Unsure of what new games to pick up this month? Still suck on an Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree boss, or a Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail baddie? We’ve got you covered with the best tips of this final week in July. Click through for them all.
It is now officially summer. Yesterday, the solstice (Litha, as it’s known to some) brought us our longest day of the calendar year, and now we march on to ever darkening days. But right now, we’re just marching on into the weekend to spend that time off in some delightful digital realms.
Whether or not they actually amount to anything, rumours of a new Doom have had me diving back into Doom Eternal recently. There’s at least one level in it that feels like essay-bait, so I’m obliging. The centerpiece of Mars Core - the FPS’ best level - is a comically massive superweapon called the BFG-10000. Oh, Chekov. If only you could see what we’ve done with your wisdom. The literary subtlety to gun-big-enough-to-scar-planets pipeline will eventually subsume all of pop culture, and those of us who chose to specialise writing about headshots will alternate between grins and tears from the wreckage.
Who'd have guessed the Doom Slayer's latest weapon would be a shield?
Doom: The Dark Ages promises a bold new take on the long-running shooter’s legacy. Revealed in a short but loud trailer as part of the Xbox Games Showcase, it features dragon riding, mech battles, and a much darker, more ‘metal’ visual palette. But those grimdark ideas aren't the only …
The next Doom game - the first new instalment in over four years, after Doom Eternal - is reportedly taking a leaf out of Evil Dead: Army of Darkness’ necronomicon by transporting the Doom Slayer back to a medieval world to presumably battle hellspawn. According to a new report, it’s subtitled The Dark Ages and we’ll get an official reveal next week.
A trademark for what looks to be a new Doom game has resurfaced after originally being filed by Bethesda back in January, as the suggestion of a reveal in a few weeks' time now swirls.
The pending trademark, filed in the US, is titled "IDKFA" - a well-known cheat code used in the Doom series.
This isn't the first we've heard of a new Doom game being in development. A project referred to as "Doom: Year Zero" was named in a release schedule accidentally shared by Microsoft last year, in documents pertaining to its Activision Blizzard FTC court case. (That document also mentioned Ghostwire: Tokyo and Dishonored sequels, which sadly seem likely to no longer be happening.)
This news post leaves me in a quandary, readers, because I will need to write a swear word for the sake of full journalistic transparency, but Google’s algorithms tend to frown on sweary articles. On the other hand, Google’s algorithms don’t like it when you spend whole intros handwringing about Google’s algorithms, either, so let’s stop, er, faffing around and speak of Doom. Id Software parent company Zenimax recently trademarked “IDKFA”, a string of letters that will be of deep significance to original Doom players, and which may therefore be evidence of an impending announcement.
Valve's Steam Deck is a highly capable piece of kit, often reaching parity with last-gen consoles at ~720p, while more demanding current-gen efforts can prove quite playable as well - even including some of the top-end Unreal Engine 5 titles. The RDNA2 graphics hardware inside the Deck is even capable of ray tracing, though this support has largely been dormant in SteamOS. That's started to change over the last year, with first Vulkan and then DXR-enabled titles running under Proton with RT enabled - and RT performance has seen big boosts as well.
Today we're taking a look at the state of play when it comes to RT on Steam Deck, looking at some of the best-looking PC titles to see whether they can be playable with RT engaged. Can we get good frame-rates even with demanding ray tracing settings? And how does the Valve's handheld compare in performance terms against the more powerful ROG Ally?
The most obvious place to start is with the Steam Deck is some of the easier ray tracing workloads available - and I think Doom Eternal is a good first choice. The game runs well with minimal settings tweakery: 720p resolution, medium settings and RT toggled on. Relative to the non-RT version of the game, we get solid (if somewhat low-res and slightly ghostly) reflections on glossy surfaces, with very different material properties when RT is enabled. This makes for a transformative difference in scenes with glossy materials, though an aggressive roughness cutoff means that semi-gloss materials are largely bereft of RT treatment.
Cancellation Watch: Status updates for the sci fi and fantasy shows on the broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming services as well as breaking news on the currently airing, returning, and upcoming genre entries.
Invasion (Apple TV+, Status: Renewed): This alien invasion series has received the greenlight for a third season and that will start production later this month. The show has not placed in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings across its first two seasons and has generally not scored well with critics or viewers, currently holding a 56% Tomatometer Score and 50% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes. But Apple TV+ has generally been good about supporting its originals so far. There has been no indication at this point that the third season will be the show’s last, but don’t be surprised if that announcement is made at some point.
American Horror Stories (FX, Status: Renewed): This announcement has not received much exposure with the entertainment media, but FX president John Landgraf has confirmed at the TCAs that the spin-off to AHS will be returning for a fourth season. That show made it into the Nielsen Streaming Rankings for one week during its third season release last October, and it has been fairly well received so far. The fourth season is targeting an October premiere in 2024, and there is no word yet on whether it will have more episodes than the four that made up its third year. The show has not proven to be a huge hit so far, but it will eventually get lumped into the syndication package for AHS and will likely stick around as long as the parent series is still going.
Echo (Disney+, Status: Mini-Series): This Hawkeye spin-off (and Daredevil-connected) series entered the Nielsen Streaming Rankings at Number 4 for the week of its premiere, pulling in an estimated 731 minutes of viewing. All five episodes of the show were available for streaming that day (as opposed to Disney+’s usual weekly rollout) which certainly helped boost its viewership. This one has been billed as a limited series, but there is always the chance that it could return for a second season if the viewership remains strong.
Quantum Leap (NBC, Status: Renewal Possible): This series held at a 0.18 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic for a second week. That is definitely lower than the 0.29 score the show averaged in Fall, but the network had to expect a drop in viewership when they moved it to Tuesdays at 10 PM EST. I am not moving it to Bubble status just yet, but I will keep a close eye on it as it wraps up its second season and fans should definitely make some noise to bring the show more attention.
Unicorn: Warriors Eternal (Adult Swim/Max, Status: On the Bubble): This animated series from Genndy Tartakovsky arrived last Spring with little fanfare on Adult Swim and I did not even realize the show was airing at the time. It is also streaming on Max, but it has not made it into the Nielsen Streaming Rankings. There has been no word on a second year yet, but Tartakovsky has indicated that he has plans for future seasons of the show. Fans should certainly take to the social networks with a Call to Action to help get this one a renewal.
You can see the status of all the shows from the current season at our Cancellation Watch Page.
In addition to the renewals for Invasion and American Horror Stories, Disney+ also announced a second season for Percy Jackson and the Olympians last week. That brings the current Cancellation/Renewal Score to seventeen renewed sci fi and fantasy entries (43% of shows tracked) vs. only six cancelled and ending so far (15%). Below are this season’s numbers, and you can see the list of shows and keep up with the score throughout the week at our Cancellation Watch Page.
| Show Count | 40 | ||
| Cancelled | 4 | 10.0% | |
| Ending | 2 | 5.0% | 15.0% |
| Renewed | 17 | 42.5% | |
| On the Bubble | 6 | 15.0% | |
| Renewal Possible | 11 | 27.5% | |
| Mini-Series | 4 |
Be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates. And for the latest news and discussions on sci fi and fantasy television, follow r/SciFiTV
Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
The post Cancellation Watch: Invasion and American Horror Stories Get Renewed, Echo Hits the Nielsen Streaming Rankings, and More appeared first on Cancelled Sci Fi.
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