What Alan Wake’s Acquisition by Remedy Could Mean for Alan Wake 2
Earlier this morning it was revealed that Remedy Entertainment has acquired the publishing rights to Alan Wake, which was, of course, the supernatural detective game it developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 back in 2010. The rights were previously held by Microsoft.
But while it has definitely removed a barrier that would make the creation of an Alan Wake 2 easier, it doesn’t mean a sequel is immediately a safe bet.
Not that the audience demand isn’t there. Although the original Alan Wake was a critical success - it has an extremely respectable 83 on Metacritic - it struggled enough commercially that a sequel wasn’t immediately greenlit by Microsoft (it received a spin-off in 2012’s An American Nightmare, but not a full-blown Alan Wake 2). Throughout the years, however, it developed something of a cult status, with callouts from fans for a sequel gradually boiling to a fever pitch.
Twitch and Rockstar Team Up for GTA, Red Dead Online Rewards
If you're a Twitch Prime member, you can now link your Rockstar Games Social Club account to your Twitch Prime account.
The resulting fusion of online memberships opens you up to a solid selection of in-game rewards for Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online.
The 25 Best Summer Blockbusters of All Time
As the heat cranks up outside, families and friends often seek shelter within the cool cradling embrace of the local multiplex, hoping to kill a few hours with not-necessarily-mindless spectacle. Yes, the "summer blockbuster" has been our great pop-culture unifier for decades, with its large-scale production, impressive special effects, ready-to-collect merchandise, and big Hollywood names.
Still, it's always a gamble when studios scramble to shove as many pricey, flashy franchise installments as possible into a three-month window. Shrinking down into the Quantum Realm here, and sifting through the past four decades of over-the-top popcorn-y pleasers, we've come up with the 25 best and brightest summer blockbusters of all time. From evil aliens to friendly aliens to different takes on Batman and Joker, here are cinema's most captivating crowd-pleasers!
Why Spider-Man Has One of the Only Secret Identities in the MCU
Since it began in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been almost entirely devoid of secret identities. In fact, if you made a list of all the MCU heroes whose real identities aren’t currently public knowledge, it would amount to a small handful of characters at best. That includes Spider-Man, and even in his case, several of the people in Peter Parker’s life seem to know he’s slinging webs in his spare time.
But secret identities are supposed to be a constant in the superhero genre. Keeping your private life hidden is the only way to protect your loved ones from bad guys who would hurt them to get at you. Right?
In the MCU that’s just never been much of a factor, though for a second there it looked like it would be. At the end of Iron Man, Tony Stark is all set to tell a room full of reporters the Iron Man was a bodyguard in a suit. But then, in one iconic moment, he detonated the entire secret identity plot device and drastically altered the trajectory of the MCU.
Marvel Entertainment Unveils 2019 San Diego Comic-Con Line-Up
Marvel Entertainment officially unveiled its 2019 San Diego Comic-Con line-up, which includes panels from Marvel Games, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel Comics, Marvel Animation and more.
Announced by Marvel, its line-up will run from July 17 - July 21. It's important to note this isn't a line-up of any upcoming Marvel films. Here, Marvel will focus on several of its other fields of production.
In all, the panels are:
- Marvel Games Panel (1:30pm PT, July 18, Hall H)
- Marvel Television: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (3:30 - 4:30pm PT, July 18, Hall H)
Hearthstone’s Next Expansion: The League of Explorers is Back!
Hearthstone’s next expansion will be Saviors of Uldum, and it’s bringing back four of the most popular characters in Hearthstone history – Reno Jackson, Brann Bronzebeard, Elise Starseeker and Sir Finley Mrrgglton. Quite what form they’ll take hasn’t been revealed yet, but it makes perfect sense for these fan favourites to return, as Saviors of Uldum follows directly on from the last set, Rise of Shadows, as well as its Solo Adventure, The Dalaran Heist, in which a number of villains strapped rockets to the floating city of Dalaran and made off with it. Now that they’re in the desert of Uldum, it’s time for some bona fide Hearthstone heroes to fight back.
Bill & Ted 3 Starts Filming
Bill & Ted Face the Music, the long-awaited third entry into the Bill & Ted franchise, has officially begun production.
This news was revealed through a series of tweets, the first from the official Bill & Ted Twitter account, simply saying "It is time." The second came from William "Bill" S. Preston, Esq. himself, Alex Winters, who tweeted "Day one. See you on the other side and remember to be excellent." The final tweet came from co-writer Ed Solomon, who simply posted "Party: on." with an image of a sign pointing cast and crew to the set."
Outer Wilds Has Changed the Way I Think About Death
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING! This article discusses lots of details about Outer Wilds, including its end, so you should absolutely play through it before reading this. It also discusses some pretty real stuff about life, so make sure you’re ready to handle that too.
I don’t have many actual fears in life, but I am deeply afraid of death.
This is an uncomfortably personal thing for me to admit. It’s something I never really talk about and, to be honest, something I am mildly terrified to put down in writing at all. Despite generally being an upbeat, optimistic, and usually anxiety-free human being, thinking about death and the question of what happens after it is the one thing in this world that gives me genuine panic attacks.
Battleborn Made Gearbox Think ‘a Little Different’ About Borderlands 3
Working on Battleborn helped Gearbox think “a little different”, which enabled the developer to make a better game with Borderlands 3.
Talking to Metro, Borderlands 3’s art director, Scott Kester, spoke about the gap between Borderlands 2 and 3, and how creating Battleborn allowed the team to refresh themselves.
“We didn’t want to
, we needed a break,” he said. “Because if we didn’t have a break I think we wouldn’t have made something as good.
“By the grace of the beautiful 2K they allowed us to say, ‘Hey, we want to try this Battleborn thing, we just want to kind of reset our palette, we’re gonna try this thing’,” he continued. “And we did it and… you know, if we didn’t make that game Borderlands 3 wouldn’t be as good as it is now. It made us think about things a little different.”
Square Enix President Hopes Avengers Will Best Insomniac’s Spider-Man
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, President of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, spoke about the success they are hoping Marvel's Avengers will see, specifically in comparison to Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4.
"Spider-Man was a huge title and a major success, so we would like to work hard to have that kind of success," Matsuda said. "So I guess it did increase my expectations
. I do believe you have to have high goals. I thought that Spider-Man was fantastic, but we don't want to be bested by them. We are working very hard on the development effort right now, so that we are able to provide a new experience."