It's been another bumper week in the world of Geek – and as usual, we've got the lowdown! From the latest superhero news to the largest supernova ever detected, it's all waiting for you in the Week in Geek.
Monday 18th January
A spooky journey with Derren Brown and some good news for WhatsApp users
Hot on the heels of last week’s announcement from Alton Towers about the first virtual reality rollercoaster, Thorpe Park announed on Monday that they're also jumping on the VR bandwagon.
Thorpe Park have teamed up with magician Derren Brown to create their new Ghost Train attraction – and it sounds like it's going to be an experience like no other. Ghost Train combines live action with 4D special effects, and will use HTC Vive VR headsets to really immerse you in the experience.
The train itself is a seven-tonne Victorian carriage, suspended three metres in the air from huge chains, and it's based in a huge purpose-built warehouse. An iron bridge allows access to the train – but what happens then is a mystery for now! We do know that the whole experience will take about ten minutes, and there are 12 possible journeys with two different endings.
The ride will be opening at some point in spring 2016, so we won’t have long to wait to find out exactly what Derren Brown’s Ghost Train will consist of – but in the meantime, check out the launch video above.
Monday also brought good news for fans of the popular messaging application WhatsApp, as it was announced that they're scrapping their yearly charge – saving users a staggering $1 a year!
Now, if you're thinking “What yearly charge?!” you’re not alone. One of the reasons they've decided to scrap it is that the payments system they used was unreliable – meaning a lot of userswere never actually charged anything at all to use the service. However, anyone who downloaded the app after 2013 should have been paying a yearly charge of $1, or about 65p.
In a double bill of good news, WhatsApp also announced that they will not be trying and recoup this lost revenue by introducing ads. Instead, they're looking into ways of increasing revenue by connecting users with local businesses – for example, booking a taxi through the app.
Tuesday 19th January
Big news from the DC universe and a new games festival for London
On Tuesday, we got a look at the first official trailer for Suicide Squad from Warner Bros., which is set to be released on 5th August. Suicide Squad will be the third film in DC's 'Extended Universe' franchise, after 2013’s Man of Steel and this year’s forthcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Suicide Squad stars a motley bunch of anti-heroes who've been blackmailed into helping defeat the Joker (Jared Leto). The titular squad includes Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a psychopathic psychiatrist; Deadshot (Will Smith), an expert marksman; and El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), an LA gang member who can control flames. Other members include Killer Croc, Boomerang and Enchantress.
You can see the full Suicide Squad action in the excellent trailer above, which seamlessly syncs with Queen’s 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. As a Marvel fan, I’m not hugely excited by most of the upcoming DC Universe films – but I genuinely can’t wait to see this one at the cinema in August.
Also on Tuesday, Mayor of London Boris Johnson had a Minecraft makeover to announce a new ten-day video game festival coming to the capital in April.
The London Enterprise Panel is putting forward £1.2 million to fund the new London Games Festival, which will consist of over 15 events in ten different venues. The highlight of the festival will be the prestigious BAFTA Game Awards – and the existing EGX and EGX Rezzed games shows will be moved to coincide with the ten-day event. There will also be several smaller events and industry talks taking place.
It's hoped that the London Games Festival will bring some much-needed exposure and investment to the country’s growing band of indie game developers – as well as attracting more international talent to come and work in the UK.
The event takes place from the 1st to the 10th April – take a look at the video above to see Minecraft Boris in action!
Wednesday 20th January
A 'new' ninth planet discovered, and an indie blockbuster comes to consoles
On Wednesday, the Astronomical Journalpublished new research by Caltech astonomer Mike Brown– the man whose research previously led to Pluto being demoted to a 'dwarf planet' –suggesting that the solar system may actually have nine planets after all!
While Brown and his team have no direct evidence for the planet, they've developed a mathematical model based on the orbits of Kuiper Belt objects which suggests they're being affected by the gravitational pull of an undiscovered large planet.
'Planet Nine' would be ten times the mass of Earth, and would follow a large elliptical orbit – taking between ten and twenty thousand years to orbit the Sun.
Now at the moment, this is just a mathematical model – and does not constitute proof that Planet Nine actually exists. However, Brown says the mysterious planet could be large enough to be detected by powerful Earth-based telescopes, and could even be hiding in existing images of the far reaches of the Solar System.
Conspiracy theorists are already having a field day with this new information, as they have long believed that a ninth planet called Nibiru is going to collide with the Earth, leading to the end of the world. However, I think I’ll wait for confirmation from the scientific community before we start planning our evacuation from Earth!
We’ll bring you more updates in the Week in Geek as and when they become available – but for now, check out Brown and other scientists discussing their discovery in the video above.
In gaming news, we also learned on Wednesday that the indie PC hit Prison Architect will be making an appearance on PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 360 later in the year.
The game, which was one of the first big crowdfunding success stories, sees players take on the role of a prison designer, tasked with creating a functioning penitentiary and managing the lives of the inmates. The whole thing is rather dark in tone – but, according to developers Introversion, aims to provide a critique, rather than a celebration, of the prison and rehabilitation system.
That said, it’s certainly not for everyone – although with over 1,000,000 copies sold on the PC, we fully expect the game to be a big seller when it reaches consoles in the spring. Check out the announcement trailer above!
Thursday 21st January
A delay from a galaxy far, far away – and an explosion that dwarfs our sun!
There was bad news for Star Wars fans on Thursday as it was announced that the forthcoming Episode VIII has been delayed.
Originally set for release in May 2017, the next film in the Star Wars saga has now been pushed back to the 15th December 2017. There was no official reason given – but I think the huge amount of merchandise sales this past Christmas may be something to do with it. I’m sure Disney wouldn’t mind the next Star Wars frenzy to peak right in the middle of December!
Episode VIII is set to start filming in London next month, with director Rian Johnson taking over the cockpit from J. J. Abrams. Johnson has also written the story, so hopefully he’ll come up with something a little more original than The Force Awakens.
If you can’t wait will 2017 for your next fix of Star Wars action, then don’t worry: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be hitting a cinema near you in December this year. More news on that closer to the time!
Sticking with the space theme, we also learned on Thursday about the largest supernova ever recorded– a cosmic blaze 570 billion times brighter than our own sun!
When certain massive stars reach the end of their lives, they collapse catastrophically in a titanic burst of energy known as a supernova. The result is the appearance of a 'new', super-bright star in the sky, which gradually fades as the energy dissipates into the cosmos.
These events are rare enough – but the powerful supernova known as ASAS-SN-15lh is over twice as bright as any astronomers have seen before. The image above, created by the Beijin Planetarium, shows an artist's impression of how the gargantuan nova might appear in the skies of a planet 10,000 light-years from the event. Cosmic!
Friday 22nd January
A huge alien invasion rounds off our trilogy of space news.
If the news of the Star Wars delay has got you craving some Sci-Fi action then why not take a look at The 5th Wave which was released in UK cinemas on Friday.
Based on a book of the same name by Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave tells the story of Cassie Sullivan who is trying to rescue her brother and survive in a world in the midst of an attack by aliens. The aliens are attacking the planet in waves. The 1st took out all electronic devices, the 2nd caused huge earthquakes and tsunamis and the 3rd spreads a deadly virus across the world. I’ll leave you to find out about the 4th and 5th waves when you go and see the movie.
The 5th Wave is book one of three with The Infinite Sea and The Last Star making up the trilogy. Although The Last Star hasn’t been released yet, The 5th Wave series is already getting extremely good reviews and has won several awards and accolades. If it sounds like your sort of thing then why not take a look at the trailer above and check out The 5th Wave in UK cinemas now.
That wraps things up for this week's edition – but be sure to come back next Sunday for another essential round-up! And for more great stories direct to your inbox each month, why not get your name down below for the Geek Squad newsletter?