Monthly Archives: December 2015
Top Comics to Buy This Week
We all want the best of the best, so let us point out the hottest comics released each week. We spotlight our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent and new books that look cool and are backed by some top-tier talent.
Check out our picks, then take to the comments to let us know what looks good to you!
Written by Tom Taylor & Drawn by Bruno Redondo | DC
While the fifth and final volume of Injustice: Gods Among Us has already kicked off in digital form, the storyline truly begins with this standalone issue. Unlike previous annuals, Injustice: Year Four Annual isn't content to merely tell a small side-story. Instead, it's setting the stage for Year Five's "year of the villains" status quo as it sheds more light on how Superman's regime have dealt with the world's incarcerated supervillains and brings an entirely new player into the fold.
Rock Band 4 Celebrates the New Year With 6 New Tracks
Rock Band developer Harmonix announced in a blog post today that six new tracks will be coming to the Rock Band 4 storefront on December 29, to celebrate the new year.
Among the announced tracks are new songs from Coldplay and Weezer, as well as some newcomers to Rock Band, like pop sensations One Direction. This adds to the significant number of tracks available both through the store and imported songs from prior Rock Band titles, like Rock Band 3.
Check out the full tracklist below:
The Invention of the Game Cartridge
Ever wonder how those game cartridges you used to have stacked on top of your TV were made? FastCompany.com has put out an in-depth retrospective on the very first video game console to use cartridges, the Fairchild Channel F.
Coming out in November 1976, just before the Atari 2600 and RCA Studio II, the Fairchild Channel F was gamers' first introduction to the bulky black cartridges that would be the industry's medium of choice well into the 1990s.
Until cartridges were introduced, games were severely held back by memory limitations and the lack of an easy way to switch out software.
Mads Mikkelsen Will Play Doctor Strange’s Mystery Villain
Mads Mikkelsen will play the primary villain in Marvel's upcoming Doctor Strange film, according to executive producer Stephen Broussard.
The news comes via Broussard and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. The pair revealed the Hannibal star's role opposite Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, saying only that he will play a rogue magician looking to open Earth to the mystical realm.
“Mads’ character is a sorcerer who breaks off into his own sect,” said Feige. “
Hardy, Branagh and Rylance Up for Nolan’s Dunkirk Epic
Christopher Nolan's next project is indeed the reported World War II epic Dunkirk, and the Dark Knight director is in talks with top-notch Hollywood talent to join the film.
According to Variety, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy are all in negotiations for roles in the movie. Dunkirk's cast will reportedly be led by unknown actors, with Nolan and his casting department testing teens in London for the leading parts. Nolan is said to have wanted to lock in the movie's handful of adult roles before the holiday season.
Fallout 4, Black Ops 3 Top Amazon’s List of Holiday Best-Sellers
Amazon has announced its best-selling games this holiday season: Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, and Star Wars Battlefront.
The retailer's game sales are part of Amazon's record-setting holiday season, with its busiest day ever on Christmas Eve. Amazon also revealed that "if every Just Dance 2016 video game purchased by Amazon customers this holiday season was played to completion by one person, he or she would be dancing until 2081." That's one tired customer.
Another fun fact from the full holiday sales: Amazon customers bought enough Jurassic World DVDs to equal the height of more than 2,700 Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Out This Week: Hitman: Agent 47, Kill the Plumber
With so many new games and movies coming out, it can be hard to keep up. Lucky for you, IGN is here to help with a weekly round-up of the biggest releases each and every week. Check out the latest releases for this week, and be sure to come back next Monday for a new update.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
‘Real Burning Lightsaber’ Created Using Chemistry
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens now in theaters, nearly everyone's getting into the Star Wars spirit, including one science-savvy individual who's managed to craft his very own fuel-powered lightsaber.
YouTube user Sufficiently Advanced has managed to build such a device by filling a silver handle casing—complete with a valve control at the top and nichrome ignition along the side—with a fuel mixture of methanol and acetone, topping it off with butane as a propellant.
The result is a "real burning lightsaber," which you can see in action below. In fact, the guy takes out a few Stormtrooper balloons and concludes the video by setting Jar Jar Binks ablaze.
The 100: Season 3 Premiere Photos
The 100: Season 3 premieres on January 21st and the CW has released the first photos from the show's return episode, "Wanheda: Part One."
Season 3 picks up several months after the monumental events that ended Season 2 and as the photos show, there are some notable changes in appearance for several characters, including Clarke (Eliza Taylor), Murphy (Richard Harmon) and Jasper (Devon Bostick). The photos also include new characters Roan (Black Sails' Zach McGowan) and Niylah (iZombie's Jessica Harmon - Richard Harmon's real-life sister).
Check out all the new photos in the gallery below.
The 100: Season 3 premieres Thursday, January 21st at 9:00pm ET/PT after the Legends of Tomorrow premiere.
What TV Show That Ended in 2015 Will You Miss the Most?
With more original scripted shows landing on our TVs (and tablets, devices, etc) than ever before, it's only natural that there be a thinning of the herd. Even with many networks opting not to cancel underperforming series this past fall - but instead shorten their order and ruminate - we still lost a great deal of notable shows this year. Whether through straight-up, in your face cancellation or via natural progression of time.
Mad Men closed out its epic run on AMC while Justified ended its swaggery story on FX. Parks and Rec, which had been on the brink of cancellation several times over the years, managed to make it through a superb seventh season and brought things to a sublime end. Meanwhile, Hannibal managed to eke out a third season, despite low ratings, and give us a series finale that, while very open-ended, still worked as a solid conclusion to the story.