EVR: Oculus Rift’s Space Dogfighting Game

CCP is not a developer renowned for its speediness. Stern proponents of the “when it’s done, it’s done” philosophy. So for them to debut a working version of (potential) new game at their annual fan gathering, FanFest, was a huge surprise. EVR is just a demo for now, made in seven weeks by a small gang of CCP’s developers in their spare time, but it deserves to be more. This is a game that anyone who ever played Wing Commander, Rogue Squadron or Crimson Skies has dreamed of: a virtual-reality space dog-fighting game that puts you in the cockpit of a fighter craft.

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EVR is just a demo for now, but it deserves to be more.

It’s set in the EVE universe, using the same beautiful spacey backdrops and iconic ship designs. Pre-launch, there’s plenty of time to stare around at the inside of the cockpit – occupying a 360 degree world in this way was a new experience for me, as this was my first time using an Oculus Rift. It felt like the future. (I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked in real life, though, staring open-mouthed at nothing with a screen strapped to my face.)

This is what you see inside the cockpit.

Once you’re launched, the pleasant surprise is that unlike many demos, this one’s pretty much fully functional. With an Xbox 360 pad in hand, the left stick steers the craft, one trigger fires lasers from the front of the craft, and holding down the other trigger targets missiles. How you target them is a stroke of design genius: you just have to look at them. So as an opponent goes zooming overhead, you can look over your shoulder, wait for the targeting computer to beep and send a volley of missiles after them as you zoom away. It’s intoxicating.

Miraculously, it’s also not motion-sickness-inducing, or at least it wasn’t for me. Pro tip, though: don’t play with Oculus Rift whilst standing up. I tried, briefly, and upon looking down and seeing my virtual legs stretched out in front of me my brain freaked out and buckled my actual legs from under me. It’s similarly surreal looking at your arms at the fighter craft’s controls, but being unable to move them. The future of this technology is definitely the combination of the headset and some kind of body-tracking (like Kinect, I guess, except hopefully it would work properly) – but at that point I guess we start getting a little bit too close to dystopian Matrix-style reality-replacement to be entirely comfortable.

Unfortunately, this is what you look like when you're playing it.

Right now EVR works as a three-minute dogfight between two teams of fighters. Lasers do devastating damage but it’s tough to score a direct hit on a fast-moving craft; missiles prove more reliable, though you can dodge them with swift turns and a burst of speed. I find it difficult to believe that this demo was made in seven weeks. It already feels well on the way to being a full product.

It really should be a full product, too. CCP has made its name with two extraordinarily complex and ambitious games that integrate into one universe, but EVR could easily be a smaller project – one they could get out quickly and be ready to sell when the Oculus Rift headset becomes available, whenever that may be. This feels like the game that it was made for; it’d be a very smart move.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.

C2E2: Marvel: Next Big Thing Panel Recap

Arune Singh introduced the panel: Tom Brevoort, C.B. Cebulski, Josh Fialkov, Dave Marquez, Jordan D. Knight, Ellie Pyle, and Kieron Gillen.

The panel kicked things off with the announcement of the new storyline for Thor: God of Thunder called “The Accursed” which is, fittingly, the return of Malekith in September. “This will involve a chase through the Nine Realms as Malekith is resurrected and brought out of the realm of the dead. We’ll see a new overview of the Nine Realms and how they all connect together. Thereafter, we’ll get back to young Thor and old Thor.” The storyline will feature art by Ron Garney.

Gillen talked about “The Secret Origin of Tony Stark” that’s coming in Iron Man saying, “This is by far the biggest thing I’ve done in the Marvel Universe in terms of its impact and what it will mean. Juxtaposed with things that are happening in the present day, we go back to some events that happened around Tony’s conception.”

Not able to say much, some things he name dropped to help describe the story are Ocean’s Eleven and X-Files. Gillen said that the result of this story would have people talking, joking, “I saw Dan Slott getting screamed at and I was like, ‘I want some of that!’”

The crowd popped pretty hard for Indestructible Hulk, which Matteo Scalera will be joining in issue #11, which will find Hulk trying to fix the time stream. “He really captures the vibe of this book, you’ll really seem him continue to grow over the next couple of issues,” Cebulski said of Scalera’s work.

Fearless Defenders also received some nice applause, and Pyle said the book will be double-shipping in July. She said that issue #5 will lead into something that “might make you angry at Cullen for a while.” They also showed off the new Valkyrie costume that will come for a story reason, with Pyle adding, “We’re going to see how Valkyrie does in Chinatown with a street level story.”

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man was next up, where they mentioned the recent tragedy and the reveal that the book will jump forward in time a year. “We’re seeing Miles in a very, very different and dark place. We are going to experience his journey dealing with [his mother’s death] along with his friends,” said Marquez. He also added that the new Ultimate Cloak and Dagger were a ton of fun to draw, and he’s excited for those characters to make their debut.

Fialkov talked briefly about Ultimate Comics Ultimates, saying, “I’m planning to do stuff never in my wildest imagination did I think they’d let me do. The combo hero and villain for the book is Ultimate Reed Richards, who I am in love with. He’s just a ton of fun to right.”

A fan asked about Winter Soldier, which Brevoort said we could expect the character to continue in the pages of Secret Avengers and Captain America, and not-so-subtly suggested that Winter Soldier would make an eventual return as a Marvel NOW! book.

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. After Man of Steel comes out, his life will lose all sense of direction and purpose.

Pain and Gain Pumps Up the Box Office

Director Michael Bay's bodybuilder caper Pain and Gain debuted atop the weekend box office with $20 million, pushing last weekend's champ, Oblivion, to second place. The star-studded comedy The Big Wedding flopped in its opening, settling for a fourth place bow.

Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:

1. Pain & Gain $20 million
2. Oblivion $17.4 million
3. 42 $10.7 million
4. The Big Wedding $7.5 million
5. The Croods $6.6 million
6. G.I. Joe: Retaliation $3.6 million
7. Scary Movie V $3.5 million
8. Olympus Has Fallen $2.8 million
9. The Place Beyond the Pines $2.7 million
10. Jurassic Park 3D $2.3 million

Listen to the Keepin' It Reel podcast to see how we fared with our predictions.

C2E2: Marvel X-Men Panel Recap

Moderator Arune Singh introduced the panelists: Tom Brevoort, Jordan D. White, C.B. Cebulski, Paul Cornell, Brian Wood, Rick Remender, Ramon Perez, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire.

Uncanny Avengers was the first book up to the plate, which deals with the rise of the Apocalypse Twins, who have created the new Four Horsemen of Death: Sentry, Daken, Banshee, and Grim Reaper. “All characters that I like a lot and we’re going to have a lot of fun with,” said Remender.

He added that all of the characters would bring “bad blood” to the various cast members of Uncanny Avengers. Daken and Wolverine in particular will be dealing with the events of Uncanny X-Force.

Perez revealed that he is leaving Wolverine and the X-Men, but said that he’s loved his time on the book and that Jason Aaron scripts were great fun to read. He added that he’d be sticking around on a different X-book but couldn’t say which one. White added that issue #29 will feature a character switching sides and joining the Hellfire Club.

Brian Wood’s X-Men was next, and the writer teased that there is a seventh cast member that will be revealed at the end of issue #1 in July. This lead to the reveal of X-Men: Battle of the Atom -- you can read our announcement and see some art here.

The biggest news was when Marvel teased a new story called Wolverine: Killable that will be starting in Wolverine #7. “Sabretooth and a number of the great X-Men villains decide that because of something that’s about to happen, Wolverine is going to become killable. We’re leading him into the shadow of the valley of death with Kitty Pryde by his side,” sad Cornell of his tale.

The big moment that makes Wolverine “killable” will happen at the end of Wolverine #6. “This is huge,” added Singh. “This is something you’re going to hate Paul for.” He also said that we can expect this story to have a massive media blitz behind it.

“It’s going to change the character across the board. I’m not saying you’re going to like it, but you’re going to react,” said Cornell. Singh joked that he hoped Doc Ock wasn’t involved.

Marvel also announced the end of X-Factor, which you can read more about here. Afterwards, White led the crowd in a ukulele-backed rendition of the 90s X-Men cartoon theme song before heading into fan Q&A.

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. After Man of Steel comes out, his life will lose all sense of direction and purpose.

C2E2: Marvel Reveals X-Men: Battle of the Atom

It's been a while since there's been a proper crossover in the X-Men Universe, but that's all about to change as the many threads of Brian Bendis' X-Men run thus far collide.

Announced at Marvel's X-Men panel today, X-Men: Battle of the Atom will see what happens when it's finally time for the original X-Men to go back to their own time -- with the help of the future X-Men. That's right, the present-day X-Men are going to get a visit from their future selves that have one mission: to send the original X-Men back where they belong and prevent a terrible future. I think at this point, perhaps the X-Men causing a horrible future is just going to happen no matter what they do.

X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1 Cover

The crossover is being handled by Bendis, Jason Aaron, Brian Wood, and will happen in these books:

• X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1
• Uncanny X-Men #12-13
• All-New X-Men #16-17
• Wolverine & The X-Men #36-37
• X-Men # 5-6
• X-Men: Battle of The Atom #2

The story begins in September and ends in October, so it's going to be a very huge month of X-stories, to be sure. Marvel promises that this story will pay off many of the threads that Bendis has been seeding since he began his run, and of course, set up a great many things to come.

Stay tuned to IGN fore more from C2E2!

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. After Man of Steel comes out, his life will lose all sense of direction and purpose.

The Following: James Purefoy Discusses Season 1's Final Chapter

This Monday, April 29th, The Following wraps up its 15-episode first season with "The Final Chapter." I had a chance to speak with actor James Purefoy -- Joe Carroll himself -- about the depths of Joe's madness, having all of Joe's best laid plans crumble around him and how he doesn't even know which ending audiences will see in the finale.

IGN TV: First off, can you tease the season finale a bit?

James Purefoy: Obviously, I have to be very very careful because I must not give anything big away. All I do know is that it's very astute at tying up a lot of the loose ends and [series creator] Kevin Williamson obviously wants to make it a satisfying conclusion to the season. And I would imagine, because he's a mischievous little imp, that he'll want to keep the fish hook firmly placed in the upper lip of the audience to try and drag them on to the second season. It will be explosive and if you are of an asthmatic disposition you are going to need your inhaler because the storyline with Agent Parker gets pretty f**king grisly.

James Purefoy as Joe Carroll.

IGN: I know! Being buried alive is pretty much everyone's nightmare scenario.

Purefoy: Does she survive or doesn't she? One of the things about our finale is that I'm not sure who knows how the show ends. Because I don't think I know how the show ends. There were various scripts going around with different endings. I know that they shot some endings, but maybe not others. But which of them they shot and which of them they didn't, I don't know. What I do is that I had to go in and do some ADR a couple of days ago and they asked me to do some stuff in there that could send the story off on an entirely different direction. But again, that might have just been Kevin Williamson f***ing with me.

IGN: Does he do that a lot?

Purefoy: Oh yeah. Kevin Williamson kind of is - without, obviously, the killing of sophomore students - he is like Joe Carroll.

IGN: Going into the finale, there are only a two or three followers left from the mansion. Was Joe's plan always to thin the herd and have no one standing at the end?

Purefoy: We must remember that, at this point, Joe's followers, these people, were quite localized around Richmond, Virginia. And that the internet is a vast, spectral beast that leeches into the lives of people all over the world and as far as I know we've only used up the followers within a hundred mile radius of that town on the Eastern seaboard. There are other places, not just in the United States but all over the world, where we can go with this show.

IGN: For the first half of the season, Joe was incarcerated. Now he's out and about, but it also seems like all of his best laid plans started to crumble when he escaped prison. Was it fun for you to play a more unglued, irate Joe?

Purefoy: I liked it. I quite enjoyed it. I enjoyed both parts of the season of course and the really interesting thing about being in prison is that because you are stuck in one place, the possibilities of your dangerousness become sort of endless in a way. And funnily enough, they become more limited by being out of prison. Because when you're in prison it's only the barriers of your mind that stop you from going to places that you can't deal with. Whereas, when you're out and everything's in reality, he can do whatever he wants to do. But having said that, certainly the big missile, if you like, that has broken through the belief in himself and the force field that he'd placed around himself with absolute certainty was when Claire stabbed him. I think that came a real visceral shock to him. Because Joe - let's not forget that Joe is mad. He's always been mad.

He's a very theatrical figure in many ways. He puts on costumes of calculating cold calmness. That's just a costume he puts on. Underneath that, he's volcanic lava bubbling away with just absolutely random insanity that has no consistency whatsoever. So it's completely feasible to assume that what Joe thinks needs to be done a 9:00 in the morning could change completely by 9:15. We can't put the measure of our own sanity against someone like Joe, in terms of what he's capable of doing. In that respect, it's been a lot of fun playing him because you never know what he's going to do next.

Continue to Page 2 as Purefoy discusses Joe's failed writing career, fan encounters and more. 

C2E2: Hellboy 3 Must Happen, Says Perlman

Today at the Ron Perlman Q&A in the IGN Theater at C2E2, Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, answered the one question most on fans' minds: Will we get a Hellboy 3?

While mimicking a prize fighter punching, Perlman said, "I've been giving Guillermo body shots for two years. We both walked away from Hellboy 2 agreeing that there would never be another one. But, with the passage of time, it became clear to me that he really always designed it as a trilogy. He has a very well-articulated idea of what the resolve would look like and it's amazingly theatrical and is epic in scope and would make for amazing cinema, with or without the first two movies.

"But there are so many questions posed in the first two films that absolutely need to be answered. I said, 'You owe it to the world to finish this trilogy.' I've been giving him Jewish guilt."

He went on to say that del Toro's numerous projects make it hard to get the movie"He's just so busy, but I'm going to keep working away at the body. I'm pushing seventy so he better f****** do this soon."

For more on the show, visit IGN's C2E2 page.

Chris Carle is the Entertainment Editorial Director of IGN. He bought a pretty snazzy Black Panther tee at the Con. Follow Chris on Twitter @chriscarle and IGN.