En cierto sentido, Netflix es realmente el nuevo video de gran éxito (o el video de Hollywood o cualquier serie de alquiler que a mis compañeros mayores les guste repetir). Con solo caminar entre las filas repletas de copias interminables del último lanzamiento en su Blockbuster local, puede descubrir películas y programas de televisión que han pasado desapercibidos o se han considerado demasiado escandalosos para los gustos convencionales. (Tropezar y quedar levemente sorprendido por las extrañas ilustraciones de la portada de las películas de terror de categoría B solía ser un rito de iniciación para personas de cierta edad). No puedes acercarte a la misma variedad de opciones en Netflix, especialmente ahora que la biblioteca se compone cada vez más de originales del servicio, pero también permite que algunos títulos antiguos y algo olvidados obtengan una nueva vida, aunque sea fugaz.
Es cierto que es más fácil entender por qué algunas películas o series de repente llegan al top 10 de películas o series diarias en Netflix en comparación con otras. Con Denzel Washington viajando a la arena para ver “Gladiator II” el próximo mes, no es de extrañar que los suscriptores de streaming de repente estén de humor para volver a visitar las actuaciones pasadas del ícono de Hollywood (Incluso una película intermedia como su colaboración con Mark Wahlberg en “2 Guns”.)? En cambio, es difícil saber exactamente por qué. La icónica serie de suspenso y crimen de la década de 2000 “Prison Break” Ha aparecido en la cima de las listas de Netflix como lo hizo este año, además de su capacidad inherente para combinarse. (Lo llamó efecto “trajes”).
¿En cuanto a por qué el thriller de acción de 2011 de Jason Statham, “The Mechanic”, ha sido uno de los títulos más vistos en Netflix durante casi una semana seguida? Basándome en mis estudios previos, completamente acientíficos, sobre el tema, mi hipótesis es que es simplemente el tipo de película que tiende a tener buenos resultados entre las audiencias de streaming.
El mecánico de Statham hace el trabajo en Netflix
Patti Perrette/CBS Films
Mira, lo entiendo: al final de un largo día, lo último que la gente (y hasta cierto punto) quiere hacer es examinar filas interminables de títulos de Netflix con la esperanza de encontrar una película o programa que realmente valga la pena. Tampoco se trata per se de elegir algo que no sea exigente; Sólo quieren una apuesta segura. Ingresa Jason Statham, una de las apuestas más seguras. ¿Todas sus películas son igualmente buenas? Por supuesto que no, pero el hombre sabe lo que los fanáticos esperan de él (palabras groseras y muchas patadas) y está más que feliz de complacerlos.
No es de extrañar, entonces, que The Mechanic haya logrado permanecer en el top 10 de películas diarias de Netflix en EE. UU. desde que saltó al quinto lugar el 4 de octubre de 2024. (a través de Patrulla flexible). Por supuesto, había caído al noveno lugar el 9 de octubre, y es posible que ya haya caído al décimo lugar cuando leas esto, pero su semana sorprendentemente larga en la cima de Netflix no es algo que valga la pena pasar por alto, sobre todo para una película de este tipo. eso… Vino y se fue sin mucha fanfarria cuando CBS Films lo envió a los cines en enero de 2011. La propia CBS Films cerró silenciosamente hace cinco años, pero le ha ido bien, distribuyendo películas como La mujer de negro y Dentro de Llewyn. Davis, Hell or High Water e Historias de miedo para contar en la oscuridad en el camino.
Mientras tanto, “The Mechanic” es algo material para su protagonista. Stath interpreta al personaje principal aquí, un protagonista que es el personaje por excelencia de Jason Statham tal como es, ya que es un asesino con principios que emprende una búsqueda personal de venganza después del asesinato de su mentor. La película en sí es una nueva versión de la película de 1972 del mismo nombre protagonizada por Charles Bronson (quizás un Statham de su época) y Hills del director de “Con Air” y “The Expendables 2”, Simon West, por lo que es La película recibió una calificación del 53% en Rotten Tomatoes. No debería ser una gran sorpresa. Y todavía existe El difunto gran Donald Sutherland Lamentablemente, el subestimado Ben Foster, como mentor de Statham e hijo de su mentor, respectivamente, hace su parte para elevar el proceso.
The Corsair One i500 isn’t necessarily the most powerful gaming PC out there, it’s not very upgradeable, and in terms of style, it’s the kind of product that will inspire some very strong opinions — including my own.
Its specs are such that it is an easy contender for the best gaming PC of 2024 just in terms of performance, and its price is absolutely in line with the kinds of gaming rigs I’ve seen running Core i9-14900K and RTX 4080 Super or RTX 4090 GPUs.
Starting at $3,599.99 / £3,499.99 (about $5,220), this isn’t a cheap gaming PC, but for what you’re getting in terms of specs, you’d normally be getting a standard mid-tower PC case, usually in black, with large RGB fans with a tempered glass side showing off even more RGB trim, and you’d still be paying nearly $3,500 or more for the privilege.
That is to say, most gaming PCs today lean so heavily on RGB to define their style, that ‘style’ isn’t really even a factor when considering which one to buy. The cases might vary, they might have a wraparound glass panel to show off the insides more fully, but the fundamental design principle of ‘show off the components’, which are lit up like a carnival, remains the same no matter what PC you buy.
The Corsair One i500, meanwhile, doesn’t even have Corsair iCue, the company’s proprietary RGB control software. It does have RGB, namely in the two trim lines that flank the case’s wooden front panel, but it’s limited compared to other gaming PCs. Instead, the Corsair One i500 uses a wooden front panel and fabric side panels to define its aesthetic, along with the aluminum case underneath that comes in either black or silver.
Depending on the case color, you’ll get a different wooden front panel (a walnut color for the black case and a pine color for the silver), and both cost the same, so you won’t have to pay a premium for one over the other. The PC also comes with a headphone hanger attachment that can fit onto either side of the case, and there are more than enough ports for whatever peripherals you have.
More than anything, this PC reminds me of the Atari 2600 from my childhood, equipped as it was with a wooden panel along the top edge like everything else was in the early 1980s. That quickly gave way to hard black plastic in later models and soon consoles and later PCs left behind natural textures for futuristic flash and forms that persist up to the present. It’s in this milieu that the Corsair One i500 feels like something dropped into the gaming PC market out of a flying Delorean. After so many years of RGB and aggressive gamer aesthetic, it’s still shocking how something as simple and retro as a wood panel on the front can feel so refreshing.
It’s not all positive, though. If there is anything that can be considered a negative with this PC, it’s its lack of easy upgradability. The small form factor case is going to limit what you can fit in it, but the GPU AIO cooler also means that any GPU upgrades in the future are not going to be as simple as dropping in a new graphics card in a few years. You can more easily upgrade the SSD and RAM, however.
But this isn’t really a gaming PC for builders or tinkerers. This is much more a gaming PC for those who want the best without messing with the cables and components, but who also want their new gaming PC to reflect their significant investment. In that, the Corsair One i500 is unmatched.
Corsair One i500: Price & availability
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
How much is it? Starting at $3,599.99 / £3,499.99 (about $5,220)
When is it available? Available May 6, 2024
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US and the UK at launch, with Australia availability in June 2024.
The Corsair One i500 is available in the US and UK now, starting at $3,599.99 and £3,499.99, respectively. It will be available in Australia in June, but official pricing hasn’t been released for the APAC region yet.
Both configurations available at launch come with an Intel Core i9-1400K processor and 2TB NVMe storage, and the base configuration comes with an Nvidia RTX 4080 Super and 32GB DDR5 RAM, while the max configuration comes with an Nvidia RTX 4090 and 64GB DDR5 RAM for $4,699.99 / £4,699.99.
This is more expensive than something like the current Alienware Aurora R16, which maxes out at an Intel Core i9-14900KF, RTX 4090, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and 2TB PCIe NVMe storage for $4,049.99 / £3,919. In Australia, the Aurora R16 maxes out at AU$5,772.80 for an Intel Core i9-14900KF, an Nvidia RTX 4080 Super, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and 2TB storage.
Other gaming PCs like the Acer Predator Orion 7000 and HP Omen 40L will sell for roughly the same as the Aurora R16, so the Corsair One i500 is going to be more expensive than the competition, but its competition also features much of the same style as every other gaming PC you’ve seen in a Best Buy or Curry’s for the past decade. Whether the Corsair One i500’s style is worth the extra premium will be up to you, but after all the gaming PCs I’ve reviewed over the years, I believe it’s absolutely worth the premium.
Corsair One i500: Specs
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Up to an RTX 4090 with AIO liquid cooling
Not easily upgradable
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Corsair One i500 Specs
Header Cell – Column 0
Base configuration
Max configuration
Price
$3,599.99 / £3,499.99 (about AU$5,220)
$4,699.99 / £4,699.99 / $4,AU$5,772.80
CPU
Intel Core i9-14900K
Intel Core i9-14900K
GPU
Nvidia RTX 4080 Super
Nvidia RTX 4090
Memory
32Gb DDR5
64GB DDR5
Storage
2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Corsair One i500: Design
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
Gorgeous small form-factor case
Ample cooling fans
Fabric side panels might get grimey over time
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
The Corsair One i500’s biggest appeal is its style.
I haven’t seen a wood-paneled gaming device since the Atari 2600, and that device was released when I was a toddler. That’s been enough time, I think, for a wood-paneled device to be cool again, and given the state of PC gaming hardware for the past several years, seeing something new is more than just refreshing.
I can’t say that the Corsair One i500 will transform PC gaming culture to move beyond its decade-old Decepticon-inspired PC cases with over-the-top RGB lighting, but I hope it inspires a new paradigm for what companies can do with a gaming PC. The market desperately needs it.
In terms of specific design notes, this is technically a small form factor gaming PC, though it is bigger than something like the Asus ROG G22CH. Taller than it is wide or deep, this is more like a gaming console than a traditional gaming PC. If you’ve been looking for a living room PC, this will fit right in with a living room aesthetic.
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
If you spend this much money on a gaming PC, you should hopefully be able to upgrade to an Nvidia 5000 series graphics card in a few years, but the small form factor case is going to limit what size GPU you can fit.
On top of that, the graphics card in this case is unshrouded, relying on an AIO GPU cooler to manage heat dissipation. You could obviously take all of the fans and heatsink off of any future graphics card you buy and fit it into this PC, but understandably, this is a fairly advanced modification for a GPU.
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(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)
On top of the internals, there are a number of distinct design features that you won’t really find anywhere else.
First, the side panels are covered in a soft, breathable fabric. This creates a very cool look to the PC, but fabric in tech devices tend to discolor and gunk up over time, especially if they cover a fan blowing dust out of a PC case.
Still, the fabric panels are a beautiful design touch. Another very cool feature is the tap-to-activate light on the backside of the case, which you can activate to light up the back ports while you’re plugging in peripherals and other cables. It’s a small touch, but given that the backside of a gaming PC can often be cast in shadow, having an easy way to illuminate the area in question is incredibly useful.
Taken all together, the Corsair One i500 is the coolest prebuilt gaming PC I’ve ever used, and it’s all the more impressive given how far it stretches past the ‘accepted’ gamer aesthetic into something new. I’m sure a lot of people won’t like the design of this PC, but I don’t care. The fact that Corsair took the risk to make a dramatically different kind of PC earns five stars in my book.
Corsair One i500: Performance
Fantastic gaming 4K performance
You can probably get the same kind of performance for cheaper if you don’t mind less appealing aesthetics
Now, as good as the Corsair One i500 looks, this is a gaming PC, so its performance matters as much as — if not more than — its aesthetics. In this regard, you won’t be disappointed with this PC.
Its starting GPU, the RTX 4080 Super, is one of the best 4K graphics cards on the market, second only to the Nvidia RTX 4090, which is an optional upgrade for the Corsair One i500. So no matter which GPU you get, you’ll be able to get 4K@60FPS on just about any title on the market, especially if you enable Nvidia’s DLSS 3 in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and any game that features ray tracing.
The RTX 4090, however, is the only graphics card I’ve ever tested that can get you close to 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing maxed out without upscaling, so if you’re looking to play 4K at native resolution, you do at least have the option of going with the RTX 4090.
Given the hardware here, this is also a very competent creative performer, so those who like to get some work done will like what’s on offer here, but I wouldn’t call this the best workstation PC going. This is a gaming PC through and through, and it’s here that this PC excels.
Should you buy the Corsair One i500?
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Corsair One i500 Scorecard
Category
Verdict
Score
Value
While this isn’t a cheap gaming PC, compared to similarly speced competitiors, the price is pretty decent for such a high-end gaming PC.
★★★★☆
Specs
While you can get some of the best specs possible right now, upgradeability is much more limited than with other gaming PCs. You still get a water cooled GPU, which is pretty awesome.
★★★★★
Design
OK, so I think this is a stunningly gorgeous gaming PC that takes risks and does something radically different. You might not like its aesthetics, but it gets full marks for bravery even if some might hate how it looks.
★★★★★
Performance
The RTX 4080 Super model I tested is a fantastic performer, but opting for the RTX 4090 model will get you the best of the best performance on the market.
★★★★★
Total
Capable of keeping up with the most powerful gaming PCs on the market with an undeniable style, this is easily one of a handful
At some point in the last 24 hours, Siri on the HomePod and the HomePod mini seems to have forgotten how to relay the time. When asking Siri “what time is it?” Siri is unable to answer and directs users to the iPhone.
“I found some web results, I can show them if you ask again from your iPhone,” is Siri’s full response to the time question. If you ask what time it is in a specific location, Siri is able to respond, and Siri on iPhone, iPad, and Mac provides the time as usual when asked.
This is a bug that Apple will be able to fix server side, so it will likely be addressed quickly. In the meantime, to get the time from Siri on the HomePod without having to swap to an iPhone, include your location.
Siri has long been ridiculed for failing to understand requests and not providing the expected information, and small bugs like this are a bit embarrassing as Apple prepares for a major AI update.
For the last several months, Siri has also been struggling with HomeKit commands, and there have been many complaints from smart home users. Asking Siri to “turn off the lights in the living room,” for example, often results in the lights being turned on or turned off in another room entirely. Hopefully some of these issues will be solved with a Siri overhaul in iOS 18 and its sister updates.
Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others. Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, and others: Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are…
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman outlined some of the new products he expects Apple to announce at its “Let Loose” event on May 7. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. First, Gurman now believes there is a “strong possibility” that the upcoming iPad Pro models will be equipped with Apple’s next-generation M4 chip, rather than the M3 chip that…
Apple’s upcoming iPad Pro models will feature “by far the best OLED tablet panels on the market,” according to Display Supply Chain Consultants. Set to be announced on May 7, the OLED iPad Pro models will feature LTPO (a more power efficient form of OLED), a 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate, and a tandem stack and glass thinning that will bring “ultra-thin and light displays” that support high…
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman today said that iOS 18 will “overhaul” many of Apple’s built-in apps, including Notes, Mail, Photos, and Fitness. Gurman did not reveal any specific new features planned for these apps. It was previously rumored that the Notes app will gain support for displaying more math equations, and a built-in option to record voice memos, but this is the first time we have…
Best Buy today has discounted Apple’s M1 iPad Air (64GB Wi-Fi) to a new all-time low price of $399.99 in the Starlight color option, down from $599.99. Best Buy says this deal will last through the end of the day, and it’s only available in one color at this record low price. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a…
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of “Let Loose” and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more …
With iOS 17.5, Apple is adding a “Repair State” feature that is designed to allow an iPhone to be sent in for service without deactivating Find My and Activation Lock. The fourth iOS 17.5 beta that came out today adds a “Remove This Device” option for all devices in Find My, and using it with an iPhone puts that iPhone into the new Repair State. Right now, sending an iPhone to Apple to be…
Las Borinqueñas explores how women sought control of their reproductive lives in the 1950s.Credit: Valerie Terranova
Las Borinqueñas Directed by Rebecca Aparicio Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York City 3 April – 5 May 2024
It’s the 1950s and two US scientists are looking for somewhere to test the first birth-control pill. Where better than Puerto Rico? The territory had an established network of family-planning clinics, and the use of contraception had been legal there since 1937. That wasn’t the case in much of the United States, including Massachusetts, where biologist Gregory Pincus and obstetrician-gynaecologist John Rock were developing the oral contraceptive.
Puerto Rican women were interested in a pill that could give them more control over their reproductive lives. But as they lined up outside a clinic in the outskirts of San Juan to receive the medication, many were unaware that it was an experimental drug and they were part of a clinical trial. When some of them started reporting debilitating side effects, these were dismissed as psychosomatic.
The play Las Borinqueñas, whose title means ‘the Puerto Rican women’, revisits the complicated history of the world’s first oral contraceptive. Mixing the excitement of scientific breakthrough with the shock of flawed research ethics and shadows of colonialism and exploitation, it puts the spotlight on the women who, after playing a key part in the pill’s development, were quickly forgotten.
Reboot contraceptives research — it has been stuck for decades
It’s a long-overdue tribute and, most importantly, a reminder to remain vigilant against abuse and disrespect in studies involving human participants. In a world where the fight for access to birth control is ongoing, it is bold and commendable to recognize that this significant advance was built on ethically problematic studies that harmed some of the very women they aimed to serve and empower.
Written by Nelson Diaz-Marcano, a Puerto Rican theatre-maker based in New York City, the show was developed by the Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a research funder also based in the city. It had its world premiere on 3 April and is playing until 5 May at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City.
Taking control
The play follows the intertwined lives of five women — Chavela, Yolanda, Fernanda, Maria and Rosa — as they cross paths with the researchers testing the pill. As the audience witnesses their love stories, aspirations, struggles and loyal friendships, the protagonists open a window on the lives of hundreds of Puerto Rican women who enrolled in the tests, and how the experience changed them.
Each character is affected in a different way. Chavela sees the trial as chance to slow down the growth of her family while maintaining a passionate marriage. Yolanda envisions it as the lifeline that might save other women from the fate of her sister, Fernanda, who dies as a result of an illegal abortion. For Maria, it’s about avoiding pregnancy to advance her dream of becoming a writer — and about honouring Fernanda, her soulmate, with whom she could never openly have a relationship because of societal norms. But the hope brought on by the pill slowly fades when the women start feeling unwell.
The play shows how researchers and trial facilitators played down side effects because of the pill’s ground-breaking implications.Credit: Valerie Terranova
Rosa, who was suspicious of the pill from the start, urges the others to stop taking it, while boasting about the benefits of the sterilization that she underwent after giving birth. The doctors who suggested the procedure, however, never told her it was irreversible. The heartbreaking scene when she learns she will never be able to have another baby signals that the clinical trial wasn’t the first instance of medical abuse these women endured. By 1953, a eugenics-based programme in Puerto Rico had led to the sterilization of nearly one-fifth of women on the island to address concerns about ‘surplus population’.
From rabbits to women
The birth-control pill was the result of the encounter of Pincus and Rock, who were both studying the effects of synthetic progesterone, but in different contexts. Pincus was looking into the anti-ovulatory effect of the hormone in rabbits, and Rock was exploring it as a means to treat his patients’ infertility. The play focuses on Pincus, portrayed as an ambitious scientist determined to carve his name into history by creating a revolutionary product.
I wouldn’t be a scientist without my abortion
When someone becomes pregnant, their levels of progesterone go up, signalling to the body to shut down the ovaries and not release new eggs. Whereas Pincus wanted to mimic this process for the purpose of contraception, Rock hoped that a pause in ovulation would allow his patients’ reproductive systems to reset, increasing their chances of pregnancy after the treatment.
The scientists came together to test the pill in humans. The play briefly refers to a couple of small trials done in the United States, but to get the pill approved, it had to be tested on a larger scale. Pincus sets his sights on Puerto Rico and seeks to partner with Edris Rice-Wray, who was then the medical director of the Family Planning Association of Puerto Rico.
Rice-Wray expresses her concerns about negative side effects that had been observed in previous tests, but is convinced to join the project by Pincus’s wife, who highlights the potentially revolutionary implications of the pill for women around the world.
Rice-Wray is portrayed as a responsible public-health official who is nonetheless persuaded to push the boundaries of ethics for the greater good. She launches the programme with fanfare in 1956 and, at the suggestion of Pincus, does not mention the potential side effects to participants, most of whom are poor women with little access to health care. Her discomfort with the omission increases as she hears that the trial is taking a toll on participants.
Are women in research being led up the garden path?
In one scene, Chavela is taking laundry from the line when she is struck by dizziness and nausea. Her sister Rosa warns her that the pill is to blame, but she prefers to continue taking it rather than to risk becoming pregnant again. Rice-Wray reports those concerns to Pincus, who minimizes them as minor inconveniences compared with the wider benefits of the drug. Because of his disregard for the Puerto Rican study participants, the real-life Pincus was later accused of colonialism and exploitation of women of colour.
The protagonists eventually stop taking the pill and don’t experience long-term consequences. But the play mentions that three Puerto Rican women died during the trial, and that their deaths were never investigated.
Trial and error
In reality, of around 800 women who enrolled in the study, only 130 took the pill for a year or more, most dropping out because of the side effects. To make the results look more impressive, Pincus described them by saying that no pregnancy had been registered “in the 1,279 menstrual cycles” during which the treatment had been followed. In the play, his character brushes off the accusation of data embellishment. For him, it was simply a matter of using a different metric.
The pill, branded as Enovid, went on to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a contraceptive in 1960. The participants of the clinical trial didn’t have access to the product once it reached the market: the price was prohibitive for the Puerto Rican working class.
How centuries of sexism excluded women from science — and how to redress the balance
More than six decades later, the contraceptive pills available are much safer. But access is still an issue. In the United States, until last year, people still needed a prescription to buy oral contraceptives — a significant barrier for those without health insurance.
Las Borinqueñas concludes with the women refusing to be defined by the experience of being exploited by scientists and having their right to decide about their own reproductive lives stripped away. Rosa publicly denounces the pill’s side effects and the irreversibility of sterilization on a radio show; she also conveys her resilience and hope for the future. The women will continue to take care of their families, to work and to pursue their dreams. They celebrate life and laugh at adversity.
Some would argue that their suffering was a small price to pay for the wider impacts of pill. But by giving names to the study participants and telling their stories, Las Borinqueñas serves as a powerful reminder that such disregard and injustice was never acceptable.
I had a favorite growing up (Anita Yuen in the 1998 Taiwanese TV series). I obsessed over Chinese period TV series like , and . I consider myself fairly well-versed in Chinese historical figures, especially those represented in ‘90s and 2000s entertainment in Asia. So when I found out that a UK-based studio had made a VR game called The Pirate Queen based on a forgotten female leader who was prolific in the South China Sea, I was shocked. How had I never heard of her? How had the Asian film and TV industry never covered her?
I got to play a bit of the game this week, which was released on the Meta Quest store and on March 7th. The titular character Cheng Shih is voiced by actor Lucy Liu, who also executive produced this version of the game with UK-based Singer Studios’ CEO and founder Eloise Singer. Liu and Singer sat with me for an interview discussing The Pirate Queen, Cheng Shih, VR’s strengths and the importance of cultural and historical accuracy in games and films.
Cheng Shih, which translates to “Madam Cheng” or “Mrs Cheng,” was born Shi Yang. After she married the pirate Cheng Yi (usually romanized as Zheng Yi), she became known as Cheng Yi Sao, which translates to “wife of Cheng Yi.” Together they led the Guangdong Pirate Confederation in the 1800s. Upon her husband’s death in 1807, she took over the reins and went on to become what South China Morning Post “history’s greatest pirate.”
Singer Studios
How did Singer Studios learn about Cheng Shih and decide to build a game (and upcoming franchise including a film, podcast and graphic novels) around her? According to Singer, it was through word of mouth. “It was a friend of mine who first told me the story,” Singer said. “She said, ‘Did you know that the most famous pirate in history was a woman?’”
Cheng Shih had been loosely referenced in before this, like the character Mistress Ching in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Jing Lang in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. As Singer pointed out, Cheng Shih had also appeared in a recent episode of Doctor Who.
Singer said that her team started developing the project as a film at the end of 2018. But the pandemic disrupted their plans, causing Singer to adapt it into a game. A short version of The Pirate Queen later debuted at Raindance Film Festival, and shortly after, Meta came onboard and provided funding to complete development of the game. Liu was then approached when the full version was ready and about to make its appearance at Tribeca Film Festival 2023.
“The rest is history,” Liu said, “But not forgotten history.” She said Cheng Shih was never really recognized for being the most powerful pirate. “It seems so crazy that in the 19th century, this woman who started as a courtesan would then rise to power and then have this fleet of pirates that she commanded,” Liu added. She went on to talk about how Cheng Shih was ahead of the time and also represented “a bit of an underdog story.” For the full 15-minute interview, you can watch the video in this article or listen to this week’s episode of The Engadget Podcast and learn more about Liu and Singer’s thoughts on VR and technology over the last 20 years.
Capturing the historical and cultural details of Cheng Shih’s life was paramount to Liu and Singer. They said the team had to create women’s hands from scratch to be represented from the player’s perspective in VR, and a dialect coach was hired to help Liu nail the pronunciation for the Cantonese words that Cheng Shih speaks in the game. Though I’m not completely certain if Cheng Shih spoke Mandarin or Cantonese, the latter seems like the more accurate choice given it’s the lingua franca in the Guangdong region.
Singer Studios
All that added to the immersiveness of The Pirate Queen, in which players find themselves in an atmospheric maritime environment. The Meta Quest 3’s controllers served as my hands in the game, and I rowed boats, climbed rope ladders and picked up items with relative ease. Some of the mechanics, especially the idea of “teleportation” as moving around, were a little clunky, but after about five minutes I got used to how things worked. You’ll have to point the left controller and push the joystick when you’ve chosen a spot, and the scene changes around you. This probably minimizes the possibility of nausea, since you’re not standing still while watching your surroundings move. It’s also pretty typical of , so those who have experience playing will likely be familiar with the movement.
You can still walk around and explore, of course. I scrutinized the corners of rooms, inspected the insides of cabinets and more, while hunting for keys that would unlock boxes containing clues. A lot of this is pretty standard for a puzzle or room escape game, which is what I used to play the most in my teens. But I was particularly taken by sequences like rowing a boat across the sea and climbing up a rope ladder, both of which caused me to break a mild sweat. Inside Cheng Shih’s cabin, I lit a joss stick and placed it in an incense holder — an action I repeated every week at my grandfather’s altar when I was growing up. It felt so realistic that I tried to wave the joss stick to put out the flame and could almost smell the smoke.
It’s these types of activities that make VR games great vehicles for education and empathy. “We didn’t want to have these combat elements that traditional VR games do have,” Singer said, adding that it was one of the challenges in creating The Pirate Queen.
“It’s nice to see and to learn and be part of that, as opposed to ‘Let’s turn to page 48,’” Liu said. “That’s not as exciting as doing something and being actively part of something.” When you play as a historical character in a game, and one that’s as immersive as a VR game, “you’re living that person’s life or that moment in time,” Liu added.
While The Pirate Queen is currently only available on Quest devices, Singer said there are plans to bring it to “as many headsets as we possibly can.” Singer Studios also said it is “extending The Pirate Queen franchise beyond VR into a graphic novel, film and television series.”