Years ago, when Martyn Lawrence Bullard visited Palm Springs for the first time, the English-born, Los Angelesbased designer stayed at the Colony Palms Hotel and Bungalows. The 1930s Spanish colonial retreat was a dreamy introduction to the desert city drenched in midcentury design, and Bullard was immediately smitten.Martyn Lawrence BullardPhoto: Sam Frost c/o The Shade StoreI fell in love with the beautiful warm air, its casual essence, and all the nods to Rat Pack history, Bullard tells AD PRO, so he kept returning weekend after weekend. And when a serendipitous flea market expedition yielded a pair of sconces that once adorned Frank Sinatras Palm Springs pad, Bullard knew it was time to splurge on a nearby home of his own to showcase those glam light fixtures.He chose a fantastical 1962 abode courtesy of set designer turned architect James McNaughton that Hugh Hefner and James Bond actor Roger Moore once lived in, and his connection to Palm Springs deepened. That special relationship to the citys landscape, culture, and intoxicating nostalgia are the impetus behind Bullards expanded collection of drapery, Roman shades, and cornices for the Shade Store, launching today.As though an extension of the midcentury wood paneling, the Cactus Weave fabric in Canyon offers an enveloping shade.Photo: Sam Frost c/o The Shade StoreRegister TodayAD PRO's 2025 Interior Design Forecast is almost hereArrowWhereas Bullards inaugural drop in 2021 is defined by the likes of traditional stripes that conjure dusty North African streetscapes and painterly European-style chinoiserie motifs, this time around multidimensional Palm Springs propelled him to take a more brazen approach. All of Bullards work is informed by his fashion-and-art-packed global travels, and now, hes incorporated those disparate inspirations because they fit the mold of my Palm Springs, he says.Uniting the quartet of designs is a sense of lightness, a freshness accentuated by a richness of tactility. I wanted something modern and exciting, and I think we pulled it off. This collection is very textural [and] super usable, and everything has these mixed yarns in them, says Bullard.Mixed yarns evoke texture and depth in the collection fabrics, as shown with layered Cactus Weave shades and curtains in Mirador Midnight and Indigo, respectively.Photo: Sam Frost c/o The Shade StoreNo matter how much I preach about color, at the end of the day most people still love cream and off-white, says Bullard, who curtains his Palm Springs living room in the Andreas fabric in Parchment.Photo: Sam Frost c/o The Shade StoreMirador evokes the rippling sand dunes, the views you see through windows in Palm Springs, he points out, while Cactus Weaves subtle movement calls to mind the opulent interiors of Sunnyland, the Rancho Mirage estate that William Haines designed in the 1960s. Desert Tweeds soft, fluid lines have the look of a chic haute couture garment that elicits not only Parisian runways but the extraordinary vintage stores in Palm Springs, adds Bullard, and Andreas, a reference to the idyllic Andreas Hills community, is a big patchwork.

Learn how to scatter grass assets and animate them with Kenan Proffitt.Source

/November 18, 2024/11:16 p.m. ETDid President Biden Just Save the CHIPS Act From Trump?The president just secured a $6.6 billion deal to build factories in Arizonasetting up a showdown when Trump, who is vehemently opposed to the key pillar of Biden's economic program, takes office.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesNancy Pelosi celebrates the passage of the CHIPS Act in July. President Biden may have secured a government program that funds semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, critical for electronics companies.The Biden administration announced Friday that a $6.6 billion deal with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to build three fabrication plants near Phoenix had been finalized, creating thousands of jobs in Arizona. Semiconductors are used in nearly every electronic device, including cell phones, airplanes, and cars.This is a gigantic announcement, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters Friday. This will be one of the most important investments that we make as a country to advance our economic and national security.The deal was initially announced in April, with $6.6 billion in grants promised to the Taiwanese company along with $5 billion in loans. The funding comes from the CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law by Biden in 2022, which allots $52.7 billion for chip research, manufacturing and workforce development. TSMC makes chips for leading tech companies such as Apple, NVIDIA and AMDl.President-Elect Donald Trump has attacked the bill, claiming in April that the U.S. shouldnt be giving [Taiwan] billions of dollars to build chips. Trumps stance led to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against the CHIPS Act, saying days before the 2024 election that he would try to repeal the bill if Trump was elected.Later, Johnson was forced to backtrack after his fellow Republican Representative Brandon Williams pointed out that a new $100 billion chip-making factory was going to be built in Williamss central New York district thanks to the bill. The Arizona deal is the biggest such foreign investment in U.S. history, according to the White House, and its finalization means that the government is obligated to follow through with its funding promises to TSMC, making it very hard, if not virtually impossible, for Trump to scuttle the CHIPS Act.Its a binding contract, said Ryan Harper, the White House CHIPS implementation coordinator. The company, as long as it meets its milestones, has a contractual binding agreement from the government to move forward.In his first term as president, Trump backed then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walkers effort to bring Taiwanese manufacturing company Foxconn to the Badger State, with the Republican Walker offering the company $3 billion in subsidies in exchange for the promise of 10,000 new jobs and a $10 billion investment in the state.But the bill didnt deliver the promised jobs, with government subsidies ballooning to over $4.5 billion, Foxconn reducing the size of the planned factory by half, and robots doing most of the work. Walker ultimately was voted out of office because of the deal, which his Democratic successor, Tony Evers, was forced to rework. Today, the factory that was actually built only employs 1,000 people, and Wisconsin now has its hopes in the CHIPS Acts funding for something new.Bidens completed Arizona deal likely means that he can leave office with the CHIPS Act as one of his signature achievements, a small silver lining in the face of Trumps election victory. He can also point to the fact that, should everything in the contract unfold as it should, that he succeeded where Trump and Republicans previously failed.Editor's PickThe Case For Ignoring Trumps Daily Rage-Bait/November 18, 2024/11:10 p.m. ETThe Trump-Musk Bromance Has Entered a New PhaseEveryone in Trump's orbit might hate the tech billionaire, but Trump is still going everywhere with him. MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty ImagesA SpaceX rocket blasts offFrom cageside at UFC309 to side by side at the upcoming SpaceX launch, the Trump-Musk bromance knows no bounds.Its been reported that Trump will be present at SpaceXs Texas headquarters to watch a rocket shoot into the sky and before it ultimately crashes into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday. This was deduced after the Federal Aviation Administration issued flight restrictions for the president-elect at the same time and in the same area as Musks SpaceX launch. Neither Trump nor Musk have commented publicly yet.Musk has been a mainstay within the Trump team, spending countless days at Mar-a-Lago by the president-elects side. As Trumps biggest and most enthusiastic donor hes been rewarded with official leadership of the (mostly fake) Department of Government Efficiency and unofficial direct access to Trump. He has joined important diplomatic phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others. Hes also expected to have an outsized role in choosing the next Department of Transportation that will surely benefit his finances as an electric vehicle company CEO.This is all much to the chagrin of Trumps inner circle, as the richest man in the world is constantly contradicting and circumventing them in Trumps ear. While its unclear how long this honeymoon will last, we know that as long as Trump likes Elon, the billionaire can do whatever he wants.Most Recent Post/November 18, 2024/10:31 p.m. ETPennsylvania Supreme Court Throws Out Votes as Senate Recount BeginsThe Pennsylvania state Supreme Court has ruled some votes cannot be counted.Rebecca Droke/AFP/Getty ImagesThe recount for Pennsylvanias U.S. Senate race wont count undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots, a major blow to voting rights.In an opinion filed Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that ballots that failed to arrive with a correct handwritten date on the return envelope, and thereby failed to comply with the requirements of the state election code, would not be included in the final vote tally in the race between Senator Bob Casey and his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick.McCormick was deemed the winner of the race nearly two weeks ago, nabbing 48.9 percent of the vote with 99 percent reporting compared to Caseys 48.5 percent. As the week wore on and Pennsylvanias various counties continued to tally their ballots, it became evident that the competitors were separated by fewer than 23,000 votes. By Monday, that number had dwindled to 17,000 out of almost seven million ballots that had already been recounted, reported the Associated Press.Democratic-controlled election boards in three countiesMontgomery, Philadelphia, and Bucks Countieshad argued that an incorrect date said nothing about the voters eligibility to cast their ballot.The Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party filed an emergency request on Thursday, asking the state Supreme Court for an immediate ruling on the case, contesting that the date was still a key component to ballot security.The court ruled 43 in their favor on Monday, with Justices Kevin Brobson, Sallie Updyke Mundy, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht slamming some of the counties for considering the ballots.It is critical to the rule of law that individual counties and municipalities and their elected and appointed officials, like any other parties, obey the order of this court. As Justice Felix Frankfurter once wrote: If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can, wrote Justice Wecht in a statement, joined by Justice Mundy. That means first chaos, then tyranny. The greater the power that defies law the less tolerant can this Court be of defiance.Read more about Pennsylvania:No, Pennsylvania Democrats Arent Trying to Steal Senate ElectionMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/10:07 p.m. ETTrumps Department of Transportation Is Going to Be a NightmareNone of the likely nominees to lead the department are remotely qualified.JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty ImagesDonald Trump yells into a truck steering wheel in 2017.The Trump transition team continues to float wildly unqualified people to serve in very important positions.Politico reported on Monday that the short list to head the Department of Transportation includes Representative Sean Duffy, former Uber executive Emil Michael, and Representative Jenn Denham.Duffy, who is on the short list, is a former reality TV star and Fox News talking head who has been critical of Trump in the past. Michael is well liked by billionaire Trump surrogate Elon Musk (maybe because hes an investor in Musks SpaceX company). And Denham, perhaps the most qualified, thinks energy-efficient high-speed rail is an example of runaway government spending.These picks all align with Trumps bleak pro-business, anti-regulation vision for the Department of Transportation. Enjoy your walkable cities and decent public transportation (if you even have it) while you can.Editor's PickWill Trump Break Congress to Confirm Matt Gaetz?Most Recent Post/November 18, 2024/10:02 p.m. ETWatch: Mike Johnson Offers Bonkers Defense of Trump Cabinets MoralsThe House speaker had no actual defense for the nightmare people Donald Trump has picked.Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesHouse Speaker Mike Johnson didnt even bother trying to defend the quality of Donald Trumps Cabinet nominees. During an interview on CNN Sunday, host Jake Tapper asked Johnson about the president-elects recent nominations, who represent a slew of ethical dilemmas that might offend a Christian who openly totes his values like Johnson does. While the Louisiana Republican may not be offended by any of Trumps nominees policy ideas, one might imagine hed be offended by their principlesor lack thereof. Trumps picks include former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who allegedly paid two women to have sex with him and has been accused of committing statutory rape (he has denied any wrongdoing); Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth, who reportedly paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her as part of a nondisclosure agreement (he insists the encounter was consensual); and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaxxer who was caught in a messy extramarital affair during his failed presidential campaign.Youre a man of faith, youre a man of God, youre a man of family. With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder, does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party? Tapper asked. Um, sure. Its an important issue for anyone in leadership, Johnson replied, quickly changing the subject. This is what Ill say about the nominees that the president has put forward is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo.Johnson insisted that Trumps picks were disruptors by designanother way of saying theyre not good guys, but thats kind of the point. This shouldnt come as a surprise, though, as Johnson seems to have had no problem cozying up with Trump, a rapist who was convicted of 34 counts for falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments made to keep an adult film actress quiet about his own extramarital affair. Read more about the Cabinet:These Damning New Matt Gaetz Details Could Sink His NominationMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/9:47 p.m. ETDonald Trump is Already Looking to Gut Medicaid Republicans are looking to cut federal assistance programs in order to extend Trumps 2017 corporate tax cut. Raedle/Getty ImagesDonald Trump at a town hall event in JanuaryNow that Donald Trump will be the next president, Republicans are eyeing overhauls to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps.The Washington Post reports that Trumps advisers are speaking with Republicans in Congress about making big changes to federal assistance programs to pay for extending Trumps 2017 tax cuts. These changes include new work requirements and spending caps, according to anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.Some Republicans have misgivings about how such changes will go over with the public, the Post reports, noting that these programs support at least 70 million low-income and disabled Americans.I dont think that passing just an extension of tax cuts that shows on paper an increase in the deficit [is] going to be challenging, one Republican tax adviser told the Post. But the other side of the coin is, you start to add things to reduce the deficit, and that gets politically more challenging.Parts of the bill are set to expire in 2025, and extending those provisions will add over $4 trillion to the national debt, which is already high at $36 trillion. Trumps campaign promises of cutting taxes on tips and overtime will only add to that total. While Republicans say they support Trumps further cuts, they dont want more government borrowing, so they are looking for places to save money.Social welfare programs have long been in Republican crosshairs. For example, Republicans could revive their efforts to cut food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, especially because the benefit automatically increases with inflation. They could also try to impose more limits on what food products can be bought under the program. But Republicans have taken heat in the past for merely floating cuts to these programs, and Democrats would likely seize on further attempts.Trumps 2017 tax overhaul cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, and companies used that savings to buy back their own stock instead of doing things that wouldactually benefitthe economy, for instance creating jobs. Extending those provisions would likely lead to more of the same, with the added cruelty of cutting government assistance to the most vulnerable of Americans.Editor's PickMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/9:41 p.m. ETYou Wont Believe Whos Trying to Stop The Onion Buying InfowarsThe call is coming from inside Alex Joness house.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesInfoWars may have been bought and sold out from under Alex Jones, but that doesnt mean the conspiracy theorist is giving up the fight.A company affiliated with JonesFirst United American Companies, which sells dietary supplementslost its bid for the far-right network last week, underbidding The Onion, which went on to claim InfoWars as its own. But the saga hasnt ended there: In an attempt to recoup the lost bid, FUAC accused the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction of colluding with the satirical news site, as well as families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, to pass over the groups $3.5 million bid.But those allegations didnt fly with the trustee, who on Monday argued in a legal notice that the groups emergency motion was nothing more than a disappointed bidders improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.Having failed in its prior efforts to bully the Trustee and his advisors into accepting its inferior bid, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to mislead the Court and disqualify its only competition in the auction, Christopher R. Murray, the bankruptcy trustee, wrote in the filing.The Onion reportedly bid $1.75 million for the site, in addition to incentives promised by the Sandy Hook families, who won a $1.5 billion lawsuit against Jones. (The families have since agreed to settle with Jones for a minimum sum of $85 million.) The families agreed to forgo up to 100% of their share of the Infowars sale proceeds and give it to other Jones creditors, reported ABC News. Jones repeatedly claimed that the 2012 shooting that left 20 first graders and six teachers dead was a front to lure voters toward gun control policies. In the run-up to the auction, Jones had appeared to be under the impression that good guys on the right would buy his fringe network, though he did not reveal who they were. Several groups expressed interest in InfoWars assets, including a coalition of liberal and anti-disinformation watchdog groups, according to The Daily Beast, as well as some of Joness own supporters, such as Donald Trump ally Roger Stone. The sale, however, has effectively crushed what was arguably Joness most successful endeavor while marking the beginning of his descent into irrelevancy.Were obviously disappointed hes lashing out by creating conspiracies, but were also not surprised, Ben Collins, CEO of The Onions parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said in a statement Monday.Read about Infowarss new owner:Most Recent Post/November 18, 2024/9:21 p.m. ETThese Damning New Matt Gaetz Details Could Sink His NominationTwo women testified that Matt Gaetz had paid them for sex.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesMatt Gaetz, the MAGA Republican congressman nominated to be the next attorney general, allegedly paid two women for sex, according to the lawyer who represented the women before the House Ethics Committee. Attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News Monday that his clients had testified to the Ethics Committee that theyd been paid for sex through Venmo. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, What was this payment for? That was for sex, Leppard explained.Leppard said that one of his clients had also alleged that she saw Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old friend. She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17, Leppard said.Leppard explained that his client had testified that Gaetz was not aware that the girl was underage. Her understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that she was a minor, and that when he learned that she was a minor, that he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18, Leppard said.Gaetz has been the subject of a multiyear ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, and converting campaign funds for personal use. The House Ethics Committee is set to vote Wednesday on whether to release its report on Gaetz. Last week, Donald Trump nominated Gaetz to be attorney general, a mind-boggling pick considering that Gaetz has no experience as a judge or government lawyer. Rather, his only qualification is his unfaltering loyalty to the president-elect. The freshly Republican-led Senate will be forced to weigh the allegations against Gaetz when considering his confirmation, and even if the report is not formally released, the serious allegations against him have continued to mount.A separate lawsuit filed last week involves a number of people involved in the criminal investigation into Gaetz, leading to a new record of evidence outside of the ethics report, according to CNNs Paula Reid. Gaetz was previously investigated by the Justice Department over allegations that hed engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl and violated sex trafficking laws, but no charges were ever formally filed against him. The evidence entered into this new lawsuit reportedly included the underage victims testimony that shed had sex with Gaetz on an air hockey table.Gaetz has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing. Last week, Senator John Cornyn said that there should not be any limitation on the Senates investigation into Gaetz, and insisted that he absolutely wanted to see the ethics report on the former Florida congressperson, who has since resigned from his seat. Last week, John Clune, the attorney representing the underaged woman, posted on X urging for the committee to release its report. Mr. Gaetzs likely nomination as attorney general is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events, wrote Clune. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.Read more about Gaetz:Republican Senators Warn Matt Gaetz Is Totally DoomedMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/7:39 p.m. ETChristian Nationalist Tries to Push Trump Prayer on Oklahoma SchoolsThe states superintendent, already under fire for his plan to buy Trump-branded Bibles, is in hot water again.Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesDonald Trump holds a Bible in his hands while doing a photo op amid racial justice protests in June 2020. Oklahomas state superintendent of schools, Ryan Walters, wants every teacher in the state to show a video message from him to their classes which shows him praying for Donald Trump.Unfortunately for Walters, the state attorney general says that he cant require students to watch the video,which also announces the creation of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism, and at least seven of Oklahomas school districts say they wont show it.There is no statutory authority for the state schools superintendent to require all students to watch a specific video, Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the Oklahoma attorney generals office, told The Oklahoman. Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights.On Thursday night, Walters sent out an email to Oklahomas public school superintendents ordering them to show his one-minute-and-24-second video to students. The email contained several grammatical errors, with Walters writing, We are in a dangerous time for this country. Students [sic]rights and freedoms regarding religious liberties are continuously under assault.Walters wrote in the email that the new department will be working to thwart any attempts to disrupt our Oklahoma students [sic] fundamental freedoms. The video closed with a prayer (which he said students did not have to participate in) where Walters asked for blessings on President Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country.But the superintendents of the Edmond, Mustang, Moore, Norman, Owasso, Tulsa, and Midwest CityDel City public school districts said they would not be showing the video, rebuffing Walters.On the same day, the state superintendent announced that 500 Bibles had been purchased for Oklahomas public schools for about $25,000, despite the fact that lawsuits have been filed over Walterss attempts to integrate Bibles into school curriculum. Walterss Bible specifications have also been attacked, as only one Bible seemed to fit the specific requirements: Trumps God Bless the USA Bible.Walterss video and Bible purchases are only his latest attempts to push Christian nationalism in Oklahomas public schools, and like his other efforts, are legally questionable at best. After Trumps election and the GOPs takeover of Congress, though, Walters is probably feeling quite emboldened to ramp up his agenda. Editor's PickThe True Threat to American RetirementMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/6:03 p.m. ETRon DeSantis Cant Stop Copying Trump DeSantiss tired imitation game grated on voters once already. But hes back at it again.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRon DeSantis in IowaRon DeSantis just cant seem to drop the wannabe Trump routine.The Florida governor will stage an Apprentice-style extensive vetting process to determine a replacement for Senator Marco Rubio, who is expected to serve as Donald Trumps secretary of state pending confirmation.We have already received strong interest from several possible candidates with a selection likely made by the beginning of January, DeSantis wrote on X. Florida deserves a Senator who will help President Trump deliver on his election mandate, be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nations fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles, and has a proven record of results.DeSantiss pick will serve until 2026. Trumps daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuez, Attorney General Ashley Moody, former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva, and chief of staff James Uthmeier have all been floated as possible replacements for Rubio.This is yet another example of DeSantiss weak Trump impersonation, a futile attempt to sell himself to the MAGA base. He took the same position on Ukraine as Trump, has railed against critical race theory and transgender children, claimed that slavery was beneficial to personal development, and even tried standing like the president-elect.And yet DeSantis has received nothing for his mimicry, not even Cabinet position. The governor continues to fade into the GOP ether as conservatives continue to choose the real thing.View More Posts

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Veiled ThreatsEveryone in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is too nice, and I cant stand itDragon Age: The Veilguard is as sickly-sweet as they come - and that's a problem.Image credit: VG247 Article by Alex Donaldson Assistant Editor Published on Nov. 18, 2024 I want to be absolutely clear: I really think Dragon Age: The Veilguard is rather good. Its also true that its a game that is drawn taut between its different ambitions. It wants to reach new fans while satisfying series fans whove waited a decade for Inquisitions cliffhanger to resolve. It wants to be accessible, but it wants to be a full-fat RPG. It wants to depict a world on the edge of a knife, the gentlest breeze enough to tip it into the pit but it also wants you to have a nice time.That last bit is the thing that has stuck with me most keenly since finishing The Veilguard as part of the review process - this is a relentlessly nice game. Honestly, I actually find it a little bit tiring.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. I know what some are going to say, so let me stop you right there: the real world is in a hell of a mess, and theres nothing wrong with wanting a bit of escapism from the disaster outside your real life window in the form of a cuddly video game. But let me fire back something: if I really want that, Ill fire up Stardew Valley, or Animal Crossing. Or Ill mine the nostalgia from my childhood years with a bit of Sonic 2 or Banjo-Kazooie or something.But coming into a BioWare game, I sort of want a bit of friction. I want some shades of grey. I want hard decisions. I want a gang of companions who I love, but who dont necessarily get along. I want the rough and the smooth - and The Veilguard seems practically allergic to the rough. Even the hard choices are just too nice, really. | Image credit: Bioware/VG247Its probably unfair, but I cant help drawing the comparison back to BioWares greatest game, Mass Effect 2. Its obvious that it formed a hefty inspiration for The Veilguard; you can see it in the structure, the building-a-team narrative, and later acts of the game feel like a mash up of the endings of the second and third Mass Effect entries.For this point I want to focus on the characters, though. The party you build is the heart of both games - when I talked to people on the Dragon Age team at preview, they described the process of turning the characters into load-bearing pillars for the entire experience. This is something BioWare hasnt strictly done before in the sense that it is a tweak of process - the characters have always been a key part of the structure of these games, but this feels like the first time the characters themselves are the foundation for the story. And yetGosh, I wish this crew had a little more about them in terms of how they interplay and interact with each other besides Rook. I know this is a team that needs to work together for the greater good - but this lot have got nary a thing to disagree over. Theres none of the prickliness of, say, the antagonistic relationship between Jack and Miranda that the player is then forced to mediate. The Veilguard party banter and play-bicker over picnics and living space - all very charming, and the sort of thing also present in Mass Effect - but thats sort of it. One big happy family? Boo. | Image credit: EA/BioWareYou recruit a mage and then you recruit a mage killer, and neither really blinks an eye. And its okay, anyway, as hes not really a mage killer in that way. Hes nice, hes heroic, hes selfless.Again, Im looping back around to Mass Effect 2. Im thinking about Garrus, and how when you meet him he isnt a grand hero, but a vigilante with a death wish, having gone off the deep end since the last game. I think about Zaeed, who is a truly disgraceful piece of s**t - but you need him. Or do you? You can, of course, conclude hes a liability and leave him for dead. I want this sort of thing back - but Im not even sure that these sorts of stories could exist within the narrative sandbox The Veilguard places itself.I dont want to only compare it to Mass Effect, of course, because past Dragon Age titles were also rich with this sort of texture. I think of Alistair and Morrigan back in Origins; prickly bedfellows who ultimately come together in a satisfying way. In The Veilguard, everybody is nice from the jump.The same is true, to some extent, of the whole world. This is a world with beggars on every street corner, but theres no real talk of poverty or inequity in the world; none of the introspective world building BioWare contemplates with places like Omega or Kirkwall. Everything is Fine! Thedas is The Good Place, even when rampaging gods on high are threatening to end all of existence. He'd know how to sour your mood. | Image credit: EAThe intent, I expect, is to not offend the sensibilities of absolutely anybody playing. But story-driven games and role-playing games should challenge the player. Not just with exciting character progression choices and fist-pumping combat - which The Veilguard has - but also with narrative, world, and character. This overwhelming niceness seeps into every aspect of those elements. Ultimately, the niceness is a poison, the very definition of killing with kindness. Bluntly, when everybody is nice, everybody is a little bit boring - and in fantasy, that just doesnt fly.Worst of all, it works against those excellent characters, those load-bearing pillars designed to shoulder the weight of the rest of the experience. I like them all, and in fact I think one or two of them are some of the most charismatic BioWare has delivered - but I strongly feel the niceties often stood in the way of me truly getting to know them.As the saying goes, The sweet is never as sweet without the sour. Frustratingly, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is as sickly-sweet as they come.

Keep 'Em ComingAre you a fan of Dragon Quest 3 and Square Enix's HD-2D look? You better let the developer know, as the JRPG's producer is worried you'll all get "bored" of themThough with all the trouble it's been having, I can only imagine it'll be slowing down anyway.Image credit: Square Enix News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 18, 2024 Square Enix has pumped out a lot of HD-2D games over the past few years, and the producer of the Dragon Quest 3 remake is worried you might get "bored" of them.The HD-2D style that Square Enix introduced with Octopath Traveler is one that has generally gone down pretty well with fans, with the developer going on to use it in a number of other titles, like the Live A Live remake, and most recently Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. We also know that Dragon Quest 1 and 2 are getting the same treatment, and In a recent interview with Bloomberg, the JRPG remake's producer Masaaki Hayasaka shared that even more remakes of games from the series is something he'd "love to consider", but that partially depends on how well this one does.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Hayasaka goes on to explain that if Square Enix was "to release too many games in succession, that would lead to people being bored of those games. On the flipside, if theres too much of a span between launches, that can also lead to the series not seeming as vibrant and robust anymore. Its a sensitive topic. Its something that even my supervisors are constantly unsure and mulling over."Personally, I do understand the hesitation, especially considering that even now there are people that don't like games that look remotely retro, and with Square Enix struggling quite a bit at the moment, the hesitancy is warranted. Lucky for it, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake seems to be going quite well, as just yesterday it hit a peak of more than 45,000 players on Steam alone (via SteamDB), a very healthy figure for a remake of a single-player RPG. Whether those numbers hold up for the upcoming remakes of the first and second games is another question, but at least for now more HD-2D remakes seem like they could be on the table.

Arriving in cinemas next month.We're getting closer to the final month of the year and that means the blue blur is ready to return in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

And DLC is up for 'GOTY'.We're fast approaching 'The Game Awards' for 2024 and the nominees across each category have now been revealed by the show's creator and host Geoff Keighley.Starting with the 'Game of the Year' contenders, the nominees include Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Metaphor: Refantazio and the DLC Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Youve heard of car airbags deploying within milliseconds to protect passengers. How about an airbag for your knee? Thats what former basketball hopeful Kylin Shaw is working on with his startup, Hippos Exoskeleton a knee sleeve that measures stress on the knee joint and inflates around the knee to protect it from major injuries like ACL and MCL tears. The sleeve inflates in 30 milliseconds, which the company says is faster than the 60 milliseconds it takes for ACL tears to occur. I, myself, have loved basketball since I was six years old, and for the next decade, it became my entire life, Shaw told TechCrunch.I dedicated myself to intensive training But at 17, just as I was preparing for a professional basketball career and NCAA trials, I heard a sickening pop from my knee while landing from a dunk, he said.The injury ended Shaws sporting career prospects, but it gave him the idea to combine AI-driven sensors and a knee-bag. He dropped out of the London School of Economics to develop it.Hippos said the brace uses predictive AI to detect risky movements in real-time and deploys airbags around the knee, potentially saving athletes thousands in medical expenses.Shaw and his co-founder Bhavy Metakar (CTO) initially bootstrapped Hippos by investing $1,000 of their savings to develop a prototype and generate initial pre-orders from clinics and athletes. The startup has now raised a $642,000 pre-seed round from investors Possible Ventures and Silicon Roundabout Ventures.Shaw told Techcrunch the company has already secured over six figures in pre-orders, and would use the new funding to develop the product further and push to a full launch in around three months.He said the eventual unit would cost around $129 and come with a $29/month to $99/month subscription plan covering AI-driven insights, small air canisters, and workout tracking.The startup has performed trials with U.K. football clubs as well as with star athletes, like world skiing champion Alex Schlopy of the U.S. Ski Team. In a statement, Schlopy said: Im impressed by the preventative function and it feels so light and comfortable! This brace gives me a sense of psychological safety.Beyond elite athletes, Shaw said the product could be used for injury prevention for anyone else, such as those in construction jobs or the elderly.Hippos may well be pushing at an open door. While approximately 150,000 ACL injuries are reported in the United States each year, and 8.6 million globally among adults, those stats dont include injuries among children. Also, most health solutions focus on rehabilitation rather than prevention. Moreover, existing companies addressing joint protection in sports and rehabilitation focus on traditional supportive devices or post-injury support.Brands in this space include Enovis DonJoy (orthopedic braces and supports), ExoKinetics Zeen (devices primarily for rehabilitation), and Shock Doctor (sports braces and protective gear for injury management). None of these solutions offer predictive or reactive technology in the way the Hippos air-bag does.Also participating in the round were Huggingfaces co-founder and CSO, Thomas Wolf; Wayves co-founder Amar Shah, and Dr. James Brown, the lead sports medicine doctor at UK Athletics.