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Science-Fiction Weekly – Aven Colony, Aaero, Secret Empire, Rogue One Secrets, Scorn
Aven Colony is a science-fiction building game for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC that places players on an alien world filled with unpredictable weather, angry wildlife, and a mysterious history. The goal is to colonize the alien world and create a stable and safe new home for humanity light-years from Earth. Aven Prime is a world filled with lush forests, wetlands, and tundras, but its beauty is countered by electrical storms, tornadoes, toxic gas, shard storms, explosive geothermal vents, and toxic gas. As you build your colony, you need to develop technology that can withstand these elements, along with local wildlife such as Dune-like sandworms and an aggressive fungus called "The Creep."
Like most city building games, you can micromanage just about everything, down to little details like determining the food income and what type of materials to invest in. One of its unique hooks is the story, which unravels Aven Prime's history as your city takes shape. Aven Colony is developed by Mothership Entertainment, a team comprised of video game veterans that worked on the Metroid Prime series, as well as Fable, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. The game is currently in beta, and is slated to ship in the second quarter of 2017.
Aven Colony looks like it could scratch a different type of sci-fi itch, especially for console players. If you're in the market for "new" space experience, you may want to check out Aaero, a rhythm-rail-shooter by Mad Fellows Games. The game was successfully Kickstarted with just $3,000 and is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Aaero blends music and gameplay in a way that is equally soothing and intense. All you have to do is keep your spaceship on a moving ribbon of light with the left analog stick, and dispatch any foes that may appear by targeting them with the right. This simplistic gameplay formula is put to good use across beautiful alien worlds that blend vast open environments with suffocating metal tubes. You even run into a few boss encounters against huge mechanical alien creations. I don't often play rhythm games, but I'm having a surprising amount of fun with this one, and will likely see it all the way through to the end. It looks to be fairly short, consisting of 15 levels, each lasting for a few minutes. The real question is: What is the difficulty spike going to be like?
The live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell has received mixed reactions and is fairing poorly in the box office. That doesn't mean the license will be put on ice. A new Ghost in the Shell animated project being spearheaded by animation studio Production I.G and publisher Kodansha is in the works, the Hollywood Reporter details. The project is co-directed by Kenji Kamiyama of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Shinji Aramaki who worked on Appleseed.
I'm not certain more Ghost in the Shell is a good call at this point, nor am I convinced a Bumblebee standalone film is what Transformers fans want. Michael Bay recently told MTV that 14 different Transformers stories are in the works for film, and that Bumblebee's film will be a prequel that will "go a little younger, and will deal more with his character." I'm guessing Bumblebee will have a voice in this film...hopefully.
It's not often that comic books get trailers or videos, but Marvel is hyping the living hell out of its upcoming Secret Empire event and has created a trailer that shows our first glimpse of the series. The first issue hits newsstands on May 3. I'm guessing most of you have already seen Marvel's trailer for Thor Ragnarok, but if you haven't, make the jump immediately. Marvel looks to be having more fun with this third entry, and it's always good to see Mr. Green.
Following the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on Blu-Ray and DVD, Lucasfilm released two short "Binding the Galaxy" videos that highlight several secrets and cameos that fans may not have noticed. The coolest fan service is the call out to Star Wars Rebels. I love that Chopper was turned into a live-action droid.
I leave you this week with a look at a disturbing upcoming first-person horror game called Scorn. This Ebb Software-developed title failed miserably as a Kickstarter in 2014, but the team continued working on it, earning greenlit status on Steam last year. The trailer shows clear inspiration to H.R. Giger's paintings and Alien work. Scorn is slated to release at some point in 2017.
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