Monthly Archives: July 2015
Inside the World of Brutally Hard Mario ROM Hacks
At E3 2015 the world got its first real taste of how hilarious it can be to watch players struggle through tricky, brutally hard, and downright mean custom-made Mario levels.
All of us will get a chance to experience this pain for ourselves when Super Mario Maker drops on September 11. But a small community of hardcore Mario fans have been creating and struggling through merciless Mario challenges for nearly a decade, thanks to the Mario ROM hack scene.
Creating a ROM hack is not for the feint of the heart. ROM hacking involves painstakingly modifying a game’s data files, often via a hex editor. ROM hacks are typically used to accomplish any number of usually benign (but still legally questionable) things like translating a Japanese-only SNES or Genesis RPG into English, or changing a character or item’s stats.
Rogue’s Top 15 Moments
Rogue fans have plenty of reason to be excited right now. Not only is the veteran X-Man experiencing a resurgence in the comics, she's also returning to the forefront in the X-Men film franchise. X-Men: Days of Future Past - The Rogue Cut offers an extended edition of last year's superhero time travel spic, featuring an entire storyline focused on Anna Paquin's Rogue that was trimmed from the theatrical version.
While the jury is still out on whether the Rogue Cut is the superior version (check back later this week for our review), its release does have us excited about all things Rogue. And to celebrate the occasion, we're looking back at the best and most definitive Rogue moments across the X-men comics, films, animated series and even video games. Narrowing down this list was trickier than being a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!
Comcast and EA Prepare to Launch Streaming Game Service
Comcast has announced Xfinity Games, an upcoming video game streaming service in cooperation with Electronic Arts.
Eligible X1 customers will be able to use their internet and set-top boxes to stream games without the need for extra hardware, with smartphones or tablets being used as the controller.
"We’ve always said the X1 Platform can deliver experiences beyond movies and shows. And today, we’re unveiling XFINITY Games powered by EA, a new beta that showcases another dimension of the potential of X1," Comcast chief business development officer Sam Schwartz said in a statement.
17 PlayStation Exclusives We Want on PS4
The Last of Us: Remastered set the bar for classic games being given a new lease of life, and God of War and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection promise to continue the trend later this year. But which PlayStation classics deserve to live on?
IGN editors have their say…
At the time of MGS 4's release, it was pushing the edge of what we thought the PS3 could do graphically, and it set a visual benchmark that would only be bested by The Last of Us, and arguably that "other" Naughty Dog franchise.
Here’s Sony’s PLAY Summer Event Lineup
Sony has announced the lineup for its annual PLAY Summer Event, which begins today.
The event features brand new game launches and special offers. This year's event has four digital titles launching over the next four weeks on PS4, all of which are available for pre-order now. PlayStation Plus members will get a 20-percent discount on pre-orders.
The first game to release during the event is the PS4 version of Journey on July 21 for $15. PS Plus users can pre-order for $12.
Today saw the first official announcement of the N++ release date. On July 28 you will be able to get the action puzzle platformer for $20, or you can pre-order it for $16 if you're a PS Plus member.
New Arkham Knight Season Pass DLC Content Revealed
Warner Bros. has revealed the DLC content coming to PS4 and Xbox One versions of Batman: Arkham Knight in August.
Unlike the recently-released Batgirl DLC, the rest of Arkham Knight's DLC is being created by Rocksteady Studios. Two new DLC bundles are coming to Season Pass holders in August:
- 1989 Movie Batmobile Pack: Battle through the streets of Gotham City with this pack that includes the Batman skin and Batmobile from the 1989 Batman film, as well as two tracks inspired by the film’s sequel.
Interactive Warcraft Movie Trailer Soars Over Stormwind
Though we may have to wait until November to get the full trailer for the upcoming Warcraft movie, it seems Legendary Pictures and Blizzard have taken pity on us and decided to give us a taste of what's to come.
An interactive trailer created by the infamous Industrial Light & Magic places you atop the back of a gryphon as it soars over the human capital of Stormwind.
It's best viewed in Google Chrome, where you're able to click and drag on the screen in order to change what you're looking at. Trust us, you're probably going to want to watch this one a few times to take in everything.
Four Join HBO’s Westworld
News has come down that LOTR's Miranda Otto has left HBO's Westworld series due to the producers re-conceiving the role she plays in the pilot episode. But while one leaves the project - based on Michael Crichton's 1973 cyborg sci-fi classic - four more have joined the cast.
Comic-Con: Westworld Footage Description and New Images
Per EW.com, Clifton Collins, Jr. (Pacific Rim), Eion Bailey (Fight Club), Jimmi Simpson (House of Cards), and Danish actress Sidse Babbett Knudsen (Almost Perfect) have joined the mix.
New Horizons Takes Best Ever Image of Pluto
The New Horizons spacecraft has performed its fly-by of Pluto and has sent the best ever image of the dwarf planet back to Earth.
According to Alan Stern, principle mission investigator for the New Horizons project, this image has a resolution of 4km per pixel, which is 1000x better than previous images taken by the Hubble Telescope.
The New Horizons probe is currently not communicating with Earth as it gathers crucial information over the coming hours. By tomorrow, we will have more information, such as topography and color information. We will also be treated to images with up to 10x the resolution of this one.
Win a 1TB PlayStation 4 Filled With Games
To celebrate the launch of Sony’s new 1TB PlayStation 4 we're giving away one of the new consoles, plus enough games to fill its enormous hard drive.
Yes, one lucky winner will receive the new 1TB console, a PlayStation TV, an annual subscription to PlayStation Plus, plus of course 14 games, including the ultra-rare Bloodborne Nightmare Edition and a handful of games picked by the IGN crew in London.
The full prize is:
• 1TB PS4 Console
• PlayStation TV
• White DualShock 4 Controller
• PlayStation Camera
• PS+ 12 Months subscription
• The Order 1886
• Bloodborne Nightmare Edition
• Driveclub
• The Last of Us Remastered