See What It’s Like to Visit Hobbiton
There are plenty of great reasons to visit New Zealand, but if you're a fan of pop culture, touring the locations used to film Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies is a pretty great place to start. Though those movies shot on location all around the country, the standing Hobbiton set on Alexander Farm just outside of Matamata is the place to go if you hope to feel like you're living in Tolkien's world.
During a trip to New Zealand in May to visit some top secret movie and TV show sets, I couldn't resist a quick detour to fulfill a life-long bucket list achievement and see Hobbiton with my own two eyes. So I purchased a ticket to the Hobbiton Movie Set Tour and headed to Middle-Earth.
Game Scoop!: Early 2017 Video Game Preview
Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN's weekly video game talk show. This week we're discussing Horizon: Zero Dawn, Yooka-Laylee, Final Fantasy 12, and more. Watch the video above or download the podcast below.
Download Game Scoop! Episode 394
Or subscribe in iTunes and never miss an episode.
OR subscribe to the NEW Game Scoop! YouTube channel and never miss a video.
Daily Deals: HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset, Watch Dogs 2, Twilight Princess
Today Is A Very Good Day To Get A Gaming Headset
Amazon has a Gold Box Deal on hardware from Kingston, including some great RAM and storage deal, but pick of the litter has to be solid discounts on two of our favorite gaming headsets. We gave the original HyperX Cloud a 9, and its follow up, the HyperX Cloud II, a 9.5. Both are great headsets, fully compatible with PC, PS4, and Xbox One (with the newer Xbox controller or with the headset adapter) and will likely sell out before the day is done. And don't forget, there are some great memory, SSD, and flash drive deals in that Kingston Gold Box, too!
Brolin Promises Thanos vs. ‘Everybody’ in Infinity War
Thanos actor Josh Brolin was "blown away" by Marvel's The Avengers: Infinity War story when he first listened to it from beginning to end. "Basically, my character against everybody," he said. "And it's really fun what they've chosen to do with the story."
"I think it's brilliant, personally," Brolin told Moviefone recently. "I was blown away, and had goose pimples pretty much 50 percent of the time that I was listening to what was going on." The actor added he's "amazed" to be involved with such a film.
Brolin also commented on how much the Avengers' stories mean to fans—and how cool it is to have years worth of work come down to these two films. "These Avengers stories all come down to this conclusion," Brolin said, "and that's our involvement."
New Ratchet and Clank Poster, Shirts Coming from iam8bit
Galactic Rangers looking for more Ratchet and Clank gear can prepare to suit up with new merchandise courtesy of iam8bit.
Two new T-shirts and a glow-in-the-dark poster will be available for pre-order beginning June 9 at 10 am PDT. Andrew Kolb's Constellations of the Solana Galaxy screenprint features a number of characters and weapons from the Ratchet and Clank series and will only be available for a limited 350-print run. Check out the poster's glow-in-the-dark feature below.
More Shockers for Superman in DC Rebirth
It seems that the twists will just keep coming for the Superman franchise during DC Rebirth.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Action Comics #957!
Following on the heels of last week's Superman Rebirth #1, Action Comics #957 showcased the pre-Flashpoint Superman donning his new costume and setting out to fill the void left by his dead New 52 counterpart (who died in Superman #52 last month). But it seems that Supes has some competition for the job, as Lex Luthor has returned to Earth wearing his newly minted battlesuit and claiming the mantle of Superman for himself.
Watch Dogs 2: Save Me, San Francisco
Every component of Watch Dogs 2 spawned when the team at Ubisoft Montreal decided it had to take place in San Francisco. The game's protagonist, Marcus Holloway, was a kid raised in Oakland and incorrectly profiled by ctOS 2.0 – an updated version of the surveillance software from the original game. So, with the smarts and tech knowledge of someone who grew up around Silicon Valley, he's inspired to make his own unique brand of 'change' – hacker style.
From the get-go, this makes Watch Dogs 2 differ from the first game. Aiden Pearce's story was a very insular, anti-social revenge, where Marcus Holloway has banded up with DeadSec, a fairly 'cheeky' hacker organisation, to challenge notions of security, freedom and, apparently, gentrification. Even beyond that, though, the game's lead writer, Lucien Soulban, described Marcus to me as "charming" and "socially impactful," which is almost a 180 from Aiden Pearce's utter lack of personality. He also just has a more believable, warm design, with fashion inspired by Northern California, that real people might actually wear, rather than just a broody trench coat with a cap. I'm genuinely excited to learn more about him, and it seems like he'll be a likable companion throughout the journey of Watch Dogs 2, who comes with the added bonus of being able to do some very fluid-looking parkour to help you get around.
Activision Announces Call of Duty XP Fan Event
Activision will reveal its Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered multiplayer modes at the Call of Duty XP fan event in September—and not at E3 next week.
Fans attending the September 2–4 event in Los Angeles, California will be the first to go hands on with both multiplayer modes, as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops III's next downloadable content. The publisher will also have its Call of Duty VR experience on site, as well as live-action events like Nuketown paintball and Zombies laser tag.
Dedicated Call of Duty panels featuring developers Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games will also happen throughout the event. Activision is planning an onsite Call of Duty armory and franchise museum for fans to explore.
Watch Dogs 2 Officially Confirmed, Release Date Announced
Ubisoft has officially confirmed Watch Dogs 2. The sequel will be released on November 15, 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Confirming previous rumors, the sequel will leave the original’s setting of Chicago in favor of Ubisoft’s recreation of the San Francisco, which will also include parts of Oakland and Silicon Valley.
Deus Ex Go Is a Hack-and-Swipe Deus Ex Adventure
If you haven’t played either Hitman Go or Lara Croft Go on your smartphone or tablet (or, in Hitman Go’s case, PS4 or PC as well), please stop reading this and go fix that. Trust me.
Are you back? Great, so now you understand why another title in the Go franchise – this time Deus Ex gets the touch-driven strategy treatment – is fantastic news. Simply put, the Go games are, to date, the smartest translation of AAA console franchises to the mobile space we’ve ever seen, and Adam Jensen’s augmented-future universe will be Go-ified next (see the first trailer above).
Adam Jensen hacks his way through puzzles in Deus Ex Go.