Harley Quinn Co-Creator on Suicide Squad Photo
Bruce Timm, the co-creator (alongside Paul Dini) of Harley Quinn, has shared his thoughts on what he thinks of her live-action look in Suicide Squad.
Speaking with io9, Timm was pleasantly surprised. "I just saw the pic like a couple hours ago. It was interesting. I was frankly a little nervous about what Harley would look like, but I thought she looked really cool. So I'm optimistic."
Timm wouldn't comment beyond his optimism, though. "I just saw the one shot of her in the group shot. So far so good."
Rain Delays Project CARS on PC in Australia
According to Namco Bandai Australia, the PC version of Project CARS has been delayed by a day because of...water damage.
The game was scheduled for release on the 7th of May for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but according to a press release has been pushed back to the 8th of May for PC because of "recent storm activity".
We reached out to local PR who came back with this additional information: "Our local production house suffered some damage in last week's storms which resulted in our PC stock and DLC paper-parts having to be reprinted. As such, we are working to have the Project CARS PC stock delivered to stores this Friday 8th, a day after the console release on Thursday."
Drones Assist Earthquake Relief and Rescue Operations in Nepal
Camera-equipped unmanned aerial vehicles were being used by Indian and Nepalese authorities to carry out reconnaissance in inaccessible areas in Nepal after an earthquake devastated the region on April 25, 2015.
S.S. Guleria, deputy inspector general of India’s National Disaster Response Force, told media outlets that two drones purchased from Mumbai-based drone company ideaForg are being used in the relief efforts. The devices, which have a 5 km diameter reconnaissance range, are being controlled by pilots in a Katmandu control room to check out regions that can't be reached via land. ideaForg and its UAVs were previously called upon to support relief and rescue operations in Uttarakhand, India after torrential rains caused flash floods in June, 2013.
JumpJet Rex Review
If you were born after the NES was in its heyday, the sparkly throwbacks now being released every couple of weeks might give you the impression that the era was just all killer, no filler for 10 beautiful years. In this dream world, Super Mario Bros. 3 was the only game anyone ever needed, a new Mega Man rained down upon us from the heavens on a regular basis, and Capcom and Konami were revered as gods and their every offering was like delicious, life-sustaining manna. In that regard, JumpJet Rex is a blessing, in that it reminds us that the 8-bit era wasn't all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. It was also a lot of screaming, nerve-destroying, controller-chucking aggravation, and none were immune from its sudden onset. Ask anyone who bought the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, expecting a fun, breezy time for the whole family, and watch the thousand-yard stare wash over them like the evening tide.
JumpJet Rex brings back that delightful concept of a cutesy setup being used as a vessel for diabolical evil. In it, the dinosaurs were advanced enough to master space travel, sending up a lone, rocket boot-wearing T-rex to go explore the galaxy. While he's up there, mission control finds out that an asteroid--the asteroid--is on its way, and sends Rex to the outer reaches to go destroy it. Oh, and to explore a couple dozen random planetoids along the way.
The planets are perfect tile-based approximations of 8-bit pixels, albeit with huge, widescreen playing fields. The environments, sadly, are limited, recycling the same four space base/ice level/plant world/stone temples throughout. Though the enemies get annoyingly diverse later--more on that soon--the levels lose their luster by the end. They are, undoubtedly, on the appealingly colorful side; the ice levels beautifully depict Hoth-like conditions in which to zoom around, and a lightning effect on the later space stages make them look particularly animated and dangerous. The accompanying chiptune soundtrack doesn't take full advantage of the NES's jerry-rigged range of instrumentation, but it's fun, catchy stuff to putter around the galaxy to.
Movement is pleasantly free-flowing. Having rocket boots means that you have an infinite jump, the ability to blast yourself left and right, and lift off vertically, and a tiny blast is given off in your wake that can actually do damage to enemies. Using these abilities, your mission in each stage is to pass through a specified number of gates to open up the finish line, where you earn a star. Like in Super Mario 64, you need a certain number of stars to open up each stage, but you can earn additional stars per stage by getting through without dying and by beating the stage time record.
Sounds easy. It is decidedly not.
Early stages are a delight, with Rex blasting through coins, squeezing through tight corridors, and making split-second maneuvers to dodge lasers or avoid the walls. You're dead in one hit, so that old tension is here, keeping your reflexes sharp; It's challenging, but fun all the same. After the first boss, however, the difficulty spikes hard and fast. The game gets projectile-happy in a hurry, where tracking lasers and fire-spewing plants line every surface or are set up just past the outer limits of the screen where you can't see them, seemingly just begging you to try using your rockets. Tight squeezes are now less a matter of having a few tiles to move around but a scant few pixels. Boss fights aren't necessarily hard but tedious, with every hit doing minor chip damage at best. Around halfway through, the game ceases to be fun. It becomes a chore. Difficulty isn't a negative in and of itself, but its merits can be measured in a simple question: “Is it my fault I'm dying?” “Is there a flaw in my own skills that could prevent this?”
Increasingly, the game sits on the bad side of that question, where obstacles are surmountable seemingly by sheer luck more than skill. The game puts import on being able to nab more than one star from a stage to advance, but the time trial records are ludicrous, and dying becomes more and more a certainty; it is a recipe for seething hate. Your rewards for success often come down to little more than the money you've collected, which can be traded for insanely overpriced cosmetic items. In one of the stores you open early on, every item costs $100,000 coins. By the time I reached the final boss, I had $78,000. Troublesome economy aside, technical hitches are common, even on fairly straightforward stages and bosses, with the frame rate tanking and button presses ceasing to register when things get too busy.
Just like the most aggravating NES games, it's frustrating because there's fun to be had, and had often, in JumpJet Rex. It feels great to play, the aerial trickery is gratifying, and it's got a lot of goofy charm, but all of this is unfortunately buried under an inexplicable need to test players beyond what should be necessary in a galaxy where you tool around as a T-rex wearing sunglasses.
Comic Creator Calls DC Out on Royalty Payment Policy
Comic creator Gerry Conway -- known for co-creating Killer Croc, Firestorm, Killer Frost, and Power Girl among many others -- has accused DC Entertainment of using tortured logic to deny royalty payments and credit to comic creators.
In a recent Tumblr post, Conway pointed out a catch-22 that allowed DC Comics to use "derivative" characters without giving anyone credit or paying any royalties.
Bodybuilder Injects Arms With Toxin to Resemble The Hulk
A Brazilian bodybuilder's arms began to turn to "rock" as he injected his muscles with toxins in an attempt to look like The Hulk.
25-year-old Romario Dos Santos Alves first began injecting himself with synthol - a mix of alcohol and oil - three years ago to make his muscles appear larger. He soon grew addicted, with his biceps eventually growing to 25 inches.
However, toxins in the fillers began to cause him constant pain and health issues.
"I remember the doctor told me that they would need to amputate both arms," he told Daily Mail. "They said everything in there, all my muscles, were rock."
9 Comics You Should Buy This Week
We all want the best of the best, so let us point out the hottest comics and collectibles released each week. We spotlight our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent, new books that look cool, and any toys we can't wait to play with, er, put on our shelf.
Check out our picks, then take to the comments to let us know what looks good to you!
By writers Andy Lanning, Andy Schmidt & artist Gustavo Duarte | Marvel Comics
SEGA Will Not Have a Booth at E3
SEGA has announced they will not have their own designated spot on the E3 2015 show floor.
They confirmed this with GameInformer, explaining they "will be focusing on the restructure and relocation to Southern California," and thus will "not attend E3 with
own booth this year."
“With the majority of our bigger titles launching later in 2015/2016, particularly those from our AAA studios Relic Entertainment, Sports Interactive and Creative Assembly, we are concentrating our efforts for some of these major announcements after our relocation," a representative said.
Joss Whedon’s Quit Twitter
If you try to visit writer-director Joss Whedon's Twitter account, it's not there.
It's been replaced with a, "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!" message, even though Google still lists it as an active page.
Whedon's latest film, Avengers: Age of Ultron, may be killing it at the global box office, but it appears he no longer wants to be active on the Twittersphere.
According to the Screen Crush Twitter page, Whedon's last tweet read, "Thank you to all the people who've been so kind and funny and inspiring up in here."
It doesn't mean the beloved writer-director is gone from Twitter for good, but considering how open he's been about his frustration of working with Marvel, it's not entirely surprising.
The Simpsons Renewed for Season 27 and 28
FOX has officially renewed long-running animated comedy The Simpsons for two more seasons.
The 27th and 28th seasons will take the series up to 625 episodes.
Its 26th season is currently airing. The next episode, airing May 10, sees the town of Springfield pass an anti-bullying legislation, with Simpson patriarch Homer soon getting arrested for bullying and sent to rehab.
The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted television show in history; it became a cultural phenomenon is 1990. Two Australian animators recently recreated its opening "couch" scene using pixel art - check out IGN's own list of our top 25 couch gags.