#REDSTAR ♪ ♫

game information: Platforms:PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch Developers: Lightbulb Crew Publishers:Focus Home Interactive Release Date:July 28, 2020 Some parents are really invested in their kids’ report cards or success in extracurricular activities. Othercide offers a different kind of parental pride as you command a small army of warrior Daughters armed with giant swords and sleek revolvers they can use to slice, bash, and blast through a menagerie of Lovecraftian horrors. But this is more than an outlet for such dreams of blood-drenched parenthood, though. Othercide is also the best turn-based tactics game of the year so far. With the help of a mysterious figure called the Red Mother, Othercide puts you in charge of a darkly ethereal realm called the Inner Void from which you summon Daughters – echoes of whatever the Mother used to be – to stop the coming of an eldritch entity known as Suffering. Similar to 2018’s Into the Breach, this will require failing and going back in time over and over until you manage to get it right. Each successive “Remembrance” allows you to carry over a currency called Shards from your previous run, so I never felt like I was having to start from square one. Failure is an expected and essential part of progression. Once I realized that death was never really the end, it could sometimes feel a bit too forgiving, though. Shards are used to activate unlocked bonuses on a per-run basis like increased health and damage, and even the ability to skip bosses you’ve already defeated. While there is a satisfying sense of progression, I usually earned so many shards per run that I didn’t have to make interesting decisions about how to spend them. I could activate all of the bonuses I’d unlocked at once. No Country For Health Potions Luckily, the other resources at my command did require me to make those difficult calls. Notably, Daughters do not heal between missions, and you won’t find any healing abilities or items. On top of taking damage, most of the more powerful special attacks cost health to use. The only way to heal a daughter is to sacrifice another one of equal or higher level. Having a supply of sacrifices is rarely an issue, as the Vitae needed to summon new daughters is handed out in abundance. But the emotional weight I felt destroying one of my children so that another may live could be potent. As a consolation, the beneficiary will carry a part of the sacrificed daughter with them always in the form of a small mechanical bonus based on her stats at the time of death. The emotional weight of destroying a daughter so another may live could be potent. The final, and most precious, resource is resurrection tokens. Since each failed Remembrance sends your entire current roster to the cemetery, these function as a way to carry over some of your best fighters from one run to another. They’re very hard to come by over the course of a run, though spending shards can allow you to start with a few from the get-go. They allowed me to maintain some sense of continuity and build a deeper bond with Daughters who had been with me since the beginning, which I really appreciated. When the turn-based action kicks in, Othercide proves itself a satisfying, challenging, sometimes frantic tactical dreamscape. Each of the four classes has a distinct role to play, from the tanky Shieldbearer to the heavy-hitting Blademaster to the ranged support specialist, the Soulslinger. The enemy diversity is great, from quick and deadly Scavengers to hulking, insectoid abominations that can lock you in pace with a gooey discharge. New foes are introduced gradually across the five chapters, and even seeing familiar ones in new combinations often forced me to stop and think about how to handle the situation. A time-based initiative system throws further excitement and consideration into the mix. Daughters who use more than half of their action points will have to wait a lot longer to act again, so it’s often smarter to end your turn with at least half remaining so you can better react to the changing battlefield. And with three mission types – the tense Rescue, desperate Survival, and ass-kicking Hunt – I had to learn what works best in a variety of situations. Mad, Mad World The one area where these missions felt a bit lacking was in the map selection. I saw the same layouts often enough for it to become a little repetitive, even if the horde of baddies was different every time. At least they’re nice to look at. Well, “nice” might not be exactly the right word. Othercide is bleak as hell, and its mostly black-and-white, gothic horror aesthetic does a great job creating an atmosphere of oppression and danger. The splashes of red the highly stylish Daughters bring enhances the feeling that they stand as emblems of hope in this doomed nightmare. I can’t wrap up without mentioning the bosses, which are each expertly-designed puzzles that often have multiple viable solutions, but will absolutely kick your ass back to the beginning if you go at them guns blazing. I wasn’t able to best any of the ones I came up against on a first try, but any enemy you’ve faced previously will be added to the codex where you can read up on its behavior. All of the enemies in Othercide behave deterministically; there’s no randomness involved, except in the dice rolls for things like attacking and dodging. So understanding that a specific boss or enemy will always go after the closest Daughter, or the one with the least health, can allow you to mani[CENSORED]te them and lead them into traps. I really hit my stride when I realized the power this knowledge could give me. Verdict Othercide is a tactical roguelike with a flair for the dramatic, satisfying combat that rewards careful planning and knowing your enemies, and difficult, sometimes heart-rending shepherding of your resources. I still haven’t made it to the final, semi-secret unlockable boss, since this journey gets what the kids would call “bastard hard” by the end. But even so, I’m really looking forward to finishing my business with them and uncovering the remaining secrets of the dark dream. Don’t sleep on Othercide. This is one for the musty, moldering books. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit) Processor: AMD Phenom 9950 (2.6GHz) / Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: AMD Radeon R7 260 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 6 GB available space Additional Notes: at least 30 FPS average in 1920x1080 with the lowest settings. RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit) Processor: AMD FX-6300 (3.5GHz) / Intel i5-2500 (3.3GHz) Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 380/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 6 GB available space Additional Notes: 60 FPS in 1920x1080 with the highest settings.

Be sure to restart your PC Windows 10 has a serious security vulnerability that prevents Windows Sandbox and Windows Defender Application Guard — a pair of tools crucial in keeping your laptop secure — from opening. At least, this would be a serious concern if there wasn't an effortless solution: restarting your PC. But more on that later, let's talk about why this is such a scary flaw. For those who don't know, Windows Sandbox lets Windows 10 users run applications within an isolated desktop environment, away from a host machine. That's important because if you run a malicious app in Windows Sandbox, it can't access the personal files stored on your main machine. The other app, Windows Defender Application Guard, was designed for the Microsoft Edge browser as a safeguard for enterprise users against untrusted websites. These are protections you want operating at full capacity on your system to ensure it's protected from bad actors. Unfortunately, laptops running Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise versions 1903, 1909 and 2004 are affected by the issue that is preventing these tools from operating properly, according to Microsoft's own support documents (as reported by Bleeping Computer). What to do now If your system is affected by the bug, you'll see a pair of error notifications after the two apps fail to start. The simple fix? Restart your laptop. Microsoft says that the tools will load properly once you do so. Yes, it's really that easy, but there is one caveat: the solution isn't permanent. That means you might need to restart your system more than once, which can become annoying and disruptive. The good news is that Microsoft is hard at work on a permanent fix that should be pushed through a future software update. Our best advice is to wait patiently for Microsoft to release its patch for this frustrating security vulnerability. When you see the two error messages, don't ignore them. Instead, restart your system as soon as possible so the two apps can protect you from malicious attacks.

Another addition to Comet Lake-S. It's been almost three months since Intel launched its Comet Lake-S processors, and now it is adding a product to the lineup: the Core i9-10850K. This chip offers exactly what the top-tier Core i9-10900K chip has aboard, minus 100 MHz on all fronts. Indeed, that's the only difference between the new i9-10850K and the two-month-old i9-10900K. Both chips have 10 cores with hyperthreading, along with identical caches and TDP's. The i9-10850K simply shaves 100 MHz off the base clock and boost clocks. Exactly why Intel is releasing this chip is unclear. At just 100 MHz away from the i9-10900K, there doesn't seem to be a reason for it to exist other than to fill up a gap in the pricing stack. However, it is known that Intel is pushing the i9-10900K chips to the absolute edge in terms of clock speeds in an attempt to get every last bit of performance out of its current architecture and 14nm process before moving on to the new architecture with Rocket Lake-S. As such, it's possible that Intel is having some problems with the binning process, having chips left over that were set to become i9-10900K's but failed by the tiniest margin. Therefore, if you plan on overclocking, it's probably best to spend the extra $35 to go for the i9-10900K as you're more likely to get better silicon, but if you plan on leaving the clocks at stock settings, then the i9-10850K might just be a compelling option if the shortages don't throw street pricing out of whack.

Nickname : @#REDSTAR ♪ ♫ Tag your opponent : @!#Apex? Music genre : electro house Number of votes : 10 Tag one leader to post your songs LIST : @.-AdiiLo-.

game information: Platforms:Wii, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, PC, Nintendo Switch Developers:Ubisoft Pune, Ubisoft Paris Publishers:Ubisoft Release Date:October 25, 2016 I’m sure I’m not alone in often feeling uncomfortable and awkward whenever I have to dance in public, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. Just Dance 2017 creates a social atmosphere where every dancer takes queues from a screen, and the embarrassment from utter lack of coordination is usually laughed at as a group as you watch video replays of your collective mistimed moves. It takes a social convention, combines it with an effective cardio workout, and adds in po[CENSORED]r, recognisable music for a party game that’s easy to pick up and play. As a series, Just Dance is nearly nine years old and has a well-established, predictable formula: you dance to a library of new songs with an impressive variety of choreography and unlock some simplistic emblems and icons as you go. It’s flashy from the menu to the color-saturated videos that let you know what dance moves to imitate, though, in the case of the Nintendo Switch, you technically only need to match with one hand because that’s all that’s actually tracked. I played mostly in docked mode with both Joy-Con detached, but it also works fine in tabletop mode, albeit with a smaller screen that’s harder to share with someone else. The tracking doesn’t seem to mean a whole lot, though. Sometimes you’re told you mimicked a move “perfectly” and other times you can miss even though it feels like you’re doing the exact same thing. The difference isn’t clear, being that Just Dance 2017 doesn’t make effort to tell you what, specifically, you did incorrectly. I’d argue that correct Joy-Con holding form is the most important aspect. Given that it’s so imprecise, it’s a little weird that it assigns individual scores for you and the other three players you might be playing with or against. The most accurate way to play is on the Xbox One with Kinect, which tracks your entire body and allows for more players natively (you can have up to six players on Switch, too, but extras will have to join via mobile phone) by scanning the faces in the room, to the extent that even people who are sitting down are often scanned in and somehow manage to get points, too. The Kinect version does come with its own unique flaws, though: the menu is harder to control with motion, so it often ends with someone walking off to grab the Xbox controller at the end of each song. It’s a simple, tile-based menu that does manage to convey all of the information you might need about a song, but it’s still difficult to use with Kinect. It probably won't make you a better dancer. All of that said, it really is a game about dancing to songs you know, with Just Dance 2017 including some major recent hits like Major Lazer’s “Lean On” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” If you suck at dancing, Just Dance probably won’t make you improve, but it is a lot of fun and the variety of different moves certainly lead to a good cardio workout. The professional dancers in their unique, colorful outfits are a delight to watch, too, and group dances particularly showcase creative, unpredictable, and fun choreography, including occasional some actual interaction between players, like high fives Unfortunately, a lot of songs are locked away behind Just Dance Unlimited, a paid subscription service that allows you to access songs from past games as well as some exclusive titles, for $39.99 a year. At this point, it feels like it might make more sense to have Just Dance exist as a digital-only game centered around Unlimited because the disc itself offers few updates from previous years. Verdict Just Dance 2017 is a very predictable update to a long-running series of dancing games that shines in visual design and unique choreography but is very loose with its tracking of your body movements. It’s not going to teach you to be a professional dancer, and it honestly doesn’t really teach you how to be good at Just Dance itself. That said, it’s still a whole lot of fun to play, and the songs that aren’t locked behind a paywall are varied and, largely, recognisable SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 or Windows 10(64bit versions) Processor: Intel i5 750 @ 3.3 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.2 GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: nVidia GeForce GTX460 or AMD Radeon HD5850(1024MB VRAM) DirectX: Version 11 Additional Notes: Game contains Denuvo (https://www.denuvo.com/) anti-tamper technology. RECOMMENDED: Additional Notes: Game contains Denuvo (https://www.denuvo.com/) anti-tamper technology.

Nickname : @#REDSTAR ♪ ♫ Tag your opponent : @Roselina ♣ flowers Music genre : ELECTRO HOUSE Number of votes : 10 Tag one leader to post your songs LIST : me

Microsoft hasn't provided a satisfactory solution Microsoft's Surface Pro 7 is among the best 2-in-1 laptops for those who want the convenience of a tablet but the power and productivity of a laptop. In our Surface Pro 7 review, we gave the hybrid device a 4-star rating for its bright display and zippy performance. Unfortunately, some Surface Pro 7 owners are having a 1-star experience with the device. As Notebookcheck reports, multiple forums threads on Microsoft's website are filled with angry customers complaining about their Surface Pro 7 randomly shutting down. The problem is widespread enough for a Microsoft employee to step in and assure everyone that the issue is being monitored. In one thread, user GargyaMalla describes the issue, "If the device stays ideal for a minute it directly shuts down. I have checked all the sleep and power settings and that's not an issue. I see this was an issue in previous versions too. Any fix?" Microsoft has an "I have the same question" button for users encountering the same problem. So far, 537 people have clicked it. When the post went up, a Microsoft agent quickly stepped in with instructions for a potential fix. However, several users say their tablet continues to shut down after completing the steps. The thread about random Surface Pro 7 shutdowns is now 28 pages long and growing with the newest posts added on April 15. The problems appear to exist across all Surface Pro 7 model, no matter your configuration. There doesn't appear to be a one-size-fits-all fix but some folks have had luck by making certain changes. Surface Pro 7 shutting down: What to do If your Surface Pro 7 is randomly shutting down, try changing the default sleep time in your settings. Type "Sleep" in the search bar and select "Power and sleep settings." From here, change the sleep time from the default 5 minutes. You should also ensure you've downloaded the latest software update for your tablet. Again, head over to the search bar and type "Search for updates." On the next page press the Check for updates box. If that doesn't work, I'm afraid you might need to send your device in or get Microsoft's support team on the phone. Microsoft hasn't provided a satisfactory resolution for these random shut down problems and other user-posted solutions are complicated and won't work for everyone. We'll leave this link to the forum post so you can scan through it for answers while you wait for Microsoft to step up.

Xe is less than a month away. Intel tweeted via its Intel Graphics Twitter account yesterday that the chipmaker will provide more information on Xe graphics in 20 days. Intel has since deleted the tweet, but we think the promise is still on. There's a bit of mystery around Intel's tweet. The company has adopted the Xe moniker for both its integrated graphics and upcoming discrete graphics cards, but it's uncertain which product segment the chipmaker was referring to. Intel shared the tweet yesterday so the big day should be on August 13. Given the timing of the tweet and Intel's recent struggles with its 7nm and 10nm nodes, the event will likely be a presentation rather than a formal product launch. Intel actually has a couple of events planned for the upcoming months. David Blythe, Senior Fellow and Director of Graphics Architecture at Intel, will deliver a speech about the Xe GPU architecture at Hot Chips this year on August 17. That's the closest event that coincides with Intel's tweet. It's plausible that we might get some new and juicy details on Intel's Xe graphics cards after all. After Hot Chips, Intel has also booked a virtual event for September 2 where the chipmaker has touted to reveal "something big." The common expectation is that Intel will launch its 11th Generation Tiger Lake processors, which feature Gen12 Xe graphics. At any rate, Intel's event deserves a spot on your agenda. There are big expectations for Xe graphics and whether Intel can break Nvidia and AMD's duopoly in the graphics market.

game information: Platforms:PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One Developers:N/A Publishers:SEGA Release Date:January 24, 2017 The plot of Yakuza 0 is served up like a fresh bowl of udon noodles; simmering, full of twists and turns, and satisfying to the end. While I very much enjoyed the bone-cracking street fights, numerous oddball side characters, and the Lonely Planet guide’s worth of entertaining diversions along the way, it’s really the taut tale of betrayal and the bitter arm wrestle for power at its centre that kept me glued to the controller throughout. Yakuza 0 is set in 1988 and serves as an origin story for two of the series’ most prominent characters, Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, who find themselves caught up in a land war amongst rival clans. Whereas the previous game in the series, Yakuza 5, juggled five different storylines and felt somewhat convoluted as a result, Yakuza 0 benefits from focusing on the plights of Kiryu and Majima, each scorned by their respective families and whose paths ultimately converge in the end. It’s a gangster tale that adheres mostly to convention, with menacing mob bosses, car bombings, blackmail, and the like, but it’s a tale told well and told thoroughly. Much like the Metal Gear Solid series, Yakuza 0 isn’t afraid of taking control away from us for extended periods in order to deliver a lengthy cutscene to advance the plot and develop the characters, but I never felt in any way detached from the events onscreen thanks to the strong performances of the actors and the consistently powerful writing. Recent open-world releases struggle to compete when it comes to the sheer density of detail packed into Sega’s latest. Although the slightly wooden character animations serve as a reminder that this is a game developed to straddle console generations (the Japanese version was simultaneously released on PS3), Yakuza 0 otherwise manages to nail the look and feel of its Tokyo and Osaka-inspired settings. Recent open-world releases like Mafia III and Watch Dogs 2 might dwarf the maps of Yakuza 0 in terms of scale, but both struggle to compete when it comes to the sheer density of detail packed into every nook and cranny of Sega’s latest. The neon-soaked streets tread a fine line between gorgeous and garish, the Don Quijote discount stores are claustrophobic caverns of consumerism, and vendors on the street keep handing you pocket tissues for no apparent reason. While Yakuza 0’s retro setting isn’t exactly Grand Theft Auto: Vice City when it comes to revelling in ‘80s nostalgia, there are enough nods to the era to reinforce the sense of time and place - from the pagers used by the characters to the authentic Walkman billboards and the playable OutRun and Space Harrier games in the local arcades. Diversionary tactics These arcade games are just the tip of the time-sinking iceberg. As is now customary for the series, Yakuza 0 always provides alluring C, D, and E options when you’re on your way from A to B. There’s fishing, bowling, batting practice, several kinds of gambling, pool, darts, karaoke, dancing, underground fight clubs, and plenty more. The bulk of these optional activities are well realised and fleshed out with fun challenges to complete, and they range from the addictively simple reflex-testing batting cage to the relatively deep real estate business run by Kiryu in Tokyo and Majima’s hostess bar empire in Osaka. The latter two management simulations in particular require a substantial time investment but yield maximum yen, and while I only scratched the surface of them on my way to completing the 30-hour story, I intend on returning to them in Yakuza 0’s post-credits ‘Premium Adventure’ mode in order to find out exactly how lucrative they can become. Streets of Rage Of course, a more direct way of nabbing fistfuls of cash is by using your actual fists (and feet) to beat it out of the neverending supply of street thugs who engage you in a scrap on sight. Kiryu and Majima each have three different fighting styles that can be switched between on the fly, and I relished in the ability to tailor my technique to suit each individual scenario. For example, I found Majima’s button-mashing breakdancing stance that turns him into a human whirligig of spinning kicks to be perfect for carving through crowds of enemies, yet his baseball bat-toting slugger stance is a better choice for one-on-one boss fights where more powerful and direct attacks are required. Yakuza 0’s fighting system is wonderfully brutal, and the context-sensitive finishing moves offer an especially satisfying way to curb-stomp a shoe-shaped exclamation point into an opponent’s face at the end of each encounter. However, a somewhat piecemeal counter system means that for all its flashy moves, the all-in brawling is never quite as fluid as the one-on-many fighting experiences of the Batman: Arkham games, at least when it comes to transitioning back and forth between enemies. This makes Yakuza 0 seem a little behind the curve in that regard, which is disappointing considering we’re now half a dozen games into the mainline of the Yakuza series. What Yakuza 0 does have in common with the Caped Crusader, though, is the fact that neither of these violent gangsters ever actually kills anyone. Each enemy that Kiryu and Majima dispatch is left to pick up their teeth rather than push up daisies, which is refreshing given that most open-world crime games are effectively exercises in casual mass murder. (Not that killing stops me from enjoying those games; it’s just nice to play something that approaches it differently for a change.) The general lack of killing in Yakuza 0 means that when certain character deaths do occur over the course of the story - whether they be good, bad, or grey - they land with significantly more impact. Off the beating path Contrasting nicely with the heavier themes of the main storyline are Yakuza 0’s side quests. There are around 100 of these mini-missions to hunt down across the two main city settings and they’re typically lighthearted if not utterly ridiculous. I particularly liked teaching the members of a wannabe punk rock band how to talk tough ahead of a meet and greet with fans (and deliberately feeding them the wrong lines with hilarious results), and bluffing my way through a job as a producer on the set of a television commercial. Even though a number of these side missions are merely simple fetch quests, they’re almost always worth your while purely because the quest-giving locals are so hilarious to interact with. Indeed half of them seem like they've wondered off the set of a Japanese game show, and I was particularly fond of the perpetually pelvic-thrusting Mr. Libido who seemingly shows up every now and then purely to unleash a string of snicker-worthy sexual euphemisms. Overall, I enjoyed meeting with the eccentric supporting cast of Yakuza 0, and often went out of my way to seek them out because I knew I would typically be in for a surprise. Verdict Yakuza 0 is another sprawling entry in the open-world series, packed with an extraordinary amount of things to do and centred around a genuinely compelling crime story. Since it’s a prequel, it’s also unburdened by the series’ increasingly intricate backstory and thus far more approachable for newcomers than the last few Yakuza games. While its melee combat may lag slightly behind modern genre standards, Yakuza 0 still hits far more than it misses and is a big, bold and bruising tour through the Japanese underworld. System Requirements : (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 | AMD Phenom FX-6300 CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 7 64Bit VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 | AMD Radeon HD 6870 PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0

well i vote for DH1 nice rhythm and lyrics

Of course I will vote for DH1 (Rockstar) i love this song so much amazing hythm and amazing lyrics

Well, the two songs are OK But I will vote for DH1 Good song excellent rhythm and great lyrics

Well the two songs are good But I will go with my vote with DH2 Because I loved the rhythm and the lyrics of the song

The Quest headset successor may arrive in two months Leaked photos of the Oculus Quest 2 have hit the Internet thanks to reliable and well-known leaker WalkingCat. The bean spiller also revealed that the Quest successor could hit store shelves in just two months, RoadtoVR reported. The Oculus Quest is Facebook's standalone virtual reality headset — perfect for gamers who don't have a VR-ready laptop to electrify more powerful systems such as the Oculus Rift S and the HTC Vive Cosmos. With the latest Quest 2 leak, VR fans are excited to see how Facebook has enhanced the po[CENSORED]r VR apparatus. Oculus Quest 2 photos and release date reportedly revealed "September 15," WalkingCat posted on Twitter, hinting that the Quest's successor could be headed our away in just two months. The leaker accompanied his Twitter post with a press image of the upcoming Quest 2. The unverified photo suggests that the forthcoming, frost-white Quest successor will sport dual microphones, fresnel lenses, integrated audio technology, a larger light-blocking nose piece and a fabric interior that surrounds the optics. The Quest 2 also appears to be slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. What's notably missing from the images, though, is an IPD adjuster that allows VR-headset users to decrease or increase the lens separation to a comfortable level. WalkingCat's leaked images also support a recent Reddit leak of the Quest 2 that appears to be a prototype of the same device. Is this a trustworthy leak? WalkingCat has a history of leaking accurate information — the bean spiller dropped a similar leak ahead of Microsoft's official Hololens 2 unveiling. However, even if these images are authentic, they may not reflect the final state of the Quest 2. With WalkingCat announcing a Sept. 15 release date, there's a good chance that the Oculus Rift 2 will be revealed at Facebook's Oculus Connect 7 event, which is an annual conference typically held in late September.

Ampere flexing its bulky muscle Nvidia's Ampere A100 GPU has been out since May, but we had no idea of how it performed until today. Jules Urbach, founder and CEO of OTOY, has tweeted what seems to be the first benchmark of the A100. The A100 scored 446 points on OctaneBench, thus claiming the title of fastest GPU to ever grace the benchmark. The Nvidia Titan V was the previous record holder with an average score of 401 points. The A100 delivered up to 11.2% higher performance than the Titan V. Urbach highlighted that the A100 run was with RTX disabled. It doesn't come as a complete shock that the A100 would topple the Titan V if you look closely at the A100's composition. The GA100 silicon measures 826 millimeters-squared and flaunts 54.2 billion transistors, which is possible, thanks to TSMC's 7nm FinFET manufacturing process. The silicon comes equipped with 128 streaming multiprocessors (SMs), amounting to 8,192 CUDA cores. The A100 doesn't leverage the full die, but its specifications are impressive nonetheless. The A100 is equipped with 6,912 CUDA cores and 432 Tensor cores. The GPU's other imposing traits include 40GB of HBM2E memory across a 5,120-bit memory interface for a bandwidth up to a whopping 1,555 GBps. The Titan V's 5,120 CUDA cores and 12GB of HBM2 memory look paltry beside the A100. OctaneBench benchmarks graphics cards with the OctaneRender, and one of its requirements is Nvidia CUDA. Therefore, you won't find any Radeon GPUs from the Red Team on the leaderboard. You will find a generous lot of GeForce, Quadro and Tesla devices on the list though. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ranks 14 on the OctaneBench leaderboard with an average score of 302. The A100 is up to 47.7% faster. Keep in mind that GA100 silicon is tailored for Nvidia's data center products. It's delusional to think it will make its way to Nvidia's forthcoming consumer graphics cards, presumably dubbed RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. The A100 is the successor to the GV100 (Volta), so it could end up in a Titan GPU. Multiple rumors claim that mainstream Ampere graphics cards may employ the GA102 die. Obviously, it'll be smaller in comparison to the GA100 and ultimately features less SMs. Thus far, the GA102 die is rumored to have up to 84 SMs that results in 5,376 CUDA cores. This might be the silicon that Nvidia uses for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or GeForce RTX 3090. In any event, it's unlikely that the GA102 will outperform the GA100 given the CUDA core deficit. It could be a close fight if Nvidia gives the GA102-based GPUs some crazy clock speeds. Ampere will undoubtedly bring an important performance upgrade over Turing. There are many figures that are being thrown around, and we won't know exactly how much until Nvidia officially drops Ampere. In all likelihood, the generation-over-generation uplift will be less than 47.7%.

give him a chance

They could take control of your webcam and mic Apple products and services are generally considered to be secure, but flaws in the Safari browser could damage that reputation. Hackers found a way to take control of a Mac or iPhone's microphones and cameras by exploiting Safari browser bugs. The problem stems from permissions Safari asks users to grant to certain websites, Ryan Pickren, the security researcher who disclosed the flaw to Apple, explained to Wired. Using a malicious link, attackers could trick users into opening a website that would disguise itself as one that was already granted microphone and camera permissions. The flawed Safari browser isn't smart enough to know it was a fake, so the browser would hand over mic and camera access to the malicious site and give bad actors the ability to spy on you. The reason Safari couldn't tell a fake site from a real one has to do with how the browser treats URL variations -- https://www.example.com, http://example.com, and fake://example.com -- as part of the same website. "I just kind of hammered the browser with really weird cases until Safari got confused and gave an origin that didn’t make sense," Pickren told Wired. "And eventually the bugs could all kind of bounce from one to the next. Part of this is that some of the bugs were really, really old flaws in the WebKit core from years ago." Apple fortunately patched these vulnerabilities after Pickren brought them to the company's attention. Pickren told Apple about seven vulnerabilities in mid-December and they were validated the next day. Patches were released in January and March updates and Pickren was rewarded a cool $75,000 as part of Apple's bug bounty program. Apple is fortunate that Pickren disclosed these problems when he did. If it were any later, the flaws might have surfaced at a time when more people are working from home than ever before. The global workforce's reliance on video conferencing apps that need access to your mic and camera has skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic. By patching those issues early, Apple may have dodged the type of security nightmare Zoom currently finds itself in.

A Striking Case! Akasa have released their Gem Pro, an aluminum case designed to passively cool the Raspberry Pi 4, and it has a “striking” design about it. Measuring 3.7 x 2.9 x 1.4 inches, the case is significantly larger than the Raspberry Pi 4 as the mass of the case is used as a heatsink which will draw the heat from the CPU and USB chips via two aluminum blocks. The “L” shaped block for the CPU is of particular interest as it will also partially cover the PMIC (Power Management Integrated Circuit) which is an area that most cases do not ordinarily cool. On the sides of the case are the usual cutouts for ports, including a cutout for the GPIO which is surprisingly low and will restrict the use of HATs, a breakout board will be needed to connect any components or HATs to the GPIO. The features for this case also list easy access connectors for the camera and display ports, and it looks as though they are routed through a gap just above the microSD card slot. This isn’t an issue for display connections, but the camera ribbon cable will have to be routed around the “L” shaped aluminum block across the length of the board, leaving little slack to frame your photos. Ultimately a case such as this is all about how effectively it can cool the Raspberry Pi 4, and we will learn more about that once we get one in for review. The case is listed for sale at CPC a UK electronics reseller for £30, approximately $40.

game information: Platforms:Wii Developers:Retro Studios, Inc. Publishers:Nintendo Features:Number Of Players Release Date:August 27, 2007 Five years ago, the first-person adventure Metroid Prime re-invented Nintendo's famous science-fiction franchise about a space-traveling female bounty hunter. Now, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has re-invented the way the series is played, unarguably for the better. If you were on board Samus Aran's Hunter-Class Gunship for the critically acclaimed first outing and its sequel, you will be ready for the third and final act in the trilogy because, at least from a design standpoint, there haven't been too many major changes. The heroine still explores exotic alien terrain and fights fearsome alien creatures, and the re-traversal backbone that has powered Metroid projects since the NES classic that started it all remains completely and thankfully intact. So if you've never liked these titles, Corruption probably isn't going to make you a believer, even with its enhanced graphics and spectacular new controls. If, on the other hand, you'd rather play with Samus than, say, Master Chief, Retro's Wii-overhauled new addition to the Prime family is going to take you on a great, satisfying ride that you won't soon forget. Indeed, as far as we're concerned, the Texas-based studio has made Wii's best game. Corruption is the evolution of the Prime series and a game that is very highly polished in nearly every respect. It's got better control. Better pacing. Better visuals. Better cinematics. And better bonuses. Yet, even with all of these improvements, it still feels and looks very familiar to its predecessors, which is both a statement of praise and criticism. You will recognize the blueprint and style of a winning formula and at the same time you aren't likely to experience the downpour of surprises that overwhelmed you upon playing the original Prime -- an endeavor that brought Samus into the third dimension without sacrificing the guts of the 2D efforts. There is also no getting around the fact that 2002's Prime featured cutting-edge graphics for its time and Corruption instead boasts cutting-edge graphics on Wii. What Retro has done with Nintendo's underpowered console is nothing short of amazing, of course, but if you dare to compare Prime 3's visuals to games beyond Wii, you'll notice a chasm in technology. The artistry? We'd pit it against anything on the high-definition-ready consoles with confidence. If you've never played a Metroid Prime game before, we'll give you the footnotes now. You jump into the armored shoes of Samus Aran, a stoic-cool blonde heroine who lets her beams do the talking. As the most trusted bounty hunter in the business, she's regularly contracted by the galactic Federation to do battle with Space Pirates, an evil race of menacing aliens obsessed with life-draining blobs called Metroids and a toxic substance called Phazon. Metroid games always start Samus off devoid of any major abilities and challenge you to upgrade her as you explore atmospheric locales. You'll see places that you cannot enter or reach along the way and you'll know that, just as soon as you get the right weapon or item, you'll eventually have to come back to those areas. This happens to be a very intentional design choice and also one that you either love or hate. Let's be honest, though: if you'd rather just shoot stuff, the Metroid franchise has never been for you and the Prime games are no different. Still, some players have over the years made a valid point that Samus always starts at zero and that it's grown tiresome. They've also noted that the re-traversal nature of the offerings can be tedious because the worlds are so large. Corruption addresses both complaints and it's a better game for it. We'll get to that, but permit us to start at the beginning. Prime 3 kicks off with cinematic flair as Samus awakens from a cryogenic sleep and lands on the S.S. Olympus. Aran doesn't have anything to say, but the troops and hunters on the ship do and their lines are delivered by way of well-acted voice work, a welcome surprise given Nintendo's resistance to such audio in the majority of its titles. The voices continue throughout the game, adding ambience and an extra layer of realism to situations. A giant-sized organic super-computer known as the Aurora Unit guides Aran through the majority of the adventure with helpful instruction, all of it delivered quite brilliantly via voice. Combined with a bevy of atmospheric and well-choreographed cut-scenes, the storyline in Prime 3 takes shape and flows much more smoothly and believably than it has in previous titles. At one moment, you're gliding across a caged platform in a cinematic designed to mask a level load time and in another, you're fighting alongside Federation Troopers in a scene that seems inspired by something out of Halo. We've made an effort to keep our written review relatively spoiler free so we're going to refrain from posting more detailed specifics, but Aran's quest will take her across the galaxy to several planets and ships, she will meet up with some recognizable hunters, do battle with Dark Samus and strive to keep from becoming corrupted herself. (To learn and see much more, be sure to watch our spoiler-filled video review.) The yarn that Retro has spun is not exceptionally original, nor is it altogether deep, but it does drive the action and it also gives fans a little more than they're received before. Retro's new game is a visual stunner. In fact, it's the best looking title on Nintendo's system to date, a feat made possible through truly awesome art design and a profound knowledge of Wii's technology. Prime 3 comes alive thanks to an updated 3D engine that draws larger, more detailed environments, more particle effects, crisper textures, and layered backgrounds such as rooms with crisscrossing piping systems beneath half-broken tiled walkways. So many first-person shooters on more powerful consoles feature very high-resolution textures, but do nothing with level geometry. Prime 3's levels curve and are drowned in jutting architecture that seems different at every turn. In addition, the title does more with bloom lighting than most games we've seen, save for efforts like Ico. As Samus runs through a mixture of high-tech space stations and organic earthly locales, everything from fire and lava to gunfire, explosions and display panels are illuminated with a neon-like hue that looks fantastic and moody. Adding to the ambience are screen shakes, motion blur and more pronounced reflections, like Aran's face in her visor. The game also runs in progressive-scan and, for the first time, in 16:9 widescreen mode. The widescreen resolution is not exactly 854x480, but something closer to 825x470, which means that it may show some thin black borders on your screen. We suspect most people won't notice the difference. Perhaps most impressive is that the adventure jams along at 60 frames per second through 99.9 percent of Aran's quest. This simple truth makes a huge difference -- it's much easier on the eyes and the hands. The musical score by Kenji Yamamoto fits the atmosphere very well. It's more grandiose than it's been in previous Prime titles and yet there are some throwbacks that fans will like. For instance, when Samus enters a beautiful snow-filled scene, a remix of the song that originally played at the Phendrana Drifts chimes in the background. The upgraded visuals may have come at a small price, though, because the load times between some doorways have increased over the original Prime and its sequel. The majority of the time -- say 95 percent -- the doorways will seamlessly open to reveal the next area, but every so often you'll be forced to wait as long as 10 seconds for a door to open, which breaks the momentum of the action. Worse, sometimes you might have no choice but to fend off attacks from enemies like Metroids while you wait. In Corruption, Samus never loses her trademark abilities, which is a relief. She begins with an arsenal of suit upgrades -- morphball, double-jump, bombs, and a power beam -- and keeps them through the end of the adventure. About 10 minutes in, she gains missiles, and then an original suit, which facilitates the biggest new gameplay mechanic to the series. The Phazon Enhancement Device or PED Suit enables Samus to harness Phazon to jump into Hyper Mode, transforming her into a much more powerful fighter, but at a cost. If you're not careful, you may overload Samus with Phazon and she'll need to continually discharge her weapon or she could die. Knowing when to jump in and out of Hyper Mode is a skill and a necessary component to successfully advancing. It's also fun. Simply, we dreaded traveling to the purple Dark World in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, but in contrast, using Hyper Mode in Corruption is incredibly satisfying because Aran's weapons do so much damage and also because you can jump back out at any time. Aran doesn't pick up as many different weapons and visors as she does in Echoes, but the ones she does acquire are more meaningful. For example, Samus can now command her Gunship to attack certain points in the worlds, to pick up some items, or merely to land nearby so that you can save your progress. Rather than selecting between different beams, your weapon takes on new functionality -- all of it used via a single blast -- as you upgrade. The Nova Beam can shoot through walls, but it can also burn ice, like the previous beam. It's a simplified design probably developed as a workaround to the limited buttons on the Wii remote, and yet it functions very well. To be fair, though, we also liked the freedom of manually switching between beams in original entry and its sequel. You'll still explore and travel across epic environments, but re-traversing the locations is made just a little easier thanks to several additions. The first is that you can fly between planets or even to different locales on a single body using Aran's Gunship. This inclusion alone eliminates so much of the excessive cross-world backtracking and as a bonus it's very pretty on the eyes because the flying cinematics are downright gorgeous. Retro has also included shortcuts within maps so that you can, for instance, take an underground railway to quickly jump completely across a world. Moreover, it's much easier to traverse the lands because there is now an on-screen 3D map in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen -- in preceding games, you had to load a map screen. You can still do the latter and you're also able to bookmark specific locations so that they change color, making them easier to spot. We couldn't be happier with the aforementioned changes. One addition we'd have liked that isn't included, however, is on-screen arrow guidance. Even with the visible map, you may sometimes need to enlarge it to figure out exactly where to go and given that Retro has included a bookmarking option, we don't see why it couldn't have also featured one for arrow guidance for the directionally challenged, us among them. Metroid Prime 3's new Wii-enhanced control scheme is so good and so responsive that by comparison the original title and its sequel feel clumsy. In fact, using the nunchuk's analog stick to control Samus through environments as you point the Wii remote to target with speed and accuracy obliterates just about every dual-analog control setup currently available. If there is a game that proves the potential of the Wii remote for first-person experiences, this is it, and our hat is off to Retro for stepping up to the challenge when others couldn't or wouldn't. There are three sensitivity settings available to you: standard is designed, we think, for stupid people who may not have a full command of their arms and hands; using it, you drag the screen Red Steel style and movement is painfully slow. On the other side of the spectrum is advanced mode, which comes highly recommended because it's very precise and very responsive, two attributes integral to any shooter. Turning around is still a little slower than it should be, in our opinion -- a 180-degree flip takes about two and a half seconds -- and hence Corruption doesn't one-up a mouse and keyboard configuration, but it is easily the next best thing and certainly the ideal option for home console owners. Retro has further capitalized on the Wii remote by identifying its limitations and working around them. Take, for example, the new visor selection setup. The developer might have assigned visors to the controller's D-Pad, which would have been uncomfortable, to say the least. Instead, you hold down the minus button and simply flick the Wii remote left, right, or up to select between the different views, a process that feels great. To go into Hyper Mode, you hold down the plus button. The only downside is that missiles are mapped to D-Pad down, which take some getting used to and never quite feels intuitive. Zelda had fishing, but all around Prime 3 makes better use of the Wii remote and nunchuk's motion-sensory equipment than any "hardcore" game to date. As Samus, you will regularly be challenged to pull levers, twist locking systems into place, press buttons, or charge pump stations, all with the Wii remote. To twist a lock into place, you'd pull back with the peripheral, twist left or right, and then push forward again. Oftentimes, Wii gestures have a way of not working just as much as they work, which tends to create a gimmicky vibe, but thankfully this is not so in Corruption. By and large the gestures work extremely well and are in turn highly satisfying and immersive to perform. One of our favorites relates to using Aran's Grapple Lasso. You cast it by first locking onto an enemy or item with the Z button and then making a throwing motion with the nunchuk. Afterward, you snap the attachment back to pull panels off walls, tear the tails off some enemies or drain some stations of electricity. The only gesture that has proven problematic relates to morphball jumping. Laying bombs will still propel Samus upward, but you can alternatively motion up with the Wii remote. When it's working, it's fantastic because you're able to quickly jump while rolling, but sometimes your gestures aren't read, which is disappointing. If you're thinking that the new Wii controls equate to a dumbed-down or shooter-emphasized Metroid experience, don't worry. Sure, you can more easily target and dispose of enemies while on the run, but you gain this benefit without any sacrifices. The bulk of Prime 3 is spent exploring and trying to discover how to reach specific points that you can see, as always. There are some spectacular environmental puzzles that make great use of the morphball, of the screw attack and of the spiderball. There are hidden items and locations that can only be seen with the X-ray Visor and sensor points that can only be shot with the Nova Beam. There are areas that can only be crossed with the Grapple Lasso, or blockades that can only be passed in Hyper Mode. Discovering how to solve these challenges is what makes the Metroid games fun, and Corruption retains that experience in full. On the other hand, the action is increased over previous affairs, too. Certain enemies require precision gunfire and you'll need to be quick on the trigger with your Wii remote to best them. Meanwhile, the boss fights in the game come in both mini and major sizes and are incredibly epic and engaging. Our only complaint about the bosses, in fact, is that the final one isn't quite as challenging as some of the others. Corruption runs about the same length as its predecessors, which is impressive. It took us in the neighborhood of 20 hours to complete the experience with a rating of 85% finished. (Your percentage goes up as you scan more items and find more missile and energy tank pick-ups.) The game moves at a quicker pace than other Prime outings because of the new travel system and also because it's just slightly easier, in our experience. This does not mean Corruption is an easy affair by any stretch of the imagination, but yes, especially compared to Echoes the overall difficulty has decreased, which may please or displease you depending on your preference. You can choose to play the game in normal or veteran difficulty, and when you complete the quest you will unlock the gameplay-extending ultra-hard hyper difficulty, which considerably ramps up the challenge. We're still planning to go back and scan the remaining items and find the remaining pick-ups to up our completion rating, which speaks volumes about how much fun it is simply to travel the planets and look for objects you may have missed. While we greatly enjoyed the single-player quest, it wasn't completely perfect. At one point near the end of the game, Samus is sent on a fetch quest to retrieve some energy cells. The quest itself is no worse than any of those in the first two affairs, but we spent a day looking for these cells because the game indicated hints about their locations could be found in our logbook; as it turns out, they were hidden away in Aran's inventory. Don't make our mistake and you'll be much happier. On top of your completion ranking, you can earn various medals for successfully performing specific tasks. For instance, you'll get one when you amass 500 kills and another for defeating certain bosses, or for scanning lore. You can take these medals to a special extras menu to purchase welcomed additions like a screenshot tool that enables you to snap in-game photos and send them to friends over WiiConnect24, a bobblehead for Aran's cockpit, new bumper stickers, or concept art and music. This is the closest thing Prime 3 has to a full-blown achievements system and these bonuses really do offer incentive to play the game to the best of your ability. Verdict Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was originally set to launch with Wii, but the year-long delay has been very much worth the wait. Call it a first- person shooter or a first-person adventure -- doesn't matter. I call it the best game on Nintendo's console. It is clear from the moment you pick up the controller that Prime 3 was developed exclusively for Wii. Not only do the new controls respond quicker and with more precision than any dual-analog-helmed FPS ever created, but the gesture system works brilliantly, too. Meanwhile, the title delivers everything a Metroid fan could hope for, including spectacular environmental puzzles, epic boss fights and intense combat, all wrapped up in a package that spans multiple worlds and is filled with re-traversal exploration. A cinematic storyline made possible by beautiful art and graphics rounds out the experience, which is complemented by a medal system and WiiConnect24 compatibility. There are a couple of minor quibbles that keep Prime 3 from a higher score. The first and most obvious is that the game is a sequel and thus inherently feels familiar. While Corruption features more variety than any of its predecessors, it's not the design revolution that the original game was. Also, as you explore the world, you will occasionally encounter doorways that take longer than they should to open, as they are loading the next area. Thankfully, this is a rare occurrence, but it does occur. And finally, while the majority of the 20-hour experience flows, there's one fetch quest that interrupts the pace. We rated the original Metroid Prime a 9.8 on GameCube and had Corruption been the first game in the series it'd have been worthy of the same score. As it stands, Samus Aran's latest adventure is a spectacular must-own experience and one of Wii's defining games. Stop reading and buy it.

accepted

Some of the changes will arrive in the next year or two Microsoft's vision for future versions of Office includes complete redesigns of Excel, PowerPoint, Word and other apps. The software giant will bring its Fluent Design language to (formerly Office 365) and abandon aging interfaces and designs that forced users to do more work than necessary. Highlighting the changes is Jon Friedman, corporate vice president of design and research at Microsoft, who wrote in a Medium blog post about the forthcoming changes. At the core of Microsoft's Office overhaul is the goal of “designing experiences that encompass your wellbeing." Reaching that goal requires a visual makeover of Microsoft 365 apps and the death of long-standing tools, including the ribbon toolbar. Replacing this signature element is a simplified toolbar that, when removed from the top of the window, floats next to where you're working to provide "contextually relevant commands." “Having your ribbon commands follow your actions and being context-aware will reduce cognitive load and increase focus on the task at hand, whether you’re on your phone in the subway or your tablet on the sofa or your desktop," Friedman told The Verge. Other changes coming to Office Removing the ribbon is undoubtedly the biggest change coming to Office but it's not the only one. When the update arrives, it will be easier to determine which app you're using by looking at a simple icon at the top of your screen. The Microsoft 365 interface will also have faded brand colors on app headers and more transparent surfaces. Search will also be updated to bring relevant information across the entire suite of apps, and AI will be used to assist us when we need more context, like chat histories or a list of people working on a project. Friedman also said Microsoft 365 would be designed for "multiple cognitive states" so you can stay focused, away from external distractions, although what form this will take on is yet to be seen. Cortana will continue to be a part of Microsoft's app suite, “Across our product suite, Cortana experiences leverage AI to help you navigate your days more smoothly." "Logistically, we want apps to seamlessly communicate so experiences are cohesive and collaborations are fun and fluid. Within Teams, we’re crafting more dynamic and contextual experiences like Planner, PowerPoint, and Whiteboard, as well as lighting up Teams for Life and its Skype integration," Friedman wrote. When are these changes coming? Microsoft didn't specify when these changes would arrive on Microsoft 365 and the Office apps it encompasses. Friedman said "some of the changes will roll out within a year or two" while others are more "exploratory." Furthermore, Microsoft is conducting global studies to "help us understand how human needs are changing in real time amid such an unprecedented landscape."

Another world first for Sabrent Not long ago Sabrent unleashed its 8 TB NVMe SSD, which was a world-first for storage of that size on the small, 80 mm format. But, that drive ran on the older PCI-Express 3.0 interface, and we all know that PCIe 4.0 is where the magic happens. Now, Sabrent is introducing another world-first: a 4 TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 drive called the Rocket Q4. The information comes from a listing on Amazon that was spotted by Tweaktown. Therefore, technically this isn't an official announcement yet, though it might as well be. The Rocket Q4 is said to be capable of read speeds of up to 4900 MB/s and write at up to 3500 MB/s, which are seriously impressive numbers. For comparison, PCIe 3.0 drives cap out at around 3500 MB/s read and write. In the future we'll undoubtedly be seeing even faster drives as PCIe 4.0 is capable of much more -- right now, we're limited by the bandwidth the controllers can offer, and Phison is pretty much the only manufacturer selling a PCIe 4.0 SSD controller to third-party SSD makers. Of course, you'll only be able to leverage the fast speeds on AMD platforms as Intel doesn't have a platform capable of PCIe 4.0 on the market yet. The SSD is also based on QLC technology with 4 bits per cell, so we wouldn't use it for storing essential data without a backup. But if you're someone who needs fast storage for editing or who installs tons of games, this might be useful considering just how big games are getting nowadays. Right now, the 4 TB Rocket Q4 is listed for $750, which is a fair jump over the 2 TB QLC variant that's listed for $320 -- but still, that's 4 TB of PCIe 4.0 goodness you'll be able to squeeze into a single M.2 slot, and that's gotta be worth something. If you're tempted by this deal, we're happy to report that there's no wait either. The 4 TB PCIe 4.0 drive is in stock at Amazon, and ready to order.

game information: Platforms:PC, Nintendo Switch Developers:Tribute Games Publishers:N/A Release Date:July 21, 2020 I'm a sucker for a retro aesthetic, which is why I was immediately drawn to Panzer Paladin the first time I laid eyes on it at PAX East 2019. Now, there's no shortage of retro-inspired, action-platforming games "with a twist" paying homage to that good old NES vibe, but few go so far as Panzer Paladin does to make it feel like some mysterious, unreleased NES game seen only in a small blurb in Nintendo Power's Pak Watch section. The novel mechanics of Panzer Paladin stand on their own, but it's the way it captures so much of the excitement of that era of gaming, without the downsides, that truly makes it great. Video game storytelling has come a long way in the decades since the 8- and 16-bit eras, but Panzer Paladin isn’t really interested in any of that. No, the only emotional response it’s going for is the warm dopamine rush of pure nostalgia. Its story is simple: meteors full of weapons have crashed on Earth and evil beings are flooding the globe, fed by the nefarious energy of these dark magic-infused weapons of war. How do you get more video game than “bad guys fell from space so let’s shoot’em!”? How do you get more video game than “bad guys fell from space so let’s shoot’em!”? As ridiculous as the story of a cyborg named Flame piloting a mech named Grit to beat back the forces of an all-powerful dark magic is, it never winks or nods, but somehow never takes itself too seriously either. It sets the perfect tone for the gameplay, and the story plays out in animated cutscenes that would be right at home in any legendary anime of the series, such as Bubblegum Crisis or one of the dozen or so Gundam series over the years. Beating the 6-hour campaign rewarded me with one of my favorite parts of 1980s gaming: an extended cutscene. Sure, today we have cutscenes that play out over the span of an hour or more on occasion (looking at you, Kojima), but back then, games like Ninja Gaiden and their microscopic memory sizes meant these dramatic moments were rationed out over the course of your playthrough. The final, extra-long (meaning a few minutes) cutscene felt like a reward for your hard work, and Panzer Paladin revives this lost experience. Keeping it Old School Apart from its awesome anime-as-hell cutscenes, Panzer Paladin evokes so many old-school gaming memories that I'm sure there are a million obscure ones I didn't even pick up on. Nods to the NES library abound, but never feel overt or forced. When you beam into a new level, you exit your floating base of operations in a scene straight out of the (criminally underrated) NES version of Strider. You pilot Grit in the main levels, but you can push the "minus" button on the Switch and jump out and run around as Flame any time, a la Blaster Master. In fact, there are secrets and sections of each level where you have to play as Flame, who swings from a whip in a confluence of Bionic Commando and the Castlevania series. Moving through the second half is reminiscent of Wily's castle in Mega Man 2. Certain enemies, when hit, make the exact same noise as the tinny, pinging ricochet effect from Contra. I'm not talking about a close approximation, either: to my ears, trained on decades of NES Contra playthroughs, it's the same exact sound. It's almost an old-school overload, but somehow it never felt like I was being hit over the head to show off its bonafides. Difficulty is also old-school, but only in the good way: thankfully developer Tribute Games added in checkpoints to the levels so you don't lose all your progress when you fail the fifth white-knuckle challenge in a row. Well, at least not right away. While there is a generously placed checkpoint before each boss battle, if you run out of lives without beating the boss it's back to the start. There are also only two checkpoints between levels, and sometimes reaching that first checkpoint can feel like a long and arduous haul. There was more than one occasion when I died through my own stupidity before I reached the first or second checkpoint, which set me back a long way. That didn't feel great. When I say it was my own stupidity, I mean it. Like the best old-school games, Panzer Paladin doesn't do cheap hits. The controls between Grit and Flame feel really different, but they're both manageable and so the few times I missed a jump or landed in a pit of insta-death lava, it was because my stupid fingers just didn't listen to my brain. Breaking the Norms (and Weapons) One of the coolest ideas Panzer Paladin has is its novel approach to weapons: they don’t last forever. As unpo[CENSORED]r as the concept of breakable weapons can be, here it's a required part of how you play, and there’s actually something good that comes of losing your favorite weapon. Holding down the shoulder buttons breaks your current weapon, unleashing a spell, giving you a buff or flat-out raining bolts of lightning from the sky. There are defensive and offensive spells, as well as spells to heal Grit and absorb health from enemies, among others. I didn't realize initially how important all of this was, especially when facing bosses. I struggled to defeat the first few, but once I got the hang of applying the proper buffs and offensive spells during the fights, they became much less daunting. For example, breaking a weapon and casting "wings" on Grit let me float around the battlefield to both avoid ground attacks and get into position to deal out damage to when the boss was otherwise unreachable. Breaking half a dozen weapons to heal in the heat of battle happened more than once. The "Absorb" spell made quick work of a screen full of summoned minions, freeing me up to focus on attacking the boss instead of avoiding all the annoying enemies rushing me. In fact, hoarding weapons increases your dark magic levels, which then makes bosses even more difficult. Once you embrace that it’s in your best interest to break those weapons and dispel their evil ways, it all comes together. Once you embrace that it’s in your best interest to break those weapons and dispel their evil ways, it all comes together. But not all weapons are doomed to be destroyed! Weapons obtained after defeating bosses are faster, stronger, much more durable, and some even have the rare "full heal" spell locked inside them. A strong boss-weapon can make short work of the next boss you face, and even the worst boss-acquired weapon is better than the dozens you pick up from random enemies along the way. You need find and collect the power-ups that refill the durability gauge on weapons for those, should you decide to keep them (I'm a fan of the Ice Pop myself). You also have choices to make about how to break them and when, because extra weapons can be traded in back at your base to increase Grit's overall life energy meter. But what I really love is the blacksmith option. Essentially, you design your own weapons of war. You have a certain number of points you can assign to your own creations, so you get to decide how durable it is, its power, and more, within the constraints of available points. What I really love is the blacksmith option. Essentially, you design your own weapons. Think of it like creating a character in an RPG. My favorite hellblade-creation is fast, with a great amount of damage, but comes at the cost of low durability. Better yet, you get to draw your own in a pixel-art image of it in the blacksmith menu. Actually drawing the weapon is a little cumbersome, but not overwhelming, and I was able to make a sweet looking sword. I'm 100% certain people will use the creator to make obscene weapons, but I managed to hold myself back. (As far as you know, anyway.) It’s a lot of fun seeing the weapons you create get dropped during certain mid- and late-level events. Verdict Panzer Paladin doesn't reinvent the action-platforming wheel, but it does an excellent job balancing the aesthetics and feel of an old-school action platformer with modern ideas to make it a wholly fresh-feeling experience. The true power of the weapons is only unlocked through their destruction, which adds an extra layer of strategy to each level and boss fight. On top of its retro-aesthetics, it has some many nods to NES era games without getting mired in nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. It doesn't quite reach the heights of something like Shovel Knight, but it brings a lot of cool ideas to the genre of neu-retro while feeling like it could have been right at home on the original NES. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Core i3 Memory: 1 GB RAM Graphics: OpenGL 3.0 compliant video card Storage: 200 MB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

Well I will vote for DH1 Nice rhythm and the song is so relaxing