by Stone Marshall | Apr 27, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
Activision and Treyarch have finally unleashed the reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The trailer is intense and action-packed, and if you’re a fan of this video game franchise there’s a good chance that you’re going to love what you see. I’ve had a blast playing the Call of Duty: Black Ops games, and this next chapter looks utterly insane. There’s no doubt that we’ll learn more about the game at the E3 Expo, which takes place in June. Hopefully we’ll get some hands on gameplay action.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III will thrust players into a dark, gritty future, where cybernetics and biotechnology have given rise to a new breed of soldier. Empowered by Direct Neural Interface (DNI) technology, players will assume the role of Black Ops soldiers that are interconnected, faster, and more lethal than ever in a new four-player co-op campaign and a completely redefined multiplayer experience.
With a new momentum-based, chained movement system that allows players to move fluidly through environments and maintain constant control of their weapon, Call of Duty: Black Ops III is packed with new multiplayer features. In addition to a new weapon customization system that lets players create unique weapon variants, Call of Duty: Black Ops III introduces the new Specialist system, which lets players choose and rank up nine elite Black Ops soldiers, each with their own unique look, personality, backstory, and devastating weapons and abilities.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be Black Ops without Treyarch’s signature Zombies. While more info will arrive later this year, Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s Zombies will feature its own unique story and XP progression system, adding new levels of depth and replayability.
Activision also confirmed that players who pre-order the game will be given access to the multiplayer beta, which you can learn more about by clicking here.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III launches on Friday, November 6th for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Awesomely Fierce Call of Duty: Black Ops III Reveal Trailer
by Stone Marshall | Apr 24, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
A few weeks ago, I wrote a rant about how Paramount was reportedly planning on creating a shared cinematic universe for the Transformers films under the creative control of Batman & Robin screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. It was still just rumored at that point, but according to a shareholder call from Hasbro that took place earlier today, it’s now been confirmed as their strategy moving forward.
ComingSoon has the relevant quotes:
“Our plan right now with the studio and filmmakers, you may have read something about some writers being hired,” Brian Goldner, President and CEO of Hasbro, says. “We have in fact brought in [Akiva Goldsman] to lead a group of writers to really create a strategic plan around Transformers – we think there’s any number of stories to be told. It’s a brand that’s been around for 30 years with amazing canon and mythology. We would expect the sequel to the Transformers movie to happen in 2017.”
It’s unclear whether Goldner means that production will begin in 2017 or that the film will be released in 2017, but either way, this is confirmation of Goldsman’s writer’s room concept and confirmation that Paramount is indeed putting infrastructure in place for this franchise to continue to expand over the new few years. Like I said in my initial rant, it’s hard to fault them from a business perspective since these movies make serious money, but creatively, you’d be hard-pressed to find a worse movie than Transformers: Age of Extinction when looking at high-budget films of that ilk. We can only hope that the new brain trust has enough time to come up with a decent script before moving into production on this new movie. Mark Wahlberg has signed on for multiple sequels to Age of Extinction, and Michael Bay is expected to return behind the camera.
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by Stone Marshall | Apr 23, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
Now that GTA 5 has made it to PC at long (long, long) last, many players are finding that the port was worth the wait. The game runs fantastically well and seems to be the culmination of everything Rockstar has learned since the original launch of the title back on last-gen consoles and the new-gen re-release since.
What’s really happened, however, is that Grand Theft Auto has given players their biggest, most fleshed-out open world playground since The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, which remains a PC favorite to this day.
Obviously, the two settings couldn’t be more disparate. One is a fantasy landscape of swords, sorcery and dragons, the other is a modern day parody of southern California focused on crime, corruption and shootouts with gang members and cops alike. But both share a common achievement, as each has arguably the most in-depth open world of their era.
But one thing could be standing in GTA’s way, something that could prevent it from having the kind of longevity as Skyrim. The seeming reluctance of Rockstar to support mods.
Skyrim, as a vanilla game, already comes baked in with potentially hundreds of hours of exploration. But the game has really thrived throughout the past few years because of an enormous modding community that has refined, tweaked or outright broken the game in every way imaginable. There are mods to allow you to see the individual fibers of fabric on a tunic, and there are mods that allow you to replace all dragons in the game with Thomas the Tank engine. The spectrum is wide, and it is true definition of a sandbox where anything is possible.
GTA 5 certainly allows players to explore the countryside, but you won’t stumble into the sort of bottomless dungeons you can encounter in Skyrim, nor will you create a dozen different characters with different specialties. Rather, Rockstar wants to herd players into an alternate sort of endgame, GTA Online.
It’s been around since the launch on consoles, but after a rocky start involving a number of exploits, followed by nearly eternal silence about online heists, it finally seems ready for primetime as a mini-MMO with reach on PCs the world over now.
It’s not just Rockstar’s goal to keep players engaged until the inevitable release of GTA 6 a few years down the line, but they want it to be a persistent moneymaking vehicle for them, as the mode allows players to purchase game cash for real cash, and blow it on everything from weapons to clothes to real estate. It’s a little like The Sims, with a lot more death and destruction.
That’s well and good, but the focus on GTA Online seems to be dissuading Rockstar from being supportive of mods. Here’s Gamespot asking Rockstar North about mods:
Modding took off for GTA IV PC. What are you doing to support modding for V? Is there anything within the game that supports it?
“Since GTA Online has such a massive and vibrant community, our primary focus is making sure that nothing detracts from that experience or has a negative impact on the overall community of players.”
And…that’s it. It’s a rather brusque response to arguably the thing the community is most interested in when it comes to the PC release of the game. GTA IV had some truly incredible mods, and again, huge sandbox games like Skyrim achieve utter immortality through mods, and in that case Bethesda handed players the tools to get started.
Rockstar wants you to play in its sandbox, but first and foremost using their rigid set of rules. I understand the impulse to protect players from online-invading mods that make GTA Online unplayable, but down the line, once things get settled, hopefully Rockstar comes around and offers the game the full mod support it deserves.
It’s not as if mods won’t exist for the game regardless of what Rockstar does. The technically talented are already crafting simple mods for the game like FOV sliders and infinite ammo/no death cheats. But so far, response from a few figures in the dedicated modding community has been somewhat pessimistic, as Kotaku reports.
Hopefully there’s a middleground here. One where players who want everything on the level can play GTA Online as it was intended. And another where there’s an “anything goes” zone where players can go as crazy as they want to modifying Los Santos and its surrounding countryside. Hopefully someone is drafting a mod as we speak that replaces all police cars with Thomas the Tank engine.
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by Stone Marshall | Apr 23, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
Producer Seth Rogen has confirmed that Dominic Cooper is officially set to star as Jesse Custer in AMC’s pilot for Preacher. It was reported last month that Cooper was the network’s top choice to take on the role, and it’s awesome to see that everything worked out. I really wanted to see Cooper in the role of Jesse.
The series is based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s ‘90s comic book series, and it follows Reverend Jesse Custer, “a tough Texas preacher who has lost his faith, and has learned that God has left Heaven and abandoned his responsibilities. He finds himself the only person capable of tracking God down, demanding answers, and making him answer for his dereliction of duty. Accompanying Jesse on his journey is his former girlfriend and a friendly vampire who seems to prefer a pint in the pub to the blood of the innocent. On his tail is one of the most iconic bad guys in print – an immortal, unstoppable killing machine named the Saint of Killers —a western lone gunman archetype whose sole purpose is to hunt and kill Jesse.”
The pilot is scheduled to start production this summer, and will most likely be released sometime in 2016. Rogen and Evan Goldberg are set to direct.
Cooper most recently appeared in Marvel’s Agent Carter as a young Howard Stark, who was first introduced to us in Captain America: First Avenger. He’ll next be seen on the big screen in Duncan Jones‘ 2016 fantasy epic Warcraft.
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by Stone Marshall | Apr 22, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
A new trailer has been released for the upcoming live-action Attack on Titan movie, and it’s pretty freakin’ spectacular. It seems like some Attack on Titan fans out there are torn on this big screen adaptation, but I think it looks like it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun! This trailer gives us our best look yet at what’s in store for us, and I love what I’m seeing! I have to say, I enjoyed watching the reactions of the characters as they watch in horror as someone gets eat by a Titan.
The story of Attack on Titan takes place in a world where the remnants of humanity live inside a series of connected cities, isolated by enormous walls. These walls exists to keep the Titans out, gigantic humanoid creatures who devour humans seemingly without reason. These Titans have reduced the world’s population to staggeringly low numbers. The 3 main protagonists of Isayama’s manga are Eren Jaeger, his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman, and their friend Armin Arlert. Their lives are changed forever when a “Colossal Titan” breaches the wall protecting their town, leading to thee death of Eren’s mother. Vowing revenge and to reclaim the world from the Titans, Eren, Mikasa and Armin join the Survey Corps, an elite group of soldiers who fight Titans outside the walls. Haruma Miura plays Eren. Kiko Mizuhara is Mikasa. Kanata Hongo will play Armin. Satomi Ishihara portrays Hanji. Nanami Sakuraba is Sasha. Takahiro Miura is Jean.
This trailer is for the first of two Attack on Titan movies. They were directed by Shinji Higuchi, and Attack on Titan manga creator Hajime Isayama consulted on them. He helped create some new characters and enemies for the story that will stay true to the source material.
The first film will be released August 1st, and the second will hit theaters a month later on September 19th in Japan. I’m sure it will eventually make its way to the states. Below the teaser I also provided a translation of what is said in the the trailer.
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