Month: March 2018

A big update is on the way very soon to Pokemon Go. As first discovered last month, developer Niantic is implementing a quest system in Pokemon Go, which will give players a variety of additional activities to complete–as well as a chance to discover the game’s first Mythical Pokemon.

Beginning March 30, players will be able to take on two different types of “research” quests: Field Research and Special Research. The former are distributed via PokeStops and task players with completing various objectives, such as catching certain Pokemon or participating in battles; the latter are “story-driven activities” assigned by Professor Willow that “take Trainers further into the world of Pokemon Go than ever before.”

Completing research quests will reward players with various items. Players will also earn a stamp for the first Field Research quest they complete each day, although there is no limited to how many tasks can be completed in a single day. Collecting seven stamps will lead to a Research Breakthrough, which will unlock even more rewards, including a possible encounter with a Legendary Pokemon.

The initial batch of research quests are tied to Mew, which is the first Mythical Pokemon to appear in the game. From the sound of it, players will presumably earn a chance to encounter Mew by completing Professor Willow’s Special Research quests.

In the meantime, players still have a few days to participate in Pokemon Go’s ongoing Eggstravaganza event. That is scheduled to run until April 2 and makes it easier to hatch rare Pokemon from Eggs. April 2 also marks the day Pokemon Go’s latest Legendary, Lugia, is slated to leave the game. The Legendary Psychic-type returned to Raid Battle earlier this month with the “newly improved” Flying move Sky Attack.

Every major sporting event has people making predictions, and sometimes, predictions come via non-traditional routes like a video game simulation of the “big game,” like the Super Bowl in Madden. This year, instead of predicting the winners of Wrestlemania through WWE 2K18, WWE said went an entirely different route and used an alligator to pick the winners for the April PPV.

In the video, former Tough Enough contestant ZZ takes the viewer to his alligator farm in Kraemer, Louisiana–which is 56 miles outside of New Orleans, where Wrestlemania 34 takes place–to find out who is going to win a few of the PPV matches, by way of alligators chomping on pictures. Yes, this is real, and you can see the silliness below.

The gator chose Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, Brock Lesnar, and Shinsuke Nakamura for their respective matches. This is by far the weirdest thing we’ve seen when it comes to predicting Wrestlemania winners. GameSpot’s predictions are much more complicated, as we have chickens peck at giant, disembodied cutouts of competitor’s heads–that or we just guess based on where we think the storylines are going.

Regardless of whether or not the alligators are right, this year’s Wrestlemania should be a blast, especially now that Daniel Bryan is cleared to compete. The big show takes place on Sunday, April 8 and the Kickoff Show should start at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT–the start time for the Kickoff Show has not been revealed yet. As of this writing, there are 11 matches on the card, including the first ever Women’s Battle Royal match, which had its original name changed because of some controversy.

It’s a week of new sequels, and older sequels getting re-released. There’s Far Cry 5, with all of its home-grown shooting action, and MLB The Show 18, which has a few new tricks tucked under its baseball cap. Meanwhile, Injustice 2 Legendary Edition gathers all of the comic fighting game’s DLC into one package, while Outlast 2 creeps onto Nintendo Switch. As for originals, Long Gone Days takes a look at warfare through a very different lens.

Far Cry 5 — March 27

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Far Cry 5 is looking to close out the month with a bang. The latest entry in the shooter series trades the typical exotic locale for a home-grown conflict in the American midwest. You’ll be fighting to liberate an entire county from a gun-toting cult.

Further Reading:

MLB The Show 18 — March 27

Available on: PS4

The latest iteration of America’s favorite pastime brings a few changes to the franchise. Character customization is deeper than ever, even letting you tweak your batting stance. Diamond Dynasty, Franchise Mode, and Road to the Show are all revamped with tons of new options too.

Further Reading:

Injustice 2 Legendary Edition — March 27

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

If you missed your chance to throw down with DC’s finest last year, this is the definitive way to jump in. Legendary Edition includes all the previously released DLC characters like Darkseid, Red Hood, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, plus a bunch of Premiere Skins.

Further Reading:

Outlast 2 — March 27

Available on: Switch

Outlast 2 is creeping onto Nintendo Switch this week, so if you missed out on all the jump scares last year, now you can take the horror on the go. This version doesn’t include any extras like HD Rumble support, but that doesn’t change the scariness one bit.

Further Reading:

Long Gone Days — March 28

Available on: PC

Long Gone Days is a modern-day military RPG where your mission isn’t quite what it seems–and not just because of the cool-looking first-person turn-based combat. After deserting the army, your personal mission to stop all war takes priority.

When Ron Howard took over directing duties on Solo: A Star Wars Story from Phil Lord and Chris Miller last May, it was reported that there was only a couple of weeks of production left on the movie. However, Howard continued to shoot for many more months, leading to speculation about how much of Lord and Miller’s footage he was reshooting, and how exactly the different directors would be credited when the film was released.

It was now been confirmed that Howard will take the sole directing credit, while Lord and Miller will be listed as executive producers. The directing duo, who are best known for The Lego Movie and the Jump Street films, were asked about the issue at the GLAS Animation Festival in California. “We were really proud of the many contributions we made to that film,” Miller said, via Variety. “In light of the creative differences, we elected to take an executive producer credit.”

When Lord and Miller first left the production of Solo, they issued a statement suggesting that it was an amicable departure based on “creative differences.” However, a subsequent story in The Hollywood Reporter revealed that it had been a troubled production until that point, with the directors’ background in improvisational comedy at odds with the control exerted by Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy and veteran Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.

Apollo 13 and Da Vinci Code director Howard was hired the following week. Kennedy recently spoke about the decision to change directors. “I think these guys are hilarious, but they come from a background of animation and sketch comedy,” she said. “When you are making these movies you can do that and there’s plenty of room for improvisation, we do that all the time. But it has to be inside of a highly structured process or you can’t get the work done and you can’t move the armies of people to anticipate and have things ready. So, it literally came down to process. Just getting it done.”

Solo: A Star Wars Story stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Emilia Clarke also star. It hits theaters on May 25, 2018. The first trailer was released last month, and you can also check out a full Solo trailer breakdown here.

In related news, it was announced last month the Jungle Book director Jon Favreau will direct a new live-action Star Wars TV show. The series is set to premiere of Disney’s streaming platform, which launches next year. This is in addition to the two new Star Wars movie series in the work, one from Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, the other overseen by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

It’s been over two years since the latest Far Cry game, Primal, was released, and nearly four years since Far Cry 4. Thankfully, Far Cry 5’s release date is nearly upon us.

The latest in the series takes us to Hope County, Montana, USA, and it appears to continue the franchise’s recent sillier tone. It even contains a killer bear named cheeseburger. Pre-release, Far Cry 5 had us confused, but what do we and others think of the final game?

Our critic, Edmond Tran, awarded the shooter a 9/10 in our Far Cry 5 review-in-progress. The game contains a number of network features and multiplayer components, so we’re waiting on the public launch before posting our final review, but until then you can take a look at a selection of critics’ opinions below. Alternatively, check out the game’s wider critical reception on GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

• Game: Far Cry 5
• Developer / Publisher: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft
• Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
• Release Date: March 27
• Price: US $60 / £55 / AU $100

GameSpot — 9/10 (Review-In-Progress)

“Despite some brief irritations and missed opportunities with its narrative, spending time in the world of Hope County remains absolutely delightful. Far Cry 5 boasts a wonderfully harmonious flow to its adventure, with its smart changes to exploration, discovery, and progression distinctly bolstering the enjoyment of creatively engaging and experimenting with its spectacular open world.” — Edmond Tran [Full review]

Eurogamer — No score

“This is the core truth of Far Cry, a series that still has a lot going for it, but remains in serious need of a revamp. It is a moribund apparatus of conquest that is unable to tell any story other than the rise to power of a well-armed outsider over a lushly imagined, exoticised realm, however urgently it might try.” — Edwin Evans-Thirlwell [Full review]

Game Informer — 7.5/10

“Far Cry 5’s world is meticulously constructed, and it’s a remarkable facsimile of Big Sky Country. Unfortunately, too much of the action in it is uninspired. It’s a beautiful but bland recitation of what’s come before, from both the series and Ubisoft’s open-world playbook. It’s never bad, but considering how great the past games have been, its overall predictability is disappointing.” — Jeff Cork [Full review]

USGamer — 4.5/5

“Far Cry 5 is a game that struggles in trying to serve two purposes. On one hand, there’s a dark, horrific tale of a cult taking over a small town. On the other, it’s a playground of destruction, letting players fly and drive around, blowing up things with a bear and a dog. Both sides are good, but they don’t really meet in the middle. If you can survive the tonal whiplash, you’ll find a great game here and Far Cry Arcade only makes it better.” — Mike Williams [Full review]

The Guardian — 3/5

“There are great individual moments in Far Cry 5. The gunplay is excellent, its unpredictable world generates daring stories of accidental heroism, and when it leans into the whole red-blooded American patriotism schtick, it’s genuinely funny. It doesn’t always fit together as well as it should, sometimes forcing the player to work around the game rather than with it – but the wildly vacillating tone is the bigger issue. It’s at once disorienting and noncommittal. Paradoxically, this is an extreme satire of modern America that says pretty much nothing about it.” — Keza MacDonald [Full review]