Posts

The Minecraft 1.17 update — Caves and Cliffs — isn’t due to arrive until the summer of 2021, but we’ve already been introduced to a variety of upcoming features, not the least of which is copper ore. This new ore will be used to not only create copper blocks, stairs, and slabs, but will also be used for crafting lightning rods and telescopes. One Minecraft developer recently took it upon herself to explain how lightning rods in particular can be integrated with redstone structures....

Mojang Studios’ Minecraft is a creative sandbox that has facilitated many impressive building projects in the past, some of which reference other facets of popular culture. For example, one player recently recreated Stranger Things’ Starcourt Mall in Minecraft. Sometimes the developers release new content that can enhance these projects, such as a brand-new DLC set based on the Star Wars universe. Minecraft’s Star Wars DLC mash-up released today, offering content based on the Original Trilogy films and The Mandalorian, a Disney+ series currently airing its second season....

Avalanche Studios reveals that Just Cause 3’s Sky Fortress Expansion Pack is nearing completion, with the developer currently play testing the content. The Just Cause franchise returned with a bang when Just Cause 3 was released in December. Although the title already offered up a fun world to explore and cause chaos in, many were wondering where developer Avalanche Studios could take the title through the use of further content. It turns out that Just Cause 3 players may not have long to wait, as the studio has confirmed that the Sky Fortress Expansion is nearly ready....

It’s no secret that Activision has been exploring alternative strategies to promote and/or milk their flagship Call of Duty franchise for every penny they can potentially collect. The Call of Duty brand is already notorious for frequent, and pricey, DLC map packs - and, recently, the publisher revealed their subscription service, Call of Duty Elite, which should provide a steady stream of income beyond basic game sales. Elite mostly dismissed rumors that Activision would charge for Call of Duty multiplayer - but there’s no question that the service could, over time, evolve into something more invasive to the core CoD offering....

We still don’t have a specific release date for War for Wakanda, the upcoming story expansion for Marvel’s Avengers, but we are at least starting to get some idea of what to expect in the coming DLC. E3’s trailer showed us King T’Challa, better known as the Black Panther, taking on Ulysses Klaw in his signature Vibranium suit, but the voice of T’Challa was left a mystery that hasn’t been solved until today....

The Legend of Zelda has dozens of games in the franchise, but, thankfully, the timeline is just a bit less confusing than Castlevania’s or that of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. When Nintendo released the Hyrule Historia, fans could latch onto a more concrete explanation of the timeline that others had already pieced together through hard work and time. But even within Nintendo’s official Legend of Zelda guides, lore, and encyclopedias, there are discrepancies....

Our quick take Lenovo ThinkBook Plus initial Dual Screen Design 10.8-inch E Ink monochrome display on outer shell 13.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) internal screen Ports: 1x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI Fingerprint scanner on power button Dimensions: 308 x 217 x 17.4mm Weight: 1.4kgs Performance Up to 10th Generation Intel Core i7 Processor Integrated Intel UHD graphics 8GB or 16GB DDR4 RAM 45Wh battery (10hrs) To recap If the idea of an E Ink display for reading, note-taking and annotating is a real appeal then the ThinkBook Plus will be a rewarding purchase option....

World of Warships is celebrating the commissioning of USS Kidd 78 years ago by adding US Navy Veteran – Leroy Jenkins – as a playable commander. Jenkins served on USS Kidd during the Korean War before returning to the ship 43 years later to serve as a curator on the now Navy ship museum. Despite sharing a name, Leroy Jenkins the veteran is not related to Leeroy Jenkins the World of Warcraft meme....

The video above and the text below contain spoilers for the first 30 minutes of Assassin’s Creed Unity! By now gamers have likely pored over every Assassin’s Creed Unityreview, discovering everything that did and didn’t work in Ubisoft’s latest game. But, for those who may still be on the fence, we have another of our ‘First 30 Minutes’ posts to help sway potential patrons one way or the other. As with most Assassin’s Creed games, Unity begins with a rather obtuse intro but once the game jumps back into the Animus things become clear....

Was Deadpool almost in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? Some new concept art suggests he could have made an appearance. “In Kim’s visualizations for the movie’s underground cage matches, both Deadpool and Proxima Midnight (one of Thanos’ Black Order goons) are seen duking it out. The final version of the film had Wong (Benedict Wong) fight Abomination instead, but Kim’s concept art presents a compelling alternative scenario. You can see Andrew Kim’s pieces for Shang-Chi, including the piece with Deadpool, on his official website....

We all know J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy trilogy Lord of the Rings, but who is the actual Lord of the Rings. “It’s been a little while so it’s possible my memory isn’t as fresh on the subject of Middle-earth as it once was. But a thought occurred to me this weekend that I cannot shake: Did J.R.R. Tolkien name the Lord of the Rings trilogy after the bad guy?”...

The roguelite genre is a competitive one, featuring some of the most frequently played games on Steam, but even in that crowded space, Loop Hero is quickly becoming a breakout success. However, as with all great games, appreciation attracts modification, so many Loop Hero players want to know how they can incorporate cheats to reduce - or, perhaps, even increase - the difficulty they face. The roguelike mechanics of Loop Hero are unique and innovative, as rather than controlling the protagonist directly, players use deck-building to modify the landscape, equip the character, and prepare for increasingly difficult “loops” around the procedurally generated path....

HBO’s latest blockbuster drama effort, Lovecraft Country, is a unique Lovecraftian beast. As adapted by Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, the show takes classic horror, sci-fi, and adventure tropes and adapts them into a timely story of American racism. Though the series is certainly timely, it’s also timeless. As evidenced by our helpful explainer article, it wasn’t immediately clear when Lovecraft Country even took place. That’s partly because the Jim Crow era of American institutionalized racism was a lengthy one....

Slap on your deerstalker cap and groom your tentacles, horror-comedy visual novel The Innsmouth Case is coming soon to PC and mobile. Young Tabitha Marsh has gone missing in the remote fishing village of Innsmouth and it’s up to you, unfortunately, to crack the case. Inspired by the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft, The Innsmouth Case is taking a unique approach to the genre by injecting some levity and humor into the standard doom and gloom....

Down the rabbit hole we go. The third installment of the Arkham franchise will feature a very different Batman than many are used to. He’s a little younger, a little more inexperienced, but just as morose. The game is set five years before Batman: Arkham Asylum, but don’t let the name fool you, it actually seems to have very little to do with Arkham this time around. In fact, it will be taking place in Gotham City - finally fulfilling the wishes of every fan since the series’ inception....

In a recent interview with TV Asahi, anime director Makoto Shinkai discussed the current state of the business, including his upcoming projects, the dominance of the Demon Slayer film, and the effects of COVID-19 on the industry. While Shinkai could not give many details about his own latest project, it was nonetheless an interesting insight into the business from one of the most successful Anime directors of recent years. Anyone who’s been following the Japanese anime industry closely has heard about Demon Slayer....

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when accomplishing even the simplest tasks had taken on the burden of the impossible, Netflix’s “secret pandemic movie,” Malcolm & Marie, became a way to process a year of stalled projects and compromised creative control. A Deadline feature retraced how Zendaya, one half of the two-hander’s cast, reached out to Euphoria creator Sam Levinson with the plea for a self-contained project when COVID delayed the HBO drama’s new season....

When Mario Kart Tour was first announced and later released for mobile platforms, it was initially criticized as a stripped-down version of the Mario Kart series. Over time, Mario Kart Tour has developed its own fanbase, praising its inclusion of Tours which are the game’s version of event banners found in other mobile games. Another tour is on the way for Mario Kart Tour players following the conclusion of the “Peach vs Daisy” tour alongside the “Valentine 2020” tour....

Ever since its launch earlier this month, I’ve seen dozens of friends reflect on their own version of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, touching on how their take on the character has either changed dramatically over the years, or remained almost exactly the same. All takes on the character are valid, which is part of its beauty, but for me, it’s a testament to the journey I’ve been on as a person since the original trilogy met its conclusion so many years ago....

Left 4 Dead brought the co-op zombie survival genre to mainstream gamers, and ever since its release in 2008 the series has remained popular among most FPS gamers. Despite losing developer Turtle Rock Studios due to creative differences (they’re now developing Evolve), Valve is aiming to keep fans of the series content with fresh updates. In Japan, this means a completely new arcade game titled Left 4 Dead: Survivors. Survivors is a collaborative effort between Valve and Square Enix, the latter who are publishing the game with their popular arcade-based subsidiary company, Taito Corporation....