Yearly Archives: 2018
Fake Scientific Paper Was Actually a Star Trek Episode Synopsis
The scientific field isn't immune to 'fake news', after an anonymous 'biologist' submitted a paper based purely on an episode of Star Trek.
io9 reports that the paper took its cue from the events of Star Trek: Voyager's 'Threshold' episode, in which Captain Janeway authorises Tom Paris' attempt to break the transwarp barrier - which he does, but at a price. Travelling at warp 10 accelerates the human evolution process and turns him into an amphibian.
Rapid Genetic and Developmental Morphological Change Following Extreme Celerity was accepted by four different journals and actually published in the American Research Journal of Biosciences, who asked for $50 in exchange.
Star Trek: Discovery Is the Most Talked-About Show Online
The debut season of Star Trek: Discovery has wrapped up, and despite the stellar line-up of shows that have aired alongside it, CBS' Discovery is the most talked about TV show online last month, beating out the likes of The Walking Dead, Altered Carbon, and Stranger Things.
Parrot Analytics (via Comicbook.com) reports that the "demand expressions" for Discovery - the amount of discussion about it on social media - rose from 53 million last month, to 66 million this week. The season one finale airing earlier this week most likely gave the numbers a boost, especially considering that surprise ending.
Marvel Offers a Sneak Peek at the Death of Mighty Thor
The death of Jane Foster has been on the cards for a while and Marvel has offered a peek ahead of Mighty Thor #705 next month.
"Prepare yourself as Jane Foster picks up Mjolnir one last time and witness the death of a hero!" reads a press release. Check out all the previewed art below:
"The epic showdown years in the making finally explodes across the heavens. Thor battles the unstoppable Mangog, with the fate of all Asgardia hanging in the balance. Is Thor willing to pay the ultimate price in order to save the gods? The tragic and heroic story of Jane Foster finally reaches its heart-rending zenith. You knew it was coming. The Death of Thor is here at last."
Runner3 Finishes Development, Submitted to Nintendo
Commander Video's latest adventure, Runner3, has finished development, and the game has been submitted to Nintendo for final approval.
Developer Choice Provisions has announced the third game in the Bit.Trip.Runner series is complete, and once Nintendo finishes testing the game, to ensure it is ready for release, the game will go to the manufacturer to begin printing physical versions. Digitally, the game will be available day and date on Switch and Steam.
Although the developer is "eager to share" a release date, since the game has now been submitted for testing, "the ball is currently in
Sony Was Once Offered the Movie Rights to Nearly All of Marvel’s Heroes
If you've managed to keep up with the buying-and-selling of the movie rights to Marvel's stable of superheroes, you'll know that Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man, but it turns out that it could have owned the whole shebang in a proposed deal 20 years ago - that it turned down.
The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies - an upcoming book by Ben Fritz - recounts the moment in 1998 (via io9) when a Sony executive apparently stated that "nobody gives a s**t about any of the other Marvel characters. Go back and do a deal for only Spider-Man.”
Opinion: Asmodee Has Become the Disney of Board Games
On February 9, 2018, board game publisher Mayfair Games closed its doors after 36 years. After the decision was made, Mayfair reached out to another board game publisher, Asmodee, with the opportunity to purchase all of Mayfair’s titles as well as their subsidiaries Lookout Games and GmbH. Asmodee spent the money and now owns everything left of Mayfair. I say “left” because in 2016 Asmodee bought all english version rights to Mayfair’s biggest title, Settlers of Catan. Now, just 2 short years later, Mayfair is closing and Asmodee owns all the assets. As an isolated incident, this seems like an unfortunate series of events, but with context to Asmodee’s actions throughout recent years, this may be pointing towards a much more concerning issue.
IGN AU 2017 Select Awards: Winners Revealed!
The winners of IGN Australia's sixth annual Select Awards were revealed during a huge special event at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney on Friday, February 16.
2017 was absolutely crammed with terrific games and several categories were extremely tightly-contested.
The top three games in each category and the winners, as voted by IGN users, are listed below:
Runners-up: Grand Theft Auto Online, Rocket League
Runners-up: Horizon Zero Dawn, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Runners-up: Cuphead, Horizon Zero Dawn
Runners-up: Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Origins
PUBG’s Anti-Cheat Company Says 99% of Banned Accounts From China
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' problem with cheaters has been a major issue for the game, and recent data from the company's anti-cheat tech provider, BattlEye indicates that 99% of accounts that have been banned for cheating are from China.
Youxi Story reports the statistic, adding that 46% of PUBG's total players are based in China. It makes the problem a significant one in PUBG's most important territory.
One million accounts were banned for cheating in January, with BattlEye saying that "things continue to escalate" in spite of this.
Persona Series Getting an Official App
The Persona Series is set to receive an official companion app in Japan.
According to Siliconera, Persona O.A. will be a "support app" containing news and updates about the series as well as a built-in exploration game. It's not yet clear if the app will head west.
From the rough translation, it looks like fans will be able to explore the Mementos palace from Persona 5, earning items and "Persona Points" to summon more characters in the Velvet Room.
"Conversation events" will also occur, where a character from the game will appear and provide dialogue if you engage and attempt to raise your social link with them.
New Game From Deadly Premonition Director Coming This Year
Deadly Premonition director, Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro, has announced a new game from his studio White Owl, in association with Dragon Ball FighterZ studio Arc System Works. The Missing is scheduled for release later this year, and will "blow your mind."
"The title 'The Missing' has many different meanings," says Swery. "A missing person, someone who's lost, or even something lost. Maybe it's your loved one… or a place you belong. Do you ever feel lost in your everyday life? The Missing is for someone like you."
The Missing will be the first game White Owl has produced in-house, following a failed crowdfunding campaign for his RPG The Good Life, which was announced last year, set in an English town where all of the residents become cats at night.