Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: The Familiarity of Powersliding

The mascot kart racer has seen a major resurgence in recent times, with the next few months packed with adorably familiar faces zooming around on outlandish tracks. From the caricatured visages on show in F1 Race Stars to the comforting plushness of LittleBigPlanet Karting, it’s a pretty packed marketplace. As Mario Kart established long ago, this is a genre that lives or dies based on its multiplayer; it was with a sense of trepidation that we sat down to try out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It comes down to this.

The game’s multiplayer is divided between online, in which up to 10 players can compete, and offline splitscreen which supports four players on most consoles, with an extra player being supported on Wii U thanks to the GamePad’s screen. Additionally, while the online mode only supports competitive mode, if you’re playing offline with some mates you can work co-operatively to try and beat the computer.

The first thing to note about the game is just how familiar it all feels; if you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature. With regards to multiplayer, this means anyone with even the slightest level of competency in the genre won’t have any problem leaving the AI racers in the dust on anything but the hardest difficulty setting.

“

If you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature.

Partly, this is down to the balanced range of weaponry on offer; while each of the characters has a unique ‘All-Star’ move, there are no blue shells here. Granted, if you’re in last then the odds of you getting one of the more powerful weapons is increased, but as it should be, individual skill is the only real guarantee of moving you up in the rankings.

While on the topic of individual skill, one of the best features on offer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is that experience gained in multiplayer transfers over into your single player campaign, and vice versa. It’s a nice touch that really encourages inviting mates round for a game; after all, four lots of experience means that when they all head home an even wider arrange of powered-up characters will be available for you to use in the World Tour campaign.

The way it works is that each character earns experience points when racing in order to level, up to a maximum cap of five. Doing so unlocks mods for that racer, which are fixed bonuses that can be switched between pre-race in order to customise the character to suit your playstyle. So if you’re a fan of Knuckles but find his handling somewhat lacking, you’ll be able to pimp it out after reaching a suitable level in order to excel with the red echidna.

The nature of the levels, with most featuring some combination of land, sea and air racing, means that they feel suitably varied but inevitably you’re going to have some tracks that you perform better on. When we tried it out, racing on land usually saw us fly into the lead but the second we took to the air and had to deal with navigating vertically as well as horizontally, in order to pursue boosts and dodge weapons, things got slightly messier.

It’s this part of the multiplayer experience where Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed stands out. While much of the gameplay is reminiscent of other games in the genre, the fact that you’re likely to be better than your mates in certain vehicles than others means level selection becomes that much more important, and you’ll want to try them all. Throw in the well-balanced weapons and ability to mod characters to suit your playstyle and you’ve got a multiplayer experience with a focus on skill as much as fun.

Sumo Digital is creating a game that’s shaping up to be a refinement on a familiar formula that tries to be different from most other offerings out there; just don’t expect it to transform the kart racing genre, despite the title.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is not a car, boat or plane. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: The Familiarity of Powersliding

The mascot kart racer has seen a major resurgence in recent times, with the next few months packed with adorably familiar faces zooming around on outlandish tracks. From the caricatured visages on show in F1 Race Stars to the comforting plushness of LittleBigPlanet Karting, it’s a pretty packed marketplace. As Mario Kart established long ago, this is a genre that lives or dies based on its multiplayer; it was with a sense of trepidation that we sat down to try out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It comes down to this.

The game’s multiplayer is divided between online, in which up to 10 players can compete, and offline splitscreen which supports four players on most consoles, with an extra player being supported on Wii U thanks to the GamePad’s screen. Additionally, while the online mode only supports competitive mode, if you’re playing offline with some mates you can work co-operatively to try and beat the computer.

The first thing to note about the game is just how familiar it all feels; if you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature. With regards to multiplayer, this means anyone with even the slightest level of competency in the genre won’t have any problem leaving the AI racers in the dust on anything but the hardest difficulty setting.

“

If you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature.

Partly, this is down to the balanced range of weaponry on offer; while each of the characters has a unique ‘All-Star’ move, there are no blue shells here. Granted, if you’re in last then the odds of you getting one of the more powerful weapons is increased, but as it should be, individual skill is the only real guarantee of moving you up in the rankings.

While on the topic of individual skill, one of the best features on offer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is that experience gained in multiplayer transfers over into your single player campaign, and vice versa. It’s a nice touch that really encourages inviting mates round for a game; after all, four lots of experience means that when they all head home an even wider arrange of powered-up characters will be available for you to use in the World Tour campaign.

The way it works is that each character earns experience points when racing in order to level, up to a maximum cap of five. Doing so unlocks mods for that racer, which are fixed bonuses that can be switched between pre-race in order to customise the character to suit your playstyle. So if you’re a fan of Knuckles but find his handling somewhat lacking, you’ll be able to pimp it out after reaching a suitable level in order to excel with the red echidna.

The nature of the levels, with most featuring some combination of land, sea and air racing, means that they feel suitably varied but inevitably you’re going to have some tracks that you perform better on. When we tried it out, racing on land usually saw us fly into the lead but the second we took to the air and had to deal with navigating vertically as well as horizontally, in order to pursue boosts and dodge weapons, things got slightly messier.

It’s this part of the multiplayer experience where Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed stands out. While much of the gameplay is reminiscent of other games in the genre, the fact that you’re likely to be better than your mates in certain vehicles than others means level selection becomes that much more important, and you’ll want to try them all. Throw in the well-balanced weapons and ability to mod characters to suit your playstyle and you’ve got a multiplayer experience with a focus on skill as much as fun.

Sumo Digital is creating a game that’s shaping up to be a refinement on a familiar formula that tries to be different from most other offerings out there; just don’t expect it to transform the kart racing genre, despite the title.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is not a car, boat or plane. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: The Familiarity of Powersliding

The mascot kart racer has seen a major resurgence in recent times, with the next few months packed with adorably familiar faces zooming around on outlandish tracks. From the caricatured visages on show in F1 Race Stars to the comforting plushness of LittleBigPlanet Karting, it’s a pretty packed marketplace. As Mario Kart established long ago, this is a genre that lives or dies based on its multiplayer; it was with a sense of trepidation that we sat down to try out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It comes down to this.

The game’s multiplayer is divided between online, in which up to 10 players can compete, and offline splitscreen which supports four players on most consoles, with an extra player being supported on Wii U thanks to the GamePad’s screen. Additionally, while the online mode only supports competitive mode, if you’re playing offline with some mates you can work co-operatively to try and beat the computer.

The first thing to note about the game is just how familiar it all feels; if you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature. With regards to multiplayer, this means anyone with even the slightest level of competency in the genre won’t have any problem leaving the AI racers in the dust on anything but the hardest difficulty setting.

“

If you’ve ever touched a kart racer, then its combination of boosts, jumps and drifts will feel like second nature.

Partly, this is down to the balanced range of weaponry on offer; while each of the characters has a unique ‘All-Star’ move, there are no blue shells here. Granted, if you’re in last then the odds of you getting one of the more powerful weapons is increased, but as it should be, individual skill is the only real guarantee of moving you up in the rankings.

While on the topic of individual skill, one of the best features on offer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is that experience gained in multiplayer transfers over into your single player campaign, and vice versa. It’s a nice touch that really encourages inviting mates round for a game; after all, four lots of experience means that when they all head home an even wider arrange of powered-up characters will be available for you to use in the World Tour campaign.

The way it works is that each character earns experience points when racing in order to level, up to a maximum cap of five. Doing so unlocks mods for that racer, which are fixed bonuses that can be switched between pre-race in order to customise the character to suit your playstyle. So if you’re a fan of Knuckles but find his handling somewhat lacking, you’ll be able to pimp it out after reaching a suitable level in order to excel with the red echidna.

The nature of the levels, with most featuring some combination of land, sea and air racing, means that they feel suitably varied but inevitably you’re going to have some tracks that you perform better on. When we tried it out, racing on land usually saw us fly into the lead but the second we took to the air and had to deal with navigating vertically as well as horizontally, in order to pursue boosts and dodge weapons, things got slightly messier.

It’s this part of the multiplayer experience where Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed stands out. While much of the gameplay is reminiscent of other games in the genre, the fact that you’re likely to be better than your mates in certain vehicles than others means level selection becomes that much more important, and you’ll want to try them all. Throw in the well-balanced weapons and ability to mod characters to suit your playstyle and you’ve got a multiplayer experience with a focus on skill as much as fun.

Sumo Digital is creating a game that’s shaping up to be a refinement on a familiar formula that tries to be different from most other offerings out there; just don’t expect it to transform the kart racing genre, despite the title.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is not a car, boat or plane. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Sinister Review

The haunted house movie has had something of a resurgence in recent years, with Insidious and the Paranormal Activity franchise crafting original and effective spins on the popular sub-genre. And you can now add Sinister to that list, with the new horror from Exorcism of Emily Rose helmer Scott Derrickson pushing all the right buttons to scare the living daylights out of its audience.

Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswald, a true-crime writer who hit the jackpot with a book called Kentucky Blood some 10 years previous, and has been trying to replicate that success ever since.

He does so by moving his family to a small town in which a heinous crime with an unsolved mystery has taken place, documenting the police investigation - warts-and-all - and putting it down in book form before getting out while the going is good.

Sinister starts with Ellison taking this approach one step further, moving his family - unbeknownst to them - to a house in which a quadruple murder has recently taken place. Four members of the same family were hung from a tree, with the fifth - a little girl - now missing.

Needless to say, the local constabulary are unhappy with his arrival, but Ellison is a determined soul, and so presses on with his task, and when he finds a box of old home movies in the attic, he knows he is onto something.

Because the Super 8s contain horror of the most tragic kind, featuring footage of blissful family gatherings punctuated by that same clan's brutal murder. It's shocking stuff, but the kind of morbid mystery that Ellison has been desperately searching for in an effort to have another hit.

So rather than telling the police, he begins his own investigation into where the tapes came from, and what links them, with predictably devastating results.

It starts with the family beginning to break down, his wife doubting Ellison's motives, their daughter miserable in the new town; their son acting up at school and having night terrors at home.

But the content of the tapes soon start to take its toll on Ellison himself, the writer turning to drink to deal with the horrors therein, and even starting to question his own sanity as he delves deeper into the mystery.

And that's all we're saying on the story front, suffice to say that Sinister has a few twists and turns up its sleeves, as well as its fair share of scream-out-loud moments.

Some of them are of the lazy variety, with jump-scares in abundance, keeping the audience on their toes but lacking any sort of substance.

The home movie sequences are genuinely terrifying however, with director Derrickson filling the screen with disturbing imagery that's truly the stuff of nightmares, turning us into voyeurs as we in turn witness the actions of a voyeur on screen.

It's all anchored by a marvellous central performance from Ethan Hawke, who remains watchable and even sympathetic in spite of the fact that he's constantly putting his family in danger throughout the film.

Juliet Rylance fares less well as the long-suffering and woefully underwritten wife, although there are nice supporting performances from James Ransone as a somewhat eccentric police deputy and Vincent D'Onofrio as an academic specialising in the occult.

The deaths are imaginative, the score effective (though a little overbearing at times), and the final revelation, while somewhat underwhelming, does unify the story in a strangely satisfying way.

Kudos must therefore to Derrickson and his co-writer C. Robert Cargill for finding a new and original spin on the found footage genre at a time when the market is being saturated with such films, and making guilty voyeurs of us all.

So while Sinister is hardly a game-changer, it is an extremely effective horror feature; one that creates its own highly original mythology, and wholeheartedly terrifies from start-to-finish.

Sinister was the Secret Screening at the 2012 SXSW Festival, and will hit screens worldwide in October.

Source : ign[dot]com

Thanos: Son of Titan Canceled

After his appearance in The Avengers and with the reveal of Guardians of the Galaxy being the next Marvel film in the works, Thanos has made an aggressive resurgence in the pages of Marvel Comics. In fact, just earlier this month Marvel made a big to-do about a new series called Thanos: Son of Titan, a five-issue mini-series by Joe Keatinge and Rich Elson that was set to explore the character's origin. I say "was," because as revealed in a Marvel retailer update, the series has been scrapped.

Appearing in this month's Previews catalogue, the Marvel Mailer update to comic shops read, "*THANOS SON OF TITAN #1 (OF 5) & VAR (AUG120580-1, $2.99, FOC 09/24/12) has been canceled." Sometimes this happens and the book is simply resolicited for a later date, but that isn't the case here.

I reached out to Marvel and they confirmed the cancellation but declined to comment further. It's strange to be sure, as this was a series Marvel pushed pretty hard, including a debut in USA Today and lots of buzz at Comic-Con a few weeks ago.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He will love Star Wars until the end of his days.

Source : ign[dot]com