Star Wars: Episode 9 Teaser Trailer Confirms Title As The Rise Of Skywalker
The teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker is here. The first look at the hugely-anticipated next Star Wars film was revealed at the franchise's annual Celebration convention, along with its title. It was introduced at the end of a panel discussion by director JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, and it gives us our first look at the movie and real sense of what to expect. For all the details, check out our Episode 9 trailer breakdown.
The trailer opens with Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the desert, a lightsaber in her hand, as she stares down a First Order fighter coming right at her. We hear Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) voice tell her, "We've passed on all we know. A thousand generations live in your now, but this is your fight." She then runs at it, leaping to attack.
The teaser also shows brief glimpses of many characters, from Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) cutting down foes with his lightsaber to Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) laughing while piloting the Millennium Falcon. The short tease also includes footage of Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher)'s role in the film, which looks to include a touching moment with Rey. Though Fisher died before production of the film began, unused footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens is incorporated to complete her story.
The final image of the trailer sees Rey and her friends together, as Luke's voice is heard once more, saying, "We'll always be with you. No one's ever really gone." Then, creepily, Emperor Palpatine's (Ian McDiarmid) laugh is heard cackling as the title is shown. Check out the teaser above. McDiarmid even appeared on stage at Celebration following the debut of the trailer to demand it be shown again.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 19. Abrams returned to direct after helming 2015's The Force Awakens, although he wasn't the first choice of director. Jurassic World's Colin Trevorrow was initially hired, but he left the movie in September 2017.
The film stars Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata, and Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux. New cast members include Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, and Keri Russell. The film will also see appearances from a number of Star Wars veterans including Mark Hamill as Luke, Billy Dee Williams as Lando, and Carrie Fisher as Leia. Fisher died before production began, but will appear in footage originally shot for 2017's The Last Jedi.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker isn't the only new Star Wars release that fans have to look forward to this year. It has also been confirmed that the live-action TV show The Mandalorian will be available on the streaming service Disney+ when it launches on November 12.
Star Wars Celebration also promises news and reveals for the new Star Wars game Jedi Fallen Order from the developers of Apex Legends and Titanfall. Go to GameSpot sister site CNET to see a full rundown of what to expect from the show.
Review: Metagal – A Mega Man Clone That Comes With A Mega Problem
There’s an old saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, yet while there’s certainly something to be gained through being inspired by a previously existing work, a new work generally must add something to the mix to keep things fresh and interesting. If the new work fails to add anything fresh, it simply becomes derivative and is almost certainly doomed to wither in the shadow of what came before.
Few games stand as a better example of this than Metagal, a new run ‘n’ gun platformer that clearly borrows heavily from Capcom’s Mega Man series. Though mildly enjoyable in its own right, Metagal seldom makes any notable efforts to differentiate itself from its inspiration, leaving us with a game that never hits the same highs and often sinks to new lows.
As opposed to Mega Man being predominantly about, well, robot men, Metagal’s ‘twist’ is that all the robots this time around are women. The story opens with Dr. Ray—a genius robotics scientist—being accosted by the nefarious General Keeper, who wishes for Dr. Ray to give him an android army with which he can conquer the world. When Ray refuses, Keeper uses an android of his own to kidnap Ray’s GAL robots (*cough* Robot Masters *cough*) and presumably turn them evil later on. Meta, who conspicuously isn’t present during this confrontation, is thus left as the last GAL robot standing and must embark on a mission to retrieve her sisters, her creator, and save the world from destruction. It’s about as flimsy of a plot as you’d expect for this sort of game, and while it’s not exactly one that earns points for its originality or intrigue, it does its job well enough.
Metagal follows the old school Mega Man formula to a T, with the bulk of your experience consisting of running and shooting your way through tough, themed levels that culminate in an even tougher boss fight, which then grants you a unique weapon which does increased damage against a boss from one of the other levels. It’s a straightforward, easy-to-follow structure and Metagal does a solid job of replicating it, but the game manages to fall short of its ambitions by offering up a paltry five main levels, followed by a three-part finale. It’s no joke to say that you can clear Metagal in its entirety in about two hours on the high end, and for a game that’s so focused on copying something that came before, it feels a bit odd that there wasn’t more effort put into designing at least a few more levels to bring it up to the par of eight bosses.
Unfortunately, the levels themselves aren’t terribly compelling to begin with, though there are some positives that first bear mentioning. One area in which Metagal manages to excel is in the overall feel and control of its gameplay; Meta’s running and jumping feels properly tight and the shooting mechanics are snappy, making for a game that—at least in the moment to moment action—can be legitimately enjoyable.
Another (perhaps divisive) element that we feel adds to the experience is the inclusion of passive regeneration for the ammo that your special weapons use. Any weapons aside from Meta’s default blaster use up some or all of a small energy bar devoted to ammunition, but instead of having to rely on randomized energy drops to ensure you can keep using your weapons à la Mega Man, the bar just slowly refills once it’s depleted. With this small ‘quality of life’ change, you can use your full arsenal of weapons freely and without fear of wasting shots, and this helps to make enemy encounters feel that much fresher.
The unfortunate reality, however, is that the most difficult enemy you face in Metagal is not found in any of the filler enemies or boss encounters on your adventure, but in the level design itself. Though not to the point of being egregious, Metagal is far too reliant on cheap enemy placement, leaps of faith, and trap sections that require trial and error to properly clear, which makes for a generally frustrating and boring experience. Rather than offering up a legitimate, thoughtful challenge that tests the limits of the player’s dexterity, Metagal is much more content to simply hide obstacles that a player running blind has no chance of clearing and send them back to the last checkpoint so they can try again.
Granted, this issue is sidestepped somewhat by the “Rebirth” system, which allows you to spend consumable gears dropped by some enemies to start over at the start of the current screen, but that’s a remedy for a symptom of a deeper issue with the level design. At best, the levels of Metagal are just ‘okay’, and at worst, they’re infuriatingly difficult for all the wrong reasons; for a game that has an unusually low level count to begin with, this issue of poor level design is quite damning.
Similarly, Metagal’s presentation is uninspired and bland, even if much of the pixel art is satisfying to the eye. For starters, the boss designs lack any significant creative spark; all the GALS you face off against are functionally color swaps of each other with a few tweaks and new weapon patterns thrown in. Given the high bar set by Mega Man’s Robot Masters, these GAL designs fail to prove themselves as anything more than lazy, creatively bankrupt rip-offs. To match this, each level is themed after the boss at the end of it, but the unmemorable stage gimmicks and enemy types tend to blend together after a few levels.
To its credit, Metagal features some relatively solid pixel art—sprites are well-detailed and the backgrounds can prove to be especially eye-catching—but when the general stage themes are dull to begin with, there’s only so much that can be done. The soundtrack is equally monotonous, replacing the anthemic notes of many Mega Man tracks with generic, low-key chiptune music that you’re sure to forget almost immediately after hearing it.
Conclusion
You may have noticed that we mentioned Mega Man a lot in this review, and the reason for this is simply that Metagal is so devoid of any defining or memorable traits that it can hardly stand on its own; it’s a game that makes every effort to actively copy something that came before it, and it often falls short of properly doing so. Though it controls rather well and has moments where it almost approaches the quality of its inspiration, the terrible level design, uninspired art direction, and almost criminally short runtime make Metagal a game that’s difficult to recommend. If you’re a rabid Mega Man fan, have already played all the main games to death, and are desperate for something to fill that void, Metagal is maybe worth your five bucks. Otherwise, we’d encourage you to save your money and put it towards something that’s more worth your time.
Random: Toad Gets A Little Too Excited In This Official Nintendo Labo Video
In an article that feels absolutely perfect for our ‘random’ tag, and as a great way to wind down on a Friday afternoon, we present to you this rather alarming Toad video.
Before we explain what’s going on (if that’s possible) and before you see it for yourself, note that this little clip has been shared by an official Nintendo account. The video comes from Nintendo’s Line account – an instant messaging app that’s incredibly popular in Japan – and, at first glance, it’s absolutely bonkers.
We’ve shared it for all to see on our Twitter account. Make sure to turn your sound on as you experience Toad enjoying a good foot pressing.
While Toad’s enjoyment levels seem to be creepily off the charts here, watching the video to the end reveals that the person is actually making him do sit-ups, and not whatever you were thinking at first. What a time to be alive.
So, we’ll never be able to look at Toad the same way ever again. But how about you? Share your current emotions with us in the comments below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-13-2019, 08:11 PM - Forum: Windows
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Interactive art: ‘Public Radio’ installation lets you pick the music
Public Radio on display at District Hall (photo credit: New American Public Art)
Standing 10 feet tall, elegantly sloped along its front face with the soft light of rainbow LEDs glowing behind half inch of frosted acrylic, “Public Radio” is a unique art installation you’ll find at District Hall’s outdoor plaza in the Seaport, Boston’s home for innovation. Turn the metal-rimmed dials to tune to a different station as the corresponding LEDs light up on this giant radio, powered by a tiny but mighty BBC micro:bit computer, inviting the public to play with and listen to the latest broadcasts and music. Built by New American Public Art in the Microsoft Garage at the New England Research and Development Center, Public Radio is an interactive art installation with microprocessor parts and a futuristic look that encourages a spirit of community, working and grooving together.
A sense of community, inspiring movement and spontaneous interaction
Somerville-based New American Public Art (NAPA) is a multi-disciplinary art studio that builds interactive projects and installations. NAPA answered the 2016 Public Space Invitational Digital Challenge put forth by Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in collaboration with Microsoft. After 6 months of fabricating and building, the larger-than-life radio was ready for show. It has been living in The Garage at NERD as a centerpiece that demonstrates how technology and art can converge.
“When you scale up a common object and place it in the public, you often get uncommon and surprising results. How will the public decide among themselves what to listen to?” says Dan Sternof Beyer, Creative Director and Co-Founder of NAPA.
From NAPA’s original project proposal, the idea is “Music inspires movement, creates a sense of place, and provides an opportunity for spontaneous interaction with other people.” NAPA designed the project in collaboration with creative engineer Andrew Ringler. Chris Templeman, Microsoft Garage program manager, had connections with the local studio prior to joining Microsoft. Templeman introduced NAPA to the bevy of hardware and fabrication tools in the Garage maker lab. “The Garage at NERD has embraced local artists since we opened our doors last year. We’re constantly inspired by art and how that creativity and imagination can help make better products and spark new ideas.”
Public Radio in The Garage at NERD (photo credit: New American Public Art)
“I think people will be excited to experience the Public Radio because it’s an innovative way to activate a public space using a combination of interactive art and technology,” says Aimee Sprung, Director of Civic Engagement at Boston’s Microsoft office. “The build-out at Microsoft Garage has been both an educational and exciting experience and we’re proud to have sponsored this program as part of our commitment to driving civic engagement in Boston.”
More than art – bringing technology to life
Public Radio was freshly installed outside District Hall on April 5th and will be on display for the public to interact with through September. For the past year, however, it has stood as a compelling example of innovative tech-meets-art in The Garage at NERD, showcased in interactions with the community and local schools. “We often use micro:bit in workshops where we invite local STEM students,” explains Templeman. “When we have students come in and learn how to program on the micro:bit, we use the Public Radio to illustrate what you can do with it to run such large and interactive projects. It brings the tech to life in a creative and tangible way.”
Employees from Microsoft’s Education Windows and Devices team have also been engaging public schools and collaborating with The Garage to bring students in to engineer escape rooms. “We are teaching kids engineering by building escape rooms using the micro:bit.” Tisha Nguyen, a Solutions Professional on the Education team explains. “This hands-on experience outside the traditional classroom setting is extremely valuable as we continue to prepare the next generation of Data Scientists, Engineers, and Statisticians.” The effort was made possible with the help of engineers from Office who designed the escape room experiences, Jean-Yves Ntamwemezi, Arthur Berman, and Eric Frackleton.
Public Radio outside of District Hall (photo credit: New American Public Art)
With Public Radio now leaving The Garage space and headed to its new home, there are still plenty of creative sources for inspiration left. The recent collaboration of MIT, The Met, and Microsoft has spurred new relationships with other art institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. “We are thrilled to work with local artists and museums to figure out different ways tech can help push the boundaries of creativity,” says Linda Thackeray, Director of The Garage.
The details and specifications of the Public Radio are all available open-source on Github, including how to get the micro:bit connected with the radio boards, sensors, and LEDs. Learn more about the Public Radio from the official press release.
Battlefield 5's Battle Royale Mode, Firestorm, Adds Duos
Battlefield V's battle royale mode, Firestorm, has introduced new way to play. Developer DICE today added Duos, which as its name suggests, lets you play with one other person.
Duos joins the exisiting Solo (1 player) and Squads (4 players) mode that are already available in Firestorm.
We’re making our first introduction of Duo Mode to #Firestorm in order to gather your feedback, and improve the mode. It’s available in game right now, through April 15th.
"It's our first time putting Duo out into the wild having started work on the mode much later in Firestorms development. We love it, and we think it's a great addition to the game, but we recognize best that we're better hearing that from you, and we'd appreciate your support in helping to make it a strong addition to Firestorm, and Battlefield V," DICE said in a forum post.
Duos will be available in Firestorm until 10 AM UTC on Monday, April 15. At that time, DICE will go over fan feedback and and its own telemetry, and later report back about what they saw and learned. It appears Duos is launching as part of a test of sorts.
In other Battlefield V news, the World War II shooter recently introduced a microtransaction system that allows players to purchase various cosmetic items--here's how it works.
TinyBuild, LLC is looking for an experienced Game Producer to join tinyBuild’s Publishing Team in downtown Bellevue. As a Game Producer, you will be responsible for working with partners, developers and stakeholders to guide the life cycle of games up until release. The main focus will be in leading the development process and managing multiple stakeholders – internally and externally. A successful candidate will have a hands-on approach, be comfortable working with a team, international partners (yay, timezones!), little supervision and have excellent organizational and communication skills. You’ll be working in a constantly evolving, chaotic, and exciting environment that adapts to the industry in real time.
Key Responsibilities:
Manage the life cycle of the game up to release. Sometimes you’ll be working on games that are almost ready to ship and just need to be ported to consoles & mobile, other times it’ll be taking a concept, seeing it through production and all the way to release.
Manage the release process on all platforms. Experience in consoles, mobile, and PC game launches is a plus. Shipping any game is a plus, really.
Work with game developers and internal producers to assist in removing obstacles and potential bottlenecks to prevent delays. A great producer will foresee dependencies and eliminate them before they become bottlenecks.
Serve as point of contact between internal and external partners, and be on top of things.
Qualifications:
BA/BS preferred
Degree in Computer Science or Engineering is a plus.
Minimum of 3 years of related experience.
Knowledgeable of the game development process.
Exceptional written, oral, and organizational ability. You need to self-organize and make critical decisions.
Ability to work in a fast paced environment with little supervision.
You need to have the ability to learn new skills on the fly. Be that video editing, photoshop, GIF creation, etc. All producers on the team are expected to wear many hats, and pick up hard skills fast.
A passion for gaming. We’re all a group of gamers. Part of the interview is a co-op or pvp match with the CEO in a game of your choice.
Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, PTO Salary: Depends on Experience
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
Ubisoft patches art containing homophobic slur out of The Division 2
Ubisoft has removed a piece of art from The Division 2 that featured a homophobic slur and issued an apology about the word making it into the game in the first place.
As reported by PCGamer, the asset in question was a large piece of in-game graffiti that depicted a police officer eating a doughnut. Weeks after the game’s release, players noticed that the officer’s badge number spelled out a homophobic slur when those numbers were replaced by similar-looking letters.
It’s rare but not entirely unheard of for inappropriate content like this to go unnoticed and be released as part of a final game. Other devs have had issues with this in the past, like the white supremacist symbol that ended up in Destiny 2 or the accidental use of a photograph of an assassinated ambassador in Batman: The Telltale Series.
Even though many studios have processes in place to try and combat this kind of mistake, things still sometimes slip through the cracks, as Ubisoft says was the case with this image.
“We apologize that this image slipped through our content review processes, and we are currently reviewing them in order to avoid this kind of oversight from occurring in the future.”
As of a patch that went out today, the image as a whole has been removed from The Division 2.
April 3rd New Preview Alpha 1904 Update (1904.190402-1745)
Starting at 6:00 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha Ring will begin receiving the latest 1904 Xbox One system update (19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1904\18362.2014.190402-1745). Read on for more about the new features, fixes and known issues in the latest 1904 system update.
DETAILS:
OS version released: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1904\18362.2014.190402-1745
Available: 6:00PM PDT 4/3/19
Mandatory Date/Time: 3:00 AM PDT 4/4/19
Fixes:
Audio
Implemented various fixes to address instability with Dolby Atmos.
Fixed the issue that some users could not enable Dolby Atmos for Home Theater if they have ever checked the “Using HDMI or optical audio headset button”.
My Games and Apps
Fixed an issue in which watching YouTube and switching back to a game or Home would crash the console.
System – Settings
Fixed an issue in which users on a Home console where not able to switch users on the console when changing system settings.
We have resolved issues that impacted users with slow internet connections that resulted in various experiences on the console failing to display/show the full user experience.
Various social scenarios like message lists without the gamerpics/names of who send the messages.
Failure to display complete pages for user/club hubs potentially.
Failure when trying to change your Home Xbox setting.
Known Issues:
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
Video: Feast Your Eyes On This Brand New Shakedown: Hawaii Trailer
A successor to Wiiware’s Retro City Rampage, Shakedown: Hawaii is firing onto Switch and 3DS this spring. Keeping us in a state of excitement for its release is this brand new trailer, which we’ve shared for you up above.
The game is a 16-bit, destructible, open-world adventure that parodies big business and the white collar crimes associated with it. You’ll take control of a trio of protagonists as you build a corporation, acquire businesses, sabotage competitors, rezone land (by demolishing it) and shake down shops for protection money.
The game’s developer tells us that the game is now in console certification, meaning we should hear of an exact release date soon. Until then, though, feel free to learn more with this game overview video. You can never have too much 16-bit chaos beamed into your eyeballs.
Are you looking forward to picking this one up? Will you be getting it for Switch, or giving it a whirl on the good ol’ 3DS? Tell us below.
We’re now feeling confident enough in the stability and feature-completeness of 1.14 – The Village & Pillage Update – that we’ve decided to enter the pre-release phase. Whilst we know that there are still bugs to be solved and polish to be added, we feel that this version is now good enough that we can ask you all to please help us test and find any issues for a smooth release in a few weeks. Remember to report anything you find to our bug tracker, or give feedback on new features over to our feedback website. It helps us immensely!
A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net.
Fixed a few bugs
Some performance improvements
MC-123773 – Scrolling the hotbar on mac behaves weirdly starting in 18w01a
MC-133205 – Missing block with superflat preset “The Void”
MC-137581 – Destroyed shulker boxes are lost in creative mode
MC-138444 – Tall sea grass doesn’t drop sea grass when sheared
MC-140236 – Using the Grindstone on an item to remove enchants doesn’t reset the XP price to add enchants to it in an anvil
MC-140261 – When putting only one non-enchanted item in the grindstone GUI, the same item appears as the output
MC-141253 – Zombie villagers in certain biomes don’t spawn with their biome specific skins
MC-141990 – Cartography table does not update when cloning maps
MC-143410 – Wandering Trader and Trader Llama spawn in the void biome
MC-143998 – Switching in smoker between “Showing all” and “Showing smokable” does not work
