Monthly Archives: March 2015
Is This Gaming’s First Easter Egg?
It was 1979, and Atari programmer Warren Robinett was frustrated. The young engineer had already shipped a successful game called Slot Racers for the fledgling Atari 2600, and now he was working on something much more ambitious. Inspired by the text adventure games he’d played on computer mainframes, Robinett was building Adventure, a fantasy-themed graphical exploratory game and the conceptual predecessor to the action RPG.
Opposed by his supervisor, Robinett worked on Adventure in secret. After delivering a proof of concept, he developed a groundbreaking console game with multiple rooms, interactive items, and a trio of deadly dragons each instilled with its own unique AI. Proud of his work, he wanted to add his signature to the game, but was blocked by his employer’s corporate policies. Atari didn’t allow software engineers to take credit for their games, fearing that if the identities of its most talented programmers were publicly known, they might be poached away by rival companies.
This Week in the Nintendo eShop
It's the week of crossbuy on the Wii U and 3DS eShops. Today, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars and OlliOlli are both coming out and all you have to do is buy the game once on Wii U and 3DS and then you get the other version for free. Aside from that, it's a light slate of games on the eShop as we sit in between major releases. Don't worry, we have three new Nintendo-published retail games on the way over the next two weeks.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars ($19.99)
The next entry in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series brings the Mini marching gameplay to Wii U and 3DS. Featuring the same Lemmings-style puzzles from past game, Tipping Stars uses the touch screen to guide little robots away from obstacles and to the goal. A major part of this version is the stage creator, where players can create stages and share them on Miiverse. You can even "tip stars" people who make stages you love. This game supports crossbuy, so all you have to do is buy it on one system to get it for free on the other.
The Walking Dead: Season 5 Finale Will Be Extra-Long
Double check your DVRs and/or adjust your live viewing plans, because the Season 5 finale of AMC's The Walking Dead is going into overtime.
The episode, which airs Sunday, March 29th, is set to run for 90 minutes. Which probably means a lot of killing, a lot of crying, and a lot of commercials. Here's the synopsis for the episode, "Conquer."
Daryl finds himself in trouble while out on the run. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, Rick and his group continue to feel like outsiders as danger lurks near the gates.
GTA 5 Online Heists Are Real and Spectacular
“F*** it,” I yelled. “We’re going in!” I floored it in my Jester sports car and sped into the heavily guarded Merryweather Security base at the waterside Port of Los Santos while IGN’s Jon Ryan, one of my three heist partners, clawed at the dashboard and shrieked like a cheerleader from the passenger seat. We came here in search of a Valkyrie gunship helicopter, and dammit, we weren’t about to let 50 well-armed Merryweather goons get in our way.
We plowed through the first checkpoint and the two thugs manning it, setting the entire port on high alert. From there we swerved our way around shipping crates, parked vehicles, and more checkpoints, turning a few more Merryweather PMCs into Jester hood ornaments. We spotted the Valkyrie at the back of the base near a dock, skidded the car to a stop, and took cover behind a barricade. We needed a window of time just large enough to dart to the chopper and escape, pick up our two other literal partners-in-crime at a safe distance outside the base, and pilot the military helicopter to safety. But we didn’t pick off enough of them on our way in, and by the time we exited our car, we were surrounded and gunned down before we could board the copter. Mission over. Back to the checkpoint.
Unlock Evolve’s Gold Monster Skins by Playing This Weekend
2K has announced any Evolve players who jump into the game this weekend will be able to unlock dev-only molten-gold Monster Skins.
Between 9pm PT on March 5 and 9pm on March 8, anyone who plays a match of Evolve will be rewarded with the skins, which were previously only available to the development team. As an additional bonus, the devs themselves will be out in force playing this weekend so you've got a pretty good chance of getting into a group with them.
7 Things We Want in Rock Band 4
Today’s announcement that Rock Band would return for the Xbox One and PS4 in 2015 – complete with most of our previously purchased music intact and maybe our old instruments too – spread joy around IGN like a doobie at a Phish concert. It also immediately got us thinking about what we want out of this unexpected reunion. Consider these our riders before we go back out on tour (OK, not really, but we hope they happen anyway!).
A pre-order exclusive red Rock Band 4 guitar.
Rock Band 4 Announced for PS4 and Xbox One
Rock Band 4 will be released this year for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, longtime series developer Harmonix Music Systems has announced.
“When we stopped developing Rock Band 3
, clearly the market needed a break,” Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos told IGN. “But since then we’ve been paying close attention to what our community has been saying about it. There’s been this steadily growing crescendo of fans saying, ‘Hey Harmonix, what the hell? It’s time! Why haven’t you announced a new Rock Band? We’re ready for it!’”
Crucially, your purchased songs from previous Rock Band iterations will transfer to the new generation of consoles, with a few notable exceptions. First, as your purchases are tied to your console account, Xbox One players will only be able to import Xbox 360 DLC, and PS4 players can only bring in PS3 DLC. However, there will be no import fee to bring your DLC into Rock Band 4.
District 9 Director Has an Idea For District 10
Neill Blomkamp recently stopped by the IGN office to discuss new film Chappie, and while the UK podcast team had him cornered, we quizzed the writer-director about District 9, and whether or not he’ll ever make a sequel to the sci-fi classic.
“I have an idea for District 10, which is really cool” Blomkamp revealed. “The problem is I feel like Chappie is the end of three films that have a similar stylistic approach to them. Chappie is the odd one out in that is has no socio-political underpinnings. It doesn’t have my experiences as a kid in South Africa incorporated into it. And Elysium – although it doesn’t have my experiences as a kid in South Africa, it has the same notion of oppressor in the elites, and the large population base beneath it. And Chappie doesn’t, but they are still part of a trilogy. So moving forward I would love to realise this idea of District 10 – I have every intention to do it, I just need to find the right time to do it – to not go back to Johannesburg and shoot something similar, yet.”
You Can Now Spend a Night in the Batcave
Ever wanted to spend a night in the Batcave? Well, now you can... assuming you're prepared to make the jaunt to Taiwan.
The Eden Motel in Taiwan has decided to completely redecorate one of its rooms to theme it around the Caped Crusader. As you can see from the pictures, it includes a Batman double bed, walls styled like a cave, a bat-signal in the shower, a bat-TV and a mini Batmobile.
The room is apparently the most popular-themed option at the hotel, and costs $61 for a three-hour stay. For Batman purists, it's worth pointing out the room brings together a fair few different styles, from Burton's Batman all the way through to Chris Nolan's recent Dark Knight Trilogy.
Why Bungie Really Squashed Destiny’s Loot Cave
Bungie today revealed the real reason why it shuttered Destiny’s original "loot cave" during a GDC panel on how the developer researched and tested the player experience.
Located behind Skywatch on Earth, the loot cave was a respawn zone in Destiny where enemies were farmed for drops and experience. Patching the loot cave into a haunted Easter Egg was one of the first of many changes made to Destiny after it first launched.
The reason, according to Bungie at the time, was to improve Destiny's standard progression for players: “Shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn't our dream for how Destiny is played. Our hope is that social engagement in public spaces is only one part of the Destiny experience. Expect changes soon which decrease the efficiency of cave farming and correspondingly increase engram drops from completing activities.”