Aquaman Director on That Crazy, Classic DC Character Cameo
SPOILERS ahead for Aquaman! Consider yourself warned!
DC Comics fans watching Aquaman might recognize a certain character glimpsed at one point during the "Ring of Fire"sequence, where Arthur Curry must face his half-brother Orm in gladiatorial combat for the throne of Atlantis.
Aquaman director James Wan confirmed to IGN that the octopus playing the drums in that scene is none other than Topo, Aquaman's sidekick in the Silver Age comics and later a member of the Super-Pets.
There have been three different incarnations of Topo since he first appeared in Adventure Comics #229 in 1956, including one version who was essentially an anthropomorphic squid and, most recently in The New 52, a big, horrific sea creature.
12 Massive Upcoming Games Without Release Dates
Heading into 2019, there are a bunch of huge games that still don’t have release dates. Some look very small in the rearview mirror - I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy 7 Remake - while some will undoubtedly see firm release dates next year. Below's slideshow is a rundown of the biggest question marks.
While you wait for all these games to come out, check out our rundown of all the big games that got delayed this year, our discussion on the worst games of 2018, and our of all the unexpected 2019 games we can’t wait to play.
The Best Reviewed Movies of 2018
The year is coming to a close, and the time has come to look back at all the films that blew our minds.
IGN’s film critics watched a heck of a lot of movies this year, and these were the very best. IGN rates its movies on a scale of 0-10, and any film released (theatrically or streaming) between January 1 and December 31st is eligible for this slideshow, which highlights all the films that earned a 9 or above from any of our various film critics.
On this scale, any film rated 9.0-9.9 is considered “amazing” and anything that gets the coveted 10 rating is declared a “masterpiece”. And we don’t give 10s out to just anything, either. In fact, not one motion picture earned a 10/10 rating in all of 2018. (And be sure to check out our worst reviewed movies of 2018.)
Nintendo: A Year in Review – NVC Ep 437
2017 was a hard act to follow for Nintendo. The Switch’s launch last year was accompanied by some of the best Mario and Zelda games each of their respective series has seen, as well as the fantastic Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. So it’s not too surprising that Nintendo had trouble hitting that bar again in 2018, but that’s not to say it’s had a bad year overall.
In the special episode of NVC at the top of the page, we broke down the highs and lows of Nintendo’s 2018, and you can keep reading to see some of the biggest highlights from the year.
Nintendo’s Biggest 2018 Exclusives
12 News Stories That Shook the World in 2018
2018 was a memorable year in the world of entertainment. The box office thrived behind blockbusters Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Incredibles 2, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, as well as surprise hits like Crazy Rich Asians and A Quiet Place. The gaming community celebrated an equally successful year behind AAA masterpieces Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War, with help from high-quality indies such as Celeste, Dead Cells, and Return of the Obra Dinn.
While there was a lot to celebrate, this year featured an equal amount of surprising and controversial stories that will leave a lasting impact on the gaming, film, television, and comics communities. From celebrity deaths to studio closures, these are the twelve news stories that shook the world of entertainment in 2018, listed chronologically.
Check Out Six Photos From John Wick: Chapter 3
New photos from John Wick: Chapter 3 have been revealed.
The film, starring Keanu Reeves as the titular protagonist, sees Wick return with a $14 million price tag on his head and “an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail.”
The film also reunites Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick and introduces new characters played by Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston, Asia Kate Dillon, Mark Dacascos and Jason Mantzoukas. Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman join the cast as "formidable professional killers that Wick has to face off against," and martial arts star Tiger Hu Chen.
The Games and Game Services With the Most Downtime in 2018
Whenever PSN, Xbox Live or any other major online game or service goes down, these become some of the most heavily searched topics on IGN. So, we wanted to see how various services, platforms and individual games fared throughout 2018 when it came to staying online. To do so, we asked Downdetector, a website that collects data on online service outages, who experienced the most downtime in 2018.
To determine which games and services go down and for how long, Downdetector "collects status reports from a series of sources. Through a realtime analysis of this data, our system is able to automatically determine outages and service interruptions at a very early stage.” Downtime analyzes reports from sources like Twitter, and detects outages when the number of reports jumps above a relative baseline level.
Fans React Positively to The Division 2 Alpha
Ubisoft’s The Division 2 held a technical alpha test for the PC over the last week, and many of those who had the chance to play it came away with positive impressions.
The alpha, which was announced last week, took place between December 15-18, and those who had the chance to play it signed a non-disclosure agreement, strictly limiting what they could or could not publicly say about the game. While many leaks arose during this time, Ubisoft has removed much of this as quickly as possible. However, some details and impressions have remained, and they’re largely positive on this post-apocalyptic sequel.
Infinity War Artists on “Those” Thanos and Gamora Scenes
Some of the most enigmatic and visually striking scenes in Avengers: Infinity War are those set in the ethereal realm where Thanos is confronted by the spirit of Gamora.
They also left us with a handful of questions: Is this Soul World? Is it all a figment of Thanos' power-addled imagination? We can't say for sure, but those moments leave a strong impression. IGN had a chance to interview Industrial Light & Magic visual effects artists Kelly Port and Dan DeLeeuw about the process of creating and depicting this mysterious realm -- and to help us set the record straight on what it actually is.
"We just explore quite a few different things and play around with the idea that it was a sort of vault, or as if we were in the Soul Stone, for example," said DeLeeuw. "But I think it ended up taking me playing around with the spread water as if... we had a lot of blood involved."
Telltale’s The Walking Dead’s Final Episodes Coming to the Epic Games Store
Skybound Games has announced it is partnering with Epic Games to release future episodes of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season on the Epic Games Store.
Though the season will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store for all future purchases, fans who already bought the season on PC through a different platform will still be able to receive the final two episodes through their original point of purchase.
“The team at Epic owns a major chapter in the history of the game industry,” said Skybound Games CEO Ian Howe and Dan Murray in a joint-statement. "We’re excited to work together on their latest transformative event with the launch of the Epic Games Store. Epic stepped up to the plate immediately to work with us in order to bring the original team back together and ensure fans will receive the completed season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season."