Monthly Archives: August 2022
High on Life Includes 4 Full-Length Movies, and New Justin Roiland Animated Shorts
High on Life, the new shooter from Squanch Games, has been hiding a little secret - a TV in the game contains over 20 animated shorts from Justin Roiland and friends, not to mention four fully licensed feature films.
During a hands-on with the game at Gamescom, we came across the TV, quickly realising that it was showing some fully-fledged commercial pariodies, some voiced by Roiland himself. We asked executive producer Matty Studivan about how much there was to watch, but didn't expect the answer we got:
"So we've done a pretty weird thing. We have a TV in the living room in the game, and you can sit down and watch it. You know, Justin has been wanting to get back to Interdimensional Cable, which is a very popular Rick & Morty thing, so we're trying to sort of emulate that, and we've made a bunch of animated shorts."
Over 20 shorts have been made, by a number of animators. But their length seemingly pales in comparison to what else the TV contains:
"On top of that, we've also licensed four feature length movies, that you can watch in the game," continued Studivan. "[Justin is] a big fan of Red Letter Media, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. He's just a huge fan of that stuff, and he watches a lot of those movies, so he's like 'Why couldn't we do something similar in the game?' Nobody's done it, so we were like, 'Let's figure out how to license some movies!'"
The movies are what Studivan describes as 'Z-grade', with the only one we know details on being Tammy & the T-Rex, a 1994 sci-fi comedy starring Denise Richards and Paul Walker. Over the course of the game, the movie being shown on TV will change, meaning you can take a break from hunting down vicious aliens and watch a flick every now and then.
And if that wasn't enough, the team's leaned even more into the MST3K inspiration by including a commentator: "On top of the shorts that we've made, we've also done sort of like a little Elvira intro character that will speak about the movie on the intro and outro, into the commercials," finishes Studivan.
You'll be able to see all of this in action when the game arrives on December 13 after suffering a short delay. We got a new gameplay trailer as part of Opening Night Live, which showed off a foul-mouthed boss fight.
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 Dark Pictures: The Devil In Me Arrives This November
Bandai Namco has confirmed to IGN at Gamescom that The Dark Pictures: The Devil In Me will be released on November 18.
Coming to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, and PC, The Devil In Me acts as the Dark Pictures Anthology's season one finale, concluding the collection of stories that began with 2019's Man of Medan.
The unfortunate cast of characters in this episode are part of an entertainment TV series that's struggling to get views. When a mysterious stranger invites them to a faithful recreation of the H. H. Holmes murder castle, however, they're filled with hope at the chance to revive their show. Things take a turn for the worse, of course, and the team finds themselves at the heart of a whole new series of spooky goings on.
Developer Supermassive Games most recently released The Quarry - another branching paths horror game that acts as a proper spiritual successor to 2015's Until Dawn - but has otherwise focused on the Dark Pictures Anthology in recent years.
The series also appears to be a major part of the developer's future, having filed trademarks for another six Dark Pictures games back in February.
IGN has given the series mixed reviews so far. We said Man of Medan was "good", and "offers an unnerving horror adventure" with consequences directly linked to the player's actions. Little Hope was "mediocre", with "uninspired characters and relatively meaningless consequences," but we thought House of Ashes was "great", and the studio's best since Until Dawn released in 2015.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
The Dark Pictures: The Devil In Me Arrives This November
Bandai Namco has confirmed to IGN at Gamescom that The Dark Pictures: The Devil In Me will be released on November 18.
Coming to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, and PC, The Devil In Me acts as the Dark Pictures Anthology's season one finale, concluding the collection of stories that began with 2019's Man of Medan.
The unfortunate cast of characters in this episode are part of an entertainment TV series that's struggling to get views. When a mysterious stranger invites them to a faithful recreation of the H. H. Holmes murder castle, however, they're filled with hope at the chance to revive their show. Things take a turn for the worse, of course, and the team finds themselves at the heart of a whole new series of spooky goings on.
Developer Supermassive Games most recently released The Quarry - another branching paths horror game that acts as a proper spiritual successor to 2015's Until Dawn - but has otherwise focused on the Dark Pictures Anthology in recent years.
The series also appears to be a major part of the developer's future, having filed trademarks for another six Dark Pictures games back in February.
IGN has given the series mixed reviews so far. We said Man of Medan was "good", and "offers an unnerving horror adventure" with consequences directly linked to the player's actions. Little Hope was "mediocre", with "uninspired characters and relatively meaningless consequences," but we thought House of Ashes was "great", and the studio's best since Until Dawn released in 2015.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Obsidian’s Pentiment Arrives This November
Obsidian Entertainment has announced that its narrative mystery game Pentiment will be released for Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC on November 15.
Announced on Xbox Wire, the game was already confirmed for November but has now received an official date. Its announcement to release period is therefore fairly slim as Pentiment was only announced a couple of months ago in June.
Led by industry veteran Josh Sawyer, the game follows a medieval artist named Andreas Maler, an educated journeyman who's close to reaching his ultimate goal of becoming a master artist. As it happens, however, Maler gets caught up in a murder mystery as his friend is accused of killing someone.
The player, as Maler, must solve the mystery - or at least decide who's punished - but Pentiment won't make clear exactly who's guilty. The decision will have knock-on effects over years and years as Maler gets caught up in more and more murders.
Player choice is a staple in Obsidian Games - the developer behind Outer Worlds and Fallout: New Vegas - and Sawyer told IGN back in June that these themes would echo throughout Pentiment as well.
"There will be familiar elements in terms of choice and background development and consequence for people who like our RPGs," he said. "But it really, at its heart, is a narrative adventure story."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Obsidian’s Pentiment Arrives This November
Obsidian Entertainment has announced that its narrative mystery game Pentiment will be released for Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC on November 15.
Announced on Xbox Wire, the game was already confirmed for November but has now received an official date. Its announcement to release period is therefore fairly slim as Pentiment was only announced a couple of months ago in June.
Led by industry veteran Josh Sawyer, the game follows a medieval artist named Andreas Maler, an educated journeyman who's close to reaching his ultimate goal of becoming a master artist. As it happens, however, Maler gets caught up in a murder mystery as his friend is accused of killing someone.
The player, as Maler, must solve the mystery - or at least decide who's punished - but Pentiment won't make clear exactly who's guilty. The decision will have knock-on effects over years and years as Maler gets caught up in more and more murders.
Player choice is a staple in Obsidian Games - the developer behind Outer Worlds and Fallout: New Vegas - and Sawyer told IGN back in June that these themes would echo throughout Pentiment as well.
"There will be familiar elements in terms of choice and background development and consequence for people who like our RPGs," he said. "But it really, at its heart, is a narrative adventure story."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Forspoken Will Grade Your Combos Like Devil May Cry
Forspoken will include over 100 spells and abilities - and you'll want to get to know how to use them in tandem, because it includes a Devil May Cry-style combo grading system.
In an IGN-exclusive Gamescom gameplay video, we see a number of combat encounters, showing the game's heroine Frey swapping between spells on the fly and using combos to take down groups of enemies. The game makes very clear you're being graded on the efficacy of your spell use - a meter counts up from rank D to A, with experience multipliers offered for doing well.
The game ups your grades on a number of categories, from using specific spells enemies are vulnerable to, stringing multiple spells together, evading enemies using parkour, switching spells mid-combat, and seemingly much more.
It seems as though there'll be a lot to work with, too. In an introductory video, Luminous Productions' Raio Mitsuno said, "The core of Forspoken's gameplay is built around exhilarating action. By mastering over 100 of Frey's different spells and abilities, you'll be able to enjoy robust combat, exciting and intuitive magic parkour, and various missions."
The gameplay itself shows huge numbers of combos, from trapping enemies in a floating bubble that you can burst with piercing attacks, to using a jet of water to boost into the air and sniping with fire attacks from above. There's also a shot of Frey seemingly using an ice surfboard to trick off of a waterfall, which isn't a combo, but I just really liked it.
After multiple delays, Forspoken is set to launch on January 24, 2023. The game takes place in the fantastical realm of Athia, and follows Frey after she is pulled from modern-day New York into this mysterious, magical world. In our hands-off preview last year, we enjoyed the "off-kilter take on the JRPG formula" even if the game is "maybe just a slight cringe."
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.
Forspoken Will Grade Your Combos Like Devil May Cry
Forspoken will include over 100 spells and abilities - and you'll want to get to know how to use them in tandem, because it includes a Devil May Cry-style combo grading system.
In an IGN-exclusive Gamescom gameplay video, we see a number of combat encounters, showing the game's heroine Frey swapping between spells on the fly and using combos to take down groups of enemies. The game makes very clear you're being graded on the efficacy of your spell use - a meter counts up from rank D to A, with experience multipliers offered for doing well.
The game ups your grades on a number of categories, from using specific spells enemies are vulnerable to, stringing multiple spells together, evading enemies using parkour, switching spells mid-combat, and seemingly much more.
It seems as though there'll be a lot to work with, too. In an introductory video, Luminous Productions' Raio Mitsuno said, "The core of Forspoken's gameplay is built around exhilarating action. By mastering over 100 of Frey's different spells and abilities, you'll be able to enjoy robust combat, exciting and intuitive magic parkour, and various missions."
The gameplay itself shows huge numbers of combos, from trapping enemies in a floating bubble that you can burst with piercing attacks, to using a jet of water to boost into the air and sniping with fire attacks from above. There's also a shot of Frey seemingly using an ice surfboard to trick off of a waterfall, which isn't a combo, but I just really liked it.
After multiple delays, Forspoken is set to launch on January 24, 2023. The game takes place in the fantastical realm of Athia, and follows Frey after she is pulled from modern-day New York into this mysterious, magical world. In our hands-off preview last year, we enjoyed the "off-kilter take on the JRPG formula" even if the game is "maybe just a slight cringe."
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.
Mortal Kombat and 22 Jump Street Writer Joins Ryan Reynolds’ Clue Reboot
Oren Uziel, the writer behind Mortal Kombat and 22 Jump Street, has reportedly been tapped to rework the script of Ryan Reynolds' Clue reboot.
There hasn't been any movement on the board of 20th Century Studios' Clue for quite some time, but now the movie appears to have moved a new writer into place. According to Deadline, Uziel has become the latest player to join the murder-mystery reboot. He is said to be handling a "big reworking" of the script's first draft, which was written by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
Uziel is a writer and producer best known for 22 Jump Street, The Cloverfield Paradox, and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. He also worked with Greg Russo on the story of 2021's Mortal Kombat reboot, which grossed $84.4 million at the worldwide box office, and co-wrote Paramount's The Lost City starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.
James Bobin is attached to direct the upcoming feature, which is based on the Hasbro board game of the same name. This is the second time that the classic whodunnit has been turned into a live-action movie, with the other being the 1985 film directed by Jonathan Lynn. That film put in a poor performance at the box office but developed something of a cult following in the years after its release.
The upcoming Clue movie is likely to feature an all-star ensemble, much like the first feature take, which starred Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, and Lesley Ann Warren. Reynolds may also potentially star in the film, though no casting news has been shared yet, and the movie does not currently have a release date.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
Mortal Kombat and 22 Jump Street Writer Joins Ryan Reynolds’ Clue Reboot
Oren Uziel, the writer behind Mortal Kombat and 22 Jump Street, has reportedly been tapped to rework the script of Ryan Reynolds' Clue reboot.
There hasn't been any movement on the board of 20th Century Studios' Clue for quite some time, but now the movie appears to have moved a new writer into place. According to Deadline, Uziel has become the latest player to join the murder-mystery reboot. He is said to be handling a "big reworking" of the script's first draft, which was written by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
Uziel is a writer and producer best known for 22 Jump Street, The Cloverfield Paradox, and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. He also worked with Greg Russo on the story of 2021's Mortal Kombat reboot, which grossed $84.4 million at the worldwide box office, and co-wrote Paramount's The Lost City starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.
James Bobin is attached to direct the upcoming feature, which is based on the Hasbro board game of the same name. This is the second time that the classic whodunnit has been turned into a live-action movie, with the other being the 1985 film directed by Jonathan Lynn. That film put in a poor performance at the box office but developed something of a cult following in the years after its release.
The upcoming Clue movie is likely to feature an all-star ensemble, much like the first feature take, which starred Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, and Lesley Ann Warren. Reynolds may also potentially star in the film, though no casting news has been shared yet, and the movie does not currently have a release date.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Gets a New Gameplay Trailer After a Year of Waiting
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – the hugely anticipated spiritual successor to the Suikoden RPG series – has gotten a fully-fledged new gameplay trailer, more than a year after the last one.
Revealed exclusively during IGN's Gamescom Studio stream, the first full trailer for the game since 2021 shows off more straight gameplay than we've seen before, including exploring the world's 3D environments with 2D sprite characters, silent story moments, glimpses at a selection of the 100+ characters and, of course, the game's beautifully stylized combat sequences.
The trailer ends with what seems to be a showdown between main characters Nowa and Seign atop a sunstrewn bridge – and promises that there will be more to learn at this year's Tokyo Game Show.
Developed by key members of the development team behind classic RPG series Suikoden, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes aims to build on those ideas, with huge numbers of recruitable heroes, a fortress building system, and impressive looks. It's been a very popular move, and the game became the third-most backed video game Kickstarter project in history when it launched in 2020.
Since then, the team has been providing monthy updates to backers, and even released a spin-off action-RPG to introduce some of the main characters, titled Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising. We awarded that game a 7/10 review, saying that it "does exactly what any good companion game should do. Not only does this RPG set the stage nicely for the upcoming Eiyden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, it’s an enjoyable adventure that stands up on its own merits."
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.