The Last Jedi Director on the Film’s Ending
SPOILERS are discussed ahead for Star Wars: The Last Jedi!
Don't read this if you haven't seen the movie! Bookmark this page and come back and check it out after you do!
Audiences are still reeling from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a film that breaks from the conventions of this ongoing series in many ways. One of those ways is the film’s ending, which cuts away from the protagonists to focus on a child in Canto Bight, playing with action figures and subtly using the Force, and then staring up at the stars, inspired by the events of the film we just saw to join the Resistance.
IGN’s Top 10 Most Improved Games of 2017
From ill-advised loot boxes to rushed DLC, 2017 gave those who hate games as a service plenty of reason to keep on hating. But if you're one of the hundreds of millions of players who consider themselves part on a online gaming community, chances are you thought 2017 was a very good year. This is a list of titles that have received standout post launch support, evolving past the short term aspirations of their peers to become long term successes, or continuing their already massive legacy.
To be considered for this list, the game in question must have released post-launch content in 2017, so titles currently that spent the majority of the year in early access aren't eligible. These are the top 10 most improved games of 2017!
MechWarrior 5 Makes Its Mech Combat Feel Massive
Getting back into the pilot’s seat of a giant mech felt just like coming home - albeit, a dangerous and challenging to control home that I hadn’t been to in 17 years… but home nonetheless. I grew up with the MechWarrior games, and am thrilled to say that demo I played for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries makes the long wait for a sequel seem like it may be worth it.
MechWarrior 5 sits somewhere between an FPS and a flight sim, with quick action and lots of explosions, but some complex controls to make that happen. Your mech moves more like a tank than a Gundam, with a throttle instead of simple WASD controls. There’s also heat to manage, specific health and armor for each body part, and whole lot of other systems that make MechWarrior 5 an extremely engaging shooter without ever getting too overwhelming.
Sonic Forces: Get Super Sonic Free for a Limited Time
Sonic Forces has added the classic and modern versions of Super Sonic to the game, and they're free to download for a limited time.
The official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account announced the DLC is available for free from now until late January. Afterwards, those who missed out on the month-long offer will be able to purchase Super Sonic for $2 USD.
Super Sonic in Sonic Forces, image via Twitter
Can AAA Games Survive Without Microtransactions?
After a series of controversies surrounding Star Wars Battlefront 2, microtransactions and loot boxes have been thrust into the spotlight this year, with discussions about both their ethical ramifications and legal standing. Even under the extra scrutiny, there are a lot of people who say "well, I’d prefer to have optional microtransactions than to have to pay $80 USD for games," but I don’t think this is a choice we need to make, and it’s certainly not one we should accept.
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Star Wars: Why General Hux is the Perfect Face of the First Order
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is finally here, and while many people love it (myself included), there are also a lot of others who don’t. But across both camps, I’ve frequently heard one complaint time and time again: Why is General Hux so dumb?
SPOILERS for the The Last Jedi follow, so read on at your own risk!
The bumbling incompetent that leads the First Order’s armies is a strange character to some people. He’s short-sighted, easy to enrage, constantly tricked, and often clearly has no idea what he’s doing or where he’s gone wrong. So why on Earth would Star Wars make a character like that be the big bad face of the oppressive First Order?
Catherine: Full Body Confirmed for the West
Atlus has announced Catherine: Full Body is coming to the West.
While a release date for the West has yet to be revealed, the first official Japanese trailer (below) says the forthcoming Catherine remake will launch "next winter," which could be as late as early 2019.
Catherine: Full Body was revealed earlier this week for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita. Studio Zero, Atlus' new internal development team, is developing the remake, which will add a number of new features to the 2011 story-driven puzzle game.
Brand-New Switch Games You May Have Missed, Plus: Mega-Sized Question Block
Weeeeelcooome to Nintendo Voice Chat, Episode 387 -- our last news and impressions-focused NVC of the year. Don't worry, we'll return next week, but with a "Year in Review" focused special episode instead of our regular programming.
This week, Casey DeFreitas joins the panel as we talk about the latest game releases on Nintendo Switch (and some on 3DS), the awards Nintendo secured in our own annual "Best of Awards", sales data from Japan, and Splatoon 2 and Arms updates, before answering many of your most burning questions.
As always, you can watch NVC here on IGN and on our YouTube channel (subscribe and hit the bell!) or listen to it on your commute in audio format. If you enjoy the show, share it with other Nintendo fans, make a constructive comment, and give us a thumbs up or leave us a review.
2017 Wrestling Year in Review
Yes, it's that time of year again. Time for the year to end.
As 2017 closes up shop, let's look back at the WWE and be all like "Oh, yeah. That happened, didn't it? Ain't life a kick? An unpredictable journey filled with sweeping highs and drastic lows. Really makes you think. Okay, I guess we should stop wasting time and hide this body before the cops show up."
Before I get started though, I have a gift for y'all. Right out of the gate, right off the blocks, first up at bat, here's a magical link to - *moist hoarse gasp!* - all the Wrestling Wrap Ups! I cracked the code. The unsolvable is now oh-so-knowable. For years, you peeps have been hitting me up on twitter and asking "Hey, is there are a place that lists all the Wraps? They're so hard to track down once they dissolve and disintegrate out of all the timelines. Please help make my life better!" Well, now I can because now there is. I don't know how far back this list goes, but I know it's at least a few years. Who knows? Maybe it just keeps going. Turtles all the way down, yo.
PUBG Gets Second Patch for Xbox One
A second patch for the Xbox One version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been released.
According to the PUBG team's forum post, this latest patch focuses on quality of life fixes, addressing stability issues, weapon recoil, crash fixes, and more. There will be more updates coming to the game, with the next patch expected to be released in the beginning of next year.
The full Xbox One patch notes are as follows:
Optimization
- Continued performance optimizations