Monthly Archives: October 2020

Ring Of Pain Review

Ring of Pain is a roguelike card game that's too damned creepy to not live rent-free in your head long after you're finished. You play as someone trapped in darkness, unsure of who can help you out and who intends to lead you into ruin. The constant uncertainty leaves you always second-guessing yourself, while the action manages to keep you firmly in the moment as you juggle satisfying risk-reward choices. This balance of feeling both powerful and vulnerable--but in different ways depending on your choices--manages to shake up potentially repetitive attempts to navigate the rings of cards in your efforts to escape this eerie, unsettling world.

Each run in Ring of Pain starts out largely the same: It's just you and a circle of cards that probably want to kill you. Two cards in the circle are in the foreground and can be viewed and interacted with immediately. Cards feature an interesting array of spooky creatures that can be fought or dodged, items to be collected and equipped, stat boosts, potions, curses, or doors to be passed through into another new dungeon ring. There’s a menagerie of different cards to come across, which keeps you constantly on your toes and never too sure of what to expect--but there are still patterns and hints to the madness, such as themed dungeons that keep things purposeful rather than totally random. The rings cycle through depending on your actions--you might find a card that shuffles the ring, or a card might cycle itself through the ring to chase you--and how you choose to navigate them will determine your play style.

You don't have to clear a ring to move to the next stage, just to get to a door. You have your own base stats, which change based on the items and boosts you find and equip. It’s best to think of yourself as a sort of customizable creature card with slots augmented by what you find. Most of the equipment will have basic stat augments, but others will offer interesting strategies like gaining health from curses or knocking back creatures after an attack. Each little factor can greatly determine how effective you are in satisfying ways that alter available strategies. The knock-back ability can make slow but devastatingly strong enemies a total non-issue as they no longer have a chance to attack, while without it even sneaking past them can be risky business.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Ring Of Pain Review

Ring of Pain is a roguelike card game that's too damned creepy to not live rent-free in your head long after you're finished. You play as someone trapped in darkness, unsure of who can help you out and who intends to lead you into ruin. The constant uncertainty leaves you always second-guessing yourself, while the action manages to keep you firmly in the moment as you juggle satisfying risk-reward choices. This balance of feeling both powerful and vulnerable--but in different ways depending on your choices--manages to shake up potentially repetitive attempts to navigate the rings of cards in your efforts to escape this eerie, unsettling world.

Each run in Ring of Pain starts out largely the same: It's just you and a circle of cards that probably want to kill you. Two cards in the circle are in the foreground and can be viewed and interacted with immediately. Cards feature an interesting array of spooky creatures that can be fought or dodged, items to be collected and equipped, stat boosts, potions, curses, or doors to be passed through into another new dungeon ring. There’s a menagerie of different cards to come across, which keeps you constantly on your toes and never too sure of what to expect--but there are still patterns and hints to the madness, such as themed dungeons that keep things purposeful rather than totally random. The rings cycle through depending on your actions--you might find a card that shuffles the ring, or a card might cycle itself through the ring to chase you--and how you choose to navigate them will determine your play style.

You don't have to clear a ring to move to the next stage, just to get to a door. You have your own base stats, which change based on the items and boosts you find and equip. It’s best to think of yourself as a sort of customizable creature card with slots augmented by what you find. Most of the equipment will have basic stat augments, but others will offer interesting strategies like gaining health from curses or knocking back creatures after an attack. Each little factor can greatly determine how effective you are in satisfying ways that alter available strategies. The knock-back ability can make slow but devastatingly strong enemies a total non-issue as they no longer have a chance to attack, while without it even sneaking past them can be risky business.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Ring Of Pain Review

Ring of Pain is a roguelike card game that's too damned creepy to not live rent-free in your head long after you're finished. You play as someone trapped in darkness, unsure of who can help you out and who intends to lead you into ruin. The constant uncertainty leaves you always second-guessing yourself, while the action manages to keep you firmly in the moment as you juggle satisfying risk-reward choices. This balance of feeling both powerful and vulnerable--but in different ways depending on your choices--manages to shake up potentially repetitive attempts to navigate the rings of cards in your efforts to escape this eerie, unsettling world.

Each run in Ring of Pain starts out largely the same: It's just you and a circle of cards that probably want to kill you. Two cards in the circle are in the foreground and can be viewed and interacted with immediately. Cards feature an interesting array of spooky creatures that can be fought or dodged, items to be collected and equipped, stat boosts, potions, curses, or doors to be passed through into another new dungeon ring. There’s a menagerie of different cards to come across, which keeps you constantly on your toes and never too sure of what to expect--but there are still patterns and hints to the madness, such as themed dungeons that keep things purposeful rather than totally random. The rings cycle through depending on your actions--you might find a card that shuffles the ring, or a card might cycle itself through the ring to chase you--and how you choose to navigate them will determine your play style.

You don't have to clear a ring to move to the next stage, just to get to a door. You have your own base stats, which change based on the items and boosts you find and equip. It’s best to think of yourself as a sort of customizable creature card with slots augmented by what you find. Most of the equipment will have basic stat augments, but others will offer interesting strategies like gaining health from curses or knocking back creatures after an attack. Each little factor can greatly determine how effective you are in satisfying ways that alter available strategies. The knock-back ability can make slow but devastatingly strong enemies a total non-issue as they no longer have a chance to attack, while without it even sneaking past them can be risky business.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales: Another Villain Confirmed

Insomniac Games has revealed that Prowler will appear in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Marvel has offered up a first look at how the villain will appear in the game. Prowler is a spider-verse villain commonly associated with Miles Morales, and while prior today we had no indication he'd be joining the rest of the game's villainous lineup, Prowler has now been confirmed to appear in Miles Morales when it launches next month. Marvel's official Twitter account tweeted about the character and included a picture of what they're going to look like in the game, and then Insomniac Games quote-tweeted it to confirm. As you can see in the tweet above, our first look at Prowler comes by way of a look at Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales creative director Brian Horton's variant cover for the Amazing Spider-Man #55 comic. You can see Miles' spider-sense tingling as Prowler, who is a few feet behind Miles, prepares to swing at him. Spider-Man and Prowler fans will recognize the differences between this Prowler and traditional and recent media appearances of the character. This Prowler appears more militaristic in style and seems to have dropped, or at least toned down, the purple found in traditional Prowler garb or as seen in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This take retains the Prowler insignia often seen on the character, except it appears to glow green. Perhaps Prowler is powered by the Tinkerer, who is the main villain of the game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/16/spider-man-miles-morales-gameplay-trailer"] We'll all known soon enough when Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales launches on November 12. In the meantime, read this story about how the actor behind Miles heard about his spin-off game at the launch of Spider-Man on PS4 and then check out the Crimson Cowl suit for Miles recently revealed by Insomniac Games. Read about the different FPS modes available in the game for PS5 and then watch this gameplay trailer after that. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes

PS5: As Many Pre-Orders Made in 12 Hours as PS4 Pre-Orders in 12 Weeks in US

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says PlayStation 5 demand appears to be "very considerable" based on the number of pre-orders in the United States. Ryan spoke to Reuters about the consumer demand for the PS5 on October 27 and said: "The demand as expressed by the level of pre-order has been very, very considerable." Ryan said that Sony pre-sold as many PS5s in the first 12 hours of preorders in the United States as were sold in the first 12 weeks of preorders for the PlayStation 4. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ps5-console-first-look-size-comparison&captions=true"] While Ryan wouldn't talk any specific numbers as it relates to PS5 preorders, one can infer that the number must be quite high. Exact PS4 preorder numbers aren't known but we know it surpassed 1 million pre-orders worldwide by July 2013, which is four months before the console's launch, and over 1 million PS4s were sold within the console's first 24 hours after launch. If the PS5's pre-order numbers in the first 12 hours match the first 12 weeks of PS4 pre-orders, we wouldn't be surprised if the PS5 pre-order number is nearing or past 1 million in the US. Ryan said that it may end up that not everybody who wants to purchase a PS5 on launch day will be able to actually find one to purchase. There will be, however, more PS5s at launch than there were PS4s at launch, according to Sony. He said Sony is "working as hard as we ever can" to get PS5s on store shelves for holiday shopping near the end of the year. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/27/ps5-console-unboxing"] The SIE CEO also told Reuters that it will continue to grow its staple of first-party studios organically and that Sony will add to its lineup "where we can bolster our in-house capability with selective M&A (merging and acquisition) that might be possible." Ryan said all of this the same day that initial previews went up for the PS5 and you can check out IGN's PS5 coverage of that here. Read about our PS5 unboxing experience and then watch us unbox the PS5 DualSense controller and all of the other PS5 accessories. Check out our hands-on preview with Astro's Playroom after that to find out why we think the DualSense is a fun evolution of the PlayStation controller. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes

Black Widow Star Is the Source of Gamma Radiation in the Milky Way

The MCU got it all wrong: Black Widow is the source of the Hulk's gamma-induced transformation, not anger. (This is a joke.) While that might not be true in comics or on the silver screen, that's the case in space where scientists recently discovered the culprit behind mysterious gamma radiation in the Milky Way to be that of a Black Widow star, as reported by Science Alert. This source of radiation has been tracked since as far back as 1999, but scientists who determined the gamma rays were coming from a binary system that simply could not find the second star in the equation. The answer has now been found and it turns out the binary system is a Black Widow system, as reported by Science Alert and according to a scientific journal published on October 22. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"] "In binary systems like the one we have now discovered, pulsars are known as 'black widows' because, like spiders of the same name, they eat their partners, so to speak," Colin Clark, astronomer at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester said. While the black widow answer might sound simple, it was anything but and that's due to how difficult it was to actually detect the black widow star. Scientists searched through gamma radiation data from the years 2008 to 2018 and used that data to pin down the location of the black widow star. "The binary star system and the neutron star at its heart, now known as PSR J1653-0158, set new records," Lars Nieder, Albert Einstein Institute Hannover astronomer said. "We have discovered the galactic dance of a super heavyweight with a flyweight: At slightly more than twice the mass of our Sun, the neutron star is extraordinarily heavy. Its companion has about six times the density of lead, but only about 1 percent the mass of our Sun." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/14/what-is-doctor-strange-2s-multiverse-of-madness"] Knowing how small the black widow star was compared to its larger companion star in the binary system, it's easy to see the difficulty in finding this unique black widow star. Scientists said this heavyweight-flyweight duo orbited every 75 minutes, which is faster than all other known similar binary systems. Scientists believed that the system they were looking for would have been produced by a gamma-ray pulsar and things heated up when in 2014, x-rays and other observations of the gamma radiation source led to an answer: a variable star with a 75-minute period. So scientists had discovered the smaller companion star but they couldn't find the larger neutron star at this point. The neutron star was thought to have been a pulsar star, which is a rapidly-rotating neutron star that beams radiation to and fro from its poles as it spins. From an observer's point of view, those beams, which are rotating due to the star's rotation, would appear like that of the spinning light found at the top of a lighthouse. Scientists looked into decades of gamma radiation collected by the Large Area Telescope of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two weeks of research led to the discovery of the pulsar star they were looking to find. This pulsar rotates extremely fast, more than 500 times a second. In fact, this polar is one of the fastest rotating pulsars ever seen. It's also in the bottom three for weakest magnetic fields ever detected in a pulsar star. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cosmos-possible-worlds-gallery&captions=true"] Scientists believe this pulsar star cannibalized its smaller, black widow, companion star that we mentioned earlier, leaving behind a remnant of what is thought to be a helium white dwarf star. "The remnant of a dwarf star orbits the pulsar at just 1.3 times the Earth-Moon distance in only 75 minutes at a speed of more than 700 kilometers per second," Nieder said. "This unusual duo might have originated from an extremely close binary system, in which matter originally flowed from the companion star onto the neutron star, increasing its mass and causing it to rotate faster and faster while simultaneously dampening its magnetic field." Basically, the smaller Black Widow star's matter continuously flowed to the larger neutron star while the two rotated through space together and the neutron star's mass grew as a result. Over time, the system became what it is today: a giant neutron star with a mass twice as large as our Sun's and a much smaller, Black Widow star that's about 1% the mass of our Sun. Maybe we'll learn more about this in Phase 4 of the MCU. In the meantime, catch up on some other space news like this story about possible signs of life detected on Venus and this story about the discovery of 139 new minor planets at the edge of our solar system. Read about how the moon is rusting after that and then read about this parallel universe discovered by scientists where time runs backward. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes

Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter Account Reckoning With Its Old Tweets After Delay

Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed again and will now be released on December 10. Although the latest delay marks the third time CD Projekt Red's ambitious cyberpunk RPG is pushed back, this latest delay caught many off-guard, particularly because the November 19 date seemed — until today — fairly ironclad. The official Cyberpunk 2077's Twitter account has been firm on the November release date for some time and based on tweets as recent as yesterday, the upcoming RPG seemed all set to hit the November 17 release date. Screenshot 2020-10-27 131844 Unfortunately, the existence of that tweet has become fodder for those disappointed by the latest delay news. And the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account now has to contend with the responses. Screenshot 2020-10-27 131913 "Would anyone notice if we delete this real quick?" the Cyberpunk Twitter account asked in response to another one of their tweets, this time from October 6 that says "No more delays are happening." Screenshot 2020-10-27 132026 Now, the social media team is putting out fires by responding to people on social media - sometimes with jokes, sometimes in earnest - about why they couldn't alert people earlier about the delay. "Of course we are [gutted]. This sucks - who enjoys letting fans & community down," the Cyberpunk Twitter account responded after someone said the social media team seems as disappointed by the news as the community. "Yo socials guy how has your day been?" asked one Twitter user following the delay news. "It was fine until up an hour ago," the Cyberpunk team responded. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/27/cyberpunk-2077-delayed-for-a-fourth-time"] The numerous delays have also allowed some on the dev team to poke fun at themselves. One of the quest designers on Cyberpunk 2077, Patrick K. Mills, tweeted, "Even I'm starting to think the game isn't real, and I'm playing it right now." It has been reported that the Cyberpunk 2077 dev team may have found out about the latest delay last-minute. Jason Schreier tweeted, "All of them found out at the same time we did - CDPR sent an internal email simultaneously with the public tweet." This could explain why the Twitter account was confirming the November release date as recently as last night. Ultimately, the social media team at CDPR is keeping a stiff upper lip, especially since they have to deal with past tweets affirming there'd be no more delays. "We have a very nice community, a great social media team and you can't tweet pics of futuristic cars or bad puns all day. In the end we're still one company." You can read IGN's Cyberpunk 2077 hands-on preview here. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

X-Men Legend Chris Claremont Penning Days of Future Past Prequel

Marvel Comics is celebrating the career of legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont with a lavish hardcover collection called Marvel Made Paragon Collection: Chris Claremont Premier Bundle. This oversized collection will reprint many of Claremont's most iconic X-Men stories, but perhaps the biggest selling point is a brand new 20-page story from Claremont and X-Treme X-Men artist Salvador Larroca that acts as a prequel to 1981's "Days of Future Past." Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look inside this new hardcover set, and then read on for more details about what's being included and how you can acquire the set: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=marvel-made-paragon-collection-celebrates-legendary-x-men-writer-chris-claremont&captions=true"] As the name suggests, Marvel Made Paragon Collection: Chris Claremont Premier Bundle is exclusive to the new Marvel Made online platform. There is one catch, however. Marvel will only put the book into production if at least 1200 pre-orders are received. Once that initial goal is met, new stretch goals will be revealed for the final release. The book itself is a 448-page, faux-leather hardcover measuring 7.28” x 10.83”, contained inside a matte slipcase measuring 11.02" x 13.58". Each book is hand-signed by Claremont himself, along with one of four X-Men quotes. Here's a breakdown of all the stories and bonus materials included:
  • Foreword by editor/X-Factor writer Louise Simonson
  • Uncanny X-Men (1963) #94
  • Uncanny X-Men (1963) #129–137 (The Dark Phoenix Saga)
  • Uncanny X-Men (1963) #141–142 (Days of Future Past)
  • Wolverine (1982) #1–4
  • Uncanny X-Men (1963) #268
  • X-Men (1991) #1
  • Days of Future Past prequel story
  • Original Days of Future Past notes and script by Chris Claremont
  • Behind-the-scenes interviews
  • 7" x 10.5" lithographs by Phil Noto, Salvador Larroca and other artists
  • Wolverine (2020) #6 sketch cover variant by Olivier Coipel (exclusive to Marvel Unlimited Annual members)
“This collection with Marvel Made is a beautiful new compendium of some of my best, plus a beautifully illustrated new story by Salvador Larroca. Here’s where fans get to see Nightcrawler and Bloody Bess save the world,” said Claremont in Marvel's press release. “Wanna find out how? Get this collection. I can’t wait to have this on my own shelf.” The Marvel Made Paragon Collection: Chris Claremont Premier Bundle is available to pre-order on the Marvel Made website until November 20. The set is priced at $199 (not including tax and shipping) and is expected to be released in March 2021. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2014/02/06/x-men-days-of-future-past-explained"] In other X-Men news, the franchise is currently embroiled in the X of Swords crossover, an ambitious follow-up to last year's House of X and Powers of X. Find out how to read X of Swords, and learn more about how the crossover has dramatically revamped Apocalypse's history and motivations. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Facebook Quietly Rolls Out Game Streaming

Facebook Gaming has launched multiple cloud-streaming games on the Facebook browser and app. In a blog post, Facebook explained a few details about its goals and expectations for cloud gaming. Currently, five games support cloud streaming through Facebook. The lineup includes Asphalt 9: Legends, Mobile Legends: Adventure, PGA Tour Golf Shootout, Solitaire: Arthur's Tale, and WWE SuperCard. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/05/16/sony-microsoft-partnering-to-improve-cloud-gaming-streaming-platforms-ign-now"] Facebook plans to roll out more games in the future, and the first addition will be Dirt Bike Unchained, which Facebook will add in the coming weeks. Starting next year, developers will have the choice to add in-app purchases in their cloud games. Facebook plans to focus on free-to-play games to begin with, since those are the experiences players are used to finding on the platform. At launch, all games will be playable with your touch screen, or a mouse and keyboard, since the service is launching with games designed for mobile. Apple users won't have access to Facebook's new gaming experiment. The company says it won't launch the service on iOS yet, saying, "While our iOS path is uncertain, one thing is clear. Apple treats games differently and continues to exert control over a very precious resource." Instead, the cloud games are launching in beta on Android devices and the web. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/13/apple-removes-fortnite-from-ios-app-store"] For now, the service is only launching in select parts of the United States. Access is rolling out across California, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia, with plans to expand access in the coming months. Facebook said it believes mainstream cloud gaming has a long way to go, so the company isn't promising major breakthroughs anytime soon. Facebook Gaming's cloud service also won't be designed to replace your current gaming hardware. Instead, the goal is to add another option to quickly jump into playing games. Facebook and Oculus recently released the Oculus Quest 2, which we called, "one of the best VR headsets you can buy today" in our Oculus Quest 2 review. However, players will want to be careful, because you will lose all your Oculus games if you delete your linked Facebook account. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=oculus-quest-2&captions=true"] Story first reported by Gamasutra. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

Blizzard Legend Chris Metzen Opens Tabletop Gaming Company

Blizzard legend Chris Metzen has created a tabletop gaming company with former Blizzard Vice President, Mike Gilmartin. Together the two opened Warchief Gaming, a small company that will focus on tabletop games, but neither are ready to say exactly what they're working on just yet. Metzen, a former Blizzard senior vice president behind the likes of Warcraft and Overwatch, and Gilmartin, the former vice president of quality assurance at Blizzard, spoke to VentureBeat about the excitement around Warchief Gaming and the joy of working on something much smaller than a Blizzard game. "The basis of our friendship and having done this (gaming) club over the last couple of years, to me it felt like a very safe foundation," Metzen said in regard to the friendly tabletop gaming club he's enjoyed being a part of since he left Blizzard in 2016. "There was no version of me going back to some big game company. There was no version of me going back to Blizzard, as much as I love it, and I truly do. I don't have that in me anymore. I don't want to be a giant corporate officer. I don't want to direct giant teams anymore. Maybe one day, but I'm not that guy today." Metzen is instead happy directing considerably less people alongside Gilmartin at Warchief Gaming. He said that even after his "glorious" Blizzard experience, it's the intimate scale of tabletop gaming that he comes back to and that tabletop gaming is his path forward for now. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/11/06/6-amazing-overwatch-skins-based-on-other-blizzard-games"] He'll tread that path with his new company, Warchief Gaming, although he told VentureBeat that he and Gilmartin aren't ready to say what the tabletop gaming company is specifically working on just yet. The former Blizzard vice president said he's more interested in his own ideas at this point in his life as opposed to the ideas of a larger company like Blizzard. "But in this phase in my life...I'm interested in owning my own ideas," Metzen said. "I'm interested in being able to develop them the way my gut tells me I should, without oversight of people I don't know. That's a big theme for me, that ownership and authorship." Warchief Gaming takes Metzen back to the period he experienced before Blizzard became the massive company it is today. He said there's a purity to be found in the smaller scale projects like that of Warchief Gaming and that this new scale is "so much more freeing and simplified." Metzen continued and said that at this smaller sale, he has a more balanced work-life relationship, something he considers "an absolute gift." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/05/warcraft-3-reforged-review"] "We've been on big stages and now we're back in a garage, playing punk rock that we played as kids," Metzen said. "It feels awesome...For all my nervousness, I know we're on the right track. We're going to come out and make some cool s**t." There aren't any Warchief Gaming games for you to pick up just yet but there are plenty of other tabletop games to play in the meantime. Check out our list of the best fantasy board games and then check out our list of the best classic board games. If you're looking to jump into the world of tabletop gaming for the first time, here's a list of the 11 best board games for beginners. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.