All the Games, Movies, and TV that Made 1990 Awesome
Welcome back to IGN's History of Awesome - a year-long look back at all the coolest and most influential games, movies, TV shows, comic books, toys, and tech that have shaped pop culture, and shaped the lives of an entire generation. Up this week is 1990 - the year that brought us Super Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy, and the Secret of Monkey Island.
1990 is also the year that classic films like Home Alone, Goodfellas, Total Recall, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were also unleashed onto the world.
Catch up on IGN's History of Awesome:
How DC Made the New ‘Negative’ Superman Design
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Justice League #43!
Today's Justice League #43 gave us the third chapter of the Darkseid War where the team of heroes gets caught between the clashing forces of Darkseid and his nemesis the Anti-Monitor. The League has been split up, with Superman traveling to Apokolips with Lex Luthor, Batman diving into the Multiverse with Green Lantern using his new godly powers, and Wonder Woman leading the rest into a massive battle between the two titans.
We talked to writer Geoff Johns and artist Jason Fabok about the big events in this week's issue, the most noteworthy being Superman absorbing the energies of an Apokolips fire pit in a bid to restore his powers, only to be negatively super-charged and be transformed into an angry, color-reversed Superman. Take a look:
PlayStation Accepting Beta Testers for PS4 System Updates
Sony is now accepting applications to beta test future PlayStation 4 firmware updates.
According to PS Blog, PS4 owners can sign up on the PlayStation website to test the functionality of the next incoming major system update. The number of beta testers will be limited.
The beta program is expected to begin in early September.
PS4 beta testers will have the ability to roll back to the previous version of the PS4 system software, currently v2.57, at any time.
App Store Update: August 19
Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Pac-Man 256 – (Freemium)
How long can you survive? This all-new sequel in the now 35-year-old Pac-Man series takes the infamous "Level 256" glitch from the original arcade game and personifies it as a monstrous wave of encroaching doom, constantly chasing Pac-Man through an endless maze. Keep munching dots to live!
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A 1TB Xbox One with Madden NFL 16 for $360.
Over 85 Million Vaults Have Been Created in Fallout Shelter
Bethesda has announced that over 85 million vaults have been created in Fallout Shelter.
In a new infographic for the mobile game, Bethesda has provided nine numerical facts about Fallout Shelter. For example, over 81 million babies have been born in the management sim, and players have dealt with almost 120 million radroach infestations.
Not only that, Bethesda says there have been over 1 billion game sessions of Fallout Shelter played — equaling just a bit more than 29 million hours — since the mobile game launched in mid-June on the App Store. In fact, the management sim just came out on Android last week.
Two More Key Devs Have Left Amazon Game Studios
Two more key members of Amazon Game Studios have left the company.
Following Clint Hocking’s departure, director of narrative design Eric Nylund and principal game designer Jonathan Hamel are no longer with Amazon Game Studios. Both Nylund and Hamel updated their LinkedIn profiles to reflect their end dates as July 2015.
Nylund’s duties at Amazon involved “leading effort to create and manage the story of multiple game titles” and creating “new intellectual properties.”
Crossy Road Developer Releases Pac-Man 256
Hipster Whale has released its next mobile hit: Pac-Man 256, a new take on Bandai Namco Games' classic series.
Pac-Man 256 celebrates the series' 35th anniversary by turning the infamously glitched 256th level of the original Pac-Man game into a central mechanic. Players will direct Pac-Man through the maze while trying to outrun both ghosts and ever-looming glitches. Newly introduced power-ups include laser beams and freeze rays.
Like Hipster Whale's last game, Crossy Road, Pac-Man 256 uses a free-to-play model. Each time you die, you'll need to spend another credit to resume playing with your collected power-ups; credits refresh every ten minutes.
Wonder Woman’s Subtle Link to Krypton in BvS
Michael Wilkinson, the costume designer on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, has shed some light on the research-intensive process involved in crafting each superhero's suit for Zack Snyder's upcoming film. And along the way, he also revealed an interesting tidbit about Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman in particular.
"Zack wanted our character to be a fierce and intimidating warrior — gritty, battle-scarred and immortal," Wilkinson told People's Choice about Gadot's Wonder Woman. "Zack had a great idea to have some kryptonian script subliminally included in the details of the suit, so we made that happen. There is ancient Greek script on Wonder Woman’s weapons too."
Marvel Debuts New Red Widow Character
Marvel has revealed a first look at its newest femme fatale, Red Widow (via The Mary Sue), making her debut in Mockingbird S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary #1 next month.
En garde...
We don't know much about the character yet, but author Margaret Stohl, who will use the character in her upcoming YA novel Black Widow: Forever Red, had this to say about Red Widow: