Heroes of the Storm Holding a Free Weekend
To kick off 2017, Blizzard is unlocking all Heroes of the Storm characters this weekend.
While the base version of the game usually offers a few free characters on rotation, but all will be unlocked for the duration of the event.
That means you’ve got three days to test out any characters you haven’t had the chance to play with yet. The whole shebang runs from January 13 through to January 16.
Heroes of the Storm had a pretty busy 2016. January saw the announcement Diablo characters would be joining the HotS roster, as well as an eSports prize pool totaling $4 million. One month later, in February, the Lunar Festival kicked off.
BAFTA 2017 Nominations Revealed
The BAFTA 2017 nominations are in.
Leading the charge is Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, which is up for a total of 11 mentions, including Best Film, Best Director, Leading Actor, and Leading Actress, closely followed by Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi Arrival with nine nominations. The latter is up for Best Picture, Director, and Actress for Amy Adams, among others.
Bringing up the rear in the Best Film category are Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, along with Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight.
On the Star Wars front, Rogue One is up for two awards, Make Up and Hair and Special Visual Effects, while Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is up for five awards, namely Production Design, Costume Design, Outstanding British Film, Special Visual Effects, And Sound.
Sony Announces White PS4 Slim
Sony has revealed the first colour variant for the new slim version of the PS4, 'Glacier White'.
So far announced as a 500GB model for Europe and as 500GB/1TB models for Japan (there's no word on a North American or Australian release as yet), the console also comes with a white edition of the updated PS4 controller.
It appears to be a permanent addition to Sony's console line-up, as opposed to a limited edition. No official price has yet been announced.
The Glacier White console will be released on January 24 in Europe and February 23 in Japan.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and this console hurt his eyes. Follow him on Twitter.
Microsoft Deletes All Mention of Scalebound From Its Channels
Microsoft has removed mentions of Scalebound from its website, and removed all trailers for the game from its primary YouTube channel.
Following the in-development action-RPG's surprise cancellation, it appears Microsoft is now scrubbing it from any of its official web outlets.
The game's official page on Xbox.com now redirects to the site's homepage (although its Microsoft Store entry remains live), and trailers, gameplay demos and conference showings have been taken down or made private on YouTube.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is Important to Revival
While there was clearly a lot of excitement for the Twin Peaks panel at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press today, it was with the understanding that almost no information would actually be revealed at it. The secrecy around Twin Peaks' new episodes is massive and not only was Showtime not debuting any footage (nope, no trailer*), the panel was only scheduled to include cast members -- no writers or producers -- who were no doubt unable to say anything about the plot.
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Twin Peaks Photo Gallery: All the Returning Cast Members
However, there was one big surprise when David Lynch himself made an unscheduled appearance, prior to the cast taking the stage. Lynch answered questions for nearly 20 minutes and was, well, David Lynch... His questions were either incredibly brief and simple, or long and amusingly odd.
Get Ready to Witness the Justice League Meeting the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
With dozens of comic books to choose from, let us show you which are the best coming out this week. Take a look at this list spotlighting our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent and new books that look cool and are backed by some top-tier talent.
Check out our picks, then head to the comments to let us know what you’ll be buying this week!
By writer Tom Taylor & artist Stephen Byrne | DC Comics / BOOM! Studios
Yahoo Changing Its Name to Altaba, CEO to Depart
Yahoo chief executive officer Marissa Mayer and co-founder David Filo are leaving the company once the company's sale to Verizon is complete.
According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mayer, Filo, and several other board members are stepping down. The company will also change its name to Altaba, Inc.
Verizon is buying Yahoo's core business for roughly $4.8 billion USD.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Image Source: Yahoo
iZombie Expands its World in Season 3
iZombie returns for its third season in April and series co-creator Rob Thomas said to expect some changes, as Liv (Rose McIver) begins to discover more about the mysterious Vivian Stoll, introduced at the end of Season 2, and her militarized zombie group at Fillmore Graves.
Speaking to press at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour this weekend, Thomas remarked, “I feel like Season 3 has a much different feel than Seasons 1 and 2. Both in Seasons 1 and 2, you know, there were big bads who were pretty clearly doing awful things.” Thomas noted that both those seasons ended in big showdowns, with Season 2 going into “a full on traditional zombie movie at the end where you're trying to escape from zombies coming after you."
Star Wars: Rebels Creatures Rumored to Be in Episode 8
Star Wars: Episode VIII may feature a familiar creature from the Disney XD animated series Star Wars Rebels, if a recent rumor proves true.
Warning: Possible spoilers for Star Wars: Episode VIII below.
According to Making Star Wars, the puffin-like bird creatures from Star Wars Rebles known as convorees may appear in Episode VIII. The outlet reported last week that a bird-like creature will serve as "protectors of Ahch-To," and has since heard from its sources that these creatures are in fact the convorees from Rebels.
Avengers: Infinity War to Film in Scotland
Avengers: Infinity War will reportedly be spending a big chunk of its production time filming in Scotland.
The Telegraph reports the third Avengers film will be shooting in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands. Filming will start in Scotland on February 28th and will reportedly last for six months.
Even though production starts relatively soon, many of the cast members involved haven't received their scripts yet. Chris Hemsworth told MTV News at the 2017 Golden Globes that he hasn't read the screenplay, saying it's "a little nerve-racking a couple weeks out, isn’t it? But this is the way Marvel does it."