Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-21-2018, 01:59 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Review: Venom (2018) Movie -- A Comic Book Movie Time Capsule
Making a Venom movie without Spider-Man is a unique challenge. But many of Venom's issues have nothing to do with Spidey's absence.
For example: Early in Venom, the Symbiote that will later be revealed as Riot escapes the Life Foundation's custody and infects a woman in a marketplace in Malaysia, with the explicit goal of reaching San Francisco. The movie's main story then begins: Eddie Brock makes some poor decisions, loses his job and his fiancé (Michelle Williams' Anne Weying), and hits rock bottom. Cue a six month time jump--and our friend Riot, still inhabiting the old woman from the marketplace, has finally made it--to the airport?
What was Riot doing for the six months between then and now? Did it go on a killing spree across Malaysia? Was it dormant or hibernating--something the movie never gives any hint that Symbiotes might be capable of? Was it biding its time pretending to be someone's grandma? That blatant plot hole has nothing to do with Venom's general 1990s cheesiness as a character, or the considerable challenge of trying to make a Venom movie without a single reference to Spider-Man. It's just good, old fashioned, avoidable sloppiness.
Don't get me wrong: The lack of Spider-Man does cause problems. Specifically, the entire premise--that Venom chooses to stick around on Earth, attach itself permanently to Eddie Brock, and betray its entire species--doesn't really work in this movie. In the books, Venom's obsession with Spider-Man gives it common purpose with Eddie, and cutting Spidey out of the equation necessitates something take his place as their end goal. The movie tries to get around that by clumsily painting Eddie and Venom as Breakfast Club style lovable "losers" (actual, direct quote: "On my planet, I am kind of a loser, like you"). It's nonsensical, implausible, under-explained, and tonally weird; that line is easily the movie's biggest laugh, but not in a good way.
Venom is surprisingly funny, mostly in the verbal abuse the Symbiote whispers directly into Eddie's brain, usually after Tom Hardy's character does something Venom considers cowardly or embarrassing. When Eddie holds his hands up in surrender to law enforcement, Venom laments that he's "making us look bad;" when Eddie opts to take the elevator rather than jumping from a skyscraper, Venom calls him a "pussy." These moments are deliberately played for laughs, and they land well enough. The bigger problem is why an alien parasite from space talks like a frat bro, or, extrapolating further, why it needs eyes and teeth if its main form is a shapeless, pulsing black goo. These essential curiosities of Venom as a character are never so much as acknowledged, much less explained.
On the plus side, Venom and the other Symbiotes look pretty good in this movie. The CG work is somewhat inconsistent, and it definitely goes through ups and downs when it comes to raw fidelity. But unlike in his other live action incarnations (looking at you, Spider-Man 3), Venom actually looks like Venom here. The alien comes off as both lithe and powerful; it leaps around gracefully, but its hulking form also exudes menace and strength. The visual effect of Venom's vicious visage wrapping itself over Eddie's head is creatively executed, and Symbiote-on-Symbiote fight scenes play out in unexpected ways, with human hosts and alien parasites struggling to remain linked while trying to rip and tear their opponents apart.
Hardy is as baffling in this role as the movie's trailers have suggested he'd be. As a New York transplant living in San Francisco, he's doing something like a caricature of an NYC cab driver's accent, mixed with frequent slurred mutterings--and that's before he encounters the Symbiote and his behavior becomes understandably erratic. Besides Hardy's strange performance, Brock himself is not a likeable or relatable character. He thoughtlessly uses his fiancé in a half-baked gotcha journalism scheme that gets them both fired, and it literally never occurs to him to so much as apologize to her, until Venom for some unknowable reason nudges him in the right direction later in the film. Brock lacks the depth of character to carry this movie, and Hardy lacks the charm to make up for the character's shallowness.
Michelle Williams does just fine as Anne, although her attachment to Eddie is really inexplicable, as the two have zero chemistry. Even weirder is the willingness of her new doctor boyfriend (Reid Scott) to administer Eddie multiple MRI screenings, even after Eddie interrupts their fancy lunch date by climbing into a lobster tank (the Symbiote affects him in some truly strange ways).
Riz Ahmed does a great job as the megalomaniacal head of the Life Foundation, totally selling his character's belief that humans will have to mutate themselves using alien parasites if we want to survive climate change. That said, it's a pretty thin motivation, and Dr. Carlton Drake is an utterly one note villain. To be honest, the only character who actually experiences any kind of growth or change is the scientist played by comedian and actress Jenny Slate, who is terrific in this movie--and, unfortunately, underused.
Venom has all the ingredients of a decent superhero movie--10 or 15 years ago. With spotty CGI, poorly drawn characters, tonal inconsistency including forced "edginess" and awkward humor, sidelined female characters, and even cringeworthy licensed musical cues, it feels like a relic from the distant, pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe past. That may in part be attributed to the fact that it's been in production in one form or another since at least 2008. But its problems go way past simply being "old school," and ultimately, Venom lacks the charm, clarity, and ambition superhero fans have come to expect.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-21-2018, 01:59 AM - Forum: Windows
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Watch the Forza Racing World Championship 2018 live this weekend
This Saturday Oct. 20 and Sunday Oct. 21, the Forza Racing Championship (ForzaRC) 2018 season races to the finish line with its final and most exciting event of the year – the Forza Racing World Championship (ForzaRWC) 2018. After months of competition, the top 24 global drivers will take the stage at Gfinity Esports Arena in London, England where they’ll compete for their share of a $100,000 prize pool and the Forza Racing World Champion 2018 title.
The action begins tomorrow, Oct. 20, at 10:00 a.m. PDT/6:00 p.m. BST as all 24 drivers head into the semifinals. The drivers will be split into two groups, each competing in three races from which their individual points will be earned. At the end of the day, the top six drivers from each group will move on to the finals, beginning Sunday, Oct. 21, at 10:00 a.m. PDT/6:00 p.m. BST. Tune-in all weekend to catch the action and unlock in-game rewards on our Mixer stream at watch.ForzaRC.com.
In addition to the weekend’s racing competition we’ve got even more excitement lined up for those tuning in:
Special guest:
We’re excited to welcome back legendary motorsport broadcaster and ForzaRC guest commentator John Hindhaugh! He’ll be joining our incredible talent lineup including Brian Ekberg, Alie Tacq, Andy Dudynsky, Aaron Martin-Pilkington, and Lottie Van-Praag, to bring you all the moment to moment excitement as well as a wealth of insight and anecdotes from his career in motorsports.
Driving the Design:
The ForzaRC artist series Driving the Design comes to an end as we reveal the final two episodes of the series. Tune-in Oct.20 to see Episode 4 featuring livery artist AMR The Hulk and ForzaRC driver Williams Mitch and Oct. 21 for Episode 5 featuring livery artist Little Vixen and ForzaRC driver Noble B0x. Our artists will be joining us live in the studio to chat about their experience. Missed a previous episode? Catch up on the whole series on the ForzaRC YouTube channel.
Forza Horizon 4:
Torn between spending your weekend exploring beautiful, historic Britain in Forza Horizon 4 and watching the best drivers in the world compete in ForzaRWC? Then do both! Tune-in to watch.forzarc.com beginning at 9:00 a.m. PDT/5:00 p.m. BST on Oct. 21 to find out how you can join a special pre-show Forza Horizon 4 play session with members of Turn 10, Playground Games, and ForzaRC Pro drivers.
Viewership rewards:
Those tuning in this weekend will have the chance to win a number of all-new, limited edition in-game rewards for Forza Motorsport 7 including:
The Forza Racing World Championship driver suit and livery
The Driving the Design series of liveries (5 in total)
The Unicorn livery
Catch all the action on our Mixer channel at watch.ForzaRC.com, where viewers will have a chance to earn in-game rewards and participate in raffles for special prizes, or on Twitch at Twitch.tv/ForzaRC where you can try out the ForzaRC extension and receive in-game rewards through Twitch Drops.
Want to watch live and in person? Tickets to attend the ForzaRWC, at Gfinity Esports Arena in London, England, can be purchased at ForzaRWC.eventbrite.com.
New to ForzaRC and looking to catch up before the big event? Head on over to the official ForzaRC YouTube channel where you can watch VODs of every race this season as well as recaps of both the Series 1 and Series 2 Playoffs.
Catch every minute of this action-packed event beginning tomorrow, October 20, at 10:00 a.m. PDT/6:00 p.m. BST and Sunday, October 21, at 10:00 a.m. PDT/6:00 p.m. BST at watch.forzarc.com.
Follow us on Twitter to join the conversation all weekend long using #ForzaRC to share highlights and cheer on your favorite drivers. We hope to see you there!
Looking to produce a video of your adventures this weekend? There are many different options for editing videos out there. However, if you are looking for a video editor that is simple to pick up, and also available in the official Fedora Repositories, give Pitivi a go.
Pitivi is an open source, non-linear video editor that uses the GStreamer framework. Out of the box on Fedora, Pitivi supports OGG Video, WebM, and a range of other formats. Additionally, more support for for video formats is available via gstreamer plugins. Pitivi is also tightly integrated with the GNOME Desktop, so the UI will feel at home among the other newer applications on Fedora Workstation.
Installing Pitivi on Fedora
Pitivi is available in the Fedora Repositories. On Fedora Workstation, simply search and install Pitivi from the Software application.
Alternatively, install Pitivi using the following command in the Terminal:
sudo dnf install pitivi
Basic Editing
Pitivi has a wide range of tools built-in to allow quick and effective editing of your clips. Simply import videos, audio, and images into the Pitivi media library, then drag them onto the timeline. Additionally, pitivi allows you to easily split, trim, and group parts of clips together, in addition to simple fade transitions on the timeline.
Transitions and Effects
In addition to a basic fade between two clips, Pitivi also features a range of different transitions and wipes. Additionally, there are over a hundred effects that can be applied to either videos or audio to change how the media elements are played or displayed in your final presentation
Pitivi also features a range of other great features, so be sure to check out the tour on their website for a full description of the features of the awesome Pitivi.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-20-2018, 11:29 AM - Forum: Windows
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Delhi: 24 held for impersonating Microsoft tech experts
NEW DELHI: Twenty-four persons were arrested for allegedly duping customers of Microsoft by impersonating the company’s tech support experts, police said Friday.
Based on a complaint filed by a representative of Microsoft India, Nripendra Kashyap, a case was registered in the Cyber Crime Cell, they said.
In his complaint, Kashyap alleged that numerous illegal Delhi-based call centres were targeting their customers by fraudulently circulating pop-up messages that their systems were affected by malware and are compromised, police said.
He also alleged the accused charged somewhere between $100 and $500 from their customers.
Acting on his complaint, 10 such call centres were identified and subsequently, raids were conducted on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday at locations across Delhi, including Rohini, Janakpuri, Dwarka Mod, Kirti Nagar, Moti Nagar, Hari Nagar, Mahipalpur, Shahdara and Okhla Phase-II, police said.
Cheques from customers in the name of Microsoft Tech support, call recordings, virtual dialers, Microsoft Tech support training material, call log transcripts detailing the conversation with victims of fraud, payment gateway records, servers were seized from these centres, they said.
Subsequently, 24 persons, including the owners and team leaders, were arrested, Anyesh Roy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime), said.
The companies- ABS World Pro Click, Rise Solutions, Pegasus, Printer Tech, Instant PC Care, Pc Patchers technology Pvt. Ltd. , ABS World, Pro Click services, ACS (Electronics & telecom e service), PAG Service Private Ltd, Star Enterprises, Tech Heracles, C-Zone were found to be running the call centres at their premises during the raid, he said.
They created fake websites and designed advertisements to confuse customers into believing they will reach the official support service, he added.
Microsoft said they have received several complaints from customers, who thought that they were calling Microsoft, and ended up speaking with a tech support scammer, the senior official said.
The accused even used web browser pop-up messages which appear while a consumer is using a web browser, the officer added.
Once the accused established contact with the customer, he persuaded the victim to allow him to remote access his computer to diagnose the alleged problem on the system, he said.
The accused then tricked the victim into believing the system has a serious virus threat and tried to sell a service, often a costly long-term subscription agreement with an assurance to fix their problem, the DCP said.
The accused sometimes even accessed financial and identity data from the victim’s computer while fixing the issue and even installed malware onto their systems, the police said, adding that the arrested persons were taken into police custody and further investigation is underway.
Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. We’ve got a ton of great sales this week as well as a couple nice new gaming options.
Odds are good this game needs little introduction. Reigns invented a genre with its clever swipe to choose mechanics and compelling gameplay that has you play a monarch and balance the needs of four different groups under your rule. Piss any one of them off too much and it could all come toppling down. Much like HBO’s epic series Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series, where more than one ruler has made choices that led to an unfortunate and untimely end.
The two are now combined with Reigns: Game of Thrones, where you can rule the uncomfortable Iron Throne as Cersei Lannister, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Sansa Start, and others. You’ll need brains, wit, and cunning to be a player and not a piece in this game as you seek to balance complex relationships and get your way. The game explores all kinds of new scenarios by using Melisandre’s visions as the narrative device. Reigns: Game of Thrones also features a soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi, who does the music for the show as well. Check out our review for more on this one.
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A particularly warm fall sounds good right about now. If your fall is anything but warm as well you can at least pretend with Digidice’s latest game Indian Summer. It’s a follow up to Uwe Rosenberg’s Cottage Garden and the second game in the trilogy. This one is for more experienced players but still presents a calm and colorful experience where players help do fall’s work by filling the forest floor with colorful piles of leaves and earn points in so doing. You earn extra points for discovering animals and collecting berries, nuts, mushrooms, and feathers. The game offers single-player and online, asynchronous multiplayer.
Real-time-strategy game Bardbarian features Brad the Bardbarian who gathers warriors to lead around defending his village from waves of tower-defense-like attacks.
Overhaul games is moving it’s games through the sale cycle, this week it’s super old-school RPG Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition‘s turn, down from $9.99 to just two bucks.
Also $1.99 this week is classic strategy wargame Talisman: Horus Heresy. It’s on sale now and again but this is the lowest it’s been since early this year.
Tsuro – The Game of the Path is a great tabletop to digital conversion. Your goal is to lay tiles to create as long of an unending path as possible across the game board and as measured in actual centimeters. You can play solo against the AI or online with up to 8 players.
If you’re ready to make some tough choices in a grim, dystopian future, now’s your chance. Beholder, a game where you run an apartment building and must spy on and rat out your unpatriotic neighbors or face the consequences of disloyalty, is also on sale.
The Quest Games
Classic role-playing game The Quest and the Islands of Ice and Fire expansion are both on sale. Check out our five-star review of The Quest and then get going with some old-school adventuring.
Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-20-2018, 05:53 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Video: Creating the flooding effects in Uncharted 3
In this GDC 2012 talk, Naughty Dog’s Eben Cook breaks down one of the flood effects used in Uncharted 3, discussing how a fluid simulation was used to inspire the final look.
Cook goes on to explain how the fluid simulation was used to create an animated surface mesh that made it into the engine, going over the particle techniques used to complete the look of the flood in Uncharted 3.
He also covers shader features for both the surface and the particles before closing off the talk by explaining the technique used to light the particles.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.
A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Firefly. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.
Great news! Warface is available for free on Xbox One! Gather your friends and set off together on exciting raids and PvE missions. Take the pedestal of honor in ranked matches and fight together in fast-paced PvP modes!
Exclusively on Xbox
The Cyber Horde raid – In a Blackwood laboratory, where experiments were being performed on people, the test subjects got out of control, killing the guards and breaking free. At this moment, vast hordes of enemies have filled the entire region, and if they are not stopped, the consequences will be unpredictable. A great job for a Warface squad!
PvP Bag and Tag mode – Are you the lone wolf type? Then you’re sure to like this mode! Your task is not only to survive, but also to collect the enemy’s dog tags, which remain on the ground after they die. But be careful and keep your eyes open while you’re picking up your trophies: your dog tags are tasty prey for others.
PvP Maps – Apart from everything else, seven exclusive PvP maps await you. There’s lots of fun to be had in the new area! Team battles on a farm, a battle against everyone in an abandoned motel, disarming explosives on the edge of the city, capturing an important case from an enemy engineering facility and surviving on three maps that differ not only in their terrain but also the scenery and even time of day!
Varied PvP
A whole seven PvP modes and two dozen maps for any taste: from simple and fast-paced team battles to complex tactical tasks to capture rocket launch codes. Play with friends or on your own, survive, capture, defend, explode and destroy—there’s a mission to suit every taste!
Exciting PvE
Want to go on a quick mission or a full-scale raid? The decision is yours! Dozens of exciting missions are available all over the world: an assault on the enemy head office in China, a special operation at the Pyramids of Giza, a dangerous assignment right in the heart of an active volcano, the destruction of a factory in Europe and a multitude of other exciting missions already await you in the game!
Play Diablo III In Style With This Nintendo Switch Wireless Controller
With Diablo III Eternal Collection just around the corner, it’s almost time to get stuck into all of the lovely content the game has to offer. If you’re wanting to play the game in style, though, you might just want to get yourself one of these Diablo III-themed controllers from accessory maker PowerA.
Of course, it was only recently that we saw an official Diablo III Nintendo Switch console be announced, complete with Diablo III artwork, a download code for the game, and a themed carrying case. We can’t decide whether this new controller would be best as a cheaper alternative to the bundle, or as something to support the bundle when you want to play on the TV. Either way, we’re sure it’d come in handy.
The controller is officially licensed and uses Bluetooth to connect to your Switch wirelessly. It features motion controls, comes with two AA batteries for up to 30 hours of use, and has PowerA’s standard button mapping options, complete with the customisable buttons on the back of the controller.
If you’re interested in getting one, you can find it directly from the PowerA store for $49.99, or from GameStop, which has exclusive rights to the design amongst external retailers. At present, the controller doesn’t appear to be available in Europe.
Are you tempted to get one of these to play the game with when it launches on 2nd November? Let us know if you’ll be grabbing one with a comment below.
