Latest news with #DeanBlake


Man of Many
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Man of Many
Netflix Dropped Release Dates for Happy Gilmore 2, Knives Out 3, Stranger Things, and More
By Dean Blake - News Published: 2 June 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 5 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. Netflix decided to come out of the gate swinging this week, after hosting its 'Tudum 2025 Live Event' over the weekend: a celebration of all the cool shit the streaming giant has cooking. While there were a few live music performances, and celebrity cameos, we're all actually interested in what the streaming brand is bringing us this year – and next. Thankfully, it came with the goods. We got new trailers for a bunch of Netflix's biggest series, as well as release dates for several of its major projects—from the long-awaited Happy Gilmore 2, to a brand-new rendition of Frankenstein. So let's not waste anymore time—here's all the big trailers and release date Netflix announced. 'Happy Gilmore 2' Launches July 25 Yep, everyone's favourite miscreant golfer is back on course. Netflix has given us our first proper look at the upcoming sequel this week, as well as dropping a release date bombshell: it's coming next month. Now set to release 25 July, 2025, Adam Sandler's Netflix-backed Happy Gilmore 2 looks every bit as irreverent as the original, if not a bit more formulaic. Fans of the classic movie will be glad to see quite a few returning faces—including Shooter McGavin, played perfectly as always by Christopher McDonald, as well as Happy's happy wife Virginia Venit, played by Modern Family's Julie Bowen. 'One Piece': Season 2 is Dropping in 2026 If you haven't heard on One Piece yet, what rock have you been hiding under? What is arguably one of the most influential manga of all time, which was turned into one of the most successful anime of all time, is making the jump back into live action with the second season of Netflix's One Piece adaptation. That second season is coming in 2026, Netflix announced, which is good news to every Straw Hat out there. And now we've got a good look at one of the series' most popular characters: Tony Tony Chopper, a sweet-loving reindeer that ate the human-human fruit and can speak and walk like a person. How fun! Check out the new trailer above. 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' is Coming 12 December Probably the thing on this list we're most excited about, we've finally been given a good look at Rian Johnson's third Knives Out film: Wake Up Dead Man—and we got a release date! Dropping 12 December 2025, Wake Up Dead Man brings Daniel Craig back as renowned investigator Benoit Blanc as he looks to solve another 'perfect' crime. It seems Craig is one again joined by an absolute banger cast, with Josh Browlin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Glenn Close bringing some serious heat. If you haven't checked out either the original Knives Out, or its sequel Glass Onion, do it now. Take a Look at 'Squid Game' Season 3, Dropping 27 June After teasing that the incredibly popular Squid Game would finish with a third and final season, Netflix has given us our first look at the upcoming Season 3 with a trailer, and told us when we can expect to see the end of the game: June 27, 2025. The series follows Gi-hun through his initial dealings with the games in Season 1, and his attempt to understand and destroy the games from the inside in Season 2, and following the devastating cliffhanger ending of last season (no spoilers just yet), Season 3 is sure to kick off with a bang. 'Stranger Things' Season 5 Announces Staggered Release If you've been waited with bated breath for the end of Stranger Things, we finally, finally know when we're going to get to see what happens to the people of Hawkins—but, it's not as simple as a single release date. No, instead, we're going to get the first four episodes on 26 November, 2025, three more episodes on 25 December, 2025, and the final episode on 31 December, 2025. Yes, Christmas and New Years are Stranger Things Holidays this year. As for what you can expect from the end of this absolutely epic saga? Well, check out the new trailer above. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein Teaser Hell yes. A new rendition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring Oscar Issac as the young scientist himself? What could be better? Well, it's coming this November. The official teaser we got is dripping with gothic charm, and looks absolutely fantastic. del Toro's characteristic style is on full display, and we honestly can't wait to see what crazy stuff he conjures later this year. I just really want him to make that At the Mountains of Madness movie he keeps talking about. An Extended First Look at 'Wednesday' Season 2, coming 6 August And finally, we got our first proper look at the highly anticipated second season of Wednesday. In fact, we got the first six minutes of the first episode, and the reveal that part 1 of the series will drop on 6 August, while part 2 will come on 3 September. Netflix really loves breaking their releases up, huh. In typical Wednesday fashion, she's taking her time tracking down her favourite childhood serial killer, relishing every minute of it. Somehow the killer is Haley Joel Osment, which actually makes it even better, and we now know Lady Gaga will be playing some role in the new season. We don't get much in the way of hints as to what season 2 will be about, but it's definitely going for a darker vibe.


Man of Many
5 hours ago
- Man of Many
Lenovo's 34' Legion Pro Monitor is an Ultrawide OLED Powerhouse
By Dean Blake - Review Published: 2 June 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 8 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. The Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10 is a fantastic ultrawide monitor for gaming It boasts a natural 3440×1440 resolution and 240hz refresh rate, alongside a ton of ports It's effectiveness in gaming is somewhat hampered by most games' lack of ultrawide support, though Lenovo's gaming-focused Legion lineup has always been a solid bet for anyone wanting to dive into their favourite form of interactive entertainment: whether it be through one of its Pro laptops, the surprisingly powerful Legion Go handheld, or, as I've done for the past few weeks, using its impressive Legion range of monitors. In particular I've been toying around with the Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10, a 34' ultrawide monitor that can hit an esport-level refresh rate of 240Hz on a beautiful, curved OLED screen. We'll dive into just how beautiful that screen is below, but suffice to say it made everything I threw at it look far better than my usual fare. That ultrawide size is really the star of the show here. If you're in the market for an ultrawide gaming monitor, this is among the best I've tested, and the 34' size profile keeps it from completely dominating my desk space as other, bigger monitors have. Remember kids, bigger doesn't always mean better. The price is a lot of swallow, I won't lie: AUD$1,899 itself could be the price of your entire rig, but this is 100 per cent an enthusiast display. If you don't already own a PC (or console) capable of pushing this thing to its limit, you're probably better off upgrading a different bit of your kit ahead of your monitor. For everyone else, read on. Tech Specs Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10 Philips Envia 34M2C8600 QD Price AUD$1,899 AUD$1,799 Display Size 34' 34' Panel Type OLED OLED Resolution 3440 x 1440 (WQHD, 21:9 aspect ratio) 3440 x 1440 (WQHD, 21:9 aspect ratio) Refresh Rate 240Hz 175Hz Response Time 0.03ms GtG 0.03ms GtG Ports 1x HDMI 2.1 1x HDMI 2.1 (with eARC) 1x USB-C (with DP Alt Mode) 1x Display Port 1.4 1x Ethernet 3x USB-A 3.2 2x USB-C 3.2 1x USB-B 3.2 (Upstream) 1x USB-C 3.2 (Upstream) 2x HDMI 2.0 1x USB-C (with DP Alt Mode) 1x Display Port 1.4 1x USB-A 3.2 4x USB-A 1x USB-B Upstream Scroll horizontally to view full table Why Trust Us Here at Man of Many, we use a wide variety of technology. We're not fans of any one brand, like to get our hands on the latest-and-greatest tech before we call it the next-best-thing, and we've built up extensive experience in reviewing tech as a publication over the past 10 years. The author of this article, Dean Blake, is Man of Many's technology journalist, and has followed the industry for years. He's worked and gamed on many monitors throughout his career, and largely plays his games on PC. Acer sent a review unit to Man of Many, but no money exchanged hands, and all opinions expressed are those of the author and haven't been seen by Acer ahead of time. For more information on our independence, testing and review guidelines, you can read our full editorial policies here. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many The Good Immersive Curved, OLED Screen Well, this is what you're here for, right? The bells-and-whistles are there, don't get me wrong (headphone hook, anyone?), but the selling point is how good the display makes your content look. And, yeah, the 34WD-10 made almost every game I threw at it look incredible—and those that didn't were down to poor optimisation on the side of the game, not the display. It's the delicious combination of top-tier OLED technology paired with an 800R curved ultrawide display that really sells this thing, and the icing on the cake is the 240Hz refresh rate: a limit I didn't come close to reaching. (Though, it's worth noting I was only able to calibrate the display to around 180Hz, for some reason. I'm chalking that up to user or driver error, as I haven't seen anyone else have this problem.) The extra real estate provided by the ultrawide resolution really does go a long way in making a game's environment feel more immersive, and the games that take advantage of such a wider display, while few and far between, benefit from it greatly. I tested out a few games on the 34WD-10, but the standouts were Sons of the Forest (my current multiplayer obsession), as well as Death Stranding and Armored Core 6 – all of which are capable of running at an ultrawide resolution out of the box. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many As I've noted in prior monitor reviews, OLED display technology really benefits games that deal in darkness, with the various caves dotted around the map in SOTF completely blacking out my display, save for the small area illuminated by my character's flashlight, or small LED lighter. That game is stressful enough, with all the weird and wacky shit hiding below the ground, but doing in it true darkness ramps up the tension in a way few horror-focused titles can replicate. Likewise, when you emerge from the underground you're granted a beautiful look at the forest itself: a view that looks incredible with the 34WD-10's colour range: with a 99% sRGB colour gamut, and high-dynamic range compliance. Simply put, everything's going to look better on this display. Now, this being part of Lenovo's Legion lineup, it's fair to focus on what this monitor brings to the gaming experience, but it's 34' ultrawide configuration is actually a fantastic productivity improvement for work: giving you more room to use multiple windows or programs, or to keep a cheeky YouTube video up while doing something a bit less mentally taxing. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many Port selection is fantastic Now, if you've read a few of our other monitor reviews, you'll know that port selection is often pretty average. Not here: the 34WD-10 has more ports than I know what to do with, in all honesty. We're largely comparing the 34WD-10 to the similarly sized and priced Philips Envia 34M2C8600 QD—a great monitor, in its own right, but one that falls behind in a few key areas. The biggest gulfs between the two monitors are, of course, the refresh rate and the port selection. Here, you're getting HDMI 2.1 ports, as well as more, faster USB-C and A ports. It's maybe a bit of a boring positive to bring up, but honestly, the last thing you need is to want another port for a keyboard, mouse, microphone, a pair of headphones, or whatever else you want to plug in, and be short a port. The more the merrier, and there's definitely plenty here. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many The 'Bad' Gaming Still Hasn't Embraced Widescreen Now, a monitor this impressive is doesn't really have any major issues to speak of: except one. As common as ultrawide monitors are becoming, there are still plenty of games that simply don't work out of the box in an aspect ratio wider than 16:9. That's not the fault of the monitor, but it's something worth noting before you go out and buy one. For example, one of my favourite games of the past few years, Elden Ring, simply refused to play ball: when running through the Legion Pro, it wouldn't acknowledge my efforts to change its resolution, and only took up a portion of my screen, leaving the rest to display Steam running below. It was a shit show, and that's not an uncommon occurrence. The very recently released Elden Ring: Nightreign also doesn't have access to ultrawide resolutions, so you can't be sure even brand new games are going to take advantage of your hardware. Additionally, most games made in the past five-to-ten years are poorly optimised even for high-end rigs, let alone when pushing the game to a wider-than-usual resolution. I had fun diving into caves and soaring through the skies with my friends in Sons of the Forest, but playing that game at 3440×1440 was netting me a frame-rate jumping between the 30s and 50s. It also didn't get better by lowering the resolution or graphical options — again, this isn't the fault of the monitor, but it's worth mentioning that unoptimised games are pretty common. If you're willing to put time into finding out what games work well in the ultrawide format and then focus on them—Death Stranding, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Armored Core 6 are stand outs, to be sure—or are willing to put in a bit of work installing ultrawide mods onto games you want to play, you can definitely make it work. Just know that you're not necessarily going to get a plug-and-play experience, so if that's what you're after I'd still advise sticking to a display with a more traditional 16:9 ratio. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many Man of Many's Verdict In all, the Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10 is one hell of a monitor in the right contexts but, like all ultrawide displays, it's effectiveness is dependant on what you're feeding into it. If the games you love are capable of bringing out the best in it, the Legion Pro is a sight to behold.


Man of Many
2 days ago
- Man of Many
Man of Many's Staff Favourites—31 May 2025
By Dean Blake - News Published: 31 May 2025 |Last Updated: 30 May 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 5 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. Here at Man of Many, we're often given the opportunity to try out products ahead of time for review, but sometimes our favourite things are just the things we already own, or have purchased ourselves. So, each week, we strive to show off a few of our own, personal favourite products or experiences in the hopes that we can help people make better buying decisions. Also, sometimes it's just fun to write about things you like. Here's our Staff Favourites for this week – enjoy! Skullcandy's Method 360 ANC | Image: Skullcandy Skullcandy's Method 360 ANC Dean Blake – Entertainment and Technology Journalist I've been testing a few earphones recently, and I've got something cool to share. Audio brand Skullcandy have delivered a really, really good pair of earphones—the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC—which have some of the best audio quality in an in-ear format I've yet used. That partially comes from the fact these earphones are made in collaboration with Bose, one of the best audio makers in the biz. Now, the Method 360 ANC look very (and sound) similar to Bose' Quiet Comfort earbuds, but they're about $100 cheaper, which is always a nice thing, and they have some fantastic active noise cancelling for when you're moving about the noisy city. Plus, when you sync them up with the Skull-iQ app on your phone you can customise how the earbuds act when you tap them, play with the ANC, and set more specific EQ levels if you're after a particular sound. That's all great, but they also come in a frankly massive charging case that delivers an additional 20+ hours of battery life, charges with USB-C, and can be clipped onto your bag or something if you want to be able to access them at a moments notice. They're great, and if you're in the market for some new earbuds, these ones are only AUD$189.99. Favourite Article of the Week: Best Glamping Spots Near Melbourne for a Relaxing Weekend Getaway Forget Calendly – Enter Google Calendar Appointments Scott Purcell – Co-founder You know that graveyard of unused productivity apps sitting on your phone or in the bookmarks toolbar of your browser? The ones that guzzle up subscription fees before you're none the wiser? Well, one of those for me was the 'Calendly' app. Brilliant product, absolutely, but it probably gathered more dust than bookings on my calendar. It just wasn't something I really used, yet it was costing me lots of money. Enter the Google Calendar Appointment Schedule, which essentially achieves the exact same thing at the amazing price of $0. I love that you can carve out time for the gym each day or mark an entire Friday as 'Do Not Disturb'. Your colleagues or clients only see the slots you want them to book, and the meeting is locked in with no extra email back and forth or a request to send you a calendar invite. To get it set up, go to Google Calendar > hit Create > then Appointment Schedule > add any details you need and voila, your booking calendar is now complete. The link provides live updates and automatically hides times that clash with your other events. You can also add in a handy buffer between meetings if you need and don't wish for back-to-backs. The paid Google Workspace plans come with some added benefits, like being able to charge for your time. Give it a go and let me know what you think! Favourite Article of the Week: Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge Smartphone Defines Innovation for Innovation's Sake Omakase John Guanzon – Head of Creative & Production I'm the kind of guy who'll study dining menus like an HSC Advanced English text before booking a place to eat, but sitting down for an Omakase where you surrender all control and expectations to the chef and the restaurant team was such a surprising breath of fresh air. The 18-seat kappo-style restaurant is the brain-child of Darren Templeman (formerly Restaurant Atelier), but he runs it with head chef Bonnie Yu and sommelier Aurelien Jeffredo. There's no printed menu, only a 10-course omakase shaped by the day's produce and the team's instincts. Just vibes, really. Inside, it's just one long, narrow counter with 18 seats lined up with a full view of the kitchen. While it always feels busy, there's this weird sense of calm. The three-person team moves like they've done this a hundred times. Smooth, in sync, no fuss. The highlight, though, is the food. I couldn't tell you exactly what we ate (there was no menu to snap a photo of), but I remember the flavour sensations having a party in my mouth. A few dishes are still burned into memory, though: the warm hen's egg filled with onion purée and topped with trout roe, and a buttery lobster tail grilled over charcoal. Yum! Favourite Article of the Week: Razer's Vertical Gaming Mouse Feels Like It Was Made Specifically for Me


Man of Many
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Man of Many
The Best Ways to Game on a Mac
By Dean Blake - News Published: 30 May 2025 |Last Updated: 29 May 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 8 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. Look, we've all heard the jokes. Gaming on Mac is definitely not as easy, robust, or well supported as on almost any other system, especially when compared to gaming on Windows, but I'm a firm believer in using what you've got. If you want to kill some time and already own a Mac, there are plenty of fantastic games you can run natively, and even more you can get going with a little bit of technical know-how or a can-do attitude. I'd never tell you to buy a Mac for gaming, but as a secondary feature it can be surprisingly robust. The easiest way to game on a Mac would be to launch the App Store and pick something from there. It's literally pre-loaded onto every computer that Apple launches, and the games featured there are optimised very well to run on MacOS. If you're looking for a bigger range of options, or even to play games that aren't supposed to run on your laptop, though, you've come to the right place. Here, we'll outline the options you have to get the most out of the surprisingly powerful piece of Apple Silicon sitting inside your computer. Assassin's Creed Shadows | Image: Ubisoft Apple's App Store and Apple Arcade As I said above, it's incredibly easy to just open the App Store and browse the list of games available for download. An issue with the App Store, though, is that any purchase you make on that storefront is locked to the Apple eco-system. This is fine if you're a diehard Apple user, but if you even glance at a different OS you'll be starting from scratch again. It's also worth noting that games, on average, tend to be more expensive through the App Store. Still, App Store games are often compatible across MacOS, tvOS, iOS and iPadOS, so if you're living in that world you'll get quite a bit of potential play across multiple devices. Here are some of the best games available on Apple's App Store: Plus, Apple launched its own game subscription service in 2024, Apple Arcade, which costs AUD$9.99 per month and gives you access to over 200 games to play across each of your Apple devices. It's definitely not a bad deal, and there are some great games in there, but you'll need to go digging past a lot of chaff to get to the wheat. Here are some winners on Apple Arcade for your consideration: MacBook Air (2025) playing Tunic through Steam | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many Third-Party Options: Steam, Epic, GOG, and Game Pass Now we get to the meat. As with any other PC, you can download third-party storefronts onto a Mac and get access to a far wider range of games. Not every game on these storefronts are Mac compatible – in fact, most aren't – though you'll usually be warned before buying something incompatible with whatever system you're browsing on. Still, it's worth taking a look at the major storefronts out there and what they bring to the table. Steam is, hands down, the biggest gaming service in the world right now. When people brag about PC gaming, they're usually talking about Steam, and it's just about the best place to buy Mac games as well. Here, you'll find the biggest range of games available for purchase and play, as well as frequent flash sales. There are plenty of games available on Steam for Mac, which makes it a fantastic place to start building a collection. If you're coming from a Windows PC, think you might build a gaming desktop, or are dreaming of grabbing a gaming handheld at some point in the future, Steam will probably be a cornerstone of your gaming experience. The Epic Store, on the other hand, has far fewer Mac-centric games, and it's big hitter, Fortnite, isn't available on most Apple devices thanks to the company's ongoing lawsuit with Apple. I'm sure it'll get there eventually, and Epic definitely worth keeping an eye on for monthly freebies and a bunch of exclusives that you can't get on Steam (though those are rarely Mac compatible), but it's unlikely to serve as the backbone of your gaming world just yet. If you're more interested in older titles, GOG, or Good Old Games, could be the best port of call. It's a far smaller operation than either Steam or Epic, and is run by the folks over at CD Projekt Red: the developer that brought you The Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077. GOG is focused on delivering both new and old games, and tends to be more interested in giving you those games in a DRM-free manner, meaning you can buy the game and own it on your hard drive rather than needing a third-party launcher to access what you've paid for. You can use its launcher, GOG Galaxy, if you prefer though. Plenty of games that would otherwise have been lost to time have ended up available on GOG, and there are a lot that will work well on any modern Mac. Finally, there's Xbox's streaming service, Xbox Game Pass, which allows anyone with a subscription to stream available games to whatever device they're using: yes, including your Mac. You can potentially get access to a much wider variety of games using Game Pass than any of the above options, since technically they don't need to run on Mac for you to access them, but it comes with the downside of streaming the games to your laptop, rather than running locally. This does mean the quality of the gameplay will be partially dependent on whatever internet you're hooked up to, and can lead to lag spikes and dropped connections in the worst-case scenario. However, if you're playing stuff that doesn't require fast reflexes, Game Pass is a very solid and easy option to get running. Image: Rockstar Games CrossOver, Wine, and Whisky Heres the complicated part. Yes, there are plenty of games that aren't compatible with MacOS—but what if I told you that you actually could play them on your Mac with a little bit of tinkering? Programs like CrossOver, Wine, or Whisky create a compatibility layer that essentially force a third-party storefront to think it's running in Windows. It doesn't always work perfectly, and you might need to do some troubleshooting to get games running well, but you'd be surprised how well you can get even relatively new titles running on modern Macs with a bit of elbow grease. Getting these programs working is pretty simple, but it can definitely appear complicated at first blush. You need to install the program itself onto your Mac (I've used Whisky, you might prefer a different one), and then use it to install a Windows version of whichever programs you want to run – likely Steam, Epic, GOG Galaxy, or more a specific game executable. You'll have to make sure you've downloaded a Windows-specific version of the program. Once you have the program you're after installed through that translation program, you have a version of Steam (or whatever program you want to run) on your Mac that thinks it's running in Windows. There's a lot of black magic happening in the background to make this work, but the important part is that it actually does work, and it's completely legal. Using this method, you can get games that aren't otherwise able to run on a Mac doing so. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remake, or any of the Dark Souls series will run well, though Elden Ring can be a bit hit or miss depending on your expectations. Now, a M4 Max-equipped Mac Studio isn't going to be delivering resolutions or frame rates equal to incredibly expensive gaming PCs, but you'd be surprised how well many games can play on a system it was never optimised for. Plus, an incredibly expensive gaming PC is probably about 10x the size of a Mac Studio. If you're interested in knowing a bit more about how best to get stuck into gaming on a Mac, there's a slew of topics over on the r/macgaming subreddit that can help you figure out what works and what doesn't – plus, you can always ask for advice if you get really stuck. God speed!