Play Halo 4 With IGN on November 6

Halo 4 is launching -- if you're in the eastern hemisphere, you may already be pummeling Prometheans -- and the IGN Editors want to play multiplayer with you, our lovely readers.

So how can you get your chance to shoot us in the virtual face? Here's the scoop:

What: A ton of Halo 4 War Games.

When: November 6, 4:00pm Pacific/7:00pm Eastern

Where: Xbox Live, of course!

Who: You! Also, a handful of IGN staffers will be online and ready to get splattered by your Ghost, including Ryan McCaffrey, Mitch Dyer, Casey Lynch, and more.

How: Send a message or friend request to one of the following IGN editor gamertags telling us you'd like to play. We'll do our best to rotate everyone in and mix up the playlists, and each editor will have his or her own lobby so we can play with as many of you as possible.

• Ryan McCaffrey, Xbox Executive Editor: Ryan IGN
• Mitch Dyer, Xbox Associate Editor: MitchyD88
• Casey Lynch, Editor-in-Chief: Lynchtastic
• Destin Legarie, Editorial Producer: DestinL
• Sean Allen, Community Manager: ImNotSeanAtIGN
• Alfredo Diaz, Video Editor: AlfredoIGN
• Eriq Martin, Community Contributor: ereeeek
• Sean Finnegan, Associate Video Producer: Finnegan ii
• Sam Claiborn, Wikis Executive Editor: OKMANIAK
• Ashley Jenkins, Head of Community and Social Media: jinx
• Steve Butts, Managing Editor, Steve IGN
• J Kartje, Social Media Coordinator: jsauce ign

While you wait, why not read/watch our Halo 4 review? We think it's swell. See you tomorrow!

Source : ign[dot]com

Medal Of Honor Warfighter - Community Action Day

Last week, IGN and its partner site AskMen took a handful of carefully selected readers for Special Forces exercises with EA to celebrate the release of Medal of Honor Warfighter. We shipped eight dedicated community members to a secret location in Hampshire for a day of Airsoft activities including a four-way deathmatch, designed to recreate Warfighter's frenetic co-op mode, before letting our two teams loose on the multiplayer.

Check out the video and the photos below for a taste of what it was like going to war with IGN.

Team IGN and AskMen ready for battle

The AskMen and IGN readers looking mean and moody.

Team EA/PWNED team limbering up for war.

Can I get a HOORAH?

IGN's Dan Kilby - Action Man

No missiles were harmed in the making of this photo.

Time to test those thumbs instead of the trigger fingers.

No time to talk. There's a war to fight.

Tom is IGN's UK Community Manager and he already misses his Airsoft gun which he nicknamed Mabel. You can stay abreast of his current pet peeves by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Medal Of Honor Warfighter - Community Action Day

Last week, IGN and its partner site AskMen took a handful of carefully selected readers for Special Forces exercises with EA to celebrate the release of Medal of Honor Warfighter. We shipped eight dedicated community members to a secret location in Hampshire for a day of Airsoft activities including a four-way deathmatch, designed to recreate Warfighter's frenetic co-op mode, before letting our two teams loose on the multiplayer.

Check out the video and the photos below for a taste of what it was like going to war with IGN.

Team IGN and AskMen ready for battle

The AskMen and IGN readers looking mean and moody.

Team EA/PWNED team limbering up for war.

Can I get a HOORAH?

IGN's Dan Kilby - Action Man

No missiles were harmed in the making of this photo.

Time to test those thumbs instead of the trigger fingers.

No time to talk. There's a war to fight.

Tom is IGN's UK Community Manager and he already misses his Airsoft gun which he nicknamed Mabel. You can stay abreast of his current pet peeves by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Secret Avengers #31 Review

Secret Avengers #30 offered readers a nice little swerve by making Taskmaster, rather than Max Fury, become the wielder of the three-piece crown the Shadow Council have been lusting after all this time. Either way, the outcome is bad for the Secret Avengers, as the malignant force known as Abyss is threatening to spread across the globe and consume everything. And only Venom and Ant-Man are left standing in the field. Much like Uncanny X-Force, Rick Remender is a master of pitting his heroes against insurmountable odds.

The Venom/Ant-Man dynamic proves to be one of the highlights of this arc. They're easily the most psychologically damaged of the various team members, and their mutual lack of trust in each other adds a fun edge to their retaliatory attack. The fact that the reader has no idea when Ant-Man might suddenly give up his facade and betray the team adds an extra tinge of drama.

But as has always been the case with this story, it's the pencils of Matteo Scalera that are the main draw. Scalera has really exploded onto the superhero scene with this series. His pencils offer all the gritty darkness one would expect from the seedy underbelly of the Marvel Universe, but he balances that with a sense of style and energy that give the book a distinctly different feel from the past two years' worth of stories.

If there are any complaints to be had with the series right now, it's that it doesn't seem overly interested in functioning as a team book. Many of the Avengers are out of the picture and/or brainwashed, leaving only a handful with any significant screen time. The new Masters of Evil are a disappointment as well. They've become nothing more than recognizable vessels for Abyss to speak through. Still, there's enough drama and intriguing character dynamics, as well as fantastic art, to keep the arc humming along.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following Jesse on Twitter, or on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

AU: Win a James Bond 50th Anniversary Prize-Pack

To celebrate the release of  Bond 50: The Complete Blu-ray Collection (out now), IGN Australia are giving ten IGN readers the chance to win Bond 50: The Complete Blu-ray Collection, Bond 007 Legends on Xbox or PlayStation 3, a Bond 50th Anniversary limited edition t-shirt, a Bond 50th Anniversary key-ring, a Bond 50th mini poster book and a Bond 50th Anniversary postcard book.

For your chance to win, simply like us on our Facebook page, find the Bond 50: The Complete Blu-ray Collection Prizes picture on our wall (or click here), and post a hilarious caption in the comments section in 50 words or less.

The wittiest entries – judged, as always, by IGN AU's editorial staff - will win a prize-pack, with ten in total up for grabs.

The prize-pack consists of:

• BOND 50 BLU-RAY COLLECTION ($199.95)
• BOND 007 LEGENDS ON XBOX OR PS3 ($69.95)
• BOND 50TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION T-SHIRT ($44.95)
• BOND 50TH ANNIVERSARY KEYRING ($19.95)
• BOND 50TH ANNIVERSARY MINI-POSTER BOOK ($24.95)
• BOND 50TH ANNIVERSARY POSTCARD BOOK ($14.95)

TOTAL PRIZE PACK VALUE $374.70

Entrants must be over 15 and residents of Australia.

Bond 50: The Complete Blu-ray Collection – all 22 Bond films available together for the first time on high-definition Blu-ray. Includes all-new bonus disc and over 120 hours of extras. Out now.

Source : ign[dot]com

Is Dust 514 Coming Out in October?

The IGN readers strike again. This time, a news tip has come from Uzair Syed, who linked us to this video from Fox Business. In that video, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s President and CEO Jack Tretton sounds off on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, but it’s something he says about the upcoming PS3-exclusive free-to-play shooter Dust 514 in particular that proves mighty interesting.

When asked about the trend towards cheaper and outright free-to-play games, Tretton notes that PlayStation platforms already have free-to-play titles. “We do have free-to-play games. A game called Dust 514 is a full-blown first-person shooter available on PlayStation 3 that not only allows you to play against your friends on PS3, but also against people on the PC.” When asked for clarification on if it’s “Dust” or “Dusk,” Tretton confirms it’s Dust, following up with a seemingly innocuous statement: “Coming out next month.”

There’s also plenty of interesting data in the video interview. Over 100 million PlayStation Network accounts have been created, and 44 million of them are in the United States. 2.2 million PlayStation Vitas have been sold worldwide, along with 63.9 million PlayStation 3 consoles. Over 21 million PS3s are owned in the US.

We’ve reached out the PR firm covering Dust 514 on behalf of developer CCP to confirm or clarify Tretton’s statement, and will update when we hear back.

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

Source : ign[dot]com

Avengers Academy #36 Review

Avengers Academy doesn't have much time left on the stands. And Christos Gage doesn't seem to mind twisting the knife as readers prepare to bid farewell to this team. Of course, that's really a good thing, as issue #36 is host to all sorts of great character moments. It just hurts so good.

In this issue, the fractured team begins to come together again in order to combat Jeremy Briggs' attempt to de-power the world's superhumans. Many Academy members are forced to make fateful choices during the course of battle. No scene is more stirring than the one between Mettle and Haz-Mat. If you thought their material in issue #35 was tear-jerking, this issue raises the bar again. But Gage also has strong material in store for characters like Reptil, White Tiger, and X-23. Many of these characters have been severely down and out since Briggs launched his attack, and it's satisfying to see them cast aside teenage doubts and become full-fledged heroes again. My main complaint, as with last issue, is that it's disappointing to see Briggs degenerate into full-fledged villain mode. The character was much more enjoyable when readers were able to sympathize and even side with him and his grand plans.

Andrea Di Vito sticks around to render this issue. While it's a shame we couldn't have one, consistent artist for the entire arc (important as it is to the series as a whole), Di Vito fits in nicely with the general tone established by Tom Grummett and others. There are some fun metaphysical scenes involving characters like White Tiger and Reptil that allow Di Vito to branch out and deliver slightly more surreal imagery.

Much of this character building seems to lay the groundwork for future stories, which of course raises hope that maybe Gage won't be done with these characters just because the series is ending. No doubt there's still a wealth of material to explore in the coming weeks.

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

Walmart Leaks Avengers: Season One

Both Marvel and DC are always searching for new ways to attract fans of their respective movies and convert them into comic readers. This year, Marvel has focused a significant amount of attention on the Season One line of graphic novels. These standalone hardcovers offer streamlined, contemporary versions of early Silver Age adventures. So far, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, X-Men, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and Hulk have all received the Season One treatment, with Doctor Strange next in line.

Oddly, there is one strange omission in that lineup. What about the Avengers? Especially considering they just had an extremely popular movie, one would think Earth's Mightiest Heroes would be a natural fit for the Season One line. As it turns out, there is an Avengers: Season One in the works, and it's coming sooner than fans might expect.

Walmart's website revealed the book's existence over the weekend. It turns out that the retailer will be selling a special bundle that includes the Avengers Blu-ray and the Season One graphic novel. The set is listed with a $39.99 MSRP and is currently available for pre-order for $25 on the site. The release date in September 25, the same as the regular DVD/Blu-ray release.

Initially, the question was whether Avengers: Season One would actually offer an original story lie the others, or merely provide reprints of older Avengers material. But Peter David soon set the record straight on his blog:

Bleeding Cool announced yesterday that Marvel is releasing a special edition through Walmart of The Avengers on Blu-Ray and DVD, packaged with an all new, original “Avengers” graphic novel. But who (they wondered), WHO could possibly have been involved with the creation of it?

Yeah, uh, that would be me. One hundred page original Avengers graphic novel. I’ll let you find out the artist(s) on your own, but the entire story is by yours truly.

That still leaves a number of other questions, not least of which the identities of the art team. The cover illustration was rendered by Adi Granov, but did he also provide the interior art?Also unclear is the exact size and format of the graphic novel. Will it be a standard-trim hardcover like the rest of the Season One line, or will it be a smaller, cheaper volume with dimensions similar to the Blu-ray case? Will the book eventually be made available at other retailers or digitally? We expect that Marvel will have an official announcement forthcoming.

Thanks to Bleeding Cool for the original tip-off on this story.

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

Beta Codes for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Going Out Now

The IGN readers strike again! IGN PlayStation reader Matthew Remenak reached out to us tonight to let us know he received a beta code for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale in the mail.

“Congratulations on joining the Developer Beta for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale!” the e-mail reads. “Here you’ll be among the first to experience the iconic characters of the PlayStation universe coming together in an epic fighting game! We’re very excited to show you the game and all the fantastic features we’ve been working on and we can’t wait to see everyone go all-out in battle to see who’s truly the best!”

Along with a typical 12 character code to redeem on the PlayStation Store, players are given access to PlayStation All-Stars beta message boards to leave feedback about the game for the developer, SuperBot Entertainment.

As for what the beta is aiming to learn, “The focus of this private beta will be to stress-test the sever’s load capability and in-game features.” As such, “Please note that the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale close beta is a testing program for a work in progress. The game you play today is not indicative of the quality of the final product or its ultimate performance, frame rate, effects, or feature set.”

As seen in the image taken from the e-mail below, the beta has two sets of dates and times right now in which it will be active: tomorrow, Friday, July 27th at noon until Saturday, July 28th at 11:59pm PT, and Friday, August 3rd at noon until Saturday, August 4th at 11:59pm PT.

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

Source : ign[dot]com