Category: Game

How to lose friends and humiliate people Drawful, a sadistic, friend-shaming twist on Pictionary, was arguably the best game in the original Jackbox Party Pack, so its absence from the second pack was pretty puzzling. That omission is a bit clearer now that Jackbox has announced it’ll bring a stand-alone sequel, Drawful 2, to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Amazon Fire TV this spring. Above you’ll find the first trailer for the game, which touts the expansion from one color per player to two as well as online play and expanded streaming options.
Jackbox also announced the release of Jackbox Party Pack 3, coming to the same platforms as Drawful 2 this fall. Though it’s not announcing any of the games included in the third bundle, Jackbox did reveal that Drawful 2 won’t be one of them.

All hail your film revival queen Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley’s next big role might be as Lara Croft in a new Tomb Raider film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Last week, reports circulated that suggested Ridley was in the running for the role of Lara Croft. But the movie doesn’t have a script yet, Ridley told THR, nor has she locked down the part. “I’m waiting for someone to say ‘I want you, let’s do it’," she said at the Empire Awards in London on Sunday.
The planned Tomb Raider movie reboot will be directed by Roar Ulthaug; it will be his first Hollywood feature. In 2013, Evan Daughtery (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Divergent) was attached to write the script based on the revived game franchise by Crystal Dynamics. GK Films bought the film rights to the series in 2011; the movie has been in development since 2013.
No release date has been set yet for the movie, which will be the Tomb Raider franchise’s first since 2003’s Cradle of Life.
While Ridley is best known as Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the actress also has a voice acting credit on her resume. Starting in January, she could be heard in the English adaptation of Only Yesterday by famed animation company Studio Ghibli.
How Lara Croft is changing

Director’s Cut version of Tequila Works’ sidescrolling adventure coming soon Publisher Deep Silver is bringing Deadlight, Tequila Works’ platforming adventure first released on Xbox 360 and Windows PC in 2012, to current consoles. Dubbed Deadlight: Director’s Cut, the new version of the zombie survival game will add “superior controls, new animations and full 1080p resolution" to the game.
Deadlight: Director’s Cut will also introduce Survival Arena, a new mode that promises "one of the toughest zombie challenges yet."
Deep Silver and Tequila Works are working with Abstraction Games, which has adapted a long list of well-known titles, to bring the new version of Deadlight to PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Deadlight: Director’s Cut will be released June 21 and cost $19.99.
For more on the original Deadlight, read Polygon’s review.

Doom launches May 13; multiplayer beta begins March 31 Doom will feature six multiplayer modes when it launches May 13, and a trailer published today details all of them.
The modes are called Soul Harvest, Freeze Tag, Warpath, Clan Arena, Domination and Team Deathmatch.
Soul Harvest is a Team Deathmatch variant but, after a kill, players need to collect the soul (represented by a skull icon) of the player shot down. Players of either team may reap the souls, but only opposing players’ souls count toward the score.
In Freeze Tag, combatants are not killed but rather frozen solid (though their frozen forms may be destroyed in an environmental hazard to trigger a respawn). Players are unfrozen by teammates who stand nearby them for a certain period of time. A team that is frozen entirely loses on the spot. Otherwise “most frozen" wins the round.
Warpath is a type of king-of-the-hill mode, except the control point is a moving area. This area will traverse pits and deadly hazards, forcing teams to respond once it returns to safer ground. The winning team is one reaching a preset score or having the highest score when time expires.
The three other types are more traditional: Domination, which involves three capture points spread across the map; Team Deathmatch; and Clan Arena, a type of deathmatch except there are no pickups, no means of restoring health or armor, and no respawning.
Last week, Bethesda Softworks revealed the nine multiplayer maps shipping with Doom. The game launches May 13 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, and a closed multiplayer beta on all of those platforms will be held March 31 through April 3.

Geralt’s mantle is collapsing under the weight of all those trophies The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt led the way at the SXSW Gaming Awards with wins in three categories, including Game of the Year, beating out heavy hitters like Fallout 4 and indie darlings such as Undertale.
The Austin, Texas-based festival presented the third annual SXSW Gaming Awards on Saturday night, March 19. YouTuber Sean William “JackSepticEye" McLoughlin and esports personality Rachel "Seltzer" Quirico hosted the show. The SXSW Gaming advisory board created a list of nominees in 21 categories from 2015’s best games, and the board members as well as the public voted to select the winners.
The Witcher 3’s win for Game of the Year makes the SXSW Gaming Awards the third awards show to give CD Projekt Red’s open-world role-playing game its top honor, following The Game Awards 2015 in December and the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards last week. The game also won SXSW Gaming Awards for Excellence in Technical Achievement and Excellence in Narrative.
Three games won two SXSW Gaming Awards each: FromSoftware’s Bloodborne, Crystal Dynamics’ Rise of the Tomb Raider and Toby Fox’s Undertale. Check out the full list of winners below.
Video Game of the YearThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – CD Projekt / CD Projekt Red Mobile Game of the YearHer Story – Sam Barlow Table Top Game of the YearPandemic Legacy – Z-Man Games          Excellence in GameplayMetal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain – Konami Excellence in ArtBloodborne – Sony Computer Entertainment / FromSoftware Excellence in AnimationRise of the Tomb Raider – Square Enix / Crystal Dynamics Excellence in Technical AchievementThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – CD Projekt / CD Projekt Red Excellence in Visual AchievementThe Order: 1886 – Sony Computer Entertainment / Ready at Dawn Excellence in NarrativeThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – CD Projekt / CD Projekt Red Excellence in DesignBloodborne – Sony Computer Entertainment / FromSoftware Excellence in SFXStar Wars Battlefront – Electronic Arts / EA DICE Excellence in Musical ScoreOri and the Blind Forest – Microsoft Studios / Moon Studios Excellence in MultiplayerRocket League – Psyonix Excellence in ConvergenceBatman: Arkham Knight – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment / Rocksteady Studios Most Enduring CharacterLara Croft, Rise of the Tomb Raider – Square Enix / Crystal Dynamics Most Valuable Esports TeamEvil Geniuses Most Entertaining Online PersonalityGreg Miller – Kinda Funny Most Promising New Intellectual PropertySplatoon – Nintendo Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded GameUndertale – Toby Fox Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation AwardUndertale – Toby Fox Gamer’s Voice AwardWinner (single-player): Superhot – Superhot TeamWinner (multiplayer): Gang Beasts – Boneloaf

Good luck fitting it into your deck The Pokémon Company unveiled its latest 20th anniversary spectacle in Paris today: a gigantic Pokémon trading card made out of … Pokémon trading cards.
A press release calls the piece — which stands at over 32 feet tall and nearly 23 feet wide — a world record-breaking stunt. The oversized Pokémon card set a record for the world’s largest trading card mosaic, according to The Pokémon Company.
British artist Quentin Devine constructed the work based on a design by character artist Ken Sugimori. Although there’s no mention of when this achievement will make it into the record books officially, Pokémon does have at least one other Guinness World Record to its name. In 2009, Pokémon fan Lisa Courtney entered the hall of fame with her collection of Pokémon memorabilia. At 14,410 pieces deep, it holds the record for the globe’s most extensive.
To see more from the unveiling, check out our gallery below.

A world in which Batman was the first superhero I grew up reading every comic with Batman in it — regardless of quality — out of a naive belief that taking on the Sisyphean task of Knowing Everything About Batman would buy me credit from the other judgmental nerds I desperately want to impress.
Which is to say: I’ve seen it all, including the typical patterns and ruts that writers fall into.
There’s the story where Batman is especially sad or angry for no reason other than that his parents died. There’s the story that coincidentally takes place in the alley his parents died because Symbolism. There’s the story where Batman fights somebody in the Batcave until they smash the glass case that has Jason Todd’s costume hanging in it, again, because Symbolism.
It’s not that I’m tired of Batman stories, of course, I am DTB (Down To Batman) at all times. But if a story looks like it’s retreading old ground — and you’re not doing your due diligence as a creator to say something new and interesting while you do it — I’m gonna check out.
Which brings us to that one movie
Hoooo boy, have I checked out of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I think I fell asleep just typing out the entire name of the movie.
Elaborating on that would be a whole post in itself. But leaving aside the previous work of the creative team behind the film, my personal thoughts on the comics it’s making its clearest homages to, and the idiocy of making an entire movie about two dudes fighting when we already know that they’re going to be friends at the end like come on who are you even fooling it’s right there in the title … there is one thing that Dayman v Nightman: Dawn of Justice looks to be setting up that I do find interesting.
And that’s the idea that Batman has been around for years, maybe a decade or more, before any other superheroes have gone public about their abilities and intentions. A mundane superhero veteran in a world of superpowered newbies.

This isn’t something I’ve seen done in a DC Universe Origin Story before, and it comes with some implications that I think could be used to reveal interesting aspects of — and say interesting things about — characters that we know very well. It’s not necessarily something that I think is better than the standard story of the beginning of the DCU’s “Modern Superheroic Era" — in which the superheroic movers and shakers of the DCU all generally started working at the same time and were inspired to work together by the example set by Superman. But I think it’s interesting.
It’s perfect idea for a What If?, a parallel universe, or, indeed, an adaptation of the setting to another medium.
Judging by clues in the plot-heavy Batman v Superman: Department of Justice trailers, it seems like Batman has been around for 10, maybe even 20 years — enough to be making jokes about his "old age," at least. It’s one thing to be a guy with no superpowers who puts on a costume and beats up criminals in a world where there are dozens of world-famous, beloved superhero celebrities. It’s quite another for the only superhero in the world to be a nigh-legendary, reclusive, normal man who’s beating up criminals in one specific city.
New York has Wall Street. San Francisco has techies, Los Angeles has Hollywood, New Orleans has Mardi Gras … Gotham has a succession of costumed criminals of dubious sanity policed by a mysterious vigilante, and it has for decades.
Imagine what that kind of life would be for Bruce Wayne: no allies except those he trained himself. No outside validation that anyone in the world but him would embark on such a crusade. Of course anyone else is going to be seen as a threat. He’s been alone for years, and, judging by those trailers, that life has beaten him down rather effectively.
Imagine this conversation
Mostly, though, I enjoy imagining the first meeting of this Justice League.

"So are we ready to start?" the Flash asks.
"We’re just waiting for one more," Superman says.
"Who?"
There’s a pause, as Earth’s alien savior fidgets.
"No." Wonder Woman pins him with her eyes. "Not him?"
The man in blue looks at them; the disarmingly honest look that got them all into this room in the first place.
"We’re all new at this," he says. "I’m new at this. We can’t afford beginner’s mistakes," he says, and he doesn’t pause to remember how it felt when Zod’s body went limp. "He’s got years of experience —"
"In being a nut job," says the man who can run faster than the speed of sound.
"No mortal man could do what we do alone, for that long, and remain sane," says the man who calls himself King of the Oceans.
Flash again: "He’s an asshole!"
"He recruits children," adds the quiet young man at the end of the table whose parents made him into a living weapon. He’s told them to call him Cyborg.
Superman can bend girders with a twist of his hands, but now he lifts them in a placating gesture. "He’s really a good guy!"
Wonder Woman quirks an eyebrow.
He deflates. "Once you get to know him."

Just like the biggest iPad, but normal iPad-sized Today, Apple unveiled a new, smaller version of the high-end iPad the company released last year. The new iPad Pro option comes with a 9.7-inch display — the larger iPad Pro boasts a 12.9-inch display — and a handful of new features.
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro will support the Apple Pencil stylus, and the company will release a smaller Smart Keyboard to accommodate the smaller tablet’s size. The smaller iPad Pro weighs less than a pound, but also packs in plenty of storage. A 32 GB model starts at $599, while a new 256 GB model runs $899.
The new iPad Pro also features a technology that Apple calls True Tone Display. According to Apple’s Phil Schiller, True Tone Display measures the color temperature of ambient lighting and adjusts the tablet’s display to match.

Apple says it has sold more than 200 million iPads featuring a 9.7-inch display, and called the new iPad Pro “the ultimate upgrade" for existing iPad owners — and for Windows users, who Apple says are "the majority of people buying an iPad Pro."
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro will come in four metallic finishes: gold, silver, space gray and rose gold.
Apple will release the smaller iPad Pro on March 31. Pre-orders open March 24.

Fast travel! Loot drops! Ubisoft has detailed the upcoming 1.02 patch for Tom Clancy’s The Division, which will become available to players across PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One starting tomorrow. Among the most notable updates are improved loot drops, various issue fixes and, most notably, changes to the Dark Zone.
These additions include the ability to heal neutral players in that area, as well as fast travel between checkpoints when entering into the Dark Zone from the outside. Downed players in the Dark Zone will now drop ammo, grenades and more loot while losing less experience and funds.
Check out Ubisoft’s forum for the rest of what’s addressed in the patch, such as changes to non-playable characters in The Division’s open world area. If you’ve yet to try out The Division — the biggest new franchise launch of all-time, according to Ubisoft — for yourself, read our review before jumping into the game.

Could this have been the video game that finally got Superman right? Almost as a rule, Superman video games have been quicksand for their development studios, requiring tons of time and effort and licensing to pay off with a poorly reviewed product and sales to match. In 2007, however, Factor 5 was convinced it could get the Man of Steel right.
Factor 5 never got the chance. Did You Know Gaming?, chroniclers of all things canceled, got its hands on footage of this Superman game, from very early in development, and use it to tell the story of a perfect storm of circumstances in 2008 that took down Superman harder than any shade of Kryptonite ever did.
First, the game: as Did You Know Gaming? recounts, this was to be an open-world Superman game with an ensemble cast of iconic bad guys trashing the city and getting trashed by Superman.

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The most ambitious feature Factor 5 was going for was a means of Superman taking his foe and driving him all the way through any of the buildings located in the cityscape, which would require a destructible environment rendered in real time.

Factor 5 was also a big fan of the Wii, so much that they were going to build a version of this Superman game for that console even though they were not getting paid extra to do it. When Warner Bros. pulled Bryan Singer off a sequel to 2006’s Superman Returns and back-burnered the movie franchise, Factor 5 scrambled to keep its game going as a stand-alone title, rather than an adaptation of a film.
Then Factor 5’s publisher, Brash Entertainment, a venture focusing entirely on licensed properties, went under for reasons that seem entirely predictable: an inexperienced CEO, the high costs of licensing, and multi-game deals requiring them to deliver shovelware in order to get at the good stuff. The global financial crisis of 2008 seems like the least of anyone’s worries in a collapse that took down Brash and Factor 5 and ensured that “Blue Steel," this game’s code name, would never be anything more than a series of set-piece concepts that had yet to gel into a single game.
Still, it’s always intriguing to ponder what might have been, whether developers could have pulled off something as ambitious as plowing Doomsday through a skyscraper, and whether critics and the public would have found any of that fun. Brash Entertainment was definitely in over its head. Although Factor 5 delivered the very well liked Rogue Squadron series about 15 years ago, the open-ended, overpowered nature of Superman, his powers and his greatest foes have been nearly impossible to do justice in a video game.