With so many new games and movies coming out, it can be hard to keep up. Lucky for you, IGN is here to help with a weekly round-up of the biggest releases each and every week. Check out the latest releases for this week, and be sure to come back next Monday for a new update.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Traveller's Tales announced a new character pack for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, the Asgard Character Pack.
The new DLC adds characters from Thor: The Dark World to the newest LEGO title. The new playable LEGO figures include Thor's father Odin, Hogun, Fandral, Volstagg, Sif, Kurse, Malekith and Jane Foster.
The Asgard Character Pack is available now on Xbox LIVE, the PS Store and PC for $1.99. Additionally, the Super Pack is still available for $4.99, featuring heroes and villains such as Symbiote Spider-Man, Falcon, Thanos, A-Bomb Beta-Ray Bill and Winter Soldier.
Mike Mahardy is a freelance writer for various outlets, and is currently reading Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. To hear Mike rant, you can follow him on Twitter.
The tale of the vengeance of the 47 Ronin is perhaps Japan’s most well-known and beloved legend extolling the virtues of the Bushido honor code. Based on real events in 18th century Japan, the story follows 47 loyal samurai who become ronin (masteries) when their leader Lord Asano is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) after he is accused of assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka. The men waited, planned for over a year, and then avenged their lord by killing Kira.
The anniversary of their campaign is celebrated on the 14th of December each year via fictionalized depictions of the event known as Chushingura. Multiple embellished and otherwise reimagined versions of the tale have emerged over the years. Everything ranging from the 1962 film Chushingura to an all Hello Kitty adaptation is available; which is likely the reason that director Carl Rinsch and Universal Pictures felt at liberty to add their own Westernized/fantastical twist.
Riot Games has unveiled the temporary Snowdown Showdown mode for League of Legends. The Snowdown will be around until January 2nd, during which players will be able to compete in 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 duels on the Haunted Abyss map. In addition, tons of holiday festivities have been added to the free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA).
For those who want to show their Snowdown spirit, champions including Ziggs, Fiddlesticks, Veigar, and Katarina all get festive holiday skins this year. You can even purchase a few Legacy Snowdown skins from the celebration last year. Riot's also spreading the holiday cheer with free seasonal sight and vision wards that look like snowmen and a gingerbread Teemo.
The Metal Gear Solid games are traditionally released on only a single platform at launch, so there's usually no reason to wonder about which version to choose. In the case of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, there are not only different platforms to choose from, but platforms from different generations to decide between, thanks to the game coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Having been asked which version is the right one for certain people, series creator Hideo Kojima took to Twitter over the weekend to answer that very question.
"I've been asked which
should buy. The feel of play & impression's similar as it's been made multiplatform/multigen this time," Kojima tweeted yesterday. "Sense of realism & graphics looks much better in next gen. So I'd say currentgen for those who can't buy next gen just yet & upgrade later."
My Chemical Romance singer and comic book writer Gerard Way dropped a nice little Christmas surprise for fans of his and artist Gabriel Ba's creator-owned comic, Umbrella Academy. Way posted the following on his Twitter feed over the weekend:
So I got a really nice email from Gabriel Ba the other day, he's an amazing comic artist who was the artist on Umbrella Academy. He was checking in to see how I was and that he was going to be finished with a project sometime next year, and we both agreed to do part 3 and 4 of Umbrella Academy, starting next year. I am almost finished with my music project and so it's time to get back into comics. Since I announced The Umbrella Academy part 3, a lot happened and my life changed a lot, so I never got to start it, but starting next year there's going to be a steady output of things I make. So I just wanna thank everyone who stayed a fan the past few years.
Existing somewhere between the saccharine and the sublime, director-star Ben Stiller's retelling of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an earnest, but not entirely effective fable about escaping the doldrums of daily life and seizing change. Very loosely based on the 1939 short story by James Thurber (which was previously produced for the screen in 1947 starring Danny Kaye), Stiller's adaptation depicts the title character as a nice, but forgettable man leading a humdrum, routine life.
Walter's elaborate daydreams involve fantasies of himself as an action hero or a romantic explorer. But in reality he's a meek man with a life so dull that a relentlessly helpful eHarmony call center rep (voiced by Patton Oswalt) tries to help him beef up his online profile so he can get some views. Walter really just hopes to catch the attention of Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), a co-worker who is also on eHarmony.
