Geek Culture
Blade Runner Sequel Set to Star Ryan Gosling alongside Harrison Ford
Right then folks, just to get this out of the way; if you haven’t watched the original Blade Runner, well first off, what are you doing with your life? Go watch Blade Runner. Secondly, there will be a few fairly major spoilers and some speculatory ramblings from this point on. Fair warning, read on at your own spoilery peril.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Ryan Gosling of ‘Only God Forgives’ and ‘Drive’ fame will be starring alongside Harrison Ford in the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult classic, Blade Runner. ‘Hey, that’s great news’ I hear you cry. Well, intrepid reader, maybe it is, maybe it is. There’s no doubt that the original Blade Runner is an absolute classic of the Sci-Fi/Thriller genre, and arguably one of the best films ever made. Surely, a sequel could only be a good thing.
Ryan Gosling – check. Harrison Ford – check. We have the makings of a fantastic cast here. The problem is, if Ford is to reprise his role as the slightly morally dubious anti-hero Rick Deckard, then where does that leave the plot of the original film? Fans of Blade Runner will remember that part of the infectious appeal of the movie was the ambiguous nature of each of its characters. The question of whether or not Deckard was human, or in fact an android/‘replicant’ akin to those he was tasked with hunting is a question that still remains engrained in the minds of many a fan.
This question remained floating until the release of the Blade Runner Director’s Cut in which Scott strongly hinted that Deckard was indeed intended to be a replicant. Although only a hint, this confirmed the suspicions of many fans and answered one of the most enduring questions of modern Science Fiction. Now folks, this is where we go real deep; hold onto your butts.
The thing about replicants is that they were designed to work manual labour across Earth’s space colonies. Due to this, they were designed to be disposable, and given a short four year lifespan. If the rumours are to be believed and this sequel takes place decades in the future of the original’s 2019 setting, then Deckard would surely no longer be alive; or whatever synonym for alive is appropriate to androids. That’s some serious moral philosophy right there, folks. Probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.
There are a few possibilities that spring to mind in regards to this problem. The first is that Deckard actually wasn’t intended to be a replicant and good ol’ Ridley is just a massive troll laughing his way to the bank. The second is that Deckard could be a different, improved model of replicant, removed from the restrictions placed upon the Nexus-6 series replicants we see throughout the film. Finally, the third comes from the fact that the rumours thus far have not linked Scott in any way to the sequel. This could mean that existing screenplays strayed too far from Scott’s original vision for Blade Runner for the director to be comfortable taking the helm of its sequel. Possibly hinting at disparities between both films’ continuity.
Of course, this is all just rampant speculation and should be taken as such. At the moment, the mysterious sequel is just that, an enigma wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in a box with big shiny paper with a lovely little bow on top. No doubt we’ll be able to unwrap that box soon, whatever’s inside. Until then, grab your scepticism hats ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to be cynical.
Gaming
Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made
As Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to sneak up on people in November, Ubisoft says that the time between developing games needs to be longer to find the “right balance.” Shadows has been in development for four years, longer than any other game in the series up to this point. That includes the huge open-world epics Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) says that the latest AC game took 25% longer to make than Valhalla. He says this is necessary to keep the quality of the series that it is known for: “It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate.” You can speed up a project by adding more people to it, but that doesn’t give you more time to make changes.
Onnée says this has as much to do with immersion and aesthetics as it does with fixing bugs and smoothing out pixels. This is because the development team needs time to learn about each new historical setting: “We are trying to make a game that is as real as possible.” We’re proud of it, and the process took a long time. In feudal Japan, building a house is very different from building a house in France or England in the Middle Ages. As an artist, you need to learn where to put things in a feudal Japanese home. For example, food might not belong there. Get all the information you need and learn it. That process takes a long time.”
You’ll have to wait a little longer for Ubisoft to work on each game. Are you okay with that? In what part of Shadows are you now? Is it interesting to you? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Gaming
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5
You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, a remaster that Dragami Games and Capcom both created. You can now pre-order the PS5 game on the PS Store for $44.99 or £39.99. If you have PS Plus, you can get an extra 10% off the price.
The company put out a new trailer with about three minutes of gameplay to mark the start of the pre-order period. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s crazy action game from 2012. You play as Juliet, a high school student who fights off waves of zombies.
The remaster adds RePOP mode, an alternative mode that swaps out the blood and gore for fun visual effects. It also adds a bunch of other features and improvements that make the game better overall. You can expect the graphics and sound to be better as well.
The game will now come out on September 12, 2024, instead of September 12, 2024. Are you excited to get back to this? Please cheer us on in the section below.
Gaming
This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive
Is there really anyone who is following the story of Call of Duty’s zombie mode? We’ve known about the story in a vague way for a while, but we couldn’t tell you anything about it. It looks like the “Dark Aether” story will continue in Black Ops 6, but we don’t really know what that means.
For those of you who care, here is the official blurb with some background: “Requiem, led by the CIA, finally closed the last-dimensional portal, sending its inhabitants back to the nightmare world known as the Dark Aether, after two years of fighting zombie outbreaks around the world during the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War timeline.”
Wait, there’s more! “Agent Samantha Maxis gave her life to seal this weird dimension from the inside out.” Even worse things were to come: senior staff members of Requiem were arrested without a reason by the Project Director, who turned out to be Edward Richtofen.
Black Ops 6 will take place about five years later, and it looks like it will show more about Richtofen’s goals and motivations. The most important thing is that you will probably be shooting an unimaginable number of zombies in the head. This week, on August 8, there will be a full reveal of the gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.
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