Developer Retro Studios tweeted a job listing today looking for an Art Director for Metroid Prime 4.
The listing describes the position as a key role in the game’s development, saying the Art Director will “lead the collaborative development of Metroid Prime 4’s artistic direction.”
Source: @RetroStudios
Overwatch is kicking off another limited-time event, this time centering around the latest addition to the roster, Baptiste. You can earn some special cosmetics including a new Epic skin for Baptiste, and the event goes hand-in-hand with a short story featuring the character.
From June 18 through July 1, notch wins in Quick Play, Competitive, or Arcade to win the new cosmetic items. Three wins will grant you a player icon, six will give you two new sprays, and nine will give you the Battle Medic Baptiste skin. You can also earn extra sprays by watching up to six hours of participating Overwatch streamers on Twitch.
The update kicking off the Baptiste event also introduces the new Replays feature. This will let you watch previous matches with flexible controls over aspects like camera and playback speed. You can check out the official site for more info including keyboard shortcuts.
Baptiste was added to the game in March, and he marked the game’s 30th Hero. Overwatch has had more frequent, smaller events recently in addition to its big holiday-themed ones, including dabbling with free-to-play and introducing a new Workshop feature.
As June gives way to July, the spring anime season transitions into summer. Once again, we’re compiling a full list of every series and movie that’s making its debut this season–specifically in US theaters or on Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hidive, Prime Video, Netflix, or Hulu. Below, we’ve listed every new show that’s currently been announced for this summer and outlined where you can watch them. We’ll continue to update said list as more titles get revealed.
To keep things manageable, we’re not including anime that are continuing their season from spring, such as Fruits Basket and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Which isn’t to say you should stop watching those anime–we didn’t include series like those two on our best anime of Spring 2019 guide for no reason. But they’ve had their moment. This article is designed to highlight what’s new.
Summer usually sees a rather bizarre assortment of genres and storylines when it comes to anime, as a realization sets in that a lot of viewers aren’t staying indoors and watching a bunch of new shows. They’re out and about on vacation (or attending some of the dozens of anime conventions that occur every summer), making it more difficult to stay on top of multiple series. To gain popularity in the summer, a show needs to stand out. As a result, you usually get some very experimental (but very fun) stuff between July and September. This year looks to be no different. We’re waiting for a few more shows to be officially announced before publishing our recommendations, so stay tuned for our in-depth thoughts.
Are You Lost? — Crunchyroll
Four high school girls find themselves stranded on a deserted island and, save for one who’s been lost in a hopeless situation like this before, none of them know standard survival skills. Whether it’s scavenging for food or battling sharks, they’ll have to learn as they go.
Dr. Stone — Crunchyroll, Funimation
3000 years after every person is turned to stone, best friends Taiju and Senku finally free themselves and use science to free the physically fit Tsukasa and kindhearted Yuzuriha. Though Tsukasa does initially protect the others, he ultimately reveals he wants to abuse this opportunity to smash and kill all adults. As more people are freed, a Lord of the Flies rivalry develops between the Kingdom of Science and Empire of Might.
Fire Force — Crunchyroll, Funimation
From the mind that brought you Soul Eater, Fire Force follows a young man who can ignite his feet. He joins a unique fire fighting unit that specializes in killing people who are dangerously close to spontaneously combusting.
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Fire Force – Official Trailer
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Kengan Ashura — Netflix
Tokita “Ashura” Ohma is a gladiator in an underground tournament ring overseen by the wealthy Japanese elite. His sheer will and overwhelming strength capture the attention of one very ambitious CEO, and Ashura’s life is never the same.
Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya — Netflix
A new anime adaption of the 1980s manga premieres this summer, retelling the origin of Seiya and his fellow Knights. Each one is sworn to protect the reincarnated goddess Athena, and they’ll have to take on the other Greek gods to ensure no harm befalls her.
Hakata Mentai! Pirikaraki-Chan — Crunchyroll
This adorable anime follows the lives of several food fairies, all of which live in a shopping district. One such fairy, Pirikarako-chan, is responsible for all the others, doing all she can every day to make sure everyone is okay.
[None announced so far.]
Hensuki: Are You Willing To Fall In Love With A Pervert, As Long As She’s A Cutie? — Funimation
After finding an unsigned love letter addressed to him, Keiki’s only clue to his admirer’s identity is the pair of panties found next to the note. In a bizarre twist on the Cinderella story, Keiki must find his true love–the one person who perfectly fits the lost underwear.
Magical Sempai — Crunchyroll
After joining his school’s magicians club, one boy realizes the president is terrible at magic. She suffers from stage fright and is incredibly clumsy. That won’t stop her from striving towards being the next world-class magician, though.
[None announced so far.]
How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? — Funimation
After growing worried that she’s eating too much junk food, Hibiki decides to hit the gym to lose weight. Initially intimidated by all the bodybuilders, Hibiki receives support from a personal trainer and several workout buddies and decides to train at her own pace.
The Ones Within — Funimation
Akatsuki is a popular “Let’s Play” livestreamer who winds up trapped in a popular MMORPG with seven other YouTubers and streamers. Now, the eight must compete for views or suffer deadly consequences.
To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts — Crunchyroll
A country’s civil war leads to the creation of mutant soldiers that can transform into monstrous Beasts. Years later, a woman travels in search of the truth behind her father, who never returned from a mission to hunt and kill his former Beast comrades.
IDW Publishing is relaunching its flagship G.I. Joe comic in September. Their newest G.I. Joe comic will introduce a dark new status quo where Cobra is apparently in charge of the government and heroes like Duke and Scarlett are fugitives from the law.
This new volume of G.I. Joe will be written by Paul Allor (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe) and drawn by Chris Evenhuis (Monstro Mechanica). Evenhuis, Dustin Weaver and Eleanora Carlini will provide variant covers for the series.
G.I. Joe #1 cover by Chris Evenhuis. (Image Credit: IDW Publishing)
The Child’s Play reboot movie filmed in late 2018, though at that point, nobody was signed on to give a voice to the maniacal Chucky doll. Instead, it was revealed at WonderCon in March that Star Wars and Batman: The Animated Series alum Mark Hamill was taking on the role.
It presented an intriguing situation for both Hamill and director Lars Klevberg, as the physical embodiment of Chucky and the way he moves and acts was already set in stone. Still, as Klevberg told GameSpot during a recent interview, the iconic actor was able to help shape the character in ways even he didn’t expect.
“I think that I had a clear idea of what I would like to have on this. But I said to [Mark], ‘I want to be open,’ and so we together we could find the perfect spot of creating this character,” the director explained. “And he was just amazing; it’s just super professional. But what had struck me the most is–I knew he could deliver all of that. It’s not like you’re hiring Mark Hamill and, ‘Oh, can he deliver?’ Like, you knew that immediately. But the way he was feeling and presenting these small bits, like the nuance in between takes. I can give him a line, and he presents three lines… It’s words, beats, like milliseconds that he waited, so it was just, he’s just amazing. And voice acting is difficult because you just have your voice. it’s just internal; you’re putting it on a piece of canvas like a painting.”
That nuance helped to establish Hamill’s view of the character, whose origin story is much different from the original film. While the 1988 Child’s Play saw a Chucky doll being possessed by the soul of a serial killer, the reboot instead presents Chucky as a smart toy with malfunctioning artificial intelligence.
Instead of being murderous right out of the gate, Hamill explained in a press conference for the film that this new Chucky “was really like an innocent child, just learning from what goes on around him.” And in that, he was determined to protect his best friend Andy (Gabriel Bateman).
“For this movie, you understand Chucky’s motivation, you understand he is going to be Andy’s best friend, he’s going to protect Andy and going to be his friend until the end,” Klevberg said. “But he’s self-aware. And self-aware entities, [the] first question is, ‘What is my purpose in life? What am I here?’ And that’s cool with this one because Chucky kind of figures out, ‘Okay, I have to be Andy’s best friend and I’m going to protect him from whatever makes him sad,’ but he doesn’t have his experience, or skill set, or analytical gifts to understand what that means.”
What that leaves the movie with is a thinking toy that reasons the only way to protect the child it has imprinted on is by killing and maiming anything it perceives as a threat. Of course, if you’ve seen a trailer for the new Child’s Play movie, everything and everyone is a threat Chucky needs to take care of. What else would you expect from a friend until the end?
Child’s Play is in theaters on June 21.
All of the shows mentioned on our list had to premiere in 2019.
2019 is another big year for television, with more scripted series in development than ever before. Back in 2018, FX Boss John Landgraf predicted that too much TV will eventually lead to an industry “hangover.” But as of this moment, Landgraf’s prophecy has yet to come true, with HBO’s Game of Thrones amassing a record-breaking 19.3 million viewers across all of its platforms during the Season 8 finale, “The Iron Throne.” For now, TV’s entertainment power is here to stay.
They say the demons come out at night, and so does Miriam the demon slayer. Famed auteur Koji Igarashi’s spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, is out now–but you might not have realized it after some delays and the recent E3 hubbub.
Ritual of the Night recently underwent a huge graphics overhaul and made a brief appearance at E3 2019, but the buzz surrounding the game has been relatively quiet. Very few reviews have been published so far, with our own coming soon.
Iga released an announcement trailer, below, declaring Ritual of the Night will receive 13 pieces of DLC for free post-launch. The trailer goes through a variety of the game’s mechanics, including accessorizing, crafting, fighting, and posing. Zangetsu, the katana-wielding protagonist of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, is one of three playable characters. The retro-style spin-off Curse of the Moon launched in 2018 as one of the original Kickstarter’s stretch goals. Yacht Club’s Shovel Knight will also make an appearance and may be another of the three playable characters, based on what’s seen in the launch trailer.
In a feature following a PAX East demo, we said the game is close to but not quite Castlevania. “On the whole, though, the classic sensation of quick, piston-tight platforming and combat has made the transition [to 3D]. Miriam’s variety of weapons feel alternately light and swift or heavy and thumping. The level design pitched a good balance of graceful platforming, tough combat, and occasionally a blend of both.”
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The Nintendo Switch version will launch next week on Tuesday, June 25.
Apex Legends has been teasing something big coming to the game, and now it appears to have arrived. Players have reported hearing and seeing dragons roaming about the map, potentially laying the groundwork for a world event to come with Season 2.
The flying beasts can be spotted in the game or on screens posted to the Apex Legends subreddit. The community has taken to calling them “Flyers” and if you bring one down you can get some loot. In a potentially related development, the Leviathan that wanders in the waters outside the map has moved significantly as well.
The trailer for Season 2 that debuted at EA Play, just before E3 2019, showed a giant lizard-like eyeball as a teaser at the very end. These creatures are significantly smaller than the one that implied, so they could be harbingers of some larger event to come.
Apex Legends’ battle royale competition Fortnite has become known for big world-changing events that accompany each season, and so far Apex hasn’t followed suit. Respawn has suggested that it is comfortable with a slower pace for its content drops so as to not burn out the team, but that was as compared to weekly and monthly updates. A new season could still bring big changes, so we’ll have to see if a giant dragon is among them.
Now that the frenzy of E3 2019 is over, all those great game deals are no longer available, but while the big Xbox One game and console sale has ended, the Xbox Store is back on its regular schedule of offering new weekly game deals. The newest batch of Xbox One deals is available now, including a Sonic anniversary sale, discounted indie games, $10 off Xbox wireless controllers, and more.
The spotlight is on everyone’s favorite speedy hedgehog this week, as Sonic the Hedgehog debuted on the Sega Genesis in North America 28 years ago this month. To celebrate, Sonic’s recent games on the Xbox One are marked down along with a collection of Xbox 360 games, many of which are backward-compatible with Xbox One. For the next week, you can get the newly released competitive racer Team Sonic Racing for $30, the gorgeous, retro-style Sonic Mania for $12, and 3D platformer Sonic Forces for $15. If you feel like taking a trip down memory lane, you can also save on classics like Sonic Adventure 2 for $5 and the original Sonic the Hedgehog for $2.49, both of which can be played on Xbox One.
The Xbox Store is also highlighting discounts on games from independent developers, who can self-publish digital games on Xbox One and PC with the ID@Xbox program. Some of the best indie games to grab on sale this week include My Time At Portia for $24, The Witness for $20, Observer for $9, and The Gardens Between for $12.
Plus, if you’re in the market for a new Xbox wireless controller, this is a good week to pick one up, as many styles are marked down by $10 in the Xbox Store (excluding, sadly, the new Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2). Both the Phantom White and Phantom Black special edition controllers are down to $60, and some older styles, like the pink Minecraft pig design and Armed Forces II special edition, are discounted to $55. However, consider checking Amazon first, where some wireless controllers are as cheap as $45 this week.
Check out the full offering of deals at the Xbox Store and more of our picks below!
Xbox One
Xbox 360
Sony’s annual Days of Play sale, which ran during E3 2019 with steep discounts on games and consoles, is finally over. But a new week means new deals, and luckily, the PlayStation Store has some eye-catching bargains available now.
Most notably, quite a few Persona games and DLC are currently scattered throughout the PSN deals section, including Persona 5, which is on sale for $16 (and only $14 if you have PS Plus). With well over 100 hours of content, this is a phenomenal deal on one of the console’s best games. If you already own Persona 5, there’s also a DLC bundle on sale with added Personas, which each bring unique battle skills to your team. That bundle is available for $14 ($12 with PS Plus). You can also get Persona 4 Golden on Vita for only $12 ($10 with PS Plus) and the Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection for $70 ($60 with PS Plus).
With Shenmue III scheduled to release this August, fans of the classic, open-world adventure series might be interested in grabbing Shenmue I & II at a discount. You can get the bundle together for only $21 ($18 with PS Plus). Monster Hunter World is also still on sale for $20, and with the Iceborne expansion beta launching this weekend for PS Plus members, there’s no better time to pick up the base game.
See all the weekly game deals in the PlayStation Store, and check out more of our picks below!