More Philip K. Dick Books Heading for Movies, TV

Science fiction author Philip K. Dick died about three months before Blade Runner was released, the film that was based on his book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The success of the film, in time, would lead many more readers to Dick's work... And then to more Hollywood adaptations, including Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, The Adjustment Bureau and many more.

And now Electric Shepherd Productions, the production arm of Dick's estate, has made a deal with Anonymous Content LLC to develop more of the author's works for movies and TV. That includes an adaptation of Ubik, to be directed by Michel Gondry (The Green Hornet), which was first announced last year.

Other film and TV projects also in development at Electric Shepherd will be based on The Man in the High Castle, Now Wait for Last Year, King of the Elves and Electric Ant.

“Philip K. Dick’s works offer a wealth of ideas for writers and directors and we look forward to mining these imaginative works for feature and series ideas. It is an incredible resource to bring to our clients and other filmmaker relationships,” said Anonymous Content founder Steve Golin.

Via The Hollywood Reporter

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com

More Philip K. Dick Books Heading for Movies, TV

Science fiction author Philip K. Dick died about three months before Blade Runner was released, the film that was based on his book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The success of the film, in time, would lead many more readers to Dick's work... And then to more Hollywood adaptations, including Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, The Adjustment Bureau and many more.

And now Electric Shepherd Productions, the production arm of Dick's estate, has made a deal with Anonymous Content LLC to develop more of the author's works for movies and TV. That includes an adaptation of Ubik, to be directed by Michel Gondry (The Green Hornet), which was first announced last year.

Other film and TV projects also in development at Electric Shepherd will be based on The Man in the High Castle, Now Wait for Last Year, King of the Elves and Electric Ant.

“Philip K. Dick’s works offer a wealth of ideas for writers and directors and we look forward to mining these imaginative works for feature and series ideas. It is an incredible resource to bring to our clients and other filmmaker relationships,” said Anonymous Content founder Steve Golin.

Via The Hollywood Reporter

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com

Peter Molyneux's Curiosity Now Available

After many months of speculation, famed game designer Peter Molyneux's Curiosity is now available on the iOS app store.

Gamers have known for some time the basic premise of the app. Curiosity presents gamers with a gigantic cube made of of many millions (or perhaps billions) of smaller cubes. Participants worldwide can chink away at the cube block my block, cooperating to reveal what's underneath each layer.

But... what the heck does this actually mean? And how does it work? Let's take a look...

This is the first screen you see when you fire up the app. It's wholly white, which obviously blends right in with IGN's page background. It also already sets up the mysterious, high-concept mood:

The stark white screen stays until you tap it. Apparently Curiosity takes your initial tap as a "yes" to the stark question above. You're next told how many people before you have downloaded and fired up Curiosity - a surprisingly powerful and compelling way to get both the cooperative and competitive juices flowing. I was the 335th person to try out Curiosity:

The cube has many layers, but getting to the center won't be easy...

What's more, only one person will get to hit that final block and see what's actually there. I certainly hope they choose to share what they see with the world...

After this enigmatic and oddly compelling into... we're finally here! On the cube itself! So... now what?

You can swipe your finger to rotate the cube, or pinch two fingers to zoom in and out. Zooming in reveals sections that other users have chipped away at that aren't visible from a distance. It's neat to see them slowly materialize.

Users are already beginning to clear away sections of the cube in an ad-hoc form of self expression:

Each layer of the cube promises to have something new underneath. A new color, a photograph, a painting... something that will satisfy each players', well... curiosity. But for now it looks like each side of the cube just has a blue-green layer underneath.

But let's get down to brass tacks. How does curiosity actually work? Blocks are deleted simply by tapping on them. Gamers start with a set amount of coins. I wholly expected to be charged a coin for each block I deleted. I expected them to refill slowly over time, and perhaps be charged real money for extra coins. But it turns out Curiosity actually does the opposite.

Each block you delete earns coins. If you delete blocks rapidly in an unbroken burst of play (work? participation?) a coin multiplier begins to tick upward. At first each block deleted just earns you one coin. But then two, three, and on upward with no upper limit that I could find.

This is a supremely interesting design decision because it means you're earning exponentially more coins the longer you play in one unbroken chunk. A user that deletes 1000 blocks a few at a time will only have 1000 coins. But a user that breaks 1000 blocks in a single chunk could earn 50 times that much currency.

But... what are these coins actually spent on?

The chisels, bombs and firecrackers in the menu above make you a more efficient block clearer for a limited time by allowing you to clear more cubelets with a single tap. These power-ups range in price from a few thousand coins up to 3 billion for the diamond pickaxe. What's a little more interesting is that even accessing the stats menu costs coins - 100, to be precise. Inside, you can see how many cubelets remain on the current layer of the cube, how many users are participating, how many cubelets you personally have cleared and plenty more.

Interestingly, the outer layer of the cube contains 100,000,000 cubelets just on its own. All of which must be cleared one by one. Anyone want to crunch some numbers and figure out how many total cubelets are contained within the cube, if it is solid all the way through?

So, there you have it. A first look at Curiosity from Peter Molyneux's new studio 22cans. The app is both absurdly simple and wildly complex. It's very silly and yet oddly compelling. Perhaps most unusual of all, given the current state of the App Store, is that Curiosity is an entirely free download, with no In-App-Purchases in sight. Yes, the entire experience is 100% free, from top-to-bottom.

Is it a video game? A piece of interactive art? To me, it feels like a commentary on mass cooperation. With millions upon millions of cubes to break, there is no getting to the center without cooperation on a massive scale.

Curiosity also makes me think about the human desire for self expression. The cube's grey face has no instructions in the same way that a canvas of wet sand has no instructions. No one tells you to write your initials in the sand with your finger. Or draw something considerably less benign and more vulgar, if that's or disposition. But it still spontaneously happens, regardless. We all want to leave our mark on the world, even if it is fleeting.

And so it is with Curiosity. Gamers don't need to be told to communicate using the surface of the cube. It just happens. And like messages written in sand, Curiosity's very nature ensures that any message left is fleeting. It will be washed away by the actions of other users, replaced with a new layer of the cube and new engravings.

Until the center is reached, at least. After that... who knows?

Spot something especially memorable on the cube? Add it to our user-powered gallery of curiosity sightings!

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 at @ErrorJustin and on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Spider-Man's Sidekick Gets the Spotlight

A few months back, we learned that Spider-Man was getting a sidekick. Later, we learned that his name was Alpha and he was a total douche. Now, beginning in February, writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Nuno Plati will do their best to change our minds about the character in a new 5-issue mini-series from Marvel.

Fialkov, who recently wrote a spectacular back-up tale in The Amazing Spider-Man #692 with Plati (not to mention that he writes the always rad I, Vampire at DC), told USA Today, ""He was a freak and then he became famous, and now he's infamous and powerless essentially as far as the world knows. He's that creepy kid who used to be on a sitcom when he was 5."

We'll meet up again with the depowered Alpha before his mini-series in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, the events of which will lead directly to the Alpha mini-series. "It's a classic Marvel situation where you've got a kid with power who is making some wrong decisions," added Spidey overlord/editor Stephen Wacker. "That's an inherently dramatic story, watching someone screw up and learning along with them and seeing how they change."

Alpha will move to a new city -- Pittsburgh, PA -- in Marvel's further efforts to spread their heroes, particularly of the spider variety, outside of New York. Why Pittsburg? "Look, any way I can ingratiate myself back to my hometown city and somehow inspire a free trip and free Primanti Brothers sandwiches, I'm 100% behind," joked FIalkov. "It's actually a city about reinvention. It's a city that has transformed itself over and over and over again."

As for Alpha's levels of super-douchery, Fialkov told the paper, "I genuinely believe that Alpha is not a [jerk] like everyone says. He literally is just us. The tragedy in his life is that he was given this great gift and then it was more or less taken away from him. So let's explore what that means and what that does to a kid."

For more on the new Alpha mini-series, head on over to USA Today.

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

Source : ign[dot]com

Spider-Man's Sidekick Gets the Spotlight

A few months back, we learned that Spider-Man was getting a sidekick. Later, we learned that his name was Alpha and he was a total douche. Now, beginning in February, writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Nuno Plati will do their best to change our minds about the character in a new 5-issue mini-series from Marvel.

Fialkov, who recently wrote a spectacular back-up tale in The Amazing Spider-Man #692 with Plati (not to mention that he writes the always rad I, Vampire at DC), told USA Today, ""He was a freak and then he became famous, and now he's infamous and powerless essentially as far as the world knows. He's that creepy kid who used to be on a sitcom when he was 5."

We'll meet up again with the depowered Alpha before his mini-series in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, the events of which will lead directly to the Alpha mini-series. "It's a classic Marvel situation where you've got a kid with power who is making some wrong decisions," added Spidey overlord/editor Stephen Wacker. "That's an inherently dramatic story, watching someone screw up and learning along with them and seeing how they change."

Alpha will move to a new city -- Pittsburgh, PA -- in Marvel's further efforts to spread their heroes, particularly of the spider variety, outside of New York. Why Pittsburg? "Look, any way I can ingratiate myself back to my hometown city and somehow inspire a free trip and free Primanti Brothers sandwiches, I'm 100% behind," joked FIalkov. "It's actually a city about reinvention. It's a city that has transformed itself over and over and over again."

As for Alpha's levels of super-douchery, Fialkov told the paper, "I genuinely believe that Alpha is not a [jerk] like everyone says. He literally is just us. The tragedy in his life is that he was given this great gift and then it was more or less taken away from him. So let's explore what that means and what that does to a kid."

For more on the new Alpha mini-series, head on over to USA Today.

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

Source : ign[dot]com

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #15 Review

Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman have been dragging more and more classic TMNT characters and elements into the new series in recent months. Issue #15 throws Leatherhead into the mix. Though the book hardly needs another villain at the moment, Leatherhead nonetheless enjoys a solid introduction into this new continuity.

The writers briefly establish Leatherhead's origin as another of Baxter Stockman's out-of-control experiments before shifting back to the present. The Turtles are currently searching for a new base of operations, which seems like another unnecessary addition considering how recently they moved into April's antique shop. In any case, issue #15 winds up offering a fun little blend of intrigue, horror, and levity. In the case of the latter quality, Splinter is given the opportunity to stop being so dour all the time and bond with Casey Jones. As far as horror goes, the creators offer up a cool sequence that sees Leatherhead stalk the Turtles in the shadows.

That fight sequence is expertly rendered by Andy Kuhn. While Kuhn's facial work is a bit bland compared to Dan Duncan's, his work is packed with kinetic energy and enough light and shadow to really pop off the page. The series continuously sets a higher visual standard for IDW's licensed comics.

One downside to this issue is a familiar complaint with the series -- it more or less requires readers to have read the April O'Neil micro-series one-shot to fully appreciate the events within. I understand that IDW is paying homage to the classic Mirage series by resurrecting the micro-series format, but in many cases these stories would have been better served by being integrated with the main book. After eight one-shots, maybe it's time to give it a rest and focus squarely on this series.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Firefly: Browncoats Unite on Science Channel

The time has come, my fellow Browncoats. After months of hype from their tenth anniversary panels at San Diego and New York Comic-Con, the cast and crew of Firefly will reunite once more for Firefly: Browncoats Unite, a special televised event on Science Channel.

This 60-minute special will feature creator Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion and the rest of the Serenity crew as they provide the complete oral history on the franchise that began a decade ago. On November 11 at 10pm ET/PT, fans will be treated to secrets from the set, exclusive cast interviews and footage from this year's massive SDCC panel that dominated the convention.

Joining Whedon and Fillion are cast members Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Adam Baldwin, Morena Baccarin, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres and Jewel Staite, as well as executive producer Tim Minear and executive story editor Jose Molina. In honor of this gathering, Science Channel was able to recreate the set of Serenity, parts and all.

"When Science Channel began airing Firefly in 2011, we immediately realized that these fans are a subculture united by a unique and fanatical passion for the series,” says Debbie Adler Myers, GM and Executive VP of Science Channel. "Our goal is to present them the series they love, but in a totally new and surprising way."

The network's Saturday extravaganza begins at 7am ET/PT with an all-day marathon of the 14-episode series. Later that evening at 8pm, the final two episodes will be enhanced and presented as Firefly: Special Edition, which will offer viewers additional insight into the inner workings of the series with behind-the-scenes info.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Wolverine #315 Review

Wolverine is in sort of a weird transition phase right now. Jeph Loeb recently wrapped up Sabretooth Reborn, but there are still several months to fill before Frank Cho's Savage Wolverine relaunch debuts. The good news is that Cullen Bunn's brief return to the series is reading less like filler and more like a necessary coda to some still dangling threads left over from Jason Aaron's run.

I'm not crazy about the idea of Bunn reverting Wolverine to his amnesiac days, even partly, but the general conflict in this arc is interesting. The series has a slightly pulpy, almost Indiana Jones vibe as Logan and his new partner Elsa Bloodstone travel the globe. The fact that Logan is decked out in full Indy attire in the 1930's-era flashbacks doesn't hurt either. Bunn shows a similar flair for fiendishly wacky villains that Aaron did. Offsetting the rampant violence and adventurous tone is the more emotional struggle Melita Gardner is facing. Aaron seemed to all but abandon the character towards the end of his run, and it's nice to see Bunn dust her off again and explore the lingering ramifications of their romance. One complaint about Bunn's structure is that I wish he would be quicker about revealing the nature of the Dreaming Maiden and what it is the various characters are actually squabbling over.

Paul Pelletier rounds out a solid storyline with his visuals. Pelletier's work is a bit more loose and frenetic than it was on the previous arc, but that doesn't necessarily go against the grain of the story. This collaboration is proving enjoyable enough that I'm beginning to wonder why Bunn and Pelletier weren't simply given the keys to a new Wolverine ongoing for Marvel NOW!

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: The Familiarity of Powersliding

The mascot kart racer has seen a major resurgence in recent times, with the next few months packed with adorably familiar faces zooming around on outlandish tracks. From the caricatured visages on show in F1 Race Stars to the comforting plushness of LittleBigPlanet Karting, it’s a pretty packed marketplace. As Mario Kart established long ago, this is a genre that lives or dies based on its multiplayer; it was with a sense of trepidation that we sat down to try out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It comes down to this.

The game’s multiplayer is divided between online, in which up to 10 players can compete, and offline splitscreen which supports four players on most consoles, with an extra player being supported on Wii U thanks to the GamePad’s screen. Additionally, while the online mode only supports competitive mode, if you’re playing offline with some mates you can work co-operatively to try and beat the computer.

The first thing to note about the game is just how familiar it all feels; if you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature. With regards to multiplayer, this means anyone with even the slightest level of competency in the genre won’t have any problem leaving the AI racers in the dust on anything but the hardest difficulty setting.

“

If you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature.

Partly, this is down to the balanced range of weaponry on offer; while each of the characters has a unique ‘All-Star’ move, there are no blue shells here. Granted, if you’re in last then the odds of you getting one of the more powerful weapons is increased, but as it should be, individual skill is the only real guarantee of moving you up in the rankings.

While on the topic of individual skill, one of the best features on offer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is that experience gained in multiplayer transfers over into your single player campaign, and vice versa. It’s a nice touch that really encourages inviting mates round for a game; after all, four lots of experience means that when they all head home an even wider arrange of powered-up characters will be available for you to use in the World Tour campaign.

The way it works is that each character earns experience points when racing in order to level, up to a maximum cap of five. Doing so unlocks mods for that racer, which are fixed bonuses that can be switched between pre-race in order to customise the character to suit your playstyle. So if you’re a fan of Knuckles but find his handling somewhat lacking, you’ll be able to pimp it out after reaching a suitable level in order to excel with the red echidna.

The nature of the levels, with most featuring some combination of land, sea and air racing, means that they feel suitably varied but inevitably you’re going to have some tracks that you perform better on. When we tried it out, racing on land usually saw us fly into the lead but the second we took to the air and had to deal with navigating vertically as well as horizontally, in order to pursue boosts and dodge weapons, things got slightly messier.

It’s this part of the multiplayer experience where Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed stands out. While much of the gameplay is reminiscent of other games in the genre, the fact that you’re likely to be better than your mates in certain vehicles than others means level selection becomes that much more important, and you’ll want to try them all. Throw in the well-balanced weapons and ability to mod characters to suit your playstyle and you’ve got a multiplayer experience with a focus on skill as much as fun.

Sumo Digital is creating a game that’s shaping up to be a refinement on a familiar formula that tries to be different from most other offerings out there; just don’t expect it to transform the kart racing genre, despite the title.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is not a car, boat or plane. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: The Familiarity of Powersliding

The mascot kart racer has seen a major resurgence in recent times, with the next few months packed with adorably familiar faces zooming around on outlandish tracks. From the caricatured visages on show in F1 Race Stars to the comforting plushness of LittleBigPlanet Karting, it’s a pretty packed marketplace. As Mario Kart established long ago, this is a genre that lives or dies based on its multiplayer; it was with a sense of trepidation that we sat down to try out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It comes down to this.

The game’s multiplayer is divided between online, in which up to 10 players can compete, and offline splitscreen which supports four players on most consoles, with an extra player being supported on Wii U thanks to the GamePad’s screen. Additionally, while the online mode only supports competitive mode, if you’re playing offline with some mates you can work co-operatively to try and beat the computer.

The first thing to note about the game is just how familiar it all feels; if you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature. With regards to multiplayer, this means anyone with even the slightest level of competency in the genre won’t have any problem leaving the AI racers in the dust on anything but the hardest difficulty setting.

“

If you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature.

Partly, this is down to the balanced range of weaponry on offer; while each of the characters has a unique ‘All-Star’ move, there are no blue shells here. Granted, if you’re in last then the odds of you getting one of the more powerful weapons is increased, but as it should be, individual skill is the only real guarantee of moving you up in the rankings.

While on the topic of individual skill, one of the best features on offer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is that experience gained in multiplayer transfers over into your single player campaign, and vice versa. It’s a nice touch that really encourages inviting mates round for a game; after all, four lots of experience means that when they all head home an even wider arrange of powered-up characters will be available for you to use in the World Tour campaign.

The way it works is that each character earns experience points when racing in order to level, up to a maximum cap of five. Doing so unlocks mods for that racer, which are fixed bonuses that can be switched between pre-race in order to customise the character to suit your playstyle. So if you’re a fan of Knuckles but find his handling somewhat lacking, you’ll be able to pimp it out after reaching a suitable level in order to excel with the red echidna.

The nature of the levels, with most featuring some combination of land, sea and air racing, means that they feel suitably varied but inevitably you’re going to have some tracks that you perform better on. When we tried it out, racing on land usually saw us fly into the lead but the second we took to the air and had to deal with navigating vertically as well as horizontally, in order to pursue boosts and dodge weapons, things got slightly messier.

It’s this part of the multiplayer experience where Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed stands out. While much of the gameplay is reminiscent of other games in the genre, the fact that you’re likely to be better than your mates in certain vehicles than others means level selection becomes that much more important, and you’ll want to try them all. Throw in the well-balanced weapons and ability to mod characters to suit your playstyle and you’ve got a multiplayer experience with a focus on skill as much as fun.

Sumo Digital is creating a game that’s shaping up to be a refinement on a familiar formula that tries to be different from most other offerings out there; just don’t expect it to transform the kart racing genre, despite the title.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is not a car, boat or plane. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: The Familiarity of Powersliding

The mascot kart racer has seen a major resurgence in recent times, with the next few months packed with adorably familiar faces zooming around on outlandish tracks. From the caricatured visages on show in F1 Race Stars to the comforting plushness of LittleBigPlanet Karting, it’s a pretty packed marketplace. As Mario Kart established long ago, this is a genre that lives or dies based on its multiplayer; it was with a sense of trepidation that we sat down to try out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It comes down to this.

The game’s multiplayer is divided between online, in which up to 10 players can compete, and offline splitscreen which supports four players on most consoles, with an extra player being supported on Wii U thanks to the GamePad’s screen. Additionally, while the online mode only supports competitive mode, if you’re playing offline with some mates you can work co-operatively to try and beat the computer.

The first thing to note about the game is just how familiar it all feels; if you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature. With regards to multiplayer, this means anyone with even the slightest level of competency in the genre won’t have any problem leaving the AI racers in the dust on anything but the hardest difficulty setting.

“

If you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature.

Partly, this is down to the balanced range of weaponry on offer; while each of the characters has a unique ‘All-Star’ move, there are no blue shells here. Granted, if you’re in last then the odds of you getting one of the more powerful weapons is increased, but as it should be, individual skill is the only real guarantee of moving you up in the rankings.

While on the topic of individual skill, one of the best features on offer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is that experience gained in multiplayer transfers over into your single player campaign, and vice versa. It’s a nice touch that really encourages inviting mates round for a game; after all, four lots of experience means that when they all head home an even wider arrange of powered-up characters will be available for you to use in the World Tour campaign.

The way it works is that each character earns experience points when racing in order to level, up to a maximum cap of five. Doing so unlocks mods for that racer, which are fixed bonuses that can be switched between pre-race in order to customise the character to suit your playstyle. So if you’re a fan of Knuckles but find his handling somewhat lacking, you’ll be able to pimp it out after reaching a suitable level in order to excel with the red echidna.

The nature of the levels, with most featuring some combination of land, sea and air racing, means that they feel suitably varied but inevitably you’re going to have some tracks that you perform better on. When we tried it out, racing on land usually saw us fly into the lead but the second we took to the air and had to deal with navigating vertically as well as horizontally, in order to pursue boosts and dodge weapons, things got slightly messier.

It’s this part of the multiplayer experience where Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed stands out. While much of the gameplay is reminiscent of other games in the genre, the fact that you’re likely to be better than your mates in certain vehicles than others means level selection becomes that much more important, and you’ll want to try them all. Throw in the well-balanced weapons and ability to mod characters to suit your playstyle and you’ve got a multiplayer experience with a focus on skill as much as fun.

Sumo Digital is creating a game that’s shaping up to be a refinement on a familiar formula that tries to be different from most other offerings out there; just don’t expect it to transform the kart racing genre, despite the title.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is not a car, boat or plane. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Riot Season 2 World Championship Tournament Preview

Season two is finally coming to a close. For the past few months, teams from all over the world have battled each other to claim their ticket to the Season Two World Championships. The season has filtered these teams down to just twelve top teams from five different regions for the final struggle to put their mark on history as World Champions.

Here's how it will work, twelve teams will compete, four of those twelve teams (drawn via lottery from the five regional winners) will receive a bye and immediately enter the bracket stage. The remaining eight teams will be split into two groups and compete for the top two spots in each group. The top two teams in each group will move on to the bracket stage and battle it out in best of three matches for qualification into the grand finals. The top two finalists will clash in a best of five match on October 13th for the title of Season two Champion. The winner will receive a whopping $1,000,000 grand prize, as well as bragging rights as Champions.

This event is gearing up to be the most epic tournament yet. We have power houses such as Moscow Five (M5) and Team SoloMid (TSM), Veterans such as CLG Prime (Counter Logic Gaming Prime) and Dignitas, dark horses like Invictus Gaming and NaJin Sword, and the underdogs in the Saigon Jokers. This tournament has it all.

M5 is a dominating force with their near flawless track record, never leaving the podium in LAN events since their first exceptional appearance at IEM (Intel Extreme Masters) Kiev, setting new game metas with their oppressive game play. However, past dominance does not ensure future dominance, so it remains to be seen whether M5 will once again take control and run through the tournament, or if their road to the top will stop just shy of the crown.

TSM also has a power that cannot be denied. Time and time again, TSM has consistently proven their worth, establishing themselves as the number one team in North America. Being nearly undefeated (only loss to Azubu Blaze) in the NA circuit with their superb coordination and understanding of game mechanics place them squarely in the favorites box for this tournament.

CLG Prime, a team with one of the longest histories in League of Legends e-sports, have continuously secured their spot as one of the top North American teams. If the IPL 5 Qualifiers were any indication, it would seem that CLG Prime has adopted an extremely aggressive play style which we saw in their match against World Elite i-Rocks. However, WE. i-Rocks is a comparatively rookie team. We will have to see if this glimpse of a new play style will show itself in the World Championship and how it will fare against more seasoned teams. CLG Prime's willingness to change and better themselves could possibly be their shot to win.

World Championships 2012 Preview

Dignitas has a history that doesn't pale in comparison to CLG Prime. Even though the recent spotlight has fallen on the likes of TSM and M5, Dignitas has always shown their experience and maturity as a team in game, which they showed at PAX Prime, winning second place over CLG Prime. It would be foolhardy to ignore the threat Dignitas poses in their quest to be Champion.

SK Gaming, a european veteran , has had many switches and changes these past months, with many former members leaving in favor of other teams. With their new roster, they placed second at Regionals however, we will see if SK Gaming, led by Carlos "Ocelote" Rodríguez, will be able to ride that momentum in the tournament.

CLG.EU (Counter Logic Gaming. EU) quickly established themselves as a top European team. Their abilities can be best represented by their record against power house Moscow 5. CLG.EU is the only team to have beaten M5 with any sort of consistency. While M5 cast off CLG.EU's shadow by beating them at the European Challenger Circuit in Poland, it remains to be seen whether it was a fluke, or if M5 finally overcome the challenge set by their rivals CLG.EU.

While Asian teams have contended internationally in the past, the skills of these teams have been overshadowed by that of the North American and European teams. However, with ample time to better familiarize with the mechanics of the game, These Asian teams have started to emerge as true contenders on the global stage.

World Elite quickly made a name for themselves at IEM Guangzhou, placing first over CLG Prime and SK Gaming, first proving that Asian teams had the power to contend globally in League of Legends. They have securely established themselves as one of the top teams in Asia, but will that rank carry itself into the playoffs or will their skills fall off in the face of North American and European teams?

Invictus Gaming (iG) would prove to be a dark horse in this event. They showed themselves recently in the third North American Qualifiers for IPL 5 winning through all their games, beating CLG Prime and Mono.Ferus, only to lose to Meat Playground in the finals. Nonetheless, Invictus Gaming proved their worth by defeating top North American teams despite a ping disadvantage. It would seem that iG have qualified for events like IEM Kiev and IEM World Championship, however were unable to attend due to travel complications with their visas. It will be interesting to see if they can reproduce their success in the IPL5 qualifiers at the Season 2 Championships.

Azubu Frost, a quick rising team in Korea, the newest region to be added to the League of Legends community, has already made a name for themselves as one of the top Korean teams along with sister team Azubu Blaze (who gave TSM their only black mark in the NA circuit). We will see if Azubu Frost can exhibit the strength of Korean Gaming in League of Legends on the global stage despite their short history.

NaJin Sword shocked the world when they qualified for the Season 2 World Championships. Most assumed that the qualifying team would be Azubu Blaze alongside Azubu Frost. However, in an epic best of five match, NaJin Sword knocked Blaze out in the finals 3-2 becoming another dark horse in the playoffs. Led by top laner MakNoon, NaJin Sword have a record for borderline "insane" strategies with an extremely aggressive play style. Will their play style carry their team to victory? or will it be their downfall?

The Taipei Assassins (TPA) are a team that can contend with the top Asian teams, however, in the 2011 World Cyber Games (WCG), their only attendance in a global event, they were sent home early in the group stage. TPA have remained as a top team in Asia, contending with teams such as World Elite, and Singapore Sentinels. After winning their qualifier and earning a bye from the group stage, we will have to see if their strength as a consistent top Asian team is a tribute to an improvement to their skills, and how they fare against other globally recognized teams.

Another surprise coming to this event are the Saigon Jokers. They can be considered the underdogs of this tournament, however, their hard earned victory over the Singapore Sentinels after being sent to the losers bracket by them shows their persistence and dedication as contenders for the Championship. It will be pleasing to see an underdog story happen before my eyes should the Saigon Jokers be able to perform reoccurring upsets and take home the gold.

Just looking at the teams and their records, M5 and TSM are the clear favorites with a little more emphasis on M5. However, both these teams have NOT been proven to be unbeatable. It is up to the accumulated experience and familiarity with the game in each team to decide the victor. We have seen upsets before in NaJin Sword and Saigon Jokers; there is no reason for that same possibility to not exist. Of course the teams that earned byes have a bit of an advantage, however each team has their strengths which give them all an honest shot for the crown. I will thoroughly enjoy watching these twelve teams compete. Exhausting every advantage they have, whether it's newly formed strategies, already established play styles, or secretly learned champions on the road to become Season Two champions.

Source : ign[dot]com

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 -- Everything We Know About Zombies

After months of speculating, the veil has finally been lifted on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's Zombie gameplay. While we still haven't gotten a chance to try it, a recent visit to Treyarch resulted in a glut of information about the evolution of the mode, and what fans can expect on November 13th. What started as something simple and silly, a treat for those who beat Call of Duty: World at War, is being developed into the biggest, most fully-featured Zombies game yet.

See the new zombies trailer right here.

The biggest change to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's Zombie gameplay comes in the form of its campaign mode. Titled Tranzit, this tosses you and up to three of your friends into the biggest world the team at Treyarch has ever created for Zombies. Your goal in Tranzit is simple: kill all the undead that you come across and leave a trail of bodies in your wake. You and your team jump between a number of locales along the way, doing what appears to be defensive stands and clearing them out before moving on to the next place. However, getting from place to place isn't a simple loading screen, but instead requires you to get there by foot or by bus. It's unclear whether or not you'll be able to steer the bus, but the first trailer makes it pretty clear you'll be defending yourself and perhaps even building barricades in order to survive the journey between survival spots.

You'll also have plenty to look out for while you're battling in the zombie-infested wasteland, as Tranzit now includes "buildables," something Treyarch describes as elements you can put together to do things like open up new parts of the world or make weapons. As for how the campaign ends? That's anyone's guess. Treyarch is playing whatever story it's inserting into Tranzit close to its chest, which fits with its strategy of letting the fans parse together the narrative through message boards and other online communities.

If Tranzit doesn't sound like your thing, if you're the type of person that just wants to hop in with friends and defend a single position, you'll be pleased to hear that Survival mode is returning with Black Ops 2. Playable either solo or with three friends, Survival offers the classic survival experience wherein you build defenses and hold out. The nitty-gritty details haven't been discussed, but the environments you play in are apparently custom-made takes on locations from the Tranzit campaign.

Cooperative play isn't for everyone, and while Black Ops 2 will feature a competitive multiplayer mode as well, Treyarch's also developing a new take on competitive play for Zombies called Grief. Internally the team at Treyarch likes to refer to Grief as "4z4," because unlike traditional competitive games both sides have to deal with a third party that wants their brains -- the Zombies. In Grief, your only goal is to have your team outlive the other, but, unlike every other Call of Duty mode you've ever played, you can't shoot other players. Instead you have to "grief" them and get the zombies to do the work for you. Treyarch's being disappointingly mum in regards to how "griefing" actually works, so for now we're left to speculate about how we'll be attempting to kill our friends come November.

If there's a rule or any other part of Zombies' three modes that you don't like, Treyarch wants you to tweak them and create your own using the Custom games feature -- a first for Zombies. You can live out your hardcore zombie fantasy and make it so only headshots kill, turn off magic items and set your starting round.

 

Previously, the Zombie portion of Treyarch's Call of Duty games felt like a distraction, a way to break up the multi-hour sessions with the competitive multiplayer. Black Ops 2 aims to change it into something on par with the multiplayer and campaign. This isn't just a mode, it's a series of modes buried within a game, a testament to Treyarch's dedication to the fans. Without their input and devotion, Zombies wouldn't exist as it does today.

Source : ign[dot]com

iOS 6 vs. Android Jelly Bean

If you're looking to buy a smartphone or tablet in the next few months, we've got great news: you can choose an iPad or a Nexus 7, an iPhone or an Android phone, and it'll be amazing. These are all miracle-devices, capable of stuff that even ten years ago we could hardly imagine a phone or portable computer doing. With huge app stores to fill in any gaps your device might have out of the box, you (almost) can't go wrong.

But there's also bad news: no matter which device you buy, and no matter how much you like it, a whole lot of folks will think you're wrong just for owning it. if you haven't seen (for instance) Samsung's latest "attack ad," be apprised that there's a ton of people whose love for one mobile OS is rivaled only by their utter disgust for its rival.

Sure, we could be all diplomatic and laugh it off; but we recognize valid arguments coming from both sides, and in situations like this there's only proper course: a fair-minded, well-reasoned comparison CAGE MATCH.

Games and Apps

Image: TechGadget

Games

There's plenty of grown-up reasons to get a top-quality smartphone or tablet. Still, whenever we see one, part of us has the same thought as when we got our first graphing calculators in high school: What games can I play on it? Maybe you don't care about gaming on your phone; that's cool. (Well, it's not that cool, but I mean, you can skip this section I guess.)

We said it last year and it's still true: iOS has a bigger and better library of available games than Android. The fact is, most developers - not all, but most - prefer to develop for iOS first and Android second, if at all. Reasons for this vary, but there are two big ones.

First: Hardware fragmentation means more choices for consumers, but it's a huge turn-off for developers. Consider what Imangi's Natalia Luckyanova had to say following Temple Run's introduction on Android earlier this year: "99.9% of support emails are complaining their device isn't supported. We currently support 707 devices. Mindblowing."

Second: iOS users have historically been overwhelmingly more likely to pay for apps. Six month ago, a survey found that two thirds of Android users had never spent a cent on apps. More recent data suggests that trend could be shifting, and we're optimistic that the debut of game-specific Android hardware like the Wikipad and Ouya could spur development.

For now though, Android definitely has some catching up to do.

App Store vs. Google Play

What about the rest of the apps? Well, there are a lot of these, on both platforms - like well into the hundreds of thousands. Apple will probably beat Google to a million apps, but not by much. And that number doesn't really mean anything anyway, because so many of these apps - again, on both platforms - are straight-up garbage. (Tablet-specific Android apps are an exception that we'd like to just see way more of.)

Still, a thousand (or even a hundred) apps for Android or iOS that are cool or useful or fun - that's pretty awesome!

Don't think there's an app for everything though: despite what its astronomical app-count may suggest, Apple is famous among developers for vetting apps according to stringent criteria. Sometimes it appears arbitrary; other times it makes sense (e.g. don't expect to see the µTorrent Beta on a non-jailbroken iPhone). Google isn't quite as strict, so while iOS may have more quality apps, Android apps tend to have broader boundaries for how they can interact with your phone. Android isn't exactly an un-regulated platform either though: just look at the version history for Grooveshark's app.

How about the app marketplaces themselves? Content suggestion is nothing to write home about in either app store (that's what IGN Wireless is for!), but both the App Store and Google Play have adequate search functions. The App Store actually got a major overhaul for iOS 6, and while this makes it easier than before to find useful apps, it's awfully slow on older devices.

Maps vs. … Maps

We won't draw this out: Google Maps beats Apple Maps. Is Apple's satellite 3D view cool? Sure (when it works), but we'd still take Street View any day.

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Google Maps beats Apple Maps

Google's turn-by-turn navigation is better (even though Jelly Bean pushes it to a separate app), and with caching for offline map viewing it'll still work on the Nexus 7 after it's out of WiFi range. And there's walking directions, and public transportation, and Google's patently superior data-set - the product of a Maps workforce of more than 7000 employees.

Facetime vs. Hangouts

Both Jelly Bean and iOS 6 have excellent video-chat clients baked in. Of course, they're both proprietary, so if you're chatting across platforms you'll probably just want to use Skype.

Interface

Notifications, Social Integration

This one's almost too close to call: Jelly Bean's expanded email notifications are nice, but so is having notifications pushed to the lock screen. Yes, we know Apple borrowed the notification-drawer from Android, but iOS 6's Facebook- and Twitter-sharing fields are an excellent finishing touch.

Android's democratic APIs make sharing easy no matter what obscure app you're using; app-makers can (and do) build their sharing features to fit the OS. iOS 6 still handles Facebook and Twitter really well across the board, but its APIs are certainly more more restricted.

Cloud integration

Forget plugging your phone in to sync it: Jelly Bean and iOS 6 will both back up your data and sync it across the cloud for you. Android users had this option first, but iCloud brought most of the same functions (and a few new ones) to Apple devices. Either way, syncing or backing up your entire phone is a cinch.

There's a catch though. (Are you detecting a pattern here?) They'll only sync with their own services.

Well, that's not 100% true: they just don't quite handle each other's cloud services properly. Sure, iCal syncs with Google Calendar; but gmail users prefer Sparrow to Mail for a reason.

Siri vs. Google Now Voice Search

Again, almost a toss-up. Android's voice control is obviously better suited for searching Google. But Siri will launch certain apps and post to Facebook and Twitter.

Customization

Our two cents: both iOS 6 and Jelly Bean have a great default interface. But maybe you want to change the default keyboard or mail-app or launcher. Or maybe you hate clicking on the calendar app and you'd rather just have a home-screen widget. Or maybe video wallpapers just make you swoon.

Well, iOS won't let you do any of those things (without jailbreaking your device). Here, Android has a clear advantage - one of the best parts of Android is its deep-rooted customization options.

But maybe all that talk just makes your head spin: in that case, you may not mind.

Bloatware

Bloatware apps are like garden weeds. If you don't want it and you can't get rid of it, it's a weed. Maybe you use Stocks or Newsstand or Game Center. But a lot of folks never have. Now, as these apps are totally inessential to basic device functions, iOS should let you uninstall them, right? Guess again. We were glad to see Apple make the YouTube app optional, even if that meant we had to download it manually. It's just better to have the choice. And Apple has always refused to let wireless carriers put bloatware on the iPhone.

On the other hand, we've basically never reviewed an Android phone that didn't have carrier-installed bloatware on it. In fairness, it really isn't out of control on Jelly Bean yet: if you've got the 4.1 update (and you're not in Poland or reading this from the future) that means you're on a Nexus class device. Those have less carrier bloatware (i.e. only two lousy Verizon apps) than other Android phones. But Samsung's other phones (like the Galaxy S3) along with HTC's and even Motorola's probably won't come out as clean.

Learning curve

If you've ever rooted or jailbroken a phone, just keep on scrolling to the next section. But if you're a total smartphone n00b or you're recommending a tablet to your technophobic uncle, you'll want to ask how many of its features will actually get used.

We're not saying either UI sucks. Jelly bean and iOS 6 are both really intuitive once you know your way around. But if you're not comfortable going through the Settings pane, you'll probably have a simpler and more complete experience with iOS.

Jelly Bean lets power-users do a lot, but think about how many people will never set up their device to share photos over WiFi just because you have to dig through some settings to enable it. iOS is our "dumbed-down" mobile OS pick.

Hardware and Support

Hardware Diversity and Fragmentation

We won't beat this to death, but it's important to understand that the sword of hardware fragmentation cuts both ways.

Image: OpenSignalMaps

On the one hand, app developers hate it, and even as a user it's often possible to tell when a particular app hasn't been optimized for your device.

On the other hand, diversity means choice. Android users have dozens of budget to high-end hardware options. If none of them is quite as impressive as the latest iPhone, three new ones will close the gap within a few months. You can buy an Android phone with or without NFC, with as much or as little storage space as you need, with a big screen or a huge screen. Want to run iOS 6 on a bigger screen than the iPhone 5's? Well, there's the iPad.

Camera

There's a handful of Android phones with really awesome 8MP cameras, and decent camera apps. iOS 6's integrated Panorama feature is cool, but it's not exactly a killer app. So what makes the iPhone 5's camera better (which it is)?

Apple wrote the app and the camera's firmware specifically to play nice with this one piece of hardware. Google just doesn't exercise the same amount of control over its hardware partners, and if you use their cameras critically the difference begins to show.

Image: Pay4Bugs

Software Fragmentation

You may have seen sweet, clean Jelly Bean on the Galaxy Nexus, but it won't look the same on the Galaxy S3: Samsung skins the OS with its TouchWiz UI (and HTC installs Sense, and Motorola installs MOTOBLUR). Even if you like the added features, there's no denying they complicate the OS.

iOS 6 may be Apple's most fragmented mobile OS yet (with features like Siri left off older devices). But the iOS 6 user experience is still largely the same for each of them.

The waiting game

If it's important to you to get updates in a timely manner, there's just no contest.

It's been 11 weeks since Jelly Bean was released on July 9th this year, and its user-base is still under 2% of Android users. That's because it was only available to Nexus-class devices (and not even to all of them). That's a huge disappointment for such an awesome OS. We just weren't pessimistic enough to believe Google's promise at its I/O event - to ensure new devices get timely updates for 18 months after launch - was bogus. The maxim that when you buy an Android device, you're buying it "as is" still rings true.

The first roll-out of Jelly Bean to Samsung's non-Nexus devices comes better late than never, but at the risk of saying Apple would never do that!, well, Apple never has.

When a new version of iOS comes out, every device that will ever get the update gets it on day one. In this case, that gave it an adoption rate more than 100 times greater than Jelly Bean's. What that proves is that people want these yearly updates. Over 100 million devices upgraded in the first week it was available - just because it was available.

And the winner is...

Really? After all that you thought we were going to crown one definitive winner for everyone? It might make shopping simpler, but whatever we decided we'd ruffle a lot of your feathers - and with good reason.

Jelly Bean and iOS 6 are both great mobile operating systems. And they're both improvable. Frankly, we'd like to see them hug it out. No? Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Hey! What about Windows Phone?

Good question! We decided not to bring Windows Phone 7 into the ring (like we did last year) because it's just no longer competitive with the latest from Apple and Google. We're stoked about Windows 8 though, so keep it locked to IGN Tech for a full run-down of its best features and how it stacks up against the competition when it drops next month.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. He would like you to know that this does not mean he has an iPhone (not that not-having-an-iPhone makes him cool either; he just doesn't). You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Last Resort: "Pilot" Review

Note: Some spoilers follow for Last Resort – basically the same plot points revealed by the network in trailers for the past few months. But keep in mind, you can watch the full pilot online now, before it debuts on ABC.

Shawn Ryan has more than proven his TV mettle at this point, having given us the awesomeness of The Shield, while in recent years delivering terrific (even when frustratingly ratings-challenged) programming like Terriers and The Chicago Code.

All of which is to say, Ryan’s involvement immediately had me interested in Last Resort, the new ABC series he created with Karl Gajdusek (Dead Like Me). And the very happy news is, wow, does this show deliver. Last Resort is easily fall’s best new TV series.

Andre Braugher stars as Captain Marcus Chaplin, commander of the nuclear submarine the Colorado. When Chaplin is confronted with that horrific moment where he’s actually given orders to fire his nukes on Pakistan, the highly suspicious circumstances of the orders doesn’t sit right with either him or his XO, Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman). Chaplin’s instincts are correct, and his refusal to carry out the order without more information suddenly makes him and his crew enemies of the state, with their lives on the line.

With more than one crew member shocked (if not filled with outright rage) at his decisions, Chaplin impulsively takes the sub to a small, inhabited island – creating a new home base for all onboard, while they try to sort out why these insane turn of events have occurred and who is behind them.

Martin Campbell directed the pilot to Last Resort, and the action veteran brings to the proceedings the intensity and skill he gave Bond films GoldenEye and Casino Royale – giving the show a big, appropriately intense vibe almost from the start.

If I have any quibble about the Last Resort pilot it is that it does feel almost too jam-packed – if any series could have benefited from an old school two-hour “event” premiere episode, it would be this one. For instance, we might have spent a bit more time on the Colorado as the crew goes through a normal routine, as the episode, in the interest of brevity, begins with them rescuing a team of Navy SEALs (who are being suspiciously tightlipped about their own mission), and at first it’s easy to feel a bit out of sorts about what exactly is going on.

Overall though, Ryan, Gajdusek and Campbell are to be highly commended for efficiently and effectively conveying so much in just 44 minutes. Even with the limited time they have, they distinctly establish the characters and relationships on the Colorado before the true crisis begins, from Sam’s longing to get home to his wife, Christine (Jessy Schram), to the struggle the sub’s third in command, Lieutenant Grace Shepard (Daisy Betts), has establishing authority among certain members of the crew, thanks both to her gender and to her powerful Admiral father (Bruce Davison), who some feel helped secure her position.

The cast are excellent, with Braugher bringing exactly the right feel of leadership, intelligence and cunning to the role of Chaplin. We have to believe that Chaplin is a man with a long, honorable history in the military -- that his decision to not fire when ordered to do so would not be one he’d make lightly -- and Braugher is exactly the right actor to portray that history and someone who has to handle so much weight on his shoulders without crumbling under the pressure.

With just a couple of big scenes each, for the most part, plenty of other cast members quickly establish fertile ground to build upon – including Autumn Reeser as Kylie Sinclair, a D.C. power player who has a vested business interest in what’s happening on the Colorado, but is not simply the ice cold opportunist she appears to be; Daniel Lissing as one of those aforementioned Navy SEALs hiding secrets of his own; and Dichen Lachman, Sophie Girard and Sahr Ngaujah as residents of the island the Colorado arrives at, who quickly have to make some big adjustments to their lives.

An alum of Ryan’s previous military-based series, The Unit, Robert Patrick, is great as Master Chief Joseph Prosser, conveying a complicated mixture of character traits, as Prosser is clearly old fashioned and rigid, but also doing what he feels is right through and through…. In what is possibly a combustible combination.

Last Resort has such a tense, “How will this be resolved?!” scenario, it’s hard not to also wonder, “How do you sustain this for several years?”, if it finds its deserving success. But the pilot feels so confident and powerful, I’m more curious than concerned when it comes to answering that second question.

It’s rare to have a truly terrific pilot episode. By their very nature, they are just chapter one in what’s meant to be a long story - burdened with establishing the overall situation and filled with exposition and introductions. Last Resort stands out as one of those shows that grabs your attention from the get go and delivers a tricky balance of strong character beats and big action set pieces. Don’t miss this one.

Last Resort premieres Thursday, September 27th at 8pm on ABC.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Fan Makes Final Fantasy 7 In LittleBigPlanet 2

A very dedicated Final Fantasy VII fan has spent the last six months of his life recreating the game's entire storyline in LittleBigPlanet 2.

Jamie Colliver - known on YouTube as TheJamster1992 - has made six videos spanning the opening, Sector 5 and Aeris' Church, Nibelheim and more. There's more than three hours' worth. He's even done the music.

Check out the first video below. Seriously. Watch it right now. You're allowed to make a cup of tea first.

Head over to Jamie's Youtube playlist for the whole set. Bravo, sir!

Thanks, PSU.

Source : ign[dot]com

FarmVille 2 Now Available

After many months in development, Zynga announced today that FarmVille 2, perhaps the company’s biggest title to date, is now out of closed beta and available to players on Facebook and Zynga.com.

The sequel includes a variety of improvements and changes to the social farming formula Zynga helped popularize back in 2009, but the most dramatic change is undoubtedly the new 3D visuals. Gameplay plays out from the same semi-overhead viewpoint found in most other Zynga titles, but now all decorations, crops and animals are rendered in full stylized 3D instead of 2D pixel art.

In a recent demo of the title, members of the FarmVille 2 team stressed repeatedly that one of their big creative goals for the title was to give players the feeling that they were “bringing the farm to life.” FarmVille 2’s 3D crops, animals and decorations are far more interactive than in any previous Zynga games. Crops and trees sway in the wind. Animals will wander around freely unless kept in a pen. All decorations spring into action when players mouse over them – fires crackle to life, rocking chairs rock, kites fly lazily, and so-on.

When playing in full-screen, the fidelity of the visuals and the high-quality animation and sound made it easy for me to forget I was looking at a “simple” Facebook game. Zynga’s presentation and artistic prowess has come a long way in the last three years.

Only a lengthy hands-on play session can determine if the company’s game design chops have also kept up, but here my early impressions are also positive. All of FarmVille 2’s farming systems are now interconnected and feature actual crafting trees, giving “hardcore gamer” min/maxers something to chew on. Is it better to sell your wheat, or turn it into feed for your cows and sell their milk? Or should you save the milk and use it to craft and sell baked goods like pies, custards and cakes?

Gone are the days of clicking on a crop to see an abstract pile of coins pop up – players must now balance crafting, feeding their animals and watering farm plots.

Just as some elements of Farmville 2 are becoming more complex and properly “game-like,” Zynga strove to simplify some of the original’s rough edges. Players can now mouse-over large swaths of crops to plant, water or harvest them – no need to click hundreds of times! It’s a change sure to please the wrists of millions of virtual farmers.

Since FarmVille 2 uses Flash 11 as its foundation, this also gave Zynga access to the right-mouse button for the first time. The company put it to use as an easy “redecorate” button. Right-clicking a farm plot, decoration or animal picks it up. Right-clicking again drops it in its new location. Simple.

FarmVille 2 is full of little details that show the game was created with more care than most social games. When purchasing an expansion for your farm, the land doesn’t just magically open up. Instead n army of goats rush in from off-screen to et up the tall grass, tin cans and other trash to make the land farmable. When picking up an animal to move it, it dangles in the air, eyes bulging out, as if it had been picked up by the scruff of its neck. Your custom avatar is also fully animated and will jump fences & perform other complicated movements to perform his or her farm chores as efficiently as possible.

Zynga told me that their goal for FarmVille 2 was to create an experience that felt “relaxing and pastoral.” They want the title to evoke a feeling of nostalgia and recapture the feeling of living in a small town and running a small farm. They want the five-minute breaks people spend with FarmVille 2 to be “The best five minutes of their day.”

Whether the social gaming giant has achieved that goal remains to be seen, but FarmVille 2’s combination of actual crafting complexity, lively and atmospheric visuals & quality-of-play improvements are all steps in the right direction.

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

Relaunching Deadpool: What's Next for the Merc with a Mouth?

So far, Marvel has revealed the books that will be comprising the Marvel NOW! relaunch in the months of October and November. One thing we've noticed is that most of these relaunched series feature a familiar group of writers -- big names like Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, and Jonathan Hickman. With the new Deadpool series however, Marvel has shown a willingness to look outside the usual talent pool. The newest book to star the Merc With a Mouth will be penned by comedians/writers Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan, with Tony Moore providing pencils.

The new creative team are clearly focusing on comedy. The first arc sees Deadpool take on a mission from S.H.I.E.L.D. and do battle with zombie versions of America's Presidents. We knew this mercenary was always fond of dead presidents, but not quite so literally.

We sat down with all three creators to learn more about how they landed the assignment, what they have planned for Deadpool, and the challenges of transitioning from comedy writing to superhero comics.

IGN Comics: Gerry and Brian, can you talk a little about your history with comics in general and Deadpool in particular?

Gerry Duggan: We met at a comic shop, actually. Around ten years ago now, around the back issue bin. Obviously we were both lifelong Marvel fans up to that point. Deadpool has always occupied that space of action and comedy that doesn't exist elsewhere in comics. I think that's why he resonated with us.

Brian Posehn: Yeah, he was kind of the obvious choice for us. We both can be serious too, and we've talked about writing a more serious book down the line, but it felt like the way to get the foot in the door was to do the thing that we're both good at. And Deadpool is really the only game in town where you can do both things that we enjoy doing – tell an action story but also have the main character be a smart-ass.

IGN: You guys did the mini-series The Last Christmas together. Did Marvel approach the two of you together from the beginning, or was it one and then the other came into the picture later?

Posehn: Well, this whole thing would never have happened if it weren't for Comic-Con, probably. In any situation where you get something going, it's all about who you know, and this really came from that. Hanging out with Axel [Alonso]. Meeting Axel through Rick Remender. And Remender, who's our biggest cheerleader, going, “These guys are funny. These guys love comics. These guys should be writing.” It originally started with the idea that we were just going to do a special. But with Marvel kind of reevaluating their books, they realized they don't really want to do specials anymore. Then we were on the back-burner for a while. But we've been talking about doing something with them for a couple of years now. But the seed was at Comic-Con, right, Gerry?

Duggan: Yeah. Once Rick made that introduction, it was easy to grab drinks outside of Comic-Con and talk about fun stuff. Deadpool had always sort of bubbled to the surface. We've had a couple of ideas that have been “no's,” and they've been right to say no in editorial. But there have been a lot more “yes's.” I think we're doing a really fun Marvel book. I've seen some of the reaction to the teaser has been wary of comedy. Yes, Brian is obviously a very visible comedian. But we're really approaching this as a Marvel book. This is a big action story that hopefully has some laughs as you're turning the page and is something that you're going to look at extra long. There's stuff in there, too, that Tony is doing that's really special. He's really making the story shine with his pages.

Tony Moore: I think where Brian and Gerry really knocked it out of the park is that they built the whole story on this premise that's so bizarre that I honestly don't know how it ever got approved. [laughs] It's funnier than it really should be. But it's so good. I'm so excited that Marvel is rolling with it. It just seems like one of those ideas where, on any other planet, it would have been turned down, almost before they got to the end of the sentence.

Duggan: [laughs] “What else have you got?”

Posehn: Gerry's a great writer, if you've read Infinite Horizon. If you've read that, you know that he comes more from a story world. I love that too, and for us, that was way more important to come up with good stories and cool things that we can do for five issues and draw people in. And when we're putting words in bubbles, I can make Deadpool say some silly stuff. But that sort of takes a back seat to telling a good story, really.

Moore: Besides the absurd premise that they've got, they also have some really great character moments in there that get inside everybody's heads pretty quickly so you can have some emotional stakes with these guys. They're really telling some good stuff.

Posehn: Even with our first comic, The Last Christmas, it was really the idea that was the most important thing – telling this story and then the silly stuff is gravy.

Duggan: And the thing, too, that I think was a balancing act – and Jordan [White] had a lot to do with this and Tony, obviously – was the tone of the story. It's an action/comedy, but I would say the DNA is in Big Trouble in Little China and Ghostbusters and those sorts of things where the stakes are high and these are real threats. If Deadpool can't get the job done, this country is done. There are big threats. And by the way, the way these Presidents are drawn – they're very menacing. Being able to draw something really interesting with some menace is sort of Tony's fastball. But he's also got the ability to render a joke and make that work. And not everyone can do that. At least looking at the first couple issues of art, I think we're making a comic that we would buy ourselves and put it at the top of our pull lists.

Posehn: Yeah, absolutely. We feel very lucky to do it. There's a reason we worked with Tony again. He did a cover for us on The Last Christmas. We're obviously big fans, and we're actually friends too, but he was an easy first call. Of course he's what we want.

Duggan: And hopefully America is good and sick of politics. Hopefully you won't mind seeing some of the former pillars of society and government come back with some very bad intentions.

IGN: Staying on the subject of the art for a minute, Tony, a lot of your recent work has been on books like Venom and Frankencastle -- the darker, more sinister types of books. Is your art style changing much as you shift into this series?

Moore: Not incredibly so. The basics are all still the same. I do feel a lot more relaxed with this book since it's not quite so morose as some of the other stuff, especially the work I did on Venom. That got pretty dark. This is a little more freewheeling, and I feel like my cartooning has loosened up a bit. It's made for some fresher art. I'm really happy with the way things have gone. It's a more relaxing kind of cartooning than I've been able to enjoy in a long time, so I'm pleased with the way everything has gone.

Duggan: Now might be a good time to point out that when this runs, you'll see some art that shows the tweaks he did to the costume. [Editor's Note: See the cover to Deadpool #1 above.] It's really costume. And they're subtle. You'll look at it and know that it's Deadpool, but it's a new Deadpool that really looks great.

Posehn: Less pouches.

Duggan: Less pouches and less weird, tech-y gear, but more versatile sort of, “Hey, you know what? Those are magazines. Those are clips.” You get the sense that he can reach behind his back and pull out either a frying pan or a shotgun. It looks great.

Moore: The idea was to take what was there and kind of streamline it a little bit and tweak it enough that it felt like a new beginning. And then keep the icon intact as much as I could, but try to have it make a little more sense so that I can really wrap my head around it when I have to draw it.

Source : ign[dot]com