Back in September, we found out that the cult classic Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade would be coming to PlayStation Vita. And now we know when.
Muramasa Rebirth for Vita is set for release both in stores and on the PlayStation Network on June 25th. And for those who are interested, you can get a special edition of the game – the Amitabha Collector’s Edition – which will include a bunch of goodies, seen below.
Additionally, if you pre-order the game, you’ll also get the game’s soundtrack.
Look for our full review of Muramasa Rebirth on PlayStation Vita this June.
Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
The first week of Major League Baseball 2K13’s Perfect Game Challenge has seen 300,000 gamers’ attempts at a chance for a $25,000 cash prize. Of those attempts, 892 have been verified as “perfect” games, pitched by 617 unique players.
This year, there are 30 lots of $25,000 to be won. The competition encourages gamers to pitch a perfect game according to specific settings and requirements, as listed on the 2K Games website. A “perfect game” is defined by one in which no opposing batters reach base; the entrant finishes the game with his original starting pitcher; and the entrant’s team wins the game.
Last year’s finalists have dominated the first week of the challenge, with 2012 runner-up Charlie Bates currently topping the leaderboard.
The Washington Nationals, with 100 perfect games to their name (no doubt led by team ace Stephen Strasburg), have the highest number so far. MLB 2K13 cover star David Price is the leading individual athlete, with 73 perfect games to the Rays pitcher's name.
The challenge is open to MLB 2K13 players in the United States on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. The competition finishes on April 30. More details are available at the Perfect Game Challenge’s Facebook page.
Katie Williams is a freelance games journalist and critic. She tweets at @desensitisation and hopes that one day, a bird will tweet back.
Hollywood's go-to writer-producer team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci seemingly have their hands in everything these days -- the Star Trek movies, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ender's Game, a Sleepy Hollow TV show and much, much more. But they're also starting to branch out into producing other writers' scripts as well, as with their upcoming action-thriller Now You See Me which hits screens on May 31.
In Now You See Me, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson lead "The Four Horsemen," a group of illusionists -- magicians, basically -- whose act has taken on a Robin Hood angle as they steal from the corrupt rich and give to the poor schlubs in their audience. Mark Ruffalo also stars as the FBI agent who's trying to outmaneuver the Horsemen, while Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Dave Franco and Common round out the cast.
I spoke to Kurtzman and Orci about the film, their move into producing other people's screenplays, and where Now You See Me draws the line between magic and illusion.
Scott Collura: So what was it that attracted you to this spec script?
Roberto Orci: First of all, if you’re a movie fan, you’re a fan of magic. Orson Welles is a lot of magic, so the idea behind the movie tricks that were developed -- movies and storytelling are all about misdirection, and the movie takes that into account. It’s sort of interesting just as fans of the genre. And then it’s a very clever mix of a Robin Hood story and the modern day with these bank robbers who know the tricks of the trade of illusionism. It’s just a nice mix of the familiar and something really original.
SC: Now obviously you guys have made your names as writers and writer-producers. This is really one of your first projects to come out where you’re just producers. What is that process like?
Alex Kurtzman: I think that the benefit of being writing producers is that the writers we work with, it actually feels very familiar. We have the great benefit of being trained by writing producers, and there’s a great comfort that comes with that. I think we see it as part of our job to give that same comfort to the writers that we work with. So a lot of it is, we’re sort of approaching story and character in the way we would want to be seeing it if we were writing it too. We work with writers who are really flexible and limber and excited by opening up new possibilities in storytelling. All the writers were just fantastic on this one, so it’s really been a pleasure.
SC: Is there something that comes to it from your work in TV as well, where you might come and sit in the writers room and throw out ideas for specific script? Where there’s a sort of community approach to it in a way?
AK: Absolutely. Television teaches you not be precious about that at all. You find yourself in a room talking about story and character beats with a bunch of people. I think we’ve also learned, because we started with each other, we already started from a place of being very comfortable bouncing ideas back and forth and sharing them and riffing and having fun. So we like that approach, and it feels like a very productive way to generate work.
SC: What is the process for the two of you when you’re writing? Does one of you sit at the keyboard and the other one’s pacing back and forth, like you’d picture it in a movie or something?
RO: Yeah, it is like how you’d picture it in a movie. It goes through stages. Like when we first started writing, we’d both pace outside because we were smokers then, but then we quit and it becomes more like bagels and granola. [Laughs] Now we’re so busy that we’re writing in the car, seriously taking dictation, you know? We kind of adapt to the changing times. It’s sort of funny that way.
SC: Like Rod Serling. I think he reached a point where he was so prolific that he would dictate entire scripts into his reel-to-reel. So in terms of the magic in this film, without getting real spoiler-ish about it, how out there is the magic? Are we meant to believe that it could be real magic going on?
AK: Is Harry Potter magic real, you mean? Yes.
RO: Well, that’s actually the cool question of the movie. As you’re watching some of the things unfold, there’s this great skepticism among some of the characters, and they actually explain how these tricks are done. So you see magic deconstructed, and then it becomes, “Can it be deconstructed down to its most fundamental point?” Or is there an element of genuine magic in the world? That’s actually the point of the movie.
Every Tuesday, Sony drops a bunch of new stuff onto the PlayStation Network. Those with a PlayStation 3, Vita or PSP can download these goodies, which include PSN games, movies, themes and more. While the Official PlayStation Blog outlines these updates in full each week, we thought we'd help truncate the good news into something more digestible.
PSN Games
Here are this week’s new PSN offerings. Keep in mind that buying Guacamelee! on PS3 nets you the Vita version, but not vice-versa.
Anarchy Reigns ($29.99)
Guacamelee! ($14.99)
John Daly’s Prostroke Golf ($14.99)
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. ($19.99)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown ($39.99)
Vita Games
There are only two new Vita game this week.
Guacamelee! ($14.99)
Table Mini Golf ($1.99)
PSP Games
There are no new PSP games this week, either.
PlayStation Minis
Not surprisingly, there are no new Minis.
PlayStation Plus
Here are this week’s new PlayStation Plus perks. Keep in mind that previous weeks’ perks are still in effect as well.
Borderlands (Retail/DLC, Discount)
Borderlands 2 (Retail/DLC, Discount)
Guacamelee! (PSN/Vita, Discount)
Labyrinth Legends (PSN, Free)
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.K. (Retail, Full Game Trial)
Zombie Driver HD (PSN/DLC, Discount)
PSone Classics
There are three new PSone Classics, all Japanese imports.
Evergreen Avenue ($5.99)
Favorite Dear: Jyunpaku No Yogensha ($5.99)
Zero Kara No Mahjong Youchien Tamago-Gumi ($5.99)
PS2 Classics
There’s a lone new PS2 Classic, too.
Fatal Frame ($9.99)
DLC
As always, let’s examine this week’s new DLC offerings.
First, for PS3 and PSN...
Anarchy Reigns – Various DLC ($0.99-$1.99)
Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Various DLC ($0.99-$4.99)
Fuel Overdose – Mercenary Vehicle Pack (Free)
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory – Various DLC (Free-$1.99)
Injustice: Gods Among Us – Season Pass ($14.99)
LittleBigPlanet Karting – UFG General Costume and Kart ($1.49)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – Jetstream Story DLC ($9.99)
MUD FIM Motocross World Championship – Land of Albion Stage ($5.99)
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 – Special Costume Pack ($2.99)
Tomb Raider – Various DLC ($2.99-$3.99)
And a lone piece of Vita DLC…
Table Mini Golf – Toy Land Course Pack ($0.99)
Demos
Here’s a lone new demo.
Injustice: Gods Among Us (Retail)
Discounts
And finally, here are this week’s sales.
Borderlands (Retail/DLC)
Borderlands 2 (Retail/DLC)
Feisty Feet (Mini)
Hot Shots Golf 2 (PSP)
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (PSP)
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (Vita/DLC)
Hyperballoid HD (PSN)
Magic Orbz (PSN)
Sports Champions 2 (Retail)
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (PSN)
Yggdra Union (PSP)
Zombie Driver HD (PSN/DLC)
Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
Oscar winner Anne Hathaway will reportedly reunite with her Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan for his next movie.
Deadline says the latest big screen Catwoman will star alongside Matthew McConaughey in Nolan's forthcoming sci-fi film Interstellar. Although a deal hasn't been made, Deadline says it expects that will happen.
Nolan on the set of The Dark Knight Rises with a certain cat...
The screenplay, written by Chris' brother Jonathan Nolan, reportedly follows a group of explorers travel through a wormhole. The story is said to involve time travel and alternative dimensions, and is reportedly based on scientific theories by theoretical physicist and gravitational physicist Kip Thorne.
Interstellar, a co-production between Paramount and Warner Bros., is slated for a November 7, 2014 release in theaters and IMAX.
Buying new apps, books or music with your Android device may look a bit more swanky now, as Google announced the roll-out for a sharp new look for it's Google Play store.
"The new design focuses on bigger images that jump off the page," the company writes on the Official Android Blog. "Similarly themed content is grouped together so you can hone in on a magazine to read or an app to try."
The redesigned Play Store is now available for Android phones and tablets running Android 2.2 (Froyo) or above, and it's noticeably sparser and larger. Content is grouped together more closely, and Google has integrated more recommendation-based products to take advantage of the smaller display real estate. Most importantly, it's much easier to go through checkout on the mobile device, allowing for a speedier purchase of games, books and video.
While roll-out has begun today, it's important to note that it may not reach your particular phone model for the next few weeks. Still, the new look makes Google Play much prettier and more practical to use.
What do you think of the redesign? Let us know in the comments.
Lauren Hockenson is a tech reporter and 8-bit enthusiast who dreams of being a wizard. She can be found on MyIGN at lhockenson or on Twitter at @lhockenson.
It's not the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last, but following up Apple's ban of Sex #1 on Comixology's iOS app, Apple is now prohibiting sale of Saga #12. Why? According to writer Brian K. Vaughan, for two "postage stamp-sized" depictions of gay sex.
From BKV's press release:
Annoying press release thing: APPLE vs. SAGA #12
As has hopefully been clear from the first page of our first issue, SAGA is a series for the proverbial “mature reader.” Unfortunately, because of two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex, Apple is banning tomorrow’s SAGA #12 from being sold through any iOS apps. This is a drag, especially because our book has featured what I would consider much more graphic imagery in the past, but there you go. Fiona and I could always edit the images in question, but everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate, so we’re not changing s**t.
Apologies to everyone who reads our series on iPads or iPhones, but here are your alternatives for Wednesday:
1) Head over to you friendly neighborhood comics shop and pick up a physical copy of our issue that you can have and hold forever.
2) While you’re at it, don’t forget to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which helps protect retailers who are brave enough to carry work that some in their communities might consider offensive. You can find signed copies of Saga at the CBLDF site right now.
3) Download the issue directly through sites like https://comics.imagecomics.com or on your non-Apple smartphone or tablet.
4) If all else fails, you might be able to find SAGA #12 in Apple’s iBookstore, which apparently sometimes allows more adult material to be sold than through its apps. Crazy, right?
Anyway, special thanks to Eric Stephenson and everyone at Image for supporting our decision, and for always being so supportive of creators. Sorry again to readers for the inconvenience, but I hope everyone will be able to find an issue that Fiona and I are particularly proud of. And after you do, please check out PanelSyndicate.com, the new digital comics site I own with artist Marcos Martin, which remains 100% uncensored by corporate overlords.
Your pal,
Brian
So, you can buy Saga #12 through the Comixology web store and then sync it to your iPad/iPhone (or buy it through a non-Apple device), or you can purchase it on Apple's own iBookstore, which has a different set of guidelines.
Though graphic material is indeed prohibited as per Apple's guidelines, as Vaughan points out, Saga and other titles have done far worse than what's shown in Saga #12. Let alone the amount of extreme violence that's found in most mature-readers comics.
Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. If he could, he'd run away to live amongst wild cats for the rest of his days.
JBL: "They'll never chant for Michael Cole, I guarantee you that!"
What a madhouse 48 hours it's been. Going into last night's RAW I figured my headline would be something incendiary like "Rock No-Shows RAW" or "Rock Walks Out," but little did I know that my story would simply be RAW itself.
Having grown up in New York, I had high hopes for this crowd, which was a mix of NJ, NY and wrestling fans who traveled far and wide to come to WrestleMania, but I didn't think they'd outright steal the show. Last year's post-Mania RAW crowd was also great, but the crowd at last year's Mania itself was great too. This year, the WrestleMania crowd was either dead or dampened by the size of the stadium, so the contrast between RAW and 'Mania was freakin' amazing.
Also, last year's 'Mania was great and this year's was somewhat tedious. No, it wasn't terrible, it just played it too safe. There were no big, unexpected moments. I found merit in Triple H vs. Brock and Rock vs. Cena, and they even had a few good spots in them, but they just didn't connect. No one's overtly rooting for Triple H anymore and the Cena/Rock match, while ending the story, ended it in a boring manner, with way too many finishers and reversals of finishers. But I'll leave most of the WrestleMania s*** out of this Wrap Up. I already did a WrestleMania live-blog/results page here!
Taker vs. Punk was awesome though. Not enough to save the whole show unfortunately. I think the equation states that you need at least two great bouts to make a good Mania. Last year we got three, so we went into this year a bit spoiled. At least the "Panicked Patrick" meme made it's way onto the broadcast...
Yes, kids. Feel safe in knowing that the latest internet photoshop craze was represented at MetLife Stadium. Hold that in your heart and let it warm you.
Anyhow, there was no Smackdown last week and I didn't get a chance to watch TNA (not saying I won't, I just haven't yet), so this Wrap Up'll be short and sugary. Usually, I don't even plan on doing a Wrap Up coming out of 'Mania but the IZOD RAW must be documented. Someone needs to put a recording of it in one of those time capsules that kids bury with the hopes that some future generation (i.e. alien overlords) will dig it up and get a kick out of the past. Just put that in with some turkey jerky and a bottle of cabernet and Flarzak and Blipnor will be sittin' pretty.
So, first thing's f***in' last...
As it turns out, he was here, in fact, to show the world.
Holy hell. What a great moment. The right time with the right crowd. We were all clamoring for it to happen at 'Mania, but that's just because we wanted something to happen. And if you believe the Examiner story about The Rock, then Rock was supposed to win the Main Event and Ziggler was going to cash in on him. That's a little hard to gulp down, I think. I'm willing to buy that the WWE might have been willing to ignore the rule about Ziggler only being able to cash in on the WHC, but there's no way I thought Rock would win and then Ziggler would get to be the star of the entire WrestleMania. That sounds like someone's diary.
But yes, it happened last night. In a much better environment, if you ask me. Ziggler cashed in on an injured Del Rio and won the belt. And not only did the moment put a title on a guy we all appreciate and enjoy, but it effectively obliterated Zeb and Swagger's whole "that Mexican stole your job" angle. Which is tremendous because, given what he said at 'Mania, Zeb's about two promos away from telling us the holocaust is a lie.
And while I definitely want to know more about Ziggler's lasagna-cooking prowess, I bet Big E.'s glad this happened since it took all the attention away from his unintentional tit-thwap on AJ from earlier that night.
And not only did Ziggler win gold, but Wade Barrett, who didn't even get his entrance shown on RAW, won back the Intercontinental Title that he lost to The Miz during Mania's pre-show. Was this always the plan, or did they switch the finish based on last night's pro-Barrett crowd? Seems odd, and yet it makes me happy so I shant question it. And not that Barrett needed to suck up to the crowd sine they were chanting for him from the get go, but I'm sure his Cactus Jack made them swoon...
As you can probably easily tell, this is going to be a shorter, more picture-riddled Wrap Up than usual. It's a structure born out of both laziness and the fact that I want to show you a lot of cool things. It's like when my son takes his Skylanders to school. Except gifs don't break and make him throw a tantrum in the mud.
More from the RAW crowd in Jersey, plus Fandango 3:16, on page 2...
A canceled Mega Man X first-person shooter codenamed Maverick Hunter has been unearthed. In a report published by Polygon, Maverick Hunter is revealed to have been in development in 2010 by Armature, a studio founded by the creators of Metroid Prime.
According to Polygon, “the game would have stayed true to core Mega Man X gameplay concepts, re-imagining his X-Buster arm cannon, his dash and his ability to appropriate the special powers of his fallen enemies. Platforming elements, including X's wall jump, and classic Mega Man X characters would have been re-imagined in new ways.” Like most Mega Man games, Maverick Hunter’s enemies would have been weak to certain weapons and levels would contain branching paths.
Maverick Hunter was axed shortly before Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune left Capcom in 2010. It was intended to be part of a trilogy “that would culminate in a third game in which the player would assume control of Zero, forced to destroy a Mega Man who had grown incredibly powerful and infinitely intelligent over the course of two games.”
From their secluded home-theater compound, film critics Wade Major and Mark Keizer mix insightful commentary with irreverent banter, covering the latest DVD and Blu-ray news and new releases of the week, including studio, independent, television and special-interest titles.
On this week's Unlocked, Ryan dives deep into the many highs (and an important low) in the new Thief, the closure of LucasArts (and our favorite LucasArts games), the next Xbox reveal, and whether or not you should dive into Defiance.
Warner Bros. has announced the next title in the Batman: Arkham franchise will be Batman: Arkham Origins, currently in development for the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U.
It's currently slated for release on October 25 this year, but there's no mention of the game appearing on next-gen consoles.
The game, which is the subject of Game Informer's latest cover, will not be developed by Rocksteady Studios this time around, instead being worked on in-house at Warner Bros. Games Montreal.
The new development team will be using many of the assets that Rocksteady has used in the past, including its customised Unreal engine so as to try and avoid any discrepancies in the aesthetic of the franchise. Eric Holmes, lead designer of games including The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Prototype, is heading up the project.
The game will apparently take place long before both of the existing Arkham titles, when a young and inexperienced Batman will encounter many familiar villains for the first time. As can be seen in the Game Informer imagery, the assassin Deathstroke will be one such foe, making his core Arkham game debut.
Alongside the console game though, Warner Bros. has also announced a handheld title, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. The game, which will be released on PS Vita and 3DS again on October 25, is set after the events of Arkham Origins and is being developed by Armature Studio, the company that was founded by several of the brains behind the Metroid Prime trilogy. With this in mind, it's not too surprising to find it described as a "2.5-D Metroid-style exploration action game".
What do you reckon? Are you excited about the idea of a Batman origins title, or does the fact Rocksteady isn't involved worry you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Square-Enix has revealed exactly how many copies of Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs and Hitman it expected to sell, after announcing that they all failed to hit targets last month.
Astonishingly, the publisher hoped to sell between 5 and 6 million copies of Tomb Raider in its first month, which would have placed it amongst some of the fastest-selling games ever. It managed 3.6 million, which by most standards is an extremely impressive launch.
Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs also underperformed. "We were looking at selling roughly 2-2.5 million in the EU/NA market based on its game content, genre and Metacritic scores," reads the transcript of Square-Enix's latest financial briefing. "In the same way, game quality and Metacritic scores led us to believe that Hitman had potential to sell 4.5-5 million units, and 5-6 million units for Tomb Raider in EUR, NA and Japan markets combined."
“
FY2013 was our first attempt to release hallmark Western titles like Hitman and Tomb Raider without releasing a blockbuster game in Japan.
The briefing outlines how much Square-Enix had riding on its Western-developed games in the last financial year. "FY2013 was our first attempt to release hallmark Western titles like Hitman and Tomb Raider without releasing a blockbuster game in Japan," it reads. "We put [a] considerable amount of effort in[to] polishing and perfecting the game content for these titles, receiving extremely high Metacritic scores. [Tomb Raider currently sits on 86, Hitman on 79.] However, we are very disappointed to see that high scores did not translate to actual sales performance."
What's more, those internal sales estimates were conservative: 80-90% of what the company believed was their true sales potential. The report cites the "huge slump" in North American video game sales as the main factor in this shortfall, though the European market was also "soft".
Yosuke Matsuda is taking over the Square-Enix President position from Yoichi Wada later this year in the wake of an "extraordinary loss" for the company. With such exceptionally high internal expectations, though, it seems almost inevitable that these games' performance has fallen short. The entire company will be reviewed in due course.
Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.
Hackers have cracked Ubisoft's uPlay PC download services, enabling them to download all of the publisher's games for free - including the unreleased Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
This explains how footage of the game has leaked online, and why the game itself is purportedly circulating illegally on torrent sites already. The Russian hackers have discovered an exploit that makes the uPlay service believe that you already have the game you're trying to download, enabling them to obtain it for free. Gameranx published the below screenshot, showing Blood Dragon in the process of downloading.
Poor Ubisoft - it's been leak after leak this year. The publisher has yet to issue a statement, but it is likely that it will pursue legal action against accounts using this exploit.
Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.
The Wii Remote may finally be about to get bespoke rechargeable battery packs, more than six years after it first launched.
A new Nintendo survey (via GoNintendo) suggests that the company may soon be releasing a rechargeable battery pack for Wii Remotes not too dissimilar to the ones used by Xbox 360 controllers, hopefully freeing us from the tyranny of AA batteries forever.
In the survey, an image of which you can see below, the company asks whether consumers would be interested in a battery pack and charger that would provide 13 hours of use after a 90 minute charge, as well as if they'd pay $40 for it if it was bundled with a new strap and replacement silicone cover.
IGN has reached out to Nintendo for confirmation of the rumours and will update the story when we hear more. In the meantime, what do you reckon? Are you glad to hear that Nintendo may be about to bring its controllers in line with its rivals? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
The Metallica Pack 01, featuring the songs “Ride The Lightning”, “And Justice For All”, and “Blackened”, has been pulled from the Rock Band Music Store. It will also be yanked from first-party marketplaces in the immediate future.
“After that, they will no longer be available for purchase,” reads a statement published on the Rock Band Facebook page.
“When licensing songs for release for any platform, including DLC, agreements include term limits on how long the content may be sold on a given platform. This isn’t specific to Rock Band – it’s something that exists in pretty much all licensing agreements. Now, over five years since the release of the first batch of Rock Band DLC, we’re reaching the end of some of the earliest licenses we secured.”
The Metallica tracks were released on November 20, 2007.
Harmonix is working to minimise the impact of expiring licenses on the Rock Band legacy catalogue and is looking to secure extensions for “an overwhelming majority of content and, most importantly, making it a priority to give you advance notice if songs are expiring and have to come down.”
Harmonix stresses the removal of tracks should have no effect on users who have already purchased the DLC content.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can find him on IGN here or on Twitter @MrLukeReilly, or chat with him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.
If you're looking forward to the next project from Journey developer thatgamecompany, you may be out of luck; a former employee of the company has said there are "years remaining" before the project sees the light of day.
In a blog post detailing why he left the company this week, Asher Vollmer explained that while he believes the finished project will "change the industry in a really positive way", its release is still a long way off.
"The Game is going to be incredible, but it is moving slowly," he revealed. "There are YEARS remaining on the project and, quite frankly, those are years I don’t want to give up for a game that isn’t truly mine."
Vollmer joined the company last year and worked there for ten months. His decision to leave is apparently based on the fact that he wants to pursue his own ideas for titles rather than being forced to put them on the back burner in favour of someone else's vision.
Despite this, he asserts that the game when it finally is released will be worth the wait, explaining, "Obviously I can’t divulge any details about it, but… It’s going to be huge. And I don’t mean it’s going to be a long sprawling game, I mean it’s going to be an IMPORTANT game. I genuinely believe it’s going to change the industry in a really positive way."
Not much is known about thatgamecompany's next project, though when we spoke to company co-founder Jenova Chen at this year's DICE summit he explained his decision to take the new title to multiple platforms, as well as his desire to create an almost invisible interface for players to use.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Activision Blizzard has announced that it's donated $2 million to its Call of Duty Endowment charity, which helps soldiers find jobs following after their military service.
According to Gamespot, the money is being given as a flat donation alongside the $1.7 million the company raised through the sale of limited edition dog tags during the holiday season in America.
"We are committed to our veterans," Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement. "They put their lives on the line for our freedom and security. They all have unique experiences, skills, and capabilities that should be highly desirable to any employer."
The bulk of the money will be focused on supporting the growth of local veterans' charities that aim to provide employment services for those who have served in the military.
Since being established back in 2009, the Call of Duty Endowment hasn't been involved in finding employment for veterans directly, but rather by funding non-governmental organisations that work to find jobs for ex-military personnel. Activision reports the scheme has helped over 1,000 veterans find jobs so far.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Still not impressed with that BioShock Infinite cover art? Irrational Games has your back. The studio has made good on its promise to make available a selection of alternate cover art for its stunning new shooter, uploading eight choices to its website.
You can check out the options here. The covers are suitable for both PC/360 and PS3 and they're free.
Man, where was THIS art last December?
BioShock boss Ken Levine assured fans last December that Irrational would be “arranging a whole mess of MORE alternate covers which will be available to download and print yourself” after criticism of BioShock Infinite's box art led Irrational to let fans vote on a reversible cover option.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can find him on IGN here or on Twitter @MrLukeReilly, or chat with him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.
Warner Bros. has released the first TV spot for Man of Steel, which you can check out below:
The spot is basically an edit of the most recent trailer, reaffirming Zack Snyder's weighty take on the Superman story. Expect more from WB in the weeks leading up to Man of Steel's release.
Man of Steel opens June 14 in the US & UK, and June 27 in AU.
Lucy O'Brien is Assistant Editor at IGN AU. Follow her ramblings on IGN at Luce_IGN_AU,or @Luceobrien on Twitter
The first images from 300: Rise of an Empire, along with some details about the film from director Noam Murro, have become available via USA Today.
Adapted from Frank Miller’s graphic novel “Xerxes,” the film takes place in a parallel time period to Zack Snyder’s epic blockbuster 300. This time the battle will occur at sea. The Greek general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) fights to unite Greece and battles an invading army of Persians lead by the mortal-turned-god, Xerxes (Roderigo Santoro) and Artemesia (Eva Green), the vengeful commander of the Persian navy.
Sullivan Stapleton in 300: Rise of an Empire
Though 300: Rise of an Empire is under the direction of a new helmer, the film “is tied visually to the original,” according to Murro. However, he adds, “there is a whole different choreography of fighting and war.” 300 was principally set in one location, a narrow passage known as “Hot Gates” where the outnumbered Spartans worked to gain an advantage. This new film, however, “happens over time in many different locations. The opportunities for the six distinct battles are even greater with different locations and tactics.''
"The few against the many is still here," the director adds. "It's hundreds vs. hundreds of thousands. It's about taking on the mightiest power of all with wisdom and tactics." As to the film’s hero, "Themistokles is battle-scarred and a warrior, but at the same time he's a politician," Murro says. "He's not the king. He has to rule in a democracy. It's a different complexity of character."
Take a look at the film’s official logo below.
Snyder and Kurt Johnstad co-wrote the film which also stars Lena Headey, Hans Matheson, David Wenham, Igal Naor, Callan Mulvey, Jack O'Connell and Andrew Tiernan.
300: Rise of an Empire opens in theatres on August 2, 2013.
Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN.
Kick-Ass 2 actor Morris Chestnut's curious recent postings about Black Panther have gotten fanboys all worked up.
Bleeding Cool points out that the Identity Thief and American Horror Story actor, 44, recently tweeted and posted the following on Facebook: "It’s time to get familiar with the Black Panther character."
However, the postings have since been deleted from his accounts. Could Chestnut's reps or the powers-that-be at Marvel have put the kibosh on the actor's social media musings? Or are we all just reading way too much into what might be nothing at all?
With Captain America: The Winter Soldier now filming and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. headed for TV, it's not entirely out of the realm of possibly that Wakanda's Prince T'Challa could make an appearance in either one before maybe getting his own movie.
Morris Chestnut's include V, The Call, Think Like a Man, Ladder 49, The Game Plan, The Best Man, and Boyz N The Hood (as "Riiiiickyyyyyy!!!!").
This Tuesday, April 9, from 10AM-12PM PT, legendary Diablo creator and Gazillion President David Brevik will join IGN's Greg Miller and Daemon Hatfield to show off Gazillion's upcoming MMO, Marvel Heroes.
We also have PRIZES! We will give away four Marvel Heroes "Ultimate Packs", which include all sorts of in-game items, costumes and characters, so tweet your questions at @IGN with the hash-tag #MarvelHeroes for a chance to win!
Fresh on the heels of the news that Joss Whedon has cast Angel alum J. August Richards in the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot, Marvel has unveiled the official name of the show as well as a new synopsis. Now titled Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. versus simply S.H.I.E.L.D., the show has not yet officially been picked up. We’d be shocked if it doesn’t get a series order, though.
It’s interesting to watch the Marvel marketing machine at work. In addition to The Avengers title being Marvel's The Avengers, the two upcoming animated series are Marvel's Avengers Assemble and Marvel's Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.. Brand identity is clearly of paramount importance to the company; which is somewhat understandable in today’s market. The Marvel name is like an endorsement in and of itself and will likely give viewers an immediate sense that they are going to receive a quality product. This branding method also adds to the cohesive feel that the company works so hard to maintain.
Take a look at the recently-released synopsis below:
Joss Whedon shows us not all heroes are super with "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Fresh from his role in the summer’s box office smash, Marvel's The Avengers, Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) returns to the worldwide law enforcement organization S.H.I.E.L.D. He puts together a small, highly trained, team of Agents to tackle the cases that haven’t been classified yet, the new, the strange and the unknown. That team consists of straight arrow Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), an expert in combat and espionage; pilot and martial artist Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen); and brilliant if socially awkward scientists Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge). They’ll be joined by civilian new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet).
Prepare for an epic adventure that showcases the hope and wonder of the human spirit. This is a world of Super Heroes, aliens and the unusual – of action, spectacle and world spanning stories. The show will speak to the human condition through the lens of our very human, non-powered S.H.I.E.L.D agents – that together we are greater than we are apart, and that we can make a difference in the world.
Executive Produced and co-written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen ("Dollhouse," "Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog"), Jeffrey Bell ("Angel," "Alias") and Jeph Loeb ("Smallville," "Lost," "Heroes") comes Marvel’s first live-action TV series, "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Stay tuned to IGN for all of the latest Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. news.
Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @RothCornet and IGN at Roth-IGN.
Remember when everyone got super excited last month about Marvel giving away 700 of its #1 issues for free on Comixology? So excited, in fact, that it crashed Comixology for a few days? Well, the companies are offering a do-over for fans that might not have been able to take advantage of the deal due to the blackout, though they are handling it a bit differently this time around.
To get your pick at 700 free comics, you've got to go to this special promotions page by 11:59 EST on April 9 to sign up for the offer. Then, starting April 11, you'll get an invite via e-mail that will lead you back to the Marvel Comics app to select any of the free comics you might want. Presumably, the selection will be similar, if not identical, to what was offered last time.
I just signed up myself, and the sign-up notification confirms that they are sending invites to readers in waves -- so as not to brick the whole system again -- so don't worry if you don't get your invite exactly on April 11. That said, you only have 48 hours from the time you receive said invite, so don't procrastinate.
Go sign up! Get free comics!
Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. If he could, he'd run away to live amongst wild cats for the rest of his days.
Teased for the first time nearly a year ago in DC's Free Comic Book Day 2012 special, the curtain has finally been pulled back on Trinity War. A six-part crossover event that will be spread out between the three Justice League titles -- Justice League, Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark -- the story will be co-written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire and run throughout July and August.
The story kicks off in Justice League #22, and aims to bring together all corners of the DC Universe, particularly ones that haven't interacted yet.
"It's going to be really interesting when these characters do come together, because some of them haven't met, some of them have, and what happens and unfolds in this is going to force them to choose sides," Johns told USA Today.
Triptych cover for Justice League #22, Justice League of America #6, and Justice League Dark #22 by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado
Johns also told the paper that he considers Trinity War an "action mystery," and that the series would revolve around -- as we predicted in our analyzation of that FCBD issue -- the Trinity of Sin: Pandora, Phantom Stranger, and the Question. Specifically, Pandora's box, which we've seen make a few appearances since the launch of the New 52. "She's an enigma, completely. In a lot of ways, she's been a pawn for most of her existence. She was tricked into using the box and she's being tricked into doing something now, in a way. The Justice League, that becomes another part of it."
Of course, superhero stories tend to build on each other, so even though Trinity War has been building for the past two years, there's something even bigger on the horizon."Something really, really major happens that kicks off some pretty crazy stuff at the end of August."
Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. If he could, he'd run away to live amongst wild cats for the rest of his days.
He may be one of the biggest box office stars in the world, but Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson hasn't left wrestling video games behind. In addition to being in the main event of last night's Wrestlemania 29, and headlining several WWE Pay Per Views over the past year, The Rock will be the cover athlete for 2K's WWE 2K14.
News of Rock's starring video game role came this past weekend during WWE's Business Partner Summit, a presentation that highlights the broad range of consumer goods that feature WWE's branding and athletes.
"Breaking News: @therock will be featured on the cover of WWE 2K 14" Casey Collins EVP CPG #BPS#Wrestlemania
The Rock was last featured on the cover of the limited edition of WWE '12. WWE 2K14 is scheduled to release later this year.
Rich is a die-hard wrestling fan, but was a bit bored with Wrestlemania 29. The exception to that boredom? CM Punk vs. The Undertaker. Argue with him on Twitter - @RichIGN.
The other day Nolan North -- Drake in Uncharted, Desmond in Assassin's Creed, and so on -- swung by IGN for an episode of Up at Noon. (That episode posts here on IGN at noon Pacific.) I -- Greg Miller, host of Up at Noon -- Tweeted for questions to ask him on the talk show, and we got so many, we broke North's answers out into their own video below.
For added LOLz, watch Nolan do all of his voices. And Mario.
Nintendo has an unleashed a new trailer for Pokémon X and Y starring a new, unnamed monster that looks pretty familiar.
Though we don't know for certain, the psychic creature you can check out in the video below certainly seems to bear a great deal of resemblance to the legendary Pokémon Mewtwo that originally appeared in Pokémon Red and Blue.
While Nintendo has confirmed that there is indeed a connection between this new 'mon and the original target for Master Balls everywhere, the company is refusing to be any more specific just yet.
But what do you think? Are we getting our first look at Mewthree? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor and can't wait for October. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Gather round fellow gamers, young and old, and I'll tell you a tale of a golden age long past, when the creatures that roam our virtual landscapes stepped blinking into the sunlight for the first time, picked up a thigh bone and smashed stuff with it. 1998 was the year, and Half-Life the game. It brought us Marines who were seemingly capable of outflanking the player, and flushing them out with smartly thrown grenades. Even its roaches responded to light, movement and smell.
Half Life was followed soon after by Thief, whose dark streets were populated by guards with various states of awareness, able to respond to sounds made by the player and even sounds made by other AI. Then in 1999 came Unreal Tournament, featuring AI that could snipe your face off from half a mile away. Halo in 2001 had smart, surprising AI that was so good it was a reason to buy the nascent Xbox. At that point, a future of human-like AI - opponents that could adapt to the players movements and actions - didn't seem that far away.
But it never happened. From around the mid-2000s videogame AI nestled itself beneath a chest-high wall and has pretty much stayed there ever since. Even the best games of recent years have been criticised for their unimpressive AI. But is this sad ending to the story really true? Did AI programmers basically gave up at the turn of the millennium? Or has AI simply evolved in more subtle ways less perceptible to the average gamer?
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From the mid-2000s videogame AI nestled itself beneath a chest-high wall and has pretty much stayed there ever since.
To find out, I spoke to the AI programmers of two very different games about how AI is programmed and implemented 15 years on from the Marines of Half-Life. Hugo Desmeules and Yanick Mimee are developers employed at Ubisoft Montreal, respectively responsible for the AI design and programming of Far Cry 3. Mimee argues that my personal view of the AI in the late nineties is rose- tinted. “I remember the games we were making back then in 1999 when we were programming enemies with simple brain and patterns. The technology at that time did not allow us the freedom we have right now.”
Far Cry 3 makes for an interesting case study for AI because it is open world, meaning its AI has much greater freedom of movement and action than in a linear game, and there are many more systems at work that the AI needs to deal with and respond to. Desmeules gives me an example of what a turtle needs to think about in Far Cry 3. ”So now a turtle brain no longer consists of only going left and right and being crushed by a plumber, it needs to flee progressing fire, move away from an incoming vehicle, transition from ground to water navigable areas, walk, hide, swim, and care about predators like sharks.”
On the subject of predators, their presence marks a significant advance over the AI of Far Cry 2, which lacked predators because the developers were unable to stop them from eating all the herbivores. “We developed a spawning technique that allows us take advantage of the fact that, in real life, animals don’t stay put in a single place. You don’t expect an animal to be at the exact same spot if you move 1km away and come back. This, combined with the use of another system we called the encounter system that will dynamically spawn various AI in the game based on what’s currently there, have done the trick for us.”
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Far Cry 2 lacked predators because the developers were unable to stop them from eating all the herbivores.
This is more general Left 4 Dead style AI directorship, rather than individual AI. What of the human opponents you face on Rook island? Again, Far Cry 2's AI was criticised for being ridiculously aggressive, so for the sequel the developers opted for a “Triple state” AI which is evident in many other stealth games. Here the AI can either be idle (unaware of the players precise), suspicious (searching for the player's location) or aware (engaged in open combat). Frankly, this doesn't sound much different from the fifteen year old AI in Thief. According to Desmeules, however, Far Cry's human opponents also retain information of recent events. “The fact that they have been in alert or combat recently will leave memories inside their brain and their behaviours will change accordingly. An NPC back in idle after a combat or a search would be much more cautious back in idle state.”
The differences between the AI of Far Cry 2 and Far Cry 3 clearly demonstrate that AI programming is not static, and efforts are being made to push it forward. That said, I'm not entirely convinced that clever spawning techniques and a bit of memory retention mark great leaps forward in AI development. To locate more complex AI, it may be wise to look away from games about guns.
It's a common mistake to associate Artificial Intelligence in games entirely with FPS "bots". Even an ambitious FPS like Far Cry 3 only requires its AI to do so many things: things like hide, seek, shoot. There are other types of game that demand considerably more from their AI. One such example is Crusader Kings II, the medieval grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive.
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Unlike an FPS bot, a strategy game AI needs to handle many, quite different areas of gameplay.
“Unlike an FPS bot, a strategy game AI needs to handle many, quite different areas of gameplay,” says Henrik Fåhraeus, project lead on CKII, “from the movement of armies and fleets to prioritising the use of limited resources like money, to deciding who its long term friends and enemies should be.”
What separates Crusader Kings from most other strategy games is it simulates the behaviours of hundreds of individual characters, from Emperors and Kings right down to courtiers and city mayors. Each of these characters has their own personality, created using a pool of personality “traits” gained and lost through genetics, education and decisions made during gameplay.
“The underlying assumption is that every character desires to protect what it already controls and to expand if possible, perhaps militarily, perhaps through marriage,” explains Fåhraeus “The personality traits modify these desires. For example, a character with the 'Ambitious' trait is more aggressive both towards external enemies and towards its liege lord, whereas a 'Craven' and 'Content' character is more likely to just sit tight.”
This means individual characters behave in a logical manner consistent with their personality (unless they have traits like “Lunatic” or “Arbitrary”, in which case their actions will be more random). Yet characters aren't given completely free reign, or the game would fall apart. There is a longer term component of CK II's AI which affects entire regions, giving states and countries historically logical goals such conquering specific lands and setting up certain trade routes.
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It appears pockets of innovation are occurring within AI development that are specific to the game being created.
“These priorities remain fairly static and allow the many different aspects of the AI to work together in a consistent manner; declaring war over logical territories, actually trying to occupy these provinces, and allying with enemies of the target,” says Fåhraeus. This allows the character AI to busy away with their ambitions, plots and intrigues without completely upsetting the balance of the game.
Contrary to my original assertion, it appears pockets of innovation are occurring within AI development that are specific the game being created. But what does the future hold? Could improved technology such as new consoles help towards more drastic improvements? Mimee believes so. “Better hardware would mean less compromise for us. For example, we would love to see hardware that allows us for database storing facts to help the AI make more complex decisions. This would require more memory space and more processing power.”
CKII's Fåhraeus, on the other hand, believes that the type of AI currently used in grand strategy games has already reached its zenith. “We are basically just limited by the programmer time and skill. To go further, to open up dramatic new vistas, will require radical breakthroughs in the fields of neural networks and quantum computing.”
Clearly, the extent to which hardware will help depends on the type of game developers are making. But there are tools which already exist that could radically change how AI works in games. One such tool, known as evolutionary computation, works by creating a pool of random algorithms which are then optimised through a virtual natural selection process. This enables the AI to effectively learn and adapt during the process of playing a game.
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To go further will require radical breakthroughs in the fields of neural networks and quantum computing.
This techniques is rarely used in games industry – the only well-known example of mainstream implementation is the creature AI featured in Black and White. Late last year, evolutionary computation was used by a team of PhD student programmers from Texas to pass the Turing Test in 2K's much coveted “BotPrize”. But it could be used anywhere from creating drivers in a racing game who adapt to the behaviour of their opponents over time, to rulers in a grand strategy game like CKII who actually learn as they become more experienced.
To do so, however, would require significant rethinking about how games are developed, and also how they are played. The tools may already exist, but until a developer comes along who is brave enough to use them, our virtual monkeys will find it hard to advance much further than picking up that thigh-bone.
Rick Lane pokes virtual brains and watches them wobble for a variety of website and magazines. You can watch him become self-aware on Twitter and IGN.
