Star Wars Battlefront Had No Campaign Because of The Force Awakens
Star Wars Battlefront's lack of a campaign was a "conscious decision" to get the game out in time for the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
During EA's Investor Day briefing, EA Studios boss, Patrick Söderlund addressed the much-criticised omission:
"The one thing that we got criticized for was the lack of a single-player campaign", he said. "It was a conscious decision we made due to time and being able to launch the game side-by-side with the movie that came out to get the strongest possible impact."
New Book Delves into the Magic of Cinema and Sorcery
Fans of the zombie genre will no doubt be familiar with Arnold T. Blumberg and Scott Alan Woodard, the hosts of the zombie-centric Doctor of the Dead podcast. I had a chance to speak with them recently about their newly released non-fiction compendium of sword and sorcery fantasy movies, Cinema and Sorcery: The Comprehensive Guide to Fantasy Film.
The painstakingly researched volume provides an in-depth look at some of the most notable movies in the genre, as well as a comprehensive index listing every known sword and sorcery movie ever made. Read on for our full chat, and click here to order a hard copy of Cinema and Sorcery and here for the Kindle version.
EA to Work on VR, ‘Virtual Humans,’ and Deep Learning
EA has created a new team which is looking to improve upon virtual and augmented reality.
Speaking during the recent EA investor call, executive vice president of EA Studios Patrick Söderlund announced what part EA's future will look like.
Frostbite Labs is a team of 30-40 people working on "out there" EA projects. Söderlund says they are "a set of very talented people that are working on longer term things, that I believe could be profound for the industry."
"When virtual reality becomes important to us, which I think it will be, how you're seen as a virtual human in that world is something we need to solve," said Söderlund.
EA will also be looking towards deep learning and neural networks to create procedurally generated content. "Instead of having to work with a conceptual artist to build a level and figure out whether it's winter, whether it's night-time,
EA Originally Rejected DICE’s Battlefield 1 Pitch
DICE's initial pitch to take Battlefield back to World War 1 was initially "absolutely rejected" by EA Studios boss, Patrick Söderlund.
"It wasn't the most obvious choice," Söderlund said at the EA Investor Day briefings yesterday. "When the team presented to me the idea of World War 1 I absolutely rejected it. I said 'World War 1 is a trench war, it can't be fun to play'."
What convinced him was DICE's decision to physically show him how we was wrong (a pretty bold gambit when it comes to your boss):
"The team continued and persisted in the fact that this can be fun, and showed up with a very short demo that convinced me at least that this was the right path. The good news is whenever you take creative risks and it works, you actually can get to substantial success."
Blizzard and Twitch to Tackle Livestream Racism
Blizzard is working alongside Twitch to create a pilot programme to combat livestream racism, harassment, and abuse.
The news comes following an incident at last week’s DreamHack Austin Hearthstone tournament which saw an unprecedented amount of racism thrown at black finalist Terrence "TerrenceM" Miller.
"We're extremely disappointed by the hateful, offensive language used by some of the online viewers during the DreamHack Austin event the weekend before last," says Blizzard president Mike Morhaime to Polygon.
"One of our company values is 'play nice, play fair.' We feel there's no place for racism, sexism, harassment, or other discriminatory behavior, in or outside of the gaming community."
Watch Suicide Squad’s Margot Robbie Spoof American Psycho
Margot Robbie - soon to play Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad - has spoofed American Psycho in a new video for Vogue.
"Australian Psycho" (as spotted by Batman News) sees Robbie going through her intense, some would say worrying, morning routine:
It's a neat recreation of Patrick Bateman's own routine from Mary Harron's 2000 classic film - which of course starred future Batman, Christian Bale and even had a role for Robbie's own Mr. J, Jared Leto.
Here's the original scene for all your comparison compulsions:
Suicide Squad opens on August 5, and a sequel is already slated to shoot in 2017.
Square Enix Details Which Game Demos Will Be at E3
Square Enix has detailed some of which games will be playable at E3.
In part one of Square Enix’s road to E3 blog post, the company says Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Hitman, Just Cause 3, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, I Am Setsuna, as well as Square Enix Collective offerings The Turing Test, and Black The Fall will all be playable at E3.
Square also plans on creating a live show to discuss all of the company’s announcements, which will include developer interviews and live game demos.
For a breakdown of who’s on at what time, be sure to keep an eye on the IGN E3 2016 wiki.
SHIELD Creators on the Finale Death and Season 4
Warning: Full spoilers for Agents of SHIELD: Season 3 finale follow.
For months now, we’d gotten glimpses at a death occurring by Agents of SHIELD’s Season 3 conclusion, as Daisy was given a premonition that someone on the team would die. And as we saw in the Season 3 finale -- click here for my review -- that was indeed true.
It ultimately was Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) who perished, sacrificing himself to stop Hive (Brett Dalton). I spoke to Agents of SHIELD co-creators Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen to discuss how they decided to kill both Lincoln and Hive and the tricky nature of keeping the audience on their toes when they know a major death is coming. Plus, with the final moments of the finale teasing some big changes, we chat about the set up for Season 4.
SHIELD’s Brett Dalton on Season 3’s Finale Events
WARNING: Full spoilers for the double-sized Agents of SHIELD Season 3 finale, "Absolution" and "Ascension." You've been warned...
So how about that Agents of SHIELD season finale? The end of Hive! The Fallen Agent revealed! The world spared from an Inhuman apocalypse! An exciting adventure from start to finish.
Want to get inside the head of one of the stars of the show? One of the actors who took the big season finale hit and got killed off? Well, I spoke to SHIELD's Brett Dalton about his big show exit after three seasons, the final moments of Hive (and Lincoln), Hive's big fight with Daisy, and more.
IGN: When did you know that you were officially getting killed off, you know, for the second time this season?
Warner Bros. Shakeup Sees Geoff Johns Assume Key DC Movies Role
Warner Bros. is making changes to its DC Comics film department in the wake of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s lukewarm reception, with DC Comics chief creative officer Geoff Johns set to co-run a dedicated film division with current Warner Bros. Pictures executive VP Jon Berg.
The news comes via The Hollywood Reporter, which states Batman v Superman’s below-expectations performance at the box-office is the catalyst for this executive shake-up and describes the shift as a “course correction”.
Batman v Superman managed to rake in just under $900 million worldwide but the figure has proven lower than desired and has been eclipsed by Captain America: Civil War just weeks after the latter opened. Batman v Superman also failed to overtake Fox’s surprise R-rated hit Deadpool at the US box office.