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@Seuong @Meh Rez vM ! ♫ @Ru-gAL.™ @#Steeven.™ @XZoro™

DH1, good music ❤️

DH2, nice music and legend ❤️

DH2, Nice music!

At a time when games like Among Us, which have received millions and millions of players thanks to the publicity and reach that streamers are able to give to a particular topic, Google is in the position of publicly clarifying that opinions individual developers on staff do not correspond to the opinions or plans of Google. This is due to the statements of Alex Hutchinson, creative director of the Montreal Studio of Stadia, who in two tweets has stated that streamers should not worry so much about whether their broadcasts are removed from the network for using unlicensed music, but rather claims that they broadcast games they haven't paid for. Alex goes further and explains that the reality is that streamers should pay the developers of the games they broadcast, in addition to acquiring a license as "all real businesses" and paying for the content they use. It is at least strange that it is precisely a developer who works for Stadia, a platform where one of its main attractions is to broadcast our games on the network, who shows such a negative position on the matter, which is why Google has had to come out to defend itself and uncheck yourself from these comments.

Initially, Steam Link was a hardware device designed to connect to the living room TV and be able to play PC games (from Steam) on it, without having to connect the PC directly to the TV and without requiring anything else. However, Valve removed the device from its store and now Steam Link works merely as an app. In this article we will tell you how this system works and what you need to play Steam PC games on the living room TV. According to Valve, with Steam Link we can play virtually any PC game that we have on Steam and that is compatible with the remote control on the living room TV, as long as it is compatible. We can also play on Android devices and even if we have a Raspberry Pi. Let's see how this system works. How does Steam Link work? Steam Link The basis of this system is a PC, and obviously it is necessary that you have your gaming PC turned on, working and with the Steam application open. Essentially, the game will run on your PC, and your computer hardware will be responsible for making it work, so the performance you get will depend on it. In other words, Steam Link simply consists of streaming from your PC to your TV or Android device, but with a fundamental modification compared to simple streaming: controller compatibility. Normally, when you stream from one device to another the communication is unidirectional, that is, you simply see what happens on a computer elsewhere. However, Steam Link promises that you will be able to play on the living room TV, so you will necessarily need to be able to connect the gamepad to that other device, and there has to be a two-way communication, so that the actions of the controller are sent to the PC running Steam. for you to do them. Steam Link diagram Thus, at the hardware level, Steam Link needs the receiving device (the TV, Raspberry, Android terminal, etc.) to be able not only to receive the transmission data, but also to be able to send it, either with the remote control connected or through the touch screen of mobile terminals. Of course, it also has to have network components as all transmission is done over your home's local LAN. What do you need to make it work? As we said before, initially Steam Link was a hardware device in itself, but Valve decided to discontinue it and turn this system into a mere application. Therefore, the requirements you have are the following: A PC with Steam running. A TV or screen capable of operating at a minimum 720p resolution. That both devices are connected to the same local network, be it wired or WiFi. An input device, which can be a controller or an Android terminal with a touch screen. According to Valve, Steam Link is natively compatible with many Samsung Smart TVs. Regarding input devices, Valve's official compatibility list is as follows: Steam Controller. Official Xbox One wired controller. Official Xbox One S controller (wired or wireless using Bluetooth). Official Xbox One Elite 2 controller (wired or wireless using Bluetooth). Official Xbox 360 controller (wired or wireless using the wireless adapter). SONY Dualshock 4 official remote (wired or wireless using Bluetooth). Official Nintendo Switch Pro controller (wired only). Logitech Wireless F310, F510 and F710. In essence, you will need to configure your PC to act as a Steam Link server (it's called Remote Play in Steam), and you will need a device compatible with the Steam Link App to connect your controller, keyboard or mouse to be able to play. If you want to know how to configure everything, we have a complete tutorial on Steam Link.

Game Informations : Developer: Leif Johnson Platforms: PC, PS4 Initial release date: October 9, 2013 at 1:33PM PDT Music is condemned to play a bit role in most platformers: no matter how good the composer is, and no matter how moving the score, this entire element of a game's development can often be tuned out with little to no impact on the gameplay. Not so with Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians. Here is a game where the music plays as key a role as the avatar onscreen--where nodding your head to the beat can help you float through Beatbuddy’s mix of adventure and puzzle solving more easily. It's a strong and unusual concept, although the focus on following the beat bears unexpected consequences for the longevity of the puzzle-based gameplay. Other games have incorporated music into their designs before, but they're usually concerned more with some aspect of content generation through custom music as in Symphony or Sound Shapes. Enemies may spawn faster, for instance, or a level's contours may grow more jagged. Beatbuddy takes a more ambitious approach. Everything, friend or foe, dances to the same tune, bringing its own unique timbre to the surrounding symphony and hinting at a profound message concerning the interdependency of all life. It’s the characters on screen that actually make the music, in other words, rather than being affected by it--and this difference is enough that you might find yourself heading back to a particular spot to enjoy a catchy groove one last time. Almost all of the gameplay involves some sort of puzzle-solving in tandem with their actions--drag a hidden key to this slot, activate the power for that door, figure out how to knock a wall down to progress—and the focus on rhythm asserts itself even when you punch and use a submersible’s machine gun to shoot through obstacles. There's a story here, but it has about as much impact on the product as a whole as an average album cover does. You are Beatbuddy (Beat, for short), one of a trinity of music gods of sorts, and your fellow musical spirit Harmony has you rescuing your sister Melody from the clutches of the dastardly Prince Maestro. Maestro wants the world to dance to his beat alone, and that's apparently a bad thing because the poor guy doesn't even have the chops to be a one-hit wonder. Toss in a few quips from your buddy Clef from time to time, and you can probably already figure out how this is going to turn out. Fortunately, the narrative makes up in character what it lacks in depth. When characters speak, they do so through beatboxing--sometimes a little excessively--and when you step away from the keyboard and leave Beat to his own devices, he bobs his head to the music as though he were in an iPod ad and not struggling to save the land of Symphonia from crappy music. Elements of the world pulse with the rhythms; for instance, you find sea anemones waving their tentacles with all the fervor of dancers at a rave. Consider the game itself a six-track album, with the total running time clocking in at anywhere from four to six hours, depending on how well you handle its myriad puzzles. Beat's world is an underwater one, with toe-tapping crustaceans conjuring faint memories of Disney's The Little Mermaid. For two hours or so, it's effortlessly enjoyable. Beat jams his way through this auditory wonderland, bounding off of bass-thumping coral and timing charges through cymbal-like barriers in conjunction with the rhythm. Through it all, he positions thumpers to propel himself through fallen rock and similar obstacles, occasionally tapping on crabs to stop their music just long enough so he can drag a key through to unlock a new area. The beauty of Beatbuddy lies in how every element of the game ties in to the musical experience, and it's occasionally breathtaking to realize how deftly developer Threaks manages to bring the whole concept together into a memorable musical composition for each level. For instance, the first level sends you floating past a single floating bass thumper. Later, cymbal-tapping barriers add further texture to the music and so forth until you find Beat wading through a pleasing fusion of Euro club music and Chicago-style swing. Before long, you're tapping your feet to maintain the rhythm as you prepare to shoot through a narrow passageway on the right beat, judging enemy movements based on the music and even bouncing off platforms just to hear how they add to the level's music. If you love dissecting the nuances of musical composition, Beatbuddy will leave you giddy. And yet things get tiresome. Beatbuddy's reliance on the bass-bumping coral to drive the music and overcome obstacles means that they're scattered throughout every level, and their centrality unfortunately prevents Threaks from spicing up the basic mechanics with different elements. That's not to say that such elements don't exist--there's the Bubbly Buggy, for instance, an armed vessel that blasts enemies and allows Beat to move quickly through cramped tunnels, but its sequences tend to come off as annoyances and unwelcome distractions from Beat's simple punches and thrusts. The continual bobbing to the music grows wearisome in some of the more frantic segments that require precision, as does the need to only use the propulsion system on every second beat. A handful of remaining bugs also mar the experience from time to time, causing you to waste many minutes thinking you haven't found the right switch or knocked down the right wall, when actually must restart the game. Such moments are especially frustrating since they detract from the musical experience, rendering the need to dash with the beat increasingly more irritating as you search for the problem. On the bright side, the colorful world is always a joy to look at, even if each level ends up looking like a variation on the same theme. But then, even some of the finest albums have had their bad tracks. On the whole, Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians is a treat and a fine example of how music can be used to shape a game's entire playthrough. The music is unquestionably the highlight here, and even in Beatbuddy's weakest moments, you might have a hard time refraining from tapping your feet or bobbing your head to the rhythm. The lack of variety in terms of the creatures and obstacles you encounter in the world puts a damper on things, but few games explore song in such an intriguing fashion. system requirements Memory:2 GB Graphics Card:Intel HD 3000 CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians File Size:1 GB OS:Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8

DH1, Nice Music!

we need to know him more in the community, he just joined the design project, Journalist, etc. You have to wait a little longer and see your activity in different sections. GL

Google's new VPN is now being rolled out in the US following the company's announcement last month that higher tier users of Google One would soon get access to the service. The search giant initially said that the service would arrive in the “coming weeks” but now just one week later, its new VPN is already rolling out to Android devices. Unlike other VPN services where users sign up and pay a monthly subscription to use them, Google VPN is actually a part of the company's Google One bundle which also includes Google Drive cloud storage, Gmail, Google Photos, Google Workspace, 10% back in Google Store rewards and the ability to share the plan with up to five additional people. We've put together a list of the best business VPN services around These are the best Windows 10 VPNs on the market We've also highlighted the best proxy service providers Google One offers 100GB, 200GB, 2TB and 10TB plans which range in price from $19.99 a year for the 100GB plan all the way up to $49.99 per month for the 10TB plan. However, to get access to Google VPN users will need to have at least the 2TB plan for $9.99 per month. Related Videos To get started using Google VPN during its initial rollout, users will also need to have either an Android device or a Chromebook with Android app support and live in the US. Using Google VPN Users that meet all of the requirements can begin using Google VPN by opening the Google One app on their Android device and tapping on the “Home” tab. There you'll find a card which reads “Online protection with a VPN”. From here, you'll be brought to a new page with the title “VPN by Google”. Scroll halfway through the page until you find a button that says “Enable VPN”. Tapping on this button will turn on Google VPN and a message will appear in your notification panel informing you that you're now connected. For easier access to Google VPN, you can also add a VPN toggle to Android's Quick Settings menu. Once set up, you'll be able to connect to the service without first having to open the Google One app on your Android smartphone. While Google VPN is only available for users in the US with Android devices for the time being, Google plans to expand the service to other platforms such as iOS and Windows as well as to additional countries in the coming months. Also check out our complete list of the best VPN services

If you would like to know the maximum clock speed that the new AMD processors can reach, especially the Ryzen 9 5950X, and you do not want to leave the salary to buy one of these powerful processors to put it to the test. Then you're in luck because overclocking fans have already done their first tests with the new Ryzen 5000, especially with the Ryzen 9 5950X with which they have overcome the 6 GHz barrier. One of the goals of those who are dedicated to extreme overclocking is to obtain the maximum possible speed from the processors, especially if these are the latest generation. So it is not surprising that they have taken an eye on the Ryzen 9 5950X, the most powerful of the Ryzen 5000, to see what clock speeds it can reach, with which they have exceeded all the records that have been so far. If until recently the question was whether the new processors would overcome the 5 GHz barrier, it turns out that the Ryzen 5000 range has the capacity to exceed 6 GHz of speed, which says a lot about the best of AMD in the Zen 3 architecture and assures us of high clock speeds in future iterations of the Zen architecture. Speeding up the Ryzen 9 5950X to over 6 GHz AMD-Ryzen-9-5950X-6.35-GHz-World-Frequency-Record The first result to be highlighted is the world record, up to now, of the frequency reached by a PC CPU. And it is that a famous Taiwanese overclocker, TSAIK, has managed to place the Ryzen 9 5950X at the incredible speed of 6.35 GHz in all its 16 cores. For this, it has used LN2 cooling and has set the processor voltage to 0.15 V. All this using an MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE motherboard. A second overclocker, Der8auer, has managed to raise the Ryzen 9 to 5950X at 5.85 GHz, also making use of LN2 cooling and a voltage of 1,756 V giving 255 amps to the CPU. Under this speed the powerful 16-core CPU from AMD reaches 14,275 points in the Cinebench R20.

Game Informations : Developer: Mark Walton Platforms: PC, PS4 Initial release date: October 14, 2013 at 12:11PM PDT There's that classic problem with trilogies: after the intrigue and excitement of the first instalment, the follow-up must wrestle with moving the plot forward in a meaningful way, while avoiding those grand revelations so often saved up for the third and final entry. It's unfortunate that The Tyranny of King Washington - The Betrayal (Ep. 2) is the very epitome of a plodding second act. It makes no effort to expand on the mysteries raised by its alternate-universe setting, nor does it offer up much in the way of action from its dull assortment of characters. And worst of all, there's little to be seen of the enigmatic and evil George Washington, the very villain who brought The Infamy (Ep. 1) to life. Instead, you're introduced to a few familiar faces from the Assassin's Creed universe, most notably Benjamin Franklin. He's not his old self initially, but he soon reverts to the same slightly odd character who never really sparked much interest in Assassin's Creed III. Indeed, many of the cast members of The Betrayal fail to capitalise on the alternate-reality setting and instead spend most of their time standing around conjuring up plans and sending Connor out on errand missions around misty Boston. There's a hope that it's all for the greater good of Episode Three, but when you're faced with waves of repetitive missions and seriously dull dialogue, it's hard to see the bigger picture. The missions take the form of fetch quests, mixed up with the odd assassination. There's nothing here you won't have seen before, and because the mission types are repeated so often within the episode, they get very old, very fast. Like in the first episode, Connor is given a new power to spice things up, this time in the form of short-range flight. Rather than having to leap and climb across the rooftops of Boston, he can zip between them in short bursts, or even chain his flights together for some long-distance travel. It's quite a liberating feeling at first and brings to mind Batman's fluid glides around Arkham City, but the power's shortcomings soon become apparent. Accuracy is not one of the power's strong points. While you can flap around almost endlessly if you don't mind where you're going, trying to direct Connor along the rooftops is massively frustrating. The icons that let you know where you can fly to are often clumped together too closely, making them difficult to pick out when you're in the middle of fast-paced motion. There's an endless battle between you and the camera as you try to highlight the place you want to go to, only to miss it and end up somewhere else, or on the ground. More useful is the ability to home in on targets from afar and land a sneaky kill, though Boston wasn't designed for such actions, so your attack is often blocked by an errant chimney. No Caption Provided The power itself is based on the abilities of a eagle. Like in The Infamy, Connor drinks a hallucinogenic tea and embarks on a strange, otherworldly drug-trip-cum-tutorial that's as clumsy as it is weird. The Eagle power is the only real nod to Connor's Native American heritage that featured so strongly in the first episode, which is something of a disappointment--particularly if you're interested in learning more about Connor--but not unexpected given the city setting. What is unexpected is Boston itself, which remains seemingly unaffected by Washington's dictatorship, and so looks and feels just like it did in ACIII: it's that lack of detail that makes Episode Two feel far less convincing than its predecessor. That's a shame, because if The Infamy did anything, it sparked curiosity in the evil George Washington storyline. It's not until the very end of The Betrayal that things begin to get interesting again, and having to trudge through the rest of the episode to reach that point is a lot to ask, even if you're already heavily invested in the story. Lots of side missions and collectible memory artefacts help to ease the disappointment, but they're not enough to make The Tyranny of King Washington - The Betrayal the exciting follow-up the first entry hinted at. Here's hoping Episode Three picks up the pace.

Today is a special day for our friend @#Steeven.™, happy birthday brother, I hope you do well with your family at home and with your friends in the community. Good luck #SteevenOTAKU.

DH1, Good Music and soundboard

DH2 good music and artist

DH2, good music and soundboard

DH1, Good music !

The premiere date is approaching and as such Zen 3 is just around the corner with all its news. If you are one of those who is waiting to be kicked off to buy one, what better way than to do it with a new high-end motherboard like the GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Elite? Especially if it is on sale with a 23% discount, right? Well let's get to it! If we have something to be clear about, it is that AMD is going to be hitting hard with its new processors and that the stock of this is going to run out quickly. Therefore, we are at a perfect time to hunt down the most succulent offers in X570 with a view to being able to puncture these CPUs on our board as soon as we arrive. How about a GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Elite? GIGABYTE and Amazon throw the house out the window with the X570 AORUS ELITE GIGABYTE-X570-AORUS-Elite-1 Not every day we can buy a "placón" for our PC, but today in particular is one of those days where one can indulge and even more being the first of the month. GIGABYTE and Amazon throw the house out the window with an X570 AORUS ELITE on sale, going from costing 205.82 euros to only 159.45 euros, a saving of 46.37 euros or what is the same, a discount of 23%. What kind of plate are we talking about? Well, a very complete one, extremely complete, since it integrates a system of 12 + 2 power phases (CPU and RAM respectively) with full support from now on to the new Ryzen 5000, as well as the third and second generations of these. processors. GIGABYTE-X570-AORUS-Elite-2 It integrates four DDR4 DIMMs for the dual channel with support for up to 4000 MHz under overclock, which will be great for the Zen 3. It includes a dissipation system for high-performance VRMs, with dimensions and length more than acceptable, so they will always stay cold. We cannot forget its double Ultra Fast NVMe, one under PCIe 4.0 and the other under PCIe 3.0 with which high-speed storage options are covered. Sound is another section that GIGABYTE takes great care of, so on this board we will have high-quality audio capacitors with noise protection and LED audio separation (ALC1200). RGB Fusion 2.0 lighting system We cannot forget the LEDs in the middle of 2020, and how could it be otherwise, the company has equipped this X570 AORUS Elite with its Fusion 2.0 system with multiple LED zones and also with support for LED strips. As is customary, the brand integrates the I / O Shield Armor by default, so that we will no longer lose those shields of yesteryear, we just have to place the frame and that's it. Its features are completed with an HDMI 2.0, four USB 3.0, two USB 3.1, Intel Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1 sound with SPDIF OUT.

Apple has introduced in the latest beta version of its operating system, iOS 14.2 beta, a function for the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max that allows it to detect how far away a person is thanks to its LiDAR scanner. This new function will be part of the Lupa application and uses the LiDAR scanner and the wide-angle camera of the iPhone Pro and Pro Max to inform users of how close a person is, something that will be of great help to people with vision problems. By working with the phones' wide-angle camera, the system will need light, so it will not work in total darkness, as reported by the TechCrunch portal. When it detects a person nearby, the function will report how far you are in feet or meters and automatically update as you zoom in or out. In addition, the function indicates with a stereo sound the direction in which the person is, taking the phone's camera as a reference. This function also allows users to set different tones at certain distances. In this sense, users will hear one tone if a person is more than two meters away and a different tone if they are within this range. Another feature of this function is that it also warns about how far away a person is by means of vibrations, becoming stronger as they get closer, something quite useful for people with hearing disabilities.

Game Informations : Developer: Carolyn Petit Platforms: PC Initial release date: October 25, 2013 at 9:17PM PDT Gotham City. This crime-infested metropolis has been famously imagined and reimagined in comic books, cartoons, and films. Now, we have a new vision of Gotham, and it stands not just as one of the most unforgettable incarnations ever of the city that Batman is devoted to protecting, but as one of the most richly detailed and exciting environments ever seen in a game. Building on 2009's outstanding Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City sets you free in the intoxicating neighborhood of North Gotham, now a sealed-off superprison for the city's worst criminals. As the Caped Crusader, you struggle to bring some semblance of order to the chaotic streets, foiling the plots of supervillains and protecting the victims of those who prey on the innocent. With its atmospheric setting, thrilling movement, immensely satisfying combat, and tremendous assortment of secrets to discover, side quests to complete, and other attractions, Arkham City is a fantastic adventure game. This video has an invalid file format. It's winter in Gotham City, but the streets of the part of town now known as Arkham seem particularly cold. Snow falls on the criminals who roam this place, making the asphalt shimmer with reflections of the neon signs advertising shuttered shops that once upon a time bustled with business. Gotham faced a prison crisis in the wake of the events of Arkham Asylum, and certain unscrupulous characters took advantage of the situation by acquiring the run-down neighborhood of North Gotham, walling it off from the rest of the city, and tossing the criminals in there to fend for themselves. It's an inhumane and immoral operation; food and warmth are scarce, and some inmates are people whose only crime was voicing a negative opinion of Arkham City and those who run it. But their misfortune is your gain. The area of several city blocks that makes up the superprison isn't especially vast as open worlds go, but what it lacks in scale, it more than makes up for in atmospheric detail. Arkham City is home to an old courthouse, a former police headquarters, a musty museum, a disused subway terminal, and other fascinating places. These structures, with their faded portraits, old billboards, and plentiful other features, convey a sense of history. The exceptional art design draws on 1930s art deco and makes Gotham seem like a once elegant and shining city that has fallen into darkness. It's clearly a work of imagination, but as you explore it, its richness pulls you in, and it becomes a world you can't help but believe in. That allure is particularly strong on the PC, where atmospheric details like snowflakes visibly landing on Batman's cape make this wintry, downtrodden environment even more convincing. Batman has no choice but to explore the alleyways and underground tunnels of North Gotham. Within the prison's walls, Joker is dying, and the villain's schemes force the Dark Knight to help him find a cure. That quest brings Batman into contact with the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and numerous other members of Batman's rogues' gallery. Each character is represented terrifically, with plenty of nods to their histories as established in the comics, and part of the fun of progressing through the story lies in seeing what character might make an appearance next. The excellent Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their roles as Batman and the Joker, heading up an ensemble of voice actors who never miss a beat. Also returning from Arkham Asylum is that game's accessible and satisfying combat system. At its core, it's quite simple: one button performs your attacks, while another counters enemy attacks. The combat rewards good timing, and when you get into the rhythm of battle, chaining your attacks together and turning your enemies' attacks against them, it's deeply absorbing. It's also as graceful as it is brutal, making it a joy to behold. The varied attack animations make most tussles look as if they might work as choreographed fight sequences in a movie. In response to your inputs, Batman might simultaneously counter two attackers with a single impressive move, or take advantage of a convenient surface and slam a thug's head against it. As you progress, you encounter enemies equipped with things that make taking them down more complicated. Guards with stun batons can be attacked only from behind; enemies with shields require the use of an aerial attack; and foes with body armor can be injured only with a rapid-fire punch attack called the beat down. It's especially satisfying to defeat large, diverse groups of enemies against whom you must use a variety of techniques. Zoomed-in camera angles that give you a close look at moves that finish off a battle add impact to your attacks and make your triumphs all the more rewarding. Keyboard and mouse controls are as responsive as gamepad inputs, so you can choose whichever method you're more comfortable with. Batman's assortment of gadgets plays a bigger role in combat than it did before. In Arkham Asylum, you could throw batarangs and keep your combo going; here, you can quickly fire off many of your wonderful toys in the heat of battle. A blast from your remote electric charge device can make an enemy involuntarily swing his hammer at surrounding thugs, and a quick placement and detonation of explosive gel can knock nearby foes off their feet. The variety of "quickfire" gadget options and other special moves that Batman has at his disposal can actually be overwhelming, and you may occasionally find yourself pressing the button combination for one gadget when you want to use another. But the game does an excellent job of easing you into the finer points of the combat system, displaying button prompts when you have a good opportunity to use a particular technique. And if you don't quite grasp a move the first time, you can go into your upgrade menu and re-enable its tutorial for a refresher. The addition of quickfire gadgets gives you a number of new options, and skilled players can benefit a great deal from the smart use of these techniques, but you never need to rely on these abilities. If you prefer to keep things simple, you can certainly get by relying primarily on your fists. Of course, thugs with shields, blades, and body armor are one thing; enemies with guns are something else entirely. Batman is tough, but far from invulnerable, and when faced with such firepower, it's time for him to rely on stealth. As in Arkham Asylum, you sometimes find yourself needing to take out rooms of gun-wielding enemies, and all of Batman's techniques from that game are still every bit as fun to use. Sneak up on an enemy from behind and you can take him down silently. By hanging from a gargoyle, you can ensnare an unsuspecting enemy below with an inverted takedown. Your detective vision gives you an edge, letting you see the positions of enemies patrolling the room through walls and floors. And Batman has a few new tricks up his sleeve. When spotted, you can toss a smoke pellet, aiding your escape and possibly leading confused enemies to accidentally attack each other. And you eventually acquire a new gadget that's great fun in these situations: the disruptor, which lets you can remotely disable a thug's gun. It's especially satisfying to do so, then jump down in front of him and watch as he attempts to shoot you, and then knock his lights out. The disruptor's use is limited, so you can't overdo it, but it's a great new addition to Batman's arsenal. The excellent sound design adds tension to these stealthy standoffs, with bad guys becoming increasingly frightened as you pick off their buddies one by one. As you win battles, you earn experience points and periodically level up, which lets you upgrade your suit, gadgets, and combat skills. These upgrades have a real impact on gameplay and create a rewarding sense of growth as you advance through the game. Purchasing the batclaw disarm move, for instance, lets you yank weapons from enemies' hands, while the critical strikes upgrade rewards precise timing in battle with more powerful attacks that let you build up to special combo moves more rapidly. There are an impressive number of upgrade options to choose from, and you'll probably still be leveling up and unlocking upgrades well after finishing the main story. It's not all about combat in Arkham City, though. Far from it. One of the greatest joys of the game is the act of moving around its open world. The grapnel gun made getting around enjoyable in Arkham Asylum, but Arkham City, with its numerous buildings to grapple onto and soar off of, is a veritable playground. You can zip up to ledges and rooftops with the push of a button, and you can leap off these surfaces as well, using your cape to glide through the air. Once you get the hang of generating momentum with your dive-bomb move, you can soar through the city, diving and climbing like a roller coaster. It's an exhilarating way to travel. And if, as you're flying high above the streets, you spot a group of thugs and fancy a fight, it's easy to plummet straight down and plant your boot in a goon's face. Arkham City also acknowledges that Batman's brains are at least on par with his brawn. Occasional clever environmental puzzles, such as a situation involving a pool of water covered in thin ice, frozen cops who need to be saved, and a giant, deadly shark, require you to make smart use of your gadgets. More significantly, the Riddler returns to torment Batman, and he has stepped up his game considerably. As in Arkham Asylum, Riddler trophies have been placed throughout Arkham City. Some of these collectibles have been hidden in the city's nooks and crannies, and if you locate them, you can simply pick them up. However, in many cases, the trick is not locating them, but figuring out how to get them. There are Riddler trophies in plain view all over Arkham City, but they're enclosed in cages, and to retrieve one of these, you must figure out how the mechanism for that particular cage works. There might be a series of switches on a nearby wall that need to be triggered in a particular order. Or it may be a test of agility, with a switch that opens a gate some distance away that you have only a short time to reach before it closes. Some of these puzzles are surprisingly tricky, but there's always a discernible logic that makes working out the solutions rewarding. And in a nice touch, you can mark the location of trophies on your map so that if you can't figure out how to get one at the time, you can easily come back to it later. In addition to his trophies, the Riddler has a new set of environmental riddles for you to solve. Some of these take the form of questions or statements, such as "Do you have Strange thoughts? Maybe you should seek help?" and "I am an actor who can transform a film with the final cut. Who am I?" Answering these requires you to locate the sign, storefront, or other environmental detail that contains the answer. The richness of the world already makes exploring it a pleasure; tracking down these solutions makes doing so even more engaging. Each of these that you solve unlocks an Arkham City story, which offers some textual background on the people associated with that particular riddle, deepening the neighborhood's sense of history. The Riddler's perspective puzzles also make a comeback. These are question marks painted in the environment that need to be viewed from just the right place to appear correctly. Working out the proper vantage point from which to solve these puzzles is as enjoyable as ever. Solving these conundrums doesn't just reward you with a job well done. This time around, the Riddler has kidnapped hostages and placed them in riddle rooms throughout Arkham City, and the only way to get the locations of these rooms is by completing enough of the Riddler's challenges. And this is just one of the numerous side quests you have the option of pursuing or ignoring during your time in Arkham City. You'll almost certainly want to complete many of these, though. These engrossing quests often make great use of villains from the Batman comics who don't play a role in the main quest, and they have their own story arcs that are worth seeing through. They're also fun to play. There are strings of murders to investigate that have you analyzing crime scenes, following bullet trajectories and trails of blood. There's a madman who forces you to race across town to answer ringing pay phones before time runs out and he kills a hostage. There are innocent political prisoners who need your help. And much more. Unlike the console versions, which include a code you need to redeem to access the Catwoman content, the PC version automatically incorporates her chapters into the game. The story occasionally switches from Batman to Catwoman, and her interludes offer some illumination on happenings in Arkham City that Batman isn't present to witness. Playing as Catwoman is enjoyable; she has just enough abilities that are unique to her to make her feel distinct from Batman, while controlling similarly enough to feel immediately familiar. She can cling to certain ceilings and use her claws to scale walls, and her caltrops and bolas can be used in combat to trip and immobilize enemies. You spend only a short time playing as her during the main story, but once that's complete, you can switch between Batman and Catwoman at any time, and she has her own objectives and challenges to complete, and her own set of Riddler trophies to collect. Once you complete the main story, you unlock the new game plus option, which lets you carry over your upgrades but also makes your life more difficult; you have to do without the helpful lines that appear in combat informing you that an enemy is about to strike. But once you've spent that much time with the game, you'll likely be ready for this challenge. And, as in Arkham Asylum, there are a host of challenge rooms that test your skills both in all-out combat and in stealth situations. Some challenges take the form of small campaigns that alternate between combat and stealth scenarios. Each campaign assigns you an assortment of modifiers and requires you to use each of them once. One modifier might benefit you, perhaps giving you regenerating health, while another might benefit your enemies, perhaps giving one a protective aura that prevents him from taking damage. These modifiers, and the tactical process of applying the detrimental ones to the easier scenarios and the beneficial ones to those scenarios you might have a tougher time with, make these campaigns feel distinctly different from the encounters you have during the story. But more than anything else, it's your adventures and explorations in the city of Arkham itself that make this game extraordinary. The game's boss fights look dangerous and spectacular, but they're disappointingly easy, and on occasion, context-sensitive actions may thwart your efforts. You might intend to evade an enemy attack, for instance, but instead your button press makes Batman slowly disable some device as bullets are shredding your health. But these criticisms are nitpicks in a game that does so much so well. From the speedy exhilaration of soaring high above the streets to the atmospheric thrill of discovering long-forgotten secrets in the tunnels below Gotham, this is an unforgettable adventure that will keep you coming back to the cape and cowl long after you've seen the credits roll. System Requirements CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 4800+ OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7. VIDEO CARD: ATI 3850HD 512 MB or NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB or Intel HD Graphics 2000. FREE DISK SPACE: 17 GB.