Author: trafficblast

GameSpot Theatre returns to PAX Australia this year, and we’re hosting a bunch of great panels featuring the GameSpot Australia team–Jess McDonell, Dan Crowd, Eddie Makuch, and Edmond Tran–as well as our friends from all over the video game industry, including developers from the likes of Sonic Mania, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Netherealm Studios, and Square-Enix Montreal and so much more! My gosh!

If you’re in Melbourne, come visit us! The theatre is located by the main entrance on Level 1, next to the Take This AFK Room. If you’re not lucky enough to be at PAX Aus in person, you can watch all the action via livestream on this page as it happens, and check out the full schedule here.

Coming Up: Friday, October 27

10:30 AM – So, You Wanna Be A Games Journalist?

Games journalism is notoriously difficult to break into but there are more paths than you expect to get there and more ways to work in it than you might think. Five games journos are here to answer your questions about the industry frankly and (hopefully) helpfully!

PANELISTS: Jess McDonell [Video Host, GameSpot], Luce O’Brien [Entertainment Editor, IGN], James O’Connor [Games Journalist, Hyper, VG247, Waypoint], David Milner [Editor, Game Informer Australia], Dan Crowd [Video Producer, GameSpot]

12:00 PM – Expanding Horizons: Exploring Open World Gaming

Recent AAA titles have introduced us to the most expansive open worlds we have ever seen in video games. Will game environments continue to grow? At what point is big too big? We look at how titles like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Skyrim have successfully balanced huge open world without distracting from amazing gameplay and story.

PANELISTS: Nic Healey [Breakfast Host, 2SER 107.3FM], Mark Wilson [Game Designer, Bioware, Team Bondi, Riot Games], David Gaider [Creative Director, Beamdog], Tim Stobo [Principal Quest Designer, Guerrilla Games]

1:30 PM – Are We Having Fun? Playing Games Critically

We’re developers, researchers, lecturers, and critics… but what inspired us to join the games industry in the first place? Did we play games for fun, once upon a time? Analysing games when they’re supposed to be ‘just for fun’ is sometimes frowned upon online, but it’s also how we can encourage positive change in the games industry. We talk about what it really means to think critically about games, the benefits it has, how we still manage to enjoy the games we play, and how you can too.

PANELISTS: Alayna Cole [Founding director, Queerly Represent Me], Rami Ismail [Business & development guy, Vlambeer], Dakoda Barker [Lecturer, critic, and developer, University of the Sunshine Coast], David Hollingworth [Digital editor, Next Media], Jess Zammit [Senior writer, Select Start Media]

3:00 PM – Platform Paradigms: What Does the Future of Console Gaming Look Like?

How are consoles like the Switch changing the way we play games? What will console cycles look in the future? Where do we draw the line on handheld? After motion, voice input and second screens, what comes next for controllers? Are we saying goodbye to generation jumps and hello to iterations? Our panellists will look at how modern trends in console gaming have opened new doors and what they think is coming next.

4:30 PM – Photo Mode: Turning Games into Art Galleries

Over recent years, the emergence of the Photo Mode feature has given players a new way to explore and visualise their gaming passion. And with games such as Horizon Zero Dawn pushing the boundaries on what can be achieved, the increasing popularity of game photography is set to explode. Embark on a Photo Mode safari with our panel of professionals and enthusiasts, featuring art curator Helen Stuckey and Guerrilla Games developer Tim Stobo, as we explore where game world photography is at, why it’s attracting so much interest, what the future holds and why you should get involved… (if you’re not already!)

PANELISTS: Helen Stuckey [Curator, Historian and Game Program Manager, RMIT University], Tim Stobo [Principal Game Designer, Guerrilla Games], Madeleine Beer [Winner of Guerrilla Games Horizon Zero Dawn Photo Mode Community Competition Winner], Jennifer Scheurle [Game Design Lead, Opaque Space], Drew Taylor [Game World Photographer and Communications Manager, Surprise Attack Games]

6:00 PM – What Makes a Fighting Game Good?

Most gamers can watch appreciate the skill behind a 20-kill streak in Overwatch or COD, but the sacred art of the fighting game is more arcane. Join special guests from NetherRealm Studios and Australia’s CouchWarriors fighting game community to talk about the magic of a good ol’ fighting game.

PANELISTS: Derek Kirtzic [Netherrealm Studios], Daniel “BerzerkDC” Chlebowczyk [Couchwarriors], Yousseff Faddoul [Sydney FGC Manager], Abi Adegbola [Tekken competitor], Darren Taing [Melbourne FGC Organizer]

Joel Berry II, the UNC Tar Heels star point guard who was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2017 Final Four, has suffered a video game-related injury. The standout men’s college basketball player broke his right hand after losing an NBA 2K18 match to a teammate and manager and punching a door in frustration, ESPN reports.

“It was just a freak accident,” teammate Theo Pinson, who was playing with Berry at the time, said (via Deadspin). Head coach Roy Williams said that Berry “did a silly thing.” Berry’s fierce competitiveness might have contributed to the outburst and wall-punching episode, Williams said.

Berry informed Pinson that he felt like he might have hurt himself before going to bed that evening after punching the door, but thought it wasn’t a big deal, apparently. As it turns out, it was a big deal.

Williams said Berry is expected to miss around four weeks, though he wasn’t exactly sure of the timeline. Whatever the case, UNC opens its season on November 10, so Berry could miss the season-opener.

Berry, a senior, is a standout player for the Tar Heels. He averaged 14.7 points last season and scored 22 points to lead all scorers in UNC’s national title victory over Gonzaga.

I think we have all become frustrated while playing video games, so Berry’s story is understandable, though the stakes are higher when you’re in the public eye as he is.

It appears that Metal Gear Survive will require an internet connection, though it is not immediately clear if this is for the full game or only a portion of it. People on NeoGAF discovered that a page on the game’s website contains the important disclaimer that “an internet connection is required to play the game.” The image below is from the PlayStation 4 version’s page, but the same disclaimer about the constant internet connection shows up on the pages for the Xbox One and PC versions as well.

Additionally, online multiplayer for PS4 and Xbox One will require PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold memberships, respectively.

Metal Gear Survive is a spinoff of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but with a focus on “survival action,” publisher Konami says. There are two main modes: single-player and co-op. You can read more about these unique modes here on the game’s website.

We have followed up with Konami in an attempt to get more details on Metal Gear Survive’s internet connection requirement. We’ll update this post with anything we may hear back.

Metal Gear Survive was originally due out in 2017. But at E3 this year, Konami announced a delay to early 2018, saying it needed more time to polish the game. Just this week, Konami confirmed a new release date in February 2018. For more on the game, check out all of GameSpot’s videos and written content here.

The Flash continues to bring campy humor to season 4. We meet a ridiculous new villain named Hazard, and an old character returns to help Team Flash! Chastity breaks down season 4, episode 3 – “Luck Be a Lady”!

A demo for Sonic Forces has made its way to the Japanese Nintendo eShop ahead of its release next month, but it leaves much to be desired.

As GameXplain discovered, the demo offers three stages to play, but players will struggle to finish any of the levels – after 60 seconds of playtime the game fades out and plays a cutscene before booting you back to the menu screen. Kind of incredibly, that cutscene is longer than the amount of time you’re allowed to actually play.

You can only download the preview on the Japanese eShop, which involves creating a new Nintendo Account for the region – find out how to do that with our guide.

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Bungie has admitted that some players of Destiny 2 on PC had been “banned in error” and has overturned those decisions.

Yesterday, we saw multiple reports that Destiny 2 PC players were being banned en masse from the game, with no explanation given as to why.

In a security update following the outcry, Bungie attempted to explain its banning process, saying that bans were applied to around 400 players “who were using tools that pose a threat to the shared ecosystem of the game”.

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Want IGN UK Deals in your social feeds? Like us on Facebook and follow me on Twitter for the most up-to-date bargains.

Check out my Xbox One X Preorder Guide here.

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The PC version is finally out, and guess what: it’s the best way to play Destiny 2.

There is such a thing as a gaming router, and we’ve tested a bunch of them to find out which is the best.

This series recently became the longest continuously running comic in the history of the TMNT franchise. Now TMNT reaches another milestone as it hits the issue #75 mark and wraps up the “Trial of Krang” storyline. But whole eventful, this oversized issue is also badly disjointed and poorly paced. In short, not the best way to ring in this milestone.

It’s possible that some of TMNT #75’s problems could be solved merely by splitting the book into two separate issues. The first half of Tom Waltz’s script focuses mainly on an epic space battle with the Malignoid Swarm, with the second transitioning back to Krang’s trial and the ensuing legal drama. It makes for a very jarring transition. The clashing art styles at work here don’t exactly help. Worse, the sudden transition from space battles to courtroom drama only serves to make the former feel all the more superfluous. The resolution is so simple and easy that it robs the conflict of drama.

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