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Apple entered the processor market with its Apple silicon chips back in 2020, with the introduction of the M1 chip in the MacBook Pro. The company has slowly transitioned away from Intel processors, in favor of its own silicon chips, which offer greater performance and functionality for macOS.

Keeping your computer free from threats and malware is important. And if you want extra protection against harmful software, you may have considered installing your own antivirus program and shutting off the built-in Microsoft Defender. However, you can have the best of both worlds.

Apple's M1 Max in a desktop computer. | With the Mac Studio, Apple offers a desktop computer for content creators that's now also based on Apple's in-house M1 CPUs. We review the version with the M1 Max, and at the same time, we take a look at the new Studio Display with its 5K resolution.

Today’s sophisticated cyber threats require a modern approach to security. And this doesn’t apply only to enterprises or government entities—in recent years we’ve seen attacks increase exponentially against individuals. There are 921 password attacks every second.¹ We’ve seen ransomware threats extending beyond their usual targets to go after small businesses and families. And we know, as bad actors become more and more sophisticated, we need to increase our personal defenses as well.

That is why it is so important for us to protect your entire digital life, whether you are at home or work—threats don’t end when you walk out of the office or close your work laptop for the day. We need solutions that help keep you and your family secure in how you work, play, and live.

That’s why I’m excited to share the availability of Microsoft Defender for individuals, a new online security application for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers. We believe every person and family should feel safe online. This is an exciting step in our journey to bring security to all and I’m thrilled to share with you more about this new app, available with features for you to try today.

Introducing Microsoft Defender

As our digital footprints grow, and with more devices and family members online, protecting your personal data and devices becomes more important than ever. On top of that, you and your family’s device preferences may result in Windows, iOS, Android, and macOS devices all represented in a single household—I know from personal experience in my own family. As threats grow more sophisticated, and time spent online has increased during the pandemic, we are more vulnerable than ever.  

To help keep your data private and devices secure, people often turn to multiple security products, with scattered security monitoring and device management. This fragmentation makes keeping up with increasing online threats even harder.

We must evolve our security solutions to meet unique customer needs at home and work by bringing together existing technologies in a new way. That is why we are introducing Microsoft Defender for individuals. It was built on our Microsoft Defender for Endpoint technology, leveraging the same trusted security that enterprises rely on. It joins our comprehensive set of security products and services as the newest member of our family of Microsoft Defender solutions and extends the protection already built into Windows Security.

What does Microsoft Defender do?

Microsoft Defender is simplified online security that meets you and your family where you are by bringing multiple protections together into a single dashboard. It provides online protection across the devices you and your family use. It offers tips and recommendations to strengthen your protection further. And, as you grow your digital footprint by adding family members and devices, Defender grows with you and keeps your defenses up-to-date using trusted technology.  

This seamless solution, which includes continuous antivirus and anti-phishing protection for your data and devices, will enable you to:

• Manage your security protections and view security protections for everyone in your family, from a single easy-to-use, centralized dashboard.²
• View your existing antivirus protection (such as Norton or McAfee). Defender recognizes these protections within the dashboard.
• Extend Windows device protections to iOS, Android, and macOS devices for cross-platform malware protection on the devices you and your family use the most.^{3, 4}
• Receive instant security alerts, resolution strategies, and expert tips to help keep your data and devices secure.⁵

This is just the start. As we look forward, we will continue to bring more protections together under a single dashboard, including features like identity theft protection and secure online connection. Microsoft Defender is simplified online security that grows with you and your family to help keep you safe. 

Try it today!

The expansion of our security portfolio with Microsoft Defender for individuals is the natural and exciting progression in our journey as a security company. The Microsoft Defender app is available to Microsoft 365 subscribers beginning today, across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. It was shaped based on the thoughts and feedback from so many families and people who use our products, and we are so excited to have this available today. Read more about the value to Microsoft 365 subscribers and the journey to get here from the Microsoft 365 team, or try Microsoft Defender today. There is so much more to come, and we look forward to sharing more on this journey to make the world a safer place for all!

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

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¹According to Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication log data. 2022. 

²App requires a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription and is available as a separate download. 

³App is available on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS in select Microsoft 365 Family or Personal billing regions.

⁴New malware protection is not available where these protections exist on iOS and Windows.

⁵Security tips are available on Windows and macOS only.

The post Making the world a safer place with Microsoft Defender for individuals appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

Apple announced the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with its latest M2 chip at its WWDC 2022 event. While the M2 MacBook Air features a brand-new design, the only difference between the new MacBook Pro and older models is the new chip. It has been discovered that the new M2 MacBook Pro outperforms the base model of the Mac Pro in benchmarks that costs more than $5,000 more than the prior. Scroll down to read more details on the subject.

Apple's New 13-Inch MacBook Pro With an M2 Chip Outperforms the $5,999 Mac Pro in Benchmarks

The new MacBook Pro with an M2 chip appeared on Geekbench 5 a few days ago, revealing the single and multi-core scores of the chip. In the multi-core department, the M2 MacBook Pro scored a massive 8,928 while the Mac Pro scored 8,027. The M2 chip went head to head with Mac Pro's Intel Xeon chip, with surprising results. Take note that the scores are being compared with the base model of the Mac Pro which costs a staggering $5,999.

The higher-end configuration of the Mac Pro is still able to outperform the M2 chip inside the new MacBook Pro but costs $6,999 or higher depending on the configuration options. In favor of Mac Pro, the machine features major expandability options like SSD, configurable GPU, and RAM. Nonetheless, Apple's custom silicon chips have grown to compete against the giants of the industry in a very short time.

Apple teased at its March event earlier this year that a new Mac Pro with Apple silicon is coming and we can expect it later this year. The new M2 MacBook Pro will be available for pre-order tomorrow and shipments will begin starting June 24. The new MacBook Air with M2 chip will be available next month and we will be covering the performance comparisons extensively, so be sure to stick around.

This is all there is to it, folks. Share your valuable insights with us in the comments section below.

The post Latest M2 MacBook Pro Beats Apple’s Base Model $5,999 Mac Pro by Ali Salman appeared first on Wccftech.

If you've checked fares on flights lately, you may be surprised at how expensive air travel has become. Delta CEO Ed Bastian told attendees at an industry conference last week that airfares are 30% more than pre-pandemic fares.

An article in Bloomberg lays down five causes for the sticker shock.: — Read the rest

Prime members get a ticket to fight the Reapers

Amazon's Prime Day is coming up, where it offers a bunch of deals specifically for its subscribing members. On the games side of things, that includes a few freebies. And this year the lineup is pretty good, as Prime members can get a copy of Mass Effect Legendary Edition and some Star Wars games for the low, low price of free.

In an Amazon blog, the company reveals some of the games arriving as freebies for Prime Day. Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a big one, as that's all three Mass Effect games and their single-player DLC, packing the whole trilogy into one launcher. If that gets you eager for space action, there's also a few Star Wars games on offer too: Star Wars Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy, Jedi Outcast, and Republic Commando. Or, for gearheads, there's Need for Speed Heat and GRID Legends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8i53TtQ6IQ

Indies on deck

Amazon says that during Prime Day on July 12-13, members will be able to claim over 30 free games. And in the leadup, there are some other games to add into your backlog too, from June 21 up through July 13. They range from indie hits like Rain World to classics like Metal Slug 2 and The King of Fighters 2002.

Here's the list:

• 10 Second Ninja X
• 8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure
• Addling Adventures
• Bang Bang Racing
• Clouds & Sheep 2
• Death Squared
• Fatal Fury Special
• Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
• Gone Viral
• HUE
• Manual Samuel
• Metal Slug 2
• Metal Unit
• Pumped BMX Pro
• Puzzle of the Year — 10 Pack
• Rain World
• Road Trip — 3 Pack
• Samurai Shodown II
• Serial Cleaner
• The Crow’s Eye
• The Darkside Detective
• The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark
• The King of Fighters 2000
• The King of Fighters 2002
• The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor

You can find more on the Amazon Prime Gaming site.

The post Amazon Prime Day freebies includes Mass Effect Legendary Edition and more games appeared first on Destructoid.

Don’t forget, I’m now offering Unclassified ads at the bottom of this newsletter. Do you have a tool, newsletter, book, YT channel, product, service, etc. that you want to promote to other DIYers? Get your word out and support this publication at the same time. Click here for details.

A Portable Soldering Station

Becky Stern 3D printed some wings for her Aven soldering stand. These fold up onto the sides of the otherwise hollow stand and allow her to store a TS80P USB-powered soldering iron, a spool of solder, and solder wick. The whole thing sits comfortably on top of her Tripp Lite high-capacity USB-C battery pack, making this a very handy and portable soldering station.

Identifying Counterfeit Electronic Components

In this excellent GreatScott! video, Scott looks at ways to examine your discrete electronic components to determine if they’re cheap knock-offs or real as-marked. In the video, Scott examines and tests a collection of MOSFETs and OpAmps to determine their authenticity and performance. What he finds is that some counterfeits work within the specs of the original, some do not, and some are totally fake with nothing but an empty package.

Vacuum Forming Bubble Wrap

By way of Donald Bell’s Maker Update comes this unexpectedly cool use of bubble wrap — as material for vacuum forming. The resulting pattern/texture is very interesting and not exactly what you might expect.

Turn Your Phone Upside Down in Your Pocket
This might be one for the D’uh Dept files, but I thought it might be worth sharing. Recently, on a trip, my phone stopped charging. I noticed the power connector was not seating properly inside the jack on the phone. I figured it was dust inside and tried blowing it out, to no avail. After getting a paper clip from the front desk of the hotel, I was shocked to hog out a huge deposit of impacted pocket lint from the jack. Phone saved! For any of us carrying our phones in our pants pocket, this is bound to happen. Since then, I make sure my phone is upside down in my pocket.

Handy Chart for Volume Conversions
From the highly-recommend Reddit sub, CoolGuides.

Maker’s Muse
“Every tool that exists today, from hammers to particle accelerators, has been constructed with others tools, and those, with other tools, and so on, and eventually all tools where fabricated with rocks.” – From Wait But Why‘s Twitter feed.

Shop Talk

“Hi Gareth. I liked the video about knives. Seeing that it was part 2, I went and watched part 1 first––Best knife brand? Benchmade ($220), Buck ($60), Zero Tolerance ($196), Spyderco ($62), Cold Steel ($130), Kershaw ($81), SOG ($55), CRKT ($53), Ontario ($35). I’m glad I did. I have to say that the best cheap knife from that video is MUCH better than the one from the 2nd video.”

Makes an Excellent Gift!

Father’s Day is coming up next weekend. You know what would make the perfect last-minute gift for that DIY Dad? A bundle of both volumes of my tips books. You can get them on Amazon here: Volume 1, Volume 2.

[Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.]

Elon Musk was widely expected to provide a much-needed dose of clarity today in the ongoing saga around his attempts to take Twitter private. Well, the CEO of Tesla did finally meet those expectations at the just-concluded all-hands meeting of Twitter employees.

Musk started the meeting by saying:

"Some people use their hair to express themselves. I use Twitter."

Highlighting his vision for Twitter, Musk was all praise for China-based WeChat. While noting that he wants to increase Twitter's active user base to 1 billion, the CEO of Tesla wants the platform to become more friendly toward video-based content, thereby tapping another lucrative monetization avenue.

On the thorny issue of work-from-home directives, Musk conceded that "excellent" contributors could still be productive remotely. Musk also attached potential layoffs to performance reviews.

On the issue of freedom of expression and moderation, Musk said that people should be able to say "pretty outrageous things" but that the platform does not have to give such views a wider reach.

MUSK SAYS THAT TWITTER USERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO SAY 'PRETTY OUTRAGEOUS THINGS' WITHIN THE LAW

— FXHedge (@Fxhedgers) June 16, 2022

Finally, on the issue of Twitter's fake accounts, Musk reiterated that any algorithm that the platform uses to moderate fake accounts and bots should be made available to the public for scrutiny. Musk also floated the idea of using user verification to rank content.

In compliance with repeated demands from Musk for additional clarity on the proportion of fake accounts or bots that make up Twitter's Daily Active Users (DAUs) metric, the social media platform had agreed last week to provide the CEO of Tesla unfettered access to its "firehose" – a massive stream of internal data that comprises of over 500 million tweets that are posted each day.

This development came after Musk had termed Twitter's prevarications on the issue of fake accounts a "clear material breach" of the agreement between the two parties. As a refresher, Twitter's CEO Parag Agrawal had brushed off Musk's earlier demand for a third-party audit of the platform's DAUs. Twitter had taken a particularly dim view of the fact that Musk did not seek any "non-public info" or enter into a confidentiality agreement with the company before the takeover deal was finalized. Consequently, the social media platform had simply interpreted Musk's laser focus on the issue of fake accounts in an attempt to renegotiate a lower takeover price. Nonetheless, with the CEO of Tesla refusing to budge on this issue and with the Texas Attorney General (AG), Ken Paxton, launching a probe into whether Twitter's reporting on the quantum of fake accounts populating its platform was "false, misleading, or deceptive" under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the social media giant was left with no feasible option other than to blink first.

In a new investment note published today, Wedbush's Daniel Ives wrote that the initial deal was now "essentially [of] out the window," given the existing spread between the original takeover price of $54.20 per share and the current stock price of Twitter. This means that the drama surrounding Musk's takeover of Twitter is far from over.

The post Some People Use Their Hair To Express Themselves; I Use Twitter: Elon Musk Opens up in the All-hands Meeting of Twitter Employees by Rohail Saleem appeared first on Wccftech.

European telecom regulator BEREC has updated its net neutrality guidelines to include a strict ban on zero-rating practices that exempt specific apps or categories of apps from data caps imposed by Internet service providers. From a report: The document published Tuesday provides guidance to national regulatory authorities on their "obligations to closely monitor and ensure compliance with the rules to safeguard equal and non-discriminatory treatment of traffic in the provision of Internet access services and related end-users' rights." BEREC stands for Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications. "Despite intense lobbying from big carriers and giant platforms, BEREC voted to clearly ban zero-rating offers that benefit select apps or categories of apps by exempting them from people's monthly data caps," Stanford Law Professor Barbara van Schewick wrote. "The ban applies whether the app pays to be included or not, closing a loophole in the draft guidelines." While Europe strengthens its net neutrality regime, the US hasn't had any federal net neutrality rules since they were removed under former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. The FCC won't be re-imposing net neutrality rules any time soon because it still has a 2-2 partisan deadlock, and President Biden's nomination of Gigi Sohn has languished in the Senate.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In 1996, Brad Pitt earned his first Academy Award nomination for his showy turn as unhinged rich kid Jeffrey Goines in director Terry Gilliam's "12 Monkeys." Given the significance of the role in his career, you'd expect Pitt to have a special fondness for his performance in what is now considered a sci-fi classic. Turns out, he's not the biggest fan of his work in that movie.

Based on Chris Marker's brilliant short film "La Jetée," "12 Monkeys" is a downbeat brain-scrambler about a man from the post-apocalyptic future (Bruce Willis) attempting to locate the originator of the virus that will eventually wipe out the vast majority of the Earth's population. Upon arriving six years too early, the time traveller is swiftly committed to a mental institution where he makes the acquaintance of Goines, whom we soon learn is the son of a Nobel Prize-winning virologist (Christopher Plummer). Goines is a motor-mouthed, bounce-off-the-walls eccentric who's got just enough on the ball to be truly dangerous. When he seems to take Willis's tossed off observation about wiping out the human race to heart, we believe Goines is going to be the architect of humanity's collapse.

A Trap In The Writing

Pitt goes for the goofball gusto early in "12 Monkeys," particularly in his first scene where he shows Willis around the asylum (this capital-a acting display likely earned him the Oscar nomination). When Willis catches up with Goines six years after his release, he's still a cockeyed weirdo, only now he's playing the role of dutiful son. It is, however, an act, and, in an interview with The New York Times, Pitt confessed that he stumbled in trying to convey this deception:

"I nailed the first half of '12 Monkeys.' I got the second half all wrong. That performance bothered me because there was a trap in the writing. It's not the writing's fault, but it was something that I couldn't figure out. I knew in the second half of the film I was playing the gimmick of what was real in the first half — until the last scene — and it bugged the [expletive] out of me."

Where Is Goines Going?

Pitt doesn't elaborate, but it sounds like he would've toned down the manic energy, particularly those wild hand gesticulations, during his second-half interactions with his eco-terror cohorts. Goines does become a far less interesting figure down the stretch, but this is because -- spoiler alert! -- he has nothing to do with the spread of the virus. His big plan is comparatively innocuous and kind of wonderful: uncage every animal in the Philadelphia zoo and loose them on the general public.

If Pitt felt he needed to dial it back, Gilliam deserves some of the blame for not recognizing this and nudging his actor in that direction. But, really, the trap in the writing was that Goines just ceases to be interesting at a certain point. Short of a massive rewrite, there was nothing Pitt could do about this.

Read this next: 12 Awesome Sci-Fi Movies That Never Got Sequels

The post The Second Half Of 12 Monkeys Is A Sore Subject For Brad Pitt appeared first on /Film.

Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk reminded folks of his chosen nickname, "Techno King of Tesla," in what was probably the most normal moment of his All-Hands meeting with Twitter employees. The meeting has been described as "pure chaos," and apparently involved aliens, and Musk's ideas about politics — which may be the same thing. — Read the rest

Elon Musk's disdain for remote work doesn't fully extend to Twitter. As The New York Times and The Verge note, Musk told Twitter staff in an inaugural all-hands meeting that employees at the social network who produce "excellent" work at home should be permitted to keep their positions. While the aspiring new owner stressed that he would much rather have people working in the office, he thought it "wouldn't make sense" to fire someone who was a net positive for the company. He added he would verify with managers that those remote employees were making useful contributions.

Musk gave Tesla and SpaceX employees an ultimatum in late May, warning that they had to work at least 40 hours a week their main offices unless they had "particularly exceptional" reasons to stay remote. The executive felt it was particularly important for more senior-level members who needed an in-person "presence." This stands in sharp contrast to Twitter's existing stance allowing many employees to stay remote indefinitely, not to mention policies at Apple, Google and other tech heavyweights that allow staff to spend some or all of their workday at home.

The statements also come as Musk is facing a mounting backlash from his rank-and-file. The Verge says it has seen an open letter from SpaceX workers criticizing their CEO, accusing Musk of becoming a "frequent source of distraction and embarrassment" through his public actions. They also said the spaceflight firm wasn't living up to either its "No Asshole" mantra or a zero-tolerance policy on sexual misconduct. The letter writers wanted SpaceX to condemn Musk's behavior, hold all leaders accountable for their actions, and clarify its policies while enforcing them more consistently.

There was no mention of the exact issues that prompted the letter. Musk has drawn increasing criticism, however. A SpaceX flight attendant reportedly accused Musk of sexual misconduct, prompting a $250,000 settlement. That's on top of ongoing claims Musk's companies allow horrible behavior, including lawsuits from multiple women alleging Tesla fostered sexual harassment in the office. Musk has further been accused of posting transphobia on Twitter (such as blasting the pregnant man emoji) and supporting trucker protests in Canada that were laced with harassment and racist incidents. The entrepreneur isn't on great terms with many people at the moment, and his dislike of remote work underscores this.

Microsoft has updated the Xbox app for PC for the month of June, and it comes with a couple of UI updates. Most notably, the app can now tell you whether a given game will run well on your PC by checking its specs and comparing the performance of that game on similarly-specced PCs.

Developers often provide minimum requirements for a game, but not everyone will necessarily know how powerful their PC is, plus that information can be hard to find. The Xbox app will display a badge under the install button to let you know if the game can run well on your PC. With games getting in the dozens or hundreds of gigabytes in size, this could help you save some time with downloading a game that might not work well on your computer.

This feature has been in the works for a while, and the badge has actually been visible for months if you’re an Xbox Insider, though it didn’t always seem to be accurate. Presumably, those issues have been ironed for the public rollout. Still, Microsoft is rolling it out gradually, so you may not see it right away.

Aside from this update, Microsoft has made tweaks to the navigation in order to encourage discovery of new games. App navigation has mostly moved to the side menu, and the main area of the app window has new categories to find specific types of games. You’ll find collections like “Games to play together” and “Side scrollers”.

Microsoft has also improved the search engine in the Xbox app, not only with more accuracy, but also by adding support for EA Play and Ubisoft Connect titles to be discovered this way. These titles are included with PC Game Pass, though they’re not directly available from the Xbox app, but now they’re easier to find.

These updates should be available now, and you can check for app updates on the Microsoft Store if you’re not seeing them yet. Recently, Microsoft also added more advanced game install management features so you can choose where files are stored and organize your library more freely.

Xbox (Free, Microsoft Store) →

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Source: Microsoft

The post The Xbox app now tells you if games will run well on your PC appeared first on XDA.

Fallout’s isometric RPG days may seem long gone. As Bethesda expands its open-worlds further and further, the classic era of text scrolling, sprite animations and that breathtaking 2D art drifts into the distance like the exiled Vault Dweller, wandering out into the desert. But all is not lost – New Blood Interactive, developer of the terrific throwback FPS Dusk, has revealed a new, isometric cyperpunk game, made in collaboration with the creators of two beloved Fallout fan projects.

GPU prices are continuing to fall, and it's partly thanks to a cryptocurrency crash. It's now possible to pick up one of the best graphics cards on the secondary market for significantly below MSRP, and excess board partner stock could help keep availability high.

According to Tom's Hardware, GPU prices have dropped significantly within the last 15 days, something it attributes to an ongoing Bitcoin and Ethereum crash. At the moment, you can grab a brand new Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti for $1,800 USD, and people are selling the RTX 3080 second-hand for less than $650 USD on the likes of eBay.

The Bitcoin crash is a bad omen for Blockchain enthusiasts, but it's great news for anyone wanting to upgrade their gaming PC. The crypto collapse means there's a good chance GPU prices will continue to fall, which should increase the number of graphics cards available for less than MSRP. We'll likely also see more cuts before the launch of Nvidia RTX 4000 and AMD RDNA 3 GPUs, as retailers will be eager to shift current-gen stock.

RELATED LINKS: RTX 4000 - everything we know, GeForce Now RTX 3080 review, Best graphics card

The future is lookin' bright for narrative games

So, that's another year of summer game announcements on the book. There are a few more streams on the horizon, but for now, we've gotten a taste of just about all of the upcoming games we can handle. Developers threw what felt like an endless stream of new titles at us, and while a lot of the space horror games kind of blurred together after a while, there were plenty of titles that stuck out to me as games I'd be looking forward to the most. Naturally, most of them are narrative games, and so for my sake and yours, I decided to compile a list of what I think are the best-looking narrative games that were highlighted these past few days/weeks.

Keep in mind that some of these don't advertise the story being the central mechanic or the main focus of the game, but the narrative looked intriguing enough that it's one of the features that drew me to it the most. Whatever, it's my list and I'll do what I want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmx0w-eAoTk

The Invincible — Annihilation meets Firewatch

This one kind of came out of nowhere, and it was one of the most pleasant surprises of the weekend for me. Based on the influential 1964 hard sci-fi novel of the same name, The Invincible follows a scientist named Yasna as she attempts to piece together what happened to a lost crew on a hostile alien planet. The premise alone doesn't sound like anything to write home about, but the trailer sent a chill down my spine.

I consider myself a pretty voracious reader, so hearing that we're getting a game based on a novel definitely makes my ears perk up. The trailer had a slow-paced sense of dread that really works, and while I haven't read The Invincible, I imagine it captures the feeling of the novel quite well. I just finished reading the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, Annihilation, and I think the trailer we saw captured a similar sense of awe mixed with horror.

Like I said, I had never heard of The Invincible before I saw the gameplay trailer during the PC Gaming Showcase, but now it might just be the one game I'm looking forward to the most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpT-74avAR0

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals — a return to an old favorite

This is one of the games I was fortunate enough to play a preview of for the Tribeca Games Fest this weekend, and I am pleased to report that it's everything I want from an Oxenfree sequel, considering the first one is one of my favorite narrative games of all time. It's got the same spooky flair and atmosphere you'd expect from the series, but one of the things I'm most excited about is seeing the series move away from a cast of teenagers to a protagonist in her 30s.

The new player character Riley is returning home and dealing with her past after being away for a long while, which I think is a cool direction to move in after the first game was about high schoolers trying to figure out their places in the world. I've done a lot of growing up myself since I played the first Oxenfree, so having each game relate to me at different parts in my life is a pretty cool thing. I'm looking forward to the creepy, sentimental rollercoaster ride that Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is likely to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgA7zRbhKY

American Arcadia — The Truman Show with a twist

I'm not gonna lie — I love The Truman Show. When I saw that there was a game on the horizon inspired by the film, I knew it was going to be right up my alley, and it turns out, it very much is. American Arcadia is another game I got to preview for Tribeca, and it exceeded the expectations I had going in. Not only does it look absolutely stunning with its colorful-retro-future-70s aesthetic, but it has a ton to offer by way of gameplay.

It's part 2.5D sidescrolling platformer, part puzzle game, part first-person stealth game — and while I was worried that it had too much going on, it all fit together surprisingly well to create an experience I've never quite seen before. Sure, any individual element of American Arcadia isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, but it's the final product that I think is going to blow me away. As far as narrative games goes, it ticks all the boxes for me so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEStlPKIGL8

Immortality — FMV is yet again revolutionizing narrative games

Sam Barlow has been one of games' most creative minds for years, and now he's back with his most ambitious project yet. Immortality is a full-motion video game (a rare breed at this point) that centers on the disappearance of a woman named Marissa Marcel. Players are tasked with going through old reels of three different unreleased films she starred in to piece the mystery together, and it's one of the most stylish-looking games we got to see this weekend.

I'm always looking for games that are doing things we haven't seen before, and Immortality looks like it's going to give us a newer, even more complex take on the ideas that Barlow masterfully executed in his earlier titles. The writing team includes talent that worked on shows like The Queen's Gambit and Mr. Robot, so I have nothing but high hopes for this narrative-centric FMV mystery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXq20gant-4

Pentiment — Ye old video game

Wacky art styles are a surefire way to get me interested in a game, and in that regard, Pentiment had my attention right out the gate. It's a medieval-themed narrative game that looks balls-to-the-walls crazy, and we certainly haven't seen anything like it from Obsidian, the studio behind The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity. They had a smaller internal team break out to work on Pentiment — something I would love to see from more big-budget studios who have the capacity to make some awesome smaller-scale projects.

It's got a painterly, storybook art style that's evocative of the period it's set in, and features classically medieval things like writing beautifully decorated manuscripts, discussing the latest news from Italy, and of course, violent mobs burning buildings down. It looks like an exciting adventure full of twists and turns, and as something of a casual history buff, this one is already sitting pretty on my Steam wishlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_ek16Bm-o

The Alters — Clones? Clones.

The newest title from 11 Bit Studios, The Alters follows Jan, who creates alternate versions of himself to survive on an isolated planet. In terms of gameplay, each one of the clones is supposed to have different powers that the player can use to their advantage, but each will also have a different personality that's based on different moments and paths in Jan's life.

The announcement trailer didn't give us much information about what it will feel like to play just yet, but on premise and 11 Bit's reputation alone, I can tell that this is going to be one hell of a ride. The studio always does an awesome job of incorporating a well-told story into games that also have really solid gameplay, so I'll be looking forward to hearing more about The Alters as the studio continues its development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCk1__TYksU

High on Life — The Rick and Morty guys finally got me onboard

Okay, I'm gonna be honest here, I've never seen Rick and Morty. Maybe I just never got around to it, maybe it was the fandom that turned me off, but it was never something I felt drawn to. That's why I was so surprised when I saw the trailer for High on Life, and actually thought it seemed like a hilarious, goofy time.

The idea is that you're a bounty hunter who needs to take out aliens who are using humans as some kind of drug. It's got a colorful, eccentric art style, the quippy, zany tone you'd expect from Squanch Games, and of course, the real highlight of the trailer, talking guns. Games like High on Life aren't usually my kind of thing, but it looks so out there and different that I know I'm gonna be itching to try it. Plus, I'm just a sucker for an FPS, and this one looks like it'll have some really unique shooting mechanics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4l6uWxe-vk

Stray — a cat-centric narrative game

This one is such a no-brainer it's ridiculous. You get to play as a cat with a backpack in a world of robots that have little smiley face screens for faces. Okay, so I might be making Stray out to sound a little more light-hearted than it looks, but you know that as a cat mom, I am nothing but pumped about this one.

I think it's a really creative idea to give us a story from a cat's perspective, especially in what appears to be a big city, because they can go all kinds of places that people, and robots I guess, normally couldn't. Not sure exactly how narrative-heavy Stray will be, or if it will be more of a vibes situation, but either way, I can't wait to step into the world of that little orange tabby cat. This one's coming out real soon (July 19, to be exact) so it'll be here before we know it.

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Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post My most anticipated narrative games shown at not-E3 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a 3D platform game that came to Playstation 2 in December 2001. Developed by Naughty Dog, this is the first part of the Jak and Daxter series. And although Sony does not plan to bring this classic game to our platform, a team of indie devs has basically … Continue reading Playstation classic Jak and Daxter gets an unofficial native PC port →

The post Playstation classic Jak and Daxter gets an unofficial native PC port appeared first on DSOGaming.

Many commercials continue to play on ad-supported streaming services after viewers turn off their television, new research shows, a problem that is causing an estimated waste of more than $1 billion a year for brands. From a report: The findings come as an ever-growing share of ad dollars is shifting from traditional TV to streaming platforms, a trend that is likely to accelerate now that industry giants Netflix and Walt Disney's Disney+ have embraced the idea of offering an ad-supported version of their services. Some 17% of ads shown on televisions connected through a streaming device -- including streaming boxes, dongles, sticks and gaming consoles -- are playing while the TV is off, according to a study by WPP's ad-buying giant GroupM and ad-measurement firm iSpot.tv. That is because when a TV set is turned off, it doesn't always send a signal to the streaming device connected to the TV through its HDMI port, GroupM said. As a result, the streaming device will continue playing the show and its ads unless users had exited or paused the streaming app they were watching before turning off their TV. Due to the nature of the problem, using a smart TV -- on which streaming apps are loaded -- makes it far less likely that ads would be shown while the TV is off, since in this instance the television and streaming device are just a single piece of hardware. GroupM said it found "virtually no incidence" of the issue on smart TV apps. The study, which included smart TVs and some hooked up with a streaming device, found that on average, between 8% and 10% of all streaming ads were shown while the TV was off.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The World Health Organization's top official in Europe on Wednesday called for urgent action by the authorities and civic groups to control fast-rising cases of monkeypox that he said posed a real risk to public health. From a report: Europe has emerged as the epicenter of an outbreak of monkeypox, with more than 1,500 cases identified in 25 European countries, which account for 85 percent of global cases, the official, Dr. Hans Kluge, the W.H.O.'s director of its European region, said at a news conference. The W.H.O. will convene its emergency committee in Geneva next week, Dr. Kluge added, to determine if the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, a formal declaration that calls for a coordinated response between countries. "The magnitude of this outbreak poses a real risk," Dr. Kluge said. "The longer the virus circulates, the more it will extend its reach, and the stronger the disease's foothold will get in nonendemic countries." Monkeypox is a viral infection endemic in West Africa, but it has now spread to 39 countries, including 32 that have no previous experience of it, the W.H.O. director, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters on Tuesday. Countries outside Africa and Europe that have identified cases of monkeypox include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel and the United States.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Back in the day—which for our purposes, we’ll define as the 1980s and early ‘90s—parents operated differently. The opposite of “helicopter parents,” they were peak free range, letting their kids ride bikes for hours around the neighborhood, flit from house to house and yard to yard, drink from garden hoses, and only…

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The first CPU and GPU benchmarks of Apple’s M2 are here, and though there is an incremental performance gain compared to the M1 in both single-core and multi-core workloads, a massive leap can be seen in the graphics category. Let us check out these numbers in more depth.

M2 Manages to Rack up to a 19 Percent Improvement Over the M1 in CPU Workloads

Heading over to Geekbench, Apple’s M2 managed to obtain a single-core score of 1919 and multi-core score of 8928. The device that was tested, featured 16GB of unified LPDDR5 RAM, with the CPU supposedly operating at a base frequency of 3.49GHz. In the single-core test, the M2 scores 12 percent faster than the M1, with the multi-core results showing a 19 percent improvement. To provide a better comparison, we have listed the scores obtained by both chipsets below.

• M2 - single-core 1919, multi-core 8929
• M1 - single-core 1720, multi-core 7474

Keep in mind that both the M1 and M2 feature the exact CPU configuration, where four cores are dedicated to performance while the remaining four are focused on power efficiency. Irrespective of the number of cores, and their exact nature, Apple mentioned during its WWDC 2022 keynote that the M2’s improved architecture meant users would see improved performance, and that is what we are witnessing in the images below.

However, the most significant improvement lies in the graphics, and since the M2 can be equipped with up to 10 GPU cores, Apple’s latest custom silicon registered a Metal score of 30627, making it 50 percent faster than the numbers obtained by the M1, which were 20440. The performance gains could be the result of Apple using faster unified RAM, as the company claimed that the memory controller can operate at a bandwidth of 100GB/s, making it 50 percent faster than the M1.

Also, an improved architecture led to these improvements, despite the fact that the latest SoC is mass produced on TSMC’s second-generation 5nm process, whereas the M1 was fabricated on the first-generation 5nm node. It appears that Apple’s charts were right all along, as the technology giant advertised that the M2’s CPU performance increased by 18 percent compared to the M1, though on this occasion, the multi-core saw a 19 percent improvement.

Keep in mind that Geekbench performs synthetic workloads that may not represent the entire picture. There are multiple scenarios where the M2 could significantly outperform the M1 or disappoint potential buyers looking to purchase the new MacBook lineup powered by the latest custom silicon. We will provide routine updates on these benchmarks, so stay tuned.

The post Apple’s M2 Delivers Respectable CPU Gains Over M1, but GPU Performance Gets a Spectacular 50 Percent Bump by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

(CONTENT WARNING: This game features bloody violence, a scene of very mild nudity, and implied parental abuse)

Interactive movies; a type of game where you watch a series of events play out and then make a choice that changes the course of the story; have made a big comeback over the last few years after their initial boom in the mid-90s. From the popular narrative adventure games such as Life is Strange and The Dark Pictures Anthology, to Netflix’s cavalcade of interactive tie-ins for the likes of Black Mirror and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, there’s a strong interest in games with simple mechanical inputs but the potential for many different stories and outcomes.

While there are many big names involved in this genre at the moment, it’s always worth celebrating the independent studios who manage to produce small, compelling adventures. Among these is She Sees Red, the debut title of Russian developer Rhinotales and a very solid crime thriller vignette.

A detective and her partner are called into a nightclub to investigate the murder of a security guard. Following the trail left behind by the killer, a strange hooded man, she slowly puts the pieces together and how they connect the man to the nightclub’s cynical owner. This plays out through live-action cutscenes, where you make choices as the hooded man every now and again, and then observe the consequences as the detective.

You’re only presented two choices to make whenever it comes up, but there’s a sense of tension provided as you have to decide within a short time limit. While the game will pick for you, it does put you on the spot and make you consider what options to take when the man finds himself cornered. What’s particularly clever is that there isn’t a distinction made between big decisions and small decisions, so both have the potential to snowball in dramatically different set pieces or events depending on what you do.

This adds a sense of spontaneity to the proceedings, and adds more reasons to replay the game. It’s established from the start that a single playthrough won’t be enough to give you the full context of what’s happening, so you’re encouraged to give the game a few tries so you can really understand the bigger picture. There’s four endings available with slight variations based on the choices you make, and even a counter in the pause menu showing how many unique scenes you’ve watched altogether.

However, finding all the endings or scenes isn’t as arduous as you might think since it’ll only take 20-30 minutes to reach the end, meaning you can experience the vast majority of the game within a couple of hours. You’ll also be able to skip scenes you’ve already seen from the pause menu, though the game weirdly forces you to watch certain scenes anyway. Sometimes these are part of the sequences where you have to make choices, so those can’t be skipped, but others just can’t be skipped for no particular reason.

Impressively, there isn’t a bias towards a particular ending, where it’s fleshed out more than the others, that would paint it as the “true” ending. All four endings are given equal consideration and time, so you can consider any of them to be the most fitting conclusion to the story.

On that subject, the story presented in She Sees Red is a fairly straightforward gritty crime thriller, but one that’s presented quite well. There’s a good balance between action, mystery, tension, and even a small bit of off-beat humor that keeps things compelling. Scenes flow intuitively between the hooded man’s actions and the detective’s investigation, using clever camera angles and editing to create a nice sense of interplay. There’s a strong use of moody, colored lighting that blurs the lines between presenting events within the literal context of a nightclub, and presenting them emotionally by informing the tone and tension of any given scene in a more theatrical fashion.

The performances by the actors are caricatured to some extent, leaning into caricatures such as the gruff nightclub owner or the calmly detached detective, but that shorthand allows the actors to express their characters charismatically and believably. This mainly applies to the original Russian dub, though you’re given the option to play with an English dub and various subtitle languages. The English dub is well-delivered and fits most of the characters decently, but ultimately comes across as more generic by comparison.

The handful of action scenes on display are quite messy brawls carried through by a variety of well-paced scenarios, backed by solid camerawork that balances chaotic scrambles with clarity, effective sound design in both the specific sounds and the backing score, and fitting special effects for the more gruesome moments. This definitely isn’t a game for the queasy.

She Sees Red isn’t particularly complex by the standards of interactive movies; it’s as basic as you can get, and perhaps that makes it less mechanically unique when you can receive a similar experience by just going onto Netflix. Maybe it’s too short with not enough options to flesh out its runtime, and perhaps the subject matter’s a bit too shlocky if you’re not keen on crime thrillers. But for a debut effort and a straightforward example of what this genre can do, She Sees Red offers plenty of thrills while it lasts. Hopefully, this will be the start of something greater for Rhinotales.

Links:

An interview with Dmitriy Savchenko, Creative Director of Rhinotales: https://www.ps4blog.net/2020/05/ps4blog-net-interview-rhinotales-on-she-sees-red/

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She Sees Red was first posted on June 15, 2022 at 9:49 am.
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Don't count Bill Gates among the fans of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. From a report: Those digital asset trends are "100% based on greater fool theory," the Microsoft co-founder said Tuesday at a TechCrunch conference, referencing the notion that investors can make money on worthless or overvalued assets as long as people are willing to bid them higher. Gates added that he's "not long or short" crypto. And he mocked Bored Apes NFTs, joking that "expensive digital images of monkeys" will "improve the world immensely." Instead, Gates said he prefers old fashioned investing. "I'm used to asset classes, like a farm where they have output, or like a company where they make products," he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Prior to directing his debut feature — 2003's "House of 1,000 Corpses" — Rob Zombie cut his teeth on multiple music videos, some for his own band White Zombie, one for the '90s metal band Prong, and one for Powerman 5000, fronted by his brother. No one formally told Zombie how a music video ought to look, how to operate an editing bay, or how to light a shot. He had to learn by doing. It also likely helped that Zombie was obsessed with television from an early age, and would — by his own admission, in an interview with Conan O'Brien — take in nine hours of TV a day. Not even interesting shows, necessarily, but early morning farm reports were part of his media diet. Through those hours, Zombie seems to have internalized the way television ought to look. This was also about the time a babysitter of his would drop him off at horror movies unattended so she could, in his words, get high with her boyfriend. He liked the monster movies best (a monster carrying away a girl? Sold!), and he became obsessed with the genre. Add to that a youth among a traveling carnival ("gnarly, nasty, midway style"), and one can see Zombie's obsessions as a rocker and as a filmmaker start to emerge. 

As an artist, Zombie evolved organically. He listened to his favorite music (Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Metallica, etc.) and made music of his own. He watched his favorite movies ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," "Munster, Go Home!," "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre") and made movies of his own. He emerged -- as we all do -- a unique blend of his immediate influences, becoming a force unto himself. 

Mistrust Of Teachers

In a 2014 interview with The Flashback Files, Zombie talked about his distinct lack of education, and how he kind of felt around himself to discover filmmaking from within. As one may predict, a strong-willed iconoclast like Zombie never took well to authority. He admits to ignoring his teachers, preferring to work at his own pace (something that doesn't seem to have been encouraged by his school). Says Zombie:

"I'm self-taught in everything. I don't like being taught. When someone starts explaining things, I stop listening. I've always been like that, even as a little kid. I was terrible in school, because I wouldn't listen. I would rather just figure it out myself. Even now, with everything from Avid editing to Photoshop, no one ever taught me. I just sit there and figure it out. Same thing with films and music."

Zombie's bitterness toward teachers came to a head when he enrolled in college. He attended The Pratt Institute, a private university in Brooklyn New York, and became suspicious of the way art professors would teach technique. He found the teaching of art to be anathema to creativity, and formalism to be bunk. Eventually, Zombie concluded that the art teachers themselves had, generally speaking, a bone to pick: 

"I think it's kind of good that way. I went to college for painting. I used to love to paint. But when I was in college, the way the instructors would deal with you, really made me hate painting. I realized so many of the instructors are failed painters. They don't even like their students. They see them as competition. That really turned me off of painting. I never wanted that to happen with other things I love to do."

I Don't Like Rules

From his unintentional lessons at the Pratt Institute, Zombie entered the world of music with a "no rules" ethos. Making art, he seemed to feel, should not be that complicated. Study, he had already discovered, was something that could come naturally in his free time, and technique needn't be slavishly analyzed. His succinct, rock 'n' roll statement to that effect boiled down to merely 

"And also: I don't like rules. In school people are always telling you what the rules are. These are the rules of filmmaking. These are the rules of this and that."

So when it came to making music videos, Zombie made them under his own operational ethos. He learned his way around cameras and editing equipment because he knew what he wanted, not necessarily because a music video ought to look a certain way. It was the music videos that gave him the hands-on experience and technical know-how to make a feature film. Inspired largely by "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," "House of 1,000 Corpses" is about a family of mad misanthropic murderers who eschew civilization, kidnap tourists, and feed them to the bloody subterranean cyborg named Dr. Satan. It's crazed, nonsensical, and certainly unique. 

"House of 1,000 Corpses" was not well-received critically, and Zombie wouldn't be celebrated as an evolved filmmaker until the 2005 release of "The Devil's Rejects," an earthier, more human sequel to "Corpses." (To negative criticism, Zombie says "I really don't care" citing that most of his work gets bad reviews initially, only to be reappraised later). Zombie chalks up the relative quality of "Rejects" to the educational experience he had on "Corpses."

Be Prepared

"By the time I made my first movie I had already made about thirty music videos. I learned a lot. It's different, but it's the same. You know what the art department does, how wardrobe works, what a camera crew consists of. The basics I knew. So, when I started my first movie, what I learned was stuff like scheduling. The reality of making a movie, which you are not going to learn in school. You can only learn that by making a movie. So by the time of 'The Devil's Rejects' I felt like I had gone through a crash course of filmmaking."

But Zombie learned a notable lesson that one cannot learn from film school: Be a capable authority figure. A director has to make hundreds of decisions a day, and has to assure everyone knows about their decisions. Zombie knew, making "Corpses" that he had to answer many, many questions from cast and crew, and that he would have to be able to confidently implement ideas at a moment's notice. In Zombie's words, that means the Boy Scout motto:

"That was the main thing I learned on my first movie was that you really have to be prepared. Once you're on the set, there is no time. You already have to know the answer to every single question. That's what I did on 'The Devil's Rejects.' I prepared every tiny little thing."

Since then, Zombie has directed five additional features, including two installments in the "Halloween" series, a second sequel to "Corpses," and the feminist rock fable "The Lords of Salem." He has certainly established his skill and his voice. Zombie's new film "The Munsters," based on the hit sitcom, will be released later this year.

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

The post House of 1,000 Corpses Was Like Rob Zombie's Own Film School appeared first on /Film.

Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet" is an energetic retelling of Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers. The film is brimming with passion and violence, but did you know that the film was just as chaotic behind the scenes as it was in front of the camera?

The 1996 film is set in the fictional Western city of Verona Beach, which resembles the debaucherous and colorful climate of Las Vegas. The Capulets and Montagues are rival crime families and their duels are dealt with handguns. When Mercutio (Harold Perrineau), a lovable drag queen, takes his friend Romeo Montague (Leonardo Dicaprio) to a costume party thrown by the Capulets, Romeo falls in love with his enemy's daughter, Juliet (Claire Danes). The resulting conflict leads to the death of Mercutio at the hands of Juliet's cousin, Tybalt (John Leguizamo).

The dramatic moments of the script are punctuated with creative liberties taken by Luhrmann. For instance, Romeo's magical experience at the party is enhanced with fireworks and psychedelics. Another example is Mercutio's tragic death and his curse on the Capulet and Montague houses, a climactic scene that is marked by a huge storm. Shockingly, the storm that so perfectly matched the tone of the scene was not a part of the plan.

A Plague On The Production

A hurricane actually struck the set of "Romeo + Juliet," destroying much of the production and taking the crew by surprise. In this unfortunate event, Luhrmann saw an opportunity to get wide shots of the storm's destruction. "For a budget like [Romeo + Juliet], you can't achieve that short of massive CGI," the director explained in Baz Luhrmann: Interviews.

The destructive storm was far from the most eventful thing to happen on set. Nearly everyone on set fell violently ill at one point or another. Luhrmann himself contracted a fever of over 110 degrees that caused production to shut down for a full week. But the illness was still only the tip of the iceberg.

According to Luhrmann, one member of the crew presented an unexpected production cost. "The hair and makeup person, Aldo Signoretti, who worked with Fellini, was kidnapped," the director revealed. The crew paid three hundred US dollars for his safe return, which Luhrmann "thought rather a bargain." His return was more or less in one piece but, as if the artist had not been through enough, the kidnappers "threw Aldo out of the car and broke his leg."

Everyone And Everything Adapted Perfectly

"Romeo + Juliet" is a cinematic adaptation that captures the youthful and hedonistic essence of a centuries-old text in a way that no other adaptation has. The film feels like a fever dream because the entire cast and crew was feverish during production. The film is deeply suspenseful because there was real crime happening behind the scenes. The storm perfectly encapsulates the turbulent nature of the film and it caught the production completely by surprise.

Luhrmann attributes much of the film's success to the team's ability to adapt to the increasingly perilous conditions of the shoot. "The reason the film is like it is, is that we embraced everything that happened," Luhrmann explained. The "Elvis" director transformed each challenge into an opportunity on the set of "Romeo + Juliet." The 1996 film is not just an updated take on a classic. It incorporates the maximalism, consumerism, and sickly haze of the modern West to accentuate elements of a timeless tale that has never been so poignantly explored.

Read this next: The Best Movies Streaming Right Now: Malignant, A Hero, And More

The post Sickness, Storms, And A Kidnapping All Hit The Romeo + Juliet Set appeared first on /Film.

Despite premiering to thunderous applause and cheers from an enthusiastic audience, there was an air of melancholy and frustration during the world premiere of the first episode of Genndy Tartakovsky's new show, "Unicorn: Warriors Eternal." It wasn't caused by the show itself, but by its long and shockingly arduous road to the screen. 

Despite creating some of the most influential and popular cartoons of the '90s and '00s, helping launch Cartoon Network into the juggernaut it is today, giving us the best action "Star Wars" has ever seen, and making a highly successful trilogy of films, it took almost 20 years for "Unicorn" to get made. According to Tartakovsky, no studio wanted to work with him after he left Cartoon Network, and when he finally got someone to back up "Unicorn" for production, it fell apart, first at Cartoon Network and then at Netflix, before HBO Max finally picked it up.

And yet, there was not an ounce of frustration to be felt on the show itself, but a deep passion for fantasy and animation. /Film saw the world premiere of the first episode of "Unicorn: Warriors Eternal" at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and it was everything we hoped it would be.

An Epic Fantasy Tale

The episode starts on a far away planet, where an elf is battling a strange glowing creature that morphs its shape and is seemingly indestructible, next to him is a Betty Boop-inspired girl with superpowers that shoots beams out of her hands. The fight itself is gorgeously animated by studio La Cachette, who also did the incredible "Primal," with stunning camera work and sense of framing that blends live-action filmmaking techniques with animation in a seamless and engrossing way. 

When things start going south for our heroes, Merlin himself teleports to this strange planet, accompanied by a steampunk gentleman robot aptly named Copernicus. Merlin tells them that their fight doesn't end here, and we start jumping forward in time on a montage that shows the titular Warriors Eternal being reincarnated across the ages, with the robot Copernicus finding worthy candidates and "reawakening" the warriors inside them. Basically, this robot goes around possessing innocent bystanders with the souls of ancient warriors, with zero regard for the lives they are living or who will be left to pick up the pieces of what they leave behind.

The bulk of the story seems to be taking place in 1890s London, when a young girl named Melinda gets reawakened by Copernicus on the day of her wedding. Because of her younger age, Melinda's memories of her past life and her new one get all mixed up, causing an identity crisis for her, and also a lot of anger and confusion from her family, wedding guests, and groom. Now they have to gather the other warriors before the intergalactic evil surfaces again.

A Steampunk Adventure

The first thing to know about the show is that it looks stunning. Tartakovsky and his team have crafted a vibrant steampunk world full of flying blimps, massive steamships, and of course, tons of robots. More grounded than "Primal," while still maintaining a foot firmly set on the fantasy and sci-fi genre, "Unicorn: Warriors Eternal" is already a winner when it comes to world-building and production design.

Likewise, the show feels inspired by European animation, particularly things like "The Adventures of Asterix" and their cartoonish designs and wacky adventures within a rather serious time period. There's also a lot of Osamu Tezuka's "Astroboy," and the Fleischer brothers in how much emphasis there is on body movements and facial expressions, a rarity in 2D TV animation. During a panel following the premiere, Tartakovsky also spoke of being inspired by "Snow White," particularly the funeral scene, which is a rather emotional scene that also stars a bunch of goofy dwarves. Much like how "Primal" takes inspiration from the golden age of animation to create a silent yet energetic action show, "Unicorn: Warriors Eternal" pulls from a variety of influences to create something that feels old-school, but done contemporarily. And in terms of tone, fans of "Sym-Bionic Titan" should keep an eye out for this show, which shares a lot of the same DNA as "Titan," not just because character designer Stephen Destefano worked on both shows, but because "Unicorn" uses magic and sci-fi to make exciting stories while still offering a coming-of-age story about teenagers finding themselves.

Even 25 years after his first show, "Dexter's Laboratory," Genndy Tartakovsky continues to reinvent himself and find new ways to bring old-school animation techniques and styles into modern times. "Unicorn: Warriors Eternal" goes further, pulling from European and Japanese animation to create a magical adventure with a dark undertone that can be appreciated by all kinds of audiences.

"Unicorn: Warriors Eternal" doesn't have a release date yet, but its first season will consist of 10 episodes, and will premiere on HBO Max and Cartoon Network at a later date.

Read this next: 14 Sequels That Truly Didn't Need To Happen

The post Unicorn: Warriors Eternal Review: Genndy Tartakovsky Is Back With Another Thrilling and Genre-Bending Series [Annecy] appeared first on /Film.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday, its biggest move since 1994, as the central bank ramps up its efforts to tackle the fastest inflation in four decades. From a report: The big rate increase, which markets had expected, underlined that Fed officials are serious about crushing price increases even if it comes at a cost to the economy. Officials predicted that the unemployment rate will increase to 3.7 percent this year and to 4.1 percent by 2024, and that growth will slow notably as policymakers push borrowing costs sharply higher and choke off economic demand. The Fed's policy rate is now set in a range between 1.50 to 1.75. Policymakers penciled in interest rates hitting 3.4 percent by the end of 2022 -- a level that would be the highest since 2008 -- and officials saw their policy rate peaking at 3.8 percent at the end of 2023. Those figures are significantly higher than previous estimates, which showed rates topping out at 2.8 percent next year. Fed officials newly expected to be cutting rates in 2024, which could be a sign that they think the economy will weaken so much that they will need to reorient their policy approach. The major takeaway from the Fed's economic forecasts, which it released for the first time since March, was that officials have become more pessimistic about their chances of letting the economy down gently.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.