Month: March 2019

Nintendo is holding a new Splatfest event in Splatoon 2 this weekend. The 24-hour competition kicks off on Friday, March 15 at 9 PM PT (12 AM ET on March 16), and as usual, it asks players to represent one of two opposing teams in Turf War. This time, however, you’ll be able to face off in special outfits.

The theme for this month’s Splatfest is knights vs. wizards. As always, players will choose one of the two sides from the Splatfest terminal in the game’s main plaza and try to rack up as many wins for their team as possible during the event. However, unlike previous events, you’ll be able to dress like your team of choice if you have the appropriate gear.

During each Splatfest, once you’ve chosen a side you’ll receive a special in-game t-shirt representing your team. You’re able to equip any headgear or footwear you own during the event, but you typically cannot change your t-shirt until the Splatfest has concluded.

This time, however, if you wear headgear and boots from the Steel or Enchanted lines–which are unlocked via the Octoling Boy and Octoling Girl Amiibo figures, respectively–your Splatfest shirt will automatically change to match, letting you battle it out in full knight or wizard regalia.

Ahead of the Splatfest, Nintendo recently rolled out Splatoon 2’s 4.5.0 update. This patch primarily makes balance adjustments to a range of weapons, most notably nerfing several Sloshers and buffing a handful of Blasters. You can read the full patch notes for the 4.5.0 update on Nintendo’s support website.

A former Activision creative higher-up pitched the company on a new IP, but the Call of Duty publisher didn’t go for it. Glen Schofield, the Dead Space co-creator who later established Call of Duty: WWII studio Sledgehammer Games, spoke about this in a new interview for what appears to be the first time.

“Did a little prototype for them–they didn’t go for it, but they should have,” Schofield told Game Informer.

Schofield pitched this new game–which he didn’t share any more details on–after he left Sledgehammer to take a position at Activision HQ. Sledgehammer’s other founder, Michael Condrey, moved to Activision corporate as well. Schofield teased that Condrey was working on “something” for Activision, while he was spending his own time working on “new game ideas.”

Schofield didn’t say why Activision vetoed his new game idea, and we’ve reached out to the company for comment but haven’t heard back. Whatever the case, Schofield talked about how making new IP is a challenging task. Activision Publishing, which is a part of Activision Blizzard, publishes franchises like Call of Duty, Spyro, and Crash. One of its highest profile new IPs was Bungie’s Destiny, which it published until the companies broke up but never owned outright as Bungie always held the IP rights.

With new IP, companies basically start from the bottom, with the the likelihood of strong return-on-investment potential seemingly not as high as it would be for an established series.

“It’s hard to get a great new IP going, and you’ve got to put time and money and effort into these things,” Schofield said. “We put time and effort into it, and some money, and it just didn’t work out.”

Schofield announced in December 2018 that he was leaving Activision. He left the company with no new job lined up, and that’s something he never thought he’d do. But with Activision not greenlighting his new IP, he said it was the right time to try something new.

“Not seeing the project greenlit–it was time [to leave Activision],” Schofield said. “There’s nothing bitter; everything about my years there were really good. I really enjoyed them. I never thought that [I’d] leave a place without a gig, right? I never thought about that. But nowadays I see why.”

Schofield is now taking meetings for new jobs, and he said he plans to do more networking at the Game Developers Conference later this month in San Francisco. As for Condrey, he landed a high-profile job heading up a new 2K development studio in Silicon Valley.

It’s been tough times at Activision Blizzard of late, as the company recently cut around 8 percent of its workforce in a downsizing that reportedly affected around 800 people.

Control, an upcoming game by developer Remedy, is scheduled to come out this year, more specifically this summer. The tease was included in an interview for the cover story in the most recent issue of Game Informer magazine, with the rest of the article detailing the abilities that Control’s protagonist has at her disposal.

In Control, you play as Jesse Faden, a woman with supernatural abilities. At the game’s start, Jesse breaks into the Federal Bureau of Control–a fictional government agency that researches ways to explain and exploit paranormal phenomenon–in order to discover the truth about the origin of her powers. Her infiltration, however, runs into a snag, and she’s suddenly thrust into a fight to protect the Bureau as its new director.

Gameplay wise, it looks as if you’ll have plenty of tools at your disposal in Control. Jesse’s powerful supernatural abilities allow her to wield telekinesis to rip apart the environment, or lift herself up and fly through the air. She can also seize the minds of others, bending them to her will and forcing them to fight alongside her. Defensively, Jesse can use her powers to create a forcefield in front of her or instantly propel herself in any direction to dodge out of the way. When powers aren’t enough, Jesse also has access to a powerful firearm that can be upgraded in a variety of ways, giving it new forms that allow it to fire different types of bullets.

Control is one of our most anticipated games of 2019, seemingly blending together the best aspects of Remedy’s previous titles, Alan Wake and Quantum Break. Game director Mikael Kasurinen compared the atmosphere of Control to the 2018 movie Annihilation, while Remedy creative director Sam Lake loves that Control gives him the freedom to be weird again.

Control is currently scheduled for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

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Whether you’re already deep into Devil May Cry 5, which just released on March 8, or haven’t had a chance to pick up the latest game, you may find this news exciting: Devil May Cry: The Animated Series is currently available for free from the PlayStation Store.

If you’re thinking, I didn’t even know Devil May Cry had an anime, here’s a quick catch-up: The DMC anime released in Japan in 2007 and consists of 12 episodes. Set between the events of Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2, the anime follows devil hunter Dante, who’s running his business and taking odd jobs while struggling with crippling debt. The show also introduces two regular characters: J.D. Morrison, Dante’s agent who brings him job requests, and Patty Lowell, an orphan girl Dante rescues who becomes like a daughter to him. Morrison makes his first appearance in the video game series with Devil May Cry 5, so you’ll have to watch the anime to understand his full backstory with Dante.

How to watch Devil May Cry: The Animated Series on PSN

The DMC anime is available to purchase and watch for free in the PlayStation store right now, but you can only access it through your PS4, rather than the web store. The deal also appears to be limited to the North American store (although some people on Reddit have commented that it’s not free for them in Canada).

To access the series, head to the PlayStation Store on your PS4 and search “Devil May Cry.” The anime should pop up alongside the games. If you’re not seeing it there, try searching under Movies and TV -> TV Genres -> Anime, and then sort A to Z to find Devil May Cry. Normally, the series is $25 to purchase, and it’s unclear how long it’ll be listed as free, so don’t wait long if you’re interested in watching.

While Devil May Cry is on your mind, read our Devil May Cry 5 review, and pick up the new game if you’re ready to bash some demons.

Agent Coulson is a bit of an anomaly in the MCU as one of the few characters who straddle the line between the movie and TV sides of the universe–two worlds that don’t always play well with one another. Captain Marvel gives us a chance to see the SHIELD back on the big screen for the first time since his “death” in The Avengers back in 2012.

The death thing is a little complicated, though. While Coulson did genuinely die on screen in 2012’s Avengers, he was resurrected by Fury over on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, where he began leading a team of SHIELD agents in secret for five-plus seasons, all of which tangentially relate to the movies but never really intersect. Now, thanks to Captain Marvel, we know that not only did the core Avengers team know Coulson during his big screen days, but Carol Danvers did as well, if only briefly–which, begs the question, who on the film side of MCU actually knows Coulson is still alive?

Well, Clark Gregg had some thoughts on the matter when we sat down with him to chat at the Captain Marvel press junket in Beverly Hills this March. “In my mind, Captain America doesn’t know he’s alive. It’s bittersweet to me,” he laughed. “We know that Nick Fury knows, obviously, we’ve seen him. And I feel like Tony Stark knows things–he just finds a way to know things–but I think the two of them have had a blunt conversation about it and decided not to share it further. And then we had Lady Sif promise not to tell Thor–but I don’t know how much I believe that. And Maria Hill knows, she’s spent time with him–but I think everyone else is just keeping it a secret.”

If this revelation ever did make the jump from Gregg’s imagination into MCU canon somewhere down the line, it certainly wouldn’t help Tony and Steve Rogers repair the burned bridges of their relationship, that much is for sure. And it would be interesting (and, let’s be honest, hilarious) for Thor–a character who traditionally has struggled with knowing when and how to say things tactfully–to be brought into the conspiracy as well.

Gregg’s ideas about his character didn’t stop there. With Coulson’s appearance as a junior agent in SHIELD back in 1995, we were left wondering: how did he actually end up involved in the organization in the first place? What was his life like before?

“Well we know his interest in superheroes started really young, with his Cap cards, and we know from his story on Agents of SHIELD that his father passed away early. […] But, I like to think that before SHIELD, he worked in an elite, very secret branch of the Post Office,” Gregg playfully explained. “I think his secret origin is getting a very serious package in the mail, and it all spiraled out from there–I mean, I just made that up, but it would be fun.”

Top secret postal service gig or no, it’s clear that Coulson’s story is anything but over. Since his debut back in the post credits scene of 2008’s Iron Man, he’s become one of the most beloved and recognized characters of the modern Marvel era, branching throughout the comics and live action adaptations–something which Gregg himself is very proud of, if a bit intimidated by. “Obviously, I feel a lot of ownership for the character. It’s very porous between the two of us. When he’s upset I get upset, but at the same time I am a little bit of passenger on a bus where the drivers change very often. I’ve tried to just keep the core thing that I like about him, which is his love of the game. He’s got this love of humans and this love of the game. I would say he believes in the idea of SHIELD and heroes, which is a choice. He’s come across a lot of people who don’t, who haven’t committed to a belief like that, and it doesn’t seem to go so well for their soul. That’s what I hope people recognize about him.”

You can catch Coulson’s big screen return in Captain Marvel, and his modern day story on Agents of SHIELD as it head into its eighth season.