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FUTURISM.COMDARPA Tried Using the Earth's Atmosphere as a Giant Sensor and Detected Something InterestingWhile trying to determine if it could use the entire Earth's atmosphere as a massive sensor, the US militarys Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made a highly unusual detection.The agency which has overseen the development of cutting-edge military technologies and out-there concepts for decades encountered the distant signature of a SpaceX Falcon 9 reentering the atmosphere during a test in New Mexico last year.The goal of DARPA's AtmoSense program, which kicked off in late 2020, is to determine whether acoustic and electromagnetic waves propagating through the Earth's atmosphere could allow the US military to detect and locate major events and disturbances, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, across the planet.The idea is to eventually hone in on the location of illicit underground explosions or "other national security-relevant events" highly relevant data for the US military.And according to a recent DARPA statement, the program works surprisingly well. In 2024, DARPA conducted two field tests in New Mexico, detonating six 1-ton and 10-ton controlled explosions to test the concept. The agency found that AtmoSense models accurately predicted these blasts, giving credence to the idea of using the atmosphere as a massive sensor.But while DARPA scientists were poring over the data, they found a strange and unexpected disturbance."As the team was looking at the data, they saw a huge drop in what's called total electron content that puzzled them," said AtmoSense program manager Michael Nayak in the blurb.Nayak used a simple analogy to explain what had happened."Imagine that you have water going through a hose," he explained. "That's a flow of electrons, and if you put your fist in front of the hose, you'll notice a significant drop in water volume coming out of the hose."The apparently culprit? They realized the drop in electron content correlated to a Falcon 9 rocket reentering on the same day as the controlled New Mexico blasts."Then they decided to pull other SpaceX reentry data, across dozens of launches, to see if they could spot a similar electron drop," said Nayak. "The phenomenon is highly repeatable. We discovered an unplanned new technique for identifying objects entering the earth's atmosphere."According to the program manager, its latest tests prove that the system works, potentially giving the US military a potent detection system."High-resolution surface-to-space simulation of acoustic waves was considered impossible before the program began, but we accomplished it," he said."We can now model across six orders of magnitude, in 3D, what happens to the energy emanating from a small, meters-scale disturbance as it expands up into the atmosphere to propagate over thousands of kilometers, and potentially around the world," Nayak added.More on DARPA: DARPA Requests Plans for "Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures"Share This Article0 Commentaires 0 Parts 146 Vue
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WORLDARCHITECTURE.ORGThe Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism will be held from September and October 2025Submitted by WA ContentsThe Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism will be held from September and October 2025Korea, South Architecture News - Apr 05, 2025 - 13:43 html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"In 2025, the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (Seoul Biennale) will celebrate its fifth edition and tenth year of operation. The Seoul Biennale, which began in 2017, has provided an experimental platform for investigating innovative solutions to the challenges faced by major global cities today.For the 2025 fifth edition, Thomas Heatherwick has been appointed General Director by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.Heatherwick is recognized for his inventive design philosophy and imaginative vision, with the goal of broadening the basis of architectural culture through discussions that include not just urban architecture but a range of cultural fields.The fifth Seoul Biennale has adopted the theme "Radically More Human" to investigate how cities and buildings can be made more joyful and engaging, in line with the vision of a human-centered and climate-friendly future city. The theme pays tribute to Heatherwick's Humanise campaign, which he started in 2023.In September and October 2025, the 5th edition of the Seoul Biennale will take place, focusing on ways to make the city fundamentally more human-centric. A dramatic new public installation and a creative activity programme in Songhyeon Green Plaza will bring this theme to life, alongside a two-day global conference and a series of public exhibitions, inviting Seoulites to participate in a city-wide conversation about how building exteriors impact their lives."What you will see in this Biennale is the real voice of Seoulites. We have picked an extraordinary group of creators and communities with powerful ideas that will challenge the way you understand how buildings change our lives," said Thomas Heatherwick, General Director of the 2025 Biennale."They are all passionate about connecting everyday architecture with the big social issues that confront us in cities today loneliness, togetherness, division and belonging and coming up with real world solutions expressed through the outsides of buildings," he added.Moreover, the General Director has proposed a key visual that intuitively conveys the theme to engage both domestic and international audiences. Illustrations and text that are hand-drawn fuse the terms Seoul and eye. The design uses the metaphor of a blinking eye to extend an invitation to imagine methods for making cities and buildings more attractive and enjoyable.For detailed information regarding the open calls, and application processes, please visit the Seoul Biennale website and their Instagram.The top image in the article courtesy of Heatherwick Studio.> via Heatherwick Studio0 Commentaires 0 Parts 147 Vue
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WWW.CNET.COMMax: The 27 Absolute Best TV Shows to WatchHere are some highly rated series to watch on Max, plus a look at what's coming out in April.0 Commentaires 0 Parts 120 Vue
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WWW.EUROGAMER.NETThe Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: how the PlayStation game was ported to PCThe Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: how the PlayStation game was ported to PCDF speaks with key figures from Nixxes and Naughty Dog.Image credit: Naughty Dog Interview by Alex Battaglia Video Producer, Digital Foundry Additional contributions byWill JuddPublished on April 5, 2025 The Last of Us Part 2 recently launched on PC, bringing the second part of the well-known Naughty Dog PlayStation adventure to a whole new audience. Port developers Nixxes build on the work previously done by Iron Galaxy for Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Part 1 on PC, bringing new features and familiar limitations in almost equal measure. We recently spoke to some of the key figures at Naughty Dog and Nixxes about the work they've done on the new port, which does launch in a much stronger state than its predecessor. Those figures include Naughty Dog's programming director Travis McIntosh and game director Matthew Gallant and a host of developers from Nixxes: PC product director Coen Frauenfelder, principal optimisation director Wessel de Groot, junior graphics engineer Yana Mateeva, and senior director of development and studio head Jurjen Katsman. As usual, the interview below has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Enjoy! When did the project for The Last of Us Part 2 on PC begin? What are the origins of the current release?Travis McIntosh: It was more than a year ago, maybe a year and three or four months ago, and actually Nixxes wasn't available at the beginning. We always planned on working with them, but initially we worked with Iron Galaxy to produce an initial PC version. Some time in the fall of last year, Iron Galaxy rolled off, with Nixxes joining the project. We had a three or four month transition period and then they kind of took over lead development of the project around October, where they were the sole partner that we were working with, and they have done the bulk of the technical work. We've been talking throughout - at least once a week, sometimes three times a week, sometimes more. The bulk of the technical details have been done by them, with us standing over their shoulder and saying, "Hey, fix that. Fix that." Here's our full PC tech review of The Last of Us Part 2. Watch on YouTubeWhat are the origins of the Naughty Dog engine on PC? It ships on DirectX 12, but presumably it must have existed in some prior form. Did anything on PC exist before porting begun, like a live editor, or did it need to be produced from the ground up? Travis McIntosh: Obviously the work on The Last of Us Part 1 for PC helped with this. But if you want to start all the way at the beginning, before we had a PC version at all, there was almost no PC code. When we do PlayStation games, we are as low level as we can - as close to the metal as possible - and focus completely on a single platform. So there was very little PC support at all in the project. That all had to be brought up for Part 1 on PC, then on Part 2 we had to move that all over with Iron Galaxy. Nixxes joined us and started on the engine work when we were in the transition phase between porting over what we did for Part 1 to Part 2. The engine hadn't changed that much between projects. So a lot of the lessons and technology that we built or learned on Part 1 got moved over to this project. So from the Nixxes perspective, what were the key changes you wanted to make from Part 1 to Part 2?Coen Frauenfelder: Well, of course, we have our own way of doing things for all of us at Nixxes. We wanted to bring over a lot of our knowledge that we already have, making sure that the game runs stably and performs very well. So we actually looked into what was already available, and building on that we brought over a lot of our own work. That took quite some time, but our experience helped a lot. Travis McIntosh: I wanted to call out one thing that they did that really was awesome, in my opinion, the new PSO [shader] compilation scheme that's in this game versus what we had in Part 1 on PC. So that was all Nixxes' expertise, and I think it shows off how much better the experience is in this game.That is actually our next question. Could you briefly describe how the new system gathers and compiles PSOs and how it differs from the previous system?Wessel de Groot: In terms of gathering, it's pretty much the same. We just let QA play the game and collect the PSOs. But the new system doesn't do any pre-compilation in the main menu - it's all hidden in the background and done during gameplay. The initial loading screen waits for all the PSOs to compile and, once that's ready, lets go of the loading screen. Those are the basics of the new system.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So how do you exactly balance the load between compiling shaders in the background while keeping reasonable frame-rates and frame-times during gameplay?Wessel de Groot: We try to minimize PSO threads in the background when gameplay is running and make the process as non-intrusive as possible. Also, if PSOs are not ready on time, then we actually skip the draw, and then we just bump the priority of that PSO compile. On the next frame, it's hopefully done, and then we can actually show the object.I've noticed thread utilisation go up when you regain control after a cutscene, which I presume is PSOs being crunched in the background. Does it happen every time after a cutscene, or what triggers it?Wessel de Groot: It's based on streaming. So whatever new stuff is streamed in, then the PSO compiles start.OK, that makes sense, because we've seen similar utilisation when moving between areas - sometimes 20 seconds of compiling in the background when moving into a new area on a lower-end CPU. Another change is the addition of dynamic resolution scaling - what was it like adding that in? Yana Mateeva: Oh yeah, it was interesting. The actual engine lent itself quite well to implementing dynamic resolution scaling. So on that front, it was not a very super difficult experience and it worked quite well. We did have some challenges with certain effects, which we did have to tweak specifically for PC to make them really compatible with dynamic resolution scaling. But yeah, it comes with the territory.Here's how The Last of Us Part 2 fares on PS5 Pro. Watch on YouTubeWhat cross-game libraries, other than dynamic resolution scaling, did Nixxes bring to this project? Coen Frauenfelder: We brought a lot of them! We're supporting DirectStorage, so we have our own libraries for that, and they also help a lot with streaming overall in the game. Besides that, all game inputs are going through our systems, as well as display handling and upscalers. Could you talk about the changes to streaming, vis a vis DirectStorage?Coen Frauenfelder: Actually, the system lends itself very well to DirectStorage. We're just using CPU decompression, without GPU decompression. The new system gives us a lot of benefits - more room, better scalability on streaming things in faster.Jurjen Katsman: One thing to maybe add is that we are using different compression algorithms which decompress really fast with low CPU usage, but use a little more disk space. We'd rather not spend too much time on unloading and decompressing in the background, so we make different trade-offs compared to PS5. At SIGGRAPH 2020, there was a lot of presentations on the low-level work on PS4, but on PC with things like Shader Model 6, you do get wave intrinsics and asynchronous compute. Is the game using any of the more "low-level" features that are possible with DX12?Wessel de Groot : We are using async compute and wave intrinsics. I'm not sure how it specifically compares to Part 1, because I didn't work on that one. Jurjen Katsman: I think it's worth mentioning that while some of those concepts exist and can be used, it doesn't necessarily level the playing field with the PS5. Certainly using async compute with the PS5, where you know exactly what the hardware is and what things pair well together, and there's less driver in the middle, we've always found it to be a lot more beneficial on consoles than it is on PC, unfortunately. Travis McIntosh: It's just great on PS5, there's almost nothing between us and the hardware. It's just we know what we're going to get, and we can build our command lists and just send them off and know exactly what's going to happen. And props to Nixxes for figuring out how what might happen on 100,000 different configurations. Shadow quality is one area where The Last of Us Part 2 on PC pushes past the PS5. Image quality is another. | Image credit: Digital FoundryGoing back to PSO compilation, in past ports there was a long shader burn for each sub-section of the game that would load. Even in the Uncharted games, switching between Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy would make the PSO compiler begin again. Where are the wealth of PSOs coming from? Does the game just have a lot of shaders, or is it the state permutations from stuff you are not sure will be displayed? Travis McIntosh: There's no PSO loading or compilation on PS5, so the way we designed the engine is to give artists the most control and the ability to make the game look its best. Artists can tweak shaders on a very granular level, and because of that, we have way more shaders than we would if we were building a PC port from scratch. So it is a very large number of different permutations and that's always been the challenge. And I think with how Nixxes handles it, it's pretty seamless for most consumers.It's a night-and-day difference; loading chapters and getting into the game is much faster. Are PSOs the largest contributing factor in load times? Jurjen Katsman: We have some numbers that we check internally, but yes most of the loading time is PSO compilation, so loading for the second time is massively reduced. The PC version can be much faster loading than the PS5 version, depending on your PC. So in terms of challenges, you did mention the amount of shader permutations, but also the low level work that helps the game run well on PS5. What are the challenges in translating that to PC where things are less bare metal, and more abstracted?Coen Frauenfelder: It's a new engine to us, so that's always a challenge. Once you get a version of the game running, you have to consider what you want to keep, what you need to pay more attention to to ensure the game is running perfectly. Wessel de Groot: One thing is the spin locking. That is cheap on the console, but on Windows, that can be very problematic for performance. That's one thing that we addressed for this port in particular.'Our original review of the PlayStation 5 version of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.Watch on YouTubeDid you switch to mutex? Wessel de Groot: No, because that also has to do with the way that this job system works: it uses fibres. I'd say it's one of the better job systems I've worked with in my career. So it's a nice, well-optimised engine in that regard, which can't really use a mutex due to the way fibres work. So we had to come up with a sort of a different construct for that. I think we managed quite well there.That seems to be a change from the previous port, where even standing in an alleyway with nothing visibly happening, you could see extremely high CPU utilisation. Travis McIntosh: Part of it is our fault - on PS5, no one cares what the CPU utilisation is. The job system was originally constructed to just always use everything, every second, and so moving that to PC, Nixxes was super helpful in helping to optimise utilisation as people on PC do care about it. It was challenging to reduce that as we never had to worry about it on console. Looking towards the future, I imagine Naughty Dog will eventually want to bring other titles to PC. From the Nixxes perspective, are there any engine features that you'd like to see in future work that target PC more specifically? Coen Frauenfelder: It's probably quite difficult to talk about that, but I could see us focusing on ray tracing in the future.We like to end these interviews with a familiar question: what was your favorite aspect of working on this project? What was it like working on this versus something like the PC version of Ghost of Tsushima? The PC specs here are perhaps a little optimistic, with our testing revealing the RTX 3060 and Ryzen 5 3600 struggle to hit 60fps at medium settings - which are in some cases worse than on PS4. | Image credit: SonyYana Mateeva: For me, it was entirely different, just because we started from scratch with Ghost of Tsushima and then we had to build it all up, whereas here we actually got quite a well-executed product already. We had to really think, "How can we improve this?" We were quite involved in, for example, tweaking the scalability for the game. Can we maybe make a better user experience? And that was quite an interesting part of the project for me. Matthew Gallant: I don't know if this is quite the angle you're wanting on this, but we do have a bunch of new stuff in the PC version of the game. We have the new maps for "No Return". Bill and Marlene are playable. And for players who choose to optionally link their PSN account, we have the jacket from Intergalactic, Jordan Mun's jacket. We're very excited that we got those into the PC version of the game. Travis McIntosh: I personally just love ultra-widescreen. I love big wide screens at home. I played this game plenty, but I never got to play it like that, so that was really fun. Coen Frauenfelder: Yeah, for me, it is actually very simple. It's a beautiful product. I love The Last of Us. I played it, I think, on every platform that it came out on. Being able to work on that with Nuaghty Dog was a dream come true. But that's a personal thing. Wessel de Groot: Yeah, same. It's one of my favorite franchises, so being able to work on that and seeing how it works internally was really awesome.Jurjen Katsman: For me, what was the most different about this one is that we took something that had already been taken somewhere else by another partner. That makes you focus on deciding on what the added value we provide is. We things would we have done differently. You have to be on the look-out. You have to ask, "Did we miss something, something we didn't touch at all?" So it was a very different experience. But nonetheless, I really appreciate Naughty Dog reaching out to us and working with us on this project, because, as Coen said, this is certainly a project that we would have never expected to ever work on back in the Square Enix days in 2020 when this came out.0 Commentaires 0 Parts 118 Vue
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WWW.VIDEOGAMER.COMMarvel Rivals Season 2 brings complete overhaul for Rocket, heres howYou can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereRocket will receive a massive overhaul with the release of Marvel Rivals Season 2. The Strategist has been one of the easiest characters to play so far, but thats about to change. NetEase is changing nearly his entire kit and making his ultimate ability less powerful on offense. To make up for this, the popular raccoon will be more viable on defense.In this article, we will take a detailed look at all the Rocket changes coming with Season 2. If he is your main, youll have to adjust to these changes to be more effective.What will Rocket look like in Marvel Rivals Season 2?One of the main complaints Marvel Rivals players have about Rocket is the last of a defensive ult. Yet, despite this, he has the third-highest win rate among all heroes in Season 1.5. On top of this, he also provides the third-most healing per second, trailing only Luna Snow and Cloak & Dagger. However, this will likely change in the next season.Marvel Rivals Season 2 buffs and nerfs reveal a massive overhaul for Rocket. His Repair Mode spheres will now heal 50 health per second, down from 70, while they will slow down to 7 meters per second once hitting an injured ally, as opposed to 4.5 m/s before the update. To make up for this, Rocket will be given a one-time heal of 55 hit points to allies hit with his spheres.While Rockets healing should stay more or less the same, it will require a different approach and smarter positioning. However, the biggest nerf that will come in the new season is his mobility. The cooldown on his Jetpack Dash was increased from 6 to 10 seconds and its dash distance was reduced from 10 to 8 meters, which will make him much more vulnerable on the battlefield.Finally, Rockets ultimate ability was completely reworked in Season 2 of Marvel Rivals.The damage boost of Rockets ultimate ability was decreased from 40% to 25%. Furthermore, C.Y.A. now requires 4,000 energy, as opposed to 3,700 before the update. Fortunately, the ability will be more viable as a defensive tool, as linked allies will receive an additional 100 bonus health points per second, capping at 150. This will also boost Rockets HP to 400 during the duration of his ultimate ability.To sum it all up, Rocket will require smarter positioning and decision-making in the next season of Marvel Rivals. He should still be a great healer, and the changes to his ultimate ability will improve the survivability of his team.Marvel RivalsPlatform(s):macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Fighting, ShooterSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share0 Commentaires 0 Parts 134 Vue
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WWW.ARCHITECTURALDIGEST.COM9 Best Airbnbs in Tulum for Peace, Quiet, & Private Pools (2025)Located in Aldea Zama, the apartment is a short walk from the citys best restaurants and the downtown neighborhood of Tulum Centro. You can also hop on a bike to mosey down to the beach or drive through Tulum Town to peer at the historic sites. This is a good spot for a small group (calling all responsible bachelorette parties!) who want to experience Tulum at a more laid-back, less frenetic pace. From $203 per night.BOOK NOWDesign Luxury with Private Rooftop & PoolPerks: Private pool, pet-friendly, exercise equipment, hammock, in-unit washer, security cameras on propertyYou may not be staying directly on beachfront property, but you can still benefit from the surrounding scenery when youre sunbathing on the roof here. Guests can feel slightly secluded in the jungle, only a few miles from Tulums best-known beaches and clubs (should you care to get a glimpse of the crowds once in a while).Inside this two-bedroom rental, theres enough space to house up to seven guests and plenty of comfy seating (even an indoor hammock) for all your lounging purposes. Wherever you choose to sprawl out, nature is never too far away: The design prioritizes indoor-outdoor living with wall cutouts and massive windows that draw the breeze in. From $111 per night.BOOK NOWHacienda Wabi CondoPerks: Pool, pet-friendly, patio, luggage drop-off, in-unit washerThe view from the living room couch here faces the treetopsa fittingly beautiful backdrop for this one-bedroom gem hidden in the jungle. While there are no actual doors dividing living spaces in this condo, the arched doorways are covered by thick privacy curtains to cordon each space off from one another. The pool sits just off the private balcony and feels cocooned in its own little world, shielded by tall privacy walls. But if making a friend is more appealing than keeping to yourself, head to the shared pool on the ground level of the larger property. Note that youll definitely need to rent a car to stay here, as its a five-minute drive in to town, and to access other local restaurants, bars, and grocery stores. But for this rate, and this setting? Consider it all balanced out in the ledger book. From $115 per night.BOOK NOWIkal KaanPerks: Shared pool, pet-friendly, concierge, bike rentals, room-darkening shadesProximity is a big perk when staying at this luxe bungalow villadowntown Tulum is just five minutes away by car, 10 minutes from the beach, and 15 minutes from Gran Cenote and Kaan Luum Lagoon. And even though youre located near the Holistika yoga resort, youre still far enough away from the citys buzzy energy to rest and recharge.The one-bedroom, two-story home was built using the palapa stylea traditional Mayan method of weaving thatched roofs from dried palm leaves that are common along the Mexican coast. Other calling cards of the area are the local artwork, polished concrete floors, built-in furniture, andyesthe pool. A hardwood staircase connects guests with the propertys communal spaces, such as a yoga space, another swimming pool, and a garden. But the bedroom alone, with its wrap-around terrace and jungle view, plus an ethereal mosquito net to protect the bed, is worth writing home about on its own. From $49 per night.BOOK NOWThe AD Travel EditCraving an escape? From colorful carry-ons to cleverly designed packing cubes (how did we ever travel without them?), shop everything you need to make the journey in styleand as streamlined and stress-free as possible.SHOP THE EDIT0 Commentaires 0 Parts 149 Vue
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FORTUNE.COMTrump is giving TikTok another 75-day reprieve to find a new buyer as Amazon, MrBeast, and Alexis Ohanian line up to make a dealsubmitted by /u/PrestigiousZombie726 [link] [comments]0 Commentaires 0 Parts 127 Vue
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WWW.VG247.COMPlaying Metroid Prime 4 with mouselook and at 120fps feels incredible - and like it should be illegalSPACE PIRATESPlaying Metroid Prime 4 with mouselook and at 120fps feels incredible - and like it should be illegalOn Switch 2, Metroid Prime 4 has modes so silky and control options so alien that playing it feels like you're being very naughty indeed. Article by Alex Donaldson Assistant Editor Published on April 5, 2025 While the gameplay reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 was home to a few very exciting all-new experiences, for my money one of the most intriguing at the showcase was very much a known quantity: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.The demo available of Metroid Prime 4 felt even more familiar to a fan of the series such as myself than the final game is likely to, as it showcased an area of the game that is stripped pretty bare of new stuff. If I had to guess, its a sequence right from the top of the game, before Samus gets her power suit upgraded with those telekinetic powers.In the brief base-under-siege style segment, Samus has access to her usual arm cannon, missiles, scanner, morph ball, and bombs - but thats it. All of these are very much known quantities. It makes Prime 4 feel like a very simple, iterative sequel to its three predecessors - but we already know from other footage that theres more going on here, with new abilities and mechanics abound. They just werent available in this Switch 2 hands-on.It seems clear to me, though, that Nintendo and developer Retro Studios chose this segment deliberately. Its quick and snappy to play, and by keeping things simple, one isnt distracted from what they really wanted to showcase here - how the essentials of the Metroid Prime experience look and feel on the Switch 2 hardware.This is running at 120 frames per second, the Nintendo representative manning my demo station tells me immediately as I sit down. Its the first thing they say, in fact, which is unusual - Nintendo never typically focuses on performance metrics. But here, they do - and you can see why. Sure enough, Metroid Prime 4 Nintendo Switch 2 edition is ultimately a Switch 2 upgrade of a game designed to work on hardware that, if you believe the slightly dubious statistics put out by Nvidia, is ten times weaker. But it is running natively at full HD resolution (4K is also available, but will be 60fps), and, yes, is absolutely silky smooth at 120fps. It also looks better than the OG Switch version, at least based on what Ive seen on streams, as the original Switch version wasnt there for us to see in person. The frame rate is the headline, though. Being frank, it feels like the most un-Nintendo thing ever. And then you put the controller downI dont mean to stop playing, obviously. Im talking about the mouse controls. As mentioned in my coverage of the console itself and the curious Welcome Tour mini-game collection, the biggest new built-in gimmick on the Switch 2 is the ability to place the Joy-Con side-down on a surface (this could be a surface as simple as your thighs for some games, but Metroid will require some sort of mat) and use it as a mouse, just like on PC. That lends itself well, then, to dropping mouse controls into games that suit it.Elsewhere at the Switch 2 reveal event, theres the obvious example of Civilization 7, which uses mouse controls exactly as the flawed-but-brilliant Civ 7 does on PC. Metroid is the other obvious example, of course - as while this is a metroidvania, or search-action, or whatever the hell you want to call it - the Prime games are also inherently first-person shooters.The implementation of mouse controls in Metroid Prime 4 is nothing short of absolutely fascinating, however. The most genius touch is this: its not a toggle. That means you can hold one Joy-Con 2 in each hand normally, and use them like two halves of a regular controller. In this setup, Prime 4 plays in much the same way as the other titles in this series. But if you orient that right-hand Joy-Con into the proper position and place it onto a surface, the game automatically understands your intent and flips you over to mouselook. No menu fiddling, no faffing about - its just there.You all know how mouselook should work and feel, and Ill thereby shortcut some over-wrought explanation to say: Prime 4 feels like a proper mouselook game when played that way. Its twitchy and responsive in all the right ways. It just works, and thats good. But the revelation, I think, is that back-and-forth. Admittedly, the section of Prime 4 I play is heavy on the combat and light-to-nonexistent on the puzzling Metroid is known for. But even in that segment, over the course of a half hour or so, I began to hit my stride. I got a controller swagger on. Id hold the Joy-Con 2s like a controller when I was scanning, or doing things with the morph ball and other such traversal. Id pop the odd enemy with Primes returning lock-on mechanic. But the moment combat got heated, Id naturally slide that right joy-con down into mouse position and let my PC-playing instincts take over. It is, quite literally, the best of both worlds.Once I hit a boss battle, the controller action ceased entirely. This hulking beast had classic pulsating and glowing weak points that were only temporarily vulnerable - and being able to use mouse controls to be deadly accurate meant I shredded the boss much more efficiently than some around me who played the game a more traditional way.Combine this with the smooth 120fps presentation, and it all felt a bit wrong. Honestly, it felt like what I was doing should be illegal. This is the sort of presentation and aiming efficiency that previously was only available in a Nintendo game if you were, you know, doing something illegal. It also addresses a major complaint about Switch 1 for me - which is that I think most Switch games look fine for a hybrid device, especially the first-party ones but performance was often woeful. If Metroid Prime 4 is a picture of the future, I look forward to all those upgraded packages - and even to a slate of new games that go easy on the graphical upgrades, but maximalist on the performance boosts.When it comes out later this year, there might be an original Switch version of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - but if you can afford it with all the nonsense going on, there is clearly now only one place to really play it: Switch 2. Which is precisely what you want from a next-gen upgrade, really.0 Commentaires 0 Parts 132 Vue
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WWW.NINTENDOLIFE.COMFirst Impressions: Nintendo Switch 2 'Wows' Most When You Go Back To Your Old Switch2 takes.Now updated with video impressions!After years of speculation, Switch 2 finally exists. Its got a launch date, a price, a bunch of accessories, and most importantly a lineup of games large and small, all showcased in an hour-long Direct which answered a lot of questions.Read the full article on nintendolife.com0 Commentaires 0 Parts 118 Vue