Yearly Archives: 2018
Best Side Quests in Games
Side quests have a bit of a mixed reputation, and its pretty well deserved. A lot of them feel like filler: fetch this thing, escort that guy, stab this monster. But among the canon of side quests are a number of missions which rank as truly remarkable, either for the excellence of their storytelling, the power of their gameplay experience, or the sheer weirdness of their existence.
There are so many side quests scattered across gaming that narrowing the list down to ten proved pretty difficult. I tried to curate a list that represents notoriety, absurdity, smart design, memorability, and that feeling the creators went the extra mile to make this particular mission something unique.
Trevor Noah’s Black Panther Cameo Revealed
The Daily Show host Trevor Noah had a Black Panther cameo you might've missed.
Warning: Spoilers for Black Panther follow. Turn back now if you haven't yet watched the movie.
Vanity Fair has confirmed Noah voiced Shuri's A.I. system Griot, which helps Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) while he's piloting a virtual plane during a battle scene.
“Griot” is a West African term which stands for storyteller. Earlier this year during an episode of The Daily Show, Noah praised Black Panther for the way it depicts South African culture.
Sea of Thieves: The Hungering Deep Expansion Detailed
Sea of Thieves' first major, free content expansion has been detailed by Rare.
The Hungering Deep will introduce a number of permanent new features to Sea of Thieves framed around a "special time-limited campaign."
The campaign will introduce players to an adventuring group known as the Bilge Rats and more specifically Merrick, a bard who brushed with the unseen horror and lived to tell the tale.
Players must "untangle his groggy recollection of events" and hunt the mysterious monster for special loot.
From the images on the official webpage, the monster looks to be some kind of megalodon that lurks in the briny deep.
GoT Creator George R.R. Martin’s The Ice Dragon to Become Animated Film
George R.R. Martin is developing his first animated film, The Ice Dragon.
Deadline reports Martin will produce the project, which is based on his 1980 children's book of the same name. He'll be working alongside Warner Animation Group on the movie, which does not yet have a release date.
George R.R. Martin's The Ice Dragon.
How George Lucas Contributed to Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story director Ron Howard has revealed how exactly George Lucas contributed to the movie.
It's already been known Lucas added a joke for Han Solo in the film, but neither Howard nor Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed what the specific scene or joke was up until now.
Speaking to Mashable, Howard explained Lucas added a bit of physical comedy for Han. "It wasn't a line," Howard said. "It was an attitude, it was a behavior, it was physical comedy."
Is a Major Cast Member Leaving The Flash in Season 5?
Warning: Spoilers for The Flash: Season 4 finale follow. Turn back now if you haven't yet watched the episode.
The Flash's Season 4 finale, "We Are the Flash," saw Tom Cavanagh's Dr. Harrison Wells seemingly bid farewell. The episode left fans wondering if Cavanagh is leaving the series entirely.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer and showrunner Todd Helbing revealed Cavanagh is sticking around. However, it seems fans can expect a new incarnation of Harrison Wells to feature next season.
GameFly Games-by-Mail Service Will Stay in Place Despite EA Acquisition
GameFly's games-by-mail service will not be affected by Electronic Arts' acquisition of the company's cloud gaming technology.
"Our USA-based games-by-mail customers can rest assured that this transaction will have no impact on their subscription," said GameFly CEO David Hodess. "The GameFly team remains in place and looks forward to providing the same excellent service we have offered since 2003."
Yesterday, EA announced it had acquired the "cloud gaming technology assets and personnel" of the Israel-based GameFly subsidiary that helped develop the company's streaming service.
Fortnite Players Want 50v50 to Stay as a Permanent Mode
50v50 is one of Fortnite's most popular limited-time modes and fans are asking to have it to stay as a permanent mode.
Limited-time modes in Fortnite last about one to two weeks, leaving players worried that the recent return of the 50v50 mode will be leaving in the next few days. Community posts on Reddit and the official Fortnite Forums include fans clamoring for the mode to stay and are consistently some of the most popular posts over the last few days.
According to fans, 50v50 allows for both casual and active playstyles, as opposed to the more calculated and intense nature of the solo, duo, and squad modes. Forts and giant structures pop up easily with the huge amount of teammates that can help build. Fans note that being able to practice your aiming on a large amount of targets is a huge plus and gathering double the materials gives players a chance to perfect their building.
RuneScape Classic Shutting Down After 17 Years
RuneScape Classic, the legacy servers for the original version of RuneScape released in 2001, is shutting down.
According to a blog post from the development team, the Classic servers were becoming too vulnerable to third party macro programs and bots, which they see as a serious problem for community safety.
“For many years we’ve left all of the content from the original game available to play,” the post reads, but that they have not been able to fully support Classic for years now. It continues by saying the dev team feels “that we can no longer offer long term service reliability due to the growing risk of unrecoverable game breaking bugs.”
Will We See Bloodborne 2 at E3?
It's that time of year again: E3 2018 is just on the horizon. From June 9-14, we'll be covering the biggest games and hardware announcements of 2018 and beyond. While you can check out our continually-updated Games of E3 List, we're now going to start diving deeper. Every day leading up to the show, we'll be highlight the stuff we want to see and play at E3 2018. Today's game: BLOODBORNE 2.
When Did We Last See Bloodborne 2?
So technically Bloodborne 2 doesn't exist. But we're using it as sort of a catch-all term for whatever the hell From Software is working on, specifically the Shadows Die Twice teaser that premiered during The Game Awards back in December. From Software revealed little else about the game, other than the fact that they'd have more to say "in the next 12 months," with E3 being about six months after the reveal.