The Seven Biggest Announcements from Apple’s WWDC
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Apple’s annual developer conference kicked off this week and during the opening keynote Apple executives took turns walking developers through new features coming to the company’s hardware products later this year. There was a lot covered in the two hour event, including new versions of its operating systems for Mac, iPhone, and Apple Watch, but seven of the announcements stood out.
AR Kit 2.0
Our Best Look at Janet van Dyne in New Ant-Man and The Wasp Posters
Ant-Man and The Wasp is opening in exactly one month in the U.S., and ahead of release, Marvel has unleashed a bunch of cool character posters giving us our best look at Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne yet.
Check out the posters in the gallery below, which include Janet, as well as Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster/Goliath, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and more.
How Ghostbusters’ Bill Murray and Harold Ramis Ended Their 20-Year Feud
Bill Murray and Harold Ramis ended their 20-year feud just prior to Ramis' passing in 2014 over a box of doughnuts and a police escort.
This revelation comes out of Harold's daughter Violet Ramis Stiel’s personal memoir, "Ghostbuster’s Daughter: Life With My Dad, Harold Ramis" via Vulture.
As the story goes, Ramis and Murray became close friends and collaborators in the infamous improv troop Second City in 1974, prior to their work on the comedy classics Caddyshack, Stripes, and Ghostbusters. However, by 1993 their relationship had become strained, and they refused to speak to one another after filming the seminal Groundhog Day for previously unknown reasons.
Valve Will Now ‘Allow Everything onto the Steam Store’
In the wake of recent controversies about what sort of game content should and should not be allowed on Steam, Valve has decided to "allow everything." In a post today, Valve's Erik Johnson explained that only game content that they decide is "illegal or straight up trolling" will be banned from the store once the new policy is enacted at an unannounced future date.
"Taking this approach allows us to focus less on trying to police what should be on Steam and more on building those tools to give people control over what kinds of content they see," explained Johnson. "We already have some tools, but they're too hidden and not nearly comprehensive enough. We are going to enable you to override our recommendation algorithms and hide games containing the topics you're not interested in."
Val Kilmer Reportedly Returning for Top Gun 2
Top Gun 2 will reportedly feature Val Kilmer's Iceman.
THR reports Kilmer is set to reprise his role as Tom Kazansky in Top Gun: Maverick. In the original 1986 movie, Iceman is Pete "Maverick" Mitchell's (Tom Cruise) rival and a skilled fighter pilot to boot. However, Tom and Pete eventually become friends in the original film.
Val Kilmer as Tom Kazansky in Top Gun, image via THR.
Fallout 4’s Building Systems Were Nearly Cut from the Game
Developers from Bethesda Game Studios have said that Fallout 4’s base building mechanics were almost cut before launch.
In a new documentary from Noclip looking at the history of Bethesda Game Studios, Studio Director Ashley Cheng said that Fallout 4’s ‘workshop’ building and settlement systems almost didn’t make it into the final game. "The Workshop mode in Fallout was on the cutting block for so long,” Cheng said, “we just weren't sure 'does anyone even care about this?'"
Lead Producer Jeff Gardiner went on to explain that “Workshop was the easiest thing for us to cut because… it was ancillary to the rest of the game. It was a side thing.” Gardiner said that had they committed to it earlier, it could have potentially been woven into the main quest line.
Pokemon Company Confirms Next Game for Second Half of 2019, Features New Pokemon & Enhanced Graphics
Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara has shared a few more details regarding the upcoming core Pokemon game due out in 2019 for Nintendo Switch. Speaking with Japanese publication Famitsu, which released an extensive feature on Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, Ishihara finally shed some light on Pokemon 2019 for Nintendo Switch.
Ishihara has reconfirmed that fans can expect to get their hands on the core title in the second half of 2019, which may not be a big surprise for most fans as the majority of core Pokemon titles typically release in November.
Peter Jackson Confirms He’s Not Involved in Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Series
Peter Jackson will not be working on Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series in any capacity.
Speaking to French publication Allocine (translation via The Playlist), Jackson confirmed he won't be involved with the show. This is despite previous reports suggesting Jackson was talking with Amazon about potentially working on the series.
“I’m not involved at all in the Lord of the Rings series," Jackson said. "I understand how my name could come up, but there is nothing happening with me on this project."
Super Troopers Helmer Jay Chandrasekhar Has Met With Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios has reportedly met with Super Troopers director Jay Chandrasekhar for a new MCU project.
That’s what the actor/director known for his comedic chops revealed in a recent interview with SyFy Wire. “We just had a general meeting. I'm sure I'm not the only one,” Chandrasekhar said.
“They sent me the Marvel Encyclopedia and they said, what do you guys want to do? So, it's upstairs,” added the two Super Troopers movies helmer. “My kid's going through it. And he's going to make a list of what he thinks we should do, and I'll go through it. I'm curious to see what a 13-year-old's mind comes up with.”
30 Photos From the Cowboy Bebop 20th Anniversary Cafe
The Good Smile x Animate Cafes in Akihabara and Osaka are celebrating Cowboy Bebop’s 20th anniversary in style! From May 15th to June 10th, fans can immerse themselves in the jazzy world of Cowboy Bebop by sampling themed food and drinks while surrounded by brand new art of Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein created for the cafe.
The Cowboy Bebop anime is notorious for its rather… unique food, but rest assured that everything at the Good Smile x Animate Cafe was perfectly palatable. In fact, the food was surprisingly good! View the photo gallery below to see the decorated cafe and the food I tried while I was there.
I’ll admit I tried the prairie oyster hangover cure drink out of morbid curiosity and because I have a secret desire to be as cool as Spike, but it was surprisingly good! Once you get over the weird sensation of having a whole raw egg yolk busting in your mouth, that is… (Japan has strict quality control standards for eggs, so raw eggs are both quite common and safe to eat).