Monthly Archives: December 2018
What Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’s Endings Say About You
This interview contains light spoilers for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which is currently available to play/watch on Netflix. You can check out our spoiler-free review here.
Device Support: Available across most newer devices, including TVs, game consoles, web browsers, and Android and iOS devices running the latest version of the Netflix app. It’s not yet supported on Chromecast, Apple TV, and some legacy devices.
Netflix is calling its latest entry in Charlie Brooker's imaginative Black Mirror anthology series an "interactive movie." And while the interactive elements of "Bandersnatch" are clearly there - featuring a unique decision-making system that alters how the story unfolds - it's difficult to not notice the similarities the film shares with video games.
The Best Optical Keyboards for Gaming
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The best optical keyboard for gaming you can buy right now is the Razer Huntsman Elite (See it on Amazon). It's got everything you could possibly want from a flagship $200 keyboard, including tank-like build quality, a nifty volume wheel, fancy RGB lighting, and of course, high falutin' optical switches.
Why Frank Castle Puts the Vest Back on in The Punisher Season 2
Spirits were high this past summer as a cast of newcomers and returning vets assembled on the Brooklyn set of The Punisher Season 2, unaware that in a few months time the universe of The Defenders would come crashing down.
In the span of weeks, Netflix canceled Iron Fist, then Luke Cage, then Daredevil, which was (reportedly) one of its most watched series. The fate of The Punisher is now in doubt as Disney, home of Marvel Studios, plans to launch its own streaming platform, Disney+, in 2019. Reps for Netflix did not respond to IGN’s most recent requests for comment on the matter, so for the time being at least, it seems it’s business as usual. With a surprise January premiere announced in the past few weeks, there’s a new set of 13 episodes for Marvel's grumpiest gunslinger to unpack.
NBA 2K’s Mike Wang Says Tech Has Made NBA Players More Unique
Mike Wang has been embedded in the world of sports video games longer than some of its fans have been alive. As the gameplay director for NBA 2K, as well as a brief stint on EA’s NBA Live series, Wang is the perfect person to tell us just how far we’ve come on this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered.
Most notably, Wang points out how the evolution of technology in sports games does more than just make LeBron’s face look more realistic, or makes more beads of sweat appear on Steph Curry’s brow. It’s also allowed developers to increasingly mimic the exact motions that individual players make while playing ball, lending an extra level of personality to each moment.
Scientists Have Discovered a New Material Called Black Silver
Researchers in Singapore have engineered a new material called Black Silver, that has potential for applications such as solar energy conversion to biomolecule detectors, reported by Science Daily.
Black Silver is an inexpensive, nanomaterial that interacts with visible and infrared light and was developed by researchers at Singapore University of Design and Technology (SUTD).
The nanomaterial is created without using acids, which means it can easily be coated over other materials such as plastics, which can give those materials a new purpose.
Batman’s Psyche Is Perfectly Mirrored in the Gotham of Arkham Knight
Stories do not happen in a vacuum. A story’s setting can be as much of a character as the actual characters inhabiting it, reflecting both them and the thematic elements of the plot. This is true of games, books, and movies—in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, for instance, a great and mighty evil renders the land of Mordor into, quite literally, a festering, pulsating, and decaying wasteland that is inhabited by orcs and other beings who personify the very evil that corrupts the once bucolic realm of Mordor.
There’s perhaps no better representation of this than Batman: Arkham Knight. The character, layout, and visual starkness of Gotham City act as a malleable mirror to Batman’s psyche within the Arkham-verse. The story sunk its bat-fangs into me but Gotham, the city itself, is what truly stands out as both the home and the harbinger of the dichotomy of good/evil that brings the city to grimy, pulsating life.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Is Part Video Game, Part Movie
IGN UK Podcast #468: Goodbye to the Boys
It's a sombre day in the IGN UK office. Krupa, Gav and Rory have announced they're leaving us, so we get them all in front of those podcast mics one last time.
We talk about some of our favourite memories, play a quiz about their first podcasts and Gav hosts the LAST EVER Keyword Countdown. Bring your tissues, it's a tear jerker.
IGN UK Podcast #468: Goodbye to the Boys
And remember, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, please do: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com
Feige: MCU Could Start Developing X-Men, Fantastic Four Movies Within 6 Months
With the Disney-Fox merger looking to come together in January, this next year looks like it could bring some big, exciting changes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While MCU head honcho Kevin Feige continues to say talks haven't formally begun to figure out how Fox-owned superheroes, like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, will fit into the Marvel Studios fold, he has finally given some semblance of a timeline for when that will happen -- and it's sooner than we expected.
A NASA Spacecraft Found Signs of Water Inside an Asteroid
Data from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission reveals that water mixed in with clay minerals has been discovered in the asteroid Bennu.
The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft made this discovery during the mission’s approach phase between mid-August and early December, about 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km) into its journey from Earth, just about 12 miles (19km) from Bennu itself.
At this point, data was was obtained using the OSIRIS-REx OVIRS (Osiris Visible and Infrared Spectrometer) and OTES (Osiris Thermal Emission Spectrometer) revealing the presence of molecules containing oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded together, otherwise known as hydroxyls.