Is The Last Man on Earth a Villain?
The Last Man on Earth has been a success out of the gate for FOX and the show just got renewed for Season 2 this past week. But one thing that has surprised many (and polarized some) is that lead character Phil (Wlll Forte) has not been the most likable fellow in recent weeks – as he continually tried to push away his wife, Carol (Kristen Schaal), sleep with Melissa (January Jones) and get rid of Todd (Mel Rodriguez).
Forte, who created the series, and his fellow executive producers Chris Miller and Phil Lord (The LEGO Movie, 21 Jump Street), sat down with press to discuss where they’ve taken Phil at WonderCon last weekend, mere days before the show was renewed, and their very intentional plan to make him darker – at least for awhile.
Slender: The Arrival Review
Slender Man has captured a large part of the popular psyche--large enough that two girls stabbed a third girl 19 times, and other children commit acts of arson, all in his name. I can't help but blend those headlines with subsequent forays into the Slender Man mythos. Although he is without a doubt fictitious--a legend manufactured wholecloth in full view of the internet's many denizens--he's transcended himself. He's now a self-reinforcing curiosity of the modern era, reflecting the deep-seated fears of our connected culture.
For those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, Slendy, as some affectionately call him, was born on the internet forums of the 21st century. A few Photoshop projects featured a thin, suited figure without an apparent face. The first few images of him depicted children running away--and right there, we have the seeds for a great ghost story. He is the embodiment of the unknown, and he preys on the weakest among us--children. From that point on, he became a meme in the truest sense of the word, evolving and changing to suit whatever the population thought would yield the most easily shared terror.
Slender Man is now a self-reinforcing curiosity of the modern era, reflecting the deep-seated fears of our connected culture.
So how does he terrorize us now? When he approaches, he causes electronics, particularly cameras, to malfunction and glitch out. He causes his victims to go mad. He's most aggressive when you're trying to look straight at him. Perhaps most tellingly, he tends to stick to rural areas.
Again, all this is purely fictitious, but it's interesting that so many of these individual threads converged into a single vision coherent enough to yield a substantive game in Slender: The Arrival. This coalescence of traits creates a compelling antagonist that preys on the modern. In our metropolitan world of smartphone cameras and nearly ubiquitous connections, a mysterious figure that resists investigation and cuts us off from our technological safety net is the ultimate terror.
Arrival benefits from these fears and pulls every psychological string. However, that's all it can do. From a play perspective, it's about as minimal as they come. You can pick up pages and notes strewn about the various levels; after the preface, you can pick up a simple flashlight. That lack of agency is powerful, though. From its nascent stages, it's clear that you're struggling to survive in the shadow of beings that sap all hope. Slender Man and his several proxies--corrupted and insane people he's brought under his influence--are cold and uncaring. They have no clear motive other than your defilement, and they are omnipotent. Slender Man, for example, can teleport, and there's nothing you can do to defend yourself from his tentacle-y arms but turn and run away. It's an impressive foundation, and it fills me with dread to this day.
Slender Man and his several proxies are cold and uncaring. They have no clear motive other than your defilement, and they are omnipotent.
I've played Slender and its expanded pseudo-sequel Arrival before, but when I ran through it again, that prior experience didn't help ease my fears. The world is cloaked in darkness, and all you have to push away a small sliver of that enveloping black is a small, barely functional flashlight. Against the dark, Slender Man's blank, white visage creates an arresting contrast every time he appears. The system creates procedurally generated jump scares using a weighty, pervasive atmosphere of vulnerability and helplessness. The same system went on to birth the popular Five Nights at Freddy's series.
Player death in Arrival takes on a whole new meaning without the predictability of those frights. I found myself afraid of being afraid, eager to see the game end so I could at last take a breath, relieved to be safe once again.
That near-constant level of stress would doom a longer game, but Arrival clocks in at just two hours. The console versions add a few extra levels that weren't present in the original PC release, and they pad out the tension with just a bit of calm to keep players from growing exhausted. On the flip side, the added sections dilute Arrival's already-tight focus. In its original incarnation, Arrival was an agonizing, frantic mystery. You stepped into the body of Lauren, a woman desperate to find any clues regarding the disappearance of her friend Kate. As you poked about Kate's house, you could gathered snippets of information suggesting that her mother had passed away and that her family had been facing financial trouble--leaving the possibility open for suicide. The more you learned, though, the grimmer the reality became.
The added sections dilute Arrival's already-tight focus.
A few side characters were present that were hinted to be the Slender Man. Because just moving around in any given level could prompt the appearance of the Slender Man, you always felt that the answers were out there, but you could never quite piece it all together. With the new areas, some of that mystery is gone, and Slender Man is established as some otherworldly being. That spoils a bit of the fun and raises plenty of questions about why Slender now attacks people, where he was before, how he came to be, etc. Without a plausible in-universe explanation, he loses just a bit of his mystique.
Despite that, Slender: The Arrival still got under my skin. I'm not quite as warm to it as I was before, but it's an eerie experience that's seeped into my real life. Now, on long car rides or when I'm in a sparsely populated area in the dead of night, I'll catch glints of light and my heart will stutter at the thought that Slender Man could be at the edge of my periphery. All I can do is turn away and keep walking.
What Kind of Alien Life Do You Think Is Out There?
This week we chat about NASA's claims of finding alien life by 2025, a phone battery that charges in 1 minute, Apple iPhone rumors, and more. Jump to the 06:20 min mark if you want to dive straight into the tech talk!
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12 Monkeys Creator on the Big Finale Twists
Note: Full spoilers for the 12 Monkeys: Season 1 finale follow.
12 Monkeys: Season 1 Finale Review
A ton had changed by the end of 12 Monkey's season finale, as Cassie was sent to the future, Cole was trapped in his past (our present), Aaron was left for dead, Ramse was not left for dead and 12 mysterious, hooded characters made their presence known.
So what does it all mean and where is it all leading? I spoke to one of the show's executive producers, Travis Fickett, about all the big events that occurred and how it sets up Season 2.
Mark Ruffalo Hints at the Future of The Hulk
Audiences will see Mark Ruffalo's return as Bruce Banner/The Hulk when Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in theaters in just a few weeks. To date, we've only seen Ruffalo's version of the character in the context of the Avengers films, which has us wondering when we may get to see The Hulk spread his massive wings in a solo film. Or as an additional player in another Marvel movie, a la Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
IGN had the opportunity to speak with Ruffalo and Scarlett Johansson about Avengers: Age of Ultron recently - stay tuned for more on that! During our conversation, we touched on what may be ahead for Hulk and Ruffalo teased what could be - for many fans - a dream come true.
Deadpool Has Reached Immortality
Given how much Marvel likes to promote these things in advance, it’s not much of a spoiler to say that Deadpool died in this week’s Deadpool #45, the 250th Deadpool issue ever published. The death itself wasn’t much to write home about, and neither is its impact on the Marvel Universe at large. That’s because his parting comes at a time when even if you kill him, he’s still very much alive.
Destiny: House of Wolves Planning
The team of Destin Legarie, and Fran Mirabella along with Jake from INV discuss the tower changes, pvp changes, and their plots to dominate the House of Wolves Raid before showing off some fan artwork. Download the audio version or watch above. Also a big thank you to invigorategaming.com for joining us this week.
The Power Rangers Movie May Have its Director
Dean Israelite is reportedly in talks to direct the Power Rangers reboot film.
The news comes from TheWrap, which says that Israelite (Project Almanac, Acholiland) "is a huge fan of the franchise and aims to bring a fresh voice to the property."
Lionsgate and Saban's official movie synopsis is: "From a story by Executive Producer Roberto Orci (Transformers, Star Trek, Amazing Spider-Man 2) and screenwriters Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller (X-Men: First Class, Thor) comes a modern reinvention of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a group of ordinary high school kids who find themselves infused with extraterrestrial powers and must harness those powers as a team to save the world."
Eddie Redmayne May Star in Harry Potter Spinoff
Eddie Redmayne, the Oscar-winning actor who recently played Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, may land the lead role of Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending
The report comes from Variety, who said the information was learned through "sources." Warner Bros declined to comment on the story.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day HD Makeover in Project Spark
The team over at Project Spark has recreated the first ten minutes of the original Conker's Bad Fur Day within its level-creation game for Xbox One and PC.
Using the tools within Project Spark, the Nintendo 64's iconic opening moments have been rendered in stunning high definition.
A new Conker game, built within Project Spark, is coming to Xbox One and PC on April 23. It's called Conker's Big Reunion and will serve as an episodic adventure series to launch alongside the Conker Creation Pack, which allows gamers to create their own Conker-inspired levels.