In an effort to help “promote healthy gaming behaviors,” PUBG‘s mobile version has introduced a new “Gameplay Management” system. Designed for people under the age of 18, the new system will send pop-ups to players that remind them to take a break.
Under the terms of the new system, players under the age of 18 are required to “acknowledge a gaming advisory” before they’re able to boot the game. At certain time intervals, which were not mentioned in the press release, pop-up notifications will appear to remind youngsters to “rest or stop the game.”
This new Gameplay Management system is live in Indonesia, India, Nepal, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. It will be released in other markets later, in stages.
According to the developer, PUBG Mobile is among the first mobile games to feature such a system. “As PUBG mobile grows into one of the world’s most trending mobile games, it is devoted to providing a better gaming environment and being proactive in building a balanced and sustainable online gaming ecosystem,” publisher Tencent said.
Tencent executive Vincent Wang said the game wants to allow players to “make informed choices” when it comes to how much time they spend playing PUBG mobile. “Today’s announcement is a proactive step in ensuring that hundreds of millions of players worldwide can continue to enjoy PUBG mobile in a sustainable manner,” Wang said.
Tencent will look into player feedback and make necessary adjustments over time as the system is released globally. The company is also undertaking educational measures to inform players about why they should care about the Gameplay Management system in the first place.
There is no word yet on if the Gameplay Management system will ever be launched for PUBG’s other editions on PC and console.
The Switch is pretty sweet as-is, but add in some accessories like a second Nintendo Switch dock, a screen protector, and a Switch Pro Controller makes it even better.
The Simpsons has done it again: the show accurately predicted the future, this time in relation to a big Game of Thrones Season 8 twist.
GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS FOLLOW BELOW.
In Episode 5, “The Bells,” Daenerys torches King’s Landing with her dragon, Drogon; she destroys the city and kills its innocent civilians in a move that few saw coming amid her turn to becoming the Mad Queen.
As it turns out, the 2017 Simpsons episode, “The Serfsons,” also showed a dragon destroying a city with its fire-breathing skills. The episode was a spoof of sorts of Game of Thrones, and it even featured the voice of Jaime Lannister actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from Game of Thrones.
This is far from the first time The Simpsons has accurately predicted something. A Season 11 episode predicted Donald Trump would become president while a Season 10 episode stated that Disney would buy Fox. These seemingly strange things ended up happening in real life.
It looks like The Last of Us: Part II might be almost finished. Co-game director Anthony Newman said on Twitter that developer Naughty Dog is looking to hire people to help “close out” the long-awaited PlayStation 4 game. That wording suggests that development might be nearing an end.
That being said, the “close out” period for The Last of Us: Part II might not necessarily happen quickly. Still, the fact that the game’s co-director is using that terminology suggests the title is indeed at least entering the final phase of development.
It’s also worth mentioning that Newman never even mentions The Last of Us: Part II in his tweet, though his reference to closing out a project is no doubt related to that title. Naughty Dog has no other announced projects in the works.
Naughty Dog vice president Neil Druckmann said back in April that Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson completed their shoots for Joel and Ellie, respectively. He said The Last of Us: Part II contains the “most ambitious cinematic shoot we’ve ever done.”
No release date, or even a release window, has been announced yet for The Last of Us: Part II. The parody website The Onion recently posted a silly story that said the game would launch in 2019, but Naughty Dog responded by saying it would share more information when it’s ready. For more on the much-awaited PS4 game, check out everything we know about The Last of Us: Part II.
Ordinarily, this would be an exciting time of year for PlayStation fans eager to learn more about what’s coming next. However, Sony is not attending E3 2019 in June, so if the company has any news to announced about The Last of Us: Part II or any other projects, it will come elsewhere.
Over the years, Lego has done some pretty incredible-looking sets based on familiar properties. Now partnering with Netflix‘s most popular series, the recently revealed Stranger Things set, titled “The Upside Down,” is hard to wrap your mind around.
Looking more like a reflection off of a lake rather than a traditional set. The Upside Down model of the Byers’ house from the first season of Stranger Things can actually flip between the real world and the terrifying Upside Down where the Demogorgon searches for a lost Will Byers.
It’s hard to actually explain the model kit, and to grasp it, you’ll need to actually see it. Below, you’ll see pictures for the latest set, which you can actually flip over.
Available directly at the Lego Shop on June 1 (May 15 for Lego VIP members), the Byers’ house will cost $200 and is made up of over 2,000 pieces. The set contains eight figures, all of which have their own accessories: Eleven, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, Joyce Byers, Chief Jim Hopper, and the Demogorgon.
The Byers’ house consists of the front porch, living room, dining room, and Will’s bedroom, while the Upside Down version of the house has dilapidated and eerie versions of the same rooms. The set also comes with Hopper’s police jeep as well.
Season 3 of Stranger Things will hit the streaming service on July 4, and the newest season will take place during the summer vacation of 1985. As you’ve probably seen in the trailer, a mall is one of the big locations, and who doesn’t love a mall during the ’80s? Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Noah Schnapp (Will), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Sadie Sink (Max), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan), Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers), and David Harbour (Hopper) will all be returning.
Even if you’re not overly familiar with Marvel Comics, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the name Jonathan Hickman at least in passing in these last few months. He’s one of the major architects of Infinity, the crossover event that inspired whole swaths of both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and introduced the concept of Thanos’ Black Order. Hickman’s run on the main Avengers title lasted around 3 years and helped redefine the team for modern audiences all over again–both on page and screen.
And now, another major arm of the Marvel universe is primed to get the Hickman treatment as he returns to Marvel for a major X-Men overhaul. Starting with two weekly, 6-issue mini-series called House of X and Power of X, Hickman plans to kickstart a brand new era of X-Men stories that will unfold across the Marvel universe in waves.
In an interview with Comicbook.com, the writer detailed his plans. “We needed to sell the idea that this is what we’re going to be doing for the next few years. So if you want to read X-Men books during the run from late-July through September, House of X and Powers of X are the only new X-books available and everything that’s going to follow is based on them. We wanted to be clear to the fans, to the stores, and just as importantly, to the creators who are going to be staffing these books in the future. We wanted the message to be very clear: This is a whole new era for the X-Men. This is what we’re doing now.”
The X-Men lines are no stranger to reboots and new issue number #1s. The latest volume of Uncanny X-Men was relaunched in 2018, hot on the heels of companion books like X-Men: Blue and X-Men: Gold, both of which kicked off with new #1s back in 2017; and X-Men: Red which concluded its mini-series run last year as well. Add to the list the X-Men adjacent Major X mini-series, still currently in progress and things get even more complicated.
Put plainly, the X-arm of the Marvel Universe is not currently the most accessible line of comics around. Though, as Hickman hopes, that will be soon to change.
“One, House of X, is a story about a pivotal month in the history of the X-men where everything changes for mutants on Earth,” Hickman elaborated. “And the other, Powers of X, is a story about the history of mutants in the Marvel Universe. It works as a series of reveals and revelations where each issue of HOX that follows POX–and vice versa–makes you reinterpret the issue you had previously read.”
Both 6-issue series will eventually culminate in what Hickman calls “wave 1” and “wave 2” of the rebooting initiative. “At the conclusion of our 12 weeks of HOX and POX, we’ll be launching an entirely new universe of X-books. Some will be traditional fare, some carry through on ideas presented in HOX and POX. Some books are completely new concepts. I, personally, will be writing the ongoing flagship X-book,” he said. “[…] We also just finished our plans for our ‘Wave 2’ books that will debut in 2020 and we’re getting ready to hire talent for those.”
House of X #1 and Power of X #1 hit stores on July 24 and July 31 respectively, everywhere comics are sold.
E3 is known for being one of the biggest showcases for games every year, and E3 2019 is looking to follow in that tradition. While this year is noticeably more low key than the larger displays of E3’s past, the show is still the primary venue for developers to announce their latest projects. There are sure to be many games that we don’t know about, but let’s go through all of the ones that have been confirmed for the convention so far.
Like previous years, E3 will last about three days going from June 11-13. A smattering of press conferences from the industry’s biggest companies are scheduled to precede the show. The first of this year will once again be Electronic Arts’ EA Play event, which will be spread out across a few days over several livestreams. You can expect updates on the publisher’s biggest games, like Apex Legends and Anthem, as well as news about its latest sports games. However, the most anticipated game in its docket is undoubtedly Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, a new game based on the massively popular sci-fi franchise made by Titanfall developer Respawn Studios.
Nintendo will appear in typical fashion with its E3 lineup mostly unknown until going live with its Direct Presentation. Microsoft will also be making a big splash due to Sony being absent from this year’s show; we’re likely to hear more about some the big new games it has in development from the various studios it acquired in the past couple of years. On the other hand, you have game publishers like Bethesda, Ubisoft, and Square Enix who are all prepared to reveal new details around its existing franchises and previously announced games.
There’s sure to be a lot more on display, and there’s always a good chance of a surprise. After all, Google did reveal that more details around its upcoming Stadia technology would come sometime this summer, which could easily be E3 2019. And while we know Sony won’t be at the show, Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima did tease via Twitter that he was working on a new trailer. Regardless, read on for the full list of confirmed games so far, and check back as we continue to update in the lead-up to the show.
The very first live-action Pokémon movie is now out after years in development, and from the moment the first trailer debuted, people were surprised to see how charming Detective Pikachu looked. But other than Pikachu talking and sounding not like Danny Devito–as some fans wanted–but like Ryan Reynolds, what really made an impression in that first trailer was arguably the new look of the Pokémon.
The world of Pokémon is filled with a variety of different creatures, each with a unique design. From the scaly and terrifying Charizard, to whatever nightmare Mr. Mime came from, the biggest surprise in Detective Pikachu may have been that Pikachu looks undeniably furry. It’s not that Pikachu and the other furry Pokemon look bad–but up until this point, they’ve always been portrayed looking, uh, smoother.
Naturally, we jumped at the opportunity to talk about Pokémon fur, whether Pokémon like Machamp wear clothes, and just what the hell Mr. Mime is with Detective Pikachu visual effects supervisor Erik Nordby.
“We didn’t really have another choice,” Nordby told us regarding furry Pikachu. “The Pokémon Company didn’t want it to have fur, and they wanted something that felt more like a horse, with very fine and short hair. But look at it. There is no real-world equivalent of a Pikachu. It just looks unnatural and a bit disturbing, since that type of yellow skin doesn’t really exist anywhere. So we built the texture and showed the company what Pikachu could look like with fur, and eventually they grew to love it.”
Having to communicate with a media conglomerate like The Pokémon Company, and across two languages, wasn’t an easy task. Nordby told us that they had a slew of rules for what Pokémon could and couldn’t look like, but one mandate was key: “They were very conservative when it came to changing the original designs, and ‘kawaii,’ or cute, was the word of the day,” Nordby said. Indeed, Pokémon fans know that in both the anime and the games, even the scariest or strangest Pokémon still make you want to hug them (with a few exceptions, like the one that’s just a garbage bag, or the ones you actually want to eat, like the ice cream cone Pokemon Vanilluxe).
This mandate of cuteness became the hardest and most important part of the design process. For Nordby and his team, the really challenging part was sticking to that while also making sure the Pokémon looked like living creatures. “We definitely wanted them to look realistic and like they could survive in our world,” Nordby said. “The ratios and proportions of cartoon Pokémon bodies are biologically wrong, so we wanted to make sure the Pokémon looked like they could eat, find shelter, communicate, and that their bodies could fit actual organs and hold the weight of their bodies. We figured out their whole anatomy, with muscle systems, bone structure, the size of the eyeballs, you name it.”
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What really helped the Detective Pikachu team create the new designs was to just stick to the original, at least their general shape. “The most helpful thing for us was being able to look at the original sketches from Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori,” Nordby explained. “We used the basic silhouette of each Pokémon, and basically stayed within that frame while still changing the texture, size of eyeballs, and other things.”
Nordby and his team also looked at real animals in order to have a reference from which to build the Pokémon designs. “We traveled to zoos all over and built an entire catalogue of animals we could reference.” He said. As fans know, a fair amount of Pokémon have direct counterparts in our world, so the Detective Pikachu team used this to their advantage for Pokémon like Pancham, which is basically just a panda with a bigger head. For others, though, the task was harder.
“Pikachu was difficult, especially because of how important it is for fans,” Nordby told us. “We started with various rodents like rabbits and wombats. We did a lot of different tests with different animals for both looks and also movement. In the end we took some basic things from actual animals but built the rest from scratch; otherwise, you lose what makes Pikachu special.”
According to Nordby, another big rule of The Pokémon Company was regarding clothing, mostly that Pokémon do not wear clothes (other than a detective hat, apparently). The visual effects supervisor recalls showing the company their initial design for Machamp, a fighting-type Pokémon seen in the movie directing traffic, who normally wears a wrestling belt and a speedo–except it is actually neither of those.
“They told us it looked like Machamp was wearing clothes, and they absolutely can’t wear any clothes,” Nordby said. “Then we asked about what that was, since it looks like Machamp is obviously wearing speedos and a wrestling belt. And they answered that it was actually just part of its skin. We replied, ‘well, if it’s just skin, why is it shiny?'” Nordby argued that while the rules may seem arbitrary, there’s a reason why this brand has become such a success.
Then there was the issue with Mr. Mime, a character that has absolutely no counterpart in the real world, and to add to the difficulty, isn’t one that looks inherently cuddly.
Just as director Rob Letterman almost cut the Mr. Mime interrogation scene out of the movie, designing Mr. Mime was one of the hardest parts of the project for Nordby and his team. “We asked The Pokémon Company, ‘What is this thing?’ and they said they didn’t know, and even tried to talk us into cutting him, because they didn’t think it could work onscreen,” Nordby said. Unlike Pikachu or Jigglypuff, Mr. Mime looks more like a pretty disturbing humanoid creature dressed as a mime–only it isn’t.
“They told us again that Pokémon don’t wear clothes. Everything about Mr. Mime is its skin, so the horns is just its hair that bends that way,” Nordby told us. “We got a real mime named Trygve [Wakenshaw], who was consulted for the movements. For the design we ended up having to look not at animals, but at toys. Rubber balls, inflatable fair gloves, just every kind of common kids toys we used for the textures–every surface feels like a toy, so it counteracts some of the creepiness.”
Whether they succeeded in making Mr. Mime not creepy is a question for another time, but it is fair to say they actually managed to make the world of Pokémon feel real, which is an undeniable achievement.
