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Blood Strike is an online multiplayer, FPS battle royale game following the classic trope of battle royale. As usual, players across the globe come under the umbrella of a particular map and engage in combat after matchmaking. The game is a lightweight and immersive development from the NetEase Games. Throughout this Blood Strike review, I’ll discuss the plus points in gameplay, visual and audio effects, and cons that give minor setbacks to yet another first-person shooting title.I have tried and tested Blood Strike on Redmi Note 7 Pro for over 20 hours to make sure I checked all the available features and got the best possible experience to judge it properly and write an in-depth piece.I have tried and tested Blood Strike on Redmi Note 7 Pro for over 20 hours to make sure I checked all the available features and got the best possible experience to judge it properly and write an in-depth piece.Additionally, you can check out some redeem codes in the game for some in-game rewards. We also provide essential tips for your journey, including beginner tips, tips to level up, map guides, weapon combinations, resource management, and striker and weapon tier lists. And if you face any in-game issues, check our customer support article to connect the devs hassle-free!There’s no storyline to ponder upon in Blood Strike as any other battle royale title. Getting into the Blood Strike review, the gameplay is quite responsive and has an appealing combat system. The format is to survive through each round on a map storming with enemies. The game provides different modes like Hot Zone resembling Hardpoint in CODM and a standard Weapon Master mode that requires a degree of money management to buy your loadouts. The maps have a unique and captivating layout. Also, the variety of strikers and weapons is limited but is sufficient to satisfy the thirst for fights. The realistic details on weapons with several skin and modification options were a sure hit in igniting my interest. Although, it’ll be refreshing to see some expansion to the character and arsenal sections. The in-game chat feature is an excuse for players to exchange game plans and pointers from miles away. Having influential communication and strategies is no sweat, in the wake of Blood Strike’s well-bodied system. Leaderboards, ranks, and striving toward victory leave you aching for another round. I also am a sucker for the cutthroat competition that stays intact no matter what. The audio and visual effects are just as vital in a battle royale to keep the players hooked on the game. The 3D graphics in Blood Strike are consistent and definite even for low-end devices. The scenes glide smoothly as butter for most of the time. The weapon and striker detailings with exquisite cosmetics are a lap of luxury. You can say, it is a mix of visual experiences but still not distracting enough from the core gameplay. The sonic atmosphere of the game is however praiseworthy. All kinds of audio effects are spot-on and crystal clear to the brim. The gunfire sounds, reload clicks, running, and outlying thumps of retreating rivals are all magnificent. These intense elements add up to the developing tension of high-quality combat and make your battle royale experience worthwhile. https://gamingonphone.com/reviews/blood-strike-game-review/

The Warhammer Vermintide 2 versus alpha test has concluded, and with 24,000 players checking in Fatshark talks about feedback and balance. The new Warhammer Vermintide 2 versus mode is proving hugely po[CENSORED]r, with a big turnout for its first open alpha test on Steam, which ran across the sixth anniversary event for the beloved co-op Warhammer game. The new mode brings in that classic asymmetrical multiplayer of the likes of Left 4 Dead 2 and Dead Space 2, allowing players to step into the roles of both the Heroes and the Skaven. Following on from an earlier closed alpha, the Fatshark team says it’s very happy with the feedback from players, which ranged across a much broader playerbase, with DLC characters and a new map included this time around. All in all the test was successful,” Warhammer Vermintide 2 design director Joakim Setterberg writes, “but unfortunately it was quite unstable in the first days of play, requiring five hotfixes to resolve the stability issues.” The turnout was impressive, with just short of 24,000 players jumping into one of the best Warhammer games to try out its new alpha mode; no mean feat for a game that’s now six years old. “After six years, Vermintide 2 consists of a lot of moving parts, and as the previous test had been on a separate beta app the integration of the game mode into Vermintide simply proved trickier than anticipated, ” Setterberg explains. “Hopefully this should have been one of the biggest production hurdles, and we expect things to roll out smoother now for any future binging in Helmgart.”As for how the test went balance-wise, Fatshark’s attempts to cut back on draws appear to have worked – just 0.4% of matches finished without a victor, as opposed to 7% in the closed alpha. Match times ended up at an average of around 30 minutes, a touch longer than in the closed alpha, which Setterberg says the community was positive about.Grenades and longer-ranged weapons such as crossbows, longbows, handguns, and the bolt staff came out as the big winners for the heroes, and both the Warrior Priest and life staff get a special shout-out as strong choices in particular. Setterberg remarks that 84% of players rated the new game mode as a 7-10 for ‘fun,’ and says that players who typically play at the top-end Cataclysm difficulty were the most positive about both the mode overall and also playing as the Pactsworn. The most common requests from players are centered on balancing – the gas-lobbing Skaven Globadier “still outperforms as a safely hidden damage dealer” and Setterberg says the team is aware of player feedback that too many of them can show up at the same time. He also acknowledges “frustrations with getting a random hero when joining into the game.”The team says it’s planning another round of versus mode testing, although Setterberg notes that after the CAT (Closed Alpha Test) and GOAT (Great Open Alpha Test), “tradition now mandates that we can’t have a next test before we decide on a good animal acronym.” Might I suggest STOAT (Second Term Open Alpha Test)? There’s more to come, also – Setterberg says the team at Fatshark is currently working on adding a playable boss for the mode, while independently of versus mode it is also “finally working on a loadout system and hopes to have that out together with the next test.” As for the core campaign, he teases (and I stress this is written verbatim), “Whale, we can’t reveal anything about the future just yet, so you’ll just have to wait and sea what it holds for oar heroes. But not for too long, we expect.” While we await more news on that, there are plenty more of the best multiplayer games to keep you occupied, or you can sniff out the best rat games you need to play in 2024. You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains. Topic Source : https://www.pcgamesn.com/chivalry-2/free-game-amazon-prime

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Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), the African forest elephant (L. cyclotis), and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea; extinct relatives include mammoths and mastodons. Distinctive features of elephants include a long proboscis called a trunk, tusks, large ear flaps, pillar-like legs, and tough but sensitive grey skin. The trunk is prehensile, bringing food and water to the mouth and grasping objects. Tusks, which are derived from the incisor teeth, serve both as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. The large ear flaps assist in maintaining a constant body temperature as well as in communication. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs. Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia and are found in different habitats, including savannahs, forests, deserts, and marshes. They are herbivorous, and they stay near water when it is accessible. They are considered to be keystone species, due to their impact on their environments. Elephants have a fission–fusion society, in which multiple family groups come together to socialise. Females (cows) tend to live in family groups, which can consist of one female with her calves or several related females with offspring. The leader of a female group, usually the oldest cow, is known as the matriarch. Males (bulls) leave their family groups when they reach puberty and may live alone or with other males. Adult bulls mostly interact with family groups when looking for a mate. They enter a state of increased testosterone and aggression known as musth, which helps them gain dominance over other males as well as reproductive success. Calves are the centre of attention in their family groups and rely on their mothers for as long as three years. Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild. They communicate by touch, sight, smell, and sound; elephants use infrasound and seismic communication over long distances. Elephant intelligence has been compared with that of primates and cetaceans. They appear to have self-awareness, and possibly show concern for dying and dead individuals of their kind. African bush elephants and Asian elephants are listed as endangered and African forest elephants as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). One of the biggest threats to elephant po[CENSORED]tions is the ivory trade, as the animals are poached for their ivory tusks. Other threats to wild elephants include habitat destruction and conflicts with local people. Elephants are used as working animals in Asia. In the past, they were used in war; today, they are often controversially put on display in zoos, or employed for entertainment in circuses. Elephants have an iconic status in human culture, and have been widely featured in art, folklore, religion, literature, and po[CENSORED]r culture. Etymology The word elephant is based on the Latin elephas (genitive elephantis) 'elephant', which is the Latinised form of the ancient Greek ἐλέφας (elephas) (genitive ἐλέφαντος (elephantos[1])), probably from a non-Indo-European language, likely Phoenician.[2] It is attested in Mycenaean Greek as e-re-pa (genitive e-re-pa-to) in Linear B syllabic script.[3][4] As in Mycenaean Greek, Homer used the Greek word to mean ivory, but after the time of Herodotus, it also referred to the animal.[1] The word elephant appears in Middle English as olyfaunt (c. 1300) and was borrowed from Old French oliphant (12th century).[2] Elephants belong to the family Elephantidae, the sole remaining family within the order Proboscidea. Their closest extant relatives are the sirenians (dugongs and manatees) and the hyraxes, with which they share the clade Paenungulata within the superorder Afrotheria.[6] Elephants and sirenians are further grouped in the clade Tethytheria.[7] Three species of living elephants are recognised; the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).[8] African elephants were traditionally considered a single species, Loxodonta africana, but molecular studies have affirmed their status as separate species.[9][10][11] Mammoths (Mammuthus) are nested within living elephants as they are more closely related to Asian elephants than to African elephants.[12] Another extinct genus of elephant, Palaeoloxodon, is also recognised, which appears to have close affinities with African elephants and to have hybridised with African forest elephants.[13] Evolution Over 180 extinct members of order Proboscidea have been described.[14] The earliest proboscideans, the African Eritherium and Phosphatherium are known from the late Paleocene.[15] The Eocene included Numidotherium, Moeritherium and Barytherium from Africa. These animals were relatively small and, some, like Moeritherium and Barytherium were probably amphibious.[16][17] Later on, genera such as Phiomia and Palaeomastodon arose; the latter likely inhabited more forested areas. Proboscidean diversification changed little during the Oligocene.[16] One notable species of this epoch was Eritreum melakeghebrekristosi of the Horn of Africa, which may have been an ancestor to several later species.[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

PJ Washington scored with 4.5 seconds left to help the Dallas Mavericks beat the Golden State Warriors 108-106. The Mavericks, without Luka Doncic, led 105-99 late on but Stephen Curry levelled for the Warriors at 106-106. Washington then scored a layup before Klay Thompson missed a three-pointer for the Warriors, whose six-game winning run came to an end. Washington scored a game-high 32 points, while Curry top scored for his side with 28 points. Elsewhere, Xavier Tillman scored with 7.4 seconds left for the Boston Celtics as they held off a Sacramento Kings comeback to win 101-100. The Celtics led by 19 points during the fourth quarter before a 16-1 run brought the Kings back into the game. De'Aaron Fox scored a game-high 40 points for the Kings, including seven three-pointers, and put his side 100-99 in front with 27 seconds left. But Tillman restored his side's lead and they held on to win their 61st game of the season. The Milwaukee Bucks, who were without Giannis Antetokounmpo, were beaten 117-111 by the Toronto Raptors, who ended a 15-game losing streak. Gary Trent Jr top scored for the Raptors with 31 points, while Damian Lillard registered 36 points for the Bucks. There were also wins for the Phoenix Suns, who beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 97-87, and the Indiana Pacers, who emerged 126-112 victors against the Oklahoma City Thunder. https://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/68748134

We are all about forbidden fruit, so when Lexus extended the opportunity to drive its Europe and Asian market exclusive tiny LBX SUV, we jumped at the chance. Though, we walked away from the experience feeling like we weren’t missing out on much. The LBX isn’t a bad car, but for a luxury car it was a bit to small and not as refined as the Lexus UX, which is actually cheaper than the LBX. It was missing something. If the LBX was going to fall short on luxury appointments, it needed a bit more grunt and it looks like that’s exactly what it’s going toEarlier this year, Lexus revealed an LBX Morizo RR concept at the Tokyo Auto Salon. If “Morizo” sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s also the moniker of a Toyota GR Corolla trim. Do you see where this is going? The Toyota GR Corolla’s engine and drivetrain was dropped into a Lexus LBX and the result is this angry little beast.While labeled as a concept at its initial debut, Motor1 now reports that Lexus Australia CEO John Pappas says it is “highly likely” that the LBX Morizo RR concept will reach production, we'd guess sooner than later. Is Lexus trolling us? Did Akio Toyoda purposely sign off on giving the tiny SUV the GR treatment after we said the current LBX SUV wasn’t all that special? It's probably not that personal for us, but it still feels personal. Jokes aside, we’re crossing our fingers that the GR Corolla’s 1.6-liter three-cylinder turbo engine making 300 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque with all-wheel-drive finds the way into a Lexus sooner than later. How awesome would it be to have a turbocharged all-wheel-drive Lexus UX Morizo or F-Sport or whatever in the U.S., for example? https://www.motortrend.com/news/lexus-lbx-morizo-rr-sporty-suv-production-toyota-gr-corolla-power/

PC and console gamers alike know that a good gaming setup can make all the difference in terms of performance and overall enjoyment. Not to mention some of today’s video game setups are truly remarkable: fully immersive, well-designed environments, with ample space for both work and play. As you might suspect, video gaming setups vary based on use. PC gamers have very different needs than console gamers; casual gamers have very different needs than hardcore gamers; streamers have different needs than content creators, etc. It can get complicated quickly. Below, we’ll cover the basic setup for beginning gamers who are interested in acquiring the right pieces for success. So, if you’re relatively new to gaming and think that you’d like to create a beginner gaming setup, you’re in the right spot. Keep reading to learn how to choose the gaming setup option that best fits your gaming style, overall budget, and gaming room dimensions, and provide some shopping tips. Noob no more; you’re ready for the big leagues now. Tip One: Choose the Right Gaming Desk We hear it all the time: What is the best computer desk for gaming? Or, for people who are slightly tighter on space: What is the best computer desk setup for gaming and work? Folks also want to know: How can one choose the best gaming desk? And of course: What size of a normal gaming desk should I get? If you’re struggling with answering those or similar questions, you are not alone. It’s hard to pick out the right gaming desk – and it’s an expensive and annoying mistake if you choose wrong. Below are a few key features to focus on and help narrow down the choices. Ergonomics: Make sure the desk has an adjustable height option for maximum comfort, regardless of it’s a standing desk or not. Shape: Choose between a standard, U-shaped or an L-shaped desk, depending on the available space, amount of peripherals you have, and budget. Durability: The more stuff you want on your desk, the sturdier it needs to be. Look for a desk made from high-quality materials (like tempered glass, steel, or engineered wood). Cable management: Avoid the clutter and mess of disorganized cables by buying a desk with a built-in cable management system. If that’s not in the budget, search online for tips on how to DIY or buy an off-the-shelf solutions. Storage: Some desks come with loads of storage options – shelves, racks, drawers, hooks, cup holders, you get the picture. Others are a bit more minimalist. Consider the bulk of what you’ve got – and what you plan to get. No need to invest in a giant desk with all the bells and whistles if you aren’t planning on acquiring a load of peripherals or gaming monitors. At the end of the day, the more gear and accessories you’ve got – the more desk space you need to keep everything well-organized and tidy. Check online forums and read reviews before you purchase a video game desk to avoid any “gotchas.” And remember: you can always start small and build, especially with modular options. We’re not going to get into the technical details of which type of monitor to get beyond saying you’ll definitely want one with a high refresh rate and low response time. What we are going to focus on is how to pick your monitor size and whether or not to use wall mounts or monitor stands. When it comes to picking monitor size, you first want to think about how far back you’re going to sit or stand from the monitor. According to Dell, “24-inch monitors are best if you are sitting less than 3 feet from the screen, while 27-inch displays work best when sitting 3 to 4 feet away.” You’ll also want to consider the display resolution (pixels per inch or PPI). The higher the PPI, the clearer the image. Generally, 24-inch monitor looks best at 1080 PPI and a 27-inch looks best at 1440 PPI. You then need to decide how you want to mount the monitor. How you mount the monitor really depends on how you want to use your setup. Wall mounts save desk space but can cost a lot and be a bit of a pain to install. Monitor stands are great for gamers who also want to work from their gaming setup, and who don’t feel like busting out the drill and level quite yet. https://www.cubesmart.com/blog/your-space/organization/how-to-build-the-best-gaming-setup-in-2023-for-beginners/

Upon its inception, NASA’s space shuttle program promised to usher in a new era of exploration, keeping astronauts space-bound with a reusable and relatively cheap ride into orbit. It was a project that forever altered the course of spaceflight with its triumphs — and its tragic failures. Deemed an “engineering marvel,” the first of five winged orbiters — the space shuttle Columbia — made its inaugural flight in 1981. Twenty-two years and 28 trips to space later, the same shuttle broke apart during its final return to Earth, killing all seven crew members on board. The tragedy spelled the end for the US space agency’s transformative shuttle program. And its memory continues to reverberate in the halls of NASA today, leaving a lasting mark on its consideration of safety. “Human history teaches us that in exploration, after accidents like this occur, we can learn from them and further reduce risk, although we must honestly admit that risks can never be eliminated,” said then-NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, who ran the agency from 2001 to 2004, in a speech before members of Congress shortly after the Columbia disaster. After the shuttle program was retired, no US astronaut would travel to space on an American-made rocket for nearly a decade. Reimagining rocketry The space shuttle project was forged in the optimism of NASA’s Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the surface of the moon and bested America’s Soviet rivals during the Cold War. Apollo was, however, extraordinarily expensive: NASA spent $25.8 billion (or more than $200 billion when adjusted for inflation) — according to a cost analysis from space policy expert Casey Dreier of the nonprofit Planetary Society. With financial constraints on the horizon, by the mid-1970s, engineers within NASA were building an entirely new means of space transportation. Apollo used towering rockets and small capsules — destined to be flown just once — that would plunge back home from space and parachute to an ocean landing. The space shuttle concept was a remarkable pivot: Reusable, winged orbiters would take off strapped to rockets, sail through Earth’s orbit and glide to an airplane-esque runway landing. From there, the shuttle could be refurbished and flown again, theoretically driving down the cost of each mission. Shuttle’s legacy Over the course of three decades, NASA’s fleet of space shuttles flew 135 missions — launching and repairing satellites, building a permanent home for astronauts with the International Space Station and commissioning the revolutionary Hubble Space Telescope. But the shuttle program, which ended in 2011, never lived up to the US space agency’s initial vision.Each shuttle launch cost about $1.5 billion on average, according to a 2018 paper from a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars more than what the space agency had hoped for at the program’s outset, even when adjusted for inflation. Long delays and technical setbacks also beleaguered its missions. “Every single mission that I was there for was scrubbed, rescheduled, delayed because something wasn’t exactly right,” said O’Keefe, the former NASA administrator, in a new CNN documentary series, “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight.” And two disasters — the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the loss of Columbia in 2003 — cost the lives of 14 astronauts. The Columbia disaster: Looking back On the morning of February 1, 2003, the Columbia orbiter was heading home from a 16-day mission to space. The seven-person crew on board had carried out dozens of science experiments while in orbit, and the astronauts were slated to land at 9:16 a.m. ET in Florida.NASA engineers knew that a piece of foam — used to insulate the shuttle’s large, orange fuel tank — had broken off during the January 16 launch, striking the Columbia orbiter. The space agency’s stance, however, was that the lightweight insulation material likely didn’t cause significant harm. Some foam had broken off on earlier missions and caused slight damage, but it was deemed an “accepted flight risk,” according to the official Columbia accident investigation report. It was later revealed, however, that concerns about the foam’s impact were swept under the rug by NASA management, according to previous reporting and “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight.” “I was very upset and angry and disappointed with my engineering organizations, top to bottom,” said Rodney Rocha, a chief NASA shuttle engineer, in the new series. The astronauts even received an email from mission control alerting them about the foam strike on the eighth day of their mission, reassuring them there was no reason for alarm, according to NASA. But the assumption was wrong. An investigation later revealed the dislodged foam had struck Columbia’s left wing during launch, damaging the spacecraft’s thermal protection system.The issue didn’t affect crew members while they spent more than two weeks in space. But heat protection is crucial for the dangerous return home. As with every mission that returns from orbit, the vehicle had to dive back into the thick of the Earth’s atmosphere while still traveling at more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,359 kilometers per hour). The pressure and friction on a spacecraft can heat up the exterior to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,649 degrees Celsius). Reentry proved too much for the damaged Columbia shuttle. As the vehicle approached its destination, crossing over New Mexico into Texas, the orbiter began to disintegrate — visibly shedding chunks of debris. At 8:59 a.m. ET, ground controllers lost contact with the crew. The final dispatch came from mission commander Rick Husband, who said, “Roger, uh,” before he was cut off. At 9 a.m., onlookers saw Columbia explode over East Texas and watched in horror as it showered the area with debris. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/05/world/nasa-space-shuttle-columbia-what-happened-scn/index.html

Nickname: Dark Sword Video author: Gamin in arabic Name of the game:Honor of kings Link video: Rate this video 1-10: i didn't watch it

and supporting software. Software itself is the set of instructions or programs that tell a computer what to do. It is independent of hardware and makes computers programmable. There are three basic types: System software to provide core functions such as operating systems, disk management, utilities, hardware management and other operational necessities. Programming software to give programmers tools such as text editors, compilers, linkers, debuggers, and other tools to create code. Application software (applications or apps) to help users perform tasks. Office productivity suites, data management software, media players and security programs are examples. Applications also refer to web and mobile applications like those used to shop on Amazon.com, socialize with Facebook or post pictures to Instagram.1 A possible fourth type is embedded software. Embedded systems software is used to control machines and devices not typically considered computers — telecommunications networks, cars, industrial robots and more. These devices, and their software, can be connected as part of the Internet of Things (IoT).2 Software development is primarily conducted by programmers, software engineers and software developers. These roles interact and overlap, and the dynamics between them vary greatly across development departments and communities. Programmers, or coders, write source code to program computers for specific tasks like merging databases, processing online orders, routing communications, conducting searches, or displaying text and graphics. Programmers typically interpret instructions from software developers and engineers and use programming languages like C++ or Java to carry them out. Software engineers apply engineering principles to build software and systems to solve problems. They use modeling language and other tools to devise solutions that can often be applied to problems in a general way, as opposed to merely solving for a specific instance or client. Software engineering solutions adhere to the scientific method and must work in the real world, as with bridges or elevators. Their responsibility has grown as products have become increasingly intelligent with the addition of microprocessors, sensors, and software. Not only are more products relying on software for market differentiation, but their software development must be coordinated with the product’s mechanical and electrical development work. Software developers have a less formal role than engineers and can be closely involved with specific project areas — including writing code. At the same time, they drive the overall software development lifecycle — including working across functional teams to transform requirements into features, manage development teams and processes, and conduct software testing and maintenance.3 The work of software development isn’t confined to coders or development teams. Professionals such as scientists, device fabricators and hardware makers also create software code even though they are not primarily software developers. Nor is it confined to traditional information technology industries such as software or semiconductor businesses. In fact, according to the Brookings Institute (link resides outside ibm.com), those businesses “account for less than half of the companies performing software development.” An important distinction is custom software development as opposed to commercial software development. Custom software development is the process of designing, creating, deploying, and maintaining software for a specific set of users, functions, or organizations. In contrast, commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) is designed for a broad set of requirements, allowing it to be packaged and commercially marketed and distributed. Steps in the software development process Developing software typically involves the following steps: Selecting a methodology to establish a framework in which the steps of software development are applied. It describes an overall work process or roadmap for the project. Methodologies can include Agile development, DevOps, Rapid Application Development (RAD), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Waterfall, and others. Gathering requirements to understand and document what is required by users and other stakeholders. Choosing or building an architecture as the underlying structure within which the software will operate. Developing a design around solutions to the problems presented by requirements, often involving process models and storyboards. Building a model with a modeling tool that uses a modeling language like SysML or UML to conduct early validation, prototyping, and simulation of the design. Constructing code in the appropriate programming language. eam review to eliminate problems early and produce quality software faster. Testing with pre-planned scenarios as part of software design and coding — and conducting performance testing to simulate load testing on the application. Managing configuration and defects to understand all the software artifacts (requirements, design, code, test) and build distinct versions of the software. Establish quality assurance priorities and release criteria to address and track defects. Deploying the software for use and responding to and resolving user problems. Migrating data to the new or updated software from existing applications or data sources if necessary. Managing and measuring the project to maintain quality and delivery over the application lifecycle, and to evaluate the development process with models such as the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The steps of the software development process fit into application lifecycle management (ALM). The IBM® Engineering Management solution is a superset of ALM that enables the management of parallel mechanical, electrical, and software development. Requirements analysis and specification Design and development Testing Deployment Maintenance and support Software development process steps can be grouped into the phases of the lifecycle, but the importance of the lifecycle is that it recycles to enable continuous improvement. For example, user issues that surface in the maintenance and support phase can become requirements at the beginning of the next cycle. Why is software development important? Software development is also important because it is pervasive. As IBM vice president and blogger Dibbe Edwards points out: “Software has emerged as a key differentiator in many products — from cars to washing machines to thermostats — with a growing Internet of Things connecting them.” A few examples: Soul Machines (link resides outside ibm.com) uses software to create artificial online advisors that improve customer service and efficiency. The advisors have human faces, expressions and voices that react intelligently, empathetically, and efficiently to customer questions and needs. They can answer over 40 percent of customer inquiries without human intervention — and they learn from their interactions to improve over time. Using IBM Watson Assistant to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into the development process, Soul Machines can create and roll out an artificial advisor in about 8 to 12 weeks. “This is a race,” says Erik Bak-Mikkelsen. “We have to keep up with what’s happening in the market.” Bak-Mikkelsen is head of cloud operations at car2go (link resides outside ibm.com). He understands that delivering new features and functions to car2go’s ride-sharing apps and vehicles is key to getting and staying ahead. To do so, car2go moved its development operations to a managed-services cloud and adopted a DevOps development model. The result is accelerated development cycles, faster time to market and the capability to scale for future growth. Working with electrical power lines can be deadly. To stay safe engineers set electrical “lockouts” using physical tags and padlocks to divert power from work locations. French energy company Enedis (link resides outside ibm.com) worked with IBM Garage for Cloud to develop software that instruments these locks and tags and ties them into a shared network. Tags and locks detect each time that they are removed from an engineer’s van and communicate the time and geo-location. As the engineer attaches the locks, their location is recorded on a digital map. All stakeholders share a view of the map to ensure safety, reduce downtime and facilitate repairs. The IBM Cloud Garage collaborative development approach enabled Enedis to develop field-ready prototypes in three months. Topic Source : https://www.ibm.com/topics/software-development

We've tested the best RAM for gaming and other tasks, including video editing and graphics-heavy applications. Whether you’re shopping for the best RAM for gaming to upgrade the best gaming PCs but now struggle to tackle today’s games or building a new PC from the ground up, the best RAM kit for your money depends on the platform you pick and the workloads you plan to run. The hard part is evaluating whether faster memory improves your system’s performance. For example, if you’re running an Intel system with one of the best graphics cards, most programs won’t respond meaningfully to faster or slower system memory. On the other hand, some workloads, including some games and software, will scale well with higher data rates. For example, file compression programs love fast memory. AMD’s Zen-powered processors benefit more from higher memory frequencies, which you can read about in detail here. Increased memory speeds on AMD Ryzen- and Threadripper-based platforms often translate to real-world performance improvements. In games, that means higher frame rates at mainstream resolutions like 1080p (1920 x 1080) and smoother performance at higher resolutions. But the number of extra frames you get with faster RAM will vary significantly from game to game. Check out our RAM hierarchy for benchmarks. Lastly, memory speed makes a big difference if you’re gaming with integrated graphics, whether an Intel or AMD processor (you can see how they stack up in our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy). The graphics engine that’s baked into most of the best CPUs for gaming doesn’t generally have its dedicated memory like discrete graphics cards do, so faster RAM also improves performance. However, if you must pay top dollar for the fastest RAM to get playable frame rates, you’re better off buying slower system memory and a discrete graphics card. In short, the best RAM is usually the fastest if you’re gaming without a dedicated graphics card, running an AMD Ryzen system, and, in some isolated scenarios, with Intel chips. But if you don’t care about squeezing the best performance out of your hardware, DDR5-5200 is drop-in compatible with AMD’s Zen 4 processors and DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200 for Intel 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs.For many users, 16GB continues to be the current sweet spot. Programs continue to get bigger and require more memory over time, whereas 1080p and 4K videos are more common. PC games are also getting more demanding, and websites have become more complex. So, while heavy multitaskers and prosumers may need 32GB to avoid using much slower disk-based virtual memory, 16GB is far more affordable and sufficient for gaming and mainstream productivity tasks. Advertised XMP memory speeds might not be possible on AMD-based motherboards. XMP is an automatic memory overclocking setting designed for Intel systems, but some motherboard makers offer BIOS settings to attempt to use these faster speeds on AMD motherboards. However, these settings aren’t present on all motherboards and don’t always work when they are present. Look for AMD EXPO-certified memory kits if you own a Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) processor. Dual-rank memory is faster than single-rank memory. Tests show that dual-rank memory kits perform better than single-rank memory kits on AMD and Intel platforms. Always buy a single memory kit for your desired capacity. Don't combine two memory modules or kits from the same vendor and product line. Mixing and matching may not always produce a desirable result, and sometimes, manual tweaking is required to achieve stability. Want the best plug-and-play experience? If you want to avoid minimum to zero manual intervention, choose a memory kit that coincides with the official memory frequency supported by your processor. For example, DDR5-5200 is the baseline for AMD's Zen 4 chips, whereas DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200 is for Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake and 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh processors. Do you own a Raptor Lake or Raptor Lake Refresh CPU? Remember that Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors natively support DDR4-3200 on Gear 1. It's down to the silicon lottery if your chip can keep higher data rates on Gear 1. However, DDR5 operates in Gear 2 by default regardless of the frequency. Topic Source :https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ram,4057.html

Microsoft says it wants to bring its games to any screen. Let’s start with a screen we can play on in bed. MICROSOFT IS GEARING up for a big holiday season at the end of this year. During yesterday’s much-hyped Official Xbox Podcast, Xbox president Sarah Bond teased news regarding the company’s hardware, as well as its plans for its next-gen gaming devices. “What we're really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation,” she said. The biggest question about Microsoft’s next bet, then, isn’t whether or not it will continue to make traditional consoles that plug into your television. It’s if Microsoft will follow in the footsteps of companies like Nintendo and Valve to make a console you can carry around. Gaming has long advanced past the point of handhelds only providing a separate, smaller experience; you can play everything from battle royale megahits like Fortnite to expansive, open worlds like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom without a full TV setup. Other Microsoft competitors like Sony have already dipped into handhelds. In addition to the company’s efforts like the PlayStation Vita, which it stopped producing in 2019, it released PlayStation Portal—which allows you to stream games from your PS5—last year. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has expressed admiration for his competitors’ strategies. During a recent interview with The Verge, he says Microsoft has been “kind of learning from what Nintendo has done over the years with Switch … When I look at Steam Deck and the ROG [handheld] and my [Lenovo handheld] Legion Go, I’m a big fan of that space.” What keeps players from gaming more, he says, is more than just sleep or the regular obligations of life. “Some of it is just access,” he told The Verge. “Do I have access to the games that I want to play right now?” Even when asked directly about whether Microsoft would be making a handheld, Spencer refuted the idea. “I’m a big fan, but nothing to announce.” Doubling down on traditional consoles this holiday season isn’t unexpected. In September, Microsoft accidentally leaked information about its release plans, including a look at its mid-gen console refresh and a new controller, through unredacted documents. If still accurate, the documents also included information on its next-gen Xbox console, pegged to 2028, as a “hybrid game platform” that would use the cloud. Although cloud gaming offers an attractive solution for some players looking to avoid the hassle of a console on the shelf of their home entertainment center, Xbox execs have always been firm that traditional consoles are important to the business. “When we look at our hardware … it's where you get the most flagship, seminal experience of Xbox,” Bond said during the podcast. “And it also represents a developer target. Our developers can build the specs of our hardware, and we invest to make sure when they do, that the games are going to run great on our hardware, but they're also going to be able to be accessed across any screen because of all the other investments we make.” As Microsoft opens up its games to more platforms, it needs to make its signature hardware more appealing beyond a community loyal to the brand itself. Spencer himself may agree; eagle-eyed fans have noticed him liking tweets calling a handheld “inevitable.” Microsoft doesn’t have to make a technological leap to make great games accessible; Topic Source : https://www.wired.com/story/give-us-an-xbox-handheld-already/

As my friend group's forever DM, I'd love to have more D&D games so that I can actually be a player sometimes. Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast want a bigger piece of the gaming industry's pie, especially after the huge success of Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3. To that end, both companies are investing nearly one billion dollars into their shared gaming ecosystem, which includes half a dozen studios. Some of these studios are working on more Dungeons & Dragons games, while others are working on other Hasbro IP--Atomic Arcade is tackling a G.I. Joe Snake Eyes game, for example--and still more are creating brand-new IPs. We saw one of these new IPs revealed at last year's The Game Awards: Archetype Entertainment's Exodus. At GDC 2024, I sat down with Dan Ayoub, Head of Digital Product Development at Wizards of the Coast, to talk about what these new games will look like, how WotC and Hasbro plan to protect developers' jobs while pouring a ton of money into a brand-new initiative, and whether future D&D games will stay in Faerun or explore other settings (I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Eberron).GameSpot: I was really surprised to learn y'all have a ton of studios working on several new games. Has this been going on for a while and I just haven't been privy to it? Ayoub: I wish I could say that was the case. It has really been something we haven't talked too much about. But if you think about it, it just makes a ton of sense, right? Hasbro is a company focused on games and play, but it's kind of a well-kept secret that we've got this incredible video games [division] going on. So if you think about it, Hasbro's a 100-year-old company. And like you, I grew up playing D&D, and a lot of Hasbro board games and things like that. But I look at my own kids and things like that, and their play engagement patterns are entirely different. So if you think about it, if you squint, yeah, of course it makes sense for Hasbro to have all of these games going on. And certainly, you referenced Baldur's Gate [3], Monopoly Go!--we've been doing a lot on the license side and I think we've been a little more out there talking about that. But I'm really excited to be able to talk about what we're doing internally because we've got a billion dollars in games being developed right now, across multiple studios across North America. So why don't we just jump right into it? So I guess the first studio worth talking about, because we just announced it at The Game Awards, is our Archetype studio out of Austin. And that's being run by James Olin and a bunch of the Mass Effect 1 and 2 team. And a common thing you're going to see as I talk about the studios is we've built these studios around people and teams with DNA behind the types of things that we're trying to make. So that's been a really exciting project to work with the team on, and we were thrilled to finally be able to announce that to the world [at] The Game Awards. And frankly, the reaction blew us away; [we're] just blown out the water. So I think that was a great watershed moment too, because it was not just the coming out of the game for us, but I kind of saw it as our studio's coming out. We've got [a studio] in Montreal that's working on a large Dungeons & Dragons-based game. That's Invoke Studio. We've got Atomic Arcade in North Carolina that's working on Snake Eyes. As we like to say [that that game is] not your daddy's G.I. Joe. A very edgy take on Snake Eyes, and I'll come back to the strategy there a little bit. And, of course, we've got Archetype and also Skeleton Key in Austin--I can't say too much about [Skeleton Key's project], but it's something spooky. And I think if you look at the different studios, you've got some really interesting approaches with each. You look at Exodus and it's like, okay, this is a new IP, this is not an existing Hasbro or Wizards IP. And one of the great things about being in Hasbro [is] we've got toys. We've got all these other things we can do with it. So rather than, "Okay here's a Hasbro IP, go make a game," we're trying to go the other way--create something through a digital space where it's the fastest-growing medium and where more and more eyeballs are going, so that feels like the right place to do it. Then of course you look at Atomic and Invoke and those are classical Hasbro or Wizards IP from G.I. Joe to Dungeons & Dragons. And Skeleton Key again is kind of like, okay, we're going to try and do something new and innovative from a gaming side. So we've got, as I mentioned, about a billion dollars in games being developed, you got hundreds of people across all of these studios who are actively hiring as well. So we're growing up these studio infrastructures. So it's quite a large endeavor happening under the Hasbro umbrella right now. Are there any, for lack of a better word, safeguards designed for this level of forward-looking and spending? I love the idea of all these studios growing and tackling all these new IPs, but also--just reading our industry right now--there's just so many studios that grew a little bit too quickly over the pandemic and now good people are being laid off because the numbers aren't quite matching the numbers that people were bringing in in 2020 and 2021. We're being diligent about our growth and I think the good thing is we're obviously on the other side of the pandemic now. I think the studios are really now coming into that period where they're growing. I think we've certainly looked and seen the lessons over the last couple of years. I think we're being very diligent about our growth. We've got a lot of seasoned professionals who have been in the industry for a long time, and of course we're still part of Hasbro, so we've got that constant dialogue back and forth with Hasbro about how quickly does it make sense to be growing and things like that. But this is a core part of Hasbro's growth strategy, over the next several years. So the investment obviously is considerable, but yeah, I like to think we're being very measured and diligent and just making sure we're not growing too quickly. Going back to what you said earlier, what do you mean when you're saying that WotC and Hasbro are trying to build to the strengths of these studios? What's the process? [In some cases,] we went out and sought certain people. And in some cases it was the opposite, it was just people we were talking to. So, [as an example,] Atomic Arcade is doing the Snake Eyes game. We've got a lot of folks there that worked on Arkham, like our studio head. We wanted people who brought Batman to life, to, in very much the same way, what we want to do with Snake Eyes. And honestly, I cannot wait to show you. I'm a huge G.I. Joe fan and if you had seen what the team has done--I cannot wait to show this to people. And that replicates across our studio ecosystem. It was very much a conversation of, "Okay, what kind of game do we want to do? What makes sense, and what are the strengths we can bring to it?" And a big part of that strength is just talent that's already done it before.So myself and a lot of people on the team, at the risk of aging us, grew up with the '80s cartoon and things like that, and then the comic books and things and all of that fun. So the question is, in some respects, the philosophical creative approach of how do we make this [game] work in a medium where new people might be discovering it [for the first time]? And the answer to that is just obviously make a great game first. [Snake Eyes] is just an amazing character. He's got that mix of commando, but he's also a ninja. And I won't say too much about the story or the game and things like that, but he is definitely the piece with which we're looking to introduce or reintroduce a bunch of other characters and things like that back to the world. I don't know if you were a big comic guy, but I was and I'm going to totally sound like a geek here but, in issue 21--it was one of those famous comics--there was just no dialogue, it just totally focused on [Snake Eyes being mute]. And for a character that can't communicate, they can't speak, it actually creates some fun gameplay mechanics for us as well. When the time comes, we will have you sit down with [the game] and you will love it. [The team] have come up with some really, really clever ideas. Can we expect to see more totally new ideas that don't connect to any existing Hasbro IP? We have a couple of ideas in the oven. So the short answer is yes, you can expect to see us do more new IP campaigns as a medium. Again, I'll go back to my statement, Hasbro is a company that has play in its DNA and that is what it was based on. And play has changed over the last hundred years considerably. And Hasbro is making a lot of investments in the video game space because that's where people are playing, more and more. So some of those will be expressions of things like G.I. Joe, like D&D. But you are going to see more and more new IP being developed under that banner as well. For all these studios, are they independent? Do they communicate with each other? Are they helping each other out? What's their relationship? Yeah, great question. The goal is building a lot of the studios, they're all being built obviously under very strong creative leadership. So we want to give them the flexibility, it's all about empowering the creative powerhouses we've brought in. And they do communicate amongst one another as well. So it's kind of a combination where they've got a tremendous amount of creative independence. My role and our role within Hasbro is just how do we plus things up so four plus four equals 10? How do we amplify what they've got? We bring some structure to it, some centralized services, so we're not replicating things with everybody. But yeah, the teams have a tremendous amount of creative liberty. We all work together really, really well. I am fortunate that I know many of these creatives, the industry is so small, from other stages of my own career. So yeah, it's a nice mix where everyone's got a lot of creative freedom, but they get the benefits that come with being part of a larger organization. Given the success of Baldur's Gate 3, is the goal for all of your D&D projects to replicate those systems? Or make games that are as different as possible an experience from Baldur's Gate 3? We were obviously thrilled at the reception of Baldur's Gate 3. I think that proved a lot of things. People want these kinds of games and they want high quality, and things that are true to the franchise. So we obviously don't exist on an island. When we make a D&D game, we work with the D&D team. We also want to tie into what they're planning for future releases and things like that. So the different types of games and the roadmaps we have are tied in with a larger D&D strategy. So you may see some overlap, but if you do, it's intentional. And that's kind of where I go back to the studios having their creative freedom, but there's still that larger plan. So you're going to be seeing a number of different kinds of D&D experiences coming. In terms of working with the D&D brand and doing your best to be on the same page, how do studios work alongside the system change as D&D 5e transitions to One D&D? It's an influence in some cases. So let me go and use Baldur's Gate as an example. I mean, that was a very direct expression of the books and the [5e] rule set, and we will do games that are like that. And we will also do games that are just more action oriented and things like that, but it'll always be grounded in some form to D&D, whether that grounding might be from a direct expression of the rule set, it might be the world, it might be characters. We'll express it in different ways, but it'll always be authentic. And in terms of just settings, and maybe you can't get into this, but Baldur's Gate 3 is obviously set in Faerun, the best-known D&D setting right now and one that--at least for me--I'm a little tired of playing in. Any efforts to try to create a D&D-inspired game that isn't necessarily set in that main world of Faerun? Yes. Just yes? Obviously you hit the nail on the head--that's certainly the most po[CENSORED]r area. When you go to people wanting expressions of what they know, that's a big part of it. We are going to play around the edges, a little bit as well. I can't say too much more than that. Look, man, Eberron is right there. It's funny, I'm a huge D&D player and I'm playing in Eberron right now. Hell yeah. Any sort of roadmap for all of these games? We definitely have a roadmap that goes pretty far in, actually, with dates kind of written in pencil as to when we think all of them are coming. And as we do project updates and things with the teams and things like that, we are constantly evaluating and reevaluating. You can probably guess based on what's been announced, kind of like how the ball starts rolling. But we've not called any dates yet, although that time will certainly come when we feel a good level of confidence. We don't want to rush out with anything. This business is really, really important to us. It's close to me personally. It's close to all of the creatives we brought in, so we're very diligent about making sure everything has time to get to the right stage. This interview was edited for both brevity and readability. Topic Source :https://www.gamespot.com/articles/following-baldurs-gate-3-wotc-and-hasbro-are-investing-1-billion-in-their-aaa-game-ecosystem/1100-6522241/

In our Hellblade 2 preview, we go hands-on with Senua’s Saga as Ninja Theory unveils how the studio goes beyond “realism for realism’s sake.” This is where my story began, and so it has to end here, because I cannot see further than this.” These are the final lines of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, delivered by Senua herself in a fourth-wall break that sees actress Melina Juergens turn her plaintive gaze to the camera. Developer Ninja Theory doesn’t share the sentiment. For half a decade, the studio has been hard at work on the next chapter – appropriately named Senua’s Saga – and I was invited to Ninja Theory HQ for a peek behind the curtain and a hands-on preview of Hellblade 2 in the final weeks of its development.When I step into the reception area, I come face to face with a collection of beaming BAFTA masks, in pride of place on the shelf opposite the front desk. In the boardroom, the angelic countenance of two TGA statuettes wink from a cabinet at the far end of the room. From accolades to canvas prints, Senua’s legacy has seeped into the fabric of the building itself. It’s no surprise, then, that there’s a frisson of nerves running underneath the studio-wide excitement for Hellblade 2’s first hands-on preview. It also explains the meticulous schedule of the event itself, which aligns closer to a studio tour than any traditional preview event. The preview is split into two parts defined by their location: Reykjanestá and Freyslaug. So much of Senua’s Sacrifice is spent suspended out of time and space, but Senua’s Saga is distinct on both counts. Studio head Dom Matthews describes it as a “love letter to Iceland,” delivered via an anamorphic cinema lens primed for photo mode. In the studio’s effort to fully capture Iceland’s topography, elevation data was quickly deemed sufficient, prompting on-location visits to acquire drone scans for photogrammetry. When I ask art director Dan Attwell why it had to be Iceland, the answer is simple: “It’s otherworldly. It’s like a geological theme park almost, there’s so much diversity in it.” In the wake of such extreme geological contrast, the psychology of Iceland’s landscape is a close match for Senua’s own. The rocky shores of Reykjanestá are the stage for a short sequence to ease me back into the Hellblade experience after so many years. “[Senua] spent the first game being buffeted and overcome by her experiences, and she manages to arrive at a place of relative peace and acceptance,” Derham explains. “She’s in a place now where, instead of it being such an internal journey, she’s able to push out into the world and into the future a little more than she could have before.” The dull roar of the Icelandic sea sets a primordial tone that echoes the opening moments of Senua’s Sacrifice, a throughline that connects the pitch and keel of the binaural voices of the Furies, distant shouting, and the agonal choking of helpless victims dying around Senua. “It’s your fault,” the Furies hiss, and it’s the first clear suggestion of the shift towards that exteriority.I also get a taste of the Furies in action in an audio demo that sees voice actors Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalan reprise their non-corporeal yet omnipresent roles from Senua’s Saga, swooping around a binaural dummy head sporting a set of fluffy microphones attached to each ear. This dance is set to a loose script that’s subject to improvisation, bolstered by the physicality that Greenland and Goalan inject into their movements. Without the visual stimulus of Senua’s journey, it’s more apparent that their accompaniment mirrors the tension and release of musical cadence, as they shift seamlessly through frantic whispers, stuttered fricatives, and deep-throated despair. Composer David Garcia Diaz compares their performance to jazz, in which the happy accidents that emerge through improvisation lend the Furies a “prismatic” quality that mirrors the unpredictability of psychosis. I also get a taste of the Furies in action in an audio demo that sees voice actors Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalan reprise their non-corporeal yet omnipresent roles from Senua’s Saga, swooping around a binaural dummy head sporting a set of fluffy microphones attached to each ear. This dance is set to a loose script that’s subject to improvisation, bolstered by the physicality that Greenland and Goalan inject into their movements. Without the visual stimulus of Senua’s journey, it’s more apparent that their accompaniment mirrors the tension and release of musical cadence, as they shift seamlessly through frantic whispers, stuttered fricatives, and deep-throated despair. Composer David Garcia Diaz compares their performance to jazz, in which the happy accidents that emerge through improvisation lend the Furies a “prismatic” quality that mirrors the unpredictability of psychosis.Back to Reykjanestá. I take in the crashing waves, the intricate detail of a ship smashed to bits on the shoreline, then brace myself as a Northman stumbles out of the sea mist. He advances on Senua, a tower of corded muscle that grows taller as the camera pulls in close to meet him, and while my instinct is to step back, I instead step forward and parry his first swing effortlessly. This ease is partly thanks to Hellblade 2’s control scheme, which remains faithful to the lightweight mechanics of its predecessor. Light and heavy attacks are punctuated by dodges and parries, but the impact of each blow has far more weight and precision this time around. I eventually throw the Northman off-balance, exploit this opening to cut him down where he stands via a brutal finisher, and Reykjanestá fades to black. The second sequence finds Senua in Freyslaug – what I assume to be the Fosslaug hot spring in modern-day Iceland, albeit in Hellblade 2, a ruined settlement occupies the landscape. It’s also here that we see Senua interact with other people, though the man in question is tied to a wooden post and he’s not very happy about it. “What does it look like and feel like when someone with a very strong unique world model comes into contact with other people with their own model of the world?” Matthews asks, then points to the infamous blue-and-black (or is it white-and-gold?) dress that was the subject of fierce online debate in 2015. “I went around the studio and asked, ‘What color is it?’ When people were wrong, and you told them that they were wrong, they actually got angry, because it challenged their model of the world.”In this case, the man denounces Senua as a “crazy witch”, and the Furies drown out any further dialogue as Senua wrestles with her rage and the rising impulse to kill him. Naturally, this was a deliberate choice. “She’s having conversations internally with the Furies while also trying to have a conversation with another person,” Matthews explains. “For people who do experience psychosis, it is a daily struggle to try and manage that.” While I typically rely on subtitles for auditory processing, I find the tumultuity of this moment so striking that it’s enough to make me refrain from turning them on; after all, Senua doesn’t have subtitles to help her navigate these moments. A mutilated body strung up in ritualistic sacrifice at the head of a wooden bridge brings Senua to a standstill, and as she struggles to process what’s in front of her, a kaleidoscopic portal of whirling limbs, torsos, and faces blocks the path forward. Just like its predecessor, Senua’s Saga employs pareidolia as the crux of its puzzles – a form of pattern recognition that picks out connections in disparate shapes where none exist. As I pick my way through the settlement, runes swim across the screen, prompting me to find a matching shape somewhere in the environment. These puzzles were my least favorite part of Senua’s Sacrifice; not only am I exceedingly bad at them, but I find them fairly reductive as a representation of psychosis. That said, the sensory experience of this puzzle entirely surpasses those that appear in Senua’s Sacrifice, and the longer I spend trying to find what I’m looking for, the further I’m submerged into the near-hypnotic, cacophonic soundscape. “Audio plays a massive role,” VFX director Mark Slater Tunstill says. “We often say that the Furies are kind of our HUD in a way.” However, there are plenty of visual signposts – such as light, geological formations, and yes, a smear of white paint – that also help to subconsciously guide me through both the puzzle-solving and general exploration of Freyslaug. Here, too, pareidolia plays a part, as a human face materializes on a lump of rock barring one residence then fades away to reveal a new path. “We made it really hard for ourselves, right?” Slater Tunstill laughs. “We’ve gone super realistic, but we’ve also gone no HUD, no camera cuts.” However, Attwell expresses trust in Hellblade’s older audience: “It’s people who want something different, want something immersive, and want something that’s shorter but more involved and enriching. So there’s a level of understanding that we’re expecting from them as well.” That trust appears well-founded as I locate each rune with minimal fuss, and the grisly tableau on the bridge transforms into the haunting image of Dillion at the site of Senua’s trauma: suspended, blood-eagled, in a web of rope as sunshine blazes behind him. In this liminal mindscape, Senua is once again tormented by the guttural facsimile of her father’s voice, until the Furies deliver a devastating realization: she cannot run from her torment; she’s forced to carry it with her wherever she goes. It’s a poignant yet devastating scene, and while the surreal image of disembodied hands slowly closing over Senua’s face is arresting, there’s no question that Juergens’ performance remains the driving force. Even here, in the depths of her trauma, there is a glimmer of the love Senua has for Dillion, and it is at this point that I tried very hard not to cry at a preview event. Instead of consuming Senua, the darkness falls away into an idyllic representation of her childhood home, crystallized in her memory in verdant green and banked by flowers. Within, Senua retrieves the iron mirror she uses to slow time and stun enemies. I brace myself for a redux of the dissociative episode in Senua’s Sacrifice, where Senua gazes into the same mirror and speaks with the distorted voice of her father as she teeters at the precipice of suicide. This time, anchored in this memory of her mother, we just see Senua’s reflection. Professor Paul Fletcher, who returns as Ninja Theory’s mental health advisor for Hellblade 2, recalls conversations with people who have lived experience of psychosis on the nature of recovery. “It’s not about the voices suddenly disappearing or the past being blotted out,” Professor Fletcher explains. “It’s much more about achieving a new meaning and purpose for the future. Topic Source : https://www.pcgamesn.com/hellblade-2/preview

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