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The Rock is Chicago's only hope in 'Rampage'
After years of chatter, we're finally getting a look at the movie adaptation of the classic arcade game Rampage. It stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (!!!) and Naomie Harris. The project was announced way back in 2011 and Johnson signed on in 2015, but this is our first glimpse at it. It looks like... about what you'd expect from a movie about a trio of overgrown monsters destroying major cities, and is helmed by San Andreas director Brad Peyton.
The Rock will fight a giant gorilla in a 'Rampage' film
Just after rescuing his family from The Big One in San Andreas, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is set to save the world in a film adaptation of Midway's arcade classic Rampage, Deadline reports. Now, you might wonder how a game about a giant gorilla, lizard and wolf destroying cities could be turned into a film, but really, what more do you need than The Rock versus giant monsters? After being first announced back in 2011, it finally looks like the Rampage film is getting off the ground. New Line is still looking for a director, but we hope they settle on someone comfortable with plenty of glorious destruction (more Pacific Rim than San Andreas, please). Production is set to begin next summer, which means we'll likely see the film during 2017's peak popcorn movie season.
Champions Online's rampage revamp goes live
Rampages are all the rage in Champions Online, as Cryptic has pushed live a patch to both revamp several old ones and add in a new rampage to the mix. The revamped rampages include the UNTIL Sky Command, Gravitar, and the Lemurian Invasion, while the new one is called Fire and Ice. Rampages rotate every three days, offering players a different challenging experience and a shot at Justice gear and costume pieces. With the patch, Champions Online also added in new private queues, a Magic Girl costume set, and the petal cloud aura. The latter two are available through the in-game store.
Massively exclusive: Champions Online gears up for a rampage
Are you ready to go on a rampage in Champions Online? Good, because there's a big Rampage revamp on its way to the game that should provide players with a lot of new things to do. Three missions are getting a full redo with rewards and challenges tweaked, and a brand-new Rampage is being added to the game, giving veteran players a chance to group up and pit themselves against the toughest opponents Millennium City and points related has to offer. The new Fire and Ice Rampage pits players against two villains originally designed by a player, and the title alone should give you some idea about what's coming. Meanwhile, the Gravitar, Lemurian Invasion, and Sky Carrier have been turned into proper Rampages with an updated set of items and costume pieces on offer. Check out the preview gallery, and click past the cut for all the details on this upcoming addition.
Blood Pact: A pewpewer's notes from tanking and healing
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill muses about tanking, healing, and why she really does play a DPS. I have a confession: I was once a tank. Technically I could have been half a tank, because I think I healed just as often, but once upon a time I rolled a druid with the intent of getting a melee DPS perspective. One night in Wrath of the Lich King, my first guild had some trouble with kiting the adds on Gluth. So we upped the tank count to 3: the paladin tank moved to the back for holy tag with the undead while the former-bear warrior walked me through my feral spellbook as I sat in bear form on that pipe. I think it was the extra Mauls that hooked me. I became a bear tank with a branch-waving offspec. I have fond memories of alt or PUG raids where I had cooldown-busting health pools and hero-bear resurrections between Gormok's death and the arena entrance of Acidmaw and Dreadscale. But as my guild tore apart in the beginnings of Icecrown Citadel, I've been back to pewpewing from the back as a warlock. My bear is merely an alt. But my bear has made my warlock a little stronger.
Dirt Showdown multiplayer demo(lition) available today
The demo for Dirt Showdown will be alive and kicking up dust on Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN today, Codemasters has announced. The demo includes the single-player mode's 8 Ball race, which runs by San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and the multiplayer Rampage mode. Rampage is an eight-player demolition derby where points are earned for crashes and take-outs.The Dirt Showdown demo also offers the first taste of RaceNet, a free online tracking and comparison extension for Codemasters racing games. Those who sign up for RaceNet get some special perks when the full game launches on May 25, including $20,000 of in-game currency. Yes, 20 big ones. Either that's an awesome bonus, or Dirt Showdown operates in a universe where everyone is a millionaire.
Report: Writer found for Rampage film adaptation
New Line Cinema has found someone to pen the script for its apparently still-forthcoming movie version of 1986's Midway arcade classic Rampage, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Described as a "relative newcomer" to script writing, Ryan Engle will be boiling the game down into a screenplay, while John Rickard of Nightmare on Elm Street and Final Destination 5 fame produces.Look, we're glad Mr. Engle is getting a paycheck out of this and everything, but we can't help but feel a little slighted. If you needed someone to write your Rampage movie, New Line, all you had to do was ask. Any one of us would have gladly done it for free.
New Line Cinema looking to turn Rampage into a movie
We can hardly think of a more gripping, dramatic story than people transformed into gigantic lizards, apes and wolves, who go about destroying skyscrapers, so we're happy to report that New Line has optioned Rampage for the silver screen. Just imagine it: a gigantic ape, palming a frightened blonde, descends a massive skyscraper -- oh, right, that already happened. Imagine a lizard then! Or a wolf! The Hollywood Reporter says John Rickard, who helped produce a plethora of New Line Cinema films, is currently shopping around for a writer to come up with a script. Frankly, there isn't a better ending we can come up with for this post than a person will be paid to write a Rampage movie.
Patch 3.3.3 PTR: Warrior changes
There's only two, but they're reasonably important. Revenge: Damage done by this ability (base and scaling) increased by 50%. Rampage: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc from critical strikes. We talked about Revenge this week, and while this change is fairly unexciting, it's still a sizable buff. 50% more base and scaling damage to the ability will definitely make it attractive to use again. I may even change my spec back to take Improved Revenge again. Then again, since I used to spend 2 talent points to get 20% more damage on Revenge and now I'll get 50% without spending them it may still be better to put those points somewhere else. The stun isn't terribly useful for boss tanking in most cases, although when it does work it's nice. The Rampage change, on the other hand, is what the ability always should have been. While a talented Leader of the Pack will still be better with its healing benefit, Rampage is now exactly as good as the baseline ability. I never understood making Rampage, an ability you have to spend quite a few talent points to get, inferior to one 10 points cheaper. Sure, it's nothing that's going to make or break the spec and it really should have been what we always had, but at least it's finally here.
N+ dev announces 'Office Yeti,' Robotology 'nowhere near complete'
We're pretty big fans of indie developer Metanet Software's first offering, N+. That may explain why we were so excited for the announcement of a second currently-in-development title on the company's blog -- Office Yeti. Another explanation could be that the game is about a freakin' yeti in an office. The game is still early in development and was only being worked on "part-time" until recently. Metanet teases Rampage and Skool Daze-inspired gameplay, calling it: "A single-player action/puzzle/simulation game in which players assume control of a yeti who works in an office." Magical! Unfortunately, it appears that we won't be seeing anything new on Robotology in the near future, as the developer is still working hard on having a playable entry for the IGF deadline this November. "Despite months and months of work, it's still nowhere near complete, but at the same time we've managed to get most of the vital parts figured out," Metanet says. Aside from the teasing of possible screenshots coming soon, it looks like we're not going to get anything new this year to play. Sometimes a taste of honey is worse than none at all. Source 1 - Metanet Source 2 - Metanet [Via Offworld]
Rampage battlegroup experiencing outages this afternoon
We're starting to get reports aplenty of the (North American) Rampage battlegroup having server outages at the moment, but the exact nature is... fuzzy, to say the least! The login server doesn't seem to be the usual culprit, since the problem is exclusive to Rampage thus far. Looking at the Tech Support forum, it doesn't look like Blizzard has given any updates on the situation beyond asking players to run a traceroute if they have the knowhow. If you're the sort that knows how to do something like that, please direct yourself to the official forums.Hopefully this outage doesn't last too long, because we're going to be quickly approaching Saturday primetime. That's definitely not a good time for server outages! If anything major comes of this, we'll be sure to let you guys know. If you all want to help us on that front, just keep us updated in the comments below if you're one of the unfortunate Rampage players. If you're not sure what battlegroup you're a part of and seem to be having server problems, the server list is behind the cut below.Update: The customer service forum has a far more useful thread. An investigation into the issues is ongoing. Thanks, siech0.
German Social Affairs minister calls for higher rating on World of Warcraft
Germany is reeling from a shooting rampage committed by a 17-year-old, and as happens in many of these situations, politicians are looking for answers to why a young man would do this to his community. One of the answers they've found so far is videogames. While we don't actually know if the young man played games or not (or what he played), Germany's Minister for Social Affairs Mechthild Ross-Luttmann is calling for a few games, World of Warcraft among them, to be moved up from an age 12+ rating to an adults-only classification.The tie between the shooter and WoW is slim. But a new study over there says that 50,000 to 60,000 minors could be classified as addicted to videogames. And the combination of the two events is causing Ross-Luttman to call for stronger ratings on "addictive" games like World of Warcraft. It's also interesting to note that in the US, the game is rated T by the ESRB, which actually calls for children 13 and up to play it, one year older than the German standard.But of course there are two conclusions here. First, every parent needs to take responsibility for what their younger children do: if these kids are addicted, parents need to step in and make sure things get straightened out. As a former employee of a gaming retail store, I can tell you that ratings only go so far. The responsibility has to lie with the parents. And secondly, while Ross-Luttmann is apparently using the shooting to try and push this agenda against addiction, the young man involved in the shooting was experiencing deep depression, and had access to firearms that he probably shouldn't have had. Changing game ratings is fine, but it won't do anything to help when you've got much bigger problems to deal with first.[via GamePolitics]
Many realms still down
The saga of the Rampage and Shadowburn (US) battlegroups continues. All realms in those battlegroups have been down since at least 11:00 AM EDT this morning. Blizzard says they're working on it, but so far all we've seen is an ETA given, which was promptly missed -- that ETA was 1:30 EDT. The new word is to expect an update roughly now; I'll be keeping my eye on it and will update this post if there's any news.Once again, the affected US realms are Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Garona, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Spinebreaker, Staghelm, Stormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, and Wildhammer.Zul'Jin is also reportedly down, as well as Burning Legion and Lothar; I'm unsure of the status of the rest of the Ruin and Vindication battlegroups.Update: It looks like Ruin and Vindication are down in their entirety. Meanwhile, Blizzard updated to let us know they're still working on it, and they expect the Rampage and Shadowburn realms to be up by around 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT.Update 2: Apparently the Ruin and Vindication issues are a hardware problem; Blizzard knows about it and expects to have those realms back up by 3 PM PDT/7 PM EDT.
Build Shop: Warrior 17/44
Every Tuesday (and sometimes Wednesday, when dealing with broken computers), Chris Jahosky contributes Build Shop, which takes a look into one of the many talent specs available to players.I'm sure some of you noticed that Build Shop went on an unscheduled vacation -- this was unfortunately due to the death of my old computer. My new computer is all set up and ready to go (and plays WoW better than ever), and so I'm now officially back on the scene. There was a lot of talk in the comments from last time about the RiP (Rogue in Plate) build, so this week I'm taking a look at it for those who are interested.RiPper builds (like 17/44, the one I'm examining) are so named because their DPS potential is quite close to rogues (hence, Rogue in Plate). It's a sustained damage build, similar to a combat spec Rogue, but because of their ability to wear plate (and a shield) have more survivability and off-tank potential. They're quite capable of inflicting incredible damage, and can be especially nasty when paired with a Shaman's Windfury totem.The Fury tree is utilized extensively for this build -- points are mostly put into Arms in order to grab Impale, which increases critical damage, but it also picks up a few nice talents for tanking and utility.
Church shooter kept away from video games
As has become standard practice now when a kid goes on a killing rampage, it's time to examine the life of Matthew Murray and see if video games had anything to do with the weekend's shootings in Colorado. Murray, who killed four people over the weekend in a couple of church shootings, was apparently not permitted to play video games growing up.The Denver Post reports Murray was rebelling against an upbringing that didn't allow for "rock music, video games and popular DVDs." In online postings Murray said that his mother would give him a "pat down" to check for music, DVDs and video games when he came out of electronic stores. As GamePolitics puts it, "In the final analysis, Murray seems like a very depressed, very angry, very disturbed young man who had access to weapons."
European PSN releases for June 22nd
We told you it was coming, and today it all finally arrived. Calling All Cars, PS1 games and a little added bonus. Check out the list below for the full release info. Calling All Cars (£4.99) Rampage: World Tour (£1.99) WipEout (£3.49) PS1 game Jumping Flash (£3.49) PS1 game Crash Bandicoot (£3.49) PS1 game So there you have it, not a trailer in sight. Yet, ironically, we kind of miss them. Where are the other two PS1 games, though? You know, the ones we actually want to buy. Syphon Filter and Medievil. Perhaps we'll see them arrive next week, along with Super Stardust HD.What do you make of this update? Pleased, or not? Let us know.
Where's Rampage?
According to Sony, this week they released the Midway arcade classic, Rampage: World Tour through the PlayStation Store. There's a problem though. Rampage is not actually available for download in most places in North America. We have reports of people on the east coast being able to download it, but for most people on the west coast - Rampage is conspicuously absent.For many people (me included), the ONLY thing added this week was the Joust video. Whats up, Sony? When you say a game is available for download, it's a good idea to actually make it downloadable.*Update*It looks like Rampage is available to some people on the west coast after all. It appears its a lot more random than we thought. We'll let you know if we hear from Sony about what happened.
North American PLAYSTATION Store releases for the week
Sony continues to release a steady flow of Midway arcade classics over the PLAYSTATION Store. As we mentioned yesterday, this week's new downloadable title is Rampage: World Tour. Unfortunately, that's about it for this week. The only other thing is a video of the next Midway arcade release, Joust. Joy. Sony has also temporarily lowered the price on flOw. For a limited time, you can download one of the best PSN titles out there for only $4.99 (normally $7.99). Not much this time around, it's really a shame Sony didn't load up a bunch of the HD trailers from Gamer's Day. I'd LOVE to see the Uncharted trailer on my big screen.
Rampage World Tour tears up the PS3 tonight
Sony has announced that tonight they are releasing the SOE remake of the arcade classic, Rampage World Tour, through the North American PLAYSTATION Store. Priced at the standard rate of a mere $4.99, the downloadable title allows you to play as any of the three classic Rampage characters as you tear down skyscapers and generally terrorize the city. The game also offers multiplayer action for up to three people, online or local - no word on if it supports voice chat though.I'm pretty stoked about this title myself. I liked Mortal Kombat II a lot, but Gauntlet II was kind of lacking in the fun department. Rampage looks solid though, graphics held up surprisingly well and something about the simple, destructive nature of the gameplay of the original always entertained me.[Via Press Release]
Rampage around the world today on PSN
Sticking to a solid release schedule, Rampage World Tour busts down buildings and feeds on the innocent today on PSN. The game is $4.99 and supports Rampage's three monster mayhem both online and off. We're starting to run out of announced titles for PSN, so we expect a new list sometime soon. On a general Rampage note, if there is any series that could use a revamp it's Rampage. It's freakin' monsters busting down buildings and although the game sells itself, it'd be nice to see a new Rampage that doesn't feel identical to the original from the Reagan administration. The Rampage series deserves more than what it's getting.[Via Press Release]
