Ryu Ga Gotoku StudioThe creators of the Like a Dragon franchise explained how Ryu Ga Gotoku studio manages to release narrative-driven games in a short period of time without losing quality. At GDC 2025, in a session titled The Secret to Narrative-Driven and Short-Term Development in Like a Dragon, Chief Director and Producer at Sega Ryosuke Horii and Design Manager Eiji Hamatsu discussed the topic from the point of view of game design.One of the secrets of the fast-development cycle is reusing assets. The brightest in all senses example is Kamuroch, a neon-lit fictional Tokyos district that appeared in numerous installments of the Like a Dragon series. Using the same assets in new games can result in players being discontent because of being taken to the same places again(asreported by 4Gamer via Automaton). However, the RGG developers are able to create appealing story-rich games that differ in genre with the use of the same map pieces. Eiji Hamatsu explained (via PC Gamer) that one of the reasons is the specific structure of zakkyo buildings, multi-tenant buildings symbolic of Japanese city centers.Hamatsu said that there such architectural construction has two major advantages:One is the visual image of a glamorous entertainment district. The other is the diversity of experiences that can be obtained from multiple different shops crammed into a limited amount of space. In Kamuroch, moving across one wall or ascending one flight of stairs can create a completely different scene or experience.Ryu Ga Gotoku StudioGame developers often reuse assets to save time and resources. For example, the notorious location from Dark Souls, Blighttown was allegedly created using about ten pieces of wood.Dont forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Like a Dragon Devs on the Effective Reuse of Kamuroch Map Assets appeared first on CG SHARES.

Anil Negi, a 3D Character Artist and digital clothes designer, has really outdone himself with his latest masterpiece, showcasing an absolutely gorgeous 3D garment simulation prepared for an online clothing session.According to the creator, the entire outfit comprising jeans, a shirt, and a realistic coat was set up with a combination of Marvelous Designer, an award-winning digital cloth creation and simulation tool, as well as CLO, with the latter utilized to set up the animations and render the model. Attached below are some of the renders and WIP shots shared by the artist:And here are some more eye-pleasing samples from Anils digital wardrobe:Speaking of digital clothes, recently, we spoke to CLO Virtual Fashions CTO Sean Jeon about Marvelous Designers journey over the past decade, its standout moments, and how the CG art industry has changed since 2015. You can read the full interview by clicking this link.See more of Anils works here and dont forget tojoin our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Check Out This Realistic 3D Outfit Made in CLO & Marvelous Designer appeared first on CG SHARES.

League of Legends started off as a simple DotA-inspired MOBA game, but it quickly evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Riot Games' debut title exploded in popularity in the years following its 2009 release, to the point that it eventually became one of the most successful games of all time. Thanks in part to its free-to-play business model, League of Legends has been played by more than 150 million gamers worldwide and has generated over $1 billion dollars in revenue on an annual basis. Despite ongoing complaints about its toxic community, aggressive monetization, and lack of approachability towards newcomers, no game has truly been able to dethrone it.

The most important component of a great gaming laptop is undoubtedly its graphics card, which can single-handedly make or break a gaming experience. Budget laptops offer decent gaming performance at 1080p, but you will need to shell out more for an Nvidia RTX 4070 or higher. The RTX 4070 and higher GPUs are capable of running games at 1440p without lowering the graphics settings and are among the best in the business.

Jurassic Park is a horror franchise. Though its best remembered for its sense of awe and groundbreaking visual effects, Steven Spielbergs Oscar-winning 1993 movie is also a scary gorefest, with brutal kills and plenty of dino jump scares. This is an element of that original winning formula that the reboot trilogy lacked: the horror influences that really sell the fuck around and find out tonal shift of Michael Crichtons original novel. The movie version of Jurassic Park adapts those in a masterful way, as it goes from awe and admiration for its resurrected dinosaurs to sheer horror at the carnage that comes with them.First-time writer-director Alex Scharfman is fully aware of Jurassic Parks horror elements: His debut movie Death of a Unicorn is essentially a horror-comedy version of Spielbergs film, taking inspiration from its tone, while grabbing story cues from his sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Youve got your rich criminals looking to exploit nature for profit, being hunted down by nearly fantastical creatures; a secluded location with access to the great outdoors; dangerous creatures looking for their missing child; and a dad and his daughter caught in the middle of it.The balance of tones in Death of a Unicorn is effective, once we actually get to the carnage, though that takes a little while. First, theres the inciting incident, with uptight lawyer Elliot (Paul Rudd) traveling to a massive estate in the Canadian Rockies with his estranged daughter, Ridley (Jenna Ortega), who is still grieving the loss of her mother and would rather be anywhere but with her dad. Elliot is about to become the legal liaison for the head of a big pharma company, Odell Leopold (a delightfully exuberant Richard E. Grant), as his cancer enters final stages. En route to the mansion, battling seasonal allergies and his rebellious daughters eye rolls and complaints, Elliot accidentally crashes into a creature crossing the road an actual unicorn.When he realizes the creature isnt fully dead, Elliot takes a tire iron to the unicorns brain, then hides the body in the car. (Why not just push it down the nearby forest slope?) Unluckily for him, the purple unicorn blood that gets all over Elliot and Ridley also cures her acne and his allergies. Making matters worse, the unicorn still isnt entirely dead, and it makes enough noise that the Leopolds a group of power-hungry, wealth-hoarding parasites discover what Elliot is hiding, and immediately get dollar-sign eyes. Learning about the unicorns healing properties, they realize that harvesting its corpse could bring their pharma interests a massive fortune. Failing that, they could sell its blood and horn to oligarchs with health issues. Theres a teeny, tiny problem, however: The creatures parents are worried about it, and theyre ready to pull a Liam Neeson in Taken to find and rescue their baby.Death of a Unicorn lives and dies by its ensemble, and casting director Avy Kaufman deserves a lot of praise for bringing together this exquisite ensemble, which elevates a B-horror movie script into a hit. Each part is perfectly cast, from disgruntled butler Griff (Anthony Carrigan, continuing with the expressive demeanor and sunny disposition of his Barry character, NoHo Hank) to brash, arrogant charity-gala empress Belinda (Ta Leoni), who has roughly two brain cells. But the standout performance the one likely to go viral when the movie hits VOD and clips start circulating online is clearly Will Poulter as Odell and Belindas kid, the young, entitled Shepard. Poulter effortlessly slides into the role of an unhinged rich boy who thinks hes a self-made entrepreneur with lots of big business insights, though his ideas largely amount to mixing drinks in the middle of a massacre, or snorting unicorn horn dust.Scharfmans eat-the-rich message fails to cover much that isnt already familiar from other recent films, like Bong Joon Hos Mickey 17, and the subplot involving Ridley grieving her mother ends up feeling shallow and distracting. But the magical premise and turn toward horror makes Death of a Unicorn stand out from other A24 projects. This movie essentially turns into Jurassic Park in its second half, as the Leopold estate is besieged by unicorns.Granted, as weve seen time and time again with the Jurassic World trilogy, every director in that franchise who has tried following Spielberg ends up mostly just paying tribute to his imagery, and to specific sequences from those first two movies, rather than pushing the concept further. Scharfman does that too, bringing back staples from the first two Jurassic Park movies: the iconic kitchen raptor attack where creatures hunt their victims by smell, the moonlit hunt in tall grass. The unicorns even have retractable razor-like claws like the raptors.But while Death of a Unicorn isnt the second coming of Spielbergs 1993 modern classic or the bonkers fun of its first sequel, its still an effective gore-fest. The movie shines the brightest when it becomes The Lost World: A Knives Out Comedy. The juxtaposition of the vicious, mean-spirited, yet cheer-worthy unicorn-themed violence with the absurdist comedy of the Leopolds trying to save face and think of their quarterly earnings makes for an exhilarating second half. DP Larry Fong shoots the hell out of the many kill sequences, with clear staging and dynamic action as guts are spilled and heads are stomped, or torn apart by massive teeth.Unfortunately, in spite of involvement from Zoic Studios (Netflixs live-action series The Witcher) on the digital side, Filmefex (The Terror) on the practical side, and even Wt Workshop on the development side, the unicorns simply dont look that good. The VFX at times looks unfinished, and the creatures rarely feel tactile, even when actual practical puppets are being used. There are a few moments when you can tell theres a physical unicorn prop on screen, and those precious few moments make it hard not to wish for a different approach in the rest of the film.Still, Death of a Unicorn delivers on its biggest promise a gnarly, funny creature feature with a fantastic ensemble, and all the unicorn-themed gore you can imagine. It doesnt reach the heights of the first two Jurassic Park movies, or even the one Ta Leoni was in. Scharfmans constant homaging does work in its favor, both in using the true and tested elements of the earliest Jurassic Park movies and also in putting the lack of creativity of the Jurassic World trilogy to shame.Death of a Unicorn hits U.S. theaters on March 28.

When Kaiserpunk was announced a couple of years ago, I couldnt contain my excitement. Having played numerous strategy games in the past, the notion of combining concepts from city-building management sims, 4X strategy, and grand warfare, all wrapped up in an alternate post-World War I timeline, seemed too good to be true.Regrettably, it surely is. Having played Kaiserpunk for roughly 15 hours, this offering from Overseer Games initially shows promise, though its bogged down by several glaring flaws with its UI, core mechanics, and general progression.Kaiserpunk is set in an alternate post-World War I time period where survivors have risen from the devastation to form their own city-states across the world. While there are several options of different regions to choose from, theres an almost Eurocentric focus. Just imagine my surprise when I thought I could play as my home country, the Philippines, only to realize that the four options in South Asia and Southeast Asia were for locations in India and Indonesia only. Europe, meanwhile, has close to two dozen map options.Regardless of your decision, theres still very little to differentiate your chosen region/nation outside of the heritage that you choose at the start of the campaign. Think of it as akin to passive bonuses with one drawback, such as having improvements to scientific developments and agricultural output at the cost of lower military production speed.As for the city-building aspect, this is where Kaiserpunk initially shines. The mechanics should feel familiar to anyone whos played logistics/management sims like the Anno or Tropico series. You start with just a town center, and you have to construct various residences, production facilities, mines, farms, and amenities, all to satisfy the needs of citizens. All roads must lead to the town center, too, and you have to create side streets and pathways to improve logistical throughput. Its a good idea to have clusters of facilities that are part of the same production chain, such as farms, bakeries, and flour mills, plopped down next to each other to speed up the manufacturing process.All in all, this core concept where you start from scratch, plan the layout of your city, and gain new citizens from laborers to specialists, while watching your burgeoning settlement turn into a sprawling metropolis, is so thoroughly engaging that I found myself playing for hours just to see my capitals continued development.Perhaps my only gripes here are related to the logistical radius and the games UI/UX. Regional maps are huge, and numerous resource nodes dot the countryside. Evidently, you have to place mines and other buildings to gather those resources. But these, too, require additional depots and infrastructure (i.e., power stations or water towers), not to mention extra laborers. A larger effective radius for utility and logistics buildings would alleviate intensive micromanagement. As for the UI/UX, this facet surely needs a few tweaks upgrade icons are so tiny that I have to squint just to read descriptions, and notification tooltips regarding issues arent particularly clear either.Where Kaiserpunk woefully falters is in its transition from city builder/management sim to grand strategy warfare. Firstly, its because trying to get your armies up and running not to mention your navy and air force is a painstaking and arduous task. You need to have enough unemployed citizens, as well as extra resources to manufacture military rations and equipment, just to train a single unit. When you do encounter problems, the games tooltips arent quite clear about what caused them in the first place. At one point, I knew I had a surplus of wheat and bread, so I built a factory that made rations. I couldnt tell for certain if it used up all the bread I had, but whatever I did caused my citizens to grow hungry due to a lack of food.Secondly, warmongering and diplomatic options are about as bare-bones as they could get. For the most part, you attack adjacent regions with your armies in fairly simplistic combat encounters. You also need to ensure that you advance with multiple units in your battalion; not engaging with overwhelming force almost certainly leads to defeat, which means waiting until your units are finished with cooldown and in tip-top condition again. The poor execution is more akin to a board game like Risk, as opposed to a title with strategic depth like Hearts of Iron or Europa Universalis.Thirdly, the overall development of your region takes so long that youre unlikely to build ships and planes until youre several hours into your campaign. So, if you somehow need to cross the sea before then, you need the proper facilities and related scientific improvements. Its a mind-boggling design decision given the setting. Its as though World War I was a swords to ploughshares reset for the entire human race, and everyone suddenly forgot how to make armaments and military transports.But perhaps the most glaring flaw of Kaiserpunk is that you dont necessarily feel that youre working toward a goal or objective. 4X strategy series like Civilization and Age of Wonders have unique victory conditions, whereas grand strategy titles from Paradox Interactive have events and requirements that lead to enforcing debilitating demands upon your foes, restoring your nations prestige, or unifying a fractured empire. In Kaiserpunks sandbox campaign, I mostly just recruited units, sent them over to nearby territories, hoped that theyd win battles, and moved on to the next region. Its conquest for the sake of conquest, minus the engrossing one more turn (or one more hour) aspect.Id be remiss if I didnt mention how the endgame section of your Kaiserpunk campaigns will go. This is a single-player game and, other than minor factions that hold single regions, you can choose to battle up to seven AI-controlled leaders. However, since the sandbox takes place on the world map emphasis on world, since you cant change the map size, make custom maps, or interact with minor factions you end up having to scour the whole planet just to finish off your opponents. This makes future playthroughs egregiously tedious and repetitive to a fault.Ultimately, the Kaiserpunk team tried its hand at presenting a mishmash of genres, but the resultant game is a jack of all trades without excelling in any individual facet. That said, if youre looking for a game that combines warfare and strategy with other aspects, like role-playing or management, then you might be better off playing titles like Crusader Kings 3, Mount & Blade, or Manor Lords. A take on the modern era, sadly, will just have to wait.Kaiserpunk was released March 21 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed on PC using a copy provided by Overseer Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygons ethics policy here.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.When it comes to having the hottest, crispiest snacks at the ready, Ive always had your best interest in mind. While any air fryer is better than no air fryer, in a perfect world the best air fryer would be available to us all at an affordable price. Well folks, my favorite air fryer is 39% off for Amazons Big Spring Sale and its a deal worth jumping on.The Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven is $139.95 right now, compared to its usual $229.95, and while its not cheap per se, I would say it dips down into a much lower price bracket for sure. If you were looking for air fryers in the $100 to $150 range, then the Cuisinart is worth considering. Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven $139.95 at Walmart $229.99 Save $90.04 Get Deal Get Deal $139.95 at Walmart $229.99 Save $90.04 I reviewed the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven late last year and I was completely won over by how quiet it was. Convection ovens across the board are effective cooking machines, so I believe its the side benefits that make an air fryer right or wrong for a personlike, do you need double baskets? Or do you need a travel air fryer? There are many things to consider. The cherry on top is that this very air fryer also became my top pick for Best Overall Air Fryer when considering size, ease of use, price, and other features (like window or basket model).My favorite features of the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven are the simple operating controls using turning knobs instead of digital buttons that might have you clicking 25 times just to increase the time, the ample interior space, and the sweet, sweet (near) silence of the convection fan. In a habitat like Brooklyn (near an above-ground subway train in a neighborhood that loves to honk horns for all communication) an air fryer as quiet as this is like a vacation. A vacation that gives you crisp tater tots at the end. Whether you have a new baby that wakes up at a pins drop, or you simply enjoy a quiet atmosphere, you can have peace and the perks of a high-quality air fryer for an excellent price right now.Shopping for tech? Lifehacker can help you make the right decision. Browse our tech reviews and head-to-head comparisons for everything from laptops and smartwatches to e-bikes and home gyms. Subscribe to our deals newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox, or browse our best-of lists directly on Amazon, including:The Best Over-Ear HeadphonesThe Best Wireless EarbudsThe Best Adjustable Dumbbell SetsThe Best Projectors

Another day, another security breach, but this time it's going down in the group chat. On Monday, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported that he had been added to a Signal conversation with Trump administration officialsincluding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Michael Waltzwho were discussing highly sensitive "operational details" about impending attacks in Yemen. Signal is a secure messaging app, but as a publicly available service, it's not meant for coordinating military operations (the U.S. government doesn't allow its use to communicate classified information). Here's what Signal is great forand the limits to the privacy it ensures. When you should use SignalSignal is a free, open-source messaging app with end-to-end encryption, allowing users to keep conversations (including text, images, audio and video messages, and calls) private and safe. It's one of our top picks for secure communication, and its privacy and security settings and open-source protocol are lauded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as many data security experts. In addition to end-to-end encryption, Signal has a disappearing messages function, which deletes chats after a set period of time, as well as features like photo blurring, hiding your phone number by default, and other security settings to protect your identity and your data. All of these factors make Signal an excellent choice for communication you want to keep private, whether you're transmitting personal or sensitive information or are engaging in activism or otherwise want to know that no one but you and the intended recipient can read your messages. If you're an iPhone user, you can make Signal your device's default messaging app. (Signal used to support SMS/MMS on Android, allowing you to use it as your default messenger, but removed that functionality in 2022.) But there's still a couple of sticking points to keep in mind.Signal still has privacy risksWhile Signal is an excellent tool for encrypted communication, it doesn't guarantee absolute privacy for classified information, such as that related to matters of national security. As recent events show, users can be added to group chatsmistakenly or on purposeleaving open the possibility that your messages will be exposed to someone not meant to see them. You should verify the identity of everyone included your threads before sending sensitive information to them, and consider utilizing Signal's group chat settings to require approval of new members or restrict who can add members to the thread. If private information is being shared, you can also verify a contact's safety number to ensure they are who you think they are. But even if you maximize all of Signal's security settings, the mobile device you're using could be compromised by spyware, as Apple has warned users in more than 150 countries. These campaigns attempt to install invasive malware on smartphones to capture users' location, data, and activitydefeating any encryption benefit Signal offers in the process. Bad actors are most likely to target high-profile politicians, activists, journalists, and others who have access to classified or sensitive information. Additionally, Signal can also be downloaded and accessed across multiple devices, including a desktop app, where data may be stored less securely or compromised by malware.Finally, there's always the possibility that your device could simply be swiped, leaving your data open to whoever can unlock it (a good reason to enable disappearing messages). With that in mind, while installing Signal is a good place to start, it shouldn't be the entirety of your privacy routine. If you have an iPhone, here are a few additional steps you can take to keep your data secureperhaps our government officials could benefit from going through this checklist, too.

Theres a good chance learning a new language is one of your New Years resolutions, unless youre hoping Google Translate will be enough for your next international adventure. Either way, youll need a reliable method to guide you through speaking and understanding the foreign language of your choosing. Fortunately, we're no longer confined to flashcards and textbooks as you can learn using your phone from the comfort of your couch.Many of the best language learning apps today offer a multi-tier approach, with AI-powered conversations, extensive vocab libraries and even podcasts you can listen to to help you master your target language. Whether you're just starting because you're just trying to understand what Bad Bunny means when he says "un verano en Nueva Yol," or you want to brush up on your Korean before that planned vacation, theres a language learning app to suit your needs. Best language learning apps for 2025 Others language learning apps we tested Memrise Memrise has a library of more than 200 languages to learn. From Spanish to isiXhosa, Memrise can teach you all the basics and dive into more regional differences. As a Spanish learner, I could choose to learn from Spain or Mexico and I enjoyed that Memrise didnt just teach me a more generalized version of the language. While Memrise could be great for polyglots, its hefty $60 monthly fee was too steep and prevented it from gleaning one of our top slots. Pimsleur Dr. Pimsleur believed speaking and listening were key to learning a new language. This app allows you to take its audio lessons offline, even going as far as integrating into Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. As a commuter, I appreciated having a lesson or two stored away for my journey to the office. However, I wanted more ways to practice reading and writing. With other apps offering podcasts for listening along and other forms of teaching, Pimsleur didnt offer enough to make our list. Rosetta Stone Gone are the large, yellow disc sets of yesteryear; now Rosetta Stone lives squarely in the digital age with its app. Using the same visual learning tools as the old-school Rosetta Stone, the app shows you pictures and terms to get you to understand what things mean. Users can repeat after voice recordings and match phrases to the images to learn slowly. Rosetta Stone could be great for beginners, but in order to get access to all 25 languages and a lifetime subscription, youd have to dish out $400. There are cheaper apps on this list that provide comparable experiences. HelloTalk Similar to Discord, HelloTalk provides voice and chat rooms to talk to folks from different countries. Its users can learn regional terms and talk about cultural differences. With a paid subscription, you can practice with a tutor or their AI chatbot. If youre looking to learn a new language outside of your inner circle, HelloTalk can be a great fit. I enjoyed connecting with others on the app, but, as always when meeting strangers online, beware some users treat it like a dating app. Fortunately, there are apps on this list that offer a similar AI learning approach without that added concern. How we test language learning apps As an intermediate Spanish learner, I was looking for an app that best catered to my needs, but I know everyone learns differently. So for each app, I assessed based on several factors. Can beginners use this to gain confidence? Will advanced speakers feel challenged? Are there enough opportunities to test reading and writing skills? How many ways can you learn vocabulary words? For those who want to have more conversations, what opportunities did each app provide to speak in that language? Bonus points if an app helped you learn a bit of the culture surrounding that language.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/best-language-learning-app-120001600.html?src=rss

Apple plans to start using images it collects for Maps to train its AI models. In a disclosure spotted by 9to5Mac, the company said starting this month it would use images it captures to provide its Look Around feature for the additional purpose of training some of its generative AI models.Look Around is Apple's answer to Google Street View. The company originally released the feature alongside its 2019 revamp of Apple Maps. The tool allows users to see locations from ground level. Apple blurs faces and license plates photographed in Look Around images to protect the privacy of any individuals caught in its survey efforts."In addition to improving Apple Maps and the algorithms that blur faces and license plates in images published in Look Around feature, Apple also will use blurred imagery collected during surveys conducted beginning in March 2025 to develop and improve other Apple products and services," the company writes in the disclosure. "This includes using data to train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement."Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget's request for more information.The company's Apple Maps image collection policy page provides a list of regions and dates when it plans to collect new images for Look Around. People can find when Apple's survey crews and vehicles plan to visit their area by sorting by country and then clicking on a specific region.Apple currently offers a few different features that rely on image generation models. Image Playground, for instance, allows owners of Apple Intelligence-compatible devices to write a prompt to create a new image. There's also Clean Up in Photos, which you can use to remove objects from your favorite snapshots.Google has been using Street View images to train AI models for years. In 2017, for example, a pair of researchers from the company trained a machine learning model to generate professional-looking photographs from a dataset collected from Street View.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-will-use-its-street-view-maps-photos-to-train-ai-models-150919972.html?src=rss