Yearly Archives: 2018

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Actress Deletes Her Instagram Posts Allegedly Due to Harassment

Kelly Marie Tran has wiped her Instagram account, allegedly due to harassment following her appearance in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Tran, who portrayed Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, has deleted all of the posts from her Instagram account, which now only has a bio reading "Afraid, but doing it anyway." This has led many to speculate that the actress has done so due to the high volume of negative comments she reportedly has been receiving on social media from people who weren't thrilled with the movie.

Kelly Marie Tran as Rose in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

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Paradox Acquires Battletech Developer

Paradox Interactive has acquired Seattle-based developer Harebrained Schemes, the studio behind BattleTech, Shadowrun, and Crimson: Steam Pirates.

Paradox has struck a $7.5 million deal to acquire Harebrained Holdings Inc, the sole owner of Harebrained Schemes, which is expected to close by Thursday, June 7.

"Harebrained Schemes have proven themselves as a world-class studio with a very talented team within a genre where Paradox wants to be present,” said Fredrik Wester, Paradox Interactive CEO. “In addition, we really like the studio, the people who run it, and their games; these are all absolute hard criteria for us in any acquisition.

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Paladins Battle Royale Spinoff Is Now Available on Steam

Realm Royale, a spinoff of Paladins and the latest free-to-play battle royale game, has entered early access and is now available on Steam.

As many battle royale games go, 100 players are dropped from a zeppelin into a large map and teams fight against enemy squads to be the last ones standing. For Realm Royale, weapons and different abilities are found in chests scattered across the map. Mounts can be activated at any time to quickly traverse the land.

At the start of each match, players pick one of five different classes to form a balanced squad. Warriors offer a more offensive role with health regeneration while Engineers can deploy turrets and shields. Mages have increased mobility, Hunters can use sensor drones to detect enemies, and Assassins take on a sniper role.

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New Green Ranger Graphic Novel Introduces Tommy’s Son

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Soul of The Dragon, an upcoming original graphic novel, will explore Green Ranger Tommy Oliver's life after the Power Rangers while he searches for his lost son.

Revealed by comicbook.com, Soul of the Dragon looks to break from the tradition of most Power Rangers stories. The graphic novel will follow Tommy after his time as the Black Dino Ranger in Dino Thunder and long after his stint as the original Green Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. While leaving the world in the hands of the S.P.D. Rangers, Tommy's as-of-yet-unnamed son goes missing. It's up to Tommy to find his son and bring him home safely.

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Guardians 3 ‘Too Far Along’ to Be Impacted by Disney-Fox Deal

It seems Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 won't feature any of the Fox-owned Marvel characters.

In a recent Facebook Q&A, Gunn was asked if the potential Disney/-Fox deal could impact the sequel. According to the writer-director, the film is too far long to be affected by the merger.

"Not gonna happen in any major way," Gunn said. "Too far along."

According to recent reports, Fox will hold a shareholders meeting later to decide whether or not the company decides to sell most of its assets to Disney. Comcast is also now reportedly back in the running to acquire Fox's assets.

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Destiny 2: Forsaken Gameplay, Release Date Revealed

Destiny 2 players looking for more will have their prayers answered September 4.

That's the date Bungie plans to start the game's "Year 2," with the release of the newest Destiny 2 DLC expansion called Forsaken.

In a stream on the developer's Twitch channel Tuesday afternoon, first details were released that showed just how seriously it's taking some of the criticisms that have been leveraged against the sequel's longevity and lack of content. To answer some of the fan base's restlessness, Bungie has announced new areas of play, a new weapon type, a new game mode, and an all new raid.

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The Best Games Leaving The Pinball Arcade

The Pinball Arcade, an app that has been digitizing real-life pinball machines from past decades, is losing the licenses to Bally and Williams machines, which means some of the best tables ever made will no longer be available as of June 30, 2018.

The Pinball Arcade isn’t only a place to play great (and rare!) machines, but also a perfect tool to learn the complex rules behind each game. The Pinball Arcade’s tutorials take you through every shot in the game, explaining skillshots, multiballs, and modes. I’ve spent hours learning machines this way before heading to the local bars or arcades -- and learning the games virtually has saved me many pounds of quarters.

First of all, here are the games leaving The Pinball Arcade. The leftmost column generally will have the most value for players, as games from the DMD era, so-called for the orange dot-matrix displays capable of displaying video-game-like graphics, feature the most complex rules and playfield layouts.

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Yoku’s Island Express Review: A Breath of Fresh Air

Metroid-style platformers have become more common recently, which makes standing out from the pack a daunting task for new games in that style. Yoku’s Island Express overcomes this hurdle by creatively combining both Metroid-style exploration and pinball mechanics into one unique product. This combination sounds unusual at first, but the final result is a charming, delightful, and wonderfully satisfying hybrid.

You play as Yoku, a cute little beetle who has a ball attached to his hip with a string, and it's his first day as postmaster on Mokumana Island. The story is cute and straightforward, and there’s a large amount of backstory sprinkled throughout the game, but it doesn’t take long for the rest of Yoku’s Island Express’ beautiful game design to quickly take the spotlight.

The world of Mokumana Island is gorgeous, and the delightful painterly art style realizes each of the game's different stages with vibrancy--lush jungles and dark labyrinths blend in seamlessly with stunning snow-covered mountains and underground caves, and the background scenery is just as beautifully detailed as the foreground. Every environment is perfectly accompanied by sound design which gives everything a cheery and quirky atmosphere, and the charming background music keeps things light and breezy throughout. The roster of supporting characters is also a delight to meet. Ranging from animals and plants to imaginary creatures, the large cast of NPCs are all amusing in their own ways. Some give you side quests, some give you exposition regarding the main story or island lore, and some are simply there for a quick quip or two.

Yoku can only move left and right, and can't jump. However, flippers and platforms can be found all over Mokumana Island, which can be operated by using just two buttons, much like in pinball. These devices are all used to fling Yoku and his ball (which doubles as a pinball) in helpful directions to help you find and explore new paths of game’s cleverly branching world.

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If Yoku is the pinball, then Mokumana Island is a giant pinball table. One minute you could be strolling through the jungle, the next you might find yourself seamlessly dropped into a literal pinball puzzle carved out of the environment. Familiar pinball mechanics, like lanes and bumpers, are all there and completing these challenges will reward you with fruit (the game’s currency) and unlock additional paths around the island. Though the puzzles require precise timing demands, and there are many moments when your skills and reactions feel tested, no puzzle feels impossible. Most can be completed in only a handful of minutes, but there's a lot of variety to the boards which help keep the game incredibly engaging.

Mokumana Island is surprisingly large, and filled with secrets and collectible items. A sprawling story quest and numerous side quests constantly push you in different directions, and there’s a lot of traveling and pinballing to be done. It’s also easy to get sidetracked from your tasks in favor of searching for the game's many secrets hiding within the beautiful island stages.

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Exploring becomes even more exciting as Yoku learns new, goofy abilities, which are used to overcome hurdles in a lighthearted fashion, like removing boulders using an exploding slug vacuum cleaner. These fun and practical abilities add extra layers of cheery personality to an already joyful game, and as common in the genre, they make you feel excited to backtrack and unlock previously inaccessible paths.

Traveling back and forth from one end of Mokumana Island to the other can sometimes become tedious, however. A fast-travel system isn’t unlocked until later in the game, but even that is quite limited in regards to where you can and can’t travel. Some areas require you to complete a pinball puzzle in order to get from point A to B, which makes retreading quite repetitive and occasionally frustrating, particularly when the pinball puzzle is a complex one.

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Yoku’s Island Express takes two unlikely genres and combines them into one playful, natural experience. The game’s audio and visual design is simply joyous and the large game world seamlessly combines its pinball puzzles with some brilliant level designs. While traversing the large map does get frustrating at times, Yoku’s Island Express’ main quest never drags, and with its slate of fun abilities, quirky supporting characters and a generous amount of optional content, Yoku’s Island Express is a unique journey that’s refreshing and just straight up fun.

Noah Hawley Has Finished Writing His Doctor Doom Movie

Legion creator Noah Hawley has finished penning the script for his Doctor Doom movie, but don’t expect to see the film starring one of Marvel’s greatest villains anytime soon.

Speaking to Vulture, Hawley discussed his Doctor Doom screenplay. “I wrote a script that I really like and the studio really likes,” he said, although he admitted that “it needs a little work.”

There are a few obstacles standing in the way of the comic book movie inspired by Captain America: The Winter Soldier from being made. The first being that Hawley is about to film Pale Blue Dot, an astronaut drama starring Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm.

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