Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2341

Lara Croft Fights Zombies in New RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER DLC

Lara Croft is returning to her family’s ancestral home this fall in new DLC for Rise of the Tomb Raider. But it’s definitely not going to be a happy homecoming.

A new trailer for Xbox One’s Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration offers gameplay footage from the upcoming DLC expansions: “Blood Ties” and “Lara’s Nightmare,” both of which take place in Croft Manor. “Blood Ties” will follow Lara as she desperately explores Croft Manor in order to discover her father’s hidden secrets and to fend off the legal moves of her uncle, who wants to claim her home for himself. As you can see in the footage, Croft Manor has definitely seen better days.

“Lara’s Nightmare” lives up to its title, as the tomb-raiding heroine finds herself under attack by a zombie horde and other undead things inside Croft Manor. Even in the reboot timeline, zombies are not the craziest thing that Lara Croft has encountered. But that doesn’t mean that it’s gonna be easy for her.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration will come with the original Rise of the Tomb Raider game, the “Blood Ties” and “Lara’s Nightmare” DLC, and all of the previously released DLC for this title. It also has a feature that allows players to assume control of Lara’s classic character models as well as the new “extreme survivor” difficulty setting that challenges players to make it through the game without checkpoints. The game will be released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on October 11. The PS4 version will also have VR support in Croft Manor.

Are you excited about the new Rise of the Tomb Raider DLC? Let us know in the comment section below!

Speaking of games, here are the 9 most underrated N64 games of all time!

Image: Square Enix/Crystal Dynamics

New FINAL FANTASY XV Video Puts Spotlight on the Voice Cast

This fall, Square Enix’s most epic title returns with Final Fantasy XV, bringing fans of the long-running series into the world of two warring nations: Lucis and Niflheim. The release date for Final Fantasy XV was recently pushed back to give the developers time to refine the game, but now gamers are getting an advance look at the newest heroes, and at least one of the villains.

Square Enix has posted a video that throws the spotlight on Final Fantasy XV‘s English voice cast, which includes Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, Amy Shiels, Chris Parson, Adam Croasdell, Jim Pirri, Darin De Paul, and even Critical Role‘s Matt Mercer. And while all of the featured performers had an opportunity to speak about their roles in this clip, gamers may appreciate the chance to get a better idea about the characters they will encounter in the game.

De Paul seemed to particularly relish playing Āden Izunia, the chancellor of Niflheim, and he was also the only actor in this group to reprise his role from Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.  For the game, Shiels is taking over the role of Lunafreya Nox Fleuret from Kingsglaive‘s Lena Headey, while Pirri will step in for Sean Bean as King Regis, the ruler of Lucis who reluctantly agrees to terms of peace with Niflheim. But that peace is not going to last.

Chase’s Noctis Lucis Caelum got a pretty big part of this video, since he’ll be the game’s main character. However, the clip also allowed Daymond to flesh out his character, Prompto Argentum. It offered the same opportunity for Parson and Croasdell to expand upon their respective characters, Gladiolus Amicitia and Ignis Scientia. As for Mercer, he’ll be portraying Cor Leonis, the former Lord Commander of Lucis’ Crownsguard who acts as a mentor to the other heroic characters.

Final Fantasy XV will be released on November 29.

What did you think about this video? Summon your magic and share your thoughts in the comment section below!

And check out this exclusive clip from Kingsglaive:

Image: Square Enix

This SUPER MARIOS BROS. Watch Will Cost You $27,000 in Gold Coins

If you have made it your business (well, second business, after the whole plumbing thing) to save a princess for a living, you’ll need to make sure you do it in style. And since your blue overalls and red hat probably aren’t going to impress anyone, let alone her royal highness, how about an exquisite (and expensive) Super Mario Bros. watch to let her know that it’s time to take you and your mustache seriously?

We came across this insane Nintendo-inspired item, created by Switzerland’s Romain Jerome, at Kotaku. a price of 2.7 million Yen that works out to just a hair shy of $27,000, and only (“only”) 85 of them are available from Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi during this month’s 19th annual World Watch Fair (which ends on August 29).

According to one source, one of those gold coins that Mario gobbles up like so much spaghetti would be worth half-a-million real dollars, which means he could buy all 85 of these watches for less than five of those coins, at the cool cost of about $2.3 million.

Damn. Mario is the richest fictional character of all time.

The self-winding, water resistant men’s watch has a diameter of 46mm and is one of the fair’s signature pieces, so if you want the world to know that you love Super Mario Bros., have money to throw around with reckless abandon, and really value knowing what time it is even when you are under water fighting Cheep Cheeps, you better act fast before time runs out.

Where would be the most fitting place to wear this watch? Tell us your best level for this watch in our comments below.

Images: Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi

Winona Ryder Thought Snapchat Was a Snack Food and We Wish That Were True

Love for Netflix’s summer hit Stranger Things is still going strong—a lot of that thanks to fans’ happiness at seeing Winona Ryder back on screen. And Ryder and her purposeful abstention from social media has only endeared her more to her fans that hail her as the ’90s alt-queen. Especially when she revealed she thought Snapchat was a snack.

According to an interview with Variety, Stranger Things costars Millie Bobby Brown and Winona Ryder talked about the rise of TV binge-watching and social media, specifically Ryder’s lack of Snapchat knowledge. Brown revealed that Ryder had no idea what the social channel was and that she thought Snapchat was a brand of chips. As in the snack food. Which, to be fair, in a perfect world Snapchat chips would come in a new delicious flavor every day and only exist for 24 hours. Definitely on board for that type of innovative snack.

Turns out Winona Ryder was reaching back to her Heathers days and assumed the word Snapchat referred to the Snappy Snack Shack in her iconic 1988 cult comedy. Never heard of the Snappy Snack Shack? Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?

The Snappy Snack Shack featured in the movie was originally slated to be a 7-Eleven but the corporate heads at the convenience chain chickened out and the filmmakers were tasked with creating a brand new name from scratch. Along with the snappy store name, they also came up with innovative food names like the Turbo-dog and the slushie.

Sure, Winona Ryder may never be a master of Snapchat but as our goth-queen savior of snacks, let me use a Heathers quote to suggest, “Our love is God. Let’s go get a slushie.”

Are you a fan of Snapchat or snacks? I choose snacks. Let us know in the comments!

And take a trip to the Upside Down with Kyle Hill (since you’re here):

Image: New World Pictures

An ANNE OF GREEN GABLES Series Is Coming to Netflix

Break out the pigtails and set your inner wild child free–Anne of Green Gables, the beloved novel by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery, is coming to Netflix as a two-season series in 2017, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Many book worms (ourselves included) grew up devouring the story of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan finding her way through life after being mistakenly sent to work on a farm (they were expecting a boy). What’s a girl to do? Well, Anne doesn’t go down without a fight and her story unfolds in a series of good deeds and mishaps across her small town. In essence, Anne is pretty much the older sister to great literary characters like Pippi Longstocking and more recently, Hermione Granger. Also like the Harry Potter series, Anne of Green Gables was a massive success for readers young and old when it was first published in 1908. The adventures of this plucky redhead, which carried over into five additional novels about Anne and three separate works about her children and friends, have spurned multiple TV series and film adaptations across the decades.

Notably, the 1979 Japanese film Akage no An (“Red-Haired Anne”) was directed by Studio Ghibli‘s own Isao Takahata, who will be producing the upcoming film, The Red Turtle. Anne fever has been a global fandom for over a century, with over 50 millions copies of the book sold worldwide. Japanese fans in particular spare no expense when it comes to Anne cosplay and there’s even an Anne Academy for followers in Fukuoka, plus a theme park in Hokkaido dedicated to this Canadian novel. Here in America, many elementary and intermediate schools have long since added Anne of Green Gables to their list of required reading. But don’t worry, this Netflix series can be enjoyed on its own and doesn’t come attached with a book report–it might even go beyond the novel with a few tidbits focusing on the story’s themes of bullying, prejudice, and self-identify.

It goes without saying that this tale for the ages demands a strong creative force. Thankfully the series, entitled Anne, will boast an all-star (and all female!) team of Breaking Bad‘s brilliant writer Moira Walley-Beckett, producer Miranda de Pencier from the indie hit Beginners, and Whale Rider director Niki Caro. The show will include eight one-hour episodes in the first season, shot on location to match the charming town of Anne’s imagination, Prince Edward Island.

Kindred spirits, let us know your thoughts on this Netflix adaptation and tell us your favorite Anne moments in the comments below!

Image: PBS

BATMAN: THE TELLTALE SERIES Makes Bruce Wayne as Cool as Batman (Review)

He is vengeance. He is the night. He really should be more careful about getting blood on his good tuxedo. Since his creation by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1939, Batman has enthralled readers all over the world in a way that few other comic book characters have. The concept of a masked vigilante with a secret identity was, by no means, a novelty, even when Batman was first published, and Bruce Wayne’s masked alter ego is inherently more fascinating and compelling than the handsome, orphaned billionaire. Is Bruce Wayne the secret identity of Batman or is Batman the secret identity of Bruce Wayne? This is the central question at the core of Batman: The Telltale Series. The first episode in Telltale Games‘ five-part adventure game, entitled “Realm of Shadows,” released on August 2 and gave players a level of control over Gotham City’s Dark Knight and his billionaire playboy alter ego in ways that were usually only the purview of comic book writers.

From the get-go, Telltale wastes no time in immersing you in the world of Gotham City as DC Comics’ biggest badass. The game opens on a group of masked, armed robbers who murder a City Hall security guard and begin attempting to break into a massive vault. Unfortunately for them, the Dark Knight comes crashing through the window and uses a combination of gizmos, gadgets, and good old-fashioned ass-kicking to leave them incapacitated and strung up from the ceiling. Once the vault door finally opens, though, Batman (voiced by Troy Baker) finds someone has beaten the robbers to the punch: Catwoman (voiced by Laura Bailey), who has “liberated” a highly classified hard drive from the mayor’s office. A game of bat-and-mouse ensues, with the iconic characters launching a flurry of blows, both verbal and physical, on a rooftop as Gotham P.D. and the local news helicopter watch in awe. Naturally, the encounter ends with Batman retrieving the hard drive, and Catwoman escaping to burgle another day. Somewhat unexpectedly, it also ends with Bats fleeing from a police force that both needs him and fears him. All of this, I should mention, is intercut with Bruce Wayne licking his wounds by the fireplace and trying to quickly get ready for a gala event for Harvey Dent (voiced by Travis Willingham) at Wayne Manor.

Seamlessly interwoven, it makes for an incredibly dynamic introduction to the game and a showcase for the duality that Telltale is committed to. As Bruce Wayne, you’ll navigating the world of business and politics by dealing with reporters, mafiosi like Carmine Falcone, and winning over potential campaign donors to support Harvey Dent’s mayoral bid. As Batman, you’ll decrypt hard drives, investigate crime scenes, interrogate mob enforcers, and use your superior tactical genius to plan assaults on criminal strongholds. But just like Batman cannot exist without Bruce Wayne, nothing in this game happens in a vacuum. The actions you take as Bruce Wayne will have a tangible effect on what you do as Batman, and vice versa.

For example, though the effect it has is seemingly small, you are presented with the option of whether or not to shake Carmine Falcone’s hand at the gala event. Falcone is known to have strong ties to the mob and Gotham City’s organized crime world, and shaking his hand could be seen as a tacit endorsement of that behavior by the Wayne family. Yet refusing to shake his hand could cause Falcone to set his sights on Bruce, which would come with a whole other set of complications. The result of this encounter can be seen later in the episode in a newspaper headline, and will likely have larger ramifications as the events of the past snowball and pick up momentum in future episodes. It all serves to give each decision a palpable sense of gravity, even when it’s as innocuous as a handshake.

Graphically, the game is on par with previous Telltale offerings, and feels like a comic book come to life in the best way possible. If you’re expecting Arkham Knight-style gameplay, then you’re in for a bit of a surprise. Much like Telltale’s previous episodic entries, this is a point-and-click adventure game through and through. That means that combat takes the form of quick time events (QTEs), in which the player has to rapidly input button combinations that appear on the screen. Unlike the Dark Knight himself, you need not have lightning-quick reflexes as the game is very forgiving; after all, it’s all about the narrative rather than punishing you for not having an APM on par with pro Starcraft II players. One fascinating wrinkle with the combat is there is now a meter shaped like the infamous Batman logo that fills up with each successful QTE button input. When it is full, you are prompted to press another combination of buttons to execute a “finishing move” of sorts, which leads to some truly spectacular, cinematic moments of Batman laying the smackdown on unsuspecting goons.

Perhaps the greatest gameplay innovation in Batman: The Telltale Series though is one that we helped to create: Crowd Play. Although Telltale’s games are distinctly a single-player experience, we conducted a unique experiment with them around the launch of Tales from the Borderlands by playing the first episode live at the Alamo Drafthouse in Dallas, Texas with an audience full of people shouting out which dialogue option they wanted. It was a crude, unwieldy system of tallying audience votes, but it was shockingly fun to share the experience of playing the game with so many people simultaneously. Now, Telltale has refined that idea into a gameplay feature called Crowd Play, which allows players to log in to a game session via their smartphones, tablets, and PCs, and cast votes for dialogue options and actions in real time. According to Telltale’s site, the feature technically can support thousands of players, but is recommended for 6 to 12 players that are all in the same room. We tried it out on the Nerdist Twitch stream with 4 people playing locally, and it was an absolute blast, so I look forward to trying it with increasingly large groups of people. (Note: currently there is no Twitch integration, but smart money is on that coming in the future after the hurdle of latency issues are addressed.)

“Realm of Shadows” is an auspicious start for Batman: The Telltale Series, and offers a compelling narrative full of standout set pieces, unexpected twists, and genuine suspense to make players feel like they’re both Batman and Bruce Wayne. Considering the amount of scrutiny around this IP, Telltale had a formidable task ahead of them, but they stuck the landing. A few wonky graphical hiccups and occasional framerate issues aside, “Realm of Shadows” is one of my favorite Telltale episodes in recent years, and I cannot wait to see how these mysteries unfold — especially because, at long last, I feel like the world’s greatest detective.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 burritos

Batman: The Telltale Series was reviewed using a code provided by Telltale Games

Images: Telltale Games/DC Comics

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

Would Batman’s grappling hook gun actually kill you?

Hear Jimmy Eat World’s Comeback Single, “Get Right”

Pop punk is back just in time for the last hurrahs of summer. Jimmy Eat World dropped a new single today that’s surprisingly fun, nostalgic, and fast. But if you’re looking for something a little more chill, check out footage of Flea teaching a gorilla bass, Barbra Streisand’s beef with Siri, Feist’s exciting reunion news, and the awesome live performance of Metallica’s brand new single.

It’s time to go back to the middle. Jimmy Eat World announced a follow-up to 2013’s LP Damage and we’ve got a feeling it will be a return to their pop punk glory. The Arizona act said the album will drop on October 21. The title is unknown still, but we do have “Get Right,” the lead single that’s a return to form. It’s all the sweetness you could want. But that’s our take. What do you think? Give it a listen above and weigh in on their 2016 sound in the comment section below. [Consequence of Sound]

Who knows why, but Flea hung out with a very interested student this week: a gorilla. The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist went to the Gorrilla Foundation in Woodside, California and hung out with new pal Koko. The best part? He taught her how to play bass. “This is just the greatest thing that could ever happen. This is the day that I will never forget in my life,” Flea says in a video of the moment. Koko is, unsurprisingly, pretty fascinated by it all. We would be too, bro. [Nerdist]

Image Credit: COLUMBIA/Barbra Streisand

If you haven’t picked a fight with Apple, are you really a big shot musician? Barbra Streisand recently picked a bone with the music company. Like Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and countless others before her, Streisand hopes to win and Apple seems likely to please. The celebrity musician found out Siri pronounces her last name incorrectly, so she called Apple CEO Tim Cook directly. “Streisand with a soft S, like sand on the beach. I’ve been saying this for my whole career,” she told NPR in a recent interview. “[Cook] delightfully agreed to have Siri change the pronunciation of my name, finally, with the next update on September 30th.” [Rolling Stone]

BSS circa 2004. Tomorrow I go join my broken brothers to add my “loverspit” to the new #brokensocialscene album. Reunion Union. X @kevinselection @brendanjcanning @charlesspearin @seearoara @amymillanforreal @ms_engle

A photo posted by feist (@feistmusic) on Aug 21, 2016 at 4:10pm PDT

Earlier this summer, indie rock supergroup Broken Social Scene performed four shows in America, marking their first US shows in half a decade. During those shows, they debuted a new song and announced they are working on a follow-up to 2010’s excellent Forgiveness Rock Record. Not much is known about the album, but Feist took to Instagram last night to share exciting news: the old bandmate will be returning to the studio to perform on the new record. “Tomorrow I go join my broken brothers to add my ‘loverspit’ to the new #brokensocialscene album. Reunion Union,” she wrote. Feist was a core member of the band between 2002 and 2005. Since then, she has appeared on the band’s other albums and occasionally played sets. The last performance with the band was 2013’s live set on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon for the impeccable hit “Almost Crimes.” Imagine that energy; now picture her voice on new material. Be careful; don’t swoon too hard. [Consequence of Sound]

Last week, Metallica announced they had a new album coming out soon called Hardwired…To Self-Destruct. The metal giants shortly after announced they would be playing at Minneapolis’ brand new stadium, US Bank Stadium, on Saturday night. The weekend came and went, and with it was the band’s show. They played a career-spanning set of 19 songs, and fans lost their mind. It’s hard not to when a band that’s been at it for decades still has the energy and talent that they did when they first began. So it was with great joy that everyone in the venue celebrated the band’s inaugural performance of lead single “Hardwired”. You bet they enjoyed every second of it, and thanks to the world wide web, you can enjoy it above through video, too. [Consequence of Sound]

See you back here on Wednesday for another Music Dispatch!

Image: Jimi Giannatti

Watch Opus Wield a Lightsaber in a Trailer for the New BLOOM COUNTY Book

If you were a nerdy kid in the ’80s, you don’t have to be told how crucial Bloom County was back in the day. Before the endless parody movies of the ’90s and aughts, before Disney’s Aladdin kickstarted the idea that pop-culture commentary made everything funnier, Berkeley Breathed‘s strip was throwing Star Trek, Steven Spielberg, Max Headroom, Ronald Reagan, the PMRC, Boy George, Michael Jackson, Garfield and more into a blender and imbuing it all into the DNA of a daily newspaper comic about kid reporters, Americana archetypes, and anxiety-prone animals who all lived in a boarding house together. There was nearly a Miramax movie, until Harvey Weinstein allegedly told Breathed that cartoon animals may talk to each other, but not to people.

Following a long absence and a couple of less-successful reboots, Breathed finally brought the strip back last year, but only on Facebook, where some people old enough to have enjoyed the strip the first time might not know how to find it. For them–and the rest of us who’d like to have all the strips in one place–the first new collection of Bloom County strips in 25 years is coming to book form on Sept. 13th. And as you can see in the new motion-trailer, the gang are still as accident-prone and fanatical about sci-fi as they ever were.

It is also perhaps notable that this book is coming in an election year, giving a whole new generation the chance to say, “Don’t blame me – I voted for Bill and Opus.”

Are you pumped for this Bloomin’ book (which you can preorder online anywhere books are sold)? Or do I need to explain again how awesome it is that this thing even exists? Crank up some Billy and the Boingers tunes, boot up the old Banana Jr. computer, don the Meadow Party delegate hat and meet us in the comments below at warp speed.

 

STAR TREK Phasers May Lead To Missile Defense Breakthrough

Since its debut in 1966, Star Trek has had an uncanny ability to both inspire and seemingly predict future technologies. Starfleet communicators were eerily similar to early cell phones, while modern computers and tablets have gone even farther than several of the devices seen on the original series. There are many aspects of Star Trek that remain science fiction, but scientists are edging ever closer to making phasers a reality.

Via The Mary Sue, Smithsonian Channel has posted a clip from its upcoming special, Building Star Trek, which places the focus on Dr. Rob Afzal, a laser scientist at Lockheed Martin and an unabashed Trekker as well. One of Afzal’s goals is to create “a defensive weapon as powerful as Star Trek‘s phaser.” But that’s much easier said than done. According to Afzal, that the biggest challenge is creating a way to store the massive amount of energy needed for a working phaser-like device in a handheld shell.

That particular technological breakthrough appears to be a ways off. However, the video notes that Afzal’s work has already led to a significant reduction in the size of the generator used in Lockheed Martin’s laser missile defense system. The clip also features a demonstration of how the missile defense system works, while noting that it is not yet ready to be used in combat situations.

Smithsonian Channel will premiere Building Star Trek on September 4.

How many years do you think it will take to create a handheld phaser like the ones on Star Trek? Share your predictions in the comment section below!

Image: CBS TV Distribution 

North Korea Now Has Its Version of Netflix, and It’s What You’d Expect

Netflix and chill? How about Netflix and IL? As in Kim Jong-il, the late dictator of North Korea and father to current leader Kim Jong-un. Yes, Variety (via NK News) reports the isolated communist country now has an internet-based VOD service, available to the few thousand people who actually have access to their nation’s closed-system intranet, arguably more of a misinformation country lane (complete with roadblocks) than an information superhighway.

Five channels will be available, and their programming is, well, about what you’d imagine: documentaries about the greatness of the Kim family and their ideology, and language-learning programs to teach viewers English and Russian. Given that the image above is of a Russian-language lab in North Korea, no doubt the opportunity to study at home comes as a great relief to many. And because even language documentaries are a refreshing escape relative to the other aspects of life in a totalitarian state, kids are apparently asking to watch some of the shows over and over.

No word on whether the network will be showing episodes of Skylark Tonight, but we suspect not.

In an added wrinkle that even Seth Rogen and James Franco couldn’t make up, the name of the service is, well, interesting to the English-speaking ear. Remember when they called their nuclear missiles Taepodong, and Stephen Colbert did a whole routine about that sounding like “type o’ dong”?

North Korean Netflix is called “Manbang.”

Yes, it’s a word that means “everywhere/every direction,” but still…”Manbang and chill” has a whole new meaning when you say it aloud.

What show would you pitch to the executives at Manbang? Gray Is the New Gray? Marvel’s Capitalistdevil? Give it your best shot in comments below.

Featured image: Stefan Krasowski/Flickr