Monthly Archives: December 2019
The Best Video Game Story of 2019
One of the amazing things about games is how many different ways they can tell a story, and the wide variety but consistent quality of the tales told in this list is great evidence of that.
Best Video Game Story of 2019: Control
For how weird of a game Control is, Remedy does a fantastic job of making its core story — that of Jesse Faden’s search for her brother in the mysterious Oldest House — easy to follow but consistently fascinating. But Control’s story doesn’t stop at its core plot.
The Best Shooter of 2019
Between pillaging the apocalyptic wastelands of Borderlands 3 and Rage 2 to saving mankind from the Swarm of Gears 5, it was an exciting year for fans of first and third-person shooters alike.
Best Shooter of 2019: Apex Legends
With Apex Legends, Respawn took the battle royale formula popularized by PUBG and Fortnite and distilled it into the best of the genre. As a shooter, it has the refined, satisfying gunplay of Titanfall.
The Best Video Game Sound Design of 2019
From the squelching sounds of soggy corpses to the recognizable sounds of a galaxy far, far away, sound design is the art of creating a believable sonic world.
Best Video Game Sound Design of 2019: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Whenever a video game set in the Star Wars universe comes out, the inevitable question “but does it feel like Star Wars?” arises. Fallen Order’s sound design is one of many reasons it feels like Star Wars, but god, Respawn really nailed it.
Vanquish Remaster Is Coming to Xbox One in 2020
A remastered version of Vanquish for Xbox One has appeared with a 2020 release date.
It seems that Sega is releasing a remaster of the 2010 third-person shooter Vanquish for Xbox One on February 18, 2020. There’s been no official announcement yet but the game is now listed on the Microsoft store (via ResetEra).
The listing says that the game will have 4K graphics and run at 60fps on Xbox One X. The PC version of the game that was released back in 2017 also supported 4K 60fps.
December’s Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES Games Announced
Nintendo has announced that Journey to Silius and Crystalis for NES and Star Fox 2, Super Punch-Out!!, Kirby Super Star, and Breath of Fire II for SNES will be added to Nintendo Switch Online on December 12, 2019.
These Super Nintendo games are the first new games from the SNES since Nintendo added 20 titles to Nintendo Switch Online from the beloved console's library.
Star Fox 2 is the "lost" sequel to Nintendo and Argonaut's classic space shooter that was finally released with the launch of the SNES Classic.
In our review of Star Fox 2, we said it "has some beautiful, totally 90s moments, but its primitive, choppy 3D gets in the way."
Here’s a (Slightly) Longer Look at a Fight From Netflix’s The Witcher
Netflix has debuted a slightly longer look at one of The Witcher’s fight scenes, showcasing certain characters and some impressive sword-fighting choreography from Henry Cavill.
The. Fight. Scenes. #TheWitcher pic.twitter.com/hY7QVzGRlN
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) December 4, 2019
The fight appears to be from a scene featuring Queen Calanthe, the grandmother of Ciri, and the banquet she throws to determine a suitor for the 15-year-old Pavetta, Ciri’s mother. Fans of the books will recognize the individual with a hedgehog’s head as a key player in Witcher lore, and it looks like the character gets his own swings in during the fight.
Xbox Head Is Using a Project Scarlett Next-Gen Console at Home
Xbox head Phil Spencer has revealed that he has brought his next-gen Project Scarlett home and is now using it as his primary console.
Spencer broke the news on Twitter and confirmed that he is "playing
games, connecting to the community and yes, using
Elite Series 2 controller" on the next-gen Xbox console. He then praises the team and promises that "2020 is going to be an incredible year."
Microsoft revealed at E3 2019 that Project Scarlett is set to be released in Holiday 2020 alongside Halo Infinite. It also discussed how it would be four times more powerful than Xbox One X and capable of 8K output, 120 frames per second, variable refresh rates, and real-time "next-gen ray tracing." In addition, a new generation SSD will be used as virtual RAM and will offer "over 40 times performance increases from the current generation."
Celebrating 25 Years of PlayStation Games
On this week's episode of IGN's weekly PlayStation show, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Brian Altano, Max Scoville, and Lucy O'Brien to discuss our favorite games from each home console generation of PlayStation in honor of PlayStation's 25th anniversary.
The group runs down their favorites from the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4, including Bloodborne, Uncharted 2, God of War, Metal Gear Solid, SIlent Hill, and much more.
Have questions, comments, or Memory Card stories? Write in to beyond@ign.com!
Download or listen to the show on these platforms:
The 5 Best Anime Series, as Voted by IGN Fans
We here at IGN recently posted our top 25 best anime of all time list, so, naturally, we wanted to know what you think are the best anime series of all time, and we've got those results for you in this week's episode of Power Ranking.
Power Ranking, which breaks down fan-voted suggestions for top-ranked lists, like the cutest Star Wars characters, and compiles all that data together to determine what IGN fans across platforms think are the best every week. For this week's episode, which you can watch above, we asked you what are the best anime of all time and then to vote on the top five most suggested series. Over 660,000 of you voted in the final poll across IGN.com, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter, and here are the results.
Metal Gear Movie Director Compares Black Widow Trailer to MGS3
Jordan Vogt-Roberts, director of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie, took to Twitter on Tuesday to draw some pretty compelling visual connections between Marvel’s Black Widow movie and Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
Vogt-Roberts began with possibly the most obvious parallel, Black Widow’s white jumpsuit we see in the first trailer for the movie.
"Honest question,” Vogt-Roberts writes. “I’m firm believer of parallel thinking, but...Is there any BLACK WIDOW pre the release of METAL GEAR SOLID 3 in 2004 that establishes this white suit? It sure reminds me of a certain patriot who saved the world.”