7 Pokemon Decks That Could Win the World Championships
With the 2017 Pokemon World Championships just around the corner, from August 18 to 20, we’ve got our eye on a handful of decks that could win the TCG tournament. The grand prize for the TCG Masters division tournament is $25,000, which is the largest payout of the whole championship (the VGC winner gets $10,000), making it a super competitive field.
Before we get to our picks for the top decks, we want to give a reminder of the craziness that happened last year. Everyone thought the metagame would be predictable with all the same popular decks that had been played all year long, but Japan’s Shintaro Ito surprised everyone when he took 1st place using Mega Audino-EX. That card was considered binder trash by most, but it also happened to be the silver bullet to last year’s metagame, allowing Ito to sweep the finals match in under 25 minutes. The lesson here is to take note of these powerful and popular decks, but also to always expected the unexpected.
IGN UK Podcast #396: The Defenders Special
This week Krupa and Joe have a lovely chat with The Defenders' showrunner, Marco Ramirez. But that's not all, as Joe, Rory, and Alex also cover some cool indie Switch games, Pokemon Go raiding (yes, Rory's been catching legendaries when he should be working, and Overwatch's Summer Games update.
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IGN UK Podcast #396: The Defenders Special
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PUBG: Total Player Killcount and Other Crazy Stats
Since it hit Steam Early Access in March 2017, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has attracted millions of players for a collective total of 10 million games played so far. With number of minutes played soaring well into the billions and max concurrent users impressively high for a newer Early Access game, the Battle Royale-inspired massively multiplayer online shooter is undoubtedly one of the most popular games this year.
The team over at Bluehole were nice enough to give IGN an exclusive peek at some of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds internal statistics, ranging from most popular weapon types, number of kills broken down by firearm, longest kill, and more. You can watch a video breakdown of the numbers in the video above or check out the gallery below for a closer look at the data.
Dota 2 is Getting Two New Heroes in “Dueling Fates” Update
Valve ended the second to last day of The International 2017 Dota 2 tournament with a bang, announcing two brand new heroes coming to the game.
The first hero is a stylish armadillo wielding a rapier reminiscent of Zorro. The preview video shows him hopping around on hills, dancing around his enemies and dispatching them with quick swipes of his blade.
These preview videos generally are representative of a heroes abilities, meaning this currently unnamed hero will likely be highly mobile, with the ability to disarm opponents and curl up into a ball, rolling around to initiate or escape.
The second unnamed hero was given much less screen time, but appears to be the rumored fourth spirit, Sylph. Our freshly introduced armadillo friend tells her the forest is safe thanks to him, to which she replies, "ohhh, safe? It's really not," before attacking him with a minion.
Dota 2’s Top Pros Bested By Open AI Developed 1v1 Bot
Artificial intelligence company Open AI has created a bot that is taking down top Dota 2 players at The International 2017.
This year's big Dota 2 tournament is currently in its second to last day with only four teams remaining in competition. Between the event's official games, Valve always includes some fun show matches, and this year it brought in Open AI's aforementioned Dota 2 bot to face off against the game's most famous player, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, live on the main stage.
Open AI said the 1v1 bot has learned from playing against itself in lifetimes worth of matches. In a promo video shown before the match we see the bot besting some of the game's top players, including Evil Genius' cores Arteezy and Sumail.
Once Upon a Time Showrunners Answer 15 Big Fan Questions
Once Upon a Time is returning in a big, new way with Season 7, which marks what showrunners Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis call a "requel" -- part reboot, part sequel -- for the ABC fairy tale drama. With the news that not every previously major character will be returning for this jump forward in time after Season 6's happily ever afters, there have understandably been a lot of questions about how this change will affect the many, many characters the audience knows and has come to love.
So with that in mind, I turned to you, Once Upon a Time fans, to find out your most pressing concerns and burning questions about Season 7. I took those and brought them straight to Kitsis and Horowitz, who broke down what we can expect for Belle and Emma's returns to the show, whether we can expect new versions of beloved characters like Robin and the Wicked Witch, and whether Regina Roni and Hook will be getting new love interests. Read the full Q&A below!
Is No Man’s Sky the Same Game it Was a Year Ago?
One year ago, we took our first steps into the giant universe of No Man’s Sky. At the time, the prospect of discovering planets and flying my own little ship around a near-infinite galaxy excited me, and I played beginning of the game in awe of its immense scale. But that new ship smell could only carry me so far, and it wasn’t long before I was asking myself “Isn’t there more to this?”
Since then, developer Hello Games has slowly been adding free content updates to No Man's Sky, most recently today's massive 1.3 update called Atlas Rises. You can read about all the changes here, but nearly every aspect of the game has been touched, changed, or improved in some way. Here’s a video of the update in action:
Silver and Black: Spider-Man Spin-off Gets Release Date
Sony has announced a 2019 release date for its upcoming Silver and Black movie.
As reported by Variety, the upcoming Spider-Man spin-off film will be released in theaters on February 8, 2019. Silver and Black will be directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, who is also rewriting the script penned by Thor: Ragnarok writer Chris Yost. The movie will be produced by Amy Pascal and Matt Tolmach.
Comic book readers know Silver Sable (aka Silver Sablinova) as the leader of the Wild Pack, a group of mercenaries who hunt down criminals. Meanwhile, Black Cat (aka Felicia Hardy) is a burglar who's skilled in martial arts and gymnastics.
Sonic Mania Collector’s Edition Unboxing
Sonic Mania will be released on August 15 for the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, alongside a special collector's edition.
Featuring a 12-inch statue of Sonic standing atop a Sega Genesis (which plays the classic "Sega!" startup sound), a collector's card, a Genesis-style cartridge, collectible Sonic ring, and a code for Mania, the Collector's Edition is currently available to preorder for $69.99. Check out our unboxing of the special edition above, or dive into our gallery below for a closer look at what's included.
Sonic Mania combines remixes of classic 2D Sonic levels with brand new areas and elements, while also including secret areas that act as homage to certain Sonic games.