Ps3
Monday, July 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Updated Roster
If Wolverine from the X-Men and Ryu from Street Fighter got into a fight, who would win? This is the sort of question that fuels the development of games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. This crossover fighting game features memorable characters from the Marvel universe and the Capcom games library, just like the previous Marvel vs. Capcom titles that launched years ago.
We've assembled a list of all the characters that have been officially confirmed for a playable appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. We'll keep this list updated as new characters are announced, so be sure to check back in the coming weeks as Marvel vs. Capcom 3's release date of February 15th draws closer.
See below for the complete, up-to-date list, and check the official site for even more information. 
Name: Akuma
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Super Street Fighter II Turbo 
Name: Albert Wesker
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Resident Evil 
Name: Amaterasu
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Okami 
Name: Captain America
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Captain America Comics #1 
Name: Chris Redfield
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Resident Evil 
Name: Chun-Li
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Street Fighter II 
Name: Crimson Viper
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Street Fighter IV 
Name: Dante
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Devil May Cry 
Name: Deadpool
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: The New Mutants #98 
Name: Doctor Doom
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: The Fantastic Four #5 
Name: Dormammu
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Strange Tales #126 
Name: Felicia
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Darkstalkers 
Name: Hulk
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk #1 
Name: Iron Man
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #39 
Name: Jill Valentine (DLC Character)
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Resident Evil 
Name: Magneto
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: The X-Men #1 
Name: Mike Haggar
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Final Fight 
Name: M.O.D.O.K.
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #93 
Name: Morrigan Aensland
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Darkstalkers 
Name: Nathan Spencer
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Bionic Commando 
Name: Phoenix (Jean Grey)
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: X-Men #1 
Name: Ryu
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Street Fighter 
Name: She-Hulk
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: The Savage She-Hulk #1 
Name: Shuma-Gorath (DLC Character)
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #5 
Name: Sir Arthur
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Ghosts n Goblins 
Name: Spider-Man
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15 
Name: Storm
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #1 
Name: Super-Skrull
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #18 
Name: Taskmaster
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Avengers #195 
Name: Thor
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery #83 
Name: Trish
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Devil May Cry 
Name: Tron Bonne
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Mega Man Legends 
Name: Viewtiful Joe
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Viewtiful Joe 
Name: Wolverine
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk #180 
Name: X-23
Affiliation: Marvel
First Appearance: NYX #3 
Name: Zero
Affiliation: Capcom
First Appearance: Mega Man X
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Modern Warfare Falls Victim to PS3 Hacks
A recent security exploit discovered by a group of PlayStation 3 hackers has become a major issue for one of gaming's most popular shooters.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have become "exposed to exploits and hacks" due to the PS3 security breach. What's worse is that developer Infinity Ward is currently unable to provide a complete fix.
"Games rely on the security of the encryption on the platforms they're played on, therefore; updates to the game through patches will not resolve this problem completely, unless the security exploit itself is resolved on the platform," Community Manager Robert Bowling explained. "However, that doesn't mean we're not going to look into every option available to us."
"Regretfully, Call of Duty games are receiving the bulk of the hacker's attention, due to its high player counts and popularity. However, the number of legitimate players severely outweighs the bad apples."
"At this time, we do not have the ability to restore or adjust individual stats."
In the meantime, Bowling suggests concerned players should play exclusively with friends until Sony is able to resolve the issue. He added that Infinity Ward's future titles will unlikely utilize the platform's security.
"In the future we plan to adjust our approach to not rely solely on platform security and reduce the ability for this to happen in our games, as has already been displayed by the work Treyarch has done on Call of Duty: Black Ops to prevent similar measures."
Activision has not responded to requests for comment.
L.A. Noire Interrogation Screenshots
Things Gamers Do: Nick Tonks (He Paints Shoes)
"I'm not an artist that took inspiration from video games. I am just a video gamer who was really excited about what I was seeing, and wanted to express that. To be in some small way involved with video games."
Is that not a rather humble and beautiful manifesto?
Nicholas Tonks paints designs inspired by his love of video games onto shoes. He doesn't create original artwork. He doesn't reinvent the colour schemes. He doesn't have a factory and they probably won't make him a millionaire (but that's totally cool by him). He makes them one at a time, painstakingly, by painting onto Vans or Chucks.
Oh, and they happen to emerge looking totally pimp.
We sat him down to get a few insights about his craft, and just why guys like him take their appreciation of video games to that next level.
After posting a pair he did in homage to Noby Noby Boy on his Flickr page, Nick started getting emails and shout outs from people who liked them, and who wanted to see more. His second pair was inspired by the Phoenix Wright series – those electric blue badboys sold on eBay for £145. Nick was as surprised as anyone.
I'm not mass producing them. They know it's a one man operation, and they think it's really cool."
"My thing has always been that if the shoes pay for themselves, then I'll do it," he says. "Well, they paid for themselves, and paid for another [blank] pair [for painting] and ever since then it's paid for another pair, and another pair."
Since, Nick has painted shoes based on Grim Fandango, Okami, Patapon, the Legend of Zelda, among others. One of the latter pairs are reportedly worn on stage by country singer/songwriter Jared Salte, who approached Nick (@KyozoKicks) via Twitter. His delightful Twilight Princess design has been one of the most popular (that's Zelda fans for you).
But what about copyright infringement?
"There's been absolutely no negative fallout," Nick says. "Totally the other way." He points out that the Grim Fandango pair he did found their way to the Double Fine website, and when he approached Media Molecule about getting his hands on some Little Big Planet 2 artwork, it transpired that they'd already heard of him and were only too happy to oblige. "I'm not mass producing them. They know it's a one man operation, and they think it's really cool."
Early in 2010 Nick did some work with Vans, creating five pairs of shoes in aid of promoting the company's "custom culture" push. The designs all had to come from Nick's own melon.
"It made me realise that it's the combination of video games and shoes that I like. I had to do my original ideas and it wasn't exciting." Those unexciting original ideas are now on display in Las Vegas, Washington DC and San Francisco.
Nick is candid about his process, and has even offered to help others make their own shoes, happily telling people where they can get the right paints and taking snaps of his work as it progresses. He maintains there is no big secret here – as he says himself, anyone can get started with an old pair of sneakers and ten bucks.
As his work has featured on major video game news outlets, message boards and the Twitter accounts of companies like Disney Pixar (he recently branched out and did a brilliant pair of Toy Story shoes, Nick is finding no shortage of people who are interested in making their own stuff.
Ideas seem to come to him more or less complete, he says, ("ninety five percent fully formed,") and can strike out of nowhere. "I played Assassin's Creed II when it came out, and then just the other day I suddenly went, ah! I know exactly what I want to do!" The hardest bit, he says, is not to overcomplicate the shoe. "[you need to] cherrypick the ideas. You could just squeeze them all in, and I've seen that, but I think the less you do, the better."
Also the design must speak for itself, despite being an "in-joke for gamers."
"The designs [should be able to] be in stores, and anyone could look at them and go 'those are cool'. But a gamer will look and go 'those are cool because they're Zelda shoes'.
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Week That Was: January 16 2011
You didn't expect to see us here today did you? As part of our ongoing commitment to you/something to do to fill our lonely weekends as we consider whether it's time for that fourth playthrough of Bayonetta, we're going to be bringing you the week's big news in one handy lump on a regular basis. Or possibly a semi-regular basis, if our duvets prove particularly heavy on future Saturday mornings.
3DS FACTS
With the festive fug clearing 2011 is beginning to take shape – and on the gaming front that shape is looking distinctively pocket-sized. It's looking like this will be the year of the handheld: first off the public had a chance to give Nintendo's 3DS a proper shakedown in Tokyo, and the three-day event brought with it a fistful of news. The Japanese launch line-up looks less than spectacular, with only Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle capturing the imagination. Next week's confirmation of US and EU release dates will hopefully bring with them some brighter news of what we'll be playing on day one.
It had better be good news too if reports that the 3DS will be region locked are to be believed. Given Nintendo's poor track record at getting games out globally in a timely manner it could lead to severe frustrations, and it flies in the face of handheld conventions. It won't be enough to derail the train of excitement that's leading up to the 3DS's release, but it certainly takes some of the shine off. PSP TOO?
Region-locks might not wreck Nintendo's merry 3D juggernaut, but Sony's certainly waiting trackside and trying to set up an ambush. Reports are suggesting that its PSP 2 – the worst-kept secret from a company that's made leaks its speciality – is to get its long-overdue reveal on January 27. With the torrent of information that's been slipping through Sony HQ there won't be too much that'll come as a surprise, but with visuals that are set to rival the PS3's and a brace of touchscreens it's guaranteed to be spectacular.
Whether that's enough to see it avoid the pitfalls of its predecessor remains to be seen, and there were some ominous overtones for Sony in one of the week's biggest stories. Hackers – amongst them the group fail0verflow and the prolific George 'Geohot' Hotz – successfully bypassed the PlayStation 3's security measures late last month, bringing down what had been the current generation's most stable of consoles. Such was the success of the hacks that it's believed that only a hardware update will circumvent them, leaving Sony understandably peeved. Restraining orders were filed against the relevant parties, though some believe it's already too late and that the PlayStation 3 could soon have a piracy problem that eclipses the epidemic that's thwarted the PSP.
DEMOLITION MEN
That aside there's been the usual helping of whispers, announcements of announcements and game unveilings ranging from the exciting to the eccentric. Wesley Snipes' Julius Styles: The International is certainly the latter, though the iPhone action/puzzle hybrid suggests that the incarcerated star has found something to keep him occupied while he's behind bars.
A domain registration that pointed to a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII enraged many, but news that Battlefield 3 is drawing closer to a full reveal proved more delightful as DICE's shooter shapes up for a GDC reveal. There was also happy news at both ends of the gaming spectrum as Minecraft racked up a million sales and Microsoft's Xbox 360 enjoyed its biggest year to date.
And that's the week that was, wasn't it?
Sunday, January 9, 2011
IGN AU Pubcast: Ep. 9
Season's greetings! It's time for another IGN AU Pubcast - our distinctly Aussie take on the traditional podcast, blending our love of gaming with beer and toilet humour - and a liberal dose of intelligent debate.
[NB: IGN AU encourages responsible drinking, folks.]
This week we have Tristan, Cam, Steve, Jem and Patch to provide all your drunken trash talk on gaming in the final IGN AU Pubcast of 2010!
This Episode Includes:
IGN AU Pubcast Index Page
Check it out! It's every single IGN AU Pubcast all in one handy location! What is the IGN AU Pubcast? It's our distinctly Aussie take on the traditional podcast, blending our love of gaming with beer and toilet humour - and a liberal dose of intelligent debate.
Hit any of the links below for your Pubcast fix!
Questions? Comments? Anger management issues? Want sex tips? Hit us up at The Outreach!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Podcast Beyond: 2011 - Year of PS3
PlayStation. Does the word send a chill down your spine? Does it caress your senses with wave upon wave of irresistible pleasure? No? Do you like PlayStation? Then you're certainly in the right place. Welcome to Podcast Beyond, your link to the IGN crew that pushes news, opinions and utter hilarity straight to your ears (and subsequently, your brain).
Next year belongs to the PlayStation 3. We've seen the stars aligning for a while, but now the picture is clear -- LittleBigPlanet 2, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, DC Universe Online, Infamous 2, Uncharted 3, Twisted Metal... we could keep going. With that in mind, the Podcast Beyond boys have assembled to talk about the games that will destroy next year, as well as the worst hangovers they've ever had.
Beyond!
Send us your thoughts on Podcast Beyond.
Video Game Wishlist for 2011
If the 2011 video game release schedule holds true, we're looking at a pretty amazing 2011. But what would make it even better? If these games were announced sometime next year.
My favorite game of all time is Chrono Trigger and I have suffered, really suffered, for a decade now waiting for a third game (Chrono Cross came out in 2000). Recently, there was a DS port with some new additions, which only served to tease me with the potential for a sequel. I know folks think Japanese-style role-playing games are dying, but Chrono Trigger 3 could change that. A great art style, awesome music, engaging characters, and a dozen+ endings is all it takes. Come on Square Enix, make my wish come true already! 
Criterion had a great thing going with Burnout. I'm no fan of driving sims, but I do love to crash me some cars. So a game that's all about crashing cars? I couldn't get enough. Then they had to go and make it an open-world game with Burnout Paradise. It was fun at times, but I much prefer the quick arcade fix of classic Burnout. Criterion just delivered Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, but it's only half fun – the police chase missions are amazing, but the straight racing stuff puts me to sleep. Enough time has passed; can we please have a proper Burnout sequel? 
2011 is set to be the year of Zelda, with Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time 3DS already announced. All that's missing is the addition of a new, traditional, 2-D Zelda game. I want the next A Link to the Past, sprites and all, where the enemies are challenging, every part of the world is touchable and there are no lame touch controls. 3-D's awesome, but it's a very different experience than a standard, top-down adventure, and it's been too damn long. We haven't seen a traditional 2-D Zelda game since Minish Cap in 2004, and the last console one was in 1991. It's time. 
Bungie has cut the Halo umbilicus, placing the franchise wholly in the hands of Microsoft's 343 Studios. A quick scan of the studio's job postings reveals that 343 is hiring every single person in the entire world. So I know they've been hard at work. Some of my co-workers think 343's first project is an HD Halo: Combat Evolved remake. I hope they're wrong, as usual. I'm looking for my favorite gaming universe to expand, not overwrite itself. Regardless, if 343 doesn't announce what it's working on soon, I'm going to throw my Dr. Halsey plush doll in a wood chipper. I'm not bluffing, people. New Jack & Daxter From Naughty Dog
Sure, the Uncharted series is amazing, and everyone is flipping out for Uncharted 3 in 2011. But really I'd be thrilled to hear that Naughty Dog is returning to the PS2 series that proved they were a powerhouse developer. The Jak and Daxter series hit a rough patch when other developers got their hands on it. If Insomniac can keep Ratchet and Clank alive, and Sucker Punch is bringing back Sly Cooper, there's no excuse for Naughty Dog not to bring back Jak and Daxter. Hopefully they can go back and just retcon Dark Daxter out of the canon. 
When I have a hankering for pure gameplay, it's hard for me not to return to the days of yore. The six Mega Man games on the NES, for example, offer some of gaming history's finest gameplay experiences, and Mega Man 9 and 10 more recently continued this proud tradition. What I really want more than anything in 2011, therefore, is Mega Man 11. Mega Man 9 and 10 proved that focused developers today can create awesome games with now-archaic tools of the trade. And they still rock, too. Forget the youth, Capcom. Keep delivering those hardcore titles that force the inexperienced to cry themselves to sleep at night. I'm begging you. 
Metro 2033 was one of the sleeper hits of 2010. Think of it as "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lite". While it may not have had the mechanical depth of Fallout New Vegas, the depth of Metro's story – its thematic soul – was unquestionably present. A follow-up for 2033 is defintely called for. While consequences of Artyom's actions in the novel left little to the imagination, the two outcomes in the 2033 game has the potential to create a rich post-apocalyptic tapestry with a unqiue Russian flavor. 
I'm so ready for another Road Rash game. Do you remember this franchise? Riding motorcycles, hitting other riders with chains and swinging 2x4s? It was awesome. I poured hours and hours into this game on the SEGA Genesis and even went off the deep end for the N64 version (a multiplayer staple in the Miller household). Now that we have HD graphics, online lobbies and awesome driving mechanics, it's time to give the old girl the current generation love it deserves. Bring on the sweet rides, bloody injuries and devastating weapons. I want to see Clements go over the handlebars at 165 mph, and I want it to be because of me. New Project From Sony Santa Monica
Oh, Kratos. You hulking, ill-tempered, petulant Spartan. Now that the God of War franchise has come to an end, what will Sony Santa Monica ever do without you? I hope the answer involves dinosaurs, whales, unicorns or Barbie dolls , because I have faith this AAA studio is working on something, and it's going to be epic. Dinosaur of War, anyone? 
Will the new God of War please stand up?
Have you ever read an online message board? If so, you've undoubtedly read someone's desperate plea for a Final Fantasy VII remake. I am one of those pleading people. Final Fantasy VII is one of Square Enix's greatest creations, and one that would benefit from a graphical overhaul. The story is compelling to this day and the battle system would only require a minor amount of polish. Square Enix has undertaken remakes of several Final Fantasy titles in the past and is clearly interested in releasing products based off of past successes. I know that a VII remake would be extremely lucrative for the publisher -- it has nothing to lose. 
I don't know if it'll be Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or Half-Life 3 at this point, but I'm really hoping Valve decides to talk about what's next for Gordon Freeman sometime soon. Episode 2 ended on a major cliffhanger, and for a franchise that defined many aspects of the modern first-person shooter, it's been a suspiciously long time without any concrete information. I'm assuming the reason for the silence is that Valve's working on something big – like an entirely new game engine – for the next installment. Even if the game isn't going to be ready until 2014, can't we at least get a confirmation? Then I'll have an easier time acting out my Half-Life fan fic in my backyard, horrified spying neighbors be damned. 
In terms of likelihood this is way low, but come on, Nintendo! Pokemon is still a ridiculously fun game, but the dynamic has not changed much since it was introduced, and those of us who are a little bored by turn-based combat would welcome a change. Imagine instead of the ponderous battles that currently exist, you are dropped into an Archon-style arena with all of the Pokemon abilities at your disposal, and you duke it out in a high-energy button-mashing frenzy. Sure, you'd have to explain the Pokemon size difference, but surely it can't be too hard to pull off, considering these creatures live in tiny balls. Make it happen! 
In terms of 2011 retail games, all my dreams have already come true: Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are all expected to be released next year. Yet one game caught my attention this year that I wasn't expecting; a little iPhone game called Game Dev Story. It had a charming presentation, addictive gameplay and it felt like a real accomplishment to get your games into the Hall of Fame. There was one fatal flaw though, and that was the lack of progression. After upgrading your office a few times and employing hackers you were done "leveling up." Give me a Game Dev Story that allows me to become the equivalent of a BioWare or Blizzard and I'll show you a game that can compete with the big boys. 
Nintendo's '90s NES sleeper hit StarTropics was about a kid with a yo-yo who traversed a weird, monster-infested island colony to save his archaeologist uncle from space aliens. Its Legend of Zelda-inspired gameplay was successful enough to spawn a single sequel, but StarTropics soon went the way of Kid Icarus and DuckTales -- fondly remembered, yet simultaneously forgotten by its creators. I, for one, would love a Wii sequel, complete with yo-yo slinging motion-control mechanics and more of StarTropics' offbeat humor. Just as long as Nintendo doesn't expect me to dip the manual into a bowl of water. 
If I had to point to one game that was the turning point for me, transitioning from a casual gamer to a hardcore gamer, Primal would be that game. It was the first game to contain a main character that I could really relate to and a story that didn't make me cringe. I believe it's one of the most overlooked and underrated games on the PS2 and would love to see it revived on the PS3. There's always room for another strong, believable heroine in games, and Jen was the ultimate example of this. 
Remember F-Zero GX for GameCube? It doesn't just look better than 80% of the current Wii library, but I think it'd be a perfect showcase for stereoscopic 3D gaming. The Nintendo 3DS hardware seems pretty well-equipped to handle an F-Zero game, so what better franchise to usher in multiplayer 3D gaming on the go? Yes, I know the game wasn't exactly accessible (in fact, it was brutally hard!), but perhaps we could at least get some of GX/AX's awesome tracks to return for an encore presentation. Or even better, grab F-Zero Expansion Kit's track editor from the 64DD version and let us dole out punishment by creating and sharing our own maddeningly impossible tracks. Make it happen, Nintendo! 
People need more totally impossible racing games.
Ever since the original Syphon Filter shot a bullet of awesomeness through my skull, I've been way into following Sony's Bend Studio. These boys in Oregon most recently have committed themselves to creating some of the most stunningly-detailed, fully-featured portable games on the planet -- I can't wait to see what's next. Rumors have been swirling for years about a new Syphon Filter on PS3, and maybe that will finally happen in 2011. However, I've instead got my ears perked up for juicy gossip (from multiple directions) that SCE Bend might be hunting for fortune with an Uncharted game for Sony's upcoming next-gen PSP. (And if that's true, IGN's Greg Miller called it!) Syphon Filter PS3 or Uncharted PSP2 ... Is it too much to ask for both? 
It's a rare occasion when I'm itching to go back to school, but Jimmy Hopkins and his adventures with the various cliques at Bullworth Academy are near and dear to my heart. We heard rumors at the end of 2009 from composer Shawn Lee that a sequel was in the works, but more than a year later, there's been no official world. Will Rockstar stick with the same cast and crew, or will we get a whole new cast of characters? (Whichever the case, I hope we at least get a Gary cameo.) I don't even care anymore -- all I know is I'm ready to go to P.E. class for the first time in my life. 
A Final Fantasy VI remake isn't a case of if but when – and here's hoping it's sooner rather than later. Square Enix has already proven what a little lick of paint can do for its back catalogue with the likes of Final Fantasy III and IV on the DS, but it's been an intolerably slow crawl to get to what's arguably the series' high point, Final Fantasy VI. The more recent Game Boy Advance re-release showed that VI's mature story and diverse combat – and playable Moogles! – feel as fresh today as they did back in 1994, and its steampunk aesthetic could find a perfect fit on the 3DS. Whats the one game you want announced in Let us know in the comments section. 