Assassin’s Creed Director Talks “Heart and History” of the Game
The long-gestating movie adaptation of Assassin’s Creed rolls before cameras very soon, and we spoke to the film’s director about why he wants to adapt the long-running video game series.
While chatting with Justin Kurzel about his acclaimed version of Macbeth – which hits UK screens on October 2 – we asked him why he thinks Ubisoft's historical action-adventure will make a good movie.
“Because I think there’s so much underneath it,” he explained. “I don’t think it’s your typical shoot-em-up game. I don’t think it’s your typical one-dimensional game. It has a heart and a history to it.
“The whole idea of memories and the whole idea of we are made up of who comes before us and within us we carry the DNA of our ancestors and we have access to those ancestors and they somehow speak to who we are now – that is just an incredibly strong, human kind of curious thing, so I think that there is something there that’s really original and really fresh and it’s no wonder it has 90 million players. There’s got to be something more than just the fun of playing it. There’s definitely a culture to it that people really respond to.”
Firaxis Games Confirms Second Annual Firaxicon
2K and Firaxis Games today confirmed the second annual Firaxicon will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center on Saturday, October 3.
Hosted by the Firaxis team, developers of the Civilization and XCOM series, fans will be able to meet and greet members of Firaxis, enjoy several in-depth panels featuring the lead developers of XCOM and Civilization: Beyond Earth (plus legendary game designer Sid Meier), and play Civilization: Beyond Earth -- Rising Tide and XCOM 2 prior to launch.
“Firaxicon provides us with a rare opportunity to sit down and talk with the people who enjoy our games most,” said Sid Meier, creative director at Firaxis Games. “This has quickly become one of the studio’s most popular events of the year. Our team members very much look forward to giving the fans an in-depth look at our latest projects this fall.”
Dying Light Expansion The Following Announced
Techland has announced The Following, a story-driven expansion on the way for Dying Light.
As previously hinted at, the main addition to the game is drivable all-terrain dirt buggies, along with a new map set to be the same size as all the other maps in Dying Light combined.
Season Pass holders will be getting The Following for free, while everyone else will be able to buy it separately. No release date or pricing has been revealed, but much more is set to be shown off at Gamescom next week behind closed doors, so hopefully we'll know more shortly.
Broken Sword 5 Gets PS4 and Xbox One Release Date
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse will be available on PS4 and Xbox One from September 4.
Revolution Software has announced the game will be available for £19.99 / €29.99 / $29.99. As it currently stands, digital versions will be available worldwide, while Europe and Australia will be getting retail editions including a comic book of the game's prelude.
Originally funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Broken Sword 5 sees George and Nico on the trail of a stolen painting and a pretty gruesome murder.
Read IGN's Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse review to learn more.
The Beano Pokes Fun at Inside Out
Ever since Pixar animation Inside Out was announced, people have pointed out that the premise sounds similar to a strip in British comic The Beano – and now that comic has hit back in the best possible fashion.
Inside Out – which hit UK screens last week – revolves around five tiny creatures that live in the head of a child, guiding her through life. The Numskulls – a strip that first appeared in comic Beezer in 1962 before transferring to The Beano in the 1990s – concerns five tiny creatures that live in the head of a child, controlling both body and mind.
The comic had hitherto been silent on the subject, but yesterday a new issue hit stands in which The Numskulls – via human vessel Edd – go to see Inside Out and clock those similarities. They also take the opportunity to poke funny at the British bottling up of emotions, and bemoan the amount of money comics make compared to movies.
Massive Miiverse Update Arrives Today
Nintendo has announced a massive Miiverse update is rolling out to users today.
The update, first detailed at the start of the month, brings a big redesign to the 3DS and Wii U feature.
A new Play Journal feature allows you to record your thoughts on games as you play them. It's accessed by opening Miiverse when you're playing, doing so will also take a screenshot to show what was happening in the game when you did so, unless the game doesn't support screenshots. The Play Journal is a replacement for posting to your activity feed, so you won't be able to do this any longer once the redesign launches.
Ex-Dead Island 2 Developer Files for Insolvency
Yager Productions GmbH has filed for insolvency in order to secure its staff's wages.
The studio had been working on Dead Island 2 until publisher Deep Silver removed it from the project earlier this month. The early termination of the contract was due to the "respective visions" of each company falling "out of alignment."
Despite Yager Productions GmbH filing for insolvency, the wider organisation of Yager should remain unaffected, according to a statement managing director Timo Ullmann gave to GamesIndustry.biz.
PlayStation Store Summer Sale Begins Today
Sony has kicked off the annual PlayStation Store Summer Sale with a host of deals.
The sale will be taking place for a month in total, though things are working out differently depending on where you live. Those of you in North America, Sony will be changing the deals offered every week. Europeans, on the other hand, will have two waves of offers. The first wave of discounts are only available until August 12. After that, expect to see new titles having their prices knocked down until August 26.
The full list of titles is pretty extensive and can be found over on the PS Blog now, but be sure to look at the North American version or the European one depending where you live. In addition, Sony has reiterated PS Plus members will be getting even greater discounts.
A Brief History of Metal Gear Solid
This is an extract from A Brief History of Videogames by Richard Stanton, available now. (It's rather good.)
Metal Gear Solid is one of video gaming’s longest-running, most critically acclaimed and commercially successful series. Hailed by fans as the greatest games ever, scorned by detractors for narrative indulgences, and leaving many in the middle baffled either way, Metal Gear Solid is also notable for its indelible link to creator/director Hideo Kojima. The auteur theory is always dodgy ground with modern big-budget video games, which are made by teams of hundreds, but in this case the stamp of one man’s personality is all-pervasive and impossible to ignore.
Blizzard Creates Moving Tribute to Employee Who Passed Away
Blizzard has revealed a key feature of Diablo III's upcoming patch 2.3.0 was created to honour a former employee who passed away from cancer last year.
The patch is set to introduce something called Kanai's Cube, the precursor the Horadric Cube introduced in Diablo II and used to upgrade items. In Diablo III it will offer you a huge range of options when it comes to item customisation and holds the potential to extract a Legendary power from an item. All in all, it sounds pretty cool.