App Store Update: April 14
Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Foldify Dinosaurs – ($3.99)
Bring some of your iPad gaming screentime fun into the real world with this latest sequel in the Foldify series, as each installment in this franchise teaches you how to make tangible papercraft creations. This one's packed with the thunderous lizards of the ancient world!
You Can Finally Play Hearthstone on Your Phone
Quick, reach into your pocket. Is there an iPhone or an Android device in there? Well, starting today, you can play Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on your smartphone.
Last month at PAX East 2015, Blizzard announced that its free-to-play card battler would be coming to the iPhone and Android within a couple months of the announcement.
It appears the time is now, but at the time of this writing, searching for "Hearthstone" under the "iPhone apps" category on Apple's iTunes store won't get you any closer to smiting your foes across platforms.
To get the app on iPhone you'll need to check out the "Featured Apps" section of the App Store. Using the search function will only return companion apps and guides for the game, but in all likelihood the current situation is temporary.
Apple Announces WWDC 2015 Dates
Apple has announced that its 26th Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place from June 8 to 12 in San Francisco's Moscone Center.
The event is developer-focused, revealing the future of iOS and OS X so that developers can create innovative apps with Apple's most recent technology. It will feature over 100 technical sessions and hands-on labs to help developers fine-tune their apps.
WWDC will also host the Apple Design Awards, which will showcase the best apps released in the last year for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.
Tickets will be issued through a random selection process; developers can apply at the WWDC website from now until April 17. There are also up to 350 WWDC scholarships available, offered a chance at a free ticket to students and members of certain STEM organisations. Select sessions will be livestreamed on the website, and videos of all technical sessions will be available by the end of each day.
Bloodborne Load Time Patch Coming This Month
The Bloodborne update which reduces load times is coming by the end of April, Sony said.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony says patch 1.03 will optimize performance and "reduce certain load times." It also "resolves an issue that resulted in abnormal game behavior after many continuous hours of play."
Could this be in reference to the bug that causes Bloodborne's bosses to be much easier after leaving the game idle for 12 hours? We reached out to Sony for clarification.
Online play will also be disabled for a short time while the servers are updated. Sony has determined that the downtime will take place at 1am PT during a non-Friday weeknight to "disrupt the fewest players," and it will target similar times for any future updates.
Podcast: The newest Blu-rays from George Clooney and Tom Hardy explored
From their secluded home-theater compound, film critics Wade Major and Mark Keizer mix insightful commentary with irreverent banter, covering the latest DVD and Blu-ray news and new releases of the week, including studio, independent, television and special-interest titles.
Digigods Podcast, 04/14/15 (MP3) -- 33.1 MB
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Batman’s Arkham Knight Will Have Origin Revealed in DC Comic
Want to know the origin of the Arkham Knight, the villain of the upcoming Batman: Arkham Knight video game? Well, DC Comics has you covered. A new six-issue comic book mini-series by writer Pete Tomasi and artist Alisson Borges called Batman: Arkham Knight - Genesis, out July 29, will explore the villain's mysterious past.
Batman: Arkham Knight - Genesis #1 by artist Stepan Sejic
The Brilliance of Black & White Buttons in Guitar Hero Live
Freestyle’s Guitar Hero Live is an interesting, technically ambitious deviation from expectation, and its guitar also reflects the changing tides for the franchise. Initially, its custom design looks familiar, like Guitar Hero 5’s axe, almost Fender in its shape. Very little stands out as remarkable. It’s small. It’s plastic. It’s a Guitar Hero guitar.
It isn’t until you hold the device that its familiarity truly sets in – and it’s strongest differentiating factor smacks you across the fingers.
Guitar Hero Live abandons the series’ usual five-fret, five-color system for creating chords. Green, red, yellow, blue, and orange buttons, each set to a single slot on the fret board, are a thing of the past. Guitar Hero Live’s guitar uses just the top three frets, divided down the middle to create one button on the inside, and another on the outside of each fret. The six buttons are then divided in a binary black/white, rather than singular colors. The buttons on the inside of the fret board are labeled black, and the outside frets are labeled white.
Cities: Skylines Sells 1 Million Copies in First Month
Paradox Interactive has announced sales of city-building sim have passed the 1 million mark since launching back on March 10.
Following launch it was revealed the title had sold 250,000 units in its first day on sale, with this rising to 500,000 just four days later.
So far 33,000 mods have been created for the game and released via Steam Workshop, while player concurrency is hovering around an average of 21,000.
An antidote to the disappointment caused by 2013's SimCity, our review of Cities: Skylines (which, it should be noted, isn't part of the Cities series of games like Cities XXL made by Focus Home Interactive) gave the title an 8.5 after finding its huge, bustling cities to be incredible fun.
Bloodborne Sales Pass 1 Million Mark Worldwide
Bloodborne has sold-through over 1 million copies to consumers globally, Sony has announced.
The number combines both physical sales and digital downloads, with the milestone being smashed through back on April 5 (so that's within two weeks of launch).
“Bloodborne was a new challenge for us, and our goal was to create a title that took full advantage of the power of PS4,” says Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida. “I am thrilled that so many users have been enjoying the extremely rich and detailed world, beautiful melancholic atmosphere and palpable tension of Bloodborne. SCE WWS will continue to bring exciting software titles that offer entertainment experiences only possible on PS4.”
iZombie: “Flight of the Living Dead” Preview
iZombie's Liv (Rose McIver) has a constant need for brains, and there are an endless number of cases that need solved. It seems like a win-win situation. In tonight's episode, "Flight of the Living Dead," Liv reluctantly snacks on the brain of one of her sorority sisters who has recently been murdered. The investigation leads the team into the deceased sorority sister's world of extreme sports. Being a zombie is sort of like an extreme sport, right?
Besides that open case, Major (Robert Buckley) lets Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) know his concerns about a young boy's disappearance. Those disappearances have to be stacking up by now. Get a look at what's ahead with photos in the below gallery.