Starship may go Starward on Friday
Anyone that is serious about space travel is already aware of SpaceX’s Starship and its dreams of one day leaving this forsaken planet, if only temporarily – after the disastrous (yet still sort of successful) first attempt back in April. That occasion caused Starship to, uh, experience a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” – it blew up. SpaceX hasn’t been dissuaded, though. In fact, it’s ready for round two as early as this Friday.
That is if it can get the go-ahead from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before the expected Friday launch date. “Starship preparing to launch as early as November 17, pending final regulatory approval,” SpaceX said in a post on X.com.
Whether it’ll get the nod in time for the launch remains a mystery. It’s still required to perform an environmental review to determine how damaging a launch of this magnitude might be on surrounding wildlife – with no mention of how long this might take.
It makes sense. Starship is SpaceX’s crowning achievement and, should it work, is the most powerful rocket ever built – packing in 33 Raptor rocket engines, powerful enough to turn a launchpad into rubble upon takeoff, evidenced by the company’s last attempt.
“The second flight test will debut a hot-stage separation system and a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines, in addition to reinforcements to the pad foundation and a water-cooled steel flame deflector, among many other enhancements.”
Next time on Terminator
Netflix is finally running out of animated IPs that it can churn into live-action content. That’s evident by the company’s recent trend of hunting down and transforming already-established content into anime. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Arcane, Cyberpunk, The Witcher… you get the idea. And it’s adding another IP to the pile: Terminator.
Not that we’re complaining. We’re just a little miffed that the Terminator franchise is getting the anime treatment before The Legend of Zelda. But we’ve moved on from that. We’re just praying that Netflix can pull off Terminator: The Anime Series (yes, thats the title) which took the spotlight at the streamer’s Geeked Week event.
Details behind the new series’ production are still scarce. Netflix failed to show any footage from the show but did confirm that production is being handled by Production IG – the team that cooked up the original Ghost in the Shell. It’s also taking a much-needed step back in time to August 1997 when Skynet first turned against humanity.
According to Variety, the series features “brand new characters,” and finally gives the Connor family a minute to breathe. Mattson Tomlin is attached as the show’s writer and showrunner. Make of that what you will. No release dates were mentioned, though Netflix’s announcement post says it is “Coming Soon.”
Netflix is taking mobile gaming seriously
Have you heard the news? Netflix isn’t just a streamer anymore. It’s cementing itself as one of the leading players in mobile game development and distribution, either by building up its catalogue of in-house games or just buying the ones that’ll get players through the door. In the two years since it launched, we’ve seen the likes of Shredder’s Revenge, Tomb Raider and eventually, Braid join the ranks. Now, it’s bringing one of the best ‘roguelikes’ to the party – Hades.
That’s not all, either. Sure, Hades is headlining the streamer’s next round of games, but isn’t entirely overshadowed by the rather compelling list announced at Geeked Week. Katana Zero, Death’s Door, Money Heist, Chicken Run: Eggstraction, The Dragon Prince: Xadia, and Braid: Anniversary Edition are all confirmed to be hitting Netflix, though release dates are still unknown. Most have been confirmed for a 2024 release, at the very least.
If you missed out on Hades when it launched in 2020, there isn’t a better time to kick things off as Zagreus – the son of Hades and Prince of Tartarus, as players attempt to get him out of the Underworld in a bid to find his mother in the mortal world. This is a roguelike, so dying isn’t looked on too fondly, with Zagreus waking up at the game’s beginning to start his next attempt afresh.
There’s a sequel due out soon, with early access reportedly opening sometime in 2024 – just in time to put the finishing touches on Netflix’s Hades which is, sadly, only coming to iOS.
“F*** Off” says Dbrand
Dbrand, the company that baited Sony into suing it for making better custom PS5 side plates, is cursing customers and attempting to prick their fingers with the release of a couple of novelty mechanical keyboard keycaps. These are artisan keycaps, and there are only two of them – designed to liven up your otherwise boring keyboard with new ‘enter’ and ‘escape’ keys.
One of the keys, designed to replace your enter key, is the beatifically crafted “F*** Off” key that’s supposed to be a message to whoever reads it. The other, coming after your escape key, is modelled after a rather pointy pyramid that’ll stab anyone who dares use it. They might seem counterintuitive, but that’s the whole idea. Dbrand is relying on Gen Z’s love of utter randomness to pull them through. Now available in Black, Bare Metal, and Neochrome.
They won’t be cheap, though. Dbrand is selling the keycaps through NovelKeys as part of a limited drop. It’ll set you back the price of a Triple-A game – $60 (R1,100) to lay hands on the pyramid-like escape key and only $40 (R750) for the privilege to say “F*** Off” to yourself over and over again. There’ll be two drops, with the first orders shipping immediately and the next going out at the end of November. Just in time for Christmas, eh?
