It was hardly surprising when Hammer decided to sequel-ize The Woman in Black, nor should one have been shocked by the slightly familiar — and, thus, wholly safe — plot description. Two months after the financially-motivated announcement of The Woman in Black: Angels of Death, the British horror institute have released a synopsis that all but confirms a set-up which takes more than a few cues from the Daniel Radcliffe-starrer.
The original novel’s author, Susan Hill, has been working on the film with Woman‘s story editor, Jon Croker. This is what they’ve come up with: “Seized by the government and converted into a military mental hospital during World War II, the sudden arrival of disturbed soldiers to Eel Marsh [House] has awoken its darkest inhabitant. Eve, a beautiful young nurse, is sent to the house to care for the patients but soon realizes she must save them from more than their own demons. Despite Eve’s efforts to stop her, one by one they fall victim to The Woman in Black.” Yes the plot is a bit...over used, BUT this film could bring the same level of entertainment because most of the creative team is returning. Nintendo has not always had the most stellar online options, so when we thought about Netflix on the Wii U it seemed likely that it was just going to be a quick-and-dirty port of the existing software on the other consoles.
Not so, it seems. A new screen that was leaked to Engadget (where you can view a larger version) shows that Netflix on Wii U will utilize the system's tablet screen and enable it to view movies and videos while the television is used for something else. Finally, a console that allows us to play video games while still technically baby sitting and/or spending time with the kids. The question that remains to be answered though, is whether or not this is more functional than an iPad, and the final price point of the Wii U will obviously factor heavily into that determination. Perhaps the most random announcement out of E3 week was from publisher Deep Silver, who announced that Polish developer Techland is working on a sequel to its surprise 2011 hit Dead Island. It’s called Dead Island: Riptide, and as of right now, we know very little about it.
But what we do know, thanks to Deep Silver’s Aubrey Norris, is that Dead Island: Riptide will be retailing for $10 less than what most retail games typically sell for. Sleuths at Ripten noticed that online stores had Riptide priced at $50. Inquiring with Ms. Norris via Twitter, they learned that the price is “not a placeholder” and that Dead Island: Riptide, while “not a remake” of the original, will still be sold at $50 due to it coming out at “the end of a console cycle.” Diablo III has its share of annoyances—lost progress due to connection difficulties, the delayed auction house, hackers stealing your gear… but the most annoying of all may well be cheaters.
In an update on the Diablo III blog ominously titled "Cheating in Diablo III", Blizzard has drawn a line in the sand. They're about to start getting serious with cheaters, and none will be spared. Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in Blizzard games very seriously, and that's no different for Diablo® III. If a Diablo III player is found to be cheating or using hacks, bots, or modifications in any form, then as outlined in the Diablo III end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net® to play Diablo III with his or her account. Playing Diablo III legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net and Diablo III, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, bots, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future. Nice. Go forth, Ser Blizz, and wield your banhammer without mercy. Curious item out of Hollywood—Valve is licensing its intellectual property to a science-fiction film, but it has nothing to do with Portal, Half-Life or any other title familiar to the publisher. Instead, its Source engine is being used to help animate Deep, a movie about mankind's struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. At the bottom of the ocean. After World War III.
Because Deep has a budget only of about $19 million, it needs some tools that allow real-time rendering, and editing, simplified character animation and economical lighting, writes Variety. Enter Valve, who has had a working relationship with Brown Bag Films, the studio working with animated feature director Shane Acker on Deep. Valve's Source engine povides the solutions the filmmaker needs, and so off they've gone together. Still no word on a Half-Life movie, though. Or even Half-Life 3 for that matter. A pandemic has radically changed known civilization. Twenty years later infected humans run wild and survivors are killing each other for food, weapons, or whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a ruthless survivor, is hired to smuggle a 14 year-old girl, Ellie, out of an oppressive military quarantine zone, but what starts as a simple job soon transforms into a profound journey across the U.S. Naughty Dog, the critically-acclaimed developers of the UNCHARTED franchise, are back with The Last of Us™, a genre-defining experience blending elements of survival and action developed exclusively for the PlayStation®3 system (PS3™). Set in a devastated, post-pandemic United States, The Last of Us invites players to feel the tension and action of this visceral world through Joel and Ellie’s evolving relationship as they travel across the country. Leveraging Naughty Dog’s pedigree as the leading first-party PS3 development studio with award-winning technology, The Last of Us will immerse players in an incredibly realistic, lethal, and savage world through its integration of intense characters that foster emotional resonance, a rich storyline, and gorgeous visuals. What does it take to survive in the brutal yet beautiful world that is The Last of Us? This is what players will be faced with at every turn as they embark on an epic journey with Joel and Ellie that will explore the depths of humanity and push them to the limits of human perseverance. Story The population has been decimated. The United States government has collapsed long ago. Twenty years after the outbreak, abandoned cities are slowly reclaimed by nature. Roaming bands of survivors are killing each other for food, weapons, or whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a ruthless survivor with few moral lines left to cross, lives in one of the last remaining Quarantine Zones. These walled-off, oppressive cities are run by what’s left of the military. Despite the strict martial law, Joel operates in the black market of the city, smuggling contraband for the right price. Joel is asked by a dying friend to look after Ellie, a fourteen-year-old girl with courage beyond her years. What starts out as a simple job to deliver Ellie to another Quarantine Zone, soon transforms into a profound journey that will forever change Joel and Ellie. As they trek across a post-pandemic United States, Joel and Ellie will encounter different factions of survivors that have each found a unique way of dealing with the infected humans, the lack of supplies, and the threat of other survivors. As Joel and Ellie struggle to persevere, they must learn to trust each other and work together in order to survive the realities of this new world. At its core, The Last of Us is about the bond that forms between Joel and Ellie – it is the story of love, loyalty, and redemption. Features: • Become the hunter and the hunted in a brutal post-pandemic world. Play as Joel, a ruthless survivor, who is paired with Ellie, a brave young teenage girl, as they work together to endure a dangerous trek across a familiar, yet post-pandemic United States. • Intense character-driven narrative featuring a cast of resonant characters that take you on a rich, emotional journey via Naughty Dog’s award-winning cinematic storytelling, performance capture, and high-production values. • Explore a decimated, overgrown America reclaimed by nature, marked with remnants of human civilization juxtaposed against beautiful, lush environments, delivered by realistic and stunning graphics. • Strategize how to survive enemy encounters as the Balance of Power AI system continuously adapts to whether Joel or the enemies gain the upper hand. Quickly maneuver to survive encounters as enemies will change their behavior based on what weapon they see Joel holding, how many of them are left alive, and whether the player has managed to surprise them. • Learn how to survive day-by-day: scavenge for vital resources, craft weaponry out of environmental objects, and compete with other survivors for limited supplies and ammo. We know that Watch Dogs will be an open-world adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the same folks who make Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow 6, and Far Cry. Our character is named Aiden Pearce, he appears to be a genius who can hack into most, if not all, of the cities online inferstructure allowing us to access peoples personal and criminal histories, shut down cell phone and electronics, and control the cities traffic. To be more specific, the press release tells us that, “In Watch Dogs, players enter the dangerous world of Aiden Pearce, a new class of antihero whose ability to hack into any connected system could be his most powerful weapon. Whether it’s triggering a 30-car pileup by manipulating traffic-lights to trap an enemy during a downtown shootout or tapping into the city’s omnipresent security cameras to access anyone’s personal information, Pearce is capable of coercing and controlling almost every element of the world around him.” Watch Dogs appears to have cover-based third person shooter elements, as seen in the gameplay videos contained in this story. In the trailer we also saw a robotic waiter carrying drinks with a large QR code on it’s head, if you follow that code you’re led to dotconnexion.ubi.com, the man at that website, DeMarco, appears to play a very significant role in the game, and may be the person your story revolves around. While no release date was given for Watch Dogs as of yet, I think it’s safe to assume we can look forward to it hitting sometime in 2013, or Spring 2014 at the latest. We're still guessing about whether Ubisoft's highly impressive Watch Dogs is in fact one of a few of E3's stealth-reveals of the next generation of gaming. What we saw sure seemed too intricate and advanced to run on current gaming consoles. But Ubisoft has remained cagey about when and on what platforms the game will be released. On the 5th, however, the official Watch Dogstwitter feed tweeted the following: So, "consoles," eh? That's as cagey as Face/Off, is what that is. That's Cagier than Leaving Las Vegas.
It is highly unlikely that any next-gen consoles will be out in 2013, of course. Then again, the game could be released for PC and then later on whatever the next Xbox and PS3 are. Or, a watered-down version could be released for current ports. Or, or, or... In other words, other than that 2013 bit, we don't really know anything new. But hey, that's something. Star Wars 1313 is named for Level 1313, a ruthless criminal underground deep below the surface of the planet of the Imperial capital world, Coruscant. The game puts players in control of a (so far) unnamed, deadly bounty hunter. He gets wrapped up in some funny business while on Coruscant and soon finds himself defending against rather hostile visits, as he uses an arsenal of exotic weaponry to hunt down his marks and uncover the truth surrounding a criminal conspiracy. Star Wars 1313 emphasizes epic set pieces and fast-paced combat with a hero who uses human skills and gadgets, rather than preternatural "Force" powers, to make his way through this dangerous world. Development In collaboration with LucasFilm and ILM, LucasArts is working hard to ensure star quality performances, an epic soundtrack befitting of the Star Wars universe, and attention to detail. Actors sport full performance capture suits, including special headgear that tracks facial muscles and eye movements, to portray and translate convincing human-like performances onto 1313. Gameplay Style In the demos shown, the gameplay centers around cover-based shooting and platforming. There's even a glimpse of a Han Solo-esque blaster that not only could put on the heat but also fire concussive shots that could flush enemies out from behind cover. Bounty hunters normally have a wide array of tools at their disposal. 1313's levels and enemy encounters will be designed to give all the gadgets in a bounty hunter's arsenal a chance to stretch their legs. Being resourceful and thinking quickly on one's feet are key to survival. Release Date
No confirmation as of yet and there are many rumors that Star Wars 1313 is running on next-gen tech. Bethesda announced today that patch 1.6 is now live for Xbox 360 players, after undergoing a beta on Steam last month. This patch also introduces a number of other fixes as well, demonstrating Bethesda's impressive level of commitment to supporting Skyrim with free updates post-launch.
The content in this patch is puny compared to the bounty that will be coming later this month however. Skyrim's first expansion will be releasing on June 26 for 1600 MSP ($20), and follows and epic struggle between vampires and the titular "Dawnguard" in a war to save/destroy the sun forever. |
June 2012 NewsComment on any topic. This month starts the trend of discontinuing the Catetegories of Articles. Posting from my Iphone doesn't allow the feature of keynoting each news-post. So I can't organize articles with Keywords; apologies. |