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Some game genres are so rare, it’s a miracle when a new game releases in that style. I personally call this genre: stealth tactics. The actual genre is Real-Time Tactics, but I find that name doesn’t really cover this (sub)genre. If you have ever played games like: Commando’s, Desperados, Robin Hood – The Legend of Sherwood or Shadow Tactics… You know what sort of game I’m talking about. A game features a rag tag group of heroes. Each hero has unique abilities. They must get through big groups of enemies. They do this one by one to progress the group’s goals. The game I want to talk about today is called Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. This was the last game by the studio Mimimi. Is this game the swansong to close down this studio, or is it a game that’s better left forgotten? Before that, I invite you to leave a comment in the comment section down below. A comment with your thoughts and/or opinions on the game and/or the content of the article.

Promises of amazing treasure

In this game, you play as the crew of a special pirate ship named the Red Marley. Each main member of the crew has a black pearl in their chest, granting them unique supernatural abilities. These unique abilities come at a cost of being cursed to a sort of undead status.

The Red Marley’s captain fell in battle, and now the Inquisition is after the biggest treasure of the ship. Now, the Red Marley’s crew doesn’t want this to happen. So they do everything in their power to avoid this from happening.

The story in this game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The story is written like it’s a Saturday morning cartoon. A story arc can be contained in one or a handful of episodes, but always has an ending. While almost everything in the story ends well for the main cast, the story and writing never looses its charm. I felt like I was transported back into the time I woke up for the weekly Pokémon episode. I knew that the main problem of that week’s episode would resolve by the end. Still, I kept rooting for the heroes.

One of the biggest reasons I kept rooting for the main characters is because of the voice actors. Their performances are extremely well done. They bring a lot of personality and life to each character. They make the characters stand out like real, actual people. This script must have been immense, since the characters sometimes react on the actions you preform with other characters. There are 8 main characters, and more if you buy the DLC packs. If you start counting how many unique voice lines that bring to the table… And that’s the tip of the iceberg. The enemies for example, when they come together also have unique dialogue between them.

It’s possible to write an article by itself about the world building, story and voice acting in this game. I can also assure you that when I write this article, I’ll keep gushing about it all. A great example is how the save & load function fits into the story. It enhances the world of this game. Yes, you read that correctly. When you save, you store a memory in the Red Marley. When you load one of your saves, the Red Marley uses its powers to restore that memory. Your characters also respond to your saving and loading action and this brings even more charm to this game.

In these types of games, the replay value is quite high. Especially since you tackle all missions in various ways and each playthrough is going to be different. In this game, it’s taken even a step further. You can choose the order to revive your crew. You can also choose the order to finish the missions of that chapter. I can assure you that your playthrough will look nothing like mine.

The main quest is quite enjoyable to play through. I actually became really immersed in the world of this game. At the moment, I’m playing through the final missions of the game and the DLC missions. I’m having a blast. Thankfully, I can easily start a new playthrough of this game. Then I can experience it all of it over again and take a totally different route. And maybe I can do the little side quests and pirate tales as well. Since, that’s content, I haven’t gone into too much yet.

Your playthrough of this game will take you somewhere between 27 to 37 hours. That is, if you want to beat the main story and DLC’s. But, if you want to fully finish this game… Oh boy, then you’ll have a game that’s close to 80 hours on your hands. I already mentioned the crew tales. But there are also mini-challenges you can go for during the missions to earn badges. Let’s not forget the achievements you can earn. Well, most of the achievements are related to the main campaign.

Now, I have one complaint about the badges in this game. Earning some of these badges is extremely tricky. Sometimes, you don’t get all the information you expect to. For example, there is a badge on each map for using all the landing spots of that map. But guess what, there is no easy way to see if you already used a landing spot or not. It’s a shame that some badges work like that. Especially since some of these badges make you go out of your way to play in an unique way. A more challenging way to spice up your normal routine.

Apart from bragging trophies, these medals don’t really add up to much. But, I honestly don’t really mind that. Since, it’s fun to gather these medals and have some bonus challanges during my playthrough. It keeps me on my toes and it’s really enjoyable.

Mindblowing abilities

I’m still quite impressed at how balanced this game is. Each character has their own unique abilities. It’s best that you always have a character with an ability that can move guards from their position. If you don’t have that, the game will actually warn you. You are going to make it extremely challenging for yourself.

Personally, I’m playing through this game on the normal difficulty setting and your decisions actually matter. Before starting each mission, study the map well. Try to remember each map as well as you can. Since you are going to revisit each map at least once or twice. It’s extremely important to choose the correct landing position.

You would think that the game will be a bit boring if you always bring the same crew into missions. But, the game rewards you using different characters for missions. You gain more vigor if you play with certain crew members during certain missions. If you earned enough vigor, you can upgrade one of the unique abilities of your characters. This upgrade will give you more and better tools in your arsenal. Now, these upgrades can make the game much easier. You can always turn off the upgrades while on the Red Marley.

In the introduction paragraph of this article, I quickly explained how this game works. So, let me tell you the gist of it. In this game, you go from mission to mission, completing various goals in each one. These goals can range for example from rescuing an informant or stealing an artifact. In each mission, there are various enemies patrolling the area. Your goal is to find the weakspots in their patrols and dispose of the enemies without getting spotted.

Now, getting spotted isn’t the end of the world in this game. Depending on where you are spotted, it’s possible to escape and hide somewhere. You just have to avoid taking damage, since your health is limited, and you can’t heal during the mission. If you aren’t careful, it’s easy to get swamped or overwhelmed with guards. Especially when a guard with a bell spots you, the traces you leave behind or sees a dead body. When this happens, you have a limited amount of time to kill that guard before the bell is rung. When the bell is rung, more guards will emerge from nearby barracks and swarm to the location.

On top of that, there are also some unique enemy types outside your regular patrol goons. The first type I want to talk are the Kindred. These annoying buggers bring something quite unique to the table in this genre. Kindred are always connected with each other. If you don’t kill these all at the same time, they will revive each other. But, this is only the start of your troubles.

You also have Prognosticar. And let me tell you, these are even more challenging. To defeat these enemies, you need to have two units ready. One unit needs to be spotted or attack the Prognosticar. Since as soon as that happens, your unit gets trapped. This trap will go on and damage your unit until the unit either dies or is rescued. When the Prognosticar is using his trap, he can be attacked and killed. But do it quick. The trap is damaging your unit. You are also stuck in place. This situation is dangerous.

It also matters if the mission is taking place during day or night. The big difference is that in the daytime, the enemies have a bigger field of view. During the nighttime, some enemies will carry a torch on their patrol. This gives more light to other units. They can spot you sneaking by if you aren’t careful. There are also various torches dotted around the map, and you can put them out. The enemies can’t stand torches that are put out and will go out of their way to light them again.

It’s also important to know if an enemy stops in their patrol to talk to another enemy. Since if you kill one of them, the other enemy will start looking for them. They will start running around and if you weren’t careful, will find your tracks and spot you.

Learning those little mechanics is essential in this game. Never forget the tools you have in this game! This ranges from the abilities of each character to how for example view cones work. There is something called view cone surfing. If you want to dash to another place past some enemies… Understand that a full color in the view cone means they will spot you right away. Stripped sections of the view cone will cause you to be unseen if you crawl by. Also, it takes a few moments of you being spotted and the alarm being raised. You can run quickly enough past an enemy. Alternatively, you can run from view cone to view cone. It’s possible to get past unseen.

If you are afraid that you will get overwhelmed by all the information of all the little mechanics, don’t worry. The difficulty curve in this game is perfect. This game also has solid character tutorials. Each character tutorial guides you through 2–3 rooms, teaching you the abilities of each ability and their unique use cases. At the end of each character tutorial, you get a puzzle room. Putting to the test if you can use that character correctly. During the game, you can always open your logbook from the pause menu, where all tutorials can be watched again.

This brings me to the abilities of your characters in this game. If you have played similar games, you’ll recognize certain abilities and others will be quite new and unique. Now, some of these abilities will have a unique spin to it. For example, your sniper only has one shot. But, when you retrieve your sniper bolt… Your sniper can shoot again.

There are also extremely unique mechanics, like your Canoness has very fun abilities. She can pick up dead bodies in her canon to launch them at enemies to knock them out. But, you can also pick up allies. You can fling them over a group of enemies. This will give them a better hiding spot. Or your Ship Doctor, she can create one hiding spot out of thin air. Or your navigator, she can stop time for one enemy, allowing you to easy sneak by. And your ship cook can throw a special doll. This doll allows him to teleport to that location. He does this as soon as you click the button. Oh, and if you place that doll on an enemy, it sticks to that enemy.

You might be annoyed that I somewhat spoiled things in the above paragraph. But I have only told the tip of the iceberg here. I have left out several characters in that little summary and they have mindblowing abilities as well. Each map is created in such a way that it doesn’t really matter which characters you take into battle. Since you can finish it using any of your characters.

The Swansong of Mimimi

When Klamath and I started streaming Commandos, I wanted to play a similar game. One I haven’t played through. Since I first started playing through Desperados III again, and that was beaten in a few days. Since, I really enjoyed Desperados III, I bought the next game from the studio.

As somebody who enjoyed Desperados III quite a lot, I was happy to see things return in this game. I can’t tell you how much I love the speed up button. While I wish you can adjust the speed of it… The slow wait can be annoying. Sometimes, you have to get an enemy right where you want them. On top of that, you also have the showdown mode. With the press of a button, you can stop time and plan out your units their next move. Once you press the enter key, either still in showdown mode or not, the actions will be executed. It still feels amazing when you execute a well timed attack to take out difficult set of enemies.

Something that’s extremely useful is how you can rotate the camera in this game. Sometimes an enemy walks behind a building or some rocks… So, if you can’t rotate the camera, you wonder from where you are taking damage. Also, the ability of outlining the enemies, ladders and hiding spots help with that as well. As you can see from my screenshots, I always play with that feature enabled.

Sadly, there are a few ladders that don’t get an outline. Most likely since the developers forgot to put a certain tag on them. I remember one in Angler’s Grave, at the top right. It’s not too far from one of the mission objectives, the informant. Thankfully, these very minor oversights rarely happen. Overall, this game is extremely solid and blast to play through.

The controls are extremely solid. I had to get used to one thing. To execute certain actions, I had to hold the left mouse button instead of just clicking. This sometimes tripped me up but a quick reload fixed that problem. I only have one minor complaint about the controls. Depending on the camera angle, there were rare moments where your character refused to go to a location. I suspect it has to do with where you click. Your unit always wants to look for the shortest way to reach where you click. Sadly, this trips something up in the pathfinding and your unti refuses to go to their destination. Thankfully, a quick camera movement can fix these moments. And also, I’m glad that these moments are quite rare.

Something that’s even more rare are some minor visual bugs that can happen sometimes. Sometimes an UI-element refuses to dissapear. I had that happen twice, when I shot an enemy holding down an exit rift with the Canoness. The stars indicated that the enemy was dizzy. They hovered above the enemy’s head after the rift opened. Even after I killed the enemy, these stars remained visible. There are sometimes minor visual bugs happening like that. Thankfully, they are extremely rare and sometimes are quite funny. One time, one of my units was standing perpendicular on a ladder when I stopped it going up the ladder. The only annoying bug was that I couldn’t retrieve two bodies. They lay in a remote part of Angler’s Grave. It was almost impossible to get rid of two bodies. Maybe, it’s possible. I don’t know, I honestly gave up and earned the badge of hiding bodies on a later revist.

In such a big game it’s to be expected that sometimes things can go wrong. But it surprises me how little goes wrong and how polished the overall game is. Scrolling through the patch notes of this game, I noticed that the developers fixed many issues. They also added a lot of new content to the game. The last update to the game was even a modding tool for this game. These mods go from chaging your character models to adding new maps. I think I’ll play around with the mods after I have fully beaten the game. I’m extremely close, since I’m in the final missions of the game.

Now, earlier I talked about the UI. The UI is quite easy and helpful. There are several unique icons to inform you where certain things are. For example, where you left the paper doll when using the ship cook. There is only one thing in the UI I dislike. And that’s the list of save games. You get a little screenshot of the location of the save and a time stamp. And that’s it. You can’t give a special name or note to them. So if you are looking for a certain save… you either need to make notes OR just go through all them until you het it.

It’s the only real complaint I can give about this game. There is just a lot that this game does right. Like how you can scroll to zoom in or out. When you scroll again at the max zoom level, you see a live map. This map shows where all the enemies are. The only minor complaint I have about the map is that ammo chests aren’t marked on there. Also, quick note on the ammo chests… Almost every character has the same visual for their gun. Now, if another visual appears above the ammo chest, it doesn’t matter. The ammo chests are never character specific.

Visually, this game looks breathtaking. The attention to detail in this world gets a big thumbs up from me. The world really feels alive and somewhat real. The little animation details for example when an enemy stops at a prison cell to talk to inmates… This is just amazing. The immersion level is even higher with that.

The soundtrack is very catchy and a joy to listen to. It made certain moments in the game even more thrilling. The music has been created by Filippo Beck Peccoz, he also created the music for Desperados III. The soundtrack really fits the game like a glove. I’m so glad I bought the soundtrack DLC,. Now I can add the music to my music library to play while I’m at my dayjob.

This brings me to the sound design of this game. The sound design of this game is amazing. I’m playing this game with a good headset and I don’t think this game is playable without sound effects. A great example is, when you get spotted. You not only get a great visual hint of a yellow line turning red of the enemy spotting you… You also get some sound effects informing you that things are about to go down. On top of that, the sound effects add so much extra impact on taking down enemies. This makes it even more rewarding when you finally take down that one pesky enemy.

One thing I haven’t talked about yet is how flexible this game is. I have touched upon that by talking about how you can only choose three out of 8 characters per mission. And you are encouraged to experiment with different combinations. Now, when you open the options menu, you’ll be blown away. You can change almost everything. The controls like the shortcuts for abilities can be tweaked to your liking. You have quite a lot of control to tweak the volumes, the controls, the visuals… Even tweak certain game mechanics to your liking. Don’t like the save reminder? You can turn that off.

There is still another thing that boggles my mind that was added in this game. You can create a custom difficulty. The only complaint I have there is that the UI fails to explain the differences. I find it challenging to understand all the settings. You get a short explaination about the setting, and then you have a slider you can set. But, what’s the difference between 1 and 2 on the slider? That’s something the UI doesn’t really tell.

When I was writing this article, I kept looking at my notes and thought: “Oh, I forgot about that.”. There are just so many things in this game. The fact that in some missions, you must kill enemies in unique ways. In one mission, you have to lure enemies to a certain location. You need to do this 4 times. You do this instead of killing them. It’s a breath of fresh air. You’d think that having only a handful of maps would make this game boring and repetitive, but no. The maps are not only large but also used in extremely interesting ways. Revisits of a map make it easier to start, but each area is used in a mission. So, there is still a lot of challenge in the revisits.

Oh, there is one more thing. The question if you should buy the DLC’s or not. Let me just tell you this, I bought the game on sale with the DLC’s included. I’m so happy I did! Since the additional content in the DLC’s adds so much more to this game. They come highly recommended.

Now, I have left out a few things for you all to find while playing this game. This article is already getting quite long. I want to leave some things as a surprise for people interested in playing this game. I think it’s high time to wrap up this review and give my conclusion and final thoughts on this game.

Conclusion of this treasure hunt

The negatives:

-Unable to add notes to quick saves.
-Some minor (visual) glitches can happen. Thankfully, they are rare and rarely/never gamebreaking.
-The UI of custom difficulty could have been executed better.

The positives:

+ A masterclass in it’s genre in terms of gameplay.
+ Extremely flexible with options.
+ A modding tool.
+ A love-able cartoony story.
+ Amazing voice over work.
+ Superb soundtrack.
+ …

Final thoughts:

When I started playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, I had extremely high expectations. Mimimi blew me away with the amazing Desperados III. With this swansong of a game, they not only met my expectations, they blew them out of the water. This game showcases the achievements of passionate people. These individuals are dedicated to creating the game they love.

It didn’t take long before I fell in love with the cast of this game. The charm drew me into the world of this game. Apart from some minor things, it’s hard to find things to critique about this game. The only thing I can critique are small bugs that barely impact the gameplay of this game. This game really feels like a finished product and it’s a thrill ride from start to finish.

If you really want to find things this game does wrong… You’ll either need to be extremely nitpicky or just have the game not clicking with you. If you find this game too easy or too difficult, just tweak the setttings to your playstyle and voila.

If you enjoy games like Commandos or Desperados… You’d do yourself a disservice to not check out this game. Give the demo of this game a try, and see what you think. I wouldn’t be surprised that this game sinks it’s hook into you like it did with me.

It’s a shame to see that this game studio closes. Thank you to everybody who worked on this amazing title and I hope to meet your work in other games. This final game you all created together is a real piece of art. It’s a masterclass in game development and shows how well you know the community for games like this. I’m so happy that this game exists. Since it wouldn’t surprise me that I’ll play through this game several times now.

Before I ramble on and on about this game, I think it’s high time I wrap up this article. Otherwise, I’ll keep praising this game to high heavens and back. So, with that said, I have said close to everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then… Have a great rest of your day and take care!

Score: 100/100

Source

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The post ADATA and ZOTAC are launching handheld gaming PCs at Computex next week (Asus ROG Ally too) appeared first on Liliputing.

Elite Dangerous studio Frontier Developments has signed a deal with Universal Products & Experiences to make third Jurassic World title - and it'll be one of three new management games coming from the studio over the next few years.

While Frontier hasn't explicitly referred to the new game as Jurassic World Evolution 3, it seems unlikely it'll be anything else given the studio goes on to note its Jurassic World Evolution series is currently one of the strongest in its portfolio. Jurassic World Evolution 1 & 2 rank first and second respectively in terms revenue generated over their first two years - and that's despite Frontier previously admitting to "lower than expected" sales for the sequel on PC.

All Frontier has so far said about its next Jurassic World game is that it'll be another "creative management simulation" - and that it's one of three management sims the studio is planning on releasing over the next three consecutive years.

Read more

Elite Dangerous studio Frontier Developments has signed a deal with Universal Products & Experiences to make third Jurassic World title - and it'll be one of three new management games coming from the studio over the next few years.

While Frontier hasn't explicitly referred to the new game as Jurassic World Evolution 3, it seems unlikely it'll be anything else given the studio goes on to note its Jurassic World Evolution series is currently one of the strongest in its portfolio. Jurassic World Evolution 1 & 2 rank first and second respectively in terms revenue generated over their first two years - and that's despite Frontier previously admitting to "lower than expected" sales for the sequel on PC.

All Frontier has so far said about its next Jurassic World game is that it'll be another "creative management simulation" - and that it's one of three management sims the studio is planning on releasing over the next three consecutive years.

Read more

Elite Dangerous studio Frontier Developments has signed a deal with Universal Products & Experiences to make third Jurassic World title - and it'll be one of three new management games coming from the studio over the next few years.

While Frontier hasn't explicitly referred to the new game as Jurassic World Evolution 3, it seems unlikely it'll be anything else given the studio goes on to note its Jurassic World Evolution series is currently one of the strongest in its portfolio. Jurassic World Evolution 1 & 2 rank first and second respectively in terms revenue generated over their first two years - and that's despite Frontier previously admitting to "lower than expected" sales for the sequel on PC.

All Frontier has so far said about its next Jurassic World game is that it'll be another "creative management simulation" - and that it's one of three management sims the studio is planning on releasing over the next three consecutive years.

Read more

F1 Manager developer Frontier has been accused of mismanagement in a new report in the wake of layoffs at the company.

The process for these layoffs began in October last year, with the poor sales performance of the F1 Manager games believed to be a major contributing factor. In a business update following the layoff announcement, the company said it would be refocusing on simulation games - what it's best known for.

The new report, from GLHF, cites several current and former Frontier employees who collectively paint a picture of poor leadership and bad financial decisions. One source said they had "observed nothing but total and continuing failures of leadership since [joining the company]".

Read more

F1 Manager developer Frontier has been accused of mismanagement in a new report in the wake of layoffs at the company.

The process for these layoffs began in October last year, with the poor sales performance of the F1 Manager games believed to be a major contributing factor. In a business update following the layoff announcement, the company said it would be refocusing on simulation games - what it's best known for.

The new report, from GLHF, cites several current and former Frontier employees who collectively paint a picture of poor leadership and bad financial decisions. One source said they had "observed nothing but total and continuing failures of leadership since [joining the company]".

Read more

The PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for March sees racing sim thrills in the shape of EA Sports F1 23, martial arts-powered face-offs with Sifu, a slice of stealth horror in Hello Neighbor 2 and sci-fi action with Destiny 2: Witch Queen. 

All four will be available to PlayStation Plus members on Tuesday March 5 until Monday, April 1*. 

Let’s take a closer look at each game. 

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EA Sports F1 23 | PS4, PS5

Be the last to brake in EA Sports F1 23, the official videogame of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship. A new chapter in the thrilling “Braking Point” story mode delivers high-speed drama and heated rivalries. Race wheel-to-wheel at new Las Vegas and Qatar circuits and earn rewards and upgrades in F1 World. New Red Flags add an authentic strategic element, and the 35% Race Distance feature delivers more action and excitement. Drive updated 2023 cars with the official F1 lineup of your favorite 20 drivers and 10 teams. Also, F2, the ultimate training ground for F1 is now updated with the latest 2023 Season content, including the new cars and driver lineups across the paddock. Create your dream team and race to win in My Team Career Mode, compete in split-screen or in the expanded cross-platform multiplayer, and be more social with new Racenet Leagues.

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Sifu | PS4, PS5 

Is one life enough to know Kung Fu? Sifu is a stylish yet gritty beat-em-up, featuring visceral hand-to-hand combat in a contemporary urban setting. From Sloclap, creators of acclaimed PS4 fighting game Absolver, Sifu follows a young kung fu student on a path of revenge, hunting for the murderers of his family.  One against all, he has no allies and countless enemies. He will have to rely on his unique mastery of kung fu to prevail and preserve his family’s legacy.

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Hello Neighbor 2 | PS4, PS5

Solve the mystery of missing kids in the rural town of Raven Brooks in this family-friendly stealth horror sequel. Hello Neighbor 2 invites you to a seemingly quiet town of Raven Brooks where everyone is hiding something. You are an investigative journalist looking to uncover the darkest secrets of your neighbors and solve the case of Mr.Peterson, infamous antagonist of Hello Neighbor. Sneak around, search for clues behind the mysteries and play against complex opponents controlled by advanced neural network AIs that learn from you and all other players – the whole town is your playground now!

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Destiny 2: Witch Queen** | PS4, PS5

Delve into Savathûn’s Throne World to uncover the mystery of how she and her Lucent Hive stole the Light. Learn the secrets to crafting new weapons, the new Glaive, and survive the truth within her web of lies. A twisted wonderland of corruption and splendor, Savathûn’s Throne World plays host to a fragile balance of power. From her palace to the swamp, all that she hides can be found here. Create custom weaponry with unique mod, shader, and stat combinations. Master the new Glaive weapon type and unleash powerful melee combos, projectile attacks, and a deployable energy shield.

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The Finals S.O Sleek Bundle, exclusive to PlayStation Plus members

PlayStation Plus members can access a unique cosmetic bundle in The Finals, includes two different sets of military themed outfits and weapon skins:

•  2 Epic Outfits
•  12 Epic Weapon skins

You’ll be able to find and download this bundle in addition to the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games line up on PlayStation Store. Download The Finals from PlayStation Store to access. Once downloaded, the bundle’s contents will be available in-game immediately, regardless of whether you’re a new or returning player.  

Last chance to download February’s Monthly Games

Foamstars, Rollerdrome and Steelrising are available to add to PlayStation Plus members’ game library until Monday, March 4. 

*PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup may differ in certain regions. Please check the PlayStation Store on launch day for your region’s lineup. 

**Destiny 2 is required to play Destiny 2: Witch Queen. Destiny 2 is available for download at no extra cost on PlayStation Store.

The PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for March sees racing sim thrills in the shape of EA Sports F1 23, martial arts-powered face-offs with Sifu, a slice of stealth horror in Hello Neighbor 2 and sci-fi action with Destiny 2: Witch Queen. 

All four will be available to PlayStation Plus members on Tuesday March 5 until Monday, April 1*. 

Let’s take a closer look at each game. 

View and download image

Download the image

Close

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EA Sports F1 23 | PS4, PS5

Be the last to brake in EA Sports F1 23, the official videogame of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship. A new chapter in the thrilling “Braking Point” story mode delivers high-speed drama and heated rivalries. Race wheel-to-wheel at new Las Vegas and Qatar circuits and earn rewards and upgrades in F1 World. New Red Flags add an authentic strategic element, and the 35% Race Distance feature delivers more action and excitement. Drive updated 2023 cars with the official F1 lineup of your favorite 20 drivers and 10 teams. Also, F2, the ultimate training ground for F1 is now updated with the latest 2023 Season content, including the new cars and driver lineups across the paddock. Create your dream team and race to win in My Team Career Mode, compete in split-screen or in the expanded cross-platform multiplayer, and be more social with new Racenet Leagues.

View and download image

Download the image

Close

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Sifu | PS4, PS5 

Is one life enough to know Kung Fu? Sifu is a stylish yet gritty beat-em-up, featuring visceral hand-to-hand combat in a contemporary urban setting. From Sloclap, creators of acclaimed PS4 fighting game Absolver, Sifu follows a young kung fu student on a path of revenge, hunting for the murderers of his family.  One against all, he has no allies and countless enemies. He will have to rely on his unique mastery of kung fu to prevail and preserve his family’s legacy.

View and download image

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Hello Neighbor 2 | PS4, PS5

Solve the mystery of missing kids in the rural town of Raven Brooks in this family-friendly stealth horror sequel. Hello Neighbor 2 invites you to a seemingly quiet town of Raven Brooks where everyone is hiding something. You are an investigative journalist looking to uncover the darkest secrets of your neighbors and solve the case of Mr.Peterson, infamous antagonist of Hello Neighbor. Sneak around, search for clues behind the mysteries and play against complex opponents controlled by advanced neural network AIs that learn from you and all other players – the whole town is your playground now!

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Destiny 2: Witch Queen** | PS4, PS5

Delve into Savathûn’s Throne World to uncover the mystery of how she and her Lucent Hive stole the Light. Learn the secrets to crafting new weapons, the new Glaive, and survive the truth within her web of lies. A twisted wonderland of corruption and splendor, Savathûn’s Throne World plays host to a fragile balance of power. From her palace to the swamp, all that she hides can be found here. Create custom weaponry with unique mod, shader, and stat combinations. Master the new Glaive weapon type and unleash powerful melee combos, projectile attacks, and a deployable energy shield.

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The Finals S.O Sleek Bundle, exclusive to PlayStation Plus members

PlayStation Plus members can access a unique cosmetic bundle in The Finals, includes two different sets of military themed outfits and weapon skins:

•  2 Epic Outfits
•  12 Epic Weapon skins

You’ll be able to find and download this bundle in addition to the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games line up on PlayStation Store. Download The Finals from PlayStation Store to access. Once downloaded, the bundle’s contents will be available in-game immediately, regardless of whether you’re a new or returning player.  

Last chance to download February’s Monthly Games

Foamstars, Rollerdrome and Steelrising are available to add to PlayStation Plus members’ game library until Monday, March 4. 

*PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup may differ in certain regions. Please check the PlayStation Store on launch day for your region’s lineup. 

**Destiny 2 is required to play Destiny 2: Witch Queen. Destiny 2 is available for download at no extra cost on PlayStation Store.

I’ve been following the press and social media coverage of Apple’s pricey new Vision Pro Augmented Reality headset, which now totals hundreds of stories and thousands of comments and I’ve noticed one idea missing from all of them: what would Steve (Jobs) say?  Steve would call the Vision Pro a “hobby,” just as he did with the original Apple TV.

You know I’m correct about this.

And the fact that Apple hasn’t gone for the H-word and no other writers are suggesting it is the topic of this column, not the Vision Pro, itself.

It would appear that nobody at Apple has the balls to call the Vision Pro a hobby, which is to say it is not expected to make a profit for the time being, which is obviously the case. Instead people like me speculate how the Vision Pro will possibly make money? It won’t.

Nor does it have to.

There’s that scene in Citizen Kane where Kane the young tycoon is accused of losing $1 million per year on his newspaper and it’s remarked that he could only continue to do so for another 60 years.

Apple’s Vision Pro business is less than a rounding error on Cupertino’s balance sheet. Its success or failure doesn’t matter to Apple’s success, nor should it matter to Apple investors. I’m not saying there can’t be good reasons to sell Apple shares, but if you sold because of the Vision Pro you made a mistake.

Which is why I wish Apple had been honest and called it a hobby. Maybe they are hoping it isn’t a hobby, but that would be a mistake. The Vision Pro’s trajectory is clear to me. It will lose money for years until it finds a vertical market where the price doesn’t matter. Along the way two important effects will also have happened: 1) third-party developers will fall in love with the Vision Pro and make good applications for it, and; 2) eventually Moore’s Law — and Moore’s Law alone — will drive down the Vision Pro’s price enough for some later version to be declared an overnight success.

Apple’s unstated strategy here is obvious. Just look at the company’s previous hobby — Apple TV — which eventually broke even and then begat Apple TV+, a completely separate and different business that needed such a hardware platform to succeed. Along the way Apple TV and the broad success of streaming video on actual televisions helped Apple as a whole to sell production computers and copies of Final Cut Pro, enabling the very different video market of today.

Apple TV was worth doing and so — probably — will be the Vision Pro. But if it isn’t successful that means nothing to Apple’s eventual legacy. So for the moment, it’s just something to write about.

But why did Apple choose not to call the Vision Pro a hobby? That decision was entirely Tim Cook’s, because only the CEO can designate a product to be a hobby. Someone has to take responsibility and when it has an even a minuscule effect on earnings, that someone is the CEO.

So why did Tim Cook decide against calling the Vision Pro a hobby? It’s not that Tim didn’t know the truth. It’s that Tim Cook isn’t Steve Jobs.

This is me simultaneously saying that Tim Cook didn’t have the balls to call the Vision Pro a hobby but at the same time explaining that the decision was meant, in a way, as a compliment to Steve, who remains the company’s visionary, even in death.

That’s touching, Tim, but it’s time for that attitude to change at Apple or the next iPod/iMac/iPad/iPhone will never come.

Sorry I’ve been away: time flies when you are not having fun. But now I’m back.

Moore’s Law, which began with a random observation by the late Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that transistor densities on silicon substrates were doubling every 18 months, has over the intervening 60+ years been both borne-out yet also changed from a lithography technical feature to an economic law. It’s getting harder to etch ever-thinner lines, so we’ve taken as a culture to emphasizing the cost part of Moore’s Law (chips drop in price by 50 percent on an area basis (dollars per acre of silicon) every 18 months). We can accomplish this economic effect through a variety of techniques including multiple cores, System-On-Chip design, and unified memory — anything to keep prices going-down.

I predict that Generative Artificial Intelligence is going to go a long way toward keeping Moore’s Law in force and the way this is going to happen says a lot about the chip business, global economics, and Artificial Intelligence, itself.

Let’s take these points in reverse order. First, Generative AI products like ChatGPT are astoundingly expensive to build. GPT-4 reportedly cost $100+ million to build, mainly in cloud computing resources. Yes, this was primarily Microsoft paying itself and so maybe the economics are a bit suspect, but the actual calculations took tens of thousands of GPUs running for months and that can’t be denied. Nor can it be denied that building GPT-5 will cost even more.

Some people think this economic argument is wrong, that Large Language Models comparable to ChatGPT can be built using Open Source software for only a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. Yes and no.

Competitive-yet-inexpensive LLMs built at such low cost have nearly all started with Meta’s (Facebook’s)  LLaMA (Large Language Model Meta AI), which has effectively become Open Source now that both the code and the associated parameter weights — a big deal in fine-tuning language models — have been released to the wild.  It’s not clear how much of this Meta actually intended to do, but this genie is out of its bottle to great effect in the AI research community.

But GPT-5 will still cost $1+ billion and even ChatGPT, itself, is costing about $1 million per day just to run. That’s $300+ million per year to run old code.

So the current el cheapo AI research frenzy is likely to subside as LLaMA ages into obsolescence and has to be replaced by something more expensive, putting Google, Microsoft and OpenAI back in control.  Understand, too, that these big, established companies like the idea of LLMs costing so much to build because that makes it harder for startups to disrupt. It’s a form of restraint of trade, though not illegal.

But before then — and even after then in certain vertical markets — there is a lot to learn and a lot of business to be done using these smaller models, which can be used to build true professional language models, which GPT-4 and ChatGPT definitely are not.

GPT-4 and ChatGPT are general purpose models — supposedly useful for pretty much anything. But that means that when you are asking ChatGPT for legal advice, for example, you are asking it to imitate a lawyer. While ChatGPT may be able to pass the bar test, so did my cousin Chad, whom I assure you is an idiot.

If you are reading this I’ll bet you are smarter than your lawyer.

This means there is an opportunity for vertical LLMs trained on different data — real data from industries like medicine and auto mechanics. Whoever owns this data will own these markets.

What will make these models both better and cheaper is they can be built from a LLaMA base because most of that data doesn’t have to change over time to still fix your car, and the added Machine Learning won’t be from crap found on the Internet, but rather from the service manuals actually used to train mechanics and fix cars.

We are approaching a time when LLMs won’t have to imitate mechanics and nurses because they will be trained like mechanics and nurses.

Bloomberg has already done this for investment advice using its unique database of historical financial information.

With an average of 50 billion nodes, these vertical models will cost only five percent as much to run as OpenAI’s one billion node GPT-4.

But what does this have to do with semiconductors and Moore’s Law? Chip design is very similar to fixing cars in that there is a very limited amount of Machine Learning data required (think of logic cells as language words). It’s a small vocabulary (the auto repair section at the public library is just a few shelves of books). And EVEN BETTER THAN AUTO REPAIR, the semiconductor industry has well-developed simulation tools for testing logic before it is actually built.

So it ought to be pretty simple to apply AI to chip design, building custom chip design models to iterate into existing simulators and refine new designs that actually have a pretty good chance of being novel.

And who will be the first to leverage this chip AI? China.

The USA is doing its best to freeze China out of semiconductor development, denying access to advanced manufacturing tools, for example. But China is arguably the world’s #2 country for AI research and can use that advantage to make up some of the difference.

Look for fabless AI chip startups to spring-up around Chinese universities and for the Chinese Communist Party to put lots of money into this very cost-effective work. Because even if it’s used just to slim-down and improve existing designs, that’s another generation of chips China might otherwise not have had at all.

The post AI and Moore’s Law: It’s the Chips, Stupid first appeared on I, Cringely.






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My son Cole, pictured here as a goofy kid many years ago, is now six feet six inches tall and in college. Cole needed a letter of recommendation recently so he turned to an old family friend who, in turn, used ChatGPT to generate the letter, which he thought was remarkably good. As a guy who pretends to write for a living, I read it differently. ChatGPT’s letter was facile but empty, the type of letter you would write for someone you’d never met. It said almost nothing about Cole other than that he’s a good kid. Artificial Intelligence is good for certain things, but blind letters of reference aren’t among them.

The key problem here has to do with Machine Learning. ChatGPT’s language model is nuanced, but contains no data at all specific to either my friend the lazy reference writer or my son the reference needer. Even if ChatGPT was allowed access to my old friend’s email boxes, it would only learn about his style and almost nothing about Cole, with whom he’s communicated, I think, twice.

If you think ChatGPT is the answer to some unmet personal need, it probably isn’t unless mediocrity is good enough or you are willing to share lots of private data — an option that I don’t think ChatGPT yet provides.

Then yesterday I learned a lesson from super-lawyer Neal Katyal who tweeted that he asked ChatGPT to write a specific 1000-word essay “in the style of Neal Katyal.” The result, he explained, was an essay that was largely wrong on the facts but read like he had written it.

What I learned from this was that there is a valuable business in writing prompts for Large Language Models like ChatGPT (many more are coming). I was stunned that it only required adding the words “in the style of Bob Cringely” to clone me. Until then I thought personalizing LLMs cost thousands, maybe millions (ChatGPT reportedly cost $2.25 million to train).

So where Google long ago trained us how to write queries, these Large Language Models will soon train us to write prompts to achieve our AI goals. In these cases we’re asking ChatGPT or Google’s Bard or Baidu’s Ernie or whatever LLM to temporarily forget about something, but that’s unlikely to give the LLMs better overall judgement.

Part of the problem with prompt-engineering is it is completely at the spell-casting / magical incantation phase: no one really understands the underlying general principles behind what makes a good prompt for getting a given kind of answer – work here is very preliminary and will probably vary greatly from LLM to LLM.

A logical solution to this problem might be to write a prompt that excludes unwanted information like racism while simultaneously including local data from your PC (called fine-tuning in the LLM biz), which would require API calls that to my knowledge haven’t yet been published. But once they are published, just imagine the new tools that could be created.

I believe there is a big opportunity to apply Artificial Intelligence to teaching, for example. While this also means applying AI to education in general, my desired path is through teachers, who I see as having been failed by educational IT, which makes their jobs harder, not easier.  No wonder teachers hate IT.

The application of Information Technology to primary and secondary education has mainly involved scheduling and records. The master class schedule is in a computer. Grades are in another. And graduation requirements are handled by a database that spans the two, integrating attendance. Whether this is one vendor or up to four, the idea is generally to give the principal and school board daily snapshots of where everything stands. In this model the only place for teachers is data entry.

These systems require MORE teacher work, not less. And it leads to resentment and disappointment all around. It’s garbage-in, garbage-out as IT systems try to impose daily metrics on activities that were traditionally measured in weeks. I as a parent get mad when the system says my kid is failing when in fact it means someone forgot to upload grades or even forgot to grade work at all.

If report cards come out every six weeks it would be nice to know halfway through that my kid was struggling, but current systems we have been exposed to don’t do that. All they do is advertise in excruciating and useless detail that the system, itself, isn’t working right.

How could IT actually help teachers?

Look at Snorkel AI in Redwood City, CA for example. They are developing super-low-cost Machine Learning tools for Enterprise, not education, mainly because for education they can’t identify a customer.

I think the customer here is the teacher. This may sound odd, but understand that teachers aren’t well-served by IT to this point because they aren’t viewed as customers. They have no clout in the system. I chose to use the word clout rather than power or money because it better characterizes the teacher’s position as someone essential to the process but also both a source of thrust and drag.

I envision a new system where teachers can run their paperwork (both cellulose-based and electronic) through an AI that does a combination of automatically storing and classifying everything while also taking a first hack at grading. The AI comes to reflect mainly the values and methods of the individual teacher, which is new, and might keep more of them from quitting.

Next column: AI and Moore’s Law.

Las Plagas, A Missing Presidential Daughter, and Roundhouse Kicks, the long awaited Resident Evil 4 remake is here and -yes- it’s fantastic.

Did I mention the kicks?

The ancient injunction “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does not apply to the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil 4 has been the definitive best game in the entire franchise for over 16 years now (maybe a lil opinion there -ed). At the time of its original release, it was a genre-defining video game. RE4 set the standards on many of the mechanics and elements that subsequent releases would make use of.

Speaking of, after a few hiccups, Capcom has been on a roll with a slew of successes. Those have been almost year after year, with the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, as well as completely new sequels in Resident Evil 7 and Village. But after that last new title, Capcom finally decided to pull out all the stops, and start working on a full remake for Resident Evil 4.

It was a measure that was probably alluring as well as daunting to the developers of Division 1 – the standard bearer for everything Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. Many people considered RE4 to be a perfect game, in that it didn’t need a remake.

I personally could not think of any way for Capcom to improve on the original, aside from updating its graphics and removing some of the dated mechanics such as the QTEs. But that said, the remake annihilated all my pre-conceived notions in a very big way.

Here is my review of Resident Evil 4.

Graphics

Resident Evil 7 initially blew people’s collective minds with the full might of the RE Engine. It was a revolutionary game engine that rendered 3D scanned materials (and people) with an incredible mount of detail, while using as few resources as possible.

Through gaming use of that, the next-generation Resident Evil games all had one thing in common: they all looked great even on the dated hardware of the eighth-generation consoles. And Resident Evil 4 looks as great, if not better than, its predecessors.

The game looks so good and the characters all look so life-like, that it almost feels like this is a new engine. RE4 looks now how I imagined it to look back when I was younger, and playing it on the PlayStation 2.

The guns are all well-crafted and the locales look amazing. Just a note here though, as there are some reused assets from the previously mentioned Resident Evil Village. Even so, it doesn’t take away from the immersion, and that’s 100% a good thing.

But again, I feel like I can’t overstate how absolutely gorgeous everything looks. And the best part about all of this is that you can still 100% run Resident Evil 4 relatively well even with an older (gaming) computer.

All in all, Resident Evil 4 is arguably the best-looking game released in the year 2023… well thus far, at least.

Gameplay

Resident Evil 4 plays like a dream. The original release was already lightyears ahead of its time in both gameplay and replayability, and the remake is the same if not better in every single way.

Referencing that original release again, it had tank-like controls, with an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, and limited usage of the knife. But again, at the time it was considered an industry-defining title. Many of its successors, such as Dead Space, took some inspiration from this and created their own legacies that people love to this day.

The remake, however, has changed the game – literally. Leon can now parry enemies by pressing on the spacebar (for the PC) right before an enemy’s attack hits him. If done right, Leon will perform a “perfect parry” that will allow him to follow-up with a melee attack of his own.

Bye-bye tank

The parry is a terrific new addition, but there’s also a key alteration. Gone are the tank-like controls, and Leon is now able to move while aiming and shooting. His movement is also more fluid, and Leon finally feels like the way he is portrayed in the arguably pretty good Resident Evil CG animated movies.

The president’s daughter Ashley is also way better this time, despite still being an NPC that Leon has to protect while moving around the game’s various locations. Not only did Capcom change the original “follow me” and “wait here” commands to the more tactical commands of “tight” and “loose”.

Using the command “tight” (using the left control key on the PC) will have Ashley stick close to Leon in the same way she did in the original. On the other hand, “loose” will have Ashley stay a certain distance away from Leon while he is the middle of a fight.

It’s an innovative way to change Ashley’s positioning, because not only is she more nuanced as an NPC companion, but she can also survive on her own with the “loose” command. To balance this out, Capcom actually removed the “hide” command save for a few scenarios of the game (where I think it is still sorely needed).

One of Ashley’s biggest changes is telling Leon to look out if an unseen enemy is about to attack him. There are numerous instances when Ashley saved me from a killing blow by calling it out before it happens. She will also alert the player if an enemy is preparing to fire at Leon with a projectile.

All in all, I am very satisfied with Ashley’s changes. She made Resident Evil 4 even better despite being someone I needed to babysit from the Plaga-infested villagers.

That’s a lotta luggage

Returning to the game is the beloved attache inventory system.

The attache functions similarly to the old system, but it’s learned a few new tricks. The case now has functional charms that give various buffs to Leon ranging from bonus ammunition, crafting, additional healing from herbs (plus eggs and fish), as well as a legendary charm that can even increase Leon’s movement speed.

Each attache case can hold up to a maximum of three charms out of a possible thirty. These charms can be unlocked by a simple gacha system from the returning shooting range and it will take a while to unlock every charm in the game.

Like the case, guns are also upgradeable. And while most of the weapons from the original game make a comeback, the P.R.L. 412 (which basically looked like a handheld laser cannon) is not included as of this writing.

It takes a lot of Pesetas to unlock gun upgrades too, but they are absolutely essential to surviving the horrors of the Plaga-infested Spanish countryside. However, not everything in the game can be purchased with money. The spinel also makes a comeback but in a slightly different form.

Instead of being an easily found collectible, it is now a form of currency that Leon can trade with the merchant for some nifty items such as treasure maps and additional attache cases that give buffs such as increasing the spawn rate for Red Herbs and materials for crafting.

As you can hopefully see from all of this, the Resident Evil 4 remake plays exactly like the original game… but at the same time it’s almost unrecognizable, with how much of its systems have been changed for the better.

The hills have Plagas

Unlike with the controls, the story of RE4’s remake plays out almost the same as the original. The US President’s Daughter gets kidnapped, and the information gathered from the Augmented Reality mini-game (that launched a few weeks before the game did) suggests Ashley was smuggled into Spain.

Leon is tasked by the President to investigate Ashley’s disappearance, and to get her back alive. There are a few key differences here and there as you progress through the story, but the overall gist is still the same. Still, there’s a devil in some of those details.

That’s because some of the changes in the story could possibly alter the direction of Resident Evil 5 and 6, should they be next on the docket to be remade.

Further Changes

Along with those story details, some of the characters’ fates have also been altered. That’s including Luis Sera, who was destined to die in the middle of the game in the castle section of the original game. (Minor spoilers ahead -ed)

Luis also becomes a companion NPC in the latter half of the game. But unlike Ashley, Luis can actually fight for himself, and the notorious double El Gigante fight is made a little easier with his help. One thing worth noting too, is how Luis is given more depth to his character from his voice lines as well as the various notes that Leon finds throughout his journey. And another character with a few key changes is one Ada Wong.

She is still protecting Leon from the shadows, while acting on her own agenda, but Ada is no longer a one-dimensional femme fatale. While still remaining cool, Ada is made more human in her reactions and interactions with Leon. She still cares for the former rookie-cop whose life she changed when she, uh, betrayed him… and seemingly died in front of him during the events of Resident Evil 2.

So Leon and Ada have clearly changed and been made more whole by the subtle storytelling in their encounters. But what hasn’t changed is that they both still clearly care for each other, albeit with Leon’s frustrations and jaded views on Ada and life in general.

Changes have also been made in the presentation and characteristics of major players such as Chief Mendez and Jack Krauser. While not as cartoony as his original version, Ramon Salazar is also altered for the better. Instead of being goofy, he is presented as trying to seem noble but with darker undertones, almost like a psychopath pretending to be a posh noble.

All in all, I really enjoyed how more grounded the characters seem to be in the new version of RE4. It’s definitely a welcome change.

Overall

Resident Evil 4 (2023) is the definitive version, above even the original release. It is better in every way and it’s the most fun I’ve had with a game in years. It took me somewhere around 17 hours to finish my first playthrough on hardcore mode, but it was worth every second.

This is now my Top 1, favorite game of all time. And while it has easily dethroned my former number 1 (which is unsurprisingly RE4 2006), there are still DLCs to come in the form of the Mercenaries mode as well as the rumored Separate Ways DLC (which is still unconfirmed as this review’s writing).

If Resident Evil 3 is arguably the worst remade game out of the original trilogy, then Resident Evil 4 is the best. And actually, as far as I’m concerned it’s the best Resident Evil game period. Bar none.

The best is yet to come for sure.

Resident Evil 4 (2023)
Release date: March 24th, 2023
Platforms: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PS4, Xbox One
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
MSRP: $59.99 USD

The post Resident Evil 4 Remake (PC) Review appeared first on BrutalGamer.