Dimension 404 Episode 3

[Michelle Benitone]

Dimension404 is an American science fiction black comedy anthology series[1] created by Desmond "Dez" Dolly and Will Campos, and co-created by Dan Johnson and David Welch. It began airing on April 4, 2017 on the streaming service Hulu. The series is produced by RocketJump and Lionsgate Television. The series is heavily inspired by The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Its title is taken from the 1950s radio program Dimension X and the HTTP status code 404, which signifies an error due to a webpage not being found.

The six-episode anthology was ordered to series at Hulu in February 2016, with Dolly taking on the role of showrunner.[2] Freddie Wong, Matthew Arnold, and Dolly were also reported to serve as executive producers on the series, as well as undertaking directing duties for individual episodes.[3] Each episode was planned to be an hour in length, and tell individual stories.

On June 8, 2016, it was announced that Lea Michele and Robert Buckley would headline the first episode of the series, and Ryan Lee would take the lead role in a different and unrelated episode.[4] On June 14, 2016, Joel McHale joined the cast to star alongside Michele and Buckley in the first episode, and Sarah Hyland was cast in a leading role in a separate episode.[5] That same month, Patton Oswalt joined to star alongside Hyland, Ashley Rickards was cast to lead a separate episode, and Sterling Beaumon joined to co-star opposite Lee.[6] That same month, Megan Mullally and Constance Wu were cast to appear in the same episode.[7] In July 2016, Lorenza Izzo, Daniel Zovatto, and Tom Noonan joined the cast of the series, with Izzo appearing in a separate episode, Zovatto appearing opposite Hyland, and Noonan appearing opposite Wu and Mullally.[8] On March 21, 2017, it was announced that Mark Hamill narrates the series.[9]

As part of last week's surprise remaster, landmark FPS Quake has been graced with a whole new episode. Titled Dimension of the Machine, Quake's latest journey through the slipgate adds eleven more levels to the 1996 shooter, and was developed by Machine Games, the creators of Wolfenstein: The New Order.

While obviously intended as an extra incentive to lure players toward the remastered version, Dimension of the Machine is far from a token effort. In fact, Machine Games' episode offers some of the most spectacular and challenging Quaking you'll find in the entire game.

Dimension of the Machine is typically Quake in its simple premise. Chthon, the monster with a name like a sneeze from Quake's first episode, is up to his old world-eating shenanigans. Before you can shove your rocket launcher down his throat, however, you must first collect five magical runes from five magical realms, all to kickstart an elaborate machine that'll open a portal to Chthon's domain.

Prior to diving into Dimension of the Machine, I took a quick refresher course with the remastered version of Quake, and it's worth briefly going over how both Quake and the remaster fare. Short version, very well. Quake's lithe shooting holds up brilliantly 25 years after its release, while the remaster does a fine job sprucing up the game without diffusing its atmosphere of brooding Gothicism. It adds more detailed textures and subtly improved lighting, as well as smoother models and animation. But it still looks like Quake, which is to say, brown and moody.

I'm glad I took the time to blast through the base game, and not simply because it's ace. Doing so highlighted the changes Dimension of the Machine brings to the experience. Firstly, levels are way more detailed, even accounting for the original's remastered visuals. While fully 3D, Quake's initial brace of levels are still largely abstract designs. You'll occasionally see something that's obviously a castle or a graveyard, but mostly they're nondescript labyrinths of rooms and corridors, designed to be interesting combat arenas rather than recognisable locations.

By comparison, Dimension of the Machine's levels are more clearly defined places, with more "realistic" landscapes and architecture. They're also frequently striking. Dimension of the Blacksmiths, for example, transports you to a dilapidated fantasy realm that's a cross between Lordran's Undead Burg and an industrial mining complex, all crumbling stone walls, spidering wooden gantries, and sunken gothic architecture.

Considering it's based upon Quake era rendering tech (the remaster specifically uses Nightdive Studios' Kex engine, for various reasons), visually Dimension of the Machine is a real showstopper. Crucially though, the grander visuals don't come at the cost of interesting level design. Machine Games' Quake levels are every bit as complex and secret-riddled as id's 1996 masterpieces. They're also wonderfully playful. Dimension of the Cultists, for example, commences with you stood outside a cathedral perched on a sheer clifftop. From here, you gradually descend through layers of undercrofts and catacombs before emerging into a fathomless orange abyss. Dimension of the Astrologers, meanwhile, is a cross between Half-Life's Xen and System Shock 2's Von Braun, with you darting between rocks floating amidst a purplish dimensional void, before finding yourself trapped on an industrial prison-ship being torn apart by Quake's eldritch monstrosities.

Although bold in its flavour combinations, nothing in Dimension of the Machine feels out of place. While Machine Games lets its imagination loose in the level design, the core mechanics are completely unchanged. The weapons and enemy roster are the same, and every creative decision is intended to showcase Quake's combat engine. Indeed, Dimension of the Machine helped me appreciate some aspects of Quake's design I previously hadn't considered, like how every weapon is designed with its own in-built gambit.

This is most evident with the grenade launcher, whose brilliantly bouncy bombs can be the source of a satisfying trickshot or an embarrassing demise, but all of Quake's firearms are subtly infused with risk and reward. You're never short of ammo for the two shotguns, but they want for stopping power, forcing you to get up close to Quake's primarily melee-focussed enemies. The nailgun and super-nail gun are effective against most opponents, but gobble up their Nine Inch Nails-branded ammo that you may need for a more powerful adversary. The rocket launcher is easier to wield than the grenade-launcher, but has an enormous splash-damage radius that makes it terrifyingly easy to accidentally gib yourself.

Dimension of the Machine is an excellent addition to the Quake canon. Its levels feel fresh and exciting without losing that distinctive Quake feel, while the encounters are carefully designed to stretch your shooting skills. Most importantly, though, Dimension of the Machine serves as a lens that puts everything that about Quake in the first place into stark focus. The wonderfully slippery movement, the meticulously designed weapons, and all those big, bouncing gibs. A worthy addendum to a stone-cold classic.

The Prime Dimension[1], (also known as the Cronenberged Dimension or Dimension Prime) is the original of many universes in the multiverse, previously on the Central Finite Curve, and the universe where the titular Morty comes from.

It was the original setting of the TV show from the Pilot, until its Earth was overrun by Cronenbergs in "Rick Potion #9", an event referred to by the surviving Jerry as the "Great Cronening"[2]. After this dimension gets taken over by Cronenbergs, Rick and Morty abandon the dimension to reside in Dimension C-131.

Formerly, the only known survivors left were Jerry Prime, Beth Prime and Summer Prime who began living out the rest of their lives in this post-apocalyptic world, where they survive by hunting and eating the Cronenbergs.

Summer Prime was froze to death by the Citadel Of Ricks in "The Rickshank Rickdemption". Around the same time, Beth Prime got sick and died from an infection caused by the Cronenbergs. Jerry Prime was shot and killed by Rick Prime in "Solaricks". Rick Prime was beaten to death by the titular Rick in "Unmortricken". All of this makes the titular Morty the last surviving human from this dimension.

This dimension was misidentified as Dimension C-137 by Morty, as the titular Rick Sanchez was identified as being from Dimension C-137. This led Morty to believe that the Prime Dimension is Rick C-137's home, until it was revealed that Rick Prime originated from this dimension, not Rick C-137.

In the past, the original Rick of this dimension had abandoned his daughter Beth, but one day, the Rick of Dimension C-137 moved into it and began living with her and the rest of the Smith family, as part of a plan to eventually get revenge on this Rick for killing his family.

This dimension first appears in the "Pilot" episode and appears in every episode after then until "Rick Potion #9", wherein it makes its last appearance until season 3. In "Rick Potion No. 9", Rick makes a love potion using vole DNA for Morty to use on Jessica at the school dance. However, the side effects of the potion lead to a disaster. The chemicals in the potion piggyback on the flu virus that Jessica had at the time, causing everyone in Morty's school to fall in love with him.

To counteract this, Rick mixes praying mantis DNA with a more contagious strain of the flu virus. Unfortunately, this backfires, turning not only those affected by the original potion, but the entire world (presumably due to the aggressive nature of the flu strain Rick used) into praying mantis creatures that want to mate with Morty, then kill him afterwards. Rick uses another antidote on them, but this again backfires, turning all of humanity into deformed, disgusting monsters known as Cronenbergs (except for Jerry, Beth, and Summer). Unable to solve this increasingly difficult problem, Rick uses interdimensional goggles to locate and eventually travel to a different dimension where his counterpart managed to restore humanity to normal. There, that dimension's version of Rick and Morty died after fixing everything, so the titular Rick and Morty who escaped the Prime Dimension take their places without anyone noticing.

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