biteho.com

A new Duke Nukem movie starring John Cena in the lead role is on the way, and now we’ve learned more about it. Producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller discussed the upcoming film in an interview with CinemaBlend. The Nukem character is brash, outspoken, and sexist.

Form admitted that it has been a struggle to come up with ideas for how to make the Duke Nukem movie “a really fun ride” despite the title character’s tone.

“You know that having a misogynistic guy in today’s world, how do you make that fun and loveable?” he said. “And at the same time he’s got to be an incredible badass, so those are the things that we’re struggling with and we’re going to try and come out with what I hope is a really fun ride. That’s the goal, is for it to be a really fun ride.”

Form went on to say that they won’t make the movie if the tone is off. He cited Deadpool as an example of a film with a brash leading character that got it right.

“How do you nail that tone in the way that Deadpool nailed the tone?” he said. “I think we have to do that and if we don’t get the tone right then we’re not going to make the movie.”

It is still early days for the Duke Nukem movie. There is no script yet, Form confirmed. And it sounds like Cena is not 100 percent locked in for the role yet. “If he reads the script and he doesn’t like the script I’m sure there’s ways that he could pull out, but right now he’s our guy,” Form said.

You can read the full interview and story here at CinemaBlend.

The Duke Nukem video game series has been dormant since 2011’s critically panned but million-selling Duke Nukem Forever. Gearbox Software, which owns the rights to the Duke Nukem series, confirmed in 2015 that it had done some concept work on a all new, “head-turning” Duke Nukem game. However, Gearbox might not make the new game.

Wes Anderson’s talent for creating whimsical film worlds is unique–no one is better than him at building intricate, candy-coated dioramas masquerading as movie sets and plots. Where many directors strive to make movies that seem as realistic as possible, Anderson bends reality until it drips in slow motion with deep cut ’70s alt rock b-sides and non-sequitur one-liners that get right to the heart. Isle of Dogs is one of his most Anderson-y films yet, but somehow, it’s also more focused, driven, and pared down than anything the director has done before.

Wes Anderson movies rub some people the wrong way. Everything’s too cute, and the dialogue often sounds unlike how people actually talk. When Bill Murray’s Steve Zissou spends several minutes giving the viewer a tour of his boat in 2004’s The Life Aquatic–on an incredibly intricate set of a full-sized boat split lengthwise in half–it can feel overly self-referential. Are these characters aware they’re in a movie? Does this advance the plot, or is it no more than showboating?

I get the complaints. But to me, Wes Anderson movies are great because of all that–the feeling that it’s all make believe, that these characters are play-acting, grandstanding, aware of their own limited existences and determined to make the most of the scant time for which they have our attention. They’re all so deeply flawed, in high contrast with these otherwise perfect movies, where the musical, thematic, and visual cues all swirl together deftly at each emotional climax. (Take a minute to read about the sheer amount of work that went into building Isle of Dogs‘ world, and you’ll understand.)

There’s usually a lot going on in a Wes Anderson movie, but that’s where Isle of Dogs differs. What B-plots briefly flit into existence are quickly folded back into the main storyline: a boy looking for his dog on Trash Island.

Unsurprisingly, Isle of Dogs boasts an impressive cast, including Edward Norton, Billy Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, and Yoko Ono. But there are two who really matter: Bryan Cranston, who voices the rough (ruff), intimidating stray dog Chief, and Koyu Rankin, the boy Atari. They’re the main characters, and everyone else exists in service to their story and their character development. That’s not a bad thing; it’s just unusual for a Wes Anderson movie.

This is Anderson’s second stop motion animation film, after 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. That alone sets it somewhat apart from the rest of his movies. But in Isle of Dogs he also foregoes some of the stylistic quirks he usually relies so heavily on, from the frequently deployed slow-mo (check out the excellent supercut below) to the normally Kinks/David Bowie/Rolling Stones heavy soundtracks.

The dominating audio in Dogs is the sound of Japanese Taiko drums and the musical score that composer Alexandre Desplat built around them (no matter what the official soundtrack might have you believe). The movie opens and ends on stop-motion musicians beating these drums with impressively intricate animation–another signature Anderson diorama set piece, complete with diegetic sound, but one that drives the movie forward rather than providing interlude or distraction.

That’s how Isle of Dogs moves: It charges forward toward its conclusion like a dog chasing a ball, and when it gets there you might experience emotional whiplash. The climax comes and goes before you can fully process it, and it’s all denouement from there. At just over 100 minutes, Isle of Dogs could have used a little more time spent on some of its side characters and subplots, and a little more at the end. But there’s a silver lining there: Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson’s most focused film ever, and you’ll want to go through it again.

World of Tanks latest update isn’t trying to reset the long-running MMO, but it is a numerical refresh. Update 1.0 is live now on PC, and it introduces a big graphical update for the game as well as a re-imagining of the game’s music. But to get a better feel for what World of Tanks is up to, and what the developer has in store for the future, we talked with Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi at GDC this year.

According to Kislyi, the team has shifted from a “now obsolete visual engine” to an in-house project called Core that the developer’s engineers have been working on for over two and a half years. “Up until now, we’ve had give or take 70 updates,” Kislyi says. “Of course, there are some bug fixes. But this is new content, new tanks; 500-550 different tanks from something like nine nations. Maps, now we have more than 40. 40 maps, two or three square kilometers each…that’s something like 100 square kilometers of juicy stuff. This was all in-game, and you have a level of detail almost like in Avatar.”

The core game experience isn’t changing, according to Kislyi, it’s just getting better. “This is our message to the players. At the end of the day, it’s all about them. We’re a private company, so we don’t have share price or quarterly reports. If you stopped playing World of Tanks one year ago, two years ago, it means you’ve missed like 10 or 15 updates. This one, the king of all updates, is a good reason to go and update the game, and see what hundreds of working people have been doing for the last year, or two, or even three. That’s our very simple message.”

Here are his answers to a few other World of Tanks related questions.

GameSpot: Will players have to worry about the game becoming obsolete on older machines?

Victor Kislyi: We’re good at old machines. The core of our business is in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, and we have to make sure all the tanks work there. If you have even old machines which today run World of Tanks, with this update it will run it; and most probably will run it even better.

How do you see the esport of World of Tanks progressing?

Well, for like four, maybe going on five years, we’ve had this Wargaming league, which was professional teams clashing on stage, and it was relatively successful for us. Our viewership, be it physical venues or online, was growing. There are some companies, and I know my PR people will hate me, but League of Legends is the example of how it should be done for that kind of game. We want and we need World of Tanks esports closer to our actual players. Who are our players? Middle-aged gentlemen.

So, the esports tournament we had before was little, 7v7, and extremely fast action. The actual game is 15v15, with a little more strategic setup and movement. So, now we are evaluating different internal ways to upgrade our esport version to be closer to the game that our players play at home.

Let’s not forget, World of Tanks is about guys after work, being home and blowing stuff up. That’s the bulk of our players, and that is nothing to be ashamed of.

Have you thought of introducing anything like battle royale to World of Tanks?

Actually, if you think about this, a bunch of tanks, or small tank teams like platoons fighting each other, the last man standing, something like this, would make sense. We would seriously think about this. But, the truth is we’re not making a Battle Royale tank game as of now. There’s quite a bit of hustle going on without us. We know what our players like, and we keep doing this. But that’s a good idea.

What are the things that are going to bring in people who have never played it before?

We have already around eight years of experience with World of Tanks as well as World of Warships, World of Warplanes, World of Tanks Blitz, World of Warships Blitz now for the mobile and console versions. We can see our full following.

Russian players, they can be a little more forgiving as to the hardships of the game, and they’re more patient when it comes to 15v15 straight, pure, PVP kinds of things.

Western players, it’s not good or bad, it’s just…it’s entertainment. So they’re less forgiving to being killed quickly, and learning curve, et cetera. That’s why for the West, and we’re very, very serious on this crusade, it has to be a way better onboarding experience. Maybe some PVE elements, stuff like that. We’re working hard now. …On the console, as an example, we have War Stories, which is kind of PVE-like campaign style things, which were appreciated on PlayStation and Xbox, which were appreciated very much by the players. So, we’re moving towards being a little more Western-style, even more triple-A experience. That’s starting from onboarding and some PVE elements.

Where do you guys go from here? Where do you see World of Tanks going in the future?

Eight years ago when we started, nobody would’ve thought it would be so successful and then run for such a long time. I myself would have given it three, four, maximum five years. Eight years later, since the D6 numbers and trends–we’re here for a long time. I compare it with, football, or Simpsons, or Family Guy. Some of those TV shows run for like 10, 15, 20, even 30 years, right? They do a good job at understanding their audience, really employing the best talent to make those jokes. Or special effects when it comes to Game of Thrones or Star Trek types of series. That’s what we’re doing here. It’s a little more sophisticated because it’s interactive, but that’s what you do. You have statistics, you study them. You have your players, you have your community managers pretty much all around the world in major regions being very close to the players, listening to them. Through forums, yes, but also through personal meetings.

By the way, some of our employees, and top ones, are from our players. Like Anton Pankov and Miloš Jeřábek. Miloš is the head of development on World of Tanks. Anton, is the head of publishing on World of Tanks. They used to be just players, and from time to time we do this forum-like announcement: “Hey, thanks players! We looking for this, this, and this.” They showed up, and now they’re top executives on World of Tanks. We work for our players, and sometimes our players work for us.

Rockstar has rolled out a new batch of content for Grand Theft Auto V. This marks the second week of the Southern San Andreas Super Sports Series, Rockstar’s big season of racing-themed updates for GTA Online. This time, the developer has introduced another pair of new vehicles to the online mode, along with a new selection of in-game discounts.

Two new cars arrive to GTA Online this week. The first is the sleek Pegassi Tezeract, which players can pick up from Legendary Motorsport. It’s joined by the Vapid Ellie, which can be purchased from Southern San Andreas Super Autos. You can take a look at both cars in the screenshots below.

On top of the new vehicles, Rockstar has extended the bonuses you can get from Hotring Circuit, the new multi-lap race introduced in last week’s GTA Online update. Players will continue to earn double GTA$ and RP by playing the mode through April 2. In addition to that, Special Cargo Sales are worth twice as much GTA$ this week, and Bodyguards and Associates will earn double GTA$ salaries.

This week’s selection of discounts is once again focused on vehicles, giving you a chance to save on some new storage facilities. Players can also save on a number of customization parts for their cars, including engines, liveries, spoilers, and more. You can find the full list of discounted items at the bottom of this story.

The Premium Race this week is Steeplechase. Everyone who participates will receive triple RP, while those who finish within the top three will earn a big GTA$ payout. This week’s Time Trial is Del Perro Pier. Players who best the target time will take home a nice GTA$ and RP reward.

This Week’s GTA Online Discounts

Properties

• Fort Zancudo Hangar A2 — 50% off
• Special Cargo Warehouses — 50% off
• Smoke Tree Road Bunker — 35% off
• Arcadius Business Center — 30% off
• Aquarius Yacht — 30% off
• FH-1 Hunter (Weaponized Helicopter) — 30% off (Buy It Now & Trade Price)

Vehicle Upgrades

• Exhausts (including JATO) — 25% off
• Liveries — 25% off
• Engines — 25% off
• Turbo — 25% off
• Brakes — 25% off
• Transmission — 25% off
• Spoilers — 25% off

The biggest update ever for the popular tank-battling game World of Tanks has arrived. The game’s 1.0 version is finally here on PC, some eight years after the game originally launched in 2010. The big-time update promises better visuals, a new soundtrack, and 29 “completely re-worked maps,” as well as one completely new one called Glacier.

World of Tanks developer Wargaming worked on the update alongside computing giant Intel to make the game look and run better. This is in addition to advancements made to Wargaming’s own improvements to its internal graphics engine.

“Update 1.0 improves the baseline technology for the game, introducing the in-house developed Wargaming Core graphics engine,” World of Tanks PC development director Milos Jerabek said in a statement. “Thanks to it, we’re now capable of elevating the entire game and can ensure World of Tanks is a fun and immersive experience for years to come.”

Regarding the soundtrack specifically, Wargaming says this is more dynamic in that every location on a map will have a unique theme based on the specific setting. The soundtrack, which is published by Sony Music, will be available to stream for free.

This just scratches the surface of what’s new in the 1.0 update. Go to the World of Tanks website to see a full breakdown of what’s in the update and why it’s important.

To mark the launch of World of Tanks 1.0, Wargaming is kicking off an event called the Grand Extravaganza. Running from March 29 through April 13, the event lets players compete to win “in-game bonuses” and physical goodies from Intel.

There is no word on if Wargaming is also planning to launch this 1.0 update for World of Tanks’ other versions on console and mobile.

Fortnite is one of the most talked about and played games on the planet right now, and this popularity has of course extended to where people watch gaming footage: YouTube.

The Google-owned video streaming giant has released some statistics on the battle royale’s game YouTube popularity–and they are seriously impressive. For instance, in January 2018, Fortnite had more video uploads related to a video game than anything else. The game also set a record for most gaming videos uploaded in a single month (February 2018), while a streamer hit 1.1 million concurrent viewers playing Fortnite earlier this month. You can see all the big stats below.

Fortnite YouTube Stats:

1. Fortnite had the most global uploads related to a video game in January 2018
2. Fortnite holds the #2 spot when it comes to watchtime related to a video game (as of Feb 2018).
3. Fortnite holds the record for most videos related to the video game uploaded in a single month (globally, February 2018).
4. Last weekend over 100 creators joined a massive Battle Royale in Fortnite and broadcast their play, generating over 42M live views combined.
5. During that event, ElrubiusOMG set the record for biggest single gaming stream from a creator (not an eSports tournament). Streaming from his bedroom, he reached more than 1.1M concurrent viewers

In other news, Fortnite’s newest Starter pack is available now. Available for $5, the add-on gets you the Rogue Agent outfit and the Catalyst Back Bling, along with an allotment of 600 V-Bucks to spend on whatever you want.

You can now purchase the Starter pack on all platforms, including mobile (which remains an invite-only test on iOS). Meanwhile, a new weapon is on the way to the game “soon” called the Guided Missile, though we don’t know when it’s set for release.

Sea of Thieves is immensely popular–and that’s part of the reason why the game is having widespread technical issues. In a developer update, Rare studio head Craig Duncan and executive producer Joe Neate discussed the game’s problems and what’s being done to fix them. They also revealed that the Xbox One and PC game reached 1 million players in its first 48 hours.

“We have seen unprecedented numbers coming in to Sea of Thieves and playing Sea of Thieves. The interest has been insane; the amount of people playing has been mind-blowing,” Neate said.

Sea of Thieves is free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Microsoft has not shared any details on how many people bought the game outright versus those who picked it up with a Game Pass subscription. Additionally, Microsoft offers a 14-day free Game Pass trial, and we don’t know how many people are playing Sea of Thieves on that trial. Whatever the case, 1 million players in 48 hours is a huge figure, and it has surely only grown higher still.

In the video, Duncan says an engineer told him that at one point near launch on March 20, some 5,000 people were joining the game every minute. Rare held multiple scale tests for Sea of Thieves before launch, but the live game is seeing 3-4 times more people trying to play during peak times than during the tests. Many of the game’s problems now are scale-related, and Duncan stressed that Rare has engineers working 24/7 to fix the issues and improve the experience.

A massive update for Sea of Thieves dropped today, and it includes various fixes for the game’s online infrastructure. You can see the full patch notes here in GameSpot’s previous coverage.

GameSpot’s Sea of Thieves review scored the pirate game a 6/10. Reviewer Peter Brown said, “Even though it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend, I like enough of what I see to hold out hope that things will eventually improve as the game continues to be patched and updated with new content.

For more on Sea of Thieves, including some tips for getting started, check out the linked stories below.

[UPDATE] The Sea of Thieves Game Pass issue has now been resolved, developer Rare announced on Twitter. If you still encounter an issue, Rare advises that you try again.

The original story is below.

Microsoft’s Netflix-style subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, has been available for some time now, but it took on new value when the company announced plans to launch its first-party exclusives on day one through the service. That started with last week’s release of Sea of Thieves, but due to a new problem that has popped up, the game isn’t currently playable for Game Pass members.

As long as you have a Game Pass subscription, you can ordinarily play Sea of Thieves on Xbox One or PC in its entirety just like anyone who owns a digital copy of the game. However, players opening the game right now are presented with the same type of message you see when trying to play something you don’t own. “Do you own this game or app?” the error message asks. “If you have a game disc, insert it now. If you bought this online, make sure you’re signed in to Xbox Live. If you don’t have rights for playing it, you’ll need to get it at the Microsoft Store.” This also presents you with the 0x803f8001 error code, which directs you to a support page for this otherwise standard problem.

The issue is currently specific to Sea of Thieves; the Xbox Live status page confirms that Game Pass access to the title isn’t working correctly right now. That page has an unusually terse message stating that the issue is being worked on, and the official Sea of Thieves Twitter account also states as much: “Our team are currently investigating an issue affecting Game Pass players and are working to resolve it as soon as possible. We’ll update you as soon as we can.”

We don’t know how long the issue will persist or if it’s related to the new Sea of Thieves update that was just released. Regardless, it means that Game Pass members are unable to play the game right now. We’ll report back as more details are shared. In the meantime, check out our Sea of Thieves review.

The Strong Museum has announced the 12 finalists for this year’s World Video Game Hall of Fame, including Minecraft, Metroid, Tomb Raider, Half-Life, and Call of Duty. The Strong Museum gaming director Jon-Paul C. Dyson said these games and the other finalists all had an “undeniable impact” on gaming and pop culture and are among the “most influential games of all time.”

The other nominees included Asteroids, Dance Dance Revolution, Final Fantasy VII, John Madden Football, King’s Quest, Ms. Pac-Man, and Spacewar!

The Strong Museum opened public nominations for the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and the organization received “thousands” of entries from more than 100 countries are the world. The winners, which are voted on by journalists and scholars, will be announced on May 3. New for 2018 is the “Player’s Choice” ballot, which lets fans vote on which games they think are most deserving. The three games with the most votes will make up a ballot that will be considered alongside those from the previously mentioned journalists and scholars.

Games are recognized for a number of criteria, including “icon-status,” longevity, and geographical reach, as well as impact on design and development on other games, pop culture, and society. Full details on the criteria can be found on the Strong Museum’s website.

This is the fourth World Video Game Hall of Fame class. You can see the existing inductees at the bottom of this post. They are on permanent display at The Strong Museum in Rochester, New York.

2018 World Video Game Hall Of Fame Finalists

• Asteroids
• Call of Duty
• Dance Dance Revolution
• Final Fantasy VII
• Half-Life
• John Madden Football
• King’s Quest
• Metroid
• Minecraft
• Ms. Pac-Man
• Spacewar!
• Tomb Raider

Previous World Video Game Hall Of Fame Inductees

• Donkey Kong
• Doom
• Grand Theft Auto III
• Halo: Combat Evolved
• The Legend of Zelda
• The Oregon Trail
• Pac-Man
• Pokemon Red and Green
• Pong
• The Sims
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Space Invaders
• Street Fighter II
• Super Mario Bros.
• Tetris
• World of Warcraft