PSN Maintenance Announced for Thursday
The PlayStation Network will be offline for three and a half hours for scheduled maintenance beginning 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT on February 12, Sony announced today.
During this time, you'll be unable to access the PlayStation Store, PSN account management, PSN account registration, entertainment apps, and online gameplay. However, if you sign into your account before the maintenance begins, you'll be able to play games online and use apps such as Netflix.
Throughout the downtime, you'll still be able to collect trophies, but they won't appear on your profile until the network is back up.
For more on PlayStation, check out IGN's list of every known PlayStation 4 game coming in 2015.
Watch Game of Thrones’ Full ‘Day in the Life’ Special
With so much on TV last night (Grammys, Walking Dead's return, Better Call Saul's premiere), it's understandable if you perhaps missed HBO's behind-the-scenes Game of Thrones documentary.
So if you did, or if you just want to check it out again, you can watch it in its entirety here...
Aside from the new trailer, Game of Thrones Season 5: A Day in the Life is the only place you're going to get a few sneaks of the upcoming season - including the "Water Gardens" in Dorne, Cersei making her way through piles of religious poor to speak with Jonathan Pryce's High Sparrow, Daenerys meeting with her council, and the transformation of Spain's Plaza de Toros into a gladiator arena for a massive 12-day action shoot.
Tropico 5 Lets You Become a King on PS4
Imagine for just one moment that you're put in control of an island nation. This oasis in the ocean is thousands of miles from your homeland, and is so different it may as well be on another planet. It's so sunny and warm you forget all of your friends back home as you settle in for the long haul. Life is good. If you found yourself in such a situation, wouldn't you want to be as free as you felt?
In Tropico 5 (which we called "good" on PC), I was expected to serve at my king's request. The sheep that I raised and the corn that I grew were to be shipped back to my birthplace, goods that I could have kept to feed and clothe my citizens. Sure, the monarchy would give me money when my coffers were low, and I went along with our little bargain for a couple years, but we both knew my corporation was a charade. What use did I have for a governorship so many miles away when I was building my own kingdom, a more prosperous place than they could ever have imagined?
PlayStation Plus Open Weekend This Friday
PlayStation Plus will enter an open weekend from Friday, February 13 6.00am GMT/7.00am CET until 6.00am GMT/7.00am CET Monday, February 16.
According to the PS Blog, even if you are not currently a PlayStation Plus member, you will be able to play with your friends online this weekend for free. That said, the usual restrictions apply, so you won't be able access the PS Plus monthly games, Store discounts and Cloud Storage.
A free multiplayer weekend gives you the chance to try Dying Light's "Be The Zombie" mode if you haven't already. According to IGN's review, playing as the monster is "hugely enjoyable, especially after you've unlocked some of its grosser attacks."
Release Date Revealed for Shelter 2
Shelter 2 will be releasing on March 9 for PC and Mac.
Instead of a badger, Shelter's sequel follows the life cycle of a mother lynx. You will be preparing the den during her pregnancy, and then nurturing the cubs through childhood once they are born.
New features include stamina, different types of movements and a variety of prey to kill.
Shelter 2 will be available for pre-order from February 25. The pre-purchase version will contain the game's soundtrack and a unique version of the mother lynx, based on the Iberian Lynx (which is not native to the Taiga biome where the game takes place).
Find out more about Shelter 2 by visiting the game's website.
‘Gears of War-Lite’ Ironfall: Invasion Gets a Release Date
Ironfall: Invasion will release on 3DS on February 13.
Last month IGN went hands-on with Ironfall: Invasion, and dubbed it “Gears of War-lite.”
“Nintendo’s 3DS doesn’t have anything like Ironfall: Invasion,” says IGN’s Mitch Dyer, “and that’s really its main appeal — it’s Nintendo’s flagship third-person, cover-based shooter. It borrows from the best, adopting Gears of War’s sticky cover and active reload outright. In that regard, it feels familiar in a good way — competent and reliable, but rarely exceptional.”
Gotham Preview: “The Scarecrow” is Here
Gerald Crane is on the loose in Gotham, and the biology teacher has been taking a very specific interest in his murder victims. He hasn't only been killing them, he's been harvesting the adrenal glands. In "The Scarecrow," Dr. Crane and his son Jonathan use the collected samples as part of their plan defeat fear. They have to do so with Detectives Gordon and Bullock on their heels though.
Elsewhere in Gotham, Falcone tries to change Maroni's mind about the Penguin's fate, and young Bruce goes on a treacherous hike. See a photo preview of the episode in the below gallery:
Gotham: "The Scarecrow" Photo Gallery:
Sonic the Hedgehog Enters a Fighting Tournament
Sonic the Hedgehog is known mostly for his incredible speed, but it's his fighting skills that are being put to the test in the newest issue of his long-running comic book. Sonic the Hedgehog #269 features the second chapter of the "Champions" storyline, as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and the rest of the gang enter a fighting tournament in hopes of claiming the top prize - a Chaos Emerald.
Sonic Boom and Mega Man X Unite in Comic Book Crossover
Sonic the Hedgehog #269 is written by Ian Flynn and drawn by Diana Skelly . We have an exclusive preview of this comic, including a look at the "Wrestling Entertainment" variant cover by Jamal Peppers. Check it out below:
Submit Your Questions for The Order: 1886’s Developer
Is there something you really want to know about The Order: 1886 but can't find it anywhere online? We're here to help.
We have Ru Weerasuriya, creative director of The Order: 1886, joining us at IGN UK this week, where he will talk to us about the game and answer the questions you guys desperately want to know the answers to.
For a chance to have your question asked, all you need to do is follow either IGN UK's official Twitter page or Facebook page, tweet us your questions on Twitter using the hash tag #IGNTheOrder1886, or for Facebook, just comment on the post with your questions.
Got a question for the creative director of @TheOrder1886? Tweet @IGNUK using #IGNTheOrder1886 for a chance for it to be answered on IGN.
DC Creators Talk Returning to Zero Hour
DC's upcoming Convergence event will see the entire publishing line put on hold for two months, replaced by 40 two-part mini-series that feature different characters from across the multiverse as they fight to survive Brainiac's experiment. Each week of mini-series will have a different theme; the second week's theme sees stories in the Zero Hour universe with a sprinkling of Kingdom Come. We spoke to the artists and writers working on the Zero Hour titles. Check out what they had to say, then let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Before we get to the interviews, here's a quick Zero Hour history lesson. The Zero Hour event mini-series, published in 1994, featured a "crisis in time" where Parallax (a grief-stricken, super-powered, evil Green Lantern Hal Jordan) sought to destroy and then remake the DCU. At that time, the DCU was a very different place -- Superman and Batman were MIA, leaving Steel and Azrael to protect Metropolis and Gotham, respectively. The event dealt with time travel and had a lot of universe-altering ramifications.