The producers of the long-running animated show The Simpsons recently announced they will stop using white actors to play non-white characters. One of the show’s voice actors, Harry Shearer, has now commented on the choice, saying he is not exactly in agreement.
Shearer, who is white, voices the Black doctor Julius Hibbert on The Simpsons (among many other characters). “I have a very simple belief about acting,” Shearer told Times Radio (via Deadline). “The job of the actor is to play someone who they’re not.”
Shearer, 76, didn’t flatly say that The Simpsons producers’ made a mistake in their decision about race and casting, but he said it comes with the territory of an actor to play a variety of characters.
The actor said he sees a “conflation” between representation and performance.
“People from all backgrounds should be represented in the writing and producing ends of the business so they help decide what stories to tell and with what knowledge,” Shearer said. “The job is playing someone I’m not.”
Shearer also voices a series of white characters on The Simpsons, including Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Otto Mann, Lenny Leonard, and Principal Skinner.
This newest development for The Simpsons follows an earlier decision between the producers and voice actor Hank Azaria to recast the character of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, an Indian character. It has not been announced who will voice the character going forward yet.
My wife calls them “chore games.” Day-to-day life simulations such as Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons celebrate the mundanity of routine, assigning you daily lists of menial tasks to perform and rewarding you for completing them with another day and another to-do list. Littlewood is most certainly another one of these chore games. Rather than weighing it down, Littlewood’s daily grind is leavened by a lean, focused approach to its various labors, the swift turnover of its day-night cycle, and a dash of mystery that elevates its charming setting.
Peace has spread across the land of Solemn in the aftermath of the defeat of a dark wizard. Leading the victorious band of adventurers was a great hero who, in classic video game protagonist tradition, is now suffering from amnesia. He or she cannot remember a single thing about the battle, the triumph, or life beforehand. Nonetheless, at the urging of the friends you apparently fought alongside, you are granted the tiny village of Littlewood and tasked with managing its recovery in a post-war world.
If this makes Littlewood seem a tad grim–a kind of gruelling bid for survival amid the ruins of civilization–don’t worry, it’s not. The tone is almost relentlessly cheerful. Your companions are quick to commend you for literally anything you do. Build them a house and they’ll thank you. Level up your fishing skill with a few trips to the nearby lake and they’ll offer hearty congratulations. Return from the mines with some stone and they’ll welcome you with a thumbs up; turn said stone into bricks at the furnace (which they could not be more grateful for you constructing for the village) and they’ll marvel at your talent for masonry.
In times like these, such enthusiastic displays of positivity are welcome. Honestly, it feels good to be doing something good–to be contributing to a community in a way that seems worthwhile and is clearly appreciated. Growing accustomed to the constant shower of praise took a little while, though. I admit I found it disconcerting at first, maybe even a bit weird. People typically aren’t this, I dunno, “up” all the time. But as Willow, Dalton, Lilith, and the rest of Littlewood continued to laud my achievements–Laura was particularly thrilled when I hit Level 30 in Bug Catching–my cynicism wilted in the face of their barrage of gushing sincerity.
Of course, I don’t think it’s arrogant to suggest the acclaim was thoroughly warranted. As the leader of Littlewood, you basically have to do everything to keep the place running. Quickly, you understand why everyone is so keen to hail your prowess. Littlewood has a tavern, for example–at least, it does once you have collected the materials required to build and then designated the exact spot on which it should be constructed. The tavern sells food to the villagers, but you’re responsible for cooking all the meals. You can pop in each day to prep some dishes (assuming you have collected the necessary ingredients) and pocket the dewdrops earned from the sale of yesterday’s dishes. Serving as village chef is surprisingly free of pressure, however. You can decide not to make any new food for a few days and no one seems to mind. In fact, they’ll leave polite requests on the town notice board for a particular dish and reward you handsomely whenever you deign to make it for them. In what may come as a shock to anyone who has worked in hospitality, your customers here possess endless patience and eternal gratitude. In this sense, Littlewood affords a heartening glimpse of a better world we perhaps don’t deserve.
A variety of other structures–marketplace, museum, general store, and so on–function in much the same way as the tavern, and your transactions at each maintain Littlewood’s centralized economy. Your exploits out in the nearby forest and quarry generate the raw materials needed to upgrade each building so that they can, in turn, provide you with a more efficient service. Your days are thus filled with decisions over whether to expend your daily energy limit on travelling to the randomly-generated cavern to hit some rocks, going to the randomly generated woods to chop down some trees, or staying home and pottering around catching bugs, plucking weeds or catching fish. Again, there’s no rush, really. Time is energy, and energy is only depleted when you perform certain resource-extracting or resource-creating actions. You can happily walk around the village and chat to everyone, even build a few items of furniture they might desire for their homes, and it’ll still be a bright new morning. The leisurely, unhurried pace alleviates the stress of never having enough hours in the day to do everything that these chore games so often elicit. Didn’t get all those planks of wood you needed to upgrade the cafe today? Don’t worry, you’ll knock ’em out tomorrow.
It wasn’t just the chill and positive vibes that enticed me to spend so much time in Littlewood, though they certainly helped. What cemented my love for the place is its heart. As the village flourishes, more people arrive seeking a new home and, for a variety of reasons, a fresh start. Some arrive intrigued by tales of the valor of the “great hero,” while others are no doubt lured by (surely not exaggerated) accounts of this legendary town planner and culinary whiz. Regardless, the people came, and for once it was I who was grateful.
Affection for my fellow comrades of Littlewood grew through talking to them every day. Do so, and you’ll realise they’re each written with a distinct personality, and the couple of lines of dialogue you get each day gradually reveal their individual stories. Sure, there’s repetition, but in much the same way you smile at an Animal Crossing villager yet again repeating a line, the recitation serves to reinforce their personality.
Conversations also allow you to compliment a villager, though you’re less effusive in your praise than they are and can only do so once per day. You can flirt with villagers and even go on dates with them once your relationship blossoms sufficiently. Even those toward whom you’re not romantically inclined can be asked to simply hang out, meaning they’ll tag along with you wherever you go and be a source of bonuses to whatever task you happen to be undertaking. I didn’t expect to form much of an attachment to these characters. They are, after all, merely tiny collections of un-voiced pixels. But attached I did become. I warmed to Lilith’s outsider status and the struggles she has fitting in. I adored Bubsy the bird’s oddball pomposity and Terric the knight’s quixotic gestures. And I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness over Willow and how she and I were clearly a thing before the great battle and now she remembers but I no longer do. Like all good video game writing, Littlewood extracts a lot from very little and leaves ample room for you to fill in the blanks.
While my heroic deeds set an example for the people of Littlewood, they returned the favour by encouraging me to take pride in the town. Once someone moves in, you can consult the desk (which, it should go without saying, you built yourself) in their one-room dwelling to reveal their design preferences. Many of these are simple requests for certain furnishings, the fulfilment of which entails obtaining the appropriate crafting recipe and materials, then building it for them. You might have to wait for the recipe to appear at the store or come up for auction on a daytrip to the big city, and it might be tricky to track down some of the less common ingredients, but the task itself is pretty straightforward. You can apply a touch of finesse at the end when it comes to placing the furniture in the house, but it’s not exactly an exercise in deep interior design.
The more interesting petitions involve whereabouts in town they ideally would like to live. Everyone wants to be near something they like or far away from something they don’t, and it’s up to you to make sure everyone is satisfied. Dudley wants to be near the cafe but well clear of the quarry. Maximilian has got to be near the air balloon platform and on the highest possible terrain elevation. You truly have to play town planner, and everything, from houses and shops to trees, flowers and rocks, can be picked up and moved wherever you like. Provided you have the raw materials, even the terrain itself can be manipulated, piling earth to raise hills, flattening out plains, and channelling new waterways.
I loved completing these tasks. On three separate occasions, as the competing requests piled up, I realised I could no longer address each one in turn; my makeshift efforts to improvise stopgap solutions were no longer cutting it. I had to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. I didn’t exactly demolish the village, but like working on a jigsaw puzzle, I moved everything to the sides and tackled the layout afresh. Not only did the vying villager preferences pose a series of problems that proved genuinely satisfying to solve on each occasion, the real revelation was how I then found myself wanting to continue the landscaping work–planting flowers here, sculpting the hills and valleys there, mapping out the footpaths and stream just so–to ensure Littlewood simply looked really nice.
You don’t have to do any of this. You can ignore the villager requests if you want–they won’t bring it up or give you sour looks as you sheepishly avoid them in the street. And you especially don’t have to bother with flowers or paths or any of that. But I wanted to. The people of Littlewood drove me to do it. I wanted to make Littlewood a lovely place for us all to live. And, at the risk of showering myself with compliments, I think I did a fantastic job of it, too.
My wife first used the phrase “chore game” when I bought her Stardew Valley several years ago. “Why did you get me this chore game?” she lamented. Weeks later she was busy filling out the community center with all kinds of weird and wonderful items. I feel much the same way about Littlewood. At heart it’s a checklist of chores. But it’s such a wonderfully warm, endlessly charming checklist of chores that when they’re all done, I’m not going to want to leave.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe is coming to Nintendo Switch on October 30, and it includes all DLC from the original plus new prologue and epilogue content. The game released on the Wii U back in 2013, and at some point in the 7 years following its release the price dropped to $20 digitally as part of the Nintendo Selects discount line. Now, with a new version on the way, that has changed.
Nintendo Everything noticed that the game has been pulled from sale digitally, so you can no longer buy it for the Wii U from the Eshop. The Switch version is now available to preorder, and retails for $60.
While the Switch version comes with extra content, and can be played in handheld mode, whether that’s worth $40 more is up for debate.
As Nintendo Everything points out, Nintendo did something similar when Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was announced for Switch. If you’re looking to buy a digital copy of any of the few Wii U games that have not made their way to Nintendo’s new console, it might be good to do so soon rather than later.
Look at a screenshot of Windbound and its art direction (a vibrant, watercolour style), will likely remind you of a very well-loved Legend of Zelda game–Breath Of The Wild. Watch a video of Windbound in action, and seeing its focus on sailing through vast oceans might instead remind you of another Legend of Zelda game–Wind Waker. Actually start playing Windbound, however, and it’s quickly very clear that despite those stylistic influences, it plays nothing like a Zelda game. Which is, honestly, a relief.
Windbound is the second release from 5 Lives Studios, a team of Australian developers who previously released Satellite Reigns, a spiritual successor to the much-loved Syndicate games. Neither of those games are like Windbound either. Alright, alright–Windbound is a third-person survival game, the kind where resource gathering and crafting tools and supplies to stay alive are the main concerns that dominate the second-to-second gameplay loop. These things are very popular, I hear.
Windbound structures its survival as a single-player rogue-lite, much like Don’t Starve. You start the game as a woman named Kara, who is shipwrecked and separated from her clan. She wakes up on a tiny island, which barely has enough resources for you to build a basic canoe to row your way outta there. From there, your goal is to head towards the next procedurally generated landmass that makes up Windbound’s archipelagic world and hopefully find a way to get back to your people.
The next island, in all likelihood, will contain more resources that will allow you to keep Kara fed, as well as start building out her boat into something a little more efficient. Maybe something a little more robust, too, in order to survive the increasingly treacherous water hazards that will likely come up later. The boat-building system allows for some creativity in how you want to put together your craft–I was able to eventually add multiple decks, sails, and defensive spikes to create a pretty big, if slapdash, vessel. Once I had a respectable boat on my hands, catching the wind in my sails and cruising across the ocean felt pretty good–relaxing, even. You can even install a cooking station and a number of storage containers on it, and get things done while your boat heads toward the next location.
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Windbound is also being pitched as a survival game with a supposed “provocative narrative.”. I wasn’t able to get a sense of that at all during the limited time of my demo session, but noted that the game was divided into a total of five chapters, with an overarching goal for each. If you happened to die, you start all the way back in Chapter 1, with most of your gear wiped. The segmentation of the game is an interesting variation, and it makes sense if the game has a hefty story to tell and characters to develop. The does also feature a “Storyteller” difficulty setting that supposedly makes the rogue-lite elements of Windbound less severe, and creates checkpoints at the beginning of each chapter. All of that certainly has the potential to make the daunting prospect of actually finishing a survival rogue-lite game feel a little more feasible.
Of course, survival games need good threats to keep you juggling your priorities at all times, and Windbound certainly has that. Vicious oceans aside, islands can be populated with aggressive wildlife of all shapes and sizes–a lot of the much bigger than Kara. You have the ability to sneak past them if necessary, but taking them head-on naturally yields rare materials you’ll need for advanced recipes, as well as meat to eat (provided you cook it before it spoils).
Kara is thankfully equipped with an unbreakable knife she can use as a default weapon, but naturally, you can craft stronger melee options with the materials you find, as well as ranged weapons like a sling and bow. The ability to dodge attacks and the need to watch Kara’s stamina meter add to the concerns you need to keep in mind, but combat otherwise felt quite straightforward in my short time with it, and I couldn’t see any immediate avenues for complexity other than creating more powerful gear. Shooting Kara’s bow may evoke those great Breath Of The Wild combat moments, but Windbound’s core focus is definitely more on survival.
Don’t Starve was one of the specific influences cited in Windbound’s development, and having played a lot of that game, Windbound definitely seems to capture Klei’s particular brand of survival loop quite closely, albeit with its own twists. Between that and the pleasing artstyle (which also echoes another game quite closely), it’s enough to make me interested enough to at least play a little more. Whether the survival loop continues to vigorously keep your mind racing past the two-hour mark is an unknown factor, as is how much Windbound’s purported focus on telling a narrative and supposed “personal journey” actually comes into play. If it can build and balance the telling of a strong, directed narrative within a genre that has almost always been associated purely with emergent player-driven storytelling, that would certainly make it special. Windbound isn’t the Zelda copycat it may initially appear to be, but I’m hoping that it has its own unique identity to reveal, too.
Windbound is slated for release on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia on August 28, 2020
FIFA 21 is looking to combat online player toxicity by removing certain celebrations and and shortening or removing cutscenes, so that your opponent cannot showboat too hard when they get a goal or stall for time. According to a report from Eurogamer, various measures are being taken to improve the overall online experience.
Two celebrations, the “shush” and “a-ok”, will be removed. The “shush” is simply irritating–as it’s a running celebration, often used to extend the cutscene and annoy opponents–but the “a-ok” has more sinister implications, as the “okay” symbol has turned into a racist symbol (and was recently removed from Call of Duty.)
Some cutscenes are being reduced or removed, too–FIFA 21 will no longer have the “walk back” cinematic after scoring a goal online, which will reduce the time spent watching cutscenes. Animations for players grabbing the ball for a throw-in or the keeper getting ready for a goal-kick are also gone from online matches. Goal celebrations are being shortened across the board, too.
The ability to “time waste” is also being addressed. Whereas in FIFA 20, players had a full 30 seconds to complete actions during set-pieces, those times are now greatly reduced. Kick-off now gives you 10 seconds, 12 seconds for throw-ins, 15 seconds for goal kicks, and 20 for free kicks.
Lead gameplay producer Sam Rivera told Eurogamer that all of these changes came from player feedback, and should lead to games that flow better. “All together the intention there is just to keep you playing instead of doing other things that may not be necessary in the game,” he said.
FIFA 21 is coming to Xbox One, PS4, and PC on October 6, alongside the Switch Legacy Edition. The game is also coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X, and you’ll be able to get a free upgrade if you buy the previous-gen release on the right console (PS4 for PS5, Xbox One for Xbox Series X).
Toxic behavior is a problem in NHL 20, and EA Sports is further addressing it with a new reporting feature that players can use to let the developer know about offending players.
Users can now report player names and Club names for the World of Chel mode through the Pro Clubs website. You can do this by simply pressing the “report club” button on the site, and then sharing more details about the offenses.
We’ve added the ability to directly report offensive WOC Player and Club names in #NHL20 through our Pro Clubs site: https://t.co/q4oBeVgCdE With your help we’ve actioned on over 9000 accounts this year, and will continue to take the proper steps to enforce against any offenders pic.twitter.com/Igmr4I6tG2
Even before these tools were implemented, EA already took action against more than 9,000 accounts so far in 2020, the studio said. The developer promised to “continue to take the proper steps to enforce against any offenders.”
Captain Marvel 2 is in the works, and a new report suggests that a director has been found. Deadline is reporting that Nia DaCosta, the director behind the Jordan Peele-produced Candyman movie coming out later this year, is attached to direct the Marvel movie.
Disney and Marvel provided the outlet with no comment, so take this with a grain of salt for now, but it seems likely. DaCosta has only directed one feature before Candyman, an indie picture called Little Woods, which reviewed well. Along with directing, she also wrote the screenplay for Candyman, which is looking terrifying.
DaCosta, who is currently 30 years old, will likely tie with Ryan Coogler (who released Black Panther at 32) as the youngest Marvel movie director when the film premieres.
The first Marvel movie to be directed entirely by a woman will be Black Widow, directed by Cate Shortland. 2021’s The Eternals will be directed by Chloe Zhao. Captain Marvel was the first Marvel film to focus primarily on a female superhero.
It was previously reported that WandaVision writer Megan McDonnell was working on a script. The first Captain Marvel film was written and directed by team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
Captain Marvel 2 is currently planned for a 2022 release, but with the COVID-19 pandemic shifting schedules around, that could change.
Madden NFL 21‘s new mode is The Yard, an homage to backyard football featuring fast-paced games with six-man teams. The mode will feature gameplay similar to the NFL Street series and other, more casual sports titles.
The Yard will offer trick plays and house rules that can be customized from match-to-match. Players will also create an avatar for the mode, which will feature progression through an XP system and a constant rotation of fresh looks, courtesy of the Style Zone. The character is also the star of a narrative experience called The Yard: Underground, which will feature 5-on-5 gameplay, available through the Madden NFL 21 Mobile app.
The main game and the mobile version will share progression, inventory, and in-game currency, so players can move between both versions of The Yard seamlessly.
“We wanted to create a new way for players to express themselves and take on small-sided football in an arcade-style experience that’s completely new to Madden,” Seann Graddy, executive producer for Madden NFL, said. “Players will delve into all-new gameplay on mobile and on consoles that will bring to life the backyard football that NFL players and fans grew up loving, where the rules are relaxed, and you can win with attitude.”
Madden NFL 21 releases on August 28 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with the Xbox Series X, PS5, and Stadia versions launching at a later date. You can learn about the game and its pre-order bonuses in our Madden NFL 21 pre-order guide.
Despite persistent rumors suggesting the contrary, Microsoft has stated that it has no plans to discontinue Xbox Live Gold soon.
The statement comes in response to a change in the Microsoft Services Agreement, with references to Xbox Live Gold now reading as “Xbox online service.” The change seemed to confirm reports that Xbox Live Gold was about to be discontinued in favor of a free online service, but Microsoft has refuted that categorically.
“The update to ‘Xbox online service’ in the Microsoft Services Agreement refers to the underlying Xbox service that includes features like cross-saves and friend requests,” a Microsoft spokesperson told GameSpot. “This language update is intended to distinguish that underlying service, and the paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. There are no changes being made to the experience of the service or Xbox Live Gold.”
Although the statement makes it clear that Xbox Live Gold isn’t going anywhere, it doesn’t rule out potential changes to the service. One change could be a shift to exclude free multiplayer titles from requiring Xbox Live Gold to play, which would work perfect with the recently announced Halo Infinitemultiplayer that will be free-to-play. Without this change, Microsoft would in effect be charging players on Xbox for a service that is free to their PC player base.
In contrast, Sony already omits many free-to-play shooters, such as Fortnite and Apex Legends, from its PlayStation Plus program. Microsoft is reportedly set to host another stream this month focusing on more Xbox Series X titles and the rumored Lockhart Xbox console, so we might hear more about these plans then.
The mustaches will live on. TruTV has announced a Season 3 renewal for firefighter comedy Tacoma FD. The series, created by Broken Lizard comedy troupe members Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme, follows a group of firefighters in Tacoma, Washington, a place without many fires to fight. But who needs fires when you can watch members of the team join a choir or compete in boxing matches with local cops?
After debuting Season 2 in March, TruTV general manager Bryan Weitz said in a statement that the show’s popularity is still increasing. “With Tacoma FD’s fanbase continuing to grow, the show is a huge success story for us, and we can’t wait to see what kind of Station 24 shenanigans Kevin, Steve, and the incredible cast come up with next,” he explained.
According to a press release, viewers will get to watch Lemme and Heffernan get the renewal news themselves, during the August 6 episode of Talkoma FD–the aftershow hosted by the duo. Naturally, their reaction falls right in line with the type of comedy fans have come to expect from the guys behind movies like Super Troopers.
“I’m incredibly excited,” Lemme said. “Mostly because I get to watch Kevin begin his arduous, six-month mustache-growing process. He only has 12 hair holes in his upper lip, so it takes some time.”
Of course, even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Heffernan is keeping his mustache game strong. Appearing in a recent short written film from the writer of Minions and The Secret Life of Pets Brian Lynch, Heffernan appeared as the victim of a truly ridiculous prank call. You can check that out below.
New episodes of Tacoma FD air Thursdays at 10 PM ET/PT. The aftershow Talkoma FD follows at 10:30 PM ET/PT. In other TruTV news, it was also announced that even more episodes of Impractical Jokers are on the way, with production restarting soon.
