Spoilers follow for The Last of Us season two, episodes one and two
HBOs The Last of Us showed viewers in season one that it would lean heavily on the source video games for major plot points and general direction of the season while expanding on the universe, and season two has followed that to the most extreme end possible. Episode two sees Tommy and Maria lead the town of Jackson Hole against a massive wave of Infected, the likes of which we havent seen in the show (or video games) yet. This was a complete invention for the show, one that gives the episode Game of Thrones vibes, or calls to mind a battle like the siege of Helms Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Its epic in scale, with the overmatched defenders showing their skill and bravery against overwhelming odds; there is loss and pain but the good guys eventually triumph.
That mass-scale battle is paired with the most intimate and brutal violence weve seen in the entire series so far, as Joels actions finally catch up with him. His death at the hands of Abby and her crew of ex-Fireflies from Seattle is truly upsetting, even if you know it is coming and that in the twisted world that Joel and Abby inhabit, it was a form of justice.
Of course, it was pretty obvious after the first five minutes of episode one that this is where Abbys journey would take her, but it sure happened fast. You could say the same thing about when Joel dies in the video game, but ever since the HBO series was announced Ive been wondering about just how Craig Mazin would choose to tackle the events of the second game and Joels death. Part of me wondered if we wouldnt know for sure Joel was dead until near the end of the season, or if we might not find out Abbys motivations until much later. But after two episodes, we know that Abbys dad was the doctor Joel killed at the end of season one to save Ellie, a fact that makes her disturbing lust for vengeance more understandable to the television audience. In the game, on the other hand, players didnt find that out until much later a move that cast Abby in the role of "villain" that made Ellies own desire for revenge more relatable for the player
Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO
But what works in a game doesn't necessarily work in a more passive adaptation. I do think there was a way for the writers to save the full reveal for Abbys motivations for later, but I didnt really bump on how things played out here. Similarly, I wasnt really bothered by the introduction to Abbys crew and her desire to find Joel that happened at the beginning of the season premiere. But I do know a number of people who played the game feel like this has robbed the show of some mystery and changed the momentum in a way that didnt work for them, and I can appreciate that argument.
For anyone who hasnt played the games, though, Im sure that seeing the co-lead character killed off in the second episode of the season was a bit of a shock, no matter how much it was hinted at particularly after Joel went out of his way to save Abby from certain death. In another world, you could imagine that blunting her need for revenge, or at least having her forgo the extended torture of a helpless Joel. But shes clearly captivated by the opportunity in a way that even her friends are a bit horrified by. Ellie being there to find Dina unconscious and then forced to watch Abby deliver the final blow is the cherry on the disaster sundae that is this episode. Its even harder to swallow when you consider their last interaction was Ellies extreme rebuff of Joel at the dance the night before.
Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO
Its truly a wild choice for such a high-profile show, even though there was nowhere else for it to go. Pedro Pascal has been everywhere the last few years, and The Last of Us could have been his signature role. Joels death doesnt fully diminish that, but obviously even if we see him in flashbacks in this season and the next, it wont be the same as him leading an episode. To let such a marketable and popular star go must have been a tough pill for HBO to swallow, though chances are that the network knew from the beginning of negotiations that would have to happen. Regardless, its a move up there with the death of Sean Beans Ned Stark in terms of subverting audience expectations about who is going to lead the show going forward. Thatll fall to Bella Ramsey for the rest of the season.
I will say that Mazin and director Mark Mylod did a great job of balancing the many stories and cast members in this episode. Kaitlyn Dever gets her first extended amount of screen time and captures Abbys barely-contained ferocity in a way that feels like a great tribute to the game source material, despite the fact that she is not nearly as physically ripped as Abby is in the game. Her scenes with Joel and Dina are absolutely chilling, even before she has Joel on the ropes; big credit to Pascal and Isabela Merced, again, for showing a major range of emotions as they help Abby escape from the Infected only to be betrayed.
Kaitlyn Dever in HBO's The Last of UsPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO
Ramsey, meanwhile, shares a lot of time with Young Mazinos Jesse as they go on patrol and frantically search for Joel; back in Jackson, Gabriella Luna and Rutina Wesley as Tommy and Maria keep Jackson from falling to the Infected. Its a lot of threads to tie together, and the fact that this episode includes the biggest battle weve ever seen as well as Joels capture and death without feeling overstuffed is a testament to the writers, directors and cast.
Speaking of that Infected battle, I wasnt fully sold on it when I saw teases in the trailers for this season, but it was a thrilling delight. I loved seeing the preparations Jackson put into place, like the oil barrels coming down from the walls and the flamethrower brigade surrounded by snipers up on the buildings. Of course, all the best-planned defenses fail once the Infected get through the wall and all hell breaks loose, and the show successfully had me questioning whether the town would make it even though the idea of it fully falling seemed like a deviation too far from the game. It definitely fel like a response to the criticisms of a relative lack of Infected action in season one, but it worked, and the juxtaposition of the disaster befalling Jackson at large as well as the smaller-scale loss of one of its most important citizens added another layer to the grief.
Infected Score: 11/10
The showrunners say season two will have more Infected than season one lets see if theyre sticking to their word.
Tommy taking down a Bloater with a flamethrower in front of a Mailboxes Etc. store? Barrels of oil lighting a field of Infected on fire? The extremely creepy reveal of the live Infected buried and laying in wait under a field of frozen ones that emerged and chased Abby right into the path of Joel? Jacksons guard dogs coming to the rescue to keep the horde from overtaking the town? This was the most epic action weve seen out of the show yet, on a scale that we didnt get in the games. Itll be hard to top this battle.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-season-two-through-the-valley-recap-well-that-happened-020017596.html?src=rss
Star Wars Celebration is heading back to Los Angeles for the first time since 2006 to mark the franchises 50th anniversary in 2027. Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, then simply called Star Wars, first hit theaters in 1977 and the rest is history. The location was announced during the closing ceremony of this years event, which took place in Japan. Star Wars Celebration 2027 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from April 1 to April 4, 2027.
This years Star Wars Celebration brought a ton of announcements and previews into upcoming developments for the franchise. We finally got a real look at Star Wars Zero Company, a single-player turn-based tactics game expected to be released in 2026. ILM also revealed a bit more about its Meta Quest mixed-reality experience (which its calling a playset), Star Wars: Beyond Victory, and it was confirmed that Ryan Gosling will star in a film called Star Wars: Starfighter, per The Hollywood Reporter. And of course, there will be a Fortnite collaboration. With the Galactic Battle season beginning May 2, Darth Jar Jar is coming to Fortnite.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-next-star-wars-celebration-will-be-held-in-la-in-2027-for-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-first-film-194628408.html?src=rss
Nintendo surprised us with a little blast from the past this weekend, uploading a 34-year-old Super Nintendo commercial featuring Paul Rudd to its YouTube channel and its released a sequel for the Nintendo Switch 2. Rudd appears in the Switch 2 promo wearing the same outfit he wore back in 1991, but this time hes playing Mario Kart World with some celebrity friends over the new GameChat social feature. Its a charming callback to the original SNES ad, which itself is deliciously 90s and a real treat to revisit in 2025. Commercials today just dont hit the same.
Nintendo has steadily been drumming up the hype for the Switch 2s arrival since it was announced at the beginning of April. The company recently held a livestream to share a more in-depth look at Mario Kart World, which launches on the same day as the new console, revealing some of the new courses, items and assistive features like Smart Steering. Weve still got some time to wait before its all here, though. Pre-orders for the Switch 2 open on April 24, and the console will be available starting June 5.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-shares-a-vintage-snes-commercial-starring-paul-rudd-as-he-reprises-the-role-for-switch-2-171316112.html?src=rss
Beijing held whats being called the worlds first half-marathon for robots, allowing bipedal bots to compete alongside human runners, and as one might expect, ridiculousness ensued. The robots, which had human operators running with them, for the most part struggled to make it through the course at all, let alone complete the full 13 miles within the four-hour cutoff time. One fell at the starting line, Bloomberg reports. Anothers head fell off and rolled on the ground. And one collapsed and broke into pieces. They may not be gold medalists just yet, but the videos sure are entertaining.
The humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing just started! pic.twitter.com/8vr2nXQwuR The Humanoid Hub (@TheHumanoidHub) April 19, 2025
According to Bloomberg, 21 robots participated in the race, but the winner X Humanoids five-foot-ten Tiangong Ultra was one of only four to make it all the way to the end in the allotted time. And at two hours and 40 minutes, its finishing time was more than double that of the winning human runners.
The teams were allowed to do battery swaps (Tiangong Ultra reportedly finished on its third battery) and even switch out their robots mid-race for substitutes, though doing that came with time penalties. Along with Tiangong Ultra, which ran at around five miles per hour, the robot runners included Noetix Robotics N2, a Gundam-inspired robot, a female-looking bot called Huan Huan, and the 30-inch-tall Little Giant robot made by local college students, Bloomberg reports. Many of them were wearing human running shoes.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/a-bunch-of-robots-ran-a-half-marathon-alongside-humans-and-it-was-incredibly-goofy-215134524.html?src=rss
Spoilers for Lux.
Its an interesting time to be a long-running science fantasy media property in the streaming TV age. Star Trek is in the grip of an existential crisis as it (wrongly) fears its too old-aged to be relevant. Star Wars became a battlefield in the culture war and, to duck all future bad faith criticism, gave us The Rise of Skywalker. And then theres Doctor Who, which is somehow managing to plough a 62-year furrow and still fill it with original ideas. Dont believe me? This week the Doctor and Belinda go up against a sentient cartoon holding the patrons of a 1950s cinema hostage.
James Pardon / BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf
Its 1952 in a sparsely populated cinema as the audience watches a breathless newsreel on the power of the atomic bomb. The projectionist flips over to a Merrie Melodies-style cartoon of Mr. Ring-A-Ding (voiced by Alan Cumming), an old-timey song-and-dance character. Just then, a beam of moonlight shines through the window, reflecting off a teaspoon and strikes the screen. Mr. Ring-A-Ding comes to life, talking directly to the scoffing audience before emerging into the theater to the sound of screams.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Belinda are in the TARDIS trying to work out why its refusing to land on May 24, 2025. Belinda asks why he doesnt just take the ship back to his home planet for a fix, but she doesnt get a satisfactory answer. Instead, the Doctor has built a gadget that will help pull the TARDIS back to the present day, it just needs to land in a few other places first. The pair wind up in Miami in 1952 and while the Doctor initially insists Belinda stay indoors, shes eager to see what its like.
They step out into the night (slash early morning) of 1952 Miami, outside the cinema from the pre-credits, albeit three months after Mr. Ring-A-Ding came to life. Since then, the theater has been locked shut, with the 15 patrons in the audience going missing; the projectionist, Reginald Pye, has stayed behind to act as caretaker, playing films to an empty room.
They visit the diner across the street and meet the mother of one of the missing patrons, Mrs. Lowenstein, who fills in the backstory. They head into the cinema and Mr. Ring-A-Ding makes it clear hes about to trap them in film before a Mr. Ring-A-Ding short stays playing on the screen. While hes distracted, the Doctor and Belinda hot-foot it to the projection room where they meet Pye, who has been looking after the cinema patrons, all of whom have been trapped in a strip of film.
Pye has been keeping Mr. Ring-a-Ding alive and appeased by playing movies for him every night. But the sinister cartoon has also given Pye something in return: He has a film of his late wife who Mr. Ring-A-Ding can bring back as a real person, at least for a few moments each night. Following on the theme of coercion from last week, the carrot is also a stick, since Mr. Ring-A-Ding also threatens to destroy that film if Pye steps out of line.
Naturally, Mr. Ring-A-Ding isnt just a beloved old-timey cartoon character but a god, one of the same pantheon as the Toymaker, Maestro and Sutekh. His real identity is Lux Imperator, or Lord of Light, and he's determined to consume all the light he can, including the most delicious (potential) meal of all the atom bomb hes been learning about in the newsreels. To prevent the Doctor and Belinda frustrating his plans, he manages to trap them in a cartoon.
The Doctor and Belinda are turned into two-dimensional drawings, with two-dimensional minds and characterizations. In their panic, they confess their anxieties, including the Doctors worries he cant get Belinda home. As they do so, they acquire physical depth until they return to their normal selves, and then break (okay, knocking over) the fourth wall into someones living room.
The Doctor and Belinda are greeted by a trio of Doctor Who fans watching the episode who are shocked and delighted to meet their heroes. The fans, Hassan Chowdry (Samir Arrian), Lizzie Abel (Bronté Barbé) and Robyn Gossage (Steph Lacey) explain, uh, Doctor Who to the Doctor. The seasons subconscious theme of Steven Moffat envy continues, with the trio saying their favorite episode is Blink. Robyn also points out that the end of the episode is pretty obvious given that celluloid is highly explosive. Theres even time for the fans to be called annoying a facet they (like all good Doctor Who fans) will admit to with a heavy dose of self-awareness.
The trio ready to kick the Doctor out as the episode hits the 30-minute mark, which means its time for the third act. But theyre also sad, realizing that theyre the fictitious ones, not the Doctor and Belinda, as they dont have surnames. They know the characters that dont have surnames are unimportant, incidental figures in the story that will die when the time travelers crawl back through the screen. (Aside: They do in the closing credits, something that Davies alluded to in his most recent column for Doctor Who Magazine talking about the realities of giving one-shot characters names for the credits.)
The Doctor and Belinda return to the cinema, where the previously kind Mrs. Lowenstein has hauled a police officer in to arrest the pair for trespassing in a whites-only cinema. The Doctor fairly instantly calls BS, especially since the police officer is wearing a New York-style uniform: Theyre still in the film, and when they break out, the Doctor and Belinda meet Lux / Mr. Ring-A-Ding once again. Lux magically summons up long lengths of filmstrips that act like ropes, wrapping them around his wrists and raising him up high. He turns on the projector which draws the Doctors regeneration out as light, projected onto Mr. Ring. A Ding.
Belinda, meanwhile, heads off to a storage cupboard, pulls out lots of film and throws it on the floor. But Reginald the projectionist wont give her the matches she needs to start the fire until, uh, the ghost of his wife, briefly returning as a solid person, hands him the matches. Belinda then blows a hole in the roof of the cinema big enough to expose Mr. Ring-A-Ding to sunlight, which causes him to exponentially grow until hes not just bigger than the planet but bigger than the universe itself. Or something.
In the daylight of Miami, Belinda asks the Doctor how exactly Lux / Mr. Ring-A-Ding was destroyed. Were 60 percent water and we can still drown, he explains as the formerly trapped patrons of the cinema emerge from their three month imprisonment. The Doctor and Belinda have bonded over their shared worries, and Belinda is a lot more comfortable with her slightly longer route home. As they head into the TARDIS, Mrs. Flood greets the crowd and tells them if they want to see a really exciting sight, they should watch the ship disappear. Sadly, she adds, its a limited run, which will end on May 24th.
BBC Studios / Disney / Bad Wolf
Eight disconnected thoughts about Lux.
Density
Like The Robot Revolution before it, Lux is packed full of concepts and themes that could easily be the sole subject of a story. This thematic density has always been a part of Doctor Who a show that has often worn its deep political and literary ambitions on its sleeve but it can be both a blessing and a curse.
Just think about the sheer number of ideas this one episode is playing with, touching upon:
How time travel as a plot device can be implicated by race.
How media habits and consumption have changed in the last century.
How human nature hasnt changed in the last century.
How awful it is to be held hostage by your own desire.
What it would be like if a fictional character discovered they were fictional.
Thats a hell of a lot of stuff to get through in 45 minutes, even if youre not going to explore any of them. Though it may be a thrilling high-wire act Davies is pulling off, the result doesnt have anything weighty to say. Not that I expect or need every episode to be About Something In A Very Special Way, but these themes arent meant to be just window dressing.
Ironically, and to contradict what I just wrote, I found Lux to be far more enjoyable than The Robot Revolution. Free of the burden of having to introduce Belinda and lay down the shape of this years overarching storyline, the episode is able to focus on just being itself. Everything here joins up in a more satisfying way, and the emotional beats, while rushed, at least make sense.
Rhyming history
As soon as Ncuti Gatwa was held aloft by moving filmstrips, I realized how closely the scene mirrored the conclusion of The Devils Chord. Im not surprised, given both episodes feature the Doctor fighting a member of the Pantheons roster of rogue gods. After all, our heroes turn up in what is ostensibly the past of our living memory (60s last year, 50s here) to battle a god using pop culture as a vehicle (music then, cinema now). For the filmstrips here, Maestro dragged the Doctor and Ruby around Abbey Road with ribbons of music notation.
Soft Elbows
In the few times Doctor Who has acknowledged its fanbase, its with a loving elbow to their ribcages. It helps that the series is so tied to the UKs cultural DNA that everyone is a fan, even if theyre not a fan. Perhaps more importantly, Davies, Moffat and Chibnall were all prominent fans before they had TV careers. All of us are capable of conceding we are (or can be) bloody annoying at times and insufferably smug at others.
One thing did occur to me: All three times Doctor Who has acknowledged its fanbase Whizzkid in Greatest Show", the members of LINDA in Love and Monsters and here the themes are the same. Doctor Who fans are always kind-hearted, a little bit annoying and they get taken advantage of by a bad faith figure (Captain Cook, Victor Kennedy and Lux). Isnt that interesting?
Importance
A key trait of Ncuti Gatwas Doctor is his compassion, even going so far as to kiss a Roomba to apologize for turning it off. When Hassan, Lizzie and Robyn say they're "not important" as surname-less side characters, it irked me that the Doctor didn't push back.
Production
Much like last weeks episode, Lux is wonderfully well-made with every quarter of the production team operating at their peak. Mr RingA-Ding is a triumph, capturing the rubber hose style of animation from that era utterly perfectly. The 2D version is great, and the 3D edition he tries to evolve into at the conclusion is the right sort of horrifying.
Belinda
After The Robot Revolution, plenty of fans online suggested Belinda knew a little more than she was meant to. Specifically, she knew the name of the TARDIS despite the Doctor calling it his spaceship earlier in the episode. At the start of Lux, Belinda says the Doctor is a Time Lord so his people should be able to fix the malfunctioning TARDIS.
I can see why fans, trained on mystery box shows, would be intent on mining lines of dialog in this fashion. But I think theyre chasing shadows: Davies has never been that sort of writer and probably isnt going to start seeding his dialog with hints that subtle now. The way I read it, the Doctor has probably gotten used to giving new friends an (off-screen) introduction of the basics.
You could easily imagine a cut-for-necessity scene where the Doctor rattles off the whole time lord with their own time and space machine spiel. And youd expect them not to race toward the more trauma-dump-y elements of their biography, like being the last of them still alive. Belinda was also surprised to see the TARDIS land in 1950s Miami, even after seeing it in space last week. Given the theme of the episode was Belinda slowly embracing her time with the Doctor it makes more sense.
That said, its interesting that Davies specifically focused on the surnames of minor characters for his column in this months Doctor Who Magazine. Naturally, he was wrapping a tease for a future episode inside an anecdote about having to clear even minor character surnames with the shows legal department. And when the Doctor meets the fans, Robyn points out she knows how the episode ends because she read the leak about it online. I should admit, too, that I read the fairly detailed leak about this episode that included the reveal of this fourth-wall-destroying scene. I would never suggest Davies is playing four-dimensional chess with the audience, but if the detailed leak of this episode came from the production office as a further tweak of the metafiction then, bravo.
Queer representation
The awning outside the cinema is advertising a Rock Hudson movie, and Belinda comments that she learned about the late actor on a HIV training course. He was one of the first people in the public eye to pass away from AIDS, causing a shift in public attitudes. Before Hudsons death, the US had refused to sanction additional funds to support research into combatting the disease.
Doctor Who has shied away from directly addressing plenty of social issues during its long run, or even allegorically. Despite the vast number of queer people who were involved in its creation and production, such topics were treated as taboo. That the show can now make such a direct reference to Hudson feels refreshing, especially if it prompts some folks to read up on the issue.
The politics of race
There are better qualified writers who can discuss the issues around race and racism that the episode features. Lux is set in 1952, two years before Brown v. Board of Education, in a Miami that is segregated. Its not the first episode of Doctor Who to deal with this, nor the first of Ncuti Gatwas tenure that has intentionally highlighted that the Doctor is played by an actor of color.
I suspect that one moment in particular will provoke discussion: When Belinda is outraged to learn the diner is segregated. The Doctor shuts down her objections, saying that he has toppled worlds, and has someimes lived in worlds and let them topple themselves. For the latter, his approach is to shut up and shine, suggesting he sits on the respectability politics-end of the spectrum.
Its perhaps here that we see the limits of what stories Doctor Who can tell given these events took place in our own recent history. The lead character can topple other worlds in any era, but given were all aware of human history, cant act to rid the world of this injustice. Which affirms the theory that the show is fundamentally conservative in nature since one of the Doctors main driving forces is to protect the course of history as it presently is.
Mrs. Flood corner
Now we know Mrs. Flood can appear wherever the TARDIS is, so its likely shell be popping up in every episode, just like Susan Twist did last year. Here, she simply repeated her ominous threat that the Doctors time is running out, which is due to happen on May 24th. May 24th is when this seasons seventh and penultimate episode will air.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/doctor-who-lux-review-hope-can-change-the-world-190033447.html?src=rss
A NASA spacecraft will make a close approach to an asteroid in the main belt on Sunday afternoon, in the second of several asteroid flybys planned for its 12-year mission to study remnants of the early solar system. The Lucy spacecraft will be 596 miles (960 km) from asteroid Donaldjohanson named after the paleoanthropologist who discovered the Lucy hominin fossil at the closest point of its pass, which will occur at 1:51PM ET, according to NASA. Lucy will use three instruments to capture detailed observations as the object gets closer, rotating with the asteroid over a few hours to get the full picture. It will stop tracking just before the asteroid is nearest, when itll have to shield its instruments due to the position of the sun to prevent damaging them.
The spacecraft previously visited a small asteroid called Dinkinesh in 2023, and its observations revealed that the asteroid is orbited by whats known as a contact binary, or a peanut-shaped double moon made of two smaller objects touching each other, NASA explained at the time. After Donaldjohanson, Lucy will move on to its main targets, a handful of Trojan asteroids orbiting the sun in the same path as Jupiter. Its expected to reach the first of those objects in 2027.
Every asteroid has a different story to tell, and these stories weave together to paint the history of our solar system, Tom Statler, Lucy mission program scientist, said in a press release. The fact that each new asteroid we visit knocks our socks off means were only beginning to understand the depth and richness of that history. Telescopic observations are hinting that Donaldjohanson is going to have an interesting story, and Im fully expecting to be surprised again.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-is-about-to-have-its-second-close-encounter-with-an-asteroid-180735995.html?src=rss
EA and Lucasfilm shared first look at Star Wars Zero Company, a new single-player strategy game set in the Star Wars universe, at Star Wars Celebration in Japan. The game was originally announced in 2022 as one of three new Star Wars titles being developed or co-developed by Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor, including a new first person shooter and another entry in the Jedi series. There isn't a firm release date yet, but Star Wars Zero Company will be available on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 in 2026.
"In Star Wars Zero Company, players will step into the shoes of Hawks, a former Republic officer, to command an elite squad of cunning operatives through a gritty and authentic story set in the twilight of the Clone Wars," according to a press release published alongside the announcement trailer.
Star Wars Zero Company was born out of a collaboration between Respawn and a new studio called Bit Reactor. The inspiration the game clearly draws from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and other Firaxis strategy games didn't happen by accident. Bit Reactor's staff includes some former Firaxis' employees, and the founder and creative director of Bit Reactor, Greg Foertsch, was a senior art director on XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2.
"Our vision for Star Wars Zero Company is grounded in gameplay design pillars that weave in the immersive Star Wars galaxy with engaging turn-based tactics gameplay," Foertsch said in a statement. "Its our aim to deliver a game with an original Star Wars story from the Clone Wars era that has meaningful outcomes from player choices, and deep turn-based tactical combat with an approachable and cinematic presentation."
Striking some kind of balance between the mass appeal of Star Wars and the niche expectations of strategy and tactics fans has always been the goal of Zero Company. In an interview with PC Gamer in 2024, Foertsch and Bit Reactor's lead animator Hector Antunez (another XCOM alum) suggested that they wanted their Star Wars game to have the cinematic storytelling of Respawn's games without missing out on a satisfying strategy experience. "I don't think that complexity equals depth," Foertsch said, "and I think that that's really what we're focused on. Differentiating that nuance between those two things."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/star-wars-zero-company-looks-like-xcom-with-jedi-and-droids-135850369.html?src=rss
Tempest Rising, a real-time strategy game that's being called a "spiritual successor" and an homage to Command & Conquer, is now available to everyone. It was supposed to be released on April 24, but according to its developers, it was "unexpectedly made available" on April 17 for all players who pre-ordered the game. Instead of pulling it back, they've decided that the best and most seamless solution was to just release it a week early.
The game was developed by Danish studio Slipgate Ironworks and Polish studio 2B Games. In its Steam page, the developers said it was "inspired by RTS (real-time strategy) greats of the 90s and 2000s." It's set in a modern day alternative history scenario, wherein the world is at war to control the "Tempest vines" growing across the planet.
The player takes on the role of Commander for either the "highly mobile and advanced" Global Defense Forces peacekeeping corps or the Tempest Dynasty, which the developers describe as "hard-hitting and desperate." A third faction will be available in multiplayer mode. Each faction has different strategies and combat techniques players can choose from, and players will be able to customize their army for each mission in the two 11-mission campaigns.
Players can still get the "Commander Pack" pre-order bonus if they buy the game before April 24, giving them access to all bonus content. And since getting access to the game a week early was supposed to be an exclusive perk for those who've pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition, the developers are making it up to them with new in-game bonuses that will be revealed "as soon as possible."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/real-time-strategy-game-tempest-rising-has-been-released-early-to-all-users-130033479.html?src=rss
Blizzard has finally shared how hero bans will work in competitive Overwatch 2. The new step will let teams ban heroes they think are overpowered or annoying to play against, without letting them game out who their opposing team might want to play. The feature is a common part of other competitive games like League of Legends, and is a meta-game in its own right.
For Overwatch 2, Blizzard hopes to use the "Ban Phase" mostly to let players remove heroes they find frustrating, and gather data to use when the game is rebalanced. When you first launch into a competitive match, you'll get the option to select your "Preferred Hero," which signals to your team who you don't want to ban. Then you'll rank three heroes you want to remove from the match, with your first choice given the most weight, and your last choice, the least. Blizzard says all teams and players vote simultaneously, but chat will be blocked off between opposing teams until voting ends.
Blizzard
Once all the votes are in, they get tallied using the following guidelines:
The team with the most votes for a specific hero will be considered the first team, and will guarantee that their chosen hero is banned. In the case of a tie, the first team is decided randomly.
Then, the other team becomes the second" team. If the heroes they voted to ban were not the first team's banned hero, then their most and second most voted heroes are banned.
If the second team's most or second most voted pick was also the first team's, then the second team's third most voted hero is removed instead.
And finally, the second most voted hero on the first team is banned, with the same caveat the second team had.
When the number of votes for a hero is tied, the game picks the hero voted by the most players in the lobby (and not the total amount of votes). Ties beyond that are broken randomly, and regardless of how the votes shake out, there's a limit of two bans per role. If you don't want to ban any heroes or don't know who to ban, you can also skip voting and let your teammates decide for you.
Blizzard first announced it would add hero bans to Overwatch 2 with its Season 15 announcement, which introduced a perks system to the game. Hero bans are set to arrive with Season 16 on April 22, which will also include the new Stadium mode, five-on-five matches where players earn currency to spend on upgrades between rounds, and have the option to play in third-person.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-explains-hero-bans-ahead-of-their-introduction-in-competitive-overwatch-210319297.html?src=rss
Under no circumstances should you let AI do your schoolwork for you, but Google has decided to make that option a little bit easier for the next year. The company is offering a free year of it's Google One AI Premium plan, which includes Gemini Advanced, access to the AI assistant in the Google Workspace and things like Gemini Live, to any college student willing to sign up.
The offer gives you a sample platter of Google's latest AI features, which normally costs $20 per month, and is primarily focused on things you can do with Gemini. That includes experimental products like NotebookLM for analyzing documents, and Whisk for remixing images and videos. Because this is a Google One plan, you'll also get 2TB of Google Drive storage for the parade of PDFs that make up college life.
You can sign-up for the free offer on Google's website. You need to be 18 years or older, have a ".edu" email address and join before June 30, 2025, but once you do, you'll have the Google One AI Premium plan through July 2026. Google says you'll need to verify you're still a student in 2026, but otherwise, the whole thing is a light lift. Even if you don't care about AI, signing up is worth it for the free extra storage.
Google's intentions here obviously aren't pure. Free storage is nice, but If the company can normalize using AI for a generation of young minds, it can change what's an occasionally useful novelty into an essential. That's not likely to be good for critical thinking or test scores, even if it justifies the money the company is spending on AI research and development.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-is-trying-to-get-college-students-hooked-on-ai-with-a-free-year-of-gemini-advanced-195706467.html?src=rss
