In the three years since its release, Techland has continually been churning out content for Dying Light. In addition to a number of quality-of-life updates and tweaks to the gameplay, the open-world zombie survival game has also seen a number of new modes--including The Following DLC campaign and additional multiplayer options. And now, the developers are riding the wave of interest for battle royale with their own take on the familiar every-man-for-themselves game type. While at GDC 2018, we got to go hands-on with the upcoming DLC Bad Blood--launching later this year--which pits several players in a race against time--and the zombie hordes--to acquire enough resources and make it out of Harran alive. In Bad Blood, six players are dropped into random locations around the map in a race to acquire enough samples from several elite infected. From the starting point, you'll have to find weapons and support items as you go. Every player starts on an even playing field as they maneuver through the streets and rooftops of the ruined city. As you take down these special zombies, you'll be able to collect samples and potentially level up your character--boosting their health, agility, and attack power. Of course, other players have similar goals, and they may find that attacking you while you're being swarmed by infected is the smart thing to do. As in traditional battle royale fashion, you only have one life to live, so you'll have to make the right choices and play smart. While this mode may initially come off a bit gimmicky, the actual experience is surprisingly tense. Bad Blood is a constant race for resources, with the virus samples being the most valuable. In a some cases, encountering another player felt like the last thing you wanted to happen, resulting in a mad dash to evade them. The end-game portion which focuses on booking it to the helicopter is a where things get really hectic. The player with the most samples will have to reach the evac site and wait for the chopper to land, which paints a large target on their back. Only the player with the required amount of samples can make it out alive, and some players may forge quick alliances to try and take down the lead player--only for it to quickly fall apart as they scramble to scavenge the samples to make it out alive. Battle royale has been one of the most talked about topics for the last year, with many people wondering what games would benefit from such a mode. In the case of Dying Light, it makes some rather clever choices with how it incorporated BR into its current strengths of survival and action gameplay. With Dying Light still going strong, and with the developers experimenting with adding even more players into the battle royale mix, Bad Blood looks to be a refreshing change of pace for players looking to dive back the game, which has only gotten better with age.

With many games paying homage to the nostalgia-ripe 2D-era of the '80s and '90s, Pixel Ripped 1989 seems like it could get lost in the crowd. But when it comes to reliving a bygone era, this strange yet surprisingly relatable throwback goes about things a bit differently, offering one of the most impressive and self-aware VR experiences in quite some time. During GDC 2018, we had the chance to go hands-on with the game ahead of its Oculus, HTC Vive, and PS VR release on May 22, while also speaking with creator Ana Ribeiro about its rather lengthy development. "I started this as my final project in university for the master's degree program, and it was at a university more well-known for movies and stuff [National Film and Television School], and then when I put it on Oculus share, it got a lot of press," said Ribeiro. "People seemed to have liked it. It was more of a proof of concept to try and get a job, but then I decided to work on this game and get it a full release. It's been four years altogether. This is the dream. It actually has a lot of my life experiences in the game. I used to be a bad student, throwing paperballs, playing games in the background--it's all from a really personal place. " Set in the late '80s, you're placed in the shoes of rebellious grade-school student Nicola, who loves to spend time on her handheld game system. Her favorite videogame is the action-platformer game Pixel Ripped, starring the blaster-wielding and platform-jumping Dot. When the evil Cyblin Lord's ambitions go beyond the realm of the videogame, he escapes into the real world, bringing familiar enemies along with him. To stop the main baddie, Nicola must guide Dot through increasingly difficult stages where she'll shoot monsters and other baddies--all while avoiding the gaze of her overbearing teacher and other distractions around the school. As a game within a game, you'll be tasked with alternating between two different mechanics. In the world of Nicola's handheld, Dot controls in familiar style to a Mega Man game, where she'll blast enemies while traversing dangerous jumps and sketchy platforms to make it to the end boss. Of course, playing your videogame in the middle of class is asking for trouble, and Nicola's teacher becomes extremely angry when she catches you looking down at your game. In order to low-key get your game on and help Dot, you'll have to cause distractions around the classroom. Using spitballs, you can cause a ruckus to distract the teacher to keep your focus on the game. Of course, many of these familiar tropes are mechanics wrapped up within the VR medium, which is what makes this particular game so interesting. What Pixel Ripped 1989 does well is center on the relatable experience of keeping your head buried within the game--while still trying to be aware of the real world around you. Balancing twitch-based platforming action when playing on Nicola's handheld system with perspective-focused controls that challenge your peripheral vision, it leads to some rather tense and humorous moments where you're trying to make a dangerous jump in Nicola's game, only to be caught by the teacher in the classroom at the worst possible moment. Eventually, there are moments in the levels where the 'game' will spill out, bringing together the two parallel game mechanics as you guide Dot through virtual constructs scattered around the classroom--all the while using Nicola's spitballs to open up pathways for the character. In terms of mechanics, Pixel Ripped 1989 is a relatively simple game, but it makes some rather clever choices in how it presents those familiar and relatable actions in the VR experience. One of the most striking aspects of Pixel Ripped 1989 is its vibrant style, and the sort of exuberance that comes from being sucked into a good game. Going all in with the retro-80s aesthetic, the game features heavy doses of old-school charm with neon lights and chrome decals. Pixel Ripped 1989 replicates much of the same escapist joy that came from playing videogames as a kid, while recontextualizing it as a different kind of VR experience. It's about what it's like being engrossed in a game--even feeling like your success in it can have consequences in the real world. For its creator, she aims to have Pixel Ripped 1989 be the start of a series of retro-themed games that focus on different eras of gaming, while also showing different experiences of the characters that play them. "After four years I never get tired of this game. I always have fun working on it. Previously, I had some problems sticking to things, like working longer on things, but surprisingly after all this time, I'm not tired of it. I'm happy to do four more episodes of this game--this is first set in 1989--but after the success of this release, we'll do a Pixel Ripped 1978 set in the early arcade era with Atari graphics, 1983 will be arcades, 1985 would be the Mega-Drive, and then 1995 would be about the N64 era. We'll try to reference all the different eras of games."

The Witness and Cars 2 are available to download for Xbox Live Gold members right now, a day earlier than each month's typical release. You won't be able to grab them from the Games with Gold Hub today, but a quick search in the store shows that both titles are available for free now. The Witness will be up for grabs until May 1 and Cars 2 will see the end of its rotation on April 15. Download The Witness here, and Cars 2 here. Xbox has not commented on why both were marked down early. But just because the next round of games are up now, it doesn't mean March's final batch has been cut short. Today is the final day to pick up Trials of the Blood Dragon and Quantum Conundrum on Xbox One. April 2018 Games With Gold Xbox One The Witness (April 1-30) Assassin's Creed Syndicate (April 16-May 15) Xbox 360 (playable on Xbox One) Cars 2 (April 1-15) Dead Space 2 (April 16-30) For even more Xbox One deals, be sure to check out the Xbox Spring Sale. This year's seasonal sale has big savings on Rocket League, Assassin's Creed Origins, Star Wars Battlefront II, Call of Duty WWII, and more.

Like the unbelievably popular book on which it's based, Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One sends viewers to the incredibile virtual world of The Oasis. It's a VR paradise in which anything is possible, you can go anywhere, and everyone is welcome. Unfortunately, it makes no sense within the movie. The Oasis is a beautiful fantasy, but it falls apart when you stop to think about it. Unlike Ernest Cline's book, the film doesn't have the time to delve into the specific rules for the virtual world. It leaves some of them deliberately vague to make room for plot twists and exciting action set pieces--like whether you can harm other players anywhere in the Oasis, or just in certain areas. The movie repeats other rules--like how progression and death within the Oasis work--as if they're gospel, then ignores them in multiple scenes. None of this should prevent you from enjoying Spielberg's Ready Player One adaptation for what it is: A super fun homage to all the nerdy stuff we love. But since we also love picking those things apart, let's explore a few reasons why Ready Player One's Oasis doesn't work as a video game. Movement makes no sense This one should be fairly obvious, even to a casual viewer: The ways that players move within The Oasis don't really work. The movie does just enough to try to explain this that you might not notice right away. Wade has an omni-directional treadmill in his junkyard hideout, and you see those throughout the movie. Sometimes, he sits in a chair while he plays, presumably to mimic sitting in a car and other similar activities. Other players, like IOI executive Nolan Sorrento, have big, expensive-looking rigs that look like they might be able to move in more complex ways (not that we ever see that), while Aech's van has wires that players can hang from. Oasis players without these advantages apparently just run around on the street with their headsets on, as we see toward the end of the movie. Besides being incredibly dangerous, that just doesn't make sense. Players are fighting on a huge battlefield in the movie's climax; are they actually running that entire length, throwing punches and roundhouse kicks, while out in the streets of Columbus, Ohio? How does the Oasis detect your movement if you're just dashing around on the asphalt in sneakers? In that same battle scene, Aech tosses Wade a murderous Chucky doll to unleash on their enemies. We only see this in the real world, where actress Lena Waithe literally balls up her hands and mimes an underhand toss in Wade's direction. Only, in The Oasis, Aech is currently inhabiting the Iron Giant (more on that later), and Parzival is driving his DeLorean through the carnage. Did the Iron Giant just stop what it was doing in the game to physically toss a Chucky doll into Parzival's car? There's a reason we only see that little gesture play out in the van, and not in the game. It gets even worse when you think about a scene like the dance club, where Parzival and Artemis go to hunt down the second clue. They spend half the scene twirling gracefully through the air, spinning and kicking like mermaid ballerinas. But as we can see when our view returns to the real world, Wade is still sitting placidly in the chair in the back of his van. Are they using pre-programmed dance move macros? Either way, the movie doesn't bother to establish that. Death and progression make no sense This is a big one, as it's one of those rules the movie repeats over and over again, yet also breaks constantly. When your avatar dies in The Oasis, you lose everything you have--all your money, loot, equipment, and items. The movie's version of The Oasis kind of has a leveling system, as it does refer to the levels of certain magic artifacts, like the level 99 artifact The Orb of Osuvox. But it never refers to characters' levels, so we have to assume that your gear is the only method of progression that exists. But besides the most hardcore, niche games in existence, that's not how video games work, and if that's how The Oasis worked, it wouldn't be so popular. People definitely wouldn't be investing their life savings into upgrades or equipment that they might lose permanently the next time they log in. Most actual video games have a way to store things you earn, and purchases you make--especially expensive ones--are tied to your account so you can't lose them. Well, doesn't The Oasis have ways to store things? It must, since we see multiple environments--like Aech's workshop and virtual home--where she has everything from furniture, clothes, and posters to vehicles and half-finished projects stored. And yet, an experienced player like TJ Miller's character I-R0k is carrying "ten years' worth of s***" on him at all times, as he laments in the climactic scene, before being decimated by the Cataclyst. If there was a way to store things, surely I-R0k would have used it; so then what's going on with Aech's stuff? It makes zero sense, and it's even worse when you consider the next point. Combat makes no sense In the book, there are PvP zones--player-vs.-player areas where you can attack other people's avatars--and non-combat zones where you can't, like the virtual school Wade attends. Like those VR schools, the idea that there are some places in The Oasis where you're safe from being attacked is completely left out of the movie. I can see why they'd choose this route. The movie tries to establish only the most basic and simple rules for this game world, and leaves everything else up to the imagination. And this creates opportunities for narrative drama, like when IOI's sixers ambush Parzival and Artemis inside the Distracted Globe, a nightclub that, in a realistic game, would be a non-PvP social space. But that also makes the previous point--that you lose everything your character has when you die--seem even more nonsensical. If any random player could walk up to you at any place and at any time in The Oasis, pull out a gun, shoot you in the head, and steal all your stuff, the entire virtual world would be a bloodbath that makes Planet Doom look like a merry-go-round. There'd be nowhere safe. If a place like the Distracted Globe actually existed in The Oasis, it would have to be a non-combat safe zone, or it would be impossible for players to relax and have a good time there. But the movie establishes explicitly that the Distracted Globe, like Planet Doom and the rest of The Oasis, is indeed a PvP zone (unless IOI can somehow cheat and break the game's rules, in which case, why would they need to do any of this at all?). And that doesn't make any sense. The Economy makes no sense Aech being a superstar on The Oasis's "mod boards" is a cute little character detail that establishes that she's handy and resourceful, setting up her later use of her custom-built Iron Giant. But I have to ask: How does The Oasis's economy work? Because it seems like it doesn't work at all, if you look at it logically. In the scene where Parzival and Aech go shopping after Parzival's first big win, we can see that Tracer from Overwatch is a purchasable skin within The Oasis. We see her zipping around in several other shots, so presumably more than one player is running around with a purchased Tracer costume on. You have to assume Blizzard is making money off those sales, since they own Overwatch and by extension Tracer. So why is Parzival so amazed when Sorrento tells him that IOI owns the Millennium Falcon? We don't see any visual Star Wars junk in Ready Player One for real world licensing reasons, but if something like that existed within The Oasis, wouldn't anyone be able to buy it? Why would that be impressive? Maybe it's just prohibitively expensive, so few people can afford to own one. OK, so where does Aech's game mod workshop fit in? Games that support modding don't typically mesh well with microtransaction-driven in-game economies. If Aech builds and sells a custom Iron Giant, or the Galactica, or The Valley Forge from Silent Running, do the rights holders get a cut? Why doesn't Aech just build everyone in The High Five a custom Millennium Falcon, with Ghostbusters decals and the dashboard from Knight Rider, that transforms into a Gundam suit and lasts indefinitely? Why would an artifact that lets you turn into a giant robot for two measly minutes, like the one Daito uses in the final battle, even be special if you can just build your own Iron Giant and run around in it forever (or at least until Mecha Godzilla owns you too hard)? It doesn't make sense. The Easter Egg hunt makes no sense Lastly, the entire hunt for the Easter Egg makes virtually no sense. This is an interesting one, because the version in the book--incredibly obscure puzzles hidden in remote corners of The Oasis where you'd never think to look--arguably makes more sense, even if the movie's high octane race and recreation of The Shining are more exciting. When building his ultimate Easter egg hunt, Halliday would have known how gamers operate when faced with a challenge. Therefore, he would have known that any puzzle with a solution as simple as "drive the wrong way on the race track" would have been solved on day one. You can even ignore the fact that IOI has teams of researchers supposedly poring over every second of Halliday's life, and that the clue Parzival discovers--Halliday literally saying "put the pedal to the metal and go backward as fast as possible"--is way, way too obvious for them to have all missed it. Just look at the lengths gamers in the real world have gone to solve massive, game-spanning puzzles like Destiny's Outbreak Prime, the Trials Evolution riddle, or Spelunky's infamously elusive depths. And that was without the fate of "the world's most important economic resource," as Sorrento calls it, hanging in the balance. As soon as it became clear that getting past King Kong was impossible, the thousands or even millions of players hunting for the first key would have simply brute-forced the solution by trying every possible variation of every action that could be taken during the race. Driving the wrong way is way too easy to have taken five years to discover. It doesn't make any sense. But that's OK I have way more questions about how The Oasis actually works. Like, how can Ogden Morrow be the curator? When the hunt started, there must have been thousands or millions of players clamoring to access the Halliday journals, despite the fact that they're virtually empty by the time the movie takes place. One man dressed up as a robot butler couldn't possibly handle all their requ What about Parzival's climactic live broadcast to everyone in the entire Oasis? We see that every player has a floating droid companion that can take selfies for them. Does Wade's have special abilities? Because if not, and every player has the option to broadcast a live video to the entire Oasis at any time, then this virtual world would be constantly flooded with spam and trolling and none of it would function. If Wade somehow gained this ability through his fame or wealth, the movie never explains it. I could go on and on. The more closely you examine this movie, the less sense it makes. But the strangest thing of all is that I ultimately don't care. Ready Player One's virtual video game world was designed to be as simple and accessible as possible, not to please nitpicking gamers, but to appeal to the widest audience it can. Ultimately, Ready Player One is a blast, and no amount of nitpicking can change that--not that that will stop us.

Far Cry 5 has some dark and gritty moments as you infiltrate a doomsday cult, but much more of the open-world exploration is light and even wacky. That extends to the Easter eggs Ubisoft inserted into the game, which reference other Ubisoft games, Uwe Boll, and even President Trump. Many of the references to other Ubisoft games are kept in the family of Far Cry itself. You can find bobbleheads of characters like Vaas (Far Cry 3) and Pagan Min (Far Cry 4), and cave paintings as a subtle wink toward Far Cry Primal. Plenty of references are also made to the sci-fi spin-off DLC, Blood Dragon. You can find a movie set for making the campy schlock-fest, or dress up as one of its Cyborg Soldiers. Then there are moments when Far Cry 5 borrows liberally from the real world. One mission has you obliquely securing a video tape to avoid embarrassing a powerful man. As it progresses it becomes more clearly a reference to the rumored Donald Trump "pee tape." For more Easter eggs, including this latest iteration of the famous Far Cry "see credits in five minutes" secret ending, check out the full video above. And be sure to check out GameSpot's full Far Cry 5 review for more on this romp through Montana on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

DC Entertainment isn't struggling when it comes to its television series. Currently, it has Gotham, Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning and I, Zombie, most of which air on CW. But for many people, CW's style of television may not be appealing. Now, DC has an eighth show--and in just the first two episodes, Syfy's Krypton has become one of the best comic book shows on television. It's all the more impressive for a show about Superman's history that doesn't feature one millisecond of Superman himself. Krypton follows Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), the grandfather of Superman, who is in his mid-twenties and lives in the city of Kandor. His science-minded family had their titles, name, and rank stripped from them and now live among what's called "the rankless"--the lower class. A man from the future named Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) warns Seg of a threat by the name of Brainiac who is headed to Krypton. If Seg and the rest of the Kryptonians don't stop this menacing alien, he will destroy the planet, and Superman--who is the universe's greatest hero--will never be born. The planet Krypton has been explored in television, comics, and movies numerous times but never with this much depth or attention to detail. No, we don't see Russell Crowe flying around on a dragon like in Man of Steel, but what we do get is a planet and culture not too entirely off from our own, which is a brilliant way to make the viewer feel at ease. Yes, it's an info-dump in the opening half of the first episode, but so much of it feels close to home. There is a divide which has created classism, which in turn has resulted in what feels very close to a police state. Those in charge of Krypton have almost almost found themselves in a theocracy, which follows a creepy multi-faced dude named The Voice of Rao, who wears a laughable gold helmet. There's a sense of infallibility and extreme narcissism from those in charge as well. These aspects may or may not exist in the real world, but they are exceptionally easy to understand for the audience, which only help in the world-building of Superman's home planet. And the only Superman we get on this series--at least the opening two episodes--is his cape, which Adam Strange gives to Seg. The cape serves more as a ticking time bomb than a representation of the character, as the more the cape disappears--like Marty's family in Back to the Future--the less of a chance Seg-El has to save the future. And in all honesty, as a longtime comic book reader, Superman is exceptionally boring to me. His personality and prowess has the same appeal as watching paint dry in the pouring rain. Where Krypton shines is that it has no problem saying Superman is perfect but where he came from was a mess, a planet on the verge of falling into a civil war. It's less about his legacy and more about understanding a world he had little-to-no connection to, which is in the middle of a cultural crisis. Krypton takes the Gotham route, in a sense, but takes itself far more serious than its wacky, tongue-in-cheek Fox counterpart. The basics of Krypton, the planet's culture, and most notable families are merely a starting point, and the show expands from there. It doesn't treat the source material as holy literature and lets the showrunners create something new and special for comic book readers and those who have never picked up a comic book in their life. It's accessible and plays much more to a science-fiction crowd than fans of the superhero genre. My only fear is that this ambitious show may outpace itself as it lays a lot on the line right off the bat, including making Brainiac the looming cloud of doom over Kandor, as he's one of Superman's most diabolical baddies. The seeds for the whole season's plot and sidestories seem to be laid very quickly, and barring some major surprises, feel like they could also be wrapped up relatively fast. Regardless, there is a lot of room to grow on this show, as it follows Seg-El, rather than Superman's father Jor-El, so there's potentially multiple decades the show can work with. Because the Syfy series feels like such a departure from the Superman comics, it may be a tough pill to swallow for comic book fans. However, Krypton is its own thing. It may pull elements from comics and science fiction, but the show is incredibly smart and at times, a bizarro reflection of our own society. It stands on its own merits, and hopefully, the rest of the first season can keep keep up the high-bar the first two episodes delivered.

BRITAIN would consider launching a cyber attack against Russia in retaliation if Russia targeted British national infrastructure, the Sunday Times reports. The developments comes amid reports that Russia is planning to launch a wave of crippling cyber attacks on the UK in retaliation for the Syrian missile strikes. British PM Theresa May is facing a growing public backlash for bombing Syria without the backing of Parliament. Vital transport links, water supplies, gas networks, banks, hospitals and air traffic control could be targeted following the US-led strikes, The Mirror reports. Britain’s relations with Russia are at a historic low, after it blamed Russia for a nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England, prompting mass expulsions of diplomats. Russia has denied involvement, and on Saturday also condemned strikes against Syria by Western powers, which Britain took part in. Cyber security has become a focal point of the strained relations. On Thursday, a British spy chief said that his GCHQ agency would “continue to expose Russia’s unacceptable cyber behaviour”, adding there would be increasing demand for its cyber expertise. The Sunday Times also said that British spy officials had been preparing for Russia-backed hackers to release embarrassing information on politicians and other high-profile people since the attack on the Skripals. Meanwhile the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the nerve agent used to poison Skripal could have been the BZ substance - which was never produced in the Soviet Union or Russia. Lavrov said experts from a laboratory based in the Swiss town of Spiez had analysed a sample of the substance used in the poisoning. Citing a report from the lab dated March 27, Lavrov said the evidence suggested the nerve agent used could be in the arsenal of the United States and Britain. The global chemical weapons watchdog concluded on Thursday that the poison that struck down the former Russian spy and his daughter Yulia last month was a highly pure type of Novichok nerve agent, backing Britain’s own findings. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it is highly likely that Moscow was behind the attack.

ACCORDING to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, America could be headed for another financial crisis on the scale of the 2008 Great Recession. During a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” last week, Gates was asked if he thought America would see another major financial crisis. He said: “Yes. It is hard to say when but this is a certainty.” The financial crisis of 2007—2008, originated with a crisis in the subprime mortgage market in the US, but grew into the Great Recession. Its effects were felt globally for several years and many economists consider it to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The 2008 financial crisis cost America millions of jobs with many still feeling the after-effects. A decade after the recession, an estimated one in three Americans have not financially recovered, according to CNBC. While Gates says we should prepare for another such crisis, he also feels optimistic about our ability to recover from such major economic downturns. “Fortunately, we got through that one reasonably well.” At the conclusion of the Ask Me Anything session Gates said: “Despite this prediction of bumps ahead, I am quite optimistic about how innovation and capitalism will improve the situation for humans everywhere.” Gates also mentioned his friend, fellow billionaire Warren Buffett. “Warren has talked about this and he understands this area far better than I do.” In an optimistic op-ed Buffett wrote for TIME magazine in January, Buffett predicts that, in general, “most American children are going to live far better than their parents did” and that “large gains in the living standards of Americans will continue for many generations to come.” According to CNBC, Buffett’s 2016 advice is still the best for riding out any economic or financial crisis: Buy, hold, and don’t watch your investments too closely. Said Buffett: “If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.”

IT is ladies’ night at Kuala Lumpur’s hip Mantra club and a vivacious 18-year-old model is the life and soul of the party. Sipping gin and tonics, Ivana Smit catches every clubber’s eye as she swirls to the beat on the dance floor. She has every reason to be in high spirits, with an upcoming role as a contestant on TV hit Belgium’s Next Top Model, as well as a diary full of photoshoots and fancy parties. Yet just hours later she was dead. According to The Sun, after disappearing into the night with US tycoon Alex Johnson, 44, and his wife Luna, 31 — allegedly for a sex and drugs session — Ivana’s naked body was found on a balcony. The Dutch-born teen had plummeted 14 stories from the couple’s upscale apartment on the 20th floor. Police in the Malaysian capital classified the tragedy on December 7 last year as a “sudden death” — the result of an accident or suicide. But Ivana’s family have told The Sun they believe a crime was involved. Her uncle, Fred Agenjo Weinhold, 47, said: “She had the world at her feet. We simply don’t believe she killed herself or it could have been an accident. “She promised she would be in Belgium for the Top Model final — but she came back in a casket.” Such is the family’s conviction, they have hired former detective and award-winning TV investigator Mark Williams-Thomas — who exposed Jimmy Savile as a paedophile in 2012 — to shine a light on this murky case. He is convinced it should be probed as a murder. Mr Williams-Thomas told The Sun last night: “I cannot believe she went over that balcony of her own free will. There’s no way this was a suicide — and she sustained injuries before her death.” So what really happened in the hours before her death, on the sweltering night of December 6? Ivana’s German-born boyfriend, Lukas Kramer, had come home from work after 8pm to find her on her way out. Lukas, 21, said: “She told me she wanted to go out with some model friends. She gave me a hug, said, ‘I love you’ and left.” At Mantra she met Alex and Luna Johnson. It is believed the trio were already intimately acquainted. The Johnsons, who describe their relationship as “progressive”, claim they were already in a sexual relationship with Ivana after an earlier meeting. On November 4 the trio had spent the night at a hotel. Luna claims the 18-year-old had told them she was 26. After meeting again at Mantra on the fateful night, the group moved on to the late-night 9 Club. CCTV footage of the trio leaving the club at 5.22am on December 7 shows cryptocurrency tycoon Alex carrying Ivana into a lift as Luna looks on. They headed to the Johnsons’ ritzy apartment in the Capsquare Residences, where, according to Dutch media, a “drug- fuelled swingers’ party” took place. Mum-of-one Luna later said: “Ivana was hammered. I kept talking to her as I got my daughter ready for school. Ivana lay down while I took her there.” When she returned from the school run at 8.15am, Kazakhstan-born Luna — also a model — claims she found Ivana in bed with her husband. She said: “I came over and said, ‘OK, now I’m free’. We sat on the sofa and after 20 minutes she put on some music and took off all her clothes. So we went into the bedroom and were intimate.” Luna claimed that she was “tired from all the partying” and eventually both she and Alex fell asleep. Meanwhile, at 6.30am Ivana’s boyfriend Lukas had phoned her. He recalled: “She sounded all right. She said it had been a long night and she was at her girlfriend’s place.” Then, at 7.24am, he received a Whastapp message — the last contact they would have. It was a selfie of Ivana and Luna with the text: “Chilling at my chick’s place.” Lukas found the message suspicious, saying: “She would have said she was at her girlfriend’s place, she never used ‘chilling’ or ‘chicks’.” Luna says she woke up at 1.25pm and saw that Ivana’s clothes, shoes, bag and phones were in the lounge, but the model had disappeared. She then fell asleep again and at 5pm police rapped on the door to say the teen had been found dead on a sixth-floor balcony. The family claim the Johnsons’ account of Ivana’s raunchy behaviour is a “smear campaign”. And investigator Mark said: “She might have been in a sexual relationship with this couple but from our investigation she was by no means promiscuous. Luna was a young girl finding herself.” On her journey of self-discovery, Ivana also found drugs. Her post-mortem showed dangerously high levels of PMMA, a highly potent drug with similar effects to ecstasy. Alex and Luna also tested positive for drugs and were charged with drug abuse. Those charges have since been dropped. Meanwhile, leading Dutch pathologist Frank van de Goot did a new post-mortem, at the family’s request, and found Ivana had significant head bruising and multiple bruises on her arms. He said: “Something happened before she fell from the balcony. Maybe she slipped or maybe someone hit her on the head. Bruises like this one are only possible when the heart is still beating.’’ And when Ivana’s father Marcel Smit first saw her body lying in a Malaysian morgue, he claims he saw strange marks on her neck. He said: “I saw bruises on her neck, like fingerprints, as if someone had grabbed her there.” Williams-Thomas also claims that a lack of blood around her body after the fall could indicate she was dead before the impact. The documentary-maker added: “I am convinced she was dead before she fell. Something happened in that apartment probably around the time Luna was out taking her daughter to school. “Perhaps Ivana fell, perhaps she was struck, but she sustained an injury to the head.” The Johnsons were contacted by The Sun but were unavailable to comment.

OSCAR-WINNING Czech-born film director Milos Forman, known for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus, has died aged 86, his agent told AFP on Saturday. “I heard from (Forman’s wife) Martina Forman very early this morning letting me know Milos passed away at Danbury Hospital near his home in Warren, Connecticut,” Forman’s friend and agent Dennis Aspland said. The Czech news agency CTK quoted Martina Forman as saying Forman died suddenly on Friday after a short illness. “He passed away quietly, surrounded by his family and his closest people,” she said. In an obituary on Twitter, Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas labelled Forman a “genius of cinematography.” Born in the town of Caslav east of Prague on February 18, 1932, Forman lost both parents in Nazi concentration camps. In the 1960s, he joined the New Wave of filmmakers standing up to the Communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia, making himself famous with Black Peter, Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball. Shortly before the 1968 Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia, which put an end to a liberal period known as the Prague Spring, Forman moved to the United States via France. CINEMA ‘GENIUS’ His career overseas started with Taking Off in 1971, followed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest four years later, which brought Forman his first Best Director Oscar. An American citizen since 1977, Forman returned to still-Communist Prague in 1983 to film Amadeus, which earned him a second Oscar for best director and won eight out of 11 nominations. “He was my dad’s best friend and we both looked up to him,” Czech director David Ondricek, the son of Forman’s cameraman Miroslav Ondricek, told the website of the DNES daily. “He had a beautiful character and fantastic energy. People wanted to be near him, he was a fabulous storyteller and a kind man,” Ondricek added. Gilles Jacob, former director of the Cannes Film Festival, said Forman had been the only director who proceeded from the New Wave to “great, popular American author films covered with Oscars.” “He loved beer, tennis, Cannes. He said: ‘Tell the truth, that’s all’,” Jacob tweeted. British director/writer Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) said Forman had “a tremendous filmography that documented the rebel heart and human spirit.” Antonio Banderas also paid homage to Forman. “Milos Forman has left us. Genius of cinematography and master in the portrayal of the human condition,” wrote Banderas. Meanwhile, American writer/producer Larry Karaszewski who made two films (including Larry Flynt) with Forman, said the director was “our friend and our teacher. He was a master filmmaker — no one better at capturing small unrepeatable moments of human behaviour. We made two movies together and every day spent with him was a unique adventure. Milos loved life. I will miss his laughter.” Actor/comedian Josh Gad also mounr ed the director’s passing, tweeting that Forman’s work was “up there alongside the greats”. Forman’s other films include Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), Valmont (1989) and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which won him another best director Oscar nomination, as well as Man on the Moon (1999) and Goya’s Ghosts (2006).

LAWYERS are preparing for an “unprecedented” flood of hundreds of compensation claims for victims of child sexual abuse in WA once a major legal barrier is officially lifted. Reforms to lift the statute of limitations, which required victims to launch civil action within six years of the abuse, passed State Parliament this week. Under the new regime, there will be no time restraint placed on survivors — many of whom have not been ready to disclose their ordeals until decades later — to sue their perpetrators or institutions. The Sunday Times spoke to three legal firms this week who said their combined current case load for WA claims was almost 400. Senior solicitor at Bradley Bayly Legal, Renea Capararo, said the firm was working on more than 200 cases and aimed to lodge up to 50 claims in the WA District Court on the same day the legislation to remove the time restrictions came into effect. She said it would be unprecedented in terms of the avalanche of impending claims. “In a sense, they’re opening the floodgates,” Ms Capararo said. She said about half of the cases, which dated back to the 1950s, were against State Government departments — mainly education and child protection — while the remainder involved other organisations including the Catholic and Anglican churches, Salvation Army and Christian Brothers. “Money is not the main driver,” she said. “A lot of these victims were abused at a time when they would not have disclosed it because it was shameful and they feared being called a liar. This is an acknowledgement of the truth of their stories.” Shine Lawyers is working on up to 150 cases, while another firm, Tindall Gask Bentley, has about 40. It’s not clear how many of these cases will end up in the courts. WA Treasury figures show the State Government could be liable for between $70 million and $647 million in damages over the next four years because of the removal of the statute of limitations. Greg Reidy, 55, is one of hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse who are ready to make their long overdue bid for compensation. He said his childhood was “stolen” when his teacher at North Inglewood Primary School, Robert John Lefroy, molested him over four years in the 1970s, starting when he was just eight. Lefroy was jailed for four years in 2003. Mr Reidy said his abuse stunted his education, which has limited his job options. After his abuser was convicted, Mr Reidy said the compensation on offer to him was up to $4000. “I feel happier now, but I now have to fight for decent compensation,” Mr Reidy said. There will be no cap on civil damages under these new laws, except for a limit on legal fees. WA is yet to sign up to the Commonwealth redress scheme for victims of institutional child sex abuse because it has concerns about how the scheme, which has a $150,000 cap, will apply to child migrants and child sex abuse survivors with criminal convictions.

THE exporter at the centre of the latest sheep ship calamity is no stranger to carnage on the seas. West Perth-based Emanuel Exports and sister companies EMS Rural Exports and International Livestock Exports have been involved in multiple mass-mortality shipments. Animals Australia, which obtained the damning video footage aired by 60 Minutes last Sunday, claim there have been 37 shipments involving these companies where more than 1000 sheep have died on each voyage, since 2005. It states a dozen of these were “reportable incidents” — where the mortality rate exceeds two per cent —requiring an investigation under the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock (ASEL). In 2003, veterinarian Dr Tony Hill, formerly with International Livestock Exports, described the horrors he’d witnessed two years earlier on a voyage aboard the Al Khaleej. Although about 2000 sheep had died in searing heat, he claimed he was told by the ship’s captain to report only 105 deaths. Dr Hill said a build-up of damp manure had produced ammonia, which turned the ship into a “gas chamber”. “We saw sheep leaning out of the ship and trying to throw themselves out through the bars and frothing at the mouth and then just expiring,” he told media at the time. Another Emanuel Exports’ associated company, Rural Export and Trading (WA), had its licence suspended by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) in 2003 over four mass mortality shipments, including one in which more than 6 per cent of the sheep had perished. Then federal Agriculture Minister Warren Truss described the situation as “clearly unacceptable.” The disaster that made national headlines and sparked public outcry, prompting a review of the trade and the introduction of ASEL, involved the MV Cormo Express in late 2003. Some 5,600 sheep died during 70 cramped days at sea on the Cormo Express. After Saudi Arabia rejected the sheep, claiming they were diseased, Australia paid Eritrea to take those still alive. International Livestock Exports was the exporter. In 2007, the WA Department of Local Government and Regional Development prosecuted Emanuel Exports and its directors, Graham Daws and Michael Stanton, for animal cruelty in what was regarded as a test case relating to a shipment of sheep to the Middle East aboard the MV Al Kuwait in November 2003. More than 1000 sheep died, even though it wasn’t summer in the northern hemisphere. When the case was heard in 2008, Magistrate Catherine Crawford found the “elements of the offence of cruelty to sheep, in the way of transport, were proven”, but she acquitted the accused because the WA Animal Welfare Act conflicted with Commonwealth law. In 2008, Emanuel Exports and Rural Export and Trading (WA) took court action to overturn a decision by AQIS to reduce stocking densities on sheep ships with two-tiered decks. The AQIS decision followed a spate of mass mortality shipments. The exporters argued the decision had a significant adverse impact on them, reducing their “overall profitability.” Last November, Emanuel Exports’ managing director Graham Daws was named the industry’s LiveCorp Hall of Fame recipient at a gala dinner in Perth. LiveCorp’s new chairman Terry Enright said Mr Daws had been “a driving force in the live sheep trade from Western Australia to the Middle East.” “His place in the industry’s Hall of Fame is thoroughly deserved.” he said. Emanuel Exports were contacted for comment. The company issued a statement earlier in the week, apologising to farmers and the broader community for “absolutely unacceptable outcomes.” “High mortality incidents like that which occurred in August 2017 on the Awassi Express are devastating,” Mr Daws said.

Cable subscription giant Comcast will now offer subscriptions for streaming giant Netflix in their TV bundles, as a move towards allowing consumers more bundling options. While Netflix has remained dominant in the streaming field, they are looking to expand even further by getting into as many cable boxes as possible. There are many more a la carte options at consumers’ fingertips now, much of which are associated with streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. Consumers looking to save a few bucks have been picking and choosing their entertainment services with more discretion and customization than ever before, which is understandable considering how many options there truly are. This led many experts and analysts to worry about the state of traditional network and cable television; cord cutters were allegedly destroying an entire industry. But that industry has struck upon an intriguing new business model that may lure some of those lost customers back into the fold. THR reports that Comcast will now provide Netflix subscriptions bundled with their Xfinity X1 packages – both old and new. Comcast conceded to Netflix’s unparalleled success, saying that the streaming giant provides one of the “most popular on-demand services” out there right now, making it an “important supplement” to their cable package. Netflix’s global head of business development, Bill Holmes, added: “Our partnership with Comcast on Xfinity X1 has brought easy access to Netflix for our mutual customers. We can’t wait to introduce more X1 customers to Netflix with Xfinity’s new packaged offers.” This match-up is right in line with Netflix’s goals. The company has recognized consumers’ need for simplicity and has been attempting to secure a steady presence on cable box platforms. Netflix already has similar agreements with companies such as Atlantic Broadband, Grande Communications, and Suddenlink Communications. But that’s not all; they are also looking to break into the film industry by pushing releasing Netflix Original movies in theaters. The team-up between Netflix and Comcast is being billed as a convenience for the two companies’ mutual subscribers. Comcast says around 60 percent of their consumers are subscribed to the Xfinity X1 package. Of those users, approximately half are also Netflix subscribers. According to Comcast, this bundle will be of great benefit to those customers. Indeed, this will save them a few dollars on the Netflix subscription and will provide the convenience of having two different content providers on one platform, but consumers who are looking to keep their subscriptions separate may not be interested in yet another TV bundle. Of course, this move also brings Netflix closer to premium cable networks like HBO, which have been bundled in cable packages for years.

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