Comic Book Reviews for June 15, 2016
E3 may be dominating all the headlines right now, but it was a huge week for comic lovers as well. DC delivered a trifecta of major Batman comics, including the new Batman #1, the Dark Knight Returns prequel The Last Crusade, and Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso's graphic novel Dark Night: A True Batman Story. If that weren't enough, they also released Titans Rebirth #1 and debuted several key ongoing series with Superman #1, Green Lanterns #1 and Green Arrow #1. Elsewhere, Marvel expanded the scope of Civil War II and kicked off a new Star Wars mini-series and readers got new installments of fan-favorite books like Invincible, Lumberjanes, Lazarus and Jughead.
Scroll down to read 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.
Steam Summer Sale 2016 Dates Revealed
PayPal has revealed the Steam Summer Sale will begin on June 23.
An email from PayPal reads: "Brace yourself. We can exclusively reveal that the Steam summer sale will go live on 23rd June. Now you know when it's going to happen, you can get ready for the savings."
In the past, PayPal has leaked the dates for Steam's autumn and winter sales. This year, it has changed season once again, however it seems to be in a more official capacity this time.
There's no end date listed, but the summer sale usually lasts for over a week.
The 8 Things We Learned While Playing Horizon: Zero Dawn
After a couple of very impressive - if rather overwhelming - E3 demos, Guerrilla Games' Horizon: Zero Dawn finally clicked into place once the controller was in my hand. It’s a huge game with a lot of complex, disparate systems, so I've compartmentalised the 8 things that left the biggest impression on me after my 30 minutes in its world.
Every machine type Horizon: Zero Dawn has its own strengths and weaknesses and must be approached with these in mind. With her focus ability (activated with a click of the right thumbstick), protagonist Aloy can assess which ammo type - explosive, fire, etc - is right to use in any given encounter, and see weak spots to target on the machine’s body. She can also use the environment to her advantage - before taking on a particularly tough enemy I was able to use long grass to pop off a few shots in hiding, while it was distracted by a herd of smaller machines.
WB Games President on If Other DC Characters Could Get the Batman: Arkham Treatment
Batman has starred in four Arkham games in recent years while a host of DC Comics heroes and villains have recently come to blows in Injustice: Gods Among Us and its upcoming sequel, but is there room for more DC Comics characters to take the spotlight in their own games?
"DC is an enormous priority for our entire company, and we're thrilled that games can really support franchise building at almost the same level as movies and television can," WB Games President David Haddad said in an interview with IGN.
So while WB Games has nothing to announce at this time, DC's importance to all facets of WB is evident outside of games in the DC Comics cinematic universe kicking off with this year's Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. But don't expect WB Games to necessarily choose which characters could be suited to future titles because of that film slate.
Fallout 4’s Dialogue ‘Didn’t Work as Well,’ Says Director
Despite the shooting in Fallout 4 being "really good," some players thought Bethesda could have improved on a few things, including the dialogue system.
Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard spoke to GameSpot about the studio's tendency to "try new things" and how the team's efforts don't always pan out. "Obviously, the way we did some dialogue stuff, that didn't work as well," he said.
Fallout 4 voice actors spent two years recording over 13,000 lines of dialogue for the game, and Howard said the team intended to use the system to create "nice interactive dialogue," though it ended up being "less successful than other things in the game."
Rhythm Heaven Megamix Is Out Now
Rhythm Heaven Megamix is out right now, Nintendo revealed. The game costs $30 USD and can be downloaded from the Nintendo eShop.
The game features over 100 rhythm game challenges, with 70 pulled from previous games in the Rhythm Heaven series, up to and including the Game Boy Advance entry in the series. Nintendo first revealed Rhythm Heaven Megamix during a Nintendo Direct back in March.
Nintendo showed off the game during its Treehouse Live event during E3 today. It was the final game to be featured during a stream which included a new role-playing IP called Ever Oasis, a look at the western release of Dragon Quest VII, and of course, lots of Zelda gameplay.
Xbox Boss Talks Scorpio Specs and Console Upgrade Cycle
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer shed light on Microsoft's vision for the future of its console business, saying the company isn't planning to upgrade its hardware on an annual basis.
"We’re not on a hardware tick-tock that says I need to put out a console every two years or every one year to get people to upgrade. That’s not the console model," Spencer told WIRED in an interview at E3. Instead, the company is "trying to think beyond generations" with a console model that allows users to carry all of the content they purchased for their older hardware forward.
Next year, Microsoft will release an upgraded version of Xbox One, codenamed Project Scorpio, which Spencer likened to a PC with a GeForce GTX 980 graphics card. In addition to being designed specifically for 4K televisions, the console will be capable of handling software built for virtual reality.
How EA Plans to Discover the Next Rocket League
EA won't make a dime on EA Originals -- its initiative to publish and market indie titles -- but according to EA's Executive VP Patrick Söderlund, that's not really the point.
"Would I want to be the guy that found Rocket League?" asked Söderlund. "Yes. Would I want that to be an EA property? Of course I would like to. That’s
. For us to be able to find these people and help understand what they’re building and help push it to market. For us to find something else."
The latest game to be revealed as part of EA's Originals program was Fe, a game from Zoink Studios about exploration and discovery.
"I was essentially a small indie developer myself," Söderlund continued. "Battlefield 1942 was made by 14 people. It was, in today’s means, an indie game. Had I not had the proper support and funding for it, I wouldn’t be in this industry. So, for me it’s about finding not necessarily the next Battlefield, but finding the talent out there... That’s essentially
Conjuring 2 Villain Getting Spinoff Film
Following the success of New Line's sequel to The Conjuring, James Wan and Peter Safran are returning to produce a spinoff film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Conjuring 2 co-writer David Leslie Johnson is on board the pen the script.
Some spoilers for The Conjuring 2 follow.
The movie, which will be called The Nun, will center around Bonnie Aarons' demon nun character. The nun was added to The Conjuring 2 during reshoots just three months before the film opened, interestingly enough. As THR relates, the antagonist of the film was originally a demonic figure with horns, but director Wan brainstormed the new character in the eleventh hour and reshoots were conducted to add the nun to the story.
Former Assasin’s Creed Producer on EA’s Approach to Star Wars Games
EA offered an update on its suite of Star Wars games in development from various studios at E3, and the publisher is investigating how to make each title a unique approach to Star Wars lore and the gameplay fans may be seeking from a galaxy far, far away.
"Star Wars is a huge franchise, probably the biggest, and because it's a universe it also has a huge scope of different types of characters, different types of player fantasies that you can have within that
," Jade Raymond said in an interview with IGN.
EA is exploring how to make each of its projects, whether it be the Star Wars Battlefront sequel Raymond's EA Motive is working on in association with DICE or Amy Hennig's project at Visceral Games, evoke a different "player fantasy" in terms of gameplay and story.