Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is out, and it's already quite popular. In light of this, Level-5 has announced some free DLC is on the way, in recognition of the new Fantasy Life's positive reception.Announced on the Level-5 site, the developer has confirmed free DLC is coming to Fantasy Life i. While no release date is set yet, the team is teasing some new recipes, as well as new content to "update the world" (via Gematsu). It will also apparently allow players to utilize high-rarity weapons obtained from Treasure Groves and other sources.Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time went live for early access on May 18, with its full launch on May 21. It quickly climbed the Steam charts and started drawing players in, whether they were on the look-out for a new life-sim game or just eager for a new Fantasy Life game.PlayLevel-5's latest sits at a 'Very Positive' user review rating on Steam at the moment with over 3,000 reviews, and given the early confirmation of free DLC, it seems like the new game has certainly taken off.It feels like a solid win for Level-5, even after the departure of Keiji Inafune last year to "reassess and restructure" the project. Business operations of Level-5 Comcept were transferred to the parent company after Inafune left. In a post from March 2025, Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino described Inafune's departure as an "unexpected challenge."Fantasy Life i has taken off though, which hopefully bodes well for the rest of Level-5's roster of upcoming games. The studio announced a slew of games in a February 2023 Nintendo Direct, and while some have released, others are still in development. The yet-to-be-released games include some heavy hitters, like futuristic detective RPG DecaPolice and the next installment in the Professor Layton series, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam.While we wait to see when and how those games land, at least Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time players have some more chill life updates to look forward to. If you're currently playing Fantasy Life i, make sure to head over to our Fantasy Life i Gift Codes hub, where we're cataloguing all the Gift Codes and how to redeem them for some in-game goodies.Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Here's how much installment payments would cost you to buy a sectional sofa, TV and robot vacuum.

I’m back for part two! If you missed the first installment of my advanced Editor scripting hacks, check it out here. This two-part article is designed to walk you through advanced Editor tips for improving workflows so that your next project runs smoother than your last.Each hack is based on a demonstrative prototype I set up – similar to an RTS – where the units of one team automatically attack enemy buildings and other units. For a refresher, here’s the initial build prototype:In the previous article, I shared best practices on how to import and set up the art assets in the project. Now let’s start using those assets in the game, while saving as much time as possible.Let’s begin by unpacking the game’s elements. When setting up the elements of a game, we often encounter the following scenario:On one hand, we have Prefabs that come from the art team – be it a Prefab generated by the FBX Importer, or a Prefab that has been carefully set up with all the appropriate materials and animations, adding props to the Hierarchy, etc. To use this Prefab in-game, it makes sense to create a Prefab Variant from it and add all the gameplay-related components there. This way, the art team can modify and update the Prefab, and all the changes are reflected immediately in the game. While this approach works if the item only requires a couple of components with simple settings, it can add a lot of work if you need to set up something complex from scratch every time.On the other hand, many of the items will have the same components with similar values, like all the Car Prefabs or Prefabs for similar enemies. It makes sense that they’re all Variants of the same base Prefab. That said, this approach is ideal if setting up the art of the Prefab is straightforward (i.e., setting the mesh and its materials).Next, let’s look at how to simplify the setup of gameplay components, so we can quickly add them to our art Prefabs and use them directly in the game.The most common setup I’ve seen for complex elements in a game is having a “main” component (like “enemy,” “pickup,” or “door”) that behaves as an interface to communicate with the object, and a series of small, reusable components that implement the functionality itself; things like “selectable,” “CharacterMovement,” or “UnitHealth,” and Unity built-in components, like renderers and colliders.Some of the components depend on other components in order to work. For instance, the character movement might need a NavMesh agent. That’s why Unity has the RequireComponent attribute ready to define all these dependencies. So if there’s a “main” component for a given type of object, you can use the RequireComponent attribute to add all the components that this type of object needs to have.For example, the units in my prototype have these attributes:Besides setting an easy-to-find location in the AddComponentMenu, include all the extra components it needs. In this case, I added the Locomotion to move around and the AttackComponent to attack other units.Additionally, the base class unit (which is shared with the buildings) has other RequireComponent attributes that are inherited by this class, such as the Health component. With this, I only need to add the Soldier component to a GameObject so that all the other components are added automatically. If I add a new RequireComponent attribute to a component, Unity will update all the existing GameObjects with the new component, which facilitates extending the existing objects.RequireComponent also has a more subtle benefit: If we have “component A” that requires “component B,” then adding A to a GameObject doesn’t just ensure that B is added as well – it actually ensures that B is added before A. This means that when the Reset method is called for component A, component B will already exist and we’ll readily have access to it. This enables us to set references to the components, register persistent UnityEvents, and anything else we need to do to set up the object. By combining the RequireComponent attribute and the Reset method, we can fully set up the object by adding a single component.The main drawback of the method shown above is that, if we decide to change a value, we will need to change it for every object manually. And if all the setup is done through code, it becomes difficult for designers to modify it.In the previous article, we looked at how to use AssetPostprocessor for adding dependencies and modifying objects at import time. Now let’s use this to enforce some values in our Prefabs.To make it easier for designers to modify those values, we will read the values from a Prefab. Doing so allows the designers to easily modify that Prefab to change the values for the entire project.If you’re writing Editor code, you can copy the values from a component in an object to another by taking advantage of the Preset class.Create a preset from the original component and apply it to the other component(s) like this:As it stands, it will override all the values in the Prefab, but this most probably isn’t what we want it to do. Instead, copy only some values, while keeping the rest intact. To do this, use another override of the Preset.ApplyTo that takes a list of the properties it must apply. Of course, we could easily create a hardcoded list of the properties we want to override, which would work fine for most projects, but let’s see how to make this completely generic.Basically, I created a base Prefab with all the components, and then created a Variant to use as a template. Then I decided what values to apply from the list of overrides in the Variant.To get the overrides, use PrefabUtility.GetPropertyModifications. This provides you with all the overrides in the entire Prefab, so filter only the ones necessary to target this component. Something to keep in mind here is that the target of the modification is the component of the base Prefab – not the component of the Variant – so we need to get the reference to it by using GetCorrespondingObjectFromSource:Now this will apply all overrides of the template to our Prefabs. The only detail left is that the template might be a Variant of a Variant, and we will want to apply the overrides from that Variant as well.To do this, we only need to make this recursive:Next, let’s find the template for our Prefabs. Ideally, we will want to use different templates for different types of objects. One efficient way of doing this is by placing the templates in the same folder as the objects we want to apply them to.Look for an object named Template.prefab in the same folder as our Prefab. If we can’t find it, we will look in the parent folder recursively:At this point, we have the ability to modify the template Prefab, and all the changes will be reflected in the Prefabs in that folder, even though they aren’t Variants of the template. In this example, I changed the default player color (the color used when the unit isn’t attached to any player). Notice how it updates all the objects:When balancing games, all the stats you’ll need to adjust are spread across various components, stored in one Prefab or ScriptableObject for every character. This makes the process of adjusting details rather slow.A common way to make balancing easier is by using spreadsheets. They can be very handy as they bring all the data together, and you can use formulas to automatically calculate some of the additional data. But entering this data into Unity manually can be painfully long.That’s where the spreadsheets come in. They can be exported to simple formats like CSV(.csv) or TSV(.tsv), which is exactly what ScriptedImporters are for. Below is a screen capture of the stats for the units in the prototype:The code for this is pretty simple: Create a ScriptableObject with all the stats for a unit, then you can read the file. For every row of the table, create an instance of the ScriptableObject and fill it with the data for that row.Finally, add all the ScriptableObjects to the imported asset by using the context. We also need to add a main asset, which I just set to an empty TextAsset (as we don’t really use the main asset for anything here).This works for both buildings and units, but you should check which one you’re importing as units will have many more stats.With this complete, there are now some ScriptableObjects that contain all of the data from the spreadsheet.The generated ScriptableObjects are ready to be used in the game as needed. You can also use the PrefabPostprocessor that was set up earlier.In the OnPostprocessPrefab method, we have the capacity to load this asset and use its data to fill the parameters of the components automatically. Even more, if you set a dependency to this data asset, the Prefabs will be reimported every time you modify the data, keeping everything up to date automatically.When trying to create awesome levels, it’s crucial to be able to change and test things quickly, making small adjustments and trying again. That’s why fast iteration times and reducing the steps needed to start testing are so important.One of the first things that we think of when it comes to iteration times in Unity is the Domain Reload. The Domain Reload is relevant in two key situations: after compiling code in order to load the new dynamically linked libraries (DLLs), and when entering and exiting Play Mode. Domain Reload that comes with compiling can’t be avoided, but you do have the option of disabling reloads related to Play Mode in Project Settings > Editor > Enter Play Mode Settings.Disabling the Domain Reload when entering Play Mode can cause some issues if your code isn’t prepared for it, with the most usual issue being that static variables aren’t reset after playing. If your code can work with this disabled, go for it. For this prototype, Domain Reload is disabled, so you can enter Play Mode almost instantaneously.A separate issue with iteration times has to do with recalculating data that is required in order to play. This often involves selecting some components and clicking on buttons to trigger the recalculations. For example, in this prototype, there is a TeamController for each team within the scene. This controller has a list of all the enemy buildings so that it can send the units to attack them. In order to fill this data automatically, use the IProcessSceneWithReport interface. This interface is called for the scenes on two different occasions: during builds and when loading a scene in Play Mode. With it comes the opportunity to create, destroy, and modify any object you want. Note, however, that these changes will only affect Builds and Play Mode.It is in this callback that the controllers are created and the list of buildings is set. Thanks to this, there is no need to do anything manually. The controllers with an updated list of buildings will be there when play starts, and the list will be updated with the changes we’ve made.For the prototype, a utility method was set up that allows you to get all the instances of a component in a scene. You can use this to get all the buildings:The rest of the process is somewhat trivial: Get all the buildings, get all the teams that the buildings belong to, and create a controller for every team with a list of enemy buildings.Besides the scene being edited, you also need to load other scenes in order to play (i.e., a scene with the managers, with the UI, etc.) This can take up valuable time. In the case of the prototype, the Canvas with the healthbars is in a different scene called InGameUI.An effective way of working with this is by adding a component to the scene with a list of the scenes that need to be loaded along with it. If you load those scenes synchronously in the Awake method, the scene will be loaded and all of its Awake methods will be invoked at that point. So by the time the Start method is called, you can be sure that all the scenes are loaded and initialized, which gives you access to the data in them, such as manager singletons.Remember that you might have some of the scenes open when you enter Play Mode, so it’s important to check whether the scene is already loaded before loading it:Throughout parts one and two of this article, I’ve shown you how to leverage some of the lesser known features that Unity has to offer. Everything outlined is just a fraction of what can be done, but I hope that you’ll find these hacks useful for your next project, or – at the very least – interesting.The assets used to create the prototype can be found for free in the Asset Store:Skeletons: Toon RTS Units – Undead DemoKnights: Toon RTS Units – DemoTowers: Awesome Stylized Mage TowerIf you’d like to discuss this two-parter, or share your ideas after reading it, head on over to our Scripting forum. I’m signing off for now but you can still connect with me on Twitter at @CaballolD. Be sure to stay tuned for future technical blogs from other Unity developers as part of the ongoing Tech from the Trenches series.

Something to look forward to: Great news for hardcore Warhammer fans like Henry Cavill, the annual Warhammer Skulls livestream has just taken place, revealing an exciting lineup of new games set in the grim darkness of the far future. It includes a remaster of Space Marine, a definitive edition of Dawn of War with modern upgrades, a new cRPG from Owlcat, more Space Marine 2 content, and confirmation that Space Marine 3 is in the works. There was plenty on offer during the yearly celebration of Warhammer video games. One of the highlights was news that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, still one of the greatest RTS games of all time more than 20 years after its release, is getting a definitive edition. The updated version will comprise all the Dawn of War and standalone expansion content, including 4 classic Dawn of War campaigns, 9 armies, and over 200 maps. There will also be upscaled textures, 4K support, new lighting and reflections, a camera that's been pulled back slightly, bug fixes, and a move to 64-bit to aid modders. The game is due out this year. Another Warhammer property receiving an upgraded special edition is the original Space Marine. Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Master Crafted Edition also offers upgraded textures, character models, 4K support, updated controls, and all the DLC. It arrives on PC on June 10, priced at $40. If, like me, you spent an obscene amount of time playing the brilliant Rogue Trader following its release, you'll be pleased to know that developer Owlcat is making another cRPG set in the 40K universe. Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy will focus on the Inquisition. What little gameplay is shown in the trailer looks very compelling. In related news, Owlcat revealed the next big expansion to Rogue Trader, Lex Imperialis. Arriving on June 24, the 15-hour DLC features the Adeptus Arbites – the galactic police force – and a new Overseer archetype. We'll also see the first paid DLC for Darktide. Arbites Class will launch on June 23 for $11.99. The excellent Space Marine 2 is getting yet more content. A co-op PvE Siege Mode will be released on June 26, putting players up against endless waves of enemies. Those who enjoyed the turn-based Mechanicus will be pleased to know a sequel is coming later this year. Mechanicus II - Allegiances Unknown will see the Adeptus Mechanicus battling the Necron dynasty. Finally, it's been confirmed that Space Marine 3 is in development. Made by the same Saber Interactive, Focus Entertainment and Games Workshop partnership behind Space Marine 2, it promises an all-new immersive campaign and multiplayer modes. With plenty of life left in Space Marine 2, it will be several years before we play the third installment. // Related Stories

In brief: The danger faced by buy now, pay later companies is when customers don't adhere to the "pay later" part. It's a problem being faced by industry giant Klarna, which saw its net losses more than double in the first quarter as more customers struggled to pay back their loan installments. Klarna's net losses for the first quarter reached $99 million, almost double the $47 million it lost during the same period a year earlier. The problem is that an increasing number of customers who have taken out the buy now, pay later loans are struggling to pay them back. Klarna offers its BNPL services to a range of merchants, letting customers purchase a wide range of items in installments. The company makes its money by charging fees to the merchants and customers who fail to pay on time. In its first quarter earnings report, Klarna revealed that consumer credit losses were up to $136 million, an increase of around 17% compared to a year earlier. It seems there's a growing trend of BNPL customers being unable to meet their contractual obligations. Credit platform LendingTree carried out a survey last month that found 41% of users of BNPL loans said they paid late on one of them in the past year, up from 34% compared to a year ago. High-income borrowers were among the most likely to pay late, along with men, young people, and parents of young kids. // Related Stories   The survey also showed that a quarter of BNPL users said they used the loans to buy groceries amid rising supermarket costs and marking a 14% increase compared to a year ago. It also revealed that nearly 1 in 4 BNPL users said they've had three or more active BNPL loans at one time. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York last week reported that US consumer debt rose by $167 billion in the first quarter to reach a record $18.2 trillion. Elsewhere in Klarna's earnings, which was presented using an AI-generated avatar of its chief executive, the company said it has used artificial intelligence to help cut costs. The company's headcount is down 39% over the last two years, customer service costs were down 12% YoY in the first quarter. Klarna is estimated to have replaced 700 employees with AI. The good news for humans is that Klarna has started hiring them again after its CEO recently admitted AI customer service chatbots offered a "lower quality" output.

This is the eighth blog in our Games Focus series, which highlights key product development initiatives for the year ahead and beyond. In this installment, we cover the status, upcoming release plans, and future vision for Unity Multiplayer Networking.Hi there, my name’s Kiki Saintonge and I’m a product manager on the multiplayer team – the one focused on delivering Unity’s Netcode for GameObjects solution.I’ve been at Unity for about a year, but I’ve been a hobbyist and indie Unity developer since 2013. My passion lies in games, particularly playing the inspiring things y’all make. I’m pretty excited to chat about our multiplayer solutions in this post today, especially since so many of you have voiced the need and desire to have a more complete and accessible solution to multiplayer development. We’re closer than you think.Let’s be honest: Making multiplayer games can be really hard, from designing the mechanics to implementing and testing. You have to account for so much – latency, packet loss, handling scene management, what should or shouldn’t be sent over the network – much of which is difficult to track or simulate. Even our third-party networking solutions need third- (fourth?) party tools just to see what the heck is going on.Building a complete networking system for your game should be just like the game itself: unique and refined to fit your game’s experience.With that in mind, we wanted to build a netcode solution that’s flexible enough to accommodate every core aspect of your multiplayer game, while also making it easier for you to use third-party tools or services if you need to. This is the fundamental goal of our netcode solutions.It’s also important to keep in mind that with multiplayer development comes services and scale, two things you might not have thought about in the context of single player or co-op. Unity Gaming Services is our recently launched platform that includes Game Server Hosting (Multiplay), Matchmaker, Relay, and Lobby services. It was designed to give you all the tools you need to build solid foundations, create engaging player experiences, and drive game growth, all within the same integrated ecosystem.We announced some amazing netcode solution releases this year. Our first major release of Netcode for GameObjects is now available in 2020 and 2021 LTS.This GameObject-based Netcode solution helps you get started building small-scale co-op multiplayer games. However, if you’ve built your experience using DOTS (Entities), we’re also pleased to announce our Netcode for Entities solution coming to the 2022 Tech Stream, which helps you get set up for a larger-scale multiplayer experience. Look for our next post in this series to learn more about that release.These stacks cover a wide foundational start to multiplayer development. Together, they make up one step of many to get you on your feet with multiplayer games. These releases also are focused specifically on critical networking scenarios, like abstracting how to communicate to servers and clients, sending object data across the network, and input handling.This release also supports some essential tools that allow you to track the packet loss, size, and latency of networked objects. Network Profiler is an extension to the Profiler that’s built into the Editor, and Runtime Network Stats Monitor(RNSM) is a customizable lighter-weight “Profiler” view of the network states that can be run on standalone builds for playtests.You can install these tools through our com.unity.multiplayer.tools package in-Editor.All of our Netcode stacks – yes, that includes Entities – are built on top of our Transport layer. This layer is netcode-agnostic and can be utilized with any solution.Unity Transport Protocol (or UTP) extends the user datagram protocol with added support for Unity Relay and extra security using DTLS. This layer works across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and all major consoles.We also provide some light network simulation capabilities through our transport package’s Debug Simulator properties. This allows you to throttle or simulate latency or bandwidth issues when testing in-Editor.If you’re looking to get direct access to this lower-level networking library you can install it directly via the com.unity.transportpackage.Although Netcode for GameObjects is relatively new, there are already games being built with it.The wonderful team over at Fika Productions with Team17 are working on a beautifully hand-drawn game, Ship of Fools. It’s a fast-paced multiplayer co-op game of nautical persuasion developed completely in Netcode for GameObjects.We’re constantly looking to cover gaps and demystify what’s happening on the network with multiplayer tooling.Multiplayer Play Mode would be a big first step in making multiplayer development a first-class Editor experience.The goal of this multiplayer tool is to “just work” once you enter play mode. It offers the same experience as the single-player workflow, but now you can have up to four clients running within the same Editor session, each receiving its own console information and able to be differentiated with a network-based tagging system.Network Simulator is another feature we’d like to bring up from the Transport layer and expand into a more fully functional tool with a UI that lets you introduce lag spikes, set ping rates, trigger connections/disconnections at will, and even customize certain networking scenarios to run during playtests.We’re looking at getting our Transport package better integrated with Burst, as well as supporting WebSockets.Having a dedicated server is the core to many multiplayer games, and it comes with the need for more fine-grained control of what kind of headless server you’re building.We’ve begun to investigate the dedicated server workflow. This starts with giving you more control and clarity over which assets you want within a server and which you do not. Essentially, you’re selecting the content you want in your server builds, which saves you time and potentially bandwidth in the long run.Want to see the status of these features and more on Netcode for GameObjects?Check out our multiplayer networking roadmap to see what’s included in 1.0 and what’s in the works for future releases. You can also check out our recent Unite 2022 Roadmap session for an overview across the Unity ecosystem.Creating multiplayer games is not easy, and it’s common to feel overwhelmed when exploring the development of a multiplayer game – even with SDK docs provided.It’s our goal to equip and support you with the tools to build great multiplayer gaming experiences for your players. Part of that promise involves providing not only the foundational networking technology but also the documentation and educational templates, such as Boss Room, you’ll need to understand its application.There are many resources available today that you can use to learn more about Unity multiplayer solutions.Boss Roomis a small-scale cooperative game sample project built with Netcode for GameObjects. It’s designed to be used in its entirety to help you explore the concepts and patterns behind a multiplayer game flow.We’re continuing to develop in-house projects as well, to highlight new features and the general capabilities of what you can do with Netcode for GameObjects.Our latest game is Galactic Kittens, a 2D, multiplayer, playable, open source, co-op shooter.To start, check out these blog posts to learn about Unity’s multiplayer suite:Empower great multiplayer experiences with Relay and LobbyEnter the Boss Room: our new multiplayer sample gameState of disruptive behavior in multiplayer gamesChoosing the right netcode for your gamePlus some amazing resources created by our incredible community:COMPLETE Unity Multiplayer Tutorial (Netcode for Game Objects) | CodeMonkeyHow to: Unity Online Multiplayer | TarodevWe hope you’ll stay engaged with our Games Focus series by giving your feedback. Post your questions and comments for this blog in the multiplayer forum or in this dedicated thread.Visit our Productboard for full details on the roadmap. You’ll need to log in with your Unity ID and accept to use functional cookies. Each card on this interactive board is clickable, giving you more details about each topic while providing you with the option to share your feedback. Click on a card, select the level of importance of the topic to you, add your point of view, and submit. This feedback is then directly routed to the proper product teams.Netcode for GameObjects is a capable netcode solution, but if you’re looking to build something much bigger – think galaxies or multi-server MMOs with thousands of players active at once – you’ll want to stay tuned for the release of our next blog in the Game Focus series, which will be all about how to create larger worlds and richer environments.

The Avengers are not returning to theaters as initially planned.Marvel had previously slated the two Avengers sequels, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars for May 1, 2026 and May 7, 2027, respectively. Both films have been pushed back from the summer to the holiday season. Their new dates are December 18, 2026 (for Doomsday) and December 17, 2027 (for Secret Wars).Marvel’s next film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, is still scheduled to open this summer on July 25, 2025. The only other upcoming MCU movie with a confirmed release date at this point besides the two Avengers is Spider-Man: Brand New Day. That’s currently scheduled for July 31, 2026. In other words, it was originally intended (and presumably carefully planned) to open betweenDoomsday and Secret Wars. Now, unless Sony and Marvel delay that film as well, it will open before either Avengers sequel.MarvelMarvelloading...READ MORE: Every Marvel Movie Ranked From Worst to BestThat could be a major headache for Brand New Day. If the movie was supposed to be set after whatever cliffhanger concludes Doomsday, that could conceivably require major changes to the film’s story. That’s why I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Brand New Day gets delayed now as well. If it’s tied in any significant way to the events of Avengers: Doomsday, it would almost have to be.With this change, the next Avengers movies will be the only installments of the franchise not to open in either early May or late April. Marvel typically releases their films either in the late winter, the early summer, mid-July, or November. But Sony (in conjunction with Marvel) did release Spider-Man: No Way Home in theaters on December 17, 2021, and that movie grossed $1.91 billion worldwide. So perhaps that is a good time for a massive superhero crossover film.Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars mark the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this time as Doctor Doom. The massive cast also includes Anthony Mackie, Chris Hemsworth, Letitia Wright, Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Tom Hiddleston, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, and Channing Tatum, as well as the stars of The Fantastic Four: First Steps and the recent Thunderbolts*.Get our free mobile appThe Worst Movies With $200 Million BudgetsThese movies cost a lot of money. But money isn’t everything.

On May 23, the final installment of the Mission: Impossible saga is set to come to an end with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Known for its vicious villains, the franchise sports its Biggest Bad yet: an AI known as The Entity that's bent on wiping humans off the planet. Mashable Senior Creative Producer Mark Stetson sat down with the cast (Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Greg Tarzan Davis) to discuss the film's themes of humanity and friendship and its exploration of the future of AI. First, Simon Pegg, who has played Benji Dunn since Mission: Impossible III — when we first get a hint of The Entity's existence — helped break down the origins of this Big Bad. "Yeah, I mean, the Entity was around in its nascent form a long time ago. It was a malicious code, basically, which itself evolved into what we are up against in Dead Reckoning, in The Final Reckoning. And I love the idea that McQ [Director Christopher McQuarrie] looked back into the past to see where things may have started, where the rumblings of the Entity may have begun. And further back as well, to, obviously, when Bill Donloe was exiled to Alaska."Hayley Atwell, first appearing in the franchise as Grace in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, goes on to discuss film's theme of friendship and humanity in the face of its AI villain. "I feel like the core theme of this film is friendship. So that, of course, the anti-God and and the Entity...is the sort of the villain...the thing that sets up the stakes. But really it's a film about a team coming together and sacrificing personal ambition for the sake of the good of all people. And it's a triumph of the human spirit... It's so, so beautiful and so heartfelt."Finally, Angela Bassett ties the interview up in a really nice bow when asked why it's important to prioritize humanity: "I mean, what do we have left without it? You know, we have to. We're made to be in communion with one another... So even though it's a great tool...we need to keep [AI] in its lane and [make sure] it's [a] benefit to us, not to the detriment of us."Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens exclusively in theaters on May 23.

Editor's take: I really want Doom: The Dark Ages to be good, and so far, the reviews look decent enough. However, other evidence, including declining player counts and online gab, paints a different picture. It also brings into question the sincerity of Bethesda's most recent social media post regarding the game's performance. Bethesda took time out of its busy schedule this week to take a victory lap over Doom: The Dark Ages, which has reached 3 million players since its May 15 release. The publisher claimed the game hit that milestone seven times faster than Doom Eternal, making it the most successful launch in id Software's history. We'll have to take its word for it, though – Bethesda offered no sales figures, and player counts are hard to verify since only Steam makes them public. Some have found Bethesda's claims dubious. Video Games Chronicle points out that Bethesda's assertion of The Dark Ages reaching 3 million players seven times faster than Doom Eternal contradicts known statistics. According to 2020 numbers from Superdata, Eternal took 10 days to reach that mark. Bethesda posted its self-congratulatory message on X five days after launch, meaning The Dark Ages met the goal twice as fast, not seven times. Although IGN gave the game a glowing 9/10 review, it expressed skepticism about the achievement. According to Steam data, Doom: The Dark Ages peaked at 31,470 concurrent players and has steadily declined since. Comparatively, Doom Eternal reached 104,891, and Doom (2016) hit 44,271 during similar timeframes. While concurrent Steam player counts don't reflect total player numbers, they offer a rough gauge of the game's momentum. While the newest installment in the franchise has earned solid marks – 86/100 from critics and 8.6/10 from users – forum chatter remains mixed, though it leans slightly positive. Redditor Westonsammy summed up the general consensus among his friends. "If you loved Eternal and its combat, you'll like Dark Ages but see it as a downgrade from Eternal in terms of gameplay," he wrote. "If you disliked Eternal and its combat, you'll love Dark Ages, and it'll be your favorite game in the trilogy." // Related Stories Many others found this a fair assessment, chiming in with views along the same lines, with difficulty (or lack thereof) being a common complaint. "In Eternal, I knew if I set it to nightmare, I was going to get a good challenge, whereas in TDA, I barely have to think on nightmare," Muddymess responded. "I could probably tweak the sliders to get a decent challenge, but that, to me, just feels cheap somehow [grammar edited for clarity]." Doomscrolling (pun intended) the same thread did not reveal much glowing praise, despite the original post – "Doom: The Dark Ages Is The 'Biggest Launch' In id Software History" – being a straightforward report on Bethesda's claim. Perhaps the tone was set by the first comment on the thread: "Love the game but I do feel it was a step backwards from eternal," Outside-Point8254 wrote. "It's really missing Mick Gordon music." Regardless of the contradictory nature of forum discussions versus reviews, the fact remains that it's hard to tell whether Bethesda is being genuine about the game's success or just blowing smoke to hype what could be the weakest id Software game in nearly a decade. Remember, in the age of software as a service/subscription, unique player numbers don't directly translate into sales figures. The Dark Ages was a day-one release on Game Pass, which likely gave it the boost it needed to surpass the 3 million player mark. With the game priced at $70, it makes sense that many who might have bought it – some even sight unseen – opted to play it for "free" through their existing Xbox subscriptions. Maybe we should wait until we have some sales figures to throw a party. Just sayin'.

Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future by Alan Weisman | Dutton | $32 The expression “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic” is meant to convey a sense of futility, of meaningless action in the face of catastrophe, but I have been thinking recently of how it might be turned on its head, reimagined as a small gesture of purpose, of good work left to be done aboard that superlative metaphor for capitalist overabundance and technological hubris. I concede, it is not a perfect thought exercise, nor one nearly so elegant as those often deployed in the writing of the environmental journalist Alan Weisman, but I keep returning to it as I read Hope Dies Last, his final installment in a trilogy that also includes The World Without Us (2007) and Countdown (2013). Weisman has an acumen for moving fluidly between a cataclysmic big picture and intimate first-hand accounts of its impact and his rigorously researched storytelling is well-suited to the challenge of writing about a phenomenon as vastly incomprehensible as climate collapse. “We can’t picture 6,780 pyramids of Giza,” Weisman writes, so it is hard to visualize the 40 million tons of carbon humanity produces each year, but we can start to comprehend its impact through the stories of the people on the ground trying to do something about it—engineers at work restoring Mesopotamian wetlands in Iraq or plasma physicists developing commercial-scale fusion power at MIT. There are architects in this book too—including projects in the Korean DMZ by Bijoy Jain, Shigeru Ban, Seung H-Sang, and Minsuk Cho, and a Bjarke Ingels’ proposal for a floating city in Busan inspired by Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao—but Hope Dies Last’s immediate relevance to readers of this publication may have more to do with a statistic familiar to these pages, the 40 percent of global greenhouse emissions for which the construction industry is responsible (a share second only to the oil and gas sector). Our ecological crisis is, at least in part, a byproduct of our built environment. (Courtesy Dutton) Weisman writes about that built environment beautifully. His description of the natural world’s ruthless repossession of a post-human Manhattan in the third chapter of The World Without Us is a small masterpiece of infrastructural prose. Many moments in Hope Dies Last, including a description of the massive network of dams, dikes, locks, levees, and storm surge barriers that comprise the Netherland’s Delta Works, are equally compelling. When COVID-19 locked much of humanity indoors, Weisman was seen as something of a visionary, but what makes his writing so griping is less his sweeping prognostications than his doggedly pragmatic realism. We cannot begin to address our climate crisis without looking rationally at and learning from its myriad constituent parts. The Netherlands’ methodically planned Delta Works, for example, cost less than a tenth of what the U.S. paid to clean up after hurricane Katrina. We need to be smarter about how we build. We also need to build less. Weisman’s second book, Countdown was a study of a central logical fallacy of late capitalism—that technology can solve for the impossibility of infinite population growth on a planet with very finite resources. We don’t like to talk about population control because it can feel coercive or contrary to our values but placing faith in technology to solve for unlimited human growth is lunacy. The same may be said of our hugely energy-intensive development of artificial intelligence infrastructure. A future edition of Countdown might include in its preface the 2023 story of a Belgian man despondent over the climate crisis, who committed suicide after a conversation with a chatbot that arrived at the logical conclusion that most impactful thing he could do to save the earth would be to remove the burden he placed upon it. The environmental outlook is far worse now than when Weisman began his career; the message at the core of Hope Dies Last is more somber than the two books that preceded it. Hope is not an expression Weisman uses lightly. Early in the book he unpacks the foreboding that lingers within a word that conveys an emotion more powerful than optimism precisely because it also carries a tinge of doubt. Hope, he notes, is a word that struggles against itself. That struggle is compounded by the uncomfortable truth of the astonishingly destructive work that has been done in the weeks since Hope Dies Last went to press. Even my advance copy has begun to feel outdated as I watch the current administration slam the door on so many small last best hopes. Yet, there is still work to be done and much of it by the people who think about how we build the world around us. In the words of a naturalist named Rosario whom Weisman meets while she is helping to clear the beach of plastic bottles during a turtle census in the Yucatán: “It’s a lost cause, but we do it anyway.” Justin Beal is an artist and author based in New York. His first book, Sandfuture, was published by MIT Press in 2021. He teaches at Hunter College and the Yale School of Architecture. This post contains affiliate links. AN may have a commission if you make a purchase through these links.