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Geek Vibes Nation
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
No Streaming Required: Physical Media Spotlight For The Week Of June 17th - Vinegar Syndrome, Criterion & More
We at GVN aim to keep you informed of the newest and best in the world of physical media. Over on our YouTube Channel, you can find us talking about everything you need to know on No Streaming Required, our weekly guide to all the latest 4K UHD, Blu-Ray, and DVD releases. For the week of June 17th, we have some incredible releases making their way to our shelves. Read on to get a brief overview of what you should have on your wishlist, then be sure to dive into the full rundown in the video below. This week, we spotlight the 4K UHD debut of a cult favorite musical as The Wiz hits 4K UHD Blu-Ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection from a 4K restoration of the Original Camera Negative with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio. The special features include a new commentary track, featurettes, and more. The label also has the unconventional biopic Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould debuting on 4K UHD Blu-Ray from a 4K scan of the 35mm Interpositive in SDR with a commentary track and new interviews. Things get more shocking over at Radiance Films with the 4K UHD Blu-Ray debut of Palindromes from controversial director Todd Solondz. The first 4K UHD release from the label has been restored by MOMA and is presented in SDR with interviews and a video essay. Milestone Films has restored the Charles Burnett drama The Annihilation of Fish starring the legendary James Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave on Blu-Ray with a commentary track, a short film, a Q&A, and more. MVD Entertainment has come through with an impressive release of the long-unavailable sci-fi action film Terminus on Blu-Ray featuring two cuts of the film, an hour-long making-of documentary, an interview with the director, and more. In the world of television, we have the hit drama Landman: Season 1 on Blu-Ray courtesy of Paramount. The series stars Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, and Jon Hamm, set within the world of Texas oilfields. The release comes with ten episodes from the debut season with an array of featurettes. Universal delivers one of the biggest Blu-Ray sets of all time with Murder She Wrote: The Complete Series on Blu-Ray featuring all 264 episodes from 12 seasons, plus four TV movies and a nice selection of special features. Fans of Asian cinema are sitting pretty this week with some gems finally getting a proper Blu-Ray presentation. The crew at Eureka Entertainment keeps up the Hong Kong cinema classics with Hong Kong 1941 starring Chow Yun-fat remastered in 4K from the original negative with a new commentary, interviews, and more. The label also has the double feature set Exact Revenge featuring Shaw Brothers action outings The Eunuch and The Deadly Knives on Blu-Ray from HD restorations provided by Celestial Pictures. Each film has a commentary track and a shared video essay. It is a huge month for Vinegar Syndrome releases as we dive into a sprawling slate of 4K UHD Blu-Ray releases. First up, we have the Eddie Murphy adventure comedy The Golden Child with a 4K restoration of the Original Camera Negative with Dolby Vision. The special features include a new commentary track, interviews, and more. The laughs continue with the Bob Saget cult favorite Dirty Work starring Norm Macdonald featuring a 4K restoration of the Original Camera Negative with Dolby Vision. The release comes with the theatrical cut and the newly restored 'Dirtier Cut' plus a making-of documentary, interviews, and more. This is not the only film to receive a heroic restoration, as they also have the erotic thriller Jade from director William Friedkin, in which the theatrical cut and the rare Director's Cut have been restored in 4K from the Original Camera Negative with Dolby Vision. The fine folks at OCN Distribution have an exciting slate of Partner Label titles on Blu-Ray this month that offer a little something for everyone. Cartuna kicks off with the documentary feature Cash Cow detailing one man's struggle off the grid during the pandemic as he waits for his Domino's commercial to air. Film Movement Classics brings the queer historical drama Edward II featuring Tilda Swinton back to Blu-Ray. The mainline of Film Movement is bringing the historical drama Sisi & I starring Sandra Hüller to Blu-Ray along with Tahara featuring rising star Rachel Sennott in a high school dramedy. We have two new labels entering the family for Partners Only month. First up we have KimStim and their release of the scandalous French drama Ma Mere starring Isabelle Huppert, newly restored on Blu-Ray with an interview with the director. Glass Eye Pix mark their first release with low-budget sci-fi drama Automatons from James Felix McKenney restored in 2K with a nice slate of supplements. Cinematographe has the 4K UHD Blu-Ray debut of the Richard Gere remake of Breathless. This new release was derived from a 4K restoration of the Original Camera Negative in Dolby Vision and comes with a rich array of supplements. They also have the Blu-Ray debut of Swimming To Cambodia from director Jonathan Demme which captures the one-man show of Spalding Gray. This has been given a 2K restoration of the Original Camera Negative along with a new commentary track and various interviews. This is only a taste of what you can discover on No Streaming Required this week, so be sure to check out the full video below. What releases are you planning on picking up? Let us know over on Twitter. Before we let you go, we have officially launched our merch store! Check out all of our amazing apparel when you click here and type in GVN15 at checkout for a 15% discount! Make sure to check out our podcasts each week including Geek Vibes Live , Top 10 with Tia , Wrestling Geeks Alliance and more! For major deals and money off on Amazon , make sure to use our affiliate link !
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State of Unreal 2025: Fortnite Unleashes Epic AI Idea, to let People Make AI NPCs
Following AI Darth Vader's introduction to Fortnite last month, Epic Games and Unreal have unveiled plans to continue the trend at the State of Unreal 2025. The power of the Dark Side landed in Fortnite last month, bringing the voice of AI James Earl Jones (with familial permissions) to Battle Royale. Darth Vader is powered by Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash model and ElevenLabs' Flash v2.5, and the late James Earl Jones' (who passed last September 2024 at the age of 93) voice can be heard in full. While the AI addition wasn't embraced by all fans, Darth Vader does indeed roam the map, sing to players and even narrate what's happening in-game. It seems AI Darth Vader was just the beginning. At the State of Unreal 2025 presentation, Epic Games unveiled a much bigger initiative—plans to release tools that allow creators to build their own AI-powered NPCs within Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). Demonstrated live on the Unreal main stage, Epic revealed that creators will soon be able to craft responsive AI characters using a new feature called the Persona Device. With the Persona Device, creators can design characters that players can actually converse with, customizing voice style, tone and personality traits. 'We're taking what we learned from Darth Vader and sharing the underlying technology with the creator community,' Epic said during the presentation. To showcase the tech, Epic introduced an NPC named Mr. Buttons, who delivered sassy, real-time dialogue as programmed, highlighting the potential of this new toolset. Alongside the Persona Device, Epic also announced a wave of new IP assets for its popular level creation tool. Squid Game content will arrive in Fortnite on June 27 to coincide with the premiere of season three. In addition, creators can look forward to using features, templates and assets from Avatar: The Last Airbender when they drop in UEFN next year. Fortnite LEGO is also expanding, as revealed during the State of Unreal 2025 presentation. A new LEGO Brick Editor is set to launch on June 17, introducing 50 classic brick types in 42 different colours. The update will allow players to build new islands, brick by brick. The State of Unreal 2025 presentation can be watched on the official Unreal YouTube channel, including a brand new tech demo trailer for The Witcher 4.
The Verge
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Epic is bringing AI Darth Vader's tech to Fortnite creators
Epic Games is going to allow Fortnite creators to make AI-powered NPCs that work similar to the recently-launched AI Darth Vader. The company showed off the tech at its State of Unreal show on Tuesday. Using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), creators can make characters with personalities that they can voice chat with. Creators will be able to set the type of voice, their delivery, and the AI NPC's characteristics when the feature is available later this year. In a live demo shown onstage at the event, two Epic staffers showed a conversation with an AI character, 'Mr. Buttons,' whose sole purpose was to try and get the player to press a big red button in the room. For example, one Epic staffer asked a question about the screens in the room saying not to press the button, and the AI wanted the player to push the rules and press the button. In May, Epic added a Darth Vader NPC to Fortnite that could speak to players using an AI-powered version of James Earl Jones' voice. Jones' estate approved of the use of his voice. However, Epic had to issue a hotfix after players got the AI Darth Vader to swear. The AI NPCs aren't the only AI-focused news for Fortnite creators. Epic is also beta testing the Epic Developer Assistant, an AI chatbot that can help UEFN creators write code in UEFN's Verse programming language. The beta test is live today. Epic also announced that new franchises will be available for UEFN creators to make experiences with. Squid Game assets will be available starting June 27th — the same day as the premiere of the show's third and final season — and creators will be able to publish Squid Game experiences later this summer. Avatar: The Last Airbender, which appeared in Fortnite last year, will be available for creators to build with in 2026. Star Wars assets will be available at some point in the future. And on June 17th, creators will also be able to build LEGO experiences brick by brick, which should allow for more customizable LEGO experiences.
Forbes
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Gamers Are Making EA, Take-Two And CDPR Scared To Use AI
GTA 6 This past week, Fortnite introduced an AI Darth Vader using James Earl Jones' voice to respond to players' voice chat. It was goofy fun (and in keeping with Jones' voice rights deal), but AI is not starting to make some large publishers nervous for a few reasons. Jason Schreier has an excellent article over at Bloomberg highlights that recent reports from big companies like EA and Take-Two have addressed the issue, as have others like CDPR. On its surface, it seems like GenAI could be used as a tool in games to produce artwork, voice acting, or even game elements themselves. But these companies are starting to realize the very real risks this poses, both legally and 'reputationally.' Take-Two says that the use of AI 'presents social and ethical issues that may result in legal and reputational harm and liability. EA echoes something similar, saying that the use of AI 'may result in legal and reputational harm' which would cause players to 'lose confidence in our business and brands.' We've already heard aspects of this in the past from fan-favorite developer CDPR as well, which said: 'Use of GAI raises many legal concerns, including lack of IPR protection for content on which GAI relies, or potential inadvertent infringement of third-party IPR.' FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Cyberpunk 2077 So there are two issues here. 1) The legality of GenAI is still in flux. Yes, big tech companies from Google to Meta to OpenAI are blasting forward by training their models on the entire internet, copyrighted work they don't own. A number of content producers, from the New York Times to musicians and actors are suing various services and there have yet to be any firm decisions about what can or cannot be used with GenAI. So the issue here would be that if you use AI assets in the game, and rulings come down that this is all now illegal, you'd have to reshape large parts of your game, or even risk legal action yourself if you were wrapped up with all these other entities. 2) 'Reputational harm' is a very real thing with gamers right now. When a game is discovered to be using GenAI, it's roasted online and players deem it 'slop' and sometimes will even say they'll boycott a game because of it. Attach GenAI to your games, which is at this point, not hard to spot, and you risk associating that brand with tech everyone hates, including many of the developers actually making those games, like say, artists or writers that are having their work replaced by 'slop.' Darth Vader Even with instances like the Darth Vader AI in Fortnite, which is approved of and licensed by the family of James Earl Jones, how does that affect video game voice actors, and there is already a strike going on there where the attempt to license voices to be fed into AI is a core issue. There may be an aspect of AI more generally to help with development in more technical ways, but GenAI to create art or voicework is an entirely different category and something that as of now, has been roundly rejected by gamers to the point that this kind of things needs to work its way into financial reports. It reminds me of the whole web3/NFT craze that then turned into the metaverse crazy and then they all died because…gamers didn't want any of that. AI at large is already reshaping the world, but perhaps gamers can keep this wall up so it doesn't make it into video games. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Fortnite' Returns to Apple iOS App Store in U.S.
'Fortnite' has officially returned to Apple's iOS App Store in the U.S.. The news came on Tuesday afternoon via a post on the official X account for the Epic Games shooter. 'Fortnite is BACK on the App Store in the U.S. on iPhones and iPads… and on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the E.U!,' read the post. 'It'll show up in Search soon!' More from Variety SAG-AFTRA Slaps 'Fortnite' With Unfair Labor Practice Complaint Over James Earl Jones' AI-Recreated Voice of Darth Vader James Earl Jones' Darth Vader Returns to 'Fortnite' Using AI Technology 'Fortnite' on iOS Goes 'Offline Worldwide Until Apple Unblocks' App Store Release Submission As of now, 'Fortnite' will not appear if searched on the App Store. However, the game can be downloaded on iPhone and iPad via a link shared in the post announcing the return. 'Fortnite's' return to Apple platforms comes almost a month after a District Court in California found the tech juggernaut willfully violated a court order in its suit against publisher Epic Games. According to legal documents obtained by Variety, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said, 'For the reasons set forth herein, the Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court's 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple's anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing. Apple's continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated.' In the suit, Epic Games argued that Apple was acting as a monopoly by taking a 30% cut on all in-app purchases while strictly prohibiting all other third-party payment methods. In response to the ruling, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney wrote on X, 'NO FEES on web transactions. Game over for the Apple Tax. Apple's 15-30% junk fees are now just as dead here in the United States of America as they are in Europe under the Digital Markets Act. Unlawful here, unlawful there.' 'Fortnite' and other Epic titles were removed from the App Store back in August 2020 after Epic filed the antitrust suit against Apple. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
