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You didn't see this coming?

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" finally hit U.S. theaters on Friday, and wow, wow, wow. The action is amazing, the jokes are hilarious and the Avengers are avenging.

Even with all the awesomeness, there may be another reason altogether why the movie is a brilliant follow-up to the third highest-grossing release of all time. After the first "Avengers" movie, a theory began popping up online, and it may have just been confirmed in the final scene of "Age of Ultron."

The theory: Loki wanted to lose the entire time.



Image: Giphy


(Warning: "Ultron" spoilers below. The Avengers can't save you!)


In "Avengers," Loki is set on trying to take over Earth, so the Avengers come together in the nick of time, save the day and now everything is cool, right? Well, maybe not.

In the first "Thor" movie, Loki makes it pretty clear that he wants power, but not to take over Earth. The dude wants Asgard. So why make a move for Earth at all? It seems like a super waste of time. Unless something else is going on ...

It's probably a lot easier to take over Asgard if you're actually on Asgard. Loki supposedly wants a ride back but doesn't want to raise suspicions that he's trying to take over. What better way to do that than epically failing to take over Earth and being taken home by your bro? But he's not the only one that wants this to happen.

Writer Andrew Black neatly lays it out on his website The Mask of Reason:

Loki losing to the Avengers was the best possible outcome for both Loki, who can now try to take over Asgard again, and Thanos, who now has potential access to the Infinity Gauntlet.

That's right. Thanos wants the Infinity Gauntlet, Loki wants Asgard and the entire first movie was just their elaborate plan to make it happen:


Image: Giphy

What's crazy is there are little clues that hint at this along the way. First, the "Thor" movies show us glimpses of the Gauntlet, confirming it's in Asgard:



Then, at the end of "Thor: The Dark World," we see Loki has taken control of the Asgardian throne. Finally, the last scene of "Age of Ultron" shows what? Thanos getting the Infinity Gauntlet.

As if that weren't enough, redditors take things a step further, saying that during the first movie Loki may have also been under mind control from Thanos due to one of the Infinity stones, à la what happened to Hawkeye.

Of course, Jeremy Renner's character gets knocked around and eventually snaps out of it, and Loki could have, too, after Hulk smashed him into the floor at the end of "Avengers." If true, this is something Thanos may not even be aware of and could give Loki the chance to make a power play later.


Image: Giphy

Joss Whedon reportedly loves the "Infinity Gauntlet" storyline from the Marvel comics, so it makes sense that he'd be the architect behind this long game. Whedon told Vulture that Thanos doesn't have a big role in "Avengers 2" because at this point he is "meant to be the puppet-master." And this theory shows that, despite what Ultron says, everyone seems to have some of Thanos' strings on them, except perhaps Loki.


Image: Bustle

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Mark Ruffalo has kindly asked Marvel for more Black Widow merchandise.

"Marvel, we need more #BlackWidow merchandise for my daughters and nieces", the Avengers star tweeted out. "Pretty please"

Ruffalo's tweet comes in response to news that very little official Avengers: Age of Ultron merchandise features the character. As brought to my attention by The Mary-Sue, out of 56 official items on Marvel.com, Black Widow can be found on four. Other Marvel retailers like Hot Topic and SuperHeroStuff don't offer much more.

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Today at Build 2015 in San Francisco, Microsoft rolled out its latest, very impressive, Hololens demos.

Today Microsoft revealed a number of new features relating to their various platforms at their BUILD developer conference. One of the most interesting features shown was the Continuum feature of Windows 10 phones. Microsoft has previously shown off the ability for tablets to connect to larger screens and input peripherals to act as a computer, and they have now shown those same abilities working on a smartphone. This is possible because applications developed for Windows 10 will be universal applications that can scale from your phone, to your computer, to your television.

During the keynote a Windows 10 smartphone was shown connected to a large display via HDMI, as well as to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. This allowed the phone to essentially act as though it were a Windows 10 computer, with applications like PowerPoint and Excel scaling to use the same layout that you would see when running them on a normal desktop computer. This type of dynamic behavior extends from interface changes to input paradigm changes as well. Devices may change their preferred input mode or interface to suit the peripherals that are or are not attached to a device.

Continuum looks like it will be a very interesting feature. Users will have to wait some time to get their hands on it though, as it won't be available in the preview release of Windows 10 that is scheduled to come out tomorrow. Microsoft has created a short video to explain a bit more about Continuum on Windows 10 phones and the potential use cases that they see for it, and I've embedded that video above.

Much to the dismay of some viewers watching at home, Microsoft's BUILD developer conference today actually focused on technologies designed to benefit developers. However, some of the new developer technologies shown today may end up having profound impacts on Windows users. While Microsoft has never had any issues with making software available for Windows on the desktop, the same can't be said about Windows in the mobile space. Windows Phones and tablets have suffered from a lack of applications compared to their Android and iOS counterparts, and Microsoft hasn't been able to convince many developers to make Windows a priority for their mobile applications. Given this situation, Microsoft had to find another solution to the problem, and today at BUILD they showed what may very well be it.

The first big announcement was Project Astoria, which enables support for running Android applications programmed in Java or C++ on Windows 10 phones. During the keynote this was described as an "Android Subsystem" within Windows. The end result is that developers can bring their Android applications over to Windows 10 phones with minimal effort. There will still be issues with applications that link into Google Play services for features like Maps and location, but there are now far fewer hurdles for developers than there have been in the past. Microsoft demonstrated this during the keynote by showing the Choice Hotels application for Android running on a Windows 10 smartphone. The demo did run into a few issues, but it was still impressive to see.

What's even more remarkable is Microsoft's work to allow developers to use existing code from iOS applications programmed in Objective C to make Windows 10 applications. This new initiative is called Project Islandwood, and it allows developers can take their existing applications written in Objective C, have Visual Studio convert the Xcode project into a Visual Studio solution, and compile it for Windows 10. The demo shown on stage showed an application written for the iPad being compiled to run on Windows. Not only did it work well, but the application itself was not just a basic app. Apps using UIKit and Core Animation compile fine as Windows 10 applications, and it will be very interesting to see just how far this solution can go in bringing complicated applications over to Windows.

The demonstration during the keynote was a mathematics game which utilized the UIKit framework and Core Animation, and had very complication visual effects and animation. Despite this, the demo worked even more smoothly than the Android application demonstration, and even worked with input using the mouse. Microsoft also revealed that the ability to easily bring applications programmed in Objective C to Windows 10 is not something coming in the distant future, but is a technology that exists now and has already been put to use by game company King in bringing their Candy Crush Saga game to Windows Phone.

One important thing to note is that while Project Islandwood for iOS applications allows developers to create universal Windows apps, Project Astoria is strictly for bringing Android applications to Windows 10 phones.

These two announcements from Microsoft may end up being a game changer for Windows 10 applications on the desktop and more importantly on mobile. Developers still need to be convinced to focus on Windows, but if moving applications over from iOS and Android is as easy as Microsoft has claimed then it shouldn't be very difficult to get developers on board. Only time will tell how this ends up playing out.

Mervyn O’Gorman (1871-1958) is best known as one of the greatest British engineers, and during WW1 was head of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. O’Gorman was also known as an early pioneer of color photography, and was an artist in addition to his interest aeronautics. Many of his images are included in exhibitions referencing early color photography, including this dreamlike series of his daughter Christina using the Autochrome process in 1913. The Autochrome process, patented in 1903, was the first fully practical single-plate color process that was accessible to the public.

The beach images are from Lulworth Cove, Dorset and feature her in a bright red swimming costume—a color the early process captured well. Christina is also captured in red in every other scene, drawing the eye immediately to the subject and her long strawberry blonde hair. The up-close image of Christina has an oddly modern feel as her clothing is hard to pin to a singular time period. O’Gorman’s wife Florence and second daughter are featured in the last portrait, the photographer’s camera box seen just to the left of his family. (via PetaPixel, Mashable, and National Media Museum)

Jackie Chan has some pretty strong words for the makers of modern action movies.

Speaking with IndieWire, the actor shared his feeling about the state of action movies, and how what is seen on screen isn't necessarily "real."

"I think, slowly, slowly, the real action's gone. Really," he said. "Because, now we still have a few people who do the real stunts, the real action like Hong Bang, like me, like Sammo Hung and others. But, when these people are gone, when we retire, I think it's going to be difficult because the real action is really, really difficult!

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Just when you didn't think Game of Thrones couldn't get any better, Japan has to go and prove us all wrong. If you're in Tokyo and want to pick up any book in George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, you might just find a super rad, manga-style cover by artist Noriko Meguro. Take a look at the gallery below.

You can expand the slideshow above to view images in higher resolution. You can also view much larger images in our Japanese Game of Thrones Cover Gallery. Also, if you think these covers are different than ours, check out the crazy amount of differences in the HBO series compared to the books.

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35 years since they were taken, Luke Skywalker has shared his family photos from the set of Return of the Jedi.

Hamill's (frankly adorable) photos show himself, his wife Marilou and son Nathan kicking back in The Emperor's throne room, Yoda's hut, surrounded by Ewoks and more. They paint a friendly, fun and very welcoming set; head to Starwars.com for the full album.

via Starwars.com

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Back in February when we shared our “Firestarter” CG trailer with you all, I promised that we’d be back soon with our first ever gameplay trailer, and that it would be full of “holy s***!” moments. Well, today we are very happy to be able to deliver on that promise, and hopefully you’ll agree that it was worth the wait!

In the trailer, you’ll get to see the sheer amount of over-the-top action that we’re packing into the game. You’ll get to see the world, the chaos, the destruction, new vehicles, new gameplay mechanics and more. The pace is pretty relentless, so you may find yourself watching on repeat to make sure you don’t miss anything.

And yes, it’s all actual gameplay. There is some cinematic camera work going on there of course, but these are not cut scenes, nothing is scripted or any of that jazz. Everything you see in the trailer, you’ll be able to recreate yourself, if you’re good enough!

Needless to say, this is just a first glimpse, so there’s a lot we’re not showing you just yet. We can’t wait to roll out more explosiveness over the next few months.

We’re hyped to finally get Just Cause 3 gameplay footage out there – let us know what you think in the comments below.

The post Watch the first Just Cause 3 gameplay trailer now appeared first on PlayStation.Blog.Europe.

The EmDrive, an experimental propulsion device, may be producing a warp field.

According to posts on the NASA Space Flight forum, when lasers were fired into the EmDrive resonance chamber, it was found that some of the beams were travelling faster than the speed of light.

If this is true, then it would mean that the EmDrive is producing a warp field or bubble. A forum post says that "this signature (the interference pattern) on the EmDrive looks just like what a warp bubble looks like. And the math behind the warp bubble apparently matches the interference pattern found in the EmDrive."

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Joss Whedon has revealed that he made more money on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog than directing Marvel's The Avengers.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron director revealed the revelation with The Wall Street Journal, which chronicled Disney and Marvel's unique, budget-focused hiring practice for their superhero films. "They are in the business of hiring the guy who hasn’t had a big success, because they don’t have to pay that guy very much,” said Whedon.

What's surprising about that is the fact the first Avengers cost $230 million USD to produce and made around $1.5 billion USD worldwide. Even so, Whedon claims his self-produced Dr. Horrible series was more successful financially for him.

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True believers were surprised to hear yesterday that Telltale Games and Marvel Entertainment would soon join forces for one of gaming's unlikeliest Marvel Team-Ups. Telltale has become widely recognized for two seasons of The Walking Dead (the first of which garnered Game of the Year honors from Shacknews), but it's also no rookie when it comes to the comic book world, having provided a sterling first season for the Fables-based The Wolf Among Us. The studio is also no stranger to massive media properties, as it's currently undertaking a Game of Thrones story.

But on top of the question of whether Telltale can bring its storytelling touch to Marvel, there's a question that's aching to be answered. Exactly which corner of the Marvel Universe is about to get the Telltale treatment? Shacknews is going to make some educated guesses today, while keeping the following tenets in mind:

• No two Telltale series of the last five years have been thematically alike. The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and Game of Thrones have all been atmospherically different.
• Telltale utilizes action sequences, but because it's a studio more versed in narrative, it's likely safe to rule out many of the more action-based Marvel heroes.
• The Marvel deal has not specified whether it will adapt movie, television, or comic book properties.

With all that in mind, here are five of our best guesses.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Marvel has stated at various points that Agent Phil Coulson is one of the hearts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He's the everyman. He's the average human that offers a window into a world of gods and larger-than-life heroes. Yet Coulson is every bit a hero himself, whether it's been through his years of service to S.H.I.E.L.D., his selfless sacrifice in the first "Avengers" movie, or his ongoing heroics on ABC's weekly hit series.

Telltale has more than one option for a game based on "Agents." The show in the present day has enough characters for players to interact with. It can focus on Coulson, the smart-as-a-whip Jemma Simmons, the neurotic Leo Fitz, or the Inhuman-in-training Skye. An episodic series can focus on the persistent Hydra threat, the insurrection of former agent Grant Ward, or an entirely different corner of the Marvel Universe.

There's also a more interesting corner to explore and that's Coulson's past. Outside of an amazing Marvel One-Shot called "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer" that's packed onto the "Captain America: The First Avenger" Blu-Ray, fans haven't had a chance to witness much of Coulson's past work. They've been told plenty of times that he's been a historically great agent, but they've seen few examples. Last week's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." episode, titled "Melinda," offered a flashback to Coulson and Agent Melinda May's earlier days when they were on the front lines. Telltale has a chance to tell another story about their early adventures, before the Avengers Initiative was ever a blip on Nick Fury's radar.

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Agent Carter

"Agent Carter" spun off from "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." as a limited series, but it didn't take quite as long for it to resonate with viewers. Despite declining ratings, "Agent Carter" seemed to have a more positive buzz surrounding it than "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." did, thanks in part to its better writing, more interesting 1950s setting, and charismatic lead lady. Unfortunately, those ratings may be a sticking point and could mean Peggy Carter won't be back for a second adventure.

If ABC does indeed cancel it, a Telltale series would be an interesting way to give her story some follow-up. While she was able to foil Leviathan forces, the story did not appear to be over, with Red Skull's top lieutenant, Arnim Zola, spotted in the series' closing minutes. There's more story to be told, including Carter's formation of the original S.H.I.E.L.D. It would also fit into the Telltale motif of no two worlds being thematically the same, allowing them to explore a post-World War II world and the Truman-era United States.

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Daredevil

Marvel's Netflix experiment has been a big success thus far, with "Daredevil" receiving almost universal acclaim. It's also been picked up for a second season. So what's next for The Man Without Fear? Maybe a Telltale series taking place in Hell's Kitchen?

Daredevil's filled with high-octane action sequences, but first and foremost, he's Matt Murdock. He's a lawyer, an area that's largely underrepresented in games, outside of Capcom's Ace Attorney series. With Telltale's penchant for dialogue and choice, a Daredevil game could follow up action sequences with interrogations, one-on-ones with clients, and courtroom drama. There's a human side to Daredevil and exploring Matt Murdock's character would be a great use of Telltale's talents.

It could also provide a path for some of Telltale's most ambitious storytelling techniques to date. While much of the story would be offered in traditional third-person perspective, the developer could also utilize sequences that would go into the blind Daredevil's first-person view. Players would be able to see through his heightened senses react to certain actions accordingly. There's ample room for experimentation, which would make a Daredevil game an ideal companion to the ongoing Netflix series.

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Ms. Marvel

Now it's time to delve into the world of comic books, something I hear Marvel still excels at. For an example, one need look no further than G. Willow Wilson's Eisner-nominated "Ms. Marvel" series. The House of Ideas turned some heads when it announced that Carol Danvers would take over the Captain Marvel role and her former Ms. Marvel mantle would be carried on by a young Muslim high school girl named Kamala Khan.

"Ms. Marvel" is a reminder of everything that's wonderful and whimsical about comic books. The series has its serious moments, in which Kamala struggles to find her identity and tries to balance her growing social life, her strict religious upbringing, and her newfound superpowers. But by and large, it's a series that's light-hearted at its core. Kamala's a girl that's geeky at heart. She writes fan fiction, plays MMORPGs (creating ample opportunity for a number of video game inside references), and moderates web forums. She relates more to the game-playing audience at home than many realize, especially when it comes to the little things in life, like finding a lost puppy (**cough**) on the street.

So a series that centers around Kamala further establishing her superhero identity while bumping into a number of superhero tropes for the first time could be a lot of fun. She could geek out over a team-up with another character (read a recent "Amazing Spider-Man" two-parter and try not to smile when Spidey groans at seeing a younger version of himself in Kamala), train with S.H.I.E.L.D. (a recent "S.H.I.E.L.D." issue had Kamala and Jemma Simmons as mutual confidants by the end), learn more about her Inhuman heritage, or just have a run-in with a D-list supervillain like Stilt Man or The Shocker.

With Marvel's increased emphasis on heroes for a new generation, a Telltale series could mean some great exposure for some of their newer characters. Kamala Khan deserves to be at the forefront of that effort.

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Howard the Duck

Here's a dark horse candidate if there ever was one. Marvel was paying close attention to the reception a certain mallard got after the "Guardians of the Galaxy" credits. It looks like the 1980s big screen abomination is largely a memory and the world is ready for the real Howard the Duck to step forward.

While the character himself is quite interesting, the real appeal in a Telltale-helmed Howard the Duck series would be to see just how zany it could get. Howard has dealt with some of the most bizarre corners of the Marvel Universe, with his history including encounters with a giant gingerbread man, a bell-helmet wearing scientist named Doctor Bong, numerous parody characters, and even the Marvel Zombies.

A Howard the Duck story would easily be one of the most off-the-wall efforts from Telltale, allowing them to explore vastly uncharted territory. The central focus of this particular Howard story would most likely be up to them, as he isn't completely tied down to any real continuity. Heck, S.H.I.E.L.D. even tried to legally erase his existence from the record books. The story would basically be a lot of fourth-wall breaking, a lot of parodies, and some deranged humor. The case against this is that Howard doesn't often interact with other corners of the Marvel Universe, though there are plenty of opportunities to introduce some of his closer friends in the superhero world, like She-Hulk. But with rumors of a new Howard the Duck movie floating around, a Telltale game wouldn't be a bad barometer to gauge interest.

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Those are our guesses. What do you think will come of the Telltale/Marvel collaboration? We've already had some fine ideas thrown out there, like Chatty's vertdang envisioning a Poker Night 3 with Marvel characters, unfolding like many of The Thing's wild poker games with Marvel's heroes. What say you all? Who do you think the Telltale Marvel game will be based on, if anyone?

Director David Ayer has revealed the first official image of Jared Leto as The Joker in Suicide Squad. Take a look at The Killing Joke homage below.

 

For comparison, check out The Killing Joke's Joker below.

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Handy aperture, shutter speed and ISO graphic.

Neat little info graphic to teach beginners how aperture, shutter speed and ISO affect a photo.