The Epic Games vs. Apple trial isn’t set to begin until next year, and in the meantime, there was concern that Apple would disable Unreal Engine support on its devices. This would leave a huge number of developers without the ability to maintain or develop games on iOS and Mac, but a judge has stepped in. A previously temporary restraining order that barred Apple from doing this has been made permanent in the lead up to the trial.
In an order filed on October 9, United States District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said that all parties “in active concert or participation with Apple” are forbidden from taking action against “Epic Affiliates” in regard to Apple’s developer program, on the basis of Epic Games using direct payment methods to circumvent Apple’s own payment system.
“This preliminary injunction supersedes the prior temporary restraining order,” the order continued, adding that it will remain in effect for the duration of the litigation.
Explaining the decision, the order mentioned the public’s interest and the potential damage that could come from removing the Unreal Engine from iOS devices.
“The record shows potential significant damage to both the Unreal Engine platform itself and to the gaming industry generally, including on both third-party developers and gamers,” it reads. “The public context in which this injury arises differs significantly: Not only has the underlying agreement not been breached but the economy is in dire need of increasing avenues for creativity and innovation, not eliminating them.”
Though Unreal Engine will remain supported on Apple devices, it will be several months before there is a chance of that happening for Fortnite. The trial, which will not have a jury, will begin on May 3, 2021. Depending on the status of the pandemic, it could be either in-person or conducted virtually.
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The New York Comic Con virtual panel for The Stand brought together stars Whoopi Goldberg, James Marsden, Greg Kinnear, Amber Heard, Jovan Adepo, Odessa Young and Owen Teague alongside showrunner Benjamin Cavell and executive producer Taylor Elmore for a vibrant conversation previewing the series. In addition, Whoopi Goldberg surprised fans by debuting the official trailer during the panel!
Helstrom, based on the Marvel comic book characters Daimon and Ana Helstrom, is the closest Marvel has come to horror yet, which means its release is perfectly timed for the spooky season. It also looks to be the final live-action Marvel series that isn’t an expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The series follows a pair of estranged adult siblings, Daimon (Tom Austen) and Ana (Sydney Lemon), who happen to be the children of a demon dad that happens to also be a serial killer, and a mother who’s spent the last two decades possessed and institutionalized. As a result of their parentage, the siblings have supernatural powers and no shortage of emotional baggage.
The story kicks off when Daimon, who makes his living as an ethics professor and also happens to be a part-time exorcist, learns that the demon possessing his and Ana’s mother is attempting to carry out a mysterious sinister plot. He enlists Ana, an antiquities broker, to help figure out what’s going on. Naturally, they discover that the mystery goes far deeper–and potentially includes even more demons.
The first season of Helstrom consists of 10 episodes, 5 of which were provided for review. In those episodes, it’s clear that this isn’t like any other live-action Marvel TV series you’ve seen before. There’s no way around the fact that Helstrom is a horror show. It has monsters, some gore, and a number of jump scares to keep you entertained. That said, the show is far from perfect–and far from your best Halloween binge option this year.
Ultimately, Helstrom looks and plays like a CW series with a bigger budget, better production design, and a darker and more disturbing setting. All too often watching these first five episodes, the long-running Supernatural came to mind. In another world, it would be easy to see them paired together for a night of spooky sibling fun on The CW. Of course, Helstrom would have to tone down some of its content–the language and gore.
Still, being reminiscent of a CW show isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, that might be exactly what some are looking for: a show where the relationship drama is as prevalent as the supernatural setting it unfolds in. Yes, Daimon and Ana have interesting powers and find themselves literally fighting demons. However, at the end of the day, this is a story about two siblings dealing with the trauma from growing up as members of a seriously messed up family, while attempting to hold the threads of that family together as best they can.
To that end, Helstrom is a decent family drama. Austen and Lemon’s portrayal of the siblings is engaging as they attempt to heal themselves, while also learning to trust each other. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Marvel is truly heartbreaking as their mother Victoria, who rotates between being the captor and the captive as her human side becomes more and more consumed by the demon that possesses her.
The trio are surrounded by a set of supporting characters–Robert Wisdom as Caretaker, June Carryl as psychiatric hospital boss Louise Hastings, and Ariana Guerra as Vatican agent Gabriella Rossetti–who help guide them on their journey (or, in the case of Gabriella, attempt to keep an egotistical Daimon somewhat grounded).
Ultimately, the thing that sticks out most about Helstrom is what it could have been. In the comics, the character of Daimon Helstrom was introduced in an issue of Ghost Rider. Knowing that, it hardly seems a coincidence that this show was announced simultaneously with Hulu revealing it was making a live-action Ghost Rider TV show. While this series seemingly exists outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s clearly building out a supernatural world that would have worked well when combined with Ghost Rider. Unfortunately, the Ghost Rider project was canceled in September 2019. What’s more, after Helstrom was announced, executive producer and former head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb left the company, with most attention shifting to the MCU expansions on Disney+, including WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and more.
This leaves Helstrom in a tenuous place where it’s hard to get too invested because, honestly, it seems unlikely that it will continue beyond this initial season. In fact, casting even more doubt on a potential Season 2 was the report back in April that Marvel had ended its overall deal with Helstrom showrunner Paul Zbyszewski at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That said, Helstrom has the makings of a decent standalone piece. There’s nothing overtly bad about the show. The issue is that there’s also nothing remarkable about it. Nothing about it feels special, other than the fact that it’s simply something Marvel hasn’t tried before. It’s a middle-of-the-road entry into the horror space for Marvel–a space it may not visit again for a very long time.
Mosul, the military action movie produced by Joe and Anthony Russo, has found a home at Netflix, where it will release this November, according to a report from THR.
Written and directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan, who co-wrote World War Z and 21 Bridges (also Russo-produced), the movie retells the real-world events as first described in The New Yorker’s “The Desperate Battle to Destroy Isis.” The story centers around a group of Iraqi police on the Nineveh SWAT team as they defend their Northern Iraq town.
Mosul first premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2019, and then at the Toronto International Film Festival after that. The film was initially set for distribution in 2019 via 101 Studio, but plans fell through according to THR.
Mosul stars Suhail Dabbach (The Hurt Locker), Adam Bessa (Extraction), and Is’Haq Elias. The Russo Bros. produced the film alongside Mike Larocca and The New Yorker Studios. Todd Makurath, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are executive producing along with Mohamed Al-Daradji, Patrick Newall, Wang Zhongjun, Wang Zhonglei, and Hu Junyi.
Mosul is the second Russo-produced military action film to hit Netflix after this spring’s Extraction, which starred Chris Hemsworth. Following the completion of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, two huge, interconnected films, the Russos seem to have shifted away from blockbusters toward producing smaller and more self-contained stories.
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It’s common in games for death to go unexplored. When it’s not used as a narrative device to motivate living characters, it’s brushed aside as collateral for a game’s mechanics, with few interrogating the effects of your actions. I Am Dead is nothing like that. Not only do you play as a recently deceased protagonist, but its warm and welcoming tale explores themes of what it means to leave a legacy–however big or small–on the people you shared your brief time with while alive.
Playing as former museum curator Morris Lupton and guided by his equally dead pet dog, Sparky, you explore the recent history of the fictional island of Shelmerston in search of a new guardian for the tranquil settlement. The island’s dormant volcano is being kept at bay by the waning spirit of a former inhabitant, forcing Lupton to search for a replacement from a handful of other Shelmerston inhabitants that have recently found themselves in the afterlife. With the ability to explore some of the island’s picturesque locations and interact with objects in ways unique to your spectral form, you slowly unearth the island’s history and touching vignettes of some of its residents.
Before being able to ask a friendly resident ghost if they’re up to the task of watching over Shelmerston, you need to first learn about their lasting impact on those who are still alive. This manifests in distinct levels where you explore stories of each character through the lens of those who remember them. The devout followers of a yoga instructor who reside in a repurposed lighthouse recall the calming nature of their late leader, coloring in his complex relationship with past trauma and how it shaped his pursuit for inner peace. Another tale set in the island’s bustling port town tells the tale of a blossoming romance between two youths who both discovered more about themselves when apart, which cemented their relationship further when reunited. These stories help introduce you to the would-be caretakers before you get to meet them, giving you all the context you need to understand their decision to either accept or decline the position of island custodian.
Stages feature five memories to recall, each of which you solve by bringing into focus images like how you would twist a kaleidoscope. It’s a simple but effective way of giving form to the stories being told over your actions, while also giving life to characters you can’t explicitly interact with in your spectral form. Each of these memories recalls keepsakes you need to find in order to find the deceased resident they belong to, turning each distinct stage into a treasure hunt of sorts.
I Am Dead is a brief trip to a distinct and gorgeous island, with personal tales that balance sad anecdotes with heartwarming tales of love.
As a spirit, you can inspect objects around you in a unique way: by slicing into its geometry to peel back each of its layers and tunnel into its inner workings. For example, you can zoom into a large docked ship to expose a brewery contained inside, which can be further drilled into to reveal the contents of shelves on its walls or its stills. Zooming into objects is reminiscent of clipping geometry, except that it is used as a gameplay mechanic as opposed to being a visual bug. Being able to inspect objects and each of their cross-section layers is an interesting way to hunt for the objects described in each memory, especially when they lead to surprising discoveries. For example, investigating a seemingly uninteresting hole exposed a network of fox dens hiding beneath a grassy park, showing how life above and below its surface continued in ignorant harmony.
Finding the keepsakes you need to progress is rarely challenging, which keeps in step with the relaxed pacing of I Am Dead’s story. They’re usually exactly where described in their associated memories or otherwise near the character recalling the stories, making the treasure hunts more a conclusion to each vignette rather than a taxing puzzle. While it is straightforward and welcoming, the lack of evolution from one stage to the next does make each new object hunt a little less exciting than the last. The new areas you get to explore provide their own sense of wonder as you slice through their construction, but it can be easy to ignore any window dressing when the core objectives aren’t pushing you to explore them even briefly.
There are optional objectives in each stage that involve a little more sleuthing to solve. Your canine companion will signal when grenkins–small, scattered spirits–are nearby, and finding them requires you to decipher a vague visual clue. These clues are a 2D representation of a cross-section of an object nearby, tasking you with not only determining which one but also zooming in and occluding its geometry in a way that matches. I Am Dead is forgiving enough that the closer you are to solving the puzzle, the more it tries to automatically align itself with the end goal, avoiding any of the potential frustrations of having to align a specific object perfectly to match the clue. But the rewards for solving these puzzles are nothing more than checks on a list for each stage, which is disappointing compared to the effort they involve, even if it’s the only form of challenge that I Am Dead offers.
Although the way you move from stage to stage in I Am Dead eventually loses some steam, the locales themselves never disappoint. From the multi-floored lighthouse to a dimly lit campsite, each of the stages is an eye-catching treat. The striking watercolors that wash over the tranquil hills of Shelmerston complement the inviting blue hues of its surrounding oceans, reflecting the warm orange sunset that welcomes the evenings in latter parts of the story. These stark colors work well with the outlandish designs of Shelmerston’s inhabitants, who are convinced that camels are works of fiction but don’t seem to bat an eye at citizens with apples for heads or bipedal fish sailors. I Am Dead never seeks to explain how these characters came to be, but also presents them in a way that matches the almost mythical nature of the island, making it all seamlessly fit in an endearing way.
I Am Dead is a brief trip to a distinct and gorgeous island, with personal tales that balance sad anecdotes with heartwarming tales of love. These small stories characterize Shelmerston’s inhabitants in a strong way, giving you reason to care for the land’s history as you pursue a means to ensure its future. But through its stories it also explores death in a different light, focusing on the ways its characters have affected those around them positively in their passing instead of just honing in on mourning. Even if the treasure-hunting gameplay underpinning the narrative progression doesn’t evolve beyond its simple beginnings, it’s hard not to be entranced by I Am Dead’s colorful characters and engaging tales and come away from your getaway to Shelmerston with a smile on your face.
Hulu has two Marvel TV shows on the horizon, MODOK–which looks like Robot Chicken with Marvel villains–and Helstrom, a horror series landing on the service on October 16. During New York Comic-Con’s panel for Helstrom, the cast and crew discussed making this show feel different from other gothic shows on TV.
Showrunner Paul Zbyszewski spoke openly about putting a new spin on the exorcism trope, as the show follows an ethics professor exorcising demons when he has one of his own inside of him. “You know whenever you’re attacking something like this, you go ‘What do we bring to it that people haven’t seen before? What’s new? What’s different? What’s the thing you don’t expect?’ Zbyszewski explained. “And also, does that feel true to the characters and the story we’re trying to tell? So it’s kind of interesting that a demon is coming in as an exorcist to get rid of other demons, and that’s how I approached it.”
While Helstrom is a horror show, one of the very few times Marvel and the genre have crossed paths, Zbyszewski went on to say that this show does pay homage to past horror films as there are many Easter eggs throughout the show.” I have to give props to the director of our first episode Dana Reed, who was phenomenal. Terrific. Her approach coming at this was very traditional horror. There are shots in the first episode–as you’ve seen the scene of Damon coming up the stairs–the framing of that by Bernard Couture also our Director of photography. Just a master and artist paints the frame, Dana and Bernard really looked at what is classic [horror] and how do we mimic that style and tone and feel? And that was their approach, which I just love. They did fantastic job [and I] can’t give them enough props.”
You’ll be able to check out Helstrom for yourself on October 16 when all 10 episodes of the first season drop. For now, you can check out the first 10 minutes of Episode 1 above for the NYCC 2020 panel.
In GameSpot’s review of Helstrom–Episodes 1-5–Chris E. Hayner said, “Helstrom has the makings of a decent standalone piece. There’s nothing overtly bad about the show. The issue is that there’s also nothing remarkable about it. Nothing about it feels special, other than the fact that it’s simply something Marvel hasn’t tried before. It’s a middle-of-the-road entry into the horror space for Marvel–a space it may not visit again for a very long time.”
Things have been a little quiet on the PlayStation 5 front lately, but Sony has started drip-feeding us small amounts of information. Of course, it’s not enough to quench our thirst, but at this point, we’ll take whatever we can get. The relatively reserved approach Sony has taken on delivering details has us wondering what its strategy is, and that’s exactly what the subject of this episode of Generation Next is about.
Lucy, Jordan, and Tamoor talk through Sony’s decision to stay tight-lipped about all things PS5 and what it means for people that are currently thinking about making new console purchasing decisions. They also reflect on how this strategy impacts Microsoft, as it also gears up to launch the Xbox Series X/S in the same period.
From there, the team hits all the information that Sony has provided in the last week. This includes small details on how the DualSense controller identifies different players, how much hard drive space is allegedly taken up by the OS, and the decision to swap the function of two buttons around in Japan.
On top of that, there’s a discussion about the Tempest 3D Audio Engine (which won’t work at full capacity when the console launches), the official PS5 teardown video, and the recent Trophy changes, among other things.
Generation Next is GameSpot’s weekly video show all about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Each Friday, join PlayStation Pro Tamoor Hussain, Xbox Xpert Jordan Ramée, and Console Connoisseur Lucy James as they discuss the biggest stories about the new consoles.
Disney+ may be the main hub for MCU content in terms of streaming services but Hulu isn’t abandoning its Marvel roster. Hulu’s Helstrom, a live-action supernatural thriller is just around the corner and will soon be joined by Marvel’s MODOK, an animated comedy done in the stop-motion style of classics like Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. At New York Comic Con’s digital Metaverse event, the cast and crew presented a first look at the series to give fans an idea of exactly what’s in store for the off-beat streaming TV show.
The show stars Patton Oswalt as MODOK, Aimee Garcia as his wife Jodie, Ben Schwartz as his son Lou, and Melissa Fumero as his daughter Melissa. The show centers around MODOK’s villainous organization, AIM, as it goes through some hard times–they’re bankrupt and being bought out by a Silicon Valley tech firm to keep them afloat. So now, in the words of co-creator Jordan Blum, “MODOK is suddenly forced to sit through things like HR meetings.”
So who is MODOK? Well, in Patton Oswalt’s words, he’s a “supervillain who not only hates superheroes, he hates every other supervillain, so it’s just double barreled resentment all the way down.” This is in contrast with his son, the lab-created Lou who Ben Schwartz says “is unlike everyone in his family” and daughter Melissa, who according to Melissa Fumero, “has daddy issues and very much wants to follow in her father’s supervillain footsteps.” Apparently, despite Melissa taking after MODOK (as in, being a giant floating head with baby arms) she’s still the queen bee of her high school.
To cap it all off comes MODOK’s wife Jodie who is a career woman and mommy blogger. In an exclusive clip shared with the panel, we see that Jodie is a successful entrepreneur who would ideally like to see MODOK give up his supervillain lifestyle because she’s currently bringing in enough money to support the family on her own. Naturally, MODOK, who “doesn’t like change” according to Oswalt, isn’t thrilled with the idea.
Oswalt went on to explain that Jodie has a supervillain arc of her own, but doesn’t realize that it’s a supervillain arc until it’s too late. “In her mind it was like an Eat, Pray, Love thing,” Oswalt said.
The family will be joined by a revolving door of supporting characters and Marvel universe cameos. Blum said that fans can expect to see “A-listers and D-listers and characters you’d have to dig down deep to even find that they ever existed. We pulled from everywhere.” Blum also confirmed that they were even allowed to pull from other Marvel properties like the X-Men, but couldn’t elaborate exactly which mutants may be showing up.
Currently Marvel’s MODOK has no official release date and will be “coming soon” to Hulu.
