Tag Archives: Arts & Entertainment

Monument Valley 3 breaks the series’ old boundaries by adding a sailboat

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During Netflix's Geeked Week event, some more details about Monument Valley 3 emerged. Developer Ustwo Games says the long-awaited sequel builds on its predecessors in several ways, especially in terms of the gameplay, art style and story.

Perhaps the biggest change in Monument Valley 3 is the introduction of sailing. You'll be able to move the boat in almost any direction and, as such, "the game is no longer restricted to geometric spaces," game director Jennifer Estaris said during a call with reporters. Along with unfolding cubes that shift new protagonist Noor onto different planes, Monument Valley 3 is in large part about "deconstructing what we know," Estaris said.

Naturally, those changes allow for fresh puzzles and visuals as players navigate impossible-looking, MC Escher-style architectural spaces. Aligned with that, Ustwo has evolved the art style with softer and more abstract shapes (you are going to be navigating rivers after all). The result is something that looks very familiar, but like a hazy memory. Meanwhile, the soundtrack from an 18-piece orchestra might just stir up some emotions.

While the original game was about forgiveness and its sequel was a coming-of-age tale, Monument Valley 3 focuses on the themes of hope, togetherness and resilience. Noor is a lighthouse keeper's apprentice who is tasked with searching for a new source of power before light fades away from the world forever. It's the "most ambitious story" to date for a Monument Valley game, according to Ustwo marketing manager Jamie Wotton.

All three Monument Valley games are standalone titles with their own stories. That means you'll be able to glide right into Monument Valley 3 without playing the previous two entries. But there's plenty of time to check those out first (or revisit them). You won't have to pay extra for those mobile gaming classics if you have a Netflix subscription. There are no ads or in-app purchases in the company's games.

Monument Valley is available to Netflix subscribers on iOS and Android starting today, and its sequel will arrive on the service on October 29. Monument Valley 3 will then debut as a Netflix mobile exclusive on December 10.

Netflix revealed some other mobile gaming news during Geeked Week. Its multiplayer take on Battleship (which includes special weapons and ranked modes) will drop on September 24. Subscribers will soon be able to play Civilization IV and Street Fighter IV CE on their mobile devices at no extra cost — the Netflix version of the latter will offer cross-play between iOS and Android.

Meanwhile, Netflix provided another peek at Squid Game: Unleashed before that multiplayer tie-in game arrives later this year. Last but not least, there was a first look at Blood Line: A Rebel Moon Game, based on Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon movies. The Netflix-exclusive co-op action game from Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp will debut in 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/monument-valley-3-breaks-the-series-old-boundaries-by-adding-a-sailboat-013638578.html?src=rss

Black Mirror season 7 cast revealed in a cryptic computer message

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Get ready to question humanity’s control over the technology that surrounds us because another season of Netflix’s Black Mirror is in the works. Earlier today, the official Black Mirror X page revealed the cast of the new season coming next year along with some other interesting clues and Easter eggs.

The video features an old, flickering computer screen that appears to unload a complete data dump of the entire cast for season 7. Some of the names that jumped out at us includes Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti, Doctor Who star and Oscar winner Peter Capaldi (he won in 1995 with his live action short film Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life), Awkwafina, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross and Rashida Jones. 

The list also included some of the cast who played virtual crew members of the USS Callister from the iconic fourth season episode of the same name. The names from the USS Callister episode that appeared on the list include Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Milanka Brooks and Osy Ikhile.

We’ve known for a while now that series creator Charlie Brooker has been planning to revisit the crew of the USS Callister. The season 4 opening episode starred Jesse Plemmons as the chief technology officer named Robert of a top tier game studio and a big fan of a Star Trek-esque TV show called Space Fleet. By day, he gets pushed around and little credit for the company’s success from his colleagues and staff. He uses immersive virtual reality technology to play as Space Fleet Capt. Robert Daly away from work on a virtual starship and takes out his frustrations and anger on the crew in increasingly cruel and inhumane ways. The crew members were replicated in the game using his boss and staff members’ DNA that Robert obtained without their permission or knowledge. The crew revolt and escape to the open Internet while leaving a seething “Capt. Robert” stranded in the game.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a true Black Mirror reveal if it didn’t contain some clues and hidden items in the teaser. The loading screen features the studio name Tuckersoft, a reference to the game studio in the interactive “Bandersnatch” movie. The cast names are listed in alphabetical order by first name but they’ve been broken into eight groups. There are some cryptic phrases between the scrolling group names like “Too soon?”, “A rose for a rose” and “Shields 58 percent.”

Could these be episode titles? The latter definitely sounds like a reference to the USS Callister and Brooker and company love symbolic episode titles taken from songs for their tech hell stories like “Shut Up and Dance” and “Hang the DJ.” The new Black Mirror episodes haven’t even landed yet and they’ve already screwing with our heads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/black-mirror-season-7-cast-revealed-in-a-cryptic-computer-message-203343148.html?src=rss

YouTube is now showing ads when you pause videos

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Google has found another way to turn your eyeballs into money: by turning paused YouTube videos into a new real estate for ads. A YouTube communications manager told The Verge they’ve seen “strong advertiser and strong reviewer responses” since they “rolled out Pause ads to all advertisers.”

YouTube first started looking at using ads on pause screens in 2023 with select advertisers. Google’s chief business officer Phillip Schindler announced last April that advertisers loved the new ad concept. YouTube’s viewers aren’t as enthusiastic about the idea.

Reddit users posted screenshots of the new pause screen ads and to say they aren’t happy with the ads is the understatement of the year.

The new ads aren’t just showing up on the website. Ads also pop up when you pause videos on the YouTube mobile app, according to others on the site.

Pause screen ads are not a new concept. Streaming services like AT&T’s DirecTV and Hulu show ads when the screen is paused if you have one of the lower tier subscription plans. Some Amazon products like the Fire tablets also show ads on the lock screen and Amazon announced last May that it plans to expand its ad space offerings for living-room devices, according to Amazon’s official blog.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-is-now-showing-ads-when-you-pause-videos-193622495.html?src=rss

Oprah buys back her Apple TV+ documentary to lock it away

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A documentary on Oprah Winfrey is no longer coming to Apple TV+. Why, you might ask? Well, Winfrey, herself, bought back the rights to it, PageSix reports. Allegedly, Winfrey and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald clashed on the final product, with the latter not making requested edits.

A spokesperson for Winfrey put things a bit nicer: "As the Apple TV+ deal was coming to an end, Ms. Winfrey bought back the rights to her docu-series and has since decided to put the doc on hold. Ms. Winfrey believes Lisa Erspamer and Kevin MacDonald are incredibly talented filmmakers and is grateful for the time and energy they put into the project." Erspamer previously worked with Winfrey for a long time at OWN but was let go in 2012.

Winfrey was initially very involved in Apple TV+, even speaking at its launch. She signed a multi-year deal with the platform, launching shows such as The Oprah Conversation, but the agreement ended in 2022. It's unclear how much Winfrey, a billionaire, had to spend to get the rights back, with some sources saying it was in the millions and others claiming just six figures.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/oprah-buys-back-her-apple-tv-documentary-to-lock-it-away-130002869.html?src=rss

Get a good gawp at Ghostface’s fatality and some new animalities for MK1

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A new update for Mortal Kombat I (MK1) is less than a week away from release that will add new character skins, new finishing moves and (eventually) new fighters to its “kombatant” selection screen. NetherRealm Studios released a preview of the “karnage” that’s “koming” around the “korner” (OK, we’ll stop with the unnecessary K’s).

The new trailer released on Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon’s X page shows some of the new stuff MK1 players can expect from the Khaos Reigns pack scheduled for release on September 24 and future updates. The base game costs $49.99 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on Steam and $39.99 on the Nintendo Switch. The Khaos Reigns DLC costs (gasp!) $49.99 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on Steam and $39.99 for the Nintendo Switch The Khaos Reigns Kollection bundle that includes the Khaos pack and base game will set you back $89.99 for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S or $69.99 for the Nintendo Switch.

The MK1 add-on adds a brand new story mode to the game in which the newly apotheosized Liu Kang battles the evil Titan Havik with his band of fighters and EarthRealm defenders. The new pack also comes with the “Kombat Pack 2” of new fighters available on the release day including the cyborgs Cyrax and Sektor and the shadow assassin Noob Saibot.

The pack will also provide access to Ghostface from the Scream movies, the T-1000 voiced by Robert Patrick and Conan the Barbarian once they are released. If you can’t wait for a release date or you just don’t like watching whole trailers for one moment, footage of one of Ghostface’s fatalities found its way to X. The video shows the infamous Scream villain eviscerating an opponent with the help of another Ghostface killer, a loving nod to Scream VI starring Jenna Ortega and Hayden Panettiere.

MK1 is also bringing back an old favorite finisher known as “animalities” that first appeared in the Mortal Kombat 3 arcade game. Every fighter in the game has a finishing move where they turn into an animal and vivisect their opponent in a number of creative ways. Boon shared a clip of Kitana’s animality in which she transforms into a giant, bloodthirsty hummingbird and turns her opponent into a bloody flesh flower.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/get-a-good-gawp-at-ghostfaces-fatality-and-some-new-animalities-for-mk1-233038696.html?src=rss

Battletoads/Double Dragon headbutts its way onto Nintendo’s Switch Online library

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If you grew up in the age of the NES and SNES consoles, you might be positively giddy to learn that one of the greatest video game crossovers since Marvel vs Capcom is available on the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo announced the addition of four new SNES titles to its Switch Online service including the 1993 beat ‘em up Battletoads/Double Dragon. This rare meeting of mayhem between the fly-gulping trio and the martial arts duo Billy and Jimmy Lee takes players through both games’ universes as they plow through unique waves of fist-flinging enemies.

The crossover begins when the Evil Queen from the Battletoads’ universe cuts a deal with the Shadow Boss from the Double Dragon universe on Earth. She sends a massive ship called the Colossus to take over our planet so Zitz, Rash and Pimple pick up the Double Dragons with the Battlecopter and intercept the ship to stop it from reaching Earth. The game features seven levels that take place on the Colossus and on Earth as the Battletoads and Double Dragons smash, kick and ram enemies and bosses from both video game franchises.

The latest Switch Online game update also brings three more SNES games to the Nintendo Switch. The update includes the Tetris-inspired Cosmo Gang The Puzzle, the Jaleco rally racer Big Run and the Super Famicon port of Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen'in Shūgō! (It's Kunio's Dodgeball, Assemble Everyone!).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/battletoadsdouble-dragon-headbutts-its-way-onto-nintendos-switch-online-library-193034766.html?src=rss

Five features that caught our eye from today’s YouTube livestream

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YouTube’s creator-focused broadcast, Made On YouTube, is here again, and there's plenty to talk about. From more AI integration to Communities, YouTube seems to be gearing up to compete against rivals like TikTok and Netflix. Here are five things that genuinely interested us among the deluge of updates and new features.

YouTube is introducing the Hype system, which lets viewers “go beyond” liking and sharing a video. The idea is to allow fans to give more visibility to smaller creators — so hyping is only allowed for videos from creators under 500,000 subscribers, and only on videos under a week old. Content with the most hype will end up on a new leaderboard of the 100 most hyped videos in their country. Fans can only hype three times in a week for now, though additional uses will eventually be purchasable in the future.

YouTube Shorts creators will be able to employ Google DeepMind’s Veo video generator model later this year. Veo can generate six-second clips after reading a prompt, and all creations will have a label showing that generative AI was used, along with SynthID watermarking. Veo integration will exist parallel to (but doesn't replace) YouTube’s Dream Screen — another AI video generation tool — which was introduced last year.

The Community tab is getting a revamp, slated to come out in early 2025. Currently, only the channel owner can post in the Community tab, but the new experience will allow subscribers to create posts, with a tab to view only creator posts if necessary. Of course, subscribers can post images to prompt conversation. Some creators interact with their viewers currently through other platforms (like Discord) and this seems to be an attempt to create an in-house alternative.

Some of us lament being unable to understand creators using languages we don’t speak, but YouTube intends to fix that by implementing auto-dubbing. With the help of AI, viewers can now listen to machine-translated audio in their preferred language. YouTube promises that the audio will sound natural, taking intonation into account along with the creator’s surroundings.

Finally, the YouTube TV app will have an update mirroring Netflix’s current layout. Creators will be able to organize their content in seasons and episodes, and there will be previews before users play any content. According to The Hollywood Reporter, we can expect to see these new features starting next year, though no concrete date was announced.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/five-features-that-caught-our-eye-from-todays-youtube-livestream-171537530.html?src=rss

Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey17 trailer is even crazier than the book

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The film adaptation of the immensely popular sci-fi novel Mickey7 has been in the works for years, but now we finally have a trailer and it’s filled with surprises. For one thing, it’s now called Mickey17 and, well, fans of the book know exactly what that implies. It means they’re in for an even crazier experience than what’s written on the page.

The movie is written and directed by one of the modern masters, Bong Joon Ho, who seems to have taken some liberties with the source material. Light spoilers, but the book follows a series of clones of the titular Mickey as they perform the grunt work of colonizing an exoplanet. The book chronicles seven (ish) Mickey variants, but the movie is amping this up to at least 17. This will give us plenty more darkly hilarious clone deaths, which the trailer shows quite a lot of.

The novel is right up Bong Joon Ho’s alley. Clones are basically second-class citizens who exist to die for their corporate overlords. This leaves plenty of room for social satire in the vein of both Snowpiercer and Parasite. The trailer leans into this stuff and the results look truly entertaining and, believe it or not, really funny. We love to see unique IPs in the cinema, don’t we folks?

The various Mickeys are played by Robert Pattinson, so that’ll get some butts in the seats. The cast also includes Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo. As a book reader, I know who everyone is playing except for Ruffalo. That looks like a brand-new character, though he could be an amalgamation of a couple of minor players. Adaptations require some dark alchemy at times.

This could be the first big hit of 2025. It arrives in theaters on January 31. There’s also some franchise potential here, as the book already has one sequel and author Edward Ashton has been toying with ideas for a third entry.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/bong-joon-hos-mickey17-trailer-is-even-crazier-than-the-book-170004844.html?src=rss

Lionsgate signs a deal with the devil (an AI startup)

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Remember when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA went on strike for months, in great part to get protections against AI? Well, while they did get some stipulations in there, it's not stopping AI from coming to Hollywood anyways. Lionsgate, the studio behind the John Wick and Hunger Games franchises, has struck a deal with AI startup Runway, the Wall Street Journal first reported and Runway confirmed in a press release. The arrangement will allow Runway access to Lionsgate's content library in exchange for a fresh, custom AI model that the studio can use in production and editing.

The deal is similar to recent (and equally icky feeling) ones with publishing houses such as TIME and Dotdash Meredith, but it is the first of its kind for the film and TV industry. Vice chairman of Lionsgate Studio, Michael Burns, said that in recent months, he feared falling behind competitors without a step like this. "Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilize AI to develop cutting edge, capital efficient content creation opportunities," Burns stated. He then claimed, "Several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process."

There's also the small matter that he expects the company will save "millions and millions of dollars" through this agreement. Whether that money will come out of creatives' paychecks is something we can only speculate about now, but it wouldn't be surprising.

As for Lionsgate's new bedfellow, like many AI companies, Runway has faced accusations of pilfering content to train its system. A former employee came forward in July with alleged internal spreadsheets demonstrating that Runway used YouTube videos from the likes of Disney, Netflix and popular media outlets to train its Gen-3 model. A group of artists are also suing Runway and other players like Stability AI for copyright infringement, reports Artnet. The plaintiffs garnered a win in August, with California District Judge William Orrick finding they had reasonably argued these companies had violated the artists' rights.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/lionsgate-signs-a-deal-with-the-devil-an-ai-startup-151046341.html?src=rss

Substack, a newsletter service, is now also a live video company

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Substack is adding a live video component to its newsletter service. In its announcement post, the company positioned this feature as providing real-time audience engagement for creators. At launch, the feature will only be available to people with Substack's Bestsellers badges, but the company said it plans to roll it out to all users in the coming months.

Creators can begin live videos within the Substack app. As with written material on the platform, a creator can set whether the audience for a live video is everyone, all subscribers or paid subscribers. Any channel subscribers will be notified when a live video begins. There's also an option for collaboration, inviting other Substack members into the live broadcast. For now, only iOS users can issue invitations; Android users can accept an invite for now, and are slated to receive access to the full feature "soon." After a live broadcast finishes, a recording will be saved in post drafts so the video can be used in a future newsletter. There's also a clipping tool for light video editing tasks.

Substack has been making a push to bring video content creators to its platform from TikTok, which doesn't seem like an obvious competitor to the company's existing offerings or an obvious match for the community it has cultivated. Emails are asynchronous communication that can be read whenever it's convenient, the polar opposite of must-watch-now live videos. The option to include recordings in newsletters is useful, but adopting the live viewing as a regular part of their Substack routine may be a big ask for current users. In short: there's no guarantee that the new feature will function well, or that most newsletter creators and readers are interested in engaging with video content.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/substack-a-newsletter-service-is-now-also-a-live-video-company-150004585.html?src=rss