Entertainment

Travis Scott’s Astronomical Concert in Fortnite: An unprecedented visual experience

The best in-game concert you will ever witness while at home

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With the world in an uncertain point in time, we’re all forced indoors. That meant going out only for necessities, most people advised to work from home, and no mass public gatherings. We said goodbye to live events, basketball games, and music concerts that give us the break we need from the stress of the world.

At least, that’s how things are turning out. Fortunately, it hasn’t stopped the gaming world from giving the people just a little taste of experiencing these things from the comfort of your own home. In particular, Epic Games’ most popular (for the good and the bad) battle royale title, Fortnite introduced these special events to their players. And with their latest collaboration with Travis Scott himself, here’s what you got:

 

The event had five different show times, and I was lucky and early enough to get into one without crashing mid-game. It’s one of those ordinary limited-time modes the game has, where there are 50 people basically fighting to the death. Except, well the event takes place on an isolated stage area in the middle of vast waters. With about 2 minutes before the event, people in-game couldn’t deal damage to others and you had no access to your weapons at all. At about 12:05 PM PST, it was show time.

Fortnite went full SICKO MODE with the visuals

The event starts off with a meteor made up of speaker sets, carnivals, and a cluster of stars making its way towards the earth. On stage, Travis Scott’s logo appears, which is soon followed by an illustration of that same meteor. By the time that silhouette fades out, SICKO MODE starts playing and the sky turns dark real fast. As the beat of the intro was coming down, a pink comet shoots out of the sky and wouldn’t you know it: Travis Scott himself, in Fortnite!

From start to finish, the entire event just looked like one visual masterpiece. You got Travis Scott walking around the entire island, collecting stars and merging them together. You even have him in his Cactus Jack and Astro Jack persona in the event, with apocalyptic backdrops and underwater scenes.

Getting goosebumps

Swimming underwater with Astro Jack

My initial reaction to everything was a mix of awe, appreciation, and saying “oh my god” and “woah” a lot more than normal. From the animations to the vibrant colors, this in-game event kept my eyes glued to the screen in pure excitement. It honestly felt like I was actually in a real-life concert, even if it was just 10 minutes long.

I even found myself vibing (and straight up singing and dancing) to the five songs they picked for the entire event. SICKO MODE, STARGAZING, HIGHEST IN THE ROOM, goosebumps, and topping it all off with THE SCOTTS; I couldn’t get enough of it.

Nothing else they did could compare

This wasn’t even the first time Fortnite even did special events like these. Back in the game’s first season, they had this entire collaboration with Marshmello that had people flying and bouncing everywhere. Just a few months ago, they even hosted an in-game Star Wars event for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That event even had an entire fight scene complete with TIE fighters and Stormtroopers, which led to players having lightsabers afterwards.

Travis Scott himself in the game

But the Astronomical live event was basically what the name suggests. It brings fantastic visuals with heart-pumping songs that almost feels like a real concert built from the ground up. And honestly, here’s to hoping that we could get more of these soon, or open up possibilities to incorporate virtual reality.

If you missed witnessing this other-worldly event in-game, you can watch a full version of it below:

Entertainment

UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony gets two more shows

Both shows will be held on the next day.

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The Philippines has an unquenchable love for game-based concerts (so *wink wink* please bring more of them). Though these concerts do generate a lot of hype, the drawback is that they often sell out way before most fans can grab tickets. If you’re an UNDERTALE fan, that experience might be rocking you right now, as both shows have already sold out. But fear not: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony has just opened two more shows.

Late last month, Film Concerts PH, in partnership with SOHO Live, announced UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony happening on October 17. As expected, both shows, at 3pm and at 7pm, sold out very quickly after sales opened.

Today, the concert experience is opening two more shows on the next day, October 18. Like the original date, the two shows will happen at 3pm and at 7pm, allowing more fans to experience the concert.

The concert will be performed by the Filharmonika Orchestra and conducted by Thanapol Setabrahmana. Personally curated by creator Toby Fox and developed by Lambert Jackson with Materia Music, the concert experience showcases the game’s most recognizable tunes laid over gameplay footage playing simultaneously. Plus, for the world tour, the experience will have expanded scoring.

Tickets are available through Ticketmelon. Both dates will be held at The Proscenium Theater in Makati.

SEE ALSO: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony hits Makati in October

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Entertainment

Here’s what you should watch before Avengers: Doomsday

The road to Doom begins here.

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As of today, the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will take around 650 hours to watch. So, if you wanted to catch up with everything before this December’s Avengers: Doomsday, you would need to allot around 5 hours per day to watch content from Marvel. For a lot of us, that sort of commitment is completely untenable. Thankfully, Marvel has released an official watchlist, paring the list down to something much more manageable.

Before the MCU got as big as it is today, it was fun to do a movie marathon heading into a major Marvel release. For example, when Avengers: Endgame came out, some theaters held continuous marathons lasting a few days. Take note that this was before Marvel officially included every TV show and legacy movie (like the X-Men universe).

Now, heading into Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel will not ask you to devote the rest of your year just for homework. Instead, here’s an official list you can use to catch up:

  • X-Men
  • X2
  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • The Avengers
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Avengers: Endgame
  • Loki
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Captain America: Brave New World
  • Deadpool & Wolverine
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
  • Thunderbolts
  • The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Compared to the extensive list of everything Marvel, this official list is much more manageable, especially since there’s only one show (Loki). It’s also a veritable who’s who of the MCU, so it’s hard to get bored.

The official list as seen on Disney+

There are, however, a few surprises and spoilers. For one, if you’ve been avoiding the teasers and trailers, the X-Men films might be a shock to you. Likewise, the inclusion of the critically panned Brave New World is interesting.

The exclusions are just as noteworthy, too. Though the two earliest X-Men films are included, the list doesn’t add Days of Future Past, one of the first Marvel films to use time travel. Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t on here, despite Love, Thor’s adopted daughter, appearing in the trailers. Brand New Day is also missing, but that’s likely because the movie isn’t on Disney+ yet.

Avengers: Doomsday premieres in cinemas on December 18. Four months should be enough time to catch up on these titles.

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Entertainment

Now Playing: The End of Oak Street

A more grounded, relentlessly suspenseful take on human-dinosaur coexistence

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All photos c/o Warner Bros. Pictures

For years, cinema has repeatedly tried to answer the age-old question: “What if humans and dinosaurs co-existed?”

Executions have varied wildly from standout franchises. There’s the corporate greed-driven, sci-fi techno-thrills of Jurassic Park.

There’s also the colossal, kaiju-laden spectacle from modern monster movies led by Godzilla.

The End of Oak Street, on the other hand, approaches the premise from a much more grounded and relentlessly suspenseful angle.

Led by A-listers Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, director David Robert Mitchell delivers what feels like a Marvel-style “incursion” — except localized entirely to a quiet 1980s suburban neighborhood.

⚠️ Some spoilers ahead! ⚠️

Well-paced buildup to an 80s nightmare

The End of Oak Street doesn’t waste time getting its board pieces into position. It quickly establishes the Platt family dynamic: Anne Hathaway’s Denise is a frustrated aspiring writer, Ewan McGregor’s Greg is a moonlighting pizza delivery rider struggling to keep his family afloat while striving to be a better man, husband, and father.

They have two children: Brian (Christian Convery) and Audrey (Maisy Stella) plus their family dog Starbuck. The Platts aren’t picture-perfect, and a brief argument early on reveals this fractured marriage on the brink of divorce.

Visually, the film nails its 80s aesthetic right off the bat. There’s warm color grading, period-accurate costume design, and of course, backyard activities to build-up the overall setting.

The mystery kicks off when Denise photographs a mysterious plant suddenly appearing in her neighbor’s yard, only to be identified as Pleuromeia, a species that had been extinct for millions of years.

Moments later, a violent storm and a blinding flash of cosmic light would rip Oak Street out of normalcy as dinosaurs and other prehistoric wildlife would be transported into the same timeline.

Dinosaurs galore, relentless suspense

Once the neighborhood shifts, the film becomes a continuous gauntlet of prehistoric terror. Mitchell fills the screen with an impressive array of creatures.

There’s all kinds, from the flying pterosaur, the harmless but massive Stegosauruses and Triceratops, the heavily-armored but likewise herbivorous Ankylosaurus, and the main threat, the Allosaurus. In between, there’s even giant pre-historic crocodiles and eels.

Cinematography works exceptionally well here. It balances full creature reveals with the more subtle, tension-building frames, like the tip of a tail disappearing, spikes moving behind house roofs, or just the simple rustling behind bushes and trees.

Also noteworthy is how these various species all mostly played a role in the plot’s progression, not just thrown visually for mindless fanservice or eye candy.

Arguably, the two most suspenseful scenes were the attack of the mighty Allosaurus in a brutal, wide-open chase, and the claustrophobia-causing slithering prehistoric eel that held the Platts’ collective breaths while trapped inside their home.

Logically, when you’re in a state of panic, you wouldn’t be able to notice what’s happening around you, which was exactly what happened to the Platts when discussing a strategy just as the apex predator was about to get to them.

Worthy performances, well-timed sequences

Hathaway and McGregor carry the film’s emotional weight, from the portrayal of their strained marriage to trying to stay intact amidst the chaos for their children.

Greg gets a tragic, redemptive arc when he sacrifices himself in the mid-film shocker as he gets caught by the Allosaurus. All he wanted to be was a better husband and father figure, afraid to lose everything.

This leaves Hathaway’s Denise to process grief when there is no time to waste, and when the immediate goal is to steer her kids to safety. She somehow finds a way to express these emotions when she repeatedly stabs the prehistoric eel later on.

Convery and Stella also hold their own as the Platt kids with their portrayals of panicked youngsters. There’s bone-headed, irrational decisions and just plain annoyance when their seniors are trying to focus on problem-solving.

Involving Brian’s neighborhood crush, Jeannette, along with his bullies while everything is falling apart feels natural. It’s something kids would definitely do even with Oak Street getting torn apart.

For the most part, it felt like filmmakers timed the sequence of scenes well. They knew when to zig and when to zag, and when to insert particular elements.

But letting Starbuck loose into the jungle felt like a stretch, given how it’s filled with predators, although I get inducing even more anxiety to viewers when there are several question marks yet to be answered.

Endless chase, intriguing finale

At a 99-minute runtime, the final third of the film transitions into a long, heart-pounding chase to sustain the energy high.

Eventually, Denise, the kids, and Jeannette find the wormhole atop local librarian, Mrs. Valcourt’s house.

They fend off giant prehistoric crocodiles and pterosaurs in a gripping final scramble. Starbuck miraculously reappears, and the survivors plunge back into the wormhole and are able to get home safely.

This brings everything to the resolution. Denise lands back in 1982, just a few minutes before the incursion occurs. Knowing what’s about to happen, she calls Greg to deliver pizza so he can avoid the radius of the cosmic event entirely.

As with movies involving time-travel, resetting the timeline is what’s logical and realistic.

However, it does feel a lot anti-climactic, wiping away the entire journey that involved character growth, trauma, and heavy emotional stakes, for a happy ending and the success of Denise’s writing career.

Should you watch it?

On our Watch Scale, The End of Oak Street sits comfortably under Watch at your convenience.

The creature variety, sustained tension, and shrewd pacing make it a fun, heart-pounding ride.

Its reset-button ending and occasional logical flaws prevent it from being a top-tier dinosaur movie, but it’s one of the better ones we’ve had in a while.

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