Monthly Archives: August 2015
Want to See a Lord of the Rings City in Real Life?
A team of British architects and Tolkein fans have launched an Indiegogo campaign to try and raise funds to build Minas Tirith in real life.
They want to start building the famous white city from Lord of the Rings at the end of 2016, with the goal of finishing by 2023. All they need is £1.85 billion ($2.89 billion).
Two locations in southern England are being considered for the tiered city, where the team is planning to build both residential and commercial properties. "Residential properties will be categorised by tier, quality and size. Tiers vary from 1-5, quality varies from 2-5 stars, with the higher star denoting higher quality, and size varies from 1-4 bedrooms."
This is England 90 “A Full-Stop, Written in Pencil”
The first episode of what’s supposed to be the final season of This is England screened in London last night, followed by a Q&A in which writer-director Shane Meadows then hinted that it might not actually be the end, calling it “a full-stop, written in pencil.”
This is England 90 concludes the story that started with a movie in 2006 and continued with series set in 1986 and 1988, following the efforts of a group of friends to navigate life and the various dramas and tragedies that Meadows and co-writer Jack Thorne throw at them.
The 1990 gang in their Madchester get-up.
When Recasting Goes Right… And Wrong
Greetings Podpeople! It's Friday, which can only mean one thing - the IGN UK Podcast crew return to dribble themselves lovingly into your lugholes. Don't fight it - it's meant to be like this.
This week sees Chris, Rory and Luke in mourning following the tragic news Peter Dinklage has been ruthlessly culled from Destiny's upcoming expansion - sleep well sweet prince and all that. But rather than wailing and gnashing their teeth, the team quickly opts to turn this into an opportunity to chat about the best and worst recastings in recent memory! What a resourceful bunch they are.
There's also analysis of the all the week's news, including the tragedy that is the Floptastic Four, and the great news that Warcraft 4 may indeed be on the cards one day.
Twitch Plays Dark Souls is Death Over and Over
Last year, Twitch impressed us by beating Pokémon Red in sixteen days. Now it's trying to take on Dark Souls.
Unlike the adventure across Kanto, From Software's action-RPG is a whole other beast. Death is a common theme in Dark Souls. In fact, it's nearly unavoidable. Players die over and over again, but it's part of Dark Souls' genius. Ultimately, death is education which leads to progress and each victory is truly momentous.
As such, the game is notoriously difficult. Compound that with thousands of Twitch viewers taking the helm to control one character through a journey where everything and everyone can kill, we will undoubtedly be greeted by Death over and over again.
Guillermo Del Toro Vows Never to Work on a Video Game Again
Guillermo Del Toro has sworn off getting involved in video games ever again following the cancellation of two successive projects.
Speaking to Shack News, the legendary director revealed the cancellation of Insane in 2012 following the demise of its publisher THQ and the more recent death of Silent Hills has become too much to bear.
“I have proven to be the albatross of video games,” he said. “I joined THQ, and THQ goes broke. I join Kojima, and Kojima leaves Konami. I have decided, in order not to destroy anyone else’s life, I have decided I will never again get involved in video games. Otherwise, I’ll join someone and his house will explode, or something."
Samsung Galaxy Note5, S6 Edge+ Announced
Samsung has announced its newest mobile devices, the Galaxy Note5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+.
Both phones feature a 5.7-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen and increased RAM up to 4GB. On the Galaxy S6 Edge+, the dual edges are used as a shortcut from any screen to the user's top contacts and apps.
The unibody Galaxy Note5 is thinner and comes with a new S Pen and multi-window capabilities. A new feature allows users to note down things on the screen even when the display is turned off. Samsung claims that the new, narrower bezel and curved back make it easier to hold in one hand.
Both phones have 4K video filming, and full HD Live Broadcast, which lets you stream video from your phone to contacts or through YouTube Live.
Woah Dave! is Wii U-bound, as is Cross-Buy
Woah Dave! is coming to Wii U on August 20, complete with cross-buy.
Revealed via Twitter, developer Choice Provisions explains if you already own Woah Dave! on 3DS, then the Wii U version will be available for free as part of the cross-buy functionality.
Woah Dave is a kind of throwback to yesteryear when arcade games ruled the world. If you’re not familiar with Choice Provisions, chances are you’ve seen or heard of the Bit.Trip Runner series.
In fact, IGN really liked Bit.Trip Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, and not just because it’s a joy to type out. In our review, which scored a whopping 9, we said the following:
Nintendo Employee Fired for Podcast Comments
Nintendo's former localization editor has been fired after an appearance on The Part-Time Gamers podcast.
The employee in question, Chris Pranger, lost his job because of comments regarding the company's localisation division, known as Nintendo Treehouse. Writing on Twitter, he said "as some of you may have heard, yes, I was fired yesterday. Yes, it was ultimately my own fault. No, I did not see this coming."
On the podcast he spoke about localisation policies, such as stating that Xenoblade games don't often sell well enough to justify translating and getting new voice actors.
You Can Finish Fallout 4 Without Any Crafting
Not into crafting but love Fallout? Well fortune is on your side, as you won't need to craft anything to finish Fallout 4.
"It’s a completely optional, freeform thing that you can do, if that’s what you want to do," Bethesda's Pete Hines said to GamesRadar, of Fallout 4's crafting system. "If you don’t care about that and you just want to play quests and play side quests, and finish the main quest and that sort of thing then you can just ignore all of this
. Or do as much or as little as you want."
Hines stressed that there are benefits to crafting, however; building a village might encourage merchants to set up shop, for example. "There is a benefit to it, but again it doesn’t prevent you from playing through the game".
Heroes Reborn: A Major Original Character is Dead
One of the rallying cries in the first season of Heroes was "Save the cheerleader, save the world," but as it turns out, the characters were ultimately unsuccessful in that mission. Yes, poor Claire Bennet (played by Hayden Panettiere) is dead from the start in the revival of the series, Heroes Reborn.
"That sort of gets into some of the mythology of the new season," series creator Tim Kring said during the final panel at the summer 2015 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour on Thursday, as he confirmed Claire's offscreen demise, first hinted at in the trailer shown at the NBC Upfront back in May.