Just Cause 3 Encourages Creativity Amidst Chaos
In Just Cause 3, the third instalment of Avalanche Studios’ open-world action series, you’re no longer controlling Rico Rodriguez the latino super spy and explosion enthusiast. You’re controlling Rico Rodriguez the god.
Or at least that’s how it seems, given that from the outset of the game you’re handed a bottomless backpack of C4, a permanently equipped wingsuit and enough grappling hook tethers to reduce a fleet of enemy helicopters into a swirling mechanical tumbleweed of destruction.
The game’s Mediterranean island setting is so picturesque it would seem criminal to damage even an inch of it, yet that’s precisely what you’re encouraged to do and indeed you’re given an intoxicating amount of ways in which to do it. You want to topple that giant statue of a local dictator in a village town square in order to inspire the rebellion? Well, you could just drive a truck into it. Or you could wallpaper it with C4 and detonate it from a distance. Or you could tether its outstretched hand to its smug, stoney face with multiple cords from your grapple gun, then use the new manual grappling controls to force it to slap itself until its head crumbles into pieces, as though you were some sort of demented puppeteer (or a boorish big brother).
10 Things We Learned About No Man’s Sky
This week at E3 Hello Games revealed more about their upcoming galactic simulator, No Man's Sky. Here are ten things we learned about the game.
- No Man’s Sky does not have a traditional story with cutscenes and a predefined hero. Like Minecraft and Terraria, the player creates and defines their own experience.
- Planets are planet sized. You can spend days exploring just one world, experiencing its day and night cycles while walking its surface or flying through the sky in your spaceship (or jet pack)
- Once you discover a planet, you can change its randomly generated name to whatever you want. The same goes for any creatures you find on its surface.
Nintendo’s Next Metroid Game Nearly Launched Alongside New 3DS
Metroid Prime series Producer Kensuke Tanabe told IGN that Nintendo originally timed its new spin-off game, Metroid Prime Federation Force, to launch alongside New Nintendo 3DS.
We spoke with Tanabe about the backstory for his new project and the decision to work with Next Level Games. "Well, first I would say that the focus on the battle between the Federation Forces and the Space Pirates was an idea I had since I was involved in Metroid Prime 3," he said. "It's similar to with Metroid Prime Hunters, how we relied on NST
to do that. Hunters deals with the relationships between the bounty hunters besides Samus in the world of Metroid.
"We wanted to make something that would show the fight between the Federation and the Space Pirates, but there was no company that would make that for us."
Next Proper Metroid Prime Game Not Likely Until NX
Nintendo's next console Metroid Prime game is not likely to see release until Nintendo launches its next-gen console, codenamed NX.
"If we started for Wii U now, it would likely take three years or so. So it would likely now be on Nintendo's NX console," said series producer Kensuke Tanabe, speaking to Eurogamer at E3.
"Truth be told, making HD games takes a lot of time and resources," Tanabe added when asked why Nintendo had not made a Metroid Prime for Wii U. "I haven't been able to collect a team or the resources to do it."
This means we'll probably be waiting at least a couple more years for the next proper Metroid release; Nintendo doesn't plan to reveal anything about its new NX console until 2016.
New Netflix Sitcom to Star 70s Show’s Kutcher & Masterson
Netflix is reuniting That '70s Show stars Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson for The Ranch, an upcoming multi-camera sitcom, produced and written by Two and a Half Men co-showruners Don Reo and Jim Patterson.
Described by Deadline as a "sibling comedy," The Ranch is, naturally, set on a Colorado Ranch and follows "Kutcher’s character returning home after a brief semi-pro football career to run the family business with his brother, played by Masterson."
(L-R) Wilmer Valderrama, Danny Masterson and Ashton Kutcher on That '70s Show
Star Fox Zero Started as a Protoype for Wii
Nintendo's upcoming Wii U exclusive Star Fox Zero didn't get its development start on the company's tablet-centric console; the game actually began as a prototype for the original Wii.
"I work very closely with the programmer of Star Fox 64. Basically, every time we get new hardware, we do a Star Fox prototype," Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto told Game Informer.
"This Star Fox started out being based on a prototype we created for the Wii. We took that prototype and thought about what we could do with it, he continued. "We came back and just said that this should be a Star Fox game."
Matt Damon on Why The Martian is a Love Letter to Science
In December of last year, IGN hopped on a plane to Budapest, not to enjoy the beauty and splendour of Bulgaria’s capital at Christmas, but to spend a little time on Mars. Because inside the largest soundstage on the planet, director Ridley Scott and actor Matt Damon were collaborating on The Martian, a sci-fi epic that combines elements of Gravity and Castaway, but has its own gripping survival story to tell.
The film is based on the novel of the same name which Andy Weir self-published in 2011, and which went onto become something of a literary sensation. It tells the story of Mark Watney, a botanist left stranded on Mars and fighting for his life when a storm hits and his crew evacuate the planet thinking him dead.
The 100: Panelists Revealed for Comic-Con
When WBTV announced their huge list of 18 TV shows coming to San Diego Comic-Con, fans of The 100 were wondering which actors would be present, as none were initially specified.
IGN can now tell you who will make up The 100 SDCC panel on July 10th, as the show returns for the third time to the huge convention. Joining the previously announced Jason Rothenberg (Executive Producer) will be several of the show’s cast members: Eliza Taylor (“Clarke Griffin”), Bob Morley (“Bellamy Blake”), Marie Avgeropoulos (“Octavia Blake”), Lindsey Morgan (“Raven Reyes”), Ricky Whittle (“Lincoln”) and Isaiah Washington (“Thelonious Jaha”).
Nintendo Considered Monolith Soft to Develop Star Fox Zero
During an interview with IGN, Star Fox Zero Producer Shigeru Miyamoto told us Nintendo was considering Xenoblade Chronicles developer Monolith Soft to develop the new Star Fox.
“We didn’t really look around at that many different places,” Miyamoto explained. “Our first instinct was to try and find an appropriate team within Nintendo. One place we kind of considered was Monolith Soft.”
Thirteen minutes of Star Fox Zero gameplay.
The Nintendo owned studio is known for role-playing video games Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean and Baten Kaitos Origins, and the Xeno series.
Courtney Love Almost Played Harley Quinn
It might be hard to believe now, but Batman Forever was a monster-sized hit back in 1995. With Joel Schumacher’s success as director, and Batman & Robin already slated for 1997, it seemed the helmer would return for a third turn at the franchise -- titled Batman Unchained -- that almost cast Courtney Love as Harley Quinn.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, I Am Legend screenwriter Mark Protosevich was hired by Warner Bros. to write a third Shumacher Batman movie that had Scarecrow and Harley Quinn as the main antagonists, along with cameos from previous Batman movie villains, played by the films’ original actors.