IGN Fan Fest: Celebrate the Year in Games with IGN This December
Come ring in the year in games at IGN’s Fan Fest, presented by Kellogg’s Wild Berry Froot Loops, an event to celebrate gaming fandom with all of our fans! The industry’s biggest personalities will be there and we want you to join us on Friday, December 7 in Los Angeles, California. The party starts at 6pm at the Globe Theatre Los Angeles, and you can find more info on this event page.
Click here to RSVP for IGN Fan Fest
An Upcoming Book Is All About Video Game Butts
Things I Learned From Mario’s Butt: A Series of Gaming Butt Critiques is an upcoming 160-page illustrated coffee table book that’s currently being funded on Unbound.
The bulbous book is written by Kotaku’s Laura Kate Dale and includes full-color illustrations from Zack Flavin. The hardbound homage to digital derrieres is set to include insights into the rear ends of Luigi, Solid Snake, Cortana, Skull Kid from Majora’s Mask, Miranda from Mass Effect and much, much more. It is planned to include 55 original illustrations alongside 40,000 words about gaming’s most prominent posteriors.
Credit: Laura Kate Dale, Zack Flavin
6 Dark Souls Tips For First-Time Players
If you’re one of the many jumping into Dark Souls for the first time on the Nintendo Switch, you’re in for a treat! As we covered in our Dark Souls Remastered on Switch review, the remastered version is the ideal way to play.
But as you know, this series has earned a reputation for being hard for a reason. This is where we come in!
Here are some of the best tips to help new Dark Souls players ease into the dangerous and exciting world of Lordran.
Don’t Worry About Classes
Apple Announces October Event, iPad and Mac Announcements Expected
Apple has officially announced an upcoming press event, set to take place in Brooklyn, New York on October 30. Many expect Apple to announce updates to the iPad Pro, MacBook Air and potentially the Mac Mini product lines at the event.
As reported by The Verge, the next iPad Pro is rumored to have a slimmer bezel and include the Face ID unlock recognition system which debuted on the iPhone X in 2017.
Rumors also suggest that this new model will come with 11- and 12.9-inch display options, and possibly even replace Apple's proprietary Lightning port with a USB-C port. Apple has used proprietary ports for its mobile devices even before the 30-pin connector was introduced with the third generation iPod Classic in 2003, which was superseded by the Lightning connector in 2012.
The Flash: Are Cicada and Nora Connected?
The Flash has wasted no time in introducing the first major villain of Season 5. Team Flash had their first run-in with the metahuman killer Cicada this week. On the surface, we don't seem to know that much about this new villain or their background. But a few key moments at the end of "Blocked" suggest that Cicada may have close ties to Central City's newest speedster, XS.
Based on these scenes, we think Cicada and Nora may be related (which by extension would tie him to Barry Allen, too). Here's what we know from DC's Flash comics and how that may play into how Cicada is being portrayed on the TV series. Potential spoilers continue below!
Four Classic Valve Games Now Xbox One X-Enhanced
Four Xbox 360 era Valve games are now enhanced on Xbox One X.
Microsoft announced Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, Portal: Still Alive, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 have all received Xbox One X enhancements, including higher resolution.
Technically, it's more than four games, since The Orange Box includes Half-Life 2, both expansion episodes for HL2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. Portal: Still Alive released after The Orange Box and contained additional content.
The new additions bring the total number of Xbox 360 games upscaled fro Xbox One X to 21. So far, the collection includes many of the 360's standout games such as Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 3, Portal 2, and Halo 3. Each enhanced 360 game in the program boasts a better resolution and nine times the pixels.
Battlefield 5 Campaign Story Details Revealed
In a series of tweets this morning, DICE detailed Battlefield 5's campaign, dubbed War Stories, which drops players into France, England, and Norway to fight for the Allied Forces during World War II.
In the War Story "Tirailleur," players will take on the role of a French colonial soldier from Africa to fight for the liberation of France, a country he's never seen and which doesn't accept him. "This is the untold story of forgotten soldiers fighting on a forgotten front," tweeted DICE.
"Under No Flag" gives a criminal a second chance to redeem himself after getting out of a London jail. Players will fight alongside a Special Boat Section unit and do "whatever it takes to get the job done."
Update: Here’s What Rockstar Employees Have To Say About Working On Red Dead 2
Update 10/18/18: Added gallery with additional tweets from Rockstar employees. Please note that these tweets only come from those currently at the studio.
Following controversy surrounding Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser's comments on 100-hour work weeks during the development of Red Dead Redemption 2, the studio has seemingly given its employees the opportunity to speak openly about working conditions.
Experiences from several current Rockstar employees lined up with Houser's second statement, in which he claimed that only he and a select portion of the writing team "crunched" to this degree during certain points in the game's development.
Max Payne Was Originally Planned to Have Multiplayer
The popular Max Payne action games have almost always been revered for their blend of hardboiled crime drama and slow-motion, guns blazing shooting. When it came time for a fledgling Remedy Entertainment to pitch publisher and producer Scott Miller on their next game, a top-down version of Max Payne was only one of three possible ways the company might have gone. Miller and Remedy's other two options included a 3D racing game to follow up on their debut Death Rally, and a conceptual real-time strategy game set in space a la Homeworld.
Having learned a lesson about character-driven franchises with Duke Nukem Forever, Scott Miller was excited to turn Max Payne into something that he thought could last for a decade. Miller joined this month's episode of IGN Unfiltered to talk about behind-the-scenes details of Max Payne and more, including the changes Remedy made that had fans scratching their heads, but have become normalized in the modern era.
Mark Hamill Reconfirms He Will Appear in Star Wars: Episode 9
Mark Hamill has reconfirmed that he will be, as many suspected, returning to the role of Luke Skywalker in the currently untitled Star Wars: Episode IX.
Announced via his Twitter, Mark's reconfirmation follows an "avalanche of questions" about Episode IX in which, besides confirming that Luke will play some part in the next entry in the Skywalker saga, his response will be, firmly, "EPISODE NEIN COMMENT."
