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Actress and film producer Dia Mirza, who is also a United Nations Ambassador, expressed her concern about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and urged people to help the less fortunate. Actress-producer Dia Mirza has expressed concern over the COVID-19 outbreak. Along with several other celebrities and entrepreneurs who are advocates and alumni of United Nations (UN) Secretary-General's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), she hopes that aid reaches the remotest corners of the world. In a statement issued on April 3, Dia, and other SDG advocates like Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba Group), have said that they stand in solidarity with those affected. The statement calls for urgent global action to protect and support vulnerable countries in "Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Latin America, and small islands states". The statement urges that "leaders, policymakers, and the international community, in particular the G20 and G7, must act quickly and decisively to mobilise the resources needed to stop the spread of COVID-19 in these areas, while also scaling up healthcare support and strengthening social safety nets, including responses to rising levels of domestic violence". Elaborating, Dia said that standing up to COVID-19 requires a facilitated global movement with respect to financial and other aid. "Covid-19 a zoonoses virus doesn't regard geographical boundaries. It is a message from nature. A wake up call for all to work together to protect, secure, restore ecological balance. Because our health is determined by the health of the environment. This is the time for solidarity, unity, humanity to act together to combat and recover from the loss and inequalities caused by this war against a virus," said Dia. "It is also the time for people to collectively acknowledge that in order to achieve the sustainable development goals we must stop destruction of natural habitats and stop all illegal wildlife trade. And most importantly appreciate that there must be a global ceasefire as we fight this war against a virus," she added. The Kaafir actress further said that "International, national and local response to the COVID 19 scare must be structured with a focal point to make healthcare accessible to all people, especially those living on the fringes of society, marginalised by economic inequality. Each of us can do our bit by staying home, staying safe and by recognising how fortunate we are that we can, while many struggle to gain access to essentials and the basics to sustain health and life".

Game Informations Developers : Deck13 Interactive Released : September 24, 2019 Genre : Action, role-playing Platforms : Microsoft Windows - Playstation 4 - Xbox One. Up a short flight of stairs and down an alleyway from the initial hub of the first major area in The Surge 2 is a door that can only be opened from the other side. Roughly a dozen hours later you will find yourself standing on the other side of this door before opening it and returning to the very place in which you began, keenly aware of how far you've progressed while not really traveling anywhere at all. Yes, The Surge 2 is that kind of game: an action RPG with a looping, labyrinthine structure and a heavy debt owed to Dark Souls. It's a hard game in the sense that it demands patience and attention to detail, but it's not especially punishing. Sure, when you die or rest at a medbay (read: bonfire) all the enemies respawn and many of them can kill you in a couple of hits. And sure, you have to make it back to where you died to recover your tech scrap (read: souls). But as with the Souls series and its ilk, this isn't really a game about clearing an area and leveling up; it's about learning through repetition and deepening your understanding of the game. On a purely mechanical level, the robust combat engine, intricate level design and substantive gear, and crafting systems all leave The Surge 2 far from embarrassed by the From Software comparison. Yet where The Surge 2's blushes are not spared is in giving you a reason to care about anything you're doing. Lackluster world-building, forgettable characters and cringeworthy dialogue all conspire against persuading you this is a world worth saving. It begins with a plane crash. On board was some sort of nanotechnology that triggers an environmental disaster requiring a city-wide quarantine and leaving those infected to wander the streets with a permanently hostile demeanor. You were also on the plane, yet somehow survived the crash and, at the start of the game, wake up in the medical wing of the Jericho City Police Department. Soon you're having sporadic visions of a young girl, the granddaughter of the CEO of nanotech firm CREO Industries, who you're sure was also on the plane and now appears to have been kidnapped by a mysterious security force. There's not a great deal to the story and what little there is quickly reduces to stale sci-fi musings about the relationship between humans and machines and all sorts of hackneyed military-industrial complex pot-boiling. Your pursuit of the elusive young girl is essentially the pretext for exploring the multi-faceted and interconnected districts of Jericho City and whacking nearly all of its inhabitants in the face. Fighting in The Surge 2 feels strategic and skillful. There's the element of stamina management you'd expect--you've got to understand when you can commit and when you need to pull back and recover. There's the ability to manage multiple enemies when any one of them alone is dangerous enough to be life-threatening if you're not careful. And there's the necessity of learning to read enemy attack patterns--one may be quick and aggressive, while another is slower and turtles behind a shield, and a third may hang back and takes pot shots. Combat is almost exclusively focused on melee attacks. There are dozens of weapons to be wielded in one hand or two and each can be deployed in heavy and light attacks as well as combos that alternate between the two. Movesets are shared across a weapon class but various stats--such as base damage, stamina consumption or additional damage types--serve to differentiate unique weapons within the same class. All spears, for example, have the same long reach and forward thrusting attacks, but this one hits slightly quicker for less damage while that one consumes more stamina per attack but delivers bonus electrical damage every hit. Smartly, no weapons are simply outright better than the others, meaning your choice of armament comes down to a combination of what you've managed to find, which particular mix of moveset and stats suit your preferred playstyle, and to a lesser extent the nature of the obstacle you're trying to overcome. Some weapons are better suited to certain situations, but ultimately it comes down to how you want to approach combat. Weapons taken from the one-handed (think futuristic longswords) and twin-rigged (think futuristic knuckle-dusters) classes hit with speed and will let you get the drop on an enemy then deliver a swift combo. Hammers and anything from the heavy-duty class will instead take longer to wind up but when they hit they hit hard and can easily stagger an opponent. I enjoyed the flexibility of the double-duty class, a weapon type that can transform between slow, heavy hits and a quick flurry of blows. And for situations that warranted a different tactic I switched to a staff for the longer reach of its whirlwind attack and some added nano damage. There's a huge amount of variety here and, after briefly testing out each new weapon I found during my initial playthrough, I'm looking forward to exploring different weapon loadouts in future playthroughs. That's mostly because fighting in The Surge 2 feels really good. Aided by the meaty impact of the sound effects and the responsiveness of the character animations, you can feel the weight of each attack in a manner that never fails to satisfy. Successfully deflecting an attack rewards you with wonderfully gratifying "whomp!" sound, a brief freeze-frame and slow-motion interlude as the enemy is staggered and you're given the opening to launch a critical strike. Better, perhaps, are the cinematic slow-mos seen when you are able to sever the limb of your opponent, with your character drawing from an impressively wide range of stylish deathblow animations that are solely interested in making you look like the most effortless badass in the post-apocalypse. Be warned, however: they are not for the squeamish (and, fortunately, there's an option to disable these scenes to reduce the gore factor.) But it gets even more complex. When locked on to an enemy you are able to target individual limbs, switching between the head, body, arms, and legs with a flick of the right analogue stick. You want to do this for two reasons. One, some limbs may be unarmoured, thus targeting an exposed left arm will let you do more damage and hasten the kill. Two, if you do enough damage to a particular limb you'll get the opportunity to chop it off and, in a curious application of game logic, claim it as a material for crafting. Once you've beheaded an enemy enough times you'll have the materials necessary to craft a new piece of headgear or upgrade your existing one. The tantalizing risk/reward here is obvious: do you go for the weak point or prolong the fight in order to get that vital crafting component? Boss fights double down on this element, with some of them forcing you to hack off multiple limbs to bring it down while others drop special boss weapons if you target the relevant limb during the fight. Furthering the complexity, you can also block attacks (assuming you have sufficient stamina) by holding down L1/LB, but to deflect an attack you've got to block and flick the right stick in the direction of the incoming blow at the precise moment; mis-time your attempt and you're going to take the hit. It's not just another great risk/reward setup, it also reveals one of the clever ways The Surge 2 handles its difficulty. While there aren't selectable difficulty levels per se, you can equip various implants that boost your character in certain ways, one of which provides a UI indicator letting you know from which direction the next attack is incoming. So if you want to adopt a playstyle around deflecting attacks and you're not yet familiar with reading enemy attack animations, you can equip this implant and receive a very useful visual aid. It's a really smart system that extends into other areas, too. Implants consume core power, a character stat that increases as you level up, and typically the more useful an implant the more power it consumes. Armour also draws power from the same source, and--yep, you guessed it--the better the defensive stats, the more power it draws. You never have enough core power to simply equip your best armour set and all your favorite implants, so this is where you have to make tough choices about what type of character you're going to be. There were plenty of periods, especially in the early to mid-game, where I had to leave some armour and implant slots empty because I simply didn't have the power available to fill them. It's in these situations, when you're having to sacrifice useful tools and really commit to a playstyle, that The Surge 2 shines as an RPG. It also shines in its level design--at least it does so in a somewhat cold, theoretical fashion. Like Dark Souls, The Surge 2 trades heavily on a Metroidvania structure that sees you traversing its levels in a kind of circular fashion, pressing forward until you find yourself back where you started only now you've unlocked a shortcut that lets you press further forward. Later, you will return to many of the previously visited locations and explore them anew, having acquired certain key items that allow you to access areas previously inaccessible. There's nothing especially novel about that structure. The Surge 2 is simply an extremely accomplished version of it. The areas you explore are just so tightly designed, so compact and yet simultaneously sprawling and dense. There's almost a honeycomb quality to the level design, this vast network of winding tunnels existing almost on top of each other, branching and converging in surprising ways. No space is wasted. It's just a shame few of the locations are memorable for reasons other than how they connect to other locations. There's a midgame detour to a rather scenic wooded parkland, the odd impressive future city skyline vista, and the constant looming presence of the giant metal wall that was hastily erected after the nano-disaster struck. But in between everything is basically the same handful of debris-strewn streets, toxic tunnels and partially collapsed buildings--and it's all so boringly brown and grey. More than a mere aesthetic complaint, it actually makes it difficult to find your bearings at times. I found myself getting lost and turned around on quite a few occasions thanks to the unremarkable nature of much of the scenery. Worse, the characters you meet along the way are equally soulless, if not more so. Conversations with major NPCs are written as if they're throwaway sidequests, eschewing any sense of character development in favor of laboured exposition. The actual sidequests, of course, fare no better--to their advantage at least they're quick and to the point, even if they barely resolve and rarely offer a reward worth the effort. Story and sidequests aside, however, The Surge 2 is absolutely worth the effort when the combat is taken in isolation. Not only does it pack a punch, but it also channels plenty of depth in its limb targeting and deflection systems, and is ably supported by a genuinely varied collection of weapons and potential character builds.

A four-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the coronavirus. The Bronx Zoo, in New York City, says the test result was confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa. Nadia, her sister Azul, as well as two Amur tigers and three African lions, had developed a dry cough and all are expected to fully recover, it says. The cats are believed to have been infected by a zoo keeper. "We tested the cat [Nadia] out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about Covid-19 will contribute to the world's continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus," the zoo said in a statement on Sunday. The big cats did have some decrease in appetite but "are otherwise doing well under veterinary care and are bright, alert, and interactive with their keepers". The zoo said it is not known how the virus will develop in animals like tigers and lions since various species can react differently to new infections, but all the animals will be closely monitored. None of the zoo's other big cats - four other tigers, snow leopards, cheetahs, a clouded leopard, an Amur leopard, a puma and a serval - are showing any signs of illness. "Our cats were infected by a person caring for them who was asymptomatically infected with the virus or before that person developed symptoms," said the zoo. All the tigers showing symptoms were housed in the zoo's Tiger Mountain area. All four zoos run by the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City, including the Bronx Zoo, have been closed to the public since 16 March. New measures will now be put in place to protect the animals and their caretakers at all the facilities. There is "no evidence that any person has been infected with Covid-19 in the US by animals, including by pet dogs or cats," the zoo statement noted. Conservation experts have warned that the virus could pose a threat to some wildlife like the great apes - and have said measures are needed to reduce the risk of wild gorillas, chimps and orangutans.

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Actress Lisa Ray turned a year older on Saturday. While most people are indoors due to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, she doesn't seem to mind that she is unable to throw a grand party or make "over-enthusiastic plans". "So I'm 48 today, it's also a magical 4/4/4 day in numerology and I believe in the power of our planet to regenerate. Also: the introvert in me loves there are no parties or over enthusiastic plans. Why celebrate a single day? I'm grateful for every moment: a teaching in disguise," Lisa tweeted. Lisa has been quite a fighter. She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare type of blood cancer in 2009. She survived the malady and has been sharing her cancer journey with the world. She even came up with her memoir Close To The Bone last year. The book chronicled her battle with bone cancer, and more. "I have come out of the darkest phase which made me realise that no amount of money and fame can hold your hand when you are not in a good physical and emotional space," Lisa had said. As for her acting career, the Kasoor actress appeared in web series Four More Shots Please! in 2019. She will soon be seen in "99 Songs", a film that sees Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman's debut as a producer.

Game Informations Developers : Capcom Released : March 8, 2019 Genre : Hack and Slash, Action Platforms : Microsoft Windows - Playstation 4 - Xbox One. Devil May Cry 3 is still the gold standard for action games and I’ll take a moment to tell you why. Coming off the ill-fated Devil May Cry 2 and saddled with directorial duties after the original seat was jettisoned, Hideaki Itsuno had something to prove. He went all-out for the third entry, packing in so many different concepts that it was almost overwhelming yet ultimately satisfying once you figured them all out. The pacing was succinct, the prequel conceit allowed the team to play around with previously conceived notions of the series, and at launch, it was one of the most challenging action games ever released (it was later revealed that originally in the West, the default difficulty setting of "normal" was actually Japan's "hard"). It was the perfect storm for an action entry that in my mind, has only been approached by the Bayonetta series. DMC3 was seemingly the apex of action and Itsuno couldn't top it with his next effort. Although Devil May Cry 4 was on point mechanically, knocking it out of the park with two different characters, it suffered from an uneven campaign with tons of backtracking. Devil May Cry 5 feels like a genuine response to those complaints alongside a sprinkling of the secret sauce that made the third entry so great, topped with a hearty helping of original work. Even the menu sounds at the very start (like the "boom...Devil May Cry" voiceover) help set the tone. A tone, mind, that's familiar, but welcome: a demonic force is terrorizing the world and a group of demon hunters needs to stop it. It's straightforward and basically serves as a device to thrust the entire gang (Dante, Nero, Trish, Lady, plus newcomers Nico and V) into the spotlight to take down a big bad. With trademark comedic elements and absurd style baked-in it feels authentic, like you're along for the ride. Devil May Cry 5 is just as over-the-top as the series has always been without taking itself too seriously: it's the most obvious virtue that's been put by the wayside in the past. New players shouldn't feel lost, either. Not only are the four preceding core stories relatively easy to explain, but there's also a text-crawl "history of the series" movie to watch from the main menu. Let me be clear though: if you're expecting anything mind-blowing or genre-defining, you might not need to get on this train. This is an old school-minded Bayonetta-esque action romp that doesn't pretend to be anything more. Your chief tritagonist is Nero from Devil May Cry 4 with some newly minted gimmicks. In lieu of his now-missing arm he can utilize "Devil Breakers," clever transitory junker items that are so fragile, they'll break on a moment's notice. They're so cheaply made that they'll disintegrate if you use their ultimate power, use them to break away from an enemy combo or grab, or get hit once while wielding their power (Punch Line, a rocket fist that kind of flies around and does its own thing, is my favorite). To make up for the fact that you'll be arm-free after they've all been ground into dust, Nero also sports a pulley system for grabbing smaller enemies or propelling himself closer to big ones. All of these abilities do a better job of keeping players in the fight than his Devil May Cry 4 kit. Nero really came into his own after I slammed an enemy into a wall then quickly grappled them back and drilled them into the ground. Where I started to click with Nero is when I realized that his Devil Breakers are completely expendable. There's no point in holding onto them once you've mastered dodging: just keep the sparks flying. Nero's enhanced focus feels more justified this time around. Then there's the Adam Driver-ass V. He might look like a total dullard, but his wisecracking talking bird rules and so does his whole combat vibe. His whole thing is that his minions (a ranged bird, a melee panther, and a giant behemoth governed by his super meter) beat up enemies for him then he finishes them off with his magical cane. I dig it! You can control your creatures while doing other actions with V, like initiating a more pronounced shadow dodge or reading poetry (seriously) to recharge his super (Devil Trigger) gauge. That same gauge can power-up minions in an "EX" fashion if a certain strategy is favorable, which allows you to manually adapt as you survey the battleground as a commander of sorts. His summons have combos and multi-directional abilities, so you aren't just spamming them or letting them fight. There's nothing like surfing a dark nimbus cloud to get around while you're independently operating your minion bird to shoot projectiles. As for Dante, all four of his styles (the speed-oriented Trickster, melee-centric Swordsman, ranged Gunslinger, and defense-minded Royal Guard) return and are hot-swappable, but this time with new weapons in tow. Cavaliere, the motorbike found in nearly all of the trailers, is actually a set of twin chainsaw blades: combined with the Swordsman style, he can ride it into the fray and grind up enemies. Another, a cowboy-themed power which I won't spoil here, is one of the most unique in the Devil May Cry universe. From a series that once conceptualized Pandora's Box as a briefcase full of endless weapons, the weaponry is right on the money. Dante's styles really are the focus though because once again the swap technique works flawlessly. One moment you might be twirling around shotguns to keep away a mob, then swap to swordsman to isolate a big threat, then in half a second throttle to Royal Guard to perfectly parry an attack, throw back the force of the blow, then use Trickster to dart away and flow back into combat with a teleport. V and Dante (which have their own skill trees) were game-changers for me in the sense that they took Devil May Cry 5 to the next level, marrying new and old-school trains of thought respectively. All of this is present while trying to master Devil May Cry's combo system (which goes all the way up to SSS-Stylish, unlocking more intense music as you go), a kind of minigame on top of mere survival. This is a series that boasts a taunt button simply for boosting your score: not something you see often. The stylish focus is partly why Devil May Cry is still relevant. Enemy variety quickly gets spicy. At first you'll do battle with some nasty bugs, then duel with grim reapers with thorny crowns then hooded dual-cleaver berserkers. Bosses are memorable and formidable, and several are seared in my memory with the best of them. Devil May Cry 5's environments are equally impressive and the RE Engine serves the series well. In some cases floors can fall out, leading to new zones, and there's some really expansive areas where you can see battles going on in the background. It's the kind of game that makes a commanding use of its photo mode. Backtracking from DMC4 is eschewed in favor of different perspectives for several levels, which are thankfully optional for completion (read: stages where you can choose a character only need to be beaten once, which is rad). Load times are relatively short and pacing is on point from minute one. There isn't a lot of boring exposition and pretty much everyone gets their ass kicked by the main villain right away (who doesn't even bother to get off his throne), without an overwhelming sense of "having to power up" for ages to take him on again; more like a general drive and purpose propelling the narrative. My complaints are few and far between, and one of them is complicated. There's a very brief (like, several minutes if you know what you're doing) "boss rush" type level with three encounters. At first I was flabbergasted at its customary inclusion, but after figuring it out I made short work of it and accepted how it slots into the big picture. Then there's the Red Orbs (which you use to buy everything, from items to abilities to revives, on top of the traditional "extra life" Gold Orbs). Remember when it was announced that Capcom was monetizing the game's currency? This is that discussion. In short, you can buy Red Orbs in bulk, even at the time of death to revive. It's weird, in an "Xbox One launch" type of way back when it was considered new and didn't even fly then. Now if you hate the mere thought of them even being included, you can skip out, I won't be offended. But for the rest of you who are wondering if they impact natural advancement, I'd say "no." Not once did I feel like I wasn't earning enough orbs to buy what I wanted and progression felt roughly on par with the rest of the series. If you want absolutely every ability (including some of the endgame ones) you'll need to go through the campaign at least twice across two different difficulty settings: that hasn't changed. After the campaign is done you get to keep all your skills across all three characters, plus one extra endgame power that completely changes the way one of them plays. I started working my way through Son of Sparda (hard) as soon as the curtains fell without any sort of fatigue (those optional character levels are suited for replays). There's also plenty of secrets to locate (including inventive ones with tricks like blowing up walls with V's Devil Trigger minion) and extra difficulties. Dual-audio is being patched in at launch and the classic Bloody Palace mode (challenge rooms) arrives next month. It feels complete.

Two people have been killed and five wounded in a knife attack in south-east France, in what the interior minister described as a terrorist incident. Witnesses said the attacker entered a tobacconist in the town of Romans-sur-Isère, near Grenoble, and stabbed the owners and a customer. He then went to a nearby butcher's shop and attacked more people. A suspect, described in French media as a 33-year-old man from Sudan, has been arrested. At the time of his arrest, the attacker was "found on his knees on the pavement praying in Arabic", prosecutors said. The man was not known to the police or intelligence services, news website France Bleu reported. The motive for the attack remains unclear, but Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said during a visit to the town: "This morning, a man embarked on a terrorist journey." Mr Castaner said it would be up to the National Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office to establish whether the attacker acted alone. In a statement, the prosecutor's office said initial investigations suggest the attacker had "a determined murderous course aimed at seriously disturbing public order by intimidation or terror". During a search of the suspect's home, "handwritten documents with religious connotations were found", it said. Prosecutors said they made an arrest of a second person on Saturday who, according to France Bleu, was living with the attacker. Two of the wounded are said to be in a critical condition. President Emmanuel Macron described the attack as an "odious" incident that further saddened a country already going through an ordeal. "My thoughts are with the victims of the Romans-sur-Isère attack - the injured, their families," he tweeted. Mr Macron promised that "light will be shed" on the crime. France is currently in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. People are only allowed out to buy basic necessities or for exercise. The country has been on high alert since 2015, when Paris was hit by a series of attacks attributed to the Islamic State group.

I like it, Nice song As usual ?

Game Informations Developers : Lozange Lab Released : September 14, 2017 Genre : Adventure Platforms : Android - Microsoft Windows - iOS - Lunix - macOS Summer is cruising along at a blistering pace isn’t it? It’s the speediest of all seasons to be sure and before long many of us will be left with wind chills and blankets of snow to continually clear and drive through, others will face sleet and gloomy skies. It’s not over yet, though, and a new puzzle game is out to help conjure happier times once it is. Swim Out ($2.99) is a clever new puzzle game about a blue-capped swimmer looking to navigate their way through a great many high traffic pools. Happily, Swim Out has the best of all puzzle game traits: It is easy to understand and play. You swipe to move in the direction you wish anywhere on the screen and off you go. It’s a turn-based game, so once you move the other occupants of the pool move as well. If you run into one, or they run into you the game is over and you’ll have to restart the level. There are a bunch of fellow pool and poolside denizens and each has its own movement pattern. The challenge of the game is to predict where everybody is moving and not be there. As you can imagine, this becomes progressively more difficult as the levels advance. New mechanics and swimmers are also introduced as you go. There are beach balls and rescue ring you can throw to immobilize another swimmer for a few turns, divers that splash in and move quickly across the pool, and cannon ballers that send waves your way. Even kayakers make an appearance, in a pool, for reasons. The game does a great job of pacing the introduction of new challenges to keep things continually fresh and interesting. There are over 100 levels, all of which look great and are accompanied by happy summertime at the pool sounds. It’s really quite relaxing. Swim Out is also technically a landscape game, though there is nothing stopping you from turning it to portrait mode for some one-handed puzzling. My main complaint with the game is the lack of undo button which means if you screw up very late in a level it’s back to the beginning. Some levels are on the longer side with multiple pools to move through, so this can be annoying. If you’re a fan of puzzle games Swim Out is very likely for you. It’s attractive, intuitive, and fun. It may also bring you a fresh breath of summer for winter is coming.

People in China are paying their respects to dead ancestors digitally as the country continues to face the coronavirus outbreak. The Qingming festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, is usually a time when people visit the graves of friends and family, sprucing up the area and making offerings to their spirits. But amid fears of another outbreak, the government has advised people to stay away and maintain social distancing. That's led to some cemeteries allowing people to come as long as they've booked a slot, while others are banning visits completely. But other companies and burial places have turned to modern technology as they look for ways for families to continue the centuries-old tradition. Li Quanxi, an official at Beijing’s civil affairs bureau, said: “We want to encourage people to transform social traditions amid the coronavirus outbreak.” What is Qingming festival? Qingming festival is one of the most important events in the calendar to commemorate ancestors who are no longer with you. People clean the graves and burn items such as joss sticks and paper offerings - sometimes quite large ones - to honour the dead and transmit money and other goods to loved ones in the afterlife. The tomb sweeping period falls between 28 March and 12 April. Making offerings online It is not completely unknown for pay their respects online, however, with the spread of Covid-19, there are now people who have no other option. "Cloud tomb sweeping" allows people to “virtually” clean graves and make offerings to spirits. One website providing this service is Heavenly Cemetery. On the surface, the website looks like any usual shopping site, although it also allows people to have their own memorial halls for their loved one so family and friends can join. Relatives can light a candle, burn money and offer objects such as Chinese rice wine and beer. There is even an option for online tomb cleaning. Funeral company Fu Shou Yuan International launched its own online tomb sweeping service on 12 March. It operates in more than 30 Chinese cities. In its first week, its website had about 87,000 visitors. George Chen, whose grandparents are buried in Shanghai, visits their tombs every year but will be marking this year's Tomb Sweeping Day online for the time being. He told Shanghai Daily: “Old traditions are deeply rooted, but it is quite understandable because it is a special period. I will pay virtual respect and visit the scene once the epidemic ends.” While taking part in “cloud tomb sweeping” does mean you get to send offerings, it does not include the physical cleaning of a loved one's tomb. So some burial spots are now offering relatives a chance to watch a member of staff clean the tomb via a live stream. Others will send you photographs of the cleaned grave. One cemetery in Shanghai is offering packages where a “valet sweep” starts from as little as 35 yuan (£4) Babaoshan funeral parlour, in Beijing, also offers live stream services. Zhou Weihua, deputy director of the parlour, told Chinese news agency Xinhua that live streaming could become a future trend. “Helping clients sweep tombs and holding online commemorative activities not only meets the demand in this special period but also offers more options for people to remember their deceased family members in the future.” What about Wuhan? China reported 3,199 deaths from coronavirus with 2,559 of those in Wuhan, where the first cases were recorded late last year. The city is still in a lockdown which is expected to end on 8 April, and the government has announced that cemeteries will remain closed until 30 April. Wuhan's civil affairs department said it would make “unified arrangements to organise staff at cemeteries to hold a collective ceremony to pay tribute to the deceased”.

The commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt has been removed after saying the US Navy was not doing enough to halt a coronavirus outbreak on board the aircraft carrier. In a letter, Capt Brett Crozier had urged his superiors to act to prevent US troops dying outside of wartime. But acting US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said the commander "exercised extremely poor judgement". At least 100 people aboard the vessel have been infected, reports say. What did the US Navy secretary say? On Thursday, Mr Modly told reporters that Capt Crozier was being fired for allegedly leaking the letter to the media. He said the letter "created the impression the Navy was not responding to his questions". "It creates the perception the Navy is not on the job; the government is not on the job. That's just not true." Uninfected members of the ship's more than 4,000 crew are now being quarantined in Guam after the governor of the US island territory in the western Pacific Ocean said they could stay as long as they had no interactions with locals. Until now, the sailors had been restricted to the naval base’s pier. What about Capt Crozier's letter? He had warned the Pentagon that the outbreak aboard his ship was “accelerating” because crew members were living in confined spaces. "We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," stated the four-page letter, dated 30 March. Capt Crozier had called for "decisive action", saying uninfected sailors had to be removed from the ship and isolated. The letter was later published by the San Francisco Chronicle. What has the reaction been? In a statement, Democratic leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said: "While Captain Crozier clearly went outside the chain of command, his dismissal at this critical moment... is a destabilising move that will likely put our service members at greater risk and jeopardise our fleet's readiness." "Throwing the commanding officer overboard without a thorough investigation is not going to solve the growing crisis aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt."

Video title : TRY NOT TO LAUGH ??? Content creator ( Youtuber ) :Here Official YT video :

Happy Birthday.

Game Informations Developers : Brad Borne Released : January 9, 2008 Genre : Platformer Platforms : IOS - Android - Windows - Mac OS X It feels like a million years ago now, but at one point the most hopping hub for indie games was through web portals containing games built in Flash. Yes, the one that doesn’t work with iOS and has largely gone the way of the dodo. Anyway, back in 2006, if you were a Flash game developer, the place to be was Newgrounds. They had a whole bunch of the best Flash games in one place, along with seemingly thousands of, er, learning experiences. It was in this environment that Mr. Fancy Pants, the titular character of Fancy Pants Adventures (Free), made his amazing debut. That game did the most important thing a platformer can do to get going: polished its physics and controls to a fine, fine sheen. It proved incredibly po[CENSORED]r, and its developer continued to build on it in his spare time, adding new worlds complete with new gimmicks and moves to play around with. Somewhere during that process, an iOS version was made available by Chillingo. Remember Chillingo, friends? This is such a nostalgic review! Since the original game was designed to be played with a keyboard, it didn’t even hurt the game all that much when it moved over to touch controls. New content and ports trickled out to other platforms in the following years, until it finally seemed like Mr. Fancy Pants and his creator were taking a well-deserved rest. That’s just what they wanted you to think, though. No sooner than we all got complacent when – BAM! New Fancy Pants! Super Fancy Pants Adventure ($4.99), to be exact. The latest installment hit Steam in September of 2017, and a few weeks ago word got out that it would be coming to iOS as well. And here we are! If you haven’t played any of the Fancy Pants games before, they’re basically ultra-fluid platformers with great physics. Sort of an ode to the better Sonic the Hedgehog games, in one way. The initial game was a hop-and-bop but later updates added in a pencil weapon and some new moves like wall-kicking, giving the game a flavor all its own. The hero of the game is a well-animated stick figure with spiky hair and colorful pants. You run and jump through the levels, smack some bad guys around, play golf with snail shells, collect little Dreamcast logos, and try to make it to the goal of each stage without running out of lives. That’s basically what you’ll be up to in Super Fancy Pants Adventure as well. It’s bigger, and your character’s pencil gets upgraded to a pen that has some interesting new moves, but the core gameplay is still quite intact. This time there are more than 50 levels, and you can use your Dreamcast swirls to buy upgrades like new moves, upgraded attacks, and life bar extensions. They still serve the purpose of refilling lost life energy and granting you extra lives, too. Dreamcast is life, friends. The main levels feel a lot larger this time around, but those of you who enjoyed the punchy smaller bits will be happy to hear they live on in Super Fancy Pants Adventure. Scattered throughout the levels are doors that take you to relatively short tests of skill. Should you successfully complete them, you’ll earn some fancy new Fancy Pants, and even some Fancy Hats. Shirts? Shoes? What are you, the law? For its part, the new pen grants a few cool new abilities that unlock as you play. The first is the ability to surf along sheets of paper set up in the backgrounds of some stages. This is very unwieldy with the touch controls, but with a little practice you… probably still won’t get the hang of it, but you may learn to manage it. After felling the first boss, you’ll get the ability to shoot ink, which not only serves as a useful attack but also allows you to create platforms in certain spots. It also adds another set of virtual buttons on your screen, so I hope you weren’t using that screen real estate for anything in particular. Eventually, you’ll get one more cool technique to use with your pen that will help you zip past enemies. I found the shooting added the most to the game and the paper-riding felt the most gimmicky, but your mileage may vary. In addition to the copious amounts of bonus stages, there are some other extras built in here as well. You can do some time challenges and play the World 1 Remix from previous Fancy Pants games. Sadly, the four-player multiplayer option has been cut in the mobile version, but that was hardly unexpected I suppose. The amount of content is still quite good, and you can look forward to at least a few hours of fun even if you’re fairly skilled. Scale that number up as your skill goes down and your desire to get all the hats and pants goes up. I understand this may be a complicated math problem that you don’t want to deal with right now. Let’s just simplify things and say that there is a fair amount of things to do here, but you will still probably want more when it’s over with. The controls can be a little busy if you’re relying on touch. Everything is mapped to virtual buttons and while the developers were thorough, it means you’re going to have to keep the locations of a lot of things sorted in your head if you don’t want to keep looking down. Jumping and sliding have their own buttons, attacking is on its own button with extra buttons to attack up and down, and shooting ink also has its own button with buttons around it. It works with practice, apart from that irritating paper-riding anyway, but if you’re the sort that gets a little tender when you see more than two virtual buttons in a UI, you’re not going to have a good time here. Hopefully if you are that sort, you’ve bought yourself one of those fancy pants MFi controllers. Congratulations! This game supports those, and your problems are now magically dispensed with. Super Fancy Pants Adventure looks and sounds pretty nice, with some slick animations, a smooth framerate, and music that only really seems to get annoying when you can’t clear a particular challenge stage. That’s probably on you. I had a couple of crashes on my way through, but the game was diligent about saving my progress so I didn’t lose anything important either time. The story tying everything together is amusing enough, and the level themes change up frequently enough to keep your eyes interested. If you enjoyed the last Fancy Pants Adventure on iOS, you’ve probably already jumped on this one. If for some reason you haven’t jumped on it and are waiting for a stranger to push you, consider yourself pushed. You’ll have a good time. If you haven’t played any of these before but enjoy a good platformer, I can assure that this is indeed one of those. If you do not like platformers at all and spit in the direction of Shigeru Miyamoto and/or Yuji Naka and/or Michel Ancel anytime you can confirm their whereabouts, I’m not sure why you are reading this and don’t really know what to tell you. Maybe the missing piece was fancy-looking pants all along? You could give it a try. The virtual controls can be a bit of a bear with everything Mr. Fancy Pants can do, but everything else is quite solid.

Tributes are being paid to world-renowned South African scientist Gita Ramjee, who has died from Covid-19-related complications. Tributes are being paid to world-renowned South African scientist Gita Ramjee, who has died from Covid-19-related complications. "She dedicated many years of her life to finding HIV prevention solutions for women," her colleague and friend Gavin Churchyard told the BBC. Head of UNAids Winnie Byanyima said Prof Ramjee's death was a huge loss at a time when the world needed her most. South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV in the world. The country has begun a three-week lockdown as part of efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus. BBC Africa Live: Updates from around the continent No alcohol, no dog walks: Lockdown in South Africa Bracing for coronavirus in a South African township Live tracker: Coronavirus in Africa "The passing of Prof Ramjee comes as a huge blow to the entirety of the healthcare sector and the global fight against HIV/Aids," the country's Deputy President David Mabuza said in a statement. "In her, we have indeed lost a champion in the fight against the HIV epidemic, ironically at the hands of this global pandemic. In her honour, we should heed the call to flatten the curve by strengthening our responses to this global pandemic as well as continue the fight to achieve zero new HIV infections." 'I now stand among female giants' Prof Ramjee, who died in hospital near the coastal city of Durban on Tuesday, had been working as the chief scientific officer at the Aurum Institute, a leading authority in the fight against HIV and TB. "Gita was a vibrant person, a real fighter. If she sets her mind on something, nobody better stand in her way," Aurum head Prof Churchyard, who knew her for many years. "That will be my lasting memory of her - how she fought with everything to advance access to healthcare for women in disadvantaged communities." The HIV researcher fell ill after returning to South Africa in mid-March from the UK, where she had been presenting at a symposium at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She held an honorary professorship at the LSHTM, as well as at the University of Washington and the University of Cape Town. Two years ago she was given the Outstanding Female Scientist Award by the European Development Clinical Trials Partnerships. Afterwards she told the HIV Trials Network: "I was absolutely thrilled by this award, as it recognises decades of my commitment to clinical research activities in HIV prevention. What makes it more rewarding is that I now stand among the female giants.

Hunter

it's [Zombie Plague] the best.

Game Informations Developers : Kimmo Lahtinen Released : 2018/08/14 Genre : Action Platforms : Microsoft Windows - iPhon - iPad There used to be a tv series that predates the App Store and even predates the majority of phone games. It was about adorable cartoon critters that were all friends and loved each other. They would in very short intervals meet very very violent and graphic ends. The name of this show was the Happy Tree Friends. The game I am looking at today reminds me a bit of the Happy Tree Friends in that you play as a lovable bear that, well… is responsible for some extreme violence. In a very cuddly way, I suppose. And technically, you’re a human wearing a bear outfit, but… close enough, right? Barbearian ($8.99) continues in a convincing manner the age old genre of top-down, isometric action games. Barbearian carries itself somewhere between Kick Ass Commandos ($2.99) and Cat Quest (Free). It’s very easy to see why there is hype about this game. With playful colors and vicious combat there is a lot to catch the eye while you plow through hordes of enemies. There are times when I will get distracted just by small details like the shimmer on the surface of water or by the way my minions reorganize themselves each time I move around. The most regrettable thing about the game is also a selling point in a lot of ways. The perspective puts too much on the screen to take in the details like I did while playing Cat Quest. The trade off to this is that each fight feels more epic and more insurmountable. Waves upon waves of enemies crash upon your axe as you cleave through the masses in hopes to find out more about why you have been teleported to this strange land. Unlike some shooter games, like JYDGE ($8.99), you’re M.O. does not stray from the ultimate objective of clearing through the horde of enemies axe first. Other than the side-mission of saving a minion each level, you need never look further than the tip of your axe to be led forward on your quest. There are no stealth missions nor creative objectives given at the start of a mission. Just pure hack and slash. While some may find this off-putting, I enjoy it as an unwavering focal point. You’ll never really wonder what you are supposed to do when you play Barbearian. Just swing away until you get to the end. On your way there, the game offers a variety of buffs and boosts that can be bought with the game’s only currency, slices. These bits of watermelon can be earned by fighting enemies and completing missions. There are no IAP nor are there any ads or other types of distractions in the game. You can increase your health and mana pool, buy and upgrade minions, and purchase increasingly ridiculous ranged weapons that can occasionally spawn from slain enemies. The power of ranged weapons goes from possibly helpful to deleting half a screen of enemies. My favorite is the gravity gun which gathers up all nearby enemies and after a delay deals a moderate amount of damage. My favorite tactic with the gravity gun is usually to fire off a bullet and before it detonates, charge in and pop any lower health enemies and send them scattering. In addition to ranged weapons and an axe, you also have the aforementioned charge ability that damages and bowls over enemies that has a short cooldown, and a rage ability that slowly charges as you make your way through a level. The feeling of wading into and through a rush of bodies feels like the essential lure of Barbearian. This is the game you want to play when you don’t want to wait for enemies to spawn, no matter how quick you manage to frag ’em. I mentioned JYDGE earlier and really this game comes in where I felt like JYDGE fell a little short. You can slide the difficulty sliders down to a point where you can succeed without much thought or foresight, but the great thing is that even on the default difficulty, this doesn’t work. You have to plan out your attack while still facing dozens of attackers at once. Depending on the makeup of the denizens currently facing you, your strategy might end up completely different. If a level has spawning crystals that summon new mobs, you may want to rush to them and disable them. But what if there are stun minions between you and them? You have to prioritize and enact different strategies to get through a level in one peice. The game is strategic without sacrificing speed of gameplay, and can be adjusted to offer a much easier arcade experience too. The question I think anyone is going to ask of this game is not if it is a good game. Even a cursory glance will show solid App Store feedback as well as a bright and vibrant display of carnage from screenshots and gameplay videos. The question is how does the game measure up to its $8.99 pricetag. The game shows estimates of about 12-13 hours of gameplay just to progress through the story, and with the normal levels plus boss levels this is a lot of shooting fun you can dive into. Ultimately you can customize how tough the game is and no matter how rough it gets, Barbearian will look gorgeous throughout and will feel amazing whether you use a MFi controller or the touch controls. It feels completely different when the difficulty is adjusted so there is value in getting into the options and fiddling around. When people ask where the good premium games are, Barbearian is one I will point to, with gusto.

Game Informations Developers : VDO Games. Released : 2018/1/9. Genre : Action, Platformer, 2D. Platforms : iPhone - iPad - Microsoft Windows. One of the remarkable things about the first three games in the Cally’s Caves series of action-platformers is in how far they came in a relatively short time. The first game is quite primitive compared to the third, but they released only a couple of years apart. The thing about gains like that is that they rarely scale in a linear fashion. Cally’s Caves 3 (Free) was an outstanding accomplishment for an indie game, presenting something that wouldn’t have been terribly out of place as a retail release on a dedicated handheld. There’s really only so much more Cally’s Caves 4 (Free) could realistically be expected to do to top that. True to that, this is more or less another helping of the high-quality action found in Cally’s Caves 3. For whatever it lacks in novelty, however, it makes up for by burying you in quantity. If you’re new to this series, the Cally’s Caves games are action-platformers in the vein of something like Mega Man X. You play as a little girl named Cally who starts off with little more than a pea-shooter and a sword but eventually amass a rather large arsenal of projectile weapons. These weapons are upgraded in a fashion similar to Sony’s Ratchet & Clank series. The more you use them, the more powerful they become, even changing shape and function at certain intervals. Cally can also level up herself, increasing her health stats among other bonuses. You can also upgrade your character using the gobs of coins dropped by enemies and found in treasure boxes scattered throughout the stages. Each world is made up of several discrete stages and culminates in a boss battle. The stages themselves tend to be small but open, with lots of opportunities for secrets and tricky platforming to go along with the shooting and slicing. The previous game in the series made some leanings in the direction of a Metroid-style set-up where you would earn new abilities and need to backtrack through levels to find secrets. Cally’s Caves 4 steps away from that a little, instead focusing more on linear progression with the occasional branch in the road. While there are a few things you’ll have to go back to previous stages to get later on, almost everything important to find in Cally’s Caves 4 can be acquired on your first run through each stage. The one major exception to this comes from a new scanning item that requires you to clear out all of the enemies in a stage before you’re able to use it. Each stage has its own specific document piece that you can find through this method, and you will almost certainly need to return to certain stages to find everything. While there are a few changes to the gameplay mechanics, the general feel of the game is similar to the last one. That’s a good thing, mind you. Apart from some dicey reactions to collisions, this is a series that benefits from excellent controls and physics. The spread of weapons is great, and I can’t imagine any given player wouldn’t be able to find at least a couple of favorites in the bunch. If none of them are doing exactly what you’d like, there’s no need to fear. Late in the game, you’ll be able to modify the weapons using scraps that you’ve picked up along the way, adding things like a stun effect or a wider shot to whichever guns you please. The very process of leveling up the weapons is compelling in and of itself. When a gun changes into a new form, you not only get new capabilities but also a new sprite to represent that weapon. Cally and her friends are no longer confined to the caves, either. In fact, there’s a surprisingly large variety of locales and themes to the stages in Cally’s Caves 4. Since they don’t really flow into each other that well at all anymore, you now operate out of a headquarters that serves as a hub. The game’s shops are now located there rather than being dropped along the road, and you can fly out to any checkpoint you’ve tagged when you’re ready to depart. You can return to your headquarters at any time by exiting out to the title screen, and there’s no penalty for doing so. Should you want to grab a quick upgrade or some consumables, it’s quite easy to zip out, do some shopping, and head right back to where you were. This is all well and good, but it really turfs the difficulty of the game. It’s hard to believe this is the same series that nearly brought me to a furious rage with its first installment. In the main story mode that can be played for free, it’s quite unlikely you’ll ever die unless you’re really goofing off. Even if you do perish, the penalty is just a small handful of coins that you’ll probably make back up before you’ve even made it to the next board. Even the bosses are total push-overs. The game only starts to bare its teeth in the New Game+ mode, which actually picks up the story from the ending of the main mode. Even there, you probably won’t run into any real trouble. I certainly died more often, but only because I was trying to level up weaker guns and was lazy about using consumables. It was hard to care about the money penalty because I had already bought every upgrade by then, too. It reminds me a little bit of the Nintendo 3DS game Super Mario 3D Land, where the main mode was the length of a regular Mario game, but kind of boring. The real game didn’t start until after you had cleared the main mode, unlocking a full-length extra game that actually put up a fight. Cally’s Caves 4 does the same thing. The main story mode is just as big as the previous games, if not a little bigger. The New Game+ more than doubles the length of the game and, as mentioned, is not so much a New Game+ as it is the second half of the game. There’s also a survival mode that is exactly what it says on the tin, and a special side-story called QWERTY Mode. Only the main story mode is free. You can buy the other modes a la carte or in one big bundle that includes a set of extra costumes for Cally. While it’s awesome that the game includes so much content, it’s almost too much. I didn’t time myself but I’m pretty sure playing through the main story, New Game+, and QWERTY mode added up to more than 10 hours. I’ve played shorter RPGs, even. And that wouldn’t be bad except for the fact that the main story mode felt like a real grind by the end. Picking off enemies from a safe distance while parrying away almost every counter-attack got dull. Having to make blind jumps only to realize that I’d just missed an enemy and would have to restart at the last checkpoint to get my scan started to take a toll on my patience. And you really do want to get those scans as you go, because at least as far as I could notice, there’s no way to tell which areas you’ve successfully scanned and which you haven’t. By the time I got to the New Game+ mode, I was kind of tired of Cally’s Caves 4. And yet, I still had a very long road ahead of me. Admittedly a more enjoyable road, but I can’t help but feel like I had to slog through a lot of middling content to get there. Now, your mileage may vary on this point. Certainly, I have to admit that it feels odd to complain about a small-scale developer including too much in one game. Cally’s Caves 4 is one of the longest games of this sort I’ve played anywhere, and it’s not like it’s recycling tremendous amounts of content to pad out its run-time, either. It’s just that big. Before I played the game, I had wondered why it had taken so long to make compared to its predecessors. While I was playing the main story mode, I really wondered. Once I realized the true nature of the entire game, however, I no longer had any questions about why the development took a couple of years. This is all the Cally’s Caves you could ask for, and then some. And then some more on top of that, too. The value for your buck here is incredible. Looking beyond the simple equation of playtime for money, though, I’m not sure that the game does itself any favors in coupling such a long playtime with so deliberate a difficulty curve. I love this series and I think the gameplay mechanics are a blast, yet even I found myself wishing for the end to come well before it did. There’s a great game in Cally’s Caves 4, one that surpasses even the thrilling heights of the previous game. Unfortunately, it’s served in a giant casserole dish with a lot of less savory bites, and you can’t really pick out the lima beans here. In the end, the game taken as a whole isn’t nearly as consistent in its quality as Cally’s Caves 3. It’s still more than worth a go, but make sure you’re prepared for a lot of filler along with the killer.

Game information Developers: Long Hat House Publishers: Raw Fury Platforms: Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Release: 6 February 2018 Genres: Platformer, Metroidvania Modes: Single-player For anyone who’s reached adulthood, few game genres are as comforting as metroidvania. There’s something about the combo of action and platforming that just takes you back when done correctly, and Dandara ($5.99) surely does that. While it wears its classic influences very much on its sleeve, this game builds on them with a unique system of movement and a gorgeous environment that beckons you to explore. Even though Dandara launched on multiple platforms, it feels right at home on touchscreens, so much so that you can’t help but wonder if this is how it’s truly meant to be played. I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t quite hip to the way that Dandara presents its story. Maybe I just need things laid out for me a little more explicitly. All you really need to know is that the world you’re diving into is called Salt, and the titular heroine is needed to save it from the forces of evil. You embark on your quest with modest capabilities, as one does, which is alright in this case because getting around is more than half the fun when the game begins. That’s because movement is its own complete riddle to solve for newbies. By tapping and holding on the right side of the screen, you extend a line out from Dandara that points to where she’ll land when you let go. Only some parts of every platform, typically lined in white, can be landed on, and then you’ve got to point and release to get to where you want to go next. Making things even more interesting is the fact that gravity holds no sway over you, so landing on the ceiling or walls is not only possible but essential. Every now and then, the game will rotate when you enter a new area, so you will get disoriented at times, even with a map. But it’s a lot of fun just zipping around at first like some combination of Spider-Man and Speedball — or if you don’t like Marvel Comics references, consider it an infinitely more enjoyable way of putting your high school geometry knowledge to use with your reflexes. Naturally, there are enemies who would rather you didn’t save Salt, so your left hand is for holding down and releasing in the direction you want to fire your energy blasts. Considering you often need to do this while on the move, or at least very quickly after moving, the combined effect is kind of like a gonzo twin-stick shooter mashed up with your metroidvania. The difficulty isn’t murderous, but the challenge level is real, as sometimes you’ll need precision, other times speed, and occasionally both at once. You’ll probably find yourself dying fairly often until you get the hang of everything, but the occasional camp provides a respawn point when you fall into oblivion, as the game calls it. As in some of the genre standard-bearers, you’ll soon discover that there are many places you can see but can’t get to or visit and not be able to fully unlock. Doubling back once you’ve unlocked more upgrades is something you’ll definitely need to do, and the devs did excellent work making you actually want to do that. What’s that noise that’s making everything shake in the temple but hidden behind that stone wall? You might not find out right away, but rest assured you’ll remember it for later. Some of those surprises for down the road take the form of boss battles against truly huge opponents, and it’s both in those encounters and talking to some of the NPCs that the game’s art style shines brightest. Most of the visuals are done up in a retro, slightly pixelated style, but the large bosses and other characters with speaking roles have their own aesthetic that almost seems like it came from another game. Paradoxically, it still fits together with everything else, giving Dandara the visual uniqueness to match its mechanics. There’s a crazy amount of detail as well, including multi-layered backdrops and tons of objects in constant motion, though you might have to force yourself to stop for a minute to admire and take it all in. The audio experience is nearly as good because while Dandara doesn’t necessarily have a soundtrack as much as it has ambient background music, it still does its part in creating the atmosphere. You’ll notice the music change from zone to zone too, and the sound effects, including the one you’ll hear often as you charge up your powers before releasing them on your foes, are on point. Any quibbles with the overall experience are relatively minor. I couldn’t get the game to flip on my iPad and was stuck playing it the opposite way from how I’d normally hold it. That would have been even more of an annoyance for most other games, but because of the way this one is designed, you actually could play it upside-down and just be moving and shooting with the opposite hands. The only times you’d even notice something was amiss is when you talk to someone or fight some of the bosses. Seriously, though, if you were ever going to shell out for a iOS game that is premium to its core, you want to do it for one that earns it with stellar gameplay, stylish presentation and just the right dash of nostalgia. Dandara connects all of those dots the same way it gets you leaping from point to point, and there’s a good chance you’re going to be spending plenty of time with it if you give it a shot.

Welcome.

Game Informations Developers : NorthernBytes Software Released : June 19, 2018 Genre : Adventure Platforms : Anroid - Microsoft Windows - maxOS The long-awaited Suzy Cube ($0.99)) lives up to the hype. Developer NorthernBytes and publisher Noodlecake have created the new pinnacle of 3D control on mobile, and paired it with a platformer that’s a lot of fun, regardless of the fact it controls like a dream. If you ever played Super Mario 3D Land or World, you’ll likely be familiar with the way Suzy Cube‘s camera and platforming work. It uses a fixed camera that moves only when necessary, such as at certain points in the level when the perspective needs to change. It also means that a lot of sections of the game feel kind of like looking in on a diorama, or or almost two-dimensional with some 3D movement. And honestly, this kind of perspective feels a bit more natural than many 3D platformers, because think about how you navigate spaces. You consider walking through hallways, and while you are moving through three-dimensional space, it feels a lot like just walking down a corridor in a two-dimensional manner. That’s what this kind of forced-camera perspective does. Admittedly, it was originally designed for the 3DS, where the 3D view of the screen gives things a perceived depth that helps out in some cases, but it still really works on 2D screens! For Suzy Cube, a 3D platformer on mobile, this makes it a lot easier to navigate the world. You never have to worry about the camera being an obstacle. Well, at least not intentionally, as the game does strategically hide some secrets in the landscape. But when you have these very regimented segments of levels to navigate, it prevents a lot of frustration that pops up from wide-open three-dimensional level design. More developers need to ape this kind of level design, because it works incredibly well in Suzy Cube. It also helps that Suzy Cube has some fun level designs to play through. The pyramid levels, where you have two different paths to play through to unlock the exit, are fun in part because of their non-linearity. The three stars in each level are often hidden away in clever spots that reward you for going off the beaten path. Again, the perspective makes things feel like you’re always on the proper path, but there are just enough elements that reward you for going against the grain a bit. The only things that didn’t really work for me were a low-timer level where you often slide down snowbanks (the lack of depth perception hurts here), and the boss fights, which use the same boss with a variation in patterns Anyone making a 3D game with a virtual stick needs to play Suzy Cube and study how well it works. I hope the developer gives some talks somewhere, because the world needs to know how to make 3D games control this well. I think it might be the use of aggressive stopping of Suzy and a limited use of inertia. The point is that it feels great to control Suzy with the touch controls, and the gap in accuracy between the touch controls and physical controls is minimal at best. You absolutely have to play this game just to see how good a 3D platformer can feel on mobile. It’s witchcraft. I have no clue how NorthernBytes pulled this off, and I hope other developers figure out how to mimic these kinds of controls so that our 3D games on mobile all feel amazing. Maybe you’re still a skeptic. At least you have the option of whether you want to use physical or virtual controls, as the game does support MFi controllers! Seriously, go back to touch controls after using the physical controls. The difference really is as small as it possibly could be. The game also supports the Apple TV, both with the Siri Remote and MFi controller support. However, there aren’t cloud saves, so choose your platform wisely. Suzy Cube has several different powerups, Mario-style, that not only let you do things like slam the ground and fly around, but also discover hidden things in previous levels. For example, you see a block that has cracks in it, but you can’t break it right away. Until later on when you find out how you can break them…and your powerup hats carry from level to level. Of course, if you take damage, you lose your powerup hat, which might complicate your quest to discover what those blocks! The one downside to this system is that Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World at least had item slots so you didn’t have to find particular items each time, and you can’t just quit a level once you get the hat you want. Suzy Cube contains five worlds with five levels each that you have to complete in order to beat the game. Then, each world has an optional level that unlocks after you collect enough stars, along with 11 levels in the Secret World. Not exactly so secret if it’s right there on the screen! Those optional levels are a lot of fun, because they really play with the mechanics of the game. One level is a Plinko board, where you have to figure out the proper path downward in order to get all three stars. Another one I like deliberately uses forced perspective to mess with your perception of where different blocks exist in 3D space. It’s a lot of fun. Suzy Cube herself is a simple character design, but the animations go a long way toward giving her a strong sense of personality. Most everything is cubic, but again, they aren’t just anonymous enemies, they feel like they’re an alive part of the world. My favorite enemy is one that mimics your movements with a smile on your face, and you just have to trick them by jumping and then going around. Another enemy you have to knock off of a ledge, and it sweating and looking panicked when it’s near the edge is another touch of attention to detail. Suzy Cube was in development for three years, and it’s clear just where all that time went into. Everything about the game is absolutely well-crafted to a ridiculous degree. Suzy Cube is one of the best 3D platformers ever made for mobile, and you ought to play it.