Canceled Bungie Game ‘Gypsum’ Revealed
Bungie may be best known for sci-fi shooter franchises, but there was a time when its developers worked on a game project deeply rooted in fantasy.
During an interview on IGN Unfiltered airing later this week, former Bungie composer and audio designer Marty O’Donnell revealed a since-cancelled project blending fantasy and mythology into an action game.
Code-named Gypsum, this game was built on the Halo engine and helmed by two men who had previously created a mod called “Chimera” for Bungie’s Myth. It went into development in between Halo and Halo 2, alongside another later-cancelled project called Phoenix. According to O’Donnell, developers working on Phoenix were moved onto Gypsum once development was halted on the former project.
Domino’s Using a Robot to Deliver Pizza in Australia
Domino's Pizza has unveiled what is being called the "world's first commercial autonomous delivery vehicle," which is delivering pizza to people in Australia.
According to Lifehacker, the DRU (Domino's Robotic Unit) has been developed in collaboration with Marathon Robotics, who normally make targets for live-fire army training.
The Domino's Robotic Unit
Zack Snyder Wants to Expand the 300 Series Across History
Zack Snyder has revealed that he's discussed a number of new directions for the 300 franchise, which extend across world history.
In an interview with Collider, the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director said that he had discussed 300 sequels set during the American Revolutionary War or at the Alamo, at a battle in China or a "'Lost Legion' kind of concept" (the latter referencing the trope of a group of Roman soldiers lost in a distant, dangerous land).
This isn't the first time Snyder's mentioned such an idea - earlier this month, he was talking up the idea of a film about George Washington in 300's style.
This Seems Like the First Footage of Smartphone Game Pokémon Go
Footage has emerged of what looks like a South by Southwest presentation by Niantic CEO, John Hanke featuring the first gameplay seen of his company's upcoming AR smartphone game, Pokémon Go.
As Kotaku points out in its story, no official video or transcript of the talk exists, and Hanke does not appear onscreen in the video, so there's a chance that this isn't legitimate footage. However, with Pokémon Go on the way this year, and the fact that Hanke did give a talk at SXSW last week, things do look positive.
Factor 5 Was Working on an Open-World Superman Game
Factor 5, the studio behind the much-loved Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, was once working on a Superman game.
The game, codenamed Blue Steel, has been shown off in a video project by Unseen64. It was originally planned for release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii – although the Wii version didn’t get past the ideas phase.
The plan for Blue Steel was to tie it in with Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns sequel. When Warner Bros. decided to can Singer’s follow-up in favour of another Superman reboot, Factor 5 changed the vision for Blue Steel into something else: An open-world Superman game for Superman fans.
Telltale’s Engine Is Getting an Upgrade for the Batman Series
Batman: A Telltale Game Series will see a "very much upgraded" version of the engine used in all of the Californian studio's games.
Speaking at the South by Southwest panel during which the first details of the new series were revealed, Telltale co-founder Kevin Bruner said:
"We've got a whole lot of new technology that's going in that you'll start to see in Batman, and Telltale games going forwardWe have a bunch of new engineers that have been working on rendering technology - non-photorealistic rendering technology
but it's really cool, very much upgraded from the kinds of things that you've seen from Telltale in the past
First Look at Halo 5’s New Firefight Mode
343 Industries revealed a first look at Halo 5: Guardians' Warzone Firefight during the 2016 Halo World Championship Finals on Sunday.
The "ambitious new multiplayer experience" expands on Halo 5's Warzone multiplayer, creating the "biggest Halo cooperative" mode in franchise history.
Eight players will team up in Warzone Firefight to complete five increasingly difficult rounds of gameplay. 343 Industries will include lots of enemies, like its new tier of Mythic bosses. According to Microsoft, they're much more dangerous than the Warden Eternal. And, there's a lot of them—Warzone Firefight will include "the most on-screen enemies in the history of the franchise."
Warzone Firefight, which was announced in February, will give players access to all REQ weapons, vehicles, power-ups, and armor mods.
BioWare Reveals Name of Secret New IP, No One Notices
BioWare's Senior Director of Creative Development, Alistair McNally has revealed that he wore a T-shirt that revealed the name of the Mass Effect developer's secret new IP at GDC last week and "no one batted an eyelid".
Also it was fun to walk around GDC2016 in a t-shirt with our new IP on it and no one batted an eyelid.
— Alistair McNally (@Al_McNally) March 18, 2016
The news has sent many, including those on the BioWare forums, scrambling for pictures from the conference that might include McNally and his suddenly famous apparel, but none has yet been found.
Allegiant Has Lowest Opening of Divergent Franchise
The Divergent Series: Allegiant failed to topple Zootopia at the North American box office this weekend.
The penultimate film in the YA sci-fi series debuted in second place with an estimated $29.1 million.
That's the lowest opening weekend of the Divergent franchise, well behind the first film's $54.6 million and sequel Insurgent's $52.3 million.
Allegiant made an additional $53.4 million overseas for a global total of roughly $82.5 million.
Variety points out the "Divergent films carry budgets of around $110 million with foreign pre-sales reducing (Lionsgate's) risk."
BvS: Affleck Denies Rumors He Rewrote Script in Batsuit
Ben Affleck thinks the idea he rewrote the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice script while suited up as Batman is "the dumbest rumor."
Back in February, rumors swirled over Affleck not being "thrilled" by the script, saying the actor "rework
the script" on "multiple occasions."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck recently told reporters that he "just like
how if
was gonna go write,
would put on this batsuit first because it's so comfortable to write in."