I recently got back into playing chess. This lesson by Bonjourchess covers a basic strategy, but it's a good one!Source

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Not Again!Continuing gaming's worst trend, you'll be able to play Avowed five days early as long as you're happy to fork over $90Can we put this one to bed, please?Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 17, 2024 My least favourite trend in gaming has hit Avowed, meaning if you're happy to pay some extra money for it, you'll get to play it five days early.Video game company executives have really run out of ways to get you to pay more for their games, haven't they? They couldn't just leave it at microtransactions, live-service models, expansions, deluxe editions, all that nonsense, they had to add in an incentive like paying more so you can play before everyone else. "Ohh, look at this, you can brag that you've played the latest hit video game before anyone else, and it'll only cost you a day's wage!" Jog on! And yet that same trend will be found in Avowed, as Obsidian recently detailed the game's premium edition, which yes, will let you play the game five days early, if you're happy to cough up $90.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Yes, that's right, if you do want to play it almost a week early, you'll have to spend roughly a day's wage for the premium edition. That's not all you get, you do get two premium skin packs, as well as access to the game's digital artbook and soundtrack, but if we're being real that's a bit pants for so much money, right? You want me to fork over that much money for next to nothing? Yeah, I'll pass on the premium edition methinks, but good luck to those of you that do end up playing early, let's hope the Elder Scrolls-like RPG doesn't have Elder Scrolls-like game ruining bugs.If you're on Xbox Game Pass, you won't need to pay for the game at all, as it is available on the service from day one (on the Ultimate tier, anyway), but you'll still have to buy that premium edition if you're that desperate to play it early.

Doing NumbersDespite being a 20 year old single-player game, Half-Life 2 just hit an all-time high concurrent player count thanks to that anniversary updateTurns out you can teach an old dog new tricks.Image credit: Valve News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 17, 2024 Crikey, Half-Life 2 just turned 20 this week, but despite that, and even thanks to that, it's just hit a new concurrent player count peak.Look, we all know that Half-Life 2 is one of the greatest games around. I've not even played it and I know that! It just is, but it's also quite old now and in spite of having a lot of fans, it's not like a huge number of people are playing it day to day. Except, well, right now they are, as just this week a big new update dropped that brought in a ton of improvements, as well as compiling Episode 1 and 2 into the base game. Not only that, but a completely new developer commentary was added in for the base game too, offering up some behind the scenes tidbits to one of the most iconic games around. And do you know what an update like that does? Bring in a whole heap of players, apparently.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As seen over on SteamDB, a tracking website that lets you see all sorts of insights on various games, Half-Life 2 hit a concurrent player count peak of 63,636 (love a palindromic number), the game's all-time high. That was literally hit just 12 minutes ago at the time of writing, with only a few less than that in-game right now too. It's a ridiculously impressive figure for such an old game, these are the kind of numbers you might expect to see for an online title during a quieter period, but clearly an update like this has brought the fans out of the woodworks. Presumably there's some new players in there too, as until tomorrow you can pick up the game for free to celebrate its 20th anniversary.Not only was there a big new update, but an entire feature-length documentary too, which is well worth a watch if you're a long-time fan of Valve and all its games - it even features an in-game look at what Half-Life 2: Episode 3 could have been (just don't take that as confirmation that it's finally happening).

Image: Nintendo LifeRaise your hand if you havent played a Jackbox game okay, trust us, if this were a real room, this would have created a pretty solid visual for how prolific the Jackbox party games have become over the years. Almost everyone has played one, and this week, believe it or not, marks the 10th anniversary of the entire Jackbox series.Besides kicking off the franchise as we know it today, The Jackbox Party Pack console release (which would come to Switch in 2017) cemented the standard for how players connected to a home console without a controller (as well as how players could brutally lie to each other).Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube785kWatch on YouTube Jackbox Games the company, not the games is also the team behind the You Dont Know Jack franchise, which became an unlikely stalwart of the video game industry, thanks to digital hits like Quiplash and Drawful, among other games that have all gone on to become family, friend, and office party staples.So, to commemorate the last decade of one-liners, trivia crowns, and bizarre t-shirts, Nintendo Life sat down with Mike Bilder, CEO of Jackbox Games since 2008, whose job it is "to simply run the company", to talk us through how the entire series came to be. The box seatYou Dont Need an App: The Story of the Jackbox ControllerAlan Lopez for Nintendo Life: Since its the 10th anniversary of the first Jackbox video game, I want to start with what I view as probably the most pivotal decision for the success of Jackbox: adopting the ability to connect to play Jackbox using only your phone browser. Can you speak to how that decision happened?Mike Bilder, CEO of Jackbox Games: Yeah, there's a storied history there, so to answer that I need to go back a little further.The company has been around since 1989. Back then, it was called Learn Television, and then it turned into what became Jellyvision, which was known for the You Don't Know Jack franchise in the 90s. The company fell on tough times, and the founder kind of shuttered the games company, then founded a new company called the Jellyvision Lab which wasnt centred on games. That company actually still exists as Jellyvision today.Its hard to get people rallied around a game where you say, Okay, you have an Android phone or an iOS phone, go to this app store, then download this thing.But [around the mid-2000s], the Nintendo Wii became really popular, and the idea of couch play and family gaming started becoming appealing again. Jellyvision thought it might be time to restart the company to try to make fun party games.Fast forward to 2013, we were coming off a number of mobile products, like Facebook gaming [with] You Dont Know Jack on mobile. And those all had various levels of success, but they weren't really sustainable, so we were looking to get back into the premium marketplace. Thats where we got into the idea of indie self-publishing.Were talking about when downloading games to your console just started to become more common, right?Right! Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo had just started to allow self-publishing from indies; before, you'd have to have a big publisher associated. So that opened a whole bunch of doors for us as a small company.But one of the big problems that occurred in the 90s, which is why the company shuttered, was the transition from the CD-ROM platform toward the first wave of disk-based consoles. I mean, You Don't Know Jack was a trivia game where you buzzed in on a keyboard and then you had to type in your answers. Translating that to a home console where you might have one controller doesn't make for a very fun party game experience. So this brings us to the controller method.We first brought You Don't Know Jack to, if you remember this, the OUYA platform. Because we had done PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and PC builds, we already knew the control was going to be a hurdle. It's more fun to play the game with multiple people, [but] the OUYA consumer wasnt going to go out and buy four controllers. So we made an app called the JackPad, which was a mobile app on Android and iOS that you could download to your phone. And that app had technical hurdles: it had to be on the same network that your OUYA was connected to, and you had to connect your phone to it. We quickly learned from that OUYA experience that an app was friction.Who remembers this? Image: OUYAIts hard to get people rallied around a game where you say, Okay, you have an Android phone or an iOS phone, go to this app store, then download this thing. So we wanted to eliminate as much friction as we possibly could. It was a little bit out of necessity. It was a little bit out of opportunity. And it turned into a little bit of just the right place at the right time.But even then, there were hurdles to trying to get phone browsers to work with consoles. They were very locked-down ecosystems back in the day. If you wanted to run a cloud server that talked to a game on an Xbox or a PlayStation, you had to go through this whitelisting program and make sure it wasn't going to introduce viruses. But we pushed through, and there was a reason for it. It's not just skinning a gamepad so you don't have to go out and buy another controller, it's because you need it. You needed to be able to type or draw with your finger, and those different modes of play were only unlocked by having Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo allowing it. But it also then unlocked for us this amazing kind of catalogue of opportunity. What can we do with this now that weve got it?You pointed out that the phone being your controller was pragmatically better, sure, but I think the decision to go in that direction is clearer in retrospect. During that era, many CEOs, people, and companies pushed app adoption as the ultimate measure of success. It would have been so easy to just try and get people to download an app, like so many others.I think having gone through the process of making the Jack app, it was still the obvious answer. And you know, we weren't the first to make your phone do some kind of control mechanism. Other people had done that kind of thing.But apps were the name of the game back then.It was all about apps. But we recognized the friction. When we first started this, I think there were still Windows phones back in the day. And it's like, do we have to support an app on a Windows phone now? Because a tenth of the population was still working on Windows. But it was really the friction in the moment of that collective groan in the room, the oh, now go to the App Store, now download this, I get on my Wi-Fi, and we learned that there needs to be something simpler and frictionless.Image: Jackbox GamesHow Jackbox Games Get InventedSo what exactly is the process of creating a new game?We do an annual release of a pack of games. And so it's open to the entirety of the studio, it doesn't matter what you do [at the company]. You can be a part of this process. If you've got a cool idea for a game, you can pitch your cool idea for a game.We don't just have a couple of ordained people who are the creative brain trust of the companyAfter a pitch, it will have one of three outcomes. It can be greenlit, which means you're in this next pack, and we'll start forming a team around it immediately. It can go into a yellow light state, which means something's not quite right. We love the concept, but we need to figure out a few things the scoring doesn't make sense or the final round isn't a thing, or it's lacking some user interaction. And then a red light is "we don't think this is right," either it's not working or it doesn't fit into what our ambitions are for this year.If we're making a pack, as we green-light games, we get a little more strict and focused. In the beginning, the funnel's huge any game idea, any concept, any mechanic [is considered]. As we start to green-light games that have certain genres or mechanics, the funnel shrinks. We don't want a pack of games that has three trivia games in it, for example.Do you personally work with Creative at all?Absolutely! There is a Chief Creative Officer [Allard Laban] at the company. But again, Jackbox is pretty unique in that everybody has had some hand in Creative. We don't just have a couple of ordained people who are the creative brain trust of the company.Some rejected game logos that didn't quite make the cut Images: Jackbox GamesAre there like, bragging rights, or even a monetary component for how many games someone has gotten made over time?Well, there's no monetary thing, in a sense. But there are a few people who have more of a knack for making a successful pitch or spearheading some successful games that have been greenlit and have been in various party packs. But it's actually broader than you would think. Again, it's not like we have one or two creatives in the studio who are the brain trust behind Jackbox.Shirtality! The History of Quiplash, Tee K.O. and MoreI would be guessing, but are you able to tell me your most popular game over the 10 years?What do you think our most popular game is?Quiplash?You got it.I mean, which is not to say that there aren't other games people are obsessed with. I love Trivia Murder Party for example! But I'm definitely curious about the development of Quiplash. Was there a moment when the team was like, "oh, this is the one"?Yeah, so while we were developing the first Party Pack, after Fibbage, there was a simple prototype of taking what was the Fibbage engine and breaking it down into something funnier. That was the basis of what became Quiplash. And it was very, very funny. Every time we played it, it was funny. And the nice thing about that game is it's accessible to anybody, it needed almost no explanation on how to play, so it naturally became the most accessible, quickest to laughs, easiest kind of prototype of the game that we made.Image: Jackbox GamesWe probably had 20-25 people tops in the studio at that time. So when ideas like that came out, we'd prototype them and play them. It was "How quickly can we build this"? The basis for which we pitch, prototype, and test games now has grown in scope and complexity because the nature of our games has gotten a little more complex and more graphically pleasing, but the basis is still: how fast do you get to laughter? With Quiplash, it was instantaneous. Time to laughter is like zero.The voice of Quiplash, how did you cast that?So there's a couple of stalwarts that we've had in the company for quite a long time. Cookie Masterson, who's the voice of You Don't Know Jack, works for us. His name's Tom Gottlieb, and he's voice hosted a number of games, including Fakin' It and Fibbage and a couple of other games. And Phil Ritterelli is a character called Schmitty in the original You Don't Know Jackand so he's the voice of Quiplash.Every time we played it, it was funny.The nice thing is we're based out of Chicago, so we have access to a lot of the Chicago comedy scene. There's the Improv Olympics, there's Second City, there's all that stuff in Chicago. And a lot of the folks who work for us have come through those programs or they still work in Second City, but they write for us. And so there's a real comedy bent and a performative bent to a lot of the folks that work for us.So you still do casting calls?We absolutely do that. We do auditions. We do auditions for writing positions, contract writing positions, and full-time writing positions. We do the same for voice talent. And there is this fandom of some of them because they know the voices from back in the 90s.What was the first game you made besides Quiplash where you felt it had a bigger impact than you anticipated?Well, Fibbage was the first standalone game that used our tech. So that, to me, is the pivotal one that was either going to prove this is going to work or not. And in all candour, back then, the company was kind of running out of money. We were trying to keep the lights on. We had great ideas and great talent, but it's like anything in the video game space: you've got to keep working at it. You've got to keep launching products.Image: Jackbox GamesBut the big thing we didn't anticipate was that Twitch was starting to grow and take off. We didn't anticipate people streaming our games. So when we did Quiplash the next year, we added an audience mode which brought the ability for up to 10,000 people to join a single game session. And that was intentionally to cater to the streamers and the Twitch community that wanted to play the games that way. That has persisted since then and throughout the franchise.So my favourite Jackbox game is Tee K.O.Great. Have you bought any T-shirts?I haven't, but I wanted to ask you about that. What on Earth was the process for scaling being able to print a t-shirt literally any time you play the game? And do you actually see all the t-shirts that come in yourself?The funny thing is, there is a screening process that happens at the printer to reject shirts, thankfully. And we pay for that so we don't have to do it ourselves, but some still get through. We get the undeliverable ones and the return ones, which are often very tame. But then we'll also get the t-shirts that should have been rejected, but somehow still got printed, and those go in the trash because they'll probably have the worst thing you can imagine printed on them.These are both acceptable Image: Jackbox GamesThere is a bin of them in the office, and sometimes we'll go through them and offer them up to people in the studio, but after that, we'll donate them. But then the terrible ones... we get rid of them.Thatsincredible. When did the idea to print the shirts come into play?That process was an interesting one. It was just a very funny pitch. We had a couple of interns at the time, and we challenged one of them to build a process that would make [printing shirts] happen. There's a very small number of vendors, even now, that will do print-on-demand, one-off shirts and not charge a ridiculous amount of money for them. Miraculously, at launch, we had it ready to go, and my directive was that this didnt need to be a big revenue item for us, it was just meant to be a fun novelty and a way to spread the word about our games. It didnt have to set the world on fire."Do you really think that's my job? Like I read every question and memorize them all?"Fast forward to now, and it's still a revenue line item for us. People buy enough shirts that we still make money off of selling them.Do you see them on people sometimes?Oh yeah. I'm sure there's people walking around in them at PAX right now. And you know immediately that it's a Tee K.O. shirt. We can spot it at least. Yeah, you see them.Of course, I have to ask you what your personal favourite game is.I get that question a lot.I know. I'm sorry (laughs)I understand. (laughs) I do really like Fibbage. It's always been my go-to, the one that I can be good at, the one that I can be funny at, the one that I can have the most fun with with the broadest of audiences. In particular, Fibbage 3 is the one that I love the best out of all the ones we've made. But it's personal. It's like asking somebody their favourite kid, I don't know. I love both of my kids, I can't pick a favourite.The better question is, as the CEO, do you always win? Are you great at it?No. No! And the problem is, I get that stereotype when I play. If I start doing well, people are like, "Oh, well, you know all the questions!" And Im like, "Do you really think that's my job? Like I read every question and memorize them all?" First off, it would be impossible. (laughs) I don't. I don't know the answers. Maybe the writers who wrote those prompts have an advantage. But, no, it depends on the group. I can win and be funny with certain groups, and then there are others that I can't. But I have fun trying.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube785kThis interview has been lightly edited for clarity.Thank you to Mike Bilder for taking the time to speak to us. Jackbox Naughty Pack and Jackbox Survey Scramble, the latest Jackbox games, are out now. You can also pick up every single Jackbox game on the eShop now. Spice, spice? MaybeRelated GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Alan is a feature writer who has contributed to Kotaku, Nintendo Life and other prominent gaming sites. He has a background in psychology research, the science of creativity, and over 30 years of Nintendo gaming behind him. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesNew Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Update Leaves The Switch BehindLa-li-lu-le-lower resolution'Switch Pro' Dongle Is Making A Comeback With New 'RGB Collection'But we're not sure what they actually doReview: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch) - Square Doesn't Drop The Ball, Just Some FramesThe wait is finally overThe First Review For Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Is InFamitsu rates it

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)Back in 2018, the Switchs touchscreen functionality made point-and-click games, once best played on PC, much more accessible for console players. In fact, many games on our list of Best Point And Click Adventure Games launched in the hybrid consoles second year NAIRI: Tower Of Shirin among them. Six years later, Dutch developer HomeBear Studio continues the story with Nairi: Rising Tide. So does it rise to the occasion? Almost.Well elaborate in a moment, but first a quick warning that mild spoilers for Tower Of Shirin lie ahead. The first instalment isnt a prerequisite; if you havent played it or need a recap, Rising Tide has an optional narrative section in which Nairi tells the story of her previous adventure. That said, Tower Of Shirin players will come equipped with advantageous knowledge of the lore.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)Both games take place in Shirin, a city divided into Rich, Middle, and Poor Districts. In the first game, Rich District resident Nairis parents were unlawfully arrested and she was forced into hiding where she now remains. When Rising Tide begins, we see Tower Of Shirins story from the perspective of Shiro, whose father is on the Shirin Council with Nairis father. We later switch back to Nairis point of view and the two kids try to sneak back into the Rich District, encountering corrupt governments, uprisings, kidnappings and mysterious magical forces along the way.Thats a truncated version of the full story, which we feel is a bit tricky to follow. The sequel introduces a lot of characters and subplots, yet there's not much time to comprehend them all. As the narrative tides turned, we found the best way to not drown in B stories was to hold on to Nairi and Shiros quests while the other parts washed over us.The characters long conversations give Rising Tides a visual novel feel. The dialogue is cute and contains many childlike (bordering on cheesy) jokes, though it has more serious undertones with the corruption and class conflict themes. When you traverse Shirin, the puzzles are light: you might do a trading sequence, fill in the blanks, fix things with your tools, or deliver a lost item. Youll need a sharp eye to spot the various coins and objects on the ground while you explore, as a lot of the time the interactable elements blend with the backdrop.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)The dungeons are where the puzzles really get to shine, and with just one or two characters present the dialogue becomes sparse. The puzzles are brain-cranking and usually satisfying to solve. They arent hugely frustrating, though they can be murky in a way that seems at odds with the kid-friendly humour. There are only three dungeons but these multi-roomed, multi-levelled fortresses take up about half the game, with puzzles that see you run in and out of rooms and levels to pull a lever connecting to another floor or piece together several parts (sometimes literally). They often challenge you to think hard and use every tool, tap every wall and every piece of furniture, even if it doesnt look interactable. In one puzzle you spin a dial to colour in different icons, in another you memorise the sequence of a story, in another you direct a laser beam to hit an orb.Early on youll get access to the Hint Chick, who charges one coin for a puzzle hint in the form of a little drawing. Its not cheating, we promise; the hints can be pretty cryptic in themselves. The Hint Chick also allows you skip dungeons altogether if you get too stuck and just want to continue the story. Wed love to boast that we completed our playthrough without needing hints but, alas, many puzzles use a logic that takes some getting used to, or tap into a minute part of the lore. Oftentimes wed get our hint and mumble Oh, I never wouldve gotten that. Its clear HomeBear paid attention to feedback (such as our Tower Of Shirin review, which noted the tendency towards obtuse puzzles, which you might argue are a staple of the genre) with these hints and were grateful they did.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)Since Rising Tide is point-and-click, handheld mode is your friend here. The screen is responsive and although a few items look miniscule, the tappable area is wide. In docked mode, menus can be fiddly with the controller, but those partial to the big screen wont find the experience dampened. It also offers the option of motion controls where you can point and click your Joy-Cons at the TV, as long as youre okay with a lack of precision.The games performance is a bit laggy and froze early on when we paused a cutscene. We also experienced slow load screens when moving between areas. Hopefully these bugbears get patched at a later date though, as they shouldnt deter keen players.Cleaner graphics and turned-up colours will be a distinguishable difference for existing fans, while newcomers will simply enjoy the hand-drawn watercolour aesthetic that paints the cute characters and classical setting. That, plus the relatively minimal animation, reminded us of picture books.The music fits so well that you might not notice it. We mean that in a good way, as its never distracting when youre trying to absorb waves of text or concentrate on a mystifying puzzle. Cheerful marimbas in the town, slow minor guitar plucks in the dungeons, and satisfying chimes for solving puzzles it all makes for an aurally pleasant experience.ConclusionNairi: Rising Tide is a solid, if slightly inferior, sequel that expands the world established in Tower Of Shirin. Some slow load screens and difficult-to-discernible items shouldnt hamper your overall enjoyment too much, especially if you loved the first entry. The tricksy puzzles are great, though you may need to shell out for hints. And while you might feel like youre wading through the story at times, theres enough narrative thread to pull you through to a tense ending. No spoilers but the final moments left us already keen to know what Nairi, Shiro, and their friends get up to next.Brain-cranking puzzlesHints are useful without giving away the answerCute storybook art styleDifficulty ebbs and flowsSome puzzle solutions are pretty ambiguousStory can get confusing, especially for newcomersGood 7/10

Only two companies currently provide cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station, and both are based in the United States. The Exploration Company, which operates out of Germany, France, and Italy, is looking to change that: It just closed a large funding round to further its mission of building Europes first reusable space capsule.The $160 million Series B round will fund the continued development of the Nyx spacecraft, which will be capable of carrying 3,000 kilograms of cargo to and from Earth. The company, which was founded three years ago by aerospace engineers Hlne Huby, Sebastien Reichstat, and Pierre Vine, is aiming to conduct Nyxs maiden flight to and from the ISS in 2028.We are the first company in the world where this is for the first time mainly funded by private investors, Huby said in a recent interview. This is in contrast to SpaceXs Dragon capsule, which she said was mainly funded by NASA.The new funding, which was led by Balderton Capital and Plural, brings the startups total funding to date to over $208 million. The Series B also included participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, NGP Capital, and two sovereign European funds, French Tech Souverainet and DeepTech & Climate Fonds.Weve been able to deliver on promises in the past three years, Huby said. Weve been able to meet our cash target ever quarter The investors, they could see that we basically can deliver on time, on cost, on quality.The startup has made traction with the European Space Agency (ESA), which has recognized the need to foster native space launch and transportation capabilities. The Exploration Company was awarded a study contract worth around 25 million ($27 million)to develop cargo return services earlier this year. That contract will run through 2026, with additional competitive contract opportunities expected to follow. ESAs aim is to have at least one capsule launching to the ISS in 2028.The structure of the contract, called the LEO Cargo Return Service Contract, resembles NASAs Commercial Orbital Return Transportation Services program that the agency launched in 2006. That program resulted in multibillion-dollar transportation contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation (now Northrop Grumman).Its a promising start, but equally promising is the traction The Exploration Company is seeing on the commercial side. Around 90% of the startups $770 million contract backlog has come from private station developers Vast, Axiom Space, and Starlab, according to recent reporting.The Exploration Companys first demonstrator vehicle launched on the maiden flight of Ariane 6 this summer, though it was not deployed due to an issue with the rockets upper stage. The second sub-scale demonstrator mission, called Mission Possible, is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 next year.I highly respect what SpaceX has been able to achieve, Huby said. We are trying to learn as much as possible from that, we are inspired by what they have achieved. But we also believe the world needs more competition and we want, step by step, to build an alternative. We are very aware that we are late, that we are much smaller, etcetera, but we need to start.

In the wake of the U.S. 2024 presidential election, one fact became clear: Disinformation proliferated online at a startling rate, shaping Americans views about each candidate as well as a diverse set of topics, including public health, climate change, and immigration.Generative AI with its ability to produce deepfakes in seconds and its propensity to hallucinate facts only stands to exacerbate the problem. Factiverse, a startup that participated in TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield 200 in October, is bracing itself for the onslaught. The company, which won best pitch in the Security, Privacy, and Social Networking category, has developed a business-to-business tool that provides live fact-checking of text, video, and audio. The companys pitch: to help businesses save hours of research and mitigate any reputational risk or legal liability.The Norwegian startup is still in its early stages; Factiverse has raised around $1.45 million in pre-seed money since launching in 2020. Yet it has already begun working with both media and financial partners, including one of the largest banks in Norway, according to Factiverse CEO and co-founder Maria Amelie.Factiverse even provided live fact-checking of the U.S. presidential debates that was used by several media partners, Amelie said.Were not an LLM (large language model). Weve built a different type of model based on information retrieval, Amelie told TechCrunch.As a former technology journalist and published author, Amelie has first-hand experience in the war against facts. She worked with Factiverse co-founder and CTO Vinay Setty, who is associate professor in machine learning at the University of Stavanger, to launch the startup with a B2B focus.Factiverses model is trained on high quality, well-curated, and credible data from reliable sources and fact-checkers around the world, according to Amelie, and not the junk food data that generative AI is trained on.We train our AI model to intuitively think like someone who has a lot of experience with researching information, Amelie said.The model, which is based on machine learning and natural language processing, is able to identify claims and search the web in real time everything from search engines like Google and Bing to AI search engines like You.com to academic papers.The most fun part is that were not showing you whatever comes up first on those search engines, Amelie said. Were actually proposing to you what sources are the most, or historically have been the most, credible on your topicWe actually look into the domain in correlation to the topic, and sometimes even who is being quoted in an article.As of today, Factiverse says it outperforms GPT-4, Mistral 7-b, and GPT-3 in its ability to identify fact-check worthy claims in 114 languages. The companys model also outperforms LLMs on determining the veracity of a claim. Amelie said Factiverses success rate is around 80% and the goal is to improve as the company onboards new customers around the world.We have enough funding to be the best, but we are here in the U.S. to become the fastest, Amelie told TechCrunch. She also noted the company wants to raise a seed round in 2025. We are looking for customers and investors who want to invest in trust and credibility, she said.

130 William | Ivane Katamashvili130 William is the first high-rise residential tower designed by Adjaye Associates in the United States. Located in Manhattan, it stands at 800 feet with 66 stories. The project reflects an approach to creating a residential vertical community that responds to the dense urban environment.130 William Technical InformationArchitects1-12: Adjaye AssociatesLocation: New York, New York, USAHeight: 800 feet, 244 metersArea: 41,480m2 | 447,000Sq. Ft.Completion Year: 2023Photographs: Ivane Katamashvili, James Wang, Dror BaldingerAdjaye Associates design celebrates the buildings lower Manhattan context with a hand-cast concrete faade evocative of the masonry craftsmanship of the neighborhoods historic high-rises. The bespoke, tinted concrete rough textures are offset by smooth bronze detailing throughout the building. Rhythmic, large-scale arched windows, inspired by the mercantile structures that once populated the area, establish the buildings bold silhouette and invite natural light deep into the interior. Adjaye Associates Architects130 William Photographs Ivane Katamashvili James Wang Ivane Katamashvili Ivane Katamashvili James Wang Dror Baldinger Dror Baldinger James Wang Dror Baldinger James Wang James Wang Dror Baldinger130 William Design Philosophy and Contextual IntegrationThe design combines living spaces, public amenities, and urban integration, aiming to contribute to the urban fabric of Lower Manhattan. This structure exemplifies Adjaye Associates focus on contextual design and innovative material use.The design incorporates a hand-cast concrete faade, referencing the masonry craftsmanship common in the historic buildings of Lower Manhattan. Large-scale arched windows echo mercantile architecture, enhancing the integration with the surrounding neighborhood. Bronze detailing offsets the concrete faade, providing subtle material contrasts.A public plaza is included at ground level, creating a transitional space between the urban streetscape and the residential interiors. The textured walls in this plaza continue the theme of historic craftsmanship while offering a defined boundary between public and private realms.Spatial Organization and FeaturesThe tower includes a variety of residences, ranging from one- to four-bedroom layouts, with upper-level units featuring double-height living spaces and outdoor loggias. These loggias frame views of the city, connecting interior and exterior spaces effectively.Two floors of amenities are designed to support residential needs, including wellness facilities, entertainment areas, and communal spaces. A rooftop observatory deck offers additional access to views across Manhattan.At ground level, retail spaces and a landscaped plaza provide public accessibility while integrating with the urban environment. These elements allow the tower to function as part of the city while maintaining residential privacy.Implications for Urban High-Rise Design130 William reflects Adjaye Associates architectural approach, which emphasizes material specificity, contextual integration, and the relationship between public and private spaces. The design engages with the urban environment through its material palette and spatial organization, while providing spaces that respond to contemporary residential needs.This project demonstrates how high-rise residential architecture can incorporate public and private realms effectively, contributing to the broader discourse on urban design and high-density living environments.130 William PlansFloor Plan | Adjaye AssociatesFloor Plan | Adjaye AssociatesElevations | Adjaye Associates130 William Image GalleryAbout Adjaye AssociatesSir David Adjaye, founder of Adjaye Associates, is a globally celebrated architect known for his culturally resonant and contextually sensitive designs. Born in Tanzania and raised in the United Kingdom, Adjaye has a rich multicultural background that deeply informs his work, which spans civic, cultural, and residential projects across continents. His firm, founded in 2000 with studios in Accra, London, and New York, has delivered iconic projects such as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., and the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. Known for blending material innovation with a profound engagement with history and place, Adjayes work often creates new typologies that enhance community connection.Notes & Additional CreditsDesign Architect: Adjaye AssociatesArchitect of Record: Hill West ArchitectsClient: LightstoneCivil Engineer: AKRF Engineering PCStructural Engineer: McNamara SalviaMechanical / Plumbing Engineer: Ventrop EGCElectrical Engineer: AKRF Engineering PCFaade Consultant: Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLPAcoustical Design: Longman LindseyLighting Consultant: Brian Orter Lighting Design (BOLD)Landscape Architect: William Weintraub DiazConstruction Management: Gilbane