With spring just around the corner, the eyes of the movie world begin to turn to Austin, Texas and SXSW. Now in its 23rd year, SXSW Film has become a key component in the development of movie culture and filmmaking talent, in addition to being a hot source for big budget premieres. Its pedigree is now on par with the biggest and best festivals in the business and is an annual source of delight for cinephiles across the globe....
The latest game from Remedy, the studio behind hits like Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break, is Control, a supernatural shooter with Metroidvania elements and an emphasis on fast gunplay and telekinetic powers, all wrapped in a dream-like story which could have only been crafted by the face of the studio, writer and creative director Sam Lake. We spoke to Lake about a variety of subjects recently, but one of the most fascinating topics was the story of the infamous nine-year gap between Remedy’s Max Payne 2, released in 2003, and Rockstar’s Max Payne 3, which didn’t see the light of day until 2012....
Facebook announces today that Group Effects, which bring new AR experiences, are available on Messenger video calls and Messenger Room, and it will be coming soon to Instagram as well. According to a blog post, these new AR experiences can “augment everyone on a video call at the same time, enabling a more fun and immersive way to connect with friends and family.” There are over 70 Group Effects that users can enjoy while on a video call with a friend, ranging from a game where you compete to build the best burger to an effect with a cute orange cat that enters everyone’s screens....
Few villains have stood the test of time like Darth Vader. He is regarded as not only the best villain in Star Wars, but as one of the best villains in cinematic history. Natrally, audiences clamored for more Vader after the original trilogy concluded. Vader’s popularity resulted in his own novels, comic books, and video games. This lead to the divisive prequel trilogy, which revolved around the character’s origins. Even the newer films can’t resist him, with the crowd-pleasing hallway scene in Rogue One and Kylo Ren talking to his grandfather’s burnt mask in The Force Awakens....
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is striking in its ambition. For long-time fans of the series, Fire Emblem is synonymous with a few different features: the tragic deaths of characters they’ve spent hours building a meaningful relationship with, the torturous decisions that come with combat positioning and tactical planning, and the breadth of options available to those looking to customize their play experience. What they won’t mention - at least, before Three Houses changes the game - is how long that planning has been enacted, and how they’ve watched and molded their characters into the adults they are today....
Author George R.R. Martin reveals new information about the Game of Thrones prequel series, unofficially known as The Long Night. In a recent interview, the franchise creator discussed specific story details, most notably that House Stark will be included, along with House Lannister, albeit with a small caveat. Martin’s Game of Thrones book series is collectively known as A Song of Ice and Fire. He released the first installment in 1996 (A Game of Thrones), and has subsequently released four more novels, with two more yet to be released....
Two more popular video game franchises crossover as one clever fan combines God of War and Grand Theft Auto 5. Since 2005, God of War’s Kratos has become one of the most formidable characters in the video game world. However, while the exiled Spartan may be more used to swinging a blade at the malevolent gods of Greek mythology, he can now be seen taking to the mean streets of Los Santos and spilling blood there instead....
The UK’s Supreme Court has thrown out a Google Safari workaround class action lawsuit in which iPhone owners could have received as much as £500 ($675) each. The case alleged that Google breached the privacy of iPhone owners by secretly installing web cookies even after users had blocked them in Safari’s settings … Background Google uses tracking cookies to serve personalized ads to users based on their browsing habits. Safari lets iPhone owners choose whether to accept or block these ads....
Every year, new iOS releases arrive with headline-grabbing features like SharePlay and Focus. Likewise, every year, iOS includes under-the-radar improvements that aren’t likely to generate headlines. In this hands-on video I consider the top hidden iOS 15 features that I’ve stumbled upon. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for even more iOS 15 coverage in the days and weeks to come. While a few of these low-key features were demonstrated in my top iOS 15 features overview, the majority are enhancements that I haven’t yet showcased for the public version of iOS 15....
There is an upsetting amount of Neville Longbottom’s backstory that is left out of the movies. So much so, that even Matthew Lewis, the actor who plays the part of Neville, feels that his character kind of got gypped. Neville, although he seems to be a secondary character, is actually part of the glue that ties many of the story’s characters and plots together. So understandably, it can be easy to dismiss Neville as a background character if you have only seen the movies....
Despite what seemed like a surefire hit project, it looks as though FX’s planned Deadpool animated series that was to be co-showrun by Donald and Stephen Glover is no longer moving forward. The series was announced last year with a straight-to-series order for a 10-episode season that was intended to air on FXX, which is already home to every episode of The Simpsons, as well as the long-running adult animated series Archer....
Dragon Ball Super is the latest main entry in the world-famous and beloved Dragon Ball franchise. Created by Akira Toriyama with his initial manga, Dragon Ball, the series flourished and was given an even more popular sequel, Dragon Ball Z, which was followed up with the unloved Dragon Ball GT. After going relatively dormant for years, the series was still popular but had no major new material until the ground-breaking movie Battle of Gods, which would then be followed up with Resurrection F....
Dungeons & Dragons is meant to be a game about teamwork. The reason each character has to choose a class is so that they can be given a set of unique abilities that set them apart from their teammates. The players then have to work together in order to face the overwhelming odds that the Dungeon Master will set up them. This is the very reason why a party will start to endure hardships when there is a lack of cooperation among the members of the team....
Writer-director Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk reached a box office milestone over the weekend by crossing the $400 million mark in global ticket sales. Dunkirk has had a miraculous summer at the box office both domestically and abroad, roaring into theaters with a “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes ranking of 92 percent and overperforming in its debut weekend with more than $50.5 million in ticket sales alone stateside. Proving the opening wasn’t a fluke, Dunkirk – based on the true-life heroic rescue of 400,000 Allied troops pinned at the port of Dunkirk, France, surrounded by German forces in 1940 – not only won its second weekend domestically in theaters, it finished in the top five the next three weeks....
Take a look at an exclusive clip from the space-faring animated comedy Final Space, which aside from airing on TBS, has found a second home on the “fandom-focused video platform,” VRV. The platform is the exclusive place to watch the sci-fi series from creator Olan Rogers and executive producer Conan O’Brien on-demand, making it the best way for those who missed out when the series aired on cable to get caught up before the new season, which is expected sometime in 2019....
It’s a good day to be a fan of Marvel’s New Mutants, now that legendary writer and creator Chris Claremont is returning to the team of upstart X-Men for a brand new, one-shot adventure with artist Bill Sienkiewicz… and we’ve got your first look at New Mutants: War Children #1. The issue will be coming to comic readers on September 18th, with Sienkiewicz providing both cover art and interiors for the issue....
Jim Carrey is set to return to television for his first regular series role since his time as a cast member on In Living Color with Showtime’s melancholic comedy Kidding. While television has demonstrated a knack for attracting big names who’re either currently unattached to or uninterested in signing on for a seven-plus picture deal for a superhero franchise (and plenty who already are), getting Carrey on board a television series (premium cable or not) seems like an unimaginable feat....
It’s E3 2016 time, which naturally means cool game-related news and videos are being released seemingly by the hour. One hotly anticipated upcoming title is Friday the 13th: The Game, an interactive adaptation of the popular horror film franchise. Beginning life as a Kickstarter project, F13: The Game blew past its initial funding goals, and is now on target for a fall 2016 release. With the E3 festivities in full swing, developer Gun Media has seen fit to make F13: The Game’s first gameplay footage available to the masses, alternately casting players in the bulky shoes of infamous movie monster Jason Voorhees and one of his would be victims....
At this point, it’s unclear why Gears 5 isn’t just titled Gears of War 5, because it’s practically the same game that people have come to know and love over the years with mostly standard graphical upgrades. Coming from developer The Coalition and publisher Xbox Game Studios, Gears 5 continues the narrative from 2016’s Gears of War 4 and focuses on the character Kate Diaz, a descendant of the Locust. She was the subject of the game’s reveal trailer but wasn’t present in our demo at E3 2019....
Global iPhone production reportedly set a new all-time record in the holiday quarter, Apple managing to balance huge demand for the iPhone 13 line-up with a well-managed supply chain operation to minimize the impact of component shortages. Two additional factors were at play for Apple, according to market intelligence company TrendForce … TrendForce tells us that iPhone production is estimated to have reached over 85M units. In addition to the demand for iPhone 13 models, the company said that Apple’s price reductions on older models helped....
