Monthly Archives: October 2015
Scientists Invent World’s First Sonic Tractor Beam
Researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Bristol have created a sonic tractor beam that’s capable of levitating and manipulating small objects.
Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers used forces produced by a field of ultrasonic waves to manipulate lightweight, 5mm-sized polystyrene beads in the air.
The technology uses an array of 64 miniature loudspeakers to produce a range of high-pitch and high-intensity sound waves.
By manipulating the interfering sound waves, the team created three different moving acoustic holograms that acted like tractor beams. This included tweezer-like twin traps, twister-like vortex traps and bottle-shaped traps which could levitate, grab, nudge and spin the particles.
SHIELD: What’s Next After the Big Simmons Reveal?
Warning: Full spoilers for this week’s Agents of SHIELD, “4,722 Hours”, follow.
This week’s Agents of SHIELD was a huge one, as we finally found out exactly what happened to Simmons via an entire episode focused on her six months trapped on that other planet.
By the end of the hour, we’d learned about the bond, romance included, that Simmons had formed with the one person she met there – fellow earthling Will (Dillon Casey), and Fitz had agreed to help go back to the planet to rescue Will, even though his very existence was obviously a heartbreaker for Simmons’ long-smitten friend and confidant.
I spoke to Henstridge about the experience of making “4,722 Hours”, what this all means for “Fitz-Simmons” fans, and how the two will be impacted by all that’s happened, as they attempt to return to the other planet.
Escape From New York Rightsholder Wanted to Sue Metal Gear Solid
Filmmaker John Carpenter urged Escape From New York rightsholder CanalPlus not to pursue Konami for damages relating to Metal Gear Solid, even though Carpenter feels it was “kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York.”
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about how CanalPlus compelled him to take Luc Besson to court in the wake of Besson’s film Lockout (which resulted in a small settlement in favour of Carpenter and screenwriter Nick Castle) Carpenter added that CanalPlus also wanted to pursue Konami and Metal Gear Solid for similar reasons.
wanted to also go after the video game Metal Gear Solid, which is kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York, too, but I told them not to do that,” said Carpenter. “I know the director of those games, and he’s a nice guy, or at least he’s nice to me.”
Wild Could Be PlayStation 4’s Most Original Game
In the short time I see Wild live in action, the main character – a fully-customisable shaman (like a doctor but a bit more magical) – is out on a mission to save a poisoned friend. You might have seen this in Sony’s conference at Paris Games Week but what you didn’t see was creator Michel Ancel and his friend take control of a baby wild boar. But I did and I lost my mind.
“This was meant to be just a video but I really wanted to show you how the gameplay works live,” Ancel tells a roomful of journalists while his assistant leaves his shaman’s body and takes control of a massive, brown bear before running down a hillside, while an eagle flies overhead carrying a panicking snake. This is Wild and for the first time in a long while, it really feels like I’m seeing something new.
Gravity Rush 2 Confirmed for North America
Gravity Rush 2 will be making its way to PlayStation 4 owners in North America, Sony Computer Entertainment has announced.
"In addition to Gravity Rush Remastered coming to PS4 in February next year, I’m excited to announce Gravity Rush 2 is also coming to North America, exclusively on PS4," Associate Product Marketing Manager Brian Dunn said in a post on PlayStation Blog.
In Sony's upcoming sequel, Kat with have three different gravity styles: Normal, Lunar, and Jupiter. Lunar will reduce the force of gravity, making the player both lighter and quicker. Meanwhile, Jupiter style increases gravity, making Kat slower, but more powerful.
HBO Cancels The Brink (After Renewing It)
HBO's new comedy The Brink won't be getting a second season after all, as the network has decided to cancel the series after having renewed it earlier this year.
"After evaluating our schedule and our programming needs, we unfortunately decided we cannot give The Brink the attention it deserves for a second season," HBO said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter). "We are proud of the first season and wish everyone involved in this show the very best."
Jack Black in The Brink
The Grinder and Life in Pieces Get Full Season Orders
FOX's The Grinder, starring Rob Lowe and Fred Savage, and CBS's family comedy Life in Pieces both received full season orders today, making them the latest shows to get the sought-after "back-nine" episode order, bringing them from their initial 13 to 22 episodes.
"The Grinder is the perfect combination of razor-sharp wit and relatable family dynamics -- two hallmarks of successful comedies," FOX president David Madden said. "We are so excited about the storylines that these fantastic producers have planned for the rest of the season."
Rob Lowe and Fred Savage in The Grinder
So What Is Dreams, Exactly?
If Media Molecule’s Dreams still seems like an enigma to you, you’re not alone. Even its creators aren’t quite sure what they have on their hands.
“We don’t know what Dreams actually is,” says Media Molecule Creative Director Mark Healey during a behind-closed-doors demo at Paris Games Week.
He’s being slightly facetious. Media Molecule knows very well that it has a toolkit on its hands with enormous potential; it just can’t be fully realized until it’s in the hands of players.
“It’s going to be defined by the community,” says Art Director Alex Evans, “but seeded by amazing Media Molecule content”.
Dreams was born from Media Molecule’s experiences with its last ‘play, create, share’ project, LittleBigPlanet. “One of the more frustrating aspects of building LittleBigPlanet”, says Evans, “was the separation of ‘play’ and ‘create’. In Dreams we’ve combined them. You’ll meet a character and she might say “trim a tree” and you’ll do that and share whatever you create with the community”.
The Flash Producer on This Week’s Big Introductions
Warning: Full spoilers for this week’s The Flash episode, “The Fury of Firestorm,” follow.
A lot was in play this week on The Flash, as a new Firestorm was introduced, King Shark (!) showed up, Harrison Wells made his presence known to Barry Allen and more.
At a recent press screening of the episode, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg discussed these recent reveals and more, including hints at the next big Flash/Arrow crossover.
No, there’s no bait and switch being played. We’d heard Keiynan Lonsdale is playing Wally West in Season 2 and yes, Kreisberg confirms, when Iris learns from her mother that she has a brother, “That’s Wally.” In the comics, Wally was originally Iris’ nephew, but Kreisberg said he and the Flash team decided to make it a sibling Iris never knew about, noting, “We always hated on TV shows that it’s year two and somebody’s like, 'Well, Cousin John’s coming!' And it’s like, ‘Oh, good ol’ Cousin John!’ who no one ever mentioned before. It was always weird. The notion that they don’t know Wally was sort of where that came from and then that was the idea that Francine was still alive and then that whole storyline."
Uncharted 4’s Multiplayer Feels Like Uncharted But Concentrated
A match of Uncharted 4’s multiplayer feels like an Uncharted adventure, but one that’s compressed into just a few minutes. There’s spectacle, a hail of bullets, moments of camaraderie, and an unexpected intrusion of the supernatural.
Watching the trailer during Sony’s press conference, in which the camera flits between familiar characters, Uncharted’s revamped multiplayer looked hectic and eccentric. But having played a couple of rounds, it’s definitely fast-paced, but there’s also a surprising amount of depth there, too, and plenty of new ideas striving to make its multiplayer feel distinctive and, perhaps most importantly, like Uncharted.
Unquestionably the most eye-catching aspect of the multiplayer reveal were the supernatural power-ups. Every Uncharted adventure sooner or later embraces the supernatural, but seeing Elena engulfed in fire before teleporting made it seem more like Infamous than Uncharted. In the context of a match, they feel far less outlandish and make much more sense.