Month: June 2019

Sony might not be attending E3 this year, but it still has plenty going on to share with players around the world. The company has now detailed some upcoming changes to the PS4‘s party system, and it sounds intriguing.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, social media director Sid Shuman revealed Sony is currently testing enhanced chat audio quality, improved network connectivity, and the ability to create and participate in parties of up to 16 people, up from the current limit of eight.

The new features are part of the next PS4 update preview program, which gives beta access to select users for new updates. North American players will be able to test a couple of extra features, too: the PS4 Second Screen mobile app will allow you to enter text which will then be spoken aloud to other party members. Additionally, the app can transcribe the incoming chat audio from your friends. Sony says these app-focused updates are available to US- and Canada-based users only for the time being, and only in English.

Sign-ups for the upcoming beta update will go live today, June 4, in North America, and “soon” in Europe. Note, however, that if you participate in the preview program, you’ll only be able to join parties that contain other members of the program. If you are successfully selected for the beta, however, Sony will allow you to share your access code with 20 friends, meaning you can all test the update together.

In other PlayStation news, the PS4 exclusive Blood & Truth became the first ever VR-only game to top the UK sales chart last week. The shooter launched just a few days ago, and we awarded it a 7/10 in our Blood & Truth review.

The huge success of the 2015 blockbuster Jurassic World and last year’s sequel proved there was plenty of life left in the long-running dinosaur movie series. They will soon be joined by the new animated show Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

The show is latest collaboration between Netflix and DreamWorks Animation, and it will hit the streaming service in 2020. The show will be set at the same time as the events of Jurassic World.

The official synopsis reads: “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous follows a group of six teenagers chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime experience at a new adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar. But when dinosaurs wreak havoc across the island, the campers are stranded. Unable to reach the outside world, they’ll need to go from strangers to friends to family if they’re going to survive.”

Neither casting news nor a more specific release date. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous follows a variety of other successful Netflix/DreamWorks shows, such as Guillermo Del Toro’s Trollhunters, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

Netflix is increasingly moving into producing animated content. Earlier this week, an anime series based on the popular fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering was announced, which will be produced by Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo. In addition, it was previously reported that Netflix plans to launch its own animation studio, which will enable it to make projects in-house without having to outsource much of the technical work to existing animation companies.

What does Xbox smell like? You may soon be able to find out. Microsoft has partnered with Lynx to create a new fragrance called Lynx Xbox. The range includes body spray, deodorant, and shower gel, so really all of your bases are covered.

The official description is simply delightful:

“Lynx Xbox is a fresh scent of pulsing green citrus, featuring top notes of kaffir lime and winter lemon, aromatic herbal middle notes of mint and sage, and woody bottom notes of patchouli and clearwood. Containing a range of natural essential oils, the Xbox Lynx range comes with a sleek new look and features a body spray, deodorant, and shower gel.”

Xbox ANZ boss Tania Chee said in a statement that users can spray or wash themselves with Xbox Lynx to “power up” before heading out the door in the morning.

Xbox Lynx will be available from July at grocery stores and pharmacies across Australia and New Zealand. There is no word yet on if it’ll be released in other parts of the world.

Next up for Xbox is its E3 2019 briefing where Microsoft is expected to “go big.” Among other things, Microsoft is expected to announce a next-generation Xbox and show more of Halo Infinite.

Microsoft showed the first gameplay for Minecraft Earth at Apple’s annual WWDC conference, and in the process announced a couple of new iOS-exclusive features for the upcoming AR game.

The people occlusion feature lets you walk through or around your own life-size 3D creations. You can also use a motion capture feature to map your actual gestures to triggers for pre-set animations from characters in the game.

A closed beta for Minecraft Earth is scheduled for this summer on iOS and Android. The full game will let you tap on treasure chests, blocks, and mobs, take part in Adventures with resources to collect, and progress in your career with experience points. You can also build structures on Build Plates, and connect them with physical locations so that other people can see your work.

Apple’s WWDC conference had another big video game reveal, with the announcement of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One controller support for iOS and Apple TV. WWDC was just the first of several planned events for this week, in which various publishers and developers are getting ahead of the E3 2019 rush with their own dedicated events. Those include a Google Stadia announcement, a Pokemon Nintendo Direct, and more.

After drip-feeding information over the past few months, Sega has finally announced the final games coming to its Mega Drive / Genesis Mini console. Among the last 12 titles to be revealed are a couple of surprises, including Tetris and Darius.

Darius never actually came to the original console–it’s a brand-new port, specifically for the Mega Drive / Genesis Mini. The original console’s version of Tetris, meanwhile, is exceedingly rare, with only three physical copies available in the wild. Both games will be pre-installed on the new Mini console.

The other games revealed today are Road Rash II, Strider, Virtua Fighter 2, Alisia Dragoon, Columns, Dynamite Headdy, Kid Chameleon, Monster World IV, Light Crusader, and Eternal Champions. They bring the final count up to 42 games, with other big titles like Earthworm Jim and Sonic the Hedgehog also included.

The Mega Drive Mini / Genesis Mini launches worldwide on September 19, costing $80 / £70 / AU $140. It’s based on the Model 1 version of the original console, except approximately 55% smaller. The box contains the console, a power adapter, two replica three-button USB controllers, one USB to micro-USB power cable, and one HDMI lead.

The game ports that are on the Genesis Mini were handled by M2, a team that is well known for its work on emulation and re-releases. M2 previously worked on Sega Ages and Sega 3D Classics Collection.

Releasing Mini versions of classic consoles has become something of a trend recently. Nintendo led the way with the NES Classic and the SNES Classic, both of which were received well by critics and went on to be hot commercial items. Sony followed suit with the PlayStation Classic, which wasn’t received as warmly.

Full Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Mini Games Lineup

1. Sonic the Hedgehog
2. Ecco the Dolphin
3. Castlevania: The New Generation
4. Space Harrier 2
5. Shining Force
6. Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
7. ToeJam & Earl
8. Comix Zone
9. Altered Beast
10. Gunstar Heroes
11. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
12. World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
13. Thunder Force III
14. Super Fantasy Zone
15. Shinobi III
16. Streets of Rage 2
17. Earthworm Jim
18. Sonic The Hedgehog 2
19. Probotector
20. Landstalker
21. Mega Man®: The Wily Wars
22. Street Fighter II®: Special Champion Edition
23. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts®
24. Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
25. Story of Thor
26. Golden Axe
27. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
28. Sonic The Hedgehog Spinball
29. Vectorman
30. Wonder Boy in Monster World
31. Tetris®
32. Darius
33. Road Rash II
34. Strider
35. Virtua Fighter 2
36. Alisia Dragoon
37. Kid Chameleon
38. Monster World IV
39. Eternal Champions
40. Columns
41. Dynamite Headdy
42. Light Crusader

Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a much-loved spooky kids anthology book series, and the movie adaptation arrives in August. It’s produced by Guillermo Del Toro, and a new trailer has been released.

The first trailer was released in March didn’t really make it clear how the movie would be presenting the various stories from Schwartz’s book. However, this latest promo reveals that it’s all a single narrative. A bunch of kids visit an old house and find a spooky book, which is filled with terrifying stories that start coming true. It all looks like massive scary fun–check the trailer out above.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is directed by André Øvredal, who previously proved his genre credentials with The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Trollhunter. It stars Zoe Margaret Colletti (Annie), Michael Garza (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay), Gabriel Rush (Moonrise Kingdom), Dean Norris (Breaking Bad), and Lorraine Toussaint (Orange is the New Black). It hits theaters on August 9.

In a recent interview with Vulture, Del Toro explained why the movie had a single narrative rather than making it a collection of stories. “[Anthology] is something I love, but they’re always as bad as the worst story,” he said. “[This is] a Young Adult movie about childhood around a time when things were changing forever, around 1968 and 1969. It’s the end of childhood in many ways, a crucial time for America. We didn’t retrofit the characters to the stories. We adapted the characters to the story.”

The first volume of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark was published in 1981 and contained 29 stories. It was followed by a second volume in 1984, and a third in 1991.

A Halo TV show is on the way with Orange is the New Black actor Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, and Microsoft has bold ambitions for it. 343 Industries transmedia boss Kiki Wolfkill said recently that the Halo show is aiming to be similar to Game of Thrones in some ways.

“It’s hard to find an analog. We talk about Game of Thrones a lot in terms of scope and scale and complexity of relationships,” she said in the latest episode of The AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook podcast with Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price.

Wolfkill pointed out that, like Game of Thrones, the Halo series is steeped in politics.

“A lot of the background of Halo is this sort of political drama. It’s something that [is touched on] really lightly in the games and you see more of in some of the other mediums,” she said. “Some of that [Game of Thrones-style] complexity is interesting.”

Unlike Game of Thrones, however, the Halo TV show will not feature incest. “No incest planned at all for this show, I’ll say that. If you’re looking for that, you won’t find it here,” Wolfkill said.

Wolfkill went on to say that she was personally impressed with the first seasons of Game of Thrones that followed the narrative of the books closely. When there was a shift from the writing in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, this change felt deserved and you can understand why changes were made, Wolfkill said.

This is something 343 aspires to with the Halo show.

Wolfkill also spoke about how she gets bothered when people say it’s impossible to make a video game translate to a good TV show or movie. Just because it hasn’t been done before, or rarely, that doesn’t mean it cannot be done, she said.

“It’s not because you can’t, it’s because it’s a really hard challenge, and everyone is still trying to figure it out,” she said. “There isn’t something inherent in the format of video games that makes it impossible to adapt; it’s just a hard challenge. Literally day to day we are making decisions on what can change, what shouldn’t change, what we can we bend.”

Another hugely important part of making the Halo TV show shine is 343 humbling itself and recognizing that the team at Showtime knows more about TV than 343 does.

“We are putting a lot of our trust in our TV partners. You have to be humble and recognize the expertise you’re bringing is different from the expertise that they have,” she said. “And you have to be able to take that leap of faith and trust that the things they want and are lobbying for and need are the right things. That’s probably the hardest part; that leap of faith.”

343 has been working with Showtime for 5 years already. It hasn’t been all fun. The experience has “really been a struggle at times,” Wolfkill said, referring to 343 and Showtime coming to terms on contracts, as well as key talent dropping out.

When the Halo TV show is finally released, no matter how it’s received, Wolfkill said she and her team will be proud about going about it in the right way. She also believes no matter what the Halo TV show will have moved the medium forward in some way.

For his part, Price chimed in to say part of the reason many video game movies and TV shows have been mediocre or worse is because people from gaming assume they know how to make a good TV show or movie.

The entire podcast is incredibly fascinating, and you should listen to it here.

The Halo TV show is now being directed by Otto Bathurst, who directed the shocking Black Mirror series premiere.

The show is scheduled to begin production later in 2019, and Showtime has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of Halo for its first season.

As for the Halo series, Halo Infinite is reportedly set for a big showing at E3 2019 this month. Additionally, Halo: Reach and the entire Master Chief Collection is coming to PC.

Showtime and GameSpot are subsidiaries of CBS Corp.

The Netflix drama Dead to Me starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini is coming back for a second season. The dark comedy/drama’s second season is on the way but the network did not announce a premiere date or any other details about Season 2 apart from that it will continue the storylines of Jen (Applegate) and Judy (Cardellini).

The show was created by Liz Feldman, and she’s returning as well to continue to be its showrunner and executive producer.

Dead to Me Season 1 premiered on May 3, so the renewal order came after just one month.

Dead to Me is produced by GameSpot parent company CBS Corp.’s CBS Television division. Gary Sanchez Productions and Gloria Sanchez Productions are executive producing with Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Christie Smith.