The Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Casts Its Title Role
Update: While writing the story, actor Ben Schwartz confirmed the news.
I. LOVE. 90S. BLUE. ICONIC. CHARACTERS. I am beyond excited about this movie. It’s gonna be amazing. I have been training by running, wagging my finger and impatiently tapping my foot. GOTTA GO FAST! https://t.co/SOYqgnf3ym
— Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) August 9, 2018The original story is as follows:
While the live-action parts of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie have already started filming, Paramount has yet to make a public announcement about who might be voicing Sonic himself. According to a report by Variety, that may soon change, with their sources telling them that Ben Schwartz will play the blue blur.
Schwartz might best be known as Jean-Ralphio in the TV show Parks & Recreation, as well as voice work in Netflix's Bojack Horseman and Disney's DuckTales. He would presumably be doing the voice for Sonic after the live action scenes have been filmed.
As a side note, Jim Carrey confirmed to an audience at the Television Critics Association that he will be playing Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik in the movie, but he won't be merely supplying his voice. Eggman will be entirely played by a live-action Carrey during the movie, as well, and not as a CG character.
You might have heard already, but Dead Cells is great. The action rogue-like is receiving a wave of positive critical reaction after coming to consoles and coming out of early access on PC. Switch owners, however, are reporting that the game does not maintain a fluid framerate, which is feedback developers Motion Twin are hoping to rectify.
On Nintendo Switch subreddit, a post was put up yesterday warning Switch owners sensitive to framerate fluctuations about Dead Cells. The post got over 500 upvotes, so it ended up getting quite a few eyes on it. In response, Motion Twin posted a statement in the comments responding to the issues people are having.
While the developer was aware of the framerate drops, they didn't think it was a significant enough issue to significantly delay that version of the game. They admit that dismissing the issue wasn't the right call and are now planning to focus on bringing that version up to snuff, which may take some time as they've moved past the more obvious fixes that could be done. Any fixes now have to be done by digging deep into the Switch version to solve the framerate issue.
"This leaves us with the big time consuming changes as well as exploring new possibilities which might really help, or not, we won’t know until we start," Motion Twin wrote. "Of course on console all updates must be certified before reaching you guys, which adds extra time between now and a potential fix. So to be clear we’re looking at November at the absolute earliest, if the god of game dev comes down from the clouds ad [sic] blesses our guys right now. This is however as soon as it is physically possible for us right now.
"We apologize to everyone who was expecting a higher port quality and to anyone who has been disappointed by the performances on the Switch so far," they concluded.
Dead Cells is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC now.
After spending 100 hours in Monster Hunter: World, I finally put the game on the back burner three months ago. It wasn’t easy; it had become part of my nightly routine to jump into a hunt before bed. The loop of getting better gear and defeating monsters that had at one point destroyed me made me keep coming back. I loved seeing the progression, whether it was getting the drop I needed to create a cool new weapon, or watching my dodging improve thanks to learning enemy patterns. But one day, I just didn’t load the game up. That turned into days, and finally into months. To be fair, I had other games to play; Monster Hunter: World and I needed this break. Flash forward three months and the recent events, such as the Summer Twilight festival and Final Fantasy: XIV crossover, made me load up the game. Who can resist their Palico turning into a Moogle? Now that I’ve gone down this path, I’m back in my nightly Monster Hunter: World routine. It's safe to say, we're back together.
I love when games give you reasons to revisit them, especially RPGs, which tend to be one and done. These days, we have expansions, events, additional modes, and even more to prolong our journey. Taking a break was a good thing; I needed time to miss the experience. Sometimes the best thing you can do is wait for when the desire to play hits you again. I knew back at E3 when I got to learn more about the Final Fantasy XIV/Monster Hunter crossover event, it would probably bring me back, but what I didn’t expect was to still be playing after trying that content.
While I'm high rank, I still don't have everything I want, nor is my character as strong as I want her to be. I went back and upgraded my light bowgun to the Cataclysm Trigger, the most advanced stage in the Nergigante tree, and then got shiny new armor (rarity 7 and 8) so I could endure getting roughed up by high-level monsters. With some new equipment, I was ready to step back into the ring, but I soon realized I needed a new challenge. This lead to me finding a new weapon to master. I love my bowgun, but I want to be more up-close, in the action, so I’ve been trying the great sword and getting back to the dual blades. All of this is to say, yes, I’m back down the rabbit hole. I think I will always find some new equipment I want to make, and I just love the positive community.
The jump to the Final Fantasy content after being off for a few months hasn’t been easy, though. The special assignments for the Final Fantasy hunts are far from a walk in the park. That crystal Kulu-Ya-Ku fight? That jumping slam can really catch you off guard. I never thought I’d look at a Kulu-Ya-Ku with such disdain. That disdain quickly found a new target when I hit the Behemoth quest. I didn’t expect him to be a pushover, but he’s become a thing of my nightmares. Unless you have four friends to plan your party around and really coordinate with, you don't have much of a shot. Screw his thunder bolt and ecliptic meteor attack. The latter being instant death is extra salt in the wound. So, now I have a new foe in my life, and I am determined to bring him down so I can wear that slick, new Drachen armor. Because, really, Monster Hunter is all about your character's style (check out my girl’s eye patch) and crafting new things to up the coolness of your appearance, and this is what keeps me logging in.
The conversations, failures, and triumphs I've had with others have made the experience for me. I've been trying to document it with pictures of my crazy antics and they just make me smile. Hence, the photos of my character and her cat Kirby. Feel free to do the same and share your favorite moments or best gear in the comments.
You can find detailed impressions on the Final Fantasy crossover here, or learn how the crossover came to be here.
In just a few months, Child of Light and Valiant Hearts: The Great War will hit the Nintendo Switch. The two hand-drawn games originally came out back in 2014 and were received well. Now they'll get their names back in the spotlight for another go with Switch versions on the way.
In a blog post today, Ubisoft confirmed that the two titles will come out about a month apart. Child of Light hits on October 11, while Valiant Hearts: The Great War launches on November 8.
For Child of Light on Switch, two players can work together, one playing as lead Aurora, while the other controls her firefly companion Igniculus using a Joy-Con controller.
Valiant Hearts is fully playable with touch controls, and according to Ubisoft, "allowing you to interact with the characters and world like never before." Switch owners will also receive an interactive comic book called Valiant Hearts: Dogs of War, focused on Walt the dog and his sister Cassie as they deliver important messages and help soldiers during World War I.
To add to the excitement, Child of Light director Patrick Plourde took to Twitter, teasing a sequel. While no specific details were revealed, he did post, "Sorry for the silence," with a picture of Child of Light running on Nintendo Switch. If you look carefully behind the Switch, you can see a document that appears to say Child of Light II. I'm sure we'll hear more in the coming months. He did hint in another tweet to stay tuned for information on more cool projects set in the Child of Light universe.
Sorry for the long silence. But we have this little thing up and running :) #childoflight #switch pic.twitter.com/M6k1xoXX8F
— Patrick Plourde (@patrick_plourde) August 8, 2018
If you watched the Super Smash Bros. Direct this morning, you might remember that the Simon Belmont trailer started with everyone's second favorite Mario brother in over his head in Castlevania. After fleeing from some monsters, Luigi comes face to face with Death himself, who slashes Luigi and takes his soul likely for banishment purposes. I mean, his name is Death.
In true Sakurai form, Luigi was not seen elsewhere in the entire Smash direct, because he was dead. It's sad, but sacrifices had to be made. At least that was the common thought, but Nintendo has put everyone's worries to rest.
Luigi is okay
— Nintendo UK VS (@NintendoUKVS) August 8, 2018It turns out sacrifices didn't have to be made and Luigi is fine! Either that or Nintendo is denying plain facts, that Luigi is gone and they are pretending otherwise, like the 1993 political comedy Dave. Heck, the Luigi in the trailer might be a body double in the first place.
For now, all we have to go on is Nintendo's word, but I'm watching closely. My suspicion is this is an inheritance scam. It continues the pattern of Smash Bros. newcomer reveals that sacrifice characters, like Mario and Mega Man in Ridley's trailer or DeDeDe in K. Rool's trailer. The Inkling reveal is the least deadly trailer of them all.
We recently named Rainbow Six Siege one of the games most improved by free updates, and it looks like Ubisoft Montreal is planning to continue that trend. In the game's next major update, "Operation Grim Sky," players can look forward to new operators, graphics modifications, and map reworkings.
Gameplay details are sparse on the new characters, but we do know a little of their backstories. The first is a British Defender, specializing in "mob behavior and snatch-squad tactics." The second, an American Attacker, has a "remarkably sharp mind" for tactical operations.
The Hereford Base map will be adjusted to make it more suitable for competitive play, and new modifications will be introduced to fix a common issue with weapon sight misalignment.
More specific details will come from Rainbow Six's Twitch channel on August 17-19.
First explored by Pokémon X and Y, the rare and powerful mega evolution mechanic will be part of a trainer's toolbox in the upcoming Switch titles, Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee! and Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu!
If a Pokémon's trainer has the appropriate mega stone it can mega-evolve, but the change only happens during the course of one battle. The news comes our way via Japanese magazine CoroCoro, which shows the mega evolutions of Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur. You can thank Pokémon fansite Serebii, who helped spread the word by quickly posting screens from the magazine to confirm the news.
[Source: CoroCoro via IGN]
Our Take
We've previously talked about the Let's Go games in an effort to figure out questions such as, "what are they?" and "should we be excited?"
Deeper mechanics like mega evolutions point to a full-featured game, so this is good news for hardcore fans.
As the series continues to change up its formula and redefine what an Assassin's Creed game can be, fans and newcomers alike have many questions about the franchise and it's future. 107 of them, to be exact. In today's exclusive video feature, GI Senior Editor Jeff Cork asks every single one of them to Assassin's Creed Odyssey's very patient Game Director, Scott Phillips. Watch the video above for new details on game mechanics and story elements, as well as genre redefining knock-knock jokes.
Don't forget to click the image below to check out our coverage hub, where new written and video features on Assassin's Creed Odyssey will be posted all throughout the month!
The Dreaming City is the new endgame area for Destiny 2: Forsaken. Here players will not only be able to complete the raid, but also engage in high-power level patrols, public events, and more.
No longer will players be relegated to low-level activities to engage in bounties and weekly milestones; on top of this, the raid will change the way the Dreaming City functions for players within it.
The new trailer also showcases the Blind Well, Forsaken's answer to the Court of Oryx from The Taken King, alongside the abyss which seems to feature a dark and sinister side to the gorgeous Dreaming City.
The raid will take place against a giant creature in the center of the city and features what looks to be a new enemy looks that vaguely like Eris Morn, who has been missing since the first game.
Forsaken will be out September 4 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Check out our cover story hub for more on the expansion.
Paris studio The Arcade Crew has unveiled a new cooperative, narrative-driven dungeon delver in the form of Young Souls. The game follows teenagers Tristan and Jenn as they navigate a portal from another world filled with goblins and various other baddies.
The game looks like it will have a varied and complex loot system, in-depth customization, and challenging combo-based combat. It features dynamic drop-in co-op and gorgeous art. The narrative is written by Matthew Ritter (The Walking Dead game) and is described as The Goonies meets Stranger Things.
The reveal trailer, which you can see below alongside screenshots, showcases the combat, customization, story, and unique visuals. So far no systems or a release window have been announced.
Today's Nintendo Direct brought an avalanche of new Super Smash Bros. information. From stages to Assist Trophies and even the soundtrack, we learned a lot about what to expect in the biggest entry in the series to date. Nintendo also showed off 10 new Pokémon you can get from the Poké Ball item during battles.
You can learn all about the newest additions to one of the series' most popular items below.
Players can climb, cling to, and jump off Alolan Exeggutor's long neck Abra can use teleport to move players around the stage Solgaleo surrounds itself with energy then unleashes what appears to be a solar beam Lunala blasts players from above with a focused beam of light If you get too close to Mimikyu, it grabs you and pulls you under its costume to do God knows what It appears Pyukumuku sits still, but if you get close to it, it smacks you away Vulpix lights nearby characters on fire, while Alolan Vulpix freezes nearby characters Marshadow appears to stun a character before unloading a powerful attack on it Ditto transforms into an A.I.-controlled clone of your character and fights alongside youSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate launches on Nintendo Switch on December 7.
Hasbro announced plans to develop a sequel to 2017's Power Rangers movie. The company acquired the Power Rangers license from Saban Brands earlier this year as part of a $522 million deal.
Hasbro also acquired Saban's My Pet Monster, Luna Petunia, Popples, and Julius Jr. products, so perhaps we'll see a movie from one of those legendary franchises in the future.
For more Power Rangers, check out Replay – The Power Rangers Spectacular.
[Source: Inside Licensing]
At this past E3, Sony announced that God of War fans will have a new reason to dive back into the game with New Game+ on the way. Now we're finally getting a release date and discovering what it entails.
In just a few short weeks – August 20 to be exact – a free update will hit, allowing players the chance to get new armor, battle more difficult foes, and skip cinematics. A new resource called 'Skag Slag' allows you to craft and upgrade your gear to a new rarity level, giving you the opportunity to make the absolute best gear.
To participate in New Game+, you must have completed the game already.
For more information, you can check out the PlayStation Blog post, where it's being called Sony Santa Monica's biggest update to God of War yet.
Our Take
God of War is one of the best games I've played this year, and having another reason to dive back into it is great. Sony Santa Monica said it listened to fans on what they wanted for this big update, which I think will speak for itself. Also, I bet the new gear is pretty rad. Just a hunch.
We already knew that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is going all in with the characters and stages included. While we knew Nintendo was having fun with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's soundtrack since the reveal at E3 this year, series director Masahiro Sakurai dropped a ton of new information during today's Nintendo Direct.
Sakurai stated there are more than 800 tracks on the soundtrack, but if you include menu music and fanfare, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate features more than 900 compositions. Sakurai also claimed that you if played all the music in Ultimate back to back, it would take 28 hours to get through all of it.
Like the Wii U and 3DS versions, you can select the tracks you want to play on each stage, and how frequently you want to hear them. However, this time around, you can select any tracks from the series, rather than the tracks for that particular game. This means that if you want to hear Wind Waker tracks on the Breath of the Wild stage, you can do that.
You can also listen to these tracks outside of the stages by accessing the Sound Test menu. There, you find the tracks sorted by game series for ease of browsing. Players are also able to create their own playlists, which is handy for a feature Ultimate borrows from the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros.: the ability to listen to the soundtrack even if the screen is off. This means that you can plug headphones into your Switch and listen to songs in handheld mode without having to leave the screen on.
If you want to listen to some samples of the soundtrack, you can head to the official site by clicking here. Sakurai says the team will continue adding new selections from the soundtrack every week in the lead up to launch. You can also listen to a few selections below.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches on December 7 on Nintendo Switch.
Alongside announcing five new fighters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this morning, Nintendo also quietly confirmed, by way of its European twitter account, that Amiibo figures for all of those fighters are happening at some point.
Super #SmashBros Collection #amiibo of the five newly announced Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighters – Simon Belmont, Richter Belmont, King K. Rool, Chrom and Dark Samus – will be released in the future!
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) August 8, 2018We don't know exactly what they will look like, but it's a safe bet that they will use the poses seen in the image above. For lots more on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, head here for everything revealed during its Direct presentation this morning.
[Source: @NintendoEurope]
Our Take
I will buy that King K. Rool Amiibo. I don't care what anyone thinks of me as a result.
During today's Nintendo Direct, we learned of several new fighters coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. With that news coming out, Nintendo displayed a huge, panoramic character illustration showcasing the massive roster of fighters in the crossover title.
It only flashed on the screen for a few moments after it was updated with the additions of Chrom, Dark Samus, Simon Belmont, Richter Belmont, and King K. Rool, and even when it was on screen, it wasn't in very high resolution.
If you'd like to see a high resolution version of that screen, click the image below.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches on Nintendo Switch on December 7. For more from today's Nintendo Direct, check out 66 things we learned from the presentation.
During today's Nintendo Direct focused on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, series director Masahiro Sakurai went over several details. One of the most impressive details involved how many stages this massive version of Nintendo's crossover fighter will contain.
According to Sakurai, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate features 103 distinct stages. Each stage can be transformed into Battlefield and Omega forms, and every stage can be used in 8-player battles. In addition, all stages are available from the very beginning, so you don't need to unlock them.
Players can also toggle whether they want stage hazards to be active during any given battle. In addition, if you select the "Stage Morph" option before a battle, you can select two stages that the battlefield will transform between over the course of the fight.
With so many stages, the team decided to order them chronologically based on when they were introduced into the Super Smash Bros. series.
In addition to the stages we already knew about, Sakurai introduced several fan favorites that are returning for Ultimate.
The following stages were confirmed to come back for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Great Bay Shadow Moses Living Room Gaur Plain Figure-8 Circuit Flat Zone X Pokémon Stadium Garden of Hope Brinstar Depths Summit Unova Pokémon League Magicant Gamer Final DestinationIn addition, Nintendo revealed New Donk City Hall from Super Mario Odyssey. The stage begins at ground level before scaling the tower with rising platforms. The musicians you collect in that Kingdom in Super Mario Odyssey also appear in the stage, and it appears that if you hit them and Pauline, the vocal rendition of "Jump Up, Superstar!" plays.
Sakurai says that the team worked hard to modernize the look and balance of returning stages, but for stages from the original Super Smash Bros., the team tried to keep them as faithful in both look and design to the original version as possible to prioritize nostalgia. You can see some examples below.
Super Smash Bros. is set to launch on December 7 for Nintendo Switch. For more announcements from this Direct, check out the announcements of Simon and Richter Belmont, Dark Samus and Chrom, and King K. Rool. Also be sure to check out our roundup of a ton of miscellaneous information from the Nintendo Direct.
Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai showed off a few more assist trophies in today's Direct, confirming some new crossovers for the game and also a few new trophies from Nintendo's history.
Assist trophies are basically non-playable fighters that can be summoned into battle. When a player grabs one, it summons an AI-controlled fighter who can be attacked and knocked out for points by other players, but also performs their own attacks. In the E3 Direct, Assist Trophies like the returning Waluigi were shown off, but also new crossovers like Hudson's Bomberman.
Here's a list of what was shown today:
Zero from Mega Man X Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog Klaptrap from Donkey Kong Country Kapp'n from Animal Crossing Chef Kawasaki from Kirby Gray Fox from Metal Gear Solid Nikki from Flipnote Shovel Knight The Moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Rathalos from Monster Hunter
While some of them just come out and attack, a few have special properties. Kapp'n drives a bus through the stage, Chef Kawasaki cooks the opponents like Kirby's Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nikki draws things on the stage to hurt opponents, Shovel Knight attacks enemies and digs up food, and the Moon crashes into the entire stage.
Additionally, Rathalos is both a boss in the Monster Hunter stage and an Assist Trophy, the first of its kind in the series.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases for the Nintendo Switch on December 7.
Nintendo revealed a lot of new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate details this morning. Here is the full round-up of what we learned.
Simon Belmont will be a fighter in the game. Richter Belmont will be a fighter in the game, but he is an echo fighter of Simon. Chrom, an echo fighter of Ike Roy, will be a fighter in the game. Dark Samus, an echo fighter of Samus, will be a fighter in the game.
For more on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you can read an interview with Nintendo about the game here.
Overwatch and World of Warcraft may be getting most of the attention these days, between summer events and upcoming expansions, but that doesn't mean that Blizzard has forgotten about one of its other big names. A new tweet from the company teases that the studio has multiple Diablo projects in the works, and that additional details could be coming by the end of the year.
In the short video below, associate community manager Brandy Camel talks briefly about Diablo III's current season, before saying that more projects are in the works – adding that some of them are going to take longer than others.
Late last year, the studio posted a job listing for what they were calling "a new, unannounced Diablo project," and tweeted out what was initially believed to be a tease of a Nintendo Switch port of Diablo III.
Like Ridley, King K. Rool is a long-requested fighter that not many fans really ever expected to see in the game, but the end boss from the first Donkey Kong Country will be showing up as a fighter.
From the Donkey Kong County series, the Kremling leader King K. Rool comes to Super #SmashBrosUltimate! pic.twitter.com/zMbxsiRf39
— Nintendo Versus (@NintendoVS) August 8, 2018He looks like a heavy fighter who uses his golden belly for powerful slam attacks. He also has a musket and a helicopter backpack.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Chrom is a clone of Ike, but Nintendo has clarified he is based on Roy. He just uses Aether as a Final Smash.
In the Super Smash Bros. Direct, director Masahiro Sakurai announced a few new echo fighters are joining the cast. Chrom, Fire Emblem Awakening's prince/king and Lucina's father, comes in after being teased in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U. The other is Dark Samus, the villain of Retro's Metroid Prime series.
Echo fighters are Smash Bros. Ultimate's term for clone characters, or characters based on other existing characters. In this case, Chrom is based on Fire Emblem's Roy, while Dark Samus is based on, of course, Samus.
In addition to these echo fighters, both Simon and Richter Belmont from Castlevania were announced today, as well. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases on the Nintendo Switch on December 7.
Get your shooters good and ready, because tomorrow, Thursday, August 9 at 11AM ET, Rockstar is delivering a new Red Dead Redemption II trailer complete with gameplay footage.
Red Dead Redemption II comes out on October 26 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
For more on the game, read some of our previous analysis and take a look at the announced pre-order bonuses and special edition details.
[Source: Rockstar Games]
During Nintendo's Smash bros. Direct this morning, it was revealed that Simon and Richter Belmont from the Castlevania series will be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Richter is an echo fighter to Simon and they can use familiar Castlevania items like the axe, cross, and holy water. They also use a whip which is a slower attack. Their Final Smash is the Grand Cross.
Along with the two fighters, Dracula's Castle will be a new stage and it will have bosses and items from the series. Additionally, 34 Castlevania music tracks are being produced for the game.
PUBG Corp. is continuing its recent focus on fixes, ramping it up into a full-blown campaign called Fix PUBG. The effort starts with a patch featuring limb penetration, but continues indefinitely with plans to address areas such as matchmaking, server performance, anti-cheating, and other problems.
The company has setup a dedicated website around the initiative that includes a roadmap, fix log, and FAQ. The roadmap currently goes through October, but PUBG Corp. says it is "dedicating the vast majority of [its] resources" towards fixing the game and instituting other improvements during the campaign and beyond.
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