Child of Light All Boxed Up on Vita This Month
A physical Vita edition of Child of Light is coming to America later this month, Ubisoft has confirmed.
As revealed by Creative Director Patrick Plourde on Twitter, the cartridge-containing boxed copy is available to pre-order on Best Buy. The retailer has it priced at $20 USD and listed for release on March 24.
The Vita edition of Ubisoft's 2D role-playing game first hit North America last July, a few months after it arrived on other platforms. Unlike in other regions, the Vita version was only available stateside through the PlayStation Network.
Going by Plourde's tweets and the Best Buy listing, the new boxed copy for Vita will not include any of the game's downloadable content.
Zoolander 2 Officially Confirmed For February 2016 Release
Zoolander 2 is real and set to hit US screens on February 12, 2016.
The news was revealed by stars Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, who took to the catwalk in Paris today at Valentino's Fashion Week show as their characters Derek and Hansel.
So hot right now: Derek & Hansel blaze down the @MaisonValentino runway, #Zoolander2 announced. Coming Feb. 12, 2016. pic.twitter.com/yZoHdcsvzH
— Paramount Pictures (@ParamountPics) March 10, 2015
WWE’s Daniel Bryan on Being a Flintstone
Arriving today on DVD and Blu-ray is The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown - the second co-production between Warner Bros. Animation and WWE Studios. Fans of all ages can watch Fred and Barney hit the mat with John Cena (as John Cenastone), Rey Mysterio (as Rey Mysteriopal), CM Punk (as CM Punkrock), Mark Henry (as Marble Henry), and The Undertaker (as, well, The Undertaker).
I had the chance to chat with WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan about his role in the film (as Daniel Bryrock) which marks his first ever participation in a WWE Studios project.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Review
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number's action is so loud and intense that upon hitting the pause button, reality feels like it's playing at half speed. It's the type of experience that invites you to sit closer to the screen and crank up the volume higher than usual. One of the lingering memories of the first game was its heart-pounding techno soundtrack, so allow me to get this out of the way: The music in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is absolutely outstanding. But to revel in the game's slick style too much would be a disservice to its ferociously entertaining and challenging top-down action. This is a confident follow-up which improves upon the original in almost every way. Hotline Miami 2 is more varied, paced better, fairer, and more challenging. This is a tremendously stylish game which entertains throughout, and delights in forcing you out of your comfort zone.
Hotline Miami 2 is a top-down twitch shooter in which you play as one of many available psychopaths who, for an assortment of reasons, are required to enter various buildings and kill everyone therein. You commit these massacres using a variety of weapons: shotguns, automatic rifles, silenced pistols, knives, pipes, and even your fists. But regardless of the delivery method, death comes quick. Don't expect to soak up damage or pick up health packs. This is a game in which a single bullet can kill you and your foes, and in which on-your-toes tactics and a quick trigger finger mean the difference between completing a level and respawning over and over and over.
The intense visuals thumping techno soundtrack, and score multiplier will seduce you into risking it all in one glorious, foolhardy charge.
How you choose to clear each area in the game's thirty-or-so levels is largely up to you. You can run and gun with reckless abandon or use a loud shotgun burst to lure nearby enemies into your path. Maybe you'd prefer to use a door to knock-out enemies and finish them off silently. Whichever method of murder you choose, the engagements are exhilarating. Though planning your attack will net the best results, the intense visuals, thumping techno soundtrack, and score multiplier will seduce you into risking it all in one glorious, foolhardy charge. Hotline Miami 2 is a high-saturation feast for the eyes, where points burst out of fallen enemies as the screen tilts and sways to the movement of your character. The game's striking color palette and VCR motif evoke the in-your-face TV style of the late 80s and early 90s. Each level's floors, walls, and furnishings are vibrantly colored, though by the time you've finished any given level, much of it is painted an electric crimson.
While the first game was centered around a single mask-swapping protagonist massacring operations run by the Russian Mafia, Hotline Miami 2 darts back and forth between dozens of characters and locations. At one moment, you're a journalist attempting to use non-lethal takedowns in a subway station; At the next, you're a soldier using a flamethrower to incinerate enemy forces in Hawaii. While you spend a lot of time running around buildings, there's far more more variety in terms of level design. Halls and rooms have more interesting angles, extra windows, more open areas, and multiple lanes for enemies to approach from: while better enemy placement creates increased diversity in the types of engagements you'll encounter. The melee-resistant dogs return, as do fat enemies which are impervious to anything other than bullets. But they're joined by bullet-ducking samurai, running enemies who leap to close the distance, and a selection of level-specific mini-bosses. This is a game about planning your engagements and reacting to how the enemies attack. With more diverse levels populated with better placed and more varied foes, Hotline Miami 2 becomes a far more entertaining and challenging experience than its predecessor.
Hotline Miami 2 darts back and forth between dozens of characters and locations.
This ever-shifting pace and variety allows Hotline Miami 2 to be more restrictive in other ways. While the first game gave you the freedom to select a mask--and thus, a special ability--before each level, the character choices here are a lot more rigid--and this is to the game's credit. Though you can sometimes choose from a small selection of weapons, or select a specific sociopath, the story typically forces you to play a particular character. No longer can you choose the Tony the Tiger mask to silently take down people in every single level.
Instead, the game encourages you to get better at shooting by forcing you to play as more run and gun characters. For instance, Mark the Bear uses two machine guns, holding them out at arm's length, John Woo style, when you press the alternate fire button. My personal favorite character, however, is actually a swan-mask-wearing duo--Alex and Ash--who runs with a chainsaw in the front, and guns in the back. While you can always use the lock-on button to cue up shots ahead of time, there's a spectacular joy in chainsawing one group of enemies while popping off reinforcements as they enter the room. These are a but a handful of the dozen-or-so characters you'll play as during Hotline Miami 2's campaign.
So what is there to say about the story? There's a lot more of it, for one. The first third of the game has you sitting through long periods of confusing exposition that do little to clarify exactly what's going on. But even when Hotline Miami's story eventually finds its pace, you're probably not going to be taken aback by the narrative. The original game intentionally obfuscated what was going on behind an unreliable narrator and secret endings, and much of that continues here. Callbacks to the first game, shifts in perspective, and furious timeline swapping make the story read better on a second playthrough. The story's main success is in creating a surreal experience that's best enjoyed by letting the specifics wash over you.
In almost every way, Hotline Miami 2 is a marked improvement on an already tremendous formula.
Hotline Miami 2 is a challenging, often difficult, game, but playing through it's varied levels is so enjoyable that dying rarely feels like punishment. The game's grading system gives you an excuse to return to levels, but its neon-hot style is an even more inviting reason to play again and again. The experience is so audiovisually seductive that you find yourself replaying zones just for the sake of it. Hotline Miami 2's vibrant palette, outlandish early 90s style, and intense music make it difficult to resist. The soundtrack sees returning artists such as Perturbator and Jasper Bryne supply a breadth of synth and techno tracks, alongside a host of new musicians. Smooth post-rock guitar stylings find a home beside heartwarming house beats and a particularly threatening dubstep number. Not only is the music as exceptional as the first game's, but there's also a lot more of it.
Actually, there's a lot more of everything: I completed the original Hotline Miami in about three hours, but by the time Hotline Miami 2's credits had rolled, I'd registered almost nine. Of course, this was before I had started over with the unlockable hard mode, which adds enemies and removes the ability to lock on shots--and before I had toyed around with the game's level editor, which is currently in the alpha testing stage.
In almost every way, Hotline Miami 2 is a marked improvement on an already tremendous formula. This is a game that had me pumping my fists and laughing with joy throughout my time with it, and I was left despondent by the time it drew to a close. A gutsy, refined game that isn't scared to force you into corners and watch you battle out of them, as well as an audiovisual joy that marries graphics, music, and gameplay so well that even the pause screen is a work of art.
Alien: Isolation Dev Hiring for ‘Multi-Platform AAA Blockbuster’
Alien: Isolation developer Creative Assembly is starting work on what it describes as a "multi-platform AAA blockbuster".
A new job listing for an Online/Multiplayer Programmer has been spotted, with platforms listed as PS4, Xbox One and PC.
So, what could it be? Well, the multi-platform part rules out a fresh entry in the Total War series and, besides, the listing specifies this role won't be with that team. So what are the other options?
The studio's Greg Napper has admitted previously the team talk about possibilities for a sequel to Alien: Isolation almost every day, even going so far as to have potential plots in place. So this could be a sequel with a multiplayer component, or it could just be something completely new.
PS4 Update 2.50 to Add Range of Accessibility Options
Sony's PS4 console is set to get a range of new accessibility options in upcoming firmware patch 2.50.
That's according to IGN Middle East, which reports a new accessibility menu is currently in beta with a view to imminent release. Leaked by Twitter user @isaparrot, the additional options mean gamers with disabilities will be able to enjoy titles much more easily than they currently do.
As can be seen from the image below, there's a vast array of accessibility options for a number of disabilities including visual impairment, hearing impairment, and physical impairment. The list of accessibility features include, at the time of this writing, Text to Speech, Zoom, Invert Colours, Larger Text, Bold Text, High Contrast, Closed Captions, Button Assignment, and Add to Quick Menu.
FIFA Ultimate Team Adds Price Ranges to Transfers
EA has announced the addition of price ranges to the Ultimate Team mode in FIFA 15. The new feature, introduced yesterday, sets the lowest and highest amounts an item can be sold for on the Ultimate Team transfer market.
The move, EA says, is designed to help FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) players better understand the value of players, and to make higher-rated players more attainable. The publisher also hopes price ranges will "further restrict illegitimate coin transfers," an issue it's long been trying to combat.
The FUT mode allows FIFA players to build their own team of footballing stars by earning coins and spending them in the transfer market. Coin sellers, who pass on coins for real cash, have taken advantage of the system by using bots to farm coins and automatically buy items in the market. Players can use workarounds to exchange real cash for in-game coins by listing a item on the transfer market at an inordinate price, which the coin sellers then buy. The new price ranges introduced to FUT appear designed to combat this.
Talking Cannibals & Racist Clowns With Eli Roth
Horror helmer Eli Roth liked the fake trailer for a non-existent movie called Clown so much that he got in touch with the guys who made it and helped them turn it into a real feature. It's out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK, so we caught up with Roth to talk about the movie as well as racist clowns, the forthcoming Cabin Fever remake, and his cannibal flick The Green Inferno, which might finally hit screens very soon…
IGN: How did you go about turning a trailer for a fake movie into an actual feature?
Eli Roth: It’s hard to think of another movie that started with a trailer, other than the Grindhouse movies. But this was basically done as a Halloween joke by John Watts and Chris Ford. They did such a good job of parodying Hostel and the tone of my movies that everyone thought it was real and it went viral instantly. So I contacted them because I knew someone who knew them, and John said ‘Thank you for not suing us!’ And I said ‘No John this is Hollywood, you sue after the film is successful. Nobody sues before the movie’s made.’ So I sat down with him and his writing partner Chris Ford and they told me their idea for the script and I said ‘Let’s do it, let’s actually try to make the movie.’ At that time I was coming off of The Last Exorcism and I met up with this company Vertebra and we made a deal right away to finance Clown and Aftershock basically on the titles. Before we even had scripts. So it was really from the trailer and premise that everybody said ‘I have to see this movie.’ And I really believed in John. John is a fabulous filmmaker – he’d only done commercials and music videos he’s such a smart guy. He’s such an amazing talent. And when people help themselves and are self-motivated, those are the people you really want to help promote, and I’m really proud that I helped him make his first movie.
PS4 and Vita China Release Date and Special Editions Revealed
The PS4 and PlayStation Vita will launch in China on March 20, Sony has announced.
Sony originally confirmed the PS4's Chinese release last May, and that it would team up with Chinese company Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development in order to manage local manufacturing, sales, licensing and distribution. The console's upcoming launch will mark Sony's first console release in the country, as China lifted a 14-year ban on foreign console sales this year.
Dragon Age, Tomb Raider Lead This Week’s Deals with Gold
This week's Deals with Gold have been revealed and include Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Dragon Age: Inquisition on Xbox One.
As outlined on Major Nelson's blog, Xbox One owners can pick up Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for 67 percent off, while Murdered: Soul Suspect and Zombie Driver Ultimate Edition are getting the same discount.
Dragon Age: Inquisition and its Deluxe Edition, meanwhile, are both 40 percent off, as is Ryse: Legendary Edition. The last offering for Xbox One owners is the Sunset Overdrive Season Pass, which is 25 percent off.
Xbox 360 titles on offer include Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and the original Assassin's Creed, all of which are 50 percent off. Murdered: Soul Suspect is 75 percent off, Hitman HD Pack is 80 percent off, and Zombie Driver HD is 66 percent off.