Monthly Archives: September 2019

Control Debug Tool Reveals Possible DLC Focusing on Side Character

Future DLC for Remedy Entertainment’s Control may have been inadvertently revealed after a YouTuber used the game’s debug tool on PC to discover a hidden mission reference.

Discovered by YouTuber ManFightDragon and first reported by PC Gamer, the evidence seems to be a mission name that’s absent from the main game, but possibly focuses on a side character.

For those unfamiliar, a debug tool allows a developer to test various parts of a game before release. Oftentimes, to save time or money, a developer might just put an unused asset somewhere the player can’t find it. ManFightDragon managed to use Control’s debug tool to find a possible reference to DLC, which you can see at the 5:20 mark in their YouTube video.

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How Frozen 2 Songs Will Compare to the Original Disney Movie

Don't expect "Let It Go 2.0" when Frozen 2 hits theaters later in 2019. Star Idina Menzel describes the new songs in the upcoming sequel to be "apples and oranges" when compared with the 2013 film.

"The music is exquisite. I'm really proud of it. I really think that it tells beautiful stories and develops the story in an extraordinary way," she told IGN at D23 Expo 2019. "It's not about the comparison. It's really apples and oranges. I love the music in the movie, that I sing and that I don't sing, and I think it will really resonate with people."

The D23 panel debuted a new song for Elsa (Menzel), which sees her grappling with whether or not to pursue a mysterious singing voice that is calling out to her. The lyrics include lines like: "Are you here to distract me so I make a big mistake? Or are you someone out there who’s a little bit like me, who knows deep down I’m not where I’m meant to be? Every day’s a little harder as I feel my power grow. Don’t you know there’s a part of me that longs to go into the unknown?"

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Solasta: Crown of the Magister Might Be the D&D Video Game We Deserve

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been drawn to the fantastical adventures found in tabletop roleplaying games – sat around a table with friends playing Dungeons & Dragons there is a sense you could get lost in a game system that supports truly limitless opportunity and storytelling. As video games grew and evolved, the desire to try and capture that experience in video game form was an obvious next step. And since then, we’ve gotten some really incredible games.

I cut my teeth on a mountain of Gold Box PC adventures, tile-based dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder, and the Infinity-engine series like Baldur’s Gate, Planescape, and Icewind Dale. I murdered scores of kobolds, gnolls, and skeletons in hack-and-slash adventures like Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath. And most recently, the earnest attempts at capturing the licensed experience wholesale in games like Sword Coast Legends, and the near-perfect combat systems of Larian’s Divinity: Original Sin series.

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The Mandalorian, Arrow, and More Exclusives from Fall’s Big TV Premieres

Between all the broadcast, cable, and streaming networks, there's more TV than ever before, and with several new streaming platforms launching in the next few months alone, you'll soon have hundreds of new and returning shows competing for your attention (not to mention your subscription dollars) between now and December.

That's why, this September, we once again highlighted some of the best upcoming TV shows of the new season in our IGN First Fall Preview, featuring exclusive trailer debuts, image reveals, episode sneak peeks, and interviews with your favorite TV stars and creators. We didn't have time to feature every show we're excited for, but we feel confident that you'll find something to love in our choices below. Check out all of the exclusive IGN First reveals we debuted this September for some of our favorite new and returning series:

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Fall TV Premieres: Every Release Date You Need to Know

September once again marks IGN's Fall TV preview, in which we'll spotlight a host of upcoming new shows and returning favorites, one per day, throughout the entire month, to get you fully prepped for some of the season's biggest series. But before we kick off our IGN First TV spotlight on September 3, we figured you might want a list of every announced fall TV premiere date we know so far.

Just when you thought Peak TV couldn't get any Peak-ier (and we're not even talking about Peaky Blinders), Disney is entering the streaming arena with Disney+ this fall. So while TV premieres usually slow down in November, this year there's a full docket due to the November 12 launch of the new streaming platform - featuring a new live-action Star Wars show, a Jeff Goldblum docu-series, and a hanfdul of original movies, among other offerings.

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The Irishman Tested De-Aging Tech by Recreating Goodfellas Scene

Martin Scorsese recreated an iconic scene from his 1990 mob masterpiece Goodfellas to quality-check the potential use of digital de-aging technology in his upcoming film The Irishman.

According to Empire, the director enlisted Robert De Niro to re-enact one of the key scenes from Goodfellas, wherein De Niro's Jimmy Conway orders his high-flying cohorts to dispose of their extravagant purchases to avoid unnecessarily drawing attention to their criminal activities.

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YouTubers Uncover Hidden GTA San Andreas Cheat Codes

GTA fans have discovered that the mobile port of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is packed with undocumented cheat codes that don't exist in the original PS2 version of the game.

As reported by Kotaku, a group of GTA fans including YouTuber Vadim M have uncovered the hidden cheats that seem to have been invented to help the development team test and debug the mobile port of GTA: San Andreas.

These include a cheat that unlocks difficult-to-obtain weapons on the fly, perhaps so the developers could test gear outside of specific missions. Another code allows you to skip missions and events by inputting "scriptbypass," presumably so developers could quickly get to the area they needed to test. Another makes your vehicle totally invincible to any damage - including from tanks.

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Joaquin Phoenix Says Joker Weight Loss Affected His Psychology

Joaquin Phoenix has revealed that he "started to go mad" while preparing to take on the titular role of the Gotham City super-villain in the upcoming Joker movie.

Speaking at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, Phoenix discussed the extensive groundwork that he put into crafting his own unique interpretation of the iconic DC character. The acclaimed actor reportedly cited his rapid weight loss as a major contributing factor, as THR claims he lost 52lbs to morph into the Clown Prince of Crime.

"The first thing was the weight loss, that's really what I started with. As it turns out, that impacts your psychology, and you really start to go mad when you lose that much weight in that amount of time," Phoenix recalled at the press conference, per ET Canada. "There's also a book about political assassins that I thought was interesting, and breaks down the different types of personalities that do those sorts of things

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Yakuza 7’s Turn-Based Battles Still Let You Use Bicycles as Weapons

Yakuza 7's producer,  Masayoshi Yokoyama, has elaborated on how the game's new JRPG-style combat will work. While Yakuza is switching to a turn-based system, some things are staying the same.

In a series of tweets translated by Gematsu, Yokoyama said "the 'objects' that exist on the battlefield, such as bicycles, can be used as weapons or obstacles like in the action-based battles of previous games."

Fights now play out using a ‘Live Command RPG Battle' system, meaning combat is turn-based but will have a degree of fluidity. Skirmishes begin wherever you're standing, for instance, which is important because if your characters happen to be close to objects you can use in a fight (like a bike) you can use it to your advantage.

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Dragon’s Dogma: The Most Influential Game No One Ever Copied

There’s a phrase you’ll hear from time to time - ‘a comedian’s comedian’. It’s the idea that a certain kind of (usually odd, or cerebral) comic’s main audience is just other comics, who often go onto co-opt that style in more marketable ways. It’s an idea that maps to games rather well.

The ‘game developer’s game’ is something like Frozen Synapse - I’ve lost count of the developers I’ve seen losing their minds over its elegant, Spartan approach to tactics - or Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a game so broken but so compelling that it died and had its bones picked clean by the likes of Bioware and CD Projekt Red.

But then you have something like Dragon’s Dogma. On the surface, Capcom’s 2012 action-RPG seems a similar case. This was a game made with the stated intention of capitalising on Elder Scrolls Fever, arriving mere months after Skyrim, and bringing with it similar fantasy references, quest design and open world structure. But its Japanese creators, and Capcom’s action game expertise meant it came out quite differently, a chimeric hodgepodge of cross-Pacific ideas.

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