IGN AU 2017 Select Awards: Winners Revealed!
The winners of IGN Australia's sixth annual Select Awards were revealed during a huge special event at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney on Friday, February 16.
2017 was absolutely crammed with terrific games and several categories were extremely tightly-contested.
The top three games in each category and the winners, as voted by IGN users, are listed below:
Runners-up: Grand Theft Auto Online, Rocket League
Runners-up: Horizon Zero Dawn, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Runners-up: Cuphead, Horizon Zero Dawn
Runners-up: Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Origins
PUBG’s Anti-Cheat Company Says 99% of Banned Accounts From China
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' problem with cheaters has been a major issue for the game, and recent data from the company's anti-cheat tech provider, BattlEye indicates that 99% of accounts that have been banned for cheating are from China.
Youxi Story reports the statistic, adding that 46% of PUBG's total players are based in China. It makes the problem a significant one in PUBG's most important territory.
One million accounts were banned for cheating in January, with BattlEye saying that "things continue to escalate" in spite of this.
Persona Series Getting an Official App
The Persona Series is set to receive an official companion app in Japan.
According to Siliconera, Persona O.A. will be a "support app" containing news and updates about the series as well as a built-in exploration game. It's not yet clear if the app will head west.
From the rough translation, it looks like fans will be able to explore the Mementos palace from Persona 5, earning items and "Persona Points" to summon more characters in the Velvet Room.
"Conversation events" will also occur, where a character from the game will appear and provide dialogue if you engage and attempt to raise your social link with them.
New Game From Deadly Premonition Director Coming This Year
Deadly Premonition director, Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro, has announced a new game from his studio White Owl, in association with Dragon Ball FighterZ studio Arc System Works. The Missing is scheduled for release later this year, and will "blow your mind."
"The title 'The Missing' has many different meanings," says Swery. "A missing person, someone who's lost, or even something lost. Maybe it's your loved one… or a place you belong. Do you ever feel lost in your everyday life? The Missing is for someone like you."
The Missing will be the first game White Owl has produced in-house, following a failed crowdfunding campaign for his RPG The Good Life, which was announced last year, set in an English town where all of the residents become cats at night.
UK Daily Deals: Nintendo Switch FIFA 18 for £22, MSI 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop for £799, £10 off Sea of Thieves Xbox One Controller
Black Panther’s 8 Biggest WTF Questions
Full SPOILERS follow for Black Panther. Make sure to check out IGN's spoiler-free review.
While we love Marvel’s Black Panther, that doesn’t mean we still don’t have some lingering questions about what went down in it.
Here are the eight biggest WTF questions we had after watching T’Challa’s long-awaited solo film, starting with …
Killmonger had the Heart-Shaped Herb destroyed. So does that mean the Black Panther line of succession truly ends with T’Challa? That no one else can ever gain those super-powers again without the elixir made from from the herb? While anyone can put on a Vibranium suit not everyone can gain the powers of the Black Panther without the Heart-Shaped Herb.
Black Panther Director Answers Our Big Infinity Stone Question
With Black Panther hitting theaters, IGN talked to director Ryan Coogler about the Infinity Stones, those powerful gems that big bad Thanos is after in Avengers: Infinity War.
Warning: full spoilers for Black Panther!
As it turns out, the Black Panther movie does not include an Infinity Stone. Given that it’s the last movie before Avengers: Infinity War debuts in May, we theorized that Black Panther would be where we discover the last of the six Infinity Stones, the orange-colored Soul Stone, but that’s not the case.
Here’s what Coogler said when we asked him why Black Panther didn’t feature an Infinity Stone.
Black Panther End Credits Scenes Explained
The Black Panther movie has two end credits scenes, so we’re going to explain what they mean for the future of T’Challa and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Warning: beware of spoilers!
Let's start with the post-credits scene first, which shows a small Wakandan village where Bucky is being rehabilitated by Shuri. The last time we saw Bucky was in the post-credits scene to Captain America: Civil War, where he was put in cryogenic stasis until he could be cured of his trigger-word brainwashing.
Marvel Comics released a story that fills in the gap between these scenes called Avengers: Infinity War Prelude #1. There, Shuri explains to T’Challa that she put Bucky on ice in order to scan his brain and do tests on a digital copy of his mind. Her goal was to remove the trigger words and “reboot” his brain, with the challenge of not damaging his original personality.
Mafia 3 Studio Hangar 13 Hit With Layoffs
A "significant number of staff" has been laid off at Mafia III developer Hangar 13.
2K confirmed the layoffs to IGN in the statement below:
"2K can confirm that there have been staff reductions at Hangar 13 in order to ensure that the studio’s resources are properly aligned with its long-term development plans. These reductions will not influence 2K’s ability to create and deliver its products that are currently in development. We never take these matters lightly, and are working with the affected employees to support them and explore potential opportunities throughout our organization."
Kotaku reports it was a "large proportion" of the studio's staff let go, but the publisher has not commented on how many employees were affected.
Call of Duty Action Figure Line Announced
McFarlane Toys has teamed up with Activision to make action figures of popular Call of Duty characters.
The first wave will include John "Soap" MacTavish and Simon "Ghost" Riley from the Modern Warfare series, with "more characters spanning the franchise to be revealed at a later date."
Simon "Ghost" Riley
Todd McFarlane, CEO of McFarlane Toys, said, "This franchise has delivered incredible experiences full of iconic and memorable characters, and we're delighted to bring these characters to life as collectibles to fans."