IGN Movies Podcast: Ep. 3: New Last Jedi Details
Welcome back to the IGN Movies Podcast!
This week, Jim Vejvoda, Ahmad Childress and Tom Jorgensen talk up the big news about Disney's move away from Netflix to launch its own streaming service, the casting of Riz Ahmed in the Venom movie, and the latest on Justice League.
The bulk of our conversation, though, revolves around all the new details we learned this week about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, from what's happening within the Resistance to the new aliens inhabiting Luke Skywalker's island hideaway.
Finally, we chat up what we've been watching lately on streaming and at the cineplex.
Listen to our latest podcast by clicking the lovely large type below - right click to download.
IGN Interviews Starcraft: Remastered’s Development Team
Even classics need renovations from time to time. After 19 years of zerg rushes, sellout tournaments, and an entire esports scene, on Monday, Blizzard is releasing a remastered edition of its iconic game. IGN talked to Robert Bridenbecker, VP of Tech Strategy at Blizzard, about the challenges updating a revered giant in the RTS genre.
“Starcraft is arguably the grandfather of esports,” explains Bridenbecker, but even he may be underselling the influence of Starcraft on the esports scene. With esports tournaments, casters, players, and entire leagues built around the game during its heyday, Starcraft isn’t so much a game as an institution.
No one was more surprised about the game’s success than the developers. “Go back to 1999, seeing those esport tournaments in South Korea, we were pretty blown away.” Back then, he and his team thought of multiplayer as a few people playing over LAN. “We didn’t expect 100,000 people in a stadium.”
Justice League an ‘Interesting Product of Two Directors’
Ben Affleck talked about the process of working on Justice League under two different directors.
Speaking to EW, Affleck called it "a little bit unorthodox" to work on a movie where one director leaves and another steps in under a situation like that which happened to Zack Snyder.
Snyder, who started as the film's director, had to leave Justice League after a family tragedy, and Avenger's director Joss Whedon stepped in to complete the job in his place.
"We got really lucky that he stepped in," Affleck said, saying Whedon is "the best person we could’ve possibly found" to take over from Snyder.
Marvel’s Huge Step Forward for the Comic Industry
In 2016, Marvel announced a new comic series called Immortal Iron Fists starring Danny Rand and Pei, a little girl newly imbued with the glowing fist of legend. But 2016 came and went without Iron Fists ever making its debut. A different Iron Fist comic was released instead, no doubt wanting to capitalize on the attention of the Netflix show releasing in March 2017. It turns out that Iron Fists, written by Kaare Andrews with art by Afu Chan, wasn’t canned but was being saved to kick off a new partnership between Marvel Comics and digital comics seller ComiXology (announced during July 2017’s San Diego Comic-Con) where it was released as the first-ever Marvel comic exclusive to the ComiXology Originals imprint. While this news might read like nothing more than the reveal of a new comic for most, it was actually Marvel taking an important step forward for the comic book industry.
Sonic Mania PC Version Release Date Delayed
Days before the game's release, the PC version of Sonic Mania has been delayed for two weeks.
Sega made the announcement during a livestream today, revealing Sonic Mania will now launch on PC on August 29. However, the 2D platformer is still slated to release on August 15 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
The reason for the delay is because the PC version isn't meeting Sega's high standards for the title, and as such, there's still some work to be done to make sure the game reaches Sega's quality requirements.
However, to help make up for the two-week delay, Sega will be providing free Steam copies of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for people who pre-order Sonic Mania or buy the Collector's Edition.
NVC: Rocket League’s Journey to Switch
Welcooooooome to the latest episode of our weekly Nintendo talk show, Nintendo Voice Chat! In Episode 368, we welcome a special guest: VP of Publishing at Psyonix, Jeremy Dunham. Jeremy made the jump from games media to game development almost eight years ago. Tune in to hear him talk about his personal journey, as well as the fascinating success story of the company's flagship title, Rocket League, and its journey to Nintendo Switch later this year. What's it like first laying eyes on development hardware? What's it like working with Nintendo? Answers in the second half of our show.
Join Brian "Mother Brian" Altano, Zach "Young George Lucas" Ryan, and Peer "amiibo ate my kids' college funds" Schneider for our interview with Jeremy, as well as our thoughts on the latest Nintendo announcements, the games we're playing, and, of course, answers to your most burning questions in our (almost) weekly Question Block segment.
Game of Thrones: Will Sansa Side with Littlefinger Over her Family?
Warning: Spoilers for HBO's Game of Thrones up through the most recent episode, "The Spoils of War." Also, this piece contains speculation that may or may not manifest into spoilers.
In "The Spoils of War," Arya found her way back to Winterfell for the first time on the show since the series premiere back in 2011. She also reunited with siblings Sansa and Bran - again, a huge Stark family first that hadn't happened since Season 1.
But all three of these remaining Stark pups have endured torturous journeys - each taking a different form - that have transformed them into very different people. Not just from who they once were, but different from each other as well. Sansa rose up through physical abuse, rape and sexual torture under the tough love tutelage of Cersei and Littlefinger. Bran traveled far beyond the Wall, battled living nightmares, and discovered cold, emotionless "sight beyond sight" from the Three-Eyed Raven. Arya is the smirking, deadly collage of many surrogate parents - from Syrio Forel to Tywin Lannister to The Hound to "No One."
Spider-Man: Homecoming Becomes 4th Film of 2017 to Pass Domestic Box Office Milestone
Spider-Man: Homecoming has crossed another $100 million milestone at the domestic box office, but how does the film's local and worldwide cume stack up to other MCU and Spider-Man films?
Sony Pictures announced that, as of today, Homecoming has amassed an estimated $300 million at the U.S. box office and $682 million worldwide. Peter Parker's first solo film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe scored the highest-ever debut weekend for a superhero in the MCU, though it then suffered the largest second-weekend drop of Marvel Studios' universe.
How Does a VPN Work?
This article was last updated and expanded on August 11, 2017. Note that if you click on one of these links to buy the product, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, read our Terms of Use.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) may have a somewhat seedy reputation, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons to consider using one. And besides, no one needs an excuse to keep their internet browsing history secret. We all have a right to privacy online.
But how does a VPN protect you anyway? And how specifically does a VPN work? It's not magic, it's cryptography. Let's go over the basics of how a VPN works before diving deeper.
Ticket to Ride Board Game: A Complete Purchasing Guide
It’s not unusual to walk into a board game store and be overwhelmed by the sheer number of Ticket to Ride products on shelf. Some are stand-alone, others expand on the base Ticket to Ride game, and they all have their own quirks. It’s hard to know where to begin or — if you already own and enjoy Ticket to Ride — what to try next.
But we're here to help! Below are our picks for which version of Ticket to Ride to buy, the best (and worst) Ticket to Ride expansions, along with a comprehensive guide of what to expect from every Ticket to Ride product.