GAL GADOT TALKS WONDER WOMAN AUDITION AND ADRESSESS BODY CRITICISM

From IGN.com

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Gal Gadot has been talking about landing the role of Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, revealing that the music of Beyonce helped her through the audition, and stating that criticism of her appearance hasn’t really bothered her.

Speaking to Israeli website Ynet (which we were alerted to via a translation on Batman-News.com) Gadot explained that she was incredibly nervous before her first audition opposite Ben Affleck:

“When I got there they put me in a trailer and after all the hair and makeup I had to wait a few hours. Waiting is auditioner's biggest enemy. I called [my husband] Yaron and told him I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t calm down. He told me ‘Gal, put on Beyonce. Move around. Don’t sit there frozen.’ I put on Diva and started dancing. Just when the song ended, I was all flushed, there was knock on the door calling me in.”

As for claims that she doesn't have the right build for the role, Gadot said “When I was younger I could take criticism really hard. But now it mostly amuses me. The true Amazons had one boob so it won’t bother them in their archery. So it’s not going to be like real Amazons. We always try to make everyone happy but we can’t.”

As for the film’s take on the character, Gadot revealed “She has unbelievable endurance. She is exceptionally strong. She can jump really high and practically fly. She knows tons of martial arts styles. She is a strong and serious woman.”

For more of that Ynet translation head to the Batman-News, while Dawn of Justice hits in 2016 and a standalone Wonder Woman will be released in 2017.

For this and more check out IGN.com

HALO 5: GUARDIANS TEASER TRAILER LEAKS, GETS PULLED

From IGN.com

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Update: And just like that, the video is now on the teaser tumblr page. We'll reach out to Microsoft to see if we can find out what happened. In the meantime, here it is:

 

Some very alert folks on Reddit spotted a teaser video for Halo 5: Guardians on YouTube, which was quickly yanked by Microsoft.

Trailer spoiler follows:

The video shows a bullet getting shot out of a gun. The video follows the bullet as it crashes into Master Chief's helmet, shattering it. The video ends with the Halo 5: Guardians logo and the hashtag #HuntTheTruth.

Yesterday we reported there's a Halo 5 teaser site counting down to 6 pm PT Sunday/1 am GMT Monday/11 am AET Monday. Interestingly, the bullet image on the teaser site is similar to the bullet from the teaser video. Whether it's all connected, we'll find in less than two days.

In other Halo 5 news, we reported this morning that Halo 5 will have dedicated multiplayer servers.

 

For this and more check out IGN.com

BIG HERO 6 NOW 2014'S HIGHEST-GROSSING ANIMATED MOVIE

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Disney's Big Hero 6 has earned over $620 million globally, becoming the highest-grossing animated movie of 2014.

With $221 million of its total coming from the domestic box office, Big Hero 6 is Walt Disney Animation Studios' third biggest domestic release of all time. Additionally, its worldwide total has now surpassed Tangled, making it the studio's third biggest global release behind Frozen and The Lion King.

 

Inspired by the Marvel comics of the same name, Big Hero 6 is now the biggest animated release from Disney or Pixar in China, bringing in over $51 million since its release two weeks ago, and the second biggest in Japan with over $75 million. It's also the second biggest Disney or PIxar animated release in Korea and Russia, and the biggest animated release of all time in Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Big Hero 6 hit theaters stateside on November 7, 2014, and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

 

For this and more check out IGN.com

CRYTEK CALLS NEW LICENSING DEAL 'HUGE,' WILL ANNOUNCE PARTNER SOON

From IGN.com 

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After a rocky 2014, Crytek is getting ready to announce details about its future following a licensing deal it describes as "huge."

 

Crytek followed up on reports of its financial difficulty last year with a confirmation that it had obtained enough capital to secure the company's future.

The developer-turned-publisher is preparing to release more details about this now, namely a licensing deal that it says has been in the works for a while.

"A lot of people are under the impression we had to find a new investor or something, but that wasn’t the case," Crytek PR head Jens Schaefer told Develop. "We made a licensing deal."

Crytek co-founder Faruk Yerli explained, "It was a huge one, probably the biggest one."

IGN has reached out to Crytek for further comment and will update with any details.

PAX East 2015: Splatoon

 From IGN.com

I can't deny it: when Splatoon was unveiled at E3 last year, I found it hard to match the enthusiasm shown by much of Nintendo's faithful. Without getting my hands on it, the concept sounded novel...perhaps a little too novel. But now that I've played it, and seen how immediately fun, and deceptively smart Platoon is, I can understand why people were so excited, and why there was a 2+ hour wait time to play it on the show floor.

The first thing that sets Splatoon immediately apart from other multiplayer arena shooters, is that kills and deaths don't really matter - at least not in the usual, immediate sense. It doesn't matter ow good your K/D is, or how long of a kill streak you're on if you aren't covering every surface in sight with your team's paint color. This one simple concept fundamentally changes your approach dramatically. You aren't looking for enemies to kill, you're scanning the mini-map to find areas that need painting, and wherever blue paint meets orange paint, you can almost always expect a firefight to happen. This is one of the ways that Splatoon keeps you moving, and in the action. There's no wandering around in search of an engagement; there's always someplace that needs a new coat of paint.

Following through with the idea of keeping players constantly engaged, respawn times are short, and getting back to where you're needed is as simple as looking at the gamepad, spotting an ally, and tapping them. You'll promptly (and amusingly) transform into a squid, and catapult through the air right to your teammate's position, ready to go all Jackson Pollock on everyone and everything around you. In a game all about winning fights, this might seem overpowering, but in Splatoon, the trade-off for grouping up is leaving more of your turf susceptible to being painted-over. That mobility cuts both ways.

Even in combat though, mobility is a huge factor. Any painted surface - walls included - can be traversed rapidly by, uhhhhh, "squidding" through them. Holding the left trigger also transforms you into a squid, quickly refilling your ink (read:ammo) reserves and letting you make escapes, or advances that you just couldn't in other games. You might paint up a wall to give yourself a quick way up to the next level above, or move forward along the wall and pop out behind an advancing opponent. Trying to squid through enemy paint will slow and damage you though, so smart players will cut off your advance with some paint of their own. I can only imagine how nutty this will get when people start getting good at all of it.

 

For this and more go to IGN.com 

ARROW: BRANDON ROUTH ON PUTTING ON THE ATOM'S SUIT AND (POSSIBLY) STEPPING IN FOR ARROW

This article obtained from IGN.com so for more about Atom & Arrow visit IGN.com

We finally got a good look at Brandon Routh's high-tech Atom suit in Arrow's "Nanda Parbat" - an episode which also saw Oliver facing an intriguing proposition from Ra's al Ghul, as well as Ray and Felicity's relationship being...taken up a notch.

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IGN was able to speak with the Atom himself, Brandon Routh, to get his thoughts on the suit, where Ray Palmer fits into the city, and what it might be like to have the Atom and Superman in a scene together.

A Whole New Suit

"This is different from the Arrow and Arsenal suits, and Canary - it's bada***" Routh said of his new look. "It's a whole different feeling from the Superman suit -- the only other suit that I've been in."

Routh of course played Superman in Bryan Singer's 2006 movie Superman Returns. His costume on Arrow, which is mechanical and allows him to fly, feels far more akin to Iron Man than anything else.

"It's a whole persona," the actor said, thinking about how this look altered his performance. "I mean, so is any suit that you put on, but this one is just different. It's cool."

Superman Vs The Atom

As mentioned, and many know, Routh's role on Arrow marks his return as a DC superhero.

"TV's just a whole different animal," Routh said of the differences between his experience playing Superman and now the Atom. "The speed at which you work; there's that. What's interesting is it's a long growth period, as we're finally starting to get into some of the Atom aspect of it. I was just Ray Palmer for a long period of time. So it's a lot of character development, which is cool and I appreciate. So that's a little bit different. The world of Arrow is certainly different than the world of Superman and Metropolis. We're in a darker world. So they're tonally different. But then you have Flash, which is more like Metropolis -- even looks like Metropolis, the architecture of the police station and all that stuff. So it's cool to be in the world and see that it's expanding. You have all these other superhero entities coming into it."

What If Superman Met The Atom

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 "That would be bizarre," Routh laughed when asked what it would be like if - in an ever expanding DC universe on TV - Atom and Superman ever met. "There'd probably be some inside jokes and winks at the camera. But that would be cool. It's such a bizarre thing already for me to be playing this character, and for some people to only be known for playing this character. People young enough who haven't seen Superman Returns are like, 'Oh, that guy's the Atom. What!?! He played Superman!?' I mean, I get that all the time from people who are fans of Chuck. They see me on Chuck, and their buddies are like, 'Yeah, he was Superman too,' and they're like, 'What!?' That's a cool thing for me, because it means that I'm not just defined by one character. Even if that is the one thing I'm known for, hallelujah! That's an amazing thing too. So, I don't know. Anything's possible. That'd be a trip."

Ray Vs Oliver

Oliver's been fairly preoccupied during the second half of Arrow's third season, and now is set to be even more so, which has created space for some new heroes to emerge in Starling City...or Star City, as Routh emphasizes, it should be called.

Ray Palmer and Oliver Queen are two very different men, and it's fairly safe to assume that those distinctions will carry through to their alter-egos.

"I think the difference, one, is how Ray sees the world versus how Oliver sees the world," Routh said. "We obviously have very different pasts and paths to get to where they are now. I can't speak for Oliver I guess, but I'd say that Ray is a 'glass half full' type of guy."

Ray and Oliver's mutual friend, comrade-in-arms (well in computer hacking, anyway), and on again, off again love interest Felicity Smoak seems to be more invested in her dynamic with Ray at the moment. "There may be something she appreciates about hanging out with someone that's of the [more optimistic] ilk," Routh said.

"And he's like her," the actor continued. "The tech talk and cracking jokes and more of a free-wheeling nature. She has to decide whether she wants to dip her toe back into that, helping somebody, like possibly be in a position where they're putting themselves at risk, or say, 'No, I'm done with this stuff.' So that's her decision to make, but I don't make it easy on her. I keep badgering about it, kind of like everything that Ray does. He's very insistent -- hopefully in a charming way."

Both Routh and Emily Bett Rickards (who plays Felicity) have added some some comedic flavor to a series that can otherwise get - in the words of executive producer Andrew Kreisberg - a bit soapy.

"As far as the levity and lightness, that was what [producers] Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg really wanted to do with the character," Routh said. "I'm saying their awesome words, and I'm so grateful that the writers have given me great stuff. It's a joy for me to be able to come and crack jokes and have that high energy every day."

What Would Atom Make of Canary

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Ray Palmer will be interacting with at least one of the Canaries - Sara - or at the very least with Sara in some form. We spoke with Routh prior to the news that an Atom, Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) and former Black Canary Caity Lotz spinoff series was in the works. We did, however, ask him what he thought of the possibility of appearing in his own show as this character.

"The sky's the limit I think," the actor said. "DC and CW have done a great job between the two shows, kind of creating a platform to launch these heroes."

Before he ventures off into his own set of adventures, though, there will be more to do in Starling City. With Oliver's attention elsewhere, and budding heroes emerging, it's possible that the Atrom would join forces with Laurel's Black Canary and/or Arsenal at a certain point.

"It'd be an interesting matchup," Routh said of a potential Atom/Canary team-up. "They're in opposite places, but they're sharing a similar grief I would think. They could definitely come together about that. For them to fight criminals together would be kind of a funny thing. She needs a little bit of levity in her life too."

 

Again for this and more make sure you check out IGN.com

Microsoft teases at Battletoads Return

For this and more make sure you check out IGN.com

During the Windows 10 event at GDC 2015, head of ID@Xbox Chris Charla hinted that there may be a future for the classic game series Battletoads.

While speaking about games being played between Windows 10 devices, Charla revealed that the Battletoads would be making an appearance in the recently-announced Xbox One version of Shovel Knight. He then went on to cryptically say "I wonder when we'll see them next?"

This isn't an official announcement, but several hints in the past have pointed to the possibility that Rare's tough-as-nails brawler could be making a comeback to modern platforms. Xbox head Phil Spencer has noted his fondness for them in the past and even sported a Battletoads t-shirt while presenting at the Windows 10 event earlier this year. Additionally, in November 2014 Microsoft filed a trademark for Battletoads, explaining to IGN that this was done "as part of its [Microsoft's] business strategy," but had no comment beyond that point. .

Microsoft Sutdios' Creative Director Ken Lobb also hinted at the possibility of Battletoads and other Rare franchises making a return in the future, responding to the question with "Yeah, someday."

 

For all of this and more check out IGN.com or IGN News on YouTube!