The Winners of our The Two Faces of January Blu-ray contest

Andrew Edney

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Oct 25, 2014

To celebrate the release of The Two Faces of January which is available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD, we had an exciting competition for you. We were offering three lucky winners the chance to win the film on Blu-ray and here are the winners.

The Two Faces Of January is a suspense thriller starring Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen (The Lord Of The Rings, The Road, A History Of Violence), Golden Globe nominee and Cannes Best Actress winner Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man, Melancholia, Marie-Antoinette) and Oscar Isaac (Drive, The Bourne Legacy, Inside Llewyn Davis). It is based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith (‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’) and adapted by Academy Award nominee Hossein Amini (Drive, Snow White And The Huntsman).

It’s 1962. A glamorous American couple, the charismatic Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his alluring younger wife Collette (Kirsten Dunst), are in Athens during a European vacation. While sightseeing at the Acropolis they encounter Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a young, Greek-speaking American who is working as a tour guide. Drawn to Colette’s beauty and impressed by Chester’s wealth and sophistication, Rydal gladly accepts their invitation to dinner. However, all is not as it seems with the MacFarlands, Chester’s affable exterior hides darker secrets. As events take a sinister turn, Rydal finds himself compromised and entangled as an accomplice to a crime committed by Chester. Their journey takes them from Greece to Turkey, and to a dramatic finale played out in the back alleys of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.

The Winners

We had three copies of The Two Faces of January on Blu-ray to give away!

Sandra Lane

Alisa Moore

Amanda Gregory

The Two Faces of January is available on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD now.

Shadow Warriors lands on PS4 and Xbox One

Gaming
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Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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Shadow Warriors lands on PS4 and Xbox One

The Independent developer Flying Wild Hog and rogue game publisher Devolver Digital has unleashed Lo Wang today as the 2013 hit remake of Shadow Warrior is now out for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe.

Flying Wild Hogs’ Shadow Warrior is a complete reimagining of the 1997 3D Realms cult classic released last year, gaining critical and commercial success at launch. The PlayStation 4 version adds touchpad support for more intuitive controls, combos and special moves. Also, Wang jokes.

Shadow Warrior tells the offbeat tale of Zilla Enterprise’s corporate shogun, Lo Wang, who is ordered by his employer to track down and acquire a legendary blade known as the Nobitsura Kage. Forced into a timeless battle, Lo Wang learns of the blade’s connection to ancient gods from another realm, pushing our world to the brink of destruction. Aided by Hoji, a banished spirit from this mysterious world, Lo Wang must use a masterful combination of gun, blade, magic and wit to discover the truth behind the demonic invasion and banish the encroaching forces back into the darkness.
Shadow Warrior is available now for next-gen consoles for £29.99.

Eon’s Elite lands Exclusive for Amazon UK for Skylanders

Gaming
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Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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Eon’s Elite lands Exclusive for Amazon UK for Skylanders

Calling all Portal Masters! Kaos is still on the loose. But have no fear, the first two members of Eon’s Elite, Spyro and Chop Chop, onto store shelves on 1^st November.

The new Eon’s Elite characters will be three times more powerful than other characters – the biggest in-game boosts ever incorporated into a Skylanders toy to date – which is sure to help fans capture and play as Kaos, the biggest baddie in all of Skylands. Eon’s Elite characters are playable in the newest Skylanders game, Skylanders Trap Team.

Fans looking to pack a major villain fighting punch will also have the chance to pre-order Elite Trigger Happy, the third member of the limited edition toy line, for one day only on 1^st November. Elite Trigger Happy will arrive at retail on 28^th November.

Elite Spyro, Elite Chop Chop and Elite Trigger Happy are three of the eight must-have collectible versions of fan-favourite Skylanders characters. The heroes in the Eon’s Elite roster hail from the original Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure and have been carefully selected by Master Eon for displaying undaunted courage and commitment to defending all of Skylands. Eon’s Elite features a never-before-seen decoration with a distinct, metallic finish and a golden base that sets them apart from other Skylanders toys. Each of these special edition toys are offered in premium foil packaging and also feature a display case with a 3D lenticular background.

Eon’s Elite characters will be available for purchase exclusively from Amazon UK from 1^st November.

The Witcher 3 Opening Cinematic Released

Gaming
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Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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The Witcher 3 Opening Cinematic Released

In The Witcher III: Wild Huntjust-released “The Trail” opening cimenatic first shown at the Golden Joystick Awards today, we see Geralt with the man who taught him much of the trade of being a monster-hunting Witcher, Vesemir. In the video, the two men track the beautiful Yennefer of Vengerberg – a mysterious sorceress and love interest from Geralt’s even more mysterious past.

If you’ve played previous Witcher games, you know that Geralt has quite a history with sorceresses, and the power that Yennefer demonstrates (crushing an entire squadron of cavalry with a single spell) promises to make for an exciting pursuit and storyline. Even more exciting is the game’s enormous scale. It’s shown to great effect in this trailer, as two armies face off against each other in a gory, beautiful game of death that does not end well for the horses. Geralt puts all the events together after the fact, using some clever tracking skills… but the trailer just whets the appetite for what will happen when Geralt finally catches up to what he’s after.

The game is to launch 24th February, 2015 and will be available on PlayStation 4. Xbox One and PC .

Winners from the Golden Joystick Awards 2014

Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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The Golden Joystick Awards presented by Green Man Gaming was today at the indigO2 at The O2 has been rewarded the best of the best in international gaming. With over nine million votes cast, the Golden Joysticks once again proved, in its 32nd year, why it is the biggest award show in the world of gaming.

Lifetime Achievement recipient, Hideo Kojima is revered as one of the most influential and important people in the world of gaming. He has worked in the industry for almost 30 years and without him gaming as we know it would be a unrecognisable. Creator, director and writer of the ground-breaking Metal Gear Solid series, as well as the adventure games Snatcher and Policenauts, he also produced series’ Zone of Enders, Boktai and Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. Ken Levine was the inaugural recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in 2013.

On receiving the honour, Kojima said, “Thank you very much for presenting me with this prestigious Golden Joystick Award. To be recognised with this award means a huge amount to me.”

Dark Souls II was awarded the most prestigious gong of the afternoon – Game of the Year in association with Green Man Gaming.

Open world zombie survival horror game DayZ, was the winner of Best Original Game and Best Indie Game, and was one of three that picked up two awards. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, the free-to-play digital collectable card game, picked up Best Online Game and Best Mobile Game, while Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag won Best Visual Design and Best Audio with the games creators, Ubisoft Montreal, also winning Studio of the Year.

Elsewhere in proceedings, Oculus Rift retained their Innovation of the Year crown, collecting the accolade again for their latest version the DK2. Most Wanted – which looks forward to game releases in the coming year – was won by The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, which was also exclusively revealed as part of the afternoons ceremony, and Gaming Personality of the Year was won by PewDiePie.

The Golden Joystick Awards presented by Green Man Gaming winners are:

Best Original Game in association with Digital Spy

DayZ

Best Online Game in association with PC Gamer

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Best Storytelling

The Last of Us: Left Behind

Best Visual Design

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Best Audio in association with PDP

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Playfire Most Played Game of the Year

Rust

Best Multiplayer in association with Absolute Radio

Battlefield 4

Best Indie Game in association with Official X-Box Magazine

DayZ

Innovation of the Year in association with T3

Oculus Rift DK2

Best Gaming Moment in association with Sony Xperia Z3

The Last of Us: Left Behind – “The kiss”

Best Handheld Game

Pokemon X & Y

Best Mobile Game in association with Kiss FM

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Most Wanted in association with The Sun

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt

Gaming Personality of the Year in association with Kotaku UK

PewDiePie

Studio of the Year in association with CVG

Ubisoft Montreal

Gaming Platform of the Year in association with Gamesradar

Steam

Lifetime Achievement

Hideo Kojima

Game of the Year in association with Green Man Gaming

Dark Souls II

Toybox Turbos Coming to PC,Xbox 360 and PS3

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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Get ready for a little slice of retro Codies arcade racing like out of the nineties with our new game Toybox Turbos. It’s bursting with multiplayer fun to share with your friends and family, Toybox Turbos takes you to kitchen tables, pool halls and science labs in this manic, miniaturised table top racer!.

The game will be coming out for Windows PC from Steam on 12th November priced at £11.99 / €14.99/ $14.99 and will be coming soon to the Xbox Games Store for the Xbox 360 and to the PlayStation 3 via the online store.

Each table top track is full of obstacles and shortcuts and filled with awesome and ridiculous power-ups. Use mines, machines guns and, of course, giant (well technically they are pretty small), car-mounted hammers as you race a selection of 35 super-fun toy vehicles, ranging from sports cars to moon buggies, diggers, ice cream vans and loads more.

BAFTA to host Fable Legends sound designers next month

Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that on Tuesday 4th November 2014, Lionhead Studio’s Steve Brown and Pinewood Studios Group’s Glen Gathard will take part in the latest BAFTA Games Showcase at BAFTA headquarters, 195 Piccadilly in London.

BAFTA Games Showcases introduce the artists behind BAFTA-winning and nominated games, sharing their expert knowledge with other game-makers and lovers. This special Game Audio Showcase, which features sound designers from the BAFTA-winning Fable series, delves into the world where game sound and film sound techniques meet.

Featuring a behind-the-scenes look into the full audio production on Fable Legends, Lionhead’s upcoming multiplayer action adventure game for Xbox One, the event will include insights into thedialogue, foley and music production processes used to create the game.

Tickets are available to the public for £7.50 from here. BAFTA members can book tickets for free.

Steve Brown has a strong background in Audio Design and Sound Supervision, and is now Associate Audio Director at Lionhead Studios, where he currently heads up audio provision for the Fable series.

Glen Gathard is amulti-award nominated sound editor, foley mixer and sound designer. Glen has lately been an ADR recordist and foley mixer on films such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Edge of Tomorrow, The Monuments Men, Captain Phillips, Skyfall and P rometheus. Recently he has driven Pinewood’s expansion into the games industry. Games that he and his team have worked on include Fable: Legends (Microsoft), Alien: Isolation (Sega), Fable: The Journey (Microsoft) and Total War – Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai (Sega).

More information is available at http://www.bafta.org/games/news-and-events/

New Mortal Kombat Live Action Series Coming Soon

Gaming
News

Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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New Mortal Kombat Live Action Series Coming Soon

Warner Bros has announced the name of its newly formed shortform series production unit and also unveiled its first slate of development projects, which includes a new, untitled Mortal Kombat series. Blue Ribbon Content is the name of the recently created division, which is charged with developing and producing live-action series for digital platforms, tapping the creative talent already working at the Studio while also identifying opportunities for collaboration with new writers and producers.

For Mortal Kombat fans, that means some good news the next generation of the franchise is coming! In association with the upcoming. Mortal Kombat X video game releasing April 14, 2015, Blue Ribbon Content and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are teaming up on an all-new live-action series that showcases some of the franchise’s most storied characters, while introducing a new generation of fighters.

More details coming very soon.

PS4 Big Firmware 2.0 Out Next Tuesday

Gaming
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Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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Sony has confirmed that the next big firmware update for the Playstation 4 will start to roll out from Tuesday 28th October.

USB Music Player: PS4 owners can play their own music in the background while playing a game using USB Music Player*. After inserting a USB stick loaded with music into the PS4, a new option for USB Music Player will appear. Supported filename extensions include MP3, MP4, M4A, and 3GP.

Change colours: In addition to the ability to add a theme, PS4 owners can also change the background of the home screen from light blue to one of seven new colours: gold, blue, red, green, purple, pink, and grey.
Players You May Know: PS4 will now suggest players you may know as potential friends in the ‘What’s New’ section.
Enhancements to Live Broadcasting: Masamune brings a variety of improvements to live broadcasting on PS4. In the Live From PlayStation app, PS4 owners can now select a Featured channel, which includes official broadcasts from PlayStation, broadcasts from people on a players friend list, and any game channel that the player has followed. Additionally, Live From PlayStation now has filters for searching broadcasts on a specific game, as well as support for archived broadcasts.
Content Area and Library: PS4’s Content Area, which shows the latest games and apps a PS4 owner has used, has been redesigned to help make it easier to quickly find and access content. It now shows 15 of a player’s most used apps or games, and additional items will be added to a player’s Library. The Library on PS4 has improved filter and sort functions to help organize contented by type (game / app / TV & video), name (a – z or z – a), recently used, or install date.
Enhanced Voice Commands: The ability to control PS4 using voice has been improved. Players can now say ‘PlayStation’ to begin commands, and ‘All Commands,’ to see a list of all voice command options available. New voice commands were added for live broadcasting, including “Start broadcast,” “End broadcast,” and “Find face.”
Add To Library: The monthly free PlayStation Plus games will have an ‘Add to Library’ button in the PlayStation Store. This button will add a game to a PS4 owner’s library without downloading it – saving space on their hard drive.

AKG Inspired Awards Winners

Events
News

Chris Hare

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Oct 24, 2014

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The AKG Inspired awards, designed to celebrate the power of inspiration, was won by David Wojcik, a student Product Designer from Germany, aged 25.

The awards asked creative people across Europe to share their work and the creative journey they took to get there. Entrants’ work was viewed and judged by a panel of influential experts, including British designer Lauren Davies, Swedish musician Julia Spada, German graphic designer Knut Maierhofer, and French publisher Romain Colin.

David’s winning entry saw him share his inspiration for the HEBIX – a prototype home care device that helps people who have fallen over. David has received a €5,000 grant and will be involved into the design of a special edition of the Y50 AKG headphone.

There were also four runners up announced:

Hakan Lidbo, a musician/design engineer based in Stockholm, shared the inspiration behind Big Beat – the world’s biggest collaborative giant drum machine.

Naming the Dead – created by Dan Osman who is a designer based in London – was inspired by the 176 British soldiers who lost their lives in the Iraq conflict.

Carl Thomas, an architect from London, shared his project, Mipic.co, which enables artists to share and sell their pictures to a global audience and earn money for free.

Old Bern – created by London-based architecture student Danny Lane – was based on the concept: In a future with no snow, how should ski resorts be designed?

Each runner up received a €1,000 Grant and will also be invited to provide creative input into future AKG headphones.

David Kohn, award-winning architect and head judge at the AKG Inspired Awards, said: “David Wojcik’s Hebix stood out for showing a clear design process: from the identification of a need, to research into what products are currently available, from measuring constraints to prototyping options. This gave the jury confidence that the Hebix will continue to develop and be of great benefit to its future users and that David has a bright design future ahead of him.”

“AKG has been helping creative souls find their inspiration through music for more than 65 years, and this award is the natural extension of this”, says Dorothee de Backer, Product Marketing Director, HARMAN. “The AKG Inspired Awards has allowed AKG to recognise creativity across Europe and we are very excited about this chance to support and reward the winning young creative talents by providing AKG grants.”