Stone Marshall

The Secret Life of Pets Tops Ghostbusters at the Box Office

by Stone Marshall | Jul 20, 2016 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

The Secret Life of Pets tops Ghostbusters at the box office

llumination Entertainment’s The Secret Life of Pets, the fifth fully-animated feature-film collaboration with Universal Pictures, topped the box office for a second straight weekend with $50.6 million. Made for $75 million, the film has earned $203.2 million domestically in two weeks. Internationally, The Secret Life of Pets has grossed $50.8 million for a worldwide total of $254 million. The Secret Life of Pets was directed by Chris Renaud (Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2) and co-directed by Yarrow Cheney and written by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch. The movie stars Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet and Kevin Hart in their animated feature-film debuts, with co-stars Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan and Albert Brooks.

Sony Pictures‘ Ghostbusters debuted in second place with an estimated $46 million from 3,963 theaters, an average of $11,607 per location. Made for about $144 million, the Paul Feig-directed film received a B+ CinemaScore from audiences. Ghostbusters stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Charles Dance, Michael Kenneth Williams and Chris Hemsworth.

In its third weekend, Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Legend of Tarzan added $11.1 million in third place to push its domestic total past the $100 mark with $103.1 million. Internationally, the David Yates-directed film earned $22 million this weekend from 55 markets, bringing the overseas total to $90.6 million and worldwide sum to $193.7 million. The film, made for $180 million, stars Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and Djimon Hounsou. The Legend of Tarzan opens in China this Tuesday, July 19.

In fourth place, Disney•Pixar‘s Finding Dory grossed another $11 million in North America its fifth weekend to swim to $445.5 million. The movie now stands as the highest-grossing animated release of all-time domestically, passing Shrek 2’s long-held record of $441.2 million. This result has also helped push the 2016 domestic total to date for The Walt Disney Studios past $2 billion, making it the fastest time this has been achieved in industry history and following on from last weekend’s news of the studio crossing $3 billion internationally and $5 billion globally. Internationally, Finding Dory grossed $36.5 million this weekend to bring its overseas sum to $276.2 million and worldwide total to $721.7 million. Directed by Andrew Stanton, Finding Dory features the voices of Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Michael Sheen, Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton.

20th Century Fox’s R-rated comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates rounded out the top five with $7.5 million its second weekend. The film, which cost $33 million to make, has earned $31.3 million domestically. Directed by Jake Szymanski, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates stars Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, Adam DeVine, and Aubrey Plaza.

Coming in at No. 6, Universal and Blumhouse’s The Purge: Election Year grossed $6.1 million its third weekend for a total of $71 million in North America. Internationally, the film has earned $7.2 million. Made for just $10 million, the James DeMonaco-directed film stars Frank Grillo and Elizabeth Mitchell.

The Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart action-comedy Central Intelligence earned $5.3 million in seventh place for a five-week total of $117.5 million. Overseas, Central Intelligence has earned $63 million for a global cume of $180.5 million.

Broad Green Pictures opened the Brad Furman-directed The Infiltrator in 1,600 theaters, where it grossed $5.3 million for the eighth spot. Starring Bryan Cranston, Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, Benjamin Bratt, Elena Anaya, Olympia Dukakis, Juliet Aubrey and Amy Ryan, the film has made $6.7 million since opening last Wednesday. It received an A- CinemaScore.

Also, Woody Allen’s Cafe Society debuted in five theaters and grossed $355,000, or $71,000 per theater. The film stars Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll and Ken Stott.

The Secret Life of Pets Tops Ghostbusters at the Box Office

Player recreates working Pokémon on virtual Game Boy Advance in Minecraft

by Stone Marshall | Jul 20, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Redditor Requag has created a nearly fully functional replica of Pokémon FireRed on a virtual Game Boy Advance in Minecraft, making it one of the most elaborate and interactive creations every built in the game.

The replica isn’t 100 percent complete yet. The game is still missing basic functions of the game, including combat and dialogue, but on their YouTube page, Requag said they’re still working on it and they have plans to incorporate those abilities later on. The goal, they said, is to make it a fully functional version of the game that people in Minecraft can play, but they wanted to get out a version of it as quickly as possible. The video, which can be seen above, demonstrates how structure blocks within Minecraft can be used to create something as intricate and elaborate as this. Requag used structure blocks, which are designed for map makers, to keep the design of Pokémon FireRed identical to the original game.

Requag added that if people wanted to try out the basic version of the Pokémon recreation, there’s absolutely no modding required. All it takes to run is version 1.10 of Minecraft. While the recreation is extremely impressive, it doesn’t exactly feel like a Pokémon game. Minecraft can’t keep up with the input controls needed to make the recreation run smoothly, but it’s still an interesting look at what can be built inside the game.

For those interested in exploring Pokémon within Minecraft, more information can be found here.

Player recreates working Pokémon on virtual Game Boy Advance in Minecraft

‘The Sims 4’ Update: 7 Changes You May Have Missed In The June 2 Patch

by Stone Marshall | Jul 19, 2016 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

The June 2 Sims 4 patch was one of the best free updates we’ve ever had. Over 700 CAS items previously only available to male or female Sims are now open to both. The ‘Gender Customization’ tab gives players more control over a Sim’s physical style by adding a masculine or feminine option. But gender customization isn’t the only big change included in the update. The Sims team also improved the graphics and made a few preparations for the June 7 Game Pack, Dine Out. Here’s a few features that you may have missed.

1. Upgraded Indoor Lighting

Improved Indoor Lighting The Sims

The way the sun and moon light project into rooms through the windows reflects brighter, and more definitive, shadows and highlights in the room. Check out this awesome Sims 4 Indoor Lighting timelapse courtesy of The Sims Community.

2. Buy/Build Mode Attach

Attach chairs to tables. The Sims 4

Attach a table to a chair, not just the other way around. Green boundary visuals will show you footprints of both the table and chair. This is going to be so much more convenient when building restaurants in Dine Out.

3. Resize Photographs using the the Shift + ] cheat in Build Mode

Make paintings larger. The Sims

4. Food thumbnails

Upgraded food thumbnails. The Sims 4

They’re brighter and high-def. The improved graphics will be perfect to showcase the 20 new experimental dishes included in Dine Out. When choosing your restaurant’s menu, now you can clearly see what you’re looking at.

5. Ask a Sim to be ‘Just Friends’ and the ‘Romantic Relationship Bar’ will stop progressing

Ask to be just friends. The Sims

6. Drink from the sink with the ‘Get Water’ interaction, and then ‘Ponder glass fullness’

Get water from the sink. The Sims

7. Meditating Sims can have self-discoveries for skills such as Herbalism, Baking, and Photography

‘The Sims 4’ Update: 7 Changes You May Have Missed In The June 2 Patch

Why Microsoft Needs To Copy ‘Pokémon GO’ And Release ‘Minecraft AR’ On Mobile ASAP

by Stone Marshall | Jul 19, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Something crazy has happened in the past few days: Kids are playing outside again. And they’re not just playing outside—they’re playing video games outside.

That’s all thanks to Pokémon GO, which lets Pokémon trainers capture and battle Pokémon via an augmented-reality (AR) app on their mobile devices in the real world.

But I don’t really need to summarize it do I? At this point, everybody and their mother knows what Pokémon GO is.

Now imagine that this trend can continue, that parents can keep sending their kids outside to play together, with other games. No doubt every game publisher and developer out there is trying to figure out how to capitalize on this trend.

Minecraft on HoloLens. (Credit: Microsoft)

But only one has an IP that’s truly likely to succeed the same way Pokémon has, and that’s Microsoft, the owners of the wildly popular Minecraft franchise.

Not only is Microsoft the rights-holder to one of the most popular kids’ games on the market, they’ve even worked on an augmented reality version of the game for their still-in-development AR HoloLens goggles.

Recommended by Forbes

Well, it’s time for Microsoft to set down the HoloLens for the time-being, and get Minecraft AR out on smartphones. They should do this soon, too, while the buzz surrounding Pokémon GO is still relatively fresh.

Now I’m not certain exactly how Microsoft has developed their own version of HoloLens Minecraft, but they should seriously consider aping some of Pokémon GO’s best qualities.

Imagine going out into the real world and finding materials to use for crafting and building where they would be in real life. A park or woods to find dirt and rock; a lake or beach to add water, and so forth. Add to this augmented reality zombies for a sense of danger.

Then, imagine you could just walk down the street to find other peoples’ creations, or team up with friends to build truly impressive AR structures and worlds—in the real world.

I’m not sure if this would necessarily be as popular as Pokémon GO, but it’s literally the only other IP I can think of that could even come close.

There will be many Pokémon GO imitators, and most of them will be a total disaster. Some may be relatively successful, but without the Pokémon brand behind them, they simply won’t have that special something to be a truly massive hit the way this game has been.

Minecraft might, however. But Microsoft can’t limit it to Windows Phone or HoloLens. This needs to be on iOS and Android if it wants to succeed. The time is ripe for augmented reality—something many people had written off as virtual reality took the spotlight. Minecraft AR could be both really cool and a huge hit.

Why Microsoft Needs To Copy ‘Pokémon GO’ And Release ‘Minecraft AR’ On Mobile ASAP

Minecraft For Gear VR Is Wonderfully Immersive

by Stone Marshall | Jul 18, 2016 | Minecraft News | 0 comments

Minecraft For Gear VR Is Wonderfully Immersive

It’s worth spending $99 for the Samsung Gear VR just for Minecraft.

Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time, with over 100 million copies sold so far.

In April, Minecraft released the game for the Gear VR headset—and I immediately bought a copy for $6.99 and started playing.

There are two versions of Minecraft. In one, you play on a flat screen—a laptop or desktop. The second , the immersive virtual reality one, is the cool one. It puts you right in the middle of the virtual Minecraft world. Move your head, fight zombies, tame wolves, build a treehouse to the clouds, or just look all around. But why would you ever do that when the world—or rather the Minecraft world—is yours to build.

A Nether portal in Minecraft on Gear VR. Image courtesy Microsoft

Unfortunately, when I first got the game, the controls weren’t fully tuned for virtual reality, and moving around in-world quickly gave me motion sickness—the worst I’ve experienced in any VR game so far. There’s just something about flying through the air when your body is still still in a chair that just doesn’t feel right. I stopped playing. Quickly.

I recently went back to try the game again, and this time, I found the experience much better. The developers have tweaked the controls so that you now move in short hops, which seems to greatly reduce the motion sickness.

Scary spiders

Once in the Minecraft world, I immediately dug a tunnel, then built some walls. One of the aspects of the virtual reality version of Minecraft that was the most compelling for me was how the feeling of being present in that world. When it rained, it felt as though it was raining on me and it was nice to just stand and look around want watch the rain come down, especially this week, when it was unpleasantly hot in my area. When I hunted the giant spiders, those spiders were scary. In fact, anyone with a phobia about spiders will either find a welcome outlet for their anti-spider aggression or run away screaming.

There are a couple of improvements I would like to see in the game. One is the ability to get good screenshots. Right now, Gear VR’s built-in screenshot tool generates a square, low-res image that doesn’t do Minecraft any justice. The other is an in-world body. Right now, when you look down, there’s nothing there—no legs, no arms. You’re a floating ghost.

This game, by itself, is enough to make the Gear VR worth the $99 price tag for the headset alone. Plus, you can visit worlds built by your friends, or get a dedicated server and share your world with others with Minecraft Realms, starting at just $4 a month. There’s also 3D audio and the VR edition supports Pocket Edition versions of Minecraft including Creative and Survival mode, plus skins.

A Minecraft Creeper in theGear VR version. Image courtesy Microsoft

Gearing up

Before you can start playing the game, you’re going to need an external controller. The recommended on is the SteelSeries Stratus XL, which costs $60 on Amazon.

If you want to save a little dough, you can also buy the iPEGA PG-9025, $18 on Amazon. This is the one I have, and it works fine for Minecraft and for all my other VR games, both Gear VR and Cardboard.

My iPEGA PG-9025 controller. Photograph by Maria Korolov

Other recommended headsets include the $18 iPEGA PG-9021, the $50 Power A MOGA Hero, and the $34 GameSir G3s.

Follow the instructions that come with the controller and sync it to your phone. For my iPEGA, this required holding down the “Home” button and the “X” button at the same time. Then play around with all the buttons to see what they do.

You might also have to use the trackpad and the back button to get back to the ‘Options’ menu, where you can adjust the music and sound effect volume, and also change other interface options.

I did not find the controls to be particularly intuitive. But then again, I haven’t played Minecraft on other platforms before. Experienced players will probably have an easier time picking the game up in VR.

An underground Minecart track in Gear VR’s Minecraft. Image courtesy Microsoft

If you haven’t played Minecraft before, you might also check online for additional Google for Minecraft tips and recipe guides.

One final note: When you play Minecraft, don’t be surprised if your smartphone starts heating up rather quickly. Mine did, forcing me to take a break. But that can be a good thing, since you can use the time to stretch and do some exercises, and charge up your phone.

Minecraft For Gear VR Is Wonderfully Immersive

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