Latest news with #BenStarr
The Verge
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Verso and Astarion walk into a video game.
Posted Jul 1, 2025 at 3:55 PM UTC Verso and Astarion walk into a video game. In a new teaser for the game, video game voice acting it boys Ben Starr ( Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 , Final Fantasy XVI ) and Neil Newbon ( Resident Evil Village , Baldur's Gate III ), will star as two friends who have to work together to escape a hellish Hollywood mansion.
The Verge
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Date Everything will make you see your favorite household objects in a sexy new light
Date Everything! isn't the dating sim it appears to be. Though the game's cutesy art style and lighthearted premise indicate an unserious game that's making yet another joke at the expense of the genre, Date Everything actually contains novel explorations of human relationships and sharp-as-shit political critique. Date Everything (the title technically includes an exclamation point) is a game where you, with the help of special glasses called 'dateviators,' can turn everyday household objects into potential romantic partners. Every in-game day you're given five opportunities to find new and talk to already discovered characters called dateables. As you interact with them, the things you say and do influence their feelings for you. Winning a dateable's love, hate, or friendship will also increase the level of one of your personality traits — smarts, poise, empathy, charm, and sass — which unlocks more advanced dialogue responses. Say the right thing, and Dorian (your door, voiced by Ben Starr) will be your best friend boosting your poise. Say the wrong thing and your toilet Jean-Loo Pissoir (Max Mittelman) will swear eternal enmity, boosting your sassiness. Date Everything is your favorite voice actor's favorite video game. The game is a veritable murderers' row of video game voice actors. Neil Newbon, Ben Starr, Ray Chase, Debra Wilson, Felicia Day, Ashley Johnson, Ashly Burch, and more lend their voices to this project. To borrow a line from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, everyone is here and they're delivering high-quality performances more associated with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 than Hatoful Boyfriend. I love how you don't have to dig through the credits to know who voices what, as each dateable is given a biography which includes their voice performer. This approach makes sense because Date Everything was created by them. Ray Chase (Noctis Lucis Caelum, Final Fantasy XV), Robbie Daymond (Tuxedo Mask!!), and Max Mittelman (Ryuji Sakamoto, Persona 5) founded Sassy Chap Games. Date Everything is the studio's first title that's found viral success mainly because it's giving the dating sim community — one that's been left to languish on jokey cast-offs and the odd Valentine's Day-themed events — exactly what they want: their favorite performers having fun. Every performer in Date Everything is having the time of their lives and you can hear it in their performances. Upon meeting Curt (Davied Morales) and Rod (Jacquis Neal) — any guesses as to what they are — I was delighted by their shade-throwing shenanigans. What those faves are saying is just as important as who's saying it. The game's dialogue is sharp and hilarious, stuffed with puns and clever wordplay — but make the right choices and it can veer into adult territory that doesn't feel too corny or vulgar. I was giggling and kicking my feet flirting with my vacuum cleaner (Zeno Robinson) because of the suggestiveness of some of our conversations. I've never been able to fully inhabit the self-insert characters I play in dating sims mainly because the dialogue options I choose and what I hear hardly ever reflect things I'd actually say or hear in real life. The biggest appeal of Date Everything is that it's written in a way that closes some of the distance between me the person and me the character in the game. My vacuum cleaner had lines that would have legit worked on me. Another trait that has me swiping right on Date Everything is how it's constructed. Dateables run the gamut of ethnicities, sexualities, and body types. There's a neat, built-in content warning feature that lets players know if talking to a particular dateable might bring up potentially triggering topics. Every line of dialogue is fully voiced and every new interaction with a dateable comes with a voiced description of the character, a boon for low-vision players. The game also lets you know precisely the politics of its creators in incredibly rad and funny ways. Within seconds of starting the story, I was newly hired then promptly fired by the tech megacorporation that developed the dateviators because my job had been automated by AI. Throughout the game, I'll get updates from the CEO, which are part hilarious interludes, part scathing criticisms of the video game industry. At one point, the CEO fired the company's event planner in the same breath he praised her for running a successful event. During one message, the CEO was begging for the dateviators back — stolen in a moment of corporate sabotage — because they've promised the technology to the, and I friggin' quote, 'US government's department of Overseas Violence.' A dig that could be aimed at any number of companies, including one very obvious one. There's a tendency in the dating sim community to get reflexively defensive against cutesy-looking dating sims, especially those developed in the West. While the genre is a staple with a storied history, typically these games are treated as a joke. I am frequently annoyed when a big game publisher announces it's making one only for it to be a prank. Or if one is released, it's often a short, unserious side project made for laughs. There's nothing wrong with that (pigeon dating game Hatoful Boyfriend sends its regards), but it gets grating when virtually every release is done for the lolz. Date Everything feels like it should be one of those pranks. But in the same way I didn't realize how sexy a vacuum cleaner could be until I talked to him, you won't know how serious and special Date Everything is until you try it. Date Everything is out now on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.
The Independent
26-06-2025
- The Independent
Man jailed for killing brother with single punch in drunken fight at motocross
A man has been jailed for two years for killing his brother during a drunken fight. Ben Starr, 35, inflicted a single fatal blow to his brother Lee at a motocross event in Swindon in August last year. Lee Starr, 38, suffered a fatal head injury at the Foxhill motocross event in Upper Wanborough and died later in hospital. At a previous hearing Ben Starr, of Woodside Avenue, Ripley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after asking for a 'Goodyear Indication' from a judge – the maximum sentence he could receive. At a sentencing hearing on Thursday Judge Peter Blair KC, The Recorder of Bristol, jailed him for two years. Sam Jones, defending, said at a previous hearing: 'This case on the facts is, in any view, a tragic case. 'Both the defendant and his brother were intoxicated at the relevant time. ' One of the eyewitnesses to the incident, the defendant's father, refers to in his witness statement of Lee after having punched his brother on two occasions and after the two of them end up on the ground, with the defendant restraining his brother, after which they are separated, he sees Lee direct a kick and a punch towards the defendant. 'The defendant in his own interview with the police describes that kick and punch connecting with him. 'But it is accepted on his behalf that the only evidence of those blows connecting come from him. 'The witnesses at the scene see a kick and a punch directed towards him but not connect with him. 'The basis of plea put forward on the defendant's behalf is that after the two are separated and after the attempted kick and punch are thrown, the defendant then accepts in that context throwing the single punch which he did, which caused the injury.' At that hearing Robin Shellard, prosecuting, said the guilty plea to manslaughter was acceptable. In a statement read to the court, Lee Starr's wife Jaye said: '(Lee) was cruelly and senselessly taken from me and our children. 'I never imagined I would be forced to put into words the unbearable grief that now defines our lives. 'We had a future full of hope, love and dreams together. But that future was stolen from us in a horrific moment, and now every single day is a fight just to keep going without him.' Detective Chief Inspector Phil Walker, who led the investigation, said: 'Our thoughts remain with the family and loved ones of Lee, who has lost his life in such tragic circumstances. 'A life has been cut short following what should have been an enjoyable weekend at a family event. A single punch has ruined the lives of a family.'
Rhyl Journal
26-06-2025
- Rhyl Journal
Man jailed for killing brother with single punch in drunken fight at motocross
Ben Starr, 35, inflicted a single fatal blow to his brother Lee at a motocross event in Swindon in August last year. Lee Starr, 38, suffered a fatal head injury at the Foxhill motocross event in Upper Wanborough and died later in hospital. At a previous hearing Ben Starr, of Woodside Avenue, Ripley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after asking for a 'Goodyear Indication' from a judge – the maximum sentence he could receive. At a sentencing hearing on Thursday Judge Peter Blair KC, The Recorder of Bristol, jailed him for two years. Sam Jones, defending, said at a previous hearing: 'This case on the facts is, in any view, a tragic case. 'Both the defendant and his brother were intoxicated at the relevant time. 'One of the eyewitnesses to the incident, the defendant's father, refers to in his witness statement of Lee after having punched his brother on two occasions and after the two of them end up on the ground, with the defendant restraining his brother, after which they are separated, he sees Lee direct a kick and a punch towards the defendant. 'The defendant in his own interview with the police describes that kick and punch connecting with him. 'But it is accepted on his behalf that the only evidence of those blows connecting come from him. 'The witnesses at the scene see a kick and a punch directed towards him but not connect with him. 'The basis of plea put forward on the defendant's behalf is that after the two are separated and after the attempted kick and punch are thrown, the defendant then accepts in that context throwing the single punch which he did, which caused the injury.' At that hearing Robin Shellard, prosecuting, said the guilty plea to manslaughter was acceptable. In a statement read to the court, Lee Starr's wife Jaye said: '(Lee) was cruelly and senselessly taken from me and our children. 'I never imagined I would be forced to put into words the unbearable grief that now defines our lives. 'We had a future full of hope, love and dreams together. But that future was stolen from us in a horrific moment, and now every single day is a fight just to keep going without him.' Detective Chief Inspector Phil Walker, who led the investigation, said: 'Our thoughts remain with the family and loved ones of Lee, who has lost his life in such tragic circumstances. 'A life has been cut short following what should have been an enjoyable weekend at a family event. A single punch has ruined the lives of a family.'
South Wales Guardian
26-06-2025
- South Wales Guardian
Man jailed for killing brother with single punch in drunken fight at motocross
Ben Starr, 35, inflicted a single fatal blow to his brother Lee at a motocross event in Swindon in August last year. Lee Starr, 38, suffered a fatal head injury at the Foxhill motocross event in Upper Wanborough and died later in hospital. At a previous hearing Ben Starr, of Woodside Avenue, Ripley, Derbyshire, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after asking for a 'Goodyear Indication' from a judge – the maximum sentence he could receive. At a sentencing hearing on Thursday Judge Peter Blair KC, The Recorder of Bristol, jailed him for two years. Sam Jones, defending, said at a previous hearing: 'This case on the facts is, in any view, a tragic case. 'Both the defendant and his brother were intoxicated at the relevant time. 'One of the eyewitnesses to the incident, the defendant's father, refers to in his witness statement of Lee after having punched his brother on two occasions and after the two of them end up on the ground, with the defendant restraining his brother, after which they are separated, he sees Lee direct a kick and a punch towards the defendant. 'The defendant in his own interview with the police describes that kick and punch connecting with him. 'But it is accepted on his behalf that the only evidence of those blows connecting come from him. 'The witnesses at the scene see a kick and a punch directed towards him but not connect with him. 'The basis of plea put forward on the defendant's behalf is that after the two are separated and after the attempted kick and punch are thrown, the defendant then accepts in that context throwing the single punch which he did, which caused the injury.' At that hearing Robin Shellard, prosecuting, said the guilty plea to manslaughter was acceptable. In a statement read to the court, Lee Starr's wife Jaye said: '(Lee) was cruelly and senselessly taken from me and our children. 'I never imagined I would be forced to put into words the unbearable grief that now defines our lives. 'We had a future full of hope, love and dreams together. But that future was stolen from us in a horrific moment, and now every single day is a fight just to keep going without him.' Detective Chief Inspector Phil Walker, who led the investigation, said: 'Our thoughts remain with the family and loved ones of Lee, who has lost his life in such tragic circumstances. 'A life has been cut short following what should have been an enjoyable weekend at a family event. A single punch has ruined the lives of a family.'
