Welcome to issue #017 of THREE NEW THINGS. We’re very nearly out of the Jan/Feb dead zone, and we’re going to start seeing more new releases in movies, gaming, streaming, etc.

In this issue, I’m going to try to put the NEW back into THREE NEW THINGS and cover a couple of things — Project Hail Mary and Crimson Desert — that aren’t even out yet. Generally, I review things I’ve seen, played, or listened to personally so that I can give my opinion on them. But I want to start working in some previews as well so that you all know what cool new things are on the way and to really put the NEW into THREE NEW THINGS.

So, let’s get into it!

I’m going to talk about Project Hail Mary, but I also want to use this space to talk about movie trailers in general. The first Project Hail Mary trailer was perfect. It got me intrigued by the premise of the film by giving me just enough information to have a general idea as to what it was about, without giving away the store. So that’s the trailer I’m going to feature in this write-up.

Subsequent trailers, especially the latest one, essentially give away the whole movie. There’s a reason for this, grounded in sound marketing principles. Unfortunately. It’s been proven, time and time again, that your average moviegoer is more likely to see a film in a theater if they know entirely what it’s about beforehand. It’s a strange quirk of human nature. So if you ever find yourself wondering, “Why did the trailer give away the WHOLE MOVIE?” - that’s why. People love to say that they’re not influenced by commercials when they’re 100% influenced by commercials. I should know… advertising is my day job.

My personal preference - and if you’re a fan of this newsletter, I suspect you’re the same - is to know as little as possible about a movie before going in. The sweet spot is to know enough to know I’m interested, but not enough to spoil the whole thing. THIS trailer, to me, does that job perfectly. Check it out, and we’ll talk about the movie itself after the break.

The movie is based on a book by Andy Weir, who wrote “The Martian.” While I never read the book, personally, I didn’t love “The Martian.” That’s a minority opinion, I know. Maybe I just saw it on a bad day. I don’t know… but it didn’t grab me.

Project Hail Mary, however, looks fantastic. I put a lot of stock in “from Christopher Lord and Phil Miller” because I’m such a huge fan of the Spider-Verse movies. That the screenplay is written by the outstanding Drew Goddard helps too. And Ryan Gosling is great in pretty much everything he’s in. He’s like Tom Cruise with a sense of humor.

You can tell Amazon/MGM has faith in the movie because they’ve made it available to critics a full month in advance of its release. You do that when you know you’ve got the goods. Eric Marchen calls it, “the first great blockbuster of 2026.” Adriano Caporusso calls it, “a pulse-pounding space epic that brings humanity center stage.” And Scott Menzel hails it as, “a masterpiece that will be a major awards player across the board.”

I plan to go see it opening weekend and review it for myself in this space. So check back in a month and I’ll give you my thoughts.

It was a good week for new music. I came across 10 or so songs worth adding to the THREE NEW THINGS Best of 2026 playlist (see below). I’m going to highlight a couple of my favorites.

Some songs take a while to grow on you, while others you love from the first few opening chords. “Depressed” by The Format is the latter. I was hooked instantly. It’s a bit unusual because the song opens on the B chord, shifts into Bsus, and then into a B7b5. Even if you don’t know what any of that means, you can definitely hear it. I won’t bore you with a bunch of music theory, but the “sus” in Bsus stands for substitution. The substitution (generally either a perfect 4th or a major 2nd) removes the chord’s major/minor identity, which creates a tension that’s resolved when the music shifts back to the standard version of the chord. The Format is a band that’s been around since 2001, and their latest definitely gives off those early 2000s pop/indie rock vibes.

There’s new music and then there’s REALLY new music. “peach” is the latest from garbagepink, the moniker of Swedish singer/songwriter Louise Lindenger and has a whopping 259 views on YouTube. You can tell she’s Swedish because Lindenger sounds like a sofa you’d buy at IKEA and then spend your entire afternoon trying to put together. “peach” is a funky, bass-driven tune that sounds like it could have been written by Beck. It’s simple, weird and a whole lot of fun.

For these and other cool new tunes, check out the THREE NEW THINGS Best of 2026 playlist, now featuring more than 4 HOURS worth of music!

“Can a game live up to THIS much hype?” It’s a question we might be asking ourselves a few times this year, particularly about Grand Theft Auto VI. But another game that’s all aboard the hype train is Crimson Desert. (Quick Aside - a great way to know the difference between “desert” and “dessert” is that a dessert is “super scrumptious” so it features the letter “s” twice.)

The question I’ve been hearing around the game Crimson Desert, which releases in late March, is, “Can it REALLY do all the things it seems to be claiming it can do?” Video games have a long and not-so-proud tradition of promising more than they deliver, so gamers tend to be jaded and skeptical. But by all accounts - at least so far - Crimson Desert seems poised to live up to the hype. So just what is CD promising?

A MASSIVE INTERACTIVE WORLD. Word is the Crimson Desert map is TWICE the size of Skyrim and larger even than Red Dead Redemption 2’s massive map. But a large map can be a double-edged sword. If it’s just big, but empty, that’s no bueno. CD is supposedly stuffed with things to discover and do around every corner.

DYNAMIC COMBAT. RPGs (and there’s a debate as to whether Crimson Desert actually is an RPG) often feature one-note combat. But combat can also become too complex and unwieldy. I never got very far in The Witcher III because I found its combat system overly burdensome and not especially intuitive. CD promises combo-heavy action that mixes melee and magic. You can even fight on horseback.

NON-COMBAT ACTIVITIES. Great games have more to do with the world than just fighting. In Crimson Desert, you can craft weapons, hunt, fish, do puzzles, customize your armor and weapons, wield grappling hooks to get to high places, and manage resources and your faction in ways that actually impact the narrative.

NO MICROTRANSACTIONS. One of the things, among many, that made Baldur’s Gate 3 my favorite game of all time was that the game was the game. One amazing game, one low price, no nickel-and-diming the gamer. Microtransactions were all the rage over the last decade, but video games seem to be moving away from it as gamers recoil. We want to pay once, not pay and then keep on paying.

TRULY NEXT GEN. Promising that a game is truly a next-generation game seems like an off-promise considering the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 were introduced in 2020. But the fact remains that MOST games have been built to function on the newer consoles AND previous-generation consoles. Not Crimson Desert. CD is not made to run on older systems and by all accounts is optimized to feature both high-fidelity visuals AND smooth frame rates. Moreover, rather than using a preexisting game engine (Unreal is the most widely known and used), Pearl Abyss (creators of CD) created their OWN game engine called BlackSpace. Right now, the game is listed as running at 4K UHD and (most critically) at 60 frames per second. If Crimson Desert can truly accomplish that, the custom BlackSpace engine may be the reason why. FYI, if you ever have to choose between more detailed graphics (quality mode) and 60 FPS (performance mode), ALWAYS go with performance mode. The buttery smoothness more than makes up for what you miss in graphic fidelity.

When I look at the game trailers and gameplay footage, Crimson Desert looks to me to be Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla set in a fantasy universe. And that’s just fine with me. I loved AC: Valhalla. Adding magic and monsters to the mix can only make it more fun. But we’ll see in a month!

I first covered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms back in Issue #012. Now that it’s completed its first season run, I’d like to briefly revisit it.

The TLDR version is this - BEST SHOW OF 2026 SO FAR.

The slightly more detailed version is that this show was a delight, start to finish. It works on two levels. If you know NOTHING about Game of Thrones, you can enjoy the show on its own merits and as a small-scale introduction into the GoT universe. But if you’re steeped in GoT lore, there are references and Easter eggs abound, that only serve to make the show more textured and engaging. It takes some skill to make a show for two audiences, but Knight pulled it off.

It also goes to show you that not everything has to be a massive budget spectacle. Opinions on House of the Dragon, while largely positive, are still somewhat mixed. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, however, seems to be garnering universal praise. It tells a tight story that comes in at a little over three hours while focusing on just two main characters - Dunk and Egg.

The key to making that work? Making certain your two main characters are a delight. Ser Duncan and Aegon are. Both Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell give charming, nuanced performances and their chemistry together is fantastic. They drive the show. And when you have two great characters that the audience loves to cheer for, you can get by without a lot of CGI nonsense.

If you’ve not seen Knight of the Seven Kingdoms yet, I envy you, because you’ll be able to binge the entire thing in one sitting as it’s roughly the length of a long movie.

Issue No. #017 is in the books! If this was a YouTube video I’d ask you to, “Smash those Like and Subscribe buttons!” But it’s not, so I’ll just ask you to help me promote the newsletter if you’re enjoying the content. Post about. Suggest it to your friends. Hell, suggest it to your enemies! The only reason to write this is because people are out there reading it. The bigger the subscriber base, the more incentive I have to keep going. So thank you for reading and I’ll see you next week when I review the first two episodes of the Scrubs revival!