Ronald.phillips

Brendan Fraser is back in a big way thanks to Darren Aronofsky's latest feature "The Whale," in which the beloved actor makes an undeniably inspired turn in as the film's 600-pound leading man. We've missed him for many years now, since he completely disappeared from Hollywood in 2014. In an exclusive interview with /Film's own Ryan Scott, Aronofsky revealed that he wasn't actually aware of Fraser's vast fanbase before casting him in the role of Charlie in his adaptation of the Samuel D. Hunter play.

"I've said this in front of Brendan. I had no idea about the Brenaissance [laughs] or any of the deep, deep love for the human being that he is," Aronofsky explained. "I think I was a little older than the generation that watched those big '90s movies, so I missed a lot of them." The filmmaker, who is perhaps best known for directing "Requiem for a Dream" and "Black Swan," also noted that the Fraser dramas that he'd missed out on ahead of the dawn of the millennium were the missing pieces that reshaped his view on the actor — and eventually what made him sat down with the former "The Mummy" heartthrob.

"I hadn't seen any of the dramatic work," Aronofsky continued. "I still haven't seen 'Gods and Monsters.' I did watch 'School Ties' while we were in post. It's like, 'Whoa. What the? Matt Damon in a supporting role? The world is insane!' But he fit the bill. When I saw him in that trailer, a light bulb went off. I was like, 'I've got to meet him,' because I had been thinking for years and years who could do it."

Fraser's Comeback

Fraser's career had been rocky since his work in the "The Mummy" franchise, but he managed to continue working through the 2010s, even if the roles weren't always deserving of him. Aronofsky wasn't necessarily positioning himself to help Fraser return to screen in a role that he could do something extraordinary with, but he had seen a lot of other folks give the role a try already. Fraser had something they didn't, and it clearly had been bubbling up inside him for years.

"I had watched tape on so many actors, famous and non-famous, and nothing ever really made sense to me," the director added. "But then, I was like, 'All right. Let me meet him,' because it just felt right. Then, when I met him, he clearly had a lot to prove, and clearly hadn't been given opportunities in a long time."

Aronofksy also revealed that the film's production company, the trendy and undeniably bright A24, backed the movie every step of the way, which led to him casting Fraser through the unmarred creative vision the studio allowed him to have. "It's a really small film, and there was a lot of faith from A24. They're definitely a director's company," the filmmaker told /Film's Ryan Scott. "I think my first meeting, first pitch of it to [A24 co-founder] Dave Fenkel, there wasn't a blink. He was like, 'Okay.' It was very easy, and I was relieved. I didn't know how he would react."

"The Whale" is in theaters now.

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2022 So Far

The post Darren Aronofsky Had 'No Idea' About the 'Deep Love' Fans Have for Brendan Fraser Before Casting Him in The Whale [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

At last count, there have been 12 separate "Star Trek" shows in the franchise's history. With only one notable exception, each show takes place aboard a Starfleet facility -- a starship or a space station -- and follows the experiences of the people who work there. "Star Trek" is, after all, primarily a workplace drama, and many, many episodes are devoted to a ship's command structure, its operations, its separate departments. "Star Trek" is a very technical show, and many Trekkies find its rigidity and bureaucracy to be the paramount feature. 

"Star Trek" is also notorious for skipping about in its own timeline, especially since new shows began airing on CBS All Access (now Paramount+) in 2017. "Star Trek: Discovery" takes place just prior to the original series, but a century after "Enterprise." Meanwhile, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" takes place a few years after the conclusion of "Star Trek: Voyager," and is more or less concurrent with the events of "Star Trek: Prodigy." "Star Trek: Picard" takes place after all of them, unless you count the latest seasons of "Discovery" which, thanks to a time warp, takes place 950 years beyond that. Through it all, however, Trek has remained largely within the confines of Starfleet vessels. The Federation is a very long-lived organization. 

Of the shows named, "Picard" and "Prodigy" take place largely outside of the purview of Starfleet. "Picard" is about a retired Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) who does galavant around the galaxy in a starship, but with a team of hastily assembled rogues and civilians rather than a uniformed crew. "Prodigy" takes place aboard a Starfleet ship, but one that's occupied only by teens who had never heard of the Federation before. 

Both shows depict life outside of Starfleet. A life that is ill-defined at best. 

Civilians In A Starfleet World

The franchise's very title, of course, is predicated on trekking through the stars, so it always feels a little odd when "Star Trek" spends too much time on the ground. Civilians, throughout much of "Star Trek," are abstract. Occasionally Captain Picard might interact with one of the non-officers living on his ship, but there are few civilian characters overall (spouses and relatives notwithstanding). Only a character like Quark from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" lives outside Trek's military structure. 

As such, the tastes of civilian life in "Star Trek" are few and far-between. Trekkies can easily imagine what life would be like on a starship, but what would life look like on a distant planet that Starfleet never visits? In pondering this notion, one begins to realize that the mythology of "Star Trek" is enormous, perhaps too sprawling for its own good.

What we know about the non-Starfleet world of Trek is that it's not a post-capitalist utopia like on military vessels. There is constant talk of money and profit and acquisition, and multiple characters reveal their dreams of being rich. Very occasionally, Starfleet will encounter a group of rogue weapons traders, implying that there is a vast black market for contraband explosives and the like. Starfleet may have been formed in a post-war society, but outside of Starfleet, worlds appear to be at war all the time. 

Importantly, when a new species is introduced on "Star Trek," often there will be character moments or scenes of exposition explaining some of that species' philosophies and idiosyncrasies. It may not be realistic that every member of a given species would be devoted to a singular, unimpeachable ethos, but for dramatic purposes, it gives human viewers a shorthand.

So What Is Life Like Outside Of Starfleet?

Outside of a Starfleet scenario, however, there is no need to have characters say things like "My species believes that ..." There are just people living their lives. There are agrarian species devoted to peace. There are anarchists who believe in murder. There are powerful godlike beings, aliens made of rock, creatures who exist as energy, cultures devoted to hunting. The Ferengi are devoted to profit, while Klingons live for honor and battle. The Trill form psychic bonds with long-lived invertebrates that they implant in their own bodies. The world of "Star Trek" is vast and varied and complicated. 

The multiculturalism is a big part of Trek, but without a Starfleet vessel to synthesize this information, the world of "Star Trek" is, if one may forgive me, pretty generic. 

Think about it. Take away the Starfleet vessels and specific Paramount-owned name brands, and "Star Trek" is not too much different from your average sci-fi board game. You are an alien cook, competing in a competition. You are fighting for honor in the alien court. You are constructing a space station and need to manage resources, but you are not humans. Early publicity shots of "Prodigy" revealed a cast of animated characters, all from unfamiliar species, all highly stylized, and possessed of no uniforms or other notable Trek iconography. Those characters, with no alterations, could have easily come from anywhere. It wouldn't be until the show actually aired that three of the characters would be cited as known Trek aliens (Tellarites, Meducans, Brikar). 

There is, it seems, no single defining feature of "Star Trek" beyond the Federation. A "Star Trek" show set outside of Starfleet may as well be "Star Wars."

The Constants

While Trek is devoted to the cultural bliss of infinite diversity in infinite combinations, it's vital that the main characters start from a utopian place. This is why a show like "Picard" is so frustrating. Picard is a principled man, but he is surrounded by depressed bounty hunters and murderers. In the first season of "Picard," the Federation is even revealed to have been corrupted by jingoism, refusing to help a historical rival in a time of crisis. Had "Picard" been about the main character's ideals standing strong in a time of decline -- the tenacity of Starfleet's ethos -- then it would be stronger as a drama. Instead, it's a mercenary show about killing others and stopping crises and facing personal problems. It never deals with philosophy or larger ideas. "Picard" is quite bad. 

Upon reflection, I rescind the above comment about "Star Wars." There is something "Star Trek" possesses that "Star Wars" does not: science. 

Warp engines on "Star Trek" can only take ships so fast and so far. "Star Trek" takes place comfortably within the Milky Way galaxy, and the show's writers understand that our galaxy is large enough that it cannot be traversed easily, even by the rules of its own fictional travel devices. "Star Wars" takes place in a fantasy world of wizards and Force Lightning. In "The Empire Strikes Back," Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) travels to a distant, distant swamp planet in a single-occupancy fighter craft. Can that ship travel at the speed of light? How long did he need to travel? In "Star Wars," such questions are irrelevant. What important is that he got there.

"Star Trek," despite the wild aliens and weird technology, is, at the end of the day, set in the real world. Or at least, a world with one foot in reality. 

Read this next: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

The post What Does the Star Trek Universe Actually Look Like Outside of Starfleet? appeared first on /Film.

You know what? I'm more interested now

Diablo is such a weird series: and I vibed with that feeling since the very first game. I had zero idea of what to expect, and didn't understand the strange history of the Hellfire "expansion" until many years after its release. By the time Diablo 2 rolled around my little crew of Diablo-playing-friends was around 20 strong, and it was a bonafide hit that people still play today.

But Diablo 3 changed things considerably. Blizzard was already changing in terms of its perception as a bulletproof company, and the Auction House debacle was a sign of trouble to come for the publisher. In the end, D3 sold very well, but the team had a lot to prove when they first announced Diablo 4 to the world. So far, based on some hands-on time with the game, I think they're doing just that.

You can choose between more or less guidance: depending on your experience with the series

My build went up to level 25 with three classes (Barbarian, Sorcerer, Rogue), and contained still-in-development content from Act 1. As an FYI, my PS5 copy was watermarked: and I couldn't use my own screens or footage. And with that out of the way, onto impressions!

Smartly, Diablo 4 is aiming to pick up players of all playstyles: lapsed fans, hardcore folks, and newcomers. Immediately I was given the option of toggling on/off most tutorials, depending on your experience with the series. If you want, you can dive into the game's new skill tree system immediately, which I did with my "main," the Barbarian (something I never really do in a core Diablo as a first character).

Here are the three options, with all the specializations you can choose from:

• Barbarian (berserking, bleed-focused, walking arsenal [tank], or unbridled rage [damage])
• Sorcerer (frost, pyromancy, or shock)
• Rogue (marksman, imbuements, or traps)

Most of my time was spent with the Barbarian, which I had a lot of fun with. You can whirlwind and leap still, and augment each individual skill/ability with a little spice (like extra damage or more utility). On PS5 by default most of your abilities are linked to the face buttons and the triggers: with a dedicated dodge button.

Bringing in Blizzard's time with Diablo 3 on consoles, this is now a full-on mechanic in every build (PC included), and charges will increase over time (governed by a cooldown period). I immediately noticed some enemies are designed around this skill, which made a lot of the typically rote fights a little more interesting and engaging.

Respeccing (changing your build) is in. Initially it's free and can be done anywhere; with a gold price associated with it. I also got the chance to speak to Joseph Piepiora (Associate Game Director), Adam "AZ" Jackson (Lead Class Designer), and Ash Sweetring (Dungeon Producer) about class spread, and learned how the team went about approaching Diablo 4's class philosophy:

Destructoid: "I feel like you've done a pretty good job of condensing down the D4 classes to a good spread of representation from D1 and D3 - Was there a temptation to add more? How did you decide on the final count and what should be included?"

Joseph Piepiora: "We wanted to make sure as we're looking to advance the world of Sanctuary...reach back into the series' past and pluck out these iconic classes to reinterpret. Anyone who's played recently sees the evolution in the Barbarian...there's a lot of opportunities for us to take skills and reinterpret them into this new system. In terms of overall count we love the number five (laughs)...but for real, the game has many layers of complexity. Five is a good enough number to hit a good amount of core fantasies, while also giving us enough space on the design side to make things complex...the broader we go the less time we get to spend with each class. There's an opportunity to grow this roster in the future."

Adam Jackson: "There's always a temptation to add more...we love adding more. But like Joe mentioned, a big part of Diablo 4 is mixing the old and the new. You also probably have noticed that these classes have a lot of depth...in order for us to really sell these fantasies and get as deep...and introduce new ways to play, we had to stick to this number to nail the fantasies. As an example the Rogue in Diablo 1 is more fleshed out in Diablo 4."

Difficulty settings follow a world tier system

We're moving into world tiers, as Diablo 4 continues to incorporate more open world game design into the series. "Adventurer" is tier 1 (the lowest/easiest), and "Veteran" is tier 2. You can increase your tier at specific statues (usually in hubs), or on the title screen: and doing so will add more challenging enemies, better drops, and increased XP and gold (the usual stuff).

By default (at this current time in the game's development cycle), you can swap between the two freely, but the rest are locked. Here's the full list available to us at the moment:

• Nightmare (recommended level 50 - sacred item drops appear, and nightmare dungeons, triggered through nightmare sigils, are unlocked)
• Hell (recommended level 60 - greater chance of sacred item drops, and rare nightmare sigils)
• Torment (recommended level 70, ancestral items appear, as well as new unique items)

Each of these tiers from nightmare on requires players to beat a prerequisite dungeon at the previous tier (so in the case of Nightmare, you'd have to play on Veteran). It seems pretty straightforward, and as a Diablo player, I swapped it to Veteran tier right away, and it was manageable. It'll be fun trying to break into higher tiers at lower levels.

The mood feels a lot like Diablo 2

Playing through the first Act, I felt tinges of Diablo 2 in more ways than one. The design is a lot darker, and the story in general feels more dire. The intro showcased a more helpless/beaten down protagonist (they were huddled in a cave, freezing, with a dead mount), which I dug right away. I mean within minutes you're kicking some wildlife ass, but among that, you'll come across deserted and broken down cabins and towns. NPCs ask you to prove your worth instead of jumping right into the role of the chosen one straight away, like D3 did. Lilith, the new big bad, also brings an air of freshness to the game, as they're actually doing hands-on work in the story instead of being relegated to a mysterious force you meet basically at the end.

After seeing this take in action, I dug into it more with Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora:

Destructoid: "Playing through the current build, I would probably describe the theme, more so than anything else, as 'dire.' In D4, my first character started out huddled in a cave and had to get hands-on help from NPCs: definitely a different vibe from D3. Obviously at some point I'll take down Lilith, and/or maybe a surprise Diablo. Will that dire theming maintain throughout the game, even as you level up? Either way, was striking that balance tough?"

Piepiora: "The story of the Fractured Peaks is the prologue, and the story is starting at a low point. We want that to set the tone in how players engage in the world. In terms of whether we keep that tone...the tone will change a little as you go. I don't even want to talk about it. But I will say as the player gets more powerful they get slightly more agency in the story, and develop more relationships. At no point does Diablo 4 cease being a gothic horror game. The character is a hero, and they're using world-shaking power to rise against unstoppable evil. That power fantasy is at the heart of Diablo 4."

There's a decent chunk of things to do

When scouring through the Act 1 map, I came across numerous micro-dungeons and random encounters/activities. The classic "elite jumbled up ability" enemy types are still present, but the map feels so much bigger now that there's more of them. Dungeon Producer Ash Sweetring noted in our interview that it could take players "around 45-50 hours" just to complete the campaign, with a lot more to do after that.

There's still a lot of "what ifs" with Diablo 4. The team stressed again that premium purchases will be restricted to just cosmetics: but we've heard that before. From a pure gameplay standpoint, Diablo 4 also needs to keep things up, and maintain that tension throughout every act. And the endgame (which was hyped again in this media session) needs to deliver. We'll see what happens, but I'll be more inclined to be there day one after my time with it.

The post Hands on: Diablo 4 feels like a mix of its predecessors, and mostly D2 appeared first on Destructoid.

About three hours into my preview of Diablo IV, I stumble upon the body of a dead priest. The discovery adds a quest to my journal to visit nearby Margrave. A short while later, I find a small village worn down by constant snowfall and all the monsters and bandits that lurk outside its palisade walls. Despite the town’s desperate state, there are signs of warmth and humanity everywhere.

By the south entrance, I find a woman praying for her deceased husband. She tells his gravestone how she can’t sleep now that no one is snoring at night. Nearby, a man tells his adopted son not to venture outside the town’s walls. I love these details. They remind me of some of my favorite moments playing Diablo II.

Whenever I went back over the years to revisit the action RPG on my own, I would listen to everything the non-playable characters had to say. The game doesn’t have much dialogue by modern standards, but if you pay attention, it says a lot with very little. Looking back at my time with Diablo III and, more recently, Diablo Immortal, what stands out is that those games rarely, if ever, slow down to take a breath.

Blizzard

Diablo IV feels different. It feels like a game that was designed by people who love the history of this franchise as much as I do. That might not seem like much, but it’s refreshing when you consider Diablo III’s original lead designer called his Diablo II predecessor a “loser.”

“Certainly, there are a lot of things about Diablo II that we think are really cool and need to be in Diablo IV, particularly when you look at the depth of systems and itemization… and, as you noted, there are things about Diablo III like the smooth and seamless combat that we wanted to bring forward to Diablo IV,” game director Joe Shely tells me during a roundtable interview. Shely took over leadership of the Diablo IV team in the fall of 2021 after the game’s previous director, Luis Barriga, left Blizzard when California’s fair employment agency accused the studio of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment. “We think Diablo IV can be a place that welcomes players from any previous Diablo game and people who have never played a Diablo game.”

Blizzard

Diablo IV existing as a project that takes all the best aspects of past entries in the series and iterates on them in meaningful ways is a theme Shely and his boss, Diablo franchise head Rod Fergusson, repeat early and often. At first, I dismissed it as marketing, but after playing the game for about a dozen hours, I started to believe them.

Take combat, for instance. Carrying over a change Blizzard made for the console release of Diablo III, each class comes with a dodge ability built into their kit. At first, you can only use your dodge once before it goes on cooldown, but as you level your character, you’ll find magical and rare boots that give you additional charges.

The potion system, meanwhile, represents a hybrid of the systems that existed in Diablo II and III. When you first start playing, your character can carry a maximum of five potions on them. There’s no cooldown after you use one, and you gain refills by slaying enemies or bringing a boss down to certain thresholds of their health. Walking over a potion when your character is at max health won’t automatically heal you as it did in Diablo III, so there’s more strategy involved. As you might have guessed, you can upgrade the potency of your potions and find ways to carry more as you progress through the game.

Blizzard

On the surface, these are minor changes, but they add some much-needed tactical depth to Diablo’s combat, so you’re not just mindlessly clicking and spamming your skill rotation. Most larger enemies have a windup attack in their arsenal to stagger your character. Combine that with elite and champion variants of enemies that can use abilities like frost to trap you in place, and combat encounters feel more involved in Diablo IV than in past games. Playing on the game’s veteran world tier difficulty, I had the most success when I used my barbarian’s leap ability to close the distance quickly on ranged enemies and monsters like fallen shamans that could bring their comrades back from the dead.

All of that made for a fun and satisfying combat loop enhanced by how much the game encouraged me to experiment with my character’s build. Diablo IV sees the return of Diablo II’s skill trees, but this time around, you’re not limited to respecing your character once per difficulty. Instead, you can at any time refund a single skill point or all of them simultaneously to tweak your build. At first, doing so only costs a few gold coins, but the price increases as you level your character. The beauty of this system is that you’re free to experiment early before settling on the build that will take you through Diablo IV’s endgame activities.

Unfortunately, I only had enough time to play through the demo with the barbarian. The preview also came with access to the rogue and sorcerer classes. At launch, the final game will feature five classes, adding the druid and necromancer to the mix.

I wish I could write about the story, but Blizzard asked those of us taking part in the preview not to spoil anything. What I can say is that once you complete Diablo IV’s prologue, you can tackle its primary acts in any order you want. The preview build only came with access to act one and the Fractured Peaks zone where that part of the story takes place. When Blizzard revealed Diablo IV in 2019 by sharing the game’s gruesome “By Three They Come” intro cinematic, I was worried the story would end up being edgy instead of mature and dark.

The little I’ve seen of the plot has done a lot to address those concerns. Part of that has been thanks to the smart, restrained writing I saw and Diablo IV’s willingness to give its narrative time to breathe, but the thing I think that’s going to surprise a lot of people is how atmospheric Diablo IV can be in its best moments. All of the trailers Blizzard has released so far don’t do nearly enough justice to all the great work the art team has done with the environmental, lighting and particle effects in the game. When my barbarian first began his adventure on a mountain beset by a blizzard, I reached for a blanket.

One thing the demo didn’t include was a preview of Diablo IV’s monetization system. Blizzard provided an overview of those this past summer. The short version is that the game won’t include pay-to-win microtransactions. Instead, an in-game cosmetic shop will allow you to buy items you can use to customize the look of your characters further. Seasonal battle passes will allow you to earn additional cosmetics. From the moment you create your character, the customization systems are robust, offering you plenty of options to alter their physical appearance, including things like skin tone, head and facial hair, as well as jewelry.

Blizzard

Additionally, the way you can modify the appearance of items is as fleshed out. For instance, if you use the transmog system to make a piece of armor look different, and then an item with better stats drops for you, you can match it with your previous set directly from the character sheet. By level 10, my barbarian had already started to look menacing.

If there’s one worry I have about Diablo IV, it’s the same one I’ve had with every Blizzard game in the past decade or so: Can the studio stick the landing? To say Blizzard’s recent output has been all over the place would be an understatement. I’m still disappointed with how it handled remastering my favorite RTS of all time. The studio will have the chance to reassure fans in early 2023 when Diablo IV’s open beta begins ahead of the game’s official launch later in the year.

Microsoft is launching a new communities feature for Microsoft Teams today, designed for consumers to use the best parts of Teams free of charge to create and organize groups. From a report: The new community feature will allow groups to use the calendar, meeting, and chat features of Teams. Features like group chat, calling, and file / photo sharing are all supported, and groups will also be able to use a shared calendar (which includes Google Calendar integration) to organize community events. This new community integration is really aimed at groups like sports clubs or even virtual community groups for small businesses and simple groups like a carpool for co-workers to organize transportation. Facebook, Reddit, Discord, WhatsApp, Twitter, and many other services already provide a variety of ways to organize groups online, so Microsoft is entering a crowded market, but it believes Teams has something different to offer.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The prehistoric forest of northern Greenland was home to mastodons, reindeer, hares and an abundance of plant life.

[Update] The Elden Ring 1.08 patch notes are now available, detailing some PvP-specific and general balance changes and more. You can find them here.

[Original Story] The new Elden Ring free update which opens the doors of the Colosseums in the Lands Between is now live on all formats.

While the update itself is live, the game's online services are still undergoing maintenance, so it is not yet possible to test the new PvP features yet. Official update notes have yet to be shared, but Bandai Namco provided new information on the different modes available at each of the new Elden Ring Colosseums, such as United Combat and Combat Ordeal for the Limgrave Colosseum, Duel Mode for the Royal Colosseum, and more. The update also adds new five new hairstyles.

The Limgrave Colosseum features two modes: United Combat and Combat Ordeal.

• In United Combat, combatants will be divided into two teams to fight in timed battles with the ability to respawn. Each death and respawn grants points to the adversaries, offering victory to the team with the higher score.
• In Combat Ordeal, it’s every Tarnished for themselves. Combatants in this mode can also respawn until the timer hits zero, and the one with the most points will prevail as victor.

The Royal Colosseum, located in Leyndell, features Duel Mode. Two Tarnished face off in a duel to the death, without the ability to respawn.

The Caelid Colosseum features all aforementioned modes with the addition of being able to summon Spirit Ashes to fight by players’ sides.

In case you missed the announcement trailer for the Elden Ring free Colosseum update, you can find it right below.

The Colosseums of Limgrave, Leyndell and Caelid will open their gates, allowing players to engage in battles such as duels, free-for-alls and team fights.

Prove your worth in the free Colosseum Update.

 

Elden Ring is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One worldwide. Learn more about one of the best games released in 20222 by checking out my review.

I tried hard to find any faults in Elden Ring, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find any outside of some technical issues that the developers could fix via patches. I firmly believe that perfection doesn't exist and that it is always possible to improve, but I really couldn't think of anything that Elden Ring could have done better. As such, the game wholly deserves a perfect score, an honor I would have given only to a couple of other modern games, not only for its extremely high quality but also for what it accomplished with its open world and for how it will surely influence video games as a whole in the future.

The post Elden Ring Free Colosseum Update is Now Live by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica, written by Kevin Purdy: Available tomorrow on Steam and itch.io, the new version of Dwarf Fortress updates the legendary (and legendarily arcane) colony-building roguelike with new pixel-art graphics, music, some (default) keyboard shortcuts, and a beginners' tutorial. The commercial release aims to do two things: make the game somewhat more accessible and provide Tarn and Zach Adams, the brothers who maintained the game as a free download for 20 years, some financial security. I know it has succeeded at its first job, and I suspect it will hit the second mark, too. I approached the game as a head-first review expedition into likely frustrating territory. Now I find myself distracted from writing about it because I keep thinking about my goblin defense and whether the fisherdwarf might be better assigned to gem crafting. "For me, the commercial release of Dwarf Fortress succeeded at transforming the game from a grim, time-killing in-joke for diehards into a viable, if not graceful, challenge," writes Purdy. "I will start again, I will keep the badgers and floods at bay, and next time, I might have the privilege of failing to a magma monster, an outbreak of disease, or even a miscarriage of dwarf justice." Further reading: The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress (Slashdot, 2011) Dwarf Fortress Gets Biggest Update In Years (Slashdot, 2014)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson have been in plenty of films over the years, but most people know them best as Dante Hicks and Randal Graves in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse films, in particular, his "Clerks" trilogy. Smith skyrocketed to superstardom after his 1994 breakout hit, "Clerks," which perfectly encapsulated the budding Gen X slacker culture of the 1990s. Dante is dragged into covering a shift at the Quick Stop mini-mart on his day off, putting up with the hijinks of customers, friends, random degenerates in the neighborhood, and ultra-slacker Randal, who doesn't even make an attempt to actually work at the RST Video rental store next door. The film was a massive success, spawning two sequels, an animated series, a live-action TV pilot, and a making-of documentary.

Smith's follow-up film was another slacker comedy — the 1995 hit, "Mallrats." That movie centered on another pair of friends who show up at the mall after being dumped by their girlfriends, and who then attempt to sabotage a dating game show shooting an episode there that features one of their exes. Plenty of ridiculous hijinks ensue, and after almost 30 years, Smith is looking to return to that world with a sequel, "Twilight of the Mallrats." Anderson didn't participate in the original "Mallrats," but O'Halloran did as his Dante character's "identical cousin," Gil Hicks.

/Film's own Ethan Anderton recently spoke with both O'Halloran and Anderson about their recent effort, "Clerks III," and whether or not we can expect to see either actor in the "Mallrats" sequel. Hilariously, Anderson already concocted the perfect way to incorporate himself into the film's universe, in arguably the most Randal Graves way possible.

'Never Discuss It, Never Bring It Up Again'

During Ethan Anderton's interview with Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, the former shared that he believes "Twilight of the Mallrats" will head into production sooner rather than later. "I know he's been writing this other script about these kids in 1984 that go to a movie theater," he said. "He may be shooting that ahead of 'Mallrats II,' but it's something that, when there are people ready to go with 'Mallrats II,' then we're ready." Considering the film isn't on wheels just yet, this allows plenty of room for last-minute additions to the script, like Anderson's idea of how to incorporate Randal Graves into the film.

"It's never been talked about, but I think it would be funny in 'Mallrats II' to have Randal randomly just walk by, and to Brian's character, be like, 'Hey Gil,'" said Anderson. In his mind, Gil would reply with a simple, "Hey, Randal," and that would be the end of it. "And that's it," Anderson continued. "Never discuss it, never bring it up again. Just a random sort of thing to tie the universe together. Not even make it a scene, just a throwaway." 

With Gil and Dante existing as cousins in the View Askewniverse, it makes perfect sense that Randal would know Gil. O'Halloran was also a fan of the idea, and Anderson emphasized once again that he'd be more than down with the cameo. "I think that would be really funny," he said, "and I would definitely do that."

"Clerks III" is now available on home video.

Read this next: The 15 Best '90s Comedies Ranked

The post Clerks Star Jeff Anderson Has an Idea for Randal to Make the Perfect Cameo in Mallrats 2 [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

If there's anything "Batman Returns" is lacking, it ain't villains. Michelle Pfieffer's Catwoman and Christopher Walken's Max Shreck would have been enough of a challenge for the Dark Knight by themselves. But director Tim Burton wanted to make his second go-round with Batman one to remember, adding Danny DeVito as the Penguin to complete the movie's antagonist triumvirate.

DeVito took the role seriously, staying in character as the bile-spewing mutant version of the famous Batman villain throughout shooting. It was an approach that Pfieffer Pfieffer found "really creepy," with Burton saying that DeVito took the method approach so seriously that if anyone "put their fingers too close to his mouth, he might just take it off."

And while DeVito's commitment paid off, creating one of the most convincingly deranged and creepy villains we've yet had in a "Batman" movie, it almost didn't happen. In fact, the actor had never even considered playing the role until newspapers started prematurely claiming he'd been cast. But it would take a little more than fake reports and rumors to convince him to actually appear in "Batman Returns."

The Joker Saves The Day For Once

As DeVito remembers it, newspapers started claiming he'd been cast as Penguin in the sequel to 1989's "Batman" before he'd even been contacted about the film:

"Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner and I were together one morning for breakfast and Michael said 'look at this I see this thing in the newspaper that you're going to do the next 'Batman' movie, you're going to play the Penguin, and I said 'I've never talked to anybody about this, I've never heard about this.'"

Not only had DeVito not been approached for the role, he "resented the fact that they just put anything in the paper that they wanted to" and maintained that he wouldn't be playing Penguin. As the actor recalls, it was only after a meeting with Tim Burton a year later that he came around to the idea and got "hooked into what [Burton] was talking about."

But according to a TCM article, Burton had initially wanted Marlon Brando for the Penguin role. That idea was promptly shot down by Warner Bros. and Batman co-creator Bob Kane, so Burton and screenwriter Daniel Waters are said to have re-conceptualized the Penguin character to become more like the grotesque figure that eventually wound up in the film. DeVito then became the first choice, but as the report claims, it would take none other than Jack Nicholson, who previously starred as the Joker in "Batman," to convince his buddy to take the role — at least in part by pointing to the financial benefits of starring in a Batman movie.

Anyone else might take offense at becoming the first choice for a more deformed, unpleasant version of a main character. But it seems DeVito didn't see it that way, and the movie was all the better for it.

Read this next: Every Tim Burton Film Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Jack Nicholson Had A Hand In Danny Devito Becoming The Penguin In Batman Returns appeared first on /Film.

The release candidate for Winamp version 5.9.1 builds on the groundwork laid by August's 5.9 update to fix some bugs and add new features to the reanimated music player. "Most of these are straightforward updates or improvements to existing features, but because it's 2022, one of the only new features is support for music NFTs," reports Ars Technica. From the report: "Winamp's latest version lets music fans link their Metamask wallet via Brave, Chrome, or Firefox to Winamp. It then connects their favorite music NFTs to their tried-and-true player," the company said in a press release provided to Ars. "Winamp supports audio and video files distributed under both the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards, and is launching this new feature for Ethereum and Polygon/Matic protocols." To directly display websites needed to download these NFT playlists, according to the release notes, would require an updated rendering engine for Winamp's in-app browser, which is currently based on Internet Explorer 10. There's still plenty here for legacy Winamp fans to like, and it's nice to see that all the modernization work done in the 5.9 update is paying off in the form of faster updates. Among many other fixes, the new release includes a "memory footprint reduction," a bandwidth increase for streamed music, an update to OpenSSL 3.0.5, and a few other updates for the underlying codecs and other software that Winamp uses to do its thing. As for the NFT support, Winamp developer Eddy Richman (who goes by the handle "DJ Egg" on the Winamp forums) wrote that people who don't want it can remove it, either during the install process or after Winamp is installed.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon Luna is one of the better cloud gaming options if you play a lot of Ubisoft titles, and it's getting a big upgrade this week. You can now sync purchases on Luna to PC and play without a subscription. 9to5Google reports: Since its launch, Amazon Luna has worked solely on a subscription model. Players can access games through "channels," each of which includes a rotating selection of games. One of those channels is Ubisoft+, which has a selection of Ubisoft games for $17.99/month that can share that subscription cost with other platforms such as PC. But the one downside of Luna is that you always need one of those subscriptions -- that is, until now. Available starting today, Amazon Luna will allow players to stream Ubisoft games they've purchased on PC without any channel subscriptions needed. You just need accounts from Amazon and from Ubisoft and to purchase compatible games. The only subscription required is Amazon Prime. By syncing Ubisoft Connect with Luna, players can stream their purchases instantly with no downloads and on more devices, such as Chromebooks and smartphones. But unlike other cloud platforms that have allowed purchases, such as Stadia, these games can also be downloaded and played on PC. Amazon notes that once your accounts are linked, future purchases from the Ubisoft Store will automatically appear in Luna.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

So you’re minding your own business, and you find that Web sites and services are all failing due to certificate errors:

And then if you’re the sort of nerd who actually looks at the certificate, you get something like this:

Who is “US”? Is the United States government trying to hack my connection? (And if so, why would they admit to it right in their certificate identification?)¹

Or is “US” the guy to whom all my base are belong?²

While it’s true that you are undergoing a man-in-the-middle attack, there’s a good chance that this attack is not malicious. If you are using a public WiFi connection, say in a coffee shop or hotel, then check whether you are trapped in the captive portal.

Open a Web browser and go to a plain http Web site (not https). You’ll probably see a message from the provider of the public WiFi connection asking you to agree to the terms of service or enter subscriber information.

Once you get past that, go back to the Web site or service you were originally interested in, and it should work better now.

Bonus chatter: So what’s up with the “US”?

My guess is that whoever generated the certificate for the captive portal went through some “Make me a certificate” wizard and left all the fields blank. The wizard defaulted to “Country = US”, and since that’s the only thing that was filled in, that’s the only information in the certificate.

Related reading: How does Windows decide whether your computer has limited or full Internet access?

Some follow-up notes on how Windows decides whether your computer has Internet access.

The idea behind probing the Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) endpoint is that the system wants to know whether access to “random” Web sites will succeed, and it checks this by accessing the NCSI endpoint, which is a “random” Web site. If the access to the NCSI endpoint fails, then access to other “random” Web sites will probably also fail.³

Yes, this can be hacked by setting up a weird WiFi network. But who cares? All that’ll happen is that the user on your network gets the wrong connectivity icon (either being told that they have full connectivity when they don’t, or vice versa), and they’ll try to connect to some Web site, and they’ll get an error, and now you have a support problem when they complain that your WiFi is broken.

Yes, this can be fooled by uncommon network configurations. But that means that connections to random Web sites are probably also going to fail, seeing as there’s nothing particularly special about the NCSI endpoint. A user who opens a Web browser is probably not going to be able to browse the Internet.

An important detail is that the NCSI endpoint uses http, not https. If the endpoint had been https, then the captive portal’s interruption would break the secure connection (which is what we experienced above), whereas on http, the captive portal can inject a redirect to their sign-in page.

You can configure the NCSI probes via Group Policy. You can read more on the page I linked to in the original post.

This technique for detecting basic Internet access is common across all major operating systems. Windows isn’t doing anything particular sneaky here.

¹ That’s one of the things I don’t get about the conspiracy theorists who look for clues like this. If you assume that there’s some deep, highly-organized, hyper-competent conspiracy afoot, why also assume that this highly-organized conspiracy is not just inept at keeping secrets, but is openly bragging out in public? The first rule of Fight Club is “you do not talk about Fight Club.” The second rule of Fight Club is “YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.”

² Yes, I use ridiculously old memes. I’m slow to pick up on these things.

³ In Windows 10, the name of the endpoint changed from msftncsi to msftconnecttest, presumably to make the purpose of the access more obvious in security and audit logs. Nobody will understand that NCSI stands for Network Connectivity Status Indicator. (They’ll probably confuse it with the Naval Crime Investigative Service.)

The post Trouble connecting to Web sites and services because of certificate errors? Check if you’re being held captive appeared first on The Old New Thing.

The Skyrim Warden of the Coast DLC-sized mod is a new modification that adds fully-voiced Dragon Age and Mass Effect-like companions to the game.

Another day, another mod for The Elder Scrolls V many would say. This mod, however, will surely be appreciated by Bioware fans.

Created by modder 'TheBawb', this mod adds 9 Bioware-style companions to the game, each with a corresponding loyalty questline. It packs over 9000 lines of voiced dialogue between 27 voice actors alongside 7 romance questlines, a three-companion exploration system, new interiors, two new world spaces, and more. According to the creator of the mod, the Warden of the Coast adds roughly 10 to 15 hours of gameplay per playthrough via a player-choice-driven story with 5 primary endings.

“Warden of the Coast is a fully-voiced DLC-sized adventure heavily inspired by the game mechanics of Mass Effect and Dragon Age”, the description of this exciting mod reads. “Travel to an isolated island, earn the loyalty of your 9 companions, stop a daedric lord from returning to power, and close shut the jaws of Oblivion once more!”

We've included the main features of this mod down below:

Skyrim Warden of the Coast DLC-Sized Mod Main Features

• Over 9,000 lines of skillfully voiced dialogue between 27 Voice Actors.
• 9 Bioware-style companions, each with a corresponding loyalty questline.
• A three-companion exploration system.
• 7 romance questlines.
• A player-choice driven story with 5 primary endings.
• 10-15 Hours of gameplay per playthrough.
• A dynamic companion regard system modified through dialogue, player kills, and quest choices.
• Functionality to level up companions and revive them during combat.
• Two new world spaces.
• 19 new interiors.

Those interested can download the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Warden of the Coast DLC-sized adventure mod from Nexusmods. Please note that this mod is for Skyrim: Special Edition.

Skyrim is available globally now for PC and consoles. The game was originally released back in 2011 and recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The post Skyrim Warden of the Coast DLC-Sized Mod Adds Dragon Age and Mass Effect-like Companions by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.

It’s dangerous to have Zelda opinions. Here, take mine!

You can learn a lot about someone by asking what their favorite The Legend of Zelda game is.

It’s a series so vast and so popular that anyone who plays video games has some opinion of it. You have the people who got into video games because they played Ocarina of Time as a kid. You also have the people who say Zelda has never been good since it went 3D. Even the games someone didn’t play can be revealing. For example, I considered whether or not I was qualified to write this list because I never touched The Minish Cap or A Link Between Worlds. Hey, don’t look at me, I skipped the 3DS game because someone gave it a 6.5.

In other words, an objective ranking of Zelda games is impossible. Yet by the same token, every time someone ranks their favorite Zelda games, the greater the chance that someone’s niche tastes and opinions will finally get the light of day. With that in mind, here is my very subjective, deeply imperfect ranking of the 10 best Zelda games that does not include The Minish Cap. I’m counting on you in the comments to tell me where on the list that should belong.

UPDATE 5/11/2023: I've touched up some of the language used in select entries. More notably, a teaser for Tears of the Kingdom has been included.

10: Zelda II: Adventure of Link (1987)

If I were to rank weird NES sequels that are considered black sheep of their respective series, Zelda II would be near the top of that list.

It is bewildering, confusing, and often just too dang hard. It’s also a fascinating merger of side scrolling action and RPG elements that remains interesting to this day. Even if the Zelda series abandoned this formula, it spirits lives on in indie games like Infernax.

9: The Legend of Zelda (1986)

The original Legend of Zelda is a bit awkward by modern standards. It has archaic design quirks and a messy translation that practically necessitates that you play it with a strategy guide open. Having said that, there’s something endearing about the sheer simplicity of The Legend of Zelda. You get plopped right onto the field, go into a cave, get a sword, and you’re in your first dungeon in a handful of minutes if you know where to go. It's immediately easy to learn, yet uncovering all its secrets is a commitment of its own.

A wildly impressive game upon release, and still worth playing today despite its age.

8: Oracle of Seasons / Oracle of Ages (2001)

Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages owe a lot of their identity to Link’s Awakening. In fact, friends often thought I was playing Link’s Awakening back when these released.

Still, the novelty of releasing two full-length connected Zelda games that focus on action and puzzles respectively helps these titles stand out to this day. With all the Zelda games that have received remakes, I say these should be the next titles to get a fresh coat of paint.

7: Twilight Princess (2006)

It’s funny that Twilight Princess was once celebrated as a return to “mature” Link after the cel-shaded art style of Wind Waker resulted in relatively weak sales. Yet now, Wind Waker enjoys greater fan acclaim while Twilight Princess is relatively more divisive. For me, while Twilight Princess isn’t a series highlight, it is still a fun Zelda romp with its own appeal.

It’s clear this one was made for Ocarina of Time fans, and it does perfectly well building on that formula. Personally, my memories of this game are tied up with the launch of the Wii, so Wolf Link sections probably didn’t bother me just because of my sheer excitement playing my new console. Still, I’d stand by Twilight Princess being well worth your time.

6: Ocarina of Time (1998)

There are two types of people in the world: Those who think Ocarina of Time is the best game of all time, and those who disagree. I personally don't believe Ocarina of Time has aged well enough to recieve such accolades. That said, I understand its place in history and respect the myriad of ways it pushed video games forward as a form of art.

Still, if you can go into this one without expecting the pinnacle of all video games, Ocarina of Time is very enjoyable. The puzzles and exploration are on point, and the contrast between the early game as a child and the later game as an adult still sticks with me. As the game that set the formula for nearly two decades of Zelda titles, it’s still impressive that they got this one so right.

5: A Link to the Past (1991)

A Link to the Past is a great sweet spot between modern sensibilities and retro charm. Though there’s a greater focus on story than the NES titles, it still has the immediacy that pushes you right into action and exploration without hesitation. It also has genuinely incredible aesthetics and music for its vintage. The first look at the Dark World atop the Pyramid of Power is striking to this day.

A Link to the Past stands up remarkably well to today's standards. It remains one of the greatest SNES games ever made.

4: Majora’s Mask (2000)

Here’s my thing about Zelda games: I like when they get weird. As far as weird Zelda games get, they don't get weirder than Majora’s Mask.

Much could be said about its gameplay revolving around a three-day cycle you repeat over and over until the game’s conclusion. For me, Majora’s Mask is all about its foreboding atmosphere. The end of the world literally hangs above you, driving a sense of urgency to everything you do. You get to learn about the people and places around you, which establishes you as a helpful observer more than a grand hero of time. There are also moments of whimsy here, which ironically drives the inherent terror of this setting further when you realize how much is as stake.

I’m not saying everyone needs to beat Majora’s Mask, but you should experience it in some fashion. Even if it's via an internet creepypasta.

3: The Wind Waker (2002)

The official “too much water” Zelda game. I get the overworld exploration can be a chore, and I hear the complaints about padding at parts. Having said all that, Wind Waker overflows with so much personality that I can’t help but love it.

While it was chided upon its release for being too kiddy, there are epic moments here that stand as high points for the franchise. On top of that, I love Link’s nimble controls here that naturally build off the N64 Zelda titles. Of the 3D Zelda games that existed before Breath of the Wild, this is the one I’ll always want to return to.

2: Breath of the Wild (2017)

In a post Elden Ring world, Breath of the Wild feels fresher now than it did in 2017. For the longest time, I could not get over quirks like weapon durability that hang over the entire adventure. Now, Breath of the Wild feels distinct because of how oddly meditative it is. Without the promise of valuable upgrades and weapons essential to your build, Breath of the Wild is a game driven by your own curiosity. Go where you want, do what you want, there’s no wrong answer as long as you’re having fun.

You'll find a core story here, but at the end of the day, Breath of the Wild focuses on your stories. Maybe you solved a puzzle in an unexpected way, or maybe you laughed hard tossing a bomb into an enemy camp and watching everyone fly off a cliff. It’s easy to see why Breath of the Wild has redefined Zelda games as we know them, and Tears of the Kingdom decidedly proves that this style of Zelda game is here to stay. Breath of the Wild isn't just a defining moment in the Zelda canon; it is one of the most important games ever made.

[caption id="attachment_377851" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid.[/caption]

???: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

Alright, here's the deal. Reviews for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have arrived. By all metrics, this game looks absolutely incredible. I don't think anyone doubted that the sequel to Breath of the Wild would become a smash hit, but watching this game reach astronomical critical heights has been a sight to behold.

That said, Tears of the Kingdom just came out. Most of us here are still getting our hands on the game and making our way through Hyrule once more. I have absolutely zero doubt that Tears of the Kingdom will appear on this list. Its ranking, however, remains to be seen. We'll need to spend ample time in Hyrule and really sit with the experience until we can make that judgment call ourselves. However, our own Chris Carter gave it a 10. I expect this game to go down as one of the greatest Zelda games of all time.

Additionally, I've evolved my ranking methodology since this list originally debuted in December 2022. I won't just evaluate where Tears of the Kingdom will rank, but I'll reconsider the other Zelda titles. That said, I stand firm in my love for the game at the top of this list. To this day, this title remains one of the most unique Zelda adventures ever created.

1: Link’s Awakening (1993)

I know, I know, this is a bold pick for best Zelda game. Objectively, I know Breath of the Wild is the more impressive game. Yet like I said at the top, someone’s pick for best Zelda game tells you a lot about them. I can be summed up as “one of those people who cried at the ending of Link's Awakening as a kid and won't shut up about it roughly 30 years later.”

Honestly, I have a hard time feeling fully immersed in most Zelda games. They’re fun adventures with big stories, but they don’t speak to me in the way my favorite games do. Link’s Awakening is the sole exception. I love Koholint Island because it’s such a weird, whimsical place. Every story beat is distinct and memorable, despite the incredibly limited hardware this game is running on. Yet at the same time, there’s a thick air of melancholy hanging over everything you see and do. I love how Link’s Awakening uses its setting to drive home the impermanence of life. Everything will fade away someday, but life is like that, and you can't live inside of a dream forever.

Zelda games love to iterate on the central core of its story. The tale of Link and Zelda defeating Ganon is meaningful if you grew up attached to these characters and love to see how the story changes time and time again. Yet I love Link’s Awakening because Link isn’t the legendary hero who saves the island. He’s just a person trying to find their way, getting to know and love the world around him before it inevitably ends. In real life, we can’t relate to saving the world by ourselves. We relate to happy memories punctuated by painful goodbyes. This is the Link I can immerse myself into, and this is why Link’s Awakening is so special. It’s odd, it’s different, yet ironically, it’s the most human Zelda game ever created.

Or maybe The Minish Cap is better, this list really feels incomplete without playing that.

The post The 10 Best Zelda Games of all Time, Ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

Well over a year later, it still feels surreal to know just how close we came to losing Bob Odenkirk. In July of 2021, the immensely talented and popular actor collapsed during filming of the final season of "Better Call Saul" and had to be rushed for medical attention after suffering a heart attack. After friends, family, and fans at large waited together with bated breath for updates on his condition, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was revealed that Odenkirk was on the mend. Thankfully, he not only made a full recovery, but he was also able to get back on set of "Better Call Saul" to resume production within a matter of weeks after his health scare.

In the big picture, the fate of a critically acclaimed television series ranked dead last in comparison to the well-being of Odenkirk and his family, friends, and colleagues. But months removed from the emergency and with full knowledge that this story had a happy ending, the actor himself is now looking back at how "Better Call Saul" ultimately wrapped up (which it did in spectacular fashion, it should go without saying). Although the creative team behind "Better Call Saul" vowed not to move forward in any capacity without Odenkirk's full involvement, he's indicated that he would've preferred that someone else simply pick up where he left off and carried the show across the finish line. 

'Better Than Nothing'

Having established his reputation as a genuinely sweet and down-to-earth guy over the years, it comes as no surprise that Bob Odenkirk would take a completely ego-less view of how "Better Call Saul" ought to have proceeded in the worst case scenario. Should he have been unable to carry on in the role following his medical crisis, those involved with the show -- namely, creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould -- had no intention of moving forward if they couldn't do so with Odenkirk. Recasting Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Takovich would've been unthinkable ... but not to the star of the show.

In a behind-the-scenes clip from the upcoming Blu-ray release for the final season exclusively revealed by Fandom (vie IndieWire), the "Better Call Saul" actor opened up about that traumatic day on set and his wishes for how the show would've continued on without him.

"It was a scary day for everybody there. I've heard the stories. I mean, I really went down, I really turned grey. It really seemed over. They would have just stopped the show if I wasn't capable of doing it. They wouldn't have tried to go on, which makes me feel bad! If that'd happened, I would have liked it if they got some actor to play him. Just to tell the story that they had written."

Amazingly, Odenkirk expresses his concerns that the wonderfully well-written story be told to completion, even if it meant recasting. As he admits, "It wouldn't have been great, but it would have been better than nothing." It's impossible to imagine any other actor stepping up in such difficult circumstances to fill Odenkirk's shoes -- and, luckily, we'll never have to. Here's to many, many more years with Bob Odenkirk, both on and off the screen.

Read this next: The 15 Most Influential Horror Movie Stars Of All Time

The post Bob Odenkirk Wanted Better Call Saul to Finish After His Heart Attack, Even If They Had to Recast Him appeared first on /Film.

Gardeners might seem like they have every implement ever created for gardening, but there are some stand-by favorites as well as unique finds that can please even the most prolific plant addict. From back-saving tools to houseplant care, take a look at this list for some ideas to inspire the plant enthusiast on your…

Read more...

[link] [73 comments]

A free Elden Ring DLC update is on the way, and it appears to be the long rumoured and leaked colosseum PvP fighting mode, as it utilises the closed off colosseums from the base game to let you fight against other players in the FromSoftware open-world game.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best Elden Ring builds, Elden Ring bosses, The best Elden Ring classes

Microsoft recently considered building a "super app" that could combine shopping, messaging, web search, news feeds and other services in a one-stop smartphone app, in what would be an ambitious move by the software giant to expand further into consumer services, The Information reported Tuesday, citing people with direct knowledge of the discussions. From the report: Microsoft executives wanted the app to boost the company's multibillion-dollar advertising business and Bing search, as well as draw more users to Teams messaging and other mobile services. Unlike Apple and Google, Microsoft doesn't operate a mobile app store for smartphone users. By creating an all-in-one app that people don't need to leave to access its other offerings, Microsoft hoped to emulate a mobile strategy that has worked for Tencent. The Chinese firm's WeChat app, which combines messaging with shopping, online games, news and a variety of services including grocery ordering, is a source of inspiration for top Microsoft executives, the people said. While it isn't clear whether Microsoft will ultimately launch such an app, the people with knowledge of the discussions said CEO Satya Nadella has laid the groundwork by pushing the Bing search engine to work better with other Microsoft mobile products. For instance, he has directed Bing to integrate with Microsoft's Teams messaging and Outlook email apps, making it easier for customers to share search results in messages.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A password manager can do a lot more than store your passwords for you.

Pirate ships were the start-ups of their day. During the “golden age of piracy” (approximately 1650-1720), countless thousands of sailors and underground entrepreneurs tried their luck at high-seas robbery, launching criminal operations with very little capital and a massive potential for profit, just like that app…

Read more...

Lost Between Worlds feels a little bit lost at sea.

The Long Dark: Tales from the Far Territory is the 12-month long expansion pass for The Long Dark and it's out now, along with the game now split into different parts.

Upon reflection, there couldn't be two '90s Hollywood studio films that are more opposite than Barry Sonnenfeld's "Addams Family Values" and Robert Zemeckis' "Forrest Gump." Both released in the mid-1990s (although the novel "Forrest Gump" was released a decade before making it to the big screen), the two films might represent the ends of an anarchist spectrum. On the one hand, the Addams family is a creepy bunch of murderers who live in a strange haunted mansion, and who take delight in the misery of others. They live far out on the fringe and they love it. They spray blood on people, pour boiling oil on Christmas carolers, and, in the famous climax of "Values," kill off all the counselors at a summer camp. 

"Forrest Gump," meanwhile, is a cube of American cornpone about the Rockwellian nature of old American institutions. "Forrest Gump" argues that the inside was the place to be, and by unwittingly buying into capitalism, into the military, and rejecting the hippie movement, one would achieve wealth and success. "Forrest Gump" seeks to reinforce the American status quo while wistfully smiling. "Addams Family Values" seeks to burn it down while wickedly cackling. While "Gump" would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, Sonnenfeld's two "Addams Family" movies more openly represent the bleak humor and dissatisfaction permeating the 1990s. 

In 2021, Sonnenfeld was interviewed by Variety on the legacy of his movies based on the comics of Charles Addams, the first of which was then celebrating its 30th anniversary. Despite the odd horror of his film, it was a big hit, and Paramount started going to Sonnenfeld for new projects. Weirdly enough, he was next asked to take on "Forrest Gump." The director reveals that he did sign on to the project but, as history attests, he eventually left to be altogether ooky.

Adult Characters With Childlike Minds

Barry Sonnenfeld began his career as a cinematographer, having shot "Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona," and "Miller's Crossing" for the Coen brothers, as well as high-profile comedy films like "Throw Momma From the Train" and "Big." Sonnenfeld seems to have fostered warm relationships with actors he's worked with, having the wherewithal to call up Tom Hanks, who was given carte blanche to try out some wild improv in "Big," to appear in "Forrest Gump." Everything was moving forward, despite — it seems — a small amount of trepidation. As Sonnenfeld said in an interview with Variety: 

"[Producer] Gary Lucchesi had sent me this book called 'Forrest Gump' and he said read it and tell me we need to do it because 'I have eight scripts and they're all terrible.' I said, 'Let's change the main character from a big fat guy that's a really big running back to a thin guy that runs all the time and I'll send it to Hanks because I had shot "Big" with him.' I said, 'You'll probably not want to do it because it's similar to "Big" in that it's another man-child kind of thing.' Hanks loved it. He signed on, I was signed on to direct it."

The original "Forrest Gump" novel was written by Winston Groom in 1986, and the title character was originally written as a tall, imposing lummox. The character possesses a low IQ, but he also views the world practically and compassionately. "Big," meanwhile, was about a 12-year-old boy who, thanks to a magic spell, wakes up one morning having suddenly aged to his 30s. The premise isn't the same, but Sonnenfeld knew these would both be instances of Hanks playing adult characters with childlike minds.

'Now You Need To Go Have Dinner'

Paramount was to release "Addams Family Values," in November of 1993. As it so happened, Sonnenfeld had made a film called "For Love or Money" which was released by Universal the previous month. "Money" starred Michael J. Fox as a hotel doorman who is asked to "look after" a wealthy client's secret mistress (Gabrielle Anwar). Naturally, Fox and Anwar's characters fall in love. "Money" was in the middle of shooting when Sonnenfeld — already planning on doing "Forrest Gump" next — heard that a sequel to "Addams" was nigh. He was torn enough to ask his lead actor for advice. As Sonnenfeld recalls: 

"[A] year and a half [after the first film], Paramount decides to make 'Addams Family Values,' so I had a choice between staying with 'Forrest Gump' or going back to the very first thing I'd ever directed. I was working ... with Michael J. Fox, and I said, 'what should I do?' Michael said, 'you set the table with "Addams Family," now you need to go have dinner.' I loved directing 'Addams Family Values.' Christina Ricci and Christine Baranski and Peter MacNicol and Joan Cusack are particularly funny in that film.

Sonnenfeld doesn't express any regrets about turning down "Forrest Gump" in the Variety interview. While "Gump" was a juggernaut at the box office (it made over $678 million worldwide), "Values" was a hit unto itself, and remains a celebrated comedy classic to this day. Sonnenfeld's film has also not undergone quite the same re-litigation as "Gump," with Zemeckis' film having been largely reassessed in recent years. Zemeckis may have won Oscars, but Sonnenfeld made the stranger, more beloved film. 

Read this next: The 19 Greatest Movie Couples Of All Time Ranked

The post Barry Sonnenfeld Turned Down Forrest Gump To Direct The Addams Family Sequel appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Facebook parent company Meta on Monday threatened to remove news from its social media platform in the US if Congress approves a bill that would allow news organizations to collectively bargain with tech companies for compensation. Andy Stone, Meta's head of policy communications, wrote on Twitter that Facebook would "be forced to consider removing news" if the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act becomes law. He added that the proposal fails to recognize that publishers and broadcasters put their content on Facebook "because it benefits their bottom line -- not the other way around." The bill, which was proposed in March 2021, is reportedly being considered by lawmakers for inclusion with a must-pass annual defense bill. The News Media Alliance, a trade group representing newspaper publishers that supports the bill, called Facebook's threat "undemocratic and unbecoming," adding that "as the tech platforms compensate news publishers around the world, it demonstrates there is a demand and economic value for news." More than 20 organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, have urged lawmakers to reconsider support for the "problematic" bill, warning (PDF) that it would "create an ill-advised antitrust exemption for publishers and broadcasters." A similar law in Australia giving the government power to make internet giants Meta and Alphabet's Google negotiate content supply deals with media outlets has largely worked, a government report said last week. But the bill did result in a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For FreeBSD users not yet on the FreeBSD 13 stable series, FreeBSD 12.4 is now available as the newest point release to that N-1 series...

With The Witcher 3 next gen release date right around the corner we’re all eagerly anticipating jumping back into one of CD Projekt Red’s best RPG games, which will include improved performance and mod integration across PC and console. Exactly which mods we’ll have and how they’ll be added into the game remains to be seen, but CD Projekt Red has come out in the meantime to explain how these mods will work, and the steps it has taken for the modders themselves.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The Witcher 3 mods, The Witcher 4 news, Play The Witcher 3

UK publisher Rebellion is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. As part of that, the company is giving away one of its most notable games – Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000. This is the updated version of Rebellion's best stab at AvP, which originally released in 1999, and was published by Fox Interactive.

You can grab the game by heading over to Rebellion's storefront, where the offer is displayed proudly on the front page. There is a minor catch. You have to sign up to Rebellion's newsletter, after which a Steam key for the game will be sent to you.

Read more