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“Nier Automata” is a 3rd person action game by the famous developers Platinum games known for there very dynamic and intricately designed action titles. The plot of the game revolves around a war between the last of humanity and the machine army of alien invaders set on an apocalyptic earth in the year 11945 AD. Humanity eventually sends down combat androids that the player controls dubbed “YoRHa” to fight the invaders on earth. These droids are overseen by a space station high above the planet that serves as a central hub that the player can travel too and upgrade/shop and talk to NPC’s. The primary gameplay of Nier is spent controlling the “Yorha” Androids via a 3rd person camera battling with an assortment of weapons against numerous robotic enemies. In a unique turn, however, the game’s camera moves perspective quite drastically in certain areas, with this some gameplay drastically changes, effectively morphing into different genres to a certain extent: This makes Nier Automata a really fun game, with its ever-changing pacing and variety. At every turn the game can morph genres, surprising the player and keeping the player engaged. Interestingly the UI never really changes that much during these different modes. It’s basically down to the UI’s very minimalist style, allowing for subtle layout changes that the UI makes during the games genre-bending segments feel unobtrusive. The art direction of Nier Automata’s world has a muted, melancholy aesthetic with rusty browns, muddy concretes and dusty skies forming the palette for the world. This palette is also reflected in the characters, items and mech designs that you find throughout the game. This all, of course, enforces the theme and setting of the games universe; Earths now post-apocalyptic barren landscape. Very few world elements escape this treatment, the only real vibrancy in the world comes from things in nature, such as trees, grass, flowers and the odd god ray beaming through the clouds. Although elements such as projectiles and other VFX related to feedback/danger are bright and colorful this probably stems from a game design choice. You need to be able to see incoming attacks and you need good feedback when you successfully evade danger and counter-attack. Interestingly the only other part of the games universe that does escape the beige effect takes place onboard an orbiting space station above the earth. This area serves as a sort of home base for the player where they can take a breather and level up. The whole look of the station has a much colder aesthetic, helping to separate out the different worlds of the inhabitants of the earth and the space station androids. Now how does the world Art Direction affect the UI? Well In quite a departure from action titles (in particular from Platinum) the games UI has not escaped the muted lo-fi aesthetic either. In fact its arguable that it embodies the melancholy vibe even more so than the world or characters do. Pretty much the entire games UI is entirely beige! There are two sides to the user interface of Nier, the light minimalist take in the games HUD and denser application of the beige aesthetic in the menus. The HUD uses opacity and a minimal on-screen footprint so the action/combat is the star of the show rather than the UI. In contrast to loading the menus, you are immediately confronted with a wall of beige, po[CENSORED]ted with slighting lighter beige sub menus headed by muddy dark grey blocks. The font in the menus is an incredibly simple one too, the whole UI is really interesting because its pixels away from being incredibly boring. It is however anything but, as we will explore later in the mechanics section of this UI breakdown. These above stills are from another very similar style game (gameplay wise) to Nier automata by the same developers called Vanquish. And immediately its pretty obvious the developers can do exciting and colorful UI, so why did they do this style on Nier, it can only be down to a few factors but I do believe this is primarily down to a thematic choice. Nier Automatas UI style derives from who you play as, Yorha an android. The developers are in a sense visualising the UI for the Yorha android character that you control. Imagining it as something the Yorha sees and interacts with herself. Therefore being an android, the UI doesn’t need to have colour cues, interesting iconography or any of those niceties, its sole purpose is function. When displayed in this pseudo diegetic presentation the games UI starts to make sense, also being unique in look and feel. There is also a variety of really interesting thematic mechanics that bolster this relationship between the Yorha android and the style and function of the Nier Automata UI. The games UI Art direction does make thematic sense but some style aspect of various pieces of UI make them tricky to work with. Interaction markers on the actual game level screen can be quite tricky to see as they are Beige, and a lot of the levels are beige, so its a bit hard to see them sometimes. The mini map is quite small too and its beige as well, causing a few niggles trying to read it in certain situations. The art direction too makes it quite hard to remember what screen is what due to the lack of iconography for each main section of the UI. Minor issues in what otherwise is a fascinating UI system aesthetically and mechanically. Some parts though I do feel they could have pushed the boat out on more most glaringly the map screen. You can see above here that the Nier Automata’s world map is really sticking to the lo-fi UI style. It’s quite unique in its depiction of geography and man-made structures, but at the same time it is still nearly all monochromatic. The only thing sticking out is the map markers, which is, of course necessary gameplay wise. I do feel here the developers could have really thrown something together that had a bit more pizzaz! Let me explain this in a bit more detail, a map screen is a UI’s chance to not only assist in helping the player navigate the world but to stamp its visual foot print on the games aesthetic. As a UI designer myself I love this part of the UI development, you have quite a lot of artistic freedom and its your showcase screen to demonstrate your skills. To me having a fantastically illustrated map to explore is a highlight of playing an action adventure title. What kind of gamer doesn’t like a good map? I feel its a little bit of a missed opportunity here, but I guess the map is on style and thats what the developers were going for. For the mechanic aspect of the break down were going to pretty much exclusively look at the most interesting section of the entire game and that’s the “plugin chip system”. You start the game with a host of pre-installed chips called things such as “Hud: Mini Map”, “HUD: Damage Values” etc. You can remove these chips and effectively customize your HUD. The chip equipping screen shows slim vertical inventory box where these chips are plugged into it and are represented when plugged in as a coloured striped bar. Each chip takes up a different amount of vertical space within this inventory box so you have to pick and choose exactly the chips you think you might need, and some of them are quite vital. Everything from attack power, evasion ability to combo limits can be boosted with chips. In most games where you can equip and upgrade your characters, these upgrades extra health, damage or new abilities for instance and are permanently attached to your character once unlocked. Nier Automata does have health and damage upgrades but the designers of the game have allowed the players a far stranger prospect in the form of pseudo “UI downgrades”. You can choose to remove various HUD chips and make room for chips that enhance defence or attack instead. But why would you remove essential HUD elements such as the mini map? … Speed running! Speed running is a style of playing a game that the player strategises a way to complete it in the quickest possible time. This has become quite a po[CENSORED]r activity in the gaming world, if you search on youtube you will find thousands of videos in this category. Nier Automata’s chip system where you can sacrifice HUD elements to fit more chips that would enhance attack and speed, definitely lend its hand to a speed run environment. Its as if they have designed this feature with speed running in mind. This is a pretty fascinating idea, Nier was designed to be played through multiple times and proof to this fact is that there are many endings to the game. In fact I dont think I have ever heard of a game having so many different outcomes.. there is a grand total of 26 different endings! So we see here the benefits from having such a customisable chip system, where we can alter the characters abilities and even they HUD for the players specific needs whether speed running or just a casual play-through. Interestingly there is one really unusual chip the OS chip, If you remove this chip the following happens… You actually can kill your character outright by removing the OS chip! I really found this a fun little easter egg, its an interesting way of making the player realise the importance of specific game mechanics that are vital to the enjoyment of the game. Here are a few examples of games that use UI elements such as Loading screens, save menus and energy bars to enhance a games thematic attributes not only through aesthetics but actually through mechanics. Eternal darkness has many moments that really have the player scared and confused, one of the most terrifying is the save screen sanity effect. The game has you believe that your save file is being erased. The survival horror game Resident Evil 2 by Capcom has the player navigate from room to room via door opening animations that act as the loading screen for each room. This example shows how you can get that special scare out of people by conditioning the player and then breaking the rules. Deadpools a character known for breaking the 4th wall as part of his personality in the comics and movies. His Marvel Vs Capcom 3 incarnation has him fight in speculator fashion when you activate his ultra move, grabbing his energy bar and bashing the opponent with it. There are many titles out there right now with really beautiful UI thats fun and dynamic, for instance Persona 5. Nier automata UI is just as interesting as Persona’s but its aesthetically on the other end of the spectrum. It might not be the most beautiful UI but the mechanics behind the styling really do make this game stand out. Great games UI can be something bigger than the sum of just being the functional interaction with the game itself. UI can also reflect themes of the game aesthetically as we have mentioned before but can also mechanically reflect themes. Video game UI doesn't just have to exist entirely in the realm of usability, your are making a game after all not a shopping app. The OS chip easter egg is not just funny/puzzling but most importantly of all really memorable, and its all done within the UI discipline. As a designer have fun creating the UI, explore a bit with the themes, players will be immersed even more, and that is the job after all.

Developer: Chris Sawyer Publisher: MicroProse The pleasures of Transport Tycoon are many. The isometric countryside and urban landscapes are still beautifully tranquil – despite the game’s industrial core, settlements resemble picture-postcard villages and towns rather than smoggy iterations of Dickens’ Coketown. Watching the landscape develop in sync with your ambitions is as rewarding as watching a level 1 Squire become a level 50 Demigod. Business management games come in many flavours, but few offer the same kind of gentle challenges and immediately recognisable environments as Chris Sawyer’s masterpiece. Transporting goods and passengers might seem like a banal occupation, especially appearing alongside future wars and theme parks, but it’s the familiarity of the systems that makes the game so engaging. Notes: The soundtrack, composed by John Broomhall, is a bluesy, jazzy delight, including excerpts from Herbie Hancock’s Cantaloupe Island. The World Editor for the original Transport Tycoon included a Martian tileset. Where can I buy it: OpenTTD is a free, open source remake. A non-freemium mobile port of the original is also available on iOS and Android. What else should I be playing if I like this: Cities in Motion and its sequel, from Cities: Skyline developers Colossal Order, present a more detailed (and occasionally fussy) simulation of public transport. Railroad Tycoon and its most recent reinvention Sid Meier’s Railroads is superficially similar, but doesn’t have the dynamic world of Transport Tycoon, and Ticket to Ride, available in physical form or as a digital adaptation, is a very different take on similar themes.

Cosplay, a portmanteau of the words costume play, is a performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character.Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage. Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject and it is not unusual to see genders switched. Favorite sources include anime, cartoons, comic books, manga, live-action films, television series, and video games. The rapid growth in the number of people cosplaying as a hobby since 1990s has made the phenomenon a significant aspect of po[CENSORED]r culture in Japan and some other parts of Asia and in the Western world. Cosplay events are common features of fan conventions and there are also dedicated conventions and local and international competitions, as well as social networks, websites and other forms of media centered on cosplay activities. The term "cosplay" was coined in Japan in 1984. It was inspired by and grew out of the practice of fan costuming at science fiction conventions, beginning with Mojo's "futuristic costumes" created for the 1st World Science Fiction Convention in New York City in 1939. The term "cosplay" is a Japanese portmanteau of the English terms costume and play.The term was coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi of Studio Hard after he attended the 1984 World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles and saw costumed fans, which he later wrote about in an article for the Japanese magazine My Anime.Takahashi chose to coin a new word rather than use the existing translation of the English term "masquerade" because that translates into Japanese as "an aristocratic costume", which did not match his experience of the WorldCon.The coinage reflects a common Japanese method of abbreviation in which the first two moras of a pair of words are used to form an independent compound: 'costume' becomes kosu and 'play' becomes pure.

By: itsnucktime

By: Technical Samad

By: Quentin Watt Tutorials

The coupe name was derived from the French language verb couper, translating as cut.There are two common pronunciations the anglicized version , derived from spelling the word without the acute accent and pronounce it as one syllable. This change occurred gradually and before World War II.This pronunciation is more common in the United States,for example the hot rodders' term Deuce Coupe (DEWSS KOOP) used to refer to a 1932 Ford.. The origin of the coupe body style come from the berline horse-drawn carriage. In the 18th century, the coupe version of the berline was introduced, which was a shortened ("cut") version with no reqar-facing seat.Normally, a coupe had a fixed glass window in the front of the passenger compartment.The term "berline coupe" was later shortened to "coupe".The coupe was considered to be an ideal vehicle for women to use to go shopping or to make social visits.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Urdu: محمد علی جناح‬‎ ALA-LC: Muḥammad ʿAlī Jināḥ, born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a lawyer, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until Pakistan's independence on 14 August 1947, and then as Pakistan's first Governor-General until his death. He is revered in Pakistan as Quaid-i-Azam (Urdu: قائد اعظم‬‎, "Great Leader") and Baba-i-Qaum (بابائے قوم‬, "Father of the Nation"). His birthday is considered a national holiday in Pakistan.Born at Wazir Mansion in Karachi, Jinnah was trained as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in London. Upon his return to British India, he enrolled at the Bombay High Court, and took an interest in national politics, which eventually replaced his legal practice. Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress in the first two decades of the 20th century. In these early years of his political career, Jinnah advocated Hindu–Muslim unity, helping to shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the All-India Muslim League, in which Jinnah had also become prominent. Jinnah became a key leader in the All India Home Rule League, and proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims. In 1920, however, Jinnah resigned from the Congress when it agreed to follow a campaign of satyagraha, which he regarded as political anarchy. By 1940, Jinnah had come to believe that Muslims of the Indian subcontinent should have their own state. In that year, the Muslim League, led by Jinnah, passed the Lahore Resolution, demanding a separate nation. During the Second World War, the League gained strength while leaders of the Congress were imprisoned, and in the elections held shortly after the war, it won most of the seats reserved for Muslims. Ultimately, the Congress and the Muslim League could not reach a power-sharing formula for the subcontinent to be united as a single state, leading all parties to agree to the independence of a predominantly Hindu India, and for a Muslim-majority state of Pakistan. As the first Governor-General of Pakistan, Jinnah worked to establish the new nation's government and policies, and to aid the millions of Muslim migrants who had emigrated from the new nation of India to Pakistan after independence, personally supervising the establishment of refugee camps. Jinnah died at age 71 in September 1948, just over a year after Pakistan gained independence from the United Kingdom. He left a deep and respected legacy in Pakistan. Innumerable streets, roads and localities in the world are named after Jinnah. Several universities and public buildings in Pakistan bear Jinnah's name. According to his biographer, Stanley Wolpert, he remains Pakistan's greatest leader.

Malaysia has elected Sultan Abdullah of Pahang as its new king after the shock abdication of the previous monarch. Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan abdicated in January after just two years on the throne, a first in Malaysian history.Malaysia has an unusual constitutional monarchy, where the top job rotates between nine hereditary state rulers every five years.The king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, is largely ceremonial and does not participate in daily governance.The Sultan of Pahang - a large state in Peninsular Malaysia - is expected to be sworn into his new role on 31 January.He was only sworn in as Sultan of Pahang earlier this month.Sultan Muhammad V, who was 47 when he became king, was known for his enthusiasm for extreme sports like off-road driving, shooting and endurance challenges.In November last year, he said he was taking medical leave. Later that month, photos began circulating on social media that appeared to show him being married to a former Miss Moscow in the Russian capital.However no reason has been given for his abdication. What is Malaysia's monarchy system? The role of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong dates back to 1957 when the Federation of Malaya declared independence from the British Empire.The 13 states that make up Malaysia each have a seat on the Conference of Rulers, a council made up of the nine traditional Malay rulers and governors from the four remaining states without a royal family.Each five years, the nine traditional leaders vote for which of them should next take the throne. How is the new king selected? The nine are given a ballot paper with only one name, typically the name of the sultan from the state next in line. They then anonymously indicate whether or not they think the sultan is suitable for the role. A ruler has to secure a five-vote majority to be the next king. If he does not secure enough votes or declines the position, the election process is repeated with the name of the sultan from the state next in line.To ensure anonymity, the nine rulers are given unnumbered ballot papers with identical pens and ink. What power does the king have? The position is largely ceremonial, with power in the hands of parliament and the prime minister.But he is in charge of major appointments like that of the role of prime minister, is the head of Islam in Malaysia and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.He also has the power to grant pardons which is what the previous king did for former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim after his coalition's shock victory during last year's general elections.Mr Anwar was pardoned from a conviction for sodomy which was widely seen as politically motivated.The role of Yang di-Pertuan Agong is accorded considerable prestige, particularly among the country's Malay Muslim majority, for whom the king is seen as upholding Malay and Islamic tradition. Criticism deemed to incite contempt of the king can attract a jail term.Most recently after Muhammad V's resignation, online vigilantes were seen policing social media and releasing personal information of anyone found criticising the monarchy.According to local news site Malay Mail , a Facebook page was set up listing eight individuals of which at least three were investigated under Malaysia's Sedition Act while another four were either fired, suspended or resigned from their jobs.

In the pale sunshine of a winter’s day, you ride along a trail in the shadow of pristine mountains. There are other outlaws with you, chatting as they ride, guiding their horses around frosted trees. You can see your horse’s muscles moving beneath its flanks, hear its grunts as you veer off the track and push it through the snow, leaving deep gouges in the untainted white. One of your number breaks into song and you choose whether to join in. Eventually, arriving at a ridge, the gang leader pulls up his horse and you slow to a trot as railroad tracks come into view below. In the distance, you can see the train you are about to rob. If you still think of Pac-Man or Space Invaders when you hear the words “video game”, take a look at Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 and you will see just how far they have come. A turn-of-the-century tale of the US frontier, it casts the player as a gruff outlaw riding with a band of other miscreants, living off the land and trying to outrun the advance of modernity. In classic western style, the dream is to make enough money from robberies and other jobs to give everyone in the gang a fresh start somewhere new. But lawmen and enemies keep chasing players across an astonishing recreation of the old west, from the mountains to the plains to the hot, soupy air of the bayou. The game’s virtual world is extraordinarily detailed. As a player, you can see rainwater dripping from the trees after the sun breaks through clouds and hear deer moving softly through the woods. Its characters are modelled so exactly on real people that it looks like a film. You can call out to anyone you pass on the road or in a dusty town and they will look up from a newspaper or turn towards you to respond. Its simulation is so detailed that, at first, it is difficult to believe. Like the fictional proprietors of Westworld (the cowboy amusement park staffed by unnervingly human-like androids in HBO’s TV series), Rockstar aims to provide players with a wild west fantasy so authentic that you can forget it is not real. This realism – not just in the way the world looks, but also in how it behaves – would have been technologically out of reach only five years ago and a phenomenal amount of money and work has gone into its creation. Indeed, in the past few weeks, Rockstar has had to defend itself from controversy about its staff’s welfare after one of its co-founders, Dan Houser, said they were working “100-hour weeks”. (He later clarified that the figure applied only to himself and three other senior writers, with other developers working 42 to 46 hours in an average week, according to the studio.) The resulting game is the result of more than 1,600 people’s labour over seven years and will have cost hundreds of millions of pounds – enough to bankrupt almost any other developer. Rockstar is in a unique position, however. Buoyed by the incomparable success of 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V, which made $1bn in its first three days and has sold 100m copies, the developer’s creative leads have the time and money to do whatever the hell they want. Speaking to some of them at Rockstar’s Edinburgh studio, Rockstar North, it is clear that they share an obsession with perfectionism and a tendency to disappear down conversational rabbit holes; I had a 10-minute chat with Alastair MacGregor, the technical audio director, about the sound of a horse breathing. The studio’s co-head, a Canadian called Rob Nelson, speaks effusively about Rockstar’s creative aims, rarely finishing a sentence before starting the next one. “What does realism mean? I think we wanted it to feel like an authentic representation of a place and a time. But how slavishly we adhere to realism, that’s a balance that we have to strike,” says Nelson. “How do you po[CENSORED]te a world this size with enough to do? What are the things that make a city or a town feel authentic? How are people going to be hanging out in the world – and then what systems are you going to need to have them behave believably? You can’t go out in the world and have it just fall apart on you, with little robot people walking around.” For a long time, video games were obsessed with chasing realism. To players and developers who grew up playing with pixel characters or awkward early-3D puppets on bulky TVs, the idea of a game that looked indistinguishable from real life was the holy grail. Accordingly, video-game visuals and behaviour made technological leaps every few years. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, released by Nintendo in 1998, was the first to create a 3D world that you could freely explore. Naughty Dog’s Indiana-Jones-esque Uncharted games and their emotionally devastating The Last of Us set new standards for cinematic narrative from the mid-00s onwards, with believable characters played by talented actors. The Assassin’s Creed series, made by Ubisoft, has recreated ancient Egypt, Industrial Revolution London and Renaissance Italy. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a sprawling, low-fantasy epic from 2015 in which you play a maligned monster-hunter, is the current high-water mark for video-game worlds. But the time when pushing creative and technological boundaries went hand in hand in game development has gone. In the past 10 years or so, as the technology has started to plateau and more people have turned to smartphones or older consoles, rather than state-of-the-art PCs, games have diversified. They were never homogenous, but they are less so now than ever: look at critics’ lists of this year’s best games and you will see a pinball game about a little ant rolling a rock around an island (Yoku’s Island Express), a brief and beautiful interactive story about first love (Florence) and a game about a semi-retired god and his son battling creatures from Norse mythology (God of War). Realism is no longer the only quality by which video games measure their success. Plenty of games made by much smaller teams than Rockstar’s eschew it entirely, embracing stylistic art and outlandish concepts or exploring one fun or interesting idea in a lo-fi way. The most po[CENSORED]r game in the world right now, Fortnite, is a cartoonish caper with no aspiration to naturalism. Realism sets ludicrous standards, which is why most developers do not commit to it. It is tempting to think of developers as gods, conjuring a world into existence, but the reality is that it involves a tremendous amount of often tedious work. Even something as simple as a lifelike tree takes several people months to make: some to draw and model it, some to code how the wind moves its leaves, others to record and mix its rustling. Usually, realism is not worth it. But Houser, Rockstar’s co-founder, has long been obsessed with creating games that feel as lifelike as possible. The company’s 2001 breakout hit, Grand Theft Auto 3, conjured a living, sardonic simulacrum of New York on the PlayStation 2 and since then the developer has been at the forefront of video-game realism, expanding from one studio in Scotland to nine around the world. GTA V was another landmark, going beyond a city and creating a whole county, with mountain trails to cycle around and meth-addled trailer parks to drive past. Red Dead 2 is very different in mood from GTA V, although both are adult-oriented and 18-rated. (The first game in the Red Dead franchise was 2004’s Red Dead Revolver, followed in 2010 by Red Dead Redemption.) The latter is a black, sharp-tongued satire of the worst excesses of the US, mercilessly depicting (and, in the eyes of some critics, glorifying) the violence, megalomania, hypersexualisation and narcissism that drives its characters and its world. The former is slower, calmer, sadder and more character-driven. It is set mostly in nature and players spend a great deal of time riding around on horses. Nothing here will inspire the same controversies as GTA V’s torture scenes and strip clubs. The world of GTA V looked amazing, but the play revolved around violence: the game was to steal cars, shoot at cops and gang members and blow up gas stations. In Red Dead 2, while you can point a revolver at a carriage and rob its driver, you can also shout a greeting as you pass. You can go fishing with your friends or hunt elk in the wilderness. The ability to hunt animals is one example that illustrates the work that has gone into the game. Nelson says it was important to the team that, as a cowboy, you could live off the land, hunting animals for meat and selling the pelts. That meant the animators had to create animations and models for skinning every species of animal, from deer to squirrels, and for picking up and stowing the pelts on the back of a horse. So, they took motion-captured data from real actors and adapted it, creating almost gruesomely detailed models of skinned animals. “But at some point you’ve taken the realism too far – nobody wants to watch a 15-second movie of a cowboy skinning a deer,” says Rob. “You could just keep going and going and going and you have to figure out where to draw the line.” There is similar detail in every aspect of the game. In Saint Denis, a city modelled on New Orleans, I find a theatre where I can watch a cast of virtual actors perform a 15-minute vaudeville routine. You can pick up anything you see on shop shelves and, if you are riding a male horse, its testicles shrink in the cold. It is absurd: what player will be paying attention to animals’ testicles? So, why does Rockstar pursue this expensive perfectionism? Is it purely because it can? “No, not at all. It’s not just because we can, it’s because we have to,” says Nelson. It is an immense version of what Disney used to refer to as the illusion of life, he says. “We’re trying to build worlds that people believe in, that they can get lost in, that is living without you, there for you when you come to it. We want as little as possible to remind you that people made it … every time that a shortcut is taken, it’s a slight reminder that it’s been made by people, it’s not real.” In a way, the job of a game coder is quite sad: it involves spending years creating very complex and impressive systems, only to make them appear invisible as possible to the player. Behind every natural-seeming moment in Red Dead 2 – someone sitting outside a saloon, a horse dipping its head to nibble on grass – are several intricate, interlocking cogs of code determining how the simulation behaves. Phil Hooker, as technical director, is the master of these systems, bringing together the work of several hundred coders. “We wanted, in this game, to be able to interact with anybody and for them to feel like a human being,” says Hooker. “In order to do that, we need to make sure, whatever they’re doing in the world, they have the capability to react to you. So, someone sitting stirring a pot of stew needs to be able to turn to look at you briefly or react in shock if you do something more extreme, and also maybe have a conversation with you and then go back to what they were doing. The number and combinations of animations we needed to do that, and the systems we needed to put that together, were a lot more complex than ever before. “The challenge is that, as soon as you bring something up to that level of fidelity, everything else has got to match it for the world to feel consistent and immerse you. Every now and again, you take a single step that you know is going to involve a lot of work for a lot of people and that’s where we have to be very measured.” Rockstar is one of the only studios left with the resources and bullish determination to push video-game realism, narrative and world-building as far as it can go, no matter how expensive and time-consuming it might be. For this reason, the release of one of its games is always an event. Red Dead 2 is certainly the most ambitious game yet made, by Rockstar or anyone else. Players are not able to do absolutely anything they want in its simulated world – you cannot sit down for a meal in one of Saint Denis’ fancy restaurants, much to my disappointment – but everything you can do is executed to perfection. I marvelled at the beauty of its landscapes as I played it, gave strangers a ride home after rescuing them from kidnappers, sat by a campfire and cooked the meat from a boar I hunted. (I also accidentally galloped my horse headfirst into a tree while trying to escape from bounty hunters. Sorry, Gilly.) “The similarities with Westworld ... It’s not that it’s a western and we’re a western,” says Nelson as we talk about the obvious comparison. “It’s that we’re trying to make another world that you can go in and interact with and believe in. Just like they are.”

Release dates of the 2019 Edition Add-on:- French: Monday 18 or Tuesday 19 February- English and German: Tuesday 19 or Wednesday 20 February- Other languages: during the next following days- Steam versions: between February 20th and 25th. To Be Released in January 2019: the “2019 Edition” Add-on of Power & Revolution! It will contain new scenarios, new features, and up to date data for 2019. This version will be released between January 25th and 31st in 2019. The entire world is on the brink of collapse: global warming, social unrest, rising populism, the risk of global conflict, overpo[CENSORED]tion, terrorism, cybercrime, new war zones, pollution, shortages!As the leader of up to 30 nations simultaneously, attempt to implement cohesive and effective policies that will collectively guarantee a viable future for the planetAnd in another new play mode, "Chaos 2030", experience the world that could exist in the near future if things break down: amid the global chaos, develop solutions to maintain your power and grow your influence. IMPORTANT: this add-on only runs for owners of a valid and activated activation code of Power & Revolution.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi, ˈɡændi/;[needs Gujarati IPA] Hindustani: [ˈmoːɦəndaːs ˈkərəmtʃənd ˈɡaːndʱi] (About this sound listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian activist who was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable") – applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa – is now used worldwide. In India, he is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for father,[papa) and Gandhi ji, and known as the Father of the Nation.Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for various social causes and for achieving Swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and political protest. Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Eschewing the official celebration of independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several fasts unto death to stop religious violence. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 when he was 78,also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating. Among them was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest.Captured along with many of his co-conspirators and collaborators, Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were tried, convicted and executed while many of their other accomplices were given prison sentences. Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Baniya family in Porbandar (also known as Sudamapuri), a coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the Indian Empire. His father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as the diwan (chief minister) of Porbandar state. Although he only had an elementary education and had previously been a clerk in the state administration, Karamchand proved a capable chief minister. During his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two wives died young, after each had given birth to a daughter, and his third marriage was childless. In 1857, Karamchand sought his third wife's permission to remarry; that year, he married Putlibai (1844–1891), who also came from Junagadh,and was from a Pranami Vaishnava family. Karamchand and Putlibai had three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860–1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); and another son, Karsandas (c. 1866–1913).On 2 October 1869, Putlibai gave birth to her last child, Mohandas, in a dark, windowless ground-floor room of the Gandhi family residence in Porbandar city. As a child, Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as mercury, either playing or roaming about. One of his favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' ears."The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and king Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits that they left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with truth and love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters. The family's religious background was eclectic. Gandhi's father Karamchand was Hindu and his mother Putlibai was from a Pranami Vaishnava Hindu family.Gandhi's father was of Modh Baniya caste in the varna of Vaishya.His mother came from the medieval Krishna bhakti-based Pranami tradition, whose religious texts include the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana, and a collection of 14 texts with teachings that the tradition believes to include the essence of the Vedas, the Quran and the Bible.Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother, an extremely pious lady who "would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers...she would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her."In 1874, Gandhi's father Karamchand left Porbandar for the smaller state of Rajkot, where he became a counsellor to its ruler, the Thakur Sahib; though Rajkot was a less prestigious state than Porbandar, the British regional political agency was located there, which gave the state's diwan a measure of security.In 1876, Karamchand became diwan of Rajkot and was succeeded as diwan of Porbandar by his brother Tulsidas. His family then rejoined him in Rajkot.At age 9, Gandhi entered the local school in Rajkot, near his home. There he studied the rudiments of arithmetic, history, the Gujarati language and geography.At age 11, he joined the High School in Rajkot.He was an average student, won some prizes, but was a shy and tongue tied student, with no interest in games; his only companions were books and school lessons.While at high school, Gandhi's elder brother introduced him to a Muslim friend named Sheikh Mehtab. Mehtab was older in age, taller and encouraged the strictly vegetarian boy to eat meat to gain height. He also took Mohandas to a brothel one day, though Mohandas "was struck blind and dumb in this den of vice," rebuffed the prostitutes' advances and was promptly sent out of the brothel. The experience caused Mohandas mental anguish, and he abandoned the company of Mehtab.In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to "Ba") in an arranged marriage, according to the custom of the region at that time. In the process, he lost a year at school, but was later allowed to make up by accelerating his studies.His wedding was a joint event, where his brother and cousin were also married. Recalling the day of their marriage, he once said, "As we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband.Writing many years later, Mohandas described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young bride, "even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me." He later recalled feeling jealous and possessive of her, such as when she would visit a temple with her girlfriends, and being sexually lustful in his feelings for her.In late 1885, Gandhi's father Karamchand died.Gandhi, then 16 years old, and his wife of age 17 had their first baby, who survived only a few days. The two deaths anguished Gandhi.The Gandhi couple had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900.In November 1887, the 18-year-old Gandhi graduated from high school in Ahmedabad. In January 1888, he enrolled at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar State, then the sole degree-granting institution of higher education in the region. But he dropped out and returned to his family in Porbandar.

Four soldiers have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir in a gun battle with militants, police say. The clash occurred in Pulwama district, where more than 40 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide attack on Thursday. A civilian was also killed in the shootout as Indian troops launched a search operation in the area. Meanwhile Pakistan has recalled its ambassador from Delhi for consultations amid escalating tensions. India recalled its top diplomat from Pakistan in the wake of Thursday's attack - in which it said the Pakistani state was complicit. Pakistan denies any role in the bombing, which was claimed by a group based on its soil - Jaish-e-Mohammad. Viewpoint: How far might India go to 'punish' Pakistan? Kashmir: Why India and Pakistan fight over it Pulwama attack: What is militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad? Police say two militants who were trapped in the village in Pulwama have been killed in Monday's operation. Heavy gunfire has been heard, and Indian security officials are appealing to villagers to stay indoors. Police told BBC Urdu that when they fired "warning shots" at the house in Pinglena village where the militants were hiding, they fired back. One officer who was critically injured has been taken to hospital. The owner of the house was killed during the exchange of fire, police added. Deadliest attack Last week's attack in Pulwama was the deadliest in Kashmir in decades. The bomber used a vehicle packed with explosives to ram a convoy of 78 buses carrying Indian security forces on the heavily guarded Srinagar-Jammu highway about 20km (12 miles) from the capital, Srinagar. The alleged bomber was identified as a local Kashmiri aged between 19 and 21. The following day, police began searching villages in Pulwama. Thursday's attack sparked anti-Pakistan protests in some Indian cities and angry mobs targeted Kashmiri students and businessmen. Both India and Pakistan claim all of Muslim-majority Kashmir but control only parts of it. Kashmir attack: Bomb kills 40 Indian paramilitary police in convoy India will 'completely isolate' Pakistan Kashmiri Muslims are being warned to stay vigilant, amid reports of threats and intimidation after last week's deadly attack on Indian forces. Isolated incidents of students from Kashmir being beaten up or evicted from their accommodation in northern Indian states were reported in local media. India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) offered help to students in need, but also warned of false reports. The heavy death toll of the attack shocked many across the country and led the Indian government to say it would begin its retaliation by "completely isolating" Pakistan diplomatically. India has already imposed a swathe of economic measures on Pakistan after the attack, including revoking Most Favoured Nation trading status and raising customs duty to 200%.

By: Paul's Hardware

By: Programmingknowledge2

By: Rizzial

Cities: Skylines is a city-building game developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is a single-player open-ended city-building simulation. Players engage in urban planning by controlling zoning, road placement, taxation, public services, and public transportation of an area. Players work to maintain various elements of the city, including its budget, health, employment, and pollution levels. Players are also able to maintain a city in a sandbox mode, which provides unrestricted creative freedom for the player. Cities: Skylines is a progression of development from Colossal Order's previous Cities in Motion titles, which focused on designing effective transportation systems. While the developers felt they had the technical expertise to expand to a full city simulation game, their publisher Paradox held off on the idea, fearing the market dominance of SimCity. After the critical failure of the 2013 SimCity game, however, Paradox greenlit the title. The developer's goal was to create a game engine capable of simulating the daily routines of nearly a million unique citizens, while presenting this to the player in a simple way, allowing the player to easily understand various problems in their city's design. This includes realistic traffic congestion, and the effects of congestion on city services and districts. Since the game's release, various expansions and other DLC has been released for the game. The game also has built-in support for user-generated content. The game was first released for the Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems in March 2015, with ports to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game consoles being released in 2017 and for the Nintendo Switch in September 2018 developed by Tantalus Media. The game received favourable reviews from critics, and was a commercial success, with more than five million copies sold on the PC platforms alone as of March 2018.

Scum is an upcoming multiplayer online survival game, developed by Croatian studio Gamepires, produced by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital, available under the Steam Early Access program. The game is described as a "prison riot survival game" and will feature an open world. It entered Steam's early access program on 29 August 2018, with a full release scheduled for sometime in 2019.The game uses Unreal Engine 4. The gameplay takes place in Croatia where up to 100 players per server will attempt to survive and get off the island by first removing the implant which prevents them from leaving. The player will earn fame points through participation in various action-driven events or simply by surviving in a hostile environment. These fame points allow the player to be cloned back in case of death, and used as currency to purchase or trade in various safe zones. Players will be able to fortify existing structures and points in order to secure positions or store items needed. The player character will possess four main attributes: strength, dexterity, constitution and intelligence. These will let players from the play style of preference – from long-distance running to big bulky tanks. It promises to simulate the human body,and as such uses a special interface connected to the player's "BCU monitor" which tracks character's calories, vitamins, health and other stats. Players can choose to ignore these elements of the game, or can delve deep into these systems in order to improve the character's performance (speed, stamina, weight to carry etc.). Another aspect is digestion; for instance, if a character gets all of their teeth knocked out, they will have to find a way to liquify food in order to digest it. Defecating and urinating will leave physical evidence of activities on the island, which could be used to track another player. Things like combat will depend on the player's skill level, but also on things like stamina, health and so on. Wetness, smell, medicine, cooking, hacking, crafting, hunting and poison will also play a major role in the gameplay. The game will offer both third and first-person perspectives, from which the player can alternate, but will prevent third-person peeking by hiding anything a character cannot see.

A supercar (also referred to as an exotic) is a luxury, high-performance sports car or grand tourer.The term is used in marketing by automakers for unusual and expensive vehicles, and has been used to refer to different sorts of cars: Limited-production specials from an "elite" automaker. Standard-looking cars modified for power and performance. Models from smaller manufacturers that appeal to enthusiasts.

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud (Arabic: الوليد بن طلال بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود‎, born 7 March 1955) is a Saudi businessman, investor, philanthropist, and a member of the Saudi royal family. He was listed on Time magazine's Time 100, an annual list of the hundred most influential people in the world, in 2008.Al-Waleed is a grandson of Ibn Saud, the first Saudi king, a half-nephew of all Saudi kings since, and a grandson of Riad Al Solh (Lebanon's first prime minister). He is the founder, chief executive officer and 95-percent owner of the Kingdom Holding Company, a Forbes Global 2000 company with investments in companies in the financial services, tourism and hospitality, mass media, entertainment, retail, agriculture, petrochemicals, aviation, technology and real-estate sectors.In 2013, the company had a market capitalization of over $18 billion.Al-Waleed is Citigroup's largest individual shareholder, the second-largest voting shareholder in 21st Century Fox, a minor shareholder in Zaveriwala Holdings LLC and owns Paris' Four Seasons Hotel George V and part of the Plaza Hotel.Time has called him the "Arabian Warren Buffett".In November 2017 Forbes listed Al-Waleed as the 45th richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $18.7 billion.The previous year, he announced that he would donate his fortune to charity at an unspecified date. He had previously donated $3.5 billion over the course of 35 years through his charitable organization Alwaleed Philanthropies.On 4 November 2017 he and other prominent Saudis (including fellow billionaires Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim and Saleh Abdullah Kamel) were arrested in Saudi Arabia, in a purge that the Saudi government characterized as an anti-corruption drive.The allegations against Prince Al-Waleed include money laundering, bribery, and extorting officials.Some of the detainees have been in the Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh since then. Al-Waleed was released from detention on 27 January 2018, following a financial settlement of some kind, after nearly three months in detention.In March 2018 he dropped out from the World's Billionaires list. Al-Waleed was born in Jeddah on 7 March 1955 to Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz, long-time known as The Red Prince, and Mona Al Solh, daughter of Riad Al Solh (Lebanon's first prime minister).His father was Saudi Arabia’s finance minister during the early 1960s,before he went into exile due to his advocacy for political reform.Al-Waleed's grandmother was Munaiyir, an Armenian whose family escaped the Armenian Genocide. She was presented by the emir of Unayzah to Ibn Saud in 1921, when she was 12 years old and Ibn Saud was 45.[Al-Waleed's parents separated when he was seven, and he lived with his mother in Lebanon.He first attended Pinewood College in Beirut.As a boy, he ran away from home for a day or two at a time (sleeping in unlocked cars) before attending military school in Riyadh,the King Abdul Aziz Military Academy.In 1974, he returned to Lebanon, attending the Choueifat School and then Manor School.Al-Waleed received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Menlo College in California in 1979, finishing in two and a half years,:43 and a master's degree with honors in social science from Syracuse University in 1985,finishing in eleven months. Al-Waleed began his business career in 1979 after graduating from Menlo College. He returned to Saudi Arabia, which was in the midst of the 1974–85 oil boom. Operating from a small, four room cabin in Riyadh and $30,000 start-up money provided by Prince Talal, al-Waleed formed Kingdom Establishment in 1980. When that money ran out in a few months, he secured a $300,000 loan from the Saudi American Bank, partly owned by Citibank. Rather than taking a commission for facilitating contracts as the legally required middleman, Al-Waleed insisted on a stake in the project. His first success was in 1982, partnering with a South Korean construction company, and from then on, his commissions were used to fund his real estate deals. In his own words, "All the money I used to get from this construction, I used to plough it back into real estate, and in the stock market, both."After the end of the Saudi oil boom, Al-Waleed acquired the underperforming United Saudi Commercial Bank (USCB). Through mergers with Saudi Cairo Bank (SCB), forming United Saudi Bank (USB), and the Saudi American Bank (SAMBA), it became a leading Middle Eastern bank.The hostile takeover of USCB in 1986, the merger with SCB in 1997, and the merger of USB with SAMBA in 1999, were the first of their kind in the Kingdom. He then secured a majority in Al-Azizia Panda, merging it with the Savola Group, and took over National Industrialization Company.By 1989, his net worth was $1.4 billion, and included stakes in Canary Wharf, Four Seasons Hotel Group, and News Corporation. When Alwaleed turned to the international market, he focused on "established brands going through hard times," as Riz Khan puts it. Alwaleed would do his homework, and then wait for the proper purchase entry point. He invested about $250 million in Chase Manhattan, Citigroup, Manufacturers Hanover, and Chemical Bank. After seven months, he sold his stakes in the other banks and concentrated on investing in Citicorp, acquiring 4.9 percent of the bank. Though the worst performing bank of the four, Alwaleed considered Citicorp had the best potential.In Sept. 1990, Citibank was undercapitalized due to real estate credit losses and exposure to Latin America debt, prompting a need for a capital reserve. By Nov. they were actively seeking investors. Based on his banking experience in the Kingdom, Alwaleed agreed in Jan. 1991 to invest $590 million, about half his accumulated wealth, in a five year convertible security paying 11 percent interest. By Feb., that took his total investment in Citicorp to $797 million, or about 15 percent of the company. Though he had received a Federal Reserve temporary waiver to own such a large portion of the company, Alwaleed sold enough shares in 1993 to get below the 10 percent threshold. Still, he was the largest shareholder in the largest US financial institution at the time. Yet, in Alwaleed's words, "It is not a relationship, it's an alliance. We are there forever with them." Sandy Weill says of Alwaleed, "I think what he did really saved the bank.In 1993, Alwaleed purchased a 10 percent stake in Saks Fifth Avenue for $100 million. A flagship store was then opened in Riyadh.In 1994, Alwaleed secured a 50 percent controlling interest in Fairmont, and a 22 percent stake in the Four Seasons. In 1995, he bought a 42 percent stake in the Plaza Hotel. Then, in 1996, he bought the George V for $185 million, and spent $120 million renovating it for a reopening in Dec 1999. Regarding Alwaleed's investment in the George V, Issy Sharp states, "...he created value where no one else could..."Also in 1994, Alwaleed bought a 24 percent stake in Euro Disney for $345 million.In 1995, Kingdom Establishment for Trading and Contracting was reorganized as the Kingdom Holding Company, and Alwaleed announced construction of the Kingdom Centre, Kingdom Hospital, Kingdom School and Kingdom City. Also in 1995, he bought a 2.3 percent share of Mediaset after haing invested earlier in the Arab Radio and Television Network, acquiring 30 percent. In Oct. 1995, Alwaleed joined a consortium which paid $1.2 billion for control of Canary Wharf, with Alwaleed's share of the company amounting to 6 percent, costing him $66 million.In March 1997, Alwaleed purchased a 5 percent stake in Apple Inc., making him the largest shareholder. In Nov. 1997, he purchased 1 percent share of Motorola for $287 million and a five percent share of Netscape for $146 million, before its purchase by AOL and merger with Time Warner. In 2001 and 2002, Alwaleed increased his stake in AOL Time Warner by another $540 million. He also invested in MCI, Fox Broadcasting and other technology and media companies.Time reported in 1997 that Alwaleed owned about five percent of News Corporation, which he purchased for $400 million, making him the third largest shareholder. In April 1999, Alwaleed purchased an additional $200 million of preferred shares.In 2010 his News Corporation stake was about seven percent ($3 billion). Three years later News Corporation had a $175 million (19-percent) investment in al-Waleed's Rotana Group, the Arab world's largest entertainment company. A review of his holdings implied that al-Waleed had sold his investment in AOL. In April 1997, Alwaleed purchased a 4 percent stake in Planet Hollywood for $57 million, and another 16 percent in Nov 1998 for $45 million.In Oct. 1997, Alwaleed bought 27 percent of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, which he increased to 33 percent in 2003.In 1999 The Economist expressed doubts about the source of his income, wondering if he was a front man for other Saudi investors: He has not earned enough income from his investments to pay for all that he has spent in the 1990s. The mystery goes back to that first stake in Citicorp. The prince has declared that this money came entirely from his personal funds. He says he started out in 1979 with a loan of just $30,000 from his father. He also mortgaged a house that his father had given him, raising something like $400,000. And each month, as a grandson of Ibn Saud, he receives $15,000. You could barely clothe a Saudi prince for such sums, let alone furnish him with a multi-billion-dollar empire. Nevertheless, by 1991 Prince Alwaleed had felt able to risk an investment of $797m in Citicorp.Alwaleed invested in WorldCom, Priceline.com, Coca-Cola, and Ford Motor Company, totaling almost $2 billion. In Asia, he bought 5.9 percent of Daewoo for $50 million, which he increased to 18 percent with an additional $100 million investment, 3 percent of PROTON Holdings for $46 million, 3 percent of Ong Beng Seng's Hotel Properties Ltd., and $50 million worth of Hyundai Motor Company bonds. In Africa, he invested $50 million, acquiring 10 percent of Sonatel, 10 percent of EcoBank, 13.7 percent of United Bank for Africa, and 14 percent of CAL Bank. Investments which turned out poorly included WorldCom, Priceline, Teledesic, and Kirch Media, besides Planet Hollywood and Euro Disney.His stake in Apple was sold in 2005. Al-Waleed also invested in Eastman Kodak and TWA, both of which performed moderately well.In 2002, Alwaleed formed Kingdom Hotel Investments to oversee his hotel assets :108 By 2003, Alwaleed owned 100 percent of Rotana, and 49 percent of LBC Sat :144-146 His real-estate holdings included large stakes in the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and New York's Plaza Hotel; al-Waleed sold half his shares in the Plaza in August 2004. He has invested in London's Savoy Hotel and Monaco's Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. Al-Waleed holds a ten-percent stake in Euro Disney SCA, the company which owns, manages and maintains Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée.:113-114 In January 2005 Al-Waleed purchased the Savoy Hotel in London for an estimated £250 million, to be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts; his sister, Sultana Nurul, owns an estimated 16-percent stake. In January 2006, in partnership with the U.S. real-estate firm Colony NorthStar, Kingdom Holding acquired Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels and Resorts for an estimated $3.9 billion. It was reported in 2009 that Al-Waleed owned 35 percent of Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), a large Mideast media company.The 2004 Forbes list of wealthiest people had Alwaleed fourth, with a net worth of $21.5 billion. More than $1.3 billion was in hotel holdings. :99,115 In August 2011 al-Waleed announced that his company had contracted with the Saudi Binladin Group to build the world's tallest building, the Kingdom Tower (at a height of at least 1,000 metres (3,300 ft)) for SR 4.6 billion.The original plan—announced in 2008—called it برج الميل (Arabic for "One-Mile Tower"), at a height of 1,609 metres (5,279 ft) and an estimated cost of $20 billion.In December 2011 Al-Waleed invested $300 million in Twitter, purchasing secondary shares from insiders.The purchase gave Kingdom Holding a "more than 3% share" in the company, which was valued at $8 billion in late summer 2011.

For a country running out of foreign reserves, facing a yawning current account deficit and fighting to secure its financial future, Pakistan is putting on quite a show for Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler - Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And it's easy to see why: Prime Minister Imran Khan needs money, and he needs it fast. MBS, as he's known, is coming to town promising billions. But money is just one dimension of a relationship that goes much deeper. Pakistan was meant to be the first stop on an Asian tour taking in five countries but the crown prince's trips to Indonesia and Malaysia have been postponed. He is still scheduled to visit China and India in what is being seen as a charm offensive by the controversial prince. How lavish is the visit? The last time a Saudi royal visit was marked with this much fanfare was in 2006, when then Saudi ruler King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz toured the nuclear-armed nation.And security is being taken seriously - with Imran Khan making a point of saying that he is personally taking care of the arrangements. The visit comes amid heightened tensions in the region, after India blamed Pakistan for the deadliest attack on its security forces in Kashmir in decades. JF-17 Thunder fighter jets will escort MBS's fleet on Sunday as they enter Pakistani airspace - with all other flights grounded. Hundreds of five-star rooms in Islamabad are believed have been booked out for the 1,000-strong delegation. There are even reports that thousands of pigeons have been caught for a welcome ceremony.