Actress Karen Allen, who played Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark, has spoken about her experience working with the movie’s monkey–and it was not a good time.
For the movie’s 40th anniversary, Allen spoke to Entertainment Weekly about her disdain for working with the capuchin monkey. The monkey featured in the film was untrained, and this presented a series of issues, Allen said.
“The monkey was a very unpleasant experience,” she said. “Here in the United States, we have Hollywood monkeys that are raised by people from a very young age, and they have trainers and they’re really obedient. I don’t know where that monkey came from. All I know is we were in Tunisia and that monkey had no training whatsoever.”
Only if you caught the monkey in a “good moment” was the filming experience OK. Otherwise, the little creature was “going to give you a really hard time,” she said.
“It was hot there and the monkey really had no interest in being in the heat. He was not my favorite costar. I worked with another monkey one time [in Animal Behavior], and he almost hit my thumb off, so I think I’m done with monkeys,” Allen said.
The Indiana Jones series is coming back to life, as Lucasfilm is now producing a fifth movie that is filming now in the UK. Images have begun to leak from the set, including a picture of Harrison Ford wearing his famous outfit, albeit with a mask this time due to COVID.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Rick and Morty fans can mark the return of the hit animated comedy with a special day of celebrations. Global Rick and Morty Day will take place on Sunday, June 20 ahead of the Season 5 premiere.
Global Rick and Morty Day will be available on Adult Swim. A statement from the network reads, “The premiere will feature special surprises, fun moments, and celebrations, as the mind-bending event kicks off the global premieres of Rick and Morty’s highly anticipated fifth season. For the first time ever, Adult Swim will premiere the first episode from space by launching Rick’s Space Cruiser 150,000 ft into the atmosphere. Fans from around the world can Go Rick Yourself (#GoRickYourself) and become part of the series by creating a personalized Rick and Morty avatar, and then create custom t-shirts (US and Mexico only) to commemorate the new season.”
The first episode of Season 5 the airs that day at 11 PM. A teaser video has also been released for the event, which you can watch below:
The Rick and Morty Season 5 trailer was released in March, and last month the full list of episode titles was revealed. While fans have had two wait two years between previous seasons of the show, there will be plenty more inter-dimensional adventures for Rick Sanchez and his reluctant grandson Morty to come. In 2018, the show landed a 70-episode order at Adult Swim, and earlier this year co-creator Dan Harmon revealed that the team behind the show is always well into writing Season 7.
The new Obi-Wan TV show starring Ewan McGregor is currently in production, and now actor Liam Neeson has clarified his role in it. He told Jimmy Kimmel straight-up that he’s not going to appear in the series, at least probably not.
“No. I don’t think so,” he said when asked. “I haven’t been approached.” He went on to joke that Disney hasn’t offered him enough cash for the job.
Neeson played the Jedi Master and mentor of McGregor’s Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn, in The Phantom Menace. He was killed by Darth Maul, but death isn’t always permanent in the Star Wars universe.
Kimmel remarked that Neeson is such a good actor that he could be lying and we wouldn’t know. Neeson smirked but never replied.
In addition to McGregor, Hayden Christensen is coming back to play Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan series, while Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse are returning to play Luke’s adoptive parents.
It was recently announced that Maya Erskine (Plus One, Pen15) had joined the cast. No release date has been announced for the Obi-Wan TV show, which will stream on Disney+.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
If you can’t get your hands on a PS5 or Xbox Series X to play Cyberpunk 2077, now you have the option of just buying a car instead. At a demo event for Tesla’s new Model S Plaid (named for the speed that comes after “Ludicrous” in the Mel Brooks classic Spaceballs), the car was briefly shown running CD Projekt Red’s latest title.
The Tesla Model S Plaid is able to run games with “PlayStation 5 level performance,” according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “There’s never been a car that has state of the art computing technology, state of the art infotainment where this is literally at the level of a PlayStation 5.”
Powering the electric car’s “infotainment” systems is AMD. The hardware manufacturer’s compute unit for the car includes an AMD Ryzen processor with integrated graphics along with an AMD RDNA 2 GPU. Altogether, this system gives the vehicle nearly 10 teraflops of power for gaming. If you remember, teraflops were a point of contention prior to the launch of new-gen consoles, with the Xbox Series X coming out with 12.1 teraflops and the PS5 launching with 10.3.
While we don’t know what settings Cyberpunk 2077 is running at, Musk said that the Tesla Model S Plaid can play games at a “high frame rate, it will do 60fps with state of the art games.”
This appears to be the payoff of Tesla’s game engineer hiring spree last year. While Tesla drivers can already download games from the Tesla Arcade, the company seemed to expand last year into developing its own gaming platform in the car. Judging from the performance of Cyberpunk 2077 in the Model S Plaid, Tesla accomplished that goal.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
A pair of headphones has become as essential as your phone, wallet, and keys when leaving the house these days. Finding a pair of headphones or earbuds you love can be challenging though. There are lots of them out there that don’t deliver high-quality sound, and there are even more that can set you back hundreds of dollars. However, struggling to find earbuds you like isn’t impossible.
There are great options out there, like thexFryo Active Noise-Canceling AI-Powered Wireless Earbuds, which are powerful, compact, and right now, highly cost-effective. These earbuds are currently on sale for only $40, down from $250 (that’s a savings of 84 percent).
These earbuds are fantastic. They deliver high-quality sound through graphene-powered drives, and their long battery plays for over 100 hours of listening time on a single charge. The earbuds utilize an AI-powered active noise cancelling system. They don’t just blanket eliminate ambient noise. The AI uses a four-microphone system to listen to your surroundings and your music to determine what should be there and filter out what shouldn’t. The active noise-canceling system also features a conversation mode that allows you to amplify conversations and alarms so you can stay focused and alert while still jamming out to your music, working, or reading. They’re also super comfortable with a custom-engineered ergonomic fit.
Users love thexFryo Active Noise-Canceling AI-Powered Wireless Earbuds for their performance, fit, and reliability. “These are the best ANC earbuds out there for the price. At half the price of the AirPods Pro, they provide similar noise cancelation capabilities and I personally think they’re much more stylish. Works perfectly with my Samsung phone and my wife’s Google Pixel,” one verified purchaser wrote.
Update: Developer Respawn has now formally announced the next-gen versions of Jedi: Fallen Order, and also revealed that the game has now been played by 20 million people.
Respawn has clirified that the new versions make the following improvements:
Higher Resolution Textures & Assets
4K/HDR Resolution
Improved 60 FPS Performance
Significantly Faster Loading Times
The new versions of the game come with a Performance Mode toggle on PS5 and Xbox Series X (but not Series S). The switch offers either 1440p Resolution at 60 FPS or 4K Resolution at 30 FPS.
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EA has stealthily released next-gen versions of popular Star Wars action game Jedi: Fallen Order on the PlayStation and Xbox storefronts.
EA previously revealed that upgraded versions of the game for the latest generation of console hardware would be available this summer, so it’s not surprising that they have been released. What is surprising, however, is the lack of fanfare surrounding the releases. The games seem to have dropped with no announcement, press releases or information.
Like most games receiving PS5 and Xbox Series upgrades, if you already own the last gen-version, you can download the next-gen version completely free. The game was previously updated for next-gen consoles, but these new versions are true native ports of the game for next-gen, not just improved through backwards compatibility.
Given the silence around the releases, perhaps EA is planning to show up at one of the upcoming E3 events and announce it properly there. EA won’t be hosting its usual EA Play conference until late July, so it’s unlikely it would release these new versions so far ahead of an official announcement. Regardless, the games are now available, so if you’ve been looking forward to playing these games on PS5 or Xbox Series, you can jump in right now.
Jedi: Fallen Order first launched in November 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and follows the story of Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis as he is hunted by the Empire. We scored it a 9/10, calling it a “fantastic single-player action-adventure.” It recently made our list of the best Soulslike games for fans of From Software’s influential Dark Souls series.
In the coming years, we’ll be seeing a lot of new Star Wars games, with Ubisoft Massive confirmed to be working on a new open-world game in the franchise, and we’ve still got Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga coming soon too. With EA no longer holding exclusive rights for Star Wars games, it’s exciting to see what comes next for the franchise.
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Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman
Black Widow director Cate Shortland has shared some new details on the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film, commenting on her inspirations and which previous MCU film it may be similar to.
Speaking to Fandango as tickets for Black Widow go on sale, Shortland said the films No Country for Old Men and Thelma and Louise were two major inspirations for Black Widow. She didn’t share any insight as to why, but that’s intriguing to think about in any event.
People who have seen Black Widow say it brings back memories of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Shortland said. “It’s got great action. It’s got a lot of heart, it’s emotional. And at times, it can be a little bit dark, but then it opens up again,” she said of the connections people are making between the two films. “And it’s really exciting. So I think that’s like this film. This film has fantastic action sequences, which we’re really proud of.”
Overall, Shortland said Black Widow is, in some ways at least, “darker” than earlier MCU films. It also has “a lot of love in it,” in addition to humor, which helps it not feel too dark, she said. “What we knew was, the film was going to dictate what it wanted to be, and that comes from Black Widow. She’s incredibly nuanced,” Shortland said. “She’s frightened to show the world who she truly is. But once you see that beautiful heart, you’re sort of intoxicated by it. And that’s kind of what we wanted the film to be.”
Black Widow opens in theaters on July 9, which is also when the movie comes to Disney+ with Premiere Access for $30.
When Nvidia released its RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition earlier this month, it was only a matter of time before we got our hands on versions from the biggest brands in the graphics card business. The MSI RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G is the first up. It’s part of MSI’s top-of-the-line GPU series and offers increased clock speeds, a massive cooler, and more power for your overclocking demands. Final pricing isn’t in yet, but a representative from MSI tells us to expect $100-$150 over MSRP, placing it at or above $699 to $749. Pricey, but does it have the performance to match?
The MSI Suprim line-up is the company’s current best-of-the-best and it has the looks to match. Visually, it’s near-identical to the RTX 3080 Ti version I reviewed here. If you’ve never seen a Surpim card, they’re big boys, fully 13.2 inches long and three slots wide. If you have a compact PC or even a mid-tower with fans in the front, you’ll want to measure to make sure it will fit. The card is also just under four pounds in weight, so if you’re mounting horizontally, you’ll want to support it in some way to prevent GPU sad and strain on your PCIe slot. Thankfully, MSI includes an adjustable support that stands on the bottom of your case and uses an adjustable shelf to prop up the GPU. I find this easier to manage than the brackets that need to screw into the back of the case but it will require some extra space to use.
With the lighting off, the overall look is industrial-chic. It makes heavy use of brushed metal and RGB. On the front, its trio of Torx 4.0 fans are shrouded with an aluminum front panel in light and dark tones for contrast. The shroud emphasizes hard angles which accentuates the curved fan blades with their eye-catching dragon logos at the center. The middle fan is flanked by a pair of RGB strips in the shape of arrows. Around the back, the Suprim X has a thick metal backplate to dissipate heat that’s also in two tones.
Turn the lighting on and anything minimal about the Suprim X goes out the window. The card is an RGB showcase with LEDs on the front, back, and side. Mounting your GPU vertically is the trend in modern PC building but here it feels like that would be a disservice, at least if you’re a fan of RGB. In addition to the two strips surrounding the middle fan, a long, bright strip and illuminated logo grace the side shining in their rainbow glory. On the back, a transparent dragon badge shines toward the top of your case. Each of these are customizable using MSI’s Mystic Light software if rainbows aren’t your thing. Taken as a whole package, I find this to be one of the best-looking GPUs on the market today.
Under the hood, the core of the GPU is the same as the Founders Edition. We still have 6144 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6X memory, but it comes overclocked out of the box with a rated boost speed of 1860 MHz (or 1875 MHz with the software-enabled Extreme Mode). In practice, these rated speeds don’t mean a lot thanks to GPU Boost but act as a soft guarantee of better baseline performance. Under load, my sample peaked at 1995 MHz, 45 MHz higher than my peak using the Founders Edition. This was also true of my typical clock speed while gaming which was 1965 MHz which, exactly 45 MHz higher than the FE.
The biggest selling point of the Suprim X isn’t these stock speeds, however, it’s the overclocking potential provided by the additional power and cooling capacity. Like the RTX 3080 Ti Surpim X 12G, it uses MSI’s TriFrozr 2S cooling system. This combines improved Torx 4.0 fans with a big wave-finned heatsink to push more air with less noise, keeping the 3070 Ti chilly even under load. There are two BIOS modes selectable with a switch on the back of the card for Gaming or Silent Modes but even in Gaming Mode, the card manages to stay both quieter and colder than the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition. In my testing, the card peaked at 68C and hung closer to 65C in games while using the default fan curve, a 14-degree improvement from the original. There’s also Zero Frozr mode that keeps the fans from spinning when the card is at a low temperature, such as normal browsing.
That big cooler will be necessary as you start ramping up clock speeds with a custom overclock. MSI has raised the power requirements to 310-watts, twenty more than the original, and outfitted the card with premium power regulation components to enhance its stability. Removing the power limits and turning the dial on clock speeds inevitably raises temperatures but Suprim X offers enough power and thermal headroom that you’ll be able to push its silicon hard without worrying about damaging your chip.
Unchanged from the Founders Edition are outputs and core Ampere features. In total, you’ll be able to run up to four monitors with a maximum resolution of 7680×4320 (8K). The card features three DisplayPort 1.4 connections and one HDMI 2.1 output for the latest and greatest in gaming monitors and televisions. With these, you’ll be able to experience DLSS, Nvidia’s proprietary performance-enhancing upscaling technology, Nvidia Reflex to reduce input latency and add responsiveness in shooters, and Nvidia Broadcast for streamers, as well as Nvidia Studio for content creators. For entertainment, the card supports AV1 encoding and the Nvidia encoder for creating your own video content.
MSI RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G – Performance
Test system: Z390 Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme Motherboard, Intel Core i9-9900K CPU (stock), Corsair H115i PRO RGB 280mm AIO CPU Cooler, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3200, 1TB Samsung EVO Plus NVMe SSD, Corsair HX1200 1200-watt power supply.
With that out of the way, it’s time to look at how the card stacks up. Remember, the original RTX 3070 Ti (reviewed here) offered only marginal benefits over the standard RTX 3070 and left a sizable gap between it and the RTX 3080. The MSI Suprim X 8G, then, has something to prove to warrant an asking price that’s on par or potentially higher than the RTX 3080 Founders Edition, scarce though it may be.
For this testing, I included the Suprim X, as well as the Founders Editions for the RTX 3080, 3070 Ti, and 3070. From Team Red, I included the Radeon RX 6800 XT (MSRP: $649) and RX 6800 (MSRP: $579). All games tested are at Ultra settings unless otherwise noted. Ray tracing and DLSS are enabled wherever possible.
Beginning with synthetics, I ran the Suprim X and a selection of competitor cards through 3DMark’s Fire Strike Ultra and Unigine’s Heaven benchmark. The clear winner in these tests was the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which dominated the charts, but even the RX 6800 managed a sizable lead in Fire Strike. The Suprim X did outperform the Founders Edition in both tests, and slipped ahead of the RX 6800 in Heaven. The RTX 3080 FE held a big lead over the Suprim in each.
Turning to ray tracing performance, I used three tests to benchmark the cards. From 3DMark, I ran Port Royal and the ray tracing performance test. Next, I ran the Boundary game engine benchmark with DLSS set to Ultra. Obviously, that gives Nvidia’s cards a leg up on the Radeons but hopefully that will change with the upcoming release of FidelityFX Super Resolution.
In Port Royal, the MSI Suprim X handily topped the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition and Radeon RX 6800 but fell short of the RX 6800 XT and RTX 3080 Founders Edition. In both Boundary and the 3DMark ray tracing test, it came in second but was only marginally faster than the 3070 Ti FE.
To test performance in actual games, I ran each card through our test suite of five games at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. Performance will, of course, depend on your own titles and settings but in our tests the card averaged 3% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition at 1080p, 5% faster at 1440p, and 4% faster at 4K. Against the RTX 3080, it was expectedly slower and progressively with each resolution jump. At 1080p, it was 13% behind the 3080, at 1440p it was 15% behind, and at 4K it was 16% behind.
These are marginal improvements from the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition and to be expected with a top of the line GPU variant. More interesting is how it compares to the major competitors for AMD. With the benefit of DLSS, the card was 12% slower than the RX 6800 XT at 1080p, 8% slower at 1440p, and 1% slower at 4K. Take Metro Exodus and DLSS out of the mix and those shift to 15%, 14%, and 13% respectively. Against the much more affordable RX 6800, DLSS gives the Suprim X a progressive lead over the standard RX 6800 with less than 1% difference at 1080p, 8% better FPS at 1440p, and 15% better at 4K. Drop Metro and DLSS and the Suprim actually loses to the card at 1080p, running 6% slower. At 1440p, it offered minor FPS gains of 1%.
Note that even with these results, the Suprim X 8G is still running faster than the Founders Edition. These questions absolutely perpetuate my issues with the value of the 3070 Ti series in the first place, however.
To get a better eye on performance, I did some expanded testing at 4K. Across ten games, the RTX 3070 Ti Suprim X 8G came in 4% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti FE and 17% slower than the RTX 3080. With the benefit of DLSS, it managed to perform 15% faster than the RX 6800 XT and 34% faster than the RX 6800. In rasterization titles only, the roles shift and the Suprim comes in 12% slower than the RX 6800 XT and only 1% faster than the RX 6800.
So what can we take away from this? First, the Suprim X is a marginal improvement on the RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition. Percentages aside, the performance gains were typically less than 5 FPS with some outliers that were slightly higher. Second, it’s that the RTX 3070 Ti as a whole (this card and the different versions) really make the Radeon RX 6800 and XT look good. Unless you absolutely need DLSS, these cards offer similar or better performance for less money. Like I remarked in my review of the 3070 Ti Founders Edition, this GPU line is just a poor value that doesn’t offer enough reason to choose it against any of the surrounding cards in our line-up.
That said, while I ranked the 3070 Ti FE as “Okay” in our scoring system, this particular variant does offer some benefits that give it a one-up. The thermal improvements are great, albeit in a much larger package, and the design is custom-tailored for enthusiast overclockers. The improvements out of the box are minor, but present, and this version leaves an open door to push the silicon to its limit and take that extra performance by force. Enthusiast-grade GPUs with overclock-centric design often cost more and customers seriously looking for that style of card expect to pay more, so potential price increase isn’t without precedent. If you’re just looking for a normal gaming GPU, it’s a wiser move to wait until you can find an RTX 3080 Founders Edition, or if you don’t care about DLSS, an RX 6800 or 6800 XT at MSRP.
Developer From Software has teased some sort of online multiplayer for Elden Ring, as a fact sheet that was released after the latest trailer for the game vaguely mentioned a more social side to the game.
“Traverse the breathtaking world on foot or on horseback, alone or online with other players,” the release read. It’s not clear how social FromSoftware plans for Elden Ring to be, as no other details on multiplayer were mentioned beyond that single line. Other sites have referenced a fact sheet that mentions four-player support, but the version we saw didn’t mention that number specifically. We’ve reached out to Bandai Namco for further comment.
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Other more concrete features listed include “shadowy, complex dungeons that are connected seamlessly,” dynamic weather systems on top of a day-night cycle, and NPCs who could be great allies in your journey or adversaries with profound backgrounds.
You’ll also be able to create your own custom character and define your playstyle by experimenting with a wide variety of weapons, magical abilities, and skills found throughout the world.
Bandai Namco also added that it aims to develop Elden Ring outside of games, as it outlined plans to push its latest intellectual property into other areas.
“We will continue to develop Elden Ring not only as a game but also in a variety of other areas in order to deliver the worldview and charm of this title to our fans around the world,” CEO Yasuo Miyakawa said.
Two years after it was first revealed, Elden Ring got its biggest update yet at the Summer Game Fest kick-off show this week. Not only was actual gameplay shown off for the Hidetaka Miyazaki-directed RPG, but Elden Ring’s January 2022 release date was also confirmed. Elden Ring will be released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. For players hopping from old-gen systems to the latest consoles only next year, a free upgrade will be available.
Marvel’s next big movie, Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson, premieres in theaters on July 9. Tickets for the action movie are now on sale, while a new clip has arrived as well.
The ticket-seller Fandango is now offering tickets to Black Widow, while you can also go directly to your local cinema to order tickets.
A new clip from Black Widow has also been released, showing Natasha (Johansson) and Yelena (Florence Pugh) being pursued by a widow. Director Cate Shortland told Fandango that there may be more to this scene than meets the eye. “It’s another widow. And I can’t give away too much. But that widow is not absolutely in control of everything she’s doing,” she said.
Shortland also spoke about why Black Widow might work on an emotional level for audiences, because its story is about a family reuniting. People in the real world are experiencing this, too, as vaccines become more available and people visit with their families again.
“[Black Widow] is about a family coming back together after being separated. It’s absolutely indicative of what many of us have been through in the last year and a half–well, what feels like five years,” Shortland said. “I think what’s beautiful is the idea of a community coming back together–family, friends, community, an audience–and we can share something together when we’ve all been sort of separated. And I think that’s what we’re all really excited about–the people that made the movie.”
