Halo 5 Warzone Firefight Beta Extended
Developer 343 Industries has extended its Halo 5: Guardians Warzone Firefight beta.
Technical issues plagued the playlist on its first day—and to thank fans for their patience while the team worked out the bugs, 343 added an extra day to the beta. Halo 5's Warzone Firefight beta will now run until Tuesday, April 19.
The "ambitious new multiplayer experience" will expand on Halo 5's popular Warzone multiplayer. The developer has said Warzone Firefight will be the "biggest Halo cooperative" mode in franchise history.
Ghost in the Shell Actor’s Ethnicity Almost Altered Via VFX
Paramount and DreamWorks reportedly commissioned visual effects tests to alter Scarlett Johansson's appearance in the live-action film adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.
Facing criticism for "whitewashing" the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi, producers attempted to "shift
ethnicity" in post-production, making the white actress appear "more Asian" for the film.
Ghost in the Shell's ethnicity tests were managed by Lola VFX—the company responsible for Brad Pitt's aging in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
According to ScreenCrush, the idea of altering Johansson's ethnicity was rejected "immediately" after being reviewed. Speaking to the site, Paramount Pictures acknowledged the order, saying "a test was done related to a specific scene for a background actor," and was "ultimately discarded."
Fear the Walking Dead Renewed for Season 3
Hot off the heels of Fear the Walking Dead: Season 2's premiere, AMC has renewed its popular zombie spin-off series for a third season.
According to the network's announcement, Fear the Walking Dead is now the second most popular cable show this TV season -- with only The Walking Dead ahead -- thanks to the success of Season 2's 8.8 million-viewer debut.
Season 3 will receive a total of 16 episodes when it airs in 2017. AMC also announced the series will again be accompanied by its ongoing live aftershow Talking Dead: Fear, which will air after every new episode and be hosted by Chris Hardwick.
For our thoughts on Fear the Walking Dead's return, check out IGN's review of the Season 2 premiere, in which Matt Fowler highlights the episode's strong opening sequence that was ultimately weighed down by "highly emotional characters making poor choices."
Red Dead Redemption 2 Map Leaked
The map to Red Dead Redemption 2, a long-rumored sequel to Red Dead Redemption, has reportedly leaked online.
First posted on NeoGAF, but later taken down, the map is real and a “very recent” art direction model, an independent source confirmed to Techradar.
The source also told Techradar that Red Dead Redemption 2 would be a prequel and the map will be set just to the east. Check it out below:
Red Dead Redemption 2's leaked map. (via TechRadar)
Bungie May Be Teasing Us With a New Destiny ARG
Bungie may be up to its old tricks with a Destiny augmented reality game.
Users of Bungie.net have begun receiving cryptic messages from one Absense Vigil, another profile on the service. These include references both overt and subtle to Bungie's shooter.
Since the messages started, Destiny faithful have begun tearing apart the information and images for deeper connections to the game. They've also begun translating Absense Vigil's account information — which is written in Latin — and messaging the profile themselves in hopes of a response.
Much of the investigation is being shared on Reddit. There users are drawing further connections to the Rezyl Azzir profile which Kotaku reported on earlier this week.
PAX East 2016 Custom Controller Giveaway
Did you hear? IGN is going to be at PAX East, and so will Microsoft! Because of that, Microsoft and IGN are working together to give you—our amazing fans—the chance to win one of five Xbox One limited edition controllers!
- Option 1: Follow @Xbox and RT the PAX custom Controller tweet with #XboxSweepstakes in it.
- Option 2: Follow @Xbox on Twitter or Instagram and post a pic of your favorite controller and include #XboxSweepstakes (since they will be displayed at the Xbox Booth).
- Option 3: Opt in with your Xbox Live account on the Xbox Dashboard.
Outlander: Why Claire’s Iconic Red Dress Is So Modern and Revealing
Outlander is going to Versailles in the second episode of Season 2, and it’s going to dress to the occasion.
If you thought the costumes in the Starz series were stunning up until this point, just wait until you get an eyeful of Claire Fraser’s gown that she wears to the court of King Louis XV. The gorgeous red dress has been the focal point of much of Season 2’s ad campaign, and when it’s brought up to star Caitriona Balfe, she can’t help but gush about the look costume designer Terry Dresbach put together.
Caitriona Balfe as Claire Fraser on Outlander
Daily Deals: 20% Off Dark Souls III, Street Fighter V, New Xbox One Bundle
Dark Souls III Day One Editions Are Back In Stock and 20% Off
Update: the Collector's Edition is back in stock too, and also eligible for the Prime discount.
Dark Souls III proved to be so popular Amazon was out of copies for a few days. It seems it just got a shipment though, because Day One copies are available again, and if you have Amazon Prime, you'll get it it a 20% discount. If you don't have Amazon Prime, you can start a free trial to get the discount and then cancel before you're billed - it won't kill you (leave that to Dark Souls).
We React to the Doc Strange, Spidey and Batman News
Download Keepin' it Reel, Episode 322!
Welcome back to Keepin' It Reel, the IGN show where Jim Vejvoda and Eric Goldman bring you the latest genre movie news.
Super Mario Bros. Has a New Speedrun World Record
Super Mario Bros., arguably the most recognizable game of all time, has a new "any percentage" completion record. The 4-minute, 57.260-second world record was set by speedrunner darbian.
The new record beats the old one by just 0.007 seconds. To give you an idea of just how close that is, it takes about 0.3 seconds to blink.
"Any percentage" means taking advantage of in-game shortcuts like warp zones to skip over levels and shave down the time to as few precious minutes as possible. It varies from a 100% completion, which requires traversing each level in order, and takes quite a bit longer.
If you have five minutes to spare, watch the incredible skills on display. If you didn't know any better, you might think this flawless run is tool-assisted. But it's not. In fact, one YouTube commenter points out darbian's run is only 15 frames off from a tool-assisted run. In other words, darbian is more machine than man, like some type of Super Mario Bros. Terminator.