Sony released a pair of new gaming monitors in its high-end Inzone series last month, and now they are on sale for the first time during Black Friday. You can save $100 on the Inzone M10S OLED Gaming Monitor or the Inzone M9 II 4K Gaming Monitor.The M10S is designed as a premium, tournament-ready display--in fact, it was created in collaboration with esports team Fnatic to ensure it checked all the right boxes for professionals. The Inzone M9 II, meanwhile, is the successor to the M9 4K monitor that released in 2022. The Inzone series is primarily geared toward PC gaming, but the M9 and M9 II are great monitors for PlayStation 5, too.PC and PS5 gamers should also check out Amazon's Black Friday deals on the Sony Inzone Buds and Sony Inzone H9 Wireless Headset.Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom $40 (was $70) See at Best Buy See at Target See at Walmart Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition Guide $26.85 (was $45) | Eligible for Buy Two, Get One Free See at Amazon PowerA The Legend of Zelda Wireless Controller $25 (was $45) See at Amazon The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of the Switch's must-play games, and now it's available for its lowest price yet at major retailers. Best Buy and Target have Tears of the Kingdom's physical edition for only $40, saving you $30. Tears of the Kingdom is part of Nintendo's official Black Friday lineup, but the expectation was that it would cost $50. Like many Nintendo games, Tears of the Kingdom is rarely marked down, so we wouldn't be surprised if retailers sold out before Black Friday sales end. Especially because it will be a popular choice for holiday shoppers who pick up a Switch console bundle for the ridiculously low price of $225.The extra $10 off is a nice surprise, though you could possibly save even more. Walmart will have Tears of the Kingdom for $30 tomorrow, November 25, at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET. The deal coincides with the launch of Walmart's Black Friday week deals. The catch here is that the offer is exclusive to paid Walmart+ subscribers until 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET. There's a very good chance it sells out before the deal opens up to everyone, but if you have a subscription already, make sure to check Walmart's listing when the sale begins to snag a copy.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Wuthering Waves has officially revealed Carlotta as the first five-star Resonator from Rinascita coming in Version 2.0. Wuthering Waves recently announced several characters from the mysterious region as well as some details about players' next adventure.

Genshin Impact players strongly believe that the recent droughts on the Event Banners could be solved by introducing a special Birthday Banner for 5-Star and 4-Star characters. With over 90 playable characters that hail from different nations, wield different weapons, and use different elements, it's no surprise that Genshin Impact struggles to maintain a consistent schedule for its Event Banners. As the game continues to evolve, not every old character succeeds in keeping up with the meta hypercarries such as Eula or supports such as Albedo start to lag behind the newcomers.

Our free Indie 2D MMORPG, Key To Heaven, Officially Launches Friday, November 29th at 20:00 CET. The game is available right now on Steam, Microsoft Store and Itchio with a built in countdown timer for the big release. Everybody starts from level 1.Website: https://key2heaven.comDiscord: https://discord.gg/TmHHJkGSteam

Reworked design for zone terminusI also composed a new soundtrack for the zone terminus.Fixed

Half-Life 2 celebrated its 20th anniversary last week, with Valve releasing a hefty update to the original game alongside a two-hour documentary featuring interviews and a peek at never-before-seen footage and concept art from the games development.As a longtime fan of the series who considers Half-Life 2 one of my most formative experiences playing games, the anniversary has me feeling some type of way: a bittersweet nostalgia for a bygone era of PC gaming and the community of aspiring artists, designers, and modders that sprang up around it. Half-Life 2 was the first game I played that inspired me to know more not just about the people who created it, but about how games are even made in the first place. With that said, I must admit my love for the game has waned somewhat in the decades since its release.For as much as I initially fell in love with the game for its sense of mystery and intrigue, theres just no more mystery in it left for me. Ive turned over every rock, scoured every surface, and hungrily completed every possible achievement in Half-Life 2 and its episodic follow-ups some before Steam achievements even existed! Which is why the user-created mod series Minerva: Metastasis remains not only my favorite take on the Half-Life universe, but one of my favorite games full stop. More than 17 years since I first played it, Im still utterly enthralled by its sense of eerie mystery and alien menace. And with the recent anniversary update to Half-Life 2, which includes both Half-Life 2: Episode One and Two, now is as perfect a time as any to play it.Released between 2005 and 2007 as an episodic series of mods to Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One, Minerva: Metastasis was developed by Adam Foster, a web developer and hobbyist designer who gained notoriety among the Half-Life modding scene for Someplace Else, a short single-player campaign released in 2002 and set entirely in Xen the hostile alien dimension that serves as the setting for Half-Lifes finale.After collaborating on several other modding projects that fell apart due to an overabundance of ambition, Foster decided on a different approach for his next project, one that made the most of preexisting assets to create an original single-player story released in episodic installments. The aim isnt to replace as much game content as possible, Foster said in an interview with CVG in 2006. Instead, its to tell my own, apocryphal story set in the Half-Life 2 universe, and to actually release something for the public to play.Minerva opens with your character, an unnamed protagonist clad in an HEV suit, unceremoniously dropped on the shore of a mysterious island bunker in the Baltic Sea fortified by the Combine, the multidimensional antagonists of Half-Life 2. The game doesnt waste any time explaining whats happening; youre pelted by Combine gunfire from the moment you set foot on the beach. Before you can even get your bearings, you hear the chirp of a dial-up modem as a timestamped message scrolls across the top-left corner of your screen, commanding you to run up the side of the beach and take cover.Circling around the opposite end of the beach, you receive another message from your mysterious, would-be benefactor. I am your Athena, you are my bastard Perseus, and our Medusa for today is this island. If you couldnt already tell, the messages sender, known alternatively as Minerva, is a foul-mouthed megalomaniac with a penchant for mythological metaphors. Not much else is known about them initially, aside from the obvious fact that theyre the closest thing you have to a friend on an island overrun with posthuman stormtroopers ready, willing, and eager to ventilate you on sight. With no other choice, you charge ahead at the behest of this strange ally with opaque intentions to unearth the secrets of this compound, why the Combine are here, and how the answer to both those questions might connect to the broader Half-Life universe.Minerva: Metastasis isnt like a lot of other mods of its era, in that it, well, actually prioritizes its writing. Inspired by Bungies sci-fi shooter Marathon, as well as the Cortana Letters ARG created to promote Halo: Combat Evolved, the bulk of Minervas story is conveyed entirely through text messages sent by the players unseen companion. The tone and style of Minervas writing is heavily indebted to the work of the late Scottish sci-fi author Iain M. Banks, who Foster has praised for a style of writing that hides huge amounts of information in slightly ambiguous sentences that require keen-eyed readings to fully parse the true weight of their meaning.The character of Minerva, whose nature and motivations are gradually revealed over the course of the game, is where Fosters strengths as a storyteller really shine. Initially an aloof, taciturn taskmaster who delights in constantly thrusting you into mortal peril as readily as she chides you for not heeding her precise instructions, Minerva gradually drops her guard as the plot unfolds, revealing her to be as much a victim of circumstances beyond her control as the protagonist themself. Before you ask, no: She is not an artificial intelligence, nor is she quite what you would conventionally describe as human. Shes well, something else. A secret third thing, if you will. Minerva is a prime example of Fosters layered approach to writing that gestures toward answers without outright stating them. For me, an essential quality of any enduring creative work is a degree of interpretative ambiguity, and the story of Minerva: Metastasis more than qualifies in that respect.Minervas level design is yet another reason why it stands head and shoulders above other mods of its time and even arguably Half-Life 2 itself. Where Half-Life 2s levels were designed to be gameplay-friendly environments first and architecturally plausible locations second, if at all, Fosters approach to designing Minervas levels was almost the exact opposite: creating believable environments with correctly proportioned structures and areas first before implementing gameplay later.Instead of relying on horizontally sprawling, immense maps that stress the Source engines area capabilities to its max, Minervas environments are small but incredibly dense, guiding the player through multiple pathways that incentivize them to circle back and explore previously unexplored routes, making the maximum use of each levels potential before proceeding downward into the labyrinthine depths of the islands interior. Combined with carefully choreographed enemy placements and intuitive environmental puzzles, Minerva delivers a moment-to-moment experience thats as propulsively challenging as it is narratively engaging.As if that werent enough, Foster went so far as to create tons of assorted ephemera outside the game that offer more depth to his apocryphal take on Half-Life. The mods website contains additional messages written by Minerva herself, as well as other documents and emails, that not only offer more details about the character, but enmesh her significance more deeply into the events prior to Half-Life and Half-Life 2.While not necessary to grasp the plot of the game, I nonetheless highly recommend reading through the site if you, like me, appreciate deftly written world-building through epistolary fiction. Technology and violence are a girls best friends; power is eternal delight is a line thats lived rent-free in the back of my mind for almost two decades now.Foster had initially planned on two other chapters of the story, with the second installment, Minerva: Out of Time, set in a snow-capped coastal town with a semi-open-world design inspired by 2007s STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. However, those plans promptly went out the window when Foster announced hed been hired by Valve shortly after Minerva: Metastasis release, initially to work on the companys then in-development Half-Life 2: Episode Three before moving on to work on Left 4 Dead and Portal 2 following that games indefinite postponement.Theres still a part of me, to this day, that would happily take either a new, Valve-sanctioned Minerva or Minvera-inspired game over Half-Life 3 at this point. Given the frankly infinitesimal likelihood of either scenario bearing out, Im just happy to be able to replay the game after all these years and be left to imagine what other strange and perilous adventures Perseus and Minerva get up to after the credits roll. In the absence of answers, one must learn to be content enough to love the questions themselves.MINERVA: Metastasis is available to play for free on Steam.

In Wicked, wicked-witch-to-be Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is ostracized by her fellow Ozians because of her green skin and her magical powers. But on the set of a big-budget Hollywood studio production that leans heavily on visual effects instead of magic, she has her own viridescent foe: green-screen technology.Vivid green backdropsoften referred to as chroma green by digital artists are used in modern VFX processes, in part, because that tint is so far from the color range of human skin. That makes it far easier for visual effects artists to digitally select anything in an image thats chroma green and replace it, keying out the actors and placing them into new backgrounds. But if Elphaba stood in front of a green-screen background, it would likely erase her like her classmates want to, theoretically leaving a just-as-magical floating hat, eyes, dress, and cape standing in for the Wicked Witch of the West.As Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman told Polygon in an interview ahead of Wickeds release, Elphabas coloration made it necessary to revert to an earlier form of this kind of digital replacement technology.It immediately became a blue-screen show, Helman says. When youre doing prep, you have to acquire all these screens. And so we knew that we had [to use] blue screen.Helman, whose credits in visual effects range from fantastical movies like Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones to less visible work on Martin Scorseses The Irishman prefers to use these screens as little as possible: The reason why I dont like [this method] is because it changes the lighting by spilling all over the set, one color or the other. In his eyes, that would have sucked the life out of one of Wickeds most elaborate musical numbers, where prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) leads Galinda/Glinda (Ariana Grande) and others in a cheery song about how Lifes more painless / for the brainless.For instance, in scenes like Dancing Through Life in the library, it could have been a blue-screen set, because all the backgrounds were put in there, Helman says. But I worked with Alice Brooks, the director of photography, just to say, If were thinking that were exposing for the inside, and the outside is going to be blooming, lets just light it white, and lets deal with extracting the actors and putting backgrounds differently, because then the white light is going to help us in having the true meaning of what it means to be in a set like that.The contrast between the bright white light Brooks and Helman wanted for that scene and the blue light that digital-friendly backdrops would have spread across the sequence is part of the frustration Helman often sees on movie sets, where different needs for a shot can come into conflict. If you actually go historically to the beginning of green- or blue-screen photography, its because in visual effects, we like to separate everything, and we love to have control over everything, he says. But the director also wants to have control, and the production designer wants to have control.Even with all the preparation Helman, director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights), and the rest of the filmmaking team put into the project, it wasnt until they were on set that they discovered how avoiding an Elphaba green-screen clash meant running into another problem.Until we started shooting in Shiz [the university in Oz], we [hadnt] realized that everybody was wearing blue, Helman laughed.

How the konbini has become a tourist attraction through innovative products and an excellent in-store experience.Continue reading on UX Collective

Shazam has mastered the art of instant song recognition, creating a UX that feels magical with just one tap. Discover how Shazams design taps into our curiosity and love for quick answers, giving users that satisfying moment of discovery right when they need itmost.Source: Simply Life by HoneyMadisonWeve all been there. Sitting in a public place, a song begins to play. The melody feels oddly familiar, tugging at your memory, but you just cant put a name to it. The frustration buildsyou need to know the title.Now.Enter, Shazam. You reach for your phone, tap a button, and Shazam delivers the answer in seconds. This almost effortless act of identifying a song feels like sorcery, but its not. Its the result of meticulous UX design, where the technology is invisible and the experience is seamless. From its minimalist interface to its lightning-fast recognition, Shazam satisfies our innate curiosity and need for instant gratification. Lets dive into the psychology and design principles behind this beloved app, and uncover what makes it a UX masterpiece.Shazams Core UX PrinciplesBy prioritising simplicity, speed, and accessibility, Shazam ensures that every user interaction is frictionless and rewarding. These principles form the foundation of a UX design that feels intuitive, reliable, and above allmagical.SimplicityAt its core, Shazam embodies the principles of less is more. The apps design is strikingly minimalistic, with a single central button that dominates the interface. Unlike other apps cluttered with features and menus, Shazam makes identifying a song as easy as pressing a button. This one-tap approach eliminates any ambiguity about what the user needs to do. This simplicity is not just aesthetic, its functional. By focusing on this one primary action, Shazam reduces cognitive load and ensures users can instantly understand how to use the app quickly, without instructions and onboarding.Shazam app main screen, with the Tap to Shazam feature as the key focus of the interface.SpeedIn todays ever-evolving digital world, speed is central to a satisfying user experience, based on our human desire for instant gratification. Users dont just want answers, they want them fast. Shazams ability to deliver song results in a matter of seconds is a testament to its technical efficiency and design optimisation. Delays could break the magic of the moment, so the apps speed is critical to itssuccess.AccessibilityShazam goes beyond being a standalone app. Throughout the years, it has integrated into a wide range of platforms, from iOS and Android to voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Shazam also incorporates accessibility features like voice commands (e.g., Hey Siri, Shazam this song). This accessibility ensures users can access Shazams functionality wherever they are, whether its through their phone, smartwatch, or even directly through music streaming apps. The clear and intuitive design is visually friendly, using large touch targets and high contrast to accommodate users with various visual impairments.Sync to Spotify popup, enabling seamless integration and easy access for later retrieval.Travelling without data and having a Shazam moment? No worries. Shazams offline mode demonstrates a thoughtful approach, allowing users to save songs to identify later, even when they dont have an internet connection. Users also can be notified of the identified song, once they become connected again. This feature ensures that no moment of curiosity goes unsatisfied, regardless of connectivity. Dont forget, the devil works hard but Shazam works hardereven in the background.The call to action changes when the device is offline, highlighting the functionality.Designing for instant gratificationHumans are hardwired to seek instant gratification: a psychological phenomenon where we prioritise immediate rewards over delayed ones. In a world where patience is scarce and convenience and speed are paramount, Shazam thrives by leveraging this innate desire. The app transforms the process of identifying a song into a moment of discovery and delight, with its design fueling that satisfying aha! moment with both speed and elegance. When we experience immediate rewards, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that creates feelings of pleasure and reinforces behaviours that lead to those rewards. In this case, the act of usingShazam.One-tap interactionThis one-button, one-tap design isnt just intuitiveits empowering. By stripping away complexity, Shazam enables users to feel in control of the process while requiring minimal effort. The result? Instant engagement and satisfaction.By removing barriers like navigating menus or dealing with complex settings, Shazam ensures users can act on their impulses immediately. The design also plays into choice overload theory, which shows that too many options can cause decision paralysis. Shazams focused interface eliminates unnecessary decisions, making the act of identifying a song almost reflexive. In UX design, mitigating choice overload involves simplifying user journeys, often using strategies like progressive disclosurerevealing information or options incrementally. This approach reduces cognitive load, enabling users to focus on fewer choices at a time, leading to more satisfying decision-making experiences.Real-time feedback: anticipation anddelightWhen users tap the Shazam button, theyre met with dynamic feedback: sound wave animations and a listening status. This immediate response is crucial because it reassures users that their action is being processed, reducing anxiety about whether the app isworking.This leans into a theory of learning known as operant conditioning, which states that behaviour that is followed by pleasant consequences such as rewards, is more likely to be repeated. The brief waiting period between the moment of curiosity and the aha! moment builds anticipation, making the final result even more satisfying.Shazams design also leverages the emotional journey of anticipation and resolution. The listening animation creates suspense, while the accurate identification delivers a delightful moment. This mirrors what psychologists call the peak-end rule, where people judge an experience largely based on its most intense moment (the aha! moment) and the ending (seeing the result). Shazam carefully crafts both moments to leave a lasting positive impression.Cured curiosityThe act of resolving uncertainty and curiosity triggers a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. In this case: what the hell is that song? Shazam takes this a step further by enriching the reward. Instead of just providing a song title, it offers additional context like artist details, lyrics, music video and streaming links. This layered reward system enhances overall satisfaction, encouraging users to stay engaged with the applonger.A triumphant Shazam moment, revealing the song info and opening up a world of musical exploration.Personalisation for buildingloyaltyOne of Shazams most effective tools for retaining users is its History feature, recently renamed to My Music. This functionality allows users to revisit past identifications, transforming Shazam from a single-use app into a personal music archive. By enabling users to explore and remember their discoveries, the feature provides both practical and psychological benefits.Revisiting past discoveriesThe My Music feature acts as a digital record of every song a user identifies. This is especially valuable for music lovers who might forget a track they heard in passing or want to compile a playlist of their finds. When users review their history, it reinforces their connection to the identified tracks, helping them remember new music they might want to explore further. By storing these musical moments, Shazam gives users a reason to return to the app, building loyalty overtime.Accessing the My Music feature labelled by date, with the ability to explore and sort by musical characteristics.You can even sort these moments by artist, mood, genre, decade and more. Even more moments to returnto!Memory and nostalgiaThis feature also taps into powerful psychological drivers: memory and nostalgia. Music is deeply tied to personal experiences, often evoking vivid memories and emotions. Revisiting old songs or moments tied to a discovery can evoke a pleasant sense of nostalgia, enhancing user satisfaction and encouraging repeat usage. By providing almost what functions as a musical diary, Shazam allows users to relive specific moments associated with songs theyve identified. This emotional connection fosters a sense of attachment to theapp.CurationA more recent evolution is around curation, giving users personalised music recommendations. By leveraging users Shazam history, the app creates tailored playlists that reflect individual tastes, bridging the gap between music identification and ongoing music discovery. This allows users to move seamlessly from identifying a song they love to exploring similar tracks within the app or integrated platforms like Spotify or AppleMusic.A Shazam-curated playlist linked to Spotify, based on my most recent Shazam. A nod to the Spotify radiofeature?This taps into the growing demand for personalised experiences in digital products. Shazam uses the data it collects from user interactions to offer curated playlists, turning music discovery into a continuous journey rather than a single-use interaction.Concerts and liveeventsAs seen in the My Music screen, lies a new feature: concerts. It is designed to enhance user engagement by connecting music discovery to live experiences. This feature provides personalised recommendations for nearby concerts, using a users Shazam history and location data. Powered by Bandsintown, it offers insights into tour dates and shows tailored to individual preferences.The new concerts feature in Shazam, connecting sponataneous discovery with liveevents.Beyond just concert discovery, Shazam integrates features like saving events, setting reminders for upcoming performances, and accessing exclusive content. Users can view set lists, behind-the-scenes videos, tour photos, and download artist-themed wallpapers or watch faces. This transforms Shazam into more than a song-recognition toolit becomes a bridge to real-world music experiences. This addition reflects Shazams broader mission to deepen user engagement by creating a holistic music ecosystem that combines digital convenience with live event immersion.Satisfying impulses: A habit-forming experienceBy consistently delivering quick rewards, Shazam fosters a habit loop. According to the Hook habit formation model, every habit consists of a trigger, action, reward, and investment. The concept was introduced to describe how digital products can retain customers by getting them to form habits, through developing an emotional association with the product. For Shazam, the loop lookslike:Trigger: Hearing a song you want to identify.Action: Tapping the Shazambutton.Reward: Getting the songsdetails.Investment: Saving identified songs to revisitlater.This cycle strengthens over time, turning Shazam into the go-to app for music discovery. By addressing our need for instant gratification and crafting an emotionally resonant experience, the app transforms a simple tool into something that feels intuitive, rewarding, and even addictive.The takeawaysShazams enduring success is a testament to its thoughtfully designed user experience. For UX designers, researchers and product teams alike, the app offers valuable lessons on how to create intuitive, engaging, and habit-forming digital products. Here are the key takeaways:Prioritise simplicity to reduce cognitive load: Sometimes less is more. Shazams minimalist interface demonstrates the power of a single clear call to action. By focusing on one core functionsong identificationthe app eliminates unnecessary complexity, reducing cognitive load and making the experience intuitive for users of all tech skilllevels.Leverage the power of instant gratification: Shazam capitalises on our innate desire for quick results. From dynamic feedback during processing to near-instant song identification, the app satisfies user curiosity and delivers a dopamine-fueled reward.Design for anticipation and delight: The suspense created during the listening phase and the joy of the aha! moment are emotional drivers that enhance user satisfaction. Incorporating subtle, anticipatory feedback into your products design can make interactions more engaging and memorable.Create features that build loyalty: Shazams My Music history feature and curated playlists are examples of how personalisation deepens user engagement. By giving users a way to revisit and organise their discoveries, Shazam becomes more than a single-use app. Consider how your product can provide long-term value, turning one-time interactions into ongoing relationships.Integrate seamlessly across ecosystems: Shazams integration with various platforms and voice assistants allows it to extend its functionality, creating a seamless user experience across multiple touchpoints. Overall, this enhances not only convenience and usability but also accessibility for those with impairments.Solve real-world problems thoughtfullyFeatures like offline mode and concert recommendations address user pain points while expanding the apps value proposition. Focus on understanding and solving your audiences unique needs, even in situations where they face constraints like lack of connectivity.Sources: Present bias: how instant gratification impacts your long-term goals The Psychology of Instant Gratification: How to Rewire Your Brain for Long-Term Happiness Why do we have a harder time choosing when we have moreoptions? Psychological Triggers in UX/UI Design: Navigating Biases andBehavior Operant Conditioning: What It Is, How It Works, andExamples What Is the PeakEnd Rule? How to Use ItSmartly The Hook Model: Retain Users by Creating Habit-Forming ProductsHow Shazams UX delivers instant gratification was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.