Yearly Archives: 2018
Vampyr to Get Story Mode That De-emphasizes combat
Vampyr, the action-RPG released early last month, is receiving a summer update that will bring an easier story mode that de-emphasizes combat, and a more challenging hard mode that does just the opposite.
Announced by publisher Focus Home Interactive, the summer update aims to add further replayability for those who have already played the game, as well as more options for newcomers. The update is set to hit later this summer, and will also include a host of unspecified optimizations tweaks.
The story mode intends to place a greater focus on the game's narrative, letting players take in the story without being too challenged by combat. The hard mode will naturally make combat more difficult and give players less experience for killing enemies, forcing them to interact with citizens more in order to develop their vampire powers.
NBA Live 19 Introduces Option to Create Your Own Female Players
EA Sports announced players will be able to create female athletes in NBA Live 19. This is the first basketball game to offer the option.
These created players will be able to participate in all game modes, including THE ONE, and "access all the same skills, progression and gear as their male counterparts." Men and women will also be able to play on the same squad in THE ONE, reinforcing that there are no restrictions with this first iteration.
Female gamers will have the option to scan their face into NBA Live 19 using the NBA LIVE Companion app for iOS and Android and use new Icon Abilities modeled after some of the greatest female basketball stars of all-time, including Candace Parker.
With NBA Live 19, EA’s Eager to Contend
EA’s recent trend of including narrative-driven single-player campaigns might seem laughable on paper, but you can’t argue with the results. Madden’s Longshot, FIFA’s Journey, and NBA Live’s The One modes have all been surprisingly impressive and engaging, and all three are doing it again.
In Live’s case, I had the chance to sit down and play the first hour or so of Live 19’s The One, and in a very complimentary way I can say that the hour flew by. I began by creating my player for the story mode, and I took the opportunity to create a female player (NBA Live once again brings WNBA teams and players into the fold, to its credit). I’m not sure if it’s always this way or just my experience, but every game I played had a female player on the opposing team to balance things out (i.e. so I wasn’t physically overwhelmed by a wall of 6’10” 260-pound male players). After choosing gender you’ll choose what type of player you want to be: a guard, a wing, or a big. True to my own childhood basketball experiences, I went with a guard so that I had a built-in excuse to handle the ball more often.
How Does Venom’s New Origin Story Connect to the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Venom may have recently served as a Guardian of the Galaxy, but it turns out there's an even more fundamental connection between these two Marvel franchises.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Venom #4!
As we reported earlier this week, Venom #4 features a radically changed origin story for the Venom symbiote, revealing it to be a creation of an ancient god named Knull who existed before the Big Bang. One scene in this issue features Knull decapitating a Celestial with his newly forged blade, All-Black the Necrosword.
Opinion: Marvel Needs to Let Magneto Die
Magneto has stood the test of time as one of Marvel's greatest creations because he's as flawed and tragic and compelling as any other Marvel character, hero or villain. You may not support his methods, but you darn well understand why he does what he does. But as great a character as Magneto is, even he manages to wear out his welcome sometimes. After 55 years, maybe it's time for Marvel to finally retire this mutant villain.
Art by Jim Lee. (Marvel Comics)
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IGN UK Podcast #445: Mission: Impossible Special
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is out this week. It's bonkers and loads of fun, so we thought we'd do a little special edition of the podcast.
In the first half, we take a look back at the series so far, then we speak to Simon Pegg and Christopher McQuarrie about the new one, and then, towards the end, we do a little spoilercast too.
Don't worry: all spoilers for Fallout are in the second-half of the show.
IGN UK Podcast #445: Mission: Impossible Special
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Facebook CEO Loses Nearly $16 Billion in a Day as Stock Drops 20%
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost USD $15.7 billion today as Facebook stocks plummeted by 19%, reports CNN.
Facebook lost USD $119 billion in market value as the share price plunged – reportedly the largest single-day loss for any public company in history. The sell-off followed an earnings report showing growth in users and ad revenue had been slower than expected. Investors also appear to have been alarmed by an alert from Facebook executives that revenue growth would slow as the company refocuses on improving user privacy.
Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit Announced
The Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit is launching September 14, and will allow Switch users to create a variety of new cardboard peripherals.
The new kit will allow you to build a submarine, a plane, a pedal, two keys "and more." Just insert one of your keys into an assembled vehicle, and you can play a variety of games and activities. You can switch between vehicles at any time by pulling a key out of one and slot it into another.
Nintendo Labo: Vehicle Kit will retail for $69.99 USD, and Nintendo is promising more updates in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, check out our reviews of the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit, and the Nintendo Labo Robot Kit. And here's the Game of Thrones composer playing the theme on a Nintendo Labo, because why not?
Opinion: Shadowverse Is Hard to Keep up With, but Is Better Because of It
Games like Hearthstone and Shadowverse rarely stand still, with new sets of cards added regularly, giving players new puzzles to solve, new strategies to master and new knowledge to acquire. The upside for engaged players is huge – there is actually no end to how much time you can spend engaging with a game and its community. The downside, of course, is the barrier to entry and learning curve that this presents – not just for new players, but for lapsed players too. And I’m not just talking about having a viable card collection, but understanding the meta – the popular decks, the match-ups and how you’re going to tackle it.
Coming back to Shadowverse after a few months off has definitely illustrated this for me. I’ve played the game since it launched just over two years ago, so I have a very good grounding in the core mechanics, but Shadowverse’s pace of change is high enough that it was still like diving into unknown waters when I came back, focused and ready to play. Thankfully, I think it’s worth it.