It may seem obvious to compare Assassins Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima for the simple fact that theyre both triple-A, open-world games set in feudal Japan. But thats not the real story here. The truth is if Assassins Creed Shadows wasnt as good as it is, there would be no comparison. Ghost of Tsushima is one of the most immaculate games of the last generation, and its only rising in fans estimation as time goes on. Its a testament to how great Shadowsthe latest entry in Ubisofts long-running (and sometimes uneven) Assassins Creed franchisethat it can legitimately go head-to-head with Ghost of Tsushima in a face-off.Shadows is a viable contender, but lets see how it stacks up to Ghost of Tsushima category by category to see which game reigns supreme.Game WorldDespite the surface-level similarities between the two games settings, there are several fundamental differences in the games respective game worlds, the most notable one being size. Tsushima takes place exclusively on the titular island and boasts a little over 11 square miles of explorable terrain on its map. By contrast Shadows map looks to be somewhere around 31 square miles at the very least, making it quite a bit larger than Tsushimas, though not as large as some recent AC titles like Odyssey (80 square miles) and Valhalla (59 square miles).A bigger game map doesnt necessarily mean a better game map, of course. Shadows does have a staggeringly big game world, but whats wonderful about it is the environments sheer level of detail. No matter where you look, there are tiny toucheswild animals skittering about, strung up fish at the monger blowing in the wind, intricately engraved pieces of furniturethat make the game world feel like stepping through a time portal to 16th-century Japan more so than Tsushimas highly fictionalized conception of 13th century Japan. Its palpably transportive, and exploring the world aimlessly with no HUD and no objectives to trek toward feels more compelling than some of the games quests.Tsushimas game world isnt nearly as dense, detailed, or geographically diverse. Its sparser but not in a bad way. The greatly romanticized vision of the island of Tsushima in that game is the definition of picturesque. Watching samurai hero Jin Sakai ride his horse through the wheat fields will never get old.Whereas Shadows at times feels overwhelming in its scope and variety, Tsushima feels more distilled, considered, and pure. The smaller, narrower map actually works in the games favor when it comes to the campaign, because working your way North and reclaiming sections of the island from the Mongols is easier to visualize and digest than Shadows larger, two-pronged story. Both game worlds are extraordinary for their own reasons. Shadows is staggering in its fidelity and scope, and Tsushima is ravishing and evocative. In this instance, Ghost of Tsushima ekes out the win.Edge: Ghost of TsushimaVisualsThis is another tough category. The appeal of a games visuals is often a matter of personal preference, particularly when the games youre looking at are both so flabbergastingly pretty.Something important to note here is that, though Ghost of Tsushima released not too long ago in 2020, its still very much a last-gen title. That being said, no handicaps are needed here: Even now, Tsushima is jaw-dropping. Developer Sucker Punch used particle effects in arguably the most effective way theyve ever been used. The blowing leaves, pouring rain, and rising embers add to the games atmosphere in every moment. In a general sense, Tsushima is more painterly and expressionistic than Shadows. Even when certain graphical elements are technically subpar (textures can get muddy at times), the artistic intent prevails and greatly outweighs any technical shortcomings.Shadows is less lyrical and poetic, but theres something touristic about how vivid its environments are. The countless landmarks and vistas across the game world arent just pretty; they feel real. Whats easy to take for granted with a game like this is how organic and lived-in the environments feel compared to other open-world games, most of which look and feel considerably less believable than Shadows Japan.While both games look tremendous by almost every measure, the character models in Shadows do look more stilted, especially when they move their mouths in cutscenes. Naoe and Yasuke look great (that hair tech hits differently), but the characters in Tsushima come across as slightly more expressive in their design and animation. Its another close call, but Tsushima takes this one.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Edge: Ghost of TsushimaCombatTheres a pattern emerging here. Shadows combat is more robust and expansive in its customization options across its two protagonists, and Tsushimas keeps things more pure, though its combat is anything but simple. Both games have a focus on melee with a bit of ranged combat mixed in for flavor, but the core of it is this: which games combat is more fun?Assassins Creed has been developing and refining its melee combat for years, and Shadows melee is the best yet. All of the weapon types feel weighty and enjoyable to wield (even Naoes kusarigama is slick once you master it), and more importantly, both Yasuke and Naoe are fun to fight with. Most players will naturally gravitate to one or the other, but whether youre smashing your way up the floors of Osaka Castle as Yasuke or cutting down larger enemies with Naoes speed and finesse, the combat is one of the games main strengths, which hasnt always been the case for the series.The combat in Tsushima isnt slow by any means, but its more methodical than Shadows. The emphasis on one-on-one fights and the cinematic camerawork makes the battles feel more intimate and dramatic, with some of the one-on-one showdowns later in the game resembling fighting games like Soulcalibur and Bushido Blade. Both games feature parrying, but Tsushimas is more satisfying, likely due to the more deliberate rhythm of most battles. Tsushima does feature a multiplayer mode that is way better than it has any right to be, but the combat mechanics arent as flowy when taking on massive waves of enemies.As balanced and fine-tuned as both games combat systems are, Tsushimas enemy encounters just feel more consequential. Thanks to a showdown feature deliberately evocative of Akira Kurosawa movieswhere players enter into essentially a quickdraw contest with an opposing sword mastereven the most minor of battles can become incredibly intense, and even the lowliest of enemies can pose a serious threat. For that reason, its another one for Tsushima.Edge: Ghost of TsushimaStealthHeres where things get really interesting. Before we get into Shadows stealth mechanics, lets consider Tsushimas. The titular Ghost style of combat is central to both gameplay and story, and it is indeed a lot of fun using Jins blowgun, smoke bombs, and elusive maneuvers to wipe out entire camps of enemies without losing so much as a health point. Stealth is a completely valid and enjoyable approach throughout the game, but is it as fun as combat? Not really. If anything, it plays a supporting role to combat in that it offers an added layer of variety.It should come as no surprise that Shadows stealth is phenomenal. The most notable difference from AC games before is that enemy AI is far more formidable now, detecting disturbances in sound, light, and shadow. They now suggest a general awareness (they can definitely see you up on that roof!) Were all familiar with how stealthing and assassinations feel in Assassins Creed, but what gives Shadows a leg up over its predecessors is its level design. The castles are phenomenally fun to work through, with the environments arranged so that you always have myriad ways to use your surroundings to your advantage.The thing Shadows does far better than Tsushima is the seamless transitioning between stealth and combat. Its a valiant effort by Tsushima, but Shadows sneakily snatches the dub.Edge: Assassins Creed ShadowsTraversalOne of the keys to success for open-world and stealth games is for the movement and traversal to be effortless, responsive, and satisfying, and both games achieve this through different means.Parkour is the foundation of old school Assassins Creed gameplay, and Shadows again benefits from being the latest entry in a long line of iterative refinement. Predictably, parkour is terrific in Shadows, specifically with Naoe, though Yasukes struggles with slinking around are amusing in their own way. Whether youre scaling buildings or climbing up trees in the forest, getting around in Shadows is always as smooth as butter, save for some weirdness climbing some of the more angular buildings and castles in the game.Running around in Tsushima feels pretty great all around, but its simply less complex and aesthetically pleasing than that classic AC movement. The one advantage Tsushima has over Shadows is the horse riding, which improbably is one of the very best things about the game. That being said, getting around in Shadows is better all around.Edge: Assassins Creed ShadowsCharactersTheres a level of sophistication to the character work in both games. Jin, Naoe, and Yasuke all have compelling character arcs with different messaging behind them.Yasuke and Naoes stories become deeply entangled with the eternal Assassins vs. Templar war, and the canon plot is solid AC fare. But its their personal, internal journeys that make them compelling characters, with both of them consumed by revenge, confronted with the tough decision to redefine who they want to be as people moving forward.Yasuke reclaiming his identity and Naoe grappling with forgiveness and finding meaning in the remnants of her parents memories makes for a powerful story, and their characters do come across as multi-dimensional and believable, largely thanks to terrific performances by the lead actors. Their interactions with the allies they amass throughout the game reveal a lot about who they are, and they each find their own way to process grief and purpose, discovering more about themselves as they spill more and more blood.Similarly, Jin grows as a person as he grapples with grief and fights for his people and what they stand for. His internal strife is driven by the dichotomy of fighting with honor as a samurai and without honor as the Ghost.All three characters are memorable and well written, but what it comes down to here is that Naoe and Yasuke feel more fully fleshed out as people.Edge: Assassins Creed ShadowsStoryThe power of Ghost of Tsushimas storytelling lies in its philosophical dilemmas, with Jin cracking the bedrock of who he is by deciding whether the way of the Ghost is a necessary evil. Unlike most games, his final showdown is a genuinely meaningful culmination of everything thats happened in the story leading up to that moment. Sucker Punchs epic stays consistent in tone and quality throughout, and despite its length and scale, Tsushimas story feels ever personal and thematically rich.Shadows deals with similar themes but on a grander scale with more content, characters, and plot developments. There are some riveting story moments throughout the games campaign, but the sheer amount of side stories and minor interactions can bog the game down at times, especially during some of the many drawn-out, somewhat uninspired peripheral quests.The deciding factor is that Tsushimas story is stickier. Shadows is perhaps more cinematically potent and better directed in its cutscenes, but the purity and resonance of Jins tale makes it just a bit more memorable. To be fair to Shadows, it looks as though Naoe and Yasukes journeys are far from over considering the games canon endings, but for now, Tsushima comes out on top.Edge: Ghost of TsushimaOverallAfter comparing Shadows and Tsushima side by side, what becomes apparent is that theyre both great games that cater to different kinds of gamers.Tsushima, like a lot of first-party PlayStation titles, is heavily narrative driven and stylized in its presentation. Shadows has a poignant story at its core as well, but its a more rounded, content-packed experience that offers everything from interactive Japanese history lessons to an endlessly customizable hideout builder.Shadows is by quite a large margin a more fully featured game, even if you include Tsushimas multiplayer mode. But all things considered, the latter leaves a more indelible impression with its brilliantly conceptualized story and painterly imagery. Jins saga is a more potent parable, making it the victor in this battle. With Ghost of Ytei on the horizon, well see if Sucker Punch can recapture the magic.

With the M4 MacBook Air starting at $949 (on Amazon), I have been telling people that this is the most recommendable and best bang-for-buck laptop on the market. The power of the M4 chip combined with 16 GB of unified memory will be more than enough for 95% of customers walking into an Apple Store. But it is not all perfect, with only 256GB of base storage and no additional USB-C ports there is room to add some accessories to make your experience even better. So here are the best accessories for your new MacBook Air!Be sure to check out the video below to see some hands-on with all the accessories mentioned below!Moft Laptop StandThis is the biggest no-brainer accessory for any laptop. This thin and portable accessory lets you elevate your laptop height for a more ergonomic view. Features:Offers 15 and 25 viewing angles for ergonomic comfortOnly 1/9 thick and weighing 3 oz, it adds minimal bulkSecurely attaches to your laptop without leaving residueConstructed with PU and fiberglass for stability and longevityThe laptop stand comes in two variants: one with adhesive and one without. The adhesive is good if you dont mind keeping it permanently on the laptop, but the nonadhesive works just as well without residue! The stand starts at $24.99Spigen Clear CaseI wanted to get a case for the MacBook Air but didnt want to hide the new Sky Blue color. Spigen made the perfect hardshell plastic case that not only protects the laptop but also lets the sky blue shine through. Features:Made from polycarbonate for reliable protectionEnsures easy access to all ports and functionsFeatures TPU rubberized feet to prevent slippingIts a pretty self-explanatory accessory that gets the job done. It comes in variants for the 13in and 15in MacBook Air and starts at $37. Samsung T9 SSDOne of the drawbacks of getting a baseline MacBook Air is that it only comes with 256GB of storage. You could add more storage directly from Apple but it is unnecessarily expensive. So getting an external SSD solution is a must! I love the new T9 SSD by Samsung.Features:Read/write speeds up to 2,000 MB/sAvailable in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB optionsRugged designThe 1TB version starts at $129, with the best value coming from the 2TB which is only $179!InfinaCore P3 Pro 4-in-1 The Macbook Air is capable of 67W fast charging but only comes with a 35W charging brick in the box. So that leaves an opportunity to get something much better to use. The InfinaCore P3 is a 65W charger that does much more than that!Features:65W charging brick2 USB-C and 1 USB-A portQi2 certified charger10,500mAh built in for on the go charging Diagnostic LCD display for charging statsThis one brick can charge all of my devices while plugged in or even as a portable power bank! The InfinaCore is on sale for $129, for a 4 in 1 that can do it all, its a fair price. SOTSU UltraSlim 12.5 MonitorIf you are looking for a portable monitor that wont break the bank but still feels premium, the Sotsu Ultraslim is one to consider. I have no idea how they made this so thin, but it is extremely portable. The display size is a tad small, but it still adds value as a second screen. Features:19201080 resolution for clear visualsOnly 4.6mm thick and weighs less than 1 lbUSB-C connectivity for easy setupNo dedicated power source neededComes with folio caseThis portable display will fit in any bag that can carry our M4 Macbook Air, and you can barely feel that it is there. For $159 its hard to find something at this price with this much quality. Final takeThe M4 MacBook Air is already an incredible laptop on its ownlightweight, powerful, and more than capable for most users right out of the box. But with the right accessories, it goes from great to amazing.Whether its protecting that new color, improving ergonomics with a stand, adding fast external storage, or getting a better charging setup, these accessories help you get more done with less hassle. So what do you think about these? Do you have any of these accessories? What is your favorite that you use? Lets discuss below!Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

While 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 Article

Submitted 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 Studio

Here are some highly rated series to watch on Max, plus a look at what's coming out in April.

The 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.

You 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.Share

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 EDIT

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SPACE 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.