Apparently, Netflix must be enthused with their newest original programming. According to Deadline, Netflix’s animated Castlevania series has been renewed for a second season — mere hours after the first season premiered on the streaming platform. The first season, based on the events of Castlevania III, follows vampire hunter Trevor Belmont as he battles against the demonic legions of Dracula and clocks in at just about 100 total minutes (spread over four episodes). Reportedly, season 2 will comprise eight episodes of undisclosed length.
Reviews thus far have been overwhelmingly positive, praising the show’s brutality and its commitment to exploring themes of morality. Some fans believe that the first season was originally intended as a feature-length film, based on its short runtime — it is possible Netflix decided to chop it up into episodes upon realizing how lucrative a TV series would be.
Showrunner Adi Shankar — known for spinning off established IPs into “bootleg universes” — has also been tabbed by Ubisoft to produce an animated series based upon the Assassin’s Creed games. We’re interested to see if that series makes its way to Netflix in the future.
It looks like Dracula has risen once again, and it’s up to Netflix to save the day. Movie producer Adi Shankar (The Grey, Dredd) announced via Facebook that he will be producing a Castlevania animated series for Netflix, set to launch later this year. Shankar also confirmed that a second season will arrive in 2018.
The animated series will be written by comic book writer Warren Ellis, known for Red and Transmetropolitan. Adventure Time’s Kevin Kolde will also be involved, but it’s uncertain to what extent. The Facebook post by Shankar suggests that Kolde was the one who was able to get Netflix to agree.
Shankar is known for working on projects that are violent and gritty. He claims that this will be the “western world’s first good video game adaptation.” Granted, that’s not the loftiest of claims to make.
The first installment of Castlevania was released back in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System, more commonly known in the U.S. as the NES. It starred Simon Belmont, a descendant from a line of vampire hunters. He must travel to Dracula’s castle, which emerges every 100 years, and defeats the vampire. The game is also filled with other classic monsters like Frankenstein, Queen Medusa, and the Grim Reaper.
The latest release for a Castlevania video game was Lords of Shadow 2 in 2014. It received a decent response from critics but didn’t live up to its predecessor. Unfortunately, it seems that Castlevania’s video game lineage might be over, as publisher Konami has slowly moved away from the traditional gaming business. The company has instead focused on Pachinko machines and health spas in Japan. Technically the latest Castlevania game was CR Pachinko Akumajō Dracula. However, a Pachinko version of Castlevania is not what most gamers would consider a true chapter in the series.
If the Netflix series proves to be popular, there might be hope for a new game as well.
Update: Added information regarding the series’ premiere and season 2 renewal.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.