A Netflix docuseries is in the works that will offer viewers a look behind the curtain at the lives of some of the planet’s top golfers. The PGA Tour and the governing bodies of the four men’s major championships are all onboard for the series, which will cover the 2022 golf season.

Major winners including Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia are all taking part. The current top-ranked men’s player, Jon Rahm, isn’t participating for the time being, though the planet’s leading amateur, Keita Nakajima, is involved as he prepares to play in the majors for the first time.

“We are thrilled to bring golf’s leading organizations and players together for this first-of-its-kind partnership and unparalleled window into life on the Tour,” said Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of unscripted and documentary series. “Our members will love getting to know the players and personalities as well as the iconic venues along the way. Even the most devoted golf fans have never seen the sport quite like this.”

The show will be co-produced by Box To Box Films (which is behind Formula 1: Drive to Survive, another big Netflix sports docuseries) and Vox Media Studios. The PGA Tour and governing bodies for the majors will surely be hoping that the series can do for golf what Formula 1: Drive to Survive has done for the highest level of motorsport.

That show is credited with drawing new audiences to Formula 1 and it greatly boosted the sport’s popularity in the US. While golf arguably still has a higher profile in the States, perhaps the docuseries will help it draw in younger viewers too.

Source: Engadget – A Netflix PGA Tour docuseries is coming from the producers of ‘Drive to Survive’

Ubisoft’s The Settlers revival is finally here… almost. The company has revealed that its reboot of the classic build-up real-time strategy game will be available March 17th for Windows PCs through the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Connect. The developers are also whetting appetites with a five-day, registration-only closed beta starting January 20th that will include two of the game’s three factions as well as two multiplayer Skirmish modes (one- and two-player teams).

The rebuilt game is “mostly” derived from The Settlers III and The Settlers IV, and looks decidedly nicer than many RTS titles thanks to the use of the same Snowdrop Engine you find in games like The Division series and the upcoming Avatar release. While it won’t compete with the latest first-person shooter in looks, it might be more visually appealing than its competitors. There is a story-driven single-player campaign, but Ubisoft is clearly banking on the eight-way multiplayer to help with longevity.

However well the game plays, Ubisoft’s main challenge is simply revitalizing the franchise. There hasn’t been a brand-new game in the series since The Settlers Online in 2010, and the decade since has only led to a cancelled game (Kingdoms of Anteria) and four years of development for the imminent reboot. While there will certainly still be fans, it’s not clear how many of them were willing to wait a decade for a follow-up.

If you missed the holiday-season discounts on Apple’s latest AirPods last year, you have another opportunity to get them today. Amazon has the third-generation AirPods for $140 right now, which is 22 percent off and a return to their record-low price. Apple released these buds last fall and they represent a complete redesign from the original AirPods, which resembled Apple’s old-school EarPods.

Buy AirPods (3rd gen) at Amazon – $140

While the second-generation AirPods haven’t been retired yet, the latest models will likely work better for most people. That’s due in part to their new design, which looks more like the AirPods Pro. They don’t have the removable silicone ear tips that the Pros have, but they have a contoured look with a shorter stem plus an IPX4 rating that should protect them during sweaty workouts.

Apple also greatly improved the audio on these AirPods; their custom driver and high-dynamic-range amplifier help produce crisp sounds with rich bass. While they don’t support ANC, the third-gen earbuds do have Adaptive EQ, spatial audio and always-on Siri. The H1 chip inside helps enable all of those features, along with fast pairing and switching between Apple devices. We also appreciate their battery life — you should get six hours of listening time before they need more juice, and roughly 30 total hours of use with the extra power provided by their charging case.

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Source: Engadget – Apple’s third-gen AirPods drop to 0 at Amazon

As if the market for battle royale games wasn’t crowded enough already, you’ll soon have another option in the form of My Hero Academia: Ultra Rumble. Based on the popular manga and anime, Bandai Namco teased the title in a Weekly Shōnen Jump article spotted by Gematsu.

Ultra Rumble doesn’t have a release date yet, but it will come to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. Compared to battle royales like Call of Duty: Warzone and PUBG, Ultra Rumble looks like it will be a more intimate affair with support for up to 24 players in a single match. Bandai Namco plans to hold a closed beta for the game in the future.

It’s hard to judge the potential quality of Ultra Rumble based on a few magazine scans, but as Eurogamer notes, past My Hero Academia haven’t been great despite the popularity of the source material. 2018’s My Hero One’s Justice, for instance, was greeted mostly with middling reviews. Here’s hoping Ultra Rumble breaks that trend.

Source: Engadget – Bandai Namco is making a ‘My Hero Academia’ battle royale for PS4, Xbox One and Switch