A grieving mother was recently given the chance be reunited with a recreation of her deceased daughter in virtual reality. Jang Ji-sung’s daughter Nayeon died in 2016 from an incurable disease at the age of seven.
The video (uploaded by MBC Documentary) of Ji-sun interacting with her deceased daughter was aired as part of a South Korean documentary on February 6. The team behind the documentary spent eight months creating the VR recreation of Nayeon, reports PC Gamer.
[Image Credit: MBCDocumentary]With a headset and pair of haptic gloves, Ji-sung was able to virtually play with a rendering of her daughter, and could even hear an approximation of her actual voice.
In the documentary clip linked above, viewer’s were able to witness the emotional moment when Ji-sung was reunited with her virtually rendered daughter. The clip is around ten-minutes long, with the majority of it showing Ji-sung having a picnic in the park with Nayeon.
An emotional family watched on as the grieving mother spoke and played with Nayeon’s VR recreation. Due to the nature of the topic, the video is difficult to watch — so please take that into consideration before viewing.
Interacting with deceased loved ones is something that has yet to be fully explored yet by VR technology. Despite some concerns that it could negatively affect the grieving process, there are a handful of companies that are currently exploring VR capabilities in this area.
VR technology has come a long way over the past few years, with developers being able to use it to offer experience’s that other forms of media cannot. However, VR is still struggling to take off, indicated by Sony’s recent closure of its first-party VR studio, which never released a game.
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Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.
Dead Cells developer Motion Twin has revealed a new animated trailer for its upcoming DLC update, The Bad Seed, ahead of its February 11 release on Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC.
As illustrated in the bittersweet trailer above, Dead Cells’ The Bad Seed DLC introduces a rogue’s gallery of brand-new, gooey monsters that inhabit two new, optional biomes.
The Arboretum is a “lush paradise to deceivingly adorable creatures,” and The Swamp, an “overgrown arboreal settlement inhabited by ambushing blow gunners and spear wielders” is the lesser of two evils compared to the “gargantuan purple ticks that reign uncontested on the ground.” Sounds great. Good stuff.
The new Bad Seed biomes add to an alternate path to reach the final encounter without changing the existing routes, but the additional new weapons included in the DLC – including the first double-slot weapon – will be useful in any of the nightmarish hellscapes in which you ply your trade.
Lastly, and obviously, most importantly, there’s an adorably loyal mushroom companion – again, check the trailer above for proof of adorableness / Stockholm syndrome.
Priced at $5 USD, The Bad Seed DLC is the seventeenth Dead Cells update to date and the first that will come with a cost since its May 2017 release.
For Halo Infinite, the team at 343 Industries built more than a game. They also developed a brand-new game engine, Slipspace. Now, the studio has spoken a bit more about what that engine allows the team to do–and it sounds like a lot.
Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor said in a video that the Slipspace engine was designed for “next-generation” game development, and also to be easier to work with.
“We had to create an engine that was more powerful for next-generation development, but also more nimble, so the creatives and engineers are able to work more easily and iterate faster,” he said. “This technical groundwork is vital to build a platform for the future of Halo.”
Engineering director David Berger said in the video that the Slipspace engine allows the team at 343 to do things that were not possible with the previous game-making tools. “You have to make tools that allow you to make new features that allow you to make features that weren’t thought about [before]. You’ve gotta give the content-creators room to ideate outside of that,” he said.
Multiplayer director Tom French, meanwhile, said one of the benefits of the Slipspace engine is that it allows the team to try new things more quickly than before.
“Designers are more empowered themselves to actually tackle a problem and prototype something quicker and faster than we’ve ever done before,” he said.
In another intriguing piece of news, 343 community manager Brian Jarrard recently teased that he was in the office on a Saturday for a playtest. He’s presumably referencing Halo Infinite, and if the team is working on the weekend, the studio might be gearing up for some kind of announcement soon. Halo Infinite is launching later this year, and there will be beta tests beforehand, so it is high time for Microsoft to finally show and say more about it.
If you’re at the studio on a Saturday for a playtest, is it really “work?” 🤔 Do what you love and it’s never “work.” 🤘
This year’s Oscars have come to a close, and there were some big moments throughout the evening. Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite was the first non-English film to win Best Picture, and Joaquin Phoenix was the second actor to play the Joker to win and Academy Award. But what many people want to know is what movie won the most awards for the 92nd Academy Awards?
There were more than a dozen movies up for more than one award this year, but nothing was nominated more than Joker, which landed a total of 11 noms, one more than 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and The Irishman. However, when it came to the 2020 Oscars, the South Korean film Parasite ended up getting the most wins. Check out the most winning movies from this year.
Most wins at the 92nd Academy Awards
Parasite (Four wins)
1917 (Three wins)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Two wins)
Ford vs Ferrari (Two wins)
Joker (Two wins)
Parasite grabbed the Oscars for Best Film, Director, International Feature Film, and Original Screenplay. You can check out the acceptance speech for Parasite’s Best Film win below.
Second place went to 1917, coming in with three wins, including Best Visual Effects, Cinematography, and Sound Mixing, even though it was one of the three most-nominated films of the year.
One of the most shocking things of the night wasn’t what won; it was what didn’t win. Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman was up for 10 awards–two of which were Best Actor in a Supporting Role–and it didn’t win any of them. It was the only movie to be nominated for Best Picture that didn’t win in any of its nominated categories.
The Harley Quinn movie Birds of Prey opened in theatres this weekend, but it did not do so well. Despite positive reviews and star power with Margot Robbie leading the ensemble cast, the comic book movie made many millions less than expected in the US and worldwide.
In fact, it opened to the lowest box office figure in the entire DC Extended Universe. To put its $33.2 million US opening in context, we’re rounding up the first-weekend domestic box office results for all the DCEU movies so far, along with their total global box office figures.
Bear in mind that this ranking is only for DCEU movies, which began in 2013 with Man of Steel. The Joaquin Phoenix movie Joker, which made more than $1 billion at the box office, is a DC movie but is not part of the DCEU.
Despite poor reviews, Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had the biggest US opening weekend ever for DCEU movie, with $166 million in box office receipts.
The Jason Momoa-starring Aquaman started with only $67.8 million at the US box office, which at the time ranked the lowest-ever start for a DCEU movie. However, it improved stateside and did phenomenally internationally to finish with $1.15 billion. It’s the only DCEU movie to surpass $1 billion at the global box office.
Also of note, Birds of Prey is the first R-rated DCEU movie. Though there are of course exceptions like Deadpool, R-rated films typically perform worse than PG-13 films. It’s also worth mentioning that when comparing Birds of Prey to other DCEU movies is that Birds of Prey was released in February, which is typically slower than summer.
You can see the full rankings below; all box office numbers come from BoxOfficeMojo.
Looking ahead, some of the upcoming DCEU movies include Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Adam, in addition to sequels for Shazam and Aquaman.
DCEU Box Office Rankings
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
US opening — $166M
Global total — $873.6M
Suicide Squad
US opening — $133.7M
Global total — $746.8M
Man of Steel
US opening — $116.6M
Global total — $668M
Wonder Woman
US opening — $103.3M
Global total — $821.8M
Justice League
US opening — $93.8M
Global total — $657.9M
Aquaman
US opening — $67.8M
Global total — $1.15B
Shazam
US opening –$53.5M
Global total — $365.9M
Birds of Prey
US opening — $33.2M
Global total (so far) — $81.2M
In GameSpot’s review of Birds of Prey, Meg Downey said, “It’s the sort of kinetic, high energy romp that comes with built-in replay value, and proves exactly why Harley Quinn has become such an endearing, beloved character in the pop-culture pantheon. If this is the direction the DCEU is headed, the future’s looking bright.”
It’s the week of love, so this episode of New Releases is spending some extra time to talk about one more game than usual–or at least some bonus DLC, since Dead Cells expansion The Last Seed arrives this week. It’s also time for the Western releases of the Yakuza 5 remaster and Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold. If you missed out on the original release of Darksiders Genesis, you can grab the console versions this week. Street Fighter 5 is also jumping back into the spotlight with Champion Edition, and PS4 creative types can dig into the long-awaited exclusive Dreams.
Yakuza 5 — February 11
Available on: PS4
The Yakuza Remastered Collection is an all-in-one package that gets you remasters of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5.. Those three games got staggered release dates, but the final entry arrives this month. Taking after the “5” in its name, this particular entry is set across five different parts of Japan and features five playable characters, including everyone’s favorite ruffian Kazuma Kiryu.
More Coverage:
Dead Cells – The Bad Seed — February 11
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
The Bad Seed is Dead Cells’ first piece of paid DLC, and the $5 buy-in gets you a good amount new content. The Arboretum and The Swamp are two new biomes branching out from the early parts of the roguelike game, and they cap off with a boss fight against a giant mushroom monster. You’ll also battle new enemies with new abilities and weapons, including a giant scythe that takes up both of your weapon slots.
More Coverage:
Dreams — February 14
Available on: PS4
Media Molecule, creators of LittleBigPlanet, have crafted another deep toolset with Dreams. This PS4 exclusive lets you sculpt objects, build worlds, and create pretty much any type of activity you can think of–someone even remade Final Fantasy VII within the game. What will you dream up?
More Coverage:
Darksiders Genesis — February 14
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Switch
The Horsemen are back: this top-down hack-and-slash game puts you in control of Strife and War. You can swap between the two on the fly, using Strife’s pistols and War’s sword to chop down the horde of enemies on screen. The PC release already happened last year, but console gamers can take the reigns this week.
More Coverage:
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition — February 14
Available on: PS4, PC
Street Fighter 5 has also been out for some time, but Champion Edition packages together all previously released content. That means you’re getting 40 characters, 34 stages, and over 200 costumes. Capcom has also added second V-Skill for every fighter and made some balance changes–that balance patch will be available to anyone who owns any version of Street Fighter 5.
More Coverage:
Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold — February 14
Available on: Switch
Snack World’s setting is a mash-up of medieval fantasy and modern conveniences like cell phones and mini-marts–leave it to Professor Layton makers Level-5 to build another fascinating world. Snack World lets you customize a character, explore randomly generated dungeons, and help the townspeople. The “gold” in the title means you’re getting all previously released content too.
There’s still plenty of February to come, and another batch of games is cooking up for next week. New Releases will return next Sunday to take a look at some beloved games finding a home on new consoles, as Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue comes to Xbox One and Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition comes to Switch.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released back in 2012. Whereas some games slow down over time as players move on to new games, CSGO has continued to grow.
The public Steam stats page shows that CSGO has reached a new all-time peak concurrent player figure. On Sunday, February 9, CSGO had more than 901,000 peak concurrent players, which surpasses the previous record of 850,485 in April 2016 following the MLG Columbus tournament, according to Eurogamer.
CSGO’s peak concurrent player numbers are massive, and a new record for the game itself, but PUBG still holds the record for highest overall peak concurrent player numbers. The battle royale game reached an astonishing 3 million peak concurrent players during the height of its popularity in 2018.
It’s not immediately clear why CSGO’s player figures have jumped in recent times.
In other news, Valve recently updated CSGO again with a new feature takes aim at people who abuse others via in-game chat. Players who received “significantly more abuse reports” than other players will receive a warning. If they ignore the warning, they’ll get automatically muted. They will stay muted until they earn enough XP to lift the speaking ban, but during this time, other players can choose to manually unmute them.
Go to CSGO’s website to learn more about this new feature.
Not only did Bong Joo-ho’s Parasite make history at this year’s Oscars by being the first non-English language film to win the Best Picture award, but the writer/director himself actually tied a creative icon for most Oscar wins in a single ceremony.
Bong Joo-ho took home four Oscars tonight – for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best International Feature Film. In doing do he tied the record for most single night wins with…Walt Disney.
Disney too brought home four Oscars back in 1954 – for The Living Desert (Best Documentary Feature), The Alaskan Eskimo (Best Documentary Short), Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (Best Short Subject Cartoon), and Bear Country (Best Short Subject Two-Reel).
The pool for those who’ve taken home only three Oscars in one sitting is a little more crowed, as eleven people have accomplished that – including James Cameron, Peter Jackson and Alfonso Cuarón, to name a few.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is one of the big winners of the 2020 Academy Awards. Not only did the critically acclaimed film bring home multiple Oscars this year, it managed to make history in the process.
Read on to see all the ways in which Parasite achieved new milestones for South Korean filmmakers at this year’s Oscars ceremony.
Parasite took home an early win by beating out all challengers for Best Original Screenplay. In the process, it became the first South Korean film to win that award.
It’s all the more noteworthy achievement considering the Academy rarely nominates non-English language films in this category, much less gives them the top honor. For example, Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma was the only non-English Language nominee in last year’s Best Original Screenplay lineup, and it didn’t win that category despite taking home the awards for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography and Best Director.
Best International Feature Film
Parasite was a favorite to win the newly renamed Best International Feature Film category this year, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s now the first South Korean film to win that award.
That may seem surprising given how robust the South Korean film industry is and how far this award (in its many varied forms) dates back in Oscars history. Prior to 2020, the category was known as Best Foreign Language Film, and Bong acknowledged and applauded the change during his acceptance speech.
In one of the most significant moments of the ceremony, Bong became the first South Korean person to win the Academy Award for Best Director. Bong was clearly moved by the honor, while also admitting he assumed his time in the spotlight was over after accepting the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
Best Picture
Parasite’s hot streak continued through the very end, as it took home the top honor at this year’s Academy Awards. Parasite is not only the first South Korean film to win Best Picture, but the first non-English language film of any kind to win that award. It’s a real game-changer given the Academy’s infamous track record in that regard.
Parasite was a popular pick in IGN’s 2020 Oscar Predictions. Many writers wanted the film to win, but few expected it to actually take home the award. This is nothing if not a welcome surprise.
