Six months and more than 300 million miles later, the NASA Perseverance rover has touched down on Mars. Nicknamed “Percy” by the mission control team, the probe began sending back images of the red planet shortly after it executed a perfect landing at 3:55 p.m. ET on Thursday. Though the power of technology, you can see the NASA team monitor and guide the rover in the video below. Luckily, it all went fairly smoothly.
To see just how amazing the Perseverance landing was, PBS covered the event and its infamous “seven minutes of terror”, which involves navigating through the thin Martian atmosphere at a speed of over 12,000 mph and attempting a soft landing on the Martian surface.
“This landing is one of those pivotal moments for NASA, the United States, and space exploration globally–when we know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk to CNN. “The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission embodies our nation’s spirit of persevering even in the most challenging of situations, inspiring, and advancing science and exploration.”
President Joe Biden called Jurczyk and told him “Congratulations, man,” and then praised the NASA team on Twitter. “Congratulations to NASA and everyone whose hard work made Perseverance’s historic landing possible. Today proved once again that with the power of science and American ingenuity, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility,” Biden wrote.
Perseverance’s current mission is to search Mars for any signs of life, although thankfully it hasn’t discovered any signs of demonic influence or an incredibly angry space marine wielding a shotgun…yet. If you’re interested in seeing Percy’s progress, you can follow the plucky explorer through its official Twitter account.
Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy’s directorial debut, Reminiscence, now has a release date. The Warner Bros.-backed sci-fi thriller starring Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson will debut in theaters and on HBO Max on September 3, according to Deadline.
WB had previously removed the film from its release calendar, but it’s back on the schedule now. Previously, the film was slated to release on April 16.
With its new Labor Day weekend release window, Reminiscence will go up against Jackass 4 and the Resident Evil movie, which are also pegged to debut then.
In Reminiscence, Jackman plays a private investigator “of the mind” named Bannister who helps his clients access memories that have been lost over time. A new client enlists his services, played by Ferguson, and this changes everything. “A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession” after the woman, Mae, goes missing.
“As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: How far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?” the description says.
Reminiscence is a Westworld reunion of sorts, as a star of that show, Thandie Newton, is lined up for a major role in the film. Additionally, it will be produced by Joy’s husband, Jonathan Nolan, who is the other creator of Westworld.
As for Westworld, the HBO TV show is scheduled to come back for a fourth season, but the network has not announced a date yet.
Id Software co-founder John Carmack has suggested a novel approach to combat the scourge of scalpers and resellers who are taking advantage of the global shortage of semiconductors: auctioning off new consoles and PC hardware.
Supply of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles have been unable to keep up with demand, while PC hardware such as Nvidia’s latest range of RTX graphics cards have also been snatched up by scalpers and resold for a price that includes a hefty mark-up. When the figures were last tallied up, it was estimated that resellers had made over $82 million in profit.
Carmack’s idea is for Sony, Microsoft, and Nvidia to cut out the middlemen from business, and auction off console stock themselves. Would this initially lead to incredibly high bids from interested buyers? Absolutely, but Carmack believes that this strategy would cut out resellers from getting their hands on new generation consoles and making a profit afterward.
“Given shortages and speculators on things like 3090 GPUs and new consoles, it seems like we really would be better off with a transparent auction system directly from the manufacturers and a more efficient market,” Carmack wrote. “The world of sales channels prevented that in the past, but we may be moving past that for a lot of products. There would be much indignation at reported prices out of the gate, but removing intermediaries should net out better for consumers in the end.”
In another post, Carmack also mentioned that the current low availability of these consoles remains advantageous to Sony and Microsoft’s business, as the consoles have consistently sold out within minutes whenever new stock has been brought in. Combatting the reseller market by pricing these consoles higher, could damage the current consumer demand for these high-value items.
The market continues to be a high stakes game of fastest fingers first for anyone interested in buying a PS5 or an Xbox Series X. Resellers are snatching up consoles instantly using an army of malware and bots to do so, which has led to the UK government’s minister for digital and culture, Caroline Dinenage, to propose a bill that would make the act of scalping consoles illegal.
Developer Midjiwan AB’s turn-based strategy game The Battle of Polytopia has crossed a new user milestone after billionaire Elon Musk talked about it on Joe Rogan’s podcast, calling it his favorite strategy game right now. Before his latest appearance on Rogan’s podcast, Musk praised Polytopia on Twitter.
The game, which is available on Steam, iOS, and Google Play, has crossed 13 million downloads. It has an “overwhelmingly positive” review score on Steam.
“Featuring 4X gameplay, auto-generated maps, single-player functionality and online multiplayer for up to 15 players on PC and Mac, the title allows fans to command a global conquest as the leader of one of 16 unique Polytopian tribes,” reads a line from its description.
Polytopia continues to grow as well, as the Cymanti Tribe expansion pack is out now on all platforms, introducing new ways to attack your enemies–with bugs and poison spores.
A Steam developer using the name ‘Very Positive’ has had their account banned and their game delisted from the platform, with Steam accusing them of manipulaing reviews.
As reported by Vice, the crafty user had done this due to the proximity of the ‘Developer’ text to the ‘Recent Reviews’ text when looking at a game on Steam.
“I noticed that the publisher/developer name is located really close to the reviews and has the same color, and I decided to use it for my purposes,” the anonymous developer of Emoji Evolution told Vice. Having ‘Very Positive’ reviews on your game will no doubt influence whether users will click on it or consider purchasing it, and for the less eagle-eyed, it could quite easily trick people into thinking that the game was well-received, when in actuality, the reception was ‘Mixed’.
Well, this is one way to trick people into thinking your game has positive reviews on Steam…! pic.twitter.com/jnzGC9qfEu
The developer told Vice that they didn’t think it would be an issue with Steam, but Very Positive has now been banned from Steam, with Emoji Evolution delisted.
“Valve has banned my developer account due to the ‘review manipulations”. Absolutely disagree with this accusation.’ wrote the developer on Twitter (below). They followed up with “I will contact the support to clarify Steam position on Very Positive Developer” – so perhaps the story isn’t yet over.
I will contact the support to clarify Steam position on Very Positive Developer. Will keep you posted!
In the wake of the ban, the Very Positive Developer has said on Twitter that they are only guilty of making a “really bad game.” “If making awful games is not allowed on Steam, why haven’t they already suspended the CDPR account?,” they added, in a jab at the Cyberpunk 2077 developer. They would later go on to apologize on Wednesday, tweeting “I apologize to any customer that was misled by my trick. Bless Steam refund system.”
VPD has now uploaded Emoji Evolution to Itch.Io, and says that it will be “free until Steam restores my developer account (forever, lol).” In other Steam news, the platform keeps breaking its own concurrent player’s record, recording over 26 million people logged in at once in early February.
Episode 7 of WandaVision is here and Westview is now in the 2010s, when sitcoms began to really lean into the “talking head” segments and mockumentary style directing with shows like Modern Family and The Office. So, naturally, we get a whole lot of that going on here–even though some of Westview’s residents seem a bit less enthusiastic than others about the whole thing.
Meanwhile, Wanda’s powers are on the fritz as she slowly loses control over the fabric of Westview’s reality, causing glitches in the proverbial matrix that make for all sorts of anxiety. The twins are noticing something is up and looking for answers that Wanda either doesn’t have or just doesn’t want to give and Vision is still on a crusade to get out of the town, despite having no memory of his life before arriving in Westview at all.
Oh, and there’s something going on with Monica–but you’ll know it when you see it. Trust us, it’s impossible to miss.
Here are 21 Easter Eggs, references, and things to note this week. And when you’re done, take a look at our deep dives into the other episodes of WandaVision.
1. Talking heads right out of Modern Family
This week’s episode takes its cues from Modern Family, from the talking head segments to the score within the episode itself. This week’s theme song has a very different inspiration, though, which we’ll get to.
2. “Our game is freaking out!”
Billy and Tommy’s video games cycle through GameCube controllers, Atari joysticks, and finally to Uno cards as Westview spirals out of control.
3. Billy’s head hurts
Last week, both twins had their own special superpower awakenings with Tommy’s super-speed and Billy’s extremely complicated “magical” abilities that appear to be manifesting as telepathy in the show. In the comics, he’s able to warp reality just like his mom, but so far in Westview, he’s just got himself a nasty headache from being able to apparently read minds.
4. WiiMotes
After their video game kept changing earlier, even becoming Uno cards, the twins end up with a pair of WiiMotes, meaning they ultimately wound up with a Nintendo Wii. not a bad trade, considering they started with a GameCube.
5. The sounds of Scranton
This week’s theme song is trying very hard to sound like The Office, which makes sense. Not only is it era-appropriate, but like Modern Family, it makes liberal use of talking-head segments.
6. Created by Wanda Maximoff
Of note, with Vision on his own adventure, he’s entirely absent from the opening credits. What’s more, this week Wanda is credited as the creator of WandaVision, which may or may not be correct, given what gets revealed later in the ep.
7. Darcy the escape artist
Darcy was, very unfortunately, left chained to an SUV during the Westview expansion in Episode 6–but don’t panic. She’s fine! Her sitcom-ified self isn’t in handcuffs at all; she’s been made the “escape artist” of the circus.
8. “He is not your uncle”
Wanda’s changed her mind about this new Pietro since their minor scuffle last week. He’s been conspicuously absent this week (though we hope you stuck around for the mid-credits stinger, which we’ll get to) and Wanda now insists that he isn’t actually a member of the family.
9. Rebuilding Vision
SWORD was apparently looking to rebuild Vision, which we started to guess at last week when Darcy discovered that Hayward was able to very specifically track Vision’s body within the Hex–though we were worried the plan might have been to rebuild Ultron, who was originally intended to occupy Vision’s body. Either way, this is clearly a major violation of Vision’s will, which stipulated he never be remade in the event of his death (as revealed earlier in the season).
10. The stork
Hey remember that stork painting that came to life way back in Episode 3? It’s here again, if only briefly.
11. “Nexus” Antidepressant
This week’s commercial was for an antidepressant for “when the world doesn’t revolve around you–or does it?” Which is likely a nod to one of the more galaxy-brained concepts in Marvel comics: the existence of “Nexus Beings,” or people who have powers that can affect probability and literally alter the flow of the “Universal Time Stream.” Both Wanda and Vision are considered Nexus beings.
Also, there’s the idea of the Nexus of All Worlds, which is a sort of gateway point between dimensions from which all universes in the multiverse can be accessed–which may be something to keep in mind for the upcoming Dr. Strange sequel, Multiverse of Madness.
12. “You’re quiet, Agnes”
Billy is unable to hear any of Agnes’s thoughts which, if you weren’t already majorly suspicious of her, hopefully sent up some red flags.
13. Monica: Empowered
We’ve been anticipating a superheroic turn for Monica from the start and we absolutely got it in this episode–another trip through the Hex has given her full-on superhuman abilities. She can see energy, and even hold up against a blast from Wanda (with some added superhero landing flare for good measure). In the comics, Monica has gone by many different codenames, including Captain Marvel, so we don’t know for sure which one she’ll land on here in the MCU, but Photon, Spectrum, or Pulsar seem like fair bets.
Also, did you catch those quotes from Captain Marvel playing as she marched through the Hex?
14. Vision’s death recap
In case you missed Avengers: Infinity War, Darcy did a nice job of catching Vision up on both of his deaths, Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, and even his creation to defeat Ultron back in Age of Ultron. That’s a lot of exposition she fed him during a single funnel cake truck ride.
15. An AI called JARVIS
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Paul Bettany started his tenure in the MCU as the disembodied voice of Tony Stark’s AI butler.
16. “Presto” delivery
The delivery man who watches Wanda and Monica’s fight–and then continues on to make a delivery at Agnes’s house–is wearing a “Presto Delivery” uniform (just in case you didn’t catch on to the foreshadowing that Agnes had something magical of her own going on).
17. Yo Gabba Gabba
We don’t know where the twins are, but we certainly know what they were watching before they disappeared. Wanda sees Yo Gabba Gabba on Agnes’s TV. The children’s TV show ran from 2007 to 2015.
18. Agatha’s Dungeon
Agnes/Agatha’s basement is more or less a dungeon full of what look like occult relics, including a very ominously glowing book on a stand. The book’s cover doesn’t seem to match anything from the comics directly, but it could potentially be the MCU’s version of the Darkhold, a spellbook containing all sorts of magical and demonic knowledge–though it should be noted that Agents of SHIELD already introduced their own version of the Darkhold, which, in theory, probably isn’t canon for the MCU, but might be something to consider.
Also, regardless of whether the book is the Darkhold or not, it seems to be giving off a distinctly orange (perhaps even fiery) looking energy which, compared to Agatha’s very purple-based powers, sticks out like a sore thumb. Whatever is powering the book, it’s certainly not Agatha herself.
19. Agatha Harkness
This twist probably wasn’t all that shocking to anyone who’s been keeping up with fan theories even half heartedly–we’ve been anticipating Agnes to reveal herself as Agatha Harkness from the very first episode.
There are some odd things about this reveal, however–namely the fact that we still don’t know what Agatha’s motives could possibly be. She does a great job of showcasing all the manipulating she’s been doing behind the scenes in her own personal theme song, but we don’t know why or what she’s looking to gain. Also, critically, we don’t know where the twins are–which is a bit concerning, given their comic book origin as fragments of the soul of Mephisto.
Also to note, Agatha in the comics has never been a full-on villain. Sure, she’s not the warmest lady in the world, but she’s never been explicitly evil, even when she did help repurpose parts of a demon’s soul to help Wanda become pregnant. This certainly doesn’t mean that the MCU’s take on the character couldn’t go a different direction, but it might not be time to write off your theories about a bigger, badder villain reveal before the show’s finale just yet.
20. Agatha All Along
Of course, Agatha gets her own theme song. And, honestly, it might be the best one of the bunch. We’ll be singing “Agatha All Along” for days and have no regrets.
21. Pietro’s not gone yet
In the mid-credits sequence, he catches Monica snooping around Agatha’s house. Given that we saw Agatha controlling him in the Agatha All Along sequence, is he essentially one of her sentries?
WandaVision Episode 7, ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’, includes the series’ first mid-credits scene – so make sure you hang around once the names start popping up.
Unlike most Marvel Cinematic Universe fare, WandaVision’s first 6 episodes haven’t included extra scenes tucked in between the credit sequences (although some have guessed that the credit sequences themselves might hold clues). This week was a little different.
If you want to know what was in it, scroll down.
Full spoilers follow for Episode 7 of WandaVision!
Breaking Through the Fourth Wall, which riffed off of mockumentary sitcoms like Modern Family and The Office, ends by confirming the long-held theory that Kathryn Hahn’s Agnes is in fact Agatha Harkness, a witch originating from the Marvel comics. In a closing theme song, we’re shown how Agatha has seemingly been responsible for much of the strangeness surrounding Wanda and her family, including seemingly creating or summoning Evan Peters’ Pietro Maximoff.
The mid-credits scene seems to confirm Pietro’s connection to Agnes, as the newly powered-up Monica Rambeau explores Agnes/Agatha’s house, discovers a mysterious, vine covered basement entrance – and is surprised by Pietro (who’s been absent for the episode) before she can enter.
Exactly what all this means isn’t entirely clear yet – but what is clear is that we should probably be sitting through WandaVision’s credit sequences every week from now on.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
This particular one is rated as Amazon’s bestselling cooling pad for a reason: it comes with a metal large mesh surface design that releases airflow which in turn improves the cooling effect on the laptop.
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On February 1, actor Evan Rachel Wood spoke out on her Instagram about grooming and abuse she endured from shock rocker Marilyn Manson. The fallout for Manson was swift, and continues. AMC’s horror series Creepshow dropped an episode featuring Manson entirely, and producer Greg Nicotero offered up some background during the TCA winter press tour.
“I found out about [Manson’s history] at the same time everybody else did that particular morning. I don’t think there was a moment where we didn’t want to do the right thing and pull the episode, and I don’t think we thought about it for more than four seconds,” Nicotero said. “There was some great actors in that episode as well. But you know we stand by the decision. We stand by what we support and that shows.”
The show must go on, though, and so the team had to make some changes.
“We did a little bit of restructuring,” Nicotero continued, “and we actually pulled an episode up that stars Molly Ringwald called ‘Sibling Rivalry,’ which is a really fun and very clever kind of right of passage, high school, horror, episode, and it’s really fun and really good and you know that we just had to keep going you know and that’s what we did.”
Following Wood’s post, Manson’s record label, booking agent, and manager have all dropped him. The Starz network will also drop Manson’s guest appearance on American Gods, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name, the network said in an official statement. Manson denied the accusations, calling them “horrible distortions of reality.”
Creepshow itself, meanwhile, was just renewed for season 3, along with news that season 2 will hit Shudder, AMC’s horror-themed streaming service, on April 1, 2021.
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