Month: January 2020

Epic Games Working on Fix for Player Loss of Star Wars Achievements in Fortnite

If you’re a regular Fortnite player, then you likely participated in the Fortnite Star Wars event in December. Now that the event has come to a close, it seems that players are reporting missing achievements earned from the event.

In a Reddit post to r/FortniteBR, Redditor Romulousvoid shared an image revealing that all of their achievements from the Fortnite Star Wars event were gone. The post quickly picked up comments from other players with the same issues, and eventually an Epic employee commented on the thread stating they were aware of the problem and were working on a fix.

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The UK Now Has Classic Video Game Postage Stamps

A new series of postage stamps featuring images from games such as Tomb Raider and Elite have been released in the UK in order to celebrate British-developed video games.

The series is comprised of 12 stamps, with each showing off a key UK-designed game from the 1980s and 90s. Elite, Dizzy, Populous, Lemmings, Micro Machines, Sensible Soccer, Wipeout, and Worms all feature in the collection.

4 of the 12 stamps are dedicated to Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, who was created by English studio Core Design in the 1990s. These 4 stamps feature Lara’s visual evolution over 1996’s Tomb Raider, 1998’s Adventures of Lara Croft, 2000’s Tomb Raider Chronicles, and 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot.

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Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Reportedly Casts Game of Thrones Actor as New Lead

Robert Aramayo – best known as Young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones – has reportedly been cast in a leading role for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series.

Deadline reports that Aramayo will play a young hero, Beldor, replacing Will Poulter (Black Mirror), who apparently left the project after scheduling difficulties.

It’s perhaps not a surprising choice, given the creative team for the series includes alumni from Game of Thrones (as well as the likes of Hannibal, Toy Story 4, Star Wars and more).

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Peacock Is Getting A New Original Show About A Real-Life Murderous Doctor

The upcoming Dr. Death series has found a home on the upcoming streaming service Peacock, as revealed in an interview with one of the stars of the show, Alec Baldwin.

During Tuesday morning’s episode of the Howard Stern Show, Baldwin briefly discussed the previously-greenlit series. It was revealed the show would be landing on NBC’s upcoming streaming service Peacock, which launches this April.

The story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch garnered national attention in 2018 with the Dr. Death podcast, hosted by Laura Beil–who will produce the new show. The series explored the life of Christopher Duntsch, a doctor who was nicknamed Dr. Death for the death of one patient and maiming of 33 others during his time when he was a practicing surgeon beginning in 2010.

Baldwin is one of the stars of the series, playing spinal surgeon Dr. Robert Henderson, who worked with Duntsch. Dr. Death himself will be played by Jamie Dornan, who is mostly known for his work in the Fifty Shades movies playing Christian Gray.

At this time, there is no release date for the upcoming series, and according to Baldwin, he’s not allowed to say much about the show. Peacock has a few other series coming soon, including a Saved By The Bell revival, a Battlestar Galactica reboot, and possibly more from the world of The Office.

Peacock combines the properties of NBC, USA Network, Universal Pictures, Dreamworks, Telemundo, and more, so there will be a wide collection of TV shows, movies, and original content.

Avatar Sequel’s Spectacular First Concept Art Revealed

The sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi blockbuster Avatar has been in development for many years, and it’s still nearly two years until it hits theaters. But while we’re unlikely to see any footage the movie for some time, the first concept art has been released.

The images were revealed by Cameron at the tech trade show CES in Las Vegas. They are views of the planet Pandora, with a focus on the its oceans. While specific plot details about the movie are under-wraps, we know that it will set in and around the sea, and there’s no denying that this artwork is spectacular. Check the images out below, via the franchise’s official Twitter feed:

Cameron was also at CES to announce a partnership with Mercedes-Benz and revealed the prototype for a very weird and futuristic-looking electric car, inspired by Avatar’s visual style.

The Avatar sequel hits theaters on December 17, 2021. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang will reprise their roles from the first movie, and will be joined by Kate Winslet, Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, and Jemaine Clement. Production on the live-action parts of the movie wrapped in November.

There are also another three Avatar movies scheduled for 2023, 2025, and 2027 releases. However, Cameron has previously stated that the latter two films depend on the box office performance of the first sequel. The first Avatar held the record for the biggest movie of all time for nearly a decade, before it was finally beaten by Avengers: Endgame last year.

In related news, the Avatar Twitter account recently confirmed that Ubisoft’s new open-world Avatar game, which is being developed by The Division studio Massive, is still in the works. Ubisoft has been quiet on the project for a long time, so some wondered if plans were scrapped. The game was announced in 2017 and is currently known only as The Avatar Project.

These Perfect Cuphead Mugs Are 50% Off

Which video game character is most suited to having their face on a mug? The answer, of course, is Cuphead and his brother Mugman. Both of them literally have mugs for heads. As part of Barnes and Noble’s post-holiday sale, you can pick up the brothers in drinking mug form for 50% off, dropping the price of the two-pack from $34.95 to $17.47.

Cuphead and Mugman mugsCuphead and Mugman mugs

Cuphead and Mugman mugs | $17.47 ($34.95)

Along with their smiling faces, each mug comes with an oversized molded stirrer matching the straws that come out of their heads in the StudioMDHR game. If you’re a Cuphead fan, these will be perfect for your morning coffee. This is an excellent deal, as each mug costs around $20 at Amazon and other major retailers.

The Cuphead franchise figures to have a big 2020. The run-and-gun platformer’s DLC, The Delicious Last Course, is set to launch sometime this year. An art book showing off concept art and frame-by-frame animation will release March 17. The Art of Cuphead is available to pre-order now, and the limited edition is quite stunning.

StudioMDHR’s breakout 2017 hit will also move beyond video games. Volume one of a new Cuphead graphic novel series, subtitled Comic Capers & Curios, is slated to release June 30. A separate middle grade series will begin on March 3 with Cuphead in Carnival Chaos. There’s also the Netflix cartoon adaptation to look forward to, though a release window for the show has not been announced.

Now Playing: Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course DLC Teaser Trailer

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Xbox Game Pass Adds Four More Games Across Xbox One And PC

Microsoft has announced another slate of Xbox Game Pass games coming to the PC and console versions of the service through mid-January. The lineup includes two more Xbox One games, one PC game, and one cross-platform. As usual, Game Pass Ultimate members get access to both libraries.

On console, subscribers can get Frostpunk and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet on January 9, and then Tekken 7 on January 16. Frostpunk is also listed as “coming soon” to PC, possibly on the same date. Game Pass for PC subscribers will also get FTL: Faster Than Light.

Microsoft notes these are on top of the recent surprise-release of GTA 5 on Game Pass for Xbox One. That will let you jump into the campaign or play the popular GTA Online mode, which recently got a big update in the form of the Diamond Casino Heist. The subscription also entitles you to some discounts on in-game DLC.

Game Pass operates as two separate subscription services, one for Xbox One and another for PC, each with their own separate libraries. You can access both with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which also includes Xbox Live Gold.

Xbox Game Pass – January

  • Frostpunk (PC/Xbox One)
  • Sword Art: Fatal Bullet (Xbox One)
  • Tekken 7 (Xbox One)
  • FTL: Faster Than Light (PC)

Now Playing: Grand Theft Auto V Comes To Xbox Game Pass | GameSpot Live

Pokemon Nintendo Direct Stream Announced For This Week

Nintendo has announced a Pokemon-focused Direct presentation for this week. The broadcast will air on Thursday, January 9, at 6:30 AM PT / 9:30 AM ET and will cover “roughly 20 minutes of new Pokemon information.”

Nintendo will stream the Pokemon Direct on its website, YouTube, and Twitch channels. As for what will be discussed during the broadcast, the official Pokemon Twitter account teases there will be “some exciting updates coming to the world of Pokemon this year.”

Now that Pokemon Sword and Shield are out, it’s hard to predict just what this week’s Direct will cover. We already know that Pokemon Home, a new Pokemon Bank-like cloud service for Nintendo Switch and smartphones, is slated to launch sometime in “early 2020,” so we may finally get more details on that during the presentation.

We also know there’s a new Detective Pikachu game for Switch on the way. The Pokemon Company announced the title last June during a press conference ahead of E3, although it shared no other details about it at the time. There’s also the mysterious Pokemon Sleep, a new app that will launch this year and “turn sleep into entertainment.”

As for Pokemon Sword and Shield, the games’ current batch of Max Raid events ends on January 9, which means it’ll be much harder to find Gigantamax Snorlax, Butterfree, and a few other Pokemon after that date. Time is also running out to claim some of the games’ freebies, including Gigantamax Meowth, which will only be available until January 15. You can see all the freebies available in Sword and Shield right now and how to get them in our roundup.

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Rick And Morty Creator Justin Roiland Is Working On A New Series Called Gloop World

Justin Roiland, who co-created Rick and Morty with Dan Harmon, is working on a new series for an upcoming streaming platform. Coming Soon is reporting that Justin Roiland is creating a new series for Quibi, and it’ll be called Gloop World. The show comes from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, and will be directed by John Harvatine IV (an executive producer on Robot Chicken.)

Gloop World is a claymation project that follows Bob Roundy and Funzy, who are blob roommates living in the titular world. Roiland says that the project has been “a dream of (his) for almost seven years,” and that he’s excited to make clay animation with “an imperfect approach, where you can see the animators in the world.”

Quibi is designed for short form content that will be watched mostly on mobile devices. It’s a start-up based in Hollywood, and will also feature a horror series written by Steven Spielberg (Spielberg After Dark,) a reality courtroom show starring Chrissy Teigen (Chrissy’s Court,) and a revival of Reno 911. The name is short for “quick bites.”

The second half of Rick and Morty season 4 is expected to air during 2020.

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