost reaching the milestone on Thursday, July 25, with $999.3 million USD.
As reported by THR, Aladdin had earned $343.1 million in North America and $656.2 million internationally through yesterday. Today, it joined Spider-Man: Far From Home, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame as the only films in the $1 billion club for 2019.
Best Smart Thermostat 2019: Never Touch the Temperature Dial Again
Traditional thermostats are kind of bungle to use. It feels like it takes a million button presses to program anything and forget adjusting the A/C if you aren’t at home, or in the correct room. If you’d rather adjust your thermostat from your phone, with your voice, or—if that isn’t futuristic enough—let it adjust itself automatically, you’ll want a smart thermostat like one of these.
TL;DR – These are the Best Smart Thermostats:
Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition Announced for Nintendo Switch
Publisher Versus Evil is partnering with Obsidian Entertainment to bring Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition to the Nintendo Switch on August 8, 2019, for $49.99 USD, with a 20% discount for pre-ordering.
Pillars of Eternity originally started as Project Eternity and, at the time, became the most successful video game Kickstarter of all time on October 16, 2012 with $3,986,929. It was then released on PC in 2015, with Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition releasing on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2017.
The Nintendo Switch version will include The White March: Parts I & II DLC and all the major updates from the original PC version, including a raised level cap, expanded party AI options, and new difficulty levels.
Doom Eternal Battle Mode: 13 New Multiplayer Details Revealed
Doom Eternal’s 1v2 multiplayer, Battle Mode, was fully revealed in the QuakeCon 2019 keynote stream by executive producer Marty Stratton and creative director Hugo Martin.
This new mode for Eternal pits one player controlling the Doom Slayer against two other players acting as demons. Confined to an arena littered with items and tools, the Slayer must kill both demons to emerge victorious. The mode will launch with five playable demons and six maps, with new demons and maps released for free in future updates.
The stream was packed with details, and here are all the points you need to know:
1 - The five playable demons are the Revenant, Pain Elemental, Mancubus, Arch-Vile, and Marauder.
Who Should Be On the Video Game Mt. Rushmore?
Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN's weekly video game podcast. This week we're picking who should be on the video game version of Mount Rushmore, system-selling games, our favorite weapon types, and more. Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
Listen on:
Max Payne Writer Used Game’s Script as College Application
Sam Lake, the writer known for penning the worlds of Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and the upcoming Control, shared an interesting bit of personal history on this month’s IGN Unfiltered. While other students in Finland were applying to colleges with research papers and resumes, Lake was required to send in a 75-page screenplay. So he submitted a draft of his video game script.
“The drama teacher had just returned to
from Los Angeles,” Lake told IGN. “He'd been here for years studying and doing script doctoring, things like that. He came back to Finland and started to teach screenwriting. In the setup for that, he was saying 'You can choose: you write in Finnish or you write in English.' That felt, to me, that's perfect. You needed to send 75 pages of screenplay as a sample, so I just sent Max Payne.”