Kevin Smith's Poignant Thoughts on Star Wars VII

With the announcement of Disney buying Lucasfilm, many celebrities have been offering their two cents on the news. But for Clerks director Kevin Smith -- renowned for his immense Star Wars love -- the potential for new Star Wars films meant something much more personal.

In a guest column he wrote for The Hollywood Reporter this week, Smith shared a story from his early days as a Star Wars fan. "Star Wars repeatedly is referenced in all the flicks I make because I grew up watching the George Lucas trilogy in the 1970s and early '80s," Smith begins. "But thanks to the toymakers at Kenner, no self-respecting Star Wars fan was ever content to simply watch the movies. Indeed, until the advent of home video a few years later, playing with Star Wars figures was about the closest a fan could get to seeing the movie again until it was rereleased in theaters."

Smith goes on to describe a boyhood friend named Pete, with whom he would play Star Wars. "Every summer day from 1978 to 1982, you could find me and Pete in his tiny yard, building a new Hoth or Tatooine, brushing ants off our bodies as we laid belly down in the dirt, making Luke Skywalker repeatedly kiss a girl who turned out to be his sister right before they swing from dental floss over the heads of stiff-armed Stormtroopers," he continues. "It shaped me as a storyteller and as a person."

"We'd create our own Star Wars adventures. The best story (and the only one outside of the movie canon that we'd repeatedly play) wasn't about Luke and Leia: It was about inexplicable fan-fave Boba Fett... The plot of our backyard adventure: Boba Fett gets trapped by robotic gunslinger IG-88 in a Star Wars universe time loop, sending him through all the movies as well as moments only referenced in the flicks."

But as Smith and Pete grew older, their interests of course changed. "As Pete and I hit our teens, we didn't play as much Star Wars anymore. I was onto girls, and Pete was replacing Star Wars with G.I. Joe figures.

"One morning shortly after Clerks happened to me, I got the absolute s#!t news that Pete King had been hit by a car in New York City. I asked how long his recovery would be only to learn the awful truth: Pete had died.

"Not a summer goes by when I don't think about Pete or our ongoing saga of Boba Fett lost in time. So when I heard about Disney's $4 billion Lucasfilm acquisition, naturally I had a brief, one-sided conversation with my former best friend.

"'We might finally get to see that Fett flick we always dreamed about, Pete,' I said aloud at my desk after I read the news."

In conclusion, Smith sums up his feelings on the announcement of Star Wars: Episode VII. "In a world where Disney needs to make back its investment, we may indeed see an all-Boba Fett film. And if the Force wills it, maybe it'll even be about Boba Fett lost in the Star Wars universe time stream. But even if it became the highest-grossing film of all time, it'd still never be as good as Pete King's version."

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Dave Filoni Comments on Disney Deal and the Show's Future

Since the announcement of Disney buying Lucasfilm last week, there’s been a lot of speculation and curiosity (mixed with some outright nervousness from fans) about what this might all mean for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. While Lucasfilm has officially stayed quiet on the subject, there was a recent report stating that The Clone Wars is likely leaving Cartoon Network at the end of the current Season 5 – probably for Disney XD.

Today, The Clone Wars’ supervising director, Dave Filoni, released a statement about the new scenario, via a blog on the official Star Wars site. Filoni notes his early days working for Disney’s Television Animation Division on series like Kim Possible and Lilo and Stitch: The Series and writes very enthusiastically about Lucasfilm's new owners.

Exclusive clip from David Tennant's appearance on the next Clone Wars:

While he doesn’t go into the situation with the series potentially switching networks or give any new specifics on how much longer The Clone Wars will go (though we know work is underway on Season 6), he does end his blog with the following:

“I think this is an incredibly exciting time for all of us. I am being reunited with old friends of mine from my Disney days and getting ready, like all of you, for Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. When Revenge of the Sith was over, I found myself in the incredible position of carrying the torch forward. Now I can see the incredibly bright light that is the future of Star Wars. For those of you who are fans of The Clone Wars, do not worry. We have many stories left to tell, and every one of them came directly from George himself. Right down to the last one, where that thing with Ahsoka happens.”

Filoni obviously is implying in that statement that the very end of The Clone Wars -- and the fate of Ahsoka Tano -- has been decided upon by George Lucas, who, as Filoni has noted before, provides the scenario for pretty much every story arc for the series. So should we extrapolate then that the end point for the series has also been decided upon? We know there will be a Season 6, but is that it or does the ending come later? We shall see…

Source : ign[dot]com

The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray Art?

With The Avenges now out on home video (review here), the inevitable Blu-ray and DVD announcement of The Dark Knight Rises is just around the corner.

A few images from the UK release of The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray and DVD, as well as some images from a Batman Trilogy box set, have already started popping up all over the internet today, courtesy of ComicBookMovie and DCU Movie Page. It's unclear if these are official or fan-made just yet. Some of the images look fairly legit, while others are a little more questionable. Take a look and judge for yourself:

Meanwhile, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, out promoting Looper (review here), spoke with Collider and shot down any hopes of seeing those rumored deleted scenes from The Dark Knight Rises. "Every movie has a longer cut which gets edited, and deleted scenes implies that there’s whole chunks of the film missing. It’s not that, it just gets tightened up in the editing process."

It's certainly possible Joseph Gordon-Levitt simply doesn't know about the deleted scenes, but his statement feels fairly definitive. We should know more in the coming days. The Dark Knight Rises is tentatively slated to come home December 3, 2012. Expect an official announcement from Warner Home Video very soon.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dishonored IGN Livestream This Week

IGN has been excitedly following the progress of Dishonored since its announcement, but now you can see what all the fuss is about for yourself. This Wednesday (26 September) from 7.30pm BT (or 11.30am PT if you’re in North America, and 4.30am AEST Thursday 27 September if you’re in Australia) IGN and Bethesda will be showing off the Kaldwin’s Bridge level of the game, not once but twice, to demonstrate the countless different ways you can get through the game.

The livestream will be taking place at an event in central London and one of the game’s developers will be on hand to provide insight into the game. Then, directly after the playthrough, we’ll be linking up live with Arkane Studios president Raphaël Colantonio and co-creative director Harvey Smith for an exclusive question and answer session to find out more about Dishonored.

Of course, you’ll be able to catch it all on IGN – indeed, on this very page – so don’t forget to bookmark in preparation for Wednesday’s unveiling. And if you want to get involved, simply Tweet your question to @IGNUK using the hashtag #IGNDishonored.

See you Wednesday!

Source : ign[dot]com

The Future of X-Force Revealed

Just as expected, Marvel revealed the series behind another one of its teasers from last week. This time, the reveal ties into another announcement from earlier this week: the end of Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force. The black-ops kill team will indeed be sticking around, but under new leadership with all-new members. Cable and X-Force #1 hits in December, from creators Dennis Hopeless and Salvador Larroca.

According to issue #1's cover, the new team consists of Cable, Colossus, Dr. Nemesis, Domino, and Forge. Quite a different line-up, indeed. “The X-Force that Cable’s leading is a group of outlaws trying to save the world,” said Hopeless. “They’re fugitives being chased across the globe and doing what good they can while always looking back over their shoulders. There’s not much room for error on this team.”

“We knew the return of Cable had to be big and this is going to be one of the most explosive Marvel NOW! launches, " added Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, Axel Alonso.  “Dennis and Salvador are bringing a new look and feel to the X-Force, with a story that hearkens back to the core themes that made them such a phenomenon while moving them forward in an exciting way.”

Cable leading X-Force. Discuss.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

Source : ign[dot]com

Remender Confirms Exit from Uncanny X-Force, Secret Avengers

Though it's been suspected since the announcement of Uncanny Avengers, Rick Remender confirmed today via Twitter that he'll be leaving Uncanny X-Force and Secret Avengers. Remender's final issue of X-Force will be the conclusion to Final Execution in issue #35 -- which will also serve as the series finale.

As for Secret Avengers, he'll be wrapping his run with issue #37, but seemed to give no indication that the series itself was ending. Presumably a new team will be revealed soon.

Remender tweeted:

Yes, unfortunately my time on UXF is coming to an end. It's like a friend told me, "Know when to get off the stage."

— Rick Remender (@Remender) September 10, 2012

Lots of the UXF story threads I set up are moving to Uncanny Avengers. And the people involved in the series moving forward are ACES.

— Rick Remender (@Remender) September 10, 2012

Yes, my SECRET AVENGERS ends at issue 37. But we still have the best to come in the finales of SA and UXF. We're going out loudly on both.

— Rick Remender (@Remender) September 10, 2012

The writer also told CBR in an interview, "Hopefully, I'll be able to stick a nice landing with Final Execution and people will really enjoy it, so the series will never have that part where it tapered and stopped being as good. That's the upshot. You do your best work -- and we all have -- and then you wrap things up and walk away from it."

But hey, it's nice knowing that a lot of the threads will be continuing on into Uncanny Avengers. Until then, strap in for the ride of your life on the road to Uncanny X-Force's end.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

Source : ign[dot]com

John Carpenter's Halloween Will Return to Theaters

In anticipation of the slasher classic's 35th anniversary next year, director John Carpenter's Halloween will be re-released into theaters this October. The announcement was made at Halloween's official Facebook page.

In addition, Justin Beahm's new mini-documentary You Can't Kill the Bogeyman: 35 Years of Halloween will screen before the film. More details on the re-release will be posted down the line at Michel Myers' official site.

Thanks to Shock Till You Drop for the heads-up!

Source : ign[dot]com

Metal Gear Solid: How to Get the Movie Right

After years of false starts, that most movie-ish of video games is finally coming to the big screen.

An announcement at Konami's Metal Gear 25th Anniversary confirmed that Columbia Pictures are committed – with the help of superhero movie producer de jour Avi Arad - to bringing the adventures of Solid Snake and his cardboard box to life.

But with over 20 games, some truly bonkers plots, and creator Hideo Kojima's notoriously complex vision to choose from, it's going to be a tough job creating a coherent action flick that lives up to the bad-assery of its material.

Which is where we come in. This is how you make a Metal Gear Solid Movie….

Story

Think back to a time before girlyboy emo protagonists, homoerotic vampire sword fights, and the clunkiest dialogue this side of Darth Vader's "I don't like sand" chat-up line (see: Raiden's Metal Gear Solid 4 whineathon about how it rained on the day he was born), and the Metal Gear series was relatively straight-forward.

If you're attempting to introduce a whole new audience to the franchise (while still staying true to the original fans), you're going to have to strip all that back to focus on a solid, coherent and simple story - which is why Hollywood should use the original Metal Gear Solid as its key inspiration.

Even to this day, it stands strong as one of the best action games ever, and that's down to Kojima's then-uncluttered storytelling and artistic vision.

When a genetically enhanced renegade special forces unit, FOXHOUND, takes over a remote Alaskan island - with the nuke-wielding mech robot Metal Gear Rex hiding on it - it's down to cigar-smokin', box-lovin', grizzled secret soldier Solid Snake to save the day.

Not only is every hero and villain immediately iconic, but the character and stunt design lends itself to a series of set-pieces that would be just as ace on the big screen as they were originally - snow-covered sniper shootouts, tank fights, helicopter attacks, super-fast sword-wielding ninjas, and a blockbuster finale featuring giant mech attacks and a stunt-filled jeep chase.

Throw in plot twists galore, a pseudo love interest, and the whole brother vs brother/clone angle, and you've got a plot that straddles the line between Hollywood action blockbuster and loopy, sci-fi riddled ridiculousness with surprising panache.

Director

Much as we love him, even the most diehard of Metal Gear fans would admit that while his vision has made the video game series what it is today, handing creator Hideo Kojima the directorial keys would be a cinematic disaster.

Sure, everyone likes to joke about how each successive MGS is more an ever-lengthening interactive movie than a proper game, but just think about this; while he may be able to brainstorm (crazy) genius plot twists and stylish action sequences, it also takes him around 72 hours' worth of cutscenes to tell a story.

So where does that leave us? Kojima's expressed interest in Christopher Nolan taking the reigns, and considering that Christian Bale was once being lined up to play Solid Snake, that seems like an easy - if entirely improbable - win.

A more realistic, if potentially polarising choice, would be The Wachowskis. Erratic quality aside, they'd nail MGS' array of incredible action set-pieces, and they certainly enjoy tinkering in tales focusing on morally-bleak, sci-fi skewed worlds.

And if you want to go really left-field, then how about Clint Eastwood? This is a man who's more than a little familiar with grizzled, super-macho 'me against the world' heroes, and his increasing descent into grumpy old man OAP age could imbue Snake and his bleak future with a worldly, reflective and very dry sensibility.

Crazy as it sounds, he even makes more sense than your generic portents of directorial doom Paul W. S. Anderson and Michael Bay, as whoever steers the good ship MGS will have to appreciate that it's a genre more inherently focused on stealth than kabloomy SFX.

Cast

Fans of the series are already lobbying for long-term voice actor and screenwriter David Hayter for the role of Snake. Seeing as he's voiced the character for the last 14 years, and has already written an unconnected script for a MGS movie, it makes sense.

But it's one thing voicing and another thing physically embodying an action star. We're going to go ahead and ignore the nightmare of a possibility that Hollywood could opt for a young, muscled lunkhead to fill the title role, and hope instead that they focus on someone a little more battleworn.

Get rid of his Yorkshire accent, and Sean Bean would be a pretty good visual and actorly fit, while Liam Neeson also possesses just the right level of gnarled, weathered batteredness to fit the part.

If they do decide to go a little younger, then a bestubbled Michael Fassbender could pull if off (and would have had prior video game movie success - we hope - with Assassin's Creed). Then there's Josh Holloway - a man who can woo an audience with even the slimmest of screentime (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol), and who could double as Solid's long, blond-haired cloney nemesis Liquid with ease.

Elsewhere, we'd love to see Sean Connery come out of retirement for a turn as gunslinging Revolver Ocelot, Karen Gillen flying the action ginger flag as Meryl Silverburgh, Scarlett Johansson as Sniper Wolf, and nerd-done-good Fran Kranz as Otacon.

Video Game Nods

While plot, character development and proper actorly types are all well, good and important to a MGS movie's success, there'd be uproar if some distinctly iconic, and fanboy pleasing odes to the video games weren't included.

If the finished product doesn't have Snake sneaking around in a cardboard box, giant mecha robots, some sneaking through airvents, infra-red goggles, the Alert Mode (!) sound, codec conversations galore and - of course - someone melodramatically screaming SNAAAAAAAAAKE whenever they can't get hold of him, then they're going to have a hard job winning the fans - and us - over.

Source : ign[dot]com

Torchlight 2 Gets a Release Date

Runic Games has announced that Torchlight II will release on Thursday September 20, 2012.

Company president Travis Baldree made the announcement on the official Torchlight II blog, meaning there's less than a month to go until the dungeon-crawling rival to Diablo III is available.

“

The official Release Date for Torchlight II is Thursday, September 20, 2012. Three weeks away!

"I don't think there's much else I could say that would interest you right now, so - the official Release Date for Torchlight II is Thursday, September 20, 2012. Three weeks away!" he said.

"We'll announce it 'more' officially and bigger tomorrow. You know first! Thank all of you for being an awesome and patient community, we look forward to getting this into your hands!"

Developed by the same creative masterminds behind Diablo I and II, the original Torchlight released in 2009 to positive reviews, though many criticised its lack of multiplayer support. As a result, the team have pursued peer-to-peer multiplayer for Torchlight II, and they plan to carry the knowledge derived from this experience with them as they begin work on the Torchlight MMO.

Torchlight II will be available both through Steam and in retail form in September.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and was obsessed with Diablo III for about a week. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Kindle Touches Get Yanked, Refresh Inevitable

Mere weeks before a major Amazon announcement, both the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G are out of stock on Amazon's website. Does this mean a Kindle refresh is inevitable?

In a word? Yep.

The Kindles were refreshed almost exactly a year ago, and increasing pressure from e-reader competition like the backlit Nook and sub-$200 tablets like the Nexus 7 may have ostensibly forced Amazon to refresh their entire line of Kindles.

Current rumors suggest we could see up to five or six new SKUs from Amazon, but it's uncertain whether these alleged SKUs will be a variety of different Kindle Fires or include e-readers (Amazon currently sells six different Kindles).

While a backlit screen is almost guaranteed, what else would you want to see from Kindle e-readers? What would get you more excited about a Kindle Fire 2 than, say, a Nexus 7? Let us know in the comments.

Nic is the Tech Editor at IGN. He loves technology almost as much as Brand New, Boyz II Men, and A Day to Remember. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Final Fantasy Dimensions Priced at $29

Hot on the heels of its release date announcement, a post on the Square-Enix blog has finally revealed how much RPG fans will have to pony up for Final Fantasy Dimensions when it launches next Friday on iOS and Android. The episodic RPG will be available for $2.99-$3.99 per episode, or $28.99 for the entire collection.

Square-Enix has always adhered to more traditional pricing on iOS, selling titles like Chaos Rings II at $18 and Final Fantasy III at $16. But Dimensions’ $28.99 asking price will make it the company’s most expensive iOS release yet.

Several new screenshots have also been released, showing off combat and some of the RPG's story details.

IGN will have more on Final Fantasy Dimensions next week. In the meantime gamers should catch up on our E3 impressions and videos.

Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing mobile games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Website Teases The World Ends With You Announcement

A website has gone live that teases an impending announcement about The World Ends with You.

The game isn't explicitly name checked but everything about the site points towards 2008's acclaimed action RPG, from the font used for the countdown clock, to the music and the silhouetted cityscape of Shibuya. At the bottom of the page, it even says the character design by Tetsuya Nomura and Gen Kobayashi – the two artists who worked on the original title, as well as Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy franchises.

At the time of writing the clock has 6 days and 14 hours remaining. So expect more information to be revealed at the beginning of next week.

The World Ends with You was released on Nintendo DS in Japan back in 2007 and was localised for Western markets in 2008, and was generally well-received by critics. IGN's review gave the game a 8.9.

Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Machinarium Arrives on PSN Next Month

Machinarium, the puzzle point-and-click adventure originally released on PC in 2009, will arrive on the European PSN next month.

While an official announcement is yet to be made, in a recent EU Playstation Blog update Sony's Ross McGrath teased there would be "two new titles as well in September, one brand new and one new to PSN – we’re spoiling you rotten for sure."

While he didn't name the games initially, after commenter Antares suggested the new game would be Double Dragon: Neon, and the game new to the PSN would be Machinarium, McGrath responded "Give the man a cookie, he's 100 per cent right!"

Hopefully an official announcement will be coming shortly, and we've chased up Sony for details on pricing and whether US gamers can expect both titles at the same time.

A posting last month revealed the title would be coming to Vita via the PSN. If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, check out our iOS review of the game to help you make your mind up.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

What Other Spielberg Films Could Go IMAX?

Following the exciting announcement that Raiders of the Lost Ark is now set to debut in IMAX theaters next month, director Steven Spielberg revealed that he might someday work the same mojo on another film from his past:

"I think the only other movie I would ever think about going out on an IMAX screen would be Close Encounters of the Third Kind," Spielberg said in a new interview. "Forty percent of that film was shot in 70 millimeters, so the conversion would look extraordinary if we ever did put it up on an IMAX screen."

Nevertheless, the filmmaker seems confident about the transfer for Raiders -- although he did admit to his initial skepticism. "I didn't know if the 1981 print would stand up to a full IMAX transfer, so I came expecting a sort of grainy, muddy, and overly enlarged representation of the movie I had made [31] years ago," he said. "And I was blown away by the fact that it looked better than the movie I had made [31] years ago... All the shadows in the earlier scenes that we shot in Hawaii [were] always kind of muddy anyway on 35mm, because we couldn’t schlep all of our big arc lights down into this valley. Suddenly, there was definition in the shadows, which I had never seen before. And the shadows weren’t murky and washed out; they were sharp as a tack."

As for future projects, Spielberg added, "I'm going to do an IMAX camera test, [both] a 2 and 3D test for my next movie Robopocalypse, and I haven't decided whether I'm going to use the IMAX cameras. I haven't decided whether it's going to be 2D or 3D yet, but I am in September going to start doing some tests."

Via The New York Times and Yahoo

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Free Future

BioWare and EA recently made the announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic would shift from a subscription-only model to free-to-play. The adjusted model, which will take affect this November or December, will let anyone start up TOR and play to level 50 with a character class without having to sign up for a monthly fee.

“The market is clearly becoming a free-to-play market in the MMO space,” said Matthew Bromberg, general manager of BioWare Austin. “It appears that’s the direction the whole industry is going. Our own research told us that a significant percentage of the folks who have left the game, left because of the commitment to the subscription model. It’s not that surprising if you think about it because the dynamic in an MMO is essentially one in which you subscribe and then you’re waiting for new content, and people don’t feel good about waiting.”

The Old Republic started out very strong when it launched late last year, accumulating as many as 1.7 million subscribers. But then players started to leave in big numbers, so the number of active subscribers dropped below one million, though according to EA, is still “well over” 500,000. That’s still a lot of players, far more than most MMOs ever attract, but also a lot of players lost in under one year, and a trend that could have potentially continued without a change to the payment model.

EA is promising more frequent content updates from this point on, which will be free to those who decide to stay subscribed, but must be purchased by players leveling for free. Bromberg says the updates will introduce content that’s more social in nature. “Group content, Operations, Warzones, Flashpoints, events as opposed to focusing primarily cinematic story-driven single-player content.” Bromberg also teased a different style of space mission, saying, “we think there’s an opportunity beyond space on rails to do something really cool.” It sounds like that new style of space mission wouldn’t be ready until sometime next year.

The more solo-play-focused content is still on the way, with a level cap raise and new quests on the planet of Makeb scheduled to be released at some point in 2012, but this type of content isn’t exactly easy to produce. “The power and strength of the game, a lot of it was in this epic story. In fact it was so engaging that people played through it much more quickly than we’d imagined. The biggest strength of the game can also be a challenge as people get to the end. They got to the end much more quickly and we weren’t prepared for that. And so there was this lag time. That created some issues for us, clearly.”

One of the issues was development cost. “It’s hugely expensive. It’s cinematic, it’s lush, there’s voice over, it’s unbelievable. The amount of content available at launch was extraordinary. You have folks who’ve played through the levels, and what an online service has to provide is grouping. All of our research shows that people who have friends in game and play with people in social content, love the game and stay. If you remain a single player, you won’t stay. Our focus, in addition to extending the story which we will continue doing, is giving those players who want to play in groups with other people something fresh and new to do all the time.”

Bromberg said the behavior of a typical TOR player was to pick a class and stick with it through the story before branching out and setting up new characters. “That’s what drove the focused consumption of all that content. I think we’re still continuing to see that. Which is why I think it will be interesting in the free to play model, there are so many more people that we can open up to the story.”

Because The Old Republic wasn’t initially designed as a free-to-play game, it’s been an especially complicated process for EA and BioWare to figure what to charge for and what to keep free. “You try to find a balance whereby the limitations don’t impact the fun of the game. When you hit a certain level of engagement you’re going to naturally make that calculus in your head that it makes more sense to subscribe.”

Subscribers get unlimited access, while players without subscriptions won’t have unlimited access to PvP Warzones, will have fewer inventory and bank slots, as well as other limitations. “Ultimately you’ll be able to buy everything individually. But in the first phase, not everything will be purchaseable. But we’ll get there over time.” A microtransaction-driven Cartel Market will also be implemented, which will offer up cosmetic items, boosts and convenience items and tiered treasure chests that could contain rare vanity items.

As developers and publishers continue to experiment with pricing models, it’s not rare to hear some say pricing model design these days is game design. Bromberg pointed out the potential flaws in equating the two. “You don’t define a game by how people pay for it. I don’t think people who design games think about it that way. All the principles of game design, it has to be fun, it has to be engaging, it has to be social, all those things are true. And when you’re designing with free-to-play in mind, it does impact how you’re designing the game. I do think there’s been a little bit of an overemphasis on it, especially with the business model. Game designers don’t design games because of the business model is, they design because they love doing it. [The Old Republic] being free doesn’t really mean anything, you have to want to play. Especially in a crowded world. Especially with all these options. People don’t play something just because it’s free.”

Moving forward, Bromberg said a key factor in The Old Republic’s future will be an ongoing willingness to be flexible with the payment structure. “You never know how precisely it’s going to work until you begin interacting with consumers. You have to tweak as you go, and you have to tweak every day. That’s a very different discipline than a subscription model where you’re watching over time and it’s a bit slower. We’ve got to get in and look at the data every day and make sure we’ve got that balance right. I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see it change a lot. How much is too much, how much is too little? You can only figure that out by looking at data. You design by looking at data to begin with, but especially for us, this will be new. I’d expect there to be a lot of changes.”

Source : ign[dot]com

Alphas: "Wake Up Call" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the Season 2 premiere follow...

I admire the fact that we started off Season 2, after Dr. Rosen's brave and bold national announcement regarding Alphas in the Season 1 finale, with all our heroes scattered about and Dr. Rosen locked up in a psych ward. Usually this kind of separation allows for a team to reconnect over a crisis and gives the show a bit of a "reboot" feel. And while I don't think this show needed a full rejiggering, Season 1 felt uneven; with some characters not given enough to do, some threats never fully paying off and some powers not as fleshed out and explored as I would have hoped.

Still, with only 11 episodes under its belt, I might be asking for too much from this very ambitious series, which is attempting to ground and normalize the concept of the X-Men and nestle them within a more accessible reality. That being said, this episode, "Wake Up Call," needed more Gary Bell. Yes, Gary was in it, and he was back to being "our Gary" by the end of the adventure, but Ryan Cartwright's performance was missed throughout (thanks to Birmingham measures of pacification). I suppose I can forgive this gross "lack of Gary" due to the fact that this episode made, at least at the outset, Gary be the emotional goal. And the rescuing of him is really what brings together all the moving parts.

The crisis in "Wake Up Call" is a prison break from Birmingham, where dangerous Alphas are held (including Gary who couldn't deal with non-regimented NSA work) and made docile thanks to an implanted chip. The brains behind this plan is named Scipio, an Alpha with the power to microwave people's faces. The brains behind his brains is Stanton Parish, the seemingly immortal Civil War-era villain who now wants to divide the country into more brother-against-brother turmoil. Parish isn't the greatest arch baddie (I still mourn the loss of Brent Spiner's Dr. Kern from "Blind Spot") and one sometimes hopes that someone more interesting will pop up and be revealed as the guy behind the guy. But perhaps Parish will get more watchable this year.

Even though the outcome of "Wake Up Call" was a bit inevitable (hero team reforms, new evil team established), it was still an exciting episode and a more-than-decent way to start off this Summer run. Everyone was at a different place when we initially caught up with them; some being better off than others. Dr. Rosen had pretty much resigned to the fact that he was incarcerated for life and it's interesting to note that his daughter Dani, who's with Parish's crew, might have had something to do with creating the big incident that Rosen knew would get him out and working with his team again. And also, because Rachel had regressed so much without Rosen, their fates were interconnected as she wasn't going be able to come out of her room without the promise of his care.

Bill and Cameron were fun to watch as the active NSA-cooperators, working as a clumsy team while trying to stop a group of Alphas from robbing a store. One of the things that's unique about this show, and at times frustrating, is the establishment that not all Alphas are built alike. Some are more powerful than others - and that goes for our heroes too. Bill, the strong man of the gang, is still usually never able to match up to any other Alpha; never being quite strong enough. And Nina, while perhaps being the most dangerously powerful member of the team, has an ability that doesn't naturally lend itself to action-packed missions. In fact, Nina's big moment in this episode was helping Rachel use her power.

The guy who always helps bring this series back around, though, is David Strathairn. His performance as Rosen is always great, and he's always there to tether this show and give it a solid voice. His Alphas team will now probably have a new directive and direction, but he'll be there to rein them all in and make them feel like a family. I'm also looking forward to seeing just how antagonistic Rosen will be against his government handlers now, considering the fact that they just kept him doped up for eight months.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Final Fantasy XIII Announcement Incoming on September 1

Square Enix will share more details about its next Final Fantasy XIII project on September 1.

We told you previously that the company was set to make an announcement at the Final Fantasy 25th anniversary event in Shibuya, but now we know slightly more.

According to Andriasang the Final Fantasy XIII stage will take place at 11.30 on September 1 and will be titled "Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga: New Developments Presentation". The game's producer, director, art director and other members of staff will attend.

We've talked before about the possibility of Final Fantasy XIII-3 being revealed, and the fact the news is about the "Lightning Saga" still makes this the likeliest option. Despite this, we doubt we're alone in hoping something is said about Final Fantasy Versus XIII and whether it's been cancelled or not.

The Final Fantasy 25th anniversary event will take place from August 31 to September 2, with other panels set to include a Final Fantasy XI music presentation and new details about Final Fantasy XIV version 2.0.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant, and has been in the foetal position softly weeping since this morning's Final Fantasy Versus XIII news. Cheer him up on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

LittleBigPlanet Karting Beta Opens for PS Plus Members

Sony has announced that all European PS Plus members will be able to download the LittleBigPlanet Karting beta for the next 24 hours.

The company made the announcement on the EU Playstation Blog, but stressed that the download would only be available until 3pm tomorrow.

The beta is due to run until July 31 with Sony aiming "to get feedback on the overall experience from Sackfolk who understand it like few others". If you're a PS Plus member then don't waste any time in grabbing the beta while it's available.

For more info about LittleBigPlanet Karting, which is due out later this year, check out our preview.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant.  You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com