Harry Potter Funko Figures Revealed
Update: Funko has tweeted out a picture of all of the Harry Potter figures except Voldemort. Keep an eye out, he's probably lurking nearby.
We are so excited to reveal Harry Potter Pop! Coming this July! #HarryPotter #Funko #ToyFair #NewYorkToyFair pic.twitter.com/mV1aRhTdJv
— Funko (@OriginalFunko) February 14, 2015
Would You Take a One-Way Trip to Mars?
The Tech Fetish crew gathers this week to discuss the discovery that Samsung’s Smart TVs could be collecting voice data unbeknownst to users, the idea of taking a one-way trip to Mars, and the new requirement that allows US citizens to have their phones unlocked by their wireless carriers (finally).
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Gotham: New Clips Showcase The Flying Graysons
Young Joker's not the only one popping up on next week's episode of Gotham.
Monday's episode, "The Blind Fortune Teller," will also include John and Mary Grayson -- yes, Dick Grayson's parents -- in a sequence where Jim Gordon and Dr. Leslie Thompkins go to the circus where the Flying Graysons are performing.
FOX has released three promos for the episode, which you can watch below:
Gotham airs Mondays at 8pm on FOX.
Legend of Zelda Netflix Show: Photoshop Contest
The news of Netflix creating a live-action Zelda show just about broke the internet. And the internet, being who they are, had multiple opinions and aspirations about what they would like to see in this venture. A lot of names have been thrown out as to who should portray these beloved characters and now is your chance to visualize them!
Use some of your sweet photo-editing skilz and post your results in the comments below for a chance to be highlighted in our Fancast Roundup. Check out the slideshow below for some characters to inspire you.
"Make something', will ya?".
Ryan Palmer is IGN's Community Developer. He enjoys doodling, video games, and anything dinosaurs. You can also follow his randomness on Twitter.
Dota 2’s Year Beast Brawl Has a Pay-to-Win Problem
After just one match of Dota 2’s new Year Beast Brawl game mode, I don’t know if my regular crew of competitive friends is interested in joining me for another. Its reliance on players spending money prior to playing has soured enough of us that we’re likely to avoid playing altogether next time the New Bloom Festival’s signature game mode appears in our playlist.
Year Beast Brawl is a modified game mode, accessible only in Unranked All Pick playlists, and only at specific times. Valve notifies players in-client that the Year Beasts — mythical, Chinese New Year-themed dragon-dog-monsters — will awaken in an hour. For 10 minutes following the awakening, anyone queueing into an All Pick game will join a Year Beast Brawl, a standard game of Dota 2 with a major twist: Each team frequently spawns a deadly Year Beast, and each player can upgrade it with Support, Combat, and Speed bonuses.
Dragon Age: Inquisition Patch 5 Beta Announced for PC
A handful of PC gamers will get the chance to test the upcoming patch for BioWare's Dragon Age: Inquisition.
In a blog post, BioWare detailed what makes Patch 5 the largest update to Dragon Age: Inquisition so far. "We want to open up our upcoming Patch 5 to a select group of PC players via signup in a closed, developer-like environment," reads the post. "This not only allows us to more quickly identify and respond to future issues, but gives our developers a great, new way to work directly with our players."
Here's a list of a few new features that will show up in the patch:
We Analyze Marvel’s Spider-Man Deal
Welcome back to Keepin' It Reel! In this week's podcast, Jim Vejvoda, Roth Cornet, and Chris Carle bring you the latest in genre movie news.
We discuss the latest movie news, including Marvel and Sony's Spider-Man deal, X-Men: Apocalypse, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Thor: Ragnarok, Hitman: Agent 47, and more.
Finally, we also wager how much of a spanking Fifty Shades of Grey might give Kingsman: The Secret Service at the weekend box office.
Download Keepin' It Reel, Episode 277!
Sid Meier’s Starships Goes Beyond Earth
Though it’s honestly pretty difficult to say “Sid Meier’s” without reflexively tagging “Civilization” on the end, the famous Firaxis designer’s latest project – Sid Meier’s Starships – more closely recalls less ubiquitous works like X-COM or even Sid Meier’s Pirates. Unlike your average 4X game, Starships is all about building up and customizing your very own fleet of space faring warships, which requires a mix of exploration, diplomacy, and combat. At one point during the developer’s recent PAX South Panel, the game was described as having “a very Star Trek vibe.”
Despite its approach, Sid Meier's Starships does share a fictional universe with last year’s Civilization: Beyond Earth, though Meier was quick to point out Starships is not a direct sequel but simply “the next chapter” of Beyond Earth’s story. He also stated the two games will interconnect in some way, hinting that allegiances and rivalries established among factions in Beyond Earth will carry over into Starships. That’s mostly speculation at this point, but here’s what we know for sure: where Beyond Earth focused on taming a single planet, Starships calls for galactic expansion.
New Jurrassic World Dinosaur Revealed
It's finally here: the first official look at Jurassic World's massive Indominus Rex.
Hasbro has unveiled its Jurassic World line-up of collectibles, which includes the new dinosaur the Indominus Rex. Fans caught a glimpse of the predator during a teaser trailer and via some leaked photos, but now the beast is about to be officially revealed at Toy Fair 2015 in New York this weekend.
Take a look at the dino along with a bunch of other Hasbro Jurassic World toys in the slideshow below:
(Note that the Raptors in the film -- which we think are of the friendly variety and work with star Chris Pratt's character -- seem to be named Charlie, Echo, and Delta.)
Criminal Girls: Invite Only Review
Criminal Girls: Invite Only is a perverted, uncomfortable crack at a role-playing game. You find the trappings of a standard turn-based adventure here, from the incessant random battles to the monumental bosses with seemingly endless hit points. The multi-floored dungeons and rich progression system can last you dozens of hours, but with whipping the sinful desires of young girls acting as one of the core hooks, it’s difficult to take Criminal Girls seriously. What could have been a basic, if uninspired, JRPG is ultimately little more than a sleazy grab at an audience pining to watch bloated bosoms bounce at the touch of the Vita’s front and back screens. The overall package isn’t wholly without merit, but Criminal Girls is far too focused on satiating raw desire in lieu of promoting its few interesting features.
The peculiar narrative does little to contextualize the near-nudity and hyper-sexualized moments. You find yourself deep in the bowels of Hell as the game opens, greeted by an officious warden who tasks you with taking care of a medley of sinful souls. These female delinquents have been damned to a life in Hades, but if they can pass the Redemption Program and overcome the challenges ahead, their sins will be forgiven. Of course, each of the seven unique characters has been banished and disregarded for a reason, so it takes time to gain their trust and convince them to actually earn the right to be redeemed.
Relationships among the girls are built and then tested as you climb out of Hell, but one of the keys to unlocking special skills and stat boosts is through individual motivation. After gaining the universal currency through battles and treasure chests, you can choose the Motivate option at any save point to whip, drip liquids on, or tickle any of the delinquents. During these sequences--which become more involved as your character progresses--your girl of choice either sheepishly or aggressively questions your intentions as she dons an outfit that ranges from risqué to borderline pornographic. If you want your party to reach its full potential, your participation in these shameless sequences is necessary.
And surprisingly, these scenes were even more explicit in Japan. This is a touched-up edition of a PSP game released in 2010, with the motivation scenes being edited so that pink steam obfuscates portions of the screen before eventually dissipating at your touch. Moans and groans have also been removed, but somehow, the silence is even more unsettling.
The whole process is vulgar and unnecessary. The basic dialogue that litters your journey can be crude, drawing attention to one of the character’s breasts or bottom. But going from cheap sexual jokes to rubbing a stripped-down teenager on your Vita screen is a thematic leap that’s not only jarring but repellent. The story isn’t stellar by any means, but any emotional connection you build with these characters from dungeon to dungeon is immediately snapped once you throw them into such compromising positions.
It’d be easy just to disregard Criminal Girls: Invite Only if the surrounding elements were just as tasteless. However, the actual video game part, where you battle monsters and raise levels, is fun, and pretty novelbesides. Instead of controlling the action of all four party members in a given turn, you pick just one of four options. One girl might feel bold and want to do a solo attack, while another decides that an elemental ability is the best course of action. As your characters grow closer and learn new abilities, new provisional avenues appear. By the end, it’s common to see all four girls working together to dole out damage as a team or maybe even combine for a special duo ability dealing triple damage.
These combat quirks add a healthy dose of diversity to the moment-to-moment action. You have to scroll through your options and pick the proper technique for the given situation rather than simply hammer away at the X button until you’ve earned a victory jingle. The many useful offensive and defensive skills that become available make each of the seven characters useful, meaning that you likely won’t pigeonhole yourself to a specific combination of characters.
Surprisingly, the combat stays mostly fresh even in the face of innumerable random battles. There’s a medley of monsters waiting to greet you after every few feet, and the story often asks you to retrace your steps over and over again. If the environments were interesting, this wouldn’t be a major problem. Unfortunately, trudging up and down a featureless bend isn’t fun or exciting, and doing so just to make the bustiest member of your crew sweat through her top to grab the attention of a carnal boss isn’t a good enough excuse. It’s just a poor way to pad out an already lengthy experience.
You can escape from battles, but it’s not a wise decision if you hope to progress. Each floor of this dungeon crawler presents stronger enemies, so you’ll have to grind early and often to pass the later trials. I spent hours strengthening my party before attempting major battles but still found myself struggling because most of the late-game bosses use frequent healing techniques to make most of your offensive efforts toothless.
The turn-based action might be fun, but every other element of Criminal Girls: Invite Only does its best to stamp out its only saving grace. When it’s not pushing discomforting images of barely dressed teens in your face, Criminal Girls is leading you back and forth across a lifeless dungeon just so you can thumb through lines of dull dialogue. There’s enjoyment to be found within the game’s combat, but it’s just not worth stomaching the tedious design and perverse activities to find the pearl inside.