Geek Culture
The Last Starfighter Comes to VR TV
A new TV show adaption based on The Last Starfighter aims to make television’s two dimensions seem very limited. In developing the series to appeal to a new, higher-tech audience, Jonathan R. Betuel, the screenwriter of the original film, wants to shepherd the once state-of-the-art franchise into the realms of virtual reality television.
One of the first films to use CGI extensively, Starfighter follows the adventures of Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a gamer who tops the high score board on the arcade game Starfighter. Following his success, he’s sucked into the heat of an interstellar battle when Centauri (Robert Preston)—the alien being who designed the game to train the ultimate space pilot—recruits him to actually fight the Ko-Dan Armada from the game (how meta!).
With a wild sci-fi adventure plot, the film inspired a generation of gamers, filmmakers, and dreamers alike. In fact, a few big names have attempted to shoot a remake or sequel—most notably by Seth Rogen and Steven Spielberg. All attempts to continue the saga failed up until this point, though, because the film rights were in limbo. Only recently, after realizing the story rights had reverted to him did Butuel tinker with the idea of rehashing the 80’s cult saga in a whole new, mind blowing way.
The series will also feature different characters and story lines from the film. Rather than focusing on the adventures of Rogan, Centauri, or other characters introduced in the film, the television show will follow members of the Star League–the world weary and underwhelmed guardians of law and order in the galaxy–at least according to what Butuel told Variety.
The real buzz around the series goes far beyond nostalgia. When conceptualizing “The Last Starfighter Chronicles,” Butuel began toying with the idea of integrating elements of virtual reality into the show. Coupling with the creators of Surreal.tv, Rick Rey and Andy Vick, he aims to create a new twist on television that lets the viewer take flight amongst the stars and experience the battles of this ragtag band of peacekeepers in a very personal way. Have no fear, though, conventional Web and TV viewers. You’ll still be able to enjoy the show and its cutting edge visual FX in its entirety. But those who are wired for VR will be able to enjoy the full meal deal of this immersive television experience.
If the show continues along the lines of many modern series and films, there will likely be tie-in games, exclusive webcasts, and possibly even exclusively VR episodes that allow the superfan to escape into the show. And while this is merely speculation at this point, the possibilities for a franchised multiverse will be almost limitless, assuming the show’s developers and producers continue to push the envelope–also assuming the series is makes it past the pilot phase. But with such an interesting technological premise and a lot of nostalgia behind it, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see it pop up on either a conventional or online broadcasters in the not to distant future, as the producers are currently shopping for a home.
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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