The two appointees have no public health background. They are apparently tasked to watch CDC director Robert Redfield.
Remothered: Broken Porcelain Review
As a follow-up to 2018’s enjoyable stealth-based survival horror game Remothered: Tormented Fathers, Remothered: Broken Porcelain is both a sequel and a prequel – but that’s really just a polite way of saying I couldn’t make heads or tails of the chronology of its plot, and I’m not convinced its creators could either. Perhaps I was too distracted by its countless audio dropouts, freezes, broken controller inputs and baffling enemy behaviours to really be able to concentrate on straightening out the tangled threads of its nonlinear narrative. If nothing else, Remothered: Broken Porcelain is aptly named; like a shattered vase it lacks structure, each individual part is rough around the edges, and it’s not really worth the effort to try and piece them all together.
At the very least the setting is an appropriately haunting one. Ashmann Inn is an antiquated hotel situated in a secluded snowy mountain region highly reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Shining. Certainly during its opening moments I enjoyed the eerie ambience of its dimly lit hallways as I, controlling the young protagonist Jennifer, indulged in a deadly game of hide and seek with the murderous, mind-controlled hotel maid Andrea (seemingly modelled on Annie from Stephen King’s Misery).
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But that enjoyment was about as short-lived as Stephen King’s career as a film director, because Remothered: Broken Porcelain simply can’t sustain the same level of cat and mouse tension that the original game could. This is largely due to Jennifer’s movement speed which is positively glacial in comparison to the swift gait of each enemy stalker. By the time you’ve slowly crouch-walked your way up behind one, they’ve already read a book, made a sandwich, and turned around and spotted you before the stealth attack prompt has managed to materialise over their head.
Since attacking enemies from behind is your sole combat option for the most part, once detected your only course of action is to flee and hide until they’re no longer on high alert. This can also be problematic, as seen by the many times I went to hop into a locker and the ‘open locker’ button prompt failed to appear, resulting in me frantically shuffling back and forth trying to find it before copping the wrong end of a pair of sewing scissors in the jugular. The supernatural sensitivity of the enemy AI versus your own sluggishness and unreliable inputs doesn’t make for a fun stealth experience, just a frustrating one that made each area of Remothered: Broken Porcelain a chore to complete.
A Bug’s Life
Outside of these cumbersome enemy encounters, there’s surprisingly little else to do in Remothered: Broken Porcelain. There are significantly fewer environmental puzzles to solve than there were in Tormented Fathers, with only the occasional cracking of a safe combination to demand much in the way of lateral thought. Instead, Remothered: Broken Porcelain places an emphasis on Jennifer’s ability to temporarily teleport her consciousness into a moth and fly up to out of reach items or, in one instance, agitate a guard dog enough for Jennifer to slip by. It’s an interesting concept, but there’s no real scope for employing it outside of very specific story junctures, and when you do get to use it it’s like trying to pilot a remote-controlled drone through a room submerged in honey. The moth’s movements are seriously listless and it has a tendency to get stuck on parts of the environment. And since it can only be used in short bursts I’d often find myself switching to moth form, getting stuck in a wall on the way to my target, being beamed back to Jennifer, and then forced to wait for a cooldown timer to recharge before I could start the process over again.
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Jennifer’s moth ability might not be much fun to use, but at least it’s one bug that’s actually been included on purpose. Elsewhere there are far too many game-breaking glitches to count. Aside from the aforementioned button prompts failing to appear when you’re trying to hide, there’s dialogue and ambient audio cutting in and out, characters getting stuck in scenery, game crashes, enemy stalkers pinning you between their body and the environment, confusing camera quirks, and more. It took me about 10 hours to complete my playthrough of Remothered: Broken Porcelain, but I’d estimate that at least a couple of those hours were a direct result of failing objectives due to glitches and retreading stretches after forced restarts. To developer Stormind Games’ credit, there has already been an effort to rectify many of these flaws – at the time of writing (some 48 hours after launch) there have already been three patches deployed for Remothered: Broken Porcelain’s PC version.
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However, while fixing technical issues is of course appreciated, it’s going to take nothing less than a significant overhaul to smooth out Remothered: Broken Porcelain’s garbled story. The plot jarringly shunts forwards and backwards in time while being only loosely connected by cutscenes that end far too abruptly. The only shining light as far as the story is concerned are the handful of playable flashbacks that centre around Jennifer and her best friend Linn. They’re easily the most well-written exchanges in the entire ordeal and are set prior to the madness descending on the residents of Ashmann Inn, meaning they’re mercifully devoid of any sloppy combat sections.
NHL 21 Review – Score
EA normally releases new NHL games during the Stanley Cup playoffs when the sporting world is focused on hockey, but complications due to COVID-19 led to a delay for NHL 21. The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup weeks ago, and as a result, ice hockey has escaped the wider public sports consciousness as other leagues take hold. But NHL 21 is a compelling reason to care about hockey again, as this year’s game delivers a major improvement to the story mode, adds a flashy new arcade-style mode in HUT Rush, and makes the on-the-ice gameplay better than ever thanks to a series of new skill moves that let you play with more style.
Be A Pro 2.0
The biggest new addition for NHL 21 is the expanded and improved Be A Pro. After NHL 20 delivered basically no updates on the career-focused mode, NHL 21 offers a huge step forward thanks to a cinematic-style campaign of sorts, where you create a character and guide them through their career, beginning in either Europe or the Canadian Hockey League and competing for a spot in the NHL. The story beats play out through non-voiced dialogue sequences and cutscenes with coaches, media, and teammates. The main choices you make come from the Team or Star paths, and both have pros and cons to consider as you weigh your options to shape your career in the way you want to.
As an example, my agent called me to ask if I wanted to attend a charity event for a wildlife protection company. I chose the “Team” response, and my brand rating improved because the simulation suggested my fans would see this as a sports star being humble and genuine. However, choosing this option came with a negative effect, too, as my agent told me it was a noble choice but I should also plan for my life after hockey and try to make as much money in my prime as possible. I enjoyed the struggle of making these choices, and I found myself choosing one option and then loading a previous save to see how things would have played out differently. The choices you have to make can be real head-scratchers and they generally seem believable and taken from real-world headlines. But while the conversation system and cutscenes are generally enjoyable and a step up from the past iterations of Be A Pro, they are at times very cheesy and contrived, so the conversations and their impact don’t always resonate.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Filming Start Date Teased
The Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian has been one of the biggest hits on Disney Plus so far, and the second season is due to premiere on the streaming service on October 30. A third season is coming, and executive producer and showrunner Jon Favreau has now confirmed when it should start shooting.
He told Variety that the third season is expected to begin filming “before the end of the year.” Production will kick off after series star Pedro Pascal finishes his shooting obligations for the wacky Nicolas Cage movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Whereas other major TV shows and movies have been delayed or shut down entirely due to COVID-19, The Mandalorian is in a unique position due to how many of the characters already wear masks as part of their costumes, while the production uses Fortnite developer Epic’s incredible technology to create virtual sets.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access Speedrunner Has Beaten The Game In 7 Minutes
Baldur’s Gate 3 is available now in Early Access, and one of the game’s selling points has been its huge map. The game also features over 45,000 lines of dialog, and it’ll reward players who take their time to see everything. However, it’s also possible to do the exact opposite and blast through the game as fast as you can–and one player has already racked up a 7 minute completion.
Speedrunner Professor Palmer speeds across the map, skipping every encounter and clicking through cutscenes, and manages to reach the final area thanks to a lucky investigation dice roll on a well leading to the final area.
In an email to Kotaku, Professor Palmer notes that he reached the end “having fought nothing, gained no EXP, still level one.” Getting their time down to 7 minutes took over 200 attempts.
You can watch the complete run below and see how they did it.
Of course, this is atypical, and works only for a very specific build. For most players, seven minutes won’t be enough time to even read the EULA–which you’ll want to do, because it contains a hidden quest.
Developer Larian Studios is watching this Early Access period, and how its being played, closely. The studio recently released a heatmap showing how and where players are dying in-game.
Movie Studios Can Buy Theaters Now, But It Turns Out They Don’t Want To
For most of the lifetime of the cinema medium, movie studios were not allowed to own movie theaters. A New York judge struck that ruling down in August, but, thus far, studios don’t seem to be taking the bait. The CEOs of Warner Bros. and Universal Studios said this past week that they have “no plans” to do so, Deadline reports.
“We have no plans to do that currently,” said Universal chairman Donna Langley when asked if her company was interested in buying up movie theaters in the struggling industry. “We have no plans either,” added Warner Bros. chair and CEO Ann Sarnoff. The two were speaking at a Milken Institute Global Conference virtual panel. Sarnoff laughed as she answered, Deadline reports.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought the theater industry to a screeching halt earlier this year, and companies like AMC have only been able to take the smallest of steps to start moving again since. Cineworld’s Regal Cinemas are shut down completely for the time being, and AMC says it could run out of cash to keep going by early 2021.
PS5 UI Reveal, Destiny 2’s Next-Gen Launch Date, & A New Borderlands 3 Season Pass | Save State
On today’s Save State, Persia talks about the PS5’s new UI, Destiny 2: Beyond Light’s next-gen release date, and a new season pass for Borderlands 3.PS5 Does Not Record Your Voice Chats, Sony Confirms
The recent 8.0.0 update for the PS4 introduced new functionality for voice chats in parties that will go live when the PS5 launches, and pop-ups alerted players can these chats “may be recorded.” People naturally became concerned about this, and specifically regarding conspiracy theories about how Sony might be listening in.
That isn’t the case, however. The Ask PlayStation UK account said on Twitter, “We do not record party chats.”
Hello! The notification advises you that other users may be recording your voice conversation. We do no record party chats. ^PS
— Ask PlayStation UK (@AskPS_UK) October 14, 2020
The purpose of the recording functionality is to give people the ability to record chats and submit them for a moderation review. The feature is only available on PS5, but the pop-up notification that is appearing now is alerting PS4 users that when they are in a chat with a PS5 player, those recordings can be sent to Sony for moderation review.
New Korn Music Video Premiering Inside World Of Tanks Blitz As Part Of A Halloween Event
Here’s something unexpected: the rock band Korn is teaming up with Wargaming for a Halloween event inside World of Tanks Blitz to premiere the music video for Korn’s new song “Finally Free.”
This is all happening as part of the new event called “Convergence,” which runs from October 16 through October 24. As part of the event, players can unlock pieces of Korn artwork by completing objectives, and the music video itself will premiere in the free-to-play game.
Korn signer Jonathan Davis said in a statement, “I really like World of Tanks Blitz. It’s true to the era, there are a lot of great tanks in there, and you don’t just jump in and start shooting. I think there is a connection between rock and video games because video games are intense and rock ’n’ roll music is intense. It seems like they have always gone hand in hand.”
Physical Super Mario Rewards Added To My Nintendo
Nintendo is slowly expanding its My Nintendo loyalty program with new rewards. While the program has traditionally only featured digital rewards like wallpapers and select game discounts, Nintendo has been recently adding a handful of physical items to the rewards catalog, including a couple of new ones inspired by Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Paper Mario: The Origami King.
Five new physical rewards are now available on My Nintendo. First is a set of Mario posters, each one featuring the cover art from the three games included in 3D All-Stars: Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. There’s also a small Super Mario zipper case to store Switch game cards, Paper Mario origami and postcard sets, and a racer ID to go along with Mario Kart Live.
You can see all the newly added Mario rewards, along with how many points each one costs, below. Physical rewards are typically in limited quantities, however, so if any of these items catch your eye, it’s best to jump on them sooner rather than later.