Yearly Archives: 2020
Will Disney ‘Kill’ Mulan’s Theatrical Release in Favor of Digital?
Crucible Review – A Prime Disappointment
It's easy to recognize Crucible's many design influences. The Amazon-published third-person multiplayer game features hero-style characters with abilities similar to those found in Overwatch. Its one MOBA-centric game mode should feel familiar to you if you've played Smite or the now-defunct Paragon. And even its light progression system echoes the one found in Gearbox's Battleborn. Crucible attempts to remix a lot of existing ideas and cohesively tie them together into something more successful, but as a result, it fails to create an identity for itself.
Crucible takes place on an alien planet primed for off-world mining, which plays host to three game modes on its single map. Heart of the Hive is as close to a MOBA as Crucible gets, with a focus on PvP and PvE play as two teams fight to secure the hearts of dangerous hives. Alpha Hunters is a spin on battle royale, with teams of two skirmishing in short matches. Lastly, Harvester Command combines traits of team deathmatch and classic point control, rewarding players for kills and the number of objectives controlled on the map. In each mode, you have a choice to play as one of 10 characters, each with a handful of unique abilities and unlockable traits.
Heart of the Hive is the main event, pitting two teams of four against one another on a large map filled with AI enemies as you hunt down periodically spawning hives and attempt to capture three of their underlying hearts. Like in most MOBAs, you kill these enemies for XP, levelling up your character to improve your health, damage, and ability effectiveness. But in Crucible, there's no challenge involved in killing these enemies; it's easy enough to tackle a large group of them alone without any risk, dancing around their slow and predictable attack patterns. It reduces the necessary farming of experience to a mindless annoyance, made even more irritating by the fact that it's predominantly how you'll spend most of your time in this mode.
Continue Reading at GameSpotCrucible Review – A Prime Disappointment
It's easy to recognize Crucible's many design influences. The Amazon-published third-person multiplayer game features hero-style characters with abilities similar to those found in Overwatch. Its one MOBA-centric game mode should feel familiar to you if you've played Smite or the now-defunct Paragon. And even its light progression system echoes the one found in Gearbox's Battleborn. Crucible attempts to remix a lot of existing ideas and cohesively tie them together into something more successful, but as a result, it fails to create an identity for itself.
Crucible takes place on an alien planet primed for off-world mining, which plays host to three game modes on its single map. Heart of the Hive is as close to a MOBA as Crucible gets, with a focus on PvP and PvE play as two teams fight to secure the hearts of dangerous hives. Alpha Hunters is a spin on battle royale, with teams of two skirmishing in short matches. Lastly, Harvester Command combines traits of team deathmatch and classic point control, rewarding players for kills and the number of objectives controlled on the map. In each mode, you have a choice to play as one of 10 characters, each with a handful of unique abilities and unlockable traits.
Heart of the Hive is the main event, pitting two teams of four against one another on a large map filled with AI enemies as you hunt down periodically spawning hives and attempt to capture three of their underlying hearts. Like in most MOBAs, you kill these enemies for XP, levelling up your character to improve your health, damage, and ability effectiveness. But in Crucible, there's no challenge involved in killing these enemies; it's easy enough to tackle a large group of them alone without any risk, dancing around their slow and predictable attack patterns. It reduces the necessary farming of experience to a mindless annoyance, made even more irritating by the fact that it's predominantly how you'll spend most of your time in this mode.
Continue Reading at GameSpotJon Favreau on Early Baby Yoda Art Being ‘Too Cute’ or ‘Too Ugly’
"Some of them were too cute, and some of them were too ugly." - Jon Favreau[/caption]
Another interesting reveal about the Baby Yoda puppet is that it took 3 months for the team at Legacy to build, and at any given time, there are three to four puppeteers controlling various aspects of his movements: Jason Matthews (eyes), Trevor Hensley (gross body moves and his head), Hiroshi ‘Kan’ Ikeuchi (ears and mouth), Mike Manzel (walking sequences, arm movements), Tamara Carlson Woodard (rotates in with a lot of the other puppeteers as needed and also made the costume).
From the perspective of the actors, Gina Carano admitted that Baby Yoda stole every scene she shared with him. "Jon Favreau came up to me and he was like, ‘you did pretty good that time, that was a pretty good scene,'" Carano said jokingly. "But the baby kicked your ass.'" For Mando himself, Pedro Pascal said, "[Baby Yoda] activates your primal childhood dreams. We’re all going to be second fiddle to this little guy. That’s how cool he is."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/23/disney-gallery-star-wars-the-mandalorian-official-trailer"]
For on The Mandalorian, find out why it takes three guys to play Mando and learn about Dave Filoni's epic journey from Avatar: The Last Airbender to the Star Wars universe.
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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.Jon Favreau on Early Baby Yoda Art Being ‘Too Cute’ or ‘Too Ugly’
"Some of them were too cute, and some of them were too ugly." - Jon Favreau[/caption]
Another interesting reveal about the Baby Yoda puppet is that it took 3 months for the team at Legacy to build, and at any given time, there are three to four puppeteers controlling various aspects of his movements: Jason Matthews (eyes), Trevor Hensley (gross body moves and his head), Hiroshi ‘Kan’ Ikeuchi (ears and mouth), Mike Manzel (walking sequences, arm movements), Tamara Carlson Woodard (rotates in with a lot of the other puppeteers as needed and also made the costume).
From the perspective of the actors, Gina Carano admitted that Baby Yoda stole every scene she shared with him. "Jon Favreau came up to me and he was like, ‘you did pretty good that time, that was a pretty good scene,'" Carano said jokingly. "But the baby kicked your ass.'" For Mando himself, Pedro Pascal said, "[Baby Yoda] activates your primal childhood dreams. We’re all going to be second fiddle to this little guy. That’s how cool he is."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/23/disney-gallery-star-wars-the-mandalorian-official-trailer"]
For on The Mandalorian, find out why it takes three guys to play Mando and learn about Dave Filoni's epic journey from Avatar: The Last Airbender to the Star Wars universe.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.
