Save 50% on Offworld Trading Company during this week’s Midweek Madness*!
Mars has been colonized, and Earth’s corporate titans fight to dominate this new market. Competition is fierce in this fast-paced economic RTS from Civilization IV lead Designer, Soren Johnson. Campaign Length: 3-4 hours per CEO (9 total). Skirmish Length: 20-30 minutes.
*Offer ends Friday at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
Tokyo Tattoo Girls / 刺青の国 is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*
After a calamity befalls Tokyo, some of the city’s survivors find themselves with powerful abilities bestowed on them by colorful tattoos. To create peace, the city has been divided into 23 wards, each controlled by a powerful group known as Kumi.
*Offer ends November 21 at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
Injustice™ 2 is Now Available on Steam!
Build and power up the ultimate version of your favourite DC legends in INJUSTICE 2. This is your Legend. Your Journey. Your Injustice. Website: LINK
Good news for all Extension developers! We’re making it easier to enable Twitch functionality within Extensions, starting with follows.
You can now prompt users to follow specific channels within your Extension while maintaining the flexibility of creating a design and experience that matches your Extension and use case.
Follows are just the start, and we’ll continue putting the power of the Twitch toolbox into your hands. We’re looking forward to helping you integrate additional types of Twitch actions into your Extensions–such as username sharing, following an event, subscribing, or cheering.
Let us know what actions you’d like to see added next in the forums or the chat server, and check out the “Twitch actions” documentation to learn more.
Website: LINK
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*
In celebration of Harvest Moon’s 20th Anniversary comes an all new Harvest Moon title for Steam! Harvest Moon: Light of Hope! The game encompasses twenty years of the spirit that have made the franchise what it is today!
*Offer ends November 21 at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
Bethesda has revealed more details about the upcoming DLC packs for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. The publisher announced its DLC plans for the game this past summer, and now it has confirmed when each of the expansions is scheduled to release.
As previously detailed, The Freedom Chronicles season pass consists of four DLC expansions for Wolfenstein II, the first of which–Episode Zero–is available now for players who pre-ordered the title or purchased the season pass. It will be followed on December 14 by The Adventures of Gunslinger Joe, a new mission that stars former quarterback Joseph Stallion as he „smash[es] through Nazi hordes from the ruins of Chicago to the vastness of space.“
The third DLC expansion arrives a month later, on January 30, and is called The Diaries of Agent Silent Death. It puts players in the role of ex-OSS agent Jessica Valiant and has them „infiltrate Nazi bunkers in California and discover the secrets of Operation San Andreas.“ The final expansion, The Deeds of Captain Wilkins, launches in March and tasks players with dismantling a Nazi operation in Alaska.
The Freedom Chronicles season pass costs US $25 / £18 / AU $35 and includes all of the aforementioned DLC packs. Players can also purchase each of the expansions individually, though Bethesda has yet to announce pricing details for them.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is now available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game is also coming to Nintendo Switch sometime next year. You can learn more about the title in our Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus review.
Website: LINK
Because other companies own the rights to some of Marvel’s properties, characters from all across the Marvel universe have been featured in twice as many films as DC. This includes characters from The Avengers, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and more. Here are how all those films did in the box office, in order by worldwide totals, adjusted for inflation.
Check out how DC’s films did at the box office here.
Box office numbers and information came from IMDb and Box Office Mojo.
UPDATE 11/13/17: Thor: Ragnarok’s numbers updated.
Website: LINK
TwitchCon was home to many competitions, but beyond the H1Z1 arena teeming with screaming fans and streaming celebrities, past the expo floor with mobile gaming showdowns and esports exhibition matches, one fierce fight was tucked away from the rest. At the end of a hallway, only dull chatter and the click-clack of keyboards could be heard.
These were the sounds of the TwitchCon Hackathon.
We invited university students from all over the country to come to TwitchCon and compete in teams of up to four for 24 hours straight as they raced against the clock to build software projects using Twitch’s suite of developer products. For some of them, it was their first exposure to Twitch’s API. For others, it was their first hackathon entirely — drawn forth by their love for our platform and a desire to improve the experience.
All in all, we saw 101 student developers flock to Long Beach last weekend representing a host of schools in Southern California as well as a few visitors from out-of-state, including representatives from Brown University, Arizona State University, and the University of Florida. The hackathon venue was the only room in the convention center open overnight, and most students took it as the free lodging it was: a stroll at 3am showed most of the participants asleep at their tables, on the couches outside the room, or on air mattresses.
Despite sleep deprivation and the ever-alluring draw of ditching the Hackathon to attend a Meet and Greet with DrDisRespectLIVE, our participants submitted an impressive 24 projects. Here are a few of the favorites:
Twitch Audio Split Stream: An extension that encodes certain audio sources from a stream with special “optional” markers, allowing users the ability to either receive or deny them. The demonstration showed how a viewer could mute the streamer’s background music while still preserving their commentary.
Kappa Cloud: A data visualization that showed the popularity of all emotes used on a particular stream. Similar to a word cloud, more frequently used emotes would get larger the more they were used.
Surprise Me!: A chrome extension that suggests a random streamer for the user to view, specifically focusing on streamers that are on the border of “making it big” with around 500 active viewers.
We were amazed by the ingenuity and tenacity shown by the hackers, and we can’t wait to see where they will take their projects in the future. We also want to give a huge shout-out to Major League Hacking, the official student hackathon league, for supporting our event and providing us with invaluable resources and expertise along the way. Thanks so much for joining us all in Long Beach, and we can’t wait to see what you build next year!
Website: LINK
Last month, it was reported that the long-awaited reboot of cult ’90s comic book movie The Crow, currently known as The Crow Reborn, will start pre-production early next year. Aquaman star Jason Momoa has been attached to the project for some time, but a series of delays had left it unclear as to whether he would still star. However Momoa has now all but confirmed his involvement.
The actor took to Instagram to post a illustrated picture of the character of The Crow, with the caption addressed to director Corin Hardy. It reads, „I’ve been waiting for sooooo long. @corinhardy let’s do this brother.“ In response, Hardy posted an image of himself and Momoa, with the caption, „Two-headed monster. Craawwk.“
The Crow Reborn does not yet have a release date. However, last month creator James O’Barr stated that it would begin pre-production in February 2018, and confirmed Hardy’s involvement. Hardy previously made the acclaimed horror movie The Hallow and directed the upcoming Conjuring spin-off, The Nun.
The Crow first appeared on the screen in the 1994 movie, which was adapted from James O’Barr’s comic book. The film was a critical and financial hit, but it was overshadowed by the accidental death of star Brandon Lee on set. An unsuccessful sequel, The Crow: City of Angels, was released in 1996.
Website: LINK
It’s easy to forget, given some of Marvel and Netflix’s recent joint output, what the two studios are capable of when they’re at their best. All the Marvel/Netflix shows exist on a subjective spectrum, but it’s generally accepted that The Defenders, Iron Fist, and Daredevil Season 2 weren’t the greatest, while Daredevil Season 1, Jessica Jones, and (depending who you ask) Luke Cage were much better. Luckily for Marvel fans–and fans of good TV everywhere–The Punisher is with the latter group.
That’s based on the first six episodes of The Punisher’s 13-episode Season 1, which Netflix made available to press ahead of the show’s Nov. 17 premiere. But even in just its first half, The Punisher Season 1 is confident, well-made television. The show could still blow it in the season’s second half, but that remains to be seen.
The Punisher, of course, follows Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), the titular anti-hero, who perpetually mourns his family by murdering the people responsible for their deaths. Despite doing this for a while now–during Daredevil Season 2, presumably through the events that took place in The Defenders, and now on his standalone show–he never seems to run out of „the people responsible“ to murder. The web always expands, the rabbit hole goes deeper, and the conspiracy reaches its blood-soaked tendrils higher and higher into government organizations like the CIA. And the Punisher punishes them all–by murdering them good–while enjoying endless flashbacks of his once-happy family.
That basic framework might seem a little tired, and it is–a little. But if John Wick taught us anything, it’s that revenge flicks done well will never get old. And make no mistake, if you’re looking for another superhero jam: The Punisher has more in common with John Wick than with most of Marvel’s other movies and shows.
That’s a good thing. The Punisher is grounded in the way that Jessica Jones and Daredevil’s first season were; these aren’t superhumans or gods, and there’s no magic or alternate dimensions. There’s not even a shadowy organization pulling the strings behind the scenes, waiting to be unmasked and defeated in an epic team-up (at least, not in the first six episodes). There’s only Frank, and the military, CIA, and other government operatives who screwed him over and murdered his family. (It only helps these connected shows that The Hand is–hopefully–gone for good.)
In this season’s initial half, Frank isn’t even really Punishing, in the capital „P“ sense of the word. He burns his skull-adorned get-up after an opening montage in which–he believes–he puts down all „the people responsible“ for good. Of course, there are more layers to uncover, as Frank learns when an NSA analyst-turned-hacker, Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), gets in touch with some new intel. The two make a fun odd couple, first butting heads, then grudgingly cooperating. It’s nothing revolutionary, but there’s plenty of humor and drama to be mined from their pairing, which the season’s second half will likely explore further.
In supporting roles are homeland security agents Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah) and Sam Stein (Michael Nathanson), as well as two of Castle’s former squadmates in a Clandestine military outfit known as Cerberus–Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore) and Billy Russo (Westworld’s Ben Barnes).
Through these characters The Punisher manages to explore some pretty topical subject matter. Take Curtis’s PTSD support group, which Billy, who now runs a private military company, provides funding for. The veterans who attend feel let down by their country, and they channel their anger in various ways, including some seemingly meant to stir debate among viewers (although never in an unrealistic way).
There’s been some worry that The Punisher would feel tone deaf, given the character’s inclination for shooting lots of people with very big guns, and the many tragic shootings that have taken place in the real world recently. Netflix and Marvel even acknowledged as much when they pulled out of New York Comic Con in October.
But besides an indulgent title credits sequence where a massive arsenal swirls and coalesces to form the iconic skull logo, The Punisher doesn’t feel overly worshipful of the many guns that grace its scenes. Frank uses guns simply as a tool, just as he uses knives, grenades, and anything else in arm’s reach. He doesn’t obsess over them, besides occasional cleanings.
And he spends much of The Punisher Season 1’s first half trying to put it all behind him anyway. Bernthal once again proves himself a fantastic actor, with a simply ridiculous range between emotional drama and rage-fueled action, and he more than carries the show. Just as in Daredevil Season 2, Frank Castle is one of the best-cast characters in all the Marvel universe.
There are seven more episodes of The Punisher to watch, and even Marvel and Netflix’s best shows have begun to drag in their second halves. Some might even complain that the first six are a little slow. They probably could have squeezed this story down to fewer episodes if they didn’t show us the exact same flashbacks of Frank’s doomed family so many times. But each episode picks up by the end, ensuring many will suffer from „just one more“ syndrome, until we’ve binged way past our bedtimes, and, maybe, finished them all. At least, I know what I’m doing this Friday.
Website: LINK
With PUBG taking the world by storm, it’s no big surprise to see other games following suit with their own Hunger Games-like Battle Royale modes. Now, Crysis developer Crytek has announced that its free-to-play shooter, Warface, is adding a Battle Royale mode.
In a blog post, Crytek said its Battle Royale mode is „experimental“ in nature and will only be available for a „limited time.“ Similar to PUBG, Warface’s Battle Royale mode is kill-or-be-killed mode where every player fights alone until only one remains.
Crytek did not say exactly how many players will be in a match–PUBG and Fortnite offer 100-player matches. Warface’s also has the „element of the unknown,“ Crytek said, in that you won’t know which weapon you’ll get. As for the map, Warface’s will be the largest PvP map to date for the game.
There are 11 achievements to unlock, including „King of the Hill,“ which is awarded if you are the last player standing. One of the achievements is called „Beginner Eliminator,“ and it’s awarded when you take down your first 10 enemies. The image associated with this achievement is a bloodied frying pan, which may be a reference to PUBG’s trademark item.
Warface’s Battle Royale mode launches in the game’s next update, though Crytek did not say when that will be. And again, it’ll only be available for a limited time. After that, Crytek will look over the feedback and make changes before bringing it back.
Warface launched first on PC before coming to Xbox 360 in April 2013 with Microsoft as its publisher. The Xbox 360 edition was shut down less than a year after release, while the PC version is now being published by Russian company My instead of Crytek.
Do you plan to try out Warface’s Battle Royale mode? Let us know in the comments below!
Website: LINK
With Akuma in the Tekken 7 roster, anticipation grew for additional character crossing over from other franchises. In the upcoming DLC for the recently released fighting game, developers Bandai Namco is giving us one SNK’s iconic fighters in Geese Howard, who is featured in the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series. We got hands-on time with an early version of Geese Howard to get a feel for his move set and how he matches up with other Tekken characters.
Fans of SNK fighting games will recognize Geese’s stage and music, which was specifically made for this DLC. We spoke with Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada and game designer/translator Michael Murray, who said „All of it is kind of like a tribute to the Fatal Fury series, and so we really recreated the feeling of the character. But at the same time arranging him to make him have that Tekken flair to him.“ When asked how the team landed of Geese Howard for the game’s roster, Harada-san and Murray told us the story:
„In a past interview when we were still creating Tekken 7, we were often asked characters we like from other franchises. We all often answered that we love Samurai Shodown, and also Geese [from Fatal Fury]. He’s just an incredible villain that both of us really love, and the fans caught on to that interview, and they were like, ‚Wow, I love Geese, too. He would be so cool in a Tekken game!‘ And it turns out that the SNK team actually saw that, and they approached us and said, ‚Hey, you know the Geese thing? Is there anyway that we could make this happen?‘ So they actually approached us, which made it a lot easier, and so it was quite smooth.
Stay tuned for our full interview with Harada-san and Murray later this week where we talk Tekken World Tour, how characters are created for the series, and whether or not they’ve been thinking of a Nintendo Switch version. The Tekken World Finals are happening today, November 12, for the first time outside of Japan, in San Francisco, CA; the top 16 Tekken players battle for $50,000 prize and the competition is streaming on the official Tekken Twitch channel.
Tekken 7 is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC and the Geese Howard DLC is set to release sometime in December 2017. Be sure to read our Tekken 7 review in which GameSpot’s own Peter Brown awarded it an 8/10 and stated, „While some of this depth will be lost or out of reach for newcomers, there’s enough fun to be had outside of hardcore competition to keep players from all walks of gaming thoroughly entertained.“
Website: LINK
Today’s Deal: Save 40% on Last Day of June!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Tuesday at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
Calling all esport gamers, fans, viewers, and diehards!
Streaming live from London, November 13th at 8:30pm GMT is NOW TV’s 2017 Esports Industry Awards event. Tune in to see the movers and shakers of competitive gaming — Recognition will be given players, game publishers, media, hardware providers, live events organizers, and personalities.
About
Esports competition is, at it’s very core, about showcasing excellence and shining the spotlight on the very best in each community but what happens once the lights fade, the stage is packed away and the process starts again for another tournament, another game, another group of players? This ceremony is designed to honor not only those in the limelight, but the behind-the-scenes folks that bring the entire world of esports together.
How winners are selected (you!)
Each of the 22 awards is open to the public to nominate their #1 pick, then once the list of finalists is released, the vote goes back out to the community to be the deciding voice if our panel come to a stalemate. If you haven’t voted yet, there may still be time by casting your ballot here.
Five of the awards are selected 100% based on the votes of esports fans all over the world.
Among the awards this year we have 6 new categories including Esports Videographer of the Year, Play of the Year, and Unsung Hero.
Finalists in the Play of the Year category are selected each month by the community from our Play of the Month shortlist. Working with the King of the POTM, TommyT999, we’ve pulled together the finest plays from global competitions to showcase just how amazing esports can be.
The Unsung Hero Award not only gives us a chance to raise the profile of those who really deserve it but also lets teams, fans, and event organizers get behind those individuals without whom they couldn’t do what they do, those people who are first through the door and last home at night but always have a smile on their face.
The finalists in the Unsung Hero category really epitomize everything that our awards represent — the passion, commitment and drive to be the absolute best at what you do in the arena of esports.
See you in chat!
Website: LINK
While Kalypso is best known for publishing the Tropico series, the company works with a wide-array of strategy and adventure-focused games. And one of its upcoming titles has an interesting distinction. It’s the first train simulation on current-gen consoles.
Railway Empire, a „tycoon simulation game“ according to the game’s press release, covers the Westward expansion period from 1830-1930 in the North America Frontier era. While the game will not have multiplayer support, mods will be available through Steam Workshop that, according to a press release, „change existing scenarios and stats from trains, techs and economy system.“ It wasn’t stated whether these mods will also be available on console.
Railway Empire is set to launch on January 26 next year for Xbox One, PC, and PS4, and access to the game’s closed beta will come with pre-purchase.
You can also check out some gameplay for a few other Kalypso games below that GameSpot demoed recently.
The real-time tactical RPG Shadows: Awakening, which is set to release in 2018:
And the humorous strategy game Dungeons 3, which released this October:
Website: LINK
From remortgaging their homes to selling a million copies, here’s the story of how two brothers with no experience went on to make Cuphead, one the biggest surprise hits of 2017.
Website: LINK
Star Wars Battlefront II is set to launch in a little over a week, and while the game will give away new characters and maps as free DLC to all players, it will also include microtransactions in the form of loot crates. Now we know how much they’ll cost in the full title.
Crates can be acquired in Battlefront II through gameplay or using the game’s virtual currency, Crystals, which in turn can be purchased with real money. Crystals are sold in various packs, with EA Access members saving 10% off of them; the cheapest runs for $4.49 (or $5 for non-Access members) and nets you 500 Crystals, while the $90 ($100) pack includes 12,000. You can find the prices for non-Access members on the Xbox Store.
Players can use Crystals to purchase Hero, Trooper, and Starfighter crates. Each one includes „one or two“ Star Cards, crafting parts, and an additional item, which can range from emotes, weapons, victory poses, and other kinds of Star Cards. Hero crates cost 110 Crystals each; Starfighter crates cost 120 Crystals; and Trooper crates cost 200 Crystals apiece, which ultimately works out to 60 crates for $100.
Loot crates were the subject of much controversy during Battlefront II’s open beta last month. We recently shared our thoughts on how Battlefront II’s microtransactions work and why they are a big problem in a recent episode of The Lobby. Following the beta, developer DICE spoke out about the issue to assure fans that the game won’t be pay-to-win and made changes to how crates work due to their negative feedback.
„As a balance goal, we’re working towards having the most powerful items in the game only earnable via in-game achievements,“ DICE explained. „You have to earn the right to be able to upgrade Star Cards and unlock most weapons. You can only upgrade or unlock them if you have reached a high enough rank, which is determined by playing the game.“
Star Wars Battlefront II releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 17. Origin/EA Access subscribers can get a taste of the game ahead of launch, as its early access trial went live today on Xbox One and PC. That lets you play up to 10 hours of the game.
This story has been updated.
Website: LINK
Demand for Nintendo Switch remains high, but supply shortages have proven to be a problem since launch. Nintendo continues to work toward alleviating that as we head into the holiday season, where it expects to sell a ton of systems, but it reportedly has its sights set much higher in 2018 and beyond.
During the current fiscal year, which runs from April 2017 through March 2018, Nintendo expects to sell 14 million Switch units. Combined with sales from its launch month in March, that will bring it to a total of nearly 17 million units in its 13 months of availability. According to sources with „direct knowledge“ speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo plans to potentially produce a whopping 25 to 30 million units during its next fiscal year (April 2018 through March 2019).
Nintendo has reportedly begun informing business partners about these plans. Depending on how well it sells during the holiday season, Nintendo could increase that figure further, according to the WSJ.
As part of its recent earnings report, CEO Tatsumi Kimishima said that Switch production would increase for the holidays, and that manufacturers have upped the number of production lines assembling Switches. The WSJ notes this typically will only happen when a company agrees to the deal for an extended period of time because of the costs involved. That suggests the extra work lines may not be a short-term move.
If Switch sells as well over the next few months as Nintendo expects, the system will top lifetime sales of the Wii U, which sold 13.56 million units. It would also bring it close to lifetime sales of GameCube (21.74 million). Should Nintendo indeed make 25-30 million units next year, eventual sales of those systems would push it past N64 (32.93 million), although the company’s best-selling home console, Wii (101.63 million), is still much further off.
Nintendo’s handheld unit sales may actually be the better point of comparison. A survey released as part of the recent earnings report shows that the bulk of Switch owners use it in both handheld and docked modes. However, there are more who use it exclusively as a handheld than those who only use it when connected to a TV. Nintendo’s handhelds have traditionally sold better than their console counterparts–DS lifetime sales are 154 million–in part because of the potential for a single household to buy more than one.
Nintendo isn’t making additional units just so they can sit on store shelves. It’s unclear what exactly is driving its optimism, but one possible explanation is the launch of a major game or games. Nintendo’s 2018 and 2019 lineup has not yet been detailed, but we do know Metroid Prime 4 is on the way, as is a Pokemon „core RPG.“ Metroid does not yet have any kind of release date, while Nintendo lists Pokemon for a „2018 or later“ launch.
Website: LINK
We were so inspired by the TwitchCon Cosplay Contest finalists that we decided to dust off the sewing machine and raid the local hardware store, only to find ourselves in a sticky situation. Don’t wind up like us with your Glitch superglued to your clothes and a glitter explosion. Check out this month’s spotlight to learn from some seasoned cosplay pros: RandomTuesday, EvilTed, and LittleSparkz!
RandomTuesday has always loved making costumes and enjoys any excuse to dress up. Once she discovered cosplay, she was hooked! Her current project is a set of full size wings for her Ever After ball gown. Outside of cosplay, RandomTuesday likes to play tabletop RPGs and indie video games. Hop into her stream and join The Legion: a positive place full of puns, pins and airship pirates so peek at your peril!
EvilTed has been making cool creations since 1989. Vampire Hunter D always held a special place in his heart and after gaining experience over the years, he was finally able to make his dream costume. Currently, he’s working on a character of his own design: a take on a fantasy warrior like you’d see in a video game. Join his stream to chat with a great community of fellow creators who love to teach and learn from each other.
After admiring the craft of cosplay for a long time, LittleSparkz decided to jump straight in at BlizzCon 2014. Sparkz’s latest costume was Mystic Kingdoms Arthas, which won the armor category at TwitchCon, and 4th place at Blizzcon this year. Her favorite costume is Master Chromie because it allows her to get very in character and bring smiles to people’s faces. Tune in to her streams for cosplay tips, fantasy games, and joining an active and fun chat community.
The full schedule for all of the front page streams is below:
Would you like your channel to be featured as part of the Cosplay Showcase? You can apply by going to fill out this form! And don’t forget to check out the finalists for the TwitchCon Cosplay Contest here!
Website: LINK
