Torchlight 2 Gets a Release Date

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source : ign[dot]com

Report: Killzone Trilogy Incoming for Playstation 3

A listing on Amazon France suggests that Sony will release the Killzone games as a boxed trilogy this October.

The posting, which you can see below, claims that all three of Sony's shooters will be released on October 24 for €59.99, which works out as roughly £47 or $75.

While nothing has been confirmed, and the price and release date for other territories could change even if the posting is correct, Amazon France has previous form in accurately leaking the existence of titles. It was the website that first listed Call of Duty: Black Ops II, outing the identity of this year's Call of Duty shooter, and it did the same for the Ratchet & Clank Trilogy (or Collection, if you're American).

It's this second title that's most interesting to consider in relation to the Killzone Trilogy, as all three games in that collection were originally released on PS2 just like the first Killzone. As they all received HD remastering before coming to PS3, could this mean that the same is in store for the shooter that started the series off? We heard rumours earlier this year that Killzone 1 would be released on PSN as an emulated and updated version, but this was later "delayed indefinitely".

If the game is about to come to PS3 at long last, it'd make sense that they'd want it to compare favourably in terms of visuals with others in the series, especially if updating the graphics has been mentioned before.

We've reached out to Sony for comment and will update the story with any comment we received.

The original Killzone title released on PS2 in 2004. This was followed up by Killzone 2 in 2009 and Killzone 3 in 2011, both on PS3. The next Killzone title currently confirmed as in development is Killzone: Mercenary, which is planned for a 2013 release on Vita.

Thanks, TheSixthAxis.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and was always more of a Resistance guy. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Karl Urban IGNUK Twitter Takeover

Karl Urban, the star of the upcoming action smash Dredd 3D, doesn't do Twitter. There are people out there claiming to be him, but the Kiwi star of Lord Of The Rings, Star Trek, Chronicles of Riddick and many more, isn't on the social networking site.

All this will change though at 18:30pm BST (or 10:30am if you're PT) today on Friday August 31st as the star of Dredd 3D takes over the @IGNUK Twitter feed for 30 minutes to answer your questions!

"Stop following me!"

Karl will be taking over the 140-character reigns to answer your questions about Dredd 3D, his past and future projects, and anything else you care to quiz him about. So, if you've ever wanted to ask whether the Judge helmet is comfy, if he gets asked medical questions when playing Bones, or just his preferred crisp flavour, this is the time to do it.

To submit a question for Karl simply tweet it to @IGNUK using the hashtag #DREDD3D and we'll try to get as many of your questions answered as we can between 6:30pm and 7pm.

Dredd 3D is out in UK cinemas on September 7th. Get all the latest Dredd 3D info from https://www.facebook.com/dreddthemovie.

Source : ign[dot]com

Special Forces: Team X -- An Attempt to Breathe Life into Old Ideas

When it comes to talking about shooters, calling the market "crowded" is an understatement. If you want to make something that can compete with the likes of Call of Duty, Battlefield, Counter-Strike or any other numerous established shooter franchises, it's not enough to make it cheap or even free. Alongside a price point that makes it attractive, you need a hook -- some sort of innovation or series of innovative twists on what's come before -- to stand out.

For Zombie Studios next game Special Forces: Team X, the hook comes from the fact that it's a less-than-serious, third-person, cover-based shooter with a cool take on map design. Sure, cover-based shooters have been partially explored on the Xbox thanks to Gears of War, but virtually not at all on the PC, making it a much easier genre to become a potential competitor in. Combine these mechanics with Special Forces: Team X's sub $20 price tag, and you have what could be an attractive alternative to players looking for a cheap, multiplayer-only option in the genre Gears so firmly established.

Let's just get all of Team X's similarities to Gears of War right out of the way. It puts a similar premium on utilizing cover. Battles don't boil down to who can rush in and get themselves killed the fastest, but who can play methodically, out-flanking the enemy team. Moving between cover is crucial, and Team X gives gives you a very roadie-run-like sprinting ability that lets you press on enemy positions. You can also vault and blind fire from cover and you have recharging health.

Now that that's cleared up, let's focus on how Team X mixes it up, namely by tossing in elements from Call of Duty. Just like COD, Team X gives you loadouts, and you unlock new gear for your loadouts based on your level, which is raised by killing people, completing objectives -- you know the drill by now, right? As you level up you'll unlock new weapons for your two weapon slots, new perks (called Skills in Team X), as well as a host of options for changing your appearance. Weapons can be further customized with attachments, but Zombie has intentionally made it so you only have to worry about a few items and stats, rather than the slew of options that were in their last game, Blacklight: Retribution. The point of this isn't too think too much about how to best min-max your loadouts stats, but to put things on that sound fun and then see if they work. Since it's not a free-to-play but rather a single transaction, you don't have to fret over whether or not you want to pay to rent or buy items, either.

One really cool thing that Team X does different from its competitors is its map generation. Instead of launching with a few pre-made maps, Team X lets players vote on the map layout before each match. Every map is composed of three segments, and to vote you simply swap out the segments until you find a combination you like. Then, after the timer counts down, Team X counts which map sections got the most votes in which slots and generates the level accordingly. This results in a few things that could make Team X a lot of fun to play. First of all, it's a great way to keep you on your toes, since this means that you can't simply learn a map in its entirety, but instead have to learn the ins and outs of sections, and then understand how they'll play off one another when next to one another. Second, it makes voting on each round feel more exciting, because you're not just picking between two maps that you might not like, you're actively participating in the design of the level -- albeit on a very basic level. Third, it means that Zombie Studios could roll out new map DLC at a fast rate if Team X does well, since the team only has to create single segments at a time rather than entire maps.

Other standout features in Team X could also help differentiate it. For instance you can play traditional modes like team deathmatch and king of the hill with two teams, but Team X also allows as many as four separate teams against one another at a time. Or if you don't like to use grenades as your method for breaking someone out of cover, you can also bring dogs into the fight, sending them at your attackers to kill them or provide a distraction while you flank your enemy.  Even the Skill system in Team X tweaks the standard formula a bit, with some Skills giving area of effect bonuses to your teammates instead of only benefiting you. These group-focused skills are important, too, because they encourage you to stick together -- something particularly important in a cover-centric shooter.

With so many generic shooters or blatant clones releasing in recent years, it's nice to see a studio attempt to innovate on established formulas. Whether or not this will bring success to Special Forces: Team X, though...well that remains to be seen. At least we won't have to wait long, since Team X is slated to release on XBLA and PC before the end of the year.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dredd 3D: New Photos From the Reboot

Check out this quartet of new stills from Dredd 3D, the upcoming Judge Dredd movie starring Karl Urban, Lena Headey and Olivia Thirlby.

Dredd 3D opens September 21.

Source : ign[dot]com

Nintendo Almost Made a Knitting Add-On for NES

A recently-surfaced 1980s brochure reveals that Nintendo nearly released a knitting add-on for the NES. Posted on the Facebook page of former Nintendo employee Howard Phillips, the brochure shows off the Nintendo Knitting Machine, a device that would have connected to the NES and allowed players to create and print their own designs.

“You're looking at the Nintendo Knitting Machine,” the ad reads. “It's not a game; not a toy; not something a young girl can outgrow in three or six months or even a year. It's a machine that interacts with the powerful Nintendo Entertainment System to actually knit sweaters: and not just one or two patterns but a multitude of different and unique designs.”

“The Nintendo Knitting Machine is just one more example of the innovative thinking that keeps Nintendo on the cutting edge of video technology," it continues. "And your customers on the edge of their seats. Of course we should probably mention that no other video game system offers anything even remotely similar. But why needle the competition?”

According to Phillips, original Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa asked him to pitch the peripheral to Toys R Us chairman Charles Lazarus in a live demo, which he humorously describes as “one of my least genuinely enthusiastic demos.” While no reason for the cancellation of the Knitting Machine has been revealed, it’s said to have been briefly shown off at a late 1980s Consumer Electronics Show and has never been seen or heard from since.

Source: Tiny Cartridge

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

What's in Store for the God of War Movie?

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to speak with God of War writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton about their highly anticipated game-to-feature adaptation. Coming from a background in horror films such as Saw IV, the Feast trilogy and Piranha 3DD, Patrick and Melton only just recently took their first steps into the action genre after polishing the script for Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim. Since then, they've been hired to rewrite the long-gestating God of War movie, which was originally penned by David Self (Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days).

As Dunstan recalled, he and Melton were hired to rework Self's screenplay, which he mentioned was actually pretty good. "The only problem with that is it was written before Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans, 300 and Immortals, and those movies borrowed quite a bit from the God of War stories. It was just a little bit outdated, so we wanted to differentiate it from those other movies."

Their first step, according to Dunstan, was to humanize the film's main character Kratos. "In the same way that Batman was grounded with Christopher Nolan's rendition, we were attempting to do that with Kratos so that when we meet him -- like they're doing in this newest game, which is sort of a prequel to the original -- we're seeing him before he became the Ghost of Sparta, when he was just a Spartan warrior and he had family and kids."

Explained Melton, "In the game... there's that attack from the barbarians and Kratos has to call upon Ares to help him. Really, that's going to be our first act break. Before then, he's going to be mortal, and he's going to have his family. We're going to learn about him and understand how he operates. So it's potentially 30 minutes -- give or take -- of building up this character so that, when he does turn and becomes the Ghost of Sparta, we understand him as a human and we understand the journey that he's going to take. We're emotionally invested, so that it could go beyond just this one movie."

In regards to switching gears from low-budget horror to larger-than-life action, Dunstan and Melton couldn't be happier. "There's almost an element of relief," continued Melton. "When it comes to God of War, we are first-time visitors, and we have a wealth of imagination that has built up from our appreciation for the sword-and-sandals films of our history... We know it doesn't have to be done for a million bucks in a garage. [Laughs] That helps, too. But also, with a bigger movie like God of War, you have to go quite a bit deeper into the character as opposed to a horror film, in which you generally need to get things going; people are concerned that the audience won't have patience, so it's go go go go go.

"With God of War, the studio's saying, 'We're going to spend $150 million to make this movie. We really need to understand this character and get behind him and feel his pain and feel his emotions so that, when he is in these giant set pieces, we're in there with him and we're feeling it.' That is a critique of some of these big action films is that they often get too big and just become noise; you're not invested in the character."

Added Dunstan, "There was a recent movie, which will remain nameless, that depicted the main character without any fear. When you do that, how are we supposed to be afraid through him? How are we supposed to gauge anything as a legitimate threat? It's become this dulling element. So with this, we take an intimidating presence such as Kratos, fighting and pursuing a bloodthirsty vengeance trail to the God of War. How do we make that genuinely scary? The man of action must prevail, but it's got to hurt to getting there."

Speaking of hurt, the writers also have big plans for Ares, who will become a more proactive villain in their adaptation. "In the game, you know, he's immortal, and he doesn't really do much besides raid Athens," noted Melton. "So we're trying to build him up a bit more, too, so that he can become a true villain."

As of right now, Dunstan and Melton are still working on the screenplay. While Brett Ratner was once attached to helm the project, God of War is currently without a director. In the meantime, consider this your first taste of what's to come.

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

Source : ign[dot]com