GTA 5 yanked from NVIDIA's GeForce Now streaming service

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 24, 2019 12:09 PM CDT

GTA 5 is no longer playable on NVIDIA's GeForce Now streaming subscription service, and customer service says Rockstar decided to pull the game.

GTA 5 yanked from NVIDIA's GeForce Now streaming service

With over 100 million copies sold to date, GTA 5 is everywhere...except GeForce Now. The pop-culture juggernaut was pulled from NVIDIA's $7.99 a month GeForce Now cloud gaming service overnight, and the game no longer appears on the service's list of supported titles. Subscribers logged in and tried to fire up GTA 5 only to find it was missing.

Customer support indicates Rockstar removed the game arbitrarily, leading some to believe Rockstar signed an exclusive deal with Google's competing cloud service Stadia. It's possible and more likely that Rockstar's license deal with NVIDIA expired. For some, using NVIDIA's remote servers was the only way to play GTA 5 and others feel blindsided by the sudden disappearance.

Continue reading: GTA 5 yanked from NVIDIA's GeForce Now streaming service (full post)

The Clone Wars season 7 coming February 2020 on Disney+

Derek Strickland | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Aug 24, 2019 7:24 AM CDT

After five years of waiting, fans are finally getting a climatic end to The Clone Wars animated series.

The Clone Wars season 7 coming February 2020 on Disney+

Disney today confirmed The Clone Wars season 7 will release in February 2020 exclusively on its new $7 a month Disney+ subscription service. The seventh season will run for 12 episodes and is the last and final run for the series, but the show's supervising director Dave Filoni gives hope on some spin-offs.

"It will conclude the story that George and I started together. There could be stories after that that take place with a lot of those characters. But especially for me directing Clone Wars, being that hands-on, I wrote and directed the final four episodes. It's the end of something I feel really good about," Filoni told Entertainment Weekly.

Continue reading: The Clone Wars season 7 coming February 2020 on Disney+ (full post)

The Mandalorian's new trailer is like a Star Wars western

Derek Strickland | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Aug 24, 2019 2:07 AM CDT

Disney today dropped a new trailer for its all new original Star Wars show The Mandalorian, showing off a distinct high-tech spaghetti western tone.

The Mandalorian's new trailer is like a Star Wars western

An episodic, TV show format is perfect for Star Wars, and will let creators spin unique tales that connect outside of a two-hour window. The Mandalorian is a great example, and the first official trailer shows a lone wolf gunslinger surviving the harsh, Imperial-ruled cosmos as a kind of mercenary lawman hunting down nefarious criminals--all for the right price.

The footage is stylish, striking, and appeals to the inner Star Wars fan in me, complete with exotic planets, AT-ST walkers, blaster gunfights, and lots of marks sealed in carbonite. The show itself takes place in the twilight era between The Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and will be exclusive to Disney's new $6.99 Disney+ subscription service.

Continue reading: The Mandalorian's new trailer is like a Star Wars western (full post)

Obi-Wan show confirmed for Disney+, Ewan McGregor to star

Derek Strickland | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Aug 23, 2019 11:03 PM CDT

Obi-Wan will return to the small screen in a new Star Wars spin-off show, Disney confirmed during its Disney23 expo.

Obi-Wan show confirmed for Disney+, Ewan McGregor to star

The rumors were right and it's now official: Ewan McGregor will star as the confident, charming, and powerful Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new Star Wars TV show. The series will be exclusive to Disney's new $6.99 a month Disney+ streaming service, and joins a retinue of new shows like The Mandalorian and MCU titles She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel.

While no official details have been confirmed on the show's timeline or content, we expect it to be prequel-based and may explore Obi-Wan's side plots and exploits across the galaxy. We've already seen a lot of Obi-Wan's interpersonal relationships and trials in the excellent Clone Wars TV show (which is also getting a 7th season!).

Continue reading: Obi-Wan show confirmed for Disney+, Ewan McGregor to star (full post)

Spears return to Elder Scrolls in new Morrowind remaster mod Skywind

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 23, 2019 9:53 PM CDT

Massively ambitious total conversion mod Skywind aims to recreate Morrowind in Skyrim's engine, complete with beloved spears and fancy alteration magics.

The folks over at the TES Renewal Team are real-life magicians. Not only are they recreating the entirety of Oblivion in Skyrim's game engine, but Morrowind is also getting unofficially remastered too. We have lots of questions about UI features, magic, level-up skills and more, but a new Skywind gameplay trailer reveals some awesome tidbits, including the return of two-handed spears.

The gameplay shows off Balmora's reinvigorated high-def beauty, complete with that distinct exotic ashlander architecture. The demo sees players take on an assassination mission for the nefarious Morag Tong guild. Joining this guild was contentious in the game and could alienate you from other factions, so you had to do it just right--I remember joining all the guilds in the game with a proper sequence. There's literal political differences that'll forever lock you out of a guild if you side with their enemies.

Continue reading: Spears return to Elder Scrolls in new Morrowind remaster mod Skywind (full post)

Metro 2033 movie begins filming in 2020, due out by 2022

Derek Strickland | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Aug 23, 2019 3:20 PM CDT

Originally announced in 2016, the Metro 2033 film has been on ice for a while. Until now.

Metro 2033 movie begins filming in 2020, due out by 2022

The Metro 2033 film adaptation project has now been resurrected, and will start principle production sometime in 2020, Variety reports. Only this time around it'll be native to its home country rather than produced in the United States. Russian film titan Gazprom Media is overseeing the movie, and the country's largest media firm expects to "invest an unprecedented sum" into the movie.

Original Metro series creator and writer Dmitry Glukhovsky is directly connected with the film, which will chronicle Artyom's journey in a haunting post-apocalyptic world where humanity hides in subterranean tunnels to survive. The film will follow the events original Metro 2033 novel, which are also chronicled in 4A Games' excellent video game adaptation.

Continue reading: Metro 2033 movie begins filming in 2020, due out by 2022 (full post)

Kerbal Space Program 2 isn't Epic Store exclusive, won't be monetized

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 23, 2019 1:07 PM CDT

Although it's published by Private Division, a new label that favors the Epic Store, Kerbal Space Program 2 will instead be sold on Steam.

Kerbal Space Program 2 isn't Epic Store exclusive, won't be monetized

Kerbal Space Program 2 is happening, complete with co-op play and lots of new content like interstellar travel. It's also coming to Steam and "other digital storefronts," which could include the Epic Store, but it could also include the eShop. Right now Epic is focused on snatching up exclusivity to bolster game sales and engagement figures so they usually force exclusivity for all games on their storefronts, or at the very least force devs to choose between EGS and STeam. This shows that Take-Two's new Private Division label is quite flexible despite the parent company pushing some games on the Epic Store (Borderlands 3 is on the Epic Store, but at the same time NBA 2K20, Take-Two's cash crop, is on Steam).

Another refreshing bit of news is microtransactions won't be included either. The Kerbal devs say the sequel doesn't have in-game currencies or lootboxes, and they even confirm the original Kerbal Space Program isn't being retired or abandoned. New content is still on the way for the first game.

Continue reading: Kerbal Space Program 2 isn't Epic Store exclusive, won't be monetized (full post)

PS5 devkit won't be final design, devkits always look quite different

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 23, 2019 10:54 AM CDT

Mockups and renders are always a huge part of next-gen console hype, and some PS5 mockups started floating around based on the console's devkit design. But this isn't how the finalized PlayStation 5 should look--devkits are usually pretty different.

PS5 devkit won't be final design, devkits always look quite different

Compared to other devkits over the years, the PS5's devkit looks pretty flamboyant (we're not 100% sure if Sony's recent patents are actually a PS5 devkit, and only one Codemasters dev has stepped in to confirm). It's got a dramatic chassis with a layered V-shaped design, presumably for cooling the system's higher-end Navi GPU and Zen 2 CPU hardware. This makes sense considering devs are encouraged to push the hardware to its limits and max out CPU, GPU, and system memory limitations. But this mockup probably doesn't reflect the PS5 that'll be out on store shelves in late 2020.

Historically, developer kits of consoles are always quite different than the final design. It's a question of raw performance design versus a sleek, efficient, and appealing consumer product. Right now the PS5 looks like a next-gen Johnny 5 or a futuristic manta ray or something, not like the usual systems Sony sells. I mean, the original Xbox One (codenamed Durango) devkit was an actual PC tower not a console.

Continue reading: PS5 devkit won't be final design, devkits always look quite different (full post)

These Gamescom 2019 Cyberpunk 2077 4K screenshots are simply gorgeous

Jak Connor | Gaming | Aug 23, 2019 10:04 AM CDT

CD Projekt RED has released a new batch of Cyberpunk 2077 screenshots from Gamescom 2019, the screenshots are in gorgeous 4K and give us a great look into the detailed world of Cyberpunk 2077.

These Gamescom 2019 Cyberpunk 2077 4K screenshots are simply gorgeous

The released images give us a detailed look into some chaotic environments that look splendid. We also see some snap shots of fire fight combat (lovely blood splats), enemies, explosions, wide-spread location shots, and vehicles such as motorbikes and cars.

CD Projekt RED confirmed at this years Gamescom that Cyberpunk 2077 will be releasing as single-player only game, and that currently the developers are working on the community requested New Game Plus. It isn't yet clear whether or not Cyberpunk 2077 will arrive with a multiplayer aspect, but I'd say that CD Projekt RED will first nail the single-player release and then perhaps move onto multiplayer. Cyberpunk 2077 will release on April 16th, 2020 on the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Continue reading: These Gamescom 2019 Cyberpunk 2077 4K screenshots are simply gorgeous (full post)

'Hades' will soon make its way to Steam after Epic Store exclusivity

Jak Connor | Gaming | Aug 23, 2019 9:03 AM CDT

One of the very first games that was announced to be exclusive to the Epic Games Store has finally be given its Steam release date.

'Hades' will soon make its way to Steam after Epic Store exclusivity

The game is called 'Hades' and is a dungeon crawler title developed by Supergiant Games. While this might not be the biggest and most recognized game on the market, since it was one of the first games to be exclusive to the Epic Games Store it certainly holds some historical value.

Since Hades' Epic Games Store exclusivity expiration seems to be coming to an end, Supergiant Games have released a Steam Early Access trailer on their YouTube Channel. The video is above, and if you are a dungeon crawler fan and don't have an Epic Games Store account, I'd definitely keep an eye on this title. If you want to keep a closer eye on it, here is the link to the games Steam store listing.

Continue reading: 'Hades' will soon make its way to Steam after Epic Store exclusivity (full post)