Month: June 2021

No matter which software you regularly use, creating your own diagrams can be a huge pain. We don’t know why this has never been fixed – but finally, it has. Enter MyDraw Advance Diagramming Software, a state-of-the-art program that allows you to easily create your own charts, diagrams, and more – and today, we’ve found a Lifetime License on sale for just $19.99 – that’s 71% off the regular price of $69. 

This is your secret weapon when it comes to making professional flow charts, mindmaps, business diagrams, and more. These high-quality design tools will take your presentations, brochures, and flyers to the next level – and, if you regularly make charts and presentations for work or college, this is about to save you a ton of time. 

That’s because it’s full of tools that make designing the exact charts, graphs, and designs you want in just a few clicks. We’re talking about creating amazing vector drawings using drawing lines, curves, rectangles, ellipses, polygons – and just about any other shape you like. 

Perhaps the best part? It’s super easy to use. The interface is inspired by Microsoft Office so that even if you’ve never used it before, it’ll already seem familiar. Plus, it even has automatic layouts that are ready for you to use: creating high-quality graphs has never been easier. 

With it being so user-friendly, it’s no big surprise that the software comes incredibly highly reviewed, with an average 4.5/5 star rating from its users. As one recent reviewer summed it up, “More features than most drawing programs. Very intuitive and a joy to use.” 

Ready to take your presentations to the next level? Get the MyDraw Advanced Diagramming Software: Lifetime License on sale right now with 71% off, for just $19.99 (regular price $69).

Actor Bill Pullman has reprised his Independence Day role for a new Budweiser commercial celebrating the 4th of July and encouraging people to get vaccinated.

As we all remember, Pullman’s President Thomas J. Whitmore from the 1996 film Independence Day gave an impassioned speech encouraging the people of America to come together to defeat the aliens. Now, he’s giving a similar speech to promote barbecues and knocking back cold ones. His speech also touches on the pandemic and how, with vaccines more readily available this year, people can more safely gather for barbecues. His speech also takes aim at “this thing,” which is likely a reference to the virus, and how if we “win the day” (i.e. get vaccinated) then the virus will be defeated.

“In less than a week, we hope to fire up our grills and launch one of the biggest 4th of July celebrations in the history of the United States,” he says in the video. “Perhaps it’s fate that that this Fourth of July, we’ve gotta once again come together to lend a hand to those less fortunate whose fate still lies in the balance. We’re fighting for freedom for all, not from alien invaders, from separation, from being cooped up while baking bread and ignoring basic hygiene. Should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday but as a day when the world declared in one voice we will not go quietly into the night. We will fill the sky with so much light and freedom that this thing will rue the day it ever messed with us.”

Anheuser-Busch previously announced that it would give everyone in America a free beer if America could reach President Biden’s goal of having 70% of the adult population receiving at least one dose of a vaccine.

Biden’s goal was to reach this figure by the 4th of July. Twelve states have reached 70% of people having at least one dose, but the national figures are below that.

Investing in a good pair of wireless noise-canceling headphones is kind of life-changing. Whether you work at home and constantly have noisy construction outside your window or are always on the go, it’s so nice to have a good-quality pair of headphones, light and comfortable, that can completely block out the noise and let you hone in on what you’re doing, whether that’s work, gaming, or listening to music or podcasts. Sony’s WH-1000XM3 wireless headphones have been a popular pick for some time now–they still rank among CNET’s highest rated noise-canceling headphones ever–and right now, they’re on sale for a great price at Best Buy.

Through the rest of today, the Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless noise-canceling headphones are on sale for $190, a $160 savings from their $350 list price. This is a Best Buy Deal of the Day, hence the limited amount of time for this deal.

Sony’s WH-1000XM3 are over-ear headphones that offer some of the best noise-canceling technology on the market, letting you completely tune out the world or let some of that outside noise in with Quick Attention Mode, simply by placing your hand on the side of the housing. You can also use their Adaptive Sound Control function, which detects your current activity (whether you’re walking or waiting around somewhere, for instance) to adjust ambient sound settings for the situation. The battery life is strong with up to 30 hours of playback (with a 10-minute charge getting you five more hours), and a comfortable fit makes them a reliable option for long periods of listening.

An upgraded version, the WH-1000XM4, arrived last year, bringing small improvements to the fit, sound quality, and Bluetooth pairing. However, according to CNET, “the upgrades are subtle improvements rather than game-changers,” and for $160 less, you can feel good about picking up the WH-1000XM3 at this price.

Loki is set to appear in a new Marvel-themed Simpsons short film. The Good, The Bart, and The Loki hits Disney+ on Wednesday, July 7.

Loki actor Tom Hiddleston will perform the voice of the God of Mischief in the animated short. The film will see Loki heading to Springfield after he is banished from Asgard, where he teams up with Bart Simpson. Disney states that the short will also feature “many fan-favorite characters from The Simpsons.”

A poster for The Good, The Bart, and The Loki has also been released–check it out below:

The Good, The Bart, and The Loki is the second Disney+ crossover Simpsons short. In May, the Star Wars-themed The Force Awakens from its Nap was released, in which Maggie Simpson encounters a variety of Star Wars characters while hunting for her lost pacifier.

The Marvel show Loki is currently airing on Disney+. The fourth episode was released this week–check out this mid-season teaser, as well as our look at who the new character of Sylvie might be.

As for The Simpsons, the series was renewed for seasons 33 and 34 back in March. The show is the longest-running primetime scripted show in the history of TV, and the next two seasons will bring the total number of episodes to 757. In addition, the character of Julio was recently recast, with Tony Rodriguez taking over from Hank Azaria. This is the latest Simpsons character to be revoiced by a more representative actor.

In 2016’s Don’t Breathe, Stephen Lang played Norman Nordstrom, also credited as the Blind Man during the movie, as he defends his home and a terrible secret against a gang of intruders. Now years later, Norman’s secrets are threatened to be revealed once again and the stakes are heightened in the upcoming sequel, Don’t Breathe 2. You can check out the trailer below.

IGN revealed the trailer Wednesday that shows Norman unleashing his animalistic side to protect himself and 11-year-old Phoenix, played by Madelyn Grace (The Orville), and once again try to make amends for his past transgressions. Norman is more brutal than before as he takes on even more intruders this time around.

“If we were going to expand on the Don’t Breathe universe, it would be Norman Nordstrom’s story we should explore,” Sayagues told IGN. “He is a deeply wounded man, who has felt over and over again that life has betrayed him.”

The first film grossed a worldwide total of $157 million, against a small production budget just shy of $10 million, making it a sleeper hit for Sony that summer.

The sequel was announced back in November of 2016 with Don’t Breathe director Fede Álvarez stepping down to co-write with director and frequent collaborator, Rodo Sayagues, taking over the director’s chair for the sequel. The film was to begin principal photography in April 2020, with a script co-written by Rodo Sayagues and Álvarez but, like dozens of television and movie productions, was delayed due to the global pandemic. Both Álvarez and Sayagues are teaming again for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake hitting theaters sometime this year.

Don’t Breathe 2 will be released in theaters nationwide on August 13, 2021.

Iron Galaxy Studios has hired Rejess Marshall to become its new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) boss. In the role of DEI & Access Program Manager at Iron Galaxy, Marshall will “help continue to drive and implement creative, sustainable, and innovative programs that support [the] company’s overall strategic DEI efforts” as the team creates its new original multiplayer melee combat game that’s in the works for console and PC.

“Her first steps in her new position will be getting acquainted with her teammates and developing a greater understanding for how Iron Galaxy can improve its approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” reads a line from Iron Galaxy’s announcement.

Iron Galaxy co-CEO Chelsea Blasko said in a statement that the management team at the studio is focused on hiring diverse staff and creating an environment in which developers can “be their authentic selves.”

“We have expanded rapidly to more than 200 members over the past year in preparation for the development of our new IP, and quickly recognized the need for a standalone role to ensure we give this important function the attention it deserves,” Blasko said. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to have someone with Rejess’ pedigree spearheading our efforts.”

Marshall previously worked as an ambassador for the LGBTQ+ employee resource group at the insurance company Progressive. She holds an MBA from Georgia State University and was awarded the Michael Jay Jedel Award for human resource management.

“I am so honored to join the team at Iron Galaxy, which has already developed amazing programs including diversity scholarships and donating to causes that impact the community, to help create a DEI policy that will serve as a guide for the larger gaming industry,” Marshall said. “As a black, queer woman, I understand how intersecting identities can create workplace barriers, preventing upward mobility. By addressing pay inequity, retention of diverse employees, and employee support and exploring potential partnerships and collaborations with technology and gaming social impact organizations, I look forward to continuing to build an environment where everyone truly feels valued.”

Iron Galaxy is known primarily for its work on ports, most recently partnering with Blizzard on the Nintendo Switch edition of Overwatch. The studio also makes its own original games, and some of its releases included Divekick and Extinction. As mentioned earlier, Iron Galaxy is now developing a melee-focused multiplayer game that is a new IP.

EA and Nvidia have announced that the PC version of Battlefield 2042 will support Nvidia’s RTX gaming technologies DLSS and Reflex, providing better frame rates and reducing latency.

Nvidia’s DLSS is a supersampling tech that upscales lower resolution images and uses artificial intelligence to make the image appear in a higher resolution without requiring a ton of horsepower from your hardware. DLSS has been appearing in more games recently, with titles such as Doom Eternal and Red Dead Redemption 2 either supporting or soon to support the supersampling tech on PC.

Nvidia Reflex is a toolkit that optimizes and measures latency – how long it takes for your gaming device to send information to a server and then right back to your device. Reflex debuted in 2020, and several competitive games like Fortnite and Valorant use the technology.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/09/battlefield-2042-reveal-trailer”]

EA and Nvidia previously partnered for Battlefield V, which supported Nvidia’s hardware-centric ray-tracing technology, which, as it implies, added real-time ray-tracing and reflections into the 2018 shooter.

While this is good news for some, it’s important to keep in mind that to utilize DLSS and Reflex, PC players will need to have machines equipped with an Nvidia RTX graphics card. They’ve been hard to come by due to an ongoing chip shortage that has seen an unprecedented demand for PC parts and gaming consoles, making these products difficult to buy right now. Hopefully that picks up sooner rather than later.

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Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Studio acquisitions have been a dominant theme in the gaming industry recently, with Microsoft making multiple waves for buying sprees that added Bethesda Softworks, Obsidian Entertainment, and several other developers to its portfolio. Speaking on IGN’s Unlocked–where he also mentioned that Xbox Series X|S console revisions won’t be seen soon–Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained how mergers and acquisitions of studios are all part of a regular business cycle that invests in valuable developers.

“I know sometimes I see dialogue out in the industry about, well, are acquisitions a good thing or a bad thing,” Spencer said. “One thing I’ll put out there is starting a new studio–starting any small business, frankly–is a very risky proposition, starting a video game studio even more so. And if a team actually takes the risk of starting a new company, starting a new studio, building that over years, building value in that. To say they shouldn’t sell, I think, is just short-sighted”

Spencer added that the value of growing a business to become something valuable couldn’t be done without creative teams taking that risk in the first place, with acquisitions being a “natural and healthy part” of the industry

“It’s such a risk-filled journey for them to get to the point to create real value. I’m always going to congratulate when teams get to the point where they realize that value through acquisition or just massive independent success,” Spencer explained. “Many of those leaders will go off and start other things over time. It’s kind of the natural turnover that happens with entrepreneurs and startup businesses. And for us, we’re always out there looking at where we could continue to build our first-party capability and looking at teams that we think would be good fits for us.”

There’s been plenty of activity in this sector as of late. Sony acquired Returnal developer Housemarque this week, while industry veteran and former Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Morhaime has founded the studio Dreamhaven.

Even former project leads at Call of Duty have ventured into this space, setting up Deviation Studios, one of several new studios which have signed deals with Sony, including Jade Raymond’s Haven Entertainment and Firewalk Studios which was founded by former Halo and Destiny veterans. Norwegian publisher Funcom has also acquired a majority stake in the Swedish game studio The Outsiders and has announced plans to open a new studio in Romania.

Disney has announced The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, a new Marvel-themed The Simpsons short due to be released on Disney+ this July.

The new animated short, which premieres on Wednesday, July 7, will feature the voice of the MCU’s Tom Hiddleston, who reprises his role as Loki. In the episode, Loki has been banished from Asgard and finds himself in Springfield, where he teams up with Bart Simpson.

The poster for the short is a fun riff on the Avengers: Endgame poster, featuring Milhouse as Hawkeye, Lisa as Thor, Ned Flanders as Ant-Man, and Ralph as Hulk, among other fan favourites.

The Good, The Bart, and The Loki is the second Simpsons crossover short for Disney+, following the Star Wars-themed Maggie Simpson in The Force Awakens from Its Nap, which was released earlier this year as part of Star Wars Day celebrations.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/28/marvels-loki-mid-season-trailer”]

Tom Hiddleston is, of course, the headliner on Marvel’s Loki, currently airing on Disney+. You can check out our spoiler-free look at the show if you’ve yet to tune in, or catch up with everything that’s been going on in our latest spoiler-filled review for episode 4.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.