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Name of the game: Redout 2 Price: $5.19 - FREE Link Store: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/redout-2 Offer ends up after X hours: Sale ends 6/20/2024 at 4:00 PM Requirements:

When members of artist collective turned game developer Studio ZA/UM thanked Marx and Engels in their 2019 Game Awards acceptance speech for the RPG triumph Disco Elysium, I felt like I was looking at the future, the ecstatic debut of my new favorite developer, but that isn't how things panned out. Disco Elysium has been #1 on our yearly Top 100 games list four years in a row, but for much of that time, ZA/UM has been engulfed in an existential crisis. Since 2019, A Disco Elysium sequel, a sci-fi RPG in a new setting, and a full-size Elysium spin-off game have been canceled or "paused," while a heated personal and legal dispute between founding members hangs over ZA/UM's every move. That last canceled game, described as "a spin-off about one of the most beloved characters in Disco Elysium" and spearheaded by one of the first game's principle writers, wowed other teams at the studio in an internal demo at the end of last year. It could have been on our SSDs as early as 2025. This project was cancelled in February, much to the shock of most ZA/UM employees, and nearly the entire team⁠—including that Disco Elysium writer, Argo Tuulik⁠— was laid off. I spoke with 12 current and former employees, including Tuulik and fellow X7 lead writer Dora Klindžić, to find out what went wrong. Studio ZA/UM itself did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. The fall In late 2021, three of Disco Elysium's most senior developers, including the setting's original creator, Robert Kurvitz, lead artist Aleksander Rostov, and Final Cut lead writer Helen Hindpere, left the company on acrimonious terms. The ousted artists have alleged financial malfeasance on the part of company management, with much of their ire focused on Tõnis Haavel, a producer on Disco Elysium who had previously been convicted of investor fraud in the developers' native Estonia in 2014. ZA/UM studio management, meanwhile, insists that the three were fired for refusing to return to work and creating a hostile environment. After the departure of Kurvitz and friends was revealed in 2022, fan sentiment largely aligned with the ousted creatives, with a backlash against ZA/UM escalating into harassment and threats against developers still at the studio. That situation cooled down somewhat with the release of People Make Games' 150 minute-long documentary on ZA/UM, which featured interviews with senior developers still at the studio who had worked on Disco Elysium. Disco Elysium writer Argo Tuulik, a longtime friend of setting creator Kurvitz, gave a raw appraisal of the studio and the ousted writer's respective missteps, asking fans to let those still at the studio prove themselves with their work. Tuulik and his team didn't get that chance: They were laid off from ZA/UM in February alongside nearly a quarter of the studio's staff, predominantly developers on Tuulik's now-canceled project, X7, which would have been a spin-off "standalone expansion" to Disco Elysium featuring some returning characters and an advancement of that game's distinctive conversation and "psychological RPG" systems. Tuulik and fellow X7 lead writer Dora Klindžić lay the blame for X7's end squarely with management, particularly Tõnis Haavel, while 10 other current and former ZA/UM developers spoke with me under anonymity. They described a confused, rudderless studio that expanded too quickly in the pandemic, struggled to adapt to remote work, and has canceled three projects as the afterglow of its triumphant debut faded in the intervening five years. "Most hardcore Disco since Disco" In the absence of a full sequel to Disco Elysium, X7 was going to be a spin-off⁠—smaller than Disco, but still full-scale⁠—headed up by Tuulik, someone who has been part of the Elysium creative project from the start and who wrote some of Disco Elysium's standout characters like the foul-mouthed urchin Cuno and the Hardy Boys, a vigilante militia whose frat boy veneer conceals a strange nobility. "It was a spin-off about one of the most beloved characters in Disco Elysium," explained one developer who worked on the project. "I feel like it was the best possible shot at a Disco-like game without [Kurvitz], Rostov, and other people that made the original Disco Elysium." Klindžić said, "It was something no one else but Argo could have done, and it would have been 110% authentic, most hardcore Disco since Disco." She added that X7 "would have advanced the story, the emotional threads, and gameplay elements all at once to truly evolve the genre of psychological RPG as Disco Elysium started it. "For a while it seemed like miracles were possible, and with them, redemption." The internal response to a company-wide showcase of the game at the end of 2023 seems to have been uniformly positive, with developers on other teams at ZA/UM telling me they were impressed with the demo. "Everyone was looking forward to its development," one of them said. "Its internal announcement lifted a lot of spirits after a rough time of bad press around the studio." They also thought it was "exactly the sort of game [ZA/UM] needs to put out," and that it could "reassure fans that ZA/UM is not a husk, that the IP is in safe hands and that the studio is full of talented people with a genuine love for the world of Revachol." My sources disagree on when X7 could have been ready for release, with some saying a 2024 launch wasn't out of the question, while others argued 2025 was more realistic. Klindžić, for her part, thought that with less interference from management, "it could have perhaps been a three-year development cycle start to finish." Project X7 began development in 2022. One thing everyone I spoke to agreed on was that X7 was the closest major project ZA/UM had to release at the time of its cancellation, and that ZA/UM's main project in active development, codenamed C4, is still a long way out. The smaller-scale project M0 seems much closer to completion, but the mobile and tablet-oriented Elysium spin off, while well-received internally, doesn't seem to be the full Disco Elysium successor promised by projects Y12, C4, or X7. X7 was promising: positively received internally and poised to be a long-awaited second outing from ZA/UM after a five or six-year wait since Disco Elysium. Multiple current and former employees also attest to ZA/UM president Ed Tomaszewski having assured staff in a December 2023 all-hands meeting that the studio was on strong financial footing, and that they did not have to fear the layoff crisis sweeping the industry. Two months later, X7 was cancelled and nearly a quarter of ZA/UM was laid off, primarily impacting the former X7 team. Interference Following the departure of Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere, there seems to have been an understandable crisis at the studio. "Executive leadership and management did not provide any information about what was happening," said one developer who witnessed the transition. "It was very uncomfortable for everyone there." Work on a full Disco Elysium sequel codenamed Y12 was eventually halted⁠. My sources described flagging morale and a lack of direction after Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindperre's departure leading to a decision to regroup on new projects. Multiple sources describe the cancellation of Y12 as having caused friction between Tuulik, Klindžić, and management, with one stating that Y12 was cancelled without input from the senior writers, and that it looked like they were being "pushed out." "In February 2022, I left my job as an academic physicist and space mission scientist in order to work on Y12, the sequel to a masterpiece, Disco Elysium," Klindžić said of this time. "Upon my arrival, I was told all the leads were gone and replaced, but this was framed as a good thing, a healthy thing. Four months later the project was shelved overnight. I began raising concerns, as I felt I had just abandoned my entire life and career only to end up in a studio where the people I had come to work with were fired, and the project I was meant to work on shelved with no reason given." Tuulik and Klindžić were subsequently offered their own project, but under highly irregular constraints. "In August 2022, after production on the sequel was stopped, management approached Argo and I to come up with a pitch for a standalone expansion under the Disco Elysium label," said Klindžić. "We were given only around a week to come up with a fully-fledged game pitch, and we worked around the clock to come up with a new story, new characters, new gameplay mechanics, and a new creative direction, including an initial vision for design, art, and audio. We presented the pitch to management, it was a resounding success. It was greenlit and codenamed X7, and its initial production schedule was set for one year." Tuulik, Klindžić, and everyone I spoke to who worked on X7 attest to it not having been allowed a pre-production period, the industry standard planning phase of developing a game. Making a game without pre-production is analogous to writing an essay without an outline, or building a house without blueprints. "We were set up to fail from the start and it was impossible to catch up," said Klindžić. "Whenever we raised concerns about this and expressed we needed more writers if the deadlines were to be met, we were accused of not wanting to do our jobs." "Pretty much from the moment the writing team's pitch was approved in August of 2022, the other teams started production," Tuulik said. "We didn't even really know what the story or the characters were gonna be, when art teams were already making first character and environment concepts. I'm sure you can see how this is a big problem, when you're making a narrative-lead game. "Essentially, the writing team had to work double-time from day one to supply other disciplines with work, whilst trying to write the first dialogues and sketch out the rest of the game at the same time. The writing team consisted of myself and Dora at the time." A "be careful what you wish for" moment came for X7 with the cancellation of P1, a sci-fi RPG in development under Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender, who after leaving the company sued ZA/UM with allegations similar to those from Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere before dropping his lawsuit at the end of 2022. While the P1 writers added more hands to the project, X7's breakneck pace and lack of planning in pre-production led to Tuulik and Klindžić struggling to bring the new writers up to speed while still building the narrative of the game. One thing that may have fundamentally doomed X7 was an issue of hierarchy: even though Klindžić and Tuulik pitched the project and effectively led development at the beginning, neither was formally designated X7's project lead. "I don't know if Dora and Argo ever felt in control," observed one ZA/UM employee. "You can't back people into corners and expect them to behave." "I didn't ask for a title, because titles used to be meaningless back then," said Tuulik, noting that previously for ZA/UM, "writers who started projects had also been effectively leading them. "That's how it had been, and was at the time on other projects. That's how it was on X7 in the first four months, the most productive months." "The work we were required to do throughout 2022 and 2023 was analogous to the work of other directors in the studio, but we were not given a title upgrade nor a wage adjustment to match," Klindžić said. "It resulted in a situation where I performed labor well outside my original role for the studio for over a year without being properly compensated or recognized for it." That lack of specified roles seems to have quickly become a problem. Tuulik, Klindžić, and other members of X7 say there was fruitful collaboration between departments and good progress in the early months of development, despite the extreme workload taken on by the two-person writing team, and everyone I spoke to, both on the X7 team and outside, praised Tuulik and Klindžić as thoughtful, professional collaborators. Klindžić and Tuulik described having been increasingly sidelined by management and unable to directly communicate with the X7 team⁠—ZA/UM had become fully remote, with most communication occurring through a company Slack⁠—while management introduced a new project coordinator/creative director the two had to go through instead of directly communicating with their colleagues. The two characterized much of this interference as coming from Tõnis Haavel, the Disco Elysium producer at the center of the company's dispute with Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere. Indeed, according to Tuulik, toward the end of the project Haavel was officially the project's coordinator/director and "interim narrative lead." "Nobody says that things are going to change," recalled one member of the X7 team, "But suddenly you have no more meetings with writers for some reason and you're not allowed to send them your work for feedback." Another ZA/UM employee who was not part of the X7 team told me that "in internal docs there was a lot of shifting around who was responsible for leading the project." Klindžić characterizes this as a form of retaliation for Tuulik's statements in the People Make Games documentary: while the developer made a case for those still working at ZA/UM, he also criticized some of the studio management's decisions and expressed some admiration and understanding for Kurvitz. "I felt that a strong resentment developed towards Argo for growing too big for his shoes, so to speak," Klindžić said. "I got the sense that there was resentment for the fact Argo was getting so much support from fans, while [ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus], Tõnis, and the company weren't. "They put Argo through a humiliation campaign. They made him apologize to people for what he said in the interview. They undermined his confidence and tried to make him doubt himself. They told him he was incompetent, unqualified, and unfit to lead his own project, demoted him and made him invisible inside the studio." A one-game studio? X7's direction as laid out by management seems to have been incredibly fluid, with shifting targets including a 2022 Game Awards teaser to announce the game that was ultimately scrapped. Despite producing the well-received internal demo at the end of 2023, the X7 team has been laid off and the project cancelled. Employees still at the company expressed confusion and frustration over the decision, especially considering president Tomaszewski's remarks regarding layoffs in 2023. One common sentiment among those I talked to was that it was just hard to tell if there was a problem on another project or even in a different department on the same project, such is the extent to which ZA/UM's employees are isolated from each other in its remote work environment. ZA/UM expanded from 30 to 100 employees following the release of Disco Elysium, the sort of expansion that can drastically change the character of a company, and one that demands a commensurate increase in output to keep up with the costs. Five years later, the studio has canceled its major project that was closest to launch. It's unclear how much runway the studio has for an intensive, multi-year development cycle like the one demanded by project C4 without substantial new revenue coming in, while the legal battle with Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere continues to haunt its every move. And we'll never get to play X7, a follow-up to Disco Elysium masterminded by one of its principle writers, produced by a team that hit a major milestone and impressed its peers despite what they describe as a scrambled and untenable working environment. The livelihood of that team has been completely upended, and some developers' immigration statuses have been imperiled by their layoffs. The developers I spoke to share the same sense of disappointment I do, that the idea of ZA/UM as a different kind of game developer, one driven by artistry and capable of pushing the medium forward with more games like Disco Elysium, was never meant to be. "For a supposedly 'leftist' company, this is a real mask-off moment," one current employee told me. Another mused that "We're not the first studio to go through that, it just feels worse when it's ZA/UM." There's a quote from Disco Elysium itself that springs to mind here, one about capital taking off its mask of humanity to kill everything you love, but it feels a little on the nose. "The entire X7 team loved the Elysium world⁠," Klindžić told me in our last interview. "As fan artists, musicians, iconic voices⁠, we only wanted to keep it going, rather than leave it to wither in some dark decrepit cellar of corporate intellectual property." https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-development/for-a-while-it-seemed-like-miracles-were-possible-and-with-them-redemption-a-follow-up-to-the-legendary-disco-elysium-might-have-been-ready-to-play-within-the-next-yearzaums-devs-loved-it-management-canceled-it-and-laid-off-the-team/

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Normally I would disagree since you started your activity just yesterday. But since we are in need of members, I'd say Pro. Have a lovely day!

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Accepted. Contact me via PM or discord: saad.tebba

Around September or October each year, Burketown in outback Australia becomes the scene for a remarkable and rare natural phenomenon: the Morning Glory. At the end of a very long road in Australia's far north, on a remote stretch of coastline along the isolated southern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, is Burketown (po[CENSORED]tion 238). Caught between savannah and sea, beneath a big outback sky, the town is not on the road to anywhere: if you're in Burketown, you either took a wrong turn, or you really wanted to be here. This is a land of climate extremes. Droughts scour the inland in the Dry (as the locals call the dry season), which runs from May to September or October. Sometime in October, perhaps November, the rains arrive. These are not light showers. Rain comes down in torrential sheets. Before the road here was paved, Burketown could be cut off for weeks. Even now, a big Wet can cause flooding that submerges an area the size of a small European country. At the tail-end of the Dry, just before the transition into the Wet, Burketown becomes the scene for one of the most remarkable natural phenomena in Australia: the Morning Glory, an immense and rare formation of tube-shaped clouds that has long drawn curious crowds and dedicated storm chasers. Forming out over the tropical seas of the Gulf at a point where two wind systems collide, the Morning Glory takes shape at night when onshore air cools and slips beneath layers of warm air. The result is a turbulent formation of cylindrical roll or wave clouds in fronts hundreds of kilometres long. Although this dramatic and photogenic weather event occasionally occurs elsewhere in the world, including the Gulf of Mexico, Burketown is the only place on Earth where it happens on a regular basis, thanks to a unique mix of geography and local climate systems. When the Morning Glory appears, it's an astonishing, almost apocalyptic vision that well reflects the power of this remarkable weather system. "The Morning Glory moves so much air that it can even be picked up on a seismograph," said Ernie Camp, lifelong resident and mayor of Burketown for the past decade. The Morning Glory signifies power of a very different kind for the local Gangalidda indigenous people. To the Gangalidda, Walalu, the Rainbow Serpent, creates each Morning Glory – or kangólgi, as they call it. According to tradition, the Gangalidda ancestors ride along on the cloud to watch over their people and their land. For the modern Gangalidda, this is a good omen of the highest order. Other than for those closely studying meteorological charts, the first hint that a Morning Glory is on the way may be in the town's pub: when condensation forms on the beer glasses in the evening, there's a good chance a Morning Glory will arrive the following dawn. Amanda Wilkinson, owner of Burketown's Savannah Lodge and town resident for 30 years, uses a different early warning system: "In the evening, you notice a nice sea breeze. Then, if you walk outside in the morning and it's very dewy on the grass and on the railings and on your car, you'd straight away look out to the north-west to see if there was something on the horizon." It used to be easier to predict, said Camp. "Before there was easy access to electricity and air-conditioning, everybody knew it was coming. If you were suffering in the heat all night, you'd have your windows open, and you'd feel the cool air. It usually comes through between 04:00 and 07:00, and it was just glorious to have that drop in temperature. We're less likely to notice it now because we're in comfort inside our houses with the air-con running." When the Morning Glory rolls in, your first sight is unlike anything you've ever seen before. "It's quite an eerie sensation as the wind picks up and the temperature drops," said Wilkinson. "And then it's amazing. You get some that are whoppers, with smooth, cylindrical clouds, others with fluffy bits at the top. When you get a nice big one, it's absolutely unbelievable." When it passes over the town, she added, you feel like you can almost reach up and touch it. Even those who have seen it often, never tire of the experience. "It's up there with the Northern Lights," said Michelle Zimmerman, a repeat visitor to the town. "You never quite know when it's going to show up, and it's different every time. The only thing for sure is that it will take your breath away." "You never become blasé," Camp added. "It's like watching the breakers roll in." The surfing analogy is apt. As spectacular as the Morning Glory is from land, it's the experience of seeing it from the air that has caused its fame to spread far and wide. After a pair of gliders chanced upon the phenomenon in the late 1980s, the Morning Glory has become the Holy Grail for gliders in Australia. Every year, from around mid-September, gliders arrive from across the country hoping to "surf" the Morning Glory, as the long, wave-like formations and relatively predictable air movement along the cloud front make for ideal conditions. As with all unpredictable weather events, no-one really knows when the Morning Glory will appear. Prior to the pandemic, Burketown hosted a Morning Glory Festival in September. "During one of the more recent festivals, we had a week of festivities, and not one Morning Glory turned up," said Camp. "The festival finished on a Sunday, and on the Monday morning a Morning Glory rolled in." When conditions suggest that a Morning Glory has formed out to sea, the gliders take to the air. Most use touring motor gliders with a 100-horsepower engine, which they then switch off when in position. Garrett Russell, from Caboolture Gliding Club, more than 2,000km from Burketown, has twice been here to "surf" the Morning Glory, gliding the rising, warmer air along the front of the cloud, much as a surfer does along an actual wave. He even made a film about it called The Tsunami in the Sky. On his last morning in town, he got lucky. "We were over the savannah and looking at the front of this cloud coming at us. We were perhaps 3,000ft above the Earth, but it felt like nothing. We turned the engine off and we flew in silence towards this thing, and I felt like a shrimp being sucked into the lips of a whale. We were going down and down, and then suddenly we were going up. We got the lift and turned left and surfed along the face of that wave. That was the most exciting thing I've ever done in a glider. We did seven waves." Experienced gliders surf the Morning Glory for hours, kept aloft by rising air along the front of the vast cylinder of cloud, sometimes travelling at more than 100km/h. Some fly so close that they dip their wing tip into the cloud, like a surfer reaching out with their hand to gently touch the wave. "You just feel very small," said Russell, "and you feel the true majesty of nature." Gliders like Russell know how lucky they are. "Because of the remoteness of Burketown, and because of what you need in terms of equipment to do it, the total number of people who've flown the Morning Glory would be way less than the number of people who've stood on the summit of Mt Everest." But as exclusive as their club is, the gliders don't have to say anything to locals like mayor Ernie Camp. "They don't have to tell us how good it is," Camp said. "They just keep coming back." https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220503-where-people-surf-tubular-clouds

Realme GT 7 Pro launch in India was recently confirmed by Realme Vice President Chase Xu. The purported handset is expected to be unveiled in China before it is brought to other markets, including India. Several leaks related to the Realme GT 7 Pro have surfaced online over the past few days. A new leak suggests the display, camera, battery and storage details of the phone, and reasserts an earlier SoC-related leak. Its predecessor, the Realme GT 5 Pro, was not introduced in India. Realme GT 7 Pro Specifications (Expected) The upcoming Realme GT 7 Pro will sport a 1.5K 8T LTPO OLED screen, according to a Weibo post by tipster Digital Chat Station, which also claims that the panel will likely be provided by a domestic display manufacturer. The post also suggested that the Realme GT 7 Pro is expected to feature a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with support for up to 3x optical zoom. The handset is also expected to pack an "ultra-large" 6,000mAh battery. The tipster adds that the Realme GT 7 Pro is expected to get Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC paired with 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of onboard storage. This backs an earlier leak which claimed that the upcoming handset could be the first smartphone in global markets outside China to carry the yet-unannounced Snapdragon chipset. An earlier report suggested that the Realme GT 7 Pro may be equipped with an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor for security, which is claimed to offer more accurate more accurate fingerprint readings compared to optical scanners. Realme GT 7 Pro launch timeline (expected) The Realme GT 5 Pro was launched in December 2023, and that the company could follow a similar launch cycle and introduce the Realme GT 7 Pro towards the end of the year. https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/realme-gt-7-pro-specifications-leak-display-soc-camera-storage-battery-details-5839391#pfrom=topstory

Are you ready to stare down skyscraper-size Behemoths, box your way through Shardfall’s terrors, and power wash a time-traveling DeLorean? This past month that’s what I’ve been up to thanks to the help of my Meta Quest 3 (and the new Quell immersive fitness system), and I’m here to break down my experience playing them all. Slight spoiler, this month’s VR games and apps were all superb – I highly recommend you pick up at least one of these as soon as you can. So let’s get into what I thought of Behemoth, Power Wash Simulator and its Back to the Future DLC, and the new Quell game Shardfall. But first, something a little different. Ahead of the trailer reveal I had the pleasure of chatting with Ryan Payton – the Studio Director of Camouflaj (the team behind the game) – to find answers to my most burning questions. Payton revealed that the main villain isn’t Ratcatcher like we expected – instead, he’s merely a follower of the actual big bad, the Rat King. He described the gameplay to me in great detail, calling Arkham Shadow a VR Translation of everything that made Arkham Asylum the smash hit it was – from the exploration to the story and characters to the dynamic combat. Payton also outlined why this game had to be a Meta Quest 3-exclusive. You can read my full chat with Ryan Payton on Arkham Shadow for a more in-depth look at these topics, but just know that I’m even more hyped for this game than I was already. Its ‘Holiday 2024’ release date can’t come soon enough. This past month I was lucky enough to try an early demo of Behemoth. The roughly 15-minute slice of the game introduced me to some of the enemies, weapons, puzzles, and monstrosities the game has in store for players. My victory over the demo’s Behemoth was slightly lessened when I was told the boss was nerfed a little for the experience. However, the team tried to boost my spirits by explaining that’s because players would usually face it after a few hours rather than 10 minutes – so they’d be prepared for a tougher fight. I guess I’ll just have to try the full game so I can prove myself in a full-power rematch – and I can’t wait. You can think of it as a virtual reality version of Shadow of the Colossus (to be a little reductive). You’re on a quest to hunt and kill massive behemoths that roam the lands, with the boss fights feeling more like action-based puzzles than a typical brawl. That’s not to say you won’t get your fill of Dark Ages-style duels. As you adventure you’ll face off against many human-sized enemies looking to finish you off before you even have a chance to spy one of the beasts you’re searching for. Yes, they’re a lot less imposing, but fighting these smaller foes is still challenging and exhilarating thanks to Behemoth’s sandbox approach to combat. You’re given access to a good variety of weapons to whirl around, as well as techniques to string together, like blocking, parrying, and grapple-hook acrobatics, to find interesting ways of decimating your foes. Alternatively, you can rage out, dealing massively powerful hits for a limited time, and just blow your enemies away. Speaking to Shawn Kittelsen, Vice President of Creative at Skydance Interactive for Behemoth, after the demo, he explained that after working on The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners the team wanted to basically make the complete opposite of that game. “The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners has all these dark intimate spaces, and you never know if a Walker is waiting around the corner to grab you. We thought, what if we take our arc of motion physics that players love, our experience designing different weapons and enemy varieties, and apply that to something completely different – an epic fantasy game with wide open arenas.” When the team considered what enemies players would find in these large spaces the answer was clear, Behemoths. From here the team crafted these antagonistic puzzles for players to best – giving them a few nasty tricks like player responsiveness. This means that rather than simply cycling through attacks these monsters will react to your actions. This is something I noticed in my demo as my decision to run under the monster to dodge the giant ball and chain it wielded merely resulted in it choosing to kick me instead. If you’re interested in trying Behemoth when it launches, it’ll be coming to Meta Quest 3, Oculus Quest 2, PSVR 2 and PCVR. When discussing the power difference between these hardware systems, Kittelsen assured me that while the PS5 and PC-powered experiences will offer better visuals (and a few extra immersion features like PSVR2’s headset rumble) the Quest 2 experience will feel the same in terms of gameplay and with smooth framerate. He added, “It was important that we didn’t leave Quest 2 players behind.” After my experience with Lawn Mowing Simulator, I was a little reluctant to try out another chore sim – my girlfriend even laughed at me when she heard I’d be spending my time doing virtual busywork for a second month in a row. But PowerWash Simulator manages to deliver everything I expected from Lawn Mowing Simulator and more. It’s a cathartic cleaning experience that I’ve been oddly addicted to since downloading it a couple of weeks ago. Yes, the main game is very simple. With enough patience, and some help from the in-game checklist and dirt viewer, you can wave your cleaning wand over every surface and get the van/house/playground dinosaur looking as good as new with no difficulty. But there’s something meditative about meticulously scrambling over surfaces looking for the last specs of dirt you need to wipe off. For those of you after more of a challenge, some modes task you with recleaning every level under a time restraint and water restriction, respectively. I’ve given these modes a whirl but feel my cleaning prowess is not yet up to snuff – the water trials are particularly challenging, requiring a level of cleaning precision I currently lack. To continue my training, PowerWash Simulator offers additional bonus levels. Some are included in the base game, while some licensed locations are available via paid DLC – like the recently released Back to the Future pack. While it’s not quite the immersive Back To The Future experience fans of the series might have hoped for, if you enjoy what PowerWash Simulator has to offer then these themed levels are a delight. I hope we’ll see more. Despite my reaction being the reverse of how I felt about Lawn Mowing Simulator, I’ll admit that this monotonous chore sim won’t be for everyone. Trying to compare it to an action-packed hit like Behemoth it seems almost a little boring. But at the same time, I’ve found PowerWash Simulator to be deceptively moreish. Whenever I try to put it down I want to slip my Meta Quest 3 back on and get straight back to cleaning. Okay, so Quell isn’t a Meta Quest 3 game. It’s not even a VR game. But I needed to talk about it here as I feel it’s a great alternative to the VR fitness apps I’ve been talking about since I did my month-long VR workout challenge back in April. This fitness-first gaming platform offers a lot of what I’ve fallen in love with from VR apps like Supernatural. Rather than working out just for the sake of it (something that can be a struggle for motivation), there’s a gamified element. In Quell’s case, that’s the enemies you face off against in its first game Shardfall – a high-fantasy adventure. It’s not just an upper-body workout. You also have to jog, sprint, squat and jump your way past obstacles that occupy the space between fights. Because this adventure isn’t in VR, the team’s been able to incorporate these elements without as much risk of the player injuring themselves, or feeling nauseous. It’s also added resistance bands – with three difficulty levels – which make punching more challenging. When I first tried Quell I was surprised how much more effort I was putting into my shadow boxing. For a more in-depth look at this new immersive fitness experience, I’d recommend checking out my full feature about my experience with Quell. But TL;DR I’ve really enjoyed using it, even though I had the occasional frustrating issue with the tracker not syncing perfectly with my movements. If you’ve struggled to get into VR fitness, or more traditional workouts then Quell could be what you’re after. But do think if Quell is definitely for you before you buy it as it is a little pricey at $339 / £299 (it’s, unfortunately, not available in Australia), with a subscription on top that’s $9.99 / £9.90 per month or $79.90 / £79.90 for a year. When it comes to dedicated fitness equipment this isn’t an unreasonable amount, though. https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/i-tried-vrs-shadow-of-the-colossus-and-cleaned-doc-browns-delorean-my-favorite-meta-quest-3-games-and-apps-for-june-2024

3D printing has made manufacturing more affordable, especially for low-volume production. However, 3D printers are often huge and heavy devices that need a stable platform to work properly — until now. MIT News reports that its researchers have worked closely with a team from the University of Texas at Austin to create a prototype 3D printer that is smaller than a coin. This photonic chip focuses its beam into a resin well that rapidly cures when it’s hit by a particular wavelength of light emitted from the chip. The palm-sized 3D printer also saves space by eschewing moving parts — instead of using arms and motors to change the beam’s focal point, the prototype uses tiny optical antennas to move it around and create the desired shape. If the team is successful in turning this concept into a viable product, it could change the face of instant manufacturing. The portability and speed of this palm-sized printer could allow anyone — engineers, doctors, or even first responders — to create solutions on the fly without needing to lug around a big and heavy device. For example, an orthopedic surgeon could bring a 3D scanner into the operating theater and scan a patient’s broken bones. From there, they could bring in a biomedical engineer to craft a custom bone implant to help fractures heal and then print it with the portable 3D printer using a biomedical resin. Alternatively, this small 3D printer would be much easier to bring on the Artemis moon exploration program, especially as it is lighter and more compact than other alternatives. It could then be useful for creating tools that the crew will need on the fly. These are just some of the exciting possibilities that this 3D printing concept brings to the table. According to MIT Professor Jelena Notaros, “This system is completely rethinking what a 3D printer is. It is no longer a big box sitting on a bench in a lab creating objects, but something that is handheld and portable. It is exciting to think about the new applications that could come out of this and how the field of 3D printing could change.” 3D printing has quickly changed over the years since it was first introduced. Today, we are getting metal 3D printers in the International Space Station that can print tools and parts needed for moon and Mars missions, as well as cheap $77 AliExpress 3D printers that let you start making your own builds at a fraction of the cost. We’ve even seen affordable new 3D printers that are large enough to print a small child. If this project makes it to retail, then, soon enough, we’ll have a 3D printer you can fit in your pocket. https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/worlds-first-chip-based-3d-printer-is-smaller-than-a-coin-benefits-from-having-no-moving-parts

Name of the game: Assassin's Creed Odyssey Price: $59.99 - $8.99 Link Store: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/assassins-creed-odyssey Offer ends up after X hours: Sale ends 6/13/2024 at 4:00 PM Requirements:

Music title: French Montana & Skilla Baby - Skyami (Official Video) Signer: French Montana & Skilla Baby Release date: 2 days ago Official YouTube link: Informations about the signer: A Moroccan rapper, lives in the US Your opinion about the track (music video): 6/10

Labour and the Conservatives have been challenged over how they would fund their election pledges, ahead of their manifestos being launched next week. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned the next government would have to cut the scope of what the state provides or increase taxes to maintain levels of departmental spending. Both parties have said they will not raise the rate of income tax, National Insurance or VAT. On the campaign trail on Sunday, Labour announced plans to build more prisons, while the Tories focused on welfare reform and the Liberal Democrats on support for carers. Speaking on a visit to Essex, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer refused to rule out spending cuts to public services but said his party would "not be raising taxes on working people". "All of our plans are fully funded and fully costed and none of them require tax rises over and above the ones that we've already announced," he said. Labour has already said it would end tax breaks for private schools which exempt them from VAT and close the loopholes allowing some people with non-dom status to avoid paying tax in the UK if it wins power. It has also promised a time-limited windfall tax on the excess profits of oil and gas companies. Asked if he could rule out spending cuts, Sir Keir said: "We are not returning to austerity. We will grow our economy." However, the Scottish National Party challenged Sir Keir to "finally start being straight with the public and explain where the Labour axe will fall on public services". The party said £18bn of public service cuts were coming down the line "because of the decisions made by both the Conservatives and Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party". Appearing on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride was also pressed on how his party would fund their spending commitments. These include £1.3bn to allow higher earners to keep child benefit payments, £2.4bn to raise the tax-free pensions allowance and £2.5bn to introduce mandatory national service for 18 year olds. Mr Stride said his party would pay for these policies by raising £6bn from cracking down on tax avoidance. Asked why this had not already been done already by past Conservative governments, Mr Stride said: "We have been doing it and there’s more we can do." Meanwhile, Reform UK has said it would save £50bn a year by cutting "wasteful spending" and bureaucracy. Asked which public services his party would get rid of, leader Nigel Farage told the BBC: "It’s not about getting rid of public services, it’s about making them more efficient. "It’s about the National Health Service not swallowing up huge amounts of money in diversity training, and things like this." He called for an "open debate" about the future of the health service, arguing "the NHS is not working the way it was 20 years ago", despite taking up a higher percentage of government spending. He added that a "mass simplification of the tax system" would "bring us enormous savings". Reform has said it would increase the threshold when people start paying tax to £20,000 a year, as well as abolishing inheritance tax for all estates worth less than £2m. On Sunday, Labour set out plans to build more prisons in England by allowing ministers to bypass the traditional planning process. However, shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood declined to rule out continuing a scheme that allows some prisoners to be freed early to deal with overcrowding, despite Sir Keir criticising it. Ms Mahmood said it would be "irresponsible" to make a decision on the future of the scheme without seeing figures on how many offenders had been released. Elsewhere, the Tories pledged almost £730m to expand NHS mental health treatment in England as part of moves to cut rising welfare costs. It comes as the parties prepare to launch their manifestos next week, setting out what they plan to do if they form the next government. The Tory manifesto is expected to include a promise to permanently get rid of stamp duty tax for first-time buyers of properties costing up to £425,000. It is also expected to reiterate a previous commitment to scrap National Insurance when it is affordable to do so but it is not thought to include any pledge on inheritance tax. Sir Keir has said Labour will have "no tax surprises" in its manifesto, suggesting it will stick to previous pledges not to increase income tax, National Insurance or VAT, as well as the tax changes it has already announced. He has also confirmed the manifesto will include a commitment to recognise a Palestinian state as "part of the process" to a two-state solution, alongside "a safe and secure Israel". It will also include plans to recruit more teachers and police officers, and to cut net migration - the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK and those leaving. The Liberal Democrats have said their manifesto "will prioritise fixing the health and social care crisis". On Sunday, the party announced it would include a pledge to increase the Carer's Allowance, available to people who look after someone with an illness or disability for at least 35 hours a week, by £20 a week. The Lib Dems said they would also raise the eligibility threshold for the allowance to those earning less than £183 a week, with the changes costing a total of £1.4bn a year. The Green Party says its manifesto will include practical solutions to the cost-of-living crisis, building new affordable homes, protecting the NHS from "creeping privatisation and cleaning up rivers and seas. It has called for the next government to invest an extra £50bn a year in the NHS in England, funded through a new wealth tax on the top 1% of earners. The SNP manifesto, which will be launched the following week, is likely to include a pledge to demand immediate negotiations with the UK government for another independence referendum if the party wins a majority of seats in Scotland. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c844wzmnzjzo

Beachgoers in the Gulf Coast of Florida have been told to be vigilant, after three swimmers were attacked by sharks in two separate attacks. One woman was said to have had part of her arm amputated after being bitten on Friday in Walton County in north-west Florida. Less than two hours later, at another beach four miles further east, two teenage girls were in waist-deep water with friends when they were attacked. One of the girls suffered "significant injuries to the upper leg and one hand" while the other had minor injuries on one of her feet, fire officials said. Authorities have been patrolling the shoreline in boats and some beaches were closed, although they reopened on Saturday with purple flags warning of dangerous marine life. The first incident happened at around 13:20 local time on Friday when a woman, about 45-years-old, was attacked near WaterSound Beach, South Walton Fire District said. She suffered "critical injuries" to her hip and lower left arm and was airlifted to hospital, fire officials said. Part of her arm had to be amputated, fire chief Ryan Crawford later told a news briefing, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News. The second attack - on two girls about 15 years old - happened at about 14:55 local time near Seacrest Beach, the fire department added. "Please swim carefully, respect the Gulf, stay hydrated, and look out for your loved ones," South Walton Fire District said on X. Walton County Sheriff's office said on X on Saturday that during patrols, deputies spotted a 14 ft (4.2m) hammerhead shark in Santa Rosa Beach - but stressed they were "not uncommon". "We want to reiterate that sharks are always present in the Gulf," they said. "Swimmers and beachgoers should be cautious when swimming and stay aware of their surroundings." According to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File, there are around 70 to 100 shark attacks every year worldwide, resulting in about five deaths. The ISAF said last year, there were 69 unprovoked shark bites on humans and 22 provoked bites globally. In Florida, the majority of shark attacks are by requiem sharks - a family of sharks that like warm seas and include species such as bull sharks or blacktip sharks. Most attacks occur in nearshore waters, typically near a sandbar where sharks feed and can become trapped at low tide. Small fish are traveling in schools near the shore this time of year, which might have been a contributing factor in Friday's attacks, the Bay County Sheriff's Office suggested. The time of the attacks - in the middle of the afternoon - was also an anomaly, Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said, according to CBS News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce441vy593jo

Although I sway between just about everything from big bore adventure bikes to small capacity supersport, super-nakeds are my favourite, go-to machinery right now. They’re ridiculously fast, offer a reasonable level of comfort and best of all, they deliver serious amounts of fun, thanks to big high ’bars, quality components and most importantly for me, their brilliant engines. But do you really need a super-naked to scratch that itch? After riding the Yamaha MT-09 at its launch earlier this year, I was convinced that Yamaha’s sub litre naked punched well above its capacity, backed up with a host of electronic goodies and a more aggressive riding position. And having got my leather mitts on it in the UK, it’s just as impressively capable as I remembered. The engine is the star of the show, and even after a few long days in the saddle on road tests, I’ve still been taking the longer way home just to experience the sheer ferocity of that Yamaha CP3 motor. The noise and the delivery of torque is utterly addictive, assisted by a sensational quickshifter that just completes the whole package -especially as I’ve found the perfect setting for the throttle which comes with the map dialled back a level to ‘Street’. It’s a little less ferocious on the initial twist than in ‘Sport’ mode, yet still delivers that same direct connection that Yamaha have worked so hard to develop. It’s the best of both worlds. And then there’s the way it handles, with more poise and precision than ever before, although over the next few months I’m going to spend a bit of time tweaking the suspension (to make it slightly calmer) alongside sticking some slightly more responsive rubber on board. Although those OE S23s offer a great amount of feel and feedback when the tarmac is warm and the sun is shining, I have been struggling to get the feedback and confidence I’d like from cold, especially in damp or wet conditions. But, one massive pain in the backside has been fuel range. I’m not one to be put off by poor range (if the engine experience is that good, it deserves the juice!) but the Yamaha MT-09 does feel wildy thirsty. Although I have been a little throttle giddy, the next stop will be some long days in the saddle to see if the ’09 truly can handle longer journeys, especially as the riding position is slightly more focused and aggressive than before. What I’ve noticed so far is that a screen would go a long way for taking of the strain, so I’ve got one on order, alongside a set of handguards. https://www.motorcyclenews.com/mcn-fleet/yamaha-mt-09/first-impressions-update-one/

Former Liverpool and Scotland centre-back Alan Hansen, 68, is "seriously ill". The Anfield club announced on Sunday their "legendary" former captain is in hospital. "The thoughts and support of everyone at Liverpool FC are with our legendary former captain Alan Hansen, who is currently seriously ill in hospital," a statement read. Hansen won promotion to the Scottish Premier Division with Partick Thistle before joining Liverpool in 1977 for the start of a successful 14-year spell. He was a key part of the great Reds teams of the 1970s and 1980s, winning eight First Division titles, three European Cups and two FA Cups. Liverpool added they are "currently in contact with Alan's family to provide our support at this difficult time, and our thoughts, wishes and hopes are with Alan and all of the Hansen family". Hansen, who also won four League Cups with Liverpool, appeared 26 times for his country and was a member of Scotland's 1982 World Cup side. Former team-mate John Aldridge, chairman of the former players' association Forever Reds, said on X: "All our thoughts as ex-LFC players are with Alan (]ocky) Hansen and his family. Let's hope he can pull through his illness. YNWA." After retiring in 1991, he appeared as a pundit on Match of the Day from 1992 until 2014. Hansen's former Match of the Day colleague Gary Lineker wrote on X: "Horrendous news. Thoughts are with Alan, Janet and all the family." He earned a reputation as one of the most insightful and influential pundits in the country while working alongside figures such as Des Lynam, Lineker, Mark Lawrenson, Alan Shearer and Sir Trevor Brooking. Hansen's most memorable moment on the Premier League highlights programme came in 1995 when he famously responded to a Manchester United defeat at Aston Villa by insisting: "You can't win anything with kids." That team - which included Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and David Beckham - won the FA Cup and Premier League Double that season. Hansen was also part of BBC Sport's coverage of major football tournaments. In all he covered 16 FA Cup finals, six World Cups, five European Championships and one Olympics during his spell with the BBC. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cn00k4gkpz3o

This bowel-saving surgery is nothing to sneeze at. Surgeons have successfully placed part of a Florida man’s colon back into his body after it fell out following a forceful sneeze. The 63-year-old was enjoying breakfast at a diner with his wife when the unusual incident occurred. His miraculous medical recovery is documented in a new article published by the American Journal of Medical Case Reports. Prior to the incident, the man battled prostate cancer and underwent abdominal surgery. He had stitches removed from his abdomen on the morning that his bowel “evisceration” took place. He was at the diner with his wife to celebrate his clean bill of health. “During breakfast, the man sneezed forcefully, followed by coughing,” the journal article explains. “He immediately noticed a ‘wet’ sensation and pain in his lower abdomen. Looking down, he observed several loops of pink bowel protruding from his recent surgical site.” The man covered the exposed intestines with his shirt while his wife called for an ambulance. Paramedics who arrived at the scene noted an “approximately 3-inch vertical laceration with large amounts of bowel” poking through it. Thankfully, the Floridian reported little blood loss and he was rushed to a nearby medical facility. Three urologic surgeons carefully reduced the eviscerated bowel back into the abdominal cavity and also “inspected the full length of the small bowel and noted no evidence of injury.” They closed the abdomen with a series of figure-of-eight stitches — one of the strongest types of closures — to make sure it did not pop back open once more. The lucky man was eventually weaned off of pain medications and placed back on a normal diet before being released from the hospital following a six-day stay. https://nypost.com/2024/06/07/lifestyle/post-surgery-patients-colon-falls-out-of-his-body-following-a-forceful-sneeze/

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says an Israeli raid on a refugee camp - which led to the rescue of four hostages - killed 274 people, including children and other civilians. On Saturday Israel's forces, backed by air strikes, fought intense gun battles with Hamas in and around the Nuseirat refugee camp, freeing the captives. Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, who were abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October have been returned to Israel. The Israeli military has estimated that fewer than 100 people died in the operation. But the latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza would, if confirmed, make it one of the deadliest days of the conflict so far. People living in the densely-po[CENSORED]ted area have described the terror of coming under intense bombardment and heavy gunfire. One man, Abdel Salam Darwish, told the BBC he was in a market buying vegetables when he heard fighter jets from above and the sound of gunfire. "Afterwards, people's bodies were in pieces, scattered in the streets, and blood stained the walls," he said. The return of the hostages to their families has sparked celebration in Israel and world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have welcomed the news of their release. But there has been mounting criticism of the deadly cost of the operation inside Gaza, with European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell saying he condemned it "in the strongest terms". "Reports from Gaza of another massacre of civilians are appalling," he wrote on X. An Israeli minister said that instead of condemning Hamas for hiding behind civilians, the EU had condemned Israel for saving its citizens. Images from the Nuseirat refugee camp area show intense bombardment and people mourning the dead. Two hospitals in Gaza, al-Aqsa hospital and al-Awda hospital, said they had counted 70 bodies between them. The Hamas-run health ministry released names of 86 people out of the 274 Palestinians it says were killed during the two-hour operation. Previously, Israel's military spokesman Daniel Hagari estimated there were fewer than 100 casualties in what was a "high-risk, complex mission" based on "precise intelligence". Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said special forces operated "under heavy fire" when rescuing the hostages. One special forces officer was wounded and later died in hospital. Videos from Gaza taken in the aftermath of the raid show scenes of carnage. Footage from the al-Aqsa hospital shows numerous people with severe injuries laying on the ground, leaving barely any space on the blood-stained floor for doctors to move between patients. Other video shows a frequent stream of new cases being driven in by car and ambulance and carried into the building. The director of the al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat told BBC Arabic the number of dead coming to the hospital increased throughout Saturday. Dr Marwan Abu Nasser also spoke about the lack of a morgue in the hospital to accommodate the bodies of those killed who had been taken to the hospital. One man, who said more than 40 members of his family have been killed since the conflict began in October, described to the BBC being in a house which was hit by a strike. "As soon as these children and women entered the house, the bombing attack took place, claiming the lives of all those inside it," he said, "This home, which used to house approximately 30 people who then became 50, was bombed... only me, my father, my wife, and a young man survived... we are the only survivors out of 50 people." The bloodshed on the ground prompted a rare venting of criticism at Hamas from people in Gaza. Hassan Omar, 37, said he lamented the unnecessary loss of lives in Israeli strikes, telling the BBC: "For each Israeli hostage they could have freed 80 Palestinian prisoners and without any bloodshed - [that] is a million times better than losing 100 dead. "My message to Hamas is stopping the loss is part of the gain, we should get rid of those who control us from Qatar hotels.” The rescue of hostages came amid efforts for a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been urged to reach an agreement but faces opposition from far-right allies who say military action is the only way to bring the hostages back. Saturday’s operation is the most successful rescue of hostages by the Israeli military in this war – and analysts say it could change the calculation of a prime minister who is under increasing pressure. In response to the military offensive in Nuseirat, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israel could not force its choices on the group. He said the group would not agree to a ceasefire deal unless it achieved security for Palestinians. During its 7 October attacks in southern Israel Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took some 251 people hostage. Some 116 remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead. A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. On Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said the death toll in Gaza is now 37,084 people. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw44ve90dppo