Imaginary crossovers have long been a great geeky go-to conversation starter, from the very first nerds who ever asked "who would win in a fight, Wolverine or Superman?" In that spirit, we have created the /Film Showdown, pitting two titans of terror from all of horror cinema against one another. Leatherface from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" has faced off against Pinhead from "Hellraiser," Pennywise the dancing clown from "It" has gone a round with Freddy Krueger, and now, it's time for a charismatic vampire hunter and one of cinema's most loathed vampires to do battle. That's right, Seth Gecko (played by George Clooney) from the Quentin Tarantino-penned and Robert Rodriguez-helmed "From Dusk Til Dawn" is going to try to take down the version of Dracula played by Gerard Butler in the widely reviled "Dracula 2000." Both wear black leather and have great hair, but only one of them can walk away.
So who will it be? Can the cataclysmically corny Daddy of the Damned manage to out-fight the suave and smooth-talking slayer of blood-suckers? Or is Dracula doomed to face defeat like his movie did at the box office?
Two good-looking guys enter; only one will leave. Let's go.
How They Could Crossover
There are sequels to both "Dracula 2000" and "From Dusk Til Dawn," but for the sake of keeping things less confusing, this battle royale would take place in a world where the sequels don't exist, and the endings of the original movies dictate the canon. Cool? Cool.
In "Dracula 2000," a young woman named Mary Heller (played by Justine Waddell) discovers that her father was the last guardian of the tomb of Dracula. After he's awakened from his eternal slumber by some rogue treasure hunters, Dracula goes looking for Mary in order to exact revenge on her father while also sort of having a crush on her, but she's not really down with the whole "drinking the blood of mortals" thing and fights against him. In the end, he reveals himself to be Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ in the Bible, which explains why he hates crosses and other Christian imagery so much. It's really silly, but what's even sillier is that in the ensuing battle, most of Mary's friends die, Dracula's vampire servants die, and then Dracula ends up being hanged almost by accident right as the sun comes up, relegating him to dust. Great job, everyone!
Mary decides that she must take up the charge of guarding Dracula's ashes so that he can never find a way to return, and seemingly that's that. A lifetime spent guarding ashes could get pretty tiresome, and one can imagine that Mary might want a little rest and relaxation after her whole "saving the world" ordeal. Maybe she decided to go take a vacation down in Mexico and brought the urn along with her since she can't let it out of her sight. And maybe, while she was down there, her luggage got mixed up, and 'ole Drac manages to resurrect himself.
Guess who happens to be down in Mexico, trying to relax a little while on the run after the events of "From Dusk Til Dawn"? That's right, one ex-con-turned-vampire-killer named Seth Gecko.
A Vacation Turned Violent
All due respect to one Mr. Dracula, particularly the version from "Dracula 2000" played by an impossibly handsome Gerard Butler with all that hair, but what is going to happen when that well-manicured vampire rolls up on Seth f*****g Gecko after he has killed dozens of vampires in one of the most messed up situations imaginable? It's probably not going to be pretty. Not one bit.
First off, this is not some random guy who will inevitably be coming face to face with a vampire. It is a man who faced down more of these beasts than any one man should be able to handle in a situation where there was truly no escape. Yet, he learned the ins and outs of how to handle these bloodsucking beings through trial and error. Now? Seth is a hardened and bonafide vampire killer with a bone to pick. Let's not forget that they killed his brother, one of the only people in the world he actually cared about. So yeah, Dracula seems like a good guy to pick that bone with.
Aside from that, we need to remember that Seth was a hard-nosed criminal long before his days of hunting vampires. He only went to Mexico to escape the law in the first place as he and his brother were on the run for a series of robberies and murders. Learning how to kill vampires was just the latest on a long list of grizzly, unsightly accomplishments.
Lastly, Seth knows people, and is well connected in the criminal underworld. You think he's going up against pretty boy Dracula alone? Not a chance. The second he figures out that bloodsucker is over the border, he's gathering up some fellow scumbags to make sure this is done right. Butler's Dracula may be stronger than the soft-fleshed vampires Seth battled before, but come on, after everything he went through at the Titty Twister? It's game over, man.
How Do You Like Your Stake?
It's pretty clear that while Dracula might be the OG vampire, he's just not going to be able to hang tough up against Gecko and whatever pals he finds to help fight. The criminal-turned-vampire hunter managed to take down a Tom Savini vampire and a Danny Trejo vampire, so a Gerard Butler bloodsucker can't be too much trouble. Besides, Gecko's vampire vendetta's going to make him much more willing to do whatever it takes to destroy Dracula. It would be a pretty fine feather in his cap to say he killed the original vampire, plus his newfound Christian friend Kate (Juliette Lewis) would probably appreciate him killing Judas.
Not all Draculas are created equal, and sadly, Butler's version of the prince of darkness is one of the weaker iterations. He's a lot like the hot Dracula of "Blade: Trinity" played by Dominic Purcell, because he sort of just vamps around and doesn't really do anything, but at least the "Blade: Trinity" version can grow wings and fly. It seems like his primary power for Dracula of the year 2000 is smoldering looks, which just isn't going to cut it with Gecko.
After Gecko and friends defeat Dracula, they can hit the beach and enjoy something Dracula never could: some fun in the sun.
Every iconic filmmaker has a ton of projects they never got off the ground, and Kevin Smith is certainly no exception. Of course, there is a vast difference between him and directors like Orson Welles, specifically the fact that the majority of his projects are either low-budget comedies or superhero fare. Still, it can't be denied that Smith is an influential figure that has shaped popular culture through his lengthy filmography.
He also just so happens to have several notable unmade projects under his belt.
Much like Guillermo del Toro, he's been pretty open about them, resulting in some interesting details coming to light. Here is just a sample of the many projects Smith has wanted to get off the ground, but for one reason or another never could.
Clerks: The TV Show
Before "Clerks: The Animated Series," there was going to be "Clerks: The TV Show." While the animated series was still criminally underappreciated and unfairly canceled, it at least had Smith's direct involvement. The same can't be said for "Clerks: The TV Show." Sure, this might be cheating, but it is still such a wild story that I just had to include it in this list.
Upon the unexpected success of 1994's "Clerks," former Miramax owners Touchstone Pictures wanted to expand the story of the film in an unconventional way. By unconventional, I of course mean that it would center around a completely different group of characters and be far more PG-friendly than the movie. According to Geek, it would also be greenlit and start production before Smith was even made aware of the project, as he was busy making "Mallrats" at the time. Despite this, he revealed during "An Evening With Kevin Smith" that he did attempt to write an episode for the series, which he said was rewritten to be a B-plot.
So, was all this fuss and creative drain worth it? Did it make an interesting show despite these problems? The answer is no; Smith and the rest of the film's crew considered it terrible, and the show never made it past the pilot phase. If you're morbidly curious, the pilot has become available on YouTube.
The Six Million Dollar Man
This script is a bit of an anomaly on this list, as there isn't a ton known about it other than a few basic facts. Smith had submitted the script, which was commissioned by Universal Pictures, back in 1998. While the original "Six Million Dollar Man" aired on ABC from 1973 to 1978, Universal Television Distribution held the rights to the IP, making it prime real estate for a big screen adaptation.
However, the film never got the green light. TV Series Finale notes Smith as having said at one point that "there was an exec who dismissed it as being more like a comic book than a movie." While various iterations have been in the works over the years, Smith's script did turn into the 2011 Dynamite comic series "The Bionic Man." So, even if things didn't work out exactly as Smith had probably hoped, at least it ended up seeing the light of day in some form.
Green Lantern
The disastrous 2011 adaptation has left an undeniable mark on the Green Lantern character and team, which is a damn shame considering how cool their concept actually is. While it's good that "Green Lantern Corps" has seemingly been spared by recent HBO Max cancellations, I can't help but wonder where the character would be in today's pop culture sphere had a better movie been released earlier.
In a 2000 interview with Ain't It Cool News, Smith revealed that he almost got the chance to make such a movie back in 1997. It's no surprise that Smith is a massive comic fan, so it would make perfect sense to have him helm a "Green Lantern" film. However, Smith actually declined to take on the film when producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura approached him with the possibility. The reason? He isn't a fan of Green Lantern:
"He said 'How about Green Lantern? Do you think Green Lantern would make a good movie?' I said 'I guess under somebody else, but I'm just not a huge Green Lantern fan, and I don't think I'm the guy you want adapting it. I'm sure there are people out there who are massive fans and who really know a lot about the character. Maybe those are they guys you should be going after and not me.'"
Superman Lives
When you think of unfinished projects, I bet you automatically think of "Superman Lives." After all, how could you not? Its rise and fall are plagued with all sorts of production problems, from combative producers to fluctuating budgets and even giant spiders. However, it is primarily associated with Tim Burton, who was selected as the director of the doomed project. While he was seemingly not considered for the director's seat, Smith did pitch and write the initial script for the film, which he had less-than-fond memories of. Case in point, this stellar recollection of one bizarre demand that producer Jon Peters had for the film as relayed to Mania Movies:
"[He] said, 'That gay Black guy in your movie [Hooper from "Chasing Amy," played by Dwight Ewell] did an excellent job. That's what we need in Superman. [...] We need that kind of attitude, that voice. What about L-Ron [the robotic assistant of villain Brainiac], can't he have a voice like that? Can't he be gay? I want a gay R2D2.'"
So, yeah, we don't have time to unpack that. Anyways, Smith's time with the film only got worse after Wesley Strick, screenwriter of 1992's "Batman Returns," was hired to rewrite his script. It was altered so heavily that Smith was no longer credited as its screenwriter. Of course, this was just one problem among the myriad that plagued "Superman Lives."
Dogma II
The original "Dogma" is infamous for several reasons, primarily its skewering look at Catholicism and its inaccessibility on streaming or home video. However, it was still a critical and commercial success, remaining Smith's highest-grossing film. Because of this, it was probably inevitable that a sequel would at least be considered, and a tragic world event actually became the genesis for that idea. On the View Askewniverse forums in 2005, Smith revealed that the September 11 attacks, especially the ultra-religious responses to them, made him consider a thematic sequel.
"I mean, the worst terrorist attack on American soil was religiously bent," wrote Smith. "In the wake of said attack, the leader of the 'Free World' outed himself as pretty damned Christian."
However, he stressed that heightening religious tensions and safety concerns remained a major problem he'd have to overcome. The definitive end to a "Dogma" sequel, however, came in 2017, as the director revealed in a 2019 Business Insider interview that Harvey Weinstein had pitched the idea to him in a phone call. While Smith had said that he would consider it, no actual deal was made to greenlight it.
A week after the call, Weinstein's long history of sexual abuse was exposed by The New York Times. If that doesn't kill a movie's chances of production, I don't know what will.
Untitled Prince Documentary
The most uncharacteristic project on this list has got to be this unfinished documentary Smith filmed on music icon Prince. The genesis of the project came after the musician refused to give the director the rights to his song, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," for "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." However, he agreed to allow Smith to film some footage at his Paisley Park estate for a week in the hopes of screening something to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
While this sounds like an unprecedented opportunity, Smith recalled that he ended up being duped into making something he had no intention of making. He claimed that the musician, a devout Jehovah's Witness, banned any swearing and insisted that the documentary be so legendary that it would change the world.
"He's like, 'I want you to shoot people's reaction to the album. Let them listen to it and you have them talk about it. And then I want to talk about religion and lead that into race,'" Smith recalled, "'and lead it into the music biz and radio. At the end of the week, I want to change the world.'"
Sounds like a daunting task. To hear about the rest of this bizarre and pretty damn entertaining story, check out his recollection while on tour for "An Evening With Kevin Smith."
Hollyweed
This cancellation is perhaps the most tragic one on this list because it was so close to becoming a reality. The pilot for this show was shot back in 2016 for a then-up-and-coming streaming service called Rivit TV. However, it wasn't released on the service until 2018, partially due to Smith's massive heart attack earlier that year. When it was eventually released, however, Rivit TV would not pick up the show without the financial support of the director's fans.
"Our goal is to directly connect creators with their fans, liberate the creative process and invite the audience to greenlight shows from their favorite storytellers," said Rivit TV chief content officer Marcus Riley in a statement at the time (via Variety).
According to IndieWire, the goal for funding was around $5.3 million dollars. Unfortunately, when the funding due date of August 25, 2018, came around, the project went silent. It's safe to assume that despite Smith's status as a cult filmmaker, the fans simply didn't crowdfund enough money to make the show a reality. What's even worse is that the "Hollyweed" pilot has seemingly been erased from Rivit TV, now called DevoTV, although it is available to watch on YouTube.
Plastic Man
With the ongoing animated purges at HBO Max, it's probably for the best that this film was eventually scrapped. However, it still probably would've been cool to see, especially since Patrick O'Brien isn't the most well-utilized superhero in DC history. According to an episode of his "FatMan Beyond" podcast, Smith revealed that he was contracted by DC to write a script for a "Plastic Man" animated movie back in 2017, having found it while going through his laptop files.
"I completely f***ing forgot about it, and they paid me to write it," recalled Smith. "It was with ... Jim Parsons. What a lovely dude, but he was gonna be the voice of Plastic Man."
Obviously, it never wound up getting picked up. While details about why were not revealed on the podcast, it is actually pretty funny to hear Smith admit that he had forgotten about it despite the script being written in recent memory.
Ranger Danger And The Danger Rangers
And now we're back in the View Askewniverse. Word of this project, which was teased on a shirt in 2006's "Clerks II," began circulating in 2008, with Smith saying that it was an idea he had been working towards for years. According to Gizmodo, it was supposed to be a send-up of classic science-fiction movies, with him specifically citing "Flash Gordon" as an influence on the project.
However, that was pretty much all the information we had about the project for years. An unverified and likely dead article claims he once considered making it into an animated film, which could work given the cheesy throwback material he'd likely been dealing with. That being said, this can't exactly be confirmed.
What can be confirmed, however, is that the project would still find life in a roundabout way. 2019's "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" featured the "Ranger Danger" comics in a rebooted and grittier style. Hey, at least the "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" tribute art Smith posted on his Facebook looks cool.
Kingdom Keepers
Now, this should be a throwback for Gen-Zers everywhere. The "Kingdom Keepers" series of books by Ridley Pearson was a smash success when it began in 2005, spanning 14 books in total. Combining an original story with notable Disney theme parks and IPs, it once seemed extremely likely that a television series, specifically one for the then-upcoming Disney+, could be a success.
So, they attempted to do just that with Smith at the helm. He wrote a script for the pilot in the hopes that the show would be among the first Disney+ originals. Unfortunately, he claimed that the show was scrapped after a new figure was placed in charge of the app (presumably Disney+ CEO Michael Paull). He revealed the reason why it was canceled on Twitter back in 2020, and it was because it would have used too many IPs.
That's a bit rich, don't you think?
Interested in seeing a long-gestating Kevin Smith project that actually survived development hell? You're in luck, because "Clerks III" hits theaters on September 13, 2022.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that William Shatner, 91, thinks the original "Star Trek" is the best one. Shatner has, according to various rumors over the years, always felt that "Star Trek" was a three-character show -- Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy -- with Kirk in the center. Anyone who has been to a "Trek" convention have heard stories from most of Shatner's co-stars that he was aloof on set, and that Shatner wasn't too keen on acknowledging the show's entire ensemble. He behaved "the star." One can find a spate of stories from Nichelle Nichols, or George Takei about how much they disliked Shanter for his implied insistence that he remain the very center of the galaxy.As such, any "Star Trek" show that isn't about Kirk and doesn't star William Shatner, according to William Shatner, is the lesser "Trek." One might argue that "Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry improved on his 1966 vision when he made "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987 -- Roddenberry spent the '70s on the convention circuit, re-learning the lessons of the original series -- but Shatner, it seems, disagrees.
Lest one assume Shatner has mellowed in his old age, one only need to open Twitter to see this is not the case. Shatner, in recent years, has grown into an outspoken, amusingly bitter figure on his Twitter account, quick with a cuss or two, and his finger poised over the "block" button. Never one to shy away from irking fans, Shatner also controversially proclaimed at the 2022 San Diego Comic Con -- in via a report from the Hollywood Reporter -- that newer "Trek" would be enough to outrage Roddenberry.
Really?
The panel at San Diego Comic Con was hosted by Kevin Smith, a geek elder statesman and notorious "Star Wars" fan. Shatner was entreated to give a greeting to the Starwoids in the audience, and he gleefully shouted out "F*** 'Star Wars!" before quickly amending his statement to defend Mark Hamill. Mark Hamill, he said, was alright. As he has likely been asked myriad times at many "Trek" conventions over the years, Shatner was asked if any of the new shows could match the original. Shatner answered in the resoundingly negative, saying:
"I got to know Gene Roddenberry in three years fairly well. He'd be turning in his grave at some of this stuff."
Sadly, Shatner did not elucidate further on what he meant by "some of this stuff." Given the deluge of new "Star Trek" shows on Paramount+, there is a lot of "stuff" to choose from. Shatner doesn't cite particular episodes or stories from "Star Trek: Discovery" or notions introduced in "Star Trek: Picard" as examples. He didn't even say if he bothered to watch much new "Trek." He merely waved away newer "Star Trek" as unilaterally bad.
Not watching new "Star Trek," of course, is his right. At a spry 91, it's not Shatner's job to remain the central pundit of the franchise. Another geek elder statesman, Wil Wheaton (who played Wesley Crusher on "Next Generation"), appears to have taken up that mantle, hosting "Star Trek" interview programs and after-shows on Paramount+.
Shatner's dismissal of new "Trek," though, denotes the latest flip comment on the politics of "Star Trek" that Shatner has been expressing for a while.
Issues Vs. Politics
It may just be a matter of semantics, but on his Twitter account in January of 2020, Shatner declared that "Star Trek," one of the more overtly political shows in sci-fi TV at the time, was not political. One of his many irked followers accused him of being a bad man, and Shatner responded by saying "Trek" was not about politics, but "social issues that many construe to be political." A drama about social issues is the very definition of political art, but Shatner feels there is a logistical difference. "How can they be political however," he Tweeted, "when the very definition of politics is governance of areas & boundaries? It would be oxymoronic."
When Shatner uses the word "politics," then, he seems to be referring very specifically to matters of governance. Roddenberry was famously pretty much a communist, and used "Trek" as a criticism of capitalism. He also used "Trek" to explore issues of racism and war, setting it in a near-utopia beyond racial and nationalist animosity. For Shatner, unless the episode was about the actual federal governing bodies of an alien planet, then the show wasn't political.
Shanter's comments, sadly, fall in line with some recent commentary from right-wing media outlets that have, in a fit of extreme misinterpretation, declared "Star Trek" has, in 2022 America, suddenly become "woke." "Trek," of course, has always presented a post-capitalism technological paradise that very much has a left-leaning political point of view. It may be a military show about rules and formality, of course, but it does not celebrate military might.
Shanter's comments on Twitter and at Comic-Con left many fans placing him in the same clueless camp as pundits on Fox News. One might find themselves assuming he has lost sight of his own show.
Canonical has announced a point release for Ubuntu 20.04 and its community editions. The new release, 20.04.5, offers updated hardware support along with security fixes since the original 20.04 release. "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop,....
Following Elden Ring's massive success, PC Gamer brings us this article that compares FromSoftware's challenging action-RPG to Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in that both these games seem to be very influential on the industry around them. The article also theorizes how this success can help revitalize open world RPGs.
Here's an excerpt:
Elden Ring will hopefully spark designers to favor more moments where you stumble into the devastatingly powerful Sword of Night and Flame instead of spending a hundred hours working up to something of similar power at the end of a skill tree. Open world games would benefit from giving you room to have influence over the world, separated from the constraints of where the play-tested path wants you to be. Even the mighty Sword of Night and Flame wasn't an easy solution for Elden Ring's hardest boss. Considered open world design lets you have your fun discovering something that feels like you shouldn't have it yet, and incorporates that into the broader construction of the game.
Even if Elden Ring's influence works its way into some of the inevitable sequels and remakes that get the green light every year, one big success might convince those publishers that trading on purely familiar features isn't the only way to grab people's attention—that we're all ready to be broken out of our routines and taught something new, even if we don't know it.
THE 101 SCARIEST HORROR MOVIE MOMENTS OF ALL TIME l ShudderIt’s officially September, which means that we horror fans can now dive into Shudder’s annual 61-day Halloween event. To whet your appetites and give viewers a little taste of horror action, a must-add for both newbs and veterans to the horror genre based on its first episode is the brand new series, THE 101 SCARIEST HORROR MOVIE MOMENTS OF ALL TIME. While the countdown portion of the list may potentially inspire some fisticuffs online (as these lists tend to do, unfortunately), the amount of information breaking down each segment is enough to perhaps make you reconsider your own list order.
Interviewees include Tony Todd (Candyman), Greg Nicotero (Day of the Dead), Keith David (The Thing), Alex Essoe (Starry Eyes), Ernest Dickerson (Bones), Brea Grant (Lucky), Tananarive Due (“My Soul to Keep”), Rebekah McKendry (Glorious), Joe Dante (Gremlins), and David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man).
Also interviewed were Kate Siegel (“Haunting of Bly Manor”), Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe), Mike Flanagan (“Midnight Mass”), Axelle Carolyn (The Manor), Lydia Hearst (Slayers), Dana Gould (“Stan Against Evil”), Tom Savini (Night of the Living Dead), Jonah Ray (“Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return”) and more.
Due to wanting to keep spoilers under wraps, I’m going to skip the nitty-gritty details of what is actually listed. The first episode counts down starting from 101 and ending at 89. This provides enough of an estimate in terms of how much time is spent per movie moment. It’s not too short per segment. It also doesn’t drag either due to some careful editing. This creates a steady pace that will make the time breeze on by.
Countdown lists are fine and dandy. We’ve seen many of them online in either text or video format. What is the major draw and highlight of this particular series in their approach to the countdown is the interviews. Having multiple perspectives analyze the selected moments adds more heft to the choices and, in particular, for those who love learning things, you’ll gain more knowledge along the way.
The first episode of THE 101 SCARIEST HORROR MOVIE MOMENTS OF ALL TIME sets the stage from the get-go with its format and structure. Wasting no time, it launches viewers into the countdown. With just eight episodes to cover 101 movie moments, there’s a lot of ground to cover. If there is one gripe to be had, the end of episode one does feel a bit abrupt. But this may be a matter of preference. As of now, definitely would recommend it for both casual and hardcore fans of horror, if anything just to get yourself back into prime-time Halloween horror viewing mode.
THE 101 SCARIEST HORROR MOVIE MOMENTS OF ALL TIME will premiere Wednesday, September 7, on Shudder.
Return to Monkey Island system requirements feel a bit retro, as you can play the point-and-click adventure using a twelve-year-old GPU. Naturally, that means you won't need the best graphics card to experience Ron Gilbert's swashbuckling romp, and there's a chance you won't even need a machine with dedicated graphics.
For example, Colantonio really did not like being forced to call Prey with the same name as Human Head Studios' 2006 title.
Another thing, I'll admit it, I think that I was a little at odds with some of the management. The decision of calling Prey Prey, that was very very hurtful to me. I did not want to call this game Prey and I had to say I wanted to anyway in front of journalists, which is not my pleasure. I hate to lie and those are sales lies, it's not like personal life, but it still felt bad I had to support a message I did not want. Not only me but nobody on the team wanted to call this game Prey, our game had nothing to do with Prey. Yes, I'm grateful that a company will give me the means to make a game and trust my ability with so many millions of dollars, I'm grateful of that, but there is a bit of the artist, the creative side that is insulted when you tell this artist your game is going to be called Prey.
You go like, I don't think it should, I think it's a mistake, it's a sales mistake because we're gonna get the backfires from the people who want another Prey made. These ones are not gonna be happy. Then the ones who didn't like Prey, they're not even gonna look for the new game, so it's a really really weird thing. I was like, I gotta go at this point because I'm not in control of my own boat. Again, it's never sort of one thing, it's a number of things.
Winter weather does a number on your home, and if you’re not on top of your maintenance schedule, you might be in for some unpleasant surprises come December. It might still feel too warm outside to be worrying about some of these tasks, but summer and early fall are the perfect time to do some preventative…
Probably the best of three rebooted adventures of Lara Croft, this edition comes with all extra DLCs that includes additional tombs, weapons, outfits and skills. Get this PC game for free at Epic!
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Remote Work Country Rankings The recently released Global Remote Work Index from Nordlayer is mostly only useful for the The recently released Global Remote Work Index from Nordlayer is mostly only useful for the overall rankings if you’re wealthy or you’re getting a corporate transfer: the data it focuses on tends to favor expensive developed countries with high taxes. It’s fun to play with the individual lists for the four categories though: Cybersecurity’s top entrants include Slovakia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Portugal and Slovenia do well for “Economic and social conditions.” Thailand is #2 for handling Covid-19 (though the USA being at #1 makes us question the whole methodology…)
Van Life Conversions There are myriad of channels on YouTube celebrating living and working from a mobile home, oThere are myriad of channels on YouTube celebrating living and working from a mobile home, otherwise known as Van Life. A few channels will take you through the process of converting a van into a portable home or office. For a fabulous overview of the wonderful variety of possible ways to build a roaming home, check out the new photobook Rolling Homes by Lloyd Khan. It will give you a hundred inspiring ways young makers have turned a vehicle into a stunning living and working place — and in a much better format than YouTube. – Kevin Kelly
Back-to-office Backlash If the current rebellion among Apple HQ employees is any indication, even the tech workers that enjoyed gourmet lunches and free gyms have no desire to go back to commutes and cubicles, even for three days a week. Imagine what it’s like at companies without all the perks…
Asking for a Hotel Discount As it has become easier and easier to book accommodation online without interacting with As it has become easier and easier to book accommodation online without interacting with another human, most travelers have forgotten that it’s possible to negotiate. This Daily Mail article profiles a traveler who frequently saves 25-30% — what online booking sites often charge hoteliers in commissions and fees — with a simple e-mail script making the ask in exchange for booking direct. – Mark Frauenfelder
The High Court in Delhi ordered Telegram to share the personal details of copyright-infringing users with rightsholders. The messaging app refused to do so, citing privacy concerns and freedom of speech, but the court waved away these defenses, ordering the company to comply with Indian law. TorrentFreak reports: Telegram doesn't permit copyright infringement and generally takes swift action in response. This includes the removal of channels that are dedicated to piracy. For some copyright holders that's not enough, as new 'pirate' channels generally surface soon after. To effectively protect their content, rightsholders want to know who runs these channels. This allows them to take action against the actual infringers and make sure that they stop pirating. This argument is the basis of an infringement lawsuit filed in 2020.
The case in question was filed by Ms. Neetu Singh and KD Campus. The former is the author of various books, courses, and lectures, for which the latter runs coaching centers. Both rightsholders have repeatedly complained to Telegram about channels that shared pirated content. In most cases, Telegram took these down, but the service refused to identify the infringers. As such, the rightsholders asked the court to intervene. The legal battle culminated in the Delhi High Court this week via an order compelling Telegram to identify several copyright-infringing users. This includes handing over phone numbers, IP addresses, and email addresses.
The order was issued despite fierce opposition. One of Telegram's main defenses was that the user data is stored in Singapore, which prohibits the decryption of personal information under local privacy law. The Court disagrees with this argument, as the ongoing infringing activity is related to Indian works and will likely be tied to Indian users. And even if the data is stored elsewhere, it could be accessed from India. Disclosing the personal information would not be a violation of Singapore's privacy law either, the High Court adds, pointing out that there is an exception if personal details are needed for investigation or proceedings.
Telegram also brought up the Indian constitution, which protects people's privacy, as well as the right to freedom of speech and expression. However, that defense was unsuccessful too. Finally, Telegram argued that it is not required to disclose the details of its users because the service merely acts as an intermediary. Again, the Court disagrees. Simply taking infringing channels offline isn't good enough in this situation, since infringers can simply launch new ones, as if nothing had happened.
AMD is rumored to launch three new Zen 4 V-Cache CPUs, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Ryzen 9 7900X3D & Ryzen 7 7800X3D at CES 2023.
AMD Preps Three Zen 4 V-Cache CPUs, The Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Ryzen 9 7900X3D & Ryzen 7 7800X3D, For CES 2023, Alleges Rumor
The latest rumor regarding the Zen 4 V-Cache parts comes from Greymon55 who has put forward a cryptic tweet referring to the Ryzen 7000 3D V-Cache CPUs. According to the tweet, three Ryzen 3D V-Cache CPUs have been rumored, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Ryzen 9 7900X3D & the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Based on the SKUs, it looks like AMD will be targetting the higher-end market with V-Cache chips & mainstream V-Cache parts might hit retail later on.
We don't know what sort of SRAM (3D V-cache) stacks will be featured on the Zen 4 parts. The last-gen Zen 3 V-Cache processors such as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D featured a single Zen 3 CCD with 64MB of LLC vertically stacked on top of the die. For the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, this may also be true since it's going to feature a single Zen 4 CCD with 8 cores and 16 threads. However, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D & the Ryzen 9 7900X3D will be featuring two Zen 4 CCDs since they pack 12 cores and 16 cores each, respectively. We can't say for sure yet if AMD will have a single CCD stacked with a 3D cache stack or if both Zen 4 CCDs will be stacked. Also whether AMD retains the 64 MB cache stack or changes it remains to be seen.
In any case, if AMD goes with the existing 64 MB SRAM (3D V-Cache) stack, we will get up to 104 MB cache on the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, up to 140 MB cache on the Ryzen 9 7900X3D, and a whopping 144 MB of cache on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. That's a 2.6x increase over Ryzen 7 7700X, an 85% increase over the 7900X, and an 80% increase over the Ryzen 9 7950X. More importantly, it looks like AMD reserved the 7800X SKU for the 3D variation.
As for what this would mean for general performance improvement, particularly in games, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D already proved that the 3D V-Cache is a very viable uplift in AAA titles & Ryzen 7000 Non-V-Cache CPUs are already coming in either close to or exceeding the gaming performance on the 5800X3D. With 3D V-Cache, we can see an additional 10-15% gain across various titles on average. As for workload performance, the chips might perform the same as existing parts but might come with lower clock speeds. AMD did say that future V-Cache CPUs might allow overclocking and we saw with the 5800X3D that it allowed some extend to overclock and undervolt.
The leaker further states that the announcement of the AMD Ryzen V-Cache parts is expected at CES 2023 so we have to wait 4-5 months before we get to see them in action. AMD had previously stated that we will see V-Cache parts in action later this year but it looks like they have settled for CES 2023 for now.
Chinese chipmaker, Loongson, has stated that its next-gen 3A6000 CPUs have achieved up to 68% uplift in single-core performance, rivaling Zen 3 & Tiger Lake.
Chinese Chipmaker, Loongson, Readies 3A6000 CPUs To Tackle AMD Zen 3 & Intel Tiger Lake In The Domestic PC Market
Last year, Loongson revealed its 3A5000 quad-core CPU lineup that utilizes the Chinese in-house 64-bit GS464V microarchitecture, featuring support for DDR4-3200 dual-channel memory, a primary encryption module, two 256-bit vector units per core, and four arithmetic logic units. Loongson Technology's new processor also operates with four HyperTransport 3.0 SMP controllers that "allow multiple 3A5000s to operate in unison inside a single system.
But during its semi-annual investor's call, Loongson unveiled that they plan to launch their next-generation 6000 series chips which will offer a brand new microarchitecture and offer IPC on par with AMD's Zen 3 CPUs. The company claims that their 3A6000 CPUs are to be considered as a Tick and will feature a brand new architecture, upgraded from the current GS464V to the new LA664 design.
This new architecture has helped Loongson achieve a 68% growth in single-core (floating-point) & 37% in single-core (fixed-point) performance. For comparison, the company used the SPEC CPU 06 figures of AMD's Zen 3 and Intel's 11th Gen (Tiger Lake) CPUs for comparison. The results are listed below:
Loongson 3A6000 - 13/G
AMD Zen 3 CPUs - 13/G
Intel Tiger Lake - 13+/G
Intel Alder Lake - 15+/G
If you look at the numbers above, you will note that the Loongson 3A6000 CPUs will have an IPC that's equivalent to AMD's Zen 3 and Intel's Tiger Lake CPUs which is quite the leap for a Chinese-made domestic processor. Having Zen 3-level of IPC is pretty decent too since Zen 4 just came out and China is already catching up to the last gen.
The Chinese CPU company hasn't mentioned what architecture or clock speeds one should expect but they are targetting both AMD Ryzen and EPYC CPUs based on the Zen 3 core architecture & will utilize the same process as the existing chips.
Loongson is targetting the first 16 core 3C6000 chips in early 2023 followed by 32 core variants in mid-2023 while the next generation will follow up a few months later in 2024 with the 7000 lineups, offering up to 64 cores.
It has recently been reported that Ben Kingsley will reprise his role as Trevor Slattery in Marvel’s upcoming Wonder Man series and fans want to know more about the character’s history and origin.
The Wonder Man series is confirmed to be a part of the expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe and a lead actor is yet to be announced.
Trevor Slattery first appeared in 2013’s Iron Man 3 alongside Robert Downey Jr. and the character’s portrayal of the Mandarin was heavily criticized at the time.
Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings | Official Trailer | Disney+
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Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings | Official Trailer | Disney+
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Who is Trevor Slattery?
Trevor Slattery first appeared in Iron Man 3, played by Ben Kingsley, posing as a criminal kingpin and ten rings founder the Mandarin.
Hailing from Liverpool, England, it was later revealed that Trevor was hired by founder and CEO of Advanced Idea Mechanics Doctor Aldrich Killian to portray the Mandarin and Tony Stark eventually arrested Trevor and sent him to Seagate Penitentiary.
Trevor was then kidnapped by the real Mandarin, Xu Wenwu, and held prisoner with his Dijiang companion Morris – revealed in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
The end of Shang-Chi saw Trevor remain in Ta Lo to be with Morris and his creation was a preconceived meta answer to the criticism received for casting Kingsley in a role that belonged to a Chinese actor.
Iron Man 3 – Cr. Marvel UK, YouTube
Does Trevor Come from Marvel Comics?
No, the character Trevor Slattery was created by Shane Black and Drew Pearce while writing the Iron Man 3 script.
During an interview with ScreenRant, Pearce shed some light on the creation of the character:
“Shane and I basically came up with it in his gigantic mansion in LA where we sat for ten hours a day for three months hammering out what we actually wanted the movie to be thematically, and we quickly latched on to the idea for Tony of false faces and the idea of the dual personality of Tony as an out superhero who is basically using his self-definition through the false face of Iron Man. We wanted something that would reflect that, not as an exact mirror but thematically in the bad guy characters. And at one time I came back from the bathroom and said, “Shane what if the Mandarin is an actor?” and it escalated from there.”
The Wonder Man series was confirmed earlier this year and will be based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name.
Disney+ will be the show’s platform and Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton has been confirmed to be on board as an executive producer, while Andrew Guest takes up writing duties.
The role of Simon Williams, a.k.a. Wonder Man, has yet to go to an actor, but Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery is confirmed to be a major character in the series.
Furthermore, Cretton entered into a multi-year deal with Marvel Studios in order for the director to develop a number of television shows for Disney+.
Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Asia Society Southern California
Mulch is miraculous stuff. It keeps weeds at bay, fertilizes the soil, and minimizes the effects of too-hot (or too-cold) temperatures. Certain types even repel pests. But the single best argument for mulching your garden is that it conserves water, which is a huge deal for anyone dealing with hotter-than-usual…
The threat landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. While cybercriminals continue to look for new ways to gain access to networks and steal sensitive information, the mobile attack surface is also expanding.
Mobile devices are not only becoming more powerful but also more vulnerable to cyberattacks, making mobile security an increasingly important concern for enterprises.
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Ever since Sony and Naughty Dog announced The Last of Us Part I, a $70, ground-up PS5 remake of the classic 2013 PS3 game, there’s been an intense discussion around whether this even needs to exist. After all, Naughty Dog remastered the original game in 2014 for the PS4, giving it 1080p graphics at 60 fps, and it still looks solid. But, compared to The Last of Us Part II, which came out in June of 2020, the original shows its age. Facial expressions are less lifelike, and the environments, while still beautiful and well-designed, lack a certain level of depth and detail.
As Naughty Dog co-president and The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann tells it, the idea for this remake came when they were animating flashbacks for Part II. When I first played the sequel, I took note of a very brief sequence showing the game’s protagonists Joel and Ellie walking through a ruined city — the vastly improved animation and fidelity of the scene made me want to see more of a world that I had spent so much time in rendered with modern technology.
Now, two years later, my wish has been granted. The Last of Us Part I is a complete rebuild of the game (and its excellent two-ish hour DLC Left Behind), but it’s a bit of a different beast than remakes like Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy VII. It’s a massive visual upgrade over the original, and there are numerous other significant improvements — but the experience of playing the game itself will be extremely familiar to anyone who has experienced The Last of Us on the PS3 or PS4.
Level design and enemy placement is identical to the original, but the enemy AI has been significantly improved, which means some encounters can play out quite a bit differently. The music and voice performances are lifted straight from the original game, and the direction of cinematic sequences are completely faithful — but when they were so good to begin with, why change it?
For those who haven’t played The Last of Us, it’s a survival / action game that takes place 20 years after a pandemic wipes out most of the world’s population; the Infected are bloodthirsty, zombie-like beasts, and society as we know it has collapsed. Joel, a hardened, violent, emotionally stunted survivor, finds himself tasked with smuggling Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, across the country.
While the post-apocalyptic setting has been done many times, The Last of Us manages to tell an impactful story that balances brutal and devastating emotional beats with surprisingly hopeful and tender human connections. In my opinion, nothing about that original tale needed to be changed, and I’m glad that Joel and Ellie’s journey is authentic to the original vision.
A complete visual redesign
Naughty Dog has a reputation for building intricate, vast and beautiful worlds, and as the company’s first PS5 game, The Last of Us Part I continues that tradition. From the very first scene through the end credits, I marveled at the detail and richness of the world Naughty Dog created — it’s a huge upgrade over the original and easily on par with The Last of Us Part II.
For me, the most significant change is in facial animations. Naughty Dog has said they were able to go back to the original motion-captured performances and use them as a guide for putting more nuance and emotion into the game. The climax of the 15-minute prologue showing how the outbreak starts hit harder, thanks in large part to the facial expressions carrying more emotional heft. The original version of the game looked great but still occasionally dipped into the uncanny valley – that’s not the case here.
Characters' facial animations look amazing, regardless of whether it’s in a cutscene or during gameplay. While there are plenty of cinematics in The Last of Us Part I, there’s a ton of storytelling that happens through the gameplay itself. I always enjoyed spinning the camera around to focus on the characters’ faces during quieter times of conversation, and they’re impressively detailed and expressive, reflecting the feel of the scene in subtle but noticeable ways. Enemies look more realistic than ever, too, whether it’s the angry faces of a pack of human hunters or the disturbingly distorted expressions of the Infected.
The improved environmental detail Naughty Dog added to the world is just as significant. The original game was already a stunning depiction of a post-apocalyptic United States, from the Quarantine Zones where humanity clung to safety, to abandoned towns overrun with Infected, or lush forests and roaring rivers of the wilds. All those settings are amplified in The Last of Us Part I, with better lighting, more realistic trees and vegetation, stunning reflections on water and loads of tiny details everywhere you look.
A great example of this is in the pinboard above Joel’s desk in his Texas house, which we briefly see in the prologue. I used the game’s photo mode to zoom in on the details and found numerous hand-written notes reminding Joel of his grocery list, his daughter’s soccer schedule, a cleaning schedule and even a letter his brother Tommy wrote when they were kids. Unless you go into photo mode and zoom in, you’ll never notice these details, but it helps build a world that feels lived in.
Throughout the game, you’ll come across certain areas like the subway under Boston and the Pittsburgh hotel basement that are shrouded with infectious spores and have little natural light. In the original game, those areas were particularly hard to see fine detail in — the spore particles overwhelmed the visuals and reduced the colors and visibility of the area to a shadowy gray mush. These types of environments look significantly better in Part I. The spores add an unsettling dimension, but the details shine through the fog. It’s also much easier to navigate, which is a welcome change — a lot of these darker areas involve going underwater to make your way around obstacles, and it was often hard to see a way forward.
The Last of Us Part I offers two visual modes: Fidelity runs the game at 30 fps in full 4K resolution, and Performance targets 60 fps while dynamically adjusting the resolution. (Alternatively, if you’re running the PS5 beta software that enabled 1440p as resolution setting, it'll max out there.) I found myself jumping between the two modes, turning on Performance for battles and using Fidelity for quieter parts that were more focused on exploration. Overall, I prefer Performance mode, mostly because I find it hard to go back to 30 fps after playing at 60 for a while.
Gameplay tweaks and a new AI system
Improved graphics are table stakes for a remake, though. The big question around The Last of Us Part I was how much gameplay would change – whether we’d see new mechanics from Part II, or if the company would redesign levels to give experienced players something new.
Naughty Dog has been faithful to a fault. Level design is identical, and as best I can tell there are even the same number and placement of enemies throughout the world. If you know the general progression of The Last of Us and Left Behind (which remains a separate experience from the main game), you won’t find any surprises here. It’s revealing that Naughty Dog apparently had a chance to “do over” any parts of the game that it feels didn’t age as well and didn’t take them. A cynic would say they wanted to put less effort into the project, while an optimist would say they’re just standing by the original game’s design. I think both points of view are valid and will simply note that people who know the game inside and out aren’t going to find anything unexpected.
Similarly, Joel still moves like the burly middle-aged man that he is. You can’t dodge, and you can’t lay prone. You can now, however, pick up and throw bricks and bottles on the run, just as you can in Part II. There’s definitely something satisfying about running towards an Infected, stunning them with a brick throw and then finishing them off with a swing a melee weapon, but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t a major change.
One thing that is notably different is enemy AI. Human enemies are smarter and more aggressive, working together to flank you; they're also a lot harder to lose once they pick up your trail. Infected, meanwhile, present their own set of challenges. Clickers, the blind Infected that use echolocation to find you and can kill you in one shot, have the same behavior they do in Part II. They’ll often stop their wandering and let out a series of “barks” — and if you’re near them when they do, well, you’re probably going to die quickly. In the original game, you were mostly safe as long as you didn’t make too much noise walking, but now you have to keep moving or hiding at all times.
The mega-powerful Bloaters are also modeled after their counterparts in Part II. The biggest change in their behavior is that they’ll build up a head of steam and charge at you like a bull — if you get out of the way they’ll often slam into a wall or other object and be stunned for a moment, a great opportunity to blast away at them with your shotgun. But in Part II, you can use the dodge button to dance out of the way. Since there’s no dodge in Part I, you have to sprint out of the way instead, something that’s not nearly as reliable. After getting so used to dodging the Bloater’s charge in Part II, it was a real pain to not have the same move here. And if a Bloater grabs you, it’s an instant death, so you’ll want to treat these upgraded enemies with the utmost care.
The AI and behavior of your allies has been upgraded, too, which addresses a big complaint about the original game. If you were in stealth, your allies were essentially invisible to enemies, which meant that your cover couldn’t get blown if Ellie or another companion ran out in front of a Clicker. This avoided the frustration of being seen when you didn’t actually do anything to reveal your position, but it also meant that it looked pretty ridiculous when characters could run right out in front of enemies and not get spotted.
Now, your companions are much smarter at mimicking your behavior, going into cover when you’re in stealth and only revealing themselves if you do the same. Once or twice in my playthrough, an ally would be “out of position” and in the enemy’s line of sight, but, as in the first game, they’re essentially invisible. The good news is that it just doesn't happen very often. It’s not perfect, but it’s an improvement.
The haptic feedback system and adaptive triggers on the PS5’s DualSense controller also offer some subtle but noteworthy improvements to gameplay. Naughty Dog says each weapon has different resistance and feedback from the triggers, and the haptic vibrations are unique as well. While I can’t recognize every slight detail, shooting a revolver feels quite different on the trigger than shooting the shotgun or drawing your bow. Haptics accompany actions like reloading too, so you’ll feel a vibration for each pump of the shotgun after Joel takes a shot. There are too many haptic touches throughout the game to count, but one of my favorites is that you can "feel" rainfall as it vibrates lightly across the controller, like droplets are bouncing off your body.
Updates galore
While graphics and AI are the changes most people will notice first, there are a lot of smaller tweaks throughout that make The Last of Us Part I feel more like Part II. Things like a redesigned HUD and weapon selection interface, aiming reticles for different weapons and button prompts (like mashing square to open a blocked door or holding triangle to lift a gate) all match their counterparts in Part II. While weapon upgrade options are identical to those in the original game, the new visuals of Joel working on his guns with various tools are a lot more interesting than in the original game.
Sony / Naughty Dog
Upon finishing the game, you’ll unlock a host of bonus material and gameplay modifiers. Most significant are the Permadeath and Speed Run modes. Just as in Part II, Permadeath removes all checkpoints, and if you set it to the most difficult level, one death sends you back to the very beginning of the game. For those who want a significant challenge but aren’t quite that dedicated, you can do Permadeath “per act” (which Naughty Dog estimates encompasses two to three hours of gameplay) or “per chapter,” which adds some checkpoints within each act. You can also try it at any difficulty level, which makes the challenge a lot more accessible. I know I’m not good enough to try a truly obscene Permadeath run on the ultra-difficult Grounded difficulty, but I have kicked off a run on Hard, which I should have a prayer of surviving.
Speedrun mode is pretty self-explanatory, but it’s a nice quality of life enhancement for people who like to play games as quickly as possible. It enables an in-game timer that automatically pauses during cinematic and scene transitions. Once you finish the game, you’ll find a recap that breaks down your speed per chapter as well as your total play time, and the game saves records broken down by difficulty level and permadeath setting.
Other unlockable extras include tons of concept art, both from the original release and new art done for this 2022 rerelease. There’s also a viewer that lets you explore highly detailed character models for just about everyone in the game; it also lets you see the disgusting details of the Infected in close range if you’re into that sort of thing. More Part II extras brought over here include a set of filters you can apply to tweak the visuals of the game (think an 8-bit setting or one that renders the game in a comic book style) and a bunch of gameplay modifiers. You can turn on infinite ammo or crafting supplies, one-shot kills, slow motion, explosive arrows and much more. Only hardcore fans are probably going to spend time with these, but they can add some fun new ways to play the game — combining something like unlimited ammo with a permadeath setting on the game’s hardest difficulty would be a particularly unique challenge, for example.
It’s not a stretch to say that The Last of Us Part II helped push accessibility in the video games industry forward — Naughty Dog provided players with an extensive and impressive selection of options, and I’m very glad to see that the company replicated that with Part I. Setting include a host of control adjustments (including complete control remapping), visual aids like magnification and high contrast modes, features that make navigating the world easier like a ledge guard to keep you from falling to your death, a text-to-speech reader, audio cues, extensive combat modifications and much more.
Sony / Naughty Dog
It’s all present in Part I, along with a new feature that delivers haptic feedback on the controller to help deaf or hard-of-hearing players feel the emphasis in how lines of dialog are delivered. The game also includes audio descriptions for cutscenes, something that wasn’t present in Part II. All these accessibility modifications are important additions and things that any player can appreciate if they want to customize their experience with the game.
At a more basic level, Part I also lets you set a custom difficulty level. There are six options, but you can also set different challenges across five parts of the game: player, enemies, allies, stealth and resources. So you could make it a little easier to stay in stealth, or make resources more plentiful while otherwise keeping enemy aggressiveness high, for example. It’s yet another way to tweak your experience to match your skill level.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that virtual photographers will love Photo Mode in The Last of Us Part I. It's even better than it is in Part II thanks to the addition of three lights that you can place anywhere around a scene to make things even more dramatic. You can adjust the color temperatures, brightness, position and many more options to customize the scene further than ever before. I can't wait to see what the incredibly skilled virtual photography community around these games does with Part I. (All screenshots in this review, with the exception of those credited to Sony, were taken by me using the game's Photo Mode.)
Is Part I worth it, and who is it for?
After going through the many things Naughty Dog added and changed for The Last of Us Part I, the $70 price point doesn't bother me as much as it initially did. Yes, that’s a lot of money for a game, and it's fair to ask whether replaying a game with nine-year-old mechanics should cost that much. If Sony / Naughty Dog priced this at $50 or even $60, I think that would be a fair price point that would be harder to take issue with. Even at $70, though, the sheer breadth of changes and significance of things like the new visuals and accessibility options make this a major improvement over the remastered PS4 version.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this is the definitive version of The Last of Us. I know the original game inside and out, and everything that made it one of my favorites is here; the changes Naughty Dog made do nothing to diminish that original experience, only improve it. If the company had gone further and redesigned levels or made more extensive changes to gameplay mechanics, I don’t know if I’d feel the same. There’s something to be said for the purity of the original vision, and that’s fully intact. It just looks and plays better than ever, and the accessibility features mean more people can enjoy it.
That said, this game definitely isn’t for everyone. If you played The Last of Us and haven’t felt the need to revisit it, Part I won’t change your mind. The story is identical, and the combat and exploration formula is essentially unchanged.
But in a world where The Last of Us is going to premiere as a high-profile HBO series sometime in 2023, it's not surprising to see Sony and Naughty Dog revisit this game. The companies are surely expecting increased interest in the franchise, and having a beautiful, modern version of the game ready for new players makes a lot of sense. For those people new to the series, this is the version to play. And if you’re a big fan of the game, the kind of person who goes back to Joel and Ellie’s story every year or two (like yours truly), this is the best way to do it.
It's also one of the most accessible games available
I'm not sure I needed two more versions of The Last of Us, but here we are. Back in 2014 when the PS4 remaster came out I had little interest in playing it again, as it was just too soon. But eight years is a long time, and a lot of folks probably are interested in another go-around. Last of Us Part 1 is now the best way to facilitate that.
Due out on September 2 on PS5 and at a later date on PC, The Last of Us Part 1 is a juiced-up remake, taking the PS4 version even further with redone visuals and tons of toggles/options. It's essentially the same game with some bells and whistles — and the same story beats and characterizations.
Playing through it, I found that the visual makeover was a nice bonus (mostly from a performance point of view), but it didn't fundamentally alter my experience with The Last of Us. The first 15 minutes or so remain one of the most captivating portions of the game, and the new visuals definitely help get the point across, coupled with top-notch performances. You can see the enhancements for yourself in the video below.
As a note, this edition also comes with the Left Behind DLC, which is just as well since this "Part 1" repack is $70. You can select it immediately from the start (which is nice for folks who already played the original sans DLC and may want to dive in here for the first time). Left Behind is also treated as a separate game of sorts with unique save files.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4wiOvgqHQk
From a visual standpoint, there are a lot of comprehensive sliders, allowing you to toggle a host of options like HDR and separate technical modes, which target 40 FPS at 4K (fidelity), or dynamic resolution at 60 FPS (performance). I'm going to be real here: some of the character model changes don't really bother me. I never really connected with some of this cast in the first place, so several of these changes don't move the needle for me either way.
But the accessibility menu (menus, really) is the crown jewel here, and if you've ever played Last of Us but disliked one particular aspect of it, you can basically customize it out of existence with the PS5 version. I feel like the past few years have been the "era of the toggle," and it's been great. There's fully customizable controls, as well as visual aid, motion sickness, and sound considerations. That latter part is pretty important to showcase, as the DualSense can play dialogue via haptic feedback [rumbling]. As far as extras go, there's concept art, a character model viewer, video galleries, and skin/filter/speedrun/commentary options.
There's more widespread accessibility options like screen readers and navigation assistance, all the way down to awareness indicators and auto pick-up options. Preset control schemes are available, but you can swap everything around at will. The HUD can be customized, motion sickness can be curbed, and you can even enhance the listening mode range and add infinite underwater breathing. Even enemy accuracy, aggression, damage, resource/ammo quanitity, and stealth can be manipulated individually. If you were ever frustrated with any aspect of the gameplay in the past, you can likely change it.
If you've already experienced this story and said "I'm good," you probably don't need to pick up Last of Us Part 1. The fanatics who played it 10 or more times already probably had this pre-ordered already. That leaves the most important group: total newcomers. While The Last of Us still has some of the same issues the original debuted with in 2013, the PS5 version (and likely the upcoming PC port, based on Sony's past efforts) is the best way to play it to date.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first redesign of coronavirus vaccines since they were rolled out in late 2020, setting up millions of Americans to receive new booster doses targeting Omicron subvariants as soon as next week. From a report: The agency cleared two options aimed at the BA.5 variant of Omicron that is now dominant: one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for use in people as young as 12, and the other by Moderna, for those 18 and older. The doses can be given at least two months since people last received a booster dose or completed their initial series of vaccinations.
Biden administration officials have argued that even as researchers work to understand how protective the new shots might be, inoculating Americans again in the coming weeks could help curb the persistently high number of infections and deaths. "As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose," Dr. Robert M. Califf, the F.D.A. commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday. He added that the vaccine would "provide better protection against currently circulating variants."
Few game studios have come close to matching the level of cinematic quality as Naughty Dog had some nine years ago with the original release of The Last of Us for PlayStation 3. Critics and fans alike praised the title, and that recognition was certainly well deserved. Two years later, this same title was given an overhaul for PlayStation 4 while keeping the content and experience largely identical to that fans had played only a console generation before. Now again in 2022, Naughty Dog is bringing their journey to the west to a fresh console generation that may leave some wondering if such a sudden remake was necessary for such an acclaimed gaming experience with The Last of Us Part I, remade for PlayStation 5.
For many, The Last of Us Part I Remake might be the very first time they step into the well-worn shoes of a smuggler named Joel and the package he’s agreed to deliver way out west. Because of that, I don’t wish to delve too deeply into the narrative so players can experience this sorrowful tale for themselves. Not a zombie survival story in a traditional sense, The Last of Us Part I still captures that desolation and the way various folks just try to survive after a global pandemic or outbreak completely upends typical daily life. With infection onsetting soon after breathing in infected spores, any hope for a cure can bring even the hardiest of folks to desperation to see that opportunity through until the end. That opportunity comes from Ellie, a young girl who’s proven to be immune some weeks after being bitten by an infected soul. Thus begins Joel’s journey to safely guide and deliver her to a faction of survivors who may very well be able to find a cure or solution for the apocalyptic outbreak.
Whether you’re experiencing Joel and Ellie’s journey for the first time with fresh eyes or gearing up for a third (or eleventh) playthrough, The Last of Us Part I offers that same gripping narrative Neil Druckmann’s team brought to life two console generations ago. Fans that knew every word of Bill’s raving monologues or the reverberating sound of a Clicker stalking through underground pathways will be pleased to know that the original voice work remains intact with some overall improvements in the audio fidelity to take advantage of Sony’s Tempest Audio tech if you happen to play with headphones. The very first time I fired a rifle, I had to turn around and make sure there wasn’t someone aiming at Joel, only to find out it was simply the echoing off a nearby wall. Keeping the original vocal performances can be a bit of a mixed bag, especially with how often you’ll hear Steven Jay Blum shout callouts to his fellow bandits.
While the voice work remains intact, the character models and faces themselves have been completely overhauled, leading some like young Ellie to look like completely different characters on PlayStation 5. The original motion capture was left intact, so this is merely some reworked designs over the existing character rigging and modeling. This can lead to some unintended situations and many of the same graphical bugs that were present in the prior two iterations of The Last of Us (albeit at much lower frequencies now). Just as there are subtle differences in each time Joel shuffles around or picks up a new item, there are the same scripted animations of Joel raiding to grab every spare bullet or crafting supply in the area as he crouches through an abandoned locale.
From a purely mechanical and gameplay standpoint, this is the absolute best way to play the first story of The Last of Us. Subtle changes to the enemy AI and challenge turn each encounter into its own miniature battleground. Ammo is just as scarce as its ever been, forcing Joel and Ellie to rely heavily upon discarded bottles and iron pipes more often than the sidearm in the back pocket. Sure, much of this challenge is alleviated when playing on a lower difficulty level, but playing on Grounded or the difficulty level just below highlights just how meticulously crafted the combat has become. Innovations from The Last of Us Part II are neatly intertwined into the combat here in the Part I remake and if you were to play the two back to back, you’d clearly see the enhanced combat that even the PlayStation 4 Remastered edition of The Last of Us didn’t yet have.
The consistent fidelity of Naughty Dog’s recent IPs on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 is nearly peerless. That sentiment is even greater with The Last of Us Part I. The foundation was already impressive even on PlayStation 3, but this full remake is clearly pushing the fidelity of the middle of the latest console generation. Both cutscenes and gameplay hold the same impressive detailing for everything from the pores on Ellie’s nose to the age and scratches on her short pistol. Save for the few cutscenes that lock the camera in place, players have free reign to slip into photo mode and have full control of lining up shots and playing around with the animations frozen in time (and a frame-by-frame advance to get that perfect shot). It isn’t a new revelation to have a Photo Mode in a Sony title, but this is the definitive game to just take a moment and take in all of that natural splendor.
As Joel and Ellie’s journey comes to a close and the credits begin to roll, Naughty Dog has thrown in several additional features and bonuses to unlock through a cache of credits. Even on its lowest difficulty, completing the campaign rewards players with enough credits to purchase every costume and weapon skin as well as most concept art and gameplay modifiers, assuming they found enough collectibles.
It’s rather silly that Ellie gets more than a rucksack full of t-shirts, mostly based on PlayStation IP that might not have existed post-outbreak whereas Joel mostly gets different flavors of flannel. Even the weapon skins are very few in number, leading to only a couple of specific weapon types. However, it’s the unlockable graphic/audio modes and gameplay modifiers that make it well worth replaying The Last of Us Part I Remake all over again the moment you finish the first playthrough. For ease of use, there are a number of modifiers for one-hit kills or infinite ammo and crafting materials and even an upgrade to gain the Exploding Arrows that used to be exclusive to the sequel. One of my personal favorite modifiers was an option to mirror the gameplay world while keeping the player models intact, something that was first present as a secret feature added to the Demon’s Souls remake at the PlayStation 5’s launch.
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Content-wise, you’re getting the same vocal performances from the PlayStation 3 release of The Last of Us and the same story beats word for word in addition to Ellie’s Left Behind DLC expansion that is best enjoyed after completing the campaign. No single-player content is left lacking and remains intact in its entirety with more aftermarket parts than just a fresh coat of paint. However, the removal of the Factions multiplayer that was present within both prior releases of The Last of Us is sorely missed and easily would have been another source of many hours of enjoyment just as the last time I played this experience. The full $70 price point also feels like a crucial part of Naughty Dog’s magnum opus has been stripped away, especially with the multiplayer component of The Last of Us Part II yet to arrive. Even without the price tag accompanying this remake, The Last of Us Part I feels intended to be the first taste for players that might not have experienced this journey before or might be their first taste of a Sony blockbuster. For those that find the full price difficult to swallow, the PlayStation 4 remaster is available in compliments of the PlayStation Plus game collection.
The Last of Us Part I is a testament to how timeless this Cormac McCarthy-inspired tale is. Fully remade for Sony’s latest console generation, if this is the first chance a player has to experience the post-outbreak tale, it’s without a doubt the best version to play. Both visual and mechanical enhancements bring this title to life as no other Naughty Dog game has done before. However, the omission of the multiplayer component is lamented by fans of the original that cannot be overlooked for keeping The Last of Us Part I from being a perfect gaming experience.
The "Star Trek" shows from the Paramount+ era clearly have a lot of affection for the original 1966 "Star Trek" pilot and the 1990s Trek shows "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Voyager." Of the newer programs, both "Star Trek: Discovery" and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" rely heavily on characters and events from "The Cage." Meanwhile, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" seems to be drawing from the attitudes and iconography from NextGen. "Star Trek: Picard" is, obviously, about Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), but also "Voyager" character Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). And "Star Trek: Prodigy" features a hologram of the U.S.S. Voyager's Capt. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) as one of its central characters.
Curiously, there haven't been many overt references devoted to events and characters from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (which ran for seven seasons, from 1993 to 1999). To date, there have been a few cute winks to DS9 in "Lower Decks," and an episode of "Picard" saw a brief shot of a bar named Quark's, but apart from these minor, passing references, "Deep Space Nine" seems to remain the black sheep of the "Trek" family.
This does not stem from a lack of desire from certain members of the cast. Armin Shimerman, who played DS9's shrewd bar owner and freelance criminal element Quark, has said that he would love to return to the franchise ... but only if the paycheck was right.
Shimerman, appearing at the 2022 Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, Tennessee (and transcribed via Trek Movie), talked about wanting to return as Quark, but also the nature of his character. Shimerman revealed that DS9's writers played a little too fast and loose with Quark, leading to Shimerman's constant questions as to how smart Quark really was.
How Smart Is Quark?
To offer a brief rundown: Quark is a Ferengi business owner on the Bajoran space station Deep Space Nine. He ran the bar when Bajor was still being occupied by the Nazi-like Cardassians, and now has adjusted to selling drinks to the Bajorans and Starfleet officers who run the station during Bajor's reconstruction. Ferengi are a species devoted to commerce and profit. Everything they say and do is in service of making more money. Even their belief systems are built around the acquisition of wealth; a Ferengi can't enter the afterlife until they've paid enough money for a prime ticket. Quark is staunchly devoted to this philosophy. Although Quark's values may not match those of humans, he is still deeply principled, and will stand up for his business and his right to earn more and more money ... even if it's not entirely legal.
That said, Ferengi were also often the "comic relief" of "Deep Space Nine," and were the stars of the show's few comedy episodes. Because Quark's values so differed from the Starfleet characters, the show's writers were constantly tempted to give him comedy lines about amusingly exploiting his workers while pooh-poohing Gene Roddenberry's post-capitalist sci-fi utopia. The push-and-pull of Quark is that he is a smart businessman, but also something of a buffoon, a dichotomy Shimerman did not appreciate, as he said in Knoxville:
"We could not change lines. We could make suggestions, which were rarely followed. I know that three times a year I would take the writers out to lunch and make some suggestions. I remember begging them many times, 'Just tell me what his IQ is. Just tell me because sometimes he's smart and sometimes he's not. Just tell me what his IQ is.'"
The Trouble With Ferengi
Shimerman might be considered one of few "Trek" actors who was able to inform an entire alien species. Just as Leonard Nimoy defined Vulcans with Spock, Shimerman has largely determined the attitudes and behaviors of Ferengi through various characters.
In the first season of "Next Generation," a lot of dialogue was devoted to a strange, off-screen species called the Ferengi that Starfleet, at the time, knew very little about. It was clear the writers were setting up the Ferengi to be the central villains of the new series. The Ferengi would appear on screen for the first time in the episode "The Last Outpost" (October 19, 1987) and would be transformed into sniveling, cowardly, comedic villains. Shimerman played one of the first Ferengi, Letek, and attempted (as he said in Knoxville) to hunch his character over like Richard III. The result didn't quite work, and the Ferengi looked silly.
After that, it was an uphill battle to give the Ferengi a personality beyond that initial portrayal. When Shimerman was cast as Quark, he was given an opportunity to "redeem" an entire Trek species. On DS9, the Ferengi were still comedic, but they emerged slowly as real people as well. More human than humans, in fact. Shimerman said:
"You may not agree with me, but the Ferengi were the most human of creatures on 'Star Trek.' You might not like the Ferengi, but a lot of the characteristics that the Ferengi had are very much human characters. And so I was very was happy to do that."
Shimerman's comments certainly make curious Trekkies wish Paramount+ would prepare a big enough paycheck, just so we can see where Quark is some 20 years on. No doubt, his principles are still intact.
There’s a new Legend of Zelda PC port, and while it isn’t an official PC release from Nintendo, playing the classic RPG game on your computer is still legal provided you use it with a legal copy of the game's original ROM. The Zelda PC port in question is A Link to the Past, first released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991, rereleased multiple times through Nintendo’s virtual console and online offerings, and, as ever with Nintendo games, locked to Nintendo systems only. GitHub user snesrev reverse engineered A Link to the Past, also known as Zelda 3, and created a native PC port of the game that’s completely playable – so long as you have the ROM yourself.
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