Quite a bit's happened this past week. Let's get to it!
Jon Stewart's Leaving the Daily Show
I should probably start with one of the more depressing news bits of the past while, and that is that Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, will be leaving sometime later this year. I've never talked about either Jon or Daily Show, so this inclusion may seem a bit unusual. The truth is however, I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for both. These are strange times indeed when the most trusted news source is in fact a largely comedy and satire-focused program. But The Daily Show made not only legitimate and eye-opening reports, but also made the stranger news digestible for someone like myself: a 20-something Canadian. Demographics be damned, I've always enjoyed the program, and Jon's seamless and fast-paced approach to the ridiculousness of the going-on's in the world. Both are something of an inspiration. Jon's comedy and style has always been grounded and logical, and he always feels genuine. He and The Daily Show have always felt, as conversely as it might sound, authentic.
Not only that, but The Daily Show has procured numerous amazing talents like John Oliver, Jessica Williams, Samantha Bee, Asaif Mandvi, and of course Stephen Colbert. And if you look into the roster of former correspondants, you might find several familiar high-profile folk. The Daily Show's proponent to foster talent is one of the standout features of an already impressive program. Because of this, I feel that when the unfortunate time comes to choose a replacement, there's definitely a large pool to draw from.
Spider-Man
While it had long been rumoured following the lacklustre performance of Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the Sony leaks, it's now official: SPIDER-MAN'S COMING BACK TO MARVEL! Yes, in an utterly crowd-pleasing move, it was announced that Marvel and Sony will now effectively share joint-custody of my favourite superhero, Spider-Man, after more than a decade of Sony's ownership. This...will probably seem confusing to those unfamiliar with comic book licenses and such. After all, Spider-Man's already part of Marvel, right? Well...yes and no. Marvel has always kept the rights to Spider-Man in print and merchandising, but not in film.
See, long before Marvel would helm its own film company and create the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many of the film rights to their characters were sold off. This is why the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies are distributed by Fox, and why Sony Pictures has been responsible for Spider-Man since the early 2000's. But now that Marvel Studios is in full swing of the MCU, there's bound to be conflicts and problems with licenses and such, due to character crossover from the original comic material. Case in point, the thorny issue of Quicksilver -- a character both in Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the upcoming Marvel Studios Avengers: Age of Ultron. It's...strange, to say the least. See, Quicksilver is both the son of Magneto, and thus a mutant (X-Men)...but also an Avenger (MCU). So what does this mean? Well they're both played by different actors, for one. In the case of the Fox movies, he has a different backstory. No Avengers association. In the Marvel movies, Quicksilver, and his twin sister, Scarlet Witch, also have different back-stories, and are not called mutants. Rather, they are referred to as miracles...or in the future, Inhumans, if I had to venture a small guess...
Way off topic. My bad. Anyway, this has meant that Spider-Man, normally a big player in any Avenger's storyline in the comics, has been unable to interact with any other character outside his own series. But now, this new partnership between Sony and Marvel means that Spider-Man can now be in MCU movies, have his own standalone movie (yes...another one), with plans to include characters from the MCU in such a movie. Sony ultimately still has a final say in the matter, creatively, but now Marvel's brought in their talents to finally help out with the struggling series. One of the worst kept film industry secrets, which the Sony leaks helped prove, was that Sony Japan was royally pissed at the poor performance both critically and commercially of Amazing Spider-Man 2, and practically begged the overseas film section to strike a deal with Marvel, who have thus far proven themselves more than capable of handling superhero-based movies. In the end, it's a win-win for both studios. Sony still gets a cut of the action, and Marvel gets Spidey back.
And, personally, I am very happy with that!
New Studio By Ex-Rare Employees!
The UK based studio Rare was once the greatest second-party developer of its time. Then known as Rareware, the studio created numerous masterpieces on the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 such as the Donkey Kong Country games and Donkey Kong 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct, Conker's Bad Fur Day and more. The Golden Age of Rareware is possibly my most nostalgic period of gaming, and easily one of the most memorable. The story of Rare is worthy of its own devoted piece, but for now, all you need to know is that in 2002 Microsoft outright bought Rare, and from there the Golden Age dwindled away. The Rare that was once a centrepiece of quality has been relegated to Kinect Sports titles, having lost many of its original members and becoming a shell of what it once was.
However in September of 2012, a Twitter account called MingyJongo (from a character in Banjo-Tooie) was created by several former Rare employees to gauge interest in a brand new game from the minds that inhabited Rare's Golden Age. Sadly at the beginning of 2013, several of the members told the gaming press that such a task was no longer possible, because of current jobs and logistics. The dream was, for a time, dashed.
But on December 21, 2014, a full two years after the account had been last active, the MingyJongo account tweeted a cryptic "*Ctrl*", before following with "*Alt*" and "*Del*" in the following days, before issuing a new tweet on Jan 24 of this year, 2015, with "Installing update 0x1D597". Finally, after several more similarly cryptic tweets, on Feb 10 the account was renamed Playtonic Games, now with an active website, which currently showcases bio's of several former Rare employees -- who are now fully committed to making a spiritual sequel to the Banjo series.
OH. MY. GOD.
So a rough road, yes, but wow! The excitement!! While the hopes of a literal sequel to the Banjo games (Nuts & Bolts doesn't count) is now effectively moot, something akin to what Mighty No. 9 is to Mega Man is a thrilling thought.
Bethesda's E3 Conference
Now this is interesting! Bethesda, the publisher and developer responsible for the Elder Scrolls games and Fallout 3, among others, has announced that they will be hosting an E3 conference of their own when E3 begins later this June. To be clear, Bethesda has never hosted their own conference before, and this has lead many to assume that there will be some particularly big game announcements and reveals--chief among these, the long awaited - and unannounced - Fallout 4. It's only February, and excitement for E3 has already begun brewing!
E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a yearly event that focuses on video game companies and their selections of software and hardware. It's arguably the biggest game-related event of the year, where developers and publishers show off their new software and hardware to the eager press. E3 consists of press conferences of the big companies, followed by several days of event coverage of roundtables, and the show floor, where games ready for demonstration can be played or observed. The press conferences that Bethesda is now a part of consists of Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo (via their, rather smart I might add, Nintendo Direct), EA, and Ubisoft, and since press conferences are held to showcase multiple games and demonstrations, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that Bethesda has something big up their sleeve! What better way to make a memorable debut conference?
I do hope a Fallout 4 is among the titles, but apart from that, several games expected to make an appearance include the new and rebooted Doom (YES!), Battlecry, a free-to-play multiplayer game, and I suspect, a possible update on The Elder Scrolls Online. But June is still a few months away yet, so in the meantime, let the speculation begin!
