Monthly Archives: March 2021

Dua Lipa is pop’s new superstar and a bit of a mystery – Los Angeles Times

Posted: March 5, 2021 at 5:30 am

When Dua Lipa was 15 years old, she left her parents and two younger siblings behind in the familys native Kosovo and moved more or less on her own to London.

The plan, at least as understood by her mom and dad (whod only agreed to it because shed be rooming with the older daughter of a family friend), was to finish high school and then enter university. By the time Lipa graduated, though, shed turned her focus to music, posting covers online and recording hooky originals she co-wrote while supporting herself as a hostess at a Mexican joint in Londons Soho neighborhood.

I kept telling my parents, if I take a gap year, then I dont have to pay off my university debt, the singer says today with a laugh.

Asked how long she was willing to stretch that gap year how long she was prepared to grind in the hopes of becoming a pop star she smiles as though amused by the misconception that shed been struggling.

That was a great life I was working in a restaurant, I was partying all night, then Id wake up in the morning and go to the studio, she says. I had so much fun.

But also: A struggle suggests she might have accepted anything less than success.

Ive always been persistent, and Ive always fought for the things that Ive wanted, Lipa, now 25, says in her crisp English accent. So as much as this was my passion, I feel like it was also my destiny.

A decade after she set out from home, its tempting to think she was right. Last year, Lipas Future Nostalgia a sophomore LP full of sticky vocal melodies, shimmering guitar licks and crazy-funky bass lines topped the U.K. album chart and was certified gold in the U.S. Dont Start Now, the projects disco-throwback lead single, has been streamed nearly 2 billion times on Spotify and YouTube.

In November, more than 5 million people tuned into an elaborate, Studio 54-inspired livestream that featured cameos by Elton John, Bad Bunny and Kylie Minogue, the last of whom praised Lipas clever songwriting and instantly recognizable voice in a tribute she wrote when Time magazine put Lipa on its Next 100 list of young influencers.

Massive icon, Lipa says, returning the favor, of Minogue. For her to even know who I am is mad.

Now Lipa, named best new artist at the Grammy Awards in 2019, is among the most-nominated acts at this months 63rd Grammys ceremony, where shes up for six prizes, including album, record and song of the year. (Only Beyonc has more nods.) Though the Recording Academy has yet to detail plans for the show, set to take place March 14 in Los Angeles, Lipa is widely expected to perform on the CBS telecast.

Says Tom Corson, cochairman of Lipas label, Warner Records: What were seeing is the dawning of a new superstar.

Ive always been persistent, and Ive always fought for the things that Ive wanted, says Dua Lipa.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

According to Grammy oddsmakers, Future Nostalgia trails Taylor Swifts rootsy Folklore for the highly coveted album award, which Swift has won twice since 2010. Yet academy members have demonstrated a soft spot for the kind of crafty, intricate, hand-played dance music that Lipas disc represents: In 2014, Daft Punk upset expectations when the French duo beat their highly favored competitors (including Swifts blockbuster Red) to take album of the year with Random Access Memories.

Lipa says the beautifully rendered Future Nostalgia is meant to evoke memories of music by swank 70s and 80s acts like Blondie and Chic the latter of whose Nile Rodgers featured prominently on Random Access Memories and to put across a more unified vibe than her grab bag of a self-titled 2017 debut.

Lipas album spawned a couple of monster streaming hits in IDGAF, a tart kiss-off with marching-band drums, and New Rules, which layers her low, husky singing over a sleek, EDM-ish beat. But the only thing that connected each song was my voice, as Lipa puts it in a video call from her place in L.A.

A reliably glamorous presence on magazine covers and in music videos, the singer is low-key this morning in a baggy tie-dyed top and purple beanie as her dog, a black Lab mix named Dexter, clambers onto the couch beside her. Lipa, who lives with her boyfriend of nearly two years, model Anwar Hadid (younger brother of fashionistas Bella and Gigi), gladly splits her time between here and London, though she admits she didnt warm right away to L.A. in part, perhaps, because her first crash pad was a random Airbnb in the depths of Hollywood with bars across the door.

It said Santa Monica Boulevard, and I was like, Oh, Ive heard of that street, she recalls of the listing. Little did I know. Now I love it here.

Producer Stephen Koz Kozmeniuk, who helped build both of Lipas albums from the ground up, says the singer wanted Future Nostalgia to reflect her buoyant mood. She was happy, feeling good like, I just wanna dance, Koz says. It was also a bit of a reaction to the fact that all the other music in the world was quite down at the time the Billie Eilishes and all the trap stuff.

Lipa, of course, didnt know that COVID-19 was looming as she completed her big feel-good statement in early 2020. But when it came out last March, the album ended up offering a welcome escape from a quickly darkening reality. Whats more, Dont Start Now touched off a plague-times disco revival that yielded pleasure-obsessed hits by the likes of Lady Gaga, Harry Styles and Doja Cat, whose Say So is nominated against Dont Start Now for record of the year.

Something this pandemic has taught us, I think, is to live in the moment, Lipa says.

Dua Lipa at the 61st Grammy Awards, where she won best new artist.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

If space got crowded under the glitter ball, Lipa still stands out. For starters, theres the exceptionally wide range of her appeal, which in recent months has led to both a collaboration with the hip-hop boy band Brockhampton and a country-fied cover of Dont Start Now by Nashvilles Ingrid Andress. (Among Lipas other duet partners of late are Miley Cyrus, J Balvin, DaBaby and Andrea Bocelli.)

Dua is super-cool, says Brockhamptons Kevin Abstract, a hero to Supreme-clad kids more attuned to Camp Flog Gnaw than to the Hot 100. What did his fans make of Lipas appearance on a remix of Brockhamptons song Sugar? They were probably like, Whoa, I didnt expect this but why does it kind of work? Abstract says.

Theres also Lipas unique handling of her celebrity. At a moment when music by many female pop stars is scrutinized for insight into their private lives be they established A-listers like Swift and Ariana Grande or up-and-comers like Olivia Rodrigo of Drivers License fame Lipas songs resist a closely personal read. Its not that theyre unfeeling; bangers such as Levitating and Hallucinate combine whooshing grooves with words about bodies in motion to create something downright ecstatic.

But the music tends proudly toward abstraction; its seeking to embody the emotional experience of love or sex or adventure, rather than inviting you to ponder any given episode between her and Hadid. And because shes such an expressive singer, with loads of texture in her voice, she pulls it off.

Dua brings a real star quality to her songs, says Sarah Hudson, a veteran songwriter whos worked with Katy Perry and Camila Cabello and who wrote Levitating with Lipa, Koz and Clarence Coffee Jr. But shes slightly mysterious. At the same time, shes so genuine that you feel close to the music. Hudson is right: You feel close to the music, if not necessarily to Dua Lipa herself.

Polished but forthright in conversation, Lipa cops to a certain self-protective instinct after a few years in the limelight. Ive grown to be more private because so much of my life is public, and I probably censor myself more than I used to, she says. I also dont love the idea of making music for headlines or for controversy. Shes seen Framing Britney Spears, the much-discussed documentary about the teen pop stars treatment in the tabloid economy of the mid-00s, and says she can relate to a sense of being violated by paparazzi.

The feeling of going down the street and theyre trying to catch you in this very awkward picture it can be anxiety-inducing, honestly, she says. And Britneys time was pre-Instagram when everything was purely about the tabloids, and there were no laws in place about what paparazzi were allowed to do. She was being harassed thats exactly what it was.

Though paparazzi shots can still circle the internet you looking nuts after youve just woken up trying to get to the gym, as Lipa puts it with a shudder Instagram has fundamentally changed the way we see pop stars. Yet curating her presentation hasnt prevented her from being called out online by fans whove questioned her need to travel to so many exotic locations during a pandemic.

There are a lot of eyeballs on my social media, she says, somewhat philosophically, of being judged on occasion by some of her 61 million followers. But Im very much the same person onstage as I am at home. Her point seems to be that she never puts on the persona of a jet-setting glamazon; the reality can seem more like she never takes it off.

Im very much the same person onstage as I am at home, says Dua Lipa.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Indeed, theres a let-them-eat-cake quality to her stream of carefully styled photos that, along with her aversion to oversharing, registers as another difference between Lipa and her ostensibly relatable American counterparts. The singers European-ness more Posh Spice than Amy Winehouse feels essential to her identity, which hasnt been true of a breakout female act in this country for ages.

Lipa was born in London but moved to Kosovo at 11 when her parents, whod emigrated during the Balkan conflicts, deemed it safe to come back. In Pristina, the countrys capital, she learned about my roots, she says, played basketball at school (she stands a willowy 5-foot-8) and perfected her Albanian, which she still uses daily with her family and in text messages with her old friends.

Returning to London as a teenager was a product of her need to be in a place where everything was happening, she says, including the club culture she soon discovered. Future Nostalgia showcases Lipas earnest embrace of dance music and its rich history; she even released a companion remix album, Club Future Nostalgia, with new versions of the songs by house and techno O.G.s such as Moodymann, Larry Heard and Masters at Work.

Her investment is totally legit, says the Blessed Madonna, the respected DJ and producer who oversaw the remix set. To me Dua is the pop girl who really gets it.

The Blessed Madonna worked with Lipa again on last falls splashy livestream, which they called Studio 2054. For the singer, it was a place to pour all the energy and ideas and all the costumes and choreography she had for the Future Nostalgia tour, which has been postponed twice due to the pandemic but which she hopes finally to launch later this year.

I woke up this morning to news about measures being lifted in the U.K., she says. By September it might be looking good.

Asked what she finds so intriguing about Studio 54, Lipa who says shes been reading scripts for a move into acting that seems all but inevitable replies, I love the spectacle of what was basically a theater production in a nightclub. But she also describes the elevation of hedonism to a kind of fine art.

Ive spoken to Elton John all about it. And Chic wrote a song about not being allowed into the place, she says, referring to the bands classic Le Freak. That was inspiring to them. So you can only imagine what it was like being inside.

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What To Expect From Cyberpunk 2077 Multiplayer (& When) – Screen Rant

Posted: at 5:29 am

CD Projekt Red hasnt said much about Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer, but a recent data leak offers some insight into what fans can expect.

CD Projekt Red has promised fansCyberpunk 2077 will get some form of multiplayer, but details so far have been sparse. The launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was rocky, to say the least, and CD Projekt Red has faced many issues in the meantime, from hacks and data leaks to class-action lawsuits. This may leave fans feeling uneasy about the developer's ability to deliver aCyberpunk 2077 multiplayer mode.

CD Projekt Red has released some information about multiplayer itself, andmore detailshave beenleaked by anonymous data miners. What can players expect fromCyberpunk 2077 multiplayer, and when will it be launched? Heres a rundown of all the information thats been released so far.

Related:Cyberpunk 2077 Hack Locked Devs Out Of Their Workstations For Weeks

In January 2021, anonymous data miners reportedly leaked information about two multiplayer modes for Cyberpunk 2077. One appears to be a "Heists" mode, in which multiple players can cooperate to complete quests, similar to single-player quests in the main game. The other looks like a "Deathmatch" mode, though most of the information about this one was limited to text players would see on the kill feed. The supposed leaked files also contained information about peer-to-peer connections, a four-class selection system, and other dedicated multiplayer functions.

The official information released by CD Projekt Red about Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer has been fairly sparse. Back in November 2020, it was announced thatCyberpunk 2077 multiplayer will be a standalone game, not a mode within the main game. Fans neednt worry about purchasing a separate product, though, because CD Projekt Red has confirmed multiplayerwill be free.

Despite the data leak, CD Projekt Red still has not set a release date forCyberpunk 2077 multiplayer. In a January 2020CD Projekt investor call, the company stated Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer would not be ready until "after 2021." This means players could see the multiplayer release by early 2022, though the many issues faced by CD Projekt Red since the release of Cyberpunk 2077- including hacks, data leaks, and multiple class-action lawsuits - might delay that launch a little further.

Overall, the multiplayer version of Cyberpunk 2077 is still somewhat shrouded in mystery. CD Projekt Red hasn't released many concrete details, and the release window is very vague. The developer has been struggling to release patches and bug fixes on time, so it seems likely fans could be waiting quite a while forCyberpunk 2077 multiplayer to launch.

Next: Why Cyberpunk 2077 Patches & Fixes Are Being Delayed

Source: CD Projekt

Super Mario's Failed Football Game, Explained

Nicole Rennolds is a writer and biology student from Baltimore, Maryland. Her writing can be found on Instagram @nicolerennwrites.

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10 Completely Ridiculous Cyberpunk 2077 Mods That You Need To Install ASAP – Screen Rant

Posted: at 5:29 am

CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 launched in an incredibly rough state, but some of these radical mods can drastically overhaul the game for the better.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that, despite its iconic film and TV show influences, immersive world-building, the inclusion of Keanu Reeves, is often plagued by negative perceptions and derisive criticisms. The major reason behind such criticisms stems from the fact that the game often suffers from glitches and bugs that often border on game-breaking.

RELATED:Cyberpunk 2077 & 8 Other Awesome Video Games Keanu Reeves Appears In

These limitations have resulted in players looking for ways to customize the playing experience and rid the game ofits most frustrating faults. With official mod support from CD Projekt Red, moddingCyberpunk2077 will continue to be a pretty common thing.While some of the mods are quite utilitarian, there exist some which can be safely regarded as extremely ridiculous, yet extremely enjoyable at the same time. These mods rank high with gamers owing to their ridiculousness and should be installed as soon as possible to get the most and the unexpected out of Cyberpunk 2077.

The various NPCs in Cyberpunk 2077 all flaunt different futuristic skin textures, but doing the same when creating a custom character would prove to be pretty irritating in-game.

However, modder Crazy Potato has solved this frustration with the Chrome Female V Mod, which allows V to flaunt futuristic chrome skin that looks not only crazy, but quite appealing, as wellin a weird, far-future way, that is. The only downside to this mod is that Vs breasts seem to pop out of her clothes whenever this mod is activated,though weird issues like that are more-or-less par for the course for the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that is full of glitches and bugs, so much so that PlayStations CEO has even called out CD Projekt Reds attempt to launch the game in such a broken state. The bugs and glitches can become increasingly frustrating when players get stuck in game-environment components like walls and corners. Being stuck in a glitch is never a fun experience, and, therefore, a mod like Ghost Forward helps immensely.

Allowing players to teleport ahead a little distance can help them in getting unstuck and can also come in handy when wanting to infiltrate places that do not seem to have an entry in sight. It also has a neat feature of sliding the camera forward to look at what lies beyond the wall, thereby saving the player from landing himself/herself in an ambush or hurling himself/herself from the thirtiethfloor of a high-rise building.

The weather in Night City has a number of different variations, but, for the most part of the game, it is a bright, sunny with no trace of clouds. The Climate Change Mod by Essenthy makes up for this monotony by allowing the players to choose from fog, toxic fog, rain, overcast skies, and pollution as the default climate of the game.

RELATED:Cyberpunk 2077: 10 Things Fans Need To Know About The Original Board Game

The player still gets to experience other weather conditions, but the chosen climate remains the default. Although there are problems with this mod working perfectly when activated in the Badlands or the North Side, it is an issue that Essenthy promises to fix, and it hardly impacts the efficacy of this cool and weather-based mod.

There has been a constant debate surrounding whether Cyberpunk 2077 is a better game or whether it is Fallout 4. Irrespective of which game delights the modern player, it cannot be denied that both support some brilliant mods. One such ridiculous mod, specific to Cyberpunk 2077,is I2ahmans Netwatch Cyberware mod.

An appearance mod that allows V to sport the cyberware that players can see on the faces of Netwatch agents, this mod might not do anything crazy in the gameplay but is a damn good facial enhancement to have.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a hugely demanding game that strains the gamers system extensively. Therefore, in order to make the playing experience smoother, a mod called Disabled Crowd exists that makes the crowd in Night Citynonexistent.

While this may seem like a lonely game, with V completing his/her story through deserted lanes and empty intersections, it improves the game's performance exponentially owing to the lesser number of components the system has to render. Furthermore, the look is quite dystopian and makes for a slightly ridiculous mod that gamers looking for efficiency might prefer.

The NPC behavior in Cyberpunk 2077 is quite frustrating, with the characters disappearing if adequate attention is not given to them. The botchy behavior by such NPCs is courtesy of the games unpolished release, an aspect that Take-Two owner Strauss Zelnick has hugely criticized. However, with the existence of the Alternate Crowd Behavior and Other Tweaks mod by TemplarGFX, this frustrating aspect can be somewhat managed.

RELATED:10 Movies Cyberpunk 2077 Fans Need To Watch

What this mod allows players to do is select the appropriate crowd behavior that he/she would prefer. Players can either choose a dynamic collection of NPCs or a more consistent collection. Other customizations that this mod can aid include asset streaming, the traffic, as well as the general behavior by the AI. However, it must be noted that using this mod might affect the FPS of the game and put a major strain on performance.

There are a lot of things, including the game's gangs, that do not make any sense in Cyberpunk 2077. One other thing that is just as nonsensical in the game is the handling of vehicles, which seems to be overpowered at best and rusty at worst.

The Better Vehicle Handling mod by RB allows the players to somewhat compensate for the ridiculous handling of vehicles that the game has to offer. While the mod in itself is not ridiculous, it is splendid in the sense that it tames vehicular control to a brilliant degree, an aspect that is over-the-top for anybody playing the un-modded version of the game.

There are many hidden gems in the massive user-generated lineup ofCyberpunk 2077 mods.One such mod that takes players out on a stroll through memory lane is a reshading mod that is basedon the iconicDoomgames of 1993.

TheDOOM Reshade mod basically allows players to reshade the game byrecreating the pixelated look of the FPS classic and implementing the same on the graphically exquisite Night City. Although in-game text and HUD elements are going to be completely unreadable, it is a ridiculously cool mod to have, and, in a weird way, it fits the game's retrofuturist aesthetic.

For lovers of RPG, the Unlock Night City mod is the perfect ridiculous mod to install right away. Allowing players to unlock cordoned-off areas in the city, this mod is brilliant in the sense that it allows access to places that most players cant enter while enabling them to enjoy the interior design of these areas.

This mod makes Night City a lot more interesting, and, as new places including Delamain HQ, Voodoo Boys Underground Base are added, this mod will be all the more impressive.

Many players have constantly complained that Cyberpunk 2077 would have been a whole lot better had it beenin third-person instead of first-person. As players dedicate an insane amount of effort in building the perfect version of V, many yearn to behold their creation as he/she walks around Night City in unabashed glory.

The JB - TPP MOD WIP Third Person mod achieves exactly this, allowing players to toggle between first-person and third-person views, adjust the angle as they desire, and even find hidden places that do not expose themselves at first glance when playing the gamein the first person. While this mod is still buggy at times, it is sure to improve in the coming months, especially with mod support from CD Projekt Red becoming official.

NEXT:10 Cyberpunk TV Shows To Watch If You Play Cyberpunk 2077

Next Ranking The 10 Most Important Weddings In Marvel Comics

Arnab Rakshit is an avid reader, writer, movie-buff, and comics fanatic residing in Kolkata, India. He is a graduate of Asutosh College, Calcutta University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. Having worked in the field of content development for myriad clients for the last three years, he is confident about creating meticulous and informative content for ScreenRant readers, He also enjoys a competitive game of Table Tennis once in a while.

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Cyberpunk 2077: Does the game meet its hype? – Prothom Alo English

Posted: at 5:28 am

The performance issues with cyberpunk are absurd. This game is borderline unplayable on PlayStation four and just consoles in general. Considering CD Project made cyberpunk themed collector's edition PS4 an Xbox Ones when it barely gets above 20 fps in either of those consoles. The bugs are outrageous, not just tacky glitches, but actual game breaking bugs where missions will just not work and you have to go reload or even relaunch to try and make the game work. I had to save and reload saves multiple times just attempting to make a single NPC spawn so I could start a side quest. It is a disaster. In terms of its performance, it is the buggiest game at launch. Even with a tank of a pc, thereve been records of fps drops. It doesn't really run that well, even on like the best settings on the best PC, you're still going to have FPS drops, you're still going to encounter so many glitches. For me a midbudget gamer it was a nightmare.

Aside the game breaking bugs and glitches, the game very immersive. The characters are very well written and very interesting. The universe of Cyberpunk 2077 is not only visually breathtaking and one of the best-looking games I've ever seen in terms of its graphics and its art style and just visuals in general. You play as V, a cybernetically enhanced street hustler returning to Night city to make their name on these squalid, vicious streets, taking about any job even infiltration and assassination jobs for the gangs whove carved up the criminal underworld. You happen to get a job to steal a biochip from world leading industrialists Arasakas son. Circumstantially you put the biochip in your head and managed to get away but infecting yourself with the digital ghost of dead rocker and anarchist Johnny Silver hand. If you dont get him out of your brain, youll both die.

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Games Inbox: Will Rockstar make a GTA 3 or San Andreas remaster? – Metro.co.uk

Posted: at 5:28 am

Should Rockstar skip straight to San Andreas? (pic: Rockstar)

The Friday Inbox tries to imagine what Playground Games Fable will be like, as one reader learns the horrors of Senran Kagura.

To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

Skip to the thirdIm really in two minds about the idea of a GTA remake or remaster. To be honest, I think Rockstar has left it so late now that its not really going to work. Assuming they start with GTA 3 I think its just going to come across as a simplified version of GTA 5 with no real benefit to playing it.

GTA 3 didnt really have many proper characters, as I remember your character was never named and didnt speak, and both it and Vice City were, in terms of the story, just an excuse to recreate a bunch of scenes from movies like Goodfellas and Scarface. Everyone loves the soundtrack to Vice City but I really dont think it has anything else going for it.

The only remaster that makes sense to me, from the classic era, is San Andreas. The map is a bit too similar to GTA 5, its true, but it was the first time the games had a proper, coherent story and CJ is still my favourite protagonist. Maybe theyll try and do all three, but if its just going to be one Id say San Andreas is all you need.Arno

Showing its ageRemastering the older GTA games certainly seems more likely than remaking them. But the thing is, GTA 3 and Vice City would probably feel very confined compared to GTA 5. I havent played either for a while but I bet just a lick of paint wont hide the fact that the gameplay feels very dated at this point. San Andreas would benefit most, as that map felt huge (Im sure its really not by todays standard) but GTA 5 is basically an improved San Andreas anyway.

Of course, theyll sell because its GTA and nostalgia is a thing, but Id much rather they work on GTA 6. Maybe theyll add in an online mode didnt the PC version of San Andreas have online multiplayer?Matt

GC: Were pretty sure it didnt, but theres certain to be some fan-made mods.

Seasonal FableSo, Ive been thinking a lot about the new Fable and what Playground Games could potentially bring to the game from their prior games. As all the games they developed were Forza Horizon its a difficult task, but one thing Forza Horizon 4 did that could be a really interesting addition to a role-playing game is seasons.

It could really add to the quest design that some quests might only be available in certain seasons, such as crossing a big lake that freezes over in winter or a drought in summer where you have to help a village obtain fresh water. Whether Playground does anything like this is complete guess work but it could be pretty unique. Does any other game have anything like it?Jay Johnson

GC: Animal Crossing and farming games like Stardew Valley do, as did Pokmon Black/White. Theres also Zelda: Age Of Seasons, although thats more for the sake of puzzles. Games like Bully and Persona certainly show the passage of time, since theyre tied to the school year, but we cant think of any modern role-player that has dynamic seasons.

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

VR visionRegarding the news about Sony releasing and staying with their VR technology, I really think this is positive news and its just not a fad/flash in the pan technology like the 3D tellies of before. I honestly think the whole VR experience, since the original PlayStation VR days, have now changed dramatically and definitely moved onto the next level, especially when Facebook have only just released the awesome Oculus Quest 2 last year for just 299.

It is truly a game changer because you get all the latest tech crammed into one piece of kit at a ridiculous 100 cheaper than its predecessor, that was only released the year before. If Oculus can produce a high-quality wireless headset just imagine the possibilities Sony could achieve with their next gen VR unit and the power of the PlayStation 5 at its back!

I have every faith in Sonys continuing vision with their next VR project and I just hope that this will be the very next level of gaming and who knows, just maybe the start of our gaming standard habits for the future and beyond!JAH

Russian rouletteDont know if Im stating the obvious here but Ratchet & Clank is free on the PS Store right now. I happened upon it whilst browsing.

I also took a punt on Senran Kagura (paid) that was discounted. Wasnt sure what to expect as there were no screenshots. Thought it sounded quite intriguing by the description. Bought it for that reason. There were no thumbnails as to the actual look or theme of it. Now I know and so does the missus. I feel dirty. Im sleeping in the kennel tonight I think!D Dubya

GC: Couldnt you have just looked up a review? We played one of the Senran Kagura games on the 3DS and it was mind-bogglingly awful.

Battlefield balanceTo present an alternative view on the series, weve been put off recent Battlefields because of the implementation of vehicles, destruction, and player numbers, and the impact they have had on game balance and map design.

Some modes, particularly Rush, simply dont work with higher numbers (and while Im not averse to other modes with larger numbers it needs to work with mode and level design). Often in Conquest levels with higher numbers its hard to feel you are having any meaningful impact.

Vehicles are great, but recent Battlefields have made vehicles stronger at the same time as being less integral to playing the objective. Compare the Amtrac of previous Battlefields. You couldnt drive and shoot but it was a durable vehicle ideal for tactical positioning to help deal with an objective. Recent vehicles, particularly air vehicles, are mostly designed to rack up enormous amounts of kills for very little risk. In previous games a single canny opponent with C4, mines or a rocket launcher could deal with an overexposed tank. Not so much now.

Destruction is great, in theory, but it needs to be managed. Too often the careful level design is flattened, leaving the game to play out on a far less interesting battlefield, with nowhere to hide from long range sniping and vehicle kills. It actually makes the game less tactically interesting rather than more.

Numbers, vehicles, and destruction all have a place but recently theyve been embraced without much consideration for balance and level design. Id advocate more thought and consideration, but not more of everything.Matt (he_who_runs_away PSN ID)

A month of SundaysAny idea when Cyberpunk 2077 will be back on the PS store? Saw that the patch had been delayed but didnt know if once the patch was implemented the game would be back on the market or if it required even more fine tuning?Michael, Crawley

GC: There doesnt seem to be any clue. Sony were clearly furious about the way CD Projekt handled things, especially offering refunds without checking with them first.

Gaming unpluggedGreat to see HeroQuest mentioned this week, but for those who are new to modern board gaming I would strongly recommend care over nostalgia when choosing where to invest your 100 or more. Gloomhaven is the obvious first consideration, as its gaming system has moved with the times to incorporate superb euro-style card play, which genuinely blows most of the competition out of the water especially those that still rely on monotonous dice throwing to decide every move, combat, and skill test.

For gamers who are happy with more complexity I would then definitely recommend checking out Mage Knight and War Of The Ring two quite different games but with adventure and battles and miniatures at heart and, again, both with powerful card play as well as some clever dice use. Runebound Third Edition is an interesting new twist on adventure games, which uses a novel disc-flipping system to decide your fate. Extra discs can be added to your pool as you upgrade and progress, exploring the lands of Terrinoth. This really is a clever new game and a great example of how the genre can move forward with great design.

A handful of quick suggestions for video gamers who might want to own one or two board games only: Eldritch Horror is an easier, abstracted version of the huge Arkham Horror games, and very good with it; Lords Of Waterdeep is a fantastic adventure Dungeons & Dragons game but SUPER light and therefore a great starting point for new and younger board-gamers; and then I would recommend Legends Of Andor which offers something in-between Gloomhaven and HeroQuest a light, story-laden adventure game with plenty of instructions and hand-holding to get you up to speed with the game system, which uses an easy and clever dice system. And then for something totally different, more puzzle game with adventure flavour, my family has enjoyed Kingdom Builder and Adventure Land (published by Queen Games and HABA, respectively).

Like anything today, you can see excellent video playthroughs of all these games if you search YouTube.

Happy gaming, on screen and off.Will Sargent

Inbox also-ransI wouldnt normally say this about anything but Elden Ring is one game I would buy/pre-order the second it became available, no questions asked, no reviews read. Id probably even buy the collectors edition if it had a good one, FromSoftware are that good.Taylor Moon

So apparently theyre going to make levelling up in Avengers harder/slower. Thats an interesting idea. First Anthem and very soon to follow I would imagine Avengers. Who wouldve guessed!Capsicum

This weeks Hot TopicThe subject for this weekends Inbox was inspired by reader David, and asks what is your experience with PC gaming and do you think its better or worse than consoles?

Do you own a gaming PC and if so how much did you pay for it and how well does it run modern games? What do you see as the pros and cons of PC gaming and do you feel either option has got more or less appealing in the last few years?

If you dont own a gaming PC what would make you consider it and what has put you off so far? Overall, do you think PC gaming will become more popular in the future or less?

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

The small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Readers Feature at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and dont forget to follow us on Twitter.

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MORE : Games Inbox: Battlefield 6 vs. Call Of Duty 2021, Chrono Trigger sequels, and Elden Ring marketing

MORE : Games Inbox: Elden Ring release date estimate, The Legend of Link, and Drakengard remake

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Games Inbox: Will Rockstar make a GTA 3 or San Andreas remaster? - Metro.co.uk

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Should the L.A. Times be ‘canceled’ for its racist past? – Los Angeles Times

Posted: at 5:28 am

To the editor: In light of the Los Angeles Times irredeemably racist past, I am tempted to cancel my print subscription and relegate the publication to the cancel-culture ash heap. (How the Los Angeles Times shilled for the racist eugenics movement, Feb. 28) I am not in the market for evasive excuses about The Times mirroring the culture and thinking of the day. Prescience remains the standard.

Unfortunately, I cannot cancel. The Herald Examiner and the New Times are long gone. The LA Weekly is a bundle of cannabis ads. The Times is the last newspaper standing.

Instead, I will point out that nothing really has changed, other than the fact that I pay considerably more now for my subscription than I did in 1988. In the 1930s, The Times editors, writers and columnists pandered to racists. In the 2020s, The Times editors, writers and columnists pander instead to the progressives.

James Moore, Los Angeles

::

To the editor: Alexandra Minna Sterns op-ed exposed the part played by The Times and its past owners in supporting the racially discriminating eugenics movement some 70 years ago. There can be no excuses for this horrible behavior and The Times needs to be punished for its part in this terrible chapter of history.

First we should cancel The Times in any way possible. All current and past employees should also be canceled, and the children of current and past employees should pay retributions to the decedents of those harmed by actions of the L.A. Times.

This would be a good start. After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Paul Salerno, Riverside

::

To the editor: I found the article by Alexandra Minna Stern regarding The Times support for eugenics in the 1930s and early 1940s to be surprising. It seems that the more things change, the more things stay the same sometimes in other ways.

Today, children with Down syndrome are routinely aborted. Many Down syndrome children are able to lead fairly normal lives. They express great happiness and joy. Their crime is not being perfect.

Nathan Post, Santa Barbara

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Opinion: Reckoning with and remaking ‘Dune’: The limitations of world-making in sci-fi – OSU – The Lantern

Posted: at 5:28 am

A second film adaptation of part of the six-book series Dune by Frank Herbert is scheduled for release in October this year under the directorship of Denis Villeneuve. The new adaptation includes more actors of color than its predecessor. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/Telegram & Gazette via TNS

A second film adaptation of part of the six-book series Dune by Frank Herbert is scheduled for release in October this year under the directorship of Denis Villeneuve director of films such as Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. The new adaptation includes more actors of color than its predecessor, the universally negatively reviewed 1984 Dune, written and directed by David Lynch. However, whether or not the issues within Dune can be resolved by merely including actors of color in the adaptation is another issue entirely. The truth is, we dont really need another futuristic Dune adaptation right now. What we really need is a dramatic rethinking and retelling of the story.

Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely; absolute power attracts the corruptible. (Dune)

Articles and essays have dealt with the anti-colonial nature of Dune, its problematic use of eugenics, white saviorism and Orientalist tropes. But we will not resolve any of these issues with another film adaptation. The premise of the story is that, many years into the future, House Atreides assumes power of a spice-rich planet Arakkis over a crypto Arab people called the Fremen but is attacked by rival House Harkonnen, supported by the galactic emperor. The white heir to House Atreides, Paul, survives and is also the prophesied messiah (MuadDib) for the Fremen. He wages war against the Harkonnen, eventually defeating them and the emperor with the help of the Fremen. He then becomes the next ruler of the universe. But as he sees into the future, Paul realizes his actions will create a galactic jihad which will kill billions of people. This moment of reflection is meant to complicate his white saviorism.

Paul Atreides role as a white savior cannot be solved so simply. Dune cannot be truly anti-colonial because it still replicates Western ideas about power. Paul supposedly frees the Fremen from galactic colonial rule, but Dune really places the Fremen into a colonial binary. They are either colonized, incapable and unorganized actors without agency or bloodthirsty savages in an out-of-control religious war. Centering a story on anti-colonial rebellion does not make it anti-colonial if the indigenous characters largely adhere to dangerous tropes. Paul is a reformed colonial ruler and white savior who merely seeks the power to create his own larger empire. Any effective anti-colonial take on Dune would have to be a response to Herbert, which means not directly adapting Dune but dramatically retelling it.

Frank Herbert claimed in 1980 that Dune shows that humans with unlimited power will inevitably make mistakes, but the (super)human in question is white. Herbert wants to show how white, Western modes of power are inherently broken, but he cannot imagine anything other than whiteness as the dominant mode of power. The insistence that good intentions absolve heinous actions is not acceptable; it is apologist. We must understand that an unaltered Dune will merely replicate the same racial systems of our current predicament and limit its characters to the same fates.

The importance of eugenics in Dune is another irreparable element that needs to be rethought or abandoned. Here Dune is not alone other franchises such as Star Wars have also experienced the pitfalls of eugenics in the midichlorians and the Skywalker/Palpatine bloodlines. Paul Atreides is the product of selective breeding; he is the Kwisatz Haderach, or a super-being, who is destined to control the entire universe. The fact that we continue to cast white, male actors as Paul Atreides is troubling. We cannot ignore the atrocities forced sterilizations and abortions of women of color, the mass murder of Jewish people, gay people, people with disabilities, etc. committed in the name of eugenics. Eugenics is a racist and ableist theory, and it is still used in the U.S. by white supremacists, fascists and the far-right. Eugenics is not an ethical plot device; it never was.

He who controls the spice controls the universe. (Dune)

Herbert claimed he was inspired to write Dune in Oregon while studying destructive waves of sand, but he was writing during the Sahelian droughts of the 1960s80s, when myths about desertification blamed local people instead of global climate changes. In the Dune universe the spice allows for space travel, but the Fremen are unable to use it on their own. These environmental undercurrents point to neo-colonialist ideas about the preservation of the natural world. Paul, the environmental shepherd, is the only one who can save the sandworms who produce the spice. Environmental conservation language has long been used by colonial powers, and the informal empires that came after them, to justify foreign interventionism in the Global South. This parallels ideas about conservation today.

Although Herbert was great at conceiving how white, Western systems of power are inherently flawed, he was not able to imagine any better alternative. A way to move beyond the issues within a traditional Duneadaptation would be to more seriously consider Afrofuturism. A more deeply thought retelling of Dune could benefit from exploring the Fremens long-standing indigenous engagement with the science of their own natural world what values did they place on the spice and why? How did they imagine their own futures and in what ways had they been attempting their own liberations?

Dune in its entirety need not be forsaken; we must imagine new ways to remake it. The 2020 TV series Lovecraft Country is a great example of how to use classic sci-fi stories to make meaningful anti-racist ones. Lovecraft Country was not an adaptation of Lovecrafts work; it is a strong response to Lovecraft. Sci-fi writers of the future would do well to ask Afrofuturist questions about the kinds of writing they produce: Who benefits from future technologies in the worlds we imagine? Who builds these possible futures and to what end are these futures constrained by current power structures? The real questions for the 2021 version of Duneare Will we ever truly commit to holding sci-fi novels accountable for the racial environments they grew out of and the types of worlds that they create? Or will we continue to remake fantasy worlds in our own fragmented image?

Katherine (Hyun-Joo) Everett, ne Mooney, is a Ph.D. candidate of African history at the Ohio State University and has published an essay in Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective. Follow her on Twitter: @hyun_joo_kim

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In This Novel, Immigration Status Is Part of the Family Drama – The New York Times

Posted: at 5:28 am

INFINITE COUNTRY By Patricia Engel

To someone who grew up reading the giants of the Latin American Boom generation in translation Vargas Llosa, Garca Mrquez it was surprising that Patricia Engels third novel, Infinite Country, was not translated from the Spanish: The book sounds like Edith Grossman but with a borrowed amp and feedback. The prose is serpentine and exciting as it takes the scenic route to nowhere. There is a compliment in that. Her writing sets out to be majestic, and it is, like an overflowing souffl.

The novel follows a mixed-status family as they struggle to survive and reunite after a fathers deportation from the United States. The teenage Talia, American-born but raised in Colombia, escapes a reform school in the Andes and races to make her plane to rejoin her mom and siblings in New York. Twenty years of page-turning family history are told as she rushes to catch that plane.

The most unforgettable scenes in the novel are the intimate and meticulously rendered descriptions of Andean landscapes and mythology, of Colombias long history of violence. Engels capacity to dive deep into history and folklore extends also into her narration of the life of Talias father and the family patriarch, Mauro. One senses Engel building a mythology around him, too.

The novel captures the romance of the immigrants first days in America with a visceral tenderness. Their skin darkens in the Texan sun. They see the ocean for the first time. I feel sorry for their lost youth, then angry at their gullibility. For Talia and her family never lose their innocence, even as they withstand unimaginable systemic violence, and find phantoms of intergenerational trauma like buried mines inside themselves. Such windup dolls exist, to be sure, but most undocumented immigrants I know are being held together by faith and rubber bands.

Talias young mother, Elena, in particular, is presented as a saint, nave and eternally suffering an exquisite new iteration of a noble savage in the hands of a writer who is not herself undocumented. When the white owner of the restaurant where Elena cleans bathrooms rapes her, she feels guilty for her infidelity. The narrator points out that until now, she has been with no man besides her husband, a testament to her purity.

Elenas body, it seems, has integrity only when it is uncorrupted by knowledge and awareness. When she is in the hospital giving birth to her third child, a nurse tactlessly inquires how she plans to take care of three kids on one income. Elena thinks about forced sterilizations in Colombia, how they lured women to clinics offering free gynecological services and the women came out unaware they could no longer have children. To her, babies are not burdens. The scene implicitly links the American nurse with the centuries-old record of colonial eugenics imposed on Indigenous and Black women, and our brave Elena champions her reproductive rights.

But does she really know her reproductive rights? After her rape, she prays and panics until she gets her period. When my undocumented mother gave birth to my brother in this country, the nurses, always Afro-Latina or Mestiza, waited until my father was out of the room to discuss family planning not to talk about children as a burden, but to suggest social services that could help my poor family. But they knew sex was taboo for my mom, and that this might be her only chance to make a choice. Elena quotes the Colombian saying that a baby arrives with a loaf of bread under its arm as a sort of rebuttal. Such earnest, romantic repetition of ancestral wisdom in Latino art is often done by American artists who have choices, privileges and resources that our subjects, fictional or not, do not have. Literature about undocumented people in this country is too rare and too often written by writers whove never been undocumented for the literary world to continue to act as if we all still lived in Macondo.

This is a compulsively readable novel that will make you feel the oxytocin of comfort and delusion. The ending reads like child-of-immigrant fan fiction. Id hire Engel to ghostwrite my nightmares. Mauros love for his daughter motivates him to overcome alcoholism and homelessness, cross the border safely and reunite with the wife he still loves. The siblings whove never met yet smell familiar to one another. The novel closes as husband and wife are dancing, their bodies in perfect sync.

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A chronicle of the British establishment’s flirtation with Hitler – The Economist

Posted: at 5:28 am

An unexpurgated edition of Chips Channons diaries has finally been published

Mar 4th 2021

IN AUGUST 1936 Henry Chips Channon and his wife, Lady Honor Guinness, went on an official visit to the Berlin Olympic games along with a bunch of other British grandees. They had a simply wonderful time. They didnt pull off the ultimate social coup of having dinner with Hitlerthe closest they got to the Fhrer was when he visited the Olympic stadium and one felt as if one was in the presence of some semi-divine creature. But the rest of the Nazi elite went out of their way to entertain the visiting Britons.

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Hermann Gring was flirtatious, gay and charming. Frau Gring was tall, handsome and nearly naked. The Ribbentrops party lent dignity to the new regime. Just as thrilling was the spectacle of daily life. Everyone kept raising their arms and saying Heil Hitler! in a thoroughly captivating manner. And what about the rumours of terrible things going on in labour camps? Being a responsible MP Chips took a trip to one such camp and was impressed by what he saw. It looked tidy, even gay. The purpose of the camps was to wipe out class feelingnot something Chips was normally in favour of getting rid ofand such feeling has become practically non-existent in Germany. Chips concluded that England could learn many a lesson from Nazi Germany.

These vignettes are all taken from the first of what promises to be three volumes of the diaries of Channon, a rich American who climbed the heights of British society in the 1920s and 1930s and also became a Tory MP. The diaries were first published in 1967 in heavily redacted form: many of the subjects of Chipss indiscretions were still alive and able to sue. Simon Heffer, a journalist and historian, has taken advantage of the passage of time to produce an unexpurgated edition.

The diaries do more than merely titillate. They demonstrate just how many members of the British upper classes were either infatuated with Hitler or at least regarded him as a useful bulwark against Bolshevism. In one entry, Chips described a visit by his uncle-by-marriage, Lord Halifax, a Tory grandee, to Germany to go fox-hunting with the leading Nazis. He liked all the Nazi leaders, even Goebbels!He thinks the regime fantastic, perhaps too fantastic to take seriously. But he is v glad that he went and thinks nothing but good can come of it. (Halifax almost messed up the occasion by mistaking Hitler for a footman.) The diaries also provide yet more evidence of the vital role Winston Churchill played in saving Britain from the pro-Hitler sympathies of the upper classes and the cynical calculations of appeasing politicians. Thatfarceur would stir up trouble anywhere, Chips wrote, luckily for England and the peace of Europe he has no following whatsoever in the House [of Commons].

It is becoming fashionable on the left to dismiss Churchill as a racist. A vandal spray-painted the word on his statue in Parliament Square. During a recent discussion on Churchill and race held in, of all places, Churchill College, Cambridge, panellists competed to denounce him as a racist, white supremacist and eugenicist. Churchill certainly said some repugnant things about race. But by the standards of his time he was relatively moderate: he was much less enthusiastic about eugenics, for example, than many heroes of the left such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Harold Laski. He was mercifully free of the common vice of anti-Semitism. And as Channons diaries make clear he led the battle against the worst racist in history at a time when other members of his party and class thought labour camps wonderful innovations.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Nazi parties"

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LTTE: A message from The Brazen Project The Rocky Mountain Collegian – Rocky Mountain Collegian

Posted: at 5:28 am

EditorsNote:All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board. Letters to the Editor reflect the view of a member of the campus community and are submitted to the publication for approval.

My name is Marley Lerner, and I am a junior studying womens studies and ethnic studies here at Colorado State University. I work for The Brazen Project, which is a student group on campus that works to remove stigma from abortion by talking about it boldly and without shame. A majority of what we do is host trainings and educational programs for turning abortion access advocates into activists.

Because we are a student group, we host a club meeting each month. Our club meetings are themed, so each time we meet we are discussing a different topic. Our meetings this semester are special because we have created a space for creative outlets. Each conversation we have can be heavy, so at the end of our discussion we have time for folks to create an art piece. Whether this is a playlist, a poem, a collage, a drawing or anything else, we have our club members submit them to us to go on our online scrapbook, also known as Tumblr.

Our first club meeting was on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month. Because of this, we decided to dedicate the conversation to the experiences of Black folks with eugenics and abortion and how that intertwined. We talked about the origins of birth control and Planned Parenthood, which were based in eugenicist ideology and other eugenicists that were infamous during that time. There is a history of white feminism in reproductive rights, meaning pro-womens equality in a white supremacist lens. It is important to make this distinction because white feminism actively impacted the eugenics movement. Because of this, one of The Brazen Projects biggest values is centering the voices of people of color.

The Brazen Project has a partnership with an organization called Soul 2 Soul Sisters. Soul 2 Soul Sisters is a Black womxn-led, faith-based response to the anti-Black violence in the United States. Their organization does a great deal of amazing work, some of which include artistic videos. We shared one titled Black Woman Body to showcase how reproductive rights impact Black womxn in a Black womxns narrative. After we watched the video, our club members mentioned that they got chills and that certain lines from the video were sticking with them. It is a very powerful video that is bound to leave an impact on anyone.

After we shared our initial reactions, one of our cohort members, Ellen, posed some thought provoking questions. The questions that burgeoned the most conversation were why are we watching this? and why is this important? The general consensus of the group was that this video and other art pieces like this are vital to the discussion of reproductive rights because it is amplifying Black voices and sharing a true insight into the realm of reproductive rights. This is not something that just impacts white women. This impacts all types of individuals capable of getting pregnant, and it is important for us to show those experiences in the best way possible.

So far, our Tumblr submissions have received a watercolor painting and a collage. We are hoping to get more pieces as the semester continues so that by the end, we can look over our online scrapbook and see physical representations of the conversations we had. If you are interested in The Brazen Project, you can follow us on Instagram @boldandwithoutshame, Twitter @_BrazenProjectand Facebook.com/brazenproject. We also have this link bit.ly/brazencc that you can sign up with us through!

Marley Lerner

Junior womens and gender studies student

The Brazen Project

Letters may be sent toletters@collegian.com. When submitting letters, please abide by theguidelines listed at collegian.com.

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