Month: March 2018

Remember Peter Molyneux, the creator of the Fable series and the head of the studio that launched Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube? He’s still around, and his studio, 22Cans, recently announced a Nintendo Switch port of its latest game.

The Trail: Frontier Challenge originally launched on mobile devices, and it was ported to PC last year. Now, it’s coming to Nintendo’s console, the first Switch title developed by 22Cans. “The Trail is a perfect debut Switch title for us; it’s family-friendly and easy to put down and pick back up again,” publisher Kongregate stated in a press release.

In The Trail, you take control of a traveler who embarks on a journey. Gameplay focuses on crafting, survival, and living the frontier life. Once you reach the final destination, you can also choose a profession and build a home as part of a town. Its style is particularly striking, too, with minimalist, polygonal art.

The Trail is out right now in Europe on Nintendo’s Eshop, and it’ll come out on March 6 in North and South America. The Switch version supports touch controls, and it costs $15.

A new Men in Black spinoff is on the way, and now a new report claims that Thor actor Chris Hemsworth could play one of the lead roles. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hemsworth is in “early negotiations” to star in the action-comedy from Sony Pictures.

Fate of the Furious and Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray will direct the untitled new Men in Black film, which is due to hit theatres in June 2019. The movie is being written by Matt Holloway and Art Marcus (Iron Man).

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new Men in Black film will be similar to Jurassic World in that it will feature a familiar world but new characters. In the original Men in Black films, which have collectively grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, Agents J and K were played by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, respectively.

“Sources say that the studio is hoping to round out a diverse ensemble cast and may be potentially eyeing the leads to be white male, a female of color, and an older man,” The Hollywood Reporter said. “The story will be a global adventure.”

The report did not include any information about what other actors may be in consideration for the film, but we’ll report back with more information as it’s announced.

The first Men in Black premiered in 1997, with a sequel arriving in 2002. It took 10 years, but another sequel, Men in Black 3, came out in 2012. Veteran producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are returning for the new film, as is Steven Spielberg in an executive producer role.

Social networking behemoth Facebook has launched a new campaign that aims to promote diversity in the video game industry and encourage more women to get into the field. The network’s new “Women In Gaming Stories” initiative includes a website that has videos featuring women in various roles across the industry, including game design, marketing, HR, sales, and more. The lead video features Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

“Gaming is one of the best examples of people connecting around their interests, and women have a really important part to play in this industry,” Sandberg said. The executive went on to cite statistics about how women make up around half of all gamers worldwide, while some female characters are some of the best known recently, including Tracer from Overwatch, Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn, and Chloe and Nadine from Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

Sandberg added that the video game industry needs to do more to encourage more women to join the video game industry as part of an effort for games to be better representative of the global population.

“Yet gaming still doesn’t fully reflect the audience it serves or the stories it tells,” Sandberg went on to say. “Women only make up 23 percent of the workforce, and women of color are even less represented. In this industry, women also face steretypes and prejudice that hold them back, just like they do in every industry. And when they become the target of online threats, it’s even harder to convince young women that this is an industry full of opportunity; and industry that not only values their work–but needs it.”

Sandberg added that Facebook wants to see games made that “speak to everyone.” The Women In Gaming campaign is an effort to build a global community for women in the industry to share stories of the challenges they’ve faced and more about their experiences. Sandberg went on to say that Facebook will organise meet-ups so that women in gaming can come together for support and empowerment. Also on the website you will find links to talks from noted female game developers such as Brenda Romero and links to research where you can learn more about the facts on women in the video game workplace.

You can watch more than a dozen videos on Facebook’s website in which women in the games industry such as Rovio CEO Kati Levoranta, King brand manager Natalie Mellin, and various internal Facebook gaming staffers discuss their experiences as women in the games industry. A Facebook representative told GI.biz that the company aims to have around 100 videos of this type on its website by the end of 2018, so that it can provide a better representation of the roles that are available in video games across all disciplines.

If you’re still playing Dragon’s Dogma or Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen on Xbox 360, Capcom has some bad news for you: the servers are going down. At the end of March, you’ll be unable to access the network features for the Xbox 360 versions of the game or its expansion, Dark Arisen.

When it first launched back in 2012, one of the most interesting parts of Dragon’s Dogma was its network components. Somewhat similar to Dark Souls‘ asynchronous online features, Dragon’s Dogma has a system in which you can hire an NPC created by a different player. In addition, you can battle bosses that other players can also fight–although these fights are also asynchronous.

All of this is going down soon, at least in the 360 version. On March 31, at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM GMT, Dragon’s Dogma on 360 will have its network features shut off. After that point, it’ll continue to be playable offline. “To all Xbox 360 players, thank you for all the Pawns you’ve shared in the Rift and the damage dealt to the Ur-Dragon,” Capcom stated on its website. “Well done, Arisens.”

In addition, if you want to check out the multiplayer modes, the servers will still be live on the PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen launched on PS4 and Xbox One in October 2017. GameSpot’s Kevin VanOrd gave the original version an 8/10, praising its combat, monsters, atmosphere, and “one of the best boss fights in any role-playing game, ever.”

The Fortnite servers will be offline tomorrow, March 1, for a period of time as developer Epic Games releases a new update for the popular Battle Royale game. Update V.3.1.0 will be released at some point on Thursday, but Epic said in a tweet that it does not yet have any information about when it will come out.

As such, we don’t know exactly when the downtime will begin or how long it will run for. Whatever the case, Epic said it will release the patch notes when the downtime begins, so keep checking back for all of those details. As of yet, Epic has not given any indication as to what may be changing with the new update.

In other Fortnite news, Epic has delayed the launch of a new mobility option, the jetpack, and released a new weapon instead. The new weapon is the Hunting Rifle, which is a ranged gun that does not have a scope.

Fortnite Season 3 is not underway, giving players a new Battle Pass and rewards to unlock. This season’s Battle Pass features 30 additional tiers–you can see all of the new Battle Royale rewards there are to unlock in our gallery. Players can also take part in Fortnite: Battle Royale’s latest limited-time mode, Solid Gold.

Additionally, Amazon Prime subscribers can now pick up a pack of free items for Fortnite from Twitch. The Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack consists of several exclusive gliders and outfits for Battle Royale mode, as well as two heroes for Save the World. That pack is redeemable on all platforms, but PS Plus members can also grab a separate cosmetic pack on PS4 for free right now.