Monthly Archives: January 2018
Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn Lead GDC Award Nominees
The nominees for the 18th annual Game Developers Choice Awards have been revealed.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn are leading the pack with six nominations each, including Game of the Year, Best Design, and Best Visual Art. The rest of the GOTY nominees are Nier: Automata, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, Cuphead, and Super Mario Odyssey.
The winners across all categories—including Best Narrative, Best VR/AR Game, and more—will be unveiled at the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 21.
The full list of categories and their respective nominees are as follow:
GAME OF THE YEAR
- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG Corporation)
Vanishing of Ethan Carter Coming to Xbox One
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter will be released on Xbox One on January 19, developer The Astronauts announced.
The first-person, narrative-driven exploration game will cost $20 USD and support 4K resolution on Xbox One X. A Free Roam mode has also been added to the game, allowing players to explore Red Creek Valley "without a trace of murder." Take a look at the difference below:
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter initially released on PC in September 2014. A PlayStation 4 version followed nearly a year later. IGN's Vanishing of Ethan Carter review praised its smart writing, beautiful world, interesting puzzles, and great ending.
NBA Playgrounds Relaunched for Switch as Enhanced Edition
NBA Playgrounds has relaunched on Nintendo Switch as a $9.99 Enhanced Edition.
This new version replaces the original May release and it features Challenge Mode, the game's online mode which lets you challenge other players online in ranked and unranked games.
Developer Saber Interactive promised to patch in online play last year and has now released a new version of the arcade basketball game. You can download it now via the Switch eShop. Not only does Enchained Edition include online play, it also features all of the game's post-launch content, which includes a revamped rebounding system and a hundred new players.
Amazon Officially Shuts Down Anime Strike
After launching Anime Strike less than a year ago, Amazon has shut down its anime-specific streaming channel.
The company has also shut down Heera, its Bollywood-focused channel. "We have decided to move the curated catalogs of Anime Strike and Heera into Prime Video so that more customers can enjoy this content as part of their Prime membership," a spokesperson from Amazon told Forbes.
As such, Amazon's catalog of streaming anime, which previously required both a Prime membership and a $5 per month Anime Strike subscription, is now available to all Prime members. Since the launch of Anime Strike on January 12 of last year, Amazon received a fair amount of criticism from anime fans for its double paywall.
The X-Files Could Only Have Become Popular in the ’90s
The X-Files recently returned for its eleventh season, which is premiering (thanks to breaks in its schedule) some 24 years after its debut. Mulder and Scully are largely familiar to us all, and paranoid government conspiracies about UFOs have become de rigueur thanks in part to the show's popularity. (Read our review of The X-Files Season 11 premiere here.)
The X-Files, however, could only have become popular right when it did, and it most certainly has to fight for relevance in a changed world. The X-Files was – more than we might realize – a product of the 1990s. Chris Carter's popular paranoiac brainchild, to this day, still represents interests and ideas that were only relevant during the decade of its inception. As such, The X-Files, even more than any recent pop culture revival, is nestled firmly in the bosom of nostalgia. We love the show – through its highs and lows – but its politics are most certainly dated.
Monster Hunter World: New Open Beta, First DLC Announced
Monster Hunter: World will hold a final open beta on PlayStation 4 from Friday, January 19 through Monday, January 22, Capcom announced today.
The upcoming beta will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription. Additionally, it includes a new quest to hunt flagship monster Nergigante, who was unavailable in previous betas. The beta's original three quest targets - Great Jagras, Barroth and Anjanath - will still be available.
Capcom also released a trailer introducing new and returning Elder Dragons coming in Monster Hunter: World. To the delight of series veterans, fan favorites Kushala Daora and Teostra will join newcomer Dodogama. Kushala Daora is a steel-clad storm on legs and Teostra a ferocious emperor of embers, and Capcom describes Dodogama as a rock-eating wyvern armed with explosive saliva.
Grab Xbox One S with 3 Games for Under £230
Future God of War Games Could Use Egyptian or Mayan Myth
God of War may only just be heading into the territory of Norse mythology, but it might not stick around there.
Speaking to Game Informer, director Cory Barlog explained: "The Greek games were the Greek era of God of War. Moving on, the next mythological belief system he interacts with became the Norse era of God of War. But we may end up going on to the Egyptian era and the Mayan era and so on and so forth."
Of course, God of War's Greek era was eight years and six games long, so this may not be a plan for the immediate future. Then again, much of the appeal of the upcoming PS4 God of War is in its change of setting and the personality of its lead character, Kratos, so Sony Santa Monica may be keen to reinvent the series more often.
IGN UK Podcast #416: Kung Fu Kenny’s Black Mirror
It's the new year, so of course we start by trying to discuss shiny new things like Black Mirror and Bright, but we just can't help ourselves falling into talking about Jonathan Creek, Football Manager and, yes, The Prestige. Whoops.
But we've also got a round-up of the games we caught up on over Christmas, the maddest film of last year, plus there's a recipe for a chicken meal at the very end for some reason.
IGN UK Podcast #416: Kung Fu Kenny's Black Mirror
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Microsoft Announces Glow-in-the-Dark Xbox One Controller
Microsoft has announced a tie-in accessory for upcoming pirate-themed action-adventure game Sea of Thieves, with a deep purple, glow-in-the-dark Xbox One controller, available as of next month.
Featuring a "translucent design" and "laser-etched barnacles", the controller also has its own hidden treasure in the form of one single golden trigger (it's the right trigger, if you're wondering) as well as a nautical design on the rear of the controller. The front face of the controller has as its centrepiece a glow-in-the-dark skull wearing an eyepatch, and continuing with the nautical theme, the left control stick has the appearance of a compass.