Culture
1 CommentA look back at the Hearthstone cards Blizzard has nerfed
Along with its next expansion and the controversial addition of the new standard format, Hearthstone is set to receive some major downgrades — colloquially referred to as nerfs by the gaming community — to cards from its Classic and Basic sets. These are the first nerfs the game has seen since October of last year, but they're far from the only nerfs it's ever received.
In his most recent video, popular Hearthstone streamer and video creator Kripparrian runs down a history of every card update the game has received, starting from early beta. If you weren't playing back then, the biggest surprise might just be how terribly overpowered the rogue class was in general.
Kripp also runs down a few notable buffs that some classes or cards received during those early days to help raise their...
Cover Story
Issue
15
February 8, 2016
Sonic the Hedgehog’s long, great, rocky history
The peaks and valleys of one of gaming’s most notable characters.
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1 CommentMega Yarn Yoshi returning to Toys R Us later this month
Toys R Us is bringing back Mega Yarn Yoshi to stores, the retailer announced today on Twitter. Starting March 20, amiibo collectors, Yoshi fans and lovers of anything cute will have another chance to grab the limited edition plush.
Mega Yarn Yoshi is a deluxe version of the regular Yarn Yoshi amiibo, both of which launched to coincide with the release of Yoshi's Woolly World on Wii U. The $40 collectible is 8 inches tall and, just as it was in its initial release, is only available at Toys R Us.
When Mega Yarn Yoshi hit stores in November, Toys R Us said that it would stock the special toy in "extremely limited" amounts. That holds true for the second wind of the store-exclusive amiibo.
To see Mega Yarn Yoshi in adorable action, check out our video below.
Movies
10 CommentsJ.K. Simmons is joining up with the Justice League
Oscar winner J.K. Simmons has joined the cast of Warner Bros. Studios' Justice League movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The actor will play the role of Commissioner James "Jim" Gordon, Gotham City's chief of police and Batman's frequent ally.
The film, a two-parter, won't make its theatrical debut until next year. Part One is out Nov. 17, 2017, with Part Two to follow on June 14, 2019.
Simmons' co-stars include Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Godot as Wonder Woman and Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight himself. All three will appear in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, out later this month; that movie serves as a prelude to the team-focused Justice League films.
Commissioner Gordon was last seen on the big screen in The Dark Knight Rises, where he was played by Gary Oldman....
Deals
2 CommentsThe Division available for $25 off at GameStop with a trade-in
Tom Clancy's The Division, the New York City-based multiplayer shooter from Massive Entertainment, is available at a deep discount from GameStop with select game trade-ins, the retailer announced today.
The $25 trade-in deal drops the price of The Division to $34.99, a discount of 42 percent off the game's $59.99 regular price. The same discount is also available for the game's Gold Edition, which retails for $99.99 and includes The Division's $39.99 season pass; that version of the game will cost $74.99 after a trade.
GameStop customers can take advantage of the offer by trading in a game from a list of 59 different titles, including Grand Theft Auto 5 (PS4 or Xbox One); a variety of Pokémon games; FIFA 16, Madden NFL 16 and NHL 16 (last-gen and current-gen, where applicable); and...
News
22 CommentsKey figure quits beleaguered project to make a new Coleco console (update)
A person connected to the Coleco Chameleon — a project to create a cartridge-based retro gaming console — has quit, citing the controversy surrounding the console and questions of its legitimacy raised this week.
In a note on his LinkedIn page, David Giltinan said "everything going on with the Coleco Chameleon is a major reason why I have to separate myself from everything associated with it." Update: Giltinan responded to a request for comment; additional remarks are further down in this story.
Giltinan is, or was, the managing editor of Retro Magazine, which is owned by Mike Kennedy, the co-founder of RetroVGS, which is behind the Coleco Chameleon. At New York Toy Fair in mid-February, RetroVGS faced allegations that the unit it was showing was in fact a SNES Jr. "duct-taped" inside...
TV
2 CommentsSnow artist walks 20 miles for Game of Thrones tribute
In 1988, The Proclaimers, well, proclaimed that they would walk 500 miles for love. While international snow artist Simon Beck didn't quite walk that far, he did trek a fair bit to showcase his love for Game of Thrones.
Hosted by Sky Atlantic, the British television channel that carries HBO's hit series, Beck walked approximately 20 miles through Alpine snow to create this artistic tribute to the Stark family.
According to the description on the YouTube page, it took Beck about 24 hours to carry out the design, using just a compass for navigation. The entire piece takes up approximately 2.5 soccer pitches.
Game of Thrones returns to HBO for its sixth season April 24.
News
19 CommentsBear Simulator dev calls game 'lost cause' after negative reception
The developer of Bear Simulator, a Kickstarter-project-turned-Steam-release in which players take on the role of a bear, says he will no longer work on the game, thanks to "drama" following its launch.
In a campaign update on Kickstarter over the weekend, developer John Farjay of Farjay Studios wrote that "making any updates or going further is basically a lost cause now," due to the game's reception. While backers and the majority of players on Steam, on which Bear Simulator launched Feb. 26, have spoken positively of the humorous game, Farjay referred to its most vocal, negative reviewers as the cause of his frustration.
Most notably, that includes PewDiePie, the popular YouTube streamer whose videos attract millions of views. After Farjay made Bear Simulator widely available,...
Latest Reviews
News
31 CommentsThe Division's first two expansions are exclusive to Xbox One for a month
The first two expansions for Tom Clancy's The Division will be 30-day timed exclusives for Xbox One, publisher Ubisoft confirmed today.
Ubisoft announced developer Massive Entertainment's schedule of planned updates for The Division last week, laying out a slate of three paid expansions — Underground in June, Survival in the summer and Last Stand in the winter — along with free content updates. Ubisoft has yet to announce individual pricing for the expansions, but all three are covered by the game's $39.99 season pass.
A promotional video for The Division that GameStop released in February pointed out the downloadable content's timed exclusivity, which Ubisoft originally announced during E3 2014. We asked Ubisoft last week for details on the exclusivity, but the publisher didn't...
Movies
10 CommentsMarvel casts Disney star Zendaya in new Spider-Man movie
Disney star Zendaya (Shake It Up!, K.C. Undercover) has reportedly signed on to star opposite Tom Holland in Marvel and Sony's rebooted Spider-Man series.
According to Deadline, the actress will play the female lead in the movie, but it's unclear as to whether or not she'll play one of Peter Parker's love interests, including Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane Watson. Exactly who Zendaya will play in the movie is still unknown.
Holland, who will make his first appearance as the new Spider-Man in Marvel's upcoming Captain America: Civil War, was brought on board last June.
Spider-Man will be released in theaters July 7, 2017.
News
7 CommentsValve returns to Aperture Science with new VR experiments called The Lab
Valve will debut a new virtual reality test next week that returns players to the world of Portal. The studio revealed the project in a press release ahead of its formal unveiling at next week's Game Developers Conference 2016.
According to Valve, the "compilation of new VR experiments" are collectively called The Lab and are set in Aperture Laboratories. That location is best known as the setting of the Portal titles, Valve's fan-favorite first-person puzzle games.
When The Lab launches on Steam later this spring, it will be available free of charge. It will also show off various ways to test out the room-scale VR features of HTC Vive, the $800 headset Valve is producing in collaboration with HTC.
Valve recently used the backdrop of Portal for another VR release: The SteamVR...
Movies
19 CommentsHellboy 3 is 'probably never going to happen'
Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy series was always meant to be a trilogy, but its biggest star says fans probably shouldn't hold their breath waiting for the final installment.
Ron Perlman, the actor who plays Hellboy in the series, told Variety that while he believed in the expression, "never say never," they simply weren't getting enough support from the studio to move forward and make the third movie.
It's something that Perlman has expressed his grief over before. In an earlier interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Perlman confessed that he didn't care if it was an "$8 million independent film" at this point.
"We are obligated as filmmakers to give it [the final movie] to the audience," Perlman said.
The actor added that he's talked to del Toro about the third film and told The...
Books
16 CommentsJ.K. Rowling to release four-part series about magic in North America
J.K. Rowling is about to release the first of four new pieces of writing detailing the history of magic in North America, according to a post on Pottermore.
Based on the description provided, the new series will be very similar to Rowling's work in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, except this time she'll be exploring the vast species of magical creatures that live within the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The series will act as a lead up to the release of the Fantastic Beasts film, which hits theaters Nov. 18. It's not the only new piece of Harry Potter-related writing Rowling will gift to fans, either. The author is also making the script for her new West End play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, available in book format on July 31.
The Cursed Child acts as the eighth...
News
10 CommentsOverwatch launching May 24, open beta coming in early May (update)
Update: Overwatch will be released May 24, Blizzard Entertainment confirmed in a post on the game's website. The studio also announced that it will run an open beta for the game from May 3-9. Customers who pre-order by April 29 will get early access from May 3-4, while anyone will be able to play the beta from May 5-9. The beta will be available on all three platforms: PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.
Original story: A since-removed advertisement on IGN leaked the launch date for Overwatch, the upcoming class-based shooter from Blizzard Entertainment. It is May 24, according to the IGN ad.
Kotaku published a screenshot of the ad sent in by their tipsters. The ad also mentioned that another beta will be held in May, with access to it granted by a pre-order. Overwatch is c...
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