Month: February 2020

With the release of Zombie Army 4: Dead War, Dave takes a look at the history of the Nazi zombie, and the bizarre occult links and myths that have helped inspire games like Call of Duty, Wolfenstein, and movies like Hellboy and Indiana Jones.

Disney+ has ordered a 10-episode Mighty Ducks series and, somehow, the Ducks are the bad guys in this one. “You either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” This must have been what Harvey Dent was talking about in The Dark Knight.

Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls) and Brady Noon (Good Boys) will star in the series as a mother and son who have been wronged by everyone’s favorite hockey team. A description of the series from Disney+ reads, “In present-day Minnesota, the Mighty Ducks have evolved from scrappy underdogs to an ultra-competitive, powerhouse youth hockey team. After 12-year-old Evan (Noon) is unceremoniously cut from the Ducks, he and his mom Alex (Graham) set out to build their own ragtag team of misfits to challenge the cutthroat, win-at-all-costs culture of competitive youth sports.”

There’s no word about whether or not anyone from the original trilogy of movies will make an appearance on the show. Still, it would be exciting to know what happened to the likes of Charlie Conway (Joshua Jackson) or Coach Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez).

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Multiplayer hack-and-slash roguelite Conan Chop Chop has suffered yet another delay. Instead of launching on February 25, it’s now expected to arrive sometime in “Q2 2020” (between April 1 and June 30) on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, developer Mighty Kingdom and publisher Funcom announced in a press release.

Conan Chop Chop was initially teased as an April Fools’ day joke during last year’s E3 before getting an official announcement trailer. The game is a crudely-drawn rendition of Conan the Barbarian, featuring stick figures instead of a more traditional art style. It’s a solo- and multiplayer romp that seems to share a lot in common with other hack-and-slash titles like Castle Crashers or Streets of Red: Devil’s Dare Deluxe.

Mighty Kingdom said the extra development time will allow the studio to optimize Conan Chop Chop for online multiplayer, as well as add some finishing touches to polish the overall experience. “It’s basically all about getting that final Chop in place,” studio head Philip Mayes said. “This isn’t merely a one-chop game. This is Conan Chop Chop, and that necessitates extra attention to detail.”

Pokemon Home is now available, which means you can transfer Pokemon from old games into Sword and Shield. Currently, you can only transfer Pokemon that are in the Galar Pokedex; however, any regional forms a Pokemon has occupy the same Pokedex number as their normal form, meaning you can get some alternate forms in Sword and Shield via Home even if they weren’t originally available in the Galar region.

This includes Alolan Vulpix and Ninetales, whose original forms are already included in the Galar Pokedex, as well as regular Darumaka and Darmanitan, who gained Galarian forms in Gen 8. Before Pokemon Home, there was no way to get the alternate forms of these Pokemon in Sword and Shield. Once you transfer them in, though, it’s really easy to get more if you know how.

Normally, when breeding a Pokemon with alternate forms, the offspring will hatch as the form native to the region you’re in–so Vulpix will always be normal, because that’s the kind of Vulpix you can get in Galar. Once you transfer in an Alolan Vulpix, though, you can breed more Alolan Vulpix by giving it an Everstone to hold before putting it in the Nursery. This will pass down the parent’s form to the offspring (but it only works if the parent is female or if you’re breeding with Ditto). Below are all the Pokemon with alternate forms you can now get in Sword and Shield. Note that through in-game trades, you could already get regular Meowth, Yamask, and Mr. Mime without transferring them, as well as regular Persian and Cofagrigus through evolution.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us was one of the best games of the last decade, so naturally The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the most anticipated games of 2020. Arriving May 29 on PS4, the action-adventure sequel will be one of the last PS4 exclusives before the PS5 takes center stage this holiday season. With a game as big as The Last of Us 2, you can bet that there’s some cool merch both on shelves now and available to pre-order.

We’ve rounded up all of the best The Last of Us Part 2-themed products you can buy. About half of the items you’ll find here are limited-edition, and it’s a safe bet that they will become sought-after collector’s items. You’ll have one more chance to pick up one of those collector’s items tomorrow, February 13 at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET. The Last of Us 2’s Ellie Edition will be restocked at all major US retailers and EB Games in Canada. But you will have to scoop one up quickly–pre-orders for the Ellie Edition sold out extremely fast last year. For more information on all of available editions, make sure to check out our The Last of Us Part 2 pre-order guide.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

What is perhaps the most important film franchise of our time is ready to make its return. No, this isn’t about Back to the Future, Lord of the Rings, more Star Wars, or even the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Honey, I shrunk the Kids is back, as previously reported. The big news, though, is that the project has even lured Rick Moranis back into the fold.

The news comes from Deadline, which reports a new entry in the series–titled Shrunk–is in the works, with Josh Gad (Frozen II) starring alongside Moranis. Joe Johnston, who directed the original film, is expected to return, as well.

In the film, Gad plays the son of Wayne Szalinski, the scientist Moranis played who developed a shrinking ray accidentally used on his children. Gad’s character, like his father, aspires to be a great scientist but ends up also shrinking children. There’s seriously something wrong with this family.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

DOOM Eternal forgoes the traditional DeathMatch multiplayer that DOOM (2016) had (and the original 1993 DOOM invented) and is instead trying something bolder and more original: Battlemode. This 2v1 asymmetrical mode pits two player-controlled Demons (choosing from the Revenant, Archvile, Pain Elemental, Mancubus, and Marauder) against one player-controlled Slayer. The Slayer has to kill both demons before either of them can respawn. It’s an intriguing game of cat-and-mouse, layered with strategy. In the video above, DOOM Eternal director Hugo Martin talks through a round with IGN’s James Duggan playing as the Slayer and two id Software developers controlling the Demons.

We’re covering DOOM Eternal all February long as part of IGN First, IGN’s monthly “cover story” of sorts. If you missed any of our coverage so far, get caught up! And keep checking back all month long for more!

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DOOM Eternal will be released on March 20 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia, with a Nintendo Switch version hitting later.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

After months of teasing a followup to 2017’s Dark Nights: Metal, DC Comics is finally peeling back the curtain on the next Justice League epic from writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. It’s called Dark Nights: Death Metal, and the DC Universe is about to get its collective face melted off.

Death Metal is a new six-issue series reuniting the entire Metal creative team, including Snyder, Capullo, inker Jonathon Glapion and colorist FCO Plascencia. Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at the covers and uncolored interior art from the first issue:

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While Death Metal is a sequel to Dark Nights: Metal, it also builds directly on the fallout of Snyder’s Justice League run and the miniseries Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen. The Batman Who Laughs has triumphed in his war against Lex Luthor, and now he and his corrupted minions – Shazam, Supergirl, Donna Troy, Blue Beetle, James Gordon and Hawkman – rule over a world swallowed up by the Dark Multiverse. And pulling the strings of The Batman Who Laughs is none other than Perpetua, the self-proclaimed mother of the multiverse and perhaps the most powerful villain the Justice League have ever faced.

As Snyder recently teased on Twitter, Death Metal is meant to be a Wonder Woman-driven story in the same way the original Metal was mostly Batman-focused. In this twisted version of the DCU, Wonder Woman and Flash have struck a Faustian bargain to preserve what remains of humanity, while Batman leads an underground resistance movement and Superman is trapped inside the heart of the sun. Only when a mysterious ally emerges with crucial new information is Wonder Woman able to rally the Justice League and take the fight to Perpetua herself. And, naturally, she’s bringing her new Chainsaw of Truth along for the ride.

“I’ve been waiting to do this story since we finished Dark Nights: Metal,” said Snyder in a statement. “As much as it was a complete event, we left some threads hanging there for sure. I’d hoped that if people liked the first series enough, we’d have a chance to set up something bigger, and that’s our plan for Death Metal.”

“For all of us, Dark Nights: Death Metal is about the fun factor,” said Capullo. “Comics should be fun, bombastic, and over-the-top. This series is going to be exciting and jam-packed with great ‘metal-esque’ moments that will make fans lose their minds when they see them.”

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Dark Nights: Death Metal #1 will be released on Wednesday, May 13. The series will continue to ship monthly through November 2020, though it’ll take a brief hiatus in August. DC is also teasing a series of “Metalverse” spinoff issues shipping this summer that expand on Snyder and Capullo’s story.

In addition to introducing The Batman Who Laughs and other nightmarish versions of Batman, Dark Nights: Metal is notable for featuring a rare crossover between the DCU and characters from The Sandman. We’ll be eager to see what Snyder and Capullo have planned for a followup. Let us know what you want to see from Death Metal in the comments below.

Death Metal isn’t the only major DC superhero epic in the works for this summer. A new Batman storyline called Joker War will chronicle what could well be the final battle between Batman and his greatest nemesis. Meanwhile, DC is celebrating Free Comic Book Day with the release of Generation Zero, a game-changing new comic that transforms Wally West into the new Doctor Manhattan. Check out all of IGN’s most anticipated comics of 2020 here.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.