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One highlight of the recent DC FanDome was the twentieth-anniversary reunion of Smallville’s Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum. Clark and Lex got together again to chit-chat about the old times. Reminiscing about the days when they were the only DC Comics-based TV series on the CW. (a wild notion these days).

But one thing they didn’t talk about was the news that they are working on continuing the story of Smallville. Only this time, in animated form. The folks at IGN recently caught up with Rosenbaum, who confirmed that indeed, an animated continuation is in the works. Despite no official announcement at DC FanDome. Here’s what he had to say about the proposed series:

Warner Bros. 

“It’s something that we’re passionate about. Something we love. Hopefully, we’re going to obviously share with Warner Brothers when the time is right. And hopefully, we’ll be able to work with them. And that’s about all we can say right now.” Rosenbaum admitted that the news of the project leaked early. He also added “Here we are, 20 years later since it started. And one of the most frequent questions is, where do you see your characters now? So that’s literally what we’ll be addressing.”

Warner Bros. Television

Of course, the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event from 2019 and early 2020 actually showed what became of Clark and Lois in the present day. It revealed that Clark gave up his powers, and he and his wife lived a quiet life on the Kent farm. And DC has published several comics taking place past the end of the TV series, pushing the story forward. Will they ignore all that for the new series? Actually, they easily could. The end of Crisis saw a new Multiverse form. So all of those new continuity bits may go down the drain. We just hope we see Smallville Clark as Superman at last. Fans have waited long enough.

The post Michael Rosenbaum Confirms SMALLVILLE Animated Project appeared first on Nerdist.

Along with tattoos that’ll be able to know a lot about your physiology, MIT engineers have also been cranking out clothing that does the same thing. For example, in March of this year, engineers from the research university developed “smart clothes” that can sense and record wearers’ movements. Now, MIT researchers have prototyped “soft robotic fibers” that can monitor a person’s breathing. And change it, if necessary.

DesignTAXI reported on MIT’s new soft robotic fibers, which can sense their own physical alteration and mechanically respond to it. The researchers worked with colleagues from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Uppsala University. The team aimed to develop robotic textiles for what will become a tool that athletes and singers can use to better control their breathing. In other words, they can be made into super helpful smart clothes.

MIT

In the video above, the researchers describe how the soft robotic fibers work. As the video notes, the robotic fibers can bend, stretch, curl, and pulse on command. The fibers can also provide immediate feedback to wearers. They can squeeze around one’s midsection, for example. Or the smart fabrics can stiffen up and down a wearer’s spine.

The robotic fibers work using a miniaturized wearable electronic control platform—Flow IO—that pumps compressed air through them. The fibers themselves consist of a silicone-based ultra-stretchable material and a tubular braided polymer. These materials are wrapped in a way that creates an empty channel at their center. The channel, in turn, allows for the compressed air to charge through the fibers, straightening or constricting them. Or, conversely, loosening them up.

MIT

The initial use case for the fibers was as a smart robotic fabric for an opera singer. As an MIT press release notes, the team made an undergarment the singer wore to monitor and play back the movement of her respiratory muscles. The garment (above) was even able to provide kinesthetic feedback. Thus it encouraged “optimal posture and breathing patterns” for the singer’s desired vocal performance.

On top of applications for singers and athletes, the researchers say the same fibers could help patients with respiratory issues regain normal breathing patterns. Or perhaps even function as a tool for combating sleep apnea. One thing seems certain, however… Every breath you take, every move you make, smart clothes will be watching you.

The post Robotic Fibers From MIT Can Monitor and Alter Your Breathing appeared first on Nerdist.

Sony has been doing a great job with their Playstation 5 exclusives. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Returnal were both fun and engaging games that really took advantage of the PS5’s hardware in its early stages. Next up to bat is Bethesda’s Deathproof. Let me be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this game before it came out. There was a whole lot of emphasis on ‘player freedom’, but usually that turns out to be more lip service than anything else. I can happily say that while it isn’t perfect, Deathloop blew me away with its stellar gameplay, fascinating story, and spectacular voice acting. Developer Arkane Studios created a unique game that sinks its teeth into you from the jump and never lets go.

Groundhog’s Day with an Edge

You play as Colt (Jason E. Kelley) who wakes up on a beach with no memory. Very quickly you discover that you are stuck in a single, looping day. The only way to exit this loop? Kill the eight ‘visionaries’ scattered across the island before the day is done. It’s a pretty straightforward idea, implemented fantastically. Even though you only have a single day, there isn’t a ticking clock or anything to constantly remind you of that. Instead, there are four timeslots; morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Time only passes when you move between the maps, giving you time to plan, learn, and discover what options you may have at any given time and location. Each of the four unique locations also has different activities and enemies depending on the time of day.

It’s important to experiment and look for clues. In the beginning, it’s impossible to kill everyone in a single loop. Through repeating the day over and over again you learn more about your targets and how to get them together in the same locations to be a more effective killer. It’s something that could get old very quickly, but Deathloop keeps everything feeling fresh through ’til the very end. You could find a note in the afternoon that leads you to a separate place in the evening that can help you get two visionaries in the same spot on a completely different map at noon. It’s dizzying fun to discover these clues, they give you a real sense of accomplishment.

She Really Don’t Like You

Part of what makes this game stand out is the stellar voice work. Before getting too deep, I have to give a HUGE shoutout to Jason E. Kelley and Ozioma Akagha who play Colt and his rival Julianna respectively. The banter between the two is some of the best I’ve heard in years. Colt gives off big, “F**k I’ll do it live” energy. He’s brash and swears so much he could make a sailor blush and yet it never comes off as annoying or douche-y. Think Duke Nukem but well written and very likable. Opposite Colt is Julianna, the only other person who can remember everything that happens from loop to loop. Her singular mission: kill Colt any and every chance she gets. The banter between them is truly top-notch and Ozioma gives the character real depth while still being the hard-ass, “Killing you is fun” antagonist. I really hope to see more of these two in any medium because damn, they were fire.

While Colt and Julianna are the standouts, all of the visionaries and even the random cannon fodder are great. Everyone has their own unique personality and is deeply flawed. Deathloop definitely encourages listening to every single character and discovering for yourself how messed up everyone is. Each visionary will drop powers that Colt can take and use for himself and his special weapons. This is where you can really personalize your play style. Certain powers push the run-and-gun style, allowing you to mow down enemies and stay alive longer. Other powers let you play sneakily and allow for better traversing. It’s a ton of fun to experiment with different powers and find what works best for you and for the specific situation.

Know Thy Enemy

While you hunt for the visionaries, you still have to watch out for Julianna, who is hunting you. Either the AI or another player can have her invade your map and hunt you relentlessly. Defeating her will give you the powers of other visionaries, but true to the game’s title, she can always come back within the same loop later in the day. To truly defeat her is part of the mystery. You can choose to invade another game and discover how powerful Julianna can be. It’s different and its own challenge but just as fun as the main game. Deathloop convinces you to play as Julianna through its delightful rewards and ranks. It’s great if you don’t have a whole lot of time to devote to playing. While not essential to play, it’s still a great addition to the core experience.

The Wrap Up

Arkane Studios and Bethesda struck gold here with a concept that could have easily become stale after a few hours. Deathloop is one of those games that grabs you from the moment you boot it up. It has well-designed and unique gameplay, fun characters with fantastic voice acting, and an engaging mystery that will keep you coming back. Even after all of that, it’s the little touches the game provides that really make the world feel lived in. This is a must-have for anyone with a PS5. A full-price game if I’ve ever played one.

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The post Deathloop Review: Another Banger for the PS5 appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Listen, usually, I don’t be out here complimenting white men, but Joe Goldberg is a mastermind in his own right and clearly knows what he’s doing. You will be here for it. And You will be screaming, “Aw, damn!” at least four times per episode, so – buckle your Joe hats and park your unmarked vehicles because you’re in for a wild ride with the Quinn-Goldberg household.

Motherhood, Fit For You

There are many occasions, across the series, where we see the ‘conventional’ ideology of family (i.e being white mom, white dad, plus child) challenged to its core. Motherhood and its relationship to whiteness remain at the forefront of my eyes throughout the series. What does it mean for a family of white murderers to seize generational curses related to their own trauma and the trauma they have caused others? Love Quinn-Goldberg and Dottie Quinn’s relationship is a staggering bond between a mother and daughter. As Love and Dottie deal with the grief of a son and brother, their sadness is reflected on to the newborn. Love and Dottie, grow sour and their relationship becomes a display of what happens when grief becomes a dependency. There is a certain and peculiar heat that sits within a daughter who prays to not be like their mother.

But Love Quinn is not to be slept on. When her head is in the game, she’s quick on her feet. No wonder she and Joe were such a passionate match. Love held back often and that’s what made her seem at odds with the “head of the town” Sherry Conrad. A relationship between mothers with hints of jealousy, genuine advice with some shallow suburban reasoning. There is clearly ‘rival energy masked as friendship’ that feels just like a perfect analogy for the small town’s attitude. A smile, waiting for your slip up. The questions that arise when we see the main moms, Love, Dottie, and Sherry begs the question, “To where do we look to feel like the perfect mother?”

A Pool of Blood, A Revival Ensues

When the family lost Forty a newborn seemed like the perfect place to store the energy of that loss. We travel through You, through the ignorance of a newborn. The writers truly captured every twist and compared each present moment to previous instances of trauma and abuse. You is a display of how everything must die, but death does not necessarily mean that we move on from the body. We see this in the form of a dying marriage. Love and Joe are consistently at ends trying to revive or kill their marriage and that toxicity spreads across to the relationships they have outside of that connection.

Every time someone dies, the scale tilts. A withering love tearing at the seams. With each body, the question leers: what energy is holding this marriage together? Is it the weight of the graves they’ve dug? The most powerful images of their marriage come from their ability to balance each other out. Love is impulsive where Joe is tactful, and that’s where their power comes from. Love is used to having someone clean up the family mess, whereas Joe was a DIY murderer. You delete the body; you clean the remnants. That’s what you have to pay attention to in the whole series, where does the power shift? People might push back like, “Oh, what’s worse: a tactful serial killer or an impulsive one?” You’ll come to your own conclusions, measured by who you’re more upset at throughout the season.

Where “You” Drops the Body

You covers a range of intense and difficult subjects from addiction to self-harm. This show, at times, makes rash decisions that glaze over the gray areas of these traumas. I can especially recall one death that wasn’t approached with nearly enough tact. It felt like a lazy string of events that differed from the rest. In the aftermath, the attention felt flawed and discarded. More of a means to an end to nip something in the bud, for no reason other than to focus on the other twists and turns. You does showcase how to be of good support while also exploring how twisted self-righteousness can get, particularly in toxic relationships. I wish the writers took more time to excavate the traumas experienced outside of Joe and Love’s lives. To properly give justice to what is being lost in others’ lives.

If there is something You does correctly, it’s the exploration of loss. To examine what it feels like as a person who previously experienced abuse, to witness abuse, again from a place without power. We see Joe’s growth into who he is today through the dregs of his past, revisiting it in flashes. We explore his relationship with abandonment and how he uses that trauma to fuel his obsessive compulsions. Now, when I speak on Joe’s growth, I want to be specific. Joe grew more into his own vices. We do not see upward mobility in emotional well-being, we see a Joe who watches a domino fall, and quickly learns how to manipulate the floor as to not be betrayed by gravity. In previous seasons I saw Joe and said, “White man who you gon’ erase today?” Now I think, “How will Goldberg make chaos work in his favor?” That’s what made You Season 3 even more jarring.

Catching Your Breath

Is it still growth when one moves on from murderer to accomplice? What is growth when your obsessions get picked apart in front of you? Much like the previous seasons, I found myself afraid for each character. Pointing and making guesses about how they might meet their demise. Everyone seems like a perfect target. You Season 3 does not miss a breath on the writing. You Season 3 is a perfect place to tie it all together. We met the white man and followed his obsession every step of the way. What made him crumble, what built him up. We know what he’s willing to risk, for You.

You Season 3 premieres October 15th, 2021 on Netflix!

9.4 Body Bags out of 10

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The post ‘You’ Season 3 Review: Local White Murderers Go to Marriage Counseling appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.