Month: April 2018

The men’s football World Cup starts this June, and fans of the beautiful game now have an official video game to get themselves warmed up for the biggest sporting tournament in the world. EA has revealed its World Cup expansion for FIFA 18, and it’s coming to PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on May 29.

For the first time, EA has opted to not release a standalone World Cup game and will instead release a free update for its most recent yearly soccer game, FIFA 18. The expansion includes all 32 teams competing in the tournament this summer, along with all 12 Russian host stadiums, official team kits and badges, and more.

Online Friendlies and Tournaments will be playable within the World Cup expansion, while Custom Tournaments will allow you to create fantasy versions of the finals where other teams qualify–helpful if you want to imagine teams such as Italy, the Netherlands, and USA did manage to get to Russia after all.

Ultimate Team, meanwhile, will receive special World Cup cards–including World Cup Icons–and a revamp to Chemistry that sees players benefit from playing alongside players from the same nation or confederation. FIFA Mobile will also get a limited-time World Cup update from June 6, though EA hasn’t said much else about the smartphone version as yet.

Being an expansion, the update is built upon the core of the FIFA 18 base game. We awarded that game a 7/10 in our FIFA 18 review. “It’s off the pitch that EA excels,” we said. “From the variety of game modes on offer and how everything’s presented, to the constant updates in FUT’s Team of the Week, Daily Objectives, and discussion of real-world happenings in commentary, FIFA 18 captures the world of football and confidently translates it into a video game. On the pitch, however, EA’s soccer series is still lagging far behind PES 2018’s more fluid, satisfying football. This year’s improvements are welcome, but more needs to be done in the coming years if FIFA is to be a world-beater once again.”

Season 3 of Fortnite: Battle Royale wraps up this week, and it’ll be followed immediately after by the start of Season 4. Epic Games has teased that it might be superhero-themed and tied to the ongoing meteor happenings, but it appears to be finally set to reveal the full details on Tuesday, May 1, alongside its launch.

Recent days have seen Epic continue to update a single piece of Season 4 artwork to feature additional superhero-looking characters. There are now a total of four who we’ve gotten a look at, while a newer piece of art (below) showcases the silhouettes of all four. Like Epic’s other teases, it features the words “brace for impact,” and the image suggests the long-awaited meteor crash will happen and bring with it these characters.

Small meteors recently began to hit the island, although nothing of any significance has come of that yet. It looks as if the big meteor was meant as a setup for Season 4, which is expected to bring another Battle Pass, complete with weekly challenges and new skins and other cosmetic rewards.

Epic still has provided very little official information about what to expect from Season 4, including what the Battle Pass will cost. Prior ones have only been purchasable for 950 V-Bucks, a premium in-game currency. Plans to sell Season 3’s Battle Pass directly for real-world money were scrapped just before it debuted. That was viewed as less than ideal because it meant you could have to purchase more V-Bucks than are needed for the Battle Pass. On the bright side, you could use the small number of V-Bucks that can be earned by playing to put toward the Battle Pass’s cost.

With Tuesday marking the end of Season 3, that makes this your last opportunity to complete Season 3’s weekly challenges. If you own the Battle Pass, you’ll want to crank out as many as you can to earn this season’s rewards while they’re still available.

Texas Frightmare Weekend is one of the most popular horror movie events on the calendar, and this year’s convention will be the biggest one yet. The event is now in its thirteenth year, and fans attending the convention in Dallas-Fort Worth can enjoy two big classic horror movie cast reunions, as well as buy some fantastic new posters from poster specialists Mondo.

The casts of the ’80s favorites Hellraiser and Child’s Play will be getting together to introduce and discuss those much-loved movies. In addition, the new Mondo posters feature such classic films as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Big Trouble in Little China, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Child, Nightbreed, and Child’s Play 2. They will be available exclusively when doors of Texas Frightmare officially open at 6 PM on Friday, May 4, and any remaining posters will go on sale online after the convention. Check all the posters out exclusively below, with full details of the artists and how many will be available at the end of this story.

These two special screenings will kick off Texas Frightmare on Thursday, May 3. The Child’s Play 30th anniversary screening includes actors Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif, Alex Vincent, and Catherine Hicks, plus VFX expert Kevin Yagher, in person for a special post-movie Q&A. Hellraiser, meanwhile, screens later that night and will feature the reunion of the actors who play the movie’s terrifying Cenobites, namely Doug Bradley, Simon Bamford, Nicholas Vince, and Barbie Wilde. Get your tickets for Child’s Play here and Hellraiser here.

The convention itself takes place at the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport, but these cast reunion screenings are happening at the Alamo Drafthouse Las Colinas, which is the latest addition to the Drafthouse family of theaters. The specific location of the theater has an extra horror link too, as it is located on John Carpenter Freeway. Although the road is named after a Texas businessman, rather than the revered horror director, the theater’s creative team realized that this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

As a result, the theater has an interchangeable photo opp wall that features various homages to some of Carpenter’s most iconic films, such as Halloween and The Thing. There’s also a complete Carpenter-themed Mondo poster gallery lining the various hallways of the theater. Check out the image below:

© Kathy Tran

For more information, check out the the sites for Texas Frightmare Weekend and the Alamo Drafthouse Las Colinas.

Child’s Play 2 by Matt Ryan Tobin

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 225

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Version 1) by Robert Sammelin

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 275

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Version 1) by Robert Sammelin

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 275

Nightbreed by Sara Deck

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 175

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master by Mike Saputo

• 36″x24″
• Edition of 225

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child by Mike Saputo

• 24″x36″
• Edition of 225

Big Trouble in Little China by Phantom City Creative

• 18″x24″
• Edition of 275

Big Trouble in Little China (Variant) by Phantom City Creative

• 18″x24″
• Edition of 175

Top New Games Releases In May On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC — May

May means it’s time for Dark Souls Remastered, State of Decay 2, Detroit: Become Human, and more.

by Tony Wilson on April 30, 2018 at 7:55AM

May might be the lead-up to E3, but there are a lot of big games dropping before we learned about all the new stuff we’ll be playing in the future. There are two updated games from the past, with Dark Souls Remastered and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze jumping onto Nintendo Switch. We’ve also got two sequels: the RPG Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire and the zombie survival game State of Decay 2. There’s also the PS4 exclusive Detroit: Become Human for you android fans.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze — May 4

Available on: Switch

If you missed out on the original Wii U release, here’s a chance to join Donkey Kong, Diddy, Trixie, and Cranky for the polar-themed platforming adventure again. Funky Kong also joins the fun this time, and playing as him is perfect for players who want an easier time. He can use his surfboard to land on dangerous surfaces or hover.

Further Reading:

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire — May 8

Available on: PC

The crowdfunded RPG sequel leveling up for a new adventure. Your journey will take your through the Deadfire Archipelago, with tons of islands to explore and quests to complete. Since you’ll be sailing so much, expect a good amount of ship-to-ship combat too.

Further Reading:

State of Decay 2 — May 22

Available on: Xbox One, PC

State of Decay 2 is also expanding its world, and this time, you can attempt to survive in it with friends in four-play co-op. Together, you can build up your base, level up your people, and travel the world looking for other survivors in need.

Further Reading:

Dark Souls Remastered — May 25

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

One of May’s most anticipated games is one you might have already played, but Dark Souls is cutting into the current generation with a bunch of quality-of-life and resolution improvements. In fact, you can slay your foes in 4K at 60 FPS if you have a PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, or capable PC.

Further Reading:

Detroit: Become Human — May 25

Available on: PS4

If you’re familiar with director David Cage and his studio Quantic Dream, you know his games are all about making tough choices that lead to drastically different consequences. This time, you’ll be making those choices for a bunch androids who’ve just gained sentience. Detroit looks to be a heady game that touches on some deep topics, like what it means to be human.

Further Reading:

Follow

New Releases

Airs Sundays at 4pm PT

New Releases gives you your weekly dose of available titles across all platforms.

Don’t expect Microsoft to make its own Battle Royale game. That’s according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who said on Twitter this week that he understands that while Battle Royale games like Fortnite and PUBG are massive, none of Microsoft’s studios will make their own. That is, unless they can come up with an interesting idea for how to make something compelling.

“Millions are playing [Battle Royale] games right now. I don’t want to just build one because others have built them,” he said. “[Fornite: Battle Royale] is massive, PUBG is huge, new [Battle Royale] variants being built by some very quality devs, I’d rather support unless we find something special in [first-party] that’s a different take.”

Spencer’s comments seem to suggest that none of Microsoft’s studios will create a new, standalone Battle Royale game. But this leaves open the possibility for an exisiting Microsoft game to add a Battle Royale mode or for a new game, like Halo 6, to include one. Nothing is confirmed at this stage, it seems.

It makes sense that Microsoft wouldn’t be all that interested in making its own Battle Royale game given its exclusive partnership with the team behind PUBG. If Microsoft were to put out its own Battle Royale game, it would theoretically compete with PUBG, and that’s probably not something Microsoft wants to do.

Microsoft’s stance sounds similar to that of Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two. Take-Two president Strauss Zelnick said the success of Battle Royale games has been “really interesting” to see. However, he said that he wants his company’s labels–Rockstar Games and 2K Games–to blaze their own trail instead of being “derivative” by following in the footsteps of something that came before it. “Titles, even really good titles that are derivative, never seem to do as well as innovations that are unexpected,” Zelnick said at the time.

Electronic Arts has also weighed in on the Battle Royale phenomenon. CEO Andrew Wilson said in January that games like PUBG and Fortnite have changed how people think about shooter games. However, EA wants to make something new.

“Given that we have some of the best shooters in the marketplace, you might expect that we’re also thinking about new and innovative ways to play,” Wilson said. “And that doesn’t mean just kind of [making] PUBG replicas inside the Battlefield universe, but it does mean that our Battlefield teams–and I talked a little about this in the prepared remarks–are looking at how they innovate in every aspect of the game, including core gameplay and map design.”

In PUBG, Fortnite, and other Battle Royale games, players are dropped into an environment and compete until only one is left standing. It’s basically like The Hunger Games.

With E3 right around the corner, it will be interesting to see if any new Battle Royale games get announced or if existing games announce Battle Royale modes. E3 takes place in early June, so it won’t be long until we learn more.