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What we bought: Our favorite books of 2022
Here are our favorite books of 2022, as chosen by Engadget readers.
'Westworld' season 3 premieres March 15th
Westworld's third season will hit HBO and HBO Go on March 15th, according to a tweet from the show's official Twitter account. HBO also released a new trailer that predicts several dystopic decades for humanity around the subject of "divergence." It starts with current issues like the Hong Kong protests and Trump impeachment, then moves on to more ominous future events including a third Russian revolution.
Chinese schools keep tabs on kids with 'intelligent uniforms'
Even schoolkids can't escape China's increasing obsession with surveillance. Over 10 schools in the country's southwestern Guizhou province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have made students wear "intelligent uniforms" from Guanyu Technology in the name of improving attendance and safety. Each uniform has two chips that indicate when a student is entering or exiting school grounds, and automatically sends that data to both parents and teachers. Leave without permission and an automatic voice alarm will make it patently clear you're a truant.
We Happy Few's dystopia is held together by drugs and denial
We Happy Few has come to fruition in a unique way. Compulsion Games first captured attentions in 2015 with its creepy, atmospheric trailers, also launching a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund continued development of its dystopian title. The following year, the game launched on early access programs for both the PC and Xbox One. It was a procedurally generated, roguelike survival game, intended to be relatively short and replayable. Only, the world Compulsion had built was too alluring. The people wanted more, being particularly fond of the game's quirky characters and the player's interactions with them. And so We Happy Few has evolved over time to become a substantial story-driven adventure. At launch on August 10th, the game will follow three very different playable characters that, for one reason or another, don't fit in with their ever-jolly neighbors.
'Black Mirror' season four is here to ruin your holiday spirit
At some point during Christmas and New Year, the days just sort of blend together. Sat silently in your parents' living room, you're already bored of your gifts, permanently spaced from 'round-the-clock imbibing, and you can't possibly eat any more cheese. But snap out of it, because it's finally time to sink your teeth into season four of Black Mirror. All six episodes of everyone's favorite dystopian reality check are available to binge on Netflix right this second -- and let's be honest, you are going to binge it, because spoilers will be lighting up the group chat by dinner time. To celebrate the new series (and the end of 2017), Netflix has also released a lovely New Year's message. Not the trailer you may've already seen teasing the latest episodes, but a mosaic of footage taken from previous seasons and the real world, which suggests the line between show and the other side of the glass is growing ever thinner.
How 'We Happy Few' plans to avoid the pitfalls of 'No Man's Sky'
The 1960s dystopia of We Happy Few will hit Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on April 13th, 2018, thanks to Compulsion Games and Gearbox, the studio best known for Borderlands. You're not hallucinating -- We Happy Few did already come to Xbox One and Steam as an early-access game, but now it's ready for prime time. The full experience, priced at $60 and featuring a rich storyline starring three separate characters, will be ready to roll next spring. That's all fine and dandy, but We Happy Few's joyous release-date news hides a deeper development story. Compulsion has followed a long, winding road to April 2018, and the first major twist in that path came early in the development process.
Watch Hulu's first trailer for its take on 'The Handmaid's Tale'
Ever since Hulu announced that it was adapting The Handmaid's Tale, it's been hard not to wonder: would it adequately capture the bleakness of Margaret Atwood's dystopian classic, or do justice to the movie? You now have an inkling of how well it'll work. Hulu has posted its first trailer for its Handmaid's Tale series, and... it's definitely not the feel-good hit of the year. The teaser shows Offred (Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss) grappling with the end of the United States and the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a harsh theocracy where women lose their rights and "handmaids" like Offred only serve as childbearers.
Netflix's next original is Charlie Brooker's 'Black Mirror'
The rumors were true: Charlie Brooker's renowned Black Mirror is headed to Netflix as its next original. The company confirmed today that it has commissioned 12 new episodes of the dystopian drama series, with Brooker and Annabel Jones, who produced the first seven episodes, continuing to spearhead development of the show. Brooker has already begun writing the new chapters, which will be shot later this year.
Drugs and dystopia in 1960s England: 'We Happy Few' hits Kickstarter
We Happy Few takes place in 1964 in the isolated English town of Wellington Wells. On the surface, it's an ideal place, filled with smiling residents and all the conveniences of retro-modern technology. But Wellington Wells hides a dark and terrifying secret: During the German occupation of World War II, the citizens had to do something so awful that they devised a drug to make them forget their actions and guilt. The drug, Joy, makes the Wellies friendly and complacent, unless they encounter someone who isn't dosing; that's when they turn violent and beat any "Downers" into submission (or death). The town is on the brink of collapse and its residents are starving, but everyone keeps on smiling -- or else.
Introducing Shadowrun Online
Cliffhanger Productions, the makers of the upcoming Jagged Alliance Online, has announced another title in progress: Shadowrun Online. Based on the popular pen-and-paper game, Shadowrun will share a similar top-down strategy format with Jagged Alliance. Shadowrun takes place in a dystopian 2070 where magic and technology clash, and where hackers and street samurai are commonplace. Shadowrun Online players will split their game time between prepping missions and carrying them out. While some of the maps will require all-out action efforts, others will require stealth, hacking, and even magic. Between fights, players will seek out contacts, prepare spells, and purchase gear to improve their odds when the time comes. Shadowrun Online is in pre-production and the team hopes to get it into full development by November. It is planned to be a browser-based title, and Cliffhanger is drawing from Shadowrun alumni efforts to keep the game in line with the franchise. The company is still looking for partners to help with publishing and distributing.
Metropolis gets twenty-five minutes of lost footage, please don't tell Giorgio Moroder
Metropolis, Fritz Lang's 1927 epic, predated many of our own cinematic obsessions by decades. At over two and a half hours this heady mix of dystopian science fiction and German Expressionism divided critics upon its initial release, even as it is now universally praised. Indeed, as a result of its length (not to mention the squeamishness of American distributors) the thing has been variously edited (cannibalized) over the years, to the point where it was doubtful that we would ever get to see it the way that the director intended. That's why we were psyched when we came across this clip from BBC's Newsnight detailing the discovery of what is presumed to be a copy of the original director's print, which was taken to Argentina by a private collector in 1928, where it sat until discovered in an archive of the Museum of Cinema in Buenos Aires in June, 2008. Wild, huh? Hit the source link to watch the clip.
Earthrise wallpapers show Eastern Gardens denizens and tamed mutants
Masthead Studios just got in touch with us and sent over two new wallpapers for their upcoming post-apocalyptic game Earthrise. One image shows off a group of kabuki-masked freaks denizens of the Eastern Gardens, one of the more outwardly utopian zones to be found in Earthrise's island setting of Enterra.
Massively Interview: Masthead Studios' CEO on Earthrise and freedom of choice
There is a slow but steady shift in direction in the MMO industry from being dominated by fantasy titles to one where gamers have other options, namely in terms of sci-fi and post-apocalyptic games. The smaller game studios producing these titles have some big challenges ahead of them, not the least of which is whether or not MMO gamers will embrace settings and gameplay elements that depart from the fantasy MMO paradigm. One of those newcomers to the MMO scene is Masthead Studios who are developing the post-apocalyptic Earthrise.This first title from Masthead Studios will present gamers with a futuristic, dystopian setting where two major factions struggle for control over the island of Enterra, the last refuge of humanity after the burn. Continoma are the technocratic elite; they hold the keys to genetic immortality and enforce their ordered societal views on the population they've resurrected. The game's other major faction, Noir, is a shadow government -- the resistance. Earthrise's setting and factional struggles aren't limited to simple right-and-wrong scenarios, though, and this carries over to the gameplay. Players or guilds may align with one faction or another for their own benefit, but the game's numerous sub-factions provide other options for allegiances, or even the possibility of shifting those allegiances. We had the opportunity to see Earthrise firsthand at GDC 2009 but we've always got more questions. Fortunately, Masthead Studios was willing to oblige. We've had another chance to speak with Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov about some of the core concepts and lore behind Earthrise, and how their approach to the game and the genre should allow a great deal of freedom for players.%Gallery-48760%
Earthrise devs shed some light on skill advancement
The latest bit of info we've come across about the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO Earthrise sheds some more light on how skill advancement will work in the game. We've known that Earthrise will have a mix of both online and offline character advancement. The Masthead Studios response to the latest Question of the Week regarding skills, via Earthrise community manager Moll, explains their approach to progression. Moll writes: "Skills improvement is one of the pinnacles of Earthrise's sandbox gameplay. Players in Earthrise will gain skill points by killing monsters and completing quests. Those skill points can be invested in abilities, which are used in combat. The abilities interface dialog is interactive with options to buy and combine abilities by using tactics." Beyond this system of combining abilities Moll also writes that players won't be limited in terms of their skill choices and that a player can choose any skills in the game, in addition to combining all types of abilities into tactics. Moll says, "The skill advancement system is easy to learn and offers numerous possibilities for character customization, much more than many other games on the market." You can find the Question of the Week and feedback from the Earthrise community on the game's official forums.
Earthrise question of the week is a call to crafters
Earthrise is the post-apocalyptic MMO being developed by Masthead Studios that will have a game setting quite different from the crumbled, burned out world we'd typically associate with global armageddon. Earthrise is set in a utopian future that's quickly turning dystopian, one that's still rather crumbly on the outskirts to keep that aftermath feel to the game. Beyond the guild warfare and sandbox elements of gameplay Massively has looked at in the past, Masthead Studios is putting a great deal of emphasis on the game's crafting system. In fact, this is the focus of the Earthrise Question of the Week on the game's forums, posted by the game's community manager Moll. However, instead of simply doing a brief Q&A as in other weeks, Moll explains the concepts behind the crafting system before eliciting feedback from Earthrise fans.%Gallery-48760%
Latest Earthrise newsletter updates on game's progress
Sofia-based Masthead Studios has released the March `09 newsletter for their upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO Earthrise. As with their previous newsletters, Issue IX points out where Earthrise has been discussed in the gaming press over the past few weeks, and shows off some of the game's concept art. This month, Masthead Studios is showing off concepts for the mutated Nathura zone.In addition, the developers write about what they love about Earthrise and working on the title -- ranging from the game's epic scale to the extensive combat system. Issue IX also expands upon the game's lore, with the struggle between the factions of Noir and Continoma, a clash between utopian idealism and anarchy. Have a look through the latest Earthrise newsletter and see how their vision of a post-apocalyptic future is turning out.
