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Watch out, Hollow Knight: Silksong's hiding a sneaky Stardew Valley creatorman cameo
Game Updates

Yes, Hollow Knight: Silksong has “some moments of steep difficulty” Team Cherry admit, but have you considered going for a pre-boss walk

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Something Hollow Knight: Silksong-related has happened at an Australian museum again. This time, rather than the game being confirmed for an appearance back when it was still infinitely mysterious and sans release date, it’s Team Cherry devs addressing just how difficult their creation is, following plenty of post-release discourse on the subject.

This follows the metroidvania’s first patch making a couple of its early bosses a bit easier to tackle, amid debate as to whether it’s just good and hard, or pushes into unnecessarily annoying slog territory via the likes of bench placement and hazards being able to deal out two masks of damage. As with every FromSoft game since time itself began with the release of Demon’s Souls, where you stand on that bickering will likely depend on how prepared you are to spend hours battling one foe over and over again.

Naturally, the appropriate venue for Team Cherry co-directors Ari Gibson and William Pellen to weigh in on this conundrum of our time is Australia’s national museum of screen culture, ACMI, where the launch of a new exhibition was attended and reported on by Dexerto.

“The important thing for us is that we allow you to go way off the path,” Gibson said when asked about the difficulty by exhibition co-curator Jini Maxwell. “So one player may choose to follow it directly to its conclusion, and then another may choose to constantly divert from it and find all the other things that are waiting and all the other ways and routes.”

While acknowledging that Skong packs “some moments of steep difficulty”, Gibson stuck to emphasising that going for a wander is the best medicine if you get stuck banging your head against a bug-shaped wall, as there are “ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely”. Learning? In a video game? Come on lads, I can’t be doing that. I use my brain for marginally more important things during the average day, but by the time I get to playing games for non-work purposes, it’s all just mush up there.

Anyway, I digress. Gibson and Pellen also explained the differences between developing Silksong and the original Hollow Knight from a hardness perspective. Hornet, with her superior zippiness and superior skills to the knight, demanded more complicated base enemies to make sure she still faced a good challenge.

“The basic ant warrior is built from the same move-set as the original Hornet boss,” Pellen said. “The same core set of dashing, jumping, and dashing down at you, plus we added the ability to evade and check you. In contrast to the Knight’s enemies, Hornet’s enemies had to have more ways of catching her as she tries to move away.”

I imagine this was followed up with a gesture to some screens of culture as the devs indicated that the time had come to check out the Aussie exhibitions. If you’re still struggling with Silksong, definitely check out our great Silksong walkthrough Ollie’s worked very hard on. There are also mods.



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OpenAI's Teen Safety Features Will Walk a Thin Line
Product Reviews

OpenAI’s Teen Safety Features Will Walk a Thin Line

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OpenAI announced new teen safety features for ChatGPT on Tuesday as part of an ongoing effort to respond to concerns about how minors engage with chatbots. The company is building an age-prediction system that identifies if a user is under 18 years old and routes them to an “age-appropriate” system that blocks graphic sexual content. If the system detects that the user is considering suicide or self-harm, it will contact the user’s parents. In cases of imminent danger, if a user’s parents are unreachable, the system may contact the authorities.

In a blog post about the announcement, CEO Sam Altman wrote that the company is attempting to balance freedom, privacy, and teen safety.

“We realize that these principles are in conflict, and not everyone will agree with how we are resolving that conflict,” Altman wrote. “These are difficult decisions, but after talking with experts, this is what we think is best and want to be transparent in our intentions.”

While OpenAI tends to prioritize privacy and freedom for adult users, for teens the company says it puts safety first. By the end of September, the company will roll out parental controls so that parents can link their child’s account to their own, allowing them to manage the conversations and disable features. Parents can also receive notifications when “the system detects their teen is in a moment of acute distress,” according to the company’s blog post, and set limits on the times of day their children can use ChatGPT.

The moves come as deeply troubling headlines continue to surface about people dying by suicide or committing violence against family members after engaging in lengthy conversations with AI chatbots. Lawmakers have taken notice, and both Meta and OpenAI are under scrutiny. Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission asked Meta, OpenAI, Google, and other AI firms to hand over information about how their technologies impact kids, according to Bloomberg.

At the same time, OpenAI is still under a court order mandating that it preserve consumer chats indefinitely—a fact that the company is extremely unhappy about, according to sources I’ve spoken to. Today’s news is both an important step toward protecting minors and a savvy PR move to reinforce the idea that conversations with chatbots are so personal that consumer privacy should only be breached in the most extreme circumstances.

“A Sexbot Avatar in ChatGPT”

From the sources I’ve spoken to at OpenAI, the burden of protecting users weighs heavily on many researchers. They want to create a user experience that is fun and engaging, but it can quickly veer into becoming disastrously sycophantic. It’s positive that companies like OpenAI are taking steps to protect minors. At the same time, in the absence of federal regulation, there’s still nothing forcing these firms to do the right thing.

In a recent interview, Tucker Carlson pushed Altman to answer exactly who is making these decisions that impact the rest of us. The OpenAI chief pointed to the model behavior team, which is responsible for tuning the model for certain attributes. “The person I think you should hold accountable for those calls is me,” Altman added. “Like, I’m a public face. Eventually, like, I’m the one that can overrule one of those decisions or our board.”



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'The Long Walk' Star Garrett Wareing on His Character's Big Surprise
Gaming Gear

‘The Long Walk’ Star Garrett Wareing on His Character’s Big Surprise

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Now that The Long Walk is in theaters, members of its ensemble cast are free to talk spoilers. The movie, based on Stephen King’s story, revolves around a literal death march, so it’s not surprising that not all of the stars make it to the finish line. The brutal twists come with what order they go down—and at least one other surprising nuggets shared along the way.

In a new interview with Deadline, Garrett Wareing, who plays Billy Stebbins, talked about his experiences on the film as well as what happens to his character.

Eventually, it’s revealed to the audience and Billy’s fellow walkers that he is actually the illegitimate son of the Major (Mark Hamill), the cruel overseer of the titular march. He puts up a tough front, but it becomes clear Billy has got a different level of investment in the competition than the other boys.

“His dream, his goal, is to meet his father and for [his father] to be this hero that he idolized his whole life,” Wareing told Deadline. “I think that he goes into the walk thinking that this is a necessary thing, this is a good thing. And throughout the course, he begins to see the brutality that exists along something like this. And maybe he begins to see it for what it is, not necessarily [as] what it’s pitched to [be to] these young boys in the nation.”

In the book, Stebbins comes in second place. In the movie, he’s third, a twist that allows for The Long Walk‘s poignant final moments between Ray (Cooper Hoffman) and Peter (David Jonsson)—and Peter getting his wish-fulfillment part of the prize, which is killing the Major.

There’s no happy ending for Stebbins and his father, but Wareing did tell Deadline how much he enjoyed working with Hamill. And yes, Star Wars came up.

“One of the first times I interacted with Mark in the makeup trailer, he made the brilliant connection to Star Wars by saying, ‘you know, here on page 96 (or whatever page it was), there’s a bit of an “I am your father” moment when your character reveals that the Major is his father.’ And we both laughed. It was quite fitting that Luke had now become the father and in turn, I had now become Luke speaking to Vader.”

The Long Walk is now in theaters.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.



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Leonardo DiCaprio holding a gun in One Battle After Another.
Esports

The Long Walk star reveals eye-watering number of miles they’d walk each day

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The Long Walk by name, The Long Walk by nature. Ahead of the new movie’s release in cinemas, actor David Jonsson has revealed just how far the cast had to trek each day on set. 

Directed by Francis Lawrence, the film started its life as a novel written by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman about a deadly competition: in a dystopian America, a group of young men must walk at a pace of no less than 3mph. 

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If they stop, they die, and the annual contest only ends when one man is left. The Long Walk is truly one of the best movies of 2025, with our five-star review describing it as “harrowing, heartbreaking, and near-flawless.”

While a viral treadmill challenge stunt saw movie-goers walking for the entirety of the movie’s runtime (108 minutes) last month, that was nothing compared to what the actual cast had to do. 

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The Long Walk cast had to walk for miles on set each day 

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Jonsson – who plays Peter McVries – says the cast who played characters in the contest walked “15 miles some days, some days were like 32” on The Long Walk set. 

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To put that in perspective, a marathon is 26 miles. And these actors weren’t just walking once – they were doing it over and over again, day after day, to bring King’s grueling story to life.

That might sound tiring to most, but Judy Greer – who plays Raymond’s (Cooper Hoffman) mother, Mrs. Garraty – was actually jealous. “I’m a big walker, I really love it and they all lost weight and I was jealous about that,” she joked. 

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“Breathing fresh air and people handing them Gatorades – when I’m walking by myself in the heat, no one’s handing me anything.”

As for Cooper Hoffman, the fact that the movie has taken this long to make (the novel was published in 1979) was a challenge he was excited about.

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“When they tell you that a movie’s never been done like this, when they tell you this movie’s been very hard to make, the competitive side of me wants to make it,” he told the outlet. 

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Lionsgate

Star Wars icon Mark Hamill also appears in The Long Walk, playing the competition’s brutal enforcer, The Major. Initially, he didn’t want to take part in the film and was “totally repelled”, until he read King’s book. 

“I said, ‘I’m not doing this, it’s way too violent, I hate it.’ And then I ordered the book and was like, ‘Oh, it’s just the premise that’s ghastly’; it’s an attention grabber to get to the real heart and soul of the movie which is the experiences of these young walkers,” he said. 

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“And that’s where the heart [is], their experiences are incredible – the friendships, the rivalries, it’s fantastic. It really belongs to the walkers, I’m just a guy you love to hate.”

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The Long Walk lands in cinemas on September 12. Find out when to expect it on streaming, the ‘hardest part’ of the viral treadmill challenge, what’s coming up in our 2025 movies release calendar.



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Cameron Frew
Esports

The Long Walk review: Bleak, brutal Stephen King movie is an all-timer

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As a Stephen King adaptation, The Long Walk belongs in the echelon occupied by Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. As a movie, it’s a gruelling endurance test that’s also an immensely moving privilege.

Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, Squid Game – three pop-culturally pervasive IPs united by one fundamental aspect: nations in decay that promise riches (if not merely survival) to the few to balm, or simply distract the many. We’re not there (yet), but you’d need to be blind, deaf, or dim to not understand why these stories are so popular; we root for the few, but we are the many.

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You could say The Long Walk is a little late. Ultimately, it’s another dystopian tale that revolves around a deadly contest, and it’s even directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed most of The Hunger Games films. What else is there to say or see, other than echoes and reflections of misery?

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Well, through Lawrence, writer JT Mollner, and King (or Richard Bachman, for the fans), it manages to feel like a movie for now. Also, and this part is important… it could be the best film you’ll watch this year. 

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What is The Long Walk about? 

Nineteen years on from a war that “tore this nation apart,” the US is decrepit and impoverished, with free-spirited books and music banned under the country’s totalitarian regime. 

Each year, the American dream is distilled down to its cursed essence with a nationwide competition: The Long Walk, in which young men are required to walk at a speed of at least 3mph. As the Major (Mark Hamill) booms, there’s “no finish line” – the contest only ends with one man standing, and those who slow down or stop are point-blank executed. It’s not compulsory to enter, either: those who want to take part volunteer their names in a lottery, and they’re offered a “back out day” before the walk begins.

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If they win, they get “a gazillion dollars” and one wish. Raymond Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) has big plans for his wish, with hopes to rid the country of the contest once and for all, while Peter McVries (David Jonsson) has even nobler aspirations. They quickly find kinship with each other as one foot follows another and tens of miles turn to hundreds; bantering, laughing, confiding, and at times, carrying (almost literally).

There is one distinct detail: despite the Major’s best, gravelly efforts to sensationalize the contest, there’s no glory in it. They walk from town to town past endless fields, greeted by little more than dead cattle and sullen-faced families. “Pretty f**king desolate,” Garraty even says.

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That’s what makes it all so affecting: there’s very little exposition about the conception of the walk or why boys who take part need to die, but it’s the result of stubbornness (for the government) and desperation (for the boys, even if they don’t know it). Even the worst participants (Charlie Plummer’s Barkovitch is especially loathsome) are easy to pity: they may have agency with each step, but they’re all pawns in a game that’s indefinitely rigged.

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The Long Walk isn’t for the faint of heart 

Lionsgate

King asserted that there was no point in making The Long Walk if it wasn’t true to the brutality of the book. Lawrence never hesitates in showcasing its horrors, nor is it gratuitous; when you see a young boy’s face get splattered over the ground, it’s a clear, present, and anxiety-inducing danger. 

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The movie doesn’t shy away from your inevitable questions, either, whether it’s one guy sacrificing his speed to take a sh*t, sleepwalking, or shoes giving in to the extraordinary distance. It’s a thoroughly thought-out piece of storytelling in every regard, and the character work is second to none. 

Hoffman and Jonsson are sensational, two leading men with immediate chemistry; in an instant, you’ll be thinking, “They’re my boys.” Their presence is reminiscent of Stand By Me’s Gordie and Chris; not in the dynamic (both are self-assured and commanding in their own ways), but in how lived-in and honest their friendship seems as the nightmare darkens. These are two natural, but hugely charismatic performances – make them (even bigger) stars.

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Similar praise could be given to the supporting cast (Tut Nyuot’s Arthur is another standout), and credit is due for both King and Mollner: it’s hard to think of another movie where young men have been this aptly written (sorry to cite Stand By Me again, but it’s the strongest comparison). It’s not a spoiler to say many of them die, but there’s not a single death that feels inconsequential: each one is absolutely heartwrenching. I cried multiple times. I could cry just thinking about those who “get their ticket.”

The Long Walk is the peak of Francis Lawrence’s career

Lionsgate

It’s no small compliment to say this is the best movie Lawrence has ever directed. Catching Fire is revered by many as the best Hunger Games film (because it is), and Constantine and I Am Legend are underrated. 

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There’s not one component here that’s out of place; each performance is perfectly pitched, its blocking and “moment to moment” sequencing is sublime, and he shows restraint where it matters (a tiny bit more detail about the wider world would have been good). Also, it has an elite title card drop.

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The cinematography, courtesy of Jo Willems (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night, and Catching Fire), is grim and beautiful; some images are hard to shake, others briefly numb the barbarity. It’s a little reductive and broad to say this, but even when its palette is as dreary as the clouds above the boys, it looks like a real film, not an exercise in plot. 

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A special shoutout to composer Jeremiah Fraites (who’s part of The Lumineers), whose first film score is sophisticated and emotive. It’s almost Moby-like in some scenes, but it’s diverse, capable of ramping up suspense and leaning into his folk sensibilities in more tender, quiet moments.

The Long Walk score: 5/5

Harrowing, heartbreaking, and near-flawless, The Long Walk is one of the greatest Stephen King adaptations ever made; walk – nay, run – to watch it as soon as possible. This is an all-timer.

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The Long Walk hits cinemas on September 12. Until then, check out our list of the best horror movies ever made and what else is dropping this year with our 2025 movie calendar.

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