Competitive Matchmaking Coming to Battlefield Hardline

Electronic Arts has confirmed that competitive matchmaking is coming Battlefield Hardline.

In a recent blog post, the publisher confirmed that the update will be available for free later this month, along with new "weapons, patches, and - most significantly - a brand new way to play competitively". The two new leagues - a Standard League and a Premium League, which only Premium members will have access to - will feature maps and modes from the base game, as well as those found in DLC.

"It’s called the Competitive Match system, and it opens up the ability to compete in skill-based 5v5 matches, with regularly refreshed seasons, leaderboards, and winners," states EA.

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Comic Book Reviews for January 6, 2016

It's the first week of 2016, and the comic book industry came out swinging. Marvel unleashed a huge lineup of books this week as they debuted a new Star Wars comic, wrapped up the Vader Down crossover and launched several more All-New, All-Different Marvel titles (including A-Force, Uncanny X-Men and Spider-Man/Deadpool). DC kicked off Injustice: Year Five and the Superman: Savage Dawn crossover while also giving us more Vertigo goodness. Combine that with great new books like Archie #5, Black Science #19 and paper Girl #4 and it was a pretty swell week.

Check out these and other new reviews, and be sure to let us know your favorite books of the week in the comments below.

DC COMICS

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New Daredevil: Season 2 Teaser/Date Revealed

Netflix has announced the debut date for Daredevil: Season 2. While there was a rumor last week it would be March 25th (the same day Batman v Superman opens in theaters), the actual date is one week earlier - March 18th.

Check out the new teaser for Season 2, mostly comprised of imagery from Season 1, below, which ends with a nod to the arrival of the Punisher (played by Jon Bernthal).

There's also a new teaser poster for Daredevil: Season 2, using the same imagery as the teaser, which you can check out in the Season 2 gallery below.

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Two Studios Merge to Form New UK Games Publisher

The Catalis Group, parent company of Kuju Entertainment and Testronic, has acquired Curve Digital.

This deal will see the formation of Curve Digital Entertainment within Catalis which will be comprised of Curve Digital Publishing and Kuju Entertainment.

The CEO of Catalis is Dominic Wheatley, who co-founded Eidos Interactive before it was acquired by Square Enix in 2009. He said: "Our acquisition of Curve Digital and merging them with Kuju means we have created the potential for a major new British games publisher, the first of its kind for many years."

"It’s also good news for the UK indie games community to have a professional publishing partner who can take their titles to the international market," Wheatley continued.

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Oculus Founder Apologizes for an Unrealistic VR Estimate

The recently-announced price of the highly anticipated Oculus Rift has led founder Palmer Luckey to apologize to fans.

Speaking during a Reddit AMA on Wednesday, the 23-year-old entrepreneur said the following:

"I handled the messaging poorly," says Luckey, "my answer was ill prepared, and mentally, I was contrasting $349 with $1500, not our internal estimate that hovered close to $599

I apologize."

Palmer also explains that, even though the headset is expensive, the company isn’t making any profit and is "prioritizing quality over cost."

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Doom Possible Release Date Leaked by Amazon France

Doom will be releasing on all platforms June 30, at least if the product listing on Amazon's French site is to be believed.

Spotted by Twitter user MasterGamer24680, all versions of the game show the same release date and price.

Of course, it's entirely possible that the date is merely a placeholder, or possibly a mistake, but Amazon France has spilled the beans on releases in the past, so it isn't outside the realm of plausibility. For instance, Amazon France listed Rise of the Tomb Raider for PC would release at the end of January, something that turned out to be 100% true. It also

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Rogue One Actor Ben Mendelsohn May Be Up for Ready Player One

Ben Mendelsohn is reportedly up for the villain's role in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Ready Player One. So say anonymous sources to The Hollyword Reporter, anyway.

If true, that would put Mendelsohn, who currently stars in the Netflix original series Bloodline, in the role of Nolan Sorrento. In Earnest Cline's novel of the same name Sorrento is an high-ranking ISP employee who intends to take over — and monetize — the unsupervised virtual world of OASIS.

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New FOX Animated Series Project From Gravity Falls Creator

FOX has ordered a script and presentation pilot for a new animated series from Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch.

While details on the series are being kept under wraps, Hirsch offered Variety a small taste, saying, "I'm cooking up some brand-new weirdness." According to the report, Hirsch was pursued by various networks before ultimately reaching an agreement with FOX.

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Eddie Redmayne Was ‘Desperate’ to Play a Weasley in HP Films

Eddie Redmayne would have made a good Weasley boy, wouldn't he have? In a recent interview with on ITV's Lorraine, the actor shared that he was "desperate" to get a role as one of the ginger kids in the Harry Potter series.

"For years I was always like, in the Harry Potter films, there was a whole ginger family, and I never got an audition. And I was like, come on, it's outrageous!" the Oscar winner said.

"Every actor in England was in the Harry Potter films, but I never got the call."

He won't get to play a Weasley, but Redmayne will star as Newt Scamander in J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. The new film is set several decades before the Harry Potter series begins, and it will follow Scamander through his journey in 1926 New York. Back then, North American wizarding folk were in hiding from the No-Maj—that's people without magic.

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