Everything New We Learned About Star Wars at D23
Although there was no new footage from either Star Wars: The Force Awakens or Rogue One screened at this weekend's D23 Expo, Disney and Lucasfilm nevertheless gave Star Wars fans plenty to enjoy and talk about. Here's a rundown of all the biggest Star Wars items that came out of the biennial Disney fan convention.
Last week yielded a veritable treasure trove of new details about Episode VII thanks to Entertainment Weekly's cover story. While D23 Expo didn't reveal anything new from The Force Awakens in either news or footage, it did give fans the D23 exclusive variant poster painted by classic Star Wars artist Drew Struzan seen below:
Tracy Morgan Is Set to Host SNL This Season
Saturday Night Live alumnus Tracy Morgan will return to host the show October 17.
Not only will this mark Morgan's second time hosting SNL, but it also will serve as the 30 Rock actor's first TV performance since a tragic car accident last year, according to Deadline. Morgan had a life-threatening brain injury as a result of the crash, and there were concerns he would never perform again.
Amy Schumer
Out This Week: Frozen Fever, Volume, LBX
With so many new games and movies coming out, it can be hard to keep up. Lucky for you, IGN is here to help with a weekly round-up of the biggest releases each and every week. Check out the latest releases for this week, and be sure to come back next Monday for a new update.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
There Is No Suspend Feature for Steam Machines
While PlayStation 4 and Xbox One let users suspend their games in rest mode, that apparently won't be the case for Steam machines.
According to Ars Technica, a Valve engineer admitted on a GitHub bug report thread that "suspend is no longer supported" on Steam machines. The reasoning behind the decision boiled down to reliability.
"Given the state of hardware and software support throughout the graphics stack on Linux, we didn't think we could make
reliable," said the Valve engineer, who goes by johnv-valve on the forum.
Fear the Walking Dead is This Week’s TV Highlight
As we pass the mid-point of August nowadays, we really start getting into "early fall" TV, as more and more shows have begun to premiere at this point to get a jump start on the September madness.
And this week, we have a big one. AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, the official spinoff to TV's hottest series, kicks off on Sunday, talking us back to the very start of the zombie outbreak in Los Angeles.
Starring Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Frank Dillane, and Lorenzo James Henrie, Fear the Walking Dead centers on a dysfunctional family in the midst of an undead uprising. Whereas The Walking Dead skipped over the initial chaos and chose to pick things up after Rick Grimes woke up from his coma, FTWD will settle into a "slow burn" approach and really dig into how civilization fell apart. This first spinoff season acts as a Walking Dead prequel of sorts, and it's not yet known if, or when, FTWD will "catch up" with the wasteland world that the survivors on The Walking Dead live in.
Halo 5 Dev Responds to Complaints Over No Split-Screen
Halo 5: Guardians developer 343 Industries has responded to the outcry from fans in response to the news that its upcoming Xbox One-exclusive shooter won't feature split-screen support.
In reply to a fan on Twitter, 343i franchise development director Frank O'Connor explained that adding in the feature simply isn't possible. "If we could do it, we would do it. But it is what they call 'nontrivial,'" he said.
@GreenAssassin24 If we could do it, we would do it. But it is what they call "nontrivial."
Daily Deals: Shadow of Mordor GOTY, Jurassic World, Cheap Bluetooth Speaker
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY For The Price Of The Standard Version
If you held off on playing Shadow of Mordor, today is your lucky day. It's a great game (we gave it a 9.3) and the GOTY edition (which packs in all the DLC campaigns and challenge modes) is only $30 right now. That's the same price as the standard, no extra DLC edition.
Android M’s Official Name is Marshmallow
Google initially announced Android M at its I/O 2015 conference last month, but kept the operating system's official name to themselves. Today, the company has finally revealed M's real name: Marshmallow.
Android's VP of Engineering, Dave Burke, tweeted out a picture of the statue made to commemorate Android Marshmallow's unveiling, which has also been revealed to be version 6.0 of the OS.
Marshmallow!!! pic.twitter.com/3JYkCBWD1R
— Dave Burke (@davey_burke) August 17, 2015
Fantastic Beasts Starts Shooting
The newest film set in J.K. Rowling's wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, has begun filming.
Starring The Theory of Everything star Eddie Redmayne, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the story of Newt Scamander, a zoologist specializing in the study of magical creatures. It is an extension of the same universe in which the Harry Potter books exist and serves to build on the fiction established in the best-selling film and book series.
The film is based on the J.K. Rowling book of the same name and will be directed by David Yates, whose previous credits include the last four Harry Potter films. Production is taking place in England, and the film is set to release in theaters on November 18, 2016. Recently, actor Colin Farrell joined the film's cast.
App Store Update: August 17
Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Age of Defenders – ($2.99)
Kick off the new week with a fresh dose of Vitamin RTS (fortified with a dash of TD):