Yearly Archives: 2018

How Fallout: New Vegas Got a Dose of Tabletop-Style Storytelling

Fans of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas have been arguing over which role-playing adventure is the superior one ever since Obsidian Entertainment got its chance with the franchise, especially considering a portion of the development team worked on the original two Fallout titles. One often-cited strength of Fallout: New Vegas is its more open-ended quest structure, borrowing heavily from Obsidian’s and Interplay’s top-down role-playing games, which are in turn heavily inspired by tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons. In this month’s IGN Unfiltered (watch the full episode in the video below), Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer lays out how the game utilized classic tabletop game design to build a better, more open-ended apocalypse.

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First Photo of DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in Tarantino’s New Movie

The first official photo of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood features Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.

The actors are sporting 1960s duds in the picture (seen below) for Tarantino's ninth movie. Here's the synopsis for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood:

Quentin Tarantino's ninth feature film is a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don't recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor...Sharon Tate.

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Todd McFarlane Thinks a Spawn/Venom Crossover Film Could Happen

Todd McFarlane believes a crossover movie between Spawn and Venom could happen.

Speaking to CBR, McFarlane revealed the crossover would be possible if Sony distributes his upcoming Spawn reboot. McFarlane is also willing to have a conversation with Sony about making it happen.

"Here’s a big 'What If,'" McFarlane said. "What if Sony distributes Spawn? Then is it possible that in the future Sony could have a crossover with Venom and Spawn? It’s possible. So, I will be presenting that possibility to the Sony executives when we get ready."

McFarlane then went on to say the potential crossover would be a no-brainer if the new Venom film starring Tom Hardy and the Spawn reboot become huge hits. McFarlane is also interested directing a movie featuring both characters.

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Our Favorite LGBTQ+ Characters In Games

June is Pride Month and to celebrate, we decided to reflect on some of our favorite instances of LGBTQ+ representation in video games.

Whether it was a game that spoke to us through its embrace of queer romance options, a clever feature, or a particular character in a favorite game, here's when gaming has meant the most to us when it comes to meaningful and visible LGBTQ+ representation. Be sure to let us know who your favorite characters are during our Pride live stream benefitting The Trevor Project, today from 1-4PM PT.

Ellie – The Last of Us

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Sony Is ‘Confident’ It’ll Find an Acceptable Cross-Play Solution

PlayStation 4 owners who were left unimpressed with Sony's first response to the ongoing cross-play controversy may be a little more encouraged by its most recent update on the matter.

Speaking with Eurogamer at the Gamelab conference today, Sony executive Shawn Layden denied allegations that it wasn't listening to the growing anger from its players:

"We're hearing it. We're looking at a lot of the possibilities," said Layden. "You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect a lot more than just one game. I'm confident we'll get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business."

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Fallout 76: Our Biggest Hopes and Fears

With the recent reveal of Fallout 76, a lot of us were surprised at the game’s online, multiplayer focus. And while the idea of venturing into a vast post-apocalyptic wastelands with friends sounds enjoyable to some of us, others were left questioning if this is something fans of the core Fallout franchise should be excited about. Here are some of our biggest hopes and fears for Fallout 76.

The building mechanics in Fallout 4 were….fine. But 76 is daring to up the ante with an all new C.A.M.P. or the “Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform” which allows you to build settlements anywhere you please. And with an improved Sims-like building interface, 76 is promising a much more robust approach to settlement building that seems very promising.

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Elon Musk’s AI Aiming to Compete in Dota 2 International

OpenAI is returning to the Dota 2 tournament this year to compete in 5v5 matches after taking down a top Dota 2 player at The International 2017.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, OpenAI, will be sending its new and improved bot, OpenAI Five, to this year's International in August. The company is aiming to make the August deadline, and the AI will be operating with certain restrictions in place, like no warding, no summons/ illusions, as well as only being able to use five of the 115 heroes in the game.

Last year, OpenAI's Dota 2 bot beat the game's most famous player, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, live on the main stage. The 1v1 bot had been learning from playing against itself in lifetimes worth of matches.

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Fortnite: Season 5 Gets Updated Start Date

Fortnite: Season 5 will launch a couple of days later than originally expected — July 12 instead of July 10.

Epic Games revealed the updated Fortnite: Season 5 start time on Reddit. "We want to give you a heads-up on the exact ending time. You may have seen the timer update in-game, which means we are giving you two more days to complete Season 4! Season 5 will begin on July 12th at 4 AM EDT (08:00 GMT)," the developer wrote.

The popular theory for the upcoming season of Fortnite is that a rocket launch is imminent. While some expect there to be more destruction on the map — similar to the meteor and Dusty Divot — others believe the rocket will lead to a new map on the moon.

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PUBG Corp Drops Lawsuit Against Fortnite

PUBG Corp, the studio behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and a subsidiary of Korean publisher Bluehole, is dropping its lawsuit against Epic Games.

Bloomberg reports that the company sent a letter of withdrawal to Epic Games' lawyers on Monday, and the case has been closed.

PUBG Corp. and its legal representatives have reportedly confirmed the course of action, but neither disclosed the reason behind it, or indicated if a settlement had been reached.

The South Korean studio filed the lawsuit in January with the Seoul Central District Court, alleging that Epic Games Korea was guilty of copyright infringement over the similarities between PUBG and Fortnite.

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