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Thursday, 8 November 2012

Polygon Man: PlayStation All-Stars’ Final Boss

It’s been long rumored that Polygon Man is the final boss in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Today, we can confirm that this is, indeed, the case. In PlayStation All-Stars’ introduction video, seen below (and viewable whenever you turn on the game), you’ll see each of the game’s 10 rivalries culminate with a quick glimpse of Polygon Man himself.

Who is Polygon Man, you ask? In short, he’s the original PlayStation mascot, designed to tease the power of the PlayStation before it launched in the west in 1995. Interestingly, the ad campaign was pulled before the console launched in North America. According to Edge, this reportedly occurred when Sony Computer Entertainment founder and former CEO Ken Kutaragi “went absolutely insane” upon seeing it on Sony’s E3 booth in 1995. In other words, he wasn’t pleased.

But that hasn’t stopped Polygon Man from persisting in the minds of the most hardcore PlayStation faithful, and his inclusion in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale indicates that the team at SuperBot Entertainment has its roots firmly planted in the same soil PlayStation sprouted from nearly two decades ago. But the intro video itself also serves a purpose apart from simply showing off Polygon Man, as SuperBot Entertainment’s Omar Kendall explains.

“We really wanted to play up the concept of rivalries” in All-Stars, Kendall said, the hypothetical “what ifs” of the universe they’ve created where the unlikeliest of characters can face-off against one another. The intro video allows SuperBot Entertainment to do that. With the video’s script and design concocted in-house, SuperBot utilized the skills of Zoic Studios to render and create the intro itself.

But for Kendall, a veteran of the fighting development scene, an intro such as this serves another purpose. “This was another note that we could hit that was very much in line with the overall message that PlayStation All-Stars really is, or at least has roots in traditional fighting games.” He mentions games like Soul Calibur and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as examples of great fighting games with epic intros like the one they’ve attempted to put in their game.

With all 10 of the rivalries shown-off in full, Kendall noted that there were some “fantasy matchups” in there, like Ratchet & Clank versus Jak & Daxter, as well as some “in your face” rivalries, and some more subtle “easter egg” rivalries, like the one between Nathan Drake and Sly Cooper that play off of the fact that both are treasure hunters… or perhaps thieves. He describes the entire scenario as being “big notes” complemented by “subtle cues.”

The rivalries are as follows:

Ratchet & Clank versus Jak & Daxter
Sly Cooper versus Nathan Drake
Fat Princess versus Evil Cole MacGrath
Sir Daniel Fortesque versus Colonel Radec
Sackboy versus Big Daddy
Nariko versus Dante
Heihachi versus Toro
Spike versus Parappa the Rapper
Good Cole MacGrath versus Raiden
Sweet Tooth versus Kratos

Kendall stressed that the story in All-Stars should be loose and act as an excuse for these characters to come together. But it shouldn’t be construed as canon. He “didn’t want a big, sort of heavy story that was going to feel really arbitrary and cheesy and kind of pull the players out. Because these characters… come from these really rich worlds already, and I knew that this game wasn’t going to serve to paint the sort of official storylines of these individual characters. I knew it was going to be something that they experience together mutually, in some ways exclusively, and then go back to their worlds. You’re really not going to see their experiences in PlayStation All-Stars reflected in God of War IV or God of War V.”

Yet, citing the famous Michael ad (seen below), Kendall admits that “all of these characters live inside this shared space,” later noting that “we thought it would be really cool if we, as opposed to trying really hard to create this fiction and explain why Kratos and Sackboy are in the same world together, just sort of casually acknowledge the fact that this world is living inside of your PlayStation.”

It’s that very notion – the world living inside of your PlayStation – that influenced the team to put Polygon Man in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as the final boss.

“When we were thinking about a boss for PlayStation All-Stars, we asked ourselves ‘what was the ultimate manifestation of PlayStation?’ And for us, it was Polygon Man. If you could look at some of the original material that Polygon Man appeared in, he makes these crazy statements, these sort of almost nonsensical statements, like ‘power is an illusion’, ‘absolute power is a seamless illusion’. These really weird, grandiose statements. He doesn’t really come off as a bad guy, but he comes off as kind of this representative of power, the power and potential and what PlayStation represents. So we thought it would be really cool if at the center of this shared universe all of these PlayStation characters inhabit was Polygon Man, waiting as the ultimate challenge for this world.”

Kendall went on. “If you look at the rivalry cutscene, it takes place in this kind of blue polygonal space. That, for us, is kind of the PlayStation universe at its base. You’ll see the XMB power waves flying in the background, you’ll see the PlayStation shapes flying around in the background. That’s kind of like the PlayStation landscape stripped bare to its essence… You see that space transition into the purple Polygon Man colors, and for us, Polygon Man is made of the same stuff, I guess, as the essence of the PlayStation universe.”

Believe it or not, however, Polygon Man wasn’t the original idea for the final boss in PlayStation All-Stars. The team at SuperBot came up with many ideas, including ones that took from certain games. An idea floated early on was the Helghan Army from Killzone being the game’s villain. But those sorts of ideas didn’t jive with the idea of what PlayStation All-Stars was all about.

“I think what we realized when we were going through our exploration was that yeah, certainly we could identify a single evil entity from one of our characters’ universes,” Kendall explained. “It could be Zeus (from God of War), it could be Dr. Nefarious (from Ratchet & Clank), it could be any of our sort of standard villains. But we felt that as a game called PlayStation All-Stars, we really wanted the final challenge to not draw from a single, particular IP, but really, we wanted the final challenge to be against the entire PlayStation brand itself. And when we began to think about it that way, Polygon Man really became the obvious choice.”

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Tuesday, 6 November 2012

IPTL Premier Division Semifinals: Reigning Champs LG-IM vs Evil Geniuses

Team Evil Geniuses, the North American fan favorites, will face LG-Incredible Miracle, the team league all-stars of Korea, in the semifinals of the IGN Pro Team League. Both teams finished the season at the top of their respective groups, with Evil Geniuses going 2-1 in Group A and LG-IM going a staggering 3-0 in Group B. Neither group had an easier draw as they each had to face some of the best teams, such as Team Liquid, MVP, StarTale, and Prime. Wednesday, EG and LG-IM will battle it out to see who continues on to the IPTL Grand Finals.

The Lineups

Evil Geniuses:

LG-IM:

Potential Starters

EG: HuK

Despite an alleged slump over the course of this year, HuK is still considered one of the strongest players on Evil Geniuses and one of the best foreigners in the world. He has been used twice in the IPTL, as a starter against SlayerS and an ace versus MVP. HuK is known for his highly unorthodox play, which makes it hard for his opponents to predict his next move. In addition to his unpredictable play, he is known for early aggression and top-notch micro.

LG-IM: YongHwa

YongHwa is best known for his performance in team leagues. He made his televised debut in the GSTL of February 2011, during which he displayed creativity and refined mechanics against ZeNEX and StarTale, ending the season with an impressive 5-1 record. Over the course of his career, he has struggled to make top results in 1v1 tournaments. However, he has found great success in team leagues as a sniper. In the 2012 GSTL Season 3, he achieved all-kills on Fnatic and SlayerS.

Key Player(s)

EG: PuMa

PuMa is a strong Terran player, who made a name for himself in SC2 when he placed first in the NASL Season 1 Open and went on to win the grand finals, defeating notable names such as Ret, Squirtle, July, and MC. He defended his title in the second season of the NASL when he defeated HerO in the grand finals (4-2). In the IPTL semifinals, PuMa will most likely be used as a sniper against LG-IM's Protoss player due to his effective use of the 1-1-1 build order.

LG-IM: Mvp, Seed

Mvp needs no introductions. Despite injuries and a lack of practice, Mvp still dominated tournaments with high-caliber play. He is unarguably the most decorated player in the entire world, having won the GSL four times, topping the GSL rankings in both 2011 and 2012.

Mvp is a solid player with immaculate macro and micro management, making him an all-around player in team leagues.

Seed is a dangerous player to go up against. Known for his ingenious Protoss play and forthright confidence, Seed dominates both 1v1 tournaments and team leagues. He was the one who put a stop to the seemingly invincible TaeJa in the grand finals of the IPL TAC3. He is also the second Protoss GSL Champion, having won the 2012 GSL Season 3 Code S finals. Seed's versatility allows him to be used as a sniper or team ace.

Team Aces

EG: Stephano

EG's newest recruit, Stephano, is widely hailed as the best foreigner. Over the course of his career, he has won the Lone Star Clash, IPL3, ESWC 2011, NASL Season 3, the World Championship Series: France Nationals, the 2012 World Championship Series: Europe Finals, and an ample amount of other minor tournaments. Stephano's best match-up is ZvP and he is well-known for his mass speedling/infestor play as well as his heavy use of roaches. In EG's match versus Liquid, Stephano was used as an ace and he was able to take down both TaeJa and HerO to secure the win.

LG-IM: MC

MC, the Protoss President, is the best performing Protoss player in the world. This year alone, he won HomeStory Cup IV, the IEM Season VI - World Championships, and Red Bull Battlegrounds: Austin. He is the only Protoss player to have reached the GSL Code S finals three time, two of which he won. MC is known for his efficient micro of blink stalkers, his relentless aggression, and his in-your-face confidence. He was used as an ace in LG-IM's series versus StarTale and will most likely be used as such again against Evil Geniuses.

Prediction: LG-IM 5 > 3 EG

Though Evil Geniuses's lineup has gotten significantly stronger with the addition of Stephano, it will be extremely difficult for them to take down the LG-IM squad, which is stacked with the best GSL players. They are the reigning champions of IPL TAC3 for a reason. If EG is able to take down one Code S player on LG-IM, they will have to go through five more in order to win. The odds are against EG. LG-IM will advance to the finals.

Be sure to tune in tonight to see which of these powerhouses is able to advance to the grand finals of the IPTL Premier Division.

Image Sources: Team Liquid, Eclypsia, SC2Earnings, GOMtv

Source : ign[dot]com

IPTL Premier Division Semifinals: Reigning Champs LG-IM vs Evil Geniuses

The Lineups

Evil Geniuses:

LG-IM:

Potential Starters

EG: HuK

LG-IM: YongHwa

Key Player(s)

EG: PuMa

LG-IM: Mvp, Seed

Mvp is a solid player with immaculate macro and micro management, making him an all-around player in team leagues.

Team Aces

EG: Stephano

LG-IM: MC

Prediction: LG-IM 5 > 3 EG

Be sure to tune in tonight to see which of these powerhouses is able to advance to the grand finals of the IPTL Premier Division.

Image Sources: Team Liquid, Eclypsia, SC2Earnings, GOMtv

Source : ign[dot]com

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman are The Last Knights

Stars Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman will soon be starring in Kazuaki Kiriya's action adventure film The Last Knights, reports Screen Daily.

The story follows a band of warriors who seek to avenge the loss of their master at the hands of a corrupt emperor. Bill Johnson's IF Entertainment is taking the project to the American Film Market later this week.

Luka Production International's Luci Kim is producing and Route One Film's Jay Stern, Russell Levine and Chip Diggins will serve as exec producers.

Current plans are to begin production as early as this month in the Czech Republic. Kiriya will direct from a script by Michael Konyves (Version).

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

Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman are The Last Knights

Stars Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman will soon be starring in Kazuaki Kiriya's action adventure film The Last Knights, reports Screen Daily.

Luka Production International's Luci Kim is producing and Route One Film's Jay Stern, Russell Levine and Chip Diggins will serve as exec producers.

Current plans are to begin production as early as this month in the Czech Republic. Kiriya will direct from a script by Michael Konyves (Version).

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

Thursday, 25 October 2012

From Alien to Thor to Avengers: Walt Simonson

When you have my job, you get to meet movie stars and famous directors and Hollywood starlets and blah, blah, blah. But those guys are mostly a bore. And besides, it's not every day that one gets to shoot the s#!t with the man whose comics you grew up reading! For me, that would be Walt Simonson, whose acclaimed run on titles like Thor and X-Factor in particular helped shaped a young Collura's comics-reading habits (well, me, and every other kid reading comics at the time that is).

I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to Simonson recently because of his new book from Titan… or rather, his new old book. Alien: The Illustrated Story is a restored rerelease of his and writer Archie Goodwin's excellent graphic-novel adaptation of the Ridley Scott film that was originally created for Heavy Metal over 30 years ago (read my review here. An Original Art Edition of the book is also out next week which reproduces all of Simonson's black and white boards, in full size and complete with all of the little details and imperfections of the pre-published comics art, plus an interview with Simonson, original script pages, sketches and more.

The main topic of our conversation was the Alien book and its creation, but we also delve into his recently released labor of love for DC, The Judas Coin, his thoughts on returning to his classic titles like Thor, and much more.

Scott Collura: First of all, I have to ask, were you drawing when I called just now?

Walt Simonson: Well, I’ve got some stuff I’ve got to get done. I was working on some drawing, but that’s all right. I can draw after we talk!

SC: How many hours a day do you draw?

WS: Depends entirely on my deadlines. If my deadlines are a long way off, I don’t draw that much. If my deadlines are tomorrow, I’m drawing like a madman. And right now my deadlines are tomorrow, so I’m drawing like a madman. [Laughs]

SC: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe your big break came with Manhunter, which you worked on with Archie Goodwin, right?

WS: That’s right.

SC: So you obviously worked on Alien with Archie as well. Can you tell me about how that partnership came about on Alien?

WS: Well, the short version is that John Workman, who was the art director at Heavy Metal at the time, called me about the possibility of inking the Alien graphic novel adaptation of the movie over Carmine Infantino['s pencils] -- but he hadn’t been able to get a hold of Carmine at that point, so we talked about it and it sounded like fun. Eventually, we reached a point where I was going to pencil it, and I suggested that Archie would be a good guy to have write the words themselves in the comic. So that’s how that worked out.

SC: And of course, you and John Workman have had a longstanding relationship with each other since then.

WS: [Laughs] Yes we do, and that was the first time we worked together.

SC: As far as the process of actually creating the visuals of the comic, did you have any kind of access to the art from the film? How did that all work?

WS: We had all kinds of stuff. I was actually shown a rough cut of the film. It was close to two and a half hours long. This was in December of 1978 -- the movie came out in May of '79. So at the end of '78, 20th Century Fox provided a lot of references. At the time, Heavy Metal was also producing a book called The Book of Alien, which was a film book; they weren’t as common then as they are now, but it was a book about the making of the film. So they had a lot of references and slides from the film. I was able to have them essentially make photostats of the slides, blow them up. They were just black and white -- terrible reproduction value, you’d never be able to use them for anything, really -- but they were great for visual reference. 20th Century provided some other photographs and stills. Archie and I also had three different script revisions that were maybe two months apart each, and we were able to really just do our version of a comic using that material to create the graphic novel, as it turned out.

SC: How much attention did you pay to H.R. Giger when you were drawing that book?

WS: Well, I had a book of Giger’s stuff that came out before Alien, so I looked at that when I was drawing. We didn’t have a lot of clear shots of the alien. I think I had one where he was tipped over, sort of standing but bent over. And there were some detail shots. So I looked at Giger’s paintings for a sense of texture, a sense of the external skeletal quality of the character, and kind of went from there.

SC: Even on the first two pages where you draw the Alien title, it’s in that sort of skeletal techno-organic style.

WS: Sure, I just looked at this book of Giger stuff that I had and laid out the lettering, then I went in there with pencil, pen and ink and kind of drew up the series of textures that at least reminded me of Giger’s work. Then we used watercolor to kind of simulate that and give it some sense of the alien before you’ve read the book or seen the movie. You wouldn’t know quite what that was about, but it would resonate later after you had read the graphic novel.

SC: So what was it like when you saw the film? I assume you were done with the book by the time you saw the final film?

WS: The final one, yeah. I saw that when it came out. The book had to be published right at the same time the film was released. I don’t exactly remember how close -- same week or whatever it was. So essentially we had a drop-dead deadline to get the graphic novel finished by early April. There had to be time to get the art separated, essentially made print ready, and then sent to the printer -- printed, bound, trimmed and fired off to retail stores so that on the week the movie came out, the book would be available. By the time the movie came out, I’d finished the book four or five weeks earlier. So it was very neat. It was interesting -- there were bits that were different from the rough cut I had seen; by that time I had seen the rough cut almost six months earlier, so I didn’t remember a lot of stuff clearly. But there were a few things here or there that were different in the release cut. I thought that was kind of interesting.

SC: And even with the comic itself, I think one of the things that’s very effective for a fan of Alien who reads the comic is that it plays as sort of an alternate version of the events. Everything that happens is the same, but because we know Alien so well, angles are different; the length of scenes are obviously different. The characters look like the characters, and yet they’re your versions of the characters. In those ways, it kind of plays like an alternate version of the film, which is so cool.

WS: [Laughs] Well, we had a lot of room to maneuver, but of course I could never do a scene-for-scene drawing of the film. Honestly, I’m not sure I would have wanted to, really. What’s the point? But we had a lot of freedom, so what Archie and I tried to do was create a graphic novel that was the most effective comic book we could do of that story using all the stuff that we had, the raw material, as the foundation for building that comic. And that’s how it worked out.

Source : ign[dot]com

From Alien to Thor to Avengers: Walt Simonson

Scott Collura: First of all, I have to ask, were you drawing when I called just now?

Walt Simonson: Well, I’ve got some stuff I’ve got to get done. I was working on some drawing, but that’s all right. I can draw after we talk!

SC: How many hours a day do you draw?

SC: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe your big break came with Manhunter, which you worked on with Archie Goodwin, right?

WS: That’s right.

SC: So you obviously worked on Alien with Archie as well. Can you tell me about how that partnership came about on Alien?

SC: And of course, you and John Workman have had a longstanding relationship with each other since then.

WS: [Laughs] Yes we do, and that was the first time we worked together.

SC: As far as the process of actually creating the visuals of the comic, did you have any kind of access to the art from the film? How did that all work?

SC: How much attention did you pay to H.R. Giger when you were drawing that book?

SC: Even on the first two pages where you draw the Alien title, it’s in that sort of skeletal techno-organic style.

SC: So what was it like when you saw the film? I assume you were done with the book by the time you saw the final film?

Source : ign[dot]com

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Supernatural: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki on Season 8, Including Sam's New Outlook and Dean's Hurt Locker

With Supernatural: Season 8 kicking off this Wednesday night at 9pm, we recently caught up with stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki on the Vancouver set of the series, find out where Sam and Dean are headed this year.

Both Winchester brothers have been trapped in far off hell-mensions before, but in the Season 7 finale we saw Dean actually land down in an unfamiliar place to the show - Purgatory. So how will this season be different, as far as the "separated brothers" storyline goes? Well, for one thing, the year down in Purgatory has turned Dean into a "hardened warrior." Because in Purgatory, it's all monsters. And the hunter became the hunted.

Top 10 Supernatural Episodes

"We find that Dean has gotten out, and the time that he spent there [Purgatory] and what happened there has changed his outlook, and his perspective on things," Ackles revealed. "These guys [the brothers] are always kind of at war, with the evils of the world, but he got a heavy, heavy dose of it down there, because he's surrounded by the things that he kills when he's topside. It was almost a concentrated version of what he's used to. He's come back a hardened warrior, and ready to use those sharpened skills in the real world. So he's a solider that just got back from war. It's going to take him a little while to adjust to the lack of threat, and the lack of combat."

Sam and Dean, from the Season 8 premiere.

"It's almost like The Hurt Locker, when Jeremy Renner's character comes back from war and he's sitting there looking at a cereal box aisle, and it's just so foreign to him," Ackles continued. "But what isn't foreign is being on the ground, fighting. I think Dean is feeling a sense of that. It's a year that he spent down in Purgatory, so he was down there for a whole year doing this. Fighting and battling non-stop, covered in blood, covered in mud, covered in dirt for twelve months."

Meanwhile, Sam, with no idea where Dean or Castiel went, and without Bobby or any contacts to the Hunter world, has been living a very different life. "[Sam's] going to take off the hunter garb and just live a normal life, because I have nothing to tie me back," Padalecki remarked. "There’s no Jo, there’s no Harvelle’s Roadhouse, there’s nothing. There’s absolutely nothing holding Sam back from a normal life so he really commits to it and so when it all comes crashing back down, it’s like a brutal reminder yet again of who he kind of has been and is possibly meant to be."

"I think Sam in this season is different than Sam in other seasons where Dean was either in hell or where Sam was in hell," Padalecki added. "Usually when they’ve been split up, there’s been sort of the impetus of like, 'My brother’s in trouble, I’ve got to save him. I’ve got to help him. He’s going to help me and he’s going to save me.'" Part of the normal life that Sam pursues in Dean's absence is a relationship - his first meaningful one since Jessica back in the pilot episode - with a girl named Amelia. And even though the relationship is apparently over and done with by the time the Season 8 premiere takes place, Sam is still left hesitant to return to his old life with Dean. "Sam is kind of the adult in this reconciliation," Padalecki said. "He’s like, 'Look I found my own thing. I love you. You’re my brother and I’m so happy you’re back and I’m going to help you now but I want out. I want out. I love you. It’s great. I’m grateful that you’ve saved my life many times and vice versa. No hard feelings.'"

Padalecki then added, "And so Sam is kind of at a place where he wants to move onto something different, and I think Dean resents Sam more because Sam was living a good Christian life down in Kermit, Texas with a girl that he fell in love with and Dean was fighting for his life." Jensen Ackles also expanded on this notion, stating that the brothers have been worlds apart, in many ways. "It's going to take a little bit of time to warm up to the relationship that [Dean] has with Sam," Ackles said. "There's also what Sam did for the past year, which compacts the odd element that these two brothers have not only spent time apart — it's what they were doing. Dean was in this concentrated war zone, and Sam was literally just the opposite. So really, these two brothers have really been living two different lives this past year, and now they're having to come back together and pick up where they left up. It poses a bit of a problem."

Supernatural: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki on Season 8, Including Sam's New Outlook and Dean's Hurt Locker

Top 10 Supernatural Episodes

Sam and Dean, from the Season 8 premiere.

Supernatural: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki on Season 8, Including Sam's New Outlook and Dean's Hurt Locker

Sam and Dean, from the Season 8 premiere.

Friday, 28 September 2012

PlayStation All-Stars: No More New Characters

Sony has revealed that no more characters will be announced for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s launch. In a post on Twitter, PlayStation Blog senior social media specialist Sid Shuman wrote that “We have revealed the full launch lineup of characters,” confirming that All-Stars will ship with 20 fighters.

Keep in mind that All-Stars could easily add additional characters via downloadable content, so this doesn’t necessarily mean the roster will stay at 20 forever. For now, though, at launch you’ll have the following options:

Big Daddy
Cole MacGrath
Evil Cole MacGrath
Colonel Radec
Dante
Fat Princess
Heihachi Mishima
Jak and Daxter
Kratos
Nariko
Nathan Drake
PaRappa the Rapper
Raiden
Ratchet and Clank
Sackboy
Sir Daniel Fortesque
Sly Cooper
Spike
Sweet Tooth
Toro

Rumors in the past have suggested additional fighters such as Metal Gear Solid’s Snake and Kat from Gravity Rush, though neither has ever been confirmed by Superbot.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale will hit stores on November 20th for PlayStation 3 and Vita, and buying the console version will get you the Vita version for free. For a look at all 20 launch characters in action, check out 30 minutes of expert videos from Superbot’s Seth Killian. For even more, be sure to see our official PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale wiki guide.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Monday, 24 September 2012

First Look at Jim Carrey in Kick-Ass 2

Universal Pictures' Kick-Ass 2 has begun shooting in Toronto, and now someone has uploaded a video featuring Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars, as well as Lindy Booth's Night Bitch and Robert Emms' Insect Man.

Check out the footage below (via SuperHeroHype), followed by a new photo of Donald Faison as Doctor Gravity (tweeted by the film's director Jeff Wadlow).

Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall hits theaters June 28, 2013.

Source : ign[dot]com

Friday, 21 September 2012

PlayStation All-Stars: 30 Minutes of Expert Videos

IGN's hunger for new PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale content knows no bounds. We pitch characters for the roster, grab rumors, and have the official PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale wiki. This week we went so far as to nabbing fighting game guru Seth Killian -- a recent "get" for fighting games on PlayStation -- and had him play 13 matches as the game's newest characters. We even had him commentate over the bouts to give you an idea of what character is right for you.

Missing the older characters like Kratos and Sly Cooper? Check out the wiki for their videos, and then get to watching and check out our daily updates all this week on IGN.

MONDAY, 9/17

TUESDAY, 9/18

WEDNESDAY, 9/19

THURSDAY, 9/20

FRIDAY, 9/21

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

Source : ign[dot]com

Friday, 7 September 2012

NBA 2K13 Has Everything and the Kitchen Sink

Has the NBA 2K series become too successful?

Two years ago, the stars all aligned for the long-running basketball sim. Michael Jordan signed on. Their competition crashed and burned spectacularly. And most importantly, independent of all that, the gameplay itself was the best we'd ever seen in a pro basketball game up to that point. 2K's party continued last year, with Jordan returning, EA keeping NBA Live on the bench again, and 2K12 offering up more hoops goodness.

So what of this year -- 2K13? His Airness is back -- and this time he's bringing a certain Round Mound of Rebound who'd long since stayed out of the video game world -- and the game will once more be the only basketball sim you can buy on a disc. As for the game itself? It's packed to the rafters with goodness, from a playable fantasy match-up of the 1992 and 2012 Dream Teams to an all-new, NBA Live Freestyle stick-esque control scheme. But it's also got a whole slew of features that you're probably not expecting. So that takes us back to a version of the original question: has Visual Concepts gone nuts?

The answer for gamers is a resounding yes, but in the best of ways.

First, there's the whole Jay-Z thing. Visual Concepts proudly puts him forward as an "executive producer" on the game, but until now they've never explained what the hell that means. Besides giving him credit for getting Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley to sign on and be playable in the game (no, really; they claim Jay picked up the phone, said, "Get me Barkley and Pippen," and they called him back ASAP and reached an agreement to be included), Hova curated the entire soundtrack, which includes himself (duh), Kanye West, and U2, among many others. Better, before each game tips off, a music video by Jay-Z or one of the other featured artists plays to get you fired up for the game, mixed together with gameplay footage. A number of these are included, and they definitely spice up the presentation. Finally, he also requested that the background menus pulse in rhythm to whatever song is playing at a given time. I've seen this and...yep, it does that. Thanks Jay!

"Please, Mr. GM, will you fire Stan Van Gundy for me? PLEEEEEEEEASE?"

Second is the new Virtual Currency (VC...get it?) system. Like many other modern games, you'll get what amount to experience points for everything you do -- even quick-play games. Your VC is spent on upgrading your MyPlayer, which returns from last year but has now been blown-out. Buy suits for your created baller that you'll see during post-game press conferences. Pick up official, real-life team gear by adidas to don in blacktop pickup games. And in the Accessory Shop, grab gear like the adiZero Speedwrap ankle brace that has stat-modifying bonuses; in this case, a +2 boost to your on-ball defense.

In MyCareer mode, you'll be able to simulate Dwight Howard's life, from meeting with the GM to demand your coach be fired to taking your teammates out to dinner in order to receive a team chemistry/popularity boost. You can even do NBA Cares charity functions in order to win over more fans.

"Damn, I make this look good."

Visual Concepts spent perhaps the most amount of time during my demo showing me their craziest feature yet: the Shoe Creator. Yes, they've had a basic version of this before, but the ends of the earth they've gone to on this smack of a studio that clearly has no competition to worry about and is free to pursue flights of fancy like this (again, I mean that in a nice way!). 2K13's Shoe Creator is, essentially, the virtual shoe equivalent of Forza Motorsport 4's livery system. Except in that game, you can't click a button when you're done and order the car you just designed, complete with that custom paint job.

Yes, you can build your own kicks using different materials, colors, patterns, and more. Dozens of layers (45 of them, to be exact) let you highlight every detail you like. You can then upload those to the web, where other users can rate them. Want to go a step farther? Get this: the game syncs with the NikeID website and you can actually have your virtual shoe made real and shipped to your door. Perhaps Visual Concepts will let us try out that particular feature next time...

In case you were wondering: yes, there is a basketball game in here too.

What you should and probably do care most about, however, is the new Control Stick. Simply wiggle the right thumbstick and use the momentum of your body to fake guys out of their shoes (don't worry, it's far easier said than done; I don't expect it to be exploitable), and then pull LT/R2 in order to flip the Control Stick into the Shot Stick and put up your look. I only got to play a couple quarters as the '92 Dream Team against this summer's Team USA -- hardly enough time to really get comfortable with the controls -- but it feels like a natural, simulation-friendly evolution of its implementation back in the last-gen NBA Live days. It should prove to be NBA 2K13's most important new feature, along with the return of Michael Jordan and the Legends teams (including a new crew: Allen Iverson's '01 76ers)...

...What, you thought I was going to say it'd be the Shoe Creator?

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Source : ign[dot]com

Friday, 31 August 2012

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Dream Roster: Warhawk

Ever since PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was rumored, IGN's been pitching characters that need to be in the game. Well, after the leak, it appears developer SuperBot Entertainment isn't listening. So, IGN's Podcast Beyond is teaming with IGN reader Pandamusk to create videos for the fighters we think need to be in the game.

This week, we're pitching the plane from Warhawk. You read that right... it's Clements' idea.

Who do you think should be in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale? Let us know in the comments below. Plus, check out our past installments...

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

Source : ign[dot]com

See PS All-Stars’ Nariko and Sir Dan in Action

Yesterday, we revealed that Nariko and Sir Daniel were joining the roster of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. And today, Sony has released videos of each character in action. You can see them both below.

Nariko and Sir Daniel mark the 19th and 20th confirmed characters in the game. Will there be more? Only time will tell!

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Thursday, 2 August 2012

SuperBot Confirms Veracity of PlayStation All-Stars Leak

Today, SuperBot Entertainment President Chan Park posted on the PlayStation Blog to speak about the beta for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which is set to go wide before the game’s release.

But there’s an interesting tidbit buried in his post about the massive leak of information purportedly garnered from the beta. Essentially, Park confirms that the leak contains real information.

He notes that “there was an unexpected and unintended leak in our beta that allowed fans to be able to see some additional content. We’ve enjoyed reading all of the fan reaction and are thrilled that so many of you are excited to learn more our character roster and level mash-ups [sic], however we are still in development and the leaked content does not fully represent the final product nor the incredible efforts that were made to make these elements truly spectacular.”

Park concludes that “This will be evident in the coming weeks as the content is officially revealed, beginning with our next character announcement at Gamescom in the coming weeks.” So while Park has confirmed that the leak data is real and that it was indeed extracted from the PlayStation All-Stars beta, it may not reflect PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s final form come October.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

PlayStation All-Stars Beta Goes Public This Fall

The PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale beta is already raging for a select few, but Sony has revealed that the beta will reach a wider audience in the weeks leading up to its release in late October.

SuperBot Entertainment President Chan Park wrote that “while [the beta accommodates] just a small group now, in the coming weeks we will continue to send out batches of codes as we gradually expand the beta; so keep your eyes open. You just might receive an invitation to join! Keep checking back with the blog for more information around the public beta, starting with early access to PlayStation Plus members.”

So it looks like everyone will eventually gain access to the beta. But PlayStation Plus members will get priority once the closed beta ends.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Saturday, 28 July 2012

Rumor: PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Characters, Stages Leak

Until we receive official confirmation from Sony and/or SuperBot Entertainment, take all of this with a grain of salt. But Reddit is alight with activity surrounding PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and in particular images of an unknown origin that seem to include a bunch of new, yet-unannounced characters and stages.

Reddit user 696Ly has posted a bunch of pictures with the words “leak” littered all over them, including one picture of character portraits and more of individual stages. He calls his source "a friend of a friend" and says the source is "reliable".

Let’s start with the characters first.

The image, seen below, shows 12 characters. Four of them are known, announced and confirmed characters: Heihachi, Toro, Jak and Cole. However, eight of them are characters that -- if this image is real -- have yet to be announced. Among them are two characters that appear to be Raiden from Metal Gear Solid and Dante from Ninja Theory’s DMC.

The remaining six characters are easy enough to identify: Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank), Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet), Spike (Ape Escape), Sir Daniel Fortesque (MediEvil), Nariko (Heavenly Sword) and, surprisingly, Evil Cole (Infamous). The latter makes the Cole that was already revealed, presumably, Good Cole.

NeoGAF aptly points out that many -- if not all -- of the art shown here previously exists somewhere else, so this could just be a fake. But the stage imagery makes all of this seem a lot more real, or at least a much more elaborate hoax.

696Ly posted the stages in tiny form with the word “leak” written all over them, but later gave everyone a taste of most of them (so far). These look very real, especially considering one of them -- Dreamscape -- we’ve already seen as a confirmed level. Here’s what he’s posted.