If you're especially nerdy like me, then you miss every September marking the start of a big learning period. Well, instead of searching random facts on the internet (you do that, definitely not me..) why not check out the half-off sale running on MasterClass subscriptions ahead of Labor Day? Right now all of the annual plans are discounted to between $60 and $120.
MasterClass offers video lessons from over 200 experts on topics including cooking, sports and music — to name a few. The Standard subscription is down to $60 from $120 and offers viewing on one device at a time with no offline option. Then there's the Plus tier, which has dropped to $90 annually from $180, giving you access on two devices and the ability to watch videos offline. The most expensive option is the Premium Tier, which you can grab for $120, rather than its usual $240, and allows for six devices and offline mode.
Not for you? Consider giving it as a gift to someone who loves learning — we featured MasterClass in our roundup of the best presents for teachers. Just remember that the sale only applies to the first 12 months of your subscription, so make sure to set a far-off reminder if you don't want to get charged double in a year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-50-percent-off-your-first-year-of-masterclass-for-labor-day-142131332.html?src=rss
The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie was surprisingly great (certainly more so than the outright terrible Borderlands or the all too safe Super Mario Bros.), thanks to a genuinely funny script and Jim Carrey going wild as Dr. Robotnik. After introducing Idris Elba's Knuckles in the second film (andhis own Paramount+ TV series), now we're getting Sonic's broody counterpart Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Voiced by Keanu Reeves, who sounds like an angstier John Wick in the trailer, Shadow is introduced as an alien who has lived through tragedy and is out for some unspecified revenge. (His real problem though, as fans of the Fast and Furious franchise will tell you, is his lack of #family.)
Judging from the trailer, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 clearly feels like the third entry in a franchise. Sonic and Knuckles are now frenemies who've banded together, alongside Tails, to form the Sonic Team. But when confronted with Shadow's anger and nihilism, they have no choice but to team up with Robotnik to take him down. Personally, I'm just hoping Shadow at some point says, "I'm going to need a gun."
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits theaters December 20th.
Paramount
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sonic-the-hedgehog-3-trailer-introduces-keanu-reeves-broody-shadow-134106308.html?src=rss
Convicted felon and ex-pharmacy profiteer Martin Shkreli has been ordered to surrender all his copies of a one-off Wu-Tang Clan album he used to own, ArtNet reported. The preliminary injunction, issued by federal judge Pamela Chen, was made on behalf of an NFT collective called PleasrDAO, the current owner of the record.
As part of the ruling, the court ordered Shkreli to turn over all copies to his attorney within a week, along with an affidavit confirming he'd done so (under penalty of perjury). He must provide an inventory of all copies of the album, a list of anyone who may have received it and any money made from distribution.
The judgement could prove a challenge for Shkreli. In a May 2024 podcast, he reportedly said he copied the album and "sent it to like, 50 different chicks," while also boasting that "thousands of people have listened to it," according to PleasrDAO's original complaint.
Shkreli — who became infamous for buying and jacking up the price of life-saving AIDS medication Daraprim — purchased the only copy of the Wu-Tang album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin back in 2015 for a reported $2 million at auction. Following his securities fraud conviction, the album was seized along with other assets to satisfy a forfeiture judgement. The government then sold the album in 2021 to PleasrDAO for $4.75 million.
However, that group sued Shkreli in June 2024, accusing him of streaming the music as part of a "Wu-Tang Official Listening Party" on social media. To promote that, he reportedly boasted in a now-deleted video that he made copies "hidden in safes around the world." In June, Judge Chen issued restraining order requiring Shkreli to stop distributing the album and to appear in court to explain why he should be allowed to keep his copies.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-ordered-to-surrender-copies-of-one-off-wu-tang-clan-album-120013576.html?src=rss
The new Terminator anime heading to Netflix looks absolutely brutal in a trailer that dropped this weekend. Terminator Zero is set in 2022 and 1997 (the year of Judgment Day, as described in Terminator 2) and focuses on new characters: Eiko and the scientist Malcom Lee, who are being hunted by a Terminator. The series is produced by Skydance and Production I.G., the Japanese animation studio behind Ghost in the Shell and Psycho-Pass.
Fittingly, it drops on August 29, in a nod to the date of the fictional nuclear annihilation event. You can check out the new trailer below — but just a heads up for anyone who isn’t into anime gore, this clip is packed with it.
Netflix also released a six-minute look at the show’s tense opening on its companion site, Tudum, earlier this week. It begins in a nightmare version of 2022 before traveling back in time. Per the site:
Eiko later arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee (André Holland) who works to launch a new AI system designed to compete with Skynet’s impending attack on humanity. As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation, he’s hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future, which forever alters the fate of his three children.
The show was first revealed to be in production late last year, when Netflix dropped a teaser under the working title of Terminator: The Anime Series. The first season will have eight episodes. And, dare I say it, it looks pretty good.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-drops-a-gory-new-trailer-for-terminator-zero-an-anime-from-the-studio-behind-ghost-in-the-shell-195026137.html?src=rss
Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, was reportedly arrested at an airport near Paris on Saturday as part of a preliminary investigation into the app’s lax approach to moderation and failure to curb criminal activities, according to Reuters, which cited the French news outlets BFM TV and TF1. Telegram is also reportedly being accused of not cooperating with police. On Sunday afternoon, Telegram posted a statement to its official news channel and on X, saying that CEO Durov “has nothing to hide” and that it “is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
“Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving,” it said. Durov was taken into custody after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet, Reuters reported. According to the BBC, the concerns of the current investigation include the app’s failure to crack down on drug trafficking, child sexual abuse materials, and fraudulent activities.
⚖️ Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.
✈️ Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.
😵💫 It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner…
Telegram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, and is widely used in parts of Europe and Asia especially. Durov said earlier this year that it was nearing one billion active monthly users. The app uses end-to-end encryption and supports groups containing tens of thousands of members, allowing mass sharing of information and uncensored content.
NPRreports that a statement from the Paris prosecutor's office will be released on Monday. “We’re awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation,” Telegram said in its own statement.
Update, August 25 2024, 4:48PM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Telegram.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-was-reportedly-arrested-in-france-142730565.html?src=rss
Threads is testing the option for users to put a 24-hour expiration timer on their posts, after which the post and all replies would disappear, Stories-style. A spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature is being tested among a group of users after it was first spotted earlier this summer by developer Alessandro Paluzzi. It sounds a lot like pre-X Twitter’s Fleets, which didn’t exactly catch on. But, the ephemeral format could save habitual post-deleters some trouble.
It comes a few months after Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared that Threads was experimenting with auto-archiving. That optional feature would let users designate a date for their posts to be hidden from the feed. But Threads users in the past have indicated that they largely aren’t into the idea of automatic archiving, and such a feature hasn’t yet shown up on a wider scale. Threads hit the 200 million user mark at the beginning of August, and recently introduced an analytics tool called Insights for users — particularly those with large followings — to keep track of their account’s performance. Meta also said the option to schedule posts is on the way.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-is-testing-disappearing-posts-that-expire-after-24-hours-211329320.html?src=rss
A new Zombies mode is headed to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. A new cinematic trailer released on Friday shows that the DLC will take players to a small town called Liberty Falls infested with the running dead.
The trailer starts in a picturesque piece of America with an old-timey song setting the tone. Then everything goes to hell and our unnamed hero wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world from what was just a nightmare all along. He receives a bulletin that the running dead are on their way so he picks up a shock rifle to start popping off some zombies’ tops. The big reveal at the end features some kind of menacing villain that feels like a cross between ZAX from Fallout 76 and GLaDOS from the Portal games.
This is just a premature judgment based on the trailer but it looks and sounds a lot like Fallout, another game that takes place in a world where humanity ends and mutant humans roam the landscape.
There’s no official wide release date for Black Ops 6’s Zombies DLC or any indication that it will or won’t be available when the game launches on October 25. The first gameplay footage of the Liberty Falls maps and story mode will premiere on August 28 at Call of Duty NEXT in Washington DC. Open beta access will start on August 30. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will also be available on Xbox Game Pass on launch day.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-trailer-for-call-of-duty-black-ops-6s-zombies-dlc-has-risen-191550462.html?src=rss
Get ready, trainers: the original Pokémon anime will soon be getting a new home. The Pokémon Company has partnered with Canadian company WildBrain to be the distributor for a single-IP free ad-supported television channel that's all Pokémon, all the time. The deal covers the first 22 seasons of the animated tales of Ash Ketchum and his electrifying buddy Pikachu.
The FAST channel will arrive first in the US, followed by launches in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. WildBrain has existing relationships with several TV platforms, including Samsung, LG, Roku, Tubi and Pluto, but it didn't share any specific dates or likely homes for the future Pokémon channel. The company specializes in children's programming. It operates FAST channels for game franchises Sonic and Super Mario as well as kid-focused titles such as Teletubbies, Strawberry Shortcake and Caillou.
Fans should be pleased to have this new development from the Pokémon Company after its Pokémon TV venture was shuttered earlier this year. If you're looking for other Pokémon content, stateside viewers should be sure to catch up on the Netflix exclusive Pokémon Journeys before the show leaves in September. You've also got the latest show, Pokémon Horizons, which landed on the streaming service in February.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/the-first-22-seasons-of-pokemon-will-return-to-streaming-225513118.html?src=rss
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has been in the works for about three years now, but with its release date fast approaching we now have our first trailer. It's one of the more unusual and intriguing projects under the Lord of the Rings franchise, an anime-style standalone movie that covers events in the kingdom of Rohan some 200-ish years before the War of the Ring.
The trailer starts with some iconic footage from the '00s Lord of the Rings films focused on Rohan before diving into the animation. It's immediately obvious that this project is connected to Peter Jackson's films, as the designs for key areas like Edoras and Helm's Deep clearly reference those earlier movies despite the distinctly different style. As for characters, we're introduced to King Helm Hammerhand and his daughter Hera who, judging by the trailer, will likely be our main protagonist. It looks like an attempt to marry her off goes south, angering the family of suitor Wulf — things get decidedly more tense after that, with plenty of action and Oliphaunts and, naturally, some teases of ring-related events to come.
The film is directed by Kenji Kamiyama, who has been a writer and director on various anime including Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East. He's also directed episodes of Star Wars: Visions and Ultraman. Most of the cast is still under wraps, but we know Brian Cox is voicing King Hammerhand, while Gaia Wise is voicing his daughter Hera. Miranda Otto is also reprising her role from the Lord of the Rings films as Eowyn, who will serve as the narrator for the story.
The movie is set to be released on December 13, and it's the first of several Lord of the Rings films in development — Andy Serkis, perhaps best known for his performance as Gollum in Jackson's Middle-earth films, is directing a new film tentatively entitled The Hunt for Gollum. While that movie is years away, fans can also catch Middle-earth on-screen in a week when season two of Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/first-trailer-for-lord-of-the-rings-the-war-of-the-rohirrim-shows-an-anime-styled-middle-earth-202139240.html?src=rss
This is a story about serendipity and probability.
Nicole He met Arnaud De Bock while waiting in line for the bathroom at a GDC developer party in 2019. She was giving a talk on voice technology in art and games based on her work as a creative technologist, her portfolio filled with interactive projects like the True Love Tinder Robot, Garden Friends, ENHANCE.COMPUTER and Soylent Dick. De Bock was working on the Reigns series and Card Shark for Nerial, and finishing up Pikuniku on the side.
Technically, He wasn’t invited to this particular party, but Ape Out co-creator Maxi Boch snuck her in.
“There in the bathroom line, I met Arnaud,” He told Engadget. “We started chatting, and we were sort of mutual fans of each other's work, and we talked about potentially collaborating on something. A few months later, we were trying to work on this other idea that he had with his collaborator Rémi [Forcadell] from Pikuniku. That idea never really worked out into anything. But at the same time, Arnaud and I were both obsessed with this reality show called Terrace House.”
Devolver Digital
Terrace House was a Japanese reality series that aired from 2012 to 2020, featuring a rotating cast of six strangers, mainly young professionals, as they lived together for months at a time. Episodes followed the participants as they navigated work and relationships, and the entire thing had a soothing, quiet kind of vibe, even during explosive arguments about eating someone else’s steak. Though cast members often ended up dating each other, you could call Terrace House very demure and very mindful — especially in comparison to Western reality shows like Love Island or Too Hot to Handle, which are built around the themes of bikinis, lust, betrayal and neon-lit product placement.
Inspired by Terrace House and 1990s reality shows like The Real World and Room Raiders, He and De Bock started creating a game called The Crush House. Nerial jumped on board: The studio was finishing up Card Shark and co-founder Francois Alliot saw this reality TV project as an opportunity for his team to flex their narrative muscles.
“At some point, we made a major pivot as far as the writing goes, just ramping it up from this chill Terrace House style, slice-of-life relaxed thing, to be trashy, essentially,” He said. “Like, the dialogue needs to be a lot more engaging. It needs to be funnier and raunchier, more over the top.”
Devolver Digital
That’s when shows like Love Island and The Ultimatum entered the production conversation. In its final form, The Crush House falls in the space between Terrace House and Love Island. It’s set in a bright seaside mansion (with an infinity pool, of course) and it stars four characters at a time as they form strategic friendships, have fiery arguments and make out with each other between ad breaks.
The Crush House is set in 1999, before smartphones enabled a call-and-response relationship with viewers, but the audience still plays a critical role. Players are the on-site producer and videographer, and they have to respond in real-time to demands from different categories of viewers, like drama queens, foodies, fish freaks, divorced dads and butt guys, while also appeasing advertisers and the mysterious network overlords. Capturing the correct footage, playing ads at the right time and placating the suits makes for a surprisingly intense gameplay loop. There’s a sprint button here for a reason.
One of the most intriguing aspects of The Crush House is its replayability. There are 12 cast members to choose from at the start of every run, and they have distinct personality traits that play off of each other in unique ways. There are classic reality-TV archetypes, like the himbo, the naive girl and the pretentious one, and their interactions are driven by procedural generation.
“Everything that you see on the screen, the dialogues, are generated,” Alliot said. “We have a system called rigmarole, which is a system that matches the traits of a character with what we call sagas, which are like models of stories. For example, if you got a love triangle, you have a number one, number two, number three, they will have different traits that we will match to the characters. If we have a match, we play that story and then it unfolds like that, with possible outcomes that may be different depending on the character that you picked. And this system allows us to have a very broad or very narrow type of narrative.”
He and the developers at Nerial wrote about 50,000 lines of dialogue for the Crush House rigmarole system. With 12 characters to choose from and four characters in each playthrough, there are 495 total possible cast combinations in the game. Essentially, The Crush House had to be procedurally generated.
“We have things that are logical, but it's never 100 percent super structured,” Alliot said. “It's a bit loose, a loose narrative that fits very well with reality TV. And so you can play the game basically forever, matching different characters, and it will still surprise you.”
The Crush House was a jumble of random dialogue and code for a long time before its procedural generation systems had enough information to produce a rational, powerful experience, He said. Alliot warned her this would be the case, and encouraged her to be patient and watch out for the moment when everything would snap into place. Eventually, that’s exactly what happened.
Devolver Digital
“It's kind of a mess for a long time,” He said. “But when we reached the point where actually it all came together — we had enough writing, we had the technical stuff working out, and the animations playing and all this stuff happening. It's like there's something that clicks and it kind of becomes magical.”
The Crush House still surprises He, even after years of studying its code and iterating on its outputs.
“I had this experience even yesterday playing the game, where there was a very sweet, romantic scene between Veer and Alex, and then the next scene, Veer says something that's really cruel to him,” He said. “And I was struck by that. I mean, I can see through the veil of it, I know how everything works, but it's really awesome to have that effect.”
The Crush Houseis available on Steam for PC, developed by Nerial and published by Devolver Digital.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/how-the-crush-house-turns-procedural-generation-into-social-manipulation-160020111.html?src=rss