The Monster Hunter movie begins filming in September. Variety reports that Paul W.S. Anderson will direct and Milla Jovovich will star as the titular hunter of monsters. The production budget is estimated to be about $60 million through Constantin Films, which is no doubt pleased with Anderson’s proven ability to wring money from a tired, effects-heavy franchise. There’s no word on the plot yet, but since it’s based on the bombastic fantasy series from Capcom, you can likely expect 40% of it to be costume changes, 30% gathering materials, and the rest of the movie consisting of killing the same couple of monsters again and again to get the right drops.
APB: Reloaded is getting another revamp. Little Orbit has purchased the action MMO and plans to revitalize the game. The announcement from Little Orbit CEO Matthew Scott promises to keep the community of players informed and acknowledges that the new owners have a lot of work ahead of them. One of the big first tasks revealed is an engine upgrade from Unreal Engine 3 to 4. New content is slated as well as housekeeping like GDPR updates to player agreements.
There’s been a lot of speculation over the last couple months about who would be crazy enough to take on this game. And I’m not going to try and sugarcoat it, we know that the confidence in this game is at an all time low, and odds are you haven’t heard of us at Little Orbit. But that’s OK.
APB: Reloaded infamously began as the ill-fated followup to Crackdown from RealTime Worlds in 2010. After liquidation and shutdown that same year, the game was purchased by K2 Network and published by GamersFirst in most of the world. Although it’s not very popular in the US, the game has dedicated fans in South America and Russia.
Ubisoft has announced DLC for Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and it’s a doozy for fans of the 90’s. The Next Generation expansion adds the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701D, Data-style android crew, Romulan and Borg enemies, and two new mission types. Patrol is a free-roam journey from hotspot to hotspot, Resistance is a storyline featuring a grueling run from a Borg cube. Hopefully, you won’t end up married to the Borg Queen. Excelsior!
The Next Generation arrives on May 22nd for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR with other versions launching on July 21st.
Offline starfighter matches with bots are coming to Star Wars Battlefront II. The Han Solo season of game content, inspired by the upcoming movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story, adds film-related content, additional multiplayer modes, cosmetics, and the much-requested ability to create Custom Arcade matches against AI opponents in starfighter face-offs. The Starfighter Assault mode was some of the best content in the base game, so more pew-pew in space is a good thing. With custom skirmish matches you’ll be able to avoid the semi-pros online that have unlocked all the perks for Kylo Ren’s souped-up TIE Fighter and just concentrate on blowing helpless fodder out of the skies.
The Han Solo season for Battlefront II begins on May 16th.
Pinball Arcade, the game that recreates classic real-life tables in virtual form, is losing 61 tables from Bally and Williams due to licensing issues. Beginning June 30th, the tables in this list will no longer be available for purchase. Black Knight, Elvira, The Addams Family, Eight Ball Deluxe, and many more are going the way of the virtual dodo. According to FarSight, while the tables will continue to be supported with bug fixes, they will not be offered for sale because the license holder decided not to renew their agreement. Goodbye Twilight Zone! Au revoir Tales of the Arabian Nights.
Lara Croft will be using a bow as her primary weapon in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine, game director Dan Bisson said that despite Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s premise of being the final part of young Lara Croft’s journey to becoming the tomb raider we remember in previous games, we won’t be seeing the iconic double pistols this time around.
“It’s because the twin pistols have an iconic thing about them. For this triolgy – not saying anything about later on, I don’t know about the future titles – but for this trilogy, the bow is still her signature weapon.”
Is it any less believable to kill a T-Rex using a bow and arrows versus using two handguns? Besides, the bow works a lot better when you’re creeping behind waist-high tomb rubble all the time.
X-Wing is getting an upgrade. The popular tabletop Star Wars space combat miniatures game from Fantasy Flight is being revamped for its second edition release. The developers say they’re focusing on making combat more exciting, adding a mobile and web app to build squadrons, and introducing The Force as a gameplay mechanic.
If you’re a veteran player with a large collection of ships already, you may be wondering if this new edition will leave your flight grounded. For just $50 a pop, there will be conversion kits available that will take your ships into the new era. Not all your ships at once, of course. According to the FAQ, the kits are divided by faction and have enough materials to convert a couple of ships from each class. For example, if you have more than two of the older iconic X-Wing ships, you’ll need to spend more because each of the Rebel Alliance Conversion Kits only cover two X-Wings. If only money were as plentiful as midichlorians!
X-Wing Second Edition releases in September with a core set, expansion ships, and the conversion kits.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 launched in 2015. We’ve had Infinite Warfare, WWII, a revamp of Modern Warfare, and even an online-only version in Asia launch since then. Despite that, Activision keeps updating Black Ops 3 to the delight of its fans. The bee-themed Operation Swarm adds the popular Prop Hunt mode to Black Ops 3 multiplayer along with two new guns, some new cosmetic bits, and a night version of the Fringe map. If you’re wondering why it’s bee-themed, I guess its because getting content updates for a three year old Call of Duty title is sweeter than honey, or it’s the bees knees. The buzz is positive! It’s bee-utiful? It takes the sting out of the last couple of games? I’ll stop now.
Rabbit ears, skulls, and alien heads. Just some of the new cosmetic bits in Far Cry 5 after the latest update. For a few thousand in-game dollars, or a few hundred ingots purchased with real money, you too can put a wacky mask on your character. For those that finished the story campaign, imagine that ending, but now imagine you were wearing a Santa mask all along.
Previously classified CIA tabletop games are now available for public play. Senior Collection Analyst David Clopper created games for the intelligence agency’s training programs, the existence of which Ars Technica wrote about last year. Thankfully, this prompted a Freedom of Information request which was granted, resulting in the games Collection, Collection Deck, and Kingpin: The Hunt for El Chapo being released to the general public.
If you’re curious, but don’t want to painstakingly create your own boards, tokens, and cards, the folks at Two Bats Gaming did the work and sat down to try out the games. Playing the games well is like passing an analog version of the test in The Last Starfighter except you’ll end up piloting a cubicle instead of the Gunstar One.
Blendo Games, creators of Quadrilateral Cowboy, Atom Zombie Smasher, and Flotilla have announced Flotilla 2. Unfortunately for fans of the first game looking for another streamlined but stylish turn-based space cruiser combat game to play while lounging in front of a mouse and keyboard, the sequel requires a Vive VR headset. Floaty controls and dizziness at least fits the theme of being in zero gravity.
StarCraft II will soon have an in-game marketplace to buy and sell user-made maps. This was a feature shown prior to the release of the original Wings of Liberty installment, but was deemed not ready for public use. Here we are, nine years later, and we’re finally getting the Premium Arcade in the game’s 4.3 update. Like other stores for user-made videogame content, the items sold will be curated by the developers. The initial offering will be the “high-quality premium” maps ARK Star and Direct Strike. Each will cost $4.99 and a portion of the sale will go to the respective creators.
StarCraft II’s Arcade features thousands of user-made maps and mods for free already. It is unknown how many of those authors have been contacted to work with Blizzard on the new marketplace.
There’s a new Doom movie in the works. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is too busy making better paying video game films to repeat his performance as Sarge from 2005’s schlocky low-budget Doom movie from Universal Pictures, so this time around we’ll get Nina Bergman in a shlocky low-budget Doom movie from Universal 1440 Entertainment. That’s NBC/Universal’s label specializing in “non-theatrical productions directly for distribution” meaning we can expect the movie to come out on some streaming service or maybe released as web episodes someday. Universal has not said who the director or writer of the movie will be, but they’ll be in Bulgaria to begin production soon!
Coincidentally, Dwayne Johnson recently had a good-natured exchange about his star turn in that 2005 flick while celebrating Rampage’s success:
TheRock: Wow! Very cool RAMPAGE news! Not pointing to the scoreboard yet, but it seems we may have finally broken the dreaded video game curse. And remember, I starred in the stinker “Doom” so I have lived thy curse
DOOM: Replying to @TheRock – Dwayne.
Read about our assessment of Doom’s combat arena skate parks of death here.
Rockstar Games has announced Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition. It’s the same game that everyone has been playing since 2013, with all the free online updates, plus the Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack which gives new GTA Online players a boost of in-game money, vehicles, clothing, and property. You’ll be almost ready to battle the people that have been playing the game and amassing their criminal loot for almost five years.
The movie adaptation of Ubisoft’s The Division has been in the notorious “troubled project” category for a while. But with today’s announcement that David Leitch is attached to direct, it pretty much moves into the “project” category. Leitch is a big deal these days, and officially attaching his name is a real vote of confidence. The co-director of John Wick went on to make Atomic Blonde, which got him the job directing Deadpool 2, which got him the job directing the Dwayne Johnson/Jason Statham Fast and Furious spin-off. Putting The Division at the end of that line-up is no mean feat. A movie based on The Division is now as likely as, say, a movie based on Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed.
However, Leitch has stressed that his main commitment is to the Fast and Furious spin-off. This means there’s still plenty of time for a Division movie to collapse. But the real mystery to me is Jake Gyllenhaal’s support. Did he not see Prince of Persia? He’s not only putting his name behind a Division movie as one of its stars, but he’s putting his money behind it as one of its producers. And according to whatever press release the Variety announcement is quoting, he’s determined to make sure it’s true to the source material:
Gyllenhaal and [Jessica] Chastain have been with the film project since its conception and have been persistent in making sure that it matches the tone of the video game, while also reaching audiences who appreciate the actors’ own past work.
No word on whether we can look forward to a Michael Fassbender Rabbids movie yet.
