Ronald.phillips

"Better Call Saul" is gearing up to conclude its acclaimed run with a bang, and co-creators Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan are pulling out all the stops. The first half of the sixth and final season ended on the most heart-pounding cliffhanger in the entire series (and if anyone wanted to include "Breaking Bad" in that argument, I'd be willing to listen!), so what else could the latter half possibly have in store for us? Well, there's the troubling matter that has united the entire fanbase as one: What the heck happens to Rhea Seehorn's Kim Wexler and can she possibly make it out of this mess physically (and morally) unscathed? None but a lucky few know how the next episode will unfold, but we do know one pair of cameos who will make the final season into even more of a must-watch event.

As previously reported, Bryan Cranston's Walter White and Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman are set to make their long-awaited appearances at some point in the remaining episodes. But what we don't know is exactly these characters will fit into the prequel series. "Better Call Saul" has just begun to integrate flashforwards taking place in the timeline of "Breaking Bad," so it's possible we'll witness some key scene between Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), Walt, and Jesse that we never saw in the parent show. Or could it instead take place in the distant future, during the black-and-white "Gene Takovic" segments in "Better Call Saul" that are set well after the events of "Breaking Bad," but before the original show's finale?

Only a select few possess that knowledge and, unfortunately, they ain't taking. But Gould will say this much, at least: nobody's fan theory has yet to hit the mark.

'I Haven't Heard A Theory That Comes Quite Close'

Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan, and the rest of the writing team on "Better Call Saul" have earned the benefit of the doubt a hundred times over by now. As if the idea of a Saul Goodman prequel wasn't questionable enough to begin with, who would've ever thought that integrating Jonathan Banks' Mike Ehrmantraut, Giancarlo Esposito's Gus Fring, and even cameos from the lovable Hank (Dean Norris) and Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada) would prove to be so successful? With that in mind, here's what Gould had to say in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly (via Variety):

"You're going to see Walt and Jesse this season, but I think the way you see them and when you see them won't necessarily be what you'd expect. I've heard a lot of few theories about what's going to happen. and I'm happy to report I haven't heard a theory that comes quite close to the actual fact."

Gould's emphasis on "when" in that first quote ought to get every fan's attention, but nobody should be surprised to learn that the endlessly clever "Better Call Saul" writers have figured out a less obvious (but no less narratively justified) way to bring back the fan-favorite flagship characters. According to Gould:

"The thing that I'm really proud of is that we waited to see them until it was right for this story. Of course, the low-hanging fruit would've been to have them appear early in season 1, to kick the show off. I think the way that they do appear is all about the story of Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler and Mike Ehrmantraut. I hope you agree when you see it."

"Better Call Saul" will return to AMC on July 11, 2022.

Read this next: Shows Like Breaking Bad That You Can Binge Watch Today

The post Why All Your Better Call Saul Fan Theories About Walt and Jesse Are Wrong appeared first on /Film.

To this point Fedora out-of-the-box has been restricted to a filtered subset of Flathub packages when enabled via GNOME Software or GNOME Initial Setup. However, legal has now cleared Fedora for allowing unfiltered/unrestricted access to Flathub, allowing a far greater selection of Flatpaks to become available on Fedora Linux with the plan for this to begin with Fedora 37...

Cameron Diaz retired from acting back in 2018, but her fans are about to get some exciting news. Diaz is back in the game, joining her "Annie" and "Any Given Sunday" co-star Jamie Foxx in the upcoming Netflix action-comedy "Back in Action," according to Variety. Not only is she back, but she got tips on how to unretire from none other than Tom Brady, who has done that very thing a number of times. I don't know anything about sports and even I know that. It's pretty cute, how it all happened. Foxx called up Diaz, who was nervous about how to get back into the game, and put Brady on the line, who told her, "I was talking to Jamie and he said you needed a few tips on how to un-retire. I'm relatively successful at un-retiring." 

Foxx actually recorded that part of the conversation, and posted the audio on Twitter, saying, 

"Cameron I hope you aren't mad I recorded this, but no turning back now. Had to call in the GOAT to bring back another GOAT. @CameronDiaz and I are BACK IN ACTION - our new movie with @NetflixFilm. Production starting later this year!!" 

He also added a goat and a fox emoji. 

Cameron I hope you aren’t mad I recorded this, but no turning back now. Had to call in the GOAT to bring back another GOAT. @CameronDiaz and I are BACK IN ACTION - our new movie with @NetflixFilm. Production starting later this year!! 🦊🐐 pic.twitter.com/vyaGrUmbWb

— Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx) June 29, 2022

Later, the site reports, Diaz said in an Instagram story, 

"Jamie Foxx, only you could get me back in action!!! I can't frickin wait it's gonna be a blast!"

She Talked To An Expert In Un-Retiring

There isn't any info about the plot of "Back in Action" at the moment. Here's what we know: Obviously, Foxx and Diaz are set to star. Seth Gordon ("Horrible Bosses") will direct. He also wrote the script with Brendan O'Brien ("Neighbors"). Foxx will executive produce alongside Datari Turner, O'Brien, and Mark McNair. Beau Bauman for Good One Productions and Seth Gordon for Exhibit A will produce. Production will begin later this year. 

Diaz's career began with her star turn with Jim Carrey in "The Mask," and she cemented her place in comedy history with the "hair gel" scene in "There's Something About Mary." She got into action with "Charlie's Angels," and into animation as the voice of Fiona in "Shrek." Her final film before her retirement was "Annie" in which she played Miss Hannigan along with Foxx. 

It's really lovely to hear that Diaz is getting back in the game. I'm looking forward to hearing what the film is about. 

Read this next: 12 Shows Like Stranger Things You Definitely Need To Stream

The post Cameron Diaz Comes Out of Retirement For Jamie Foxx Netflix Comedy Back in Action appeared first on /Film.

When Rotten Tomatoes interviewed filmmaker Werner Herzog on his 2006 film "Rescue Dawn" -- a fictional remake of his documentary "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" -- interviewer Rich Cline asked how lead actor Christian Bale was suited to playing his role. Herzog's answer was blunt and frank: "He's the best of his generation." 

Bale had been acting since he was a boy, having broken out at the age of 13 in Steven Spielberg's 1987 film "Empire of the Sun." He appeared in several '90s slumber party staples -- "Newsies," "Swing Kids," "Little Women," "Velvet Goldmine" -- as well as a pile of notable horror and genre films -- "American Psycho," "Reign of Fire," "Equilibrium" -- before allying himself with notable auteurs like Terrence Malick (he starred in "The New World" and "Knight of Cups") and beloved blockbuster constructionists like Christopher Nolan (Bale played Batman). There has never been a time when he wasn't consistently producing quality work, or at least giving his all in unusual or intense projects. 

One might assume that Bale was a classically trained actor who studies differing methods from various masters. Surely he worked with Uta Hagen, with Lee Strassberg, and with the books of Konstantin Stanislavsky. Does he practice the Method? Did he study Brecht? Perform at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier? 

In a co-interview with Matt Damon for GQ back in 2019, Bale revealed that the master he admired, emulated, and learned the most from was none other than Rowan Atkinson.

The Nerd

The top-grossing American play in London's West End in 1986 was "The Nerd," written by Larry Shue. The play is about a trio of friends whose lives are upended by the sudden appearance of an awkward, nerdy character named Rick, who previously saved one of the friends in Vietnam. His odd behavior drives everyone up the wall, but because of his past heroism, no one has the temerity to ask him to leave. He ends up moving in. Frustration and hilarity presumably ensue. In the 1986 production, Atkinson played Rick. In that same production, a 12-year-old Christian Bale co-starred. 

In the GQ interview, Damon -- who co-starred with Bale in James Mangold's "Ford v Ferrari" -- pointed out that Bale's acting style was possessed of "a monk-like discipline." Bale was flattered, and went on to immediately praise his early experience working with Atkinson as a kid: 

"Well, thank you, mate. Did you ever train? See, I never trained. And I've come to the realization recently ... One of [my] first jobs ever was with Rowan Atkinson and I think I look at him as the template. He was playing... 'The Nerd,' it was called, by Larry Shue. He would come out, we'd say hello, but he didn't really socialize. None of us knew him -- it was before he did 'Mr. Bean.' And he would just become this character, but before he went on stage. And I would just watch him; I would see him becoming a character."

It should be noted that Atkinson possesses degrees in electrical engineering, and was working toward a doctorate prior to devoting his life to acting.

My Learning Phase

For the young Bale, merely seeing a professional wholly devoted to a role was enough to communicate a grand understanding of the craft. While Atkinson's Mr. Bean is a plummy, kid-friendly, slapstick goofball, one can certainly admire Atkinson's masterful sense of comedic timing; Mr. Bean is just as notable a comedic character as anything created by Harold Lloyd. After finishing his stint on "The Nerd," Bale recalls finally being able to muster up the courage to talk to his play's lead actor: 

"I was mesmerized. And then he just stayed in character for the whole night. And it wasn't until the whole thing was finished that he invited me to say hello and that I actually spoke to him for the first time. It dawned on me that was my learning phase. I went, 'Oh, that's how it's done then, is it? OK, great.'"

Atkinson and Bale have not appeared in any productions since, but there's no reason why they shouldn't. Currently, Bale's next appearances will be in "Thor: Love and Thunder" (out in theaters on July 8), David O. Russell's "Amsterdam" (release date TBD), and the Netflix film "The Pale Blue Eye," wherein he plays a detective who teams up with a young Edgar Allan Poe. Atkinson, meanwhile, recently appeared on the Netflix comedy series "Man vs. Bee," and is scheduled to appear in the upcoming film "Wonka," based loosely -- very, very loosely -- on the works of Roald Dahl. 

Read this next: The 14 Best Film Acting Debuts Of All Time

The post Christian Bale's Acting Method Came Straight From Mr. Bean appeared first on /Film.

Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy film "Labyrinth" is an odd duck, and not because of its copious amount of fantasy creatures. While the film's many passionate fans are generally drawn to David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King, the glam rocker's presence seemed antithetical to Henson's own musical sensibilities, which tended toward gentle folk rock and John Denver. In casting Bowie as a villain, was Henson commenting subtly on his music? "Labyrinth" was met with only warm reviews on its release, with some critics praising its craftsmanship, but lambasting its scattered and unfocused story. Roger Ebert, perhaps infamously, gave the film only two stars, feeling it insubstantial. No doubt its legion of enthusiasts, who gather for annual fancy-dress balls, have more glowing, sophisticated things to say than the critics. 

The critical observation about the film's lack of focus may stem from the fact, however, that screenwriter Terry Jones never felt he was able to present a coherent vision of what he wanted. In a 2016 oral history with Empire Magazine, Jones and several others reflected on production, and how slapped-together the picture felt at times.

Hoggle Spraying Fairies

"Labyrinth," for those unfamiliar, tells the story of a bratty 16-year-old named Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) who resents having to babysit her baby brother when she would rather be re-enacting scenes from her favorite fantasy stories out in the woods. When she spitefully calls out to imaginary goblins to take her brother away, she accidentally summons the very real Goblin King, who hides her brother in the middle of a vast, magical labyrinth just appeared outside her door. Regretful, Sarah treks into the maze, encountering the many fantastical creatures that live therein. Like in "The Wizard of Oz," she accumulates a team of charismatic companions: The gnome Hoggle (Brian Henson and Shari Weiser), the snippy human fox Sir Didymus (Dave Goelz), the gentle genoskwa Ludo (Ron Mueck), as well as a Toto of her own. With them, she traverses the labyrinth's many twists and turns, solves riddles, and endures the advances of David Bowie. 

Those twists and turns were compiled from several of Jones' drafts, leading to a rickety structure and bits and pieces stuck together with gum and tape. Says Jones: 

"It sort of fell between two stools. It didn't really end up as the story I wanted to tell, but I don't know if it was quite the story Jim imagined either. I think I was a bit nervous about how much of what I wrote would end up in the film, but it does mostly resemble my second draft. The hands that help Sarah down the shaft are mine, and the hat that talks back to the old man. The Bog Of Eternal Stench? Yes, that sounds like me!"

So who wrote the rest? Jones doesn't seem to rightly recall.

The Girl Was Not Sympathetic

Dave Goelz, a longtime Muppet performer (perhaps best known for playing The Great Gonzo), admitted that he was put off by the depiction of Sarah, feeling she was perhaps too unrealistic. It look him several viewings and many years to understand what was going on -- Sarah was a typical teen. He admits to loving the film now:

"At first I felt the girl was not sympathetic, but I'd never had a teenage daughter at that time. I didn't realize that this is a normal thing! Once the film came out, I watched it a few times and I started to really feel what it was about, and now I love 'Labyrinth.' It's all over the place but it's so good in its own way."

"Labyrinth" was based on the art of Brian Froud, with many of the film's episodes and scenarios taken directly from his sketchbooks. Froud was also the primary designer on Henson's fantasy film "The Dark Crystal" in 1982. Jones, evidently, would thumb through Froud's pictures and jot out scenes on the fly, often late into production. A story wasn't necessarily cohering. Perhaps Jones was attempting something a little more open-ended, like back in his Monty Python days. Says Froud: 

"It wasn't 'cobbled together' exactly, but Terry was writing new scenes very late into production. He kept flicking through my sketchbook and going, 'Ooh! I like that!' The door-knockers and the hat were classic examples. Terry just ran with that stuff. It didn't end up as his whole vision, but it wouldn't have been the same without him."

As for the story Jones intended, we can only speculate. But the years have been kind to "Labyrinth" in the public consciousness, and the film has become a slumber party standard. It doesn't belong to the creators anymore -- it belongs to those who love it.

Read this next: 13 Fantasy Films That Never Got Sequels

The post Labyrinth Wasn't Quite The Story Terry Jones Was Trying To Tell appeared first on /Film.

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Last week, AMDVLK 2022.Q2.3 was unleashed as an update to the official AMD open-source Vulkan Linux driver, which showcased notable graphical performance improvements on RDNA 2 GPUs.

The Mesa RADV Linux driver outperforms the official AMD AMDVLK Linux driver for RDNA 2-based GPUs

Due to this release, Michael Larabel from Phoronix felt that updated benchmarks were necessary, posing the update against the Mesa Project's RADV Vulkan driver. Larabel showcased the results on his website, utilizing an AMD RDNA 2 GPU to see the differences between the drivers.

As a reminder to our readers, RADV, or Radeon Vulkan graphics driver, was developed by community engineers from Google, Red Hat, and other contributors working within the Linux platform. The driver is, by far, the go-to choice for users of AMD graphics cards utilizing them in Linux. With the amount of backing from some of those top names, it sees plenty of updates and improvements that affect all aspects, including performance. With the Mesa Project's RADV driver, every primary Linux distribution channel sees it, unlike the AMD-backed AMDVLK, which does not see as much steam as the former.

Regardless, AMD updates the AMDVLK code as part of their official Linux updates, based on the same source code for the Windows and Linux proprietary Vulkan driver. The only downfall to utilizing the source is that the LLVM AMDGPU shader compiler that the company uses instead of their proprietary shader has missing areas to the support, such as Vulkan ray-tracing.

When Larabel d both the current RADV and AMDVLK 2022.Q2.3 open-source graphics compilers, he incorporated an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU while using the Ubuntu 22.04 OS and an Intel Core i9-12900K CPU. The compiler he used was Mesa 22.0.1 (shipped with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS) and the AMDVLK 2022.Q3.3 driver using official AMD binaries recently released.

Readers should note that "no Radeon Software for Linux proprietary Vulkan driver testing was conducted ... with AMD having yet to release a driver with official support for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS," states Larabel in his article.

Below are screenshots of all tests compiled by the website Phoronix and some takeaways from the testing.

• GravityMark from Tellusim tests: A demanding Vulkan benchmark, GravityMark supports Vulkan ray-tracing, but only the standard Vulkan render path was benchmarked. A slight improvement was seen with RADV at lower resolutions.
• DIRT Rally 2.0 benchmark: With Steam Play with DXVK, better performance on RADV was seen over AMDVLK, even when utilizing the Mesa 22.0.1 release packaged with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
• F1 2021: Steam Play improved performance uplift when transitioning from Mesa 22.0 to 22.2-dev from the Oibaf PPA. AMDVLK tests were not successful in this benchmark testing.
• Batman: Arkham Knight: The Mesa RADV driver showed improvement over AMDVLK.
• Civilization VI: AMDVLK produced better results than Mesa 22.2-dev and Mesa 22.0.1.
• HITMAN 2: AMDVLK issued almost identical frame rates with Mesa 22.0, while the Mesa 22.2-dev was limited in comparison.
• HITMAN 3: RADV outperformed AMDVLK.
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A native Linux port by Feral Interactive shows comparable RADV performance against AMDVLK Vulkan driver performance.
• Strange Brigade: A minor lead was shown with AMDVLK in some settings, but primarily similar performance between both Radeon Vulkan drivers.
• Total War: Three Kingdoms: Small Performance increase from RADV over AMDVLK.
• Total War: WARHAMMER III: A new native Linux game release, ported over by Feral Interactive, showed improved performance with the native Linux and Vulkan build over the Mesa RADV compared to AMDVLK.
• yquake2 8.10: RADV outperformed AMDVLK.
• X-Plane 11 RADV maintained a small performance leap over AMDVLK.

After testing, the Mesa RADV driver consistently grows and maintains a healthy lead over the open-source AMD Radeon Vulkan driver. Hopefully, we will see improved performance in the RADV department upon releasing the new RDNA 3 architecture later this year.

The post Linux Gamers Should Stick With Mesa’s RADV Drivers For RDNA 2 GPUs As It Outperforms AMD’s Official AMDVLK Vulkan Driver by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.

As a father of two young kids, I'm utterly brain-numbed by the endless CG content on Netflix; it all just blurs into one big long noisy episode. My common plea is: "Why don't we watch something with real people for a change?" 

And that's how we recently ended up watching "Man vs. Bee," Rowan Atkinson's latest venture into slapstick. The kids loved "Mr. Bean," so they were familiar with Atkinson's shtick, but this time, I got the feeling even they thought it was all a bit tired. 

"Man vs. Bee" is basically a "Mr. Bean" sketch stretched out over nine grueling episodes. Atkinson plays Trevor Bingley, a absent-minded divorcé taking a new job as a house sitter so he can take his daughter on holiday. He seems fairly normal at first, but, once left alone in the sleek high-tech home of an obnoxiously wealthy couple, quickly descends into a Beanlike state. Even the most basic tasks are fraught with disaster and expensive things soon get smashed as Bingley becomes obsessed with trying to kill a bee.Atkinson toyed with retiring the Bean character back in 2012 (via Metro):

"The stuff that has been commercially successful for me — basically quite physical, quite childish — I increasingly feel like I'm going to do a lot less of. Apart from the fact that your physical ability starts to decline, I also think someone in their 50s being childlike becomes a little sad. You've got to be careful."

Wise words, but a decade later he's at it again with more Bean-ish buffoonery when he's approaching 70. Bean has made Atkinson famous around the world, so maybe it's understandable that he finds it hard to let go. Yet for the character's global popularity, he didn't even have a name at first.

Mr. Bean Conquers Britain

Rowan Atkinson has had a long and varied career, but he'll always be remembered in the UK for his two most famous characters: Edmund Blackadder and Mr. Bean. I always preferred the scheming misanthrope to the gurning nincompoop, but it's hard to deny that Atkinson's style of physical comedy was pretty irresistible at its best. We tend to remember Blackadder's wicked way with an elaborately phrased insult, an aspect of his character that helped the show become one of Britain's best loved sitcoms. But if it weren't for the contribution of Ben Elton coming in to write on the second series, he might have remained the more Beanlike conniver we met in his debut season (via The Scotsman).

After Blackadder bowed out in the incredibly poignant finale of "Blackadder Goes Forth," Atkinson went back in the opposite direction with "Mr. Bean," introducing his long-gestating character of a childish halfwit with a habit of concocting wildly impractical solutions to the most basic problems, inspired by Jacques Tati and Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. 

First shown in 1990, it was a breath of fresh air at the time. While alternative comedians were making their mark with shows like "Alexei Sayle's Stuff," and "Red Dwarf" was the hip new show all the teens watched, much of British comedy was pretty stale. Old-school comedians like Benny Hill and Little and Large were hanging in there, while sitcoms were mostly mired in hackneyed formats like "Home James!" and "Brush Strokes." By comparison, "Mr. Bean" was a bonkers work of genius.

At its height in 1992, 18.7 million people tuned in to watch one episode, "The Trouble with Mr. Bean." While it seemed fresh and new, Atkinson had been working on the character for many years.

The Origins Of Mr. Bean

One of the earliest incarnations of the Bean character appeared in Atkinson's one-off collection of comedy sketches, "Canned Laughter," still worth checking out for his moments as Robert Box, a socially awkward Proto-Bean. He's slightly more normal than the later character, but he still has a strange approach to day-to-day tasks. The highlight is Box making himself a cup of coffee, without a cup, by mixing the drink directly in his mouth, a bit Atkinson reprised at the beginning of Mr. Bean's big-screen debut, "Bean."

Atkinson tried variations of the character through the '80s, most notably at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, where he mimed along to dating advice from a narrator. For the scene, he insisted playing on the French-speaking bill to test out how the physical comedy would go down with non-English speakers.

For all the preparation, he still didn't have a name for the character when the first episode of "Mr. Bean" was produced. Various names were considered, including Mr. White and Mr. Cauliflower, before they arrived at Mr. Bean: "short, sharp, and to the point," as Atkinson said in a recent British GQ interview. It was perfect for the character, who went on to become a global success, airing in 190 countries around the world and becoming an unlikely box-office superstar with two hit movies.

Mr. Bean daydreaming to the "Chariots of Fire" theme was one of two fictional characters representing Britain at the 2012 Olympics, the other being James Bond. Perhaps it was fitting: While many of us Brits would love to be as suave and capable as 007, in reality we're probably somewhere toward the Bean end of the spectrum.

Read this next: The 15 Best Netflix Original Series Of 2021 Ranked

The post When Mr. Bean Was Originally Created, He Didn't Have a Name appeared first on /Film.

Portal 2 beta levels have always been a tightly-held secret on Valve’s part, with the Steam developer having kept a secure lock on development assets from their beloved puzzle game series. A previous leak occurred for the first Portal when Nvidia ported the game to their Nvidia Shield. Now, with Nvidia also handling the port of the Portal Companion Collection to Nintendo Switch, more prototype levels and tools have been uncovered.

As reported by Portal YouTuber Ossy Flawol (and spotted by GamesRadar+), the Portal Companion Collection’s game files include several Portal 2 beta maps and other developer tools that have never been previously seen by the community.

In their video, Ossy walks through the datamined maps. Some are pre-production versions of levels which made it into the final game, which have unfinished art passes or assets that aren’t present in the finished version. Others, such as devtest and fizzlertest are rooms seemingly used for basic testing. The latter, for example, seems to exist as a way to test the effects used when objects are dissolved by the game’s restrictive energy barriers.

Animation isn't easy. From the voice acting to the drawing and rendering, there is no part of the process of making animated projects that comes without effort. On that note, /Film's Jack Giroux recently spoke with actor Jai Courtney for a soon-to-be-published interview, and the actor talked about his experience working on season 3 of the hit Netflix anthology series "Love, Death, & Robots." He said about working with motion capture during the process:

"So sick dude. So sick. It's a weird thing to make, let me tell you. Because I've done mocap stuff before and operated in that space a little bit with films like 'Terminator' and stuff where you are kind of stretching it, stunts and effects-wise, in a real way. It was hard. It was different operating with these halo cameras, capturing all this micro data from your face. And yet, the space you're playing in is completely unimaginative. It's like being in drama class and you've got great boxes that you're moving around, pretending they're a fricking, whatever it is. It was like that. It was his weird mash-up of [these] ultra high-tech innovations being put to use, and then you're in this room where you're really acting your f—king brains out because there's nothing to draw from."

Courtney appears in the eighth episode of the season, titled "In Vaulted Halls Entombed," alongside Joe Manganiello, Christian Serratos, and Debra Wilson. The 15-minute episode focuses on a group of marines who have their faith tested when they discover mysterious spider-like creatures and an unknowable eldritch deity.

Pulling Everything From Nothing

Courtney went on to explain that cultivating a compelling character and performance isn't exactly easy under the circumstances in play while on a motion capture project. He explained:

"It was tough, I'll be honest with you. It was one of those weird little new things where I was like, 'Damn this is hard.' It's hard not having anything practical to draw on. It really makes you feel it when you're working for it, which can be quite awkward for an actor. We kind of love to just slip in and believe wherever we are. It was interesting, but I was thrilled with how it came out, and got to work with some great people. Jerome Chen directed that, Joe Manganiello and those guys were awesome to work with."

Season three of "Love, Death, & Robots" premiered on Netflix in May 2022. In the series, "Terror, imagination and beauty combine in new episodes which stretch from uncovering an ancient evil to a comedic apocalypse, telling startling short stories of fantasy, horror and science-fiction with trademark wit and visual invention." 

Read this next: The Horror Movies We Can't Wait To See In 2022

The post Jai Courtney Tells Us He Acted His 'F***ing Brains Out' While Making Love, Death, and Robots [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

Daily Harvest, which sells meal kit subscriptions, is facing lawsuits after 470 people reported severe medical reactions and a dozen customers had their gallbladders removed as a possible consequence of eating "French Lentil + Leek Crumbles."

Investors in the company include Serena Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow. — Read the rest

The "Mad Max" franchise is one of the wildest movie franchises we have. It started as a small indie Ozploitation film made by a medical doctor-turned-filmmaker inspired by the many car accidents he witnessed growing up, and culminated into the Oscar-winning best film of the 2010s.

One of the best aspects of the franchise is its visual storytelling. George Miller is adept at telling you a story through pure visuals, with barely any dialogue or exposition. This means a lot is left up to audience interpretation or material outside the films, like the surprising backstory of the flamethrower guitar player in "Fury Road."

But this also means that a lot of information that impacts the story of the films is left up in the air, like the inciting incident of what exactly the apocalypse started in the universe of "Mad Max." Still, that won't stop us. With the upcoming "Furiosa" prequel turning back the clock to the early days of the end of the world, we're asking the important question, who killed the world?

The Before Times And The First Mad Max

According to the official comic book spin-offs of "Fury Road," at some point in the near future, black fuel (what they call oil in the franchise) started to run out, causing riots and wars over control of the remaining sources of oil — later referred to as the Fuel Wars. Soon after, the Water Wars broke out, which were not about literal water, but a series of uprisings against the reckless approach by the government to the environmental crisis.

This led to anarchy, with governments struggling to combat the gangs and militias that started to take over the rural areas. By the time of the first "Mad Max," the world is still relatively the same. There are vast pastures in Australia and the ocean is still wet. Sure, gasoline is scarce, but everyone is still driving around in cool cars and bikes.

The real problem is that biker gangs terrorize the countryside, killing people for their gas, but also for the fun of it. This leads to the creation of the Main Force Patrol in Australia, a leather-clad highway patrol force that chases down criminals with a lot of speed, and as much violence. They are the only rule of law out in the wasteland, and in the years after, society completely collapses, governments shut down, and civilization crumbles.

The Road Warrior Wasteland And Nuclear Thunderdome

Here is where things get tricky. In the timeline proposed by "Fury Road," a nuclear apocalypse takes place right before "The Road Warrior" (more on that in a bit), but in the original timeline, the world is still intact and it is only civilization that has collapsed.

With no fuel or resources, cities are emptied out, and people start heading into the desert, making small communities and fending off the gangs that now rule the land. In the three years since the first film, all sustainable communities have to stay mobile in order to avoid the roaming gangs, leading to an arms race revolving around custom vehicles that are faster, more powerful, and more dangerous.

In the timeline of George Miller's original trilogy, it is after the events of "The Road Warrior" that the nuclear apocalypse happens. The remaining world governments, desperate to get their hands on the last bit of oil, finally activate the nuclear option and kill all wildlife, plants, and oceans. The only thing that remains? Thunderdome.

It is in this film that we finally get some actual exposition into the history of the world, with Max seeing cave paintings detailing the nuclear war that followed the war for resources. Sure, there are still a few oases out there, but the world as we know it ended.

Fury Road And A New Timeline

In the years after "Thunderdome," nuclear fallout ends ravaging the Earth, to the point where the remaining humans now barely know of a green world, and water is almost unheard of. By this point, Max has seen some stuff, and he's grizzled and hopeless, having seen any sliver of hope be killed by humans throughout the years.

The problem with "Fury Road" is that it was originally meant to be a proper sequel to "Beyond Thunderdome," with Max now an old warrior in his 50s, desperately clinging onto his humanity. But with production hell looming over the film and delaying it at every turn, the film eventually became a soft reboot, recognizing the events of the previous films but not directly following the plots.

In this new timeline, the nuclear apocalypse takes place right after the events of the first "Mad Max," with the titular Max fleeing out into the wasteland as the oceans dry up and people flee the cities.

Further complicating things is the fact that Max is around the same age as Furiosa, but talks with knowledge of the old world around the Vuvalini. And yet, the plot description of the "Furiosa" prequel implies that she was alive before the apocalypse.

So, When Did The Apocalypse Happen?

Again, there are two answers. In the timeline of the original trilogy, the resource wars started in the '70s, as co-writer of "The Road Warrior" Terry Hayes was inspired by the 1979 oil crisis. There are also quick hints in the first film that point to the film being set in the mid-'80s, with "The Road Warrior" taking place three years after, and "Beyond Thunderdome" taking place 15 years after, it would make the actual nuclear apocalypse take place in the late '80s, with the world completely changed and ended by the '00s.

In the "Fury Road" timeline, however, the comic book prequels do name actual historical events and dates, like uprisings against the government of Australian PM Tony Abbott between 2013 and 2015, or the Fukushima disaster. These events lead to the uprisings that led to the fall of civilization around the 2010s, with the Fuel and Water Wars leading to the events of the first "Mad Max" that same decade. If we follow the math of the original trilogy, then nuclear war would happen towards the end of the decade.

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The post Who Killed the World? How the Apocalypse Happened in the Mad Max Universe appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader shares a report: In February 2019, a large container ship sailing for New York identified a cyber intrusion on board that startled the US Coast Guard. Though the malware attack never controlled the vessel's movement, authorities concluded that weak defenses exposed critical functions to "significant vulnerabilities." A maritime disaster didn't happen that day, but a warning flare rose over an emerging threat to global trade: cyber piracy able to penetrate on-board technology that's replacing old ways of steering, propulsion, navigation and other key operations. Such leaps in hacking capabilities could do enormous economic damage, particularly now, when supply chains are already stressed from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, experts including a top Coast Guard official said. "We've been lucky so far," said Rick Tiene, vice president with Mission Secure, a cybersecurity firm in Charlottesville, Virginia. "More and more incidents are happening, and the hackers are getting a better understanding what they can do once they've taken over an operational technology system. In the case of maritime -- whether it be the ports or the vessels themselves -- there is a tremendous amount that could be done to harm both the network and physical operations." Rear Admiral Wayne Arguin, the Coast Guard's assistant commandant for prevention policy, said shipping faces cyber risks similar to those in other industries -- it's just that the stakes are so much higher given that almost 80% of global trade moves on the sea. While Arguin declined to put a number on the frequency of attempted break-ins, he said "I feel very confident that every day networks are being tested, which really reinforces the need to have a plan." "That universe includes not just ship operators but port terminals and the thousands of logistics links in global supply chains that are increasingly interconnected," the story adds.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A couple bought a home in the Seattle, Washington area without checking internet availability. The seller disclosed that the house was not connected to the internet and the couple, who both spend multiple hours per day using the internet for work from home, disregarded it. — Read the rest

When it comes to Batman, there are hardly any other comic book properties that rival his sheer amount of adaptations. The amount of television series, games, and films that audiences have access to about the Caped Crusader is astonishing. Some stand out more than others, and in the case of animated adaptations, the history and distribution of the movie "Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker" is just as intriguing as anything involving Ben Affleck's Batman in Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe.

"Batman Beyond" is a sequel animated series to the classic "Batman: The Animated Series," and it see an older and retired Bruce Wayne taking in and training a young Terry McGinnis to become a new Batman for the futuristic and cyberpunk Gotham City. The three-season run also included the feature film "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker," which saw Terry go up against Batman's most iconic villain, The Joker. The film tried to bridge the gap between the original animated series and "Beyond," providing flashbacks to Joker's last battle against the Dark Knight and how he returns in the far future to terrorize Gotham again.

However, the animated "Batman Beyond" movie experienced a forceful edit process, which saw the film get its rating changed from a PG-13 to G, something that didn't go over entirely well with fans excited for the film's home video release.

A More Ambiguous Death

"Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" was originally more violent, but given extensive edits changing multiple key aspects of the film. This was mostly due to the social climate at the time, with a concern over violence in children's media following the Columbine High School massacre. There were some more minor changes to the DC animated film, such as use of color red in the film being predominantly changed to purple, since the former is more closely associated with blood. 

However, the violence in the film is where the more drastic changes come in. The fate of the Joker is the biggest one, as his death in a flashback sequence was censored in the re-edit of the film. In the censored version, a tortured Robin pushes Joker into electrical wiring, causing the villain to be electrocuted to death offscreen. This earned the film the "G" rating that the powers-that-be were pushing for.

In the original cut, after psychologically torturing Robin, Joker gives the Boy Wonder a spear gun to kill Batman. Instead, a broken and angry Robin turns the weapon on Joker, opting to shoot him with the spear. This original scene gave Joker a full on-screen death, complete with the Clown Prince of Crime uttering a few last words before slumping over dead. This on-screen death seemed to make it more certain that the Joker died in the past, giving "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" a more unsettling feeling of mystery, given the fact the villain returned in the future.

The Eventual Re-Release

This forced re-cut gives the film a much more toned-down feel, robbing viewers of a more intense "Batman Beyond" film. Besides the Joker's death being off screen and leaving his fate ambiguous, there are also multiple fight scenes that are edited to be less violent. For example, the opening fight sequence in "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" has Terry McGinnis as Batman in a six-on-one fight, with Terry holding his own against a group of thugs. In the edited version of the film, almost every punch thrown is cut away from with an explosive flash put in its place to emphasize the hit, rather than actually showing a character getting hit. Several of the punches and choreography were removed from the re-edit, giving the fights in the film a less intense feel.

The flashback sequence detailing Robin's torture is also heavily edited. Joker's lines regarding his "peeling back the layers of the boy's mind" are completely removed in favor of something with less harrowing implications. Moreover, Joker's home video tape, which shows his means of torturing Robin, are completely removed in order to avoid implying additional violence. All of these heavy re-edits and changes in dialogue made "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" a shell of its former self, lacking in any sense of stakes due to fears of how violence in media might effect minds of the youth. 

A True To Form Batman

Eventually, audiences were given a proper release of the PG-13 version of the film two years after its release, thanks to outcry about the censored version. This re-released version comes complete with the on-screen death of the Joker, showing viewers that he did indeed die in the past, making his re-appearance in the future all the more menacing. The PG-13 version of the film puts the action on full display as well. Every punch thrown in the film is never cut away from, and blood removed in the re-edit is now shown in the PG-13 cut, making the punches feel just a little more real. 

Most importantly, Batman and Joker are in their truest form in this film. While the re-edit was done out of a place of concern, the PG-13 cut is necessary to stay true to Batman mythos. Both in flashback sequences and the future in which the film takes place, "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" delivers a thrilling tale that shows the evil that the Joker is capable of as well as the power Batman has to overcome it. 

Read this next: Batman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post The Animated Batman Beyond Movie Had to Be Re-Cut From PG-13 To G appeared first on /Film.

Since 1987, the "Predator" franchise has made humanity realize that being our world's apex predator doesn't mean we'll go unchallenged. The original film pits a mercenary team against a single guerrilla hunter, and the odds are in the hunter's favor. Undeterred, this species — also known as the Yautja, as first identified in Steve Perry and Stephani Perry's "Alien Vs. Predator: Prey" novel — later arrived in stalk Los Angeles to undertake a strange abduction mission.

Around the fringes of these hunts are more details that make the Predator one of our favorite scary visitors. An offshoot clan controls a galactic hunting preserve, and stories of dubious canonicity suggest the Yautja are familiar with the Xenomorphs. While traditionally the "Aliens vs. Predator" films aren't regarded as canon, as they contain major timeline conflicts, "The Predator" did keep a few Easter eggs to muddy the issue, including a shot of the Xenomorph bone spear from "Alien vs. Predator" and the concept of Yautja hybridization. All of this makes for a twisted timeline for fans to sort through. Let's work through it with a little history-style flair.

3000 B.C. — The Temple Builder Era

A controversial report, ("Alien vs. Predator," 2004) suggests that the Yautja established temple-style compounds on Earth, some of which were hunting and training grounds for their youthful warriors. Humanity is in its early agricultural and settler era in this period, with the first Egyptian pharaohs concluding their reigns. It is unclear how many human civilizations encountered the Yautja. The descriptions of the temples suggest they were of early Central American human architectural style and not extraterrestrial.

At least one of these alleged temples, located under the Antarctic sea off the coast of Bouvet Island, contained human remains. More concerning, this location is further alleged to have contained a so-called Xenomorph queen, whose out-of-control offspring eventually required this temple to be explosively sealed by the Yautja. Hieroglyphs within this location suggest the Yautja created a ritual culture, and humans offered themselves as sacrifice to the queen so that their alien "gods" could undertake a special centenary hunt. This information was collected in 2004 by individuals representing a Charles Bishop Weyland. 

1718 — The Adolini Hunt

A small folio recovered in 1996 (the story "Predator 1718" from the comic "A Decade of Dark Horse" #1)  written by Henry Gilroy with art by Igor Kordev) records a probable incident somewhere in the islands of Papua New Guinea in the year 1718. The Golden Age of Piracy is nearing its close, but small crews continue to resist capture by the Spanish and British navies among others. The folio records a mutiny aboard a vessel helmed by pirate captain Raphael Adolini.

After landing on an unnamed island, Adolini sparked a mutiny during which he demanded that a recently-stolen trove of gold be returned to the church from which it was liberated. Captain Adolini took on his crew alone until a Yautja joined the attack in Adolini's favor. It is clear this was an action made for the Yautja to duel his chosen opponent fairly. However, a crew member spoiled matters by fatally wounding Captain Adolini from behind. The Yautja slew the final crew member and took the flintlock pistol the dying Adolini offered them. This pistol was later given to Lt. Harrigan (Danny Glover in "Predator 2") while aboard a confirmed Yautja ship.

1719 — The Great Plains Comanche Incident

While much remains unknown about the encounter between a Midwest Comanche tribe and at least one Yautja ("Prey" premieres on Hulu on August 5th), current information suggests that the tribe suffered major losses — if not local extinction. One individual, a young Indigenous woman named Naru, is recorded to have taken a warrior's role against the Yautja in defiance of tribal norms. It may be worth noting that European colonization of North America was underway at this point, with 12 of the original 13 Colonies now established along the Eastern coast. Trade (and conflict) had long since begun with the Indigenous tribes.

Although the Yautja is technologically advanced and prefers what it deems an "honorable" hunt, records suggest it continued to use at least some of its superior tech to slaughter the tribe. Stealth camouflage and laser tracking tools are confirmed to have been used. The Comanche, however, had the advantage of familiar terrain and high skill with their armaments. The outcome of this incident is currently under review.

1904 — The Razorback Whaling Station Disaster

By 1904, a successful Norwegian whaling station was operating out of Bouvet Island off the Antarctic coast. According to the controversial Charles Bishop Weyland report ("Alien vs. Predator"), on an unknown date, the settlement claimed to experience a number of mysterious events that ranged from unidentifiable lights in the sky to unusual seismic activity. The Weyland report claims that the whalers eventually retrieved an object from the ice — a metal pod that released a Yautja.

The report further claims the Yautja annihilated the whalers along with a number of Xenomorph drones that had been somehow released from the alleged temple, long since frozen in the ice. The entirety of the Weyland report remains in doubt, and there is no physical evidence to support that the 1904 desertion of Razorback was due to localized intergalactic conflict. It may be possible to re-open this investigation as a tragic mass hysteria incident such as the Smalls Lighthouse disaster or the 2016 clown panic.

1987 — The Guatemalan Slaughter

During the height of U.S. interference in Central and South American political affairs, CIA operative Al Dillon (Carl Weathers) hired mercenary Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his team under the guise of a hostage rescue operation. While this was a cover and the actual operation was a guerrilla strike against a growing Russian and Central American alliance, it's moot in the face of the first confirmed Yautja encounter in modern military history ("Predator," 1987).

Dutch's team encountered the Yautja in mid-hunt. It had previously obliterated a Green Beret team sent by the CIA. The team captured one individual, Anna Gonsalves (Elpidia Carrillo), who eventually explained that previous Yautja hunts were alleged to have occurred in her country. Dutch and Gonsalves would be the only two to make it to extraction, with Dutch suffering major injuries and shock from a one-on-one encounter with the Yautja. While most other incidents suggest Yautja prefer honorable hunts, this one chose to incinerate itself and its surroundings with an explosive device.

1997 — The Los Angeles Wave

In the years leading up to the turn of the century, Los Angeles endured a cartel street war as two competing gangs fought for turf. Unnaturally hot — presumably due to climate change — the already heightened conflict zone drew the attention of a Yautja. Los Angeles Police Lt. Harrigan (Danny Glover) took note of an unusually violent crime scene and a departing figure ("Predator 2," 1990), but the investigation remained focused on the cartel violence with the assistance of DEA officials.

As the violence continued to escalate and Harrigan's investigations uncovered extraterrestrial metal and other peculiarities, DEA liaison Keyes (Gary Busey), admitted he represented OWLF or the Other Worldly Life Forms Program, which had secretly investigated the 1987 incident with little assistance from Dutch. However, Keyes' attempt to capture and study the Yautja ended in the near-total loss of his team. Harrigan, meanwhile, engaged the Yautja in one-on-one combat, resolving in a human victory just inside the Yautja's vessel. At this time, it was made clear to Harrigan that the Yautja had not arrived alone, confirming that these predators have been hunting Earth regularly. Harrigan was given the Adolini flintlock by one of the departing Yautja.

2004 — The Charles Bishop Weyland Report

With the true identity of Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) in doubt, much of the rest of the 2004 incident is questionable. Independently wealthy, Weyland gathered a small crew of experts from a variety of fields to investigate the Bouvet Island "temple" location ("Alien vs. Predator"). Upon arrival at the ruins of Razorback Station, this field team, along with Charles, claimed to enter the temple via a tunnel alleged to be of recent Yautja creation.

Inside the temple, the team entered a conflict between Yautja and the reawakened Xenomorphs. Weyland is alleged to have died in the temple to help other field team members to escape. One survivor, Lex (Sanaa Latham), claims to have allied with the Yautja to push back a possible Xenomorph escape. With the temple and its Xenomorph queen destroyed, the alliance was successful. There is no clear evidence of Weyland's actual goal. However, a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer may have been a factor in his actions. Lex's story is uncorroborated, though OWLF later recovered a Yautja-style bone spear.

2004 — The Gunnison Controversy

The mystery of Charles Bishop Weyland is compounded by the involvement of someone who claims to be a Ms. Yutani (Françoise Yip), who may have also released the initial Razorback Station report. Miss Yutani's secondary report alleges that a further situation arose from the Bouvet Island temple encounter, involving a mutated Yautja, or rather a Predator with Xenomorph characteristics ("Alien vs. Predator: Requiem," 2007).

This chaotic and generally unreliable report (12 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) suggests that not only was the town of Gunnison, Colorado, at the mercy of a Yautja attempting to contain this "Predalien" situation but that it went out of control so far as to require a scorched earth response from the United States military. To date, there is no confirmed tactical nuclear response — much less on U.S. soil — and no global radiation reading to suggest the Gunnison event happened. In truth, this situation may be best explained as a false flag report left as a watermark to trap an agent selling confidential documents with the event taken out of context by conspiracy theorists.

21st Century — The Yautja Schism

The greater politics of the Yautja aren't clear, leaving the society and laws of this predator species up to speculation. Some sources (NECA toyline lore, "Predator: Bad Blood," written by Evan Dorkin with art by Derek Thompson) suggest that conflict within their society was becoming a new normal. A subspecies of Yautja had developed, carrying larger physiques and a disregard for traditional methods of hunting.

By Earth's early 2000s, the schism between the traditional hunter clans and these enhanced predators saw the new breed strike out and create a planetary game preserve ("Predators," 2010) to suit their preferred, more merciless style of hunt. Traditional Yautja set about hunting them instead, sometimes losing their lives to the new clan. One such preserve had a suitable ecosystem for a regular prey creature: humans. Within this closed system, even a successful prey opponent like Ronald Noland (Laurence Fishburne) could only be expected to prolong survival but not escape.

2010 — Game Preserve Prey Encounter A Traditional Yautja

Although the circumstances are unclear, at least eight humans were abducted from varying locations across the globe and delivered to the new Yautja game preserve planet ("Predators"). Former Special Operations soldier Royce (Adrien Brody) maintained loose leadership of several mercenaries, soldiers, a death row inmate reported missing from San Quentin (Walter Scoggins), a Yakuza (Louis Ozawa Changchien), and a Los Zetas cartel enforcer (Danny Trejo). One arrival, Isabelle (Alice Braga), recognized their hunters as the species involved in the '87 Guatemala incident.

Adaptation to the environment was quick, but nonetheless, many of them died quickly. As their numbers dwindled, Royce and the rest encountered a crucified, smaller Yautja at one of the hunting camps. Later, Noland, otherwise proving himself untrustworthy, explained some details he'd gleaned about the feud between the two tribes of Yautja. Eventually, a brief truce was arranged with the captured Yautja. Unfortunately, this did not result in Royce and Isabelle's escape from the game preserve.

2018 — Precursor To Alleged Invasion Threat

OWLF's later reports of an incident within an unidentified U.S. suburb ("The Predator," 2018) do not leave investigators with a clear understanding of events. What is known is that a Yautja landed near an active military operation, getting into conflict with soldier Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook). Both survived, with the soldier shunted into a treatment facility. Meanwhile, an organization primed to replace OWLF, Project Stargazer, was intent on studying the Yautja prisoner and the recovered alien materials. Unfortunately, another larger Yautja soon arrived.

It is not clear why this Yautja deviated from its purpose and attempted to abduct a child with autism. The explanation of possible future hybridization makes no sense and is detrimental to discussions of autism. The conflict was reportedly resolved, with McKenna and other combatants carrying the day, while the initial Yautja's arrival was apparently meant to warn humanity about a possible future invasion and offer technological assistance via an armored suit. The Yautja's intentions were unclear because it promptly fought armed forces. This incident may be verified by OWLF but retains numerous disappointing elements (Rotten Tomatoes score: 33 percent) and may be disregarded as future developments unfold.

2020 And Beyond — OWLF Expands Operations

OWLF has operated since before the 1987 Guatemala incident. Confused with a variety of other alphabet soup organizations, the Other Worldly Life Forms Program remains the standard in investigating Yautja incidents on Earth. However, during the 1997 incident, the program realized that the previously unhelpful survivor, Alan "Dutch" Schaefer ("Predator") had now begun a private operation that was both parallel and counter to OWLF's work ("Predator: Stalking Shadows" by James A. Moore and Mark Morris). Dutch interfered with a soldier named Scott Devlin who was assigned to assist OWLF in controlling the Yautja landing site.

This prompted Devlin to begin his own investigation of OWLF and a tentative friendship with Dutch. Dutch would report an overall increase of Yautja hunts, observing the arrival of a newer, freshly adapted Yautja in Malaysia. By the mid-2020s, Dutch was now working directly with OWLF and a survivor of the previous 2018 Stargazer incident. Devlin would be retained by the organization to run their operations command center. The nature of future Yautja incursions is currently unknown, though Dutch agrees that a full assault on Earth could be possible.

Read this next: 20 Movies About Aliens That You Definitely Need To Watch

The post The Entire Predator Timeline Explained appeared first on /Film.

A Doom mod two years in the making is now complete, and it overhauls 2019's Doom 64 PC remaster into more of a story-driven FPS game along the lines of Doom Eternal or 2016 - featuring new levels, cutscenes, secrets, remastered graphics, and more than double the number of songs on the soundtrack.

While it might be a push to call Doom Eternal "story-driven" compared to the likes of Half-Life or Far Cry, the recent games certainly have way more of a plot than the '90s ones. Doom 64, in particular, had a bit of a story but it didn't really come through in-game between blasting demons in the dark.

Doom 64 Reloaded is a mod that changes this to make it a little more in line with Eternal-style storytelling, and you can pick it up over at Doomworld. It patches the official release of Doom 64 and completely overhauls it, which becomes apparent the moment you start the game and are confronted with a new opening cutscene and an extended first level with jumpscares.

RELATED LINKS: Doom runs on Twitter, Play Doom

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is urging federal agencies and private organizations to switch to Modern Auth in Exchange Online before October 1, 2022.

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Two are the pivotal moments in the life of any Monster Hunter worth their salt. The first is a release of a new entry in the series. The second is the release of its expansion which usually introduces not only more content in the form of new hunting grounds and powerful beasts to take down but also new gameplay tweaks and mechanics that can change how each game is played quite a bit and make it realize its full potential. This is what happened with Monster Hunter World, as the Iceborne expansion introduced a lot of gameplay tweaks and tons of new content that elevated the experience far beyond that provided by the base game.

With Iceborne having shattered all expectations, many fans of the series expect the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak expansion to be as massive as Capcom implied. I am pleased to say that the developer delivered on all fronts, as Sunbreak brings not only tons of greatly designed returning and new monsters, but also some gameplay tweaks and new mechanics that massively improve the already excellent experience of the base game. Sunbreak may be going even beyond what the Iceborne expansion did for Monster Hunter World, especially regarding the new gameplay mechanics.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is set right after the end of the base game. Having put an end to The Rampage and saved Kamura Village in the process, the hunter has become known as the Fierce Flame of Kamura, their reputation having become legendary not only in Kamura but also beyond. At some point after the end of The Rampage, a new monster called Lunagaron appears in Kamura's Shrine Ruins for an unknown reason, hinting that someone or something may be affecting the environment, forcing monsters from a land known as the Kingdom to venture outside of their typical habitat. It does not take long for the hunter to meet the knight of the Royal Order Fiorayne and to journey with her to Elgado and beyond, where they will face the monsters known as the Three Lords - Garangolm, Lunagaron, and the Elder Dragon Malzeno to solve yet another crisis.

Just like in the base game, the story in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak isn't particularly complex or well-developed, serving mainly as an excuse to venture out into all existing maps and new maps like the Jungle and Citadel to hunt down Master Rank monsters. While characters are generally not all that interesting, they still manage to be somewhat memorable thanks to a brand new gameplay addition, Follower Quests, where characters from both Elgado and Kamura accompany the hunter in the field. In the Support Surveys Quests, it is possible to pick which characters you want to bring with you, so some faces will eventually become very familiar to you in the long run.

Just like for the base game, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak shouldn't be played for the barebones story but for its gameplay, and in this regard, the expansion fully delivers without any doubt. Even before engaging Master Rank monsters, hunters will find plenty of new mechanics as soon as they get on the field. There are new types of Wirebugs, Golden and Ruby, which temporarily increase the number of items dropped by monsters and the power of Punisher Attacks during Wyvern Riding respectively, and new Hunting Helpers like the Marionette Spiders, which allow the Hunters to temporarily bind monsters in place. The new Wirebugs may seem like a small addition, but they improve the game's pace, as the Golden Wirebugs, for example, significantly reduce grinding for items.

The biggest gameplay additions are the new Switch Skills for all weapons, and the Switch Skill Swap mechanics, which both add a new dimension to combat. Thanks to the swap mechanics, it is possible to switch between two Switch Skills loadouts on the fly and even perform a dodge maneuver with generous range and invincibility frames that can be further increased with the Evade Window and Evade Extender skills. It does take some time to get used to swapping Switch Skills on the fly, but when it becomes natural, it truly brings combat to a new height. Swapping Switch Skills at pretty much any time on the field also makes some underused Switch Skills from the base game shine. This is the case, for example, of the Long Sword's Silkbind Sakura Slash attack, which was useful but not comparable to Soaring Kick and Spirit Helm Breaker, especially in terms of damage.

The introduction of the Switch Skill Swap mechanics also allows the creation of some unique builds that were impossible in the base game. For example, I made a somewhat decent Charge Blade build based around Counter Peak Performance and Axe Hopper, two skills that couldn't be simultaneously used in the base game. It is not an optimal build, considering it depends on Wirebugs, but the fact that it is possible to get so creative sets Sunbreak apart from pretty much everything we have seen in the series, except for Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate and its Style mechanics.

The new Switch Skills for all weapons are clearly designed with the Swap mechanics in mind, complementing each weapon's base moveset quite well. The Long Sword still dominates not only thanks to some new Switch Skills that will probably end up being meta, like the extremely damaging and relatively easy-to-use Sacred Sheathe Combo, but also for the generous opportunities to use Switch Skill Swap. It is possible, for example, to swap Switch Skills right after Silkbind Sakura Slash and Special Sheathe Counter connect with a monster, essentially allowing the hunter to cancel the sheating animation and get back into the fray much faster than before. Other weapons, like the Great Sword, have received Switch Skills that not only make it easier to use them, such as Strongarm Stance, but also slightly change how the weapon plays, such as Surge Slash Combo, which grants access to a few new slightly faster, non-charged, combos. Not all new Switch Skills are on the same level, to be sure, and the increased number of counters will undoubtedly disappoint some, but the added versatility is a definite plus, no matter which weapons you like to use.

Adding new Switch Skills isn't the only change Sunbreak brings to weapons, as many of them have received a variety of tweaks. The Long Sword's Soaring Kick, for example, has been nerfed with a higher cooldown; the Insect Glaive, on the other hand, has been massively buffed with the introduction of Powder Kinsects and a new move that makes all powder left behind explode for terrific damage. Pretty much every weapon has been tweaked in one way or another, even the often mistreated Lance, showing how Capcom has listened to players' feedback.

With so many powerful tools at the hunter's disposal, monsters had to be designed accordingly. Even in this regard, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak does not disappoint, although it doesn't fully deliver when it comes to the challenge level. All monsters from the base game are back in Master Rank quests, and they are actually the main target of most quests from Master Rank 1 to Master Rank 3, so for the first few hours, hunters will be dealing mostly with monsters they should already know how to take down, only that they are much faster, hit harder and have a few new moves and patterns that could throw hunters off. One thing that is impossible not to notice, however, is how a base game endgame build can carry hunters through most of the quests from the first few Master Ranks, as it was only in late Master Rank 3 quests that I truly felt the need to get new weapons, armors, and Decorations. The difficulty jump from High to Master Rank was way more noticeable in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.

This, however, is not to say that Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is a complete walk in the park. The new subspecies are markedly stronger than their base versions, such as Blood Orange Bishaten and Pyre Rakna-Kadaki, and some returning monsters like Astalos and Seregios will give hunters a run for their money. The three Lords are also exceptionally designed and can provide a challenge, although they are not on the same level, as Garangolm, the first Lord you will face, is not as difficult as the other two Lords. Malzeno in particular is among the most interesting monsters in the series, featuring a coherent visual and gameplay design that nicely represents the vampire theme used as the basis.

The new Switch Skills and the Skill Switch Swap mechanics aren't the only new tools available at the hunters' disposal in Sunbreak. Alongside new weapons and armor sets, some of them coming with brand new skills such as Focus Master that finally makes Elemental and ailment-focused builds viable for Great Swords, the expansion introduces new Palicoes' Secret Support Moves, powerful new support moves that can be assigned regardless of the Palico's type, and Swap Support Move which introduces some welcome customization options for the feline buddies. Palamutes have also received improvements, such as the ability to carry items in excess found on the field, and new weapons, such as the Bowgun Attachment, so they are no longer useful just for quick transportation. Speaking of customization options, Sunbreak introduces level 4 Decorations which make it much easier to create optimal builds, and Rampage Decorations which are meant to replace the Rampage Skills of the base game. This was a required introduction to Sunbreak as the expansion doesn't feature Rampage quests anymore, something that should make many players happy, as these quests were far from fan favorites. All these new customization options work great and feel coherent with the overall game design of Monster Hunter Rise, and they are extremely welcome additions.

The welcome removal of Rampage quests, however, doesn't mean there isn't any new quest type to spice up the experience. As mentioned above, Sunbreak introduces Follower Quests, where non-playable characters will accompany the hunter on a variety of hunts, essentially giving solo players a taste of the multiplayer experience at the franchise's core. And surprisingly enough, the AI-controlled Followers are quite competent, using their assigned weapons well and even riding monsters when the going gets tough. Fiorayne, for example, uses the Sword and Shield as her default weapon, and she is quite good at doing so, even going as far as parrying monsters' roars with the Metsu Shoryugeki Switch Skill.

Despite being just an expansion, Monster Hunter Sunbreak offers something new in the PC release regarding visual options. The game now fully supports NVIDIA DLSS, meaning it will be easier than ever to play the game at high frame rates without sacrificing visual quality for those with NVIDIA RTX cards. AMD FSR, unfortunately, is not supported, at least at launch. Still, thankfully, Monster Hunter Rise and its expansion are not particularly demanding games. Hence, a relatively recent machine has no trouble running them at acceptable frame rates and resolutions even without an NVIDIA RTX GPU. Visuals have also been touched up a bit, with some subtle but noticeable changes to lighting and more.

With so many tweaks and additions, Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is truly a massive expansion that improves upon an already excellent game in every possible way. The challenge level is still generally on the low side compared to previous entries in the series, but no hunter worth their salt should be stopped by this, as the new monsters and gameplay mechanics make the journey to Elgado and the Citadel one to remember.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

The post Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Review – The Flame of Kamura Burns Ever Hotter by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.

No-one appears to be hurt in this security footage from a park near the mall bombed Monday by Russian forces in Ukraine. But the destructive force of the explosions is clear. At least 18 people died in the attack, with dozens more injured. — Read the rest

schwit1 shares a report from The Truth About Cars: Ford Motor Co. will be suspending end-of-lease buyout options for customers driving all-electric vehicles, provided they took possession of the model after June 15, 2022. Those who nabbed their Mach-E beforehand will still have the option of purchasing the automobile once their lease ends. However, there are some states that won't be abiding by the updated rules until the end of the year, not that it matters when customers are almost guaranteed to have to wait at least that long on a reserved vehicle. The change, made earlier in the month, cruised under our radar until a reader asked for our take over the weekend. Ford could be wanting to capitalize on exceptionally high used vehicle prices, ensuring that more vehicles make it back into rotation. The broader industry has likewise been talking about abandoning traditional ownership to transition the auto market into being more service-oriented where manufacturers ultimately retain ownership of all relevant assets. But it may not be that simple as this being another step in the business sector's larger plan to maximize profitability by discouraging private vehicle ownership. [...] While leasing customers will not be able to buy their EV, Ford Credit will allow them to renew an expiring contract in exchange for a brand-new model. Amazingly, the manufacturer is trying to frame this as environmentally responsible. But it smells like planned obsolescence and desperation from where I'm sitting. Ford knows that electrics require far less labor to produce. By also retaining/recycling the most-expensive component (the battery) it can effectively maximize profitability on a three or four-year turnaround. For now, the updated leasing scheme is limited exclusively to all-electric products (e.g. Ford Lightning or Mach-E "Mustang") sold in 37 individual states. But the long wait times for new EVs and Ford's desire to expand the plan through the rest of the year effectively means it'll be national by the time most people take ownership.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

My favorite character in the video below is the man in the blue shirt at the front who waves excitedly even as things start to go south. Perhaps he knows what's coming and is waving… goodbye.

Now, I'm no swampologist, but this seemed fairly inevitable.

— Read the rest

Kevin Glynn, the associate software author of PC utilities such as ThrottleStop and RealTemp for the TechPowerUP, created a new utility called "Counter Control," allowing users to monitor and log the performance counters of previous and current Intel Core CPUs. The new tool supports Intel processors launched in 2008 (Nehalem architecture CPUs) to present Alder Lake and Arc processors.

Counter Control CPU application fixes performance bugs found with Intel processors and Windows Defender

While Glynn was developing ThrottleStop, he uncovered a glitch within Microsoft's security software, Windows Defender, causing a critical impact on CPU performance. Security software of all types tends to affect performance to some degree, but this particular bug has a much higher effect on the processor while active.

But how do you know if your processor is affected? TechPowerUP breaks down the signs to look for and how Counter Control will create a fix for the system.

The website describes that you will notice that HWiNFO — the Windows system info tool that shows an overview and other crucial details of hardware components — will display the "Effective Clock" speed lower when the processor is at its peak. The system's performance drops when Windows Defender becomes affected at this point. The website gives an example of an Intel Core i9-10850K CPU, which has a clock of 5 GHz and yields six percent of the processor, dropping the Cinebench points by 1000. While Intel processor generations 8th through 11th, regardless of whether it is a mobile or desktop variant, those users will see the effect on Microsoft Windows 10 and 11. TechPowerUP notes that AMD processors are not afflicted with the same result.

Windows Defender uses the complete hardware performance counters (seven to be exact) and the three fixed-function counters that are fashioned to Intel Core processors at any given point and without notice. However, several programs also need access to the same counters, adding more resources to the command. When this happens, each of the counters is programmed in one of four configurable modes — Disabled, OS (ring-0), User (ring>0), and All-Ring levels — and decides which privilege level it focuses on.

 

System utilities like HWiNFO, OverClocking Checking Tool (OCCT), Core Temp, and ThrottleStop, placed each of the counters to either "mode 3" or "All-Ring" levels. Due to all modes set identically, there is a lack of issues with several programs utilizing the same counters. However, Windows Defender places all counters to "mode 2" at varying unknown times, whether when the system is first turned on or at any other time. This action by Windows Defender will then cause the security program to utilize an absorbent amount of time from the processor. There is not a specific time or mode that this happens.

Is Intel to blame for this action and bug? No. Far from it. The effect on performance is directly attributed to Windows Defender randomly overwriting settings to "mode 2," placing a stall on the processing and allowing the computer system to normalize and fly under the radar of its glitch.

Our Counter Control software monitors and logs the "IA32_FIXED_CTR_CTRL" register of Intel Core processors, located at MSR 0x38D. This register provides access to the three fixed-function performance monitoring counters mentioned before. Counter Control will inform users if any software is using the Intel fixed-function counters and for how long they've been in use. Typical values reported by Counter Control look like this:

• Not Used - 0x000: The three fixed-function counters are stopped. None of the counters are presently being used.
• Defender - 0x222: All three fixed-function counters are programmed to mode 2. This is the value that Windows Defender sets these counters to when using them.
• Normal - 0x330: Two counters are programmed to mode 3. One counter is programmed to mode 0 and is not being used. This is normal. Most monitoring programs that use these counters will program the counter control register to this value.
• Warning - 0x332: This is shown when two counters are generally used by monitoring software while the third counter has been set to mode 2, likely by Windows Defender. This is a warning that two different programs might be fighting over control of the shared counters. You might see the counter control register constantly changing between 0x222 and 0x332. You will see this when running HWiNFO if Windows Defender is trying to use the IA32_FIXED function counters simultaneously.

Now, to fix the issue at hand. Suppose your computer appears to be affected by the Windows security feature and displays the "Defender" readout on the screen. In that case, TechPowerUP states that the quickest fix is clicking the "Reset Counters" box in the Counter Control application. Upon activation, the tool from Glynn on TechPowerUP's website will change one of the timers back to "mode 3," causing Defender to detect the change and will cause the security application to halt and normalize CPU performance. TechPowerUP warns readers to verify that the shift has happened by running benchmarks.

The website also notes two general directions to mitigate the subjected Intel processors' performance loss permanently. One fix is to turn off Windows Defender monitoring, but in doing so, you will risk opening your system to attacks. The other option is to use ThrottleStop 9.5, which has a "Windows Defender Boost" opportunity to help guarantee ultimate performance along with pinpoint Core Effective Clock monitoring on the system with any running applications, even when Windows Defender is active. ThrottleStop works by activating a single customizable timer in real-time. That way, when the security software notices that software is attempting to utilize one of the counters, it will eliminate processing on all the other counters, essentially leaving them alone and returning performance to standard settings. Resetting in Counter Control with the "Reset" option will do the same, but without having to open ThrottleStop.

To clarify, Windows Defender will continue to work fine. It can still detect and notify users of any viruses. When started once, with the "Windows Defender Boost" option, ThrottleStop will let the timer run in mode 3, even when closed. This means you can start ThrottleStop once at bootup, close it right afterward, and Counter Control will protect your system from the Defender performance issues.

For more information and how to download Counter Control 1.1 for yourself, visit TechPowerUP's download page.

The post Intel CPUs Can Perform Worse With Windows Defender Running But There’s Also A Fix by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.

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Elden Ring’s Torrent is a brave and stalwart steed, the one who picks you up after death and decides you should be Melina’s knight in Tarnished armor, but valor only counts for so much in the action RPG – and, in the late game, not very much at that. Challenges in Leyndell and beyond often prove too much for the trusty Torrent, but a new Elden Ring mod aims to fix that. Modder Admiral30 created the Invincible Torrent mod to address the problem of Torrent’s HP and keep horseback combat viable throughout the game.

RELATED LINKS: The best Elden Ring builds, Elden Ring bosses, The best Elden Ring classes

Comparing genomes of intestinal bacteria in various primates and human populations begins to pinpoint the possibly helpful microbes that have gone missing from our guts. From a report: Deep in the human gut, myriad "good" bacteria and other microbes help us digest our food, as well as keep us healthy by affecting our immune, metabolic, and nervous systems. Some of these humble microbial assistants have been in our guts since before humans became human -- certain gut microbes are found in almost all primates, suggesting they first colonized a common ancestor. But humans have also lost many of these helpers found in other primates and may be losing even more as people around the world continue to flock to cities, a researcher reported last week at a microbiology meeting in Washington, D.C. Those absent gut microbes could affect human health, he says. "This work helps us develop a new understanding of the course of human biological and cultural development," says Lev Tsypin, a microbiology graduate student at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the new study. The microbiome comprises all the bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microscopic life that inhabit an individual, be it a person, a plant, or a planaria. For humans and many other species, the best characterized microbiome centers on the bacteria in the gut. The more microbiologists study these gut microbes, the more they link the bacteria to functions of their hosts. In humans, for example, gut bacteria influence how the immune system responds to pathogens and allergens, or interact with the brain, affecting mood. Andrew Moeller, an evolutionary biologist at Cornell University, was one of the first to show that gut bacteria and humans have built these relationships over a very long time. Six years ago, he and colleagues reported the work showing human gut microbes are very similar to those in other primates, suggesting their intestinal presence predates the evolution of humans. But his follow-up studies, and work by others, also indicate the human gut microbiome has, in a general sense, become less diverse than the gut microbes in our current primate cousins. One study found 85 microbial genera, such as Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium, in the guts of wild apes, but just 55 in people in U.S. cities. Splitting the difference, people in less developed parts of the world have between 60 and 65 of those bacterial groups, an observation that ties the decrease in microbial diversity to urbanization.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The sentence is in: Former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell will spend the next 20 years in prison (minus any time deducted for good behavior) for her part in recruiting, grooming, and sexually exploiting underage girls with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Although the 60-year-old will spend much of the rest of her life behind bars, prosectors had hoped the sentence would be longer. — Read the rest