Hope you’re ready for cosmical and magical adventure, because Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered is coming in 2023, and Skunkape Games has released a new trailer teasing the return of what is definitely the most wild-ride-bonkers entry in the series. Started back in 1993, Sam and Max are pretty venerable characters in PC Gaming, and it’s good to see them looking so good again.
This is after all the entry that includes an alien invasion, straight-up cosmic horror gods, magical artifact toys for Max, and a kind of apocalypse type… thing. Oh right and there are clones, like, a lot of them. Look, it gets wild, even by Sam and Max standards, and if wacky adventures are you’re thing I think you’d be well-served to get those other two remasters played by whenever it is in 2023 this gets released.
This most superlative series about suit-wearing dog Sam and “hyperkinetic rabbity thing” Max was made back in the late oughts and early 2010s by Telltale based on the earlier 1990s LucasArts adventure game and cartoon series. This series of remasters has been going since 2020, with Sam and Max Save the World Remastered (opens in new tab).
These remasters are done by Skunkape Games, a developer composed of members from the original development team back at Telltale. Speaking of which, this is the one that includes the studio’s namesake, the alien space gorilla General Skun-ka’pe.
We’ve long considered the series a peak of detective-driven-comedy-PC-gaming, whatever that really means, and the original sits on our list of the best detective games on PC (opens in new tab). Though it has the weird leaps of logic that characterize LucasArts games of that era, we said that “it’s genuinely funny throughout.”
If you’re not familiar with the series already, it’s a classic of goofy comedy. Earlier this year, we dug up a feature from 2006 about the making of Sam and Max Hit the Road (opens in new tab),
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1672530088_The-Sam-Max-remaster-continues-with-a-trailer-for.png6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-12-31 23:25:302023-01-01 20:33:20The Sam & Max remaster continues with a trailer for The Devil’s Playhouse
Factory-building game Factorio has sold 3.5 million copies, reports developer Wube Software in its year-end update. It’s an incredible validation of success for a game that would politely be described as of niche interest to mainstream gaming.
“This year we have reached another sales milestone, with 3.5 million sales being passed this Christmas. We are still having steady and consistent sales of about 500,000 each year, which in retrospect validates the original no-sale policy we have stuck with since we launched on Steam in 2016,” said Wube in a blog post (opens in new tab).
The same post includes an expansion teaser image, a few small development updates, and a statistics recap on Wube’s mod portal feature. Wube Software also announced that it’s still hard at work porting the game’s new console controls (opens in new tab) to the PC version for both people on full-size rigs and on mobile PCs like the Steam Deck.
Alongside the announcement, Wube Software also posted a scant teaser for the Factorio Expansion. A “Christmas postcard” made by the studio includes “a sneak peek of some new item icons.” What’s the new stuff? No sure thing in a game that includes technologies as diverse as wood-burning steam engines, petroleum chemical refining, and nuclear fission, but I’ll speculate anyway.
Handling hot, liquid metals isn’t a thing in Factorio, but that red icon looks a lot like a blast furnace of some kind, and it’s actively pouring red-hot liquid. Alongside that is a sealed chamber that might be used for vaccum processes, and a spherical assembly in a larger device crackling with electricity that to me bears more than a passing resemblance to theorized Fusion reactor containment.
After the last teaser (opens in new tab), more than a few fans have speculated that the creature shown must be aquatic in some way, and so the expansion must involve exploring (and exploiting) the seas of Factorio’s planet.
If you’re a hardcore Factorio-head, or a game modding enthusiast, go check out the full post (opens in new tab) for a look at the statistics, including the rather shocking revelation that more than 25% of Factorio mods have 2,000 or more downloads.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1672526363_Factorio-has-sold-35-million-copies.jpg560874Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-12-31 22:22:352023-01-01 20:33:44Factorio has sold 3.5 million copies
As the wan sun fades on this bleak year of 2022 we are given to look back and think about all we have to be grateful for. And in PC gaming tech terms that means we’re looking at all the gaming gear released over the past 12 months to pick our favourite tech in a bunch of different categories.
And you know what? That includes graphics cards this year, in an actual meaningful way. We paid lip service to GPUs last year, when they existed in a mostly theoretical rather than physical sense, but finally, we can actually buy new cards. I mean, they’re still woefully expensive if you want to get in on the latest generation, but the last-gen GPUs are now genuinely affordable. Especially if you’re looking at the AMD side of the graphics card divide.
We’ve also started to see the first inroads of OLED panel technology into our desktop gaming monitors, too, as both Samsung and LG have started shipping screens into displays from the likes of Alienware and Corsair. To lesser or greater effect, it has to be said…
There have been new CPU generations from both Intel and AMD, with the latter retiring its venerable AM4 socket and getting rid of those horribly pliable pins on its chips. Though now we have to worry about errant thumbs jamming into the sockets of AMD motherboards instead. Dr. Su giveth and Dr. Su taketh away.
It’s also been the year of the Steam Deck, a piece of tech we love for all its flaws and faint jankiness, it’s one of the most PC bits of hardware released this year. And it’s a frickin’ handheld.
But without further ado, here are the winners of PC Gamers annual hardware awards. I give you the best hardware of 2022.
As the wan sun fades on this bleak year of 2022 we are given to look back and think about all we have to be grateful for. And in PC gaming tech terms that means we’re looking at all the gaming gear released over the past 12 months to pick our favourite tech in a bunch of different categories.
And you know what? That includes graphics cards this year, in an actual meaningful way. We paid lip service to GPUs last year, when they existed in a mostly theoretical rather than physical sense, but finally, we can actually buy new cards. I mean, they’re still woefully expensive if you want to get in on the latest generation, but the last-gen GPUs are now genuinely affordable. Especially if you’re looking at the AMD side of the graphics card divide.
We’ve also started to see the first inroads of OLED panel technology into our desktop gaming monitors, too, as both Samsung and LG have started shipping screens into displays from the likes of Alienware and Corsair. To lesser or greater effect, it has to be said…
There have been new CPU generations from both Intel and AMD, with the latter retiring its venerable AM4 socket and getting rid of those horribly pliable pins on its chips. Though now we have to worry about errant thumbs jamming into the sockets of AMD motherboards instead. Dr. Su giveth and Dr. Su taketh away.
It’s also been the year of the Steam Deck, a piece of tech we love for all its flaws and faint jankiness, it’s one of the most PC bits of hardware released this year. And it’s a frickin’ handheld.
But without further ado, here are the winners of PC Gamers annual hardware awards. I give you the best hardware of 2022.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PC-Gamer-Hardware-Awards-2022-The-best-gear-of-year.png6711200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-12-31 17:00:532022-12-31 19:50:10PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2022: The best gear of year
Between theatrical releases and streaming exclusives, 2023 already has a massive movie catalogue. The long-delayed Aquaman sequel and The Flash movie finally land while the MCU kicks off the Multiverse Saga with Phase Five’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Marvels.
On top of that, Harrison Ford returns one final time as Indiana Jones, Tom Cruise kicks off the endgame of the Mission: Impossible series, and Timothée Chalamet plays a young Willy Wonka (while also reprising his role as Paul Atreides in the Dune sequel). And speaking of comebacks, The Hunger Games franchise is cooking up a prequel, Tobin Bell will return as maniacal trap-man Jigsaw, and Keanu Reeves will Gun Fu his way back into our lives as John Wick.
Ghostface, Optimus Prime, Magic Mike, and Miles Morales are also all back for more while directors like Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, M. Night Shyamalan, and Ari Aster present new and exciting projects. Here are 60 movies we’re excited about for 2023 across theaters and streaming.
M3GAN
US Date: Jan 6
UK/AU Date: Jan 13 (UK), TBA (AU)
2023 kicks things off with Blumhouse’s killer AI doll flick, M3GAN, from Malignant writer Akela Cooper (with a story by Cooper and Malignant director James Wan). Get Out/Girls’ Allison Williams plays a brilliant roboticist who develops a life-like android that starts to lethally protect her recently orphaned niece.
Knock at the Cabin
US Date: Feb 3
UK/AU Date: Feb 3 (UK), TBA (AU)
Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Rupert Grint star in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, about a vacationing family of three that is taken hostage by four strangers who demand they make the ultimate sacrifice to avert the apocalypse.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance
US Date: Feb 10
UK/AU Date: Feb 10 (UK), TBA (AU)
The Ocean’s movies are no longer Steven Soderbergh’s sole trilogy as Channing Tatum returns for Magic Mike’s Last Dance, co-starring Salma Hayek Pinault, Gavin Spokes, and Caitlin Gerard. In the film, Tatum’s Mike Lane heads to London with a wealthy socialite who lures him with an offer he can’t refuse — and an agenda all her own.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
US Date: Feb 17
UK/AU Date: Feb 17 (UK), TBA (AU)
Jonathan Majors, who made his MCU debut on Loki as “He Who Remains,” makes a big splash as villainous variant Kang the Conquerer in Ant-Man’s third movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, and Randall Park all return for this fuller exploration of the Quantum Realm, which Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said officially kicks off Phase Five and “The Multiverse Saga.”
Cocaine Bear
US Date: Feb 24
UK/AU Date: Feb 24 (UK), TBA (AU)
Loosely based (um…yeah!) on a true incident in the ’80s involving a bear and a duffle bag of narcotics, Cocaine Bear looks to unleash its crazy fury on moviegoers this February. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, and starring Keri Russell (plus Matthew Rhys and Margo Martindale – is this an Americans reunion?), Cocaine Bear follows an American black bear that goes on a murderous rampage in a small Georgia town. O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Ray Liotta (in one of his final roles) also star.
Creed III
US Date: March 3
UK/AU Date: March 3 (UK), TBA (AU)
Star Michael B. Jordan takes over official directing duties from Ryan Coogler (who still co-wrote the story) for Creed III, this time following Adonis Creed as he contends with a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy (Jonathan Majors) who resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. Co-starring Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, and Phylicia Rashad.
Scream 6
US Date: March 10
UK/AU Date: March 31 (UK), TBA (AU)
There’s no official title yet for Scream 6, but what we do know is that the story follows the survivors of the latest Ghostface killings, sisters Samantha and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega) and twins Chad and Mindy Meeks (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown), leaving Woodsboro behind and starting a new chapter of their lives in New York City – only to again be plagued by a streak of murders by a new Ghostface killer. Courteney Cox returns as legacy Scream-er Gale Weathers, joined by Dermot Mulroney and Ready or Not’s Henry Czerny and Samara Weaving.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
US Date: March 17
UK/AU Date: March 17 (UK), TBA (AU)
Zachary Levi is back for more superhero silliness with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, featuring Billy Batson and his foster siblings battling the Daughters of Atlas, who look to use a weapon that could destroy the world. Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler are Hespera, Kalypso, and Anthea while Djimon Hounsou returns as the wizard, Shazam.
John Wick: Chapter 4
US Date: March 24
UK/AU Date: March 24 (UK), TBA (AU)
In this hotly-anticipated fourth John Wick flick, Keanu Reeves’ unbeatable hitman uncovers a path to defeating the High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes. Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Hiroyuki Sanada, Lance Reddick, and Clancy Brown also star.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
US Date: March 31
UK/AU Date: April 7 (UK), TBA (AU)
The directing duo behind Game Night, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (star of Freaks and Geeks), transport us into the Forgotten Realms with a Dungeons & Dragons movie starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant. In Honor Among Thieves, a charming thief (Pine) and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a long-lost relic.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
US Date: April 7
UK/AU Date: March 31 (UK), TBA (AU)
Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, and Charles Martinet lend their voices to this big-screen animated take on Nintendo’s game-changing platformer. The plot is a famliar one, of course: A plumber named Mario travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother, Luigi, to defeat a tyrant named Bowser. From Titans Go! To the Movies’ Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath comes this star-studded adventure.
Renfield
US Date: April 14
UK/AU Date: April 14 (UK), TBA (AU)
The Lego Batman Movie’s Chris McKay delivers Nicolas Cage as Dracula in this horror-comedy centered around the Count’s sniveling henchman, Renfield (played by Nicholas Hoult). The story follows Renfield as he finds a new lease on life in modern-day New Orleans when he falls in love with Rebecca Quincy, a feisty but perennially aggressive traffic cop played by Awkwafina.
Evil Dead Rise
US Date: April 21
UK/AU Date: April 21 (UK), TBA (AU)
Once slated for HBO Max, Evil Dead franchise offshoot Evil Dead Rise is now getting a theatrical release. The story centers on two sisters who clash with Deadites in a cramped L.A. apartment building, forcing them both into a primal battle for survival. Original Dead trio Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Tapert are all executive producing.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
US Date: May 5
UK/AU Date: May 5 (UK), TBA (AU)
Writer/director James Gunn bids farewell to Marvel Studios (as he heads off to creatively lead the DCEU) with a third Guardians of the Galaxy film. As Peter Quill still searches the far reaches of space for 2014 Gamora, the Guardians must contend with the threat of the High Evolutionary (Peacemaker’s Chukwudi Iwuji) along with High Priestess Ayesha and the Sovereign’s creation, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter).
Rob Marshall directs this live-action remake of Disney’s 1989 animated musical classic, The Little Mermaid. Starring Halle Bailey as Ariel, the film will once more tell the story of the youngest daughter of King Triton (Javier Bardem), the ruler of the underwater kingdom Atlantica, who becomes fascinated by the world of humans. After falling deeply in love with the handsome Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), Ariel’s quest delivers her into the clutches of the scheming sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy). Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina also star in voice roles.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
US Date: June 2
UK/AU Date: June 2 (UK), TBA (AU)
The dazzling, animated Lord and Miller-produced Spider-Verse returns as Miles Morales goes on an adventure across the multiverse with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-people (including Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099). Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, and Luna Lauren Vélez return with new voices provided by Issa Rae (as Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman), Jason Schwartzman (as the Spot), and Daniel Kaluuya (as Hobart “Hobie” Brown/Spider-Punk).
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
US Date: June 9
UK/AU Date: June 9 (UK), TBA (AU)
Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback star in this ’90s-set Transformers prequel about a pair of archaeologists from Brooklyn who discover an ancient conflict through a globe-trotting adventure that ties in with three factions of Transformers: the Maximals, the Predacons and the Terrorcons. Peter Cullen returns to voice Optimus Prime while Pete Davidson debuts as Mirage and YouTube star Liza Koshy plays Arcee.
Elemental
US Date: June 16
UK/AU Date: June 6 (UK), TBA (AU)
Pixar Studios’ 2023 offering is set in a city where fire, water, land and air residents all live together. When a fiery young woman, Ember, and a go-with-the-flow guy, Wade, meet up, they discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common.
The Flash
US Date: June 16
UK/AU Date: June 16 (UK), TBA (AU)
Taking cues from DC’s Flashpoint comic arc, The Flash movie was originally rumored to serve as a “reset” for the DCEU as speedster Barry Allen travels through time to prevent the murder of his mother, but unwittingly causes changes that result in the creation of a multiverse. Besieged by star Ezra Miller’s serious legal troubles, The Flash was even in danger of being shelved by Warner Bros. As of now, The Flash is still a go, with Miller being joined by Kiersey Clemons and, reportedly, Michael Shannon (as Zod), Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton as Batman (though Keaton’s return as Batman in Batgirl won’t be seen now) and Sasha Calle as Supergirl.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
US Date: June 30
UK/AU Date: June 30 (UK), TBA (AU)
Harrison Ford returns one final time as archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones in the fifth installment of the franchise, directed by 3:10 to Yuma/Logan’s James Mangold. Set in 1969, Indiana Jones finds himself uneasy over the fact that the U.S. government has recruited former Nazis to help beat the Soviet Union in the Space Race. One in particular, Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), is a NASA member and ex-Nazi who wishes to make the world into a better place — as he sees fit. John Rhys-Davies reprises his role as Sallah, joined by new cast members Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, and Boyd Holbrook.
Harold and the Purple Crayon
US Date: June 30
UK/AU Date: June 30 (UK), June 29 (AU)
Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel, Lil Rel Howery, and Ravi Patel star in this live-action adaptation of Crockett Johnson’s famous 1955 children’s book about a young boy named Harold who embarks on a magical mission with the help of his purple crayon.
Insidious: Fear the Dark
US Date: July 7
UK/AU Date: July 7 (UK), TBA (AU)
Directed by star Patrick Wilson, in his directorial debut, this fifth installment in the Insidious franchise (created by Leigh Whannell) serves as a direct sequel to Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 2. Wilson, Rose Byrne, and Ty Simpkins are back as the Lambert family, now 10 years on from the previous two films. As Josh Lambert (Wilson) heads East to drop his son (Simpkins) off at an idyllic, ivy-covered university, the college dream becomes a nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
US Date: July 14
UK/AU Date: July 14 (UK), TBA (AU)
The first half of (what’s being said is) a two-part finale for the Mission: Impossible franchise, Dead Reckoning Part One brings back Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Henry Czerny (from the very first M:I movie) as Ethan Hunt and his team must confront their biggest global challenge yet. New faces include Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Rob Delaney, and Cary Elwes.
Oppenheimer
US Date: July 21
UK/AU Date: July 21 (UK), TBA (AU)
Christopher Nolan’s first film since his blow-up with Warner Bros. (over the studio’s simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max streaming release strategy) is the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. The all-star cast features Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer, plus Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Gary Oldman, Jack Quaid, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Florence Pugh.
Barbie
US Date: July 21
UK/AU Date: July 21 (UK), TBA (AU)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women) directs Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling — from a script written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach — in Barbie, a live-action romantic comedy based on the iconic Mattel toy line. Co-starring Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Simu Liu as another Ken, Kate McKinnon, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Issa Rae, and Michael Cera.
The Marvels
US Date: July 28
UK/AU Date: July 28 (UK), TBA (AU)
Following the events of Endgame, WandaVision, and Ms. Marvel, The Marvels will bring together Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau, and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan for a cosmic adventure that reportedly features the three swapping places with one another each time they use their powers. Samuel L. Jackson will play, of course, Nick Fury (though the movie is being released after the Secret Invasion series on Disney+) while Zawe Ashton has reportedly been cast as the villain.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
US Date: Aug 4
UK/AU Date: Aug 4 (UK), TBA (AU)
This animated reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film franchise brings Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael back to the big screen for the first time since 2016. Directed by Jeff Rowe (writer of Gravity Falls and The Mitchells vs. the Machines), and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Mutant Mayhem cowabungas its way into theaters next August.
Meg 2: The Trench
US Date: Aug 4
UK/AU Date: Aug 4 (UK), TBA (AU)
Jason Statham is back as rescue diver Jonas Taylor in this meg-a-powered sequel, based on Steve Alten’s sequel novel to Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror. After dealing with a thought-to-be-extinct megalodon in the first movie, Taylor must now contend with another prehistoric monster – the Kronosaurus. Original Meg stars Cliff Curtis and Page Kennedy return as well.
Haunted Mansion
US Date: Aug 11
UK/AU Date: Aug 11 (UK), TBA (AU)
Jared Leto stars as Hatbox Ghost while Jamie Lee Curtis portrays Madame Leota in this big-screen spookfest based on the famed Disney park attraction. Also starring Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Winona Ryder, and Dan Levy, Haunted Mansion follows a single mom and her nine-year-old son, who are looking to start a new life and move into a strangely affordable mansion in New Orleans… only to discover that the place is much more than they bargained for.
Gran Turismo
US Date: Aug 11
UK/AU Date: Aug 11 (UK), TBA (AU)
From District 9’s Neil Blomkamp comes a live-action adaptation of the Grand Turismo video game series starring David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, and Djimon Hounsou. Based on a true story, the film tracks a teenage Gran Turismo player (Archie Madekwe) who applies their skills to competitions the world over on the road to becoming a real racecar driver.
Blue Beetle
US Date: Aug 18
UK/AU Date: Aug 18 (UK), TBA (AU)
Originally intended to be an HBO Max exclusive, DC’s Blue Beetle, starring Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña, George Lopez, and Susan Sarandon, is now slated for theaters. Blue Beetle tells the story of a teenager in El Paso, TX, who gains superpowers when an alien Blue Beetle scarab grafts onto him, forming a powerful exoskeleton around his body.
The Equalizer 3
US Date: Sept 1
UK/AU Date: Sept 1 (UK), TBA (AU)
The successful Antoine Fuqua/Denzel Washington action franchise, based on the ’80s TV series The Equalizer, continues, with Washington reuniting with his Man on Fire co-star Dakota Fanning for this particular adventure. With much of the production taking place in various cities and towns in Italy, The Equalizer 3 looks to have an international setting.
The Nun 2
US Date: Sept 8
UK/AU Date: TBA (UK), TBA (AU)
A sequel to 2018’s The Nun, and the ninth installment in The Conjuring Universe, The Nun 2 brings Taissa Farmiga’s Sister Irene back as she once again comes face to face with the demonic force Valak – aka the Nun.
A Haunting in Venice
US Date: Sept 15
UK/AU Date: Sept 15 (UK), TBA (AU)
Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot mystery franchise continues with A Haunting in Venice (based on the Agatha Christie novel Hallow’een Party). This time the star-studded cast features Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Kelly Reilly, and Michelle Yeoh. Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.
The Expendables 4
US Date: Sept 22
UK/AU Date: Sept 22 (UK), TBA (AU)
Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables saga continues on with Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture all returning for one more ride. This time — with additional cast members Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Andy García, Tony Jaa, Jacob Scipio, Iko Uwais, and Levy Tran — the team will square up against an arms dealer who commands the might of a massive private army.
Kraven the Hunter
US Date: Oct 6
UK/AU Date: Oct 6 (UK), TBA (AU)
Sony’s Spider-verse of villains (Morbius, Venom), which the studio is attempting to turn into franchisable heroes, adds one more with Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff, a big-game hunter who’s also an… animal lover? Russell Crowe also stars alongside Christopher Abbott and Alessandro Nivola, who’ve been cast as the villains of the film. Additionally, Fred Hechinger will play Chameleon, Kraven’s half-brother who is a master of disguise.
The Exorcist
US Date: Oct 13
UK/AU Date: Oct 13 (UK), TBA (AU)
Now that he’s resurrected the Halloween franchise with a new sequel trilogy, director David Gordon Green is tackling The Exorcist next, once again ignoring the previous sequels. His film will serve only as a decades-later follow-up to William Friedkin’s original 1973 film. Ellen Burstyn returns as once-besieged mother Chris MacNeil, joining Leslie Odom Jr. and Ann Dowd. In this new tale, a father of a possessed child, desperate for help, goes in search of someone who has had similar experiences – Burstyn’s Chris.
Saw 10
US Date: Oct 27
UK/AU Date: Oct 27 (UK), TBA (AU)
After a detour with Spiral: From the Book of Saw, the original recipe Saw saga is back with Saw 10 (or Saw X?), once more featuring Tobin Bell in the role of John Kramer – aka Jigsaw. We’re not sure how that will play out necessarily since the character’s been stone dead for more than half the franchise but, assuredly, life will find a way. The full plot is under wraps for now but… you know, it’s Saw.
Dune: Part Two
US Date: Nov 3
UK/AU Date: Nov 3 (UK), TBA (AU)
The second half of Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune arrives in November, continuing the journey of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he unites with Chani (Zendaya) and the Fremen and seeks revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. New cast members include Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Léa Seydoux, and Christopher Walken.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
US Date: Nov 17
UK/AU Date: Nov 17 (UK), TBA (AU)
Serving as a prequel story to The Hunger Games franchise, this fifth installment (based on Suzanne Collins’ 2020 book) features Tom Blyth as a young Coriolanus Snow. Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, and Jason Schwartzman also star in this story, which details the Tenth Annual Hunger Games as Coriolanus Snow turns 18 and worries about his future.
Wonka
US Date: Dec 15
UK/AU Date: Dec 15 (UK), TBA (AU)
Everything’s coming up Chalamet at the end of 2023 because after Dune: Part Two there’s Wonka, directed by Paul King (Paddington and Paddington 2). This new take on Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory features the actor as a young Willy Wonka, detailing his adventures prior to opening the world’s most famous chocolate factory. Co-starring Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, and Jim Carter.
The Color Purple
US Date: Dec 20
UK/AU Date: Dec 20 (UK), TBA (AU)
The musical stage adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple, about the life-long struggles of an African American woman living in the south during the early 1900s, is coming to the big screen. The film will star Fantasia, Colman Domingo, Taraji P. Henson, Corey Hawkins, Ciara, Danielle Brooks, and Louis Gossett Jr. This will be the second film adaptation of the novel, following Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film.
Untitled Ghostbusters: Afterlife Sequel
US Date: Dec 20
UK/AU Date: July 14 (UK), TBA (AU)
Not much is known about the Ghostbusters: Afterlife follow-up at this point other than it will continue the adventures of the Spengler family. Jason Reitman will once again direct, joining the returning cast of Paul Rudd, Mckenna Grace, Carrie Coon, and Finn Wolfhard.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
US Date: Dec 25
UK/AU Date: Dec 29 (UK), TBA (AU)
By the time Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes out, it will be five years since the original Aquaman made a billion bucks at the box office, as James Wan’s sequel found itself being bumped from 2022 entirely after a series of COVID-related delays and post-production issues. Still, if all goes well, a year from now we’ll get Jason Momoa’s return as Arthur Curry, who forges an uneasy alliance with an unlikely ally in a bid to save Atlantis and the rest of the planet. Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison, and Nicole Kidman are all back as well.
Disappointment Blvd.
US Date: TBA 2023
UK/AU Date: TBA (UK), TBA (AU)
Writer/director Ari Aster’s next project, after his A24 one-two punch of Hereditary and Midsommar, is a horror-comedy starring Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey, Michael Gandolfini, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Richard Kind. No real story details at this time other than the film being an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.
The Pale Blue Eye
US: Jan 6
Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson, and Toby Jones star in Scott Cooper’s adaptation of the 2003 novel The Pale Blue Eye, about a veteran detective, Augustus Landor (Bale), investigating a series of murders at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York – aided by a young Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling), who is a young cadet at the academy.
Your Place or Mine
US: Feb 10
The Valentine’s Day-ready rom-com, about two long-distance best friends who change each other’s lives when she decides to pursue a lifelong dream and he volunteers to keep an eye on her teenage son, stars Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Tig Notaro, Zoë Chao, and Steve Zahn.
Murder Mystery 2
US/UK: Feb 10
Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are back as amateur sleuths Nick and Audrey Spitz in this sequel to Netflix’s 2019 original. This time Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Tony Goldwyn join the craziness.
Luther
US/UK: 2023
After five spread-out seasons, Idris Elba’s gritty, scary crime procedural, Luther, is getting a movie. Written by series creator Neil Cross, Luther will pair Elba with Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis.
Heart of Stone
US: 2023
Heart of Stone is a spy thriller featuring Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone, a CIA agent who’s the only woman standing between her powerful, global, peace-keeping organization and the loss of its most valuable — and dangerous — asset. Jamie Dornan also stars.
Extraction 2
US: 2023
Chris Hemsworth returns to game-changing Extraction action for this Joe Russo-penned/Sam Hargrave-directed sequel featuring the presumed dead Tyler Rake and another high-stakes mission.
The Mother
US: May 2023
Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, and Gael García Bernal star in this action drama about an ex-assassin (Lopez) coming out of hiding to protect the estranged daughter she left earlier in her life.
Havoc
US/UK: 2023
Written and directed by Gareth Evans (The Raid, The Raid 2), Havoc stars Tom Hardy, Forest Whitaker, and Timothy Olyphant in the story of a detective who must fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son while untangling his city’s dark web of conspiracy and corruption.
Maestro
US: 2023
Directed and co-written by Bradley Cooper, Maestro stars Cooper as musician/composer Leonard Bernstein. Carey Mulligan, Jeremy Strong, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, and Sarah Silverman also star in this Martin Scorsese/Steven Spielberg/Todd Phillips-produced film.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley
US: 2023
After decades in development hell, a new Beverly Hills Cop is finally upon us, with Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Bronson Pinchot, and Paul Reiser all back on board (with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon also along for the ride). The story features Murphy’s Axel Foley, after the death of an old friend, heading back to Beverly Hills to investigate corruption within the force of the Beverly Hills Police Department with his daughter and her ex-boyfriend.
Spy Kids: Armageddon
US: 2023
A full reboot of the Spy Kids franchise — still written, directed, and produced by Robert Rodriguez — is headed to Netflix. This time though, the secret agent parents are Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi and their kids unwittingly help a powerful Game Developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology.
Shotgun Wedding
US: Jan 27
Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel star in this action-comedy about a couple’s extravagant destination wedding getting hijacked by pirates. In the process of saving their families, the duo rediscovers why they fell in love in the first place.
Red One
US: 2023
Jake Kazdan directs Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans — as well as Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Liu, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, J. K. Simmons, and Nick Kroll — in the new holiday adventure, Red One.
Killers of the Flower Moon
US: 2023
Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in this crime drama about members of the Osage tribe in northeastern Oklahoma being murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s, sparking a major FBI investigation directed by a 29-year-old J. Edgar Hoover and former Texas Ranger Tom White (Jesse Plemons). Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow, and Tantoo Cardinal also star.
What movies are you most looking forward to in 2023? Discuss in the comments!
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/60-Movies-We-Cant-Wait-to-See-in-2023.jpg7201280Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-12-31 16:00:462022-12-31 16:00:4660 Movies We Can’t Wait to See in 2023 – IGN
It’s only natural that at the end of a long year you end up looking backwards. We’ve written a lot of tech news this year—weird, wonderful, and Gabe-y (opens in new tab)—and a monstrous number of hardware reviews (opens in new tab), too. But it’s a piece I published on the very first day of 2022 that I want to revisit, a piece where I called 2021 the worst year for PC gaming (opens in new tab).
With 2022 now receding into the rearview mirror, was it really any better? Honestly, I’m not convinced. There are happenings you could point to and call them positives, but on the whole 2022 still rather sucked to be a PC gamer.
My main issue with 2021 was that the combination of cryptocurrency mining and chip supply chain shortages made it an almost impossible economic decision for manufacturers to put thought, energy, and more importantly money, into mainstream PC gaming. It was the fact that with every single GPU put on the market being sold, it made more sense to keep pumping out $1,000+ cards when you’re set to sell the same number as if you’d listed a range of sub-$300 options.
So, the budget PC market was dead, meaning that if you wanted to recommend some sort of vaguely affordable entry-point into gaming it had to be one of either Sony or Microsoft’s consoles. And it sucks to have to say that as a dyed-in-the-wool PC gamer.
But in 2022 both AMD and Nvidia released their budget graphics cards—the Radeon RX 6500 XT (opens in new tab) and the GeForce RTX 3050 (opens in new tab). And that actually only made me feel worse about the mainstream market. The RX 6500 XT delivers all the performance of an AMD card that cost the same price when the RX 480 launched back in 2016 and the RTX 3050, well in my review I said that “where I wanted at least RTX 2060 performance, I’ve got GTX 1660 Ti frame rates with a little RTX frosting on top.”
That I do not call progress.
But then Valve dropped the Steam Deck (opens in new tab). A device that is uniquely PC in its makeup, and the equivalent of our Switch. It’s a console-like device, with a price tag to match. It’s an entry-point into the world of PC gaming, offering a utility that no other rig can really offer, not even a good gaming laptop.
(Image credit: Future)
We’re still not talking about fire sale pricing here, just that you might actually be able to find the graphics card you want for only about 25% above its MSRP.
One of the things that stands out to me about Valve’s handheld is that the only differentiator between its three price points is the type and amount of storage—something that is upgradeable down the line. Though, to be fair, Gabe’s gang does kinda discourage that.
Another blazing white bright spot, and arguably far more important for the long-term health of PC gaming as a hobby, was the death of cryptocurrency GPU mining (opens in new tab). The long-delayed switch of ethereum to a proof-of-stake consensus meant that the number-crunching power of our graphics cards was no longer needed to secure the ethereum blockchain. That, and the collapse of bitcoin helping crash prices across the board, made it effectively a worthless endeavour.
Cue lots of second-hand GPUs hitting the market as a load of miners sought to try and cash in their chips. At the same time graphics card manufacturers increased production meant there was a glut of new cards on the shelves of prime retail, too.
In turn that meant prices finally started to drop for GPUs. Though not particularly quickly, and we’re still not talking about fire sale pricing here either, just that you might actually be able to find the graphics card you want for only about 25% above its MSRP. If you were lucky.
That cliff edge is the moment of the move to proof-of-stake 🤣 (Image credit: ycharts)
Nvidia raised the barrier of entry to such a scale that only its rich fans were invited to the party.
That’s still kinda positive, right? And as we hit sales season with Prime Day in the summer we actually saw deals on GPUs. Actual, genuine discounts. Suddenly AMD’s lacklustre mainstream RDNA 2 cards started to take on much greater significance. Suddenly they were at a price that made them actually kinda worthwhile, dare I say, even desirable.
And then the next gen happened. New graphics card generations are generally a point of great excitement in the PC gaming sphere, but Nvidia raised the barrier of entry to such a scale that only its rich fans were invited to the party. Then AMD hosted its own end of year GPU soirée and seemed to copy the party invitations directly off the green team.
After both GPU manufacturers had revealed their plans we were left with a new generation that featured five separate graphics cards costing between $899 and $1,599. On the Nvidia side, that translated down to a third tier GPU that was due to cost $899. And let’s be clear on that, we’re talking about a distinct slice of silicon, not a cut down version of the expensive top GPU, but a very small chip (around RTX 3050 levels) manufactured to be featured in a lower class of graphics card.
And yet was still priced at $899. And called an RTX 4080. Just like the other RTX 4080 (opens in new tab), which used a completely different GPU and cost $1,200+. Thankfully, after refusing to see that was a confusing state of affairs when it was pointed out at various press briefings, Nvidia finally conceded that it wasn’t the best plan and “unlaunched” the 12GB RTX 4080 (opens in new tab). We’re now likely to see that rebadged as an RTX 4070 Ti sometime in the new year.
Still, that left us with the 16GB RTX 4080 at $1,200 and the RTX 4090 (opens in new tab) at $1,600. And, inconceivably, the RTX 4090 was the only one that represented any sense of value for money. It’s tenuous, sure, but that monster GPU is the only card from the current gen to really deliver something that feels like a genuine step up.
(Image credit: Future)
On the AMD side, its just followed Nvidia’s ultra-enthusiast pricing lead and costed up its RDNA 3-powered RX 7900 XTX (opens in new tab) and RX 7900 XT (opens in new tab) at $999 and $899 respectively. It’s like the red team doesn’t know how to do enthusiast GPUs because the ‘XT’ card makes zero sense. Down at ~$500 that pricing delta makes sense, but pricing it $100 less than the full-fat Navi 31 chip doesn’t work when you’re talking about spending around $1,000 on a new GPU. When you’re already ready to drop that amount of cash you’re just going to spend the extra on the better card.
So, we’re ending 2022 in much the same way as 2021. Graphics cards are priced at a ridiculous level and we’re left hoping the new year will bring some sort of affordable GPU respite.
The current pricing structure is surely untenable, but thankfully we’re starting to see some sort of market correction as neither the RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XT cards seem to be selling particularly well. Though that is all just going by circumstantial and anecdotal evidence, if I’m being completely fair. You don’t have to go to Ebay to find either card overpriced by filthy reseller, no, traditional retailers still have stock and are willing to overprice those cards themselves. It’s not about particularly great supply either, as Nvidia has admitted it’s undersupplied the RTX 40-series so far.
But let me leave this maudlin screed on a high: DLSS 3 with Frame Generation is frickin’ black gaming magic and will make any mainstream GPU it touches fly. It inserts completely AI generated frames into compatible games, drastically improving performance to a quite spectacular level. It’s been incredibly impressive to see on Nvidia’s high-end cards, but could be even more of a game changer in the lower echelons. AMD’s got its own plans on that front, too, which will be music to budget PC gamers’ ears.
It’s only natural that at the end of a long year you end up looking backwards. We’ve written a lot of tech news this year—weird, wonderful, and Gabe-y (opens in new tab)—and a monstrous number of hardware reviews (opens in new tab), too. But it’s a piece I published on the very first day of 2022 that I want to revisit, a piece where I called 2021 the worst year for PC gaming (opens in new tab).
With 2022 now receding into the rearview mirror, was it really any better? Honestly, I’m not convinced. There are happenings you could point to and call them positives, but on the whole 2022 still rather sucked to be a PC gamer.
My main issue with 2021 was that the combination of cryptocurrency mining and chip supply chain shortages made it an almost impossible economic decision for manufacturers to put thought, energy, and more importantly money, into mainstream PC gaming. It was the fact that with every single GPU put on the market being sold, it made more sense to keep pumping out $1,000+ cards when you’re set to sell the same number as if you’d listed a range of sub-$300 options.
So, the budget PC market was dead, meaning that if you wanted to recommend some sort of vaguely affordable entry-point into gaming it had to be one of either Sony or Microsoft’s consoles. And it sucks to have to say that as a dyed-in-the-wool PC gamer.
But in 2022 both AMD and Nvidia released their budget graphics cards—the Radeon RX 6500 XT (opens in new tab) and the GeForce RTX 3050 (opens in new tab). And that actually only made me feel worse about the mainstream market. The RX 6500 XT delivers all the performance of an AMD card that cost the same price when the RX 480 launched back in 2016 and the RTX 3050, well in my review I said that “where I wanted at least RTX 2060 performance, I’ve got GTX 1660 Ti frame rates with a little RTX frosting on top.”
That I do not call progress.
But then Valve dropped the Steam Deck (opens in new tab). A device that is uniquely PC in its makeup, and the equivalent of our Switch. It’s a console-like device, with a price tag to match. It’s an entry-point into the world of PC gaming, offering a utility that no other rig can really offer, not even a good gaming laptop.
(Image credit: Future)
We’re still not talking about fire sale pricing here, just that you might actually be able to find the graphics card you want for only about 25% above its MSRP.
One of the things that stands out to me about Valve’s handheld is that the only differentiator between its three price points is the type and amount of storage—something that is upgradeable down the line. Though, to be fair, Gabe’s gang does kinda discourage that.
Another blazing white bright spot, and arguably far more important for the long-term health of PC gaming as a hobby, was the death of cryptocurrency GPU mining (opens in new tab). The long-delayed switch of ethereum to a proof-of-stake consensus meant that the number-crunching power of our graphics cards was no longer needed to secure the ethereum blockchain. That, and the collapse of bitcoin helping crash prices across the board, made it effectively a worthless endeavour.
Cue lots of second-hand GPUs hitting the market as a load of miners sought to try and cash in their chips. At the same time graphics card manufacturers increased production meant there was a glut of new cards on the shelves of prime retail, too.
In turn that meant prices finally started to drop for GPUs. Though not particularly quickly, and we’re still not talking about fire sale pricing here either, just that you might actually be able to find the graphics card you want for only about 25% above its MSRP. If you were lucky.
That cliff edge is the moment of the move to proof-of-stake 🤣 (Image credit: ycharts)
Nvidia raised the barrier of entry to such a scale that only its rich fans were invited to the party.
That’s still kinda positive, right? And as we hit sales season with Prime Day in the summer we actually saw deals on GPUs. Actual, genuine discounts. Suddenly AMD’s lacklustre mainstream RDNA 2 cards started to take on much greater significance. Suddenly they were at a price that made them actually kinda worthwhile, dare I say, even desirable.
And then the next gen happened. New graphics card generations are generally a point of great excitement in the PC gaming sphere, but Nvidia raised the barrier of entry to such a scale that only its rich fans were invited to the party. Then AMD hosted its own end of year GPU soirée and seemed to copy the party invitations directly off the green team.
After both GPU manufacturers had revealed their plans we were left with a new generation that featured five separate graphics cards costing between $899 and $1,599. On the Nvidia side, that translated down to a third tier GPU that was due to cost $899. And let’s be clear on that, we’re talking about a distinct slice of silicon, not a cut down version of the expensive top GPU, but a very small chip (around RTX 3050 levels) manufactured to be featured in a lower class of graphics card.
And yet was still priced at $899. And called an RTX 4080. Just like the other RTX 4080 (opens in new tab), which used a completely different GPU and cost $1,200+. Thankfully, after refusing to see that was a confusing state of affairs when it was pointed out at various press briefings, Nvidia finally conceded that it wasn’t the best plan and “unlaunched” the 12GB RTX 4080 (opens in new tab). We’re now likely to see that rebadged as an RTX 4070 Ti sometime in the new year.
Still, that left us with the 16GB RTX 4080 at $1,200 and the RTX 4090 (opens in new tab) at $1,600. And, inconceivably, the RTX 4090 was the only one that represented any sense of value for money. It’s tenuous, sure, but that monster GPU is the only card from the current gen to really deliver something that feels like a genuine step up.
(Image credit: Future)
On the AMD side, its just followed Nvidia’s ultra-enthusiast pricing lead and costed up its RDNA 3-powered RX 7900 XTX (opens in new tab) and RX 7900 XT (opens in new tab) at $999 and $899 respectively. It’s like the red team doesn’t know how to do enthusiast GPUs because the ‘XT’ card makes zero sense. Down at ~$500 that pricing delta makes sense, but pricing it $100 less than the full-fat Navi 31 chip doesn’t work when you’re talking about spending around $1,000 on a new GPU. When you’re already ready to drop that amount of cash you’re just going to spend the extra on the better card.
So, we’re ending 2022 in much the same way as 2021. Graphics cards are priced at a ridiculous level and we’re left hoping the new year will bring some sort of affordable GPU respite.
The current pricing structure is surely untenable, but thankfully we’re starting to see some sort of market correction as neither the RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XT cards seem to be selling particularly well. Though that is all just going by circumstantial and anecdotal evidence, if I’m being completely fair. You don’t have to go to Ebay to find either card overpriced by filthy reseller, no, traditional retailers still have stock and are willing to overprice those cards themselves. It’s not about particularly great supply either, as Nvidia has admitted it’s undersupplied the RTX 40-series so far.
But let me leave this maudlin screed on a high: DLSS 3 with Frame Generation is frickin’ black gaming magic and will make any mainstream GPU it touches fly. It inserts completely AI generated frames into compatible games, drastically improving performance to a quite spectacular level. It’s been incredibly impressive to see on Nvidia’s high-end cards, but could be even more of a game changer in the lower echelons. AMD’s got its own plans on that front, too, which will be music to budget PC gamers’ ears.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1672500826_After-a-terrible-2021-for-hardware-was-2022-really-any.jpg6751200Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-12-31 15:00:122022-12-31 19:50:51After a terrible 2021 for hardware, was 2022 really any better?
The internet did a commendable job of mocking NFTs to death, or at least into remission—big game developers like Ubisoft who initially showed interest have mercifully stopped bringing them up—and now some hope that the “make it so uncool no one will touch it” tactic can be used to stunt another trend: the rapidly-advancing AI image generators spitting out flattering, fake portraits of our friends and stills from imaginary David Lynch Warhammer films (opens in new tab).
I think they’ll be disappointed. AI “art” isn’t going anywhere.
In one sense, NFTs and AI art are opposites: NFTs promise that every piece of digital artwork can be a unique and valuable commodity, whereas AI art promises to eradicate the value of digital art by flooding the internet with an endless supply of it. If Jimmy Fallon wants to hoard all those stupid NFT ape pictures, I don’t think most people would care, but the cheap, rapid generation of AI images has made it hard not to see more and more of them. If you’ve used social media over the past year, you’ve seen AI-generated imagery.
And I highly doubt it’s a temporary fad. Where blockchain investing is criticized as pointless waste generation, AI art is lamented for threatening the jobs of illustrators. Everyone can see the value of a machine that turns words into pictures. It’s hard to resist giving it a try, even if you don’t like it on principle. If someone tells you they have a machine that can make a picture of anything, how can you not want to test the claim at least once?
Something perceived as profoundly human has been turned into a party trick.
The way we interact with these machine learning algorithms reminds me of the way people tease babies, delighting at their every response to new stimuli and pointing at anything that could be taken as a sign they’ve understood us. When an image generator seems to “get” what we’ve asked for, a pleasantly uncanny feeling arises—it’s hard to believe that a computer program successfully translated a complex idea like “John Oliver looking lovingly at his cabbage having realized he’s falling in love” into an image, but there it is, undeniably on the screen in front of us.
And that’s really what makes AI art so offensive to so many, I think. It’s not just the automation of work, but the automation of creative work, that feels so obscene. Something perceived as profoundly human has been turned into a party trick.
AI art generators don’t tear up their failures, or get bored, or become frustrated by their inability to depict hands that could exist in Euclidean space.
The good and bad news for humankind is that the sleight of hand is easily found: Image generators don’t do anything unless they’re trained on stacks of human-made artwork and photos, and in some cases that’s been done without consent from the artists whose work was used. Indeed, the popular Lensa AI portrait maker frequently reproduced garbled signatures (opens in new tab): the mangled corpses of the real artists who were fed to it.
An early attempt to save AI art from this criticism is easily dismissed, if you ask me. The claim goes that by scraping online artist portfolios for training material, AI art generators are “just doing what human artists do” by “learning” from existing artwork. Sure, humans learn in part by imitating and building on the work of others, but casually anthropomorphizing algorithms that crawl millions of images as living beings who are just really fast at going to art school is not a position I take seriously. It is entirely premature to grant human nature to silicon chips just because they can now spit out pictures of cats on demand, even if those pictures occasionally look like they could be human-made.
I’m cropping these for privacy reasons/because I’m not trying to call out any one individual. These are all Lensa portraits where the mangled remains of an artist’s signature is still visible. That’s the remains of the signature of one of the multiple artists it stole from.A 🧵 https://t.co/0lS4WHmQfW pic.twitter.com/7GfDXZ22s1December 6, 2022
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Beyond flattering portraits
What’s interesting about AI-generated images to me is that they usually don’t look human-made. One way the inhumanity of machine learning manifests is in its lack of self-consciousness. AI art generators don’t tear up their failures, or get bored, or become frustrated by their inability to depict hands that could exist in Euclidean space. They can’t judge their own work, at least not in any way a human can relate to, and that fearlessness leads to surprising images: pictures we’ve never seen before, which some artists are using as inspiration.
Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland toyed with AI art generation in the making of High on Life, for instance, telling Sky News (opens in new tab) that it helped the development team “come up with weird, funny ideas” and “makes the world feel like a strange alternate universe of our world.”
Image generation is only one way machine learning is being used in games, which are already full of procedural systems like level generators and dynamic animations. As one example, a young company called Anything World uses machine learning to animate 3D animals and other models on the fly. What might a game like No Man’s Sky, whose procedurally generated planets and wildlife stop feeling novel after so many star system jumps, look like after another decade of machine learning research? What will it be like to play games in which NPCs can behave in genuinely unpredictable ways, say, by “writing” unique songs about our adventures? I think we’ll probably find out. After all, our favorite RPG of 2021 was a “procedural storytelling” game.
I don’t want Epic to be a company that stifles innovation. Been on the wrong side of that too many times. Apple says “you can’t make a payment system” and “you can’t make a browser engine”. I don’t want to be the “you can’t use AI” company or the “you can’t make AI” company.December 25, 2022
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Valid as the ethical objections may be, machine learning’s expansion into the arts—and everything else people do—currently looks a bit like the ship crashing into the island at the end of Speed 2: Cruise Control. (opens in new tab)
Users of art portfolio host ArtStation, which Unreal Engine and Fortnite-maker Epic Games recently purchased, have protested the unauthorized use of their work to train AI algorithms, and Epic added a “NoAI” tag artists can use to “explicitly disallow the use of the content by AI systems.” But that doesn’t mean Epic is generally opposed to AI art. According to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, some of its own artists consider the technology “revolutionary” in the same way Photoshop has been.
This ethical, legal, and philosophical quagmire has just started to open up.
“I don’t want to be the ‘you can’t use AI’ company or the ‘you can’t make AI’ company,” Sweeney said on Twitter (opens in new tab) . “Lots of Epic artists are experimenting with AI tools in their hobby projects and see it as revolutionary in the same way as earlier things like Photoshop, Z-Brush, Substance, and Nanite. Hopefully the industry will shepherd it into a clearer role that supports artists.”
It is of course possible to train these algorithms without gobbling up other people’s artwork without permission. Perhaps there’s a world where artists are paid to train machine learning models, although I don’t know how many artists would consider that better. All kinds of other anxieties arise from the widespread use of AI. What biases might popular algorithms have, and how might they influence our perception of the world? How will schools and competitions adapt to the presence of AI-laundered plagiarism?
Machine learning is being used in all sorts of other fields, from graphics tech like Nvidia DLSS (opens in new tab) to self-driving cars to nuclear fusion, and will only become more powerful from here. Unlike the blockchain revolution we keep rolling our eyes at, machine learning represents a genuine change in how we understand and interact with computers. This ethical, legal, and philosophical quagmire has just started to open up: It’ll get deeper and swampier from here. And our friends’ profile pics will get more and more flattering.
Has anything good ever come from NFTs? Aside from the Christopher Moltisanti meme (opens in new tab), I mean. I really can’t think of anything. The functionality they offer games is technically different than what’s been available for years through conventional microtransaction sales, but it’s practically the same thing for those who don’t play games to be financial speculators, and the whole business of making, buying, and selling them is awash in corruption and criminality. “A useless, costly, ecologically mortifying technology,” is how French trade union Solidaires Informatique (opens in new tab) described it, and I have no notes.
Myself, I have a pretty simple approach to the whole thing: No fucking thanks. It’s served me well so far, because I haven’t been hosed out of any money by fast-talking scammers hawking bad clipart, nor have I missed out on any gaming experiences that could be described as even remotely compelling. Tfue cards (opens in new tab)? Tiny little numbers (opens in new tab) on my Tom Clancy helmet? Atari (opens in new tab)? No thanks. See, it’s easy.
Somehow, though, it keeps on happening. Money goes in, and for a variety of reasons—criminality, incompetence, the fact that NFTs are inherently valueless digital ephemera no different than the horse armor (opens in new tab) that set the gamer world ablaze with outrage in 2006—heartbreak comes out. 2022 was no exception.
Blockverse goes bust
Blockburst, an unofficial play-to-earn Minecraft game sells out its initial NFT offering, then splits
(Image credit: Blockverse)
The year started off with a bang, although it was really more of a poof: In February, Blockverse, an unofficial play-to-earn Minecraft NFT game, disappeared with more than $1.2 million (opens in new tab), just a couple days after selling out its initial offering of 10,000 NFTs in under eight minutes. Blockverse founders surfaced a few days later to proclaim that all was well, everything was fine, and there was nothing to worry about, but of course there was plenty to worry about. A promise that development would soon “get back on track” never materialized, and neither did the money.
Axie Infinity forgets to change the code
Hackers affiliated with North Korea take advantage of a security lapse to make off with $617 in crypto
(Image credit: Axie Infinity)
Blockverse’s million-dollar rug pull would look like chump change just a month later, when an Axie Infinity techno-botch enabled hackers to make off with more than $617 million (opens in new tab) in cryptocurrency. It’s complicated, but the short analogy version is that after an NFT giveaway promotion, somebody forgot to change access permissions, and shortly thereafter, a shitload of money went out the door.
It was a screwup, not a rug pull, but the net result was the same: A lot of people lost a lot of money because some unscrupulous d-bag decided he wanted it. The US government eventually pointed the finger at North Korea (opens in new tab); some of the stolen funds were reimbursed and Axie Infinity eventually returned to action, but the token price now sits well below where it was prior to the heist.
F1 Delta Time runs out of gas
F1 Delta Time, one of the first NFT games, loses its license, players lose their cars
(Image credit: Animoca Brands)
F1 Delta Time (opens in new tab) did not fall victim to either a rug pull or incompetence, but it did demonstrate the inherent worthlessness of NFTs. It launched in 2019 as one of the first-ever licensed NFT games, and actually produced the “most expensive NFT” of that year, a diamond-encrusted F1 car (actually just a fairly low-quality rendering of one) called 1-1-1. But in March 2022, F1 Delta Time closed after losing its F1 license, and those NFTs were basically gone. Developer Animoca offered different sorts of compensation for the now-useless “assets,” including “proxy assets” that “will be used in the future to obtain NFTs to products across the REVV Motorsport ecosystem.” But given that the whole raison d’être of NFTs is digital permanence, you’d be forgiven for wondering, well, “Dude, where’s my car?”
Untamed Isles sinks into the sea
The crypto-crash brings down crowdfunded MMO Untamed Isles, and there’s no money left for refunds
(Image credit: Phat Loot Studios)
The crowdfunded MMO Untamed Isles was a major success on Kickstarter, where it pulled in more than four times its goal of NZ$200,000 ($127,000). It had somewhat less success in the real world. In August, developers put the project “on hiatus,” blaming the 2022 crypto-crash for their woes. Naturally, there was no money left over for refunds, either, which resulted in some seriously unhappy feedback from backers on Kickstarter. Developer Phat Loot Studios said it was “looking at ways to salvage both the core studio and the game so that it can be completed and released,” but there’s been no further update since then on the Untamed Isles website (opens in new tab), Kickstarter (opens in new tab), or Steam (opens in new tab) page.
CNN closes the Vault
CNN ends its Vault NFT program, abandoning its promise of “exclusive CNN perks” and the ability to mint your own NFTs based on CNN articles
(Image credit: CNN)
CNN’s Vault NFT program, launched in June 2021, offered “digital collectibles” that were essentially jpgs of “key historical moments” drawn from its archives. It also offered a built-in system to buy and trade (ie, make money on) its NFTs, through “a variety of selling formats including both open editions and limited editions.” But in October, it said goodbye to the whole thing, leading to widespread cries of “rug pull” from NFT owners. It wasn’t, in the strictest sense, because the NFTs are still around: You bought an NFT, you got an NFT. But other parts of the shutdown are sketchier: The 2022 roadmap (opens in new tab), which is still accessible on the Vault website, teased everything from a new Photography for Change series of NFTs to “exclusive CNN perks for Vault collectors” and the ability to mint NFTs based on any CNN article you want—all of which went away without warning.
Seth Green’s apes gone, then home again
Seth Green falls for a scammer and then pays $300,000 to get one of his stupid ugly apes back
(Image credit: Seth Green)
Seth Green, who among other things is known to gamers as Normandy pilot Jeff “Joker” Moreau in the Mass Effect games, pulled his own rug in June when he spent nearly $300,000 to reclaim ownership of a Bored Ape NFT that he’d been scammed out of the previous month. I can’t imagine ever being wealthy enough to drop the price of a Ferrari on a low-quality monkey scribble, but if I am, I hope I have enough taste (or basic common sense) not to.
Alleged NFT rug-puller faces a prison sentence long enough to encompass the entire Warhammer 40,000 timeline
(Image credit: Thodex (via Facebook))
The collapse of crypto exchange Thodex in April 2021 resulted in losses of more than $2.5 billion, and its founder, Faruk Fatih Özer, buggered off to Albania with millions of dollars stolen from the company. He was eventually busted and ordered extradited to Turkey to stand trial. If convicted, he’s facing up to 40,564 years in prison, which according to my calculations means he might be out just in time to take part in the 14th Black Crusade.
Has anything good ever come from NFTs? Aside from the Christopher Moltisanti meme (opens in new tab), I mean. I really can’t think of anything. The functionality they offer games is technically different than what’s been available for years through conventional microtransaction sales, but it’s practically the same thing for those who don’t play games to be financial speculators, and the whole business of making, buying, and selling them is awash in corruption and criminality. “A useless, costly, ecologically mortifying technology,” is how French trade union Solidaires Informatique (opens in new tab) described it, and I have no notes.
Myself, I have a pretty simple approach to the whole thing: No fucking thanks. It’s served me well so far, because I haven’t been hosed out of any money by fast-talking scammers hawking bad clipart, nor have I missed out on any gaming experiences that could be described as even remotely compelling. Tfue cards (opens in new tab)? Tiny little numbers (opens in new tab) on my Tom Clancy helmet? Atari (opens in new tab)? No thanks. See, it’s easy.
Somehow, though, it keeps on happening. Money goes in, and for a variety of reasons—criminality, incompetence, the fact that NFTs are inherently valueless digital ephemera no different than the horse armor (opens in new tab) that set the gamer world ablaze with outrage in 2006—heartbreak comes out. 2022 was no exception.
Blockverse goes bust
Blockburst, an unofficial play-to-earn Minecraft game sells out its initial NFT offering, then splits
(Image credit: Blockverse)
The year started off with a bang, although it was really more of a poof: In February, Blockverse, an unofficial play-to-earn Minecraft NFT game, disappeared with more than $1.2 million (opens in new tab), just a couple days after selling out its initial offering of 10,000 NFTs in under eight minutes. Blockverse founders surfaced a few days later to proclaim that all was well, everything was fine, and there was nothing to worry about, but of course there was plenty to worry about. A promise that development would soon “get back on track” never materialized, and neither did the money.
Axie Infinity forgets to change the code
Hackers affiliated with North Korea take advantage of a security lapse to make off with $617 in crypto
(Image credit: Axie Infinity)
Blockverse’s million-dollar rug pull would look like chump change just a month later, when an Axie Infinity techno-botch enabled hackers to make off with more than $617 million (opens in new tab) in cryptocurrency. It’s complicated, but the short analogy version is that after an NFT giveaway promotion, somebody forgot to change access permissions, and shortly thereafter, a shitload of money went out the door.
It was a screwup, not a rug pull, but the net result was the same: A lot of people lost a lot of money because some unscrupulous d-bag decided he wanted it. The US government eventually pointed the finger at North Korea (opens in new tab); some of the stolen funds were reimbursed and Axie Infinity eventually returned to action, but the token price now sits well below where it was prior to the heist.
F1 Delta Time runs out of gas
F1 Delta Time, one of the first NFT games, loses its license, players lose their cars
(Image credit: Animoca Brands)
F1 Delta Time (opens in new tab) did not fall victim to either a rug pull or incompetence, but it did demonstrate the inherent worthlessness of NFTs. It launched in 2019 as one of the first-ever licensed NFT games, and actually produced the “most expensive NFT” of that year, a diamond-encrusted F1 car (actually just a fairly low-quality rendering of one) called 1-1-1. But in March 2022, F1 Delta Time closed after losing its F1 license, and those NFTs were basically gone. Developer Animoca offered different sorts of compensation for the now-useless “assets,” including “proxy assets” that “will be used in the future to obtain NFTs to products across the REVV Motorsport ecosystem.” But given that the whole raison d’être of NFTs is digital permanence, you’d be forgiven for wondering, well, “Dude, where’s my car?”
Untamed Isles sinks into the sea
The crypto-crash brings down crowdfunded MMO Untamed Isles, and there’s no money left for refunds
(Image credit: Phat Loot Studios)
The crowdfunded MMO Untamed Isles was a major success on Kickstarter, where it pulled in more than four times its goal of NZ$200,000 ($127,000). It had somewhat less success in the real world. In August, developers put the project “on hiatus,” blaming the 2022 crypto-crash for their woes. Naturally, there was no money left over for refunds, either, which resulted in some seriously unhappy feedback from backers on Kickstarter. Developer Phat Loot Studios said it was “looking at ways to salvage both the core studio and the game so that it can be completed and released,” but there’s been no further update since then on the Untamed Isles website (opens in new tab), Kickstarter (opens in new tab), or Steam (opens in new tab) page.
CNN closes the Vault
CNN ends its Vault NFT program, abandoning its promise of “exclusive CNN perks” and the ability to mint your own NFTs based on CNN articles
(Image credit: CNN)
CNN’s Vault NFT program, launched in June 2021, offered “digital collectibles” that were essentially jpgs of “key historical moments” drawn from its archives. It also offered a built-in system to buy and trade (ie, make money on) its NFTs, through “a variety of selling formats including both open editions and limited editions.” But in October, it said goodbye to the whole thing, leading to widespread cries of “rug pull” from NFT owners. It wasn’t, in the strictest sense, because the NFTs are still around: You bought an NFT, you got an NFT. But other parts of the shutdown are sketchier: The 2022 roadmap (opens in new tab), which is still accessible on the Vault website, teased everything from a new Photography for Change series of NFTs to “exclusive CNN perks for Vault collectors” and the ability to mint NFTs based on any CNN article you want—all of which went away without warning.
Seth Green’s apes gone, then home again
Seth Green falls for a scammer and then pays $300,000 to get one of his stupid ugly apes back
(Image credit: Seth Green)
Seth Green, who among other things is known to gamers as Normandy pilot Jeff “Joker” Moreau in the Mass Effect games, pulled his own rug in June when he spent nearly $300,000 to reclaim ownership of a Bored Ape NFT that he’d been scammed out of the previous month. I can’t imagine ever being wealthy enough to drop the price of a Ferrari on a low-quality monkey scribble, but if I am, I hope I have enough taste (or basic common sense) not to.
Alleged NFT rug-puller faces a prison sentence long enough to encompass the entire Warhammer 40,000 timeline
(Image credit: Thodex (via Facebook))
The collapse of crypto exchange Thodex in April 2021 resulted in losses of more than $2.5 billion, and its founder, Faruk Fatih Özer, buggered off to Albania with millions of dollars stolen from the company. He was eventually busted and ordered extradited to Turkey to stand trial. If convicted, he’s facing up to 40,564 years in prison, which according to my calculations means he might be out just in time to take part in the 14th Black Crusade.
https://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1672511862_The-year-in-NFT-buffoonery-Rug-pulls-hacks-and-poor.jpg397705Carlos Pachecohttps://gamingarmyunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Website-Logo-300x74.pngCarlos Pacheco2022-12-31 14:00:542022-12-31 19:52:19The year in NFT buffoonery: Rug pulls, hacks, and poor choices
Silent Hill is back, or at least, it’s on its way back. After years of silence (no pun intended), fans of the seminal survival-horror series finally have something to look forward to. In fact, they have several new games to look forward to. A total of three Silent Hill games have been announced alongside a game-series hybrid and another movie. In this particular look ahead, we’ll be focusing on Silent Hill F, the oddly-titled new installment from Neobards Entertainment.
Silent Hill F release date
Given that we know very little about the game so far, it’s sensible that the public doesn’t yet have a release date for the game. We can surmise it’s probably at least a year away, though if Konami has been taking notes while Capcom has ushered in a new golden age for Resident Evil, it is possible the former will utilize a similarly brief marketing window. The past several Resident Evil games have been released just a few months after their reveals, so maybe Silent Hill F will sneak up on us sooner than anticipated.
As for platforms, none were mentioned during its reveal, but we can reasonably assume that it will land on PC as well as Xbox and PS5. Last-gen platforms, however, seem less likely the further away we are from its launch. Unlike the Silent Hill 2 remake, which will launch as a timed PlayStation exclusive, no such stipulation was mentioned for Silent Hill F. For now, we’d bet it’s coming to all major platforms at once, perhaps with the exception of Switch, which is proving less capable of handling current-gen games as time goes on.
Silent Hill F dev team
Silent Hill F comes from Neobards Entertainment, a team that has largely been a support studio in the past. The studio has worked on several Capcom games, including Resident Evil 2, 3, 7, and ReVerse, the multiplayer mode tied to Resident Evil Village, as well as titles like Marvel’s Avengers and No Straight Roads.
Though the team has only lent a hand to horror games in its past portfolio, there’s reason to believe it’s ready to take the next step and lead the development of a major sequel. The game’s story will be penned by famed Japanese writer Ryukishi07, the author of the acclaimed When They Cry visual novel series. Additionally, Motoi Okamoto, who previously worked at Nintendo from 1998 to 2007, has been named a producer on the project.
Silent Hill F trailers
Because we’ve only seen the game pop up once, we have just the one trailer to go off of, but it’s a fun one for those who like the series’ penchant for mystery and weirdness. In the trailer below, which notably does not include imagery taken from the game itself, we see a Japanese village blanketed in fog. Following that, we see what looks like a student standing by a roadside memorial of some kind. As the trailer jumps around between different scenes, it morphs into what may be the Otherworld, a twisted reflection of the safer world the characters in Silent Hill games usually start out in.
As piano music plays and the world rapidly decays, a young woman, seemingly a different one than that who was mourning, runs for her life from an unseen threat. The trailer then cuts to a girl–it’s unclear if it’s a third one or one of the others shown before–as she moves across still, foggy waters atop a float made of vibrant flowers. The flowers grow from her head and vaguely recall Midsommar’s fateful final moments, though it arguably surpasses that grotesque final scene with one of its own: The girl’s face peels off her head like a sticker that’s no longer adhesive. Yuck.
