One of the big draws of the Switch 2 is that the console will be backwards compatible with the Switch games library, barring a few exceptions. Nintendo has also explained that not every game will operate smoothly at launch on the Switch 2, as the hybrid console doesn't natively run Switch games. Instead, Nintendo uses a workaround method involving hardware and software to get Switch games working on the Switch 2."When we first started Switch 2 development, the focus was on enhancing its performance as hardware, namely, expanding its capacity," Nintendo's Takuhiro Dohta explained. "So, compatibility was a lower priority. For example, Nintendo DS games were playable on Nintendo 3DS, and Wii games were playable on Wii U, but it was difficult to achieve the same level of compatibility with Switch 2, because the hardware-design approach was different from those systems." Continue Reading at GameSpot

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI is poised to be 2025's biggest new game release, and so far we've heard sales projections of 40 million copies in the first year and $3 billion in revenue. Only one piece of work in history may end up outperforming it, according to Hollywood veteran Craig Mazin--the Bible.Speaking to Variety, Mazin said he expects GTA 6 to become the "largest-selling piece of media ever," with the exception of the Bible. As such, he expects Hollywood to "very carefully" watch how the game performs.It's unknown how many copies of the Bible have been produced, but estimates suggest it could be as many as 7 billion. Obviously, GTA 6 is not going to sell 7 billion copies. But the point Mazin is making is that he expects Rockstar to once again deliver a product in GTA 6 that smashes records and raises the bar.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Re-releases of sci-fi classics in theaters and IMAX have been a big success lately, and theres one movie that deserves the same treatment right away Blade Runner 2049. The Denis Villeneuve film didnt break even when it was first released, but it later became a cult classic. That likely means more fans will flock to theaters now, and possibly redeem its original box office performance.

Nintendo's online store has revealed new details regarding the file sizes of many of its upcoming first-party Switch 2 games, and they're smaller than most would probably imagine. It has been a big week for Nintendo fans as the company finally revealed the Switch 2 in great detail, highlighting system specs as well as new games.

Hey everyone! Im looking for an artist partner to join my open-world survival RPG project. Ive been working on this game solo for a while, but now I need someone to help bring the artistic side to lifethis includes 3D modeling, UI design, and sound design. This is a partnership, not a paid job. Revenue will be shared once the game starts generating income.What You Get Creat

Theres a line early on in the psychological thriller Gazer thats been running through my mind ever since I finished watching it. How can time heal, if you cant even feel time passing? a character rhetorically asks the films protagonist. As the plot unfolds, that question transforms into a thesis for Gazer as a whole: Its an eerie meditation on the discontinuity between time and grief, and the impermanence of memory itself.Directed by Ryan J. Sloan, Gazer centers on Frankie (Sloans co-writer, Ariella Mastroianni), a young mother with a degenerative cognitive condition that affects her ability to discern the passage of time. Working as a gas station attendant in Jersey City, she spends her days scraping for money to support her young daughter Cynthia, who lives under the care of Frankies mother-in-law.After losing her job due to her condition, Frankie is serendipitously presented with the opportunity to earn $3,000 on the condition that she retrieve a womans car and drive it out of town. In her desperation, she accepts the offer, inadvertently thrusting herself into a web of paranoia and deceit as she struggles to grasp her unwitting complicity in something terrible.Gazer is Sloans directorial debut, and it feels like it. On the whole, the film could aptly be described as psychological thriller in the vein of Christopher Nolans Memento and Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window, interspersed with a series of bizarre, dreamlike episodes that feel like a triptych of work by David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Stanley Kubrick, respectively. While it might be tempting to dismiss Gazer as wholly derivative based on that description alone, Sloans execution, the way he threads that referentiality throughout the plot, and the strength of Mastroiannis performance all work to the films benefit.Its impossible to talk about Gazer without focusing on Mastroianni, whose portrayal of Frankie is inarguably the films strongest element. The audience spends so much time with Frankie, seeing the world through her fractured perspective, hearing her thoughts through her own ears as she listens to tape recordings of herself talking designed to anchor her to the chronological present. When her predicament inevitably derails her carefully orchestrated routine, it results in some of Gazers most engaging sequences, particularly when Frankies on-screen actions begin to diverge from, if not outright contradict, the methodically rehearsed instructions of her past self.Coupled with the isolation that comes as a result of her rapidly deteriorating condition, and her inability to see or communicate with her daughter due to her mother-in-laws obstruction, Frankie lives a life in no specific order, alone in a single-room apartment thats barren of anything but the few personal items and stack of cassette tapes she has to her name. She is, to paraphrase a quote from another film, Gods lonely woman, unmoored from both her past and present. Mastroiannis performance is affecting and sympathetic, channeling the listless frustration and acute paranoia of a woman who has become unstuck in time, holding on for dear life to the one relationship that still anchors her existence her connection with her daughter.Steve Matthew Carters score is especially worth mentioning among the films strengths. While at first conventional, with its wailing saxophone notes peppered with orchestral instruments and a smattering of electronic sounds, Gazers score eventually dives off the deep end into a swath of droning synths and discordant jazz reminiscent of the late Jhann Jhannsson. Carters music is a pitch-perfect accompaniment to Frankies mental state, deteriorating in real time along with her own fraying sense of space and reality.In the end, Sloans film coheres into a confident psychological thriller thats more than the sum of its influences. While the listless pacing of its first act might deter some audiences, those patient enough to sustain their interest beyond that will be rewarded with a clever, entertaining mystery with ample room for interpretation, and more depth than it might initially appear to muster. For Sloan as a first-time director and Frankie as a suffering mother, time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.Gazer hits theaters April 4.

About 15 hours into Assassins Creed Shadows, it was finally time to take a journey I had been avoiding. Six-ish hours of gameplay earlier, I had unlocked second playable protagonist Yasuke, and saw in the gorgeous objective screen that he had two objectives tied to his narrative, in Omi. Like many other open-world RPGs, Shadows encourages you to fully explore the areas you unlock early, and I had a fun time assassinating and decapitating various foes in the games first two regions: Izumi Settsu and Yamashiro. But as far as I could tell, I was mostly done there, and ready to make a journey that would finally take me to some new parts of the games world.That trek from my closest available fast-travel point to Omi was 3,000 meters away. Thats fine, I thought. Itll be quite a journey, but Im sure Ill discover some things to interact with or explore on the way. I was very, very wrong, and ended up coming away from the end of my session wondering if Id ever pick the game up again.All journeys in Shadows are made longer by the games ambitious but flawed fealty to matching real terrain as closely as possible. It is nearly impossible to take shortcuts hills are too steep to climb, forests are too thick to cut through. The environments are beautiful, but the paths to your destination are very limited, which takes a lot of the fun out of exploring. Even more critical is the lack of ways to engage with the world around you, such as the beautifully rendered wildlife and the lush landscapes of feudal Japan.This is a tricky line, as modern open-world RPGs (including the Assassins Creed franchise) have struggled with overcrowded maps, extraneous mechanics, and empty checklists. But it seems Ubisoft overcorrected here, especially because Shadows also doesnt show any objective on your map unless you know exactly where it is. To find that out, you usually have to spend one of your (quite limited) scouting resources, so you have to actively choose which objective you want to pursue instead of just seeing whats close to you. And as much as I like the visual design of the objective screen, theres no way to sort the missions by location, so its very easy to miss whatevers actually closest to you. (Or if there are things to do on, say, a 3,000-meter trip.)On my nearly hourlong journey to Omi, I encountered a few random skirmishes between soldiers and barbarians that I could choose to get involved in, and one opportunity to paint local wildlife. I didnt engage with the former, because there was no narrative or mechanical reason to do so, but I did take advantage of the latter its one of the systems I do like about the game. But that was it, and it felt representative of two of my biggest issues with Shadows: For a world so vast, it feels surprisingly empty, and there are very few ways to tangibly interact with the environment or the things that live there. The painting minigame is a great example, but there are very, very few instances of it in the world. The last thing these games need is more systems, but thinking on how Red Dead Redemption 2 and Ghost of Tsushima handled making the world more interesting, I found myself wishing I could do something like catalog all the flora and fauna I encountered on my trip. It would have made it feel like an actual journey, and not a slog, and that I was actually interacting with this world I was traversing through.Then I got to Omi, and my frustration only grew. The missions for Yasuke served as introductions to a character I had already been playing for a long time, complete with tutorials for weapons I had been using for hours. Its a puzzling decision, as when you unlock these missions to begin with, you are nowhere near Omi, so it seems unlikely many players will just beeline there. These are the risks of an at-your-own-pace narrative that doesnt want to cheat with travel, I guess.All told, the reward at the end of my 3,000-meter journey was about an hour of cutscenes and walk-and-talk missions, complete with three (three!) different instances of the animation of the seasons changing, and tutorials for things I already knew. (Thats another issue with Shadows: The two mission types seem to be exclusively talk to this person so they can tell you to talk to another person or sneak into this place and kill everyone there.)That sounds OK if youre really gripped by Shadows narrative, but Im not. I feel like Ive seen more interesting versions of similar stories before (in part because the games sprawl makes the pacing of the narrative extremely fractured). At the end of the night, I realized Id spent more than two hours playing Shadows, and I felt like I got absolutely nothing out of that time besides empty progress.This problem isnt unique to Shadows; its something many games in the genre struggle with. But a better way is possible Avowed drops you right into the world and the gameplay and keeps you going without making you feel like youre filling time (playing Shadows directly after Avowed did the former no favors), and I hear Atomfall is much the same. Ive been enjoying Shadows stealth and combat, and its quite fun when Im actually playing it. I just wish I didnt feel like I had to fight the game (or the number of hours in a day) just to get to those points where Shadows lives up to the promise of a game where you can switch between two equally skilled but very different killers on your quest for bloody revenge in a gorgeous environment.

Choosing the perfect glassware is an art in itself. Glassware might seem like just everyday objects, but the moment you find yourself in need of the right one whether for a crisp martini, a slow-sipped negroni, or a refreshing highball you quickly realize just how many details matter. The weight, shape, feel in your hand, and how it presents a drink are all deeply personal and preferential elements, making the decision unexpectedly complex.Fortunately, NUDEs latest collaboration with award-winning mixologist Giorgio Bargiani makes that choice a little easier. The Bar/Giani collection, a refined set of cocktail and mixing glasses, is designed to cater to both discerning bartenders and at-home mixologists. A signature stem, found across the entire collection including glasses that are traditionally stemless creates a cohesive design language. The result is glassware that enhances every pour, turning each drink into an experience worth savoring.If theres anyone to trust with designing elegant drinkware, its Bargiani. As Assistant Director of Mixology at Londons multi-award-winning Connaught Bar, he is one of the most influential figures in the global bar scene. His expertise is rooted in a family heritage of restaurants and boutique shops in Pisa, Italy, refined over nearly a decade at one of the worlds most celebrated bars. This background allows him to bring a refreshing perspective and creativity to the craft of creating unforgettable drinks.For Bargiani, crafting the perfect cocktail means considering every detail, from the ingredients its made with down to the glassware its served in. I always try to find new ways to create a personalized drinking experience for my guests, and wanted to create elegant designs that didnt just belong to one style or environment, he shares. Each person can make this glassware their own and adapt it to their own taste and place whether serving up a classic like a Negroni or Martini or presenting a signature creation, I designed this collection with a vision to encourage people to express their own creativity, like I do with my own drinks and guests.The Bar/Giani collection includes four cocktail glasses and one mixing glass, each crafted with thoughtful details that enhance the occasion. The highball glass, with its tall, slender silhouette, is designed to keep cocktails cool, ideal for drinks that are meant to be savored slowly. In contrast, the short cocktail glass features a wider rim, allowing ingredients and aromas to fully develop for a more flavorful sip. The martini and long-stemmed cocktail glasses offer a graceful, balanced handling experiencing, elevating every moment of the drink. Lastly, while mixing glasses are typically designed without a stem, the mouth-blown mixing glass continues the collections signature stem design, reinforcing its distinct aesthetic while ensuring a seamless stirring and pouring experience.This collaboration between NUDE and Giorgio Bargiani elevates both professional bars and home cocktail rituals with a new level of elegance and versatility. With its timeless, artful designs, the Bar/Giani collection is destined to age as gracefully as the spirits it holds.Giorgio Bargiani with collectionTo learn more about the Bar/Giani collection by NUDE and Giorgio Bargiani, visit nudeglass.com.Photography by Laura Edwards.

When Jackson Schwartz was a teenager he watched videos of glassblowing and was transfixed by the process. As he worked with glass he became fully immersed in the craft, responding to the material as it changed. It became a meditative practice for him, and it is one that still resonates today.After studying abroad for several years, Schwartz returned to his roots and settled in the Midwest where he grew up. He envisioned a studio featuring handcrafted glass lighting, and in 2011 he co-founded Minneapolis-based Hennepin Made with Joe Limpert.Jackson Schwartz \\\ Photo: Graham TolbertHere a group of artisans produce a range of fixtures from sconces to chandeliers. No matter which basic elements Schwartz uses to form his latest fixture, he innately understands the unlimited possibilities. I believe I have a unique ability to take materials and activate their narrative power, he says. I get the discards, the leftovers, the rejects, and look at them in a different way to see what they can speak to. That is where the potential is.The brand is noted for fixtures that merge artistry with functionality, which Schwartz is exploring even more via an emerging art practice embedded within the Hennepin Made manufacturing facility. Everything is made to order, in a hands-on approach that Schwartz fully embraces.New products take shape in a collaborative process that sparks unparalleled creativity season after season. My role is twofold, Schwartz notes. First, I make sure that we have the right team members doing what they are truly unique at. The other part of my work is to ideate different concepts, connect them to the source of inspiration, and then communicate that to the design team to turn it into reality. The process is iterative, and there is discovery along the way.Today, Jackson Schwartz joins us for Friday Five!1. In the ForestThis is where I grew up. I picked it because I feel much of the way we are is formed by our childhood. Growing up here I was always outside exploring, adventuring, making up stories, and interacting with the systems of the natural world. I think it informs much of my fascination with facets of materiality: texture, color, depth, pattern, and form.2. Clouds on WaterI live in an incredibly unique part of the world, and I took this photo at our family cabin. Our geological region is full of water, and I didnt realize this until moving away to Australia for 5 years and then returning. There is something calming about being on the water, it is my place of renewal.3. Clouds at HomeThis photo is taken from my window at home. I find awe in the clouds. They help me imagine and make me feel like there is a sense of something larger than myself. Clouds are the ultimate vessel of light, there is nothing else that compares.4. Snow BranchesAround two years ago I started a practice of looking for wonder and awe in my immediate surroundings. This photo was taken within one city block of my house on an early morning after a snowfall. The cold is something many people talk about wanting to escape from and for me it is the wonderful time of beauty, clarity, and focus.5. Ice and LightI find ice to be such an interesting form for water to take. This is a scene from a frozen lake with the sun dropping in the horizon behind it. The chunk of ice reminds me of glass and is a point of inspiration for my work.Works by Jackson Schwartz and Hennepin Made:Lacuna Pendants \\\ Photo: Graham TolbertTaku Sconce \\\ Photo: Graham TolbertHelena Pendants \\\ Photo: Graham TolbertBruma Sconce \\\ Photo: Ryan Lodermeier

We may earn a commission from links on this page.While I was a total pizza hater as a child, I've come around as an adultmaybe a little too far around. It's one of my favorite things to make at home. I use pizza as a vehicle for using up leftovers, and as a way to save money on lunch. Through years of pizza trials, I've collected some sure-fire tricks that ensure the best homemade pizza possible. Flavorful crusts, balanced toppings, and even browningyou dont need to have a home kitchen outfitted with a giant stone kiln to reach pizza perfection. But you do need to know a few things.Ferment the dough Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann When you have a meal with as few as three components, you want to ensure each one is bringing excellent flavor to the table. Crust may be humble, but it doesnt have to be bland. The most reliable way to ensure your crust is flavorful is to build in a cold-fermentation period of 24 to 72 hours. Like a good sourdough bread, the flavors that develop during fermentation are what give the dough that characteristic tang. Read here for the details on aging your dough in the fridge. This simple cold fermentation method is the easiest way to achieve a bubbly, chewy crust with lots of flavor.Season the edge of your crustThe most abandoned pizza element is the outer crust ring, and theres nothing sadder than seeing a plate with a bunch of bald, gnawed-on bread. But with all the flavor in the middle of the pie, no one can be blamed for jettisoning bland, dry carbs. Instead, make the crust a point of interest. Since the outer ring of crust is essentially a colossal breadstick, think of the tastiest bread stick youve ever had and get inspired. Brush the crust with some olive oil, sprinkle on some salt and raid your spice cabinet. Read here for some crust-centric inspiration, like using garlic powder, sesame seeds, garam masala, or a thin layer of mayonnaise along the edge. Heck, you can even try this method and stuff your crust with hot dogs. Avoid dried herbs, however, as they may burn in the high-temperature oven.Ditch the sheet pan for a pizza stone or steelTheres a reason you see pizza advertised as brick oven and wood fired. The texture and flavor is best when cooked at high temperatures where humidity doesnt stand a chance. The most indispensable tool in your pizza creator toolkit is a pizza stone or steel. Using either one is going to work considerably better than squishing your 72-hour fermented dough onto a thin metal sheet pan.Using one of these surfaces is ideal for pizzas (and breads) because they can withstand extremely high temperatures and retain even heating for the duration of the cooking time. Both surfaces will vaporize moisture and leave you with that sought-after crispy, charred bottom. Although its completely a matter of preference, the stone and steel each have a few unique qualities, and one might suit you better than the other. Read here to see the details on both and which one might be better for your needs. Ive used both for pizza and Ive never been disappointed.Preheat the pan thoroughlyIn order to get as close as possible to a wood-fired brick oven, make sure your home oven and the baking steel, stone, or cast iron skillet have had ample time to come to temperature. Preheat the oven with the skillet or stone inside for at least 20 minutes. These baking surfaces are thicker and more dense than sheet trays, so they take longer to heat up. Once they have had plenty of time in a 450 to 500 oven, the material will hold onto that heat even after you slide a cold pizza on top of it. Ensuring the surface is as hot as the rest of the oven will guarantee a crispy bottom crust and generous rise.Use a pizza peel Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann You can craft the most flavorful dough and top it with premium toppings, but if you cant get that pizza safely onto your baking stone without it crumpling into a heap, then youve only made a plate of disappointment for dinner. Just like a baseball player wouldnt go up to bat with a broomstick, you shouldnt be slingin pies with the wrong equipment. Get a pizza peel. A pizza peel is that wood or metal thing you've probably seen the staff at pizzerias use to slide the pie in and out of the oven. Conceptually simple, a pizza peel is just a thin, flat, wide surface with a handle. Youll want a peel thats wide enough for the biggest pizza you think youll make (you can always make a smaller pizza, but you cant go bigger). The handle makes controlling the peel easier and keeps your hands safe from the oven heat. For a home oven, choose one with a shorter handle, around 9 to 12 inches; those extra long handles are for deeper industrial ovens. They can be made of different materials, like wood or metal, but they function equally, so, batters choice. Be sure to transfer your finished pizza onto a cutting board for slicing to ensure the longevity of your peel. Go light on the toppingsThe best slices strike a balancehighlighting every ingredient without overloading the crust. Seems easy enough, but when youre at home, faced with a naked circle of dough, its easy to get excited and black out. Once you finally come to, there are four cups of mushrooms and a ream of bacon drowning in Raos. Where did the dough even go? Its normal to be a toppings enthusiastyou want to make sure that every bite has every ingredient. Sadly, overloading the dough can lead to misfortune. For one thing, it can become too heavy for the yeast-leavened crust to rise to its potential. Lots of toppings, especially sauce, add to the moisture content and can lead to a soggy crust. Worst case scenario, heavy toppings with a lot of liquid can actually make your crust stick to the peel, causing your pizza to rip on its way into the oven. The best solution is to use a light hand. A modest smear of sauce goes a long way, scatter your toppings mindfully, and don't forget to season the outer crust. You'd be surprised how these small choices make a perfectly balanced pie.Use quality ingredientsWhether youre dining out or cooking at home, pizza should be fun and affordable. I totally stand by cooking on a budget, but that is not the same thing as cooking with low-quality ingredients. In order to make the best pizza, you should use ingredients that taste amazing because once the high oven heat evaporates the water away, those flavors are going to be more concentrated. When considering cost, remember that were going light on the toppings, so any ingredients you buy are probably going to stretch out for multiple meals. A fancy jar of sauce can be used for tonights pizza, tomorrows pasta, and Saturdays shakshuka breakfast. Go heavy on the cornmeal Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann The first few times I tackled a homemade pizza, they morphed into misshapen, broken piles with cheese and sauce burned onto my baking stone. The error was not enough cornmeal. Although its not an ingredient many people consider when pondering pizza, it is one of the most important. Coarse ground cornmeal creates a barrier between the sticky pizza dough and the pizza peel, functioning like spilled marbles on the groundanything on top of them is just gonna roll right off, creating a fluid transfer of pizza from the peel onto the hot baking surface. (Unless you're using a cast iron skillet, then you might want to frico cheese the bottom of your crust instead.)Although you can use a few different ingredients for this purpose, cornmeal is the most widely used. Scatter a generous layer of cornmeal onto your pizza peel before you start stretching out your dough. Once youve stretched it to the desired size, place it on top of the cornmeal lined peel, grab the handle and give it a firm horizontal shake. The dough should slide freely. If it doesnt, gently lift the dough, maybe use a bench scraper if its really stuck, and sprinkle some more cornmeal in there. Begin applying toppings, and as you go along, periodically stop and shake to make sure youre not stuck.Par-cook veggies and meatsPartially cooking certain toppings is what separates the OK home pizzas from the you should open a pizzeria home pizzas. Oh, and it can also prevent you from possibly eating undercooked meat. Not all ingredients have to be par-cooked (cheese), but if you are a fan of sliced veggies, consider what happens when you put them on raw. Peppers, onions, mushrooms, and many other vegetables will become desiccated, shriveled and chewy in a 475 oven. Some vegetables, like tomatoes or zucchini carry excess moisture and will create a big puddle on your pie. Sauting watery vegetables briefly with oil and salt while your dough is proofing will ensure excess moisture comes out, and the coating of oil will prevent dryness occurring with other ingredients. Meats, on the other hand, arent in danger of drying out in the oven, but will release excess water and fat while cooking. Par-cooking bacon or sausage beforehand will allow you to control how much grease ends up on your pizza, while also ensuring the thicker cuts are completely cooked through.