Monthly Archives: April 2017
Valiant Comics Reveals Massive ‘Icons’ Relaunch
Valiant Entertainment held their Valiant Summit event in Los Angeles today, where they shed light on "Icons," a massive, line-wide relaunch of the entire Valiant line.
Technically, Icons began with the debut of X-O Manowar #1 last month. However, the publisher revealed a number of new projects today that will be debuting between now and the end of the year. That includes new series for familiar Valiant heroes like Bloodshot and Ninjak and a new event series starring Faith. We've put together a gallery breaking down all of these new titles, their creative teams and when you can expect them to hit stores.
We had the scoop on Bloodshot Salvation earlier today. Check out our reveal for more information on that new series and to see commentary from writer Jeff Lemire on the new series' change in direction.
Bloodshot Salvation Writer Drops White Supremacy Angle to Explore Faith, Revenge and Parenthood
During today’s third annual Valiant Summit, the upcoming comic series Bloodshot Salvation by writer Jeff Lemire and artists Lewis Larosa and Mico Suayan received the spotlight, and one topic of note was how the comic originally set out to tackle the issues of the alt-right and white supremacy but Lemire decided to change course and go in a different direction.
“The more I worked on the book, the more the political aspects I had planned just started to feel obvious and forced,” Lemire told IGN. “So, Bloodshot will not longer be going up against the alt-right or any white supremacists in this series. That stuff was feeling very heavy-handed. And I also felt that including the white supremacist/alt-right angle was just distracting from the story I really wanted to tell with Salvation. So I have removed many of those elements from the series altogether. That's the joy of working really far ahead, it allows me to get a sense of the series as a whole and shift things.
Microsoft Details Xbox FanFest for E3 2017
Tickets for Xbox FanFest: E3 2017 will go on sale this Wednesday, April 19, Microsoft announced today.
The three-day event will grant 500 people entry to Microsoft's E3 press briefing, which will be held on Sunday, June 11, at 2pm PT, according to Xbox Wire. FanFest ticket holders will also have the opportunity to get hands-on with Project Scorpio and upcoming games at a private event on June 12.
The first 400 tickets will go on sale April 19 on a first-come, first-serve basis. They'll be available online in several waves throughout the day, with the first beginning at 6am PT. The remaining 100 tickets will be offered through various promotions and giveaways. Microsoft notes you must be 21 or older with an Xbox Live gamertag to complete the transaction.
Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy Is Not an Origin Story
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is releasing within weeks of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 coming to theaters. But both Marvel Games and Telltale are aiming to tell an unconnected, original story with Star-Lord and the gang.
"One of the cool things is we don't want to tell an origin story again, try to retell what the
movie did," Telltale Executive Producer Justin Lambros said.
"But we did want to tell the history of these characters...we found some really interesting things the more we played and looked at their history," Lambros continued, noting they found some "potentially surprising" elements to incorporate as the studio delves into Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot's pasts.
Square Enix’s CEO Is a DLC Boss Fight in Nier: Automata
Nier: Automata's new DLC will let players battle against Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda.
The add-on content, titled 3C3C1D119440927, is coming soon for PlayStation 4 and PC and features both Matsuda and Platinum Games head Kenichi Sato as boss fights.
The new content also includes three colosseums and additional sub-quests to complete. Check out the trailer below.
Completing these quests will net players various different rewards like costumes for 2B, 9S and A2, cosmetic accessories (such as hairspray that'll let you change 2B and A2’s hair color), new music tracks, bullets that change the appearance of enemy bullets, and new masks that provide special "on equip" effects.
How the E3 Demo for B.C. ‘Destroyed’ the Project
Fable creator Peter Molyneux has shed light on why his prehistoric Xbox game B.C. was canceled, citing the need for an ambitious E3 demo as a primary cause of the project's ultimate downfall.
"What was happening was that E3 was becoming so incredibly dominant that teams would not spend a couple of weeks doing a demo, they would spend a couple of months doing a demo," Molyneux explained on the latest episode of our monthly interview show IGN Unfiltered.
He noted how, at the time, "it was kind of a nuclear arms race" for studios to make their demos more and more impressive, and how even if the demo was great, that didn't necessarily mean the game would be amazing as well. "The actual reality is... it becomes a living thing in itself, and this living thing at best can be sliced off from the main development of the game. At worst
Out This Week: Disney Afternoon Collection, Flinthook, Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy
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.
Bates Motel: Will Norman Ever Be Norman Again?
As we enter the final two episodes of Bates Motel, fans are feverishly wondering what the endgame will hold for Freddie Highmore's Norman Bates. When we left off, in Episode 8 ("The Body"), Norman's Mother persona had violently taken control, having physically knocked Norman out in order to puppet his body. Was this the last we'll see of Norman as Norman? And if we do ever get Norman back, what will he be like?
As we head into Episode 9, "Visiting Hours" -- airing Monday, April 17th -- I had the chance to speak with series star Freddie Highmore about the state of Norman's mind, the fun challenge of playing Mother in these final episodes, and his first experience as a director.
Overwatch Character and Map Coming to Heroes of the Storm
Overwatch hero Genji and his boyhood home of Hanamura will be the latest additions to Blizzard MOBA, Heroes of the Storm.
Available in a beta form today, Genji is an Assassin class with an expanded skill set from his Overwatch incarnation. His increased mobility, basic shuriken spread attack, Deflect and Swift Strike abilities and Dragonblade ultimate are all present in some form. He also gains a new heroic ability, the X-Strike, which deals huge damage in a cross shape across a chosen area.
You can check out Genji in a full match in the video below:
Despite being a control map in Overwatch, Hanamura arrives in Heroes of the Storm as the MOBA's first payload battleground. With two lanes and a lot of open space, teams can only damage the opponents' core by pushing payloads across the map, with each successfully delivered cart dealing set amounts of damage to the core.