The last few years have seen a resurgence in appreciation for Columbo, and if you're looking to catch up with Peter Falk's charming detective, both of the recently released Blu-ray collections are on sale for nice discounts at Amazon.Released on Blu-ray last holiday, Columbo's original seven-season run is available for only $60 at Amazon. This collection retailed for $150 when it was first announced, but these days it's often available for $75-$85. Meanwhile, Columbo: The Return, which released on Blu-ray in July, is discounted to only $37.49. This is by far the best price yet for The Return, so now you can get the complete Columbo series for less than $100 total. See both Columbo box sets at Amazon Continue Reading at GameSpot

Stalker 2 Collectors Edition $180 Preorder at Amazon (in stock) Stalker 2 Limited Edition $80 Preorder at Amazon (sold out) Stalker 2 Standard Edition $60 Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Best Buy Preorder at Walmart Preorder at Target Stalker 2 Ultimate Edition $350 See the Ultimate Edition (sold out) The long sold-out Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl Collector's Edition is back in stock at Amazon ahead of the highly anticipated sequel's November 20 release. This $180 edition comes with a bunch of physical collectibles and digital goodies. If you're interested in Stalker 2's Collector's Edition, it'd be wise to order soon. Developer GSC Game World recently announced this fresh Collector's Edition print run alongside a print run for the (still) sold-out Limited Edition. Preorder Stalker 2 Collector's Edition Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl Collector's Edition Stalker 2 is the sequel to the 2007 survival horror shooter Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. As an Xbox Series X|S and PC exclusive, Stalker 2 will be available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on launch day for Xbox, PC, and cloud streaming. A physical standard edition is also available to preorder for $60. All editions of Stalker 2 come with in-game bonuses. Continue Reading at GameSpot

A player has recently discovered an extremely weird glitch in Skyrim that made their houses floor bleed. Despite being one of the most popular games ever made, Skyrim is known for having many glitches, which can often be strange or hilarious.

The GameCube was an innovative lunge towards creativity, and it showed this even in its appearance. The console was released by Nintendo in 2001 and stands as an iconic chapter in the history of console gaming. The console departed from its predecessors in terms of technological advancements and design and offered up a small yet exceptional library of games for video game lovers to enjoy.

Hi there, community!We start as a fresh new team, we`re looking to create something together, this way we grow and become professional about it. We will help each other better and make things much faster if we grow as a team, doing everything in a teamwork mindset is easier.We`ve already sketched the game design/story, but we need to improve it even better... for the moment, there are no funds, no money on the table, we do it mostly as a side project/hobby thing.We don't

Hello, I am redesigning my studio into a more game audio focused studio and am thinking if a Surround (5.1) or even a Atmos 7.1.2 / 7.1.4 setup is worth it?I mainly compose music but also will do some SFX design and Implementation depending on the projects. What do you think is a surround or even atmos setup necessary or would it be okay to stick with Stereo at least for now? As far as I know most of the Indie and even a good amount of AAA games are still Stereo only.

Lifelike digital humans engage with audiences in real time. Autonomous systems streamline complex logistics. And AI-driven language tools break down communication barriers on the fly.This isnt sci-fi. This is Tokyos startup scene.Supercharged by AI and world-class academic and industrial might the region has become a global innovation hub. And the NVIDIA Inception program is right in the middle of it.With over 370 AI-driven startups in the program and a 250,000-person strong NVIDIA developer community, Japans AI startup ecosystem is as bold as it is fast-moving.This weeks NVIDIA AI Summit Japan puts these achievements in the spotlight, capturing the regions relentless innovation momentum.NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son opened the summit with a fireside chat to discuss AIs transformative role, with Jensen diving into Japans growing AI ecosystem and its push toward sovereign AI.Sessions followed with leaders from METI (Japans Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), the University of Tokyo and other key players. Their success is no accident.Tokyos academic powerhouses, global technology and industrial giants, and technology-savvy population of 14 million, provide the underpinnings of a global AI hub that stretches from the bustling startup scene in Shibuya to new hotbeds of tech development in Chiyoda and beyond.Supercharging Japans Creative ClassIconic works from anime to manga have not only redefined entertainment in Japan theyve etched themselves into global culture, inspiring fans across continents, languages and generations.Now, Japans vibrant visual pop culture is spilling into AI, finding fresh ways to surprise and connect with audiences.Take startup AiHUBs digital celebrity Sali.Sali isnt just a character in the traditional sense. Shes a digital being with presence responsive and lifelike. She blinks, she smiles, she reacts.Here, AI is doing something quietly revolutionary, slipping under the radar to redefine how people interact with media.At AI Summit Japan, AiHUB revealed that it will adopt the NVIDIA Avatar Cloud Engine, or ACE, in the lip-sync module of its digital human framework, providing Sali nuanced expressions and human-like emotional depth.ACE doesnt just make Sali relatable it puts her in a league of characters who transcend screens and pages.This integration reduced development and future management costs by approximately 50% while improving the expressiveness of the avatars, according to AiHUB.SDK Adoption: From Hesitation to High VelocityIn the global tech race, success doesnt always hinge on the heroes youd expect.The unsung stars here are software development kits those bundles of tools, libraries and documentation that cut the guesswork out of innovation. And in Japans fast-evolving AI ecosystem, these once-overlooked SDKs are driving an improbable revolution.For years, Japans tech companies treated SDKs with caution. Now, however, with AI advancing at lightspeed and NVIDIA GPUs powering the engine, SDKs have moved from a quiet corner to center stage.Take NVIDIA NeMo, a platform for building large language models, or LLMs. Its swiftly becoming the background for Japans latest wave of real-time, AI-driven communication technologies.One company at the forefront is Kotoba Technologies, which has cracked the code on real-time speech recognition thanks to NeMos powerful tools.Under a key Japanese government grant, Kotobas language tools dont just capture sound they translate it live. Its a blend of computational heft and human ingenuity, redefining how multilingual communication happens in non-English-speaking countries like Japan.Kotobas tools are used in customer call centers and for automatic meeting minutes creation across various industries. It was also used to perform live transcription during the AI Summit Japan fireside chat between Huang and Son.And if LLMs are the engines driving Japans AI, then companies like APTO supply the fuel. Using NVIDIA NeMo Curator, APTO is changing the game in data annotation, handling the intensive prep work that makes LLMs effective.By refining data quality for big clients like RIKEN, Ricoh and ORIX, APTO has mastered the fine art of sifting valuable signals from noise. Through tools like WordCountFilter an ingenious mechanism that prunes short or unnatural sentences its supercharging performance.APTOs data quality control boosted model accuracy scores and slashed training time.Across Japan, developers are looking to move on AI fast, and theyre embracing SDKs to go further, faster.The Power of Cross-Sector SynergyThe gears of Japans AI ecosystem increasingly turn in sync thanks to NVIDIA-powered infrastructure that enables startups to build on each others breakthroughs.As Japans population ages, solutions like these address security needs as well as an intensifying labor shortage. Here, ugo and Asilla have taken on the challenge, using autonomous security systems to manage facilities across the country.Asillas cutting-edge anomaly detection was developed with security in mind but is now finding applications in healthcare and retail. Built on the NVIDIA DeepStream and Triton Inference Server SDKs, Asillas tech doesnt just identify risks it responds to them.In high-stakes environments, ugo and Asillas systems, powered by the NVIDIA Jetson platform, are already in action, identifying potential security threats and triggering real-time responses.NVIDIAs infrastructure is also at the heart of Kotoba Technologies language tools, as well as AiHUBs lifelike digital avatars. Running on an AI backbone, these various tools seamlessly bridge media, communication and human interaction.The Story Behind the Story: Tokyo IPC and Osaka Innovation HubAll of these startups are part of a larger ecosystem thats accelerating Japans rise as an AI powerhouse.Leading the charge is UTokyo IPC, the wholly owned venture capital arm of the University of Tokyo, operating through its flagship accelerator program, 1stRound.Cohosted by 18 universities and four national research institutions, this program serves as the nexus where academia and industry converge, providing hands-on guidance, resources and strategic support.By championing the real-world deployment of seed-stage deep-tech innovations, UTokyo IPC is igniting Japans academic innovation landscape and setting the standard for others to follow.Meanwhile, Osakas own Innovation Hub, OIH, expands this momentum beyond Tokyo, providing startups with coworking spaces and networking events. Its Startup Acceleration Program brings early-stage projects to market faster.Fast-moving hubs like these are core to Japans AI ecosystem, giving startups the mentorship, funding and resources they need to go from prototype to fully commercialized product.And through NVIDIAs accelerated computing technologies and the Inception program, Japans fast-moving startups are united with AI innovators across the globe.Image credit: ugo.

From call centers to factories to hospitals, AI is sweeping Japan.Undergirding it all: the exceptional resources of the island nations world-class universities and global technology leaders such as Fujitsu, The Institute of Science Tokyo, NEC and NTT.NVIDIA software NVIDIA AI Enterprise for building and deploying AI agents and NVIDIA Omniverse for bringing AI into the physical world is playing a crucial role in supporting Japans transformation into a global hub for AI development.The bigger picture: Japans journey to AI sovereignty is well underway to support the nation in building, developing and sharing AI innovations at home and across the world.Japanese AI Pioneers to Power Homegrown InnovationPutting Japan in a position to become a global AI leader begins with AI-driven language models. Japanese tech leaders are developing advanced AI models that can better interpret Japanese cultural and linguistic nuances.These models enable developers to build AI applications for industries requiring high-precision outcomes, such as healthcare, finance and manufacturing.As Japans tech giants support AI adoption across the country, theyre using NVIDIA AI Enterprise software.Fujitsus Takane model is specifically built for high-stakes sectors like finance and security.The model is designed to prioritize security and accuracy with Japanese data, which is crucial for sensitive fields. It excels in both domestic and international Japanese LLM benchmarks for natural Japanese expression and accuracy.The companies plan to use NVIDIA NeMo for additional fine-tuning, and Fujitsu has tapped NVIDIA to support making Takane available as an NVIDIA NIM to broaden accessibility for the developer community.NECs cotomi model uses NeMos parallel processing techniques for efficient model training. Its already integrated with NECs solutions in finance, manufacturing, healthcare and local governments.NTT Group is moving forward with NTT Communications launch of NTTs large language model tsuzumi, which is accelerated with NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM for AI agent customer experiences and use cases such as document summarization.Meanwhile, startups such as Kotoba Technologies, a Tokyo-based software developer, will unveil its Kotoba-Whisper model, built using NVIDIA NeMo for AI model building.The transcription application built on the Kotoba-Whisper model performed live transcription during this weeks conversation between SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son and NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang at NVIDIA AI Summit Japan.Kotoba Technologies reports that using NeMos automatic speech recognition for data preprocessing delivers superior transcription performance.Kotoba-Whisper is already used in healthcare to create medical records from patient conversations, in customer call centers and for automatic meeting minutes creation across various industries.These models are used by developers and researchers, especially those focusing on Japanese language AI applications.Academic Contributions to Japans Sovereign AI VisionJapanese universities, meanwhile, are powering the ongoing transformation with a wave of AI innovations.Nagoya Universitys Ruri-Large, built using NVIDIAs Nemotron-4 340B which is also available as a NIM microservice is a Japanese embedding model. It achieves high document retrieval performance with high-quality synthetic data generated by Nemotron-4 340B, and it enables the enhancement of language model capabilities through retrieval-augmented generation using external, authoritative knowledge bases.The National Institute of Informatics will introduce LLM.jp-3-13B-Instruct, a sovereign AI model developed from scratch. Supported by several Japanese government-backed programs, this model underscores the nations commitment to self-sufficiency in AI. Its expected to be available as a NIM microservice soon.The Institute of Science Tokyo and Japans National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, better known as AIST, will present the Llama 3.1 Swallow model. Optimized for Japanese tasks, its now a NIM microservice that can integrate into generative AI workflows for uses ranging from cultural research to business applications.The University of Tokyos Human Genome Center uses NVIDIA AI Enterprise and NVIDIA Parabricks software for rapid genomic analysis, advancing life sciences and precision medicine.Japans Tech Providers Helping Organizations Adopt AIIn addition, technology providers are working to bring NVIDIA AI technologies of all kinds to organizations across Japan.Accenture will deploy AI agent solutions based on the Accenture AI Refinery across all industries in Japan, customizing with NVIDIA NeMo and deploying with NVIDIA NIM for a Japanese-specific solution.Dell Technologies is deploying the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA globally with a key focus on the Japanese market and will support NVIDIA NIM microservices for Japanese enterprises across various industries.Deloitte will integrate NIM microservices that support the leading Japanese language models including LLM.jp, Kotoba, Ruri-large, Swallow and more, into its multi-agent solution.HPE has launched HPE Private Cloud AI platform, supporting NVIDIA AI Enterprise in a private environment. This solution can be tailored for organizations looking to tap into Japans sovereign AI NIM microservices, meeting the needs of companies that prioritize data sovereignty while using advanced AI capabilities.Bringing Physical AI to Industries With NVIDIA OmniverseThe proliferation of language models across academia, startups and enterprises, however, is just the start of Japans AI revolution.A leading maker of industrial robots, a top automaker and a retail giant are all embracing NVIDIA Omniverse and AI, as physics-based simulation drives the next wave of automation.Industrial automation provider Yaskawa, which has shipped 600,000 robots, is developing adaptive robots for increased autonomy. Yaskawa is now adopting NVIDIA Isaac libraries and AI models to create adaptive robot applications for factory automation and other industries such as food, logistics, medical, agriculture and more.Its using NVIDIA Isaac Manipulator, a reference workflow of NVIDIA-accelerated libraries and AI models, to help its developers build AI-enabled manipulators, or robot arms.Its also using NVIDIA FoundationPose for precise 6D pose estimation and tracking.More broadly, NVIDIA and Yaskawa teams use AI-powered simulations and digital twin technology powered by Omniverse to accelerate the development and deployment of Yaskawas robotic solutions, saving time and resources.Meanwhile, Toyota is looking into how to build robotic factory lines in Omniverse to improve tasks in robot motion in metal-forging processes.And another iconic Japanese company, Seven & i Holdings, is using Omniverse to gather insights from video cameras in research to optimize retail and enhance safety.To learn more, check out our blog on these use cases.See notice regarding software product information.

The wait is over its finally time to join Aloy and her friends in LEGO Horizon Adventures!Were excited to celebrate the launch of LEGO Horizon Adventures, co-developed by the incredible teams here at Guerrilla, Studio Gobo and the LEGO Group. Check out our new launch trailer a sneak peek into this lighthearted, fun-filled adventure where everything in the world of Horizon is made of LEGO bricks, from the towering Tallneck to the smallest details in Mothers Heart.Play VideoWhether youre a long-time Horizon fan or new to the world, LEGO Horizon Adventures has something special for everyone. You dont need to be familiar with the Horizon universe to jump in, but longtime fans will spot a few Easter eggs and references along the way.You can play alone or grab a friend or family member and join Aloys journey together. We wanted this to be a truly collaborative experience, giving players of all ages and skill levels the chance to enjoy the adventure, build connections, and share a love for LEGO bricks and Horizon. The world is packed with machines, with each battle offering its own fun twist on Horizons combat. The difficulty is scalable, so whether youre in Story Mode for a relaxing experience or looking for a challenge on Very Hard mode, theres something for everyone. And theres so much more to explore. Build, customize, and upgrade your character or head to Mothers Heart, where you can modify the village to reflect your own unique style.On behalf of the teams at Guerrilla, Studio Gobo and The LEGO Group, we want to say a huge thank you to our amazing community. Your enthusiasm and passion for Horizon have inspired every moment of LEGO Horizon Adventures, and were thrilled to bring you this playful new take on Aloys world. We cant wait to hear what you think.To learn even more about the game, please visit www.legohorizonadventures.com and make sure to follow Guerrilla on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for all the latest news and updates about Horizon.

Just like it did with the original Half-Life last year celebrating the seminal first-person shooters 25th anniversary with a major update, a documentary, and a 100% off sale Valve is celebrating the arguably even more influential Half-Life 2s 20th anniversary with, you guessed it, an update, a documentary, and a 100% off sale.Valve made the announcement, and detailed all of the changes, on a new website for the game. That update notably includes the usual mix of bug fixes and graphical improvements, a developers commentary track a practice that all Half-Life and Portal games following the release of Half-Life 2 benefited from as well as Steam platform level enhancements in the form of Steam Workshop support and the new Steam game recording.Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog, Valve details on the site.Scroll way down for a much more exhaustive list of all of the changes. A larger enhancement to the game is the inclusion of Half-Life 2s episodic expansions, Episode 1 and Episode 2. Notably, and sadly, this does not include any confirmation of a conclusion in the form of the never-released Episode 3, though Valve does speak to its failure to deliver that ending in the two-hour documentary.We could have shipped it. It wouldnt have been that hard, Valves Gabe Newell says, sporting a new lewk while sending an entire generation of gamers into a dark spiral. My personal failure was being stumped. I couldnt figure out why Episode 3 was pushing anything forward.And, if you somehow havent somehow ended up with Half-Life 2 in your Steam library over the last 20 years, first congrats? That seems actually hard to do. Second, youll be glad to know its currently being offered, upgrades and all, for the low low price of $0.00 until November 18, just two days away. Add it to your library permanently by going here and clicking the green Download button, and will it to your grandkids.Speaking of downloads, Valves anniversary site also includes links to historical videos of the game, such as high-quality captures of previously unavailable E3 demos, as well as a host of new wallpapers and links to download or listen to the various soundtracks.