Director Spike Jonze has made a beautiful film about AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, starring Pedro Pascal, but you'll be bored long before it's over.Heartbroken Pedro Pascal is looking at a happy version of himself, though they're both wearing AirPodsAs long as the tips provided with the AirPods 4 with Noise Cancellation fit your ears, they are amazing. The instant you turn on that noise cancellation, you get it, you feel enveloped in your music, and you feel as if the entire world has gone away.Only, you really do get that instantly. You might never tire of it, you might always relish how calming and peaceful AirPods noise cancellation is, but it does not take you 5 minutes and 36 seconds to comprehend how good they are. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Silent Hill 2 remake creative director, Mateusz Lenart, revealed during a panel at the Game Developers Conference (transcription via GamesRadar) that the studio believed that it wouldnt be able to do a proper remake for Silent Hill 2 without using some of the original titles more archaic mechanics and features.Believing that there might be no good way to create the remake for [Silent Hill 2], Lenart spoke about developer Bloober Teams perspective of trying to bring memories of the seminal horror title back to modern audiences. However, this didnt mean making it a 1:1 remake, and the studio would go on to add modern features like an over-the-shoulder camera with a more modern control scheme.From the beginning, we knew that the story of this game is the most important aspect of it, and we didnt want to change it too much, said Lenart. At the same time, it was clear that it would be hard to present this story in the modern era without changes in mechanics or combat.One of our first decisions was to change the camera to a regular over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, he continued, saying that we knew that with that change, we would lose a certain style from the original game.Bloober Team worked on the remake of Silent Hill 2 alongside Konami. The game was released for PC and PS5 back in October 2024. Since then, the title has seen immense success both critically as well as commercially. It managed to sell more than 1 million copies in its first three days. As of January, Silent Hill 2s remake has sold more than 2 million copies.On the critical side of things, our own review of Silent Hill 2s remake awarded the game with a score of 10 out of 10, praising the title for being one of the best survival horror games out there, and standing amongst games like Resident Evil 2 and Dead Space. The Silent Hill 2 remake even went on to become GamingBolts Game of the Year for 2024.Konami has also praised the commercial performance of Silent Hill 2, reporting increased sales and operating profits thanks to the release of the horror game.Silent Hill 2 remake producer Motoi Okamoto has also spoken about Konamis decision to go with Bloober Team, which has previously worked on horror games like Layers of Fear and The Medium. He chalked up the decision to wanting a studio that is familiar with designing and developing horror games, since other studios would have likely needed some time to figure the genre out.No matter how broad a game design experts knowledge is, they wont be hired to work on a fighting game if they have no experience developing fighting games, said Okamoto. The same goes for horror. But then, with companies requiring such genre-specific experience, you realize that everyone has to start out as a novice for the given genre at some point. Nowadays, indie development has become the way to overcome that.Check out our thoughts on which game did it better: Silent Hill 2 vs Resident Evil 2.

Hazelight Studios Josef Fares has revealed that the studio is already working on its next game after the success of Split Fiction. Speaking on the Friends Per Second podcast, Fares has said that he is fully focused on the next game.On the podcast, Fares spoke ab out how he starts moving on to new projects right after releasing a game. He does acknowledge, however, that it feels a bit extra special this time because of the massively positive critical and commercial reception of Split Fiction.For me personally, every time a game is out, Im kind of done with it, said Fares. Im kind of like. OK, now its the next thing, but this has been a bit extra special because I would say that its been the best-received game we have done. But to be honest, everybodys super happy, but Im so fully focused and excited on the next thing that we already have started, just want to say that. So I feel super, super excited.Fares also spoke about the positive reception for Split Fiction. For context, Split Fiction was the first game by Hazelight Studios to have scored more than 90 on Metacritic throughout the studios 13 years of developing games. Hazelight celebrated Split Fictions positive reception with an accolades trailer.I think it ended up somewhere around 88, says Fares referring to the Metacritic rating for Hazelights previous title, It Takes Two. They had in the team some kind of guessing, where they guess the Metacritic score. And they had a couple of people who nailed it actually at 91. That was great.Further in the podcast, Fares spoke about how the team at Hazelight is excited to do even better for its next game. He spoke about how the studio isnt worried about not being able to surpass its work with Split Fiction in its next project.To tell you this, weve been talking about this a lot, we in the team really really feel like oh, they really like this so much,' said Fares. We can do way better. Thats the funny part. Its not like were feeling now how will we top this or do better than this. We just feel, just wait till what we do next, you know.Thats how confident we feel in what we are doing. But the mood is super good, everybody is super excited.Split Fiction was incredibly successful, managing to sell a million copies in its first 48 hours. The studio also revealed that the game had sold 2 million copies in its first week. The title has been well-received by critics as well as players, and its Steam version is rated at Overwhelmingly Positive.Split Fiction is a co-op game that puts players in the shoes of two girls Mio and Zoe. Both players must work together to try and escape from a simulation that they are both trapped in. Split Fiction was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S earlier this month. Check out our review for more details.

Photo credit: Promise RoboticsAI company PromiseRobotics has announced its plans to expand deployment of its production lines at a new 60,000-square-foot existing warehouse in Calgary, Alberta.The facility will be able to produce up to 1,000,000 square feet of housing annually and the expansion represents the latest advancements in automation and robotics in the homebuilding industry.PromiseRobotics aims to transform how homes are built in a traditional industry. Built by builders for builders, the company is enabling the homebuilding industry with its Homebuilding Factory-as-a-Service (FaaS) platform to boost production capacity and deliver homes faster with fewer resources.The new state-of-the-art robotic system in Calgary builds on the success of PromiseRobotics Factory-as-a-Service facility in Edmonton. Through automation and robotics, home builders can integrate fragmented processes and transform their blueprints into production-ready designs with AI-powered robots that produce homes from single-family to multi-story apartments.Photo credit: Promise RoboticsHomes are also being built locally and using local materials, localized supply chains, and local labour to ensure communities are supported at the point of construction.This new factory marks a major technological and business milestone, strengthening our ability to support our expanding network of homebuilding partners across Canada and the U.S., said Ramtin Attar, CEO and co-founder of PromiseRobotics.The high cost and complexity of automation have long kept homebuilders from investing in factories, but PromiseRobotics changes that. Our solution removes capital and expertise barriers, enabling builders to adopt automation and scale production confidently.PromiseRobotics production systems can be deployed at an existing warehouse or temporary structure offsite or onsite to provide builders with a one-stop production solution from blueprint to assembly. They also manage the entire automation lifecycle within factories as a service.PromiseRobotics expansion in Calgary strengthens Albertas economy and housing sector by bringing advanced AI androbotics to home construction, says Hon. Matt Jones, Minister of Jobs, Economy, and Trade. This will create high-quality jobs, support local supply chains and increase housing production at a time when Alberta needs it most.The new Calgary facility will officially start production this summer.The post Promise Robotics expands with new warehouse in Calgary appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Wychwood Neighbourhood Branch Library Restoration and Addition at 1431 Bathurst Street received an Award of Excellence for Public Buildings in Context in 2023. Photo Credit: Doublespace PhotographyThe City of Toronto is now accepting submissions for the 2025 Toronto Urban Design Awards, which are held every second year to recognize achievements in urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture. This year marks a milestone; the 35th anniversary of the program, which will celebrate design excellence across the city.Designers, developers, project owners, community groups, design students and others are invited to enter eligible projects in categories including elements, private buildings in context, public buildings in context, small open spaces, large places and/or neighbourhood designs, visions and master plans, student projects, and public art.As a new category in 2025, public art aims to recognize the growing significance that artwork contributes to the animation of the public realm across the city.Design students are also encouraged to enter theoretical or studio projects relating to Toronto.Submissions should outline how the project strives to meet the broad goals of the Citys Official Plan and supports equity, affordability, resilience, accessibility, integration and preservation of heritage resources, environmental sustainability and contributes to the Citys goals of re-urbanization.There are two main areas of focus for the 2025 awards program: sustainability, and equity, reconciliation, and diversity. The Toronto Urban Design Awards program seeks broad representation from the design community including representation from Indigenous, Black and equity-deserving groups or communities. Additionally, it seeks entries that represent design excellence in diverse neighbourhoods, particularly those underrepresented in the sphere of design recognition.The Toronto Urban Design Awards are an opportunity to celebrate outstanding architecture and design, a beautiful public realm and thoughtful and joyful public art, all of which are essential elements of a vibrant, dynamic, and successful city. As Toronto continues to grow and evolve, championing good city-building is important to ensure our neighbourhoods are great places to live, work and play. Toronto has much to celebrate and were looking forward to receiving submissions during this milestone year for the awards ceremony, said Jason Thorne, chief planner and executive director, city planning, City of Toronto.The deadline for submissions is noon on Monday, April 14.The City will hold an awards ceremony in September to celebrate all entries and announce the winners.More information, including detailed program requirements and submission criteria, is available on the Citys website: www.toronto.ca/tuda.The post City of Toronto opens submissions for 2025 Toronto Urban Design Awards appeared first on Canadian Architect.

The #1ReasonToBe panel is returning to GDC in a climate in the U.S. that may not feel so welcoming for panelists this year.Read More

Halliday secures $20 million to develop secure AI agents for blockchain, solving critical safety challenges for enterprise applications with immutable guardrails and automated workflows.Read More

Ubisoft reportedly implements "anti-harassment plan" for Assassin's Creed Shadows devsSource claims that developer is "advising" employees not to share their involvement on social mediaImage credit: Ubisoft News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on March 18, 2025 Ubisoft has reportedly implemented an "anti-harassment plan" for developers that worked on Assassin's Creed Shadows.As reported by PCGamesN, an anonymous Ubisoft employee told French news network BFMTV that the plan was allegedly being implemented to discourage employees from sharing their involvement with the game on social media.The employee also claimed that Ubisoft has partnered with Canada's Communications Security Establishment to support its reported endeavor."It's an initiative from Canada," the source said (machine translated by PCGamesN). "There's a team that monitors networks and acts quickly in the event of a targeted attack. Unlike what we've had before, this is serious."According to the report, posts across social media "will be closely monitored by a dedicated unit" and "lawyers are already ready to file complaints in the event of proven harassment."In response, a Ubisoft spokesperson told PCGamesN that its "top priority is the safety of [its] employees.""Our stance has always been that team members' social media channels are their own," the spokesperson said. "Our top priority is the safety of our employees, including online, which is why, as a standard practice across Ubisoft, we offer guidance on navigating social media, digital safety, and support for team members' wellbeing."We also share resources to help prevent and protect against online harassment, something our teams have unfortunately faced."

Imagine having 32 million people play your video game. For most developers, it would mean success beyond their wildest dreams. The stuff of fairytales. Delirium incarnate.For Palworld developer Pocketpair, it's a heady metric that became realitydelivering fame, fortune, and (perhaps unexpectedly) some distinctly "bad vibes."Discussing the pitfalls of overnight success at GDC 2025, Palworld community manager John Buckley explains that becoming a household name in a heartbeat left the studio and its cohort of employees open to a barrage of abuse that forced the company to go dark."Shortly after Palworld was released it was super popular to hate Palworld," says Buckley. "And it wasn't just your average Twitter user jumping init was basically everyone. It was people on Twitter. It was people on Discord. It was some big industry names, which I'm still a bit salty about. It was a lot of Linkedin circle-jerking. Hating Palworld was the popular thing to do at the time of release.""The reason for that is Palworld was an impression-printing machine. You just opened Twitter and said 'Palworld' and it's half a million views."Buckley says people started spreading false stories about the project in a bid to piggyback off the game's successand in some cases maliciously stir the pot.Related:He references the allegations that spread like wildfire on social media in the early days, when people began claiming that Pocketpair had leaned heavily on generative AI technology and even stolen character models from Pokemon developer Game Freak.The latter, says Buckley, was the most serious by far although he notes it was started by "some guy on Twitter" who has now deleted his posts after purportedly explaining he started the rumor because he didn't like the "animal cruelty" in the game."All of these accusations kind of swirled into this big social media and gamer movement, where you were either on one side [or the other] of this fake war that was happening," continues Buckley. "Because there was so much attention, that meant we were getting some very not nice comments and some very scary emails."At this stage, Buckley throws up a slide that shows a number of death threats and violent messages that were sent to the studiomany of which targeted the artists working on the project."This is something that we really, really, really suffered with for a long time. This is why we went silent and why we stopped posting numbers and silly memes. We just went silent for like three or four months thinking this would die down. And it basically did."Related:Buckley apologizes to attendees for showing those messages, but says it's important for people to see the "reality" of success in the video game industry."I think a lot of companies might have crumbled under the threats"Shortly after that ordeal, Nintendo helped keep the good times rolling by filing a lawsuit against Pocketpair over alleged patent infringement. Buckley describes the situationwhich he cannot discuss in detailas "not fun."How did the team learn to cope with the onslaught of doom and gloom? "Slowly," says Buckley, before underlining how vital it is for developers to disconnect outside of work hours."You have your work time and you have your personal time. Basically make no comparisons between the two. So on a small level, we started setting timers and auto-muting apps. No Slack. No Discord. Things like that," he continues."This was hard, especially for our players, because myself and one other person were previously the main go-tos when speaking with Pocketpair. After Palworld, we had to shut down that communication flow because there was just so much coming in."The company also established internal channels to intentionally share positive feedback (from both players and industry peers) in a bid to boost morale and counter the cacophony of negativity. Employees were also told to avoid being overtly public facing to ensure they didn't unintentionally paint a target on their own back.Related:"Social media is just the worst," says Buckley. "No one should use social media."Buckley acknowledges that building those walls means the studio perhaps doesn't feel as "personal" as it once did, but says the sheer volume of negativity that some workers were facing was throwing them off kilter."We really just tried to funnel the nice stuff [towards them]," he continues. "Funnel the fan art and kind of bring back some positive atmosphere into the company."Despite facing heavy criticism, Buckley says Pocketpair managed to retain all of its employees by fostering a tight-knit work culture and working diligently to protect its workforce. "I think a lot of companies might have crumbled under the threats, under the pressure, and under the negativity," he adds.Buckley reiterates the level of success experience by Palworld isn't all bad and says the title is still "chugging along" backed by an "amazing" community.The other upside is clearly financial. The success of Palworld has enabled Pocketpair to establish a publishing division to support other studios throughout the industry, and the company has also formed a joint venture called Palworld Entertainment with Aniplex and Sony Music to expand the reach of the IP.Buckley, however, clearly doesn't want GDC attendees to forget the human cost of that success.

Nanoleaf has announced that it will be offering one of the easiest ways to add an immersive lighting experience to your gaming PC. Its new PC Screen Mirror Lightstrip features 75 color-changing LEDs that can be attached to the back of your display to cast a colored glow on a wall that will then mirror or react to whats happening onscreen. And instead of requiring additional hardware like a control box or a camera, the lightstrip plugs directly into a PCs USB port.The PC Screen Mirror Lightstrip is available for preorder now through Nanoleafs online store for $49.99 and is expected to ship at the end of March 2025.Its designed for use with monitors up to 32 inches in size and features a flexible adhesive zigzag design, making it easier to attach to the back of your display without the lightstrip getting twisted during installation. If youre using a smaller monitor, excess length can be trimmed off without damaging the lightstrip.The PC Screen Mirror Lightstrip pairs with Nanoleafs desktop app to mirror whats happening on screen or to create visualizations for what youre listening to. Image: NanoleafIn lieu of a control box, Nanoleafs new lightstrip pairs with the companys desktop app, which lets you choose one of 16 million different colors or create custom lighting animations. It can also mirror and match the broad colors and tones of a game youre playing, making the action feel like its extending into your room. Or you can use the lightstrip as an audio visualizer, with light effects that match the beats of music youre playing on your PC.If you have a Nanoleaf Premium subscription ($1.99 per month or $19.99 per year), the lightstrip can be used with the companys more advanced Orchestrator mode that detects and analyzes songs to create dynamic colour palettes and animations tailored to each track.See More: