Monthly Archives: August 2020
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2: New Footage Shown at Gamescom
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 has shown off new gameplay at Gamescom, and we've learned a little about how the game will approach adding secrets, tricks and more to the original games.
In an interview with Vicarious Visions' Andy Gentile on Gamescom Studio, we showed off around 7 minutes of new gameplay (which you can watch below), showing off a variety of skaters going for high score's on a recreated version of the Downhill Jam level:
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/28/tony-hawks-pro-skater-12-developer-interview-whats-new-and-whats-unchanged"]
As for the interview itself, Gentile was careful not to give too much away, but discussed how the remake will include some of the original games' Secrets, but add its own too - "I think people will be excited with what we've done," said Gentile. Challenges have also been added to, with some skater-specific goals added to offer a larger breadth of challenges.
The game will also include new and renamed tricks alongside the original roster. "There are some special moves, like the double 360 flip, the hospital flip, castor flip underflip, all these kinds of little nuances. I'm not sure many people will notice, but for players like me I'm really excited to see some new variety making its way in."
As for whether the game could add new features post-launch, Gentile was a little more cagey: "Could they? Yes. Will they? Maybe."
We'll find out much more when the game arrives on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on September 4.
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way and our roundup of gamescom 2020 highlights.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
The X-Files Animated Comedy Spinoff Series In the Works
The X-Files is getting an animated comedy spinoff series and it's coming to Fox.
TV Line reports that Fox will be developing the show with X-Files creator Chris Carter serving as executive producer. Carter will not be writing or working as a showrunner though. According to TV Line, the show will be titled The X-Files: Albuquerque and will be a "toon offshoot" of the original show.
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While in the same universe as the original show, this spinoff will not feature David Duchovny's Mulder or Gillian Anderson's Scully, who were last seen in the revival seasons from a few years back. This series will reportedly instead focus on a group of misfit office agents who investigate cases too out-there for Mulder or Scully to even bother with.
Netflix's Paradise PD writers Rocky Russo and Jeremy Sosenko will write the pilot and work as executive producers with Carter and X-Files writer Gabe Rotter. Bento Box will be the studio responsible for the show's animation. A cast of characters or actors to voice them has not yet been announced, but the show has only received a script commitment from Fox so far.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/09/16/history-of-awesome-x-files"]
The original X-Files series centered on Mulder and Scully ran from 1993 to 2002 and spanned nine seasons with over 200 episodes. Two movies were made for the show as well: 1998's The X-Files and 2008's The X-Files: I Want to Believe. The show came back for a tenth season in 2016 and was renewed for an eleventh season in 2018.
Unfortunately for fans, there isn't another X-Files season on the cards currently. Read about why Anderson said goodbye to Scully after 11 seasons and then read about how Carter considered another series without Anderson. If you're looking for a quick venture into the show, read about IGN's Top 12 X-Files standalone episodes.
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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
The X-Files Animated Comedy Spinoff Series In the Works
The X-Files is getting an animated comedy spinoff series and it's coming to Fox.
TV Line reports that Fox will be developing the show with X-Files creator Chris Carter serving as executive producer. Carter will not be writing or working as a showrunner though. According to TV Line, the show will be titled The X-Files: Albuquerque and will be a "toon offshoot" of the original show.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=8-facts-you-didnt-know-about-the-x-files-best-monsters&captions=true"]
While in the same universe as the original show, this spinoff will not feature David Duchovny's Mulder or Gillian Anderson's Scully, who were last seen in the revival seasons from a few years back. This series will reportedly instead focus on a group of misfit office agents who investigate cases too out-there for Mulder or Scully to even bother with.
Netflix's Paradise PD writers Rocky Russo and Jeremy Sosenko will write the pilot and work as executive producers with Carter and X-Files writer Gabe Rotter. Bento Box will be the studio responsible for the show's animation. A cast of characters or actors to voice them has not yet been announced, but the show has only received a script commitment from Fox so far.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/09/16/history-of-awesome-x-files"]
The original X-Files series centered on Mulder and Scully ran from 1993 to 2002 and spanned nine seasons with over 200 episodes. Two movies were made for the show as well: 1998's The X-Files and 2008's The X-Files: I Want to Believe. The show came back for a tenth season in 2016 and was renewed for an eleventh season in 2018.
Unfortunately for fans, there isn't another X-Files season on the cards currently. Read about why Anderson said goodbye to Scully after 11 seasons and then read about how Carter considered another series without Anderson. If you're looking for a quick venture into the show, read about IGN's Top 12 X-Files standalone episodes.
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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
The Medium: Troy Baker Explains His New Monster Character, The Maw
Troy Baker has discussed his role as The Maw in The Medium, a malevolent entity stalking the game's heroine Marianne, saying it's a character type the popular voice actor has never played before in his career.
Speaking on IGN's Gamescom Studio, Baker describes The Maw as a metaphysical entity that both stalks you and informs where you are in the world, and says his vocal performance was designed to communicate the idea of "an entity outside of gender."
Check out the full interview below:
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/28/the-medium-voice-actor-troy-baker-talks-up-this-moody-mystery-game"]
Baker also said The Maw is a very new kind of character for the well-known actor: "I've played the brooding hero, I've played the hands-on-hips superhero [but The Maw] is something like I've never done before."
The Maw's performance capture was created by a separate actor, who used stilts for the role to create a more monstrous physicality than a regularly motion-captured human could potentially create. You can check out a brief glimpse of The Maw - and Baker's performance - in the behind-the-scenes video below.
Speaking about The Medium itself, Baker describes the game as more of a psychological thriller than a gory horror experience, and compares it to early PC horror games that still haunt him to this day.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/28/the-medium-gameplay-dev-walkthrough-experience-horror-in-two-worlds-at-the-same-time"]
The Medium is coming to PC and Xbox Series X during holiday 2020 and will, among other things, render two separate worlds simultaneously to give a unique twist to its mix of advenure and survival horror.
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way. And be sure to check out the gamescom 2020 highlights so far.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
The Medium: Troy Baker Explains His New Monster Character, The Maw
Troy Baker has discussed his role as The Maw in The Medium, a malevolent entity stalking the game's heroine Marianne, saying it's a character type the popular voice actor has never played before in his career.
Speaking on IGN's Gamescom Studio, Baker describes The Maw as a metaphysical entity that both stalks you and informs where you are in the world, and says his vocal performance was designed to communicate the idea of "an entity outside of gender."
Check out the full interview below:
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/28/the-medium-voice-actor-troy-baker-talks-up-this-moody-mystery-game"]
Baker also said The Maw is a very new kind of character for the well-known actor: "I've played the brooding hero, I've played the hands-on-hips superhero [but The Maw] is something like I've never done before."
The Maw's performance capture was created by a separate actor, who used stilts for the role to create a more monstrous physicality than a regularly motion-captured human could potentially create. You can check out a brief glimpse of The Maw - and Baker's performance - in the behind-the-scenes video below.
Speaking about The Medium itself, Baker describes the game as more of a psychological thriller than a gory horror experience, and compares it to early PC horror games that still haunt him to this day.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/28/the-medium-gameplay-dev-walkthrough-experience-horror-in-two-worlds-at-the-same-time"]
The Medium is coming to PC and Xbox Series X during holiday 2020 and will, among other things, render two separate worlds simultaneously to give a unique twist to its mix of advenure and survival horror.
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way. And be sure to check out the gamescom 2020 highlights so far.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Control AWE DLC Review – Alan Wake’s Bureaucratic Nightmare
Alan Wake had a problem. He'd been teased as being a big part of the final DLC expansion of Control, dubbed AWE, and with that came expectations. Fans of Remedy Entertainment's 2010 psychological horror/thriller shooter had been waiting about a decade for the next phase of his tale. Wake worked furiously to make himself part of the AWE story, appearing in twisted cutscenes that captured his fractured mental state. But in the end, it wasn't enough. Though his writing had the power to alter the very nature of reality, not even Wake could make AWE more than an unsatisfying addition to both his story and that of the game he'd invaded.
Control's AWE expansion ultimately is an underwhelming addition and a thin follow-up to the Remedy cult hit it's invoking. Especially following The Foundation, a DLC drop that added a lot of variety to Control with new powers and a new location that felt very different from everything else in the game, AWE comes off as more of a slightly tweaked rehash of the vanilla Control. AWE tries to tap into some of Alan Wake's spooky suspense underpinnings, and while it sometimes succeeds, it can't quite maintain them for very long.
It's a bit of a whimper for a great game to go out on, as AWE feels more like a teaser for another game you'll have to buy at a later date, rather than a satisfying expansion of (or conclusion to) what we've seen in Control so far.
Continue Reading at GameSpotControl AWE DLC Review – Alan Wake’s Bureaucratic Nightmare
Alan Wake had a problem. He'd been teased as being a big part of the final DLC expansion of Control, dubbed AWE, and with that came expectations. Fans of Remedy Entertainment's 2010 psychological horror/thriller shooter had been waiting about a decade for the next phase of his tale. Wake worked furiously to make himself part of the AWE story, appearing in twisted cutscenes that captured his fractured mental state. But in the end, it wasn't enough. Though his writing had the power to alter the very nature of reality, not even Wake could make AWE more than an unsatisfying addition to both his story and that of the game he'd invaded.
Control's AWE expansion ultimately is an underwhelming addition and a thin follow-up to the Remedy cult hit it's invoking. Especially following The Foundation, a DLC drop that added a lot of variety to Control with new powers and a new location that felt very different from everything else in the game, AWE comes off as more of a slightly tweaked rehash of the vanilla Control. AWE tries to tap into some of Alan Wake's spooky suspense underpinnings, and while it sometimes succeeds, it can't quite maintain them for very long.
It's a bit of a whimper for a great game to go out on, as AWE feels more like a teaser for another game you'll have to buy at a later date, rather than a satisfying expansion of (or conclusion to) what we've seen in Control so far.
Continue Reading at GameSpotAnno: Mutationem Shows New Gameplay, Explains Its Gorgeous 2D/3D Mix
2D/3D cyberpunk action-platformer-RPG-hybrid-thing, Anno: Mutationem has shown off new gameplay, and developer ThinkingStars has detailed how the game's many genre elements fit together.
Revealed during Gamescom 2020, the gameplay shows off more of Anno: Mutationem's unusual mix of 2D sprites for characters amid a 3D cyberpunk world inspired by Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell.
Gameplay includes 3D segments - which allow you explore the city (and othe runrevealed locations) - and 2D-only areas built for combat and platforming. Combat includes light and heavy melee attacks, as well as ranged abilities.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/28/2d-meets-3d-meets-cyberpunk-in-anno-mutationem-gameplay-and-developer-walkthrough"]
The game also includes elements of RPGs, including buying and crafting items, talking with NPCs to unlock both primary and sidequests, and more.
Anno: Mutationem got its previous biggest showing at this month's Sony State of Play showcase, and will be coming to PC and PS4 "soon".
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way. And be sure to check out the gamescom 2020 highlights so far.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Anno: Mutationem Shows New Gameplay, Explains Its Gorgeous 2D/3D Mix
2D/3D cyberpunk action-platformer-RPG-hybrid-thing, Anno: Mutationem has shown off new gameplay, and developer ThinkingStars has detailed how the game's many genre elements fit together.
Revealed during Gamescom 2020, the gameplay shows off more of Anno: Mutationem's unusual mix of 2D sprites for characters amid a 3D cyberpunk world inspired by Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell.
Gameplay includes 3D segments - which allow you explore the city (and othe runrevealed locations) - and 2D-only areas built for combat and platforming. Combat includes light and heavy melee attacks, as well as ranged abilities.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/28/2d-meets-3d-meets-cyberpunk-in-anno-mutationem-gameplay-and-developer-walkthrough"]
The game also includes elements of RPGs, including buying and crafting items, talking with NPCs to unlock both primary and sidequests, and more.
Anno: Mutationem got its previous biggest showing at this month's Sony State of Play showcase, and will be coming to PC and PS4 "soon".
There's much, much more to come from gamescom 2020 on IGN - check out our full gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way. And be sure to check out the gamescom 2020 highlights so far.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
The New Mutants Off to a Decent Box Office Start With Thursday Night Previews
After years of delay, The New Mutants is being released in North American theaters. Now, box office trackers are reporting that the horror-tinged X-Men film has earned $750,000 in Thursday night previews, and is tracking to a $7 to $10 million weekend.
The New Mutants opened in 2,412 locations across North America. The preview night gross matches similar movies that have gone on to track between $7 to $10 million, which is decent considering both the long road The New Mutants took to finally reach theaters and the global pandemic affecting theater going.
Based on the X-Men comic books of the same name, The New Mutants stars Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Charlie Heaton as mutants accepted into a sinister institution. Directed by Josh Boone, The New Mutants promises a unique spin on the X-Men formula by focusing more on horror-elements around a young adult cast.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/06/the-new-mutants-official-trailer-2"]
You can expect to see IGN’s review soon on the site, which our reviewers screened in a socially distanced, drive-in experience.
IGN serves a global audience, so we will be covering films that may be available theatrically in some countries but not others due to local COVID-19 restrictions. Read more on IGN's policy on movie reviews in light of COVID-19 here. IGN strongly encourages anyone considering going to a movie theater during the COVID-19 pandemic to check their local public health and safety guidelines before buying a ticket. If in doubt, stay home — keep yourself and others safe.
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Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.