Hear First Music From Halo & Destiny Composer’s New Game
To many, Marty O’Donnell is no mere composer. For plenty of gamers, he is the greatest score-crafter in video game history. He is responsible for the iconic, powered-by-chanting-monks Halo theme, Destiny’s score, and, in a previous life, the Flintstones Kids Vitamins jingle. His own Highwire Games is home to his first post-Bungie endeavor: a PlayStation VR game called Golem. After O’Donnell sent over his first piece of music composed for the new game (hear it in the video above), I asked him a few questions about his thoughts and inspirations for Golem’s soundtrack.
First, I was curious how O’Donnell inspires himself for a game like Golem. Staring at concept art? Thinking deeply about his own idea of the game? Something else? “It’s interesting because usually the inspiration comes directly from the game; I need to score the emotional tone of a particular cutscene or a gameplay sequence, for instance,” he told me. “That’s how the Golem announcement trailer was done. But with a prequel album you don’t have the specifics – the game is still early in production – so you have to use the broader themes of the story and the world, instead. Luckily, Golem has a fairly rich world to draw from. Even the title, Echoes of the First Dreamer, is a reference to some of the history from the game.”
Bendis Discusses Powers Books and Civil War II Plans
Brian Michael Bendis is a comic legend whose work at Marvel has covered everything from Daredevil and Jessica Jones to Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers, not forgetting his sterling work on multiple Ultimate titles.
He also co-created superhero police procedural Powers, and today finds his first prose novel on the subject – The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim – hitting UK shelves courtesy of Titan Books.
RBI Baseball 16 Release Date Announced
RBI Baseball 16 will be out on March 29 for digital download.
Plus, physical versions of the game will be available for the first time, but you'll have to wait an extra week until April 5 to purchase them at participating retailers in the U.S. and Canada.
Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts will be the cover athlete in the U.S., while Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman will be on the cover in Canada.
This year's installment adds new fielding moves such as dives, wall catches and fake throws. In addition, lighting and graphics have been improved over last year's game, as well as the batting engine and pitching strategy.
According to IGN's review, last year's RBI Baseball 15 improved "on RBI 14's biggest faults, but game-breaking bugs make us want to charge the mound."
New Level Pack, Figures Coming to LEGO Dimensions
More content is coming to LEGO Dimensions by way of new expansion packs from Ghostbusters, DC Comics, and Midway.
The Midway Arcade level pack includes a Gamer Kid minifigure, vehicle from Spy Hunter, and an arcade machine. From DC comes the Superman Fun Pack and Aquaman Fun Pack. Finally, from the 1984 Ghostbusters film comes the Stay Puft Fun Pack.
The Midway Arcade level sees Gamer Kid trying to put characters from Midway Arcade back into the machines in which they belong. Over 20 classic arcade games, including Joust, Gauntlet II and more, are unlockable and playable.
The Superman Fun Pack includes a Superman minifig and a Hover Pod which "can be rebuilt into a Krypton Striker and Super Stealth Pod for upgraded in-game abilities." Aquaman comes with a minifig and Aqua Watercraft, good for "swift getaways."
Rockstar Adds a Heap of Free New Items to GTA Online
Rockstar has today released the free Lowriders: Custom Classics DLC pack, which adds lowrider customisations, new clothes, tattoos and haircuts, a new Adversary mode, Sumo, and two new weapons, the Compact Rifle and the Double Barrel Shotgun.
The vehicle customisations are what Rockstar has been trumpeting - head to Benny's Strawberry mod shop to upgrade the Slamvan, Virgo and Donk into their custom lowrider variants. You can see the results of some of those upgrades below:
Meanwhile, Twitter users have been discovering other new content added in the pack - GTA Base has catalogued a Hightop haircut, several new tattoos, new jackets and the two new guns.
Lindsay Lohan v GTA Case Gets the Go Ahead
A Judge has ruled in favour of letting the case of Lindsay Lohan versus Grand Theft Auto move forward.
According to TheHollywoodReporter, on Friday New York Supreme Court judge Joan Kenney decided she wants to hear what Lohan’s legal team has to say.
“When deciding whether or not a complaint should be dismissed,” reads the court document, “the complaint must be constructed in the light most favourable to the plaintiff, and all factual allegations must be accepted as true.”
Hitman Patch Accidentally Removes Content on PS4
If you're playing Hitman on PlayStation 4 and wondering where your Requiem Pack pre-order content has gone, Io Interactive is working on a fix.
Last night, Hitman was updated to version 1.02, but the patch had the unfortunate side effect of making some items no longer available to some players. "This is not intended and we are investigating how to fix this and get the items back to those affected as soon as possible," said Io's community manager on the Square Enix forums.
Other than that issue, the patch has supposedly improved connection reliability, the flow of "opportunities" in the missions, and AI reactions, along with a few other minor tweaks.
New MGS Online Mode Cloaked in Silence Available Now
Metal Gear Online's latest DLC, Cloaked in Silence, is now available.
Cloaked in Silence is a "dedicated, squad-based multiplayer component" of Metal Gear Online and includes three new maps - Coral Complex, Rust Palace and Azure Mountain.
For the first time, the character Quiet will be available in Metal Gear Online.
The Cloaked in Silence Expansion Pack - which includes the three maps and Quiet - is on sale now for £3/$4. You can also pick up a selection of Appeal Packs - which add the Basic, Battle, Dance, and Hero emote animations - either individually or as part of a bundle (prices across territories will vary).
The expansion also gets you access to the new win-streak centred Survival mode, which arrives on April 7. All players are able to access the new mode for free and play up to 10 matches a week (the week resets each Tuesday during scheduled maintenance), but those of you with the expansion pack have unlimited access.
You’ll Need to Play World of Warcraft to Unlock the New Hearthstone Hero
Blizzard has announced that its latest Hearthstone hero, Liadrin, can only be unlocked by pushing a World of Warcraft character up to level 20.
Liadrin, the new Hearthstone hero, in slightly animated form
Liadrin is a Paladin class hero, meaning she's an optional reskin - if chosen in the Heroes section, she simply replaces the default Paladin, Uther, and offers up different voice clips and animations.
Sounds Like Life is Imitating Art on Bill & Ted 3
We’re still no closer to Bill and Ted 3 happening, with the script failing to materialise, a bit like the song that the story apparently revolves around.
When I asked Keanu Reeves about the long-gestating sequel back in October 2014, he said “we’re closer, but we’re not closer.” Then I pushed him on the subject in April 2015, and his update was "We're closer, we're closer."
However, when I spoke to him again a couple of weeks ago, he reverted to that original response, saying “That’s still true – we’re closer and we’re not closer. We’re expecting another draft and hopefully we’ll get closer.”