 |
|
|
|||||
Netflix has released a game called Thronglets based on episode seven of the latest season of Black Mirror. It's like a game of Tamagotchi and Pokémon, with dark, existential themes like what you'd expect from a tie up for the series would be. Thronglets was developed by Night School, the same studio behind Oxenfree that Netflix had acquired in 2021. "Our explorations in narrative gameplay and Netflixs track record of supporting diverse storytellers was such a natural pairing," said Sean Krankel, the founder of Night School Studio, at the time. In the series, Thronglets is at the center of episode seven's story, which is set in the same universe as Netflix's interactive movie Bandersnatch. It's a long-lost game by Tuckersoft, the same gaming studio in the movie, that hasn't been seen since it was cancelled in 1994. In the game, you'll have to hatch, evolve and raise creatures called Thronglets, bathing them, feeding them and entertaining them as they multiply more quickly than gremlins. Netflix says the game is not really only about raising virtual creations, though, but about "exploring the depths of human nature and the consequences of our digital obsessions." When you build groups of Thonglets known as a Throng, you can unlock video fragments of a documentary titled Ritman Retrospective. The videos are from a series of interviews with Tuckersoft chief Mohan Thakur (Asim Chaudhry) and the game's creator Colin Ritman (Will Poulter). At the end of the game, you'll get a personality test result that you can share on your socials. Thronglets, like Netflix's other games, are free to play on its iOS and Android app for anybody who has an account. It comes after the company's first gaming boss Mike Verdu left the company and after it announced that it will put a focus on party and narrative games. The new season of Black Mirror arrives on the streaming service today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-black-mirror-game-thronglets-is-real-and-available-for-ios-and-android-070128362.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
After dozens of mind-bending, thought-provoking escapades across time and space, Black Mirrors seventh season is tackling something new: its first-ever sequel episode. The Emmy-winning Netflix series dropped its entire six-episode seventh season on Thursday, April 10, closing with the finale USS Callister: Into Infinity. The sprawling 90-minute episode rounds up many of the actors from Black Mirrors season 4 episode USS Callister including Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Osy Ikhile, Milanka Brooks and Paul G. Raymond for another adrenaline-pumping adventure. The USS Callisters crew, still trapped in the Infinity companys space-faring virtual reality MMORPG, are barely scraping by, robbing other players of their credits to simply survive. In the real world, the crews in-game robberies become problematic for Infinitys greedy CEO James Walton (Jimmi Simpson) when a tenacious investigative reporter starts to ask questions, threatening to implicate the company and its former founder Robert Daly. Sequels are generally difficult to pull off well, but USS Callister: Into Infinity is a rare exception, thanks to years of development by Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, who worked on the script on-and-off for years after USS Callister aired in December 2017 and became one of the shows most popular episodes. Simpson told Engadget he first learned he would revisit the Black Mirror universe in 2021. The 49-year-old actor holds credits in shows like Westworld, Dark Matter and Pachinko and yet, Simpson is still surprised when projects come together. When people say it's happening, I don't believe them, ever, until it's definitely happening, he said. Beyond his hesitation about gigs panning out in general, Simpson also had reservations that the original episode could successfully be iterated on. It's a one-piece film. I was a little bit cynical," he said, "How are you going to top [the first episode]. They found not just the reason to spend more time with these characters, but the reason why the story wasn't done yet, he continued. That was my favorite part, that they made this sequel kind of essential. Nick Wall/Netflix Revisiting Walton after seven years wasnt as difficult as he thought it might be. It was pretty natural. It was kind of like putting on an old suit that had ketchup stains all over it. So it's familiar, but smells weird, Simpson mused. And so I just dropped into that guy. It also helped that many of Simpsons scenes this time were with Milioti, who reprises her role as an Infinity programmer, now turned captain of the USS Callister. For Simpson, she was the ideal acting partner. [Milioti] takes pauses like a jazz musician, he explained, adding, She's always making something alive, and so I think our work together was some of my favorite stuff. Brooker previously described season 7 as a little bit OG Black Mirror and back to basics in many ways, which bodes well for the beloved show. It left an indelible impression on viewers since premiering in 2011 by weaving heady speculative fiction premises with a deep sense of humanity. Simpson hopes that longtime Black Mirror viewers and fans of USS Callister in particular find the shows first expansion episode worth the long wait, and that theyre beyond entertained by what the cast and crew took time to painstakingly and lovingly create. Entertainment, you know, what we do, it's about giving you a nice time, because the world sucks sometimes, he admits. So let's spend some time together. Weve got that in spades. I think we also have a little commentary on the power of loneliness and the power of togetherness, and it shows you both of those things perfectly.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/jimmi-simpson-worried-black-mirrors-return-to-the-uss-callister-wouldnt-be-essential-070050250.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Minor spoilers for Black Mirror season 7 ahead. The latest season of Black Mirror feels almost therapeutic as we peer over the cliff of civilizational collapse. Everything is awful, but at least we don't have to worry about renting out access to our brains from skeevy startups, or dealing with the consequences of a PC game's super-intelligent AI. Not yet, anyway. While Black Mirror felt like a horrifying harbinger of an over-teched future when it debuted in 2011, now it's practically an escape from the fresh hell of real world headlines. That's not to say that the show has lost any of the acerbic bite from creator Charlie Brooker. Season 7 of Black Mirror, which debuts on Netflix on today, still occasionally veers into nihilistic territory, and at times it will emotionally devastate you. But now Brooker and his writers Ms. Marvel showrunner Bisha K. Ali, William Bridges, Ella Road and Bekka Bowling more deftly wield their talent for cultural analysis. Not all of the new episodes revolve around nefarious new tech, sometimes the tools themselves are genuinely helpful it's humans who are often the real problem. And I suppose that was always the end-goal for Black Mirror. When our screens are turned off, we see ourselves. And most of the time, we're probably holding a smartphone. The season's first episode, "Common People," is the most stereotypical Black Mirror tale. A loving husband (IT Crowd's Chris O'Dowd) discovers that his wife (Parks and Recs' Rashida Jones) has a terminal brain disease. Her only hope for survival comes from Rivermind, a startup that can digitally encode the damaged part of her brain and stream it to her head via the cloud. For a fee, of course. Chris O'Dowd and Rashida Jones in "Common People."Robert Falconer/Netflix You can pretty much guess where things go from there. I won't spoil the specifics, but the episode taps into the universal experience of paying ever more for subscription services that get inexplicably shittier. Cellphone and cable plans are the most obvious parallels, but ironically it also maps onto Netflix's own troubled evolution, which has led to significantly higher prices, confusing new tiers and more limitations around account sharing. "Bte Noire" starts out like a psychological thriller: A successful confections designer (Siena Kelly) starts working alongside a former schoolmate (Rosy McEwen) who had been bullied for being a nerdy outcast. Inexplicably, McEwen's character becomes the office darling, while the star snack artist appears to lose her grip on reality. While there is ultimately a tech-related explanation for what's going on, the episode works best as an unhinged revenge story. I'd also classify the season's two sequel episodes as campy fun, but for different reasons. "Plaything" re-introduces Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), the genius video game designer from the interactive Black Mirror episode "Bandersnatch," who developed a Sims-like computer game with adorable AI creatures. But this being Black Mirror, they're obviously more than meets the eye. Netflix The episode kicks off as an older disheveled man (Peter Capaldi) gets arrested, and reveals that he was a former game critic who became obsessed with the game and learned to understand the AI's song-like language. "Plaything" is far from the first episode of the series to delve into the possibilities of AI consciousness, but it's the most explosive spin Black Mirror has taken so far. "USS Callister: Into Infinity" is a feature-length follow-up to the season 4 opening episode, and it's yet another sign that Brooker and his team simply want to lighten things up a bit. We follow the digital clones from the first episode as they try to survive in a popular online game by robbing other players. Meanwhile, their real-world counterparts discover their existence as they follow player complaints about these robberies. "Into Infinity" delivers everything I loved about the original "USS Callister" it's simultaneously akin to an episode of classic Star Trek and a modern cyberpunk thriller, while also being funnier and sharper. It's also a bit strange to see Cristin Milioti and Billy Magnussen paired up once again in a sci-fi show after starring together in Max's Made for Love. (And if you're looking for a bit more Black Mirror-esque dystopia in your life, that show is worth a watch.) Emma Corrin in "Eulogy."Netflix "Hotel Reverie" and "Eulogy," both feature neural connection gadgets that can instantly transport people into immersive digital worlds. (According to a viral marketing site, it's called the Nubbin.) It's sort of like putting on a VR headset and haptics suit, except you only need to place a small puck by your temple. Once again, though, the technology is far from the most interesting aspect of the episodes. In "Hotel Reverie," an actress (Issa Rae) who is bored with the limited roles Hollywood is giving her gets a chance to do something completely new: Inject herself into a classic film. She's not just remaking the original film, she's replacing the lead male actor and working alongside digitized versions of the rest of the cast. The film, also called Hotel Reverie, was already a tale of forbidden love, but it becomes even more transgressive as a love story between two women. It's not quite as transcendent as "San Junipero," but te episode will definitely make your heart ache a bit. And speaking of heartache, I'd recommend bracing yourself for "Eulogy," a monumental episode featuring some of Paul Giamatti's finest work. We're introduced to him as an older man who gets a strange call: Someone he used to know has died, and their family would like him to contribute some virtual memories via a company called Eulogy. The startup sends him a neural puck, which is powered by a plucky virtual assistant. The puck can record his memories, but even more intriguing, it lets him step directly into virtual memories via old photos. Paul Giamatti in "Eulogy."Nick Wall/Netflix Giamatti recounts a tale of lost love, and by the end of the episode you're reminded that few actors can embody soul-crushing regret as well as him. All of the whiz-bang technology in the episode is just a vehicle to see Giamatti's heart fully exposed. (Get you a man who can do that and also give his all as Rhino in the forgettable Amazing Spider-Man 2.) It took about five seconds of scrolling through Bluesky to snap me back to the hellscape of reality after binging this season of Black Mirror. I was riding high on a wave of emotion and energy, the sort of feeling you get when experiencing the work of talented artists at their peak. One news headline washed that all away. I used to need a breather between earlier Black Mirror episodes to escape Brooker's bleak sensibility. Now, the dystopian show is my balm.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/black-mirror-is-now-a-delightful-escape-from-reality-070019017.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||