Monthly Archives: July 2019
Vinland Saga Is a Classic Anime in the Making
Vinland Saga is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the US.
Vinland Saga is a manga series by Makoto Yukimura which has been ongoing for fourteen years. It’s a mature fan-favorite that’s about as far from Japanese culture as you can get. Set a thousand years ago in Viking-occupied England, Vinland Saga is a grand epic of historical fiction that has defied adaptation, until now. Thanks to Amazon Prime Video, the anime of Vinland Saga has finally hit our screens, and it is spectacular. Here’s why it should be your anime of choice for this summer season.
The first thing you’ll notice after watching episode one of Vinland Saga is also the first thing to praise about the show: it’s a slow burn. And that remains true through episodes two and three as well. But Vinland Saga isn’t a frustrating watch; it’s perfectly-paced, carried along by just the right amount of tension and intrigue. Director Shuhei Yabuta and the team at Wit Studio understand with pinpoint accuracy, the tone that must be set for a show about discovery, both personal and global. Vinland Saga is visually stunning, allowing you to drink in its art, music, sound, and story.
Nintendo Fans Celebrate Game Boy’s 30th Anniversary
Nintendo’s Game Boy was released in North America on July 31, 1989 making today this beloved handheld’s 30th birthday!
Fans across the internet have been reminiscing about its impact on the industry, its unforgettable games, and its absolute indestructibility, and we want to spread that nostalgia even further. Naturally, Nintendo of America has already started celebrating the anniversary, and even the National Museum of American History joined in on the fun!
First WWE 2K20 Screenshots Released Ahead of Next Week’s Cover Reveal
WWE will reveal the official cover for WWE 2K20 on August 5. To help fans with the wait, WWE released two official screenshots for the next WWE game coming later this year.
WWE 2K20 is the next entry in the long-running WWE wrestling game series. The first two screenshots WWE released today features current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley.
PlayStation Plus Games for August 2019 Announced
Sony’s free games for PlayStation Plus in August have been revealed and if you like sci-fi racing games and snipers, you’re in luck. Wipeout Omega Collection and Sniper Elite 4 are both coming to PlayStation Plus next month.
Weipeout Omega Collection includes Wipeout 2048, Wipeout HD and Wipeout HD Fury and rolls them into a single package. Wipeout is an anti-gravity racing game developed by Sony Studio Liverpool. Players race around high-speed tracks in levitating pods they can customize.
The Wipeout Omega Collection was released in 2017 and added PlayStation VR support for every game and track included in the collection.
The second game in August’s PlayStation Plus lineup is Sniper Elite 4, the most recent game in Rebellion Developments’ Sniper Elite series. Sniper Elite 4 is a tactical shooter where players scout vast environments in the third-person perspective before taking out targets in a single shot.
Control: Your Questions Answered by the Developers
After a month of exclusive new stuff, our IGN First with Control is coming to an end. But before it does, we thought we'd ask one more favour of Remedy Entertainment - getting them to answer your questions.
Sam Lake, Mikael Kasurinen and Thomas Puha assembled to answer some of the IGN community's queries about the game - you can see what they had to say below. And if you missed any of our Control coverage, it's all in one handy spot for you to check back on. Onto the next month!
Dangatv asks: Control looks like the natural progression from your last 3 games, what game play aspect are you most proud of and can't wait for the public to experience?
Powers of X Reveals a Sinister Future for the X-Men
Last week's House of X #1 officially kicked off writer Jonathan Hickman's grand plan for the X-Men franchise. But House of X itself is only telling half of the story. This week it's joined by sister series Powers of X, a book that provides a wider view of the mutant race in both the past and future of the Marvel Universe.
Read on for a breakdown of what happens in this first issue, how Powers of X connects to House of X and why the bright new future dawning for the mutant race may not last. And if you need a refresher, check out our recap of House of X #1.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Powers of X #1 and House of X #1!
Get a First Look at Treadstone, USA’s New Bourne Spinoff Series
After five blockbuster movies that have grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide, the Bourne universe is making the jump to the small screen with Treadstone, a globe-trotting, time period-hopping action series that will explore the titular black ops organization that created Jason Bourne and numerous other CIA assassins.
Premiering this fall on USA network, Treadstone "explores the origin story and present-day actions of the infamous covert program that uses behavior modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly superhuman assassins. The first season of Treadstone follows sleeper agents across the globe as they’re mysteriously 'awakened' to resume their deadly missions." The plot of the series will span decades as it delves into Treadstone's history and present activities - and while Jason Bourne is in the wind after the events of the last movie, his "presence will be felt" in the new show.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne – New Monster Impressions and Gameplay
Subspecies aren't totally new to Monster Hunter World, but they're making a comeback to the series in a big way in the upcoming Iceborne expansion. We recently got to play the beginning of Iceborne, and some of the first few monsters we faced were three brand-new monsters: Nightshade Paolumu, Coral Pukei-Pukei, and Viper Tobi-Kadachi! They may look familiar, but these subspecies are more than just a reskin.
We also noticed at least nine exciting quality-of-life improvements in Iceborne, but continue on to see gameplay of each new monster with hands-on impressions and comparisons to each of their parent species.
9 Exciting Improvements in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Monster Hunter World’s upcoming Iceborne expansion brings some big changes and bigger monsters. But while cool new tools like the Clutch Claw have likely already caught your eye, there are tons of less flashy tweaks that will probably make seasoned hunters yell “YES FINALLY” with the same level of enthusiasm.
We got to play through the first few hours of Iceborne last week, and while you can watch us take on three of its new subspecies monsters here, these little quality-of-life improvements really stuck out. There are surely plenty more, but here of nine of the most exciting tweaks we've seen saw so far - be sure to watch the video at the top of the page to see them in action!
EA Explains Why It Offers Limited Nintendo Switch Support
EA CEO Andrew Wilson has opened up on why the publisher offers limited support for Nintendo Switch, saying it's because people prefer to play EA games on other platforms.
During EA's first quarter earnings call this week an analyst floated the idea for The Sims on Switch, but EA's head honcho disagreed.
“Any time we’re evaluating platform conversations we’re really looking at a couple of things,” said Wilson. “One, does the game really fit the profile of that platform in terms of the control or the community ecosystem? Two, do we think the community playing on that platform would appreciate the game and go there, or would they prefer to play it somewhere else?
“We have a lot of data that would suggest a great many Switch owners also own a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One or a PC and very often choose to play the games that we make on those platforms, even though they have a Switch and they enjoy a lot of great content on the Switch."