Category: Rumour Mill

  • What We’re Looking Forward To In 2021

    What We’re Looking Forward To In 2021

    If there’s anything that everyone here is looking forward to, it’s got to be a vaccine and maybe, just maybe, the world getting back to normal. That being said, we’re only a few days into 2021 and we’ve already gotten Bean Dad, an attempted coup in the United States, and a multiple numbers of record deaths… so perhaps those hopes are in vain. It hasn’t even been a week yet, you don’t need to spend so much time telling last year to hold your beer, 2021!

    Still, there’s plenty of stuff to look forward to. From Marvel streaming on Disney+ to video games finally showing up on the next generation consoles, there’s stuff coming in 2021 even if it’s hard to remember in the day-to-day. It’s still early, and it’s already been a long year, but hey, we need something to look forward to, right?

    ACE

    I remember a couple of things I was looking forward to last year: getting a PlayStation 5, Metroid Prime 4, and Wonder Woman 1984. Well, I got my PS5 and burned through the only launch title I wanted to play (Miles Morales) in short order. I might pick up Demon’s Souls but other than that, the number of available PS5 games that is pretty low so it’s good time for me to work on my backlog. I don’t have anything on pre-order so this may be the year. As far as Metroid Prime 4, I didn’t expect the game to launch but wanted at least some kind of news or trailer or something, ANYTHING really. I’m chomping at the bit for that one. There’s a rumor that Metroid Prime 1-3 would be released as an HD collection for the Switch. I would love for that to be true. And Wonder Woman was… less than stellar.

    Looking forward to 2021, let’s see here… as far as video games go, I guess I’d still welcome anything Metroid-related. That may just be something that will permanently reside on this sort of list. Returnal on PS5 is coming out near my birthday. Stray is from a studio that I am paying more attention to (Annapurna Interactive). Gran Turismo 7 for PS5 will get me back into that series again. I’m sure there are going to be other games sprinkled about here and there, but those are what immediately come to mind.

    Even Neo knew there’d be a fourth movie.

    Movies are no longer a regular activity for me. It’s just not the same now, you know. They used to be an event, something to put on the calendar, maybe meet up with some friends to go see, you know, something to plan. But now, it’s taken the same role as a streaming tv service. I just kind of get around to it whenever I can. It’s just not the same anymore. I know there are some high profile, big blockbuster movies slated for 2021, but it just doesn’t hold the same draw for me. Matrix 4 might be the only one I half pay attention to when it becomes available.

    For TV, I’m hoping Stranger Things will be on the schedule for this year but wouldn’t be surprised in the least if it’s been delayed. The Book of Boba Fett looks promising. Actually, Star Wars Media in general looks pretty promising. My interest in the Star Wars universe has definitely turned around and is on the rise because of The Mandalorian show. God bless Favreau and Filoni. I may even read one of the new High Republic books or play Fallen Jedi.

    There are some board games I supported on Kickstarter that will be coming out this year assuming there are no further delays: Frosthaven which I mentioned in the previous post, Terraforming Mars Big Box set, and Sleeping Gods by Ryan Laukat. And in the past few days since I started my portion of this post to now, Nick showed me this: The Animation Collection from CMON on Kickstarter. I wholly blame him for my bank account dipping a little lower. The other thing I’m looking forward to is playing more board games with the family.

    As far as LEGO, I tend to stay away from rumors, and this weird place I’m in with the hobby doesn’t seem to be changing. I’ve made a pledge this year though to see if I can find that spark again. We’ll see how that goes.

    ERIC

    I love the way Ace described movies above: something to get around to. In my endless struggle to remove the anxiety of choice from my life, I’ve created something much, much worse.

    This horrible, ever-growing List.

    The List. 311 movies and counting. I’ve had this list since 2017 and it’s grown by 10 movies every month or so. So for 2021, I’m not looking forward to any new movies. I don’t think I physically can. I need to make up some serious ground on this list, or I will drown in a vat of unseen movies.

    Video games, though, are free reign. That backlog will keep getting bigger.

    Elden. Ring. From. Software. I will play any game these guys make without question. This one’s supposed to be open world, with lore by George R. R. Martin, and while both of those sound like buzzwords from 2015, I trust From Software to deliver a unique and fast paced experience.

    Hitman 3 will literally be more of the same, and that’s not a bad thing. Six more extremely detailed levels with tons of choice in how to complete a mission. I’m still waiting to see any Hitman level beat the thrill of the Paris fashion show mission, and if there were ever a time, it would be at the conclusion of the trilogy.

    Now, if someone could tell me why IOI went with Roman numerals for this one when Hitman 2 used English numerals.

    Deathloop, like Hitman, is my favorite type of game. You’re given a mission, and you complete it however you see fit. In this case, you have to figure out how to murder eight people before the day resets. It’s like Metal Gear Solid V and The Outer Wilds (two of my favorite games) combined. Oh, and you’re being hunted by an assassin.

    I have mixed feelings towards Arkane Studios’ games. I loved Prey, and while I like Dishonored in concept, I don’t think stealth works particularly well in first person. Still, with a gameplay loop as solid as Deathloop, I have little doubt this game’s gonna be great.

    It took me so long to get confident enough to play Resident Evil 7. I kept hearing how scary it was. But I played it, and in retrospect I should have had more faith in Capcom. Resident Evil has gone through so many weird tonal changes, but now that it’s back in its stride with RE7, RE2R, and RE3R, I’m all in for more Resident Evil.

    I just hope Jill or Claire show up. I’m sick of Chris.

    The only Kickstarter I ever funded, I’ve been keeping an eye on Little Devil Inside for the better part of a decade. I’m so happy to see it shown off for PS5. I’m still not 100% sure what the game itself is about, but the visual comedy and art style are extremely eye-catching. It looks so interesting that I’m getting this on day one.

    I like Left 4 Dead. I like World War Z. It’s more of the same. I can’t wait to dip into this with my friends.

    So here’s hoping there won’t be another pandemic that will delay a bunch of games.

    NICK

    What’s it count for when most of the things I was looking forward to last year didn’t actually come out? Hellblade II: Seluna’s Saga wasn’t a launch title, as I’d originally guessed, and they’ve been really cagey about giving a release date or any sort of sizable preview… so who knows. There’s the next Halo, which got delayed to this year, but I’ve never been a big Halo player. It’s a fine series, but not something I’d buy a console for (I’m in the minority for that, though).

    Maybe I’ll be able to get a PlayStation 5 at some point this year, and actually play a few of the upcoming games. I haven’t gotten around to Miles Morales yet, and there’s the upcoming Horizon 2 and a new God of War title (though I’ll be shocked if that actually shows up), as well as the now Microsoft-owned PS5 exclusive Deathloop. Everwild is supposedly targeted for this year, but there’s been little to show up.

    Honestly, though, the only game I’m sort of excited to get this year is, bizarrely, a Bioware and EA title…

    I mean, yeah, EA sucks. And I’ve played all of these games dozens of times… they are some of my favorite games of all time. It remains to be seen if they’ll be making updates and tweaks, or just uprezzing (here’s hoping for some retconning of that ending). At a minimum, hopefully they level out the control scheme between the games, similar to what Naughty Dog did with their Uncharted remaster.

    For TV, it’s going to be a Marvel sort of year. WandaVision kicks off the year in a week, followed by Falcon and the Winter Soldier in March and Loki in May, and likely several more shows after that.

    There may be a billion Star Wars projects in development, but none are scheduled to be on the service until December at the earliest as of right now (Bad Batch may show up sooner, but they’ve not announced a date other than “2021” for it). Of course, there are a lot of other media for Star Wars, with comics and the new High Republic books. I picked up Light of the Jedi last night, and started reading it, and may come around for a little book review on it to talk about the new property.

    With boardgames… is it weird that I’ve already paid for most of the board games I’m really excited for this year. I backed a few on Kickstarter last year that are scheduled for release in 2021… CMON’s Massive Darkness 2 (which will also come with some optional Zombicide tie-ins) and Resident Evil 3 come to mind. Both of them were for the minis more than the game, but still should be fun to play as well.

    I’ve never been especially interested in a regular bonsai tree, but this seems to be one that’d look nice and be fairly easy to care for.

    For LEGO… I got nothing. I’ve made no secret that LEGO just doesn’t excite me all that much anymore, and I don’t pay that close of attention to upcoming releases unless I have to post them. If I was going to pick something that I may buy, it’s already come out… the botanical sets that were part of the start of the year.

    I’m looking forward to 2021 surprising me, and hopefully starting to do it with something other than horror. There’s hope the pandemic will end, hope that maybe Canada will finally annex the US and help us get things in order, and hope that there will be plenty of good shows to stream between now and the zombie apocalypse that’s scheduled for October.

  • Episode VIII Production Stills, Rebel One Mini-Spoilers

    Episode VIII Production Stills, Rebel One Mini-Spoilers

    I’ve been a bit lax in keeping up with all of the various spoiler-stuff for Episode VIII and Rogue One. Maybe because I can’t help but watch that Rogue One trailer and get all kinds of shudders. The excitement I have for Episode VII is still there, so I really want to go into VIII with a mind of mystery and surprise (the same thing I’m trying to do for Civil War this week, but all the promo spots are making it so hard).

    Last week, Daily Mail posted several non-spoilerific pictures of the studio currently under construction for Episode VIII: More All of the Money in the UK. There are some location things that could be considered a spoiler if you drink a lot and squint really hard, but I’ll put them below the fold anyway…

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  • 2016 Star Wars Set Images found in Finn Polybag

    2016 Star Wars Set Images found in Finn Polybag

    Eagle-eyed readers over at Brickset came across some pictures of a couple of new Polybags, one featuring Finn in Stormtrooper armor. A couple of days later, a copy of the Finn minifigure was found in the wild, and included an insert with pictures of the 2016 sets. Several of these we’ve already seen in leaked pictures or lists, but this is the first not-at-all-official but not-really-a-leak picture we’ve seen of the sets. The battle packs, in particular, look pretty interesting, and I look forward to torturing myself reviewing all of them next year.

  • To The Batmobile!

    To The Batmobile!

    Now that we’re done with the 80’s, let’s head back to the 60’s. There have been rumours floating for some time now that there will be a D2C Classic Batman Series Batcave released next year. As much as I DO NOT want to spend that kind of dough on such a set, I’d be hard pressed not to sell some blood to get my hands on an official ’66 Batmobile complete with Adam West and Burt Ward Batman & Robin.

    Until we see what may unfold, I’ll just have to drool over this lovely beast, by flailx. There are some nice techniques used here for shaping and even if I could do without all the stickers, it still looks great.

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    Pure. West.

  • Captain America: Civil War Picks Sides. I’m #teamsharon all the way

    Captain America: Civil War Picks Sides. I’m #teamsharon all the way

    Captain America: Civil War, still shaping up to be Avengers 2.5 because it stars everyone not named Thor (unless perhaps Sharon is found worthy), and the information keeps rolling out. Principle shooting wrapped up a week or two ago, and while this isn’t “official” in the sense that it’s from Marvel, it’s been tweeted about by Jeremy Renner, and if Hawkeye thinks it’s cool, it’s obviously cool. You can see the art after the fold, because it’s slightly spoilery, unless, you know, you go with basic common sense and/or have read the comics. Except in one pretty surprising member of Team Drinks Too Much, that is…

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  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens Set Images

    Star Wars: The Force Awakens Set Images

    Update: Images removed at the request of TLG. No matter. We’ll be able to get our hands on the sets soon enough on Force Friday.

    Well, let’s see how long these are around before we get the request to un-ring a bell. We’ve seen bits and pieces show up for things. All of the Star Wars LEGO sets for Force Awakens (that we know of) are supposed to hit on Force Friday (September 4th). I’m going to be honest… there is a whole lot of awesome on these sets. I was already fairly excited to see the movie, but now I’m excited to see the movie and get the toys! See all of the images and some comments below the fold, because there are a couple of reveals in here.

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  • Force Awakens Rumors, News, and other Stuff

    Force Awakens Rumors, News, and other Stuff

    The lead-up to Episode VII continues to build, and we’re only a few weeks away from the flood of all the spoilers once we hit Force Friday. For those who haven’t been following, Force Friday is the primary evidence that Star Wars merchandising has gotten entirely out of control. Episode VII goes on sale September 4th at 12:01 AM, with stores supposedly opening at midnight to cheat crazy people out of their money. LEGO is in the mix for part of it, so they’ll have the Force Awakens sets that have been floating around in leaks. We can’t really cover or picture them here right now, as the lawyer squad has been in force to anyone that shares them (and they still don’t understand how this internet thing works).

     

    For those who lived through the nightmare that was Television during the prequels, or has ever seen how Disney takes over the airways when they have something coming out, there is a sense of terror that every single possible tie that can go into a commercial ever is coming our way. In fact, they announced seven new marketing deals that are going to get us. I’m excited for a more diverse and varied Star Wars cast… but will admit that the tie-in for Covergirl and Max-Factor tells me that Disney is still going to be awful in this. The Duracell one makes sense, because we’re going to get a whole lot of commercials with lightsabers.

    Putting some more news and rumors after the fold, for those who want to avoid some possible spoilers…

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  • LEGO’s War on our Wallets escalates with new Dimensions Images

    LEGO’s War on our Wallets escalates with new Dimensions Images

    Well, that escalated quickly. Everyone analyzed the various shadows in the Dimensions reveal and guessed it was Portal and Doctor Who and who knows what else… but apparently someone screwed up and put the instructions up and they were noticed over on Brickset.

    The Jurassic World set is especially exciting, since the Chris Pratt figure, since he’s only available in overpriced sets (which I suppose describes the entire line). But, let’s not kid ourselves, this is the pack that will sucker so many of us into this game:

    17315808300_00423f086d_o

    I am saddened by the lack of a cake, but a Turret and Companion Cube tiles and Chell and K-9 and the modern doctor I care for the least… SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

    17501269542_2f9f0f8823_o

    There’s also a a Simpsons set with Homer and what I assume is a Buzz Cola can (because let’s face it, that’d be both inapprops and awesome). Marty and a Hoverboard we already knew about, but still cool to see.

    We also get images for the rest of the initial lineup, including a bunch of Ninjago, Chima, and Simpsons. Also the Wicked Witch of the West, because why not?

     

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  • New Batch of Episode 7 Concept Art “Leaks” – Possible Spoilers!

    New Batch of Episode 7 Concept Art “Leaks” – Possible Spoilers!

    I’m going with quotation marks because at this point, I don’t think that a lot of the information is escaping without the knowledge of JJ and team. A user going by themilleniumfalcon has uploaded a whole bunch of pictures of Episode 7 concept art to Imagr. I’ve pulled them here in case they cease to be there. This is the same guy who leaked the pictures of the Stormtrooper helmet awhile back. Be warned, unfounded opinions, references to crazy rumors, and generally blurry pictures of things that may or may not end up in the movie.

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  • Marvel Roundup: New GotG Posters, Strange Rumours, Casting The Kingpin & More

    Marvel Roundup: New GotG Posters, Strange Rumours, Casting The Kingpin & More

    grootrocketraccoon1-a45a7

    Our reviews of the Guardians Of The Galaxy sets not enough to tide you over until the movie comes out? Need more Gamora, Rocket and Groot in your life? Of course you do, so here are the newly released character posters to give you an even better look at them.

    hardy

    Rumours are rampant about the casting of brilliant neurosurgeon turned Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Stephen Strange since the announcement of the (technically still officially unannounced) movie’s director dropped last week. One rumor that has gained steam is that Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch are the front runners for the role. I could see Cumberbatch, but as much as I like Hardy, I can’t see him in the role. It could be some time until we start getting much solid info, but perhaps it will start to flow when SDCC rolls around. Fingers crossed.

    ant-man_01

    More news on the Ant Man front as the film has found another director after Adam McKay left the job at virtually the same moment it was stated he was the frontrunner. Peyton Reed, director of Yes Man and Bring It On, has taken the director’s chair (for the moment), but Adam McKay will stay on to do a rewrite on Edgar Wright’s script for the film. Not encouraging. Especially when you consider the film is due out on July 17th of next year, and hasn’t started rolling. I certainly hope this film about a scientist who invents a suit that lets him shrink down to the size of an insect won’t require too much in the special effects post production department.

    kingpin-bar-640

    Meanwhile, over at Netflix, Daredevil has found its villain. Marvel has revealed that Vincent D’Onofrio will play Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin in the upcoming series and I’d bet he’ll pop up in other shows/movies too. He is described as “a powerful businessman whose interests in the future of Hell’s Kitchen will bring him into conflict with the blind attorney Matt Murdock and his alter ego Daredevil.” Sounds like the Fisk comic fans are familiar with and I’m optimistic about this show more and more. D’Onofrio has the skills to bring the Kingpin to life with a vengeance and for anyone concerned about the characters size… I wouldn’t wish the appropriate weight gain needed on any actor. I’m sure he’ll be fine.

    Oh, and in the time it took me to put this together, they released the posters for Star Lord and Drax.
    So, yeah.

    drax-poster-600x875starlordgotgposter-3c5cd

    With the MCU growing at such a rapid pace, I think you can start expecting these roundups on a more frequent basis.
    You’ve been warned.