Quantum Break has received a mixed reception, but it’s only the beginning of studios exploring hybrid media that blurs the lines between games and linear narrative media. In that vein, CBS and Interlude have announced a revival of the classic Twilight Zone anthology series in the form of an interactive film, with the series’s first offering being written and directed by BioShock creator Ken Levine.
Interlude and CBS have described the upcoming project as an “original interactive project” that will let viewers “step in and become a part of the story.” Details remain thin on the particulars of how it will work, but presumably, as in Interlude’s other work, viewers will be able to make decisions at key junctures in the story, causing it to branch off into different outcomes, and encouraging people to re-watch it and make different choices.
“I’ve been a writer my whole life and I haven’t had the chance to direct a live-action thing before,” Levine told Wired. “I’ve done a lot of directing with voice actors, and back when I was younger, I used to direct stage plays. [Bloch] was like, ‘we want to see you carry this thing through from start to finish — write it, direct it.’ And then he said, ‘Twilight Zone.’ What am I going to say? No?”
Although Levine made a name for himself in video games (which should be particularly relevant given their recurring themes questioning personal agency), his background in theater and as a screenwriter positions him particularly well for this sort of experimental project. “Interactivity is a spectrum, it’s not binary,” he says. “I think of it as the viewer’s angle in the chair. When you watch something, you’re sitting back in the chair. When you’re gaming, you’re leaning forward in the chair. This is an interesting place in between … your brain is forward in the chair.”
“We’ve done a rough outline of what we want to do,” he says, “and now we’re stepping into the writing process, figuring out how to leverage the interactive element to make a narrative tale feel more personal for the viewer, and make [viewers] more engaged.”
Israeli musician Yoni Bloch founded Interlude to develop the technology he wanted for an interactive music video that took inspiration from games. The studio has been developing an impressive portfolio of work, including an interactive music video for Coldplay, and a reboot of the classic film WarGames, for which Interplay just signed on Sam Barlow as Creative Director. The studio was also creator of the interactive film game Her Story which cleaned up at this past year’s IGF Awards at GDC. Interlude also recently hired former CBS executive and head of the Microsoft’s ill-fated Xbox Entertainment Studio Nancy Tellem as its Chief Media Officer.
Levine is meanwhile still hard at work on a narrative-driven sci-fi game, teased earlier this year. There is not yet any word on a production or release schedule for The Twilight Zone.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.