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“StarTalk” Asks the Tough Questions

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Hot on the heels of the immensely popular “Cosmos,” Neil deGrasse Tyson continues his quest to make scientific content and philosophical debate accessible to the masses with his new interview show “StarTalk.”

Building on the popularity of the eponymous podcast, National Geographic Channel brings science to the late night talk show circuit. “StarTalk” combines the natural wit and curiosity of host deGrasse Tyson with a clever gaggle of co-hosts, and then adds a guest or two and a live audience into the mix, creating an ideal setting for a hearty and heady debate. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? In all seriousness, it’s worth a look, though.

DeGrasse-Tyson and his cohorts are witty and erudite in their own right, and thus far, have engaged top-notch minds like Richard Dawkins, Dan Savage, Christopher Nolan, Norman Lear, and ex-Pres Jimmy Carter in discussions about the crucial issues facing science and society in our modern era.

Never afraid to pull punches, the lively chats so far have included the always contentious debate about science and religion with Richard Dawkins, “Star Trek” and it’s morality in modern times with George Takei, and the dangers of an uninformed populace in the Information Age with Arianna Huffington. Other topics include the usual suspects such as politics, pop culture, and general science, as well as his guests’ lives and backgrounds.

And, unlike many popular debate shows of our era like “Politically Correct,” “The Sean Hannity Show,” or “Hardball,” deGrasse Tyson is genuinely interested in having a real discussion (not just a shouting match) and legitimately tries to maintain an open mind to differing points of view. He also selects intelligent guests who are more in tune to spirited debate than they are in regurgitating talking points.

“StarTalk” also differs from traditional late night talk in that he isn’t just on the air to stroke celebrity egos. With a similar motive to his hosting of “Cosmos,” deGrasse Tyson takes to the air not just to entertain, but to educate. So, if you’re tired of the same old nightly chatter, bring your thinking cap, enter the fray, and prepare for laughs and fun with science and friends. You never know, you might actually learn something.

With a Creative Writing degree in one hand and an endless curiosity in the other, Andy dabbles in many creative fields. He's published blog posts, articles, hotel copy, fiction, and poetry professionally. Currently he dwells in Austin, TX, with his brilliant and understanding fiancee, Kim.

Gaming

Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made

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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.

 

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You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5

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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.

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Gaming

This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive

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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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