Out of its stated interest to incentivize the easier procurement of more sustainable building materials industry-wide, the powerful Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) today announced the launch of a new Low Carbon Ratings (LCR) system for concrete and cement building products. This first-of-its-kind AA to G scale designations system "enable[s] cement and concrete to be identified based on their carbon footprints" via a method.  The GCCA notes that their system is designed to be used alongside Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), which by definition are third-party verified, adding that it can be adapted to the rules of individual countries with differing practices for carbon accounting, such as the UK. The system will set numerical definitions in terms of units of embodied carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne for cement and per cubic metre of concrete product (ECO2e /m3), also referred to as Global Warming Potential (GWP).

When I originally reviewed Forza Horizon 5 back in 2021, I called it one of the best racing games ever made, and I still very much stand by that sentiment. Playground Games’ racer boasts a gorgeous and incredibly crafted open world, a bevy of extremely enjoyable content, best in class driving mechanics, and more, all of it combining in what is probably the best game of its kind you can play on Xbox or on PC. Now, it’s also the best game of its kind you can play on PS5. Microsoft has been rapidly expanding its multiplatform pipeline, and Forza Horizon 5 is the latest in a string of first party Xbox titles that have made their way to Sony’s platform. And though it’s not as if PlayStation audiences had been starved for good open world racers until this moment, there should be little doubt in anyone’s mind that Forza instantly places itself on top of those charts, and puts considerable distance between itself and everything else on the platform. It’s a special, generational game, and now, PS5 audiences get to enjoy it. For those unfamiliar, Forza Horizon 5 throws players into a massive, gorgeous open world map in Mexico. Like its predecessors, rather than going for accuracy, it instead looks to the real world location more for inspiration than anything else, crafting a huge play space that attempts to capture the characteristics and natural splendour of Mexico’s landscapes without feeling too beholden to recreating everything 1:1 the way something like, say, The Crew would. Having already poured dozens upon dozens of hours into the game on Xbox Series X, I knew exactly what I was in for when diving into Forza Horizon 5 on PS5, but even despite my level of familiarity with the game, I couldn’t help but fall in love with its open world all over again. From the level of environmental diversity it exhibits to the way its design encourages players to keep exploring, from the stunning vistas and sceneries scattered everywhere to the bevy of fun and varied activities on offer, there’s a lot to love about Forza Horizon 5’s world, and at least as far as I’m concerned, none of it has lost any of its charm in spite of how obsessively I’ve played the game elsewhere over the years. Those aforementioned content offerings are particularly impressive (though honestly, there’s a lot about this game that could easily fit the “particularly impressive” description- but more on that in a bit). Showcase events that serve as bombastic set pieces, traditional races and drag events and rallies and what have you, more bite-sized activities like bonus boards and speed traps to keep you occupied from moment to moment- although very little of it is revolutionary or groundbreaking in any fashion, it is all spectacularly designed and excellently executed. Even now, I’m yet to feel a single second of boredom playing this game. That becomes that much more of an impressive accomplishment when you consider just how much there is to do in Forza Horizon 5. Its open world Mexico map is colossal, and brimming with activities that can keep you occupied for multiple dozen hours, while the Rally Adventure and Hot Wheels expansions – both of which are excellent in their own rights (the latter in particular) – are also included in the package, providing a healthy chunk of top notch content on top of the base game’s already ample offerings. And once all of that is out of the way – which won’t be a brief experience by any means, to say the very least – you can always just aimlessly drive around in your favourite vehicles, which just never seems to get old in the slightest. There aren’t too many games that can legitimately claim to have a world that’s a joy to simply exist and move around in, regardless of what sort of authored content it may or may not offer up, but Forza Horizon 5 surely has a spot on that short list. All of that is, of course, only possible because the core driving mechanics are, in a word, sublime. Forza Horizon 5 has a startling number of vehicles for players to collect and drive, and each feels great to control, while still feeling sufficiently different from other vehicles. There’s a real, palpable sense of speed, the feedback to your inputs feels immediate and tight, and everything handles like an absolute dream. Fora Horizon 5 obviously doesn’t go for the absolute authenticity of a hardcore simulator like Forza Motorsport, instead deftly striking the perfect balance between arcade racing and realistic simulation- though it does obviously lean more heavily in the former’s favour by some margin. Arguably, Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 feels even better to play than it has on any other platform up to this point. That, of course, is because of the DualSense. I don’t think it would be exaggeration to call the DualSense one of the best controllers ever made, thanks not only to its ergonomics, but also is unique features- which, incidentally, is exactly what elevates an already masterful racing game. Forza Horizon 5’s implementation of the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers may not pull up any trees in terms of how innovative it is (or rather, isn’t), but said features do make the moment to moment driving feel even more tactile, immediate, and impactful than it has on other platforms- which is really saying something. It also also still looks absolutely gorgeous, of course. Forza Horizon 5 is easily one of the most technically impressive and best looking games I’ve ever played on a console, and that obviously still very much remains true on PS5 as well. Just like on Xbox Series X, which is where I previously played this game, there are next to no issues or technical blemishes of note to speak in the open world racer’s PS5 version. Between the two modes available, I went with Performance, and in the time I have spent with the game so far, I have come across no drops or hiccups. Suffice to say, Panic Button has done a solid job porting the game over to PS5. In the end, Forza Horizon 5 is an unsurprisingly excellent game on PS5. The open world racer firmly placed itself in the annals of video game history when it first released, and in the time since then, its legend has only grown. The opinion that it is one of the best racing games ever made and a blueprint for all future titles in the genre has become an increasingly common one, so it’s no surprise that the game makes a similarly strong impression on Sony’s console. For anyone who has even a passing interest in racing games, Forza Horizon 5 is well worth checking out. This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

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Astronomers Discover a Doomed Exoplanet That’s Crumbling Away and Leaving Behind a Comet-Like Tail The planet orbits its host star in just 30.5 hours, losing a mass of material roughly equal to Mount Everest each time An artistic rendering of an exoplanet in a tight orbit, followed by a dusty, comet-like tail of debris. Jose-Luis Olivares / MIT Astronomers have spotted a distant planet shedding matter with each orbit around its host star, generating a comet-like tail of debris. As detailed in a study published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery could have important implications for researching the interior of other rocky exoplanets. Located 140 light-years away from Earth, the planet, named BD+05 4868 Ab, has approximately the same mass as Mercury—but its orbit around its host star is around 20 times closer than Mercury’s path around our sun. This proximity means the planet is likely roasting at nearly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As such, its surface is constantly boiling away and cooling into a long, trailing tail—which, at more than 5.5 million miles long, wraps around about half the planet’s orbit. The ill-fated world is rapidly disintegrating, losing approximately one Mount Everest’s worth of material with each 30.5-hour trip around its star, per a statement from MIT. “This is a very tiny object with very weak gravity, so it easily loses a lot of mass, which then further weakens its gravity, so it loses even more mass,” study co-author Avi Shporer, of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, says in the statement. “It’s a runaway process, and it’s only getting worse and worse for the planet.” The researchers estimate the planet will disintegrate entirely within one to two million years. BREAKING: A Disintegrating Planet with a Comet-like Tail Watch on Astronomers stumbled upon the doomed planet while using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to search for star transits: regular dips in light that could signal the presence of an orbiting exoplanet passing in front of its stellar host. During their search, they noted an irregular transit that took longer for the star’s brightness to recover. Further investigations confirmed it was indeed caused by an exoplanet—and the delay in the starlight’s return came from its comet-like tail. “You don’t actually see the planet—it’s too small—but you have this large dust tail, which obscures light from the star itself,” Marc Hon, a postdoc in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said during a press conference earlier this year, when the study had only been released as a preprint, per Sky & Telescope’s Arielle Frommer. “The shape of this dimming event is unlike any other that we’ve ever seen on a typical planet.” BD+05 4868 Ab is only the fourth disintegrating exoplanet astronomers have ever observed. But even among these crumbling worlds, it has the longest tail and deepest transit, suggesting it’s disappearing faster than the rest. This exoplanet and its host star are also the “closest” to Earth, offering an excellent excuse to put NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to work investigating the composition of the planet’s tail. “The tail is expected to contain minerals evaporated from the surface or interior of the disintegrating planet. So, this could be the crust, mantle or even the planet’s core,” Hon says to Reuters’ Will Dunham. “Learning about the interiors of planets is extremely challenging. Doing this even for planets within our solar system is difficult. But BD+05 4868 Ab will allow us to directly measure the mineral composition of a terrestrial planet outside our solar system.” In this way, the planet offers a key opportunity for researchers to better understand distant rocky worlds. “We got lucky with catching it exactly when it’s really going away,” Shporer says in the statement. “It’s like [it’s] on its last breath.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Twitch has revealed more information about its streaming trends of 2024, and GTA V is its most popular game, while VTubers are on the rise.Read More

Wombo Games is a new studio from the co-founder of IO Interactive Its first title, Raiders of Blackveil, is out this year Image credit: Wombo Games News by Samuel Roberts Editorial Director Published on April 24, 2025 Wombo Games, a new studio led by IO Interactive co-founder and ex-Square Enix Chief Creative Officer Janos Flösser, has officially launched. The Copenhagen-based developer's first game is called Raiders of Blackveil, and it launches in Steam Early Access this summer. It's positioned as a fusion of genres: a PVE-based roguelite game with MOBA-style champions and extraction-like gameplay, including co-op for up to three players. Raiders of Blackveil has already been in development for two years, and Wombo Games says it's composed of 21 developers who have worked on series like Hitman, Kane & Lynch, Just Cause and Tomb Raider. Wombo says it has a flat structure with minimal management, the idea being to maximise each staff member's contributions to its games. "Raiders of Blackveil is our first title so it’s very special to us," Flösser said. "It is a blueprint of our studio because every person at Wombo has contributed directly to its development." That ethos will extend to how its debut game will evolve with community feedback, according to the announcement. "At Wombo, we make decisions by consensus, and plan to continue that with feedback from our players once we launch in early access later this year."

TechTarget and Informa Tech’s Digital Business Combine.TechTarget and InformaTechTarget and Informa Tech’s Digital Business Combine.Together, we power an unparalleled network of 220+ online properties covering 10,000+ granular topics, serving an audience of 50+ million professionals with original, objective content from trusted sources. We help you gain critical insights and make more informed decisions across your business priorities.Huge donation will help The Strong preserve the history of defunct Saints Row developer VolitionHuge donation will help The Strong preserve the history of defunct Saints Row developer VolitionA collection of materials spanning three decades of company history has been donated to the National Museum of Play.Chris Kerr, News EditorApril 24, 20252 Min ReadImage via VolitionThe Strong National Museum of Play has received a donation from defunct Saints Row developer Volition that will help preserve almost 30 years of company history.Andrew Borman, director of digital preservation at The Strong, shared the news on Linkedin (thanks GamesHub) and said the donation includes thousands of game builds, some source material, documentation, props, and awards relating to iconic franchises including Descent, Red Faction, and Saints Row."While we have only just begun to process the collection, I am beginning to understand some of what it might contain," said Borman in a video post, noting the museum has received a disc from 2004 that includes multiple early builds of Saints Row, which was then called Bling Bling.Preserving a digital time capsuleUnderlining the importance of preserving, cataloguing, and archiving video game history, Borman explained how that single item charts the formative years of an iconic franchise—serving as a digital time capsule that shows how the project evolved over the years as design beats and mechanics were added, tweaked, and even torched by the development team."We can [also] explore games that were unreleased and never made it to market, such as various Saints Row spinoffs and their prototypes, many of which haven't been seen before. We are honored to preserve the history and legacy of Volition, and the work of many Volitionites that made such incredible games," added Borman.Related:"There is much work to be done organizing, cataloguing, and migrating data from optical discs and other storage formats before it becomes accessible to researchers and museum guests. I know there are going to be many questions about the collection in the coming months, so I hope to be able to share even more in the future."Volition was purchased by Embracer Group in 2018 when the conglomerate acquired its parent company Koch Media. It was shuttered around five years later when Embracer embarked upon a brutal restructuring program that resulted in mass layoffs, studio closures, and project cancelations.A cohort of Volition have since regrouped to establish co-development studio Shapeshifter Games. The studio is currently working with an unnamed publisher on an upcoming franchise. The Strong is based in New York and regularly celebrates and spotlights video games and the people who make them. You can find out more about the institute right here.Read more about:Game PreservationAbout the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, and PocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Ask just about anybody, and they’ll tell you that new cars are too expensive. In the wake of tariffs shaking the auto industry and with the Trump administration pledging to kill the federal EV incentive, that situation isn’t looking to get better soon, especially for anyone wanting something battery-powered. Changing that overly spendy status quo is going to take something radical, and it’s hard to get more radical than what Slate Auto has planned.Meet the Slate Truck, a sub-$20,000 (after federal incentives) electric vehicle that enters production next year. It only seats two yet has a bed big enough to hold a sheet of plywood. It only does 150 miles on a charge, only comes in gray, and the only way to listen to music while driving is if you bring along your phone and a Bluetooth speaker. It is the bare minimum of what a modern car can be, and yet it’s taken three years of development to get to this point.But this is more than bargain-basement motoring. Slate is presenting its truck as minimalist design with DIY purpose, an attempt to not just go cheap but to create a new category of vehicle with a huge focus on personalization. That design also enables a low-cost approach to manufacturing that has caught the eye of major investors, reportedly including Jeff Bezos. It’s been engineered and will be manufactured in America, but is this extreme simplification too much for American consumers?Simplify, Then Embrace DamageIf you haven’t seen the leaks and the reports of weirdly wrapped trucks hiding in plain sight, the Slate Truck is the first product from Michigan-based Slate Auto. Think “American kei truck” and you’re not far off. It’s a machine designed to be extremely basic, extremely customizable, and extremely affordable. Those are not your typical design goals, but then the Slate Truck isn’t the fruit of your typical design process. Wander through any automotive design studio anywhere in the world and you’ll inevitably come across a mood board or two, sweeping collages of striking photos meant to align the creative flows of passers-by. They’re a tool for helping a disparate design team to create a cohesive product, but where many such mood boards feature glamour shots of exotic roads and beautiful people, front and center in the Slate’s mood board was something different: a big, gray shark, covered in scrapes and scars.“It looks like a shark that has definitely been in more than one brawl and clearly has come out ahead because it’s still swimming,” says Tisha Johnson, head of design at Slate and who formerly spent a decade at Volvo. That aesthetic, of highlighting rather than hiding battle scars, is key to the Slate ethos.Instead of steel or aluminum, the Slate Truck’s body panels are molded of plastic. Or, as Slate calls them, “injection molded polypropylene composite material.” The theory is that this makes them more durable and scratch-resistant, if only because the lack of paint means they’re one color all the way through. Auto enthusiasts of a certain age will remember the same approach used by the now-defunct Saturn Corporation, a manufacturing technique that never caught on across the industry. Slate continues the theme through to the upholstery, too, a heathered textile that was designed to get better looking as it wears. The idea is to lean into the aged aesthetic. But not everybody will dig the shark theme, and so the Slate Truck is designed to be customizable to a degree never seen before on a production vehicle. Johnson says this is in contrast to the overly curated experience offered by many brands. She says over-curation by automotive designers results in situations like premium, luxury cars that are only available in a palette of disappointingly bland colors: “There’s usually only a fraction that you actually want, and those are always more expensive,” she says.Disparaging other brands for offering limited color choices might seem disingenuous coming from the designer of a vehicle available in a single shade. The Slate Truck, though, was designed to take advantage of the current trend of vinyl-wrapping cars. Its simple shape and minimal trim pieces mean that even amateurs can do the job. Slate will offer DIY kits that newbies can slap on in an afternoon and replace just as quickly based on mood.However, the biggest benefit of this monochromatic thinking might come in production.1/9Bare-Minimum ManufacturingIt’s probably no surprise to you that building cars is expensive. Elon Musk loves to bemoan just how complicated the process can be whenever Tesla is late shipping its next new model, but he’s far from alone in that assessment. What is a little less commonly known is just how expensive it is to paint those cars. Creating a facility that can reliably, quickly, and cleanly lay down a quality coat of color on automotive body parts is a complicated task. That task has only gotten more complicated (and thus expensive) in recent years, with greater environmental regulations and consumer expectations forcing manufacturers to find ways to offer more vibrant hues with less ecological impact. Mercedes-Benz just announced it’s building a “Next Generation Paintshop” at its Sindelfingen plant in Germany, and estimates place the thing’s cost at nearly $1 billion. By eliminating paint, and thus eliminating the paint shop, Slate’s manufacturing process is massively simplified. So, too, the lack of metal body parts. “We have no paint shop, we have no stamping,” says Jeremy Snyder, Slate’s chief commercial officer who formerly led Tesla’s global business efforts. Vehicle factories tend to have high ceilings to make room for the multiple-story stamping machines that form metal body parts. Injection molding of plastic is far easier and cheaper to do in limited spaces — spaces like the factory that Slate has purchased for its manufacturing, reportedly near Indiana. “The vehicle is designed, engineered, and manufactured in the US, with the majority of our supply chain based in the US,” Snyder says. The simplification goes simpler still. Slate will make just one vehicle, in just one trim, in just one color, with everything from bigger battery packs to SUV upgrade kits added on later. “Because we only produce one vehicle in the factory with zero options, we’ve moved all of the complexity out of the factory,” Snyder says.While most buyers will rightly fixate on the cost of the truck, the bigger story here might just be this radically simplified approach to manufacturing. “From the very beginning, our business model has been such that we reach cash flow positivity very shortly after start of production. And so from an investment standpoint, we are far less cash-reliant than any other EV startup that has ever existed, as far as I know,” Snyder says.As Slate tries to dash to production without tripping over the headstones of failed EV startups that litter the countryside, that leanness is key. It’s helped them attract some major investors. “The greatest industry magnates to invest in our company,” Snyder says. He declined to name names, but according to a TechCrunch report, one of those magnates is Jeff Bezos. “We don’t have a direct connection to Amazon,” Snyder clarified, but he didn’t rule out some corporate cooperation. “Who knows? Who knows if you’ll be able to purchase on Amazon? I don’t know.”1/6BYODThose vinyl wraps are literally just the first layer of what Slate’s designers are positioning as a, well, blank slate. They want owners to personalize every aspect of the vehicle, including its silhouette.Need room for more than two passengers? Slate has an SUV upgrade kit that will bolt onto the back of the truck, adding extra rollover crash protection and rear seats with seat belts to match, all in a package that’s easy to install at home. No, this isn’t a Subaru Brat redux. The seats will be forward-facing, and the whole setup is supposed to be strong enough to meet crash test regulations. In fact, Slate’s head of engineering, Eric Keipper, says they’re targeting a 5-Star Safety Rating from the federal government’s New Car Assessment Program. Slate is also aiming for a Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. This will be, in large part, thanks to a comprehensive active safety system that includes everything from automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection to automatic high beams.A mandatory part of today’s safety features is a digital rear-view camera. Typically, this view pops up on a modern car’s central infotainment screen, but the Slate doesn’t have one of those. It makes do with just a small display behind the steering wheel as a gauge cluster, which is where that rearview camera will feed. You’ll have physical knobs for controlling the in-cabin temperature controls plus the typical turn stalk and other switchgear, but that’s about it.The truck not only lacks a touchscreen for infotainment duties, it lacks any form of entertainment at all beyond whatever fun you can get from the 201-horsepower, rear-drive configuration. There’s no radio, no Bluetooth, and no speakers of any kind beyond for those required to play basic warning chimes. Many will consider this a cost-cutting step too far, but the interior was designed for ease of upgrading, with easy mounting space for anything from a simple soundbar to a full sound system. There’s an integrated phone mount right on the dashboard, but there’s nothing stopping you from bringing something even larger. I expect the low-cost Android tablet and 3D-printing communities to have a field day coming up with in-car media streaming solutions.The rather extreme omission of any kind of media system in the car is jarring, but it, too, has secondary benefits. “Seventy percent of repeat warranty claims are based on infotainment currently because there’s so much tech in the car that it’s created a very unstable environment in the vehicle,” Snyder says. Eliminating infotainment, the theory goes, necessarily boosts reliability. And reliability will be key because Slate is taking DIY to new extremes on the maintenance front, too.Sales and ServiceThe right to repair your devices is a massively important topic for everyone from smartphone users to smart tractor operators. Traditionally, auto manufacturers haven’t exactly gone out of their way to make DIY maintenance easy, partly because their dealers make so much money hawking cabin air filters and unnecessary coolant flushes.As an EV, the maintenance schedule for Slate Truck should be minimal (most EVs don’t need much more than an annual tire rotation), but for any warranty concerns, the company will encourage users to do the fixes themselves. At least when it’s safe to do so. “If you’re not going to break the vehicle and you’re not going to injure yourself, meaning high voltage, you can do service and warranty service on your vehicle yourself and have the videos and the helpline to support you to do that work,” Snyder says.That support network will be called Slate University and it’ll teach you everything you need to know. Don’t fancy yourself a shade tree mechanic? Or maybe you don’t have a tree to park under in the first place? Slate has a partnership with already-established nationwide service centers, where owners can take their trucks for any needed fixes. Upgrades can be performed here as well, including installing an extended-range battery that will bring the truck’s maximum range up to 240 miles. “At start of production, we will have coverage across the country for servicing your vehicle,” Snyder says. Snyder declined to say who will provide the service, but it seems reasonable to expect something along the lines of a Midas, Monro, Meineke, or perhaps some other nationwide service chain that begins with the letter M.And finally, how can you buy one? It should come as no surprise that Slate will follow Tesla’s footsteps by offering direct sales. No nationwide network of dealerships is planned. Instead, a limited set of pickup centers will pop up as needed based on preorder data. Or, if you don’t mind paying a little more, home delivery will be available.Preorders cost just $50 on Slate’s site, and deliveries are expected to start in late 2026. Slate hasn’t said exactly how much the truck will cost, only that it’ll be less than $20,000 after federal incentives — assuming those incentives are still in place in 18 months’ time.The bigger question, though, is whether consumers will actually be into such a simplified vision of what a car can be. The Slate Truck is a rolling rejection of the current, bloated state of American motoring, but it’s consumer demand that’s driven the market down this dark alley. Are those consumers ready for a rolling digital detox? See More:

Best Resources to Build & Understand Vision Language Models 0 like April 25, 2025 Share this post Author(s): Youssef Hosni Originally published on Towards AI. Vision-Language Models (VLMs) lie at the intersection of computer vision and natural language processing, enabling systems to understand and generate language grounded in visual context. These models power a wide range of applications — from image captioning and visual question answering to multimodal search and AI assistants. This article offers a curated guide to learning and building VLMs, exploring key concepts in multimodality, foundational architectures, hands-on coding resources, and advanced topics like retrieval-augmented generation for multimodal inputs. Whether you’re a beginner trying to grasp the basics or a practitioner looking to deepen your technical understanding, this guide brings together practical and conceptual resources to support your journey into the world of vision-language modeling. Multimodality and Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) by Chip HuyenSmol Vision by CourseCoding a Multimodal (Vision) Language Model from scratch in PyTorchAwesome Vision-Language ModelsMultimodal RAG Most insights I share in Medium have previously been shared in my weekly newsletter, To Data & Beyond. If you want to be up-to-date with the frenetic world of AI while also feeling inspired to take action or, at the very least, to be well-prepared for the future ahead of us, this is for you. 🏝Subscribe below🏝 to become an AI leader among your peers and receive content not… Read the full blog for free on Medium. Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor. Published via Towards AI Towards AI - Medium Share this post

Very few actors feel more front and center these days than Pedro Pascal, who, over the last decade, has parlayed his breakout role on Game of Thrones into some seriously iconic pop-culture projects. From getting his head popped by The Mountain to getting his face covered in Mandalorian armor, Pascal has been a top go-to guy for drama, comedy, and high adventure. And with HBO's The Last of Us being such a roaring success, and The Last of Us Season 2 now here too, his specific stock is at an all-time high in 2025.The Chilean Pascal has been acting since the mid-90s but has only more recently come into marquee parts and headlining billing. Still, the actor has a lot of good work under his belt and we've got his best movies and TV shows here for you to take in. If you're looking to check out some of Pascal's greatest roles, both big and small, here's our pick of the best Pedro Pascal movies and shows.The Last of Us (2 Seasons)Image credit: HBO/Sony PicturesCreated By: Craig Mazin, Neil DruckmannStars: Bella Ramsey, Nico Parker, Nick Offerman | Episode Count: 9 | Release Date: January 15, 2023 | Review: IGN's The Last of Us Season 1 review and Season 2 review | Where to watch: MaxArguably the biggest thing Pedro Pascal's done -- though leading a Star Wars series might narrowly beat this out -- is HBO's spectacular adaptation of The Last of Us video game from Naughty Dog. We're in the middle of The Last of Us Season 2 as of this writing. Not only has the show managed to reinvigorate the rotting zombie genre (though the monsters on the the series aren't "zombies," per se) but it also added more spice and spark to the "apocalypse dad" sub-genre. In Season 1, Pascal plays Joel, opposite Bella Ramsey's Ellie, for a treacherous trek across America in hopes that delivering the fungus-immune Ellie to a lab might result in a cure. In Season 2, well... The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)Image credit: LionsgateDirector: Tom GormicanWriter: Tom Gormican, Kevin EttenStars: Nicolas Cage, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz | Release Date: April 22, 2022 | Review: IGN's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent review | Where to watch: Rentable on multiple platformsPedro let his funny, fanboy flag fly in 2022's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent where he plays a billionaire (and possible arms dealer) Nicolas Cage stan, opposite Nicolas Cage playing a heightened version of himself. Pascal got to dig around in a very goofy, meta sandbox with Cage, playing a mysterious wealthy man who pays Cage to attend his birthday party on a Spanish island. It's also one of the best Nicolas Cage movies you'll ever see.The Mandalorian (3 Seasons)Image credit: Lucasfilm/DisneyCreated By: Jon Favreau | Stars: Katee Sackhoff, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito | Episode Count: 24 | Release Date: November 12, 2019Review: IGN's The Mandalorian Season 3 review | Where to watch: Disney+Though Pascal's popular Star Wars bounty hunter role, come the third season, is mostly relegated to voice work, making it so he's rarely on set, there was a point when he was in The Mandalorian's armor full time (despite his face rarely being shown). The Mandalorian was huge for Pascal, plucking him up and out of the character actor sidelines and giving him a title role while also keeping legions of fans invested during a point when the Star Wars movies were being reined in. Din Djarin and Baby Yoda/Grogu's adventures have kept the spirit of Star Wars alive while also beautifully bridging the canon events of live-action and animation. While The Mandalorian Season 4 is uncertain, Jon Favreau has confirmed he's directing a new Star Wars movie called The Mandalorian & Grogu, which is a continuation of the series. The Equalizer 2 (2018)Image credit: Sony PicturesDirector: Antoine FuquaWriter: Richard Wenk | Stars: Denzel Washington, Ashton Sanders, Bill Pullman | Release Date: July 20, 2018 | Review: IGN's The Equalizer 2 review | Where to watch: Rentable on multiple platformsMost of Pascal's work, for the first half of his career, had been in TV and theater, but thanks to his stint in Game of Thrones: Season 4 more movies fell his way. In The Equalizer 2, Pascal acted opposite Denzel Washington, playing Robert McCall's former partner, a CIA operative turned freelance assassin. This sinister role was one of Pascal's biggest gigs to date, pitting him against Washington's grudge-holding, justice-seeking vigilante. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)Image credit: Warner Bros. PicturesDirector: Patty Jenkins | Writer: Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, Dave CallahamStars: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig | Release Date: December 25, 2020 | Review: IGN's Wonder Woman 1984 review | Where to watch: TNT, TBS, Max, and moreThough both the release and the film itself were not ideal for a DCU movie, many praised Pedro Pascal's lively, villainous turn in Wonder Woman 1984. As Maxwell Lord, a charismatic but failing businessman who finds himself in possession of The Dreamstone, Pascal found himself, for the second time in a handful of years, meme-worthy. This also marked Pascal's second time crossing paths with Diana Prince as he was also in the unaired Wonder Woman pilot from 2011, starring Adrianne Palicki, playing Wonder Woman's liaison to the cops.Triple Frontier (2019)Image credit: NetflixDirector: J.C. Chandor | Writer: Mark Boal, J. C. Chandor | Stars: Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam | Release Date: March 6, 2019 | Review: IGN's Triple Frontier review | Where to watch: NetflixPascal joined Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, and Garrett Hedlund in South American mercenary heist flick, Triple Frontier. From J. C. Chandor, whose Kraven the Hunter opens later this year, Triple Frontier had been bounced around Hollywood for years, attracting stars like Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Will Smith, and Mark Wahlberg. Eventually made by Netflix, the movie was a big part of getting Pascal up and running the action genre.Narcos (3 Seasons)Image credit: NetflixCreated By: Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro | Stars: Boyd Holbrook, Wagner Moura, Damián Alcázar | Episode Count: 30 | Release Date: August 28, 2015Review: IGN's Narcos Season 1 review | Where to watch: NetflixSpeaking of Netflix, another series that helped shine up Pedro Pascal was Narcos, which Pascal starred in for three seasons, taking the full lead role in Season 3 once co-star Boyd Holbrook left. The acclaimed drug war drama thrilled fans with the historic takedowns of both Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel. The series eventually spun off into Narcos: Mexico (which also ran for three seasons) but it still stands as a solid, buzz-about midlife series for Netflix before the streamer started coming under fire for canceling shows too quickly.If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)Image credit: Annapurna PicturesDirector: Barry JenkinsWriter: Barry Jenkins | Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King | Release Date: December 14, 2018Review: IGN's If Beale Street Could Talk review | Where to watch: HuluAdmittedly, If Beale Street Could Talk is not a "Pedro Pascal Movie," but it is an excellent movie, featuring Pascal in a brief uncredited role near the end of the story. Pascal is only on screen for about three minutes, but it's enough of a window to showcase his skills as a scene-stealer - even opposite Regina King, who would win an Oscar for her role in the film.Prospect (2018)Image credit: DustDirector: Zeek Earl, Chris Caldwell | Writer: Zeek Earl, Chris Caldwell | Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Jay Duplass, Luke Pitzrick | Release Date: November 2, 2018 | Where to watch: Paramount+Before there was Joel and Ellie (well, on a TV show anyhow) there was Ezra and Cee in the little-seen 2018 sci-fi indie film, Prospect. As Ezra, Pascal dipped his toe in reluctant dystopian dad territory as a thief who's paired up with a teenage girl (Yellowjackets/Companion's Sophie Thatcher) on a forest moon after her father's greed for mining gems gets him killed. It's a small, effective future tale that -- look, any movie that takes home the Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award from SXSW, and has the Beasties seal of approval, has got to be good.Game of Thrones (Season 4)Image credit: HBO EntertainmentCreated By: David Benioff, D. B. Weiss | Stars: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke | Episode Count: Season 4: 10; Total:Release Date: Season 4: April 6, 2014; Series: April 17, 2011 | Review: IGN's Game of Thrones Season 4 review | Where to watch: MaxFor most, Pedro Pascal jumped to the front of the line when he starred on Game of Thrones, during one of the show's very best seasons, as Oberyn Martell, a Dornish noble carrying a not-so-secret hate for the Lannisters. Oberyn was dangerous, debonair, and determined to serve up cold retribution for the death of his sister and her children. Oberyn's demise was a standout moment on a show chock-full of "holy sh*t!" scenes that made for one of the best Game of Thrones episodes.The Wild Robot (2024)Image credit: DreamWorks AnimationDirector: Chris Sanders | Writer: Chris Sanders | Stars: Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor | Release Date: September 27, 2024 | Where to watch: PeacockIn this voice role, Pascal plays against type as the guy everyone hates. Really though this is an incredibly touching animated film and one of Dreamworks’ best ever. The actor voices a selfish and hungry fox to balance out Lupita Nyong'o's robot of the title, Roz, becoming her first animal friend and helping her raise an orphaned bird. Yes, he comes around to no longer be a jerk the whole island hates, and also to learn about community in this extremely emotional animated film.And that's it for our picks of the best Pedro Pascal TV shows and movies. Did your favorite make our list? If not, let us know in the comments.Upcoming Pedro Pascal Movies and ShowsPedro Pascal is booked and busy. He has a wide variety of films and shows in the works and coming out soon, and we've broken them all down by release date below.Materialists (June 13, 2025)The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25, 2025)Eddington (TBD, 2025)Avengers: Doomsday (May 1, 2026)The Mandalorian & Grogu (May 22, 2026)Avengers: Secret Wars (May 7, 2027)Pedro Pascal Movie and Show ListLooking for all of Pedro Pascal's movies and shows that he's starred in by order of release date? We've got you covered with our list below:Downtown (TV Show, 1999)Undressed (TV Show, 1999)Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Show, 1999)Touched by an Angel (TV Show, 2000)NYPD Blue (TV Show, 2001)Earth vs. the Spider (TV Movie, 2001)Sisters (Movie, 2005)Without a Trace (TV Show, 2006)Law & Order (TV Show, 2008)I Am That Girl (Movie, 2008)Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Show, 2006-2009)Nurse Jackie (TV Show, 2010)The Good Wife (TV Show, 2009-2011)Lights Out (TV Show, 2011)The Adjustment Bureau (Movie, 2011)Brothers & Sisters (TV Show, 2011)Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe (TV Movie, 2011)Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Show, 2011)Sweet Little Lies (Movie, 2011)Charlie's Angels (TV Show, 2011)Wonder Woman (TV Movie, 2011)Body of Proof (TV Show, 2012)CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV Show, 2012)Nikita (TV Show, 2013)Red Widow (TV Show, 2013)Homeland (TV Show, 2013)The Sixth Gun (TV Movie, 2013)Game of Thrones (TV Show, 2014)Graceland (TV Show, 2013-2014)The Mentalist (TV Show, 2014)Bloodsucking Bastards (Movie, 2015)Sweets (Movie, 2015)Exposed (TV Movie, 2015)The Great Wall (Movie, 2016)Narcos (TV Show, 2015-2017)Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Movie, 2017)Prospect (Movie, 2018)The Equalizer 2 (Movie, 2018)If Beale Street Could Talk (Movie, 2018)Triple Frontier (Movie, 2019)Community: Webisodes (TV Show, 2020)Home Movie: The Princess Bride (Mini Series, 2020)Wonder Woman 1984 (Movie, 2020)We Can Be Heroes (Movie, 2020)Calls (TV Show, 2021)The Book of Boba Fett (TV Show, 2022)The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Movie, 2022)The Bubble (Movie, 2022)The Mandalorian (TV Show, 2019-2023)HouseBroken (TV Show, 2023)The Last of Us (TV Show, 2023)Freaky Tales (Movie, 2024)Drive-Away Dolls (Movie, 2024)The Uninvited (Movie, 2024)The Wild Robot (Movie, 2024)Gladiator 2 (Movie, 2024)Eddington (Movie, 2025)The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Movie, 2025)Materialists (Movie, 2025)Avengers: Doomsday (Movie, 2026)The Mandalorian & Grogu (Movie, 2026)Avengers: Secret Wars (Movie, 2027)Looking to dive into more actor's careers? Check out these movie lists:Matt Fowler is a freelance entertainment writer/critic, covering TV news, reviews, interviews and features on IGN for 13+ years.Note: This list was updated on April 24, 2025, with more of our favorite Pedro Pascal movies. It was originally published in June, 2023.