IGN Pro League Welcomes Alex "GoldenboyFTW" Mendez

IGN Pro League is thrilled to announce the addition of another very talented caster to our team: Alex "GoldenboyFTW" Mendez!

Alex will be assisting AskJoshy and Kevin Knocke in its ShootMania endeavors and is an extremely valuable asset to the organization. Here is a small biography of Alex and some of the work he's done in the past:

"For over 9 years Alex "GoldenboyFTW" Mendez has been a strong advocate for eSports. Having competed in games like Halo, Call of Duty and Shadowrun, Alex brings a wealth of experience as a commentator. Following a breakout event at MLG Providence 2011 for Call of Duty: Black Ops, Alex continued to flourish in his career as an eSports Commentator for companies such as MLG, CSN, UMG Gaming, Hypefestation, WCG and TwitchTV and represents those companies with passion, integrity and professionalism. Alex is an ambitious professional who has remained loyal to his roots and stood firmly by his principles through the years of fluctuating fortunes.  Brimming with confidence, oozing with optimism yet grounded by humility etched into his very fabric while growing up in an unforgiving Big Apple, "GoldenboyFTW" is undoubtedly ready for the next challenge on the horizon."

Here's a statement from Alex himself: "I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work for the IGN Pro League. If you would have told me a year ago that this opportunity would present itself I wouldn't have believed it possible. This is truly a dream come true and I'm humbled by the opportunity! I will do my absolute best to provide quality content and entertainment."

Please help us in welcome Alex by following and tweeting him at http://www.twitter.com/GoldenboyFTW! Check out his personal YouTube channel as well to see what he's been up to lately: http://www.youtube.com/user/GoldenboyFTWtv

Alex will start in our San Francisco office on Tuesday, October 23rd, learning the ropes, and appearing in ShootMania streams and videos very soon!

Source : ign[dot]com

Sony Reveals the Newest Perks for PlayStation Plus

Beginning today, October 16th, North American PlayStation Plus subscribers are going to get a host of new perks, in addition to some perks already in existence that will stick around past that date. New PlayStation Plus perks have yet to be announced in other territories.

For starters, PayDay: The Heist, the cooperative robbery/crime shooter, will be completely free to download. We liked PayDay when it was released on PS3 a year ago. Additionally, The Unfinished Swan, which we gave a 9.0, will be available early to PS+ users for $15. It’s available to everyone else next week.

But wait, there’s more! A new beta for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale becomes available today for PlayStation Plus users. Players can use either PS3 or Vita, and play in 2-on-2 and free-for-all matches over PSN. The same six characters from the previous beta – Colonel Radec, Fat Princess, Sweet Tooth, Sly Cooper, Parappa the Rapper and Kratos – are the six characters included in the beta.

Finally, the following games and DLC will receive discounts for all users, while Monster World IV and SEGA Rally Arcade will receive steep discounts only for PS+ members.

PS3 Games: Amy, Costume Quest, Dead Nation, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Dead Space 2, Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime, Infamous: Festival of Blood and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Vita Games: Plants vs. Zombies and Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack.

DLC: Call of Duty: Black Ops (Rezurrection), Costume Quest (Complete) and Zen Pinball 2 (The Paranormal, Sorcerer’s Lair and Plants vs. Zombies tables).

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter (@notaxation) and IGN (Moriarty-IGN) and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : ign[dot]com

Pushmo Sequel, Epic Mickey Demo Headed to eShop

Nintendo has announced a slew of new games headed to the 3DS eShop. In addition to newly-announced release dates for Virtual Console games and the biggest retail games becoming downloadable, Nintendo announced that Pushmo -- the eShop’s biggest hit -- will have a sequel called Crashmo.

Crashmo lets players use “a whole new kind of action-puzzle play,” with new gravity mechanics like floating blocks, doors and switches. Players will “push, pull and slide each puzzle’s colorful blocks in order to climb to the top,” but unsupported blocks will fall to the ground. Crashmo contains “enhanced puzzle-creation and sharing features” and will launch on November 22nd.

Beyond Crashmo, Nintendo also announced the following games for eShop:

• NightSky -- an action-puzzle game with “cerebral challenges that fill uniquely designed, picturesque worlds” where players “maneuver a sphere by using realistic physics to advance.” (October 25th)
• Fluidity: Spin Cycle -- use tilt controls to maneuver Eddy, a puddle of water, “through a maze-like, magical world” and switch from water to ice or a steam cloud to solve puzzles. (December 27th)
• Three games from Level-5 including Suda 51’s Liberation Maiden, Aero Porter by Yoot Saito and Crimson Shroud by Yasumi Matsuno (Holiday 2012)
• Tokyo Crash Mobs -- an action-puzzle game where players must survive “three chaotic weeks” as they “they take on anyone and anything that gets in their way.” (Early 2013)

Nintendo will also release two demos on the eShop for Style Savvy: Trendsetters, with the first launching today and the second available on November 1st. Players will be able to style clothes and make up, participate in fashion contests and more before the full game launches on October 22nd. The following game demos are also “coming soon” to the eShop:

• Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!!
• Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion
• LEGO Lord of the Rings
• Moshi Monsters: Moshlings Theme Park
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

“The Nintendo eShop demonstrates Nintendo’s commitment to providing consumers with unique digital content through a combination of creativity and convenience,” said Nintendo of America executive vice president of sales & marketing Scott Moffitt. “The variety and quality of games coming this year is unmatched, from new entries in established franchises to original properties.”

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

TGS: Red, Blue Vita Headed to Japan

During its conference at the Tokyo Game Show today, Sony showed off two new colors for PlayStation Vita: red and blue. In addition to the black Vita available at launch and the white Vita announced in May, this marks four Vita colors available so far overall.

For now, the red and blue Vitas have only been announced for Japan. The white Vita will launch alongside Assassin’s Creed Liberation in North America on October 30th.

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

Vote for your favorite players to the World All Star Team in the GSL World Championship

As many of you know, IPL5 takes place November 29 to December 2. In addition to the main tournament at IPL5, there will be the Semifinals and Final of GSL Code S as well as the return of the GSL World Championship!

Stephano and NaNiWa have both been invited to the team, but we still have 5 spots to fill for the World All Stars!

Vote for your favorite European and American players in the polls below. They will be played into a 16 person bracket (1 for EU, 1 for NA) to compete for the last 5 spots!

America

Europe

Stay tuned to follow the GSL World Championship all the way to IPL5!

Source : ign[dot]com

Gravity Falls' Big Video Game Episode

Since its debut in June, the animated series Gravity Falls has proven to be a very clever and witty addition to the Disney Channel lineup. And tonight’s brand new episode, called “Fight Fighters”, should prove especially notable for IGN readers, as it’s all about video games.

In “Fight Fighters”, Dipper (Jason Ritter) is challenged to a video game contest and is shocked when his favorite fighting game character, Rumble McSkirmish (prolific animation and video game voice actor Brian Bloom) comes to life to help him. However, Dipper soon finds that controlling Rumble is not so easy…

Check out a couple of clips from the episode below. While old school fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are the clear initial inspiration, you’ll see some notable nods to other games as well.

Gravity Falls: “Fight Fighters” airs Friday, September 14th at 9:30pm ET/PT on Disney Channel.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Amazing Spider-Man #693 Review

After two issues, Alpha isn't exactly proving himself to be a memorable addition to the cast of Amazing Spider-Man. The idea of Peter Parker mentoring a young hero with plenty of power but no sense of responsibility is perfectly sound. The problem is that the execution feels half-baked. Like the debut chapter, issue #693 spends plenty of time telling readers how powerful and important and special Alpha is without actually proving it. Meanwhile, Alpha's personality is lacking, and the character is almost wholly unlikable at this point. Looking at Joshua Fialkov's backup feature from issue #692 and certain portions of AvX, it's clear that pairing Spidey with a young, inexperienced foil can yield great results. But not in this case.

Another element that drags this arc down is the return of the Jackal and his science projects. Dan Slott put the villain to perfectly good use during Spider-Island. However, nothing in this story suggests he needed to return to menace Spider-Man so soon. Jackal's latest plot seemingly begins and ends in this issue, and it just reads like a lump of poorly paced filler material that doesn't do much to grow the relationship between Spidey and Alpha.

Humberto Ramos' artwork is at least reasonably well suited to the tone of the story. His rendition of Alpha is brimming with energy, and he delivers some more creepy Spider clones. As usual, it's really the civilian characters who suffer. Aunt May and Mary Jane are too stylized to be convincing, with the former sporting some wonky facial work and the latter taking on an overly masculine appearance at times.

There's some decent character work to enjoy in this issue as Peter interacts with Max Modell, his family, and various superhuman allies. Sadly, none of it involves Alpha himself. As poorly executed as these two issues have been, my enthusiasm for the series and the build-up to Amazing Spider-Man #700 is beginning to wane.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. He can't wait until he's old enough to feel ways about stuff. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com