Three Days Grace Premieres Transit of Venus

Canadian rock band Three Days Grace has certainly made its mark over the last decade, selling over 6 million albums in the U.S. alone and enjoying massive radio and sales success from hit singles like "Break," "The Good Life," and "I Hate (Everything About You." Now, the recording group is poised to release their latest album titled Transit of Venus, which offers a bit of a departure from their previous work, while also retaining their trademark style.

IGN was lucky enough to premiere this new album, and give you a taste of the band's reinvigorated sound. Check out the player below for more:

While you listen, be sure to check out our interview with the band's drummer and backing vocalist Neil Sanderson, who talked a bit about the album and offered us his own thoughts on modern gaming and music.

IGN: Can you talk a bit about how Transit of Venus came together and what you were going for with this one?

Neil Sanderson: This one is definitely a little tighter and more articulated. We wanted to take a different approach with this record, and we wanted to push the boundaries as far as our sound and what we're singing about -- dig a little bit deeper than a lot of the other rock bands that we're hearing out there these days. We thought outside the box a little bit and tried not to be as formulaic, experimenting with multiple layers. We wanted to have songs that felt more progressive ... without alienating our original sound. We still sound like Three Days Grace, and we wanted to keep it real.

IGN: We also hear that you guys are pretty big gamers. Are there any games that you’re playing right now?

Sanderson: I'm still a Modern Warfare 3 guy. I haven't been able to play the new ones -- Black Ops and stuff -- but I'm still a sucker for that game. I love turning down the lights and cranking it up.

IGN: Do you have a preferred console?

Sanderson: Yeah, I'm down for the Playstation 3. A couple of the guys are Xbox guys, but Adam is big into hockey -- he loves the NHL games from EA Sports. He and Brad like to square off once or twice a week. I know Brad's big into Battlefield.

IGN: Do you guys ever play each other when you're on tour? If so, who's the best with a controller?

Sanderson: You know, I always hear Adam and Brad playing in the back of the bus after a show when I'm trying to get some shuteye. [Laughs] But yeah, I'd say Adam has the best slap-shot. Barry's good with guns, so whenever it's just us, I don't like to play Call of Duty with him anymore because I just get smoked. He knows all these tactical operations, while I just try to run around and shoot anything.

IGN: Did you grow up with video games as a kid?

Sanderson: I had every Nintendo console that there was. I'll always remember my brother would come home with a new game, and I wasn't allowed to play it for at least six weeks until he beat it.

IGN: What would you say is your favorite game of all time?

Sanderson: That would be PGA Tour on the Sega Genesis. I used to play that game so much. I still play the modern golf games, too, which are really fun, and they're so realistic. I'm still a sucker for those games, for sure.

IGN: What are your thoughts on games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero? I know a few of your songs hit Rock Band back in March.

Sanderson: It's cool. I can't believe how much some of these kids can shred on Guitar Hero. It's unbelievable. That being said, I'd like to see them pick up a real guitar and shred like that, but I guess that's the next move -- you can actually kind of learn how to play as you're playing these games, which is pretty cool. And getting our songs on there is pretty awesome, man. We don't take that stuff for granted. When I was a kid, if you had told me that my song would be involved in a game where people are playing it and rocking to it, I never would have believed you. I think it's pretty cool.

Transit of Venus is scheduled for release on October 2.

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House at the End of the Street Review

Coming off her recent success with The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence has returned to the big screen for director Mark Tonderai's House at the End of the Street. From the very first few minutes of the film, it's clear that the young actress still has the charisma and acting chops to pull off the heart-melting whimsy of a troubled teenager. But is it enough to ignite this seemingly pedestrian slasher flick?

The story centers on Elissa (Lawrence) and her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue), who move to a small, upscale town in search of a fresh start. But before they've even finished unpacking, Elissa and Sarah learn the horrifying secret behind the house next door. Years earlier, a daughter killed both of her parents in the night and disappeared, leaving only her brother Ryan (Max Thieriot) as the sole survivor. Against Sarah's wishes, Elissa begins developing a friendship with Ryan, who seems to be keeping a few secrets of his own.

Obviously, the biggest selling point here is Jennifer Lawrence, and her performance is sweet and genuine; she does a great job of evoking the naivete of a rebellious daughter. Unfortunately, not even the talented Lawrence -- bless her -- can elevate this uninspired material (despite her perpetually glistening skin and flimsy white tank top). Whatever merit there is in the acting is more or less undone by the contrived and predictable storytelling.

To its credit, the film does have one decent twist that some viewers may find surprising, although a seasoned moviegoer will likely see it coming. Even the first 45 minutes or so are actually pretty decent. Elissa and Sarah share some nice scenes together early on, and the budding romance between Elissa and Ryan has its occasional sincere moments. The narrative isn't hopeless by any stretch, but its characters eventually become so stupid that you'll soon be whispering things like, "God, turn around!" or, "Seriously, don't open that door," and finally, "Ugh, you deserve to die!" As the film nears its end, you'll wonder how Elissa managed to survive the move-in, let alone how she might escape the ploys of a violent psychopath.

House at the End of the Street isn't a poorly structured film, but its bush-league scares are few and far between. Moreover, the actual dramatic aspects of the story never really culminate in anything meaningful. In fact, the more we see of the characters, the less invested we become. The initial complexity and intrigue behind Elissa and Sarah's relationship is slowly worn away until you forget why you even cared in the first place. It's unfortunate, too, because Lawrence and Shue have a pretty good chemistry together. On the plus side, in terms of story the ending isn't a total "screw you" to the audience, and there is at least some sense of closure for the characters.

At the end of the day, Tonderai's entry-level thriller isn't the worst horror film to come out in recent memory, but it's certainly nothing you haven't seen before. The movie plays on every cheap cliché and common-sense failure you can think of, and the presentation clues you into most of the surprises before they happen. Having said that, if you're a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan, I wouldn't blame you for checking it out -- she's still as endearing and sexy as ever -- but I'd suggest waiting until another one of her many other projects hits theaters before dropping coin here. (I hear Silver Linings Playbook is supposed to be pretty good.)

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

The Verdict

Although Jennifer Lawrence delivers a solid performance, House at the End of the Street's amateur screenplay and transparent direction fail to keep up.

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IPTL Premier Division - Team Liquid Preview

In the first season of the IGN Pro Team League, Team Liquid will look to replicate their success from the final edition of IPL’s Team Arena Challenge, where they came within one series of taking the entire tournament, qualifying them for the Premier Division in the new IPTL format.

Liquid’s history in team league play is a tale of two eras: pre-TaeJa and post-TaeJa.  Before the acquisition of the Korean Terran in March of this year, Liquid was a strong foreign team with a couple of Korean players to add some luster to the lineup, but just did not stack up against the deep rosters of the GSTL-caliber teams.  They were able to win the small team league event put on by NASL, but other foreign teams were the only competition.  The primarily foreign Liquid roster was not competitive when invited to participate in GSTL 2012 Season. TaeJa was unable to attend the first match against ZeNEX, where the ZeNEX Zerg Life all-killed Liquid, and in the second match HerO was the only player to manage any game wins off of NSHoSeo, taking two maps as the last hope for Liquid before losing.

In the time since the lackluster team performance in Korea, TaeJa has become one of the very best players in all of Starcraft 2, and brought Team Liquid to a whole new level of team league performance.  Their IPL TAC 3 campaign began with a bang, with Zenio all-killing Dignitas in the first round and a 5-1 trouncing of Mouz by Sheth and HayprO.  Then the foreign foes so easily swept aside by the backup players of Liquid were replaced by Korean teams, beginning with Prime.  Things seemed dire for Liquid, as they quickly fell behind Prime by a 3-0 margin before TaeJa came in and worked his magic, disposing of the entire Prime team, securing his first all-kill.

In the next round of the winner’s bracket, Liquid did lose to SlayerS and fall to the loser’s bracket, but that only served to provide the team and TaeJa more opportunities to shine.  Their first match was a team effort, with TaeJa, Ret, and HerO all taking sets in a victory over MVP.  The next clan war came against StarTale, a team with a roster chock full of Code S players, and Liquid once again fell behind at the start, losing four maps to Ace and Life. The situation was dire, and the best players for StarTale had yet to come into play.  TaeJa, however, was unimpressed, coming in as the last player for Liquid and once again cleaning house, defeating Life, Curious, Squirtle, and Bomber in succession to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.

Not content with this achievement, TaeJa scored another four kills in a win over SlayerS to send Liquid the TAC 3 finals in San Francisco, and there met the team who made it through the winner’s bracket unscathed, Incredible Miracle.  In the first best of nine series, IM led off with arguably their strongest player, the most recent GSL champion Seed. After he took game one from Ret, Liquid brought the big guns out early, relying on TaeJa to deal with the powerful IM Protoss.  No coaching decisions were necessary after that, as TaeJa all-killed the Korean powerhouse team.  However, a second best of nine series followed since Liquid came up through the loser’s bracket, and lightning did not strike twice for the community favorites.  Seed avenged his defeat by ending another TaeJa streak after only two victories, and then proceeded to finish off the rest of the team.

Clearly, the key to Liquid’s success is the Terran superstar TaeJa, especially in a stacked field like the Premier Division of the IPTL.  It is not much of a stretch to consider him the most consistent Terran player in the world right now, and he needs to bring that consistency to every clan war this season for Liquid to have a chance at advancing from the group stage.  TaeJa is excellent in all matchups, but has a particularly good TvZ.  This could prove to be quite advantageous, as Liquid’s group features Stephano and DongRaeGu as opposing team aces.  Obviously, there are a number of other great players between the rosters of EG, MVP, and SlayerS, but TaeJa should be considered the favorite in every set he plays.

The other major threat for Liquid is their longest tenured Korean, the Protoss player HerO.  With the arrival of TaeJa as ace, much of the pressure that was on HerO to take maps from the opposition’s best players is now gone, which should help avail some of the nerve issues he has been known for in the past.  Frankly, HerO could actually be an ace on many great teams, and an absolute boon to have as a major backup for the frontline player.  His creative play makes him an especially strong PvP player, and his other matchups are solid as well, as you can expect from any player who has won a Dreamhack Open.  Expect him to flourish alongside TaeJa this season.

A stable of Zerg players form the rest of the lineup that we will likely see in the IPTL: the Korean Zenio, and the foreigners Ret, Sheth and TLO.  Zenio has been sitting around the border of Code A and Code S for a while, the sign of a player with great potential but not the ability to pull off his best play on a regular basis.  After taking that into consideration, he is still the third best player behind his Korean brethren, and the most reliable Zerg.  Liquid will look to use him in the leadoff role often, trying to grab a couple of wins behind his well-balanced style of play.

The foreigner Zergs are all wild cards, players who with a win here and there can make a big difference for the team.  When Ret is on top of his game, he can out-macro anyone with his Brood War-trained mechanics, but his decision making is lacking. Sheth is a good player, but just not on the same level as the high-caliber opponents he will be facing in this league.  TLO, with his creative play that borders on the ridiculous, can steal a win if he catches a foe off-guard with a wacky build.  Any maps taken by these players at this level of competition should be viewed as a gift, making life easier for the core of Korean stars.

Liquid was somewhat lucky to end up in Group A, as the only other foreign team—Evil Geniuses—is also in the group.  To add to that, the arguably strongest Korean teams Incredible Miracle and StarTale, along with the massive amount of Code S players they bring with them, are in Group B.  This should create easier match-ups for TaeJa and HerO, who will have fewer players of equivalent skill to play against.  Even so, the group stage will be a challenge, as MVP and SlayerS have skilled players of their own, and possess greater overall depth in these best of nine scenarios than Liquid.  The match versus EG is almost a must win for Liquid, as having a 1-0 edge before facing off against the Korean squads will give them a much better chance of advancing.

The match against EG will take place on September 11th, and is also the first match of the IPTL Premier division, so be sure to tune in!

Written by Kyle Elliott

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