Daily Deals: PlayStation Plus Membership Sale!
A One-Year PlayStation Plus Membership for $39.99
Guitar Hero Live 2-Pack Bundle for $89.99
Down $60 across all platforms!
New York Wants to Ban the Sale of Encrypted Smartphones
New York Assemblyman Matthew Titone wants to prohibit the sale of encrypted smartphones in the state of New York. This comes after New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance spoke out about banning encryption, with the goal of aiding law enforcement.
Titone's bill states that any smartphone manufactured in 2016 must be able to be decrypted and unlocked by the manufacturer, or else face a huge fine. This means that Apple or Google phones that offer default encryption would be essentially illegal to sell in New York. Default encryption means that only a person with the phone's password can access what it stores (so the manufacturer can't even unlock it), which prevents law enforcement from obtaining information through the manufacturer without a search warrant.
The Last of Us’ Ashley Johnson Leads The Witness Voice Cast
With voice recording on The Witness complete, developer Thekla Inc. has revealed the complete voice cast for its upcoming open-world puzzle game.
According to a post by studio president Jonathan Blow on the PS Blog, the four-person cast is led by Ashley Johnson, who voiced Ellie in The Last of Us and Gortys in Tales from the Borderlands. Remaining cast members include Phil LaMarr (Pulp Fiction, Shadow of Mordor), Matthew Waterson (The Order: 1886, Fallout 4), and musician Terra Deva.
Thekla Inc. also released a handful of new screenshots, which you can see in the gallery below.
Riot Games Drops EDM Album to Celebrate LCS
Many games have their own soundtracks, but Riot Games released something different today: an album to capture the sound of the competitive, eSports side of League of Legends.
Titled "Warsongs," the album is a collaboration of many popular electronic dance music (EDM) artists, including Arty, MitiS, Marshmello, James Egbert, Mako, Hyper Potions, Jauz, Minnesota, and Vicetone. According to a making-of the album on Riot's site, the Riot music team wanted it to be "an album that could serve as the soundtrack to the 2016 ranked season."
Warsongs is currently available to listen to and download for free on Riot's website, as well as YouTube, Spotify and SoundCloud.
Netflix to Stop Subscribers Using International Unblockers
Netflix users will soon be unable to use proxies or unblockers to access content that's currently unavailable in their country.
According to VP of content delivery architecture David Fullagar, the company will be enforcing this new restriction within the next few weeks. As such, those using international unblockers will no longer be able to circumvent country-based content licensing restrictions.
Fullagar admitted that while the company has "a ways to go before
can offer people the same films and TV series everywhere," Netflix "will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location."
New Orphan Black: Season 4 Teaser
This April, BBC America's Orphan Black returns for its fourth season. And from the looks of this new Lewis Carroll "Down the Rabbit" hole teaser, things are about to get truly insane as the quest for answers turns backwards, back to Beth Childs.
C-4, burning rooms, ruined monkey dolls, a NEW clone ("MK - aka the girl running in the sheep mask) - you'll have see for yourself...
So what'd you guys and gals think?
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity.
Rush Hour TV Series Intends to Survive on its Own Merit
Headed to CBS this March is Rush Hour, a new action-comedy from Cougar Town's Bill Lawrence and Blake McCormick, along with Psych's Steve Franks. Based, of course, on the popular Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker films. The three creators, along with the cast - including leads Justin Hires and Jon Foo - appeared at the TCA Press Tour to talk about the positives and negatives of taking a well-known movie to the small screen.
"You guys know the battle of TV right now, right?," Lawrence (Scrubs) asked the TV critics in attendance for the Q&A session. "There are a lot of shows on television right now, and I think it's a risky dice to roll because, if it’s an iconic movie that people like you can’t knock fans off of it. But I think what you hope is that a title brings people to check out your show and give it a look. And I still want to believe that if you cast it well and write it well and act it well and produce it well, the people will stay after that, long after the references to the feature are gone."
Ryan Coogler Discusses Landing Black Panther Gig
Ryan Coogler has been talking about landing the Black Panther gig, revealing how much the character means to him, both professionally and personally.
Marvel announced that Coogler would be directing the forthcoming blockbuster earlier this week, so when IGN grabbed some time with him at the Creed junket, we asked how it felt to be working for the superhero studio:
“Oh it’s exciting man, it’s so exciting,” he enthused. “I think even more-so than it being a Marvel movie is that it’s a story that has a lot of meaning and significance to me as a filmmaker, as an artist, and as a film fan. It’s really exciting to be able to do something that’s this unique.”
Michael B. Jordan Wants Another Shot at Johnny Storm
Michael B. Jordan has been talking about his experience playing Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four, saying those involved “didn’t set out to make a film that didn’t work” and stating that he’d love to play the character again.
When reflecting on the making of the movie, Jordan said “I look back at the film as a learning experience. Every film isn’t going to be a home run. Everybody involved didn’t set out to make a film that didn’t work. I think everybody wants to do the best job possible. I think it was a big education for me to realise that things aren’t in your control, and you can do everything you’re supposed to do. You can give 110% every day, and the movie still not work out. But that may or may not be on you and you’ve got to be OK with that. Moving onto the next thing. For me, first thing off I had this project
Nintendo Confirms Playable Demo For Bravely Second: End Layer
Nintendo has confirmed that a playable demo will be available for upcoming RPG, Bravely Second: End Layer.
A playable pre-launch demo, described as "a prelude to the adventure
even allow players to unlock rewards in the full version of the game” will be available from the Nintendo eShop in Europe from February 11.
Bravely Second uses the same job-based battle system as it's predecessor and stars a new protagonist. In this sequel, Agnès Oblige is kidnapped and the player, who assumes the role of a brave knight in her service, must come to her rescue.
European players will also be able to pick up a Bravely Second: End Layer Deluxe Collector’s Edition which features an original soundtrack CD, Angès Mini Figurine, and “deluxe” 250-page artbook in addition to the game.