The Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti is now official, and it's all about increasing the performance without costing you an arm and leg to run it - an absolute blessing in the current climate. Debuting at CES 2023, it's currently the cheapest graphics card in the RTX 4000 range but prices could vary since it's a partner-only GPU with no Founders Edition to prop it up.
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The Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti is all about efficiency
First Evil Dead Rise Footage Teases The Return Of The Legendary Horror Series
Happy New Year, everyone! How does our first official teaser for the highly-anticipated "Evil Dead Rise" sound to kick off 2023? We certainly hope you're ready because Warner Bros. has announced that the first full-length trailer for the film will be released tomorrow via its first-look footage. In this new teaser, we see a young girl (Nell Fisher) looking through an apartment door peephole, saying that her mother Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) doesn't look good. Truth be told, she doesn't –- as we saw previously in a still released on Halloween, she looks to be fully and bloodily possessed by the spirits of the Necronomicon.
If this 20-second teaser was enough to get us spooked, then we can't wait to see what kind of twisted stuff the full trailer will have. We especially can't wait to see this trailer play on a big screen –- "Evil Dead Rise" was intended to be an HBO Max original film, but was notably removed from the streamer's schedule in August 2022 to make way for a theatrical release. While Warner Bros. Discovery has made several colossal mistakes over the past few months, this was a pretty great move on their part.
Take A Peek At The New Evil Dead Rise Footage
"Evil Dead Rise" will be the fifth installment to the "Evil Dead" film franchise, although its connections to both Sam Raimi's original trilogy and Fede Alvarez's 2013 take are being kept under wraps. Lily Sullivan will play Beth, the sister of the aforementioned Ellie, while Gabrielle Echols and Morgan Davies will play the possessed mother's children alongside Fisher. Other cast members include Mia Challis, Jayden Daniels, Tai Wano, and Billy Reynolds-McCarthy. Don't expect a cameo from franchise frontman Bruce Campbell, however, as he officially retired from the role of Ash Williams in 2021.
Lee Cronin, who previously worked with Raimi on "50 States of Fright," wrote and directed this new installment. In an interview with Empire Magazine, he described the final R-rated product pretty aptly:
"It straps you onto a rocket that's fueled by blood. You can either get off or you stay on 'til it explodes."
And honestly, who are we to argue with that? "Evil Dead Rise" crawls into theaters on April 21, 2023. Check out its official synopsis below:
"In the fifth 'Evil Dead' film, a road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A. apartment. The sisters' reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie's building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable."
Read this next: Horror Movies You Don't Want To Miss In 2023
The post First Evil Dead Rise Footage Teases the Return of the Legendary Horror Series appeared first on /Film.
Star Trek: Prodigy Creators On Making Trek Accessible For A New Generation [Exclusive Interview]
"Star Trek: Prodigy," which just wrapped its first season on Paramount+, takes place in a distant corner of the "Stat Trek" universe that hasn't yet been explored by the Federation. A group of teenagers, fleeing the man who has enslaved them in a mine, discover a derelict Starfleet vessel called the U.S.S. Protostar. On board, they are instructed by a hologram of Capt. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) on how to operate the ship, but also how to work together as a Starfleet crew might. The teens have to work through their anxieties and inexperience, but find that they do work well as a team. Their goal is to return to Federation space, while solving the mystery of their abandoned vessel.
"Prodigy" is set about five years after the events of "Star Trek: Voyager," and it is the third animated series in the vast "Trek" franchise. It's also the first show that has been explicitly stated as being for a younger audience, and it is being released under the banner of Paramount's Nickelodeon brand.
The show was created by Kevin and Dan Hageman, who previously worked as screenwriters and executive producers on the "Ninjago" TV series, and have written various feature films like "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," "The Croods: A New Age," and "Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans."
The Hagemans recently sat down with /Film to talk about the fineries of "Prodigy," what they did to make it more kid-friendly, and some of the "Star Trek" characters they were considering before they settled on Hologram Janeway.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'Do I Want To Jump Into A 'Star Trek' Convention And Feel Lost?'
"Prodigy" is being sold as a kid-friendly version of "Star Trek." But much of "Star Trek" is already appropriate for kids, and I know many who watched it growing up. What was your personal mandate for "Prodigy" to make it more kid-friendly?
Kevin Hageman: There's "The Naked Now." There was a lot of sexualized nature in the history of "Star Trek," I think starting from the Roddenberry days. It's not so much of kid-friendly as in terms of safe, but it's more about ... Trek is massive. The canon is so thick. And it's intimidating, not just for a younger person, but for someone who is interested in "Star Trek" and feel like, "Do I want to jump into a 'Star Trek' convention and feel lost?" This is a show that simplifies things, but it doesn't dumb things down. It's a show that allows viewers to dip their toe to "Star Trek."
Dan Hageman: No, we hold their hand. We're holding their hand, and we're bringing them in gently.
Kevin Hageman: Whether they want to go to "TOS," which we love, or if they want to go to "Voyager," because they love Janeway.
"Prodigy" is unique in that it takes place largely outside the purview of Starfleet. How would you define the "Star Trek" universe as it exists outside of the Starfleet ideals? Because it's actually pretty ill-defined throughout "Trek" up until this point.
Kevin Hageman: Yeah. Again, we wanted to start outside Federation space. And to us, felt like this is a lawless ... this is Charles Dickens in space. I think we had that on our pilot script page. These are mines where they're working children. Why are they working children? Little, tiny mysteries, where we love this idea of, the first piece of "Star Trek" that these kids receive is the Protostar. And on the Protostar, Hologram Janeway. What better way to teach these children the hard knocks of life and how to improve themselves?
'I'd Say It's Like Flash Gordon'
Kevin Hageman: We talked about early on, we're like, "Well, would it be Picard?" I'm like, "Picard would be a horrible mentor. Picard would hate these children." He would eject them very quickly. Would it be Wesley Crusher? We're like, "No, that feels a little bit off. He's the prodigy, but not quite the guide." And very quickly, we got to the greatness of Janeway. That she could deliver a lesson. Because we figure, these kids are going to be messing up quite a bit because they don't know what they're doing. And I'm like, "Who do I want to hear my lessons from?" And I feel like there's nobody better at delivering a message than Janeway.
Dan Hageman: And I think you'll see, at the end of Episode 10 ["A Moral Star"] we introduce Admiral Janeway [and] Starfleet. And Starfleet is going to be an antagonist now. They're going to be hunting them down. You'll see in the next ten [episodes], them slowly getting more and more closer to Federation space. We get to start introducing these things. So we're not throwing so much at you. We're like, "Oh, there's the Romulans and Vulcans." And I'm like, "No, let's take our time." Let's just introduce these elements, these civilizations, one at a time.
You're dealing with "Star Trek," but you're coming in from the outside. Did you allow yourself to indulge in certain familiarities, or did you want to stay away from really familiar stuff and not make it too "Star Trek" right away?
Kevin Hageman: Yeah, we actively did not want to make it too ... we wanted that moment, when they first get into the ship, for it to feel like "Star Trek." The sounds, the feel. Again, I know we've had a lot of people who, when they first watch it, they go, "Oh, this looks like 'Star Wars.'" And it's a fair assessment. But if you have a walking droid in mines ...
Dan Hageman: I'd say it's like Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon.
'Dilithium's Been Overused'
The character of Rok-Tahk might be the first instance of taking something that was previously in that nebulous canon of "Star Trek" novels and making it canon. How familiar were you with a lot of that non-canonical or semi-canonical "Star Trek" from Peter David and all of the novel writers?
Kevin Hageman: Yeah. Well, we had a wonderful "Star Trek" advisor. Because it's very scary, starting a new "Star Trek" show. We had David Mack, who is a fantastic "Star Trek" novelist. And so, he would read all of our scripts and would help us out, saying, "No, you can't do that," or, "You can do that." And we fell in love with this idea of this young child, or this big brute at first, because they can't communicate in the pilot ... to discover, it's actually a child. And how it's this character where everyone is going to assume, "Well, they're going to be the security officer." But, no! It's this young kid who loves science, and math, and doesn't want to do that. And so, we started talking about that with David Mack, and David Mack brought up the idea of the Brikars, and then that was a great --
Dan Hageman: David was great. Because we would usually come -- we're like, "We want them mining for something, but we don't want it to be dilithium." Dilithium's been overused. And then he'd come back, he's like, "There's this thing called chimerium." I think it was actually from one of his books. We're like, "Okay. What's chimerium?" He's like, "It's what they used to make the --"
Kevin Hageman: Cloaking.
Dan Hageman: The cloak, the cloaking devices. We're like, "Ooh, that's cool. That seems like an illegal operation," of something a villain could sell for quite a bit on the black market. So that was how we came up with chimerium.
'How Do We Meet In The Middle?'
Kevin Hageman: Because it's animation, we can push it. And we can push these characters and these designs. And so, we didn't want to start with the classic bridge crew. We wanted to push the species, and to choose a Medusan. How do we make a Medusan a really cool character?
Dan Hageman: Well, from the animated series, seeing the Caitian. We wanted to put a Caitian in there, little things. In some of the new episodes coming out, people are realizing on Chakotay's crew there ... Aurelian? This bird ... Was that from the animated series?
Kevin Hageman: Yeah, from the animated series.
Dan Hageman: But it was fun to take these things and reimagine them. What would they look like in this look and feel?
Did you rely mostly on David Mack, or did you know a great deal about "Star Trek" going in?
Kevin Hageman: We had a good, fair assessment. We grew up on a lot of the movies, in particular, but we also surrounded ourselves with people like Aaron Waltke and the Benson sisters. Our writing staff, we had some new people who are new to "Star Trek," and then we had a lot of huge, existing fans who had watched every series from day one.
Dan Hageman: But it was good having those conversations of, here's the super-fan perspective, and here's the person who's never seen "Star Trek's" perspective. How do we meet in the middle? Something that's digestible, that doesn't take us on a five-minute exposition ramp.
Kevin Hageman: And to be able to take those Easter eggs, those legacy characters or species that might have not been used that much, but then also to create the Vau N'Akat, and to create our own alien race. And we're doing new things.
'You Can't Have Two Captains Of A Ship'
Dan Hageman: There's times, if you're introducing the Borg, and we have, at most, 30 seconds to one minute to have Janeway explain what the Borg are. What do you say? What do they need to know?
You mentioned that there were certain things you tried to do that you said that you couldn't do, and David Mack said, "That's not appropriate." Could you tell me what some of those things are?
Dan Hageman: I want to share something. When we were looking at our pilot episode, and when we were looking at designing the ship, we were talking about, "Oh, wouldn't it be fun to have Gwynn and Dal sitting in two chairs captaining the ship together?" And David Mack is like, "No. No, no. You can't have two captains." Imagine a battleship --
Kevin Hageman: You can't have two captains of a ship.
Dan Hageman: Yeah, it doesn't work that way.
Kevin Hageman: In wartime, that would be the worst thing.
Dan Hageman: We were like, "You're right. You're right. There's going to be one seat in the center of this ship. Stuff like that. Like, "Oh yeah, of course."
"Star Trek: Prodigy: Season 1 Volume 1" is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
Read this next: The Main Star Trek Captains Ranked Worst To Best
The post Star Trek: Prodigy Creators On Making Trek Accessible for a New Generation [Exclusive Interview] appeared first on /Film.
The Key to Warming Up Your Home’s Frigid Floors Is in the Basement
Cold floors are no fun. No matter how warm and cozy you manage to make the rest of your house, there’s almost always that one room where you have to put on extra socks and a pair of slippers just to make it across the room without suffering frostbite. And unless you have a disorder of some sort, chances are your…
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Unveiled: Starting at $799 US, Faster Than RTX 3090 Ti With DLSS3 & RTX Enabled
NVIDIA has officially unveiled the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card which should be the first RTX 40 series card below the $1000 US price segment.
NVIDIA Unveils GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Graphics Card: Aiming The RX 7900 XT At $799 US With All The RTX & DLSS3 Goodness!
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card is exactly what everyone expected, a rebadge of the GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB graphics card which was unlaunched by the green team owing to its vastly different performance but similar naming scheme. Now, almost two months after it was planned to launch, the GeForce RTX 4080 12 GB RTX 4070 Ti is finally being unveiled. Most of you would find its specs to remain virtually the same as the card it was previously meant to be so let's start there.
New NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GPU brings the power and efficiency of the NVIDIA Ada architecture down to $799
Introducing the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GPU–up to 3X faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, at nearly half the power, thanks to NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture innovations and NVIDIA DLSS 3. GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is perfect for PC gamers looking to max out high refresh rate 1440p monitors that are widely available at great prices and video editors to cut rendering times with dual AV1 encoders.
For users with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or GeForce RTX 2080, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti offers a tremendous upgrade. Combined with DLSS 3 technology, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers an incredible 12x relative performance upgrade over the legendary GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.
Custom cards from NVIDIA AIC partners will be available on January 5, 2023, starting at $799. Please note there is no Founders Edition version.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB 'Official' Specifications
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will utilize the "Ada Lovelace" AD104-400 GPU configuration with 7,680 cores or 60 SMs enabled which is the full-fat SKU. The GPU will be packing 48 MB of L2 cache and features a 192-bit bus interface so that's why we are getting up to 12 GB of GDDR6X capacities. The memory is said to be running at 21 Gbps speeds for a memory bandwidth of 504 GB/s. The card is said to be clocked at a 2610 MHz boost clock however the peak frequency will be higher.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB "Official" TBP - 285W
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8 GB "Official" TBP - 290W
For power, the TBP is now set to be rated at 285W which is a 35W decrease versus the RTX 3080 10 GB model and a 5W decrease from the RTX 3070 Ti. The new graphics card is expected to offer better performance than the RTX 3080 but given the specs cut over the 4080 16 GB, there will be a big gap between both models of around 30-40%.
As for the performance, NVIDIA heavily emphasizes on the use of RTX & DLSS3 plus the new RT-overdrive mode when comparing the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card with older RTX 30 GPUs. Hence, it is worth waiting for the final reviews which will give you a more apples-to-apples perf comparison.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 'AD104' GPU Block Diagram:
One of the most important aspects of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card will be its price which is currently the lowest of all next-gen graphics cards launched by NVIDIA and AMD. At $799 US, the RTX 4070 Ti is $100 US cheaper than the RX 7900 XT, $200 US cheaper than the 7900 XTX, $400 US lower price than the RTX 4080 and half the price of the RTX 4090 ($1599 US). Whether the card is worth the value remains to be seen but based on the performance figures shown by the green team, we think that the RTX 4070 Ti might just end up being a worthy competitor to the RX 7900 XT & should also offer some big efficiency figures as we have seen on the rest of the Ada Lovelace GPUs.
RTX 3090 Ti | RTX 3080 (12 GB) | NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti | |
Idle (W) | 16 | 21 | 12 |
Video Playback (W) | 26 | 27 | 20 |
Average Gaming (W) | 398 | 340 | 226 |
TGP (W) | 450 | 350 | 285 |
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will hit retail shelves on the 5th of January and unlike the rest of the two RTX 40 series cards, the RTX 4070 Ti will not feature any Founders Edition variant but will instead only be available in custom variants. Following is a look at the various custom models for the RTX 4070 Ti which would be available on launch day.
Square Enix “aggressively” investing in NFT games despite backlash
Final Fantasy developer and gaming behemoth Square Enix has been heavily criticised for its plans to add NFTs to its upcoming games, but the company's New Year letter shows that instead of halting efforts, it's "aggressively" doubling down on it.
Dell's enhanced Concept Nyx reimagines the way you work, game, and connect in a distant future
Concept Nyx made headlines last year as Dell's vision of a future where you can use a central edge gaming server in your home to play PC games on all the mediums you own. Now in 2023, Dell is advancing Nyx beyond just gaming. While still in the concept stage and not launching as an official product anytime soon, Dell has evolved Nyx to become more of an ecosystem that can power a future of virtual work, play, and gaming that's much more immersive and accessible.
Shopify Tells Employees To Just Say No To Meetings
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The Hidden Cost of Cheap TVs
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Warm January Weather Breaks Records Across Europe
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Valve Revises Steam Survey Results For December - Still Pointing Down For Linux
'Debloating Windows 10 With One Command and No Scripts'
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Fortnite Is Potentially Returning To iOS In 2023 Almost Three Years After It Was Removed
Amidst a legal battle with Apple, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has teased that Fortnite will return to iOS in 2023. The popular game was removed from the App Store after violating the platform's guidelines. This started one of the most high-profile legal battles in the industry. Scroll down to read more details on the subject.
Epic Games CEO teases Fortnite's return to iOS this year amidst an ongoing legal battle with Apple
Tim Sweeney shared the news on Twitter to celebrate the new year. He wrote, "Next year on iOS!" followed by a Fortnite character looking at 2023 fireworks. It was previously reported that Apple would soon allow third-party app stores or sideloading of apps on the iPhone with iOS 17 to comply with the new Digital Markets Act or DMA law in Europe. Henceforth, this could potentially allow Fortnite to return to iOS and iPadOS. However, it is not necessary that the game will be available through the App Store.
Epic Game's Fortnite is a massively popular battle royale game that is available on a wide range of platforms. Apple decided to remove the title from the App Store in August 2020 after Epic Games offered a direct payment method within the game. This bypassed Apple's in-app purchasing mechanism and violated the App Store guidelines. Now, there is a possibility that Fortnite will return to iOS sometime this year. Apple issued a statement back then that reads:
Today, Epic Games took the unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users. As a result their Fortnite app has been removed from the store. Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines regarding in-app payments that apply to every developer who sells digital goods or services.
After being removed from the App Store, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Apple, and the legal battle continues to this day. Sweeney stated, "We're fighting for open platforms and policy changes equally benefiting all developers. And it'll be a hell of a fight!". Almost three years later, Apple and Epic Games are appealing a court decision that would require Apple to offer in-app links to external websites, circumventing Apple's payment mechanism in the App Store.
This is all there is to it, folks. We will share more details on the subject as soon as further information is available. Do you think Fortnite will return to iOS this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
The post Fortnite Is Potentially Returning To iOS In 2023 Almost Three Years After It Was Removed by Ali Salman appeared first on Wccftech.
Best Running Shoes for Women in 2024
Audition Director Takashi Miike Loves Making Horror Films, But He Doesn't Watch Many Of Them
It may be unfair to refer to filmmaker Takashi Miike as a horror filmmaker, given how prolific he is. Since he first started directing movies in 1991, Miike has accrued 112 directing credits. To save you from doing the math, that averages out to about three and a half films a year. He has made horror movies, yes, including the notable "Audition" in 1999, perhaps his best-known film in the United States. He also directed an episode of "Masters of Horror," as well as "Over Your Dead Body," the original "One Missed Call," the David Lynch-adjacent "Gozu," "Lesson of the Evil," and "As the Gods Will." His polarizing "Visitor Q" might also be considered a horror film depending on your personal interpretation of the premise.
Among those films, however, Miike has also made a superhero film, a partly animated musical, a few historical epics, coming-of-age dramas, and many, many crime movies. One might even be hard-pressed to find a genre that Miike hasn't worked in.
The director's association with horror, however, is likely pronounced because of his propensity for extreme, graphic violence. Anyone who has witnessed the final scenes of "Audition" can speak to Miike's talent for presenting pain and mutilation in excruciating detail.
'I'm Even A Little Afraid Of The Dark...'
In a 2019 interview with Bloody-Disgusting, Takashi Miike admitted that, while he may have the stomach to film extreme acts of violence and unsettling scenes of surreal grotesquerie, he actually doesn't watch too many horror films. One might not assume so, but Miike describes himself as being skittish and anxious, easy to scare, and often startled. For every scene of spilled bodily fluids one might see in a Miike film, know that the filmmaker was probably even more scared to make it. He said:
"I'm actually quite a scaredy cat, myself. Since a child I've been this way [...] I'm even a little afraid of the dark. If I'm alone in the dark I'll sometimes feel that there's a presence behind me and I'll even be afraid to turn around. But then if I do get the courage to turn around, I'll just be scared that whatever was there has just jumped over to the other side of me."
These fearful impulses might be relatable for many kids who tend to let their imaginations get the better of them on dark and stormy nights. Miike, 59 at the time of the interview, has seemingly never outgrown such thoughts. Indeed, his fearful demeanor, paired with his boundless imagination, seems to have been a useful directing tool. Once his scary movies are finished, however, he's too afraid to revisit them. He continued:
"This sounds really silly, but as a child, I've always been a bit of a coward so I don't watch many horror films myself. I personally don't want to pay money to go to a theater to get horribly frightened! [...] Even after I finish making horror films, I usually don't go to a theater to watch them myself."
Read this next: Horror Movies That Even Horror Fans Could Hardly Finish
The post Audition Director Takashi Miike Loves Making Horror Films, But He Doesn't Watch Many of Them appeared first on /Film.
The RPS Selection Box: Liam's bonus games of the year 2022
Oh. OK. I guess it’s time for me to publicly confess which games I voted for in this year’s advent calendar but that didn't get it, and without the usual protection of anonymity granted by group lists. Listen: please don’t judge me. I just want to say that up top before you find out where I live and start sending me pizzas or something. I am fallible. You cut me, I bleed red. I put my bread in the toaster one slice at a time.
Anyway, with that out the way, here’s a list of things I liked this year that no one else at RPS had a chance to play, or in one case just thought was total ass.
Four habits you need to get into after you turn 50. Or 40. Or 30. You get the idea [Obvious]
New Covid strain quietly pops up, could be 'worst variant in the world' and it's wreaking havoc in the US and UK right now. Panic? Sure why not [Scary]
Games like Red Dead 2 struggle to tell stories – Die Hard proves why
Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption 2, Far Cry, GTA, and countless other shooting games struggle to tell coherent stories. This isn’t to say these games are bad, or that they don’t have their own, various, narrative qualities – RDR 2 and GTA 4 especially are very competently written. But all of these shooters have the cohesion and potency of their drama almost terminally undermined by the same issue - one which classic Christmas film Die Hard neatly illustrates.
Wccftech’s Best RPGs of 2022 – The Year of the JRPG
2022 was another standout year for RPGs, from brand new IPs from the progenitor of the Souls subgenre to indie darlings that surprised in more ways than one. Whether you prefer your RPGs more verbose or leaning more towards stylish action, there’s plenty to fill entire weeks of your free time.
Notably, it was an especially great year for JRPG fans. Almost every game on this list comes from Japan, although something like Elden Ring cannot truly be classified as a JRPG. Without further ado, here's our list of the best RPGs released in 2022.
Also in Wccftech's Best Games of 2022 lists: Shooters, Fighting, Platformer, Adventure, Indie, Action, Horror, Multiplayer, and Strategy/Simulation.
Weird West (8)
Former Arkane founder Raphaël Colantonio went all out with Weird West, the debut game of his independent WolfEye Studios. The game designer, previously known for his work on Arx Fatalis, Dishonored and Prey, successfully managed to translate immersive simulation elements (usually reserved for first-person games) into an isometric RPG. Weird West got a warm reception from gamers, having sold 400K units in less than two weeks since launch, and critics alike. Our own Francesco De Meo wrote:
With its gripping story, wacky characters, solid action role-playing game mechanics, and masterfully crafted immersive simulation features, Weird West is one of the very few role-playing games on the market where players truly shape the world with their choices and actions. Some balancing and technical issues damage the experience, but if you're looking for a truly immersive RPG to play, you won't find anything better than Weird West.
Elden Ring (10)
A 2022 list of best RPGs could not possibly avoid mentioning Elden Ring, arguably From Software’s most ambitious role playing game to date. Bringing the tinier crafted dungeons into an open-world setting might scare some from starting on a grand adventure in The Lands Between but soon after venturing out and getting smacked around by the Tree Sentinel, players will find themselves in an action RPG that continuously surprises players with more and more. Elden Ring got a perfect score in Wccftech's review:
Elden Ring is not only the best action RPG developed by From Software but one of the best open-world titles ever made. A masterclass of game design, Elden Ring isn't just a game but an epic dark fantasy journey that no one will be able to forget for a very long time.
Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin (8.2)
One of the more surprising spinoffs to come out of Square-Enix, Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin gave us an origin story of an antihero in the unlikeliest of places. Before he was Garland and was knocking fools down, the protagonist Jack sought to struggle against the forces of Chaos as a man that’s lost his memories and is driven forward by that singular driving focus. Jack is perhaps the most single-minded Final Fantasy protagonist since Final Fantasy IV’s Kain’s personality was set to Constant Backstab. Here's an excerpt from the review:
It’s no isekai, but Stranger of Paradise is absolutely a stranger even in its own land. If you’re fresh off of running through the original as part of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series, you owe it to yourself to take this chaotic road trip across Corneria and relight the four crystals once again.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force (8)
Following the underwhelming release of Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, developer tri-Ace pulled off a surprising comeback with a new franchise installment that is well worth being listed as one of the best RPGs of 2022.
Even with some issues here and there, Star Ocean: The Divine Force is undoubtedly a return to form for the series by tri-Ace. The game delivers a solid JRPG experience that both fans of the series and newcomers will enjoy thanks to the best battle system in the series to date, likable characters, and an engaging but a little slow and not particularly surprising story. Some technical issues and by-the-books game design do take something away from the experience, but for those looking for a traditional JRPG with plenty of heart, Star Ocean: The Divine Force is the game to get.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (10)
Monolith Soft once again delivered a masterpiece game with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, worthy not only of being named among the best RPGs of 2022 but also among the best JRPGs of all time. The game got a perfect score in Wccftech's review.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has its flaws like any other game. However, its qualities more than make up for them, bringing a beautiful JRPG experience like none other before seen in the series. The Class system is varied and fun to experiment with, the story is one of the best in the series history, and the aesthetic and production values are incredibly high. This game offers tons of content that will keep you glued to your Nintendo Switch and last a long time.
Honorable Mentions
For avid roleplaying game fans, here's another five titles that nearly made our best RPGs of 2022 list.
- Chained Echoes
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero
- I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
-
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
The post Wccftech’s Best RPGs of 2022 – The Year of the JRPG by Kai Powell appeared first on Wccftech.
Verizon Warns Its Last 3G Customers to Upgrade Before Losing Service
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Stop Making Your Bed So Accessible to Spiders
Chances are, you’ve probably heard—or possibly even repeated—the enduring myth that we swallow an average of eight (or four, or some other random number of) spiders each year. While that’s not true, it would not be unheard of for a spider to crawl into your bed at some point during the day or night.
Firefox Changes Its User Agent - Because of Internet Explorer 11
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Retailer Discloses Failure Rates For Popular Hardware Over Four Years Worth of Tracking
Four-year-old Philippines retailer Hardware Sugar has divulged its returns during its initial years as a seller of computer components. It is a small shop in no way comparable to Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, and others, but it gives insight into some of the more recognizable brands being returned and the percentage rate of failure from its shelves.
Hardware Sugar displays failure rates of brands during their four years of business selling PC components
Not surprisingly, graphics cards are at the top of the failed components, with only two companies sold on their list — Gigabyte and MSI. The retailer sold 129 MSI graphics cards and 141 Gigabyte GPUs but saw a five percent failure rate for the latter manufacturer. MSI witnessed a failure rate of 1.5%, with only two returned over four years. Motherboards were also limited to MSI and Gigabyte, with 470 units sold and 388 for the latter and failure rates of 2.4% and 1.8%, respectively.
Other limited component sales were on RAM and NVME SSD, with TeamGroup in both spots and G.Skill in RAM sales, and Samsung in SSD sales. TeamGroup had the highest failure rate in both categories, with RAM failing at 1% and NVMe SSDs failing at 1.2% in the last four years. G.Skill RAM was close to TeamGroup's failure rate, reaching 0.66%. Samsung never had a return on SSDs over the previous four years with Hardware Sugar.
GPU Failure Rate:
Manufacturer | Total Sold | RMA | Failure Rate |
---|---|---|---|
Gigabyte | 141 | 7 | 5.0% |
MSI | 129 | 2 | 1.5% |
Motherboard Failure Rate:
Manufacturer | Total Sold | RMA | Failure Rate |
---|---|---|---|
MSI | 470 | 10 | 2.4% |
Gigabyte | 388 | 7 | 1.8% |
PSU Failure Rate:
Manufacturer | Total Sold | RMA | Failure Rate |
---|---|---|---|
Corsair | 451 | 1 | 0.22% |
DeepCool | 46 | 0 | 0% |
Cooler Master | 157 | 3 | 2.0% |
Seasonic | 644 | 12 | 1.8% |
AIO Cooler Failure Rate:
Manufacturer | Total Sold | RMA | Failure Rate |
---|---|---|---|
NZXT | 154 | 6 | 4.0% |
Corsair | 42 | 0 | 0% |
DeepCool | 149 | 0 | 0% |
Memory Failure Rate:
Manufacturer | Total Sold | RMA | Failure Rate |
---|---|---|---|
G.Skill | 601 | 4 | 0.66% |
TeamGroup | 179 | 1 | 1.0% |
Power supplies and cooling products received the vastest amount of companies sold through Hardware Sugar, with PSUs offered by the retailer four brands and three brands for cooling supplies. In power supply failure rates, Seasonic came out at the most failed at 1.8%. The only manufacturer not to have a single failed unit through the Philippines retailer was DeepCool. However, only 46 units were sold, while the other manufacturers — Corsair, Cooler Master, and Seasonic — sold over 100 units over the last four years.
Cooling supplies had the most interesting numbers, with NZXT being the only manufacturer in the list, which also involved Corsair and DeepCool, to have any failed cooling supplies with a percentage of 4%.
The only missing information was when talking about motherboards from MSI and Gigabyte. It is unknown whether it was a single CPU-based brand (i.e., AMD or Intel), which leads one to wonder what company saw the most significant failure over that time.
- Intel
- AMD
- NVIDIA
- AMD
- Intel
- ASUS
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- EVGA
- Colorful
- Biostar
- NZXT
- ASUS
- Gigabyte
- MSI
- EVGA
- ASRock
- PowerColor
- Sapphire
- Yeston
- GALAX
- Gainward
- PNY
- ZOTAC
- Inno3D
- ELSA
- XFX
- Colorful
- NVIDIA Reference
- Intel Reference
- AMD Reference
- GUNNIR
- Palit
- Manli
The post Retailer Discloses Failure Rates For Popular Hardware Over Four Years Worth of Tracking by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.
Daniel Craig Was 'Haunted' By His Half-Naked Beach Scene In Casino Royale
With "No Time To Die" in the rear-view mirror, can we all agree "Casino Royale" is the best Bond movie? If it weren't for the 2006 reboot, Sean Connery would remain the undisputed Bond king, and who knows, maybe the famed super-spy and his decades-old franchise would have fizzled out as society moved into the modern-day.
Thanks to Daniel Craig's broody and embattled take on Bond, and the general "gritty reboot" trend of the early 2000s, 007 was reinvigorated for a new generation. Yes, before Bond once again became a parody of himself, for a brief moment we were all treated to a glimpse at a truly 21st Century 007 that still remained true to Ian Fleming's original vision. Craig's scarred bruiser of a spy gave the impression that beneath the icy bravado and suave affectation, there existed a real person.
It seems Craig maintained some of that icy bravado off-camera too. Looking back at "Casino Royale" in 2021, he recalled being "So uptight, not uptight but just kind of jangling nerves about everything, because everything was just so important, so important" during filming. The actor clearly couldn't relax with the weight of a Bond reboot on his shoulders, which luckily translated to a searingly intense performance on-screen. That may've also made him a bit of a killjoy during production, like when he refused to join his co-stars' off-screen poker games because he "had other things to think about." Even after "Casino Royale" was a success, the actor repeatedly played down his experience as Bond, at one point infamously remarking he would rather "Slash [his] wrists" than play 007 again.
In general, Craig treated his tenure as Bond with self-deprecation and awkward forced humility during interviews -- especially when talking about one of the most memorable shots in "Casino Royale."
Subverting Bond
For all the emotional complexity beneath James Bond's surface in "Casino Royale," the film was packed with memorable action scenes and stunning visuals. Whether it was the Parkour sequence in the opening moments or the taut poker game itself, director Martin Campbell made sure to include as much style as he did substance — all the while subverting the classic Bond tropes audiences had come to expect.
A particularly memorable shot recalled a famous moment from the first Bond movie, "Dr. No," wherein Ursula Andress's Honey Ryder emerges from the ocean in an ivory cotton two-piece bathing suit. This shot alone helped launch the relatively unknown Andress to fame back in 1962, and caused quite a stir in pop culture due to its apparent embrace of the female body at a time when Western society was still outgrowing the more buttoned-down culture of previous decades. The suit itself reached almost $150,000 when it was auctioned off by Christie's back in 2001 and was expected to reach almost $500,000 when it went back up for auction in 2020 (no final figure was announced).
In "Casino Royale," Campbell seemingly both subverts and pays homage to Andress' indelible scene by having Bond himself emerge from the Bahamian waters in a similar fashion. In an inversion of the male gaze approach taken by director Terence Young in '62, Daniel Craig's 007 can be seen in all his sculpted glory, rising from the ocean and surveying the beach in a pair of, frankly, unbelievably tight pale blue trunks. It was an image used across the promotional material for "Casino Royale" and one that turned Craig into somewhat of a sex symbol, as well as reinforcing his more muscular spy.
Clever stuff — or at least it would be if the whole thing wasn't an accident.
'I Had No Idea I Would Be Haunted By It'
Speaking to The Guardian in 2008, Daniel Craig explained that the original intent for the scene was to have him swimming in and out of frame:
"It was actually by accident. Where we filmed, off the Bahamas, it's just one of those places where there is a sand shelf and the sand shelf happens to be three feet deep. Because the idea was, I was supposed to swim in and sort of float off, but I swim in and stand up. And it was just one of those things."
The actor admitted he was vaguely aware the shot would be interpreted as an homage to Ursula Andress in "Dr. No," but quickly shifted into his characteristic self-deprecation by stating, "I had no idea I would be haunted by it for the rest of my life." I'm sure it was frustrating to have developed a complex take on James Bond for "Casino Royale," only to be repeatedly asked about the scene where he's got his shirt off. But it's not as though the film wasn't celebrated for other reasons too.
Yes, the blue trunks sold for almost £45,000 at auction and everyone made a fuss over the beach scene. But "Casino Royale" became the highest-grossing Bond movie ever upon its release, eventually making $594 million the global box office. Critics also heaped praise on Craig's performance as Bond, and the franchise as a whole was successfully revitalized for a new era. If you have to endure some questions about being shirtless, it doesn't really seem that big a price to pay. Evidently, Craig, who was still in his "I'm more than Bond" mode, felt otherwise. Luckily, he seems to have softened on the whole thing since then.
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The post Daniel Craig Was 'Haunted' By His Half-Naked Beach Scene In Casino Royale appeared first on /Film.
Avoid These Mistakes When Running a Generator
Last week’s winter storm left hundreds of thousands of people across the United States without power, as it hit the country less than a week into the season. And with the Farmers’ Almanac extended forecast predicting a long, cold, wet winter for much of America, there’s a good chance the deadly storm—which claimed the…
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gets a new fully voiced massive quest mod
Modder ‘Elizabeth Jackson Hall’ has shared a new fully voiced huge quest mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This mod is compatible with both the Legacy and Special Editions, and you can also find a gameplay video for it below. Brynjolf and the Riften Guild – Birthright extends the story of The Thieves Guild … Continue reading The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gets a new fully voiced massive quest mod →
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Christian Bale Claims His Pay For American Psycho Was Less Than The Film's Make-Up Artists
Christian Bale has always had an unnervingly focused commitment to his craft and it's often helped him as much behind the scenes as it has on-screen. Back when he was still a struggling actor, he had to take his commitment to frankly unbelievable levels in order to get cast (and then recast) in "American Psycho."
The 2000 adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' controversial 1991 novel had been through a shaky development process. Mary Harron was hired to direct after submitting her script, which itself had to beat out multiple other screenplays, including a version by Ellis. The Canadian filmmaker then lobbied hard to get Bale cast as Patrick Bateman, the psychotic, murderous yuppie lead. As Bale recalled in GQ's character breakdown video series, "She really put herself on the line [...] she just said, 'No, I want Christian' even though all the financiers were saying we're going to give you no money."
After a stage reading in New York with Bale, Harron, and Ellis himself, both the director and Bale were removed from the project. But Harron's lead, applying some of that singular commitment, simply refused to listen, and continued to prepare for the role despite other actors and directors being approached and in some cases hired. Leonardo DiCaprio was one such actor, who ended up turning down "American Psycho." Once producer Ed Pressman and Lions Gate had cycled through multiple directors and leads, according to Bale, they simply said "Let's call that crazy guy who keeps telling everyone he can play the lead." Of course, the financiers weren't too enthused with casting a relative no-name actor at the time and made their feelings clear in the salary they offered Bale.
'Nobody Wanted Me To Do It'
Speaking to GQ, Bale explained how he was paid an embarrassingly low sum for the part. In fact, it was the absolute legal minimum Lions Gate could get away with paying him. As the actor recalled, "I remember one time sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them."
After losing out on some of the biggest stars of the day — DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Johnny Depp were all connected to the project at various points — the financiers seemingly didn't think Bale was worth all that much. It's true that, at the time, he had little to no recognition among the public, with arguably his biggest role thus far being as a child actor in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun." As such, according to Bale, "Nobody wanted me to do it except the director. So they said they would only make it if they could pay me that amount."
Luckily, "American Psycho" would prove to be Bale's breakout role, with the actor garnering widespread praise for his darkly humorous take on Bateman. He was seemingly the only one who shared Harron's view of the infamous psychopath as a kind of blank, vacuous vortex of humanity. Bateman wasn't a person, he was a collection of received ideas and quotes pilfered from 1980s yuppie and commercial culture, and was so outrageously over the top that the absurdity couldn't help but play as funny.
Bale's recognition of that inherent humor clearly wasn't enough to interest the film's financial backers in paying him a fair wage or even hiring him at all. But just like the novel and movie, that's just yet another searing indictment of the American psychos of the financial world.
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The post Christian Bale Claims His Pay For American Psycho Was Less Than The Film's Make-Up Artists appeared first on /Film.
Mad About You's Writers Room Was The Perfect Inspiration For Paul Reiser's Role In Reboot
On Hulu's clever new show "Reboot," Paul Reiser plays Gordon Gelman, the wealthy, older writer who originally created the early 2000s hit sitcom "Step Right Up" that is being revived by Hulu. His estranged daughter Hannah, an indie film screenwriter who wants to inject new, contemporary life into the show, co-runs the series with him because he still owns the rights.
One of the best parts about "Reboot" is that it offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the tense and exciting environment of a writer's room. This space is made even more complicated by the fact that there are several generations of writers — inconsiderate boomers and Gen Xers and inclusive millenials and Zoomers — battling for creative control. The series explores how cultural standards have transformed the entertainment landscape and whether or not we can find cross-generational harmony. Show creator Steven Levitan elaborates on the intergenerational themes in an interview with /Film.
Paul Reiser sat down with GQ to discuss "Reboot," particularly how his own experience working in a writer's room at both Hannah and Gordon's ages helped him relate to the role:
"[W]hat's really fun for me about doing the show is it's a world that feels so familiar. That walk back from a rehearsal where jokes don't work and you have to go back to the writers' room and maybe you have to tear up the script: that's a real painful thing. In this show, I just get to pretend that I have those problems. It's actually [creator] Steve Levitan's problem. But those walks are where the comedy plays."
Reiser's work on "Mad About You" put him in a unique position to understand "Reboot" because the hit sitcom, which ran on NBC for seven seasons in the 1990s, was revived in 2019 for Spectrum.
The Generational Divide In The Mad About You Revival
As both a writer and star of "Mad About You," Paul Reiser explains to GQ that he understood the unique dynamic between actors and writers that "Reboot" depicts:
"On 'Mad About You,' I was in the writers' room and I was on stage, and also I created the show, so there was a little bit of a difference, but I know damn well when I walked out, there was a lot of rolling their eyes, like, 'Fricking actors.' The politics, the behind-the-scenes, the actors rolling their eyes at the writers, the writers rolling their eyes at the actors, the old people making fun of the young people: all that stuff is true."
There was also a generational divide behind the scenes of "Mad About You" when the series returned for a reboot. According to Reiser, he and his co-star Helen Hunt wanted a small writer's room with a younger staff: "Helen and I were very clear: 'Okay, we will be the old guard, we know what the show was and we know how to do it, but we need you guys to be the younger guard." These fresh-faced writers would bring contemporary ideas to the table.
You can mainly see their influence in the depiction of Paul and Jamie's daughter Mabel, a freshman at New York University. In one episode, Paul guest speaks at one of Mabel's film classes, and her peers chastise him for not including any women in his latest documentary. When Paul accidentally calls Mabel "honey," during his lecture (afraid of seeming privileged, she doesn't want her peers to know that he is her father), the class accuses him of being a misogynist. This storyline has the kind of modern twist that "Reboot" spoofs.
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The post Mad About You's Writers Room Was The Perfect Inspiration For Paul Reiser's Role in Reboot appeared first on /Film.