One of Fortnite‘s most recent challenges involves destroying grills scattered around the map. This is simple enough in theory–just destroy any grills you come across–but locating them can be a hurdle you’ll need to overcome. Luckily, we’ve put together the video guide above with locations all around the map for where you’ll find these grills. You need to destroy seven total, but these don’t have to be done in a single match, and they don’t have to be different ones. What that means is that, provided you’re patient, you can return to the same grill across seven different matches and destroy it each time to complete this challenge.
This is the final new challenge to be introduced as part of the 14 Days of Summer event, although you’ll have a full week after the release of this challenge to complete it (and any others you might not have done). Finishing this challenge will net you a banner and a step of progress toward unlocking the Smoothie back bling.
Dr. Stone is one of the most anticipated anime series of the Summer 2019 season. Based on the Weekly Shonen Jump manga of the same name, Dr. Stone isn’t your typical shonen series. Similarly to Winter 2019’s The Promised Neverland, Dr. Stone is a story where conflicts regularly focus on brains over brawn, sees the power of friendship frequently fail to overcome overwhelming odds, and is fairly introspective. At Anime Expo 2019, GameSpot asked Weekly Shonen Jump editor Hiroyuki Honda about the changing landscape of shonen stories and the production behind Dr. Stone.
“The titles that Weekly Shonen Jump carries is defined by the demographic, and I think the shonen demographics are now just changing,” Honda said. “The popularity is definitely shown in the polls that [stories like Dr. Stone] are the ones the readers now like. The reader demographic defines what is in the titles, so titles like The Promised Neverland and Dr. Stone are very popular now but they might not have been five years ago. And five, ten years down the line these type of stories might not fit what readers want anymore. The demographic defines shonen and that demographic is changing over time.”
“Popular authors tend to have a very good grasp of what is popular in the now and an understanding of what will be popular; they’re ahead of their time,” he continued. “Take One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Haikyu, take any popular [Weekly Shonen Jump title] and you’ll see they’re written to be what the readers want while also evolving to be slightly ahead of their time.”
The story of Dr. Stone follows Taiju, an average student who’s fairly physically fit, and his best friend Senku, an aspiring scientist and brilliant mathematician. On the day Taiju decides to confess his feelings for Yuzuriha, who he’s had a crush on for five years, a strange green light encases every living person on the planet in stone. Taiju remains conscious through his desire to confess his feelings, and Senku does the same by counting the seconds that pass. Over 3,000 years later, the two are mysteriously freed from the stone and set out to find a way to undo everyone else’s petrification, while also working towards recreating every scientific advancement that humanity has ever made so as to rebuild society.
Honda said that production on the anime of Dr. Stone took roughly two years. During the process, there were quite a few meetings to figure out how to translate the manga’s introspective moments so they’d fit into an anime. “[TMS Entertainment] kept most of [the internal] monologue from the manga,” Honda said. “There were lengthy meetings with the director and producer where they basically have the whole script to decide what can be kept. But if they feel [any monologue] is too long, then they split it into two segments or use special effects to portray some of the meaning of the original monologue through action.”
“Anime should be slightly different from the manga because manga and anime are completely different expressive mediums even if the fundamental philosophy that the story tells should still be the same,” he continued. “Because if you make an anime that’s completely faithful to the manga, then the final end product will seem slightly off.” Honda went on to explain that these adjustments can be as simple as changing the perspective of a shot to better convey what the original manga panel is suggesting, or as complex as reorganizing scenes so that it’s easier to follow certain storytelling threads.
Surprisingly–given it’s the main focus of the story–one of the biggest changes between the manga and anime versions of Dr. Stone is the scientific lore. Honda stresses the changes won’t impact the story; they’re primarily to ensure the safety of the younger viewers who might check out the anime. “Politically, there’s nothing really changing in Dr. Stone, but [the anime] is slightly careful about the scientific aspects because some of the stuff [Taiju and Senku] are doing is pretty dangerous. So the studio has to tweak things a little, tone the science down, or change scenes slightly so that people don’t try [Taiju and Senku’s] experiments at home and get hurt.”
Dr. Stone is currently airing on Crunchyroll with an English dub scheduled to premiere on Funimation.
Ahead of the game’s release at the end of this month, a demo for Kill la Kill The Game: IF is available now to PlayStation 4 players. The demo’s a little hefty, clocking in just shy of 8GB, but it’s totall free.
The demo will take you through the game’s first story chapter and includes a versus mode with several playable characters including protagonist Ryuko Matoi, antagonist Satsuki Kiryuin, Ira Gamagoori, and Uzu Sanageyama. Additionally, publisher PQube posted a play guide to YouTube showcasing the 3D fighter’s various mechanics. Check out the play guide below to prep yourself for battle.
We got a glimpse of Kill la Kill’s story mode in May, which seems to run in line with Trigger’s 2013 anime with a few differences. The biggest change is a switch in antagonist, going from ultimate series baddie Ragyo Kiryuin to something seemingly far more sinister.
Kill la Kill The Game: IF is set to launch on July 26 for PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.
During Anime Expo 2019, Studio Trigger’s Promare made its international premiere. The movie is the theatrical debut for the studio behind the hugely popular anime Kill la Kill, featuring the same director as the series, Hiroyuki Imaishi.
Promare is set in a world where a mutation has caused hundreds of people to develop pyrokinetic abilities. Labeled as the Burnish, these mutants are discriminated against by normal humans. The movie stars two protagonists: Galo, the newest member of the special firefighting team responsible for suppressing Burnish-created fires and ensuring the threats are subdued so they can be arrested, and Lio, the leader of the terrorist organization fighting for civil rights for the Burnish. Between the two, Promare is told primarily through Galo’s point-of-view, seeing him learn that the Burnish are still human beings and deserving of the same rights as everyone else.
Click To Unmute
Promare – Official Japanese Trailer | Studio Trigger
Top New Game Releases On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — July 7-13, 2019
During a group interview at Anime Expo, GameSpot asked Studio Trigger about the reasoning for telling a story mostly through the eyes of an oppressor, albeit an unwitting one. Creative director Hiromi Wakabayashi answered, “The main objective of the film wasn’t to depict an opposition between the minorities, which is the Burnish, and the majority, which is the human race. We thought it would be easier to present the story if we made Galo the actual main protagonist even though he’s on the oppressing side. He’s in the middle ground. He’s not intentionally oppressing. If we were to make Lio the main protagonist, Promare would become a story about the oppressed overcoming their oppressors and that’s not what we were trying to go for. Who Galo is is really hard to depict in real life. A lot of people have strong opinions but don’t act on them.”
“In real life, everybody’s pretty much contradicting themselves,” Promare character designer Shigeto Koyama added. “Activists want to save the earth. They want to try to keep the ozone layer. But they also want air conditioner at the same time. They want to protect the ozone layer, but they don’t want to walk and would rather use their car. A lot of them can be hypocrites. Everybody has some kind of fault in their philosophy, and Promare ends where we don’t know how Galo is going to continue on with his. That’s where the story kind of stops. That’s the same with us. What are [we each] going to do?”
Despite releasing over half a decade after Kill la Kill, Promare possesses many similarities to the 2013 series, including character design, soundtrack, and narrative themes. The origin of these similarities extends beyond both anime sharing the same director though. During the group interview, Studio Trigger revealed that production on the movie began before Kill la Kill even ended, so the ideas behind both were formulated very close together.
The major difference between Kill la Kill and Promare is the latter’s much brighter color palette which utilizes a lot more reds, oranges, and pinks. These colors were used in Promare because the movie uses so much more CG. “We knew that we were going to be incorporating heavy use of CG from the beginning, so we needed to make the designs and the colors as simple as possible,” director Imaishi said during the group interview. Promare manages to blend together traditional 2D and 3D CG animation styles better than many anime have done previously. Imaishi believes “CG will become more and more prevalent in the animation industry” going forward, ultimately normalizing a hybrid style that combines both 2D and 3D.
Promare is scheduled to release publicly in US theaters on September 17. In GameSpot Universe’s Promare review, I wrote, “Promare’s plot does stumble, most notably when it comes to how it builds its world and fleshes out the main cast, but it takes enough cues from what made Kill la Kill such a hit to then go out and tell its own take on why discrimination is bad and why everyone should learn to love their fellow person. Galo’s origin story of becoming a firefighting superhero is framed with over-the-top action pieces, comedy, and well-timed pieces of music, and though he delivers an incredible finishing blow in the epic final battle, it’s his evolving rivalry with Lio that gives the movie its satisfying ending.”
Ebay is holding a sale to compete with Amazon’s Prime Day, and it isn’t being shy about the comparison. The “Ebay Crash Sale” will take place on July 15–and the deals will get even better if Amazon happens to crash during its big sale date.
Ebay states plainly that the sale is named after Amazon’s tech troubles last year, and that additional deals will activate if the competition crashes. The Ebay advertisement promises deals on Apple, Samsung, Garmin, Dyson, and more. The company also promised additional discounts going up daily as part of its “Hot Deals for Hot Days” sale lasting through July 22. You can find the daily discounts on Ebay’s Deals page.
Some of today’s deals include Sea of Thieves for $22, a Halo 5 Guardians controller for $63, and an Apple iPad Air for $620. Many of Ebay’s sale items include free shipping and returns with no membership needed–another distinction it touts with Amazon Prime Day.
“Ebay is primed to deliver exactly what shoppers want during this year’s crash (sale),” said Ebay Americas COO Jay Hanson in a statement. “July has become a massive shopping season, and our summer sales include blockbuster deals that will not disappoint.”
Official Description: Based on The New York Times bestselling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes—who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians, and as revered as Gods—abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the superpowerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about The Seven and Vought—the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate that manages these superheroes and covers up all of their dirty secrets. The series stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara, and Elisabeth Shue. The Boys is executive produced by Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, and Ori Marmur, as well as Ken Levin and Jason Netter. Panelists include: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capon, Karen Fukuhara; executive producer Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Jessie T. Usher, Elisabeth Shue, moderated by Aisha Tyler. Premiering July 26 on Amazon Prime Video, the eight-episode Amazon Original series is co-produced by Amazon Prime Video and Sony Pictures Television Studios with Point Grey Pictures, Kripke Enterprises, and Original Film.
What to expect: Footage from the show, possibly lots of swearing.
Ahead of Tales of Arise, the long-running Tales RPG series continues this year in Tales of Crestoria. The theme of this Tales game is sin and crime, featuring a roster of characters who are all considered the villains of their world.
In Tales of Crestoria, you play as Kanata, who lives in a world where everyone must wear a vision orb. Via vision orbs, citizens are judged by their peers with final judgment for a crime decided by popular vote. When Kanata commits a crime to save Misella, a girl he loves, and she, in turn, commits one to save him, they are each issued the harsh label of transgressor. They escape punishment and then run into the man known as the world’s most infamous transgressor, who advises them that they can either own their sin or let it own them. Through sin, the two discover a power greater than they’ve ever known, one that could change the world.
Tales of Crestoria is scheduled to come to mobile devices in 2019.
The hotly-anticipated Shenmue III going Epic exclusive has caused a stir amongst PC Kickstarter backers. Developer Ys Net provided an update on the switch, but the studio is still assuaging concerns. Refunds are now being offered to Kickstarter backers who choose to rescind their investment, and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed the company will take responsibility to avoid impacting Shenmue III’s development budget.
Sweeney took to Twitter to deliver the statement, saying in a tweet, “Epic is funding the cost of all Kickstarter refunds resulting from Shenmue III’s move to the Epic Games store.” He notes that this decision is to ensure Ys Net’s development budget remains unaffected by refunds.
Epic is funding the cost of all Kickstarter refunds resulting from Shenmue III’s move to the Epic Games store, so that refunds won’t reduce Ys Net’s development funding. https://t.co/mSGdbzYPJ5
In a follow-up tweet, Sweeney said that when any other game goes Epic exclusive after offering rewards on separate PC platforms, “We’ll either coordinate with colleagues at the other stores to ensure key availability in advance, or guarantee refunds at announcement time.” It’s worth noting that Sweeney is talking specifically about crowdfunded projects here.
The options available for Shenmue III Kickstarter backers include a PC physical package, a digital Epic Games Store game key, a PS4 disc, or a PSN code voucher. The PC physical version doesn’t actually contain the game on the disc, though; instead it comes with an Epic Games Store installer and a digital Epic Games Store game key. The Steam version will be made available to those who opt for it but will be delivered “one year later.”
Week 9’s challenges are now live in Fortnite, giving you another chance to level your Battle Pass up and unlock more Season 9 rewards. Each task you clear will reward you with Battle Stars, but if you manage to finish all seven from a given week, you’ll also complete one of this season’s Utopia challenges, which will unlock a special loading screen that leads you to a free item hidden somewhere around the game’s map.
Every odd-numbered Utopia challenge you complete will give you a chance to find a hidden Battle Star, which will level your Battle Pass up by one full tier when collected. Sure enough, that’s the reward that awaits if you complete nine weeks’ worth of Season 9 challenges. But first, you’ll need to find it. Fortunately, this week’s Battle Star is fairly easy to locate.
Once you’ve completed enough challenges, you’ll unlock the loading screen pictured below. This one shows off Brite Bomber, wearing her beachwear from the ongoing 14 Days of Summer event, in a skate park. Look closely at the bottom right of the image, however, and you’ll see a drawing of a Battle Star scrawled onto the ramp. That’s the clue that’ll lead you to the item.
The Battle Star is depicted above a car that’s surrounded by velvet ropes, and there happens to be just such a car inside Mega Mall, so that’s where you’ll need to go to collect it. Make your way to the area and the car will be easy to spot; walk in through the main entrance, then go into the room to the left of the fountain. Once you find the car, the Battle Star will appear above it when you approach, just as pictured. Collect it and finish the match to level your Battle Pass up. If you need more help finding it, we’ve marked the Battle Star’s location on the map below; you can also watch us collect it in the video at the top of this guide.
Battle Stars aren’t the only bonus you can collect for completing Utopia challenges. Each even-numbered one you clear will lead you to a free Fortbyte. Those can be picked up by anyone who has a Season 9 Battle Pass, whether or not you’ve actually completed their corresponding mission. However, you’ll only be able to find these free Battle Stars if you’ve finished the requisite challenges; they won’t appear in the game otherwise, so you can’t simply go to the right location and expect to find them if you haven’t done the necessary work.
