Monthly Archives: August 2015
Palmer Luckey Brands James Cameron ‘Incorrect’ About Virtual Reality
Inventor of the Oculus Rift, Palmer Luckey, has responded to James Cameron's less than enthusiastic reaction to the potential of virtual reality tech in the entertainment industry.
Late last year Cameron revealed he'd taken the Oculus Rift for a spin, but described it as "a yawn, frankly." Now, Luckey has argued Cameron couldn't be more wrong.
"He is incorrect," Luckey told IGN. "All you have to do is try virtual reality to understand that it goes beyond anything you can do, even on a 3D television or a 3D movie screen.
"Being surrounded, feeling like you’re actually present in a virtual world, it gives you a much more compelling canvas to tell stories with than having to frame everything into a small rectangle you just watch. I think that speaks for itself."
Rosetta’s Comet Blasts Its Most Dramatic Jet Yet
ESA’s Rosetta captured comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko firing its brightest jet witnessed yet by the spacecraft as they hurtle ever closer to the sun.
The sequence of images taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera captured the jet-like feature ejecting material from the comet’s neck at an estimated 33 feet per second (10 meters per second).
The spacecraft's spectrometer recorded “dramatic” changes in the outpouring gases composition when the outburst occurred compared measurements taken two days prior.
A short-lived outburst captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera on July 29, 2015.
CW on Episode Count for Legends of Tomorrow/The 100
The CW only programs ten hours of TV a week, which can make scheduling an interesting challenge. This coming season, with the network renewing nearly their entire lineup from the previous year, things could potentially get extra tricky midseason – especially if all of their fall series get a full 22 episodes (or more), when the question becomes how they program their midseason series, including the new Arrow/Flash spinoff DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Containment and the third season of The 100.
I asked CW Mark Pedowitz this question Tuesday at the TCA Press Tour during his executive session, and though he couldn’t give details for midseason shows yet, he did say, “We have thought about it. We know exactly what we're going to do. We kind of have a rough idea of when we're going to launch Legends of Tomorrow and Containment and 100, but we know that certain shows, they have to take breaks in between. We pretty much know how the schedule's going to play itself out, give or take.”
New Power Rangers Movie Character Details
New details on the lineup of characters set to appear in the upcoming Power Rangers movie have reportedly been revealed.
"Sources close to the movie" have supplied Collider with a full breakdown of the movie's characters, including their names and a detailed description of each. Based on the provided information, it looks like the film will draw heavily from the original series, using the names from 1993's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, though with some new character details for the five core Rangers.
The revealed character list includes Jason, Kimberly, Trini, Billy, and Zack. Full descriptions for all five can be found below.
True Detective: Season 2 Ratings Down From Season 1
HBO’s True Detective: Season 2 has concluded, and it’s finale couldn’t match the ratings from last year’s Season 1 finale.
Variety reports Nielsen estimates 2.73 million viewers tuned into the 90-minute episode. Despite being up more than 500,000 viewers from the previous week, True Detective: Season 2’s finale, “Omega Station”, fell short of the 3.52 million who tuned into the closing episode of Season 1.
Recently, HBO president Michael Lombardo said he was “enormously proud” of True Detective: Season 2, in response to the negative reception it had been receiving.
New Trailer for Showtime’s Billions TV Series
Showtime has released a new swear-tastic trailer for its 2016 show Billions.
The TV series is set to explore the battle between US Attorney Chuck Roades (Paul Giamatti) and hedge-fund guru Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis). You can watch the NSFW (unless you have headphones on!) trailer below.
Giamatti (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and Lewis (Homeland) are supported by a supporting cast including Malin Akerman (Watchmen), David Costabile (Suits), Toby Leonard Moore (Daredevil) and Maggie Siff (Sons of Anarchy).
Billions is set to premiere in North America on January 17, which is much sooner than Showtime's Halo series, the fifth season of Homeland, and Twin Peaks.
Konami to Shut Down Online Support for PES 2014
Konami is shutting down online services and support for Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 on November 17.
According to the company’s announcement, it is pulling online support to focus on PES 2015 and the impending iteration in the series, PES 2016.
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PES 2016 is slated to launch in September for PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4. You can read IGN’s thoughts on the soccer game after going hands-on with it at E3 2015. You’ll be able to get a taste of the game yourself before it launches with a free demo on August 13.
Scientists Growing New Arms for Monkeys Using Human Cells
Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)are developing new methods to grow fully functional limbs arms for Macaque monkeys, a technique that could one day used on humans.
The technique was previously used to grow lungs, a beating heart and regenerate the arm of a rat. According to CNN, research lead and director of the organ repair and regeneration lab at MGH, Harald Ott, is now trialing the method on monkeys.
First, a scaffold of a monkeys arm is made by flushing out all the donor's cells inside with saline and detergents. The scaffold is rebuilt with progenitor cells obtained from humans that can be stimulated into becoming blood or muscle cells and more.
Friday the 13th TV Series in Development at The CW
Last year, we learned a possible Friday the 13th TV series was in the works from the director of the original 1980 film, Sean S. Cunningham. There hadn't been much word on that project since, but now comes news that the project has ended up at The CW.
CW head Mark Pedowitz confirmed today that the network was currently developing a Friday the 13th series, to be written by The Pretender's Steve Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle.
♫"I don't want to wait for your lives to be over..."
Ranking Kojima’s 8 Metal Gear Games
With the release of The Phantom Pain nearly upon is, we decided to take a look back at the iconic games in the series that Hideo Kojima himself has directed and see how they stack up against one-another. Though there are dozens of strange portable games, card battlers, remakes, and action-oriented offshoots to the series, we decided to focus on the core eight games that Kojima had full control of. We all adore games like Ghost Babel and Revengeance, but we left them off the list due to their limited Kojima development. On the dawn of the arrival of his ninth and final Metal Gear games, here are his current eight, ranked.
The game that put Hideo Kojima on the map, the original Metal Gear remains impressive nearly 30 years later thanks to the ideas it introduced that still exist in the series to this day. Controlling this new hero named Solid Snake through the jungles of Outer Heaven forced players to rely on a slew of stealth techniques that few games in ’87 applied. Iconic elements from the series, such as exclamation points and enemy alert status’, all made their rudimentary debut in the original Metal Gear. Even the foundation for the series’ spaghetti bowl of a story, including characters like Grey Fox and Big Boss, all had their start the MSX2. Given that the original Metal Gear takes place directly after the events of The Phantom Pain on the Metal Gear timeline, its importance may be even greater come September. – Marty Sliva