Category: Worldwide

Rockstar-turned-game developer Johnny Galvatron created the studio Beethoven & Dinosaur out of his desire to make his own video game. Unsurprisingly, the game he decided to create, The Artful Escape, is heavily influenced by music, so much so that a lot of times it feels more like an experience that you’re guided along than a game. This is a good thing — many fantastic games are less about challenging the player, or giving them an obstacle to overcome, and instead provide a narrative for them to follow along with. The Artful Escape took this approach and managed to knock it out of the park.

The game begins in a small Colorado town called Calypso. Its main character, Francis Vendetti, sits at the edge of a cliff while strumming a folk tune on his guitar. Vendetti spends most of his life living in the shadow of his uncle, Johnson Vendetti. A famous folk singer, Johnson is the pride and joy of the town and someone whose footsteps Francis is expected to follow. However, no one knows that Francis can shred and is a natural-born rockstar.

The rest of the game is a coming-of-age story for Francis. Along the way, he’ll meet some interesting characters and go on a journey to discover who he really wants to be. Is Francis a rockstar, or does he want to walk the path of a folk singer? At least that’s the main premise of the game, and it’s an interesting one, but the real enjoyment of it comes from watching Francis gain confidence in himself. Francis is an awkward teenager going through a personal crisis, and while it’s music related, many of us went through that same sort of moment in our lives, too. We wanted to express ourselves, but we weren’t sure how to do so or even if we felt comfortable doing it.

While The Artful Escape is a journey that we are guided along, there’s also plenty of interactivity. When outside of the main levels, Francis can wander around and speak to other characters. He will sometimes ponder about the scenery. These moments are where a lot of really funny dialogue can come in. The game is well written, knowing exactly when to be charming, and never taking itself too seriously. Even during heartfelt moments, the developers weren’t afraid to throw in a line that gets a chuckle.

We get to see Francis’s struggle to grow up play out in some fun gameplay. To break the game down into its simplest form, a conversation or plot moment will occur. The player will be given some dialogue choices to allow Francis to express himself in a way they choose — we can make Francis sound confident, hesitant, somewhere in the middle, or really any range of emotions. After these conversations, Francis will run through a stage with guitar in hand as he shreds his way to the end of each sequence.
These side-scrolling levels make up the majority of the game with Francis using music to push through by running, jumping, and shredding his guitar through breathtaking visuals.

Throughout levels are simple Simon Says-like mini-games where the player will copy onscreen button inputs, which lead to further visual spectacle and some really great music. One of the plusses of this game being more of a guide than a challenge is it gives the player the opportunity to really appreciate everything that is happening on-screen at all times. The Artful Escape is a gorgeous game with some truly beautiful moments that will sit with the player well after they’ve watched the credits roll.

Technically, you could call this game a platformer, but the obstacles are never a hindrance. Anytime the player fails to make a jump, or fails during a mini-game, they’ll quickly reset and be given an opportunity to try again. There is no punishment for failure in The Artful Escape, and that’s a good thing because it would interrupt the true purpose of telling Francis’s story. This is not a game about the player overcoming a triumph, it’s about watching Francis grow into his own person.

This isn’t a game for everyone. People who adore music, and anyone with a musical background of any kind, should give it a try. Even those who aren’t exactly Mozart can appreciate The Artful Escape. It has plenty of moments that will leave a smile on your face and the art direction is fantastic the entire way through. Don’t go into this expecting platforming or combat challenges. Instead, be ready to go on a journey, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

Charlie Cox did not spend his quarantine like the rest of us.

While we were off testing our sourdough recipes and devoting a disturbing amount of energy to scrolling through Tik-Tok videos, he was on the streets of Dublin, kidnapping and killing people.

Well, pretending to anyway.

The actor views his new AMC+ crime drama Kin as more than just a break from self-imposed isolation though. It’s a chance to return to TV, with a role that feels markedly different from his Daredevil days. As the enforcer for an Irish crime family who’s recently been released from prison and is trying to rebuild his life without all the bloodshed, Cox’s Michael is stoic, shy … often barely audible. He’s also the kind of bad guy Matt Murdock would happily beat to a pulp were his red cowl handy. Despite that, over the course of the show’s eight episodes, Cox gives this outsider enough heart and emotion that, oddly enough, you root for him to escape an entirely different kind of prison: his family.

We chatted with that actor about delving into the very real criminal underworld of Dublin, being a first-time dad (onscreen), and what he thinks about Spider-Man: No Way Home’s #ForearmGate.

I know you’re not big on social media. Did you know your forearms were trending on Twitter?

[Laughs] It has been mentioned to me, yeah.

Is that flattering, that people think they can recognize your arm hair?

It’s really cool that people care that much. That means a huge amount to me that people care enough to spend time trying to figure out if one frame of an arm is actually my arm. Obviously, I’m not going to speak about anything in regards to whether it is or isn’t, just because I would hate to spoil anything for anyone.

So you’re not going to tell me your theory of whether it’s really you or not?

[Laughs] I’m not going to give you my theory. But I will say, from what I hear, everyone is in that film. Do you know what I mean? It looks like it’s going to be a great movie, and it’s going to be a lot of fun, and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Well, this is your first TV role after Daredevil. What’s it like going from a comic book story with so much fan investment to this crime drama where you get to build something of your own?

It was nice to not feel the same amount of pressure. Playing a Marvel superhero comes with a great amount of responsibility. Those characters are enormously important to people all over the globe and have been for decades. I’m grateful that for the most part, we seem to have got it right, and people really enjoyed the show, but, every episode felt really, really, really important and I didn’t want to get it wrong.

Understandable.

With Kin, obviously, there was less pressure and I could be a little bit more lenient with my interpretation of things. It was also really enjoyable to be able to use my eyes as an actor again. That was something that was a great challenge to play as Daredevil, and something I took very, very seriously. But it’s difficult to convey emotion on-screen without the use of one’s eyes. So, it was fun to be able to do that again. Sometimes I had to remind myself that I could look at people.

So, you could use your eyes again on-screen. Anything else really interest you about the character?

I was really taken by the fact that you’ve got a man who’s come out of jail and is clearly very different and very changed from the person that everyone remembers. Of course, we don’t get to see who he was. So, all of that has to be done through the acting and I was really excited about the prospect of playing someone who has a reputation for being very destructive and violent, and a pretty bad dude, to someone who now is kind of delicate and fragile — who we can’t help but feel for and root for in a weird way. I thought that was a fun challenge.

As an American, I know absolutely nothing about the criminal underworld of Dublin. Did you learn anything surprising while filming there?

Yeah, obviously our show is a fictional family and fictional circumstances but I was amazed to discover that there is quite a significant crime scene in Dublin. I’m English and I hadn’t spent much time there. So, I learned all about that when I was preparing for the role. There are a lot of articles and books and podcasts about the crime scene in Dublin, and I was able to read up on that to help influence my performance.

You’re saying you didn’t go method and start shooting people in pubs? Dealing drugs?

[laughs] Not any more than I usually do.

Story-wise, there’s a lot bubbling just underneath the surface on this show. Is any of the familial tension going to be resolved by the season finale?

Resolution is not the kind of thing that happens in this family. Their version of resolution is, shove as much of it as possible under the rug and hope that it goes away, kind of thing. Which I think is actually true to life in many ways. A lot of difficult situations with families are made more difficult because confronting that issue potentially opens a can of worms. Sometimes with families, if you push too far, you could end up having a rift that’s unfixable.

So, what Michael, Jimmy, and Amanda are dealing with is, they have paradoxical desires. One, for all of them to get on with each other and love each other, and for things to be amicable. But rather frustratingly, sometimes for Michael and Amanda particularly, that goes against their heart desires. Therein lies the drama, I guess. So, resolution no, but more will be revealed.

There’s a father/daughter relationship on the show that’s really heartbreaking. Why is that added element so important to the character?

I’m a father, and this is the first opportunity I’ve had to play a dad, so I was really excited to dig into that. I felt like, despite Michael’s life and the kind of things he’s done, he was a really, good present father. I like that weird concept, that someone who can enforce that much harm and be so cruel to people, he’s also someone who loves deeply and cares so much about his daughter. I think that being taken away from his daughter was the worst and hardest thing that’s ever happened to him. I wanted his need to rekindle that relationship, to be the driving force behind everything he does, and everything that the rest of his family wants him to do works in opposition to that.

Since you are a dad, was that tough to play on-screen? I imagine that’s not the kind of relationship you hope for with your own kids.

Yeah, It brings up painful thoughts and feelings. It involves the loss of the relationship. That’s a very painful thing to think about and dwell in. I absolutely love being a dad, and I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve been around a great deal for my children’s lives so far, and I’m very involved in their lives. My kids are the most important thing in the world. There’s nothing that trumps my relationship with my children and my wife. So, it just raises the stakes playing a role that has very strong family ties, there’s a lot to get stuck into. There’s a lot to play with. There’s a lot of deep emotion there.

Let’s get down to the hard-hitting questions now. When are we getting a Stardust sequel? It’s time.

Seriously! It’s been almost 15 years. Sadly, we don’t have any plans to make a sequel, at least not involving me. But I’m looking forward to my daughter watching it. I did put it on the other day, just for the first few minutes. Obviously, she’s too young for a lot of it. So I was just going to show her a minute of it, and, quite quickly, she was like, ‘Daddy, I’m bored. I want to watch something else.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? In a minute I’m going to ride a unicorn. You don’t want to see that?’ I’m excited for her to be old enough to appreciate that whole thing.

Ben Simmons is still a member of the Philadelphia 76ers despite the fact that both parties seem to agree that a parting of ways is in everyone’s best interest. Reports have indicated the team is shopping the All-Star guard/forward around, while Simmons apparently sat down with the Sixers’ decision-makers recently and expressed that he wants a trade so badly that he’d skip training camp.

Everything happening around Simmons looks like it rubs Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal the wrong way. Barkley joined Shaq, Nischelle Turner, and Spice Adams on an episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, and when the conversation turned to Simmons, both Hall of Fame inductees expressed their frustration with how things are going with him.

“I’m disappointed in Ben Simmons,” Barkley said. “When you give somebody $200 million to dribble a stupid basketball, and the only thing you ask him is be better as a player, and their first response is, ‘I don’t wanna play here anymore,’ that disappoints me as a player, that disappoints me as a fan. They’re not saying, ‘Hey, come over here and cut my grass,’ they’re saying, ‘Ben, we need you to learn how to shoot the basketball.’”

Shaq shared that sentiment, going as far as to tell Simmons he isn’t a great player.

“If you want to get to that next level, you have to be great, and to be great, you have to work on your game,” Shaq said. “Don’t be putting pictures on your Instagram of your Ferrari or what actress you hang around with. When you play in a town like Philadelphia, Boston, L.A., Miami, hard working towns, they don’t give a sh*t about none of that. They want you to come, work hard, and play hard.”

The Hall of Fame center then brought up Simmons’ Game 6 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks, saying that he looked into his eyes and saw a player who was “terrified of being fouled and missing free throws,” while Barkley expressed his annoyance at “the third year in a row they put up them bullsh*t jump shots during the summer.”

“A lot of these people, you hear from your followers how good you are, how great you are,” Shaq said to close. “But you’re hearing from some OGs right now: you ain’t that damn good. And I said what I said, and Chuck said what he said. If you don’t like it, do what you gotta do. But you ain’t that damn good.”

Jason Isbell is getting ready for a substantial acting gig, as he was cast in the upcoming Martin Scorsese movie Killers Of The Flower Moon (as was Sturgill Simpson). He got his acting beak wet ahead of that, though: the mid-season premiere of Billions aired earlier this week, and Isbell played a role that nobody could play better than him: Jason Isbell.

In the episode (as Stereogum notes), Isbell performed at a benefit hosted by Taylor Mason Capital, playing “Last Of My Kind” from 2017’s The Nashville Sound. Later in the show, he looks at some paintings by Nico Tanner (played by Frank Grillo) with Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis).”

Isbell later shared a behind-the-scenes photo from the episode and wrote, “Behind the scenes on @sho_billions. That was a really good time, and I appreciate Damian Lewis, @frankgrillo1 and the crew patiently answering my ‘acting questions.’ Generous and kind folks.”

If Isbell keeps landing more of these on-screen gigs, he might find himself leaving a “B-list,” which he may actually end up missing. Recently, somebody tried to insult Isbell by calling him a B-lister, but he responded by embracing the label, tweeting in response, “B list is the best list, though. I can go to the grocery store without being bothered, and I afford the good eggs.”

Watch a clip from Isbell’s Billions appearance above.

Looking for a vehicle to carry you to the gates of Valhalla? Give the Doof Wagon a shot.

A baker’s dozen of vehicles from George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, one of the best movies of the 2010s (and all-time), are being sold at an online auction. As spotted by Luke Beard, the vehicles include the iconic War Rig, Immortan Joe’s Gigahorse, and the “Nux Car,” which sadly does not come with bonus Tom Hardy.

“Available for expressions of Madness is a Museum of Modern Masterpieces, these vehicles are survivors of the apocalypse that was the filming of FURY ROAD,” the auction page on Lloyds’ website reads. “Blown, super-turbo charged, and armed to the teeth with weaponry and War Boys, the machines that outran the end of civilisation have been unearthed in the greatest barn-find ever recorded. Nitrous, noxious, and no-nonsense harbingers of hell, marking man’s uncanny ability to wring beauty even from that designed for death and destruction, art from power, meaning from machine.”

I have never been more hyped for anything in my life.

Featuring 13 iconic vehicles as seen in the movie:

1. THE WAR RIG: PRIME MOVER INC. TANKER AND BALL PIG-TRAILER

2. THE GIGAHORSE: W16 CADILLAC PAIR

3. THE DOOF WAGON

4. NUX CAR: 1932 THREE WINDOW CHEV COUPE, V8

5. CONVOY CAR: ELVIS

6. CONVOY CAR: JAG FLAMER

7. RAZOR COLA: 1973 XB FALCON COUPE (THE INTERCEPTOR REBORN)

8. POLE CAR: PONTIAC SURFARI WITH 20’ POLE COUNTERWEIGHT

9. SABRE TOOTH: F250 CLAW CAR

10. FIRE CAR: DODGE

11. CALTROP: EL DORADO

12. BUGGY: RATROD CHEV

13. BUICK: HEAVY ARTILLERY WITH HUMMER WEAPON MOUNT

The auction will be held on September 25 and 26, so you have a few days to get together enough money to buy the Doof Wagon and have the speakers play Vin Diesel’s “Feel Like I Do” on repeat (dibs). Oh what a day, what a lovely day that would be.

(Via Lloyds)

While discussing Kellyanne Conway’s refusal to resign from a cushy military board position at President Joe Biden’s request, The View co-host Joy Behar delivered what has to be one of the most savage burns in daytime talk show history. The moment came during Thursday’s morning panel where Behar and Whoopi Goldberg cracked each other up over Conway and Sean Spicer throwing tantrums over Biden telling them to “get out.” But it was Behar who dropped the most brutal blow. Via The Wrap:

“You know, I have to take up for Kellyanne though, because they say she doesn’t have any military experience. Didn’t she fight in the revolutionary war?” Behar said. A photo of Conway’s widely mocked red, white and blue inauguration outfit was simultaneously brought up on-screen, as Behar laughed at her own joke.

Goldberg kept the riotous mood going by dunking on Behar for having that line locked and loaded. “I just want to know what time it is, because this took a long time to get this one joke to come,” Whoopi quipped. “She had one joke the whole show, and then this was the one.”

It was definitely a more playful mood than The View has seen in a long time, and once again, the show was feeling the social media love as they reacted to Behar’s burn and mocked Conway and Spicer for not resigning.

And for the third day in a row, The View fans couldn’t help but point out why the show has been so great since returning this week. (Hint: It’s because Meghan McCain‘s not there.)

(Via The Wrap)

This Sunday, the 2021 MTV VMAs will take over the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for their first in-person awards show in two years. The night will feature a stacked performance lineup, with sets by today’s top stars like Justin Bieber, Doja Cat (who will be hosting the event), Lil Nas X, and Olivia Rodrigo. Lorde was originally confirmed to give a rendition of one of her Solar Power tracks, but ended up pulling out of the opportunity at the last minute. Now, the singer has given fans an explanation for why they shouldn’t expect to see her take the stage.

In a newsletter sent to fans Thursday, Lorde said she had an “insanely amazing” performance planned. But due to the pandemic’s safety guidelines, the singer wouldn’t be able to share her vision the way she intended it:

“I saw some people were very concerned about me pulling out of the VMAs, you’re so sweet, I’m totally fine! It’s just that we were planning this insanely amazing many-bodied intimate dance performance, not fully understanding the (very necessary!) safety protocols that are in place, and the masking and distancing just meant it wasn’t gonna be what I dreamed, and you know I can’t make something less than outstanding for you guys. I hope you understand. There will be many more TV performances, don’t you worry.”

This isn’t the first time Lorde had to shift her plans around a VMAs performance. In 2017, Lorde was slated to give a rendition of her Melodrama track “Homemade Dynamite,” but she ended up getting so sick that she instead gave an interpretive dance of the song. “You can’t tell in these pictures, but I have the flu so bad I needed an IV,” she tweeted before taking the stage.

The 2021 VMAs airs 9/12 at 8 p.m. ET. Watch it here.

The NFL changed up its rules on numbers earlier this year. The rule, which impacts everyone outside of quarterbacks and kicker/punters, adds some more flexibility to what players can where when they’re out on the field, and if you missed it when it was announced earlier this year, here are all the ways things are a little bit different now:

The expanded jerseys will allow running backs, tight ends, fullbacks, H-backs and wide receivers to wear numbers 1-49 and 80-89; defensive backs can choose from 1-49; linebackers 1-59 and 90-99; offensive linemen 50-79; and defensive linemen 50-79 and 90-99. QBs, kickers and punters will remain in 1-19.

While it’s not quite on the level of college football defensive linemen wearing single-digit numbers or anything, this is a change, and one that might take some time to get used to. The league’s most prominent player, in fact, has a pretty big issue with the whole thing, something he’s made clear on a few occasions.

Tom Brady, in a recent interview with the Tampa Bay Times, said that he thinks the NFL’s doing something “crazy” by changing its protocols here.

“The number rule is crazy,” Brady said. “Literally, guys changed their numbers today. I’m playing two guys who had different numbers in the preseason. So, yeah you’ve got to watch film and know who you’re studying but so do running backs. They’ve got to know who to block. So does the offensive line. So does the receivers who are adjusting their routes based on blitzes.

“So one guys has got a 6, one guy has 11, one guy has got a 9. And they change every play when you break your routes and get to your spot. It’s going to be a very challenging thing. It’s a good advantage for the defense, which that’s what it is.

“It would be like saying, ‘What if I let the offensive linemen wear 82 and No. 9?’ Brady continued. “They wouldn’t know who was eligible. Well that’s not fair. You’ll get your tail kicked. At least identify who the D-line, the linebackers and the safeties are. You’re going to have a lot of matchups where guys are blocking the wrong guys. I don’t know why that should be.”

Brady went on to make an appearance on a podcast where he took a more accelerationist route with the entire thing.

Gut feeling: Brady can take solace in knowing that is not happening. He will also probably be fine with the new numbers rules after, like, one half of Week 1.

(Via SB Nation)

He’s All That turned TikTok star Addison Rae into a movie star. Variety reports that Rae, who has over 80 million followers on the social media platform (that’s the third most after Charli D’Amelio and Khabane Lame), has signed a multi-picture deal following the success of Netflix’s gender-flipped version of 1990s romantic comedy She’s All That:

Netflix estimates that more than 55 million households will watch He’s All That within its first month of release. The film has reached #1 on the streamer in 78 countries, including Brazil, France, and Saudi Arabia, according to Netflix.

Netflix’s director of family film, Naketha Mattocks, praised Rae for her “charm and promise” and said that “we’re thrilled to be part of this next phase of her burgeoning career as an actress.” Not everyone shares her PR-speak enthusiasm, though.

This is the top reply to Discussing Film’s tweet about Rae’s long-term deal with Netflix:

I’ll admit that I have not seen He’s All That, but I have seen a clip from the movie where Rae covers Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and, well, I can understand where the backlash is coming from. She’s also faced criticism for excitedly introducing herself to former-president Donald Trump at a UFC fight in July. “I’m Addison. Nice to meet you. I have to say hi, hello. So nice to meet you,” she said in the video. Whether it’s her interaction with Trump, or accusations of cultural appropriation, or her performance in He’s All That (which has been called the “monotonous, most uninteresting thing i have EVER sat through” by a Twitter user), or all three, Rae’s Netflix deal is being widely criticized. This is where hate watching gets us.

DMV area rapper Cordae has been busy cooking up the follow-up to his Grammy-nominated debut album The Lost Boy but starting next week, he’ll be taking a break to head to college — that is, on his Kickin’ It With Cordae HBCU campus tour in partnership with nonprofit Cxmmunity and Coca-Cola. In addition to previewing new music in live performances at each of the schools in question, he’ll also be participating in one of many college students’ favorite pastimes: Gaming.

Partnering with each school’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference eSports program, Cordae will host a “Gaming, Music And Conversations With Cordae” discussion as well as competing with students in games directly. It’s a nifty tie-in to his rise to fame, which was boosted by his association with the YBN crew, which started as a group of online gamers who eventually decided to make music together. It also dovetails nicely with Cordae’s established involvement in educational initiatives, especially those focused on HBCUs.

Earlier this summer, Cordae partnered with Disney Dreamers Academy and ESPN’s The Undefeated by funding scholarships for HBCU students. Growing up as he did in Suitland, Maryland, he was relatively close to renowned institutions like Howard University (which is also one of his tour stops), which could have had a big impact on him in establishing the importance of education. You can check out the tour dates below.