Monthly Archives: August 2015

Australians Set to Pay up to 100 Percent More for Rock Band 4 Products

Australians will fork up to 100 percent more for Rock Band 4 products compared to consumers in the U.S.

Australian distributor of Mad Catz equipment, Home Entertainment Services, confirmed the pricing with Kotaku Australia today.  Retail pricing differences between U.S. and Australia follows:

Local U.S. pricing

Rock Band 4 game — $59.99

Rock Band 4 Guitar Bundle — $129.99

Rock Band 4 Band-A-Box Bundle (includes guitar, drums and microphone) — $249.99

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Supergirl: Jenna Dewan-Tatum Cast as Lucy Lane

CBS’ Supergirl has cast its Lucy Lane in the upcoming TV series.

Entertainment Weekly reports Jenna Dewan-Tatum (The Witches of East End, American Horror Story) will star in the recurring role, beginning with the third episode.

Jenna Dewan-Tatum (image via IMDB) Jenna Dewan-Tatum (image via IMDB)

The character Lucy Lane first appeared way back in DC’s Silver Age Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen comic book series. She is the younger sister of Lois Lane, and had an on- and off-again romance with Jimmy Olsen.

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Dota 2’s Championship Team Eliminated From TI5

Newbee, the Champion team from 2014's International Tournament, was eliminated from The International 2015 today. The team fell in a best-of-one lower-bracket battle against MVP Phoenix, and were the first squad knocked out of TI5.

Newbee won The International 4 last year with brutal efficiency, conquering Vici Gaming in last year's Grand Finals. The prize pool total for The International 5 is in excess of $18 million, with the first-place team set to take home more than $6 million.

At The International 5, we went hands-on with the new Dota 2 Secret Shop Vive VR demo - check out our impressions. Starting at 9AM PT from now through August 18, you can watch The International 5 on IGN - and if you don't know how, check out IGN's guide to watching a Dota 2 match.

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Inside Out Actor on Bing Bong Making Audiences Cry

Note: Some spoilers for Inside Out follow.

Anyone who’s seen Pixar's most recent film, Inside Out – and given its success, many have – know just what an impact Bing Bong made. The pink cotton candy/half cat/half elephant steals the show as we learn his history as the discarded imaginary friend of 11-year old Riley, while we travel through her mind… and see what his fate is.

The voice of Bing Bong, veteran character actor Richard Kind (Spin City, Gotham) was on hand at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today to promote his new Amazon series, Red Oaks, and spoke about the impact the film and Bing Bong has had.

Richard Kind voices Bing Bong (left) in Inside Out. Richard Kind voices Bing Bong (left) in Inside Out.

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Hearthstone: Designing Tavern Brawl’s Interface

Hearthstone's Art Director Ben Thompson visited IGN's Sydney office recently, and while he was here he shared some concept art for Tavern Brawl, showing off some of the stages the team went through as they discussed the look and functionality of the new(ish) mode.

His comments are below each image...

The very first sketch. Not a bad first pass.

Ben Thompson: This was

Derek Sakamoto, our user interface designer… We have a user interface in Hearthstone that is very realistic and very physical, it’s not a window through which you view the world, like WoW or a lot of other games, the user interface is the whole game, so because of that, Derek gets involved at a much earlier stage and throughout more of the process than maybe he would on another game.

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Hannibal: Amazon Comments on Passing on Saving Series

After Hannibal was cancelled by NBC, many thought Amazon was the most viable candidate to save the series – especially because the service already had exclusive streaming rights to the show’s first three seasons in the US (which, Hannibal executive producer Bryan Fuller noted, effectively removed Netflix’s interest, since they wouldn't have all the seasons) and are expanding their own original series output.

However, ultimately, a deal with Amazon was not made, and Hannibal’s future remains up in the air, as the cast’s contracts have been let go and it seems like any continuation wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

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Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer NFC Bundle Unboxing

With the release of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer in Japan last week, Nintendo set it’s NFC Reader -- a device that will allow existing 3DS owners to use amiibo -- into the wild. The peripheral uses two AA batteries and will be sold for $19.99 USD starting September 25 in North America.

We just couldn’t wait to get our hands on the Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader/Writer, so we imported a Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle and a pack of amiibo cards. Here’s an unboxing of it in pictures (special thanks to @MrSallee for the photos). A video version will go up later this week.

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Resident Evil 6: Larter Reportedly Back as Claire

A familiar face from both the Resident Evil movies and video games will return for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

Deadline reports that Ali Larter is set to reprise her role as Claire Redfield in the Paul W.S. Anderson-directed sequel, which is expected to be the last installment in the Screen Gems-Capcom movie franchise (well, before it's inevitably rebooted anyway).

Larter previously played Claire in Resident Evil: Extinction and Resident Evil: Afterlife.

Ali Larter as Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Afterlife. Ali Larter as Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Afterlife.

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