Ash of Gods Is Like The Banner Saga Mixed With a Classic Adventure Game

Ash of Gods, an upcoming turn-based tactical RPG from Aurum Dust, clearly wears its inspiration on its sleeve. Scrolling past screenshots it’s perfectly natural to think it’s a spinoff or sequel to The Banner Saga, but it’s actually got nothing to do with Stoic Studio’s viking adventure. In fact, Ash of Gods’ dark and desperate medieval world has more in common with the Dark Ages than any other era.

I recently got my hands on a brief hour-long demo build and played through the tutorial, two more fights, and a handful of dialog scenes and choice-driven area exploration. It’s hard to really pin a specific genre to Ash of Gods due to how nuanced its systems can be.

At the start of my demo I learn of an ancient war between a group of immortals and a strange, powerful group of beastly enemies. At the climax of the battle most of the human-looking characters begin to glow and sacrifice themselves – turning to stone – to banish the evil forces. The game picks up 2,000 years later, with you controlling one of the immortals that was wounded in the fight and never sacrificed himself.

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How to Make a Duke Nukem Movie Work

Here's what we know: John Cena is in negotiations to star in a movie adaptation of Duke Nukem. The project currently sits at Paramount and Platinum Dunes, a mid-size studio known for franchise horror and the most recent live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. With no director or writer attached, it’s unclear whether Duke Nukem will even go ahead. But if it does, it faces sizeable creative hurdles.

For one thing, Duke Nukem isn’t exactly current. The franchise's tortured last outing, 2011's Duke Nukem Forever, suffered from an overwhelming negative response. Even the series’ high point, Duke Nukem 3D, is mostly remembered for its gameplay and level design - hardly useful for cinematic adaptation. The games’ narratives center around bog-standard alien invasions, and somehow their central character is even less substantial.

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First Solo: A Star Wars Story Action Figures Revealed

The first action figures for Solo: A Star Wars story have been revealed, showing off Han, Lando, Qi'ra and the a brand new Stormtrooper variant, the warm-looking Imperial Range Troopers.

Revealed by io9, the figures are part of Hasbro's 6-inch Black Series line - you can check out all four below:

This is the first we've seen of the Imperial Range Trooper, perhaps indicating the film will be spending a significant amount of time on the snowy planet we've seen the film's two trailers so far.

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PUBG Sales Reach 30 Million, But PC Player Base Drops Off

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds hit a whopping 30 million sales this week, but the game is seeing its daily active player base on PC decline.

Bloomberg tech reporter, Yuji Nakamura, shared the news on Twitter, suggesting that cheaters could be to blame for the drop. This is the most significant drop in players since the game's launch, and has been dropping off since January.

Comic Book Reviews for February 14, 2018

The comic book industry celebrated Valentine's Day with another massive pile of new releases. DC welcomed writer Grant Morrison back into the fold with Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1. Marvel delivered a new Amazing Spider-Man Annual and kicked off Star Wars: Thrawn. And Image had a particularly huge week, as they published the final issue of Invincible and debuted the rebooted Kick-Ass.

Scroll down to check out our reviews for these and various other new releases, and be sure to let us know your favorite books of the week in the comments below.

DC COMICS

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Fortnite Patch Introduces Lunar New Year Items

Fortnite is back up and running, and patch v.2.5.0 is live. The update brings new Lunar New Year legendary skins and weapons, a new grenade, and 4K support on Xbox One X.

The full list of patch notes were posted today and as well as a bunch of bug fixes, there's a new impulse grenade limited to supply drops and treasure chests, and a slew of new Dragon weapons to mark the Lunar New Year.

Lunar New Year heroes with four new kits have also been added, in the form of Berserker, Thunderstrike, Riot Control, and Flash:

  • Berserker - A fearless Soldier who rushes into combat at close range with War Cry and Shockwave.
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