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Let’s get this out of the way: it’s Pokémon, but with a highly competitive massively-multiplayer twist where every battle is 2v2 and RNG has no influence over damage or accuracy. It’s Pokémon, but with a solo story campaign, ranked PVP, co-op, and extensive character customization. It’s Pokémon, in the style that I feel like we’ve all been waiting for… but it’s actually called TemTem and I keep calling it Pokémon by accident. This is the truth and you will likely have the same problem.

TemTem was released on Steam Early Access back in January and hit PlayStation 5 Early Access on Tuesday. The TemTem community is expecting a flood of new players who love(d) Pokémon, like me, over the course of the next month with the same question on all their minds: “Is TemTem worth getting into?” Because once you start learning the ropes of TemTem, you quickly realize that this isn’t your father’s creature-capture game.

The stats, the types, the “synergy,” the stamina, the priority, the “must refrain from naming him Metapod” — combined with so much Pokémon muscle memory — means you’re simultaneously un-learning everything you know as the game continues to introduce increasingly complicated concepts to your 1999-stuck brain. It’s hard not to avoid Pokémon comparisons and the inevitable fact that it remains front of mind as you play TemTem.

But after only playing a short while, I think it’s will be. A MMO is only as good as its community. I might still be playing World of Warcraft today if my guild wasn’t filled with greedy drama queens, but that’s a story for another time. Thankfully, TemTem seems to have an exceptionally kind one. I decided to stream my first hours in the game on Twitch, and after an hour, about half a dozen TemTem Tamers from the PC community had joined me in the chat; some with literally thousands of those aforementioned hours.

And instead of bullying me for forgetting which type my TemTem is every five minutes (which I deserved), they gently reminded me. They offered me tips and tricks, warned me about my early choices, and helped me name my TemTems. When I was lost, they helped me find my way… which usually was some version of “look at the mini-map, you have a mini-map”. For the rest of the stream, folks were encouraging, patient, and incredibly generous with their time and TemTems, some even going out of their way to find me in-game just to gift a TemTem to help me on my journey. It was a genuinely refreshing experience for my first hours in a new MMO and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was touched by it all.

When I asked the more experienced players why they were willing to hang around with a noob for so long, they said it was because they wanted to make sure my first experience with the game was a positive one. They knew how complicated TemTem could be for new players and they really wanted to make sure the game didn’t scare me off. They even told me that it was no big deal because they were already preparing a bunch of welcome gifts for new players on release day. How nice is that?

They wanted me to like TemTem and continue to play it because when I do, I’m contributing to the community, which in turn affects the longevity of the game. They don’t want to see TemTem fail like so many other online games do. Not every MMO can be World of Warcraft. They want to make sure they have the opportunity to invest thousands of hours more. That tells me it’s at least worthwhile to start.

A great community can only get you so far, but TemTem appears to be a rock-solid game at its core. It doesn’t ignore decades of foundational games in the genre and have built upon that bedrock to give people what they’ve been asking for. TemTem is the epitome of “as advertised” in the nicest way possible. It promises a creature-capture game with a lot more depth, and it delivers. It promises to remove all the “randomness” we’ve seen in Pokemon games, and it delivers. It promises interaction with other players around the world in a meaningful way, and it delivers.

TemTem mechanically reveals its hand pretty quickly and either you’re into or not. But honestly, if you’re reading this, you’re probably into it. Other than a few bugs here and there that are easily remedied — and commonplace in an early access title — there are few complaints to be found. Some might say that TemTem is really “grindy” and all I can say in response is “duh”. Like, what did you expect? These Tems ain’t gonna level themselves.

The artistic design in TemTem is well done, albeit a little safe, and the world is vast and populated. There are currently 86 known TemTem that mostly trend toward cute so far, but they each seem to be uniquely purposed and generally feel balanced. The music exceeded my expectations a bit, which I’m glad wasn’t as glossed over as it could have been. It’s nowhere near as melodic as something you’d find in Pokémon, but it managed to stick out in a good way a handful of times.

Most everything is as you would expect it to be, especially in the “superfluous” areas of the game that don’t affect the gameplay. The jury is still out about TemTem’s potential to catch on from a merchandising perspective. Then again, I’m probably not their intended audience for TemTem: The First Movie anyway. One of the NPC’s actually said “hell yeah,” however, so perhaps that’s one area where I did misread things.

The biggest surprise here really was the immediate welcome of the TemTem community. TemTem is good, it’s fun, and I think it’s going to be worth investing your time because to get the full picture of any MMO, you really have to give it a while and grind it out. Hour 1 and hour 1000 are very different things, but in the early hours it does seem like TemTem has delivered on all of its initial promises, and then some. It’s an ambitious title, but it has a fantastic framework for long-term competitive players and introducing new content. And lastly, it has a great community with players who have invested their time and spirit because they want the game to thrive. That community is counting on you, a community that now includes me imploring you to give us Tamers an enthusiastic “hell yeah” and try it for yourself.

Outside of perhaps Tiger King, no other documentary series captured our attention this year like The Last Dance. ESPN’s 10-part miniseries about Michael Jordan the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s let us relive one of basketball’s golden eras and offered us a closer look at the mythical figure at its center.

And the closer we looked, the more complicated it all became. Jordan’s reputation as a tyrant among his teammates was confirmed, and it also provided another opportunity to engage in one of his favorite pastimes — settling old scores, with both friends and enemies alike.

Scottie Pippen was just one of many teammates who wasn’t happy about his portrayal in the docu-series, and he’s made no secret about since the show aired earlier this year. Pippen didn’t appreciate the way it emphasized a couple of his less flattering moments during their time together in Chicago, and he apparently didn’t hesitate to tell Jordan about it directly.

Via Andrew Anthony of The Guardian:

“I thought it was more about Michael trying to uplift himself and to be glorified [the series was co-produced by Jordan’s Jump 23 company]. I think it also backfired to some degree in that people got a chance to see what kind of personality Michael had.”

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“Yeah. I told him I wasn’t too pleased with it. He accepted it. He said, ‘hey, you’re right.’ That was pretty much it.

The interesting part — if his interpretation of their exchange is accurate — is that Jordan appears to accept Pippen’s criticism. In the past, His Airness has been notoriously prickly anytime his peers deigned to utter anything negative about him, something that led to his falling out with Charles Barkley. But then again, Pippen has always carried much more cache than anyone else in his inner sphere.

If we learned anything from The Last Dance, it’s that these guys have long memories, and it seems that as long as we keep asking about it, they’ll be happy to accommodate us.

(The Guardian)

Barack Obama has been making the rounds doing numerous interviews on late night television and beyond as he promotes his new book, and on Sunday, he’ll be joining the number one show in late night, sitting down with Showtime’s Desus & Mero as their latest (and arguably most) illustrious guest.

On Monday, Showtime offered a teaser of the interview showing the two hosts meeting Obama for the first time for their sit down and the former president came well equipped to riff with them. Obama, a lifelong Bulls fan, opened things by roasting the pair’s skills on the basketball court from their previous efforts in hooping with Corey Booker, and put the dagger in them by proceeding to drag their beloved Knicks into it by saying they are probably still good enough to play for the team in Madison Square Garden.

It’s a pretty tremendous opening that certainly sets the tone for what should be one of Obama’s most light-hearted and fun interviews he does on his book tour, as Desus and Mero react as you’d expect with a bit of shock at Obama coming that hard at them out of the gate and enjoying every moment of it. Desus’ “good luck with your little book” was spectacular and one would expect the rest of the interview will be highly entertaining as well. Just don’t expect the hosts to willingly steer the conversation towards the Knicks too much more after this opening shot fired.

40 Years A Prisoner (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — This documentary follows an enduring battle for justice by Mike Africa Jr, who moved to exonerate his parents after they were imprisoned as part of the revolutionary, back-to-nature group MOVE following a law enforcement 1978 raid on their Philadelphia commune. Eyewitness accounts and archival footage trace the steps of the controversial raid four decades later.

Mr. Iglesias: Season 3 (Netflix series) — Stand-up comic Gabriel Iglesias returns as the good-natured high school teacher who’s no longer the student at his alma mater. Unfortunately, he’s antagonized by a bullyish assistant principal, who seems dead set against helping the children reach their full potential.

Swamp Thing (CW, 8:00pm EST) — The creature saves Avery when he attempts to confront it while trekking through the swamp. As it turns out the tuber-guy makes a pretty good nurse.

Tell Me A Story (CW, 9:00pm EST) –Simone’s got mixed feelings about her step-family as Olivia interrogates Tucker, and Simone’s relationship with Jackson gets tested..

Big Sky (CW, 10:00pm EST) — The Ryan Phillippe-starring series continues with a criticism of how the girls’ disappearance was investigated, while team members regroup to showcase individual strengths.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — John Dickerson, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, Greta Van Fleet

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Tim Allen, Stacey Abrams, Ari Lennox

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Taraji P. Henson, Chloe Fineman, Finneas

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Meryl Streep, Billy Eichner

In case you missed these weekend highlights:

Your Honor (Sunday, Showtime 10:00 p.m.) — Bryan Cranston’s intense (although uneven) limited series faces inevitable comparisons to Breaking Bad, and for sure, Cranston’s character executes his most Walter White-like maneuvers since Heisenberg left the building with AMC’s 2013 “Felina” finale. Some The Wire vibes and Defending Jacob vibes resonate throughout as well, and here he’s playing a sort-of everyman (albeit one with more power than Walt), who tangos with the criminal underworld after making an incredibly bad decision that quickly sets off a series of even worse decisions, eventually leading to a sh*tload of collateral damage. And a lot of Panic Faces.

Big Mouth: Season 4 (Netflix) — One of TV’s funniest shows is back to drum up anxiety, courtesy of Tito the Mosquito (who will be voiced by Maria Bamford), in addition to all the hormone monsters that you dearly love. Newcomer voices on the series include Ayo Edebiri replacing Jenny Slate as Missy, along with Zach Galifianakis, Seth Rogen, Josie Totah, Lena Waithe, Quinta Brunson, John Oliver, Sterling K. Brown, Paul Giamatti, Maya Erskine, and Anna Konkle.

The Los Angeles Clippers were supposed to be the prohibitive favorites to win the title last season. And they were, right up until they blew a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals and cleared a path for their in-arena rivals to raise yet another championship banner inside their shared arena.

Doc Rivers, who spent seven seasons with the Clippers but had never made it to the conference finals, was the obvious fall guy. His ongoing inability to get them over the hump made his departure inevitable. But his absence doesn’t mean that everyone has quite moved on. Just this week on the All The Smoke podcast, Paul George complained that Rivers had misused last season.

He also criticized Rivers’ coaching and decision-making, particularly during the Denver series. Rivers has apparently heard that criticism, and in response, has reminded George that the person who’s currently filling his seat, new head coach Tyronn Lue, was right there on the sidelines with them and that George can likely expect more of the same next season.

Via Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer:

“Hey, listen, I enjoyed coaching him,” Rivers said of George. “So not a lot to say there. Ty Lue was sitting right next to me. So he better hope it’s not adjustments. It ain’t going to be much different.”

Rivers chuckled while lightheartedly mentioning Lue, his close friend, before continuing by saying: “Listen, we lost the game, and I think everybody needs to take ownership. [Me] obviously. We can always do better. Players can play better. So as far as I’m concerned, I’ll leave it there.”

Rivers’ response also comes in the wake of a new report claiming that George’s own teammates were resentful of the preferential treatment he enjoyed last season despite the fact that, in their estimation, he’d done little to deserve it.

Lue, George, and the Clippers have plenty of work ahead to get on the same page if they want to contend this season, while Rivers faces a similar set of challenges in Philadelphia as he tries to get the Sixers to live up to their full potential.

(The Philadelphia Inquirer)

For the last four years, the only place you could listen to Chance The Rapper and Jeremih‘s Christmas album, Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama, was on SoundCloud. While that isn’t too much of a problem for fans who like to listen to music on their computers, it did make it hard to add the songs to playlists or take them on-the-go. However, that soon changes as the two Chicago institutions have announced the ultimate gift for fans: Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama is coming to all streaming services — Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal — this Friday, December 11. Chance made the announcement in an excited tweet complete with an elaborate trailer:

The collaborative mixtape was initially released on December 22, 2016, with a Re-Wrapped reissue arriving a year later. Eschewing traditional covers or Christmas carols, the two Chicagoans instead opted to craft nine original songs — then ten more on the reissue — celebrating the season with bouncy raps and cheerful melodies. The tape features appearances from other Chicago artists such as Hannibal Buress, King Louie, Noname, and Valee. The duo released the music video for one song, “Are U Live,” last week after holding onto its Cole Bennett-directed video for nearly three years.

Merry Christmas Lil Mama hits streaming services for the first time this Friday, 12/11.

After Donald Trump announced a “vaccine summit” for Tuesday, the event turned out to be anything but as the president spent most of the time falsely claiming that he won the presidential election instead of staying focused on the vastly more critical issue of getting a coronavirus vaccine to the American public. Although, when Trump did address the increasing pandemic, it was to oddly cheer the growing number of infection rates, which for the record, is not a good thing. More Americans getting COVID is bad. Very bad. Via The Daily Beast:

“I hear we’re close to 15 percent. I’m hearing that, and that’s terrific,” Trump said of the percentage of Americans who have contracted COVID-19.

He appeared to be referencing the increased likelihood that a rising infection rate would bring the country closer to so-called herd immunity, which would effectively stop the virus from spreading because there would be no potential carriers to which it could go.

As The Daily Beast notes, medical experts have repeatedly warned that achieving herd immunity would require at least 70% of Americans to be infected with COVID-19. Considering the country is only just now nearing a 15% infection that has already left over 284,000 people dead, reaching herd immunity would result in a catastrophic death toll of well over a million.

Unfortunately, herd immunity wasn’t the only conspiracy theory that Trump spread during the summit. When asked about why the incoming Biden Administration wasn’t being included in the vaccine distribution plans, Trump claimed that actually he won before pleading for the Supreme Court to overturn the election results.

“We were rewarded with a victory,” Trump said via Mediaite. “Now let’s see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it’s a legislator or legislatures or whether it’s a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Let’s see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right.”

(Via The Daily Beast, Mediaite)

It may have been a box office disappointment (even though it made over $370 million worldwide) with a terrible title, but Edge of Tomorrow is a super fun movie. It’s easily Tom Cruise’s finest non-Mission: Impossible starring role this decade, and it’s one of Emily Blunt’s best performances, too. (I’d say it’s her best, but that’s obviously The Devil Wears Prada.) There’s been talk of a sequel to Edge, which was later retitled to Live Die Repeat, since it was released, but scheduling has been difficult, with Cruise hanging out on speeding trains and Blunt cruising the jungle with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

But the A Quiet Place Part II star offered a “promising” update on the script.

“It’s really promising and really, really cool. I just don’t know when everything’s going to sort of align,” Blunt told the Hollywood Reporter. “Between all of our schedules, it would just have to be the right time. But there is something in the works, for sure, that’s a great idea. A great idea.” Now that’s some good news.

Mission: Impossible has many sequels (which keep getting better). Top Gun is getting a sequel (it was supposed to be out by now). Even Jack Reacher got a sequel. Why not Edge of Tomorrow? If only for its working title, Live Die Repeat and Repeat. That’s the kind of bold choice that Now You See Me 2 refused to make, and suffered for it. I would also accept Edge of 2morrow.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Group H of the Champions League featured a pair of matches on Tuesday, a highly-anticipated tilt between Red Bull Leipzig and Manchester United, and a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basakeshir that seemed like a formality for the French side. But due to an incident in the second match, it became the center of the football world, as players from both teams walked off the pitch due to a racist incident between the fourth official and a member of Istanbul’s staff.

According to reports out of France, the official used a racist term while addressing Istanbul assistant Pierre Webo, who is Black, and addressed the official upon getting a red card. It also led to a confrontation between the official and Istanbul striker Demba Ba, who is also Black and questioned the verbiage used by the official.

Istanbul players were unhappy with the incident, which led to them walking off the pitch. In a show of solidarity, players for PSG — whose star player, Neymar, has alleged being on the receiving end of these sorts of racist remarks in the past — did the same.

Istanbul tweeted out a statement in staunch opposition to racism in football.

The match, per reports, is slated to resume at 4 p.m. EST, with the fourth official being moved off of the pitch.

Three years ago, Chris Kennedy and his family moved to the Lakewood neighborhood of North Little Rock, Arkansas. Every holiday season he has placed a seven-foot-tall Black Santa Claus on his lawn alongside his other decorations.

Kennedy believes the Black Santa Claus decoration is empowering for his five-year-old daughter.

“Our thing is about representation for our daughter, seeing herself in everything and knowing that she can do whatever she wants to do and she’s not going to be limited by her color,” he told Good Morning America. “The Black Santa is something I wanted my daughter growing up seeing.”

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“She doesn’t even question seeing a white Santa Claus, because we’ve always told her that’s what he looks like in other people’s houses,” Kennedy added. “For other people, Santa is a representation of them.”

However, this year the Black Santa Claus would come to represent more than Kennedy ever intended.

On November 23, he received a letter in the mail from an angry racist demanding he remove the Black Santa Claus from his lawn. The letter claimed to be from Santa Claus and his homeowners’ association.

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

“Please remove your negro Santa Claus yard decoration,” the letter reads. “You should try not to deceive children into believing that I am negro. I am a caucasian (white man, to you) and have been for the past 600 years. Your being jealous of my race is no excuse for your dishonesty. Besides that, you are making yourself the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Obviously, your values are not that of the Lakewood area and maybe you should move to a neighborhood out east with the rest of your racist kind.”

The letter was accompanied by a photo of Santa Claus making a thumbs-down gesture.

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

Kennedy was obviously incensed by the letter and so he read it on Facebook Live. He then contacted the local police department and post office to see if they could track down the racist.

Within a few hours, Kennedy was surprised to receive messages of support on Facebook from people he had never met.

A week later, the family began noticing Black Santa decorations around his neighborhood.

“I just started seeing them pop up in the neighborhood,” he said. “The bright side of everything was the neighbors’ response.”

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

via Chris Kennedy / Facebook

Since the incident, the Kennedy’s have received Black Santa Claus gifts and countless messages of support. When people asked how they can help, he told them to donate to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas. The nonprofit offers housing to the families of sick children.

So far, the donations have covered over 200 nights of housing.

The homeowners’ association has denied any connection with the letter and is proudly displaying a Black Santa Claus at its headquarters that was donated by a resident.

“To try to falsely blame us and say that those are our views was pretty upsetting,” Evan Blake, director of the homeowner’s association, said of the racist letter. “We support Chris completely and everyone else in Lakewood too and [adding a Black Santa Claus to the holiday display] is just something else we can do to show our support.”

Kennedy is still upset about the letter but has been encouraged by the reaction his family has received after the incident.

“I’m not happy that it happened, but I’m happy that the conversations are being had,” added Kennedy.