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NBC’s Manifest: Series Premiere Review

This is a spoiler-free review of the series premiere of NBC’s Manifest.

NBC’s new fall drama Manifest has been drawing comparisons to ABC’s Lost ever since the concept was announced; the show revolves around a plane full of missing people, and recurring numbers of great significance, with its slow-burn mystery set to unfold over the course of multiple seasons (if it lasts that long – always a crapshoot in today’s TV landscape).

Seemingly trying to combine the high-concept procedural elements of NBC’s recent hits Blindspot and The Blacklist with the familial drama of This Is Us, Manifest feels similar to a lot of other shows without quite nailing its own identity, at least in the series premiere.

Stranger Things Game Telltale Worked On Could Move To A New Partner

When Telltale Games announced a “majority studio closure” last week, it meant that the studio’s upcoming games–including its title based on Netflix’s big hit Stranger Things–were left in question. It looks like the Stranger Things game may live on with another developer.

In a statement to Polygon, Netflix said it is “in the process of evaluating other options for bringing the Stranger Things universe to life in an interactive medium.”

That’s all that Netflix had to say on the matter, though the company added that it was “saddened” over the news of Telltale’s majority closure. “They developed many great games in the past and left an indelible mark in the industry,” Netflix said.

Some purported footage of Telltale’s Stranger Things game emerged online recently. The leaked footage shows off main character Will and a particularly spooky encounter with the Demogorgon. You can watch the footage here on PCGamesN.

Netflix is also working on bringing Minecraft: Story Mode to Netflix, and those plans are “still moving forward as planned” amid the sad and shocking news about Telltale.

In other news about Telltale, the company announced today that it has found multiple potential partners that it may work with to complete and release the remaining episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season.

Telltale’s “majority studio closure” was announced on Friday, and it resulted in 225 of the studio’s 250 people losing their jobs. The employees reportedly received no severance pay.

Magnum P.I. Series Premiere Review

Warning: Spoilers for the Magnum P.I. Series Premiere follow…

The original long-running Magnum P.I. series, which ran from ’80 to ’88, is known for a handful of things. First and foremost, it transformed Tom Selleck into a bonafide TV star (which he was even able to parlay into a few headlining movie roles) and, aside from the unique Hawaiian backdrop, it was Selleck’s charm that kept viewers coming back for weekly capers. Add to the mix John Hillerman’s Higgins – Thomas Magnum’s snooty, feisty foil – and the series was able to cruise comfortably as a breezy “case of the week” procedural for many years.

Decades later, CBS still builds shows using the same blueprint that TV adopted back in “the day.” Drawing in an older demographic for its stable, stalwart lineup of “murder’s the real star” mysteries, the network uses a time-honored regimented recipe for casual, lightly serialized (though mostly not) crook-buster shows, using tried and true tropes and cliches to present viewers with purposefully unchallenging storytelling.

Game Of Thrones Sets Are Becoming Tourist Attractions

Game of Thrones, the acclaimed HBO fantasy show, has some of the most impressive sets on TV, and eventually you’ll be able to visit them in person.

Entertainment Weekly reports that “several” famous sets in Northern Ireland are being turned into tourist attractions, including Winterfell and Castle Black.

HBO is calling them “Game of Thrones Legacy attractions.” You’ll be able to explore each location on foot and also look at exhibit displays of things like costumes, props, weapons, and other productional materials from the show.

Additionally, the sites will feature “state-of-the-art digital content and interactive materials” that highlight some of the TV magic that HBO used to bring Game of Thrones to life.

As EW points out, sets for TV shows and movies are often torn down or shut after shooting finishes. But Game of Thrones has been a major boon for tourism in Northern Ireland, and this new deal will surely help even more (and boost HBO’s bottom line further).

Some of the planned locations include the sets for Winterfell, Castle Black, and King’s Landing. There are also plans to offer a tour of Linen Mill Studios in Northern Ireland.

There is no word yet as to when the Game of Thrones sets will open for visitors or what it cost to visit them.

This won’t be the first time a major fantasy production’s set will be turned into a tourist spot. The Hobbiton movie set from The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand is open to tourists to see the Hobbit holes and drink beer at the Green Dragon Inn.

Game of Thrones returns for its eighth and final season in 2019. Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, says this season will be bigger than ever, to provide a fitting end to the series. It won’t be our last visit to Westeros though, as HBO is already producing a spin-off series.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 Launch Trailer Shows Battle Royale, Multiplayer, And Zombies

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches very soon, and with its release coming up so soon, it’s time for the launch trailer. Activision released the Black Ops 4 launch trailer today, and it’s packed with action from across the game’s three main modes: multiplayer, Zombies, and battle royale. In a major shakeup for the series, there is no traditional campaign this year.

The slick launch trailer shows off more footage of the battle royale mode, Blackout, and its massive map. Attention is also paid to the traditional multiplayer mode, which offers up a number of new weapons and gadgets this year. And as for Zombies, it looks like Black Ops 4 is taking players to a coliseum where they’ll fight against zombie animals.

In other Black Ops 4 news, Activision has confirmed that the game’s DLC exclusivity window for PlayStation 4 is only a week compared to one month for the previous games.

Black Ops 4 launches on October 12 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For lots more on Black Ops 4, check out all of GameSpot’s written and video coverage here.

Dragon Quest XI Will Have to Sell Well in the West for Future Installments to be Localized

In Japan, Dragon Quest is a franchise like no other. When a new main entry in the series is released, it is a guarantee that millions of copies sell on the first day, as even people who don’t play video games play Dragon Quest. The phenomenon of Dragon Quest in Japan is a legend that even many Western gamers are familiar with, and that legend continues to live on to this day with last year’s Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age.

Dragon Quest XI finally saw a release on PS4 and Steam in North America and Europe this month. But if Western fans want to enjoy future iterations as well, the game needs to sell.

“We need Dragon Quest to sell in the West, even just a certain amount, if we want to keep making

Telltale ‘Actively Working’ to Find a Way to Finish The Walking Dead’s Final Season

The soon-to-be-shuttered Telltale Games has shared an update on the fate of The Walking Dead’s final season, promising that it is ‘actively working’ to find a way to finish the story.

In a tweet, Telltale said that there are “multiple potential partners” expressing interest in seeing The Final Season through to completion, “in some form.” The studio said it hoped to have answers for other questions soon.

Telltale’s Walking Dead Might End Early, But At Least One Dev Still Wants You To Play Episode 2

Last week, news broke that Telltale Games, the developer of The Walking Dead and several other episodic adventure games based on popular licenses, was undergoing a “majority studio closure,” laying off all but 25 of its employees and leaving the fate of its current projects up in the air. It was an unexpected announcement, particularly given that it came just before the release of The Walking Dead: The Final Season‘s second episode, but at least one former developer would still like players to enjoy it.

In a post on Reddit, Michael Kirkbride, the former season lead designer on The Walking Dead: The Final Season, shared his thoughts on the situation and encouraged players to play through the upcoming episode. “In a couple of days the second episode of WD4 drops and I just wanted to make sure to let you know it’s something pretty special. AJ, Clem, Vi, Louis, and all the rest move forward in interesting and unexpected directions, so I hope everyone plays it despite how absof***ingborked the rest of this situation is,” Kirkbride wrote.

“And I’d like to clarify that none of us that poured everything we had into this episode (and what would’ve been the follow ups) had any idea this would happen. We were just excited to give you all the best ending to Clementine’s journey that we could. Maybe a bit of understanding on that end will encourage you to at least give the episode a play, even if it’ll be uniquely placed in the tragic history of Telltale’s efforts.

“We know it’s weird, we know it sucks, we know it’s sad in ways that’s almost impossible to articulate, and we know it’s awful that we can’t tell you what would’ve happened after, but the episode is also just goddamn good, and the best feeling we could have right now is to know it’s being played.”

Telltale had four episodes planned for The Walking Dead: The Final Season, along with a number of other projects in the works, such as a second season of The Wolf Among Us and a game based on the Stranger Things series. With the vast majority of the studio laid off, however, it’s unclear just what the fate of these projects will be. Telltale has only said that it will “issue further comments regarding its product portfolio in the coming weeks,” although in a letter to fans, Clementine’s voice actress says no more episodes of The Walking Dead will be released.

Call of Duty: Blackout is Exactly What You’d Expect Of a AAA Battle Royale

I love Call of Duty: Blackout for the same reason that I loved PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds when it first released in early access. Blackout gets straight to my favorite part of Battle Royales – using what I’ve found for an all or nothing skirmish with an equally desperate opponent – with the least amount of B.S. in the way. The combination of smooth, intuitive FPS gameplay, creative but remarkably practical pickups, and the lowest barrier for entry in a Battle Royale yet leave little doubt in my mind that Blackout will be on the tip of everyone’s tongue come October. My experience wasn’t completely devoid of issues, and I have my concerns of whether Call of Duty’s annualized release cadence can facilitate the frequency and longevity of post-launch support that I expect of the genre. But I’d be lying if I said that my time with Blackout was anything other than the best Battle Royale experience I’ve ever had.

Rising Anime Studios and Directors to Keep Your Eye On

You may have heard of a little animation studio called Studio Ghibli and maybe even the studio responsible for adapting My Hero Academia, Bones, but have you heard of Orange? Or how about director Naoko Yamada? Whether you’re a seasoned anime fan or just getting started, here are a few lesser-known studios and fantastic creators in the anime industry that have a lot of potential to do even more great things in the future.

In this article, we purposefully left out creators like Makoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda, and studios like Trigger, P.A. Works, and Madhouse because of their already established and rather well-known critical acclaim.

Orange