LOS ANGELES (Wednesday, October 19, 2016) – ScareLA, the summer Halloween convention, is excited to announce the dates for its fifth year event. Faithful to its tradition of kicking off the scare season early among thousands of fright-loving fans in Los Angeles, ScareLA will return on August 5-6, 2017.
Debuting in 2013, ScareLA is the first fan convention dedicated to celebrating the spirit of Halloween. The event has become a mecca for horror lovers on the West Coast and beyond extending the Halloween season through the summer. Attracting nearly 12,000 attendees in 2016, ScareLA is one of the fastest growing independent conventions in the U.S. to-date.
“We are thrilled to announce our 2017 dates today with our favorite holiday, Halloween, just around the corner,” said Lora Ivanova, ScareLA Executive Producer and Founder. “ScareLA, has solidified itself as the premier destination for a fast-growing audience which loves, lives and works in the scare entertainment industry. Built to bring people together to create and inspire, we could not be prouder of our community this season and are eager to share further 2017 plans as they unfold.”
Situated in the entertainment capital of the world, ScareLA spotlights the rich Southern California scare industry and community, from its iconic seasonal theme park events, to haunted attractions, home haunts, theater, film, escape rooms, interactive experiences and more.
For more information, visit www.scarela.com or follow ScareLA on social media at www.facebook.com/ScareLAcon, Twitter and Instagram. Join the conversation using #ScareLA.
October 19, 2016 – To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the launch of Star Wars Battlefront, we’re excited to announce that Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Ultimate Edition will be available as a boxed retail product in stores this November. This special edition of the game includes everything you need to expand your galaxy and live out your ultimate Star Wars™ battle fantasies. The Ultimate Edition includes Star Wars Battlefront Deluxe Edition, as well as the Season Pass and its four expansion packs: Outer Rim, Bespin, Death Star and Rogue One: Scarif. Combined, that’s over 30 maps, 14 heroes and 14 game modes.
Also coming this holiday, players can put themselves in the cockpit of an X-wing with PlayStation VR in the Star WarsTM BattlefrontTM Rogue OneTM: X-wing VR Mission, free to all owners of Star Wars™ Battlefront™.
Head to the blog to learn about more in-game events and giveaways coming up in Star Wars Battlefront this holiday.
October 19, 2016 — The Royal Navy may have been on the horizon for some time, but now the branch of 10 British light cruisers are finally ready to set sail in World of Warships. The line of British cruisers consists of agile, stealthy vessels, making them perfect for rushing headlong into objectives, while singing “Rule, Britannia”. They are excellent at hunting destroyers, and their low detectability and rapid-firing guns make them efficient in encounters with more “neutral” cruisers. Combine this with their excellent torpedo armament and the smoke screen ability, and you’ll be able to punch a hole through well-armored foes.
“The Royal Navy has such a rich history and we’ve had our sights set on including her line in the game for a while,” said Artur Plociennik, World of Warships Global Publishing Producer. “Because we respect its history so much, we wanted to ensure we had every detail down, to create an exceptional player experience.”
Begin your journey through the Tech Tree in the Tier I Black Swan, and as you work your way up through every tier, from the Leander to the Edinburgh, keep your eyes locked on the end goal: The Tier X Minotaur. She was the epitome of design for light cruisers at the beginning of the postwar period. In addition to her compact dimensions, maneuverability, and low detectability, this cruiser boasts an amazing firing rate, and her dual-purpose guns provide a superior AA engagement area radius. Also, who can forget that a formidable advantage of the Royal Navy is their torpedoes? They have the option to fire singularly from multiple tube launchers. Make sure you get the most out these legends.
Lastly, players who have reached Account Level 4 in the game will find containers with some mystery booty inside. All you have to do to haul up these treasures is simply play the game.
Now, stick the kettle on, whip out the scones, and take a British cruiser for a spin.
For the latest information, visit the official World of Warships website:
Oslo, Norway – October 19th, 2016 – Funcom, the independent developer and publisher of PC and console games behind games such as ‘The Longest Journey’, ‘Age of Conan’, ‘The Park’, and ‘The Secret World’, announced today that its new game ‘Hide and Shriek’ will launch on Steam on October 25th, and as of today the game is available for pre-purchase through the Steam page. Also released today is the first gameplay video showing two players scaring each other half to death!
‘Hide and Shriek’ is a one vs. one multiplayer game where players collect points and scare the other player through the use of spells, traps, and jump scares. Players can summon dark demons, set up elaborate traps, and jump out of hiding to scare each other senseless. The catch is that you are both invisible, and in order to find and scare the other player you must observe telltale signs such as doors opening or objects flying through the air, or trick them into clever traps that will reveal their position.
“We’re very excited to finally show off how the game actually looks and plays,” says Game Director Romain Amiel. “We’ve had people test the game recently, and they all struggle to compare it to other games. The simple truth is that ‘Hide and Shriek’ offers something new and different, and as a team we’re very proud to be bringing that to gamers. You have to experience it for yourself.”
‘Hide and Shriek’ will be available On October 25th on Steam, and will be fully localized to German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese languages. For more information, please visit www.hideandshriekgame.com. Streamers and press eager to play the game can get in touch with Funcom directly to receive access.
October 18, 2016 – Today, Respawn Entertainment released the Titanfall 2: Official Single Player Gameplay Trailer. Titanfall 2 Single Player features Jack Cooper, a 3rd Class militia rifleman with aspirations of becoming a Pilot and a Vanguard class Titan BT-7274. When the Frontier heats up, Jack and BT must combine their abilities and risk everything to survive together against overwhelming odds. Read more about the Titanfall 2 Single Player campaign on the blog here.
NEW YORK, NY, October 18, 2016 – Rockstar Games®, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce that the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2® will release worldwide in Fall 2017 for PlayStation®4 computer entertainment systems and for the Xbox One games and entertainment system.
Developed by the creators of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale of life in America’s unforgiving heartland. The game’s vast and atmospheric world will also provide the foundation for a brand new online multiplayer experience.
“With Red Dead Redemption 2, the team is working hard to push forward our vision for interactive entertainment in a truly living world,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We hope to deliver players an epic experience that builds upon everything we’ve learned making games.”
Watch the Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, Thursday October 20that www.rockstargames.com.
This year’s Sinister Pointe haunted attraction is titled “Fear the Mark” and, in the narrative, takes place right after their very entertaining, pre-season “Seance” haunted experience. Apparently, the resident medium opened a portal into four hell dimensions and it’s up to you to find your way through to safety. Depending on which demon you get “assigned” in a small Tarot card reading moment, you will get access to special “key rooms” just for that demon throughout the haunted attraction. This means that you have four possible configurations of the attraction to experience. This is a great concept, and when I first heard about it back at Midsummer Scream I was excited because of its ingenuity.
We got the chance to go through each of the demon experiences during our visit to Sinister Pointe. Our favorite of the four configurations was the demon “Rebus” – so if your medium pulls that Tarot card for you, expect fun things. Each of the demon paths offer something different in their special key rooms, some requiring guests to crawl, move through tight spaces, sometimes a combination of the two – and more. In typical Sinister Pointe fashion, they manage to pull a couple cool tricks out of their bag that I had not seen before in other haunted attractions.
Unfortunately, a few big problems plague the 2016 Sinister Pointe Haunted Attraction. The first of these is a strange disparity of of high and low production value when it comes to rooms inside the maze. Some look absolutely great – in fact, the first real room you enter has a creepy medium hand you a Tarot-style card with one of the four demons featured on it. This room has amazing decoration and design and was a high mark to set when just entering the experience. However, some rooms look really bad – mostly when considering the level of work Sinister Pointe is capable of (and has delivered) in past experiences. The best of the worst example for this is a central room that resembles a sort of skate park with a wedge/ramp in the middle that a monster can slide across. The walls of this black light lit room feature haphazardly spray-painted neon outlines of doors, not making a whole lot of sense. I don’t know if they just ran out of time or money or whatever – but this disparity of quality definitely shows. Finally, it didn’t feel as though there were many monsters in the maze – I would like to see more in there to scare guests. To their credit, the monsters that were inside the maze were doing their very best and delivering good creep-factor and jump scares where able, so big kudos to them as those monsters are going to make or break Sinister Pointe’s attraction this year.
A ticket for one time through the Sinister Pointe Haunted Attraction can be purchased for about $24 dollars. An “all-night”, pass which allows trips throughout every demon key room configuration, can be purchased for about $34 dollars. When we break down the cost of the all night ticket, it comes out to about $8 per demon – a really nice value considering the cost of one demon ticket is $24 dollars. Also, please note that tickets are sold in the front side of the shopping center that Sinister Pointe is located in while the actual entrance to the haunted attraction is located around the back of the center.
Overall, Sinister Pointe’s 2016 haunted attraction is an entertaining time so long as you pick up up the ticket allowing you access to all four demon paths in the maze. It’s a bit more expensive than the one-time through ticket, but well worth it as you will see all the special key rooms they have to offer.
Sinister Pointe 1851 W. Orangethorpe Ave. Fullerton, California
You can find out more about Sinister Pointe including ticket information at their official website.
Summon Entertainment’s first tabletop game offering is Epic Roll. The premise of the game is that up to three players (a Warrior, Wizard, and Ranger/Elf) are attempting to defeat the Necromancy-wielding Lich that has polluted the land with monsters and undead creatures. However, killing this Lich is not easy, and players will have to fight through hordes of his minions to reach their target. The basic play sequence for a round is that a player will move one battle space forward towards the Lich, then roll an encounter die. This encounter die has various creatures on each side – creatures like ghouls, mummies, and more. Whatever that die turns up will be the creature the player battles for this space. Each creature has its own health level and two clear gems are placed on each. After this, it’s a simple matter of rolling dice – the hero’s die and the creature’s die. Whatever the dice land on is what action was performed. Actions can be a critical attack, basic attack, defenses, and misses – with each hero die having a different combination of these actions. For instance, the Wizard die is capable of a lot of damage but lacks any defense at all, whereas the Elf’s die is loaded with defense but lower damage. The basic monster die never changes, at least until the player “levels up” by reaching the midway point on his or her journey to the Lich.
Once a level up occurs, that player will roll a new “power die” as well as different set of encounter and monster dice – making things a lot more challenging. The new power die for leveled up characters is rolled along with their hero die and, if landing star side up, triggers the player characters “special ability”. These abilities are based on the player class and can turn the tide of a losing battle. These dice rolls continue, with the clear health gems being moved in the negative as attacks land until the player or monster is dead. If the player dies, they go back to the beginning or, if they have leveled up, the level up battle space. If the player wins, the move once step closer to the Lich and their health resets. Once the player reaches the Lich, the monster gets its own power die as well, so watch out as that evil boss is tough!
After successfully defeating a creature, the player will also gain a treasure card. These treasure cards are able to be played during battle and can add extra damage or defense to a dice roll. There are also “counter spell” cards which can be played during another player’s combat – nullifying their card effect. So, you can kind of screw your friend in this, but that’s just part of the fun – will the players be nice to each other? Who knows!
It should be noted that the first thing I noticed when opening the nicely-compact Epic Roll game box (the box also doubles as a dice cage FYI) were the graphics on the fold-open game board. Visually, Epic Roll has a clean sensibility with crisp graphics on both its game board and cards. In contrast to these crisp graphics, the player avatars are simple colored gems, but those could technically be swapped out with any D&D or Pathfinder mini-figure if so desired. However, despite their simplicity, the gems fit in with the game board well and are easy to keep track of thanks to each gem being color coded to its player class.
Overall, Summon Entertainment’s Epic Roll is indeed an epic roll of a time – especially for people who don’t have several hours to spend with their tabletop gaming sessions. Epic Roll is easy to learn, with plenty of advanced options for those desiring them, making it a great game for young and old geeks alike. The game retails for a reasonable $24.99 and is available now.
Stockholm – 17th October, 2016 – Paradox Interactive today released a new feature spotlight video outlining some of the upcoming features that players can expect with the release of Leviathans on the 20th October. Stellaris Game Director Martin Anward talks us through the mysterious and formidable Guardians, reclusive Enclaves, and the potentially world-shattering War in Heaven.
Also, starting today players are able to pre-order their copy of Stellaris: Leviathans exclusively from the Paradox Interactive store here.
