Lifestyle
NPR's 24 most anticipated video games of 2024
Clockwise from the top-left: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Hades 2, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Princess Peach: Showtime!
Square Enix/Supergiant Games/Capcom/Nintendo
hide caption
toggle caption
Square Enix/Supergiant Games/Capcom/Nintendo
Clockwise from the top-left: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Hades 2, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Princess Peach: Showtime!
Square Enix/Supergiant Games/Capcom/Nintendo
It’d take more than a few surprises for the new year to match 2023’s deluge of acclaimed games. But while we don’t know the precise release date for many of its biggest titles, 2024 will soon grace us with the gargantuan Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, slated to come out on Leap Day, and it’ll likely draw to a close with a console sequel to the Nintendo Switch. But there’s a lot to look forward to apart from those bookends — here’s what we at NPR have our eyes on this year.
Persona 3 Reload, Feb. 2
I fell hard for Personas 4 and 5 but wasn’t hooked by 3. I recognize its importance: it set the current franchise template with its edgy teen aesthetic and weave of social simulation and RPG mechanics. Odd as it was in 2006, perhaps this slick new version will entice the part of me that wants to explore a ghoulish Tokyo with fashionable friends. — James Mastromarino, NPR Gaming lead and Here & Now producer
Skull and Bones, Feb. 16
Swashbuckling piracy was the best part of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and Skull and Bones is bringing that action to a standalone game, shifted from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean and African coasts. It also promises story-rich quests that give it an MMO vibe as you adventure on your ship. I look forward to seeing how it compares with the more cartoony Sea of Thieves, which was fun to play with and against other players. — Daniel Morgan, systems engineer
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
Square Enix
hide caption
toggle caption
Square Enix
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth
Square Enix
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Feb. 29
2020’s Final Fantasy 7: Remake opened the door to a radically new retelling of the 1997 original. The sequel, Rebirth, will likely depart even further, and I’m quivering to find out who’ll live, who’ll die and how I’ll take to its hybrid real-time/turn-based combat after growing fond of the fluid action of Final Fantasy 16. — James Mastromarino, NPR Gaming lead and Here & Now producer
Life By You Early Access, March 5
In 2015, Paradox Interactive took a wild — but ultimately successful — swing at toppling Maxis’ famed city-building franchise SimCity by launching Cities: Skylines. This spring, the Swedish publisher wants to unseat another legendary Maxis franchise: The Sims. Led by former Sims head Rod Humble, Paradox’s Life By You is also a social simulator focusing on hyper-customizability. Clothing, furniture, houses, businesses, towns, storylines, quests — seemingly nothing is locked away from players to make their own. Let’s hope Paradox’s bet on customization makes for engaging gameplay, not analysis paralysis. — Alex Curley, product manager, Distribution
Homeworld 3
Gearbox Publishing
hide caption
toggle caption
Gearbox Publishing
Homeworld 3
Gearbox Publishing
Homeworld 3, March 8
Despite high-profile releases, 2023 didn’t satisfy my hunger for an all-consuming real-time strategy game. Enter a new 2024 challenger: Homeworld 3, the space combat RTS from Blackbird Interactive. The first franchise title was revolutionary in 1999, and gameplay footage for this Spring’s sequel looks just as promising. Apart from battling for galactic dominance over a dozen or more hours in the main campaign, it allows you and up to two other friends to play roguelike missions in its new War Games mode. We’ll see how much Blackbird can appeal to less-experienced players while staying true to Homeworld’s roots. — Alex Curley, product manager, Distribution
Unicorn Overlord, March 8
While laden with anime tropes, the narrative ambition of Vanillaware’s 13 Sentinels blew me away. I hope their upcoming tactical RPG will do the same — and maybe scratch the Fire Emblem itch, too. — James Mastromarino, NPR Gaming lead and Here & Now producer
Dragon’s Dogma 2, March 22
2012’s Dragon’s Dogma is one of the most unique action RPGs I’ve played. Often compared to Dark Souls, which came out the year earlier, the game’s nearly as hardcore, with flashier class abilities and a unique pawn system that lets you recruit AI party members created by other players. The sequel will need to refine these mechanics to capture a wider audience, but Capcom’s been on such a hot streak that I’m optimistic they can pull it off. — James Mastromarino, NPR Gaming lead and Here & Now producer
Princess Peach: Showtime!
Nintendo
hide caption
toggle caption
Nintendo
Princess Peach: Showtime!
Nintendo
Princess Peach: Showtime!, March 22
The date 3/22/24 has been ingrained in my mind since Nintendo shared the trailer for Princess Peach: Showtime! last year. While I know that this isn’t the first time she’s led her own game, this feels like the first time Peach is getting the full Mario treatment with fun transformations and powerups unique to her. Kung Fu Peach? Swordfighter Peach? I can’t wait! — Rakiesha Chase-Jackson, project manager, Member Partnership
Rise of the Rōnin, March 22
Last year, Team Ninja took us to China’s Three Kingdoms era with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty for an enjoyable adventure that struggled to stand out in a crowded field of excellent 2023 games. This year, with Rise of the Rōnin, they’re taking us back to Japan and back to the team behind the excellent Nioh and Nioh 2 games. Rise of the Rōnin has reportedly been in development for seven years and the studio says it’s their “most ambitious and challenging project” to date. If all that work marks a return to the quality of the Nioh titles, this game will be worth exploring. — Justin Lucas, Senior Director, Communications
Manor Lords, April 26
Developer Slavic Magic has been teasing a gorgeous and intriguing strategy game, Manor Lords, for over three years. Set in medieval Europe, the game is at once a city-builder, tasking you with building up manorial villages from empty fields and a strategy sim, having you defend villages from plundering bandits in real-time battles. With a publish date finally set, I’m excited to don my crown as manor lord and see if the game truly lives up to the hype. — Alex Curley, product manager, Distribution
Black Myth: Wukong
Game Science
hide caption
toggle caption
Game Science
Black Myth: Wukong
Game Science
Black Myth: Wukong, Aug. 20
Black Myth: Wukong looks like a AAA soulslike with slick action and terrifically bizarre character design. The game’s impressive trailers and gameplay videos generated a lot of buzz for its relatively unknown developer, Game Science. But it’s hard to know what to expect from a studio with no other major releases under its wing. If Wukong lives up to its savvy marketing, it could be a breakout success. But it’s also possible that the game and the studio will end up standing out for other less favorable reasons, as reports of a culture of sexism at Game Science could sour many who might otherwise have been interested. — Justin Lucas, Senior Director, Communications
Undated 2024
Avowed
Obsidian Entertainment has commanded respect for RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Their upcoming first-person fantasy game set in the Pillars of Eternity universe should be no exception. It wouldn’t be surprising if Avowed not only provided a capable substitute to hold players over for the long-awaited Elder Scrolls 6 but also raised the bar for Bethesda as they worked on their follow-up to Skyrim. — Corey Bridges, assistant producer, The Indicator
Baby Steps
Devolver Digital
hide caption
toggle caption
Devolver Digital
Baby Steps
Devolver Digital
Baby Steps
The ever-brilliant Bennett Foddy (of QWOP and Getting Over It fame) is back with another impish physics game. Billed as a “literal walking simulator,” Baby Steps has you independently control each of the player character’s legs, forcing you to think through locomotion you’d normally take for granted — to what I’m sure will be hilarious results. — James Mastromarino, NPR Gaming lead and Here & Now producer
Camper Van: Make it Home
Camper Van: Make it Home looks like the quintessential cozy game — chill music, a calming color scheme, and a simple premise that offers so much space for customization and control. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always dreamed of just unplugging and traveling the world in my own personal camper van, and soon, I will be able to do so from the comfort of my couch. — Rakiesha Chase-Jackson, project manager, Member Partnership
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
We’ve seen little about this upcoming expansion to 2022 masterpiece Elden Ring, other than that it appears to feature Miquella, a character shrouded in mystery so deep it makes the game’s obtuse lore look transparent by comparison. But FromSoftware has a reputation for incomparable DLC, so I’m confident it’ll give me more than enough reason to return to the Lands Between. — James Mastromarino, NPR Gaming lead and Here & Now producer
Frostpunk 2
Developer 11 Bit Studios is upping the scale of their award-winning city-builder with Frostpunk 2. Set 30 years after the apocalyptic events of Frostpunk, the meager colony of the first game has grown into a full-blown metropolis, shifting the focus away from mere survival and ensuring its stability. It’s a change that will transform gameplay mechanics critics fell in love with to something more akin to Tropico 6 or Civilization 6 — a notable risk for a franchise with a winning formula. In any case, I’m excited to return to the outskirts of nuclear winter London to test my mettle again. — Alex Curley, product manager, Distribution
Hades 2
Supergiant Games
hide caption
toggle caption
Supergiant Games
Hades 2
Will 2024 be the year we actually get Early Access to Hades 2? Supposedly! It’s hard not to be impatient as I write up my most anticipated games blurb for the same game two years running, but honestly, I’ll wait however long it takes. From indie studio Supergiant, Hades 2 promises to bring the same enthralling romance and combat as its 2020 predecessor, Hades. This time, we’ll join a new hero in Melinoe, our de-facto princess of Hell, as she embarks on a mission to kill Chronos, who is technically her grandpa. But while I love some Greek mythology, what made me really fall in love with the series is Supergiant’s commitment to a gorgeous style that drips out of every conversation and combat arena. Early access release is set for Q2 2024, but whenever it drops, I’ll be here … waiting. — Megan Lim, All Things Considered Producer
Hollow Knight: Silksong
There’s more discourse than news about this sequel to indie darling Hollow Knight, which was also one of our most anticipated games of 2023. Team Cherry’s social media pages haven’t been updated in a long time, but I’m still hopeful. Game development is tough, and I’m content to wait while the studio takes its time to make Silksong as beautiful and visceral as the first game. — River Williamson, Software Engineer
Last Time I Saw You
I’m a huge fan of publisher Chorus Worldwide. The trailer for Last Time I Saw You brought back such fond memories of 2023’s A Space for the Unbound that I immediately wishlisted it on Steam. I’m looking forward to gorgeous artwork, a mesmerizing soundtrack and an emotional rollercoaster of a story. — Rakiesha Chase-Jackson, project manager, Member Partnership
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
GSC Game World
hide caption
toggle caption
GSC Game World
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
GSC Game World
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl
After many delays, the latest in this Tarkovsky-inspired shooter series may arrive by the first quarter of this year. It is made by Ukrainian developers who have kept at it despite the encroachments of a very real war. — James Mastromarino, NPR Gaming lead and Here & Now producer
Star Wars Outlaws
While the Star Wars brand is reaching the point of oversaturation, I’m admittedly excited about the prospect of a truly open-world Star Wars game where I’m not playing as someone with force sensitivity (at least as far as I know). If Ubisoft can pull off what’s looking to be a grounded single-player adventure game and provide a captivating story, it has a chance of being one of my favorite pieces of Star Wars media ever. That’s a big if, but I hope Star Wars: Outlaws lives up to the hype. — Corey Bridges, assistant producer, The Indicator
Stormgate
We already knew about Stormgate before this winter’s Game Awards. But it felt much more real when actor Simu Liu appeared onstage on Dec. 7 to tease his role in Frost Giant’s upcoming competitive real-time strategy game. It’s obvious that Stormgate’s developers, which include Starcraft veterans, are trying to position the game as the next big esports RTS in a market where decade-old titles have stagnated. With the promise of more responsive gameplay and modern netcode, I’m curious to see if they’ll actually succeed. — Alex Curley, product manager, Distribution
The Casting of Frank Stone
I’m a sucker for the kind of interactive horror movies that Supermassive Games makes in titles like The Quarry and Until Dawn. I was pleasantly surprised that they’re now teaming up with the studio behind Dead by Daylight for a new horror mystery story. I’m looking forward to putting in multiple playthroughs and seeing how the story can play out. — Corey Bridges, assistant producer, The Indicator
The Wolf Among Us 2
The Wolf Among Us 2 was on my most anticipated games list for 2023, and Telltale Games has indicated that they’re now targeting a 2024 release. Ten years is a long time to wait for a sequel, but I’m a huge fan of the Fables comics and can’t wait to return to Fabletown. — Rakiesha Chase-Jackson, project manager, Member Partnership
Lifestyle
Found: The 19th century silent film that first captured a robot attack
A screenshot from George Mélière’s Gugusse et l’Automate. The pioneering French filmmaker’s 1897 short, which likely features the first known depiction of a robot on film, was thought lost until it was found among a box of old reels that had belonged to a family in Michigan and restored by the Library of Congress.
The Frisbee Collection/Library of Congress
hide caption
toggle caption
The Frisbee Collection/Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has found and restored a long-lost silent film by Georges Méliès.
The famed 19th century French filmmaker is best known for his groundbreaking 1902 science fiction adventure masterpiece Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon).
The 45-second-long, one-reel short Gugusse et l’Automate – Gugusse and the Automaton – was made nearly 130 years ago. But the subject matter still feels timely. The film, which can be viewed on the Library of Congress’ website, depicts a child-sized robot clown who grows to the size of an adult and then attacks a human clown with a stick. The human then decimates the machine with a hammer.
In an Instagram post, Library of Congress moving image curator Jason Evans Groth said the film represents, “probably the first instance of a robot ever captured in a moving image.” (The word “robot” didn’t appear until 1921, when Czech dramatist Karel Čapek coined it in his science fiction play R.U.R..)
“Today, many of us are worried about AI and robots,” said archivist and filmmaker Rick Prelinger, in an email to NPR. “Well, people were thinking about robots in 1897. Very little is new.”
A long journey
Groth said the film arrived in a box last September from a donor in Michigan, Bill McFarland. “Bill’s great grandfather, William Frisbee, was a person who loved technology,” Groth said. “And in the late 19th century, must have bought a projector and a bunch of films and decided to drive them around in his buggy to share them with folks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York.”
McFarland didn’t know what was on the 10 rusty reels he dropped off at the Library of Congress’ National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Va. A Library article about the discovery describes the battered, pre-World War I artifacts as having been, “shuttled around from basements to barns to garages,” and that they, “could no longer be safely run through a projector,” owing to their delicate condition. “The nitrate film stock had crumbled to bits on some; other strips were stuck together,” the article said. It was a lab technician in Michigan who suggested McFarland contact the Library of Congress.
“The moment we set our eyes on this box of film, we knew it was something special,” said George Willeman, who heads up the Library’s nitrate film vault, in the article.
Willeman’s team carefully inspected the trove of footage, which also contained another well-known Méliès film, Nouvelles Luttes extravagantes (The Fat and Lean Wrestling Match) and parts of The Burning Stable, an early Thomas Edison work. With the help of an external expert, they identified the reel as having been created by Méliès because it features a star painted on a pedestal in the center of the screen – the logo for Méliès Star Film Company.
A pioneering filmmaker
Méliès was one of the great pioneers of cinema. The scene in which a rocket lands playfully in the eye of Méliès’ anthropomorphic moon in Le Voyage dans la Lune is one of the most famous moments in cinematic history. And he helped to popularize such special effects as multiple exposures and time-lapse photography.
This moment from George Méliès’ Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) is considered to be one of the most famous in cinematic history.
George Méliès/Public Domain
hide caption
toggle caption
George Méliès/Public Domain
Presumed lost until the Library of Congress’s discovery, Gugusse et L’Automate loomed large in the imaginations of science fiction and early cinema buffs for more than a century. In their 1977 book Things to Come: An Illustrated History of the Science Fiction Film, authors Douglas Menville and R. Reginald described Gugusse as possibly being, “the first true SF [science fiction] film.”
“While it may seem that no more discoveries remain to be made, that’s not the case,” said Prelinger of the work’s reappearance. “Here’s a genuine discovery from the early days of film that no one anticipated.”
Lifestyle
Joshua Jackson Works Out Shirtless at a Boxing Gym in LA, On Video
Joshua Jackson
I Got the Eye of the Tiger!!!
Published
BACKGRID
Joshua Jackson may have picked up a thing or two from “Karate Kid: Legends” … we got video of him going H.A.M. in a boxing gym with a trainer.
Watch the video … the 47-year-old actor ditched his shirt for the workout, really working up a sweat as he bobbed and weaved in the ring while throwing in some pretty impressive jabs!
He later goes to work solo on a speed bag like an old pro.
Joshua has publicly said that starring in “Karate Kid: Legends” in the role of a former boxer was a dream for him, but there’s no word on whether he’s training for another role or just really fell in love with boxing.
Either way … you’re looking great, Joshua!
Lifestyle
‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’ falls before it rises — but then it soars
Tracy Morgan, left, and Daniel Radcliffe star in The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.
Scott Gries/NBC
hide caption
toggle caption
Scott Gries/NBC
Tracy Morgan, as a presence, as a persona, bends the rules of comedy spacetime around him.
Consider: He’s constitutionally incapable of tossing off a joke or an aside, because he never simply delivers a line when he can declaim it instead. He can’t help but occupy the center of any given scene he’s in — his abiding, essential weirdness inevitably pulls focus. Perhaps most mystifying to comedy nerds is the way he can take a breath in the middle of a punchline and still, somehow, land it.
That? Should be impossible. Comedy depends on, is entirely a function of, timing; jokes are delicate constructs of rhythms that take time and practice to beat into shape for maximum efficiency. But never mind that. Give this guy a non-sequitur, the nonner the better, and he’ll shout that sucker at the top of his fool lungs, and absolutely kill, every time.
Well. Not every time, and not everywhere. Because Tracy Morgan is a puzzle piece so oddly shaped he won’t fit into just any world. In fact, the only way he works is if you take the time and effort to assiduously build the entire puzzle around him.
Thankfully, the makers of his new series, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, understand that very specific assignment. They’ve built the show around Morgan’s signature profile and paired him with an hugely unlikely comedy partner (Daniel Radcliffe).
The co-creators/co-showrunners are Robert Carlock, who was one of the showrunners on 30 Rock and co-created The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Sam Means, who also worked on Girls5eva with Carlock and has written for 30 Rock and Kimmy Schmidt.
These guys know exactly what Morgan can do, even if 30 Rock relegated him to function as a kind of comedy bomb-thrower. He’d enter a scene, lob a few loud, puzzling, hilarious references that would blow up the situation onscreen, and promptly peace out through the smoke and ash left in his wake.
That can’t happen on Reggie Dinkins, as Tracy is the center of both the show, and the show-within-the-show. He plays a former NFL star disgraced by a gambling scandal who’s determined to redeem himself in the public eye. He brings in an Oscar-winning documentarian Arthur Tobin (Radcliffe) to make a movie about him and his current life.
Tobin, however, is determined to create an authentic portrait of a fallen hero, and keeps goading Dinkins to express remorse — or anything at all besides canned, feel-good platitudes. He embeds himself in Dinkins’ palatial New Jersey mansion, alongside Dinkins’ fiancée Brina (Precious Way), teenage son Carmelo (Jalyn Hall) and his former teammate Rusty (Bobby Moynihan), who lives in the basement.
If you’re thinking this means Reggie Dinkins is a show satirizing the recent rise of toothless, self-flattering documentaries about athletes and performers produced in collaboration with their subjects, you’re half-right. The show feints at that tension with some clever bits over the course of the season, but it’s never allowed to develop into a central, overarching conflict, because the show’s more interested in the affinity between Dinkins and Tobin.
Tobin, it turns out, is dealing with his own public disgrace — his emotional breakdown on the set of a blockbuster movie he was directing has gone viral — and the show becomes about exploring what these two damaged men can learn from each other.
On paper, sure: It’s an oil-and-water mixture: Dinkins (loud, rich, American, Black) and Tobin (uptight, pretentious, British, practically translucent). Morgan’s in his element, and if you’re not already aware of what a funny performer Radcliffe can be, check him out on the late lamented Miracle Workers.
Whenever these two characters are firing fusillades of jokes at each other, the series sings. But, especially in the early going, the showrunners seem determined to put Morgan and Radcliffe together in quieter, more heartfelt scenes that don’t quite work. It’s too reductive to presume this is because Morgan is a comedian and Radcliffe is an actor, but it’s hard to deny that they’re coming at those moments from radically different places, and seem to be directing their energies past each other in ways that never quite manage to connect.
Precious Way as Brina.
Scott Gries/NBC
hide caption
toggle caption
Scott Gries/NBC
It’s one reason the show flounders out of the gate, as typical pilot problems pile up — every secondary character gets introduced in a hurry and assigned a defining characteristic: Brina (the influencer), Rusty (the loser), Carmelo (the TV teen). It takes a bit too long for even the great Erika Alexander, who plays Dinkins’ ex-wife and current manager Monica, to get something to play besides the uber-competent, work-addicted businesswoman.
But then, there are the jokes. My god, these jokes.
Reggie Dinkins, like 30 Rock and Kimmy Schmidt before it, is a joke machine, firing off bit after bit after bit. But where those shows were only too happy to exist as high-key joke-engines first, and character comedies second, Dinkins is operating in a slightly lower register. It’s deliberately pitched to feel a bit more grounded, a bit less frenetic. (To be fair: Every show in the history of the medium can be categorized as more grounded and less frenetic than 30 Rock and Kimmy Schmidt — but Reggie Dinkins expressly shares those series’ comedic approach, if not their specific joke density.)
While the hit rate of Reggie Dinkins‘ jokes never achieves 30 Rock status, rest assured that in episodes coming later in the season it comfortably hovers at Kimmy Schmidt level. Which is to say: Two or three times an episode, you will encounter a joke that is so perfect, so pure, so diamond-hard that you will wonder how it has taken human civilization until 2026 Common Era to discover it.
And that’s the key — they feel discovered. The jokes I’m talking about don’t seem painstakingly wrought, though of course they were. No, they feel like they have always been there, beneath the earth, biding their time, just waiting to be found. (Here, you no doubt will be expecting me to provide some examples. Well, I’m not gonna. It’s not a critic’s job to spoil jokes this good by busting them out in some lousy review. Just watch the damn show to experience them as you’re meant to; you’ll know which ones I’m talking about.)
Now, let’s you and I talk about Bobby Moynihan.
As Rusty, Dinkins’ devoted ex-teammate who lives in the basement, Moynihan could have easily contented himself to play Pathetic Guy™ and leave it at that. Instead, he invests Rusty with such depths of earnest, deeply felt, improbably sunny emotions that he solidifies his position as show MVP with every word, every gesture, every expression. The guy can shuffle into the far background of a shot eating cereal and get a laugh, which is to say: He can be literally out-of-focus and still steal focus.
Which is why it doesn’t matter, in the end, that the locus of Reggie Dinkins‘ comedic energy isn’t found precisely where the show’s premise (Tracy Morgan! Daniel Radcliffe! Imagine the chemistry!) would have you believe it to be. This is a very, very funny — frequently hilarious — series that prizes well-written, well-timed, well-delivered jokes, and that knows how to use its actors to serve them up in the best way possible. And once it shakes off a few early stumbles and gets out of its own way, it does that better than any show on television.
This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.
Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
-
World3 days agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts4 days agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Montana1 week ago2026 MHSA Montana Wrestling State Championship Brackets And Results – FloWrestling
-
Louisiana6 days agoWildfire near Gum Swamp Road in Livingston Parish now under control; more than 200 acres burned
-
Denver, CO3 days ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Technology1 week agoYouTube TV billing scam emails are hitting inboxes
-
Technology1 week agoStellantis is in a crisis of its own making
-
Politics1 week agoOpenAI didn’t contact police despite employees flagging mass shooter’s concerning chatbot interactions: REPORT