Is a Halo 2 HD Remake on the Way?

A new rumor suggests that 343 Industries is developing a Halo 2 Anniversary edition. According to the UK print edition of Official Xbox Magazine, "Following the success of remake Halo Anniversary, 343 Industries has now started development of Halo 2 Anniversary.”

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary hit stores last November and offered a full HD remake of the original game with added Kinect and online functionality in honor of its ten year anniversary. Halo 2 was originally released in November 2004, but Microsoft would presumably release the remake a year or two ahead of its ten year milestone.

We reached out to Microsoft for comment and a spokesperson told us “Our focus right now is on developing Halo 4. Beyond that, we do not comment on rumors or speculation.”

Source: CVG

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

What’s It Like Being a Male Gamer in 2012?

Our friends over at AskMen have launched the 2012 edition of the Great Male Survey. The survey takes a look at what it means to be a man in 2012, analyzing categories including dating, sex, lifestyle and more.

More importantly, the survey gives you a chance to answer burning questions about games, including which entertainment options you use on consoles, how much time you spend playing video games and even which of the presidential nominees you feel you could beat in a game of Mass Effect multiplayer.

This is the fifth annual Great Male Survey and is the largest survey of its kind, including more than 150,000 respondents worldwide.

So are you ready to define what it takes to be a man? Head over to AskMen and take the survey now!

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

EA Announces Extensive FIFA 13 Pre-Order Incentives

EA has announced what it is calling the "most extensive global pre-order incentive in the history of the FIFA franchise".

FIFA 13 Ultimate Edition will be available for one day only on 28 September 2012, the day on which FIFA 13 is released.

So what do you get if you conscientiously pre-order or run out to the shops in late September with wild abandon? Well, you get one FIFA Ultimate Team pack per week for 24 weeks, which equates to over £15 in extra content. Each pack contains 12 items, from players to stadiums, balls and kits. All players bundled will have a rating of 75 and over, and each pack will also contain one "rare item", such as enhanced player attributes and the "most coveted players".

But that's not all folks. There are two more pre-order incentives in the shape of EA Sports Football Club pre-order and adidas All-Star Team pre-order. Football Club is available to those who order through Amazon, and will let players claim in-game items such as special celebrations, Virtual Pro attribute boosts, and extra matches in Head-to-Head Seasons mode. Meanwhile, the adidas All-Star Team pre-order is available to those who order through GAME. The eponymous All-Star team will be unlocked, consisting of the world's 23 best players, including new cover-star Lionel Messi (he's quite good).



Source : ign[dot]com

Dead or Alive 5 Collector’s Edition Revealed

Tecmo Koei has announced the Collector’s Edition for Dead or Alive 5. Available exclusively at GameStop, the set will include a steel case as well as premium swimsuit costumes for the game’s characters. A hardcover book, soundtrack CD and poster will also be included, and the set will be available for $79.99.

Beyond the Collector’s set, new pre-order bonuses were also announced. Anyone who pre-orders the game from GameStop will receive in-game bunny-style swimsuits for Kasumi, Leifang and Hitomi, and anyone who pre-orders from Amazon will receive “DOA Devils” black swimsuits for Christie, Tina and Ayane.

Dead or Alive 5 will hit stores on September 25, 2012. Earlier this week, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi revealed that the game won’t include DLC fighters. It will, however, include a cameo from Virtua Fighter’s Akira Yuki, as announced earlier this year.

For our thoughts on the game, check out our hands-on impressions from last year, as well as highlights from IGN Pro League’s Dead or Alive 5 tournament during E3.



Source : ign[dot]com

Iwata Announces Kirby Collection Details

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has finally pulled back the curtain on Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition, the upcoming Wii compilation being offered to celebrate the pink puffball's 20th anniversary. We previously knew the name of the game and the fact that it would launch in America this September, but everything else was a question mark.

First up, the lineup of included games. The collection will contain Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Dream Land 2 from the Game Boy. Kirby's Adventure from the NES. Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby Super Star from the SNES and, lastly, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards from the Nintendo 64. Four of these have previously been made available individually as Virtual Console downloads on Wii, but the two Game Boy games will be playable on Wii for the first time through this release.

Kirby's Dream Collection will also contain content drawn from last year's Kirby's Return to Dream Land – the single-player challenge mode from that game is coming back. There will also be a "History of Kirby" gallery in the collection, containing everything from 20 years of concept art to episodes of the Kirby cartoon show.

The physical packaging will be special too, as included in the box alongside the disc will be a separate art book and a soundtrack CD. Japan's Club Nintendo will also be offering new Kirby merchandise like Kirby-shaped pillows and handbags.

All of this information was announced tonight through Japan's Nintendo Direct video, and we expect the upcoming North American video will confirm and clarify the details of this Kirby collection for Western audiences. Stay tuned and we'll update this article when those details arrive.



Source : ign[dot]com

Castevania: Mirror of Fate Confirmed for 3DS

The latest issue of Nintendo Power is out, and some subscribers have already started to receive this month's edition. So what's on the cover? None other than that rumored Castlevania game for 3DS the internet has been buzzing about.

The game is called Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate. Try saying 10 times fast. The magazine reveals that Mirror of Fate's Belmont of choice will be Trevor Belmont. He will fight using his version of the Combat Cross, Gabriel's weapon from the original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

Mirror of Fate exists!

Other small details unveiled by the magazine (thanks to GoNintendo for the above scan) include the fact that light and shadow magic will be returning from the original Lords of Shadow. Using the L, R and face buttons, players will be able to attack with various weapons, grab enemies, block and dodge. Earning experience points will unlock the ability to execute combo moves, like launching enemies into the air, smashing them into the ground and so on.

For all your Belmont needs, keep it locked on IGN.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/29/castevania-mirror-of-fate-confirmed-for-3ds

Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls Hardcover Review

Just as Batman: The Black Mirror (read my review!) reads differently the second time through as a collected edition, so too does Scott Snyder’s work on the Dark Knight in the New 52. Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls collects issues #1-7 of Snyder and Greg Capullo’s highly acclaimed run, but just as Batman discovers new layers of Gotham City that he never knew existed, so too will the reader discover new depths to the story. What Snyder and Capullo have presented in this first volume of Batman is a meticulously plotted tale that aims to shake the very root of the Batman mythos to its core.

The central theme to The Court of Owls is that Batman doesn’t know Gotham as well as he thinks he does; that the very notion of Gotham being city is misplaced. Snyder crafts the story so that it’s equally surprising for Bruce to discover his shortcomings as it is for the readers, referencing key, highly identifiable moments of Batman’s history to underline his point. My favorite instance comes within issue #7, where Snyder replays the iconic scene from Batman: Year One – the “Yes, father. I shall become a bat.” scene – but follows the intruding bat out of Wayne Manor, where it is maliciously torn apart by an owl, rendered in stunning, haunting detail by Capullo. It’s a moment that is so poignant in the minds of Batman fans, but Snyder uses it to put a stamp on his point that there’s something far older than the Dark Knight waiting for him in the darkness.

Though we’re only introduced to the notion of the Court within this collection, Snyder’s integration with past stories and well-placed dialog references to the legend make it feel like a part of Gotham’s history all along. Even on the very first page of this collection – in fact, the first -- you’ll find owls seamlessly integrated into the architecture of the Gotham City skyline. Later, when Bruce is giving his presentation of his new and improved Gotham, you’ll see them again in the holographic model of the city. It’s these sort of deliberate easter eggs that make this collection a joy to re-read after we’ve seen the true scope of the story. And good luck resisting the desire to scan old images of Gotham City from comics of years past for owls – I’ve already caught myself doing it. It’s just another confirmation of the success that Snyder and Capullo have had in integrating a new element to a well-traversed history and making it seem organic.

Capullo’s work on the series cannot be understated; his dynamic storytelling and penchant for badassery abounds from every page. Capullo deserves much credit for the success of the story’s seamless integration of the Court of Owls. From the detailed architecture of Gotham City to the utter creepiness of the Court once they are revealed, Capullo hones in on the madness of Gotham and exploits it to the best of his ability. Best depicted in the phenomenal issue #5 – the one that requires the reader to turn the book around as the pages realign – Capullo showcases why he was the perfect candidate to tackle this story. His pencil work is tight, and the incredible, bold inks of Jonathan Glapion only make them tighter.

From action sequences – the train/helicopter scene in issue #2 is a standout – to the more subtle horror elements, like the glowing yellow eyes of the Talon (capped by the great color work of FCO), Capullo is churning out the best work of his career on this book. When the story comes together in the chilling sequence that finds Batman discovering the “nests” of the Court of Owls, culminating in a gigantic explosion, the only thing running through your head (on the second read through, at least, when you’re not distracted by the utter insanity of the story) is how Snyder and Capullo are a match made in superhero heaven.

So. Awesome.

The only significant problem with the collection is the production itself. While this hardcover keeps with the style of the rest of the New 52 collections (original covers acting as chapter breaks with some supplemental material in the back), the nature of this story unfortunately makes the less-than-stellar binding of the book a bit more glaring. Particularly in the aforementioned book turning sequence, when you are reading the book vertically, images and text get lost into the spine. The same goes for the double page spread early in issue #1. This has been an issue in all of the New 52 hardcovers so far, but unfortunately here the problem is exacerbated when it sucks you out the story, replacing the jarring effect of confusion that you felt reading the floppy version with frustration.

The other problem is that this collection was released with only seven chapters. Much like The Black Mirror, The Court of Owls story is a long-form tale. As such, Volume 1 answers a few questions and resolves a limited number of thematic points, but ultimately there are more questions than answers when you close this book. In fact, it ends on a pretty huge cliffhanger. That’s well and good for those of us that read the books monthly, but those that wait for trades often do so in order to get a complete story in one go – which you won’t get here. That’s not a knock against the story itself, but as a collected edition it might be frustrating to some.

Finally, the supplemental material is only a little better than what the other hardcovers have shown off. Along with the covers (and their un-colored counterparts) dispersed throughout the book, you’ll find a variant cover gallery and an insightful comparison of Snyder’s script to Capullo’s pencils – similar to what we’ve seen in other collections of Snyder’s work. You’ll also find a brief sketch book from Capullo featuring some early designs for Batman’s rogues. In all, it’s decent material but severely lacking – like the rest of the collections – any real input or commentary from the creators themselves.

Despite the physical collection having some shortcomings, Snyder and Capullo’s Batman is by far the standout book coming from DC’s relaunch. Present in Volume 1 is everything that you loved about Snyder’s work on Detective Comics, with the addition of the meticulous, stylistic detail of Capullo, and some Gotham history thrown in for good measure. If the Court of Owls story wraps up as strongly as it started in this first volume, these creators will have fundamentally changed Batman’s relationship to Gotham City forever.

Source : http://www.ign.com

Minecraft Review

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition:
I’m a jealous of gamers who are getting their first hit of the gaming-crack that is Minecraft. Those who download this diamond will be rewarded with a totally unique and wonderful gaming experience. 4J, the developer of the 360 version of Minecraft, have done an amazing job translating Mojang’s PC and Mac game over to the 360, but it’s not an exact translation. New gameplay elements and trappings have been added for consoles, but a lot has been taken away as well. Minecraft remains a once-in-a-lifetime game, but the 360 version suffers more for what’s missing than it gains from its additions.

The basics of Minecraft are represented well on the 360. The low-tech-looking sandbox gameplay is in place, as is the self-directed search for survival and material goods. You punch trees, collect ingredients from a blocky, 3D world, craft increasingly complex tools, delve deep into endless, dangerous caverns, and create a space that’s safe from the inexplicably terrifying 8-Bit skeletons, spiders, zombies and creepers that spawn at night. Once you’ve got basic survival locked (a huge accomplishment), you can move on to creating a beautiful home, a 1-to-1 scale re-creation of The Defiant from Deep Space Nine or anything else you can imagine… Or you could just walk around in the woods and shoot arrows at skeletons. In other words: If you’re the right kind of person, this barely guided, creative experience will become more like a way-of-life than a video game, for a time, anyway. Eventually, most 360 gamers will run across the boundaries of Minecraft, both physically and conceptually, long before PC players will.
Let’s start with the positives: The 360 version of Minecraft adds two much-needed and appreciated elements designed to make Minecraft more user-friendly: Tutorials and a map.

Building Blocks Of Minecraft Learning
The original Minecraft lacks any in-game documentation, leaving you at the mercy of your own ability (and online wikis) to figure out how a relatively complicated game works. The 360 version of Minecraft, gives you a tutorial level that walks you through the basics of how to get wood (heh, heh), mine rocks and build basic shelter to keep from being eaten alive when night falls and the monsters come out. It also includes a little village and an impressive castle to give you something to aspire to in your Minecraft-ing.

The learnin’ continues into the game-proper, with context sensitive menus to identify any new items you find. Crafting has been streamlined, and trial-and-error has been eliminated. No great loss, as almost every PC Minecraft player uses a wiki anyway. All of this will be very helpful to beginners, but it’s not so exhaustive that it takes away from the discovery elements of Minecraft or feels like school.

Along with the docs and hints, the 360 version of Minecraft gives players a map at the start of each game, for free. Getting something for nothing in Minecraft is almost sacrilege, but it’s much appreciated here. Maps are craftable in the PC version, but not until you’ve found some redstone deep in the earth and crafted iron to built a compass, which means you have to figure out how mining and smelting works before you’ve ever figured out where you are.

Sitting next to loved ones (or tolerated ones, anyway) and playing a game is an often overlooked source of fun in the age of online multiplayer, and in an open-world game like Minecraft, it’s like bringing your friend to a massive playground, except with more zombies.

Even with a four-player split screen going and other players in your server, navigating through Minecraft’s complicated menus is quickly mastered, if your television is big and HD enough. The menu system is about as serviceable as you could realistically expect from a 360, which is not to say it’s good or anything. Consoles just aren’t suited to complicated menus–a mouse and keyboard is the much preferable input solution.

“I Played Minecraft Before It Was Cool.”
So that’s all the good, but here comes the bad: Overall, console-Minecraft is based on an early version of the game. The PC version of Minecraft has evolved through updates to contain a whole lot more stuff than the 360 version, as well as noticeably improved lighting and graphics. A partial list of content that’s missing: Modding. The hunger mechanic that drives the PC version. The ability to raise animals from babies. Jungle cats. The jungle biomeme. Ruins in mines. NPC characters and villages. The enchanting system. The alchemy system. The End World, Ender Men, and the Ender Dragon final boss. And more. While some of these “later” additions aren’t all that great, and none are necessary for having a good time, on the whole, the PC Minecraft experience provides greater diversity and much deeper gaming, especially for more seasoned players. While 4J has said it’s interested in frequently updating Minecraft-360, those updates are not available at the time of this review. Let’s hope they’ll come soon.

It’s A Small World After All
The list of Minecraft features missing from the 360 is long, but the most egregious omission is the sheer scope of the PC version of Minecraft. While computer Minecraft’s procedurally generated geography is limited only by the amount of memory your PC has, the 360 version takes place on a 1024 by 1024 block level. That’s pretty big in terms of many games, but tiny in terms of Minecraft. It’s dispiriting to get to the edge of the map with so little effort, especially when the boundary has been so shoddily defined. A wall of lava or an un-climbable peak would have been preferable to Minecraft’s lazy invisible barrier. The absence of endless open spaces means that you can essentially never get really lost, and it also limits the amount of sheer raw materials in the world, potentially scuttling hugely ambitious building plans.

Speaking of resources, the PC version of Minecraft contains a creative mode where you have access to everything the game has to offer. It’s perfect if you prefer building with an infinite Lego set and don’t feel like being ravaged by skeletons. The 360 game offers only the survival mode. Big points off for that. And big points off for not allowing gamers to change difficulty in the middle of games, too.
On the whole, any Minecraft is better than no Minecraft, and the 360 version is a full, satisfying game, when not judged against the PC version -- even in slightly-gimped form, Minecraft is better than most games on earth.



Source : http://www.g4tv.com

Dead Island Game of the Year Edition Announced

Deep Silver has revealed the Dead Island Game of the Year Edition. The new version of last year’s first person zombie killing adventure includes all of the game’s previously-released DLC, including Bloodbath Arena mode, Ryder White's single-player story campaign and a blueprint for the Ripper weapon mod.

In addition to the announcement, Deep Silver revealed that more than three million copies of Dead Island have been sold worldwide.

The GOTY edition will be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC for $29.99. It will hit stores on June 26th in North America and July 6th in Europe. For more on Dead Island, be sure to check out our review.

Source : http://www.ign.com

Tech Fetish: Facebook, Brain-Controlled Robots, & Killer Asteroids

Welcome to another edition of Tech Fetish, IGN's only podcast discussing hardcore science news. This week Mark Ryan Sallee, and Justin Davis bring you all the hotness from the world of science and technology.

Facebook's IPO, the extreme success of the Galaxy S III and a woman controlling a robotic arm with her brain are just some of the hot, hot pieces of tech on deck. The classy duo also talk at length about leap year and waffles, for some reason.

The full line-up of of discussed topics:

• Worldwide Samsung Galaxy S III Pre-Orders Reach 9 Million


• Microsoft Announces $99 Subsidized Xbox 360 Bundle


• Facebook's Huge IPO


• SpaceX Rocket Launches Saturday


• Paralyzed Woman Uses First Mind-Controlled Robot Arm


• NASA Counds 4,700 Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Asteroids

Tech Fetish Podcast - Episode 131 (Must Right Click to Save)

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Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/18/tech-fetish-facebook-brain-controlled-robots-killer-asteroids

Minecraft 360 - Finding the Missing Pieces Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Playing this week's Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is like stepping into a time machine for fans of the PC game. The console port from 4J Studios faithfully re-creates Mojang's blocky world-building game, but it's an earlier version of that game, and a somewhat stripped-down one as well, in comparison to the original. It's still totally fun and addictive, but fans of the PC version will experience a somewhat unpleasant sense of deja vu the first time they play.

The most important addition that we'd like to see is of course the release of the various updates that would bring this Minecraft alongside the PC version in terms of in-game features. We're talking hunger and experience meters, jungle biomes, ravines, Nether Fortresses, Strongholds, abandoned mine shafts... lots of cool stuff that adds to the experience of exploring the world. This content is supposedly coming in future updates, though no release plan has yet been revealed.

There are other features though, elements from the PC version of the game that don't necessarily fit into one of the capital-U Updates, but are nonetheless essential to delivering a proper Minecraft experience. We're going to take a moment now to highlight those, in the hopes that mentioning these absent features will somehow magically transport them into the Xbox 360 game.

Or, you know, 4J will take notice and do something about it. Magic would be cooler though.

On-The-Fly Difficulty Adjustment

Jumping in and out of Minecraft's Peaceful difficulty -- which stops monsters from coming after you -- is a hallmark of the PC version of the game. Sometimes you just want to explore and not worry about dying 56,015,963,831 miles from your spawn and losing all of your hard-gathered resources in the process. You can adjust the difficulty of a saved world on the Xbox 360 anytime you load it up, but there's no option for doing that in-game, like you can in the PC version.

Rent-A-Server

Players can't rent their own servers in Minecraft on PC, but they can create one using a secondary piece of software. That's not really an option with your Xbox 360 for a variety of reasons, but being able to rent server space and store a persistent Minecraft world somewhere in the cloud would go a long way toward creating the sort of multiplayer community that exists on the PC side. The max player count would also have to be upped from the current eight-player limit on the console side, but it would be cool to see some of the elaborate group construction projects from the PC world find life in the Xbox 360 version as well.

On-Screen Coordinates

In the PC game, you can press F3 at anytime to bring debug information up on the screen. It's a common enough thing in PC games, but it's especially useful in Minecraft since your coordinates within the world along X, Y, and Z axes are listed along with the rest of the info. For those who are serious about Minecraft building, having access to those coordinates is invaluable. Since the world is laid out along a blocky grid, being able to use numbers makes construction planning -- both aboveground and below -- much easier to deal with.

Creative Mode

This is a serious no-brainer. Minecraft didn't start out with the survival elements you see now that turn the experience into more of a "game." It was born as a sort of virtual LEGO set, and that prototypical take lives on in the PC version as Creative Mode. Loading up a new world in this way starts out just like any other. You're deposited at a random spawn point and the world then becomes yours to explore. The difference in Creative Mode is that there's no need for resource management. Your inventory is filled with an infinite supply of every block, resource type, and craftable item in the game. Also, you can fly. Creative Mode strips out the "game" portion of Minecraft and lets you focus squarely on the building.

Bigger Maps

This could simply be a hardware limitation, but you'll quickly learn as you explore your world that the overall map size in the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft is actually quite small compared to what you get in the PC game. Surely we can go bigger, right? Walk for 10 or 15 minutes in one direction in this console release and you're going to hit an invisible wall. Walk for the same amount of time in the PC game, and you'll just have that much distance to cover as you retrace your steps back to wherever you were carving out your piece of the world.


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723634/minecraft-360-finding-the-missing-pieces/

Tonight On Attack Of The Show: Grimm's Bitsie Tulloch & Sony 3D Sound Bar Review Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Watch a brand new edition of Attack of the Show tonight with Kevin Pereira, Candace Bailey and Sara Underwood. Starting at 7PM EST, Bitsie Tulloch from NBC's Grimm will be live in studio and we review a Sony 3D sound bar system for Gadget Pr0n. Plus, check out who the latest Kings of Dot Comedy are and more! See you tonight.


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723525/tonight-on-attack-of-the-show-grimms-bitsie-tulloch-sony-3d-sound-bar-review/

Company Of Heroes 2 Fights Nazis On The Russian Front In Early 2013 Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

We already know that an upcoming issue of PC Gamer (UK edition) will cover the first details of Relic Entertainment's Company of Heroes 2, but now THQ confirms it in an official press release that outs the game for an early 2013 launch. The sequel will stick to its predecessor's World War II setting, though the action will now be moving out of Western Europe and over to the front lines in Russia.

The original Company of Heroes remains one of the strongest and most immediately accessible real-time strategy games around. Its strong focus on small unit tactics and control point-based map conquests offered lots of good times. The sequel's focus on the Eastern Front will leverage the power of the new Essence 3.0 Engine and introduce new features like Dynamic Battle Tactics and Commander Abilities. Look for more info on Company of Heroes 2 soon.


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723510/company-of-heroes-2-fights-nazis-on-the-russian-front-in-early-2013/