Geralt's survival in The Witcher 3 isn't just limited to his Witcher signs and the two swords on his back, players must also rely on Geralts suite of armor options to both absorb enemy damage and complement their builds. However, given the wide range of armor options in The Witcher 3, players can often find themselves confused trying to choose the best set that helps them leverage the most out of their builds. For those who have found themselves unsure about what the best armor sets are in The Witcher 3, this ranking should be valuable.

Hi everyone,Im working on an 18+ romance game with themes of possession and betrayal. My goal is to build a team and grow in the adult entertainment gaming space. I have access to top illustrators and funding for the project. The script is progressing, and Im planning the timeline, but progress has stalled because I need a programmer to help discuss game mechanics, gameplay, and presentation.I dont have much experience hiring programmers and

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From boardroom to break room, generative AI took this year by storm, stirring discussion across industries about how to best harness the technology to enhance innovation and creativity, improve customer service, transform product development and even boost communication.The adoption of generative AI and large language models is rippling through nearly every industry, as incumbents and new entrants reimagine products and services to generate an estimated $1.3 trillion in revenue by 2032, according to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence.Yet, some companies and startups are still slow to adopt AI, sticking to experimentation and siloed projects even as the technology advances at a dizzying pace. Thats partly because AI benefits vary by company, use case and level of investment.Cautious approaches are giving way to optimism. Two-thirds of the respondents to Forrester Researchs 2024 State of AI Survey believe their organizations would require less than 50% return on investments to consider their AI initiatives successful.The next big thing on the horizon is agentic AI, a form of autonomous or reasoning AI that requires using diverse language models, sophisticated retrieval-augmented generation stacks and advanced data architectures.NVIDIA experts in industry verticals already shared their expectations for the year ahead. Now, hear from company experts driving innovation in AI across enterprises, research and the startup ecosystem:IAN BUCKVice President of Hyperscale and HPCInference drives the AI charge: As AI models grow in size and complexity, the demand for efficient inference solutions will increase.The rise of generative AI has transformed inference from simple recognition of the query and response to complex information generation including summarizing from multiple sources and large language models such as OpenAI o1 and Llama 450B which dramatically increases computational demands. Through new hardware innovations, coupled with continuous software improvements, performance will increase and total cost of ownership is expected to shrink by 5x or more.Accelerate everything: With GPUs becoming more widely adopted, industries will look to accelerate everything, from planning to production. New architectures will add to that virtuous cycle, delivering cost efficiencies and an order of magnitude higher compute performance with each generation.As nations and businesses race to build AI factories to accelerate even more workloads, expect many to look for platform solutions and reference data center architectures or blueprints that can get a data center up and running in weeks versus months. This will help them solve some of the worlds toughest challenges, including quantum computing and drug discovery.Quantum computing all trials, no errors: Quantum computing will make significant strides as researchers focus on supercomputing and simulation to solve the greatest challenges to the nascent field: errors.Qubits, the basic unit of information in quantum computing, are susceptible to noise, becoming unstable after performing only thousands of operations. This prevents todays quantum hardware from solving useful problems. In 2025, expect to see the quantum computing community move toward challenging, but crucial, quantum error correction techniques. Error correction requires quick, low-latency calculations. Also expect to see quantum hardware thats physically colocated within supercomputers, supported by specialized infrastructure.AI will also play a crucial role in managing these complex quantum systems, optimizing error correction and enhancing overall quantum hardware performance. This convergence of quantum computing, supercomputing and AI into accelerated quantum supercomputers will drive progress in realizing quantum applications for solving complex problems across various fields, including drug discovery, materials development and logistics.BRYAN CATANZAROVice President of Applied Deep Learning ResearchPutting a face to AI: AI will become more familiar to use, emotionally responsive and marked by greater creativity and diversity. The first generative AI models that drew pictures struggled with simple tasks like drawing teeth. Rapid advances in AI are making image and video outputs much more photorealistic, while AI-generated voices are losing that robotic feel.These advancements will be driven by the refinement of algorithms and datasets and enterprises acknowledgment that AI needs a face and a voice to matter to 8 billion people. This will also cause a shift from turn-based AI interactions to more fluid and natural conversations. Interactions with AI will no longer feel like a series of exchanges but instead offer a more engaging and humanlike conversational experience.Rethinking industry infrastructure and urban planning: Nations and industries will begin examining how AI automates various aspects of the economy to maintain the current standard of living, even as the global population shrinks.These efforts could help with sustainability and climate change. For instance, the agriculture industry will begin investing in autonomous robots that can clean fields and remove pests and weeds mechanically. This will reduce the need for pesticides and herbicides, keeping the planet healthier and freeing up human capital for other meaningful contributions. Expect to see new thinking in urban planning offices to account for autonomous vehicles and improve traffic management.Longer term, AI can help find solutions for reducing carbon emissions and storing carbon, an urgent global challenge.KARI BRISKIVice President of Generative AI SoftwareA symphony of agents AI orchestrators: Enterprises are set to have a slew of AI agents, which are semiautonomous, trained models that work across internal networks to help with customer service, human resources, data security and more. To maximize these efficiencies, expect to see a rise in AI orchestrators that work across numerous agents to seamlessly route human inquiries and interpret collective results to recommend and take actions for users.These orchestrators will have access to deeper content understanding, multilingual capabilities and fluency with multiple data types, ranging from PDFs to video streams. Powered by self-learning data flywheels, AI orchestrators will continuously refine business-specific insights. For instance, in manufacturing, an AI orchestrator could optimize supply chains by analyzing real-time data and making recommendations on production schedules and supplier negotiations.This evolution in enterprise AI will significantly boost productivity and innovation across industries while becoming more accessible. Knowledge workers will be more productive because they can tap into a personalized team of AI-powered experts. Developers will be able to build these advanced agents using customizable AI blueprints.Multistep reasoning amplifies AI insights: AI for years has been good at giving answers to specific questions without having to delve into the context of a given query. With advances in accelerated computing and new model architectures, AI models will tackle increasingly complex problems and respond with greater accuracy and deeper analysis.Using a capability called multistep reasoning, AI systems increase the amount of thinking time by breaking down large, complex questions into smaller tasks sometimes even running multiple simulations to problem-solve from various angles. These models dynamically evaluate each step, ensuring contextually relevant and transparent responses. Multistep reasoning also involves integrating knowledge from various sources to enable AI to make logical connections and synthesize information across different domains.This will likely impact fields ranging from finance and healthcare to scientific research and entertainment. For example, a healthcare model with multistep reasoning could make a number of recommendations for a doctor to consider, depending on the patients diagnosis, medications and response to other treatments.Start your AI query engine: With enterprises and research organizations sitting on petabytes of data, the challenge is gaining quick access to the data to deliver actionable insights.AI query engines will change how businesses mine that data, and company-specific search engines will be able to sift through structured and unstructured data, including text, images and videos, using natural language processing and machine learning to interpret a users intent and provide more relevant and comprehensive results.This will lead to more intelligent decision-making processes, improved customer experiences and enhanced productivity across industries. The continuous learning capabilities of AI query engines will create self-improving data flywheels that help applications become increasingly effective.CHARLIE BOYLEVice President of DGX PlatformsAgentic AI makes high-performance inference essential for enterprises: The dawn of agentic AI will drive demand for near-instant responses from complex systems of multiple models. This will make high-performance inference just as important as high-performance training infrastructure. IT leaders will need scalable, purpose-built and optimized accelerated computing infrastructure that can keep pace with the demands of agentic AI to deliver the performance required for real-time decision-making.Enterprises expand AI factories to process data into intelligence: Enterprise AI factories transform raw data into business intelligence. Next year, enterprises will expand these factories to leverage massive amounts of historical and synthetic data, then generate forecasts and simulations for everything from consumer behavior and supply chain optimization to financial market movements and digital twins of factories and warehouses. AI factories will become a key competitive advantage that helps early adopters anticipate and shape future scenarios, rather than just react to them.Chill factor liquid-cooled AI data centers: As AI workloads continue to drive growth, pioneering organizations will transition to liquid cooling to maximize performance and energy efficiency. Hyperscale cloud providers and large enterprises will lead the way, using liquid cooling in new AI data centers that house hundreds of thousands of AI accelerators, networking and software.Enterprises will increasingly choose to deploy AI infrastructure in colocation facilities rather than build their own in part to ease the financial burden of designing, deploying and operating intelligence manufacturing at scale. Or, they will rent capacity as needed. These deployments will help enterprises harness the latest infrastructure without needing to install and operate it themselves. This shift will accelerate broader industry adoption of liquid cooling as a mainstream solution for AI data centers.GILAD SHAINERSenior Vice President of NetworkingGoodbye network, hello computing fabric: The term networking in the data center will seem dated as data center architecture transforms into an integrated compute fabric that enables thousands of accelerators to efficiently communicate with one another via scale-up and scale-out communications, spanning miles of cabling and multiple data center facilities.This integrated compute fabric will include NVIDIA NVLink, which enables scale-up communications, as well as scale-out capabilities enabled by intelligent switches, SuperNICs and DPUs. This will help securely move data to and from accelerators and perform calculations on the fly that drastically minimize data movement. Scale-out communication across networks will be crucial to large-scale AI data center deployments and key to getting them up and running in weeks versus months or years.As agentic AI workloads grow requiring communication across multiple interconnected AI models working together rather than monolithic and localized AI models compute fabrics will be essential to delivering real-time generative AI.Distributed AI: All data centers will become accelerated as new approaches to Ethernet design emerge that enable hundreds of thousands of GPUs to support a single workload. This will help democratize AI factory rollouts for multi-tenant generative AI clouds and enterprise AI data centers.This breakthrough technology will also enable AI to expand quickly into enterprise platforms and simplify the buildup and management of AI clouds.Companies will build data center resources that are more geographically dispersed located hundreds or even thousands of miles apart because of power limitations and the need to build closer to renewable energy sources. Scale-out communications will ensure reliable data movement over these long distances.LINXI (JIM) FANSenior Research Scientist, AI AgentsRobotics will evolve more into humanoids: Robots will begin to understand arbitrary language commands. Right now, industry robots must be programmed by hand, and they dont respond intelligently to unpredictable inputs or languages other than those programmed. Multimodal robot foundation models that incorporate vision, language and arbitrary actions will evolve this AI brain, as will agentic AI that allows for greater AI reasoning.To be sure, dont expect to immediately see intelligent robots in homes, restaurants, service areas and factories. But these use cases may be closer than you think, as governments look for solutions to aging societies and shrinking labor pools. Physical automation is going to happen gradually, in 10 years being as ubiquitous as the iPhone.AI agents are all about inferencing: In September, OpenAI announced a new large language model trained with reinforcement learning to perform complex reasoning. OpenAI o1, dubbed Strawberry, thinks before it answers: It can produce a long internal chain of thought, correcting mistakes and breaking down tricky steps into simple ones, before responding to the user.2025 will be the year a lot of computation begins to shift to inference at the edge. Applications will need hundreds of thousands of tokens for a single query, as small language models make one query after another in microseconds before churning out an answer.Small models will be more energy efficient and will become increasingly important for robotics, creating humanoids and robots that can assist humans in everyday jobs and promoting mobile intelligence applications..BOB PETTEVice President of Enterprise PlatformsSeeking sustainable scalability: As enterprises prepare to embrace a new generation of semiautonomous AI agents to enhance various business processes, theyll focus on creating robust infrastructure, governance and human-like capabilities for effective large-scale deployment. At the same time, AI applications will increasingly use local processing power to enable more sophisticated AI features to run directly on workstations, including thin, lightweight laptops and compact form factors, and improve performance while reducing latency for AI-driven tasks.Validated reference architectures, which provide guidance on appropriate hardware and software platforms, will become crucial to optimize performance and accelerate AI deployments. These architectures will serve as essential tools for organizations navigating the complex terrain of AI implementation by helping ensure that their investments align with current needs and future technological advancements.Revolutionizing construction, engineering and design with AI: Expect to see a rise in generative AI models tailored to the construction, engineering and design industries that will boost efficiency and accelerate innovation.In construction, agentic AI will extract meaning from massive volumes of construction data collected from onsite sensors and cameras, offering insights that lead to more efficient project timelines and budget management.AI will evaluate reality capture data (lidar, photogrammetry and radiance fields) 24/7 and derive mission-critical insights on quality, safety and compliance resulting in reduced errors and worksite injuries.For engineers, predictive physics based on physics-informed neural networks will accelerate flood prediction, structural engineering and computational fluid dynamics for airflow solutions tailored to individual rooms or floors of a building allowing for faster design iteration.In design, retrieval-augmented generation will enable compliance early in the design phase by ensuring that information modeling for designing and constructing buildings complies with local building codes. Diffusion AI models will accelerate conceptual design and site planning by enabling architects and designers to combine keyword prompts and rough sketches to generate richly detailed conceptual images for client presentations. That will free up time to focus on research and design.SANJA FIDLERVice President of AI ResearchPredicting unpredictability: Expect to see more models that can learn in the everyday world, helping digital humans, robots and even autonomous cars understand chaotic and sometimes unpredictable situations, using very complex skills with little human intervention.From the research lab to Wall Street, were entering a hype cycle similar to the optimism about autonomous driving 5-7 years ago. It took many years for companies like Waymo and Cruise to deliver a system that works and its still not scalable because the troves of data these companies and others, including Tesla, have collected may be applicable in one region but not another.With models introduced this year, we can now move more quickly and with much less capital expense to use internet-scale data to understand natural language and emulate movements by observing human and other actions. Edge applications like robots, cars and warehouse machinery will quickly learn coordination, dexterity and other skills in order to navigate, adapt and interact with the real world.Will a robot be able to make coffee and eggs in your kitchen, and then clean up after? Not yet. But it may come sooner than you think.Getting real: Fidelity and realism is coming to generative AI across the graphics and simulation pipeline, leading to hyperrealistic games, AI-generated movies and digital humans.Unlike with traditional graphics, the vast majority of images will come from generated pixels instead of renderings, resulting in more natural motions and appearances. Tools that develop and iterate on contextual behaviors will result in more sophisticated games for a fraction of the cost of todays AAA titles.Industries adopt generative AI: Nearly every industry is poised to use AI to enhance and improve the way people live and play.Agriculture will use AI to optimize the food chain, improving the delivery of food. For example, AI can be used to predict the greenhouse gas emissions from different crops on individual farms. These analyses can help inform design strategies that help reduce greenhouse gas in supply chains. Meanwhile, AI agents in education will personalize learning experiences, speaking in a persons native language and asking or answering questions based on level of education in a particular subject.As next-generation accelerators enter the marketplace, youll also see a lot more efficiency in delivering these generative AI applications. By improving the training and efficiency of the models in testing, businesses and startups will see better and faster returns on investment across those applications.ANDREW FENGVice President of GPU SoftwareAccelerated data analytics offers insights with no code change: In 2025, accelerated data analytics will become mainstream for organizations grappling with ever-increasing volumes of data.Businesses generate hundreds of petabytes of data annually, and every company is seeking ways to put it to work. To do so, many will adopt accelerated computing for data analytics.The future lies in accelerated data analytics solutions that support no code change and no configuration change, enabling organizations to combine their existing data analytics applications with accelerated computing with minimum effort. Generative AI-empowered analytics technology will further widen the adoption of accelerated data analytics by empowering users even those who dont have traditional programming knowledge to create new data analytics applications.The seamless integration of accelerated computing, facilitated by a simplified developer experience, will help eliminate adoption barriers and allow organizations to harness their unique data for new AI applications and richer business intelligence.NADER KHALILDirector of Developer TechnologyThe startup workforce: If you havent heard much about prompt engineers or AI personality designers, you will in 2025. As businesses embrace AI to increase productivity, expect to see new categories of essential workers for both startups and enterprises that blend new and existing skills.A prompt engineer designs and refines precise text strings that optimize AI training and produce desired outcomes based on the creation, testing and iteration of prompt designs for chatbots and agentic AI. The demand for prompt engineers will extend beyond tech companies to sectors like legal, customer support and publishing. As AI agents proliferate, businesses and startups will increasingly lean in to AI personality designers to enhance agents with unique personalities.Just as the rise of computers spawned job titles like computer scientists, data scientists and machine learning engineers, AI will create different types of work, expanding opportunities for people with strong analytical skills and natural language processing abilities.Understanding employee efficiency: Startups incorporating AI into their practices increasingly will add revenue per employee (RPE) to their lexicon when talking to investors and business partners.Instead of a growth at all costs mentality, AI supplementation of the workforce will allow startup owners to home in on how hiring each new employee helps everyone else in the business generate more revenue. In the world of startups, RPE fits into discussions about the return on investment in AI and the challenges of filling roles in competition against big enterprises and tech companies.

GeForce NOW is wrapping a sleigh-full of gaming gifts this month, stuffing members cloud gaming stockings with new titles and fresh offers to keep holiday gaming spirits merry and bright.Adventure calls and whip-cracking action awaits in the highly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, streaming in the cloud today during the Advanced Access period for those who have preordered the Premium Edition from Steam or the Microsoft Store.The title can only be played with RTX ON GeForce NOW is offering gamers without high-performance hardware the ability to play it with 25% off Ultimate and Performance Day Passes. Its like finding that extra-special gift hidden behind the tree.This GFN Thursday also brings a new limited-time offer: 50% off the first month of new Ultimate or Performance memberships a gift that can keep on giving.Whether looking to try out GeForce NOW or buckle in for long-term cloud gaming, new members can choose between the Day Pass sale or the new membership offer. Theres a perfect gaming gift for everyone this holiday season.GFN Thursday also brings 13 new titles in December, with four available this week to get the festivities going.Plus, the latest update to GeForce NOW version 2.0.69 includes expanded support for 10-bit color precision. This feature enhances image quality when streaming on Windows, macOS and NVIDIA SHIELD TVs and now to Edge and Chrome browsers on Windows devices, as well as to the Chrome browser on Chromebooks, Samsung TVs and LG TVs.An Epic, Globetrotting AdventureUncover one of historys greatest mysteries, streaming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from the cloud. Members can access it today through Steams Advance Access period and will also be able to enjoy it via PC Game Pass on GeForce NOW next week.The year is 1937, sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only Indiana Jones can stop them. Experience a thrilling story full of exploration, immersive action and intriguing puzzles. Travel the world, from the pyramids of Egypt to the sunken temples of Sukhothai and beyond. Combine stealth infiltration, melee combat and gunplay to overcome enemies. Use guile and wits to unearth fascinating secrets, solve ancient riddles and survive deadly traps.Members can indulge their inner explorer by streaming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on GeForce NOW at release. Enhanced with NVIDIAs ray-tracing technology, every game scene is bathed in rich, natural light that bounces realistically off surfaces for enhanced immersion.Ultimate and Performance members can max out their settings for a globe-trotting journey at the highest resolution and lowest latency, even on low-powered devices, thanks to enhancements like NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex. Ultimate members can experience additional perks, like 4K resolution and longer gaming sessions.This game requires RTX ON, so free members can upgrade today to join in on the action. Take advantage of a limited-time Day Pass sale, with 25% off through Thursday, Dec. 12. Experience all the premium features of GeForce NOWs Ultimate and Performance tiers with a 24-hour trial before upgrading to a one- or six-month membership.Making the Cloud Merry and BrightDeals for days.For gamers looking to take their cloud gaming journey even further, unlock the power of GeForce RTX-powered cloud gaming with a monthly GeForce NOW membership. Its the perfect time to do so, with new members gettings 50% off their first month, now through Monday, Dec. 30.Experience gaming at its finest with an Ultimate membership by streaming at up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second, or 1080p at 240 fps. The Performance membership offers an enhanced streaming experience at up to 1440p resolution with ultrawide resolutions for even more immersive gameplay. Both premium tiers provide extended session lengths, priority access to servers and the ability to play the latest and greatest titles with RTX ON.Whether looking to conquer new worlds, compete at the highest level or unwind with a long-time favorite game, now is an ideal time to join the cloud gaming community. Sign up to transform any device into a powerful gaming rig just in time for the holiday gaming marathons.Dashing DecemberThe cloud is the path of least resistance.Path of Exile 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the popular free-to-play action role-playing game from Grinding Gear Games. The game will be available for members to stream Friday, Dec. 6, in early access with a wealth of content to experience.Explore the three acts of the campaign, six playable character classes and a robust endgame system in the dark world of Wraeclast, a continent populated by unique cultures, ancient secrets and monstrous dangers. A sinister threat, long thought destroyed, has begun creeping back on the edge of civilisation, driving people mad and sickening the land with Corruption. Play Path of Exile 2 solo or grab the squad for online co-op with up to six players.Look for these games available to stream in the cloud this week:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Advanced Access on Steam and Xbox, available on the Microsoft Store)Path of Exile 2 (New release on Steam and Grinding Gears, Dec. 6)JR EAST Train Simulator (Steam)JR EAST Train Simulator Demo (Steam)Heres what members can expect in December:Fast Food Simulator (New release on Steam, Dec. 10)Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered (New release on Steam, Dec. 10)The Spirit of the Samurai (New release on Steam, Dec. 12)The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria (Steam)NieR:Automata (Steam)NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 (Steam)Replikant Chat (Steam)Supermarket Together (Steam)Ys X: Nordics (Steam)New to NovemberIn addition to the 17 games announced last month, 13 more joined the GeForce NOW library:Ara: History Untold (Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Steam and Battle.net)Call of Duty: Vanguard (Steam and Battle.net)Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition (Epic Games Store, Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition (Epic Games Store, Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)Magicraft (Steam)MEGA MAN X DiVE Offline Demo (Steam)New Arc Line (New release on Steam, Nov. 26)Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour Demo (Steam)Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)StarCraft II (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Nov. 5. Members need to enable access.)StarCraft Remastered (Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Nov. 5. Members need to enable access.)Metal Slug Tactics, Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers and Headquarters: World War II didnt make it last month. Stay tuned to future GFN Thursday for updates.What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.There's no place like the cloud for the holidays. Unlock the power of GeForce RTX-powered gaming with a GeForce NOW monthly membership % the first month for new members! RUN https://t.co/aCfuQ7KtkB pic.twitter.com/8cjY5ZTBPW NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) December 4, 2024

My name is Jenny, and Im the Communications Director for Ivy Road, the indie studio currently developing Wanderstop. Our team is proud to announce that Wanderstop will be released on PlayStation 5 on March 11, 2025. We are eager for the chance for players to step into Altas shoes and contribute to PlayStations tradition of representing impactful, emotional storytelling in games.A Mysterious Tea ShopIn Wanderstop, youll play as a former tournament fighter named Alta who has to put her troubled past aside to tend a charming shop and brew tea for its various customers. One would anticipate that after a lifetime of dedication, determination, and constant competition, Alta would welcome the opportunity to slow down. But Alta isnt quite like everyone else, and this golden opportunity for rest is something she wishes she could escape. Instead of fighting, Alta must spend time growing and harvesting the ingredients needed for tea and mixing them in an unusual tea-making contraption, speaking with the many travelers who pass through the shop, learning their stories, and making tea to match their unique requests.In your downtime, you might tidy up around the clearing, decorate the shop in your style, or just sit on a bench with a cup of tea and listen to your own thoughts. Maybe doing nothing at all is okay. The shop demands patience and rejects those who have come only in the pursuit of growth unchecked.Inspired by Personal ExperienceCreative Director Davey Wredens experience with burnout initially inspired the concept of Wanderstop, and as the team and project grew, each member brought their perspectives to the table. We also drew from the groundwork of many narrative and cozy games that have also explored challenging topics.In our release date announcement video, we had the opportunity to share a bit of Daveys journey. Years ago, he wrote and directed two games The Stanley Parable and The Beginners Guide and after finishing those games, he felt incredibly burnt out. In the hopes of bringing some balance to his life, and to inspire a healthier work/life balance, he started to explore making a cozy game. As he progressed, he discovered that playing cozy games can provide lots of relaxation making them still contain the stresses and challenges that all game development holds.Play VideoAfter collaborating with other members of the team, like co-founder and writer, Karla Zimonja, art director Temi Olujobi, and lead designer, Steve Margolin, the games central themes and questions evolved. Rather than simply creating a cozy experience, there was a tension that they began to explore. What happens when you have a protagonist who isnt excited about or willing to engage with a cozy world? The coziness, rather than simply being the solution to her inner turmoil, became a point of contention for our protagonist, Alta, and it also became an interesting design element for us as a team.We looked towards many of the games already out thatve explored these intersections of burnout, grief, fatigue, and healing, as well as previous research articles on topics like player motivation and the work on coziness from Project Horseshoe. Our hope was to continue expanding on the ways that these types of games provide spaces for players to reflect and address potentially challenging issues.Let Your Mind WanderIn Wanderstop, there are ample activities a player can do to pass the time. Let your interests guide you to the tasks that bring you the most fulfillment. Players who enjoy decorating can take their time arranging plants in the garden and around the shop, petting adorable pluffins, and finding trinkets scattered about the glade. Periodically, visitors will arrive, providing an opportunity for conversation. Talk with them, see whats on their minds, and perhaps take on a request to brew their favorite tea. Need a moment to yourself? Create your own cuppa, find a spot to sit, and take in the sights and sounds of the clearing. The music composed by C418 shifts dynamically based on your actions in-game and provides a relaxing soundtrack to reflect on.These verbs of Wanderstop brew, decorate, talk, sit, drink tea all support our goal for you: that you find your own sense of meaning and connection to this world and Altas journey when it comes to PS5 March 11, 2025.

Since the launch of PlayStation Tournaments on PS5, weve continued to bring together a community of competitive gamers and esports fans on PS5 to test their skills and compete at a regional and global level. In the spirit of celebrating our community, were excited to announce PlayStation Tournaments: XP, a new live studio event that invites the top competitive gamers globally on PS5 for a unique in-person team-based competition.Play VideoOn January 18, 2025, the first-ever PlayStation Tournaments: XP competition will be held live in London. Qualifying players from across the globe and the competitive gaming community on PS5 will represent teams Triangle, Circle, Cross, and Square to earn points during the competition and vie for the title of champion, in addition to winning exclusive prizes.Through online qualifiers via PlayStation Tournaments on PS5, players will have a chance to compete to earn their trip to London, while fans at home will be able to tune into the event live stream, watch all the action, and win prizes.How to qualify for PlayStation Tournaments: XPTo battle for a chance to compete in London, play in any PlayStation Tournaments: XP Open Qualifier on PS5. Open Qualifiers will start today for Tekken 8 and EA Sports FC 25. Open Qualifiers for Fortnite will start on December 6, and Astro Bot will start on December 13, 2024. See here for full details on the rules and times for each qualifier.Players who win an Open Qualifier will be invited to a regional online Closed Final. After winning a Closed Final, the player will then earn a spot to compete in the live PlayStation Tournaments: XP event and a ticket to London, including flights and lodging.Gear up for PlayStation Tournaments: XP in London on January 18, 2025When qualifying players arrive in London, theyll be seeded into one of the four teams (Triangle, Circle, Cross, and Square) and compete across several exciting live broadcast matches to earn points (called XP) for their team.Each team will feature a Team Captain and Specialists, which are a crew of community favorites who specialize in one of the four featured titles. These Team Captains and Specialists will represent, cheer on, and coach their team through the tournament. Well be unveiling the full roster of Team Captains and Specialists in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!After four rounds of competition and surprise mini-games, the top two teams will compete to become the first-ever Champions of PlayStation Tournaments: XP.Esports fans can tune into the PlayStation Tournaments: XP livestream on January 18 to cheer on a team and watch the event. On the PlayStation Twitch and YouTube channels, fans can watch the action in real time, from intense 1v1 matches to interviews with Team Captains. To follow along each teams progress, a Specialist from each team will be streaming their perspective, giving you an inside look at the action. Viewers will even be able to earn points for your team and win prizes through polls in chat.PlayStation Tournaments: XP is a celebration of the players, competitors, and fans who make our competitive community a great group to be a part of. Whether youre competing in London or cheering on from home, we cant wait for you to experience this new in-person competition. Stay tuned for the latest PlayStation Tournaments: XP details at compete.playstation.com.

Between the finale of Arcane, the new Teamfight Tactics set, and a new League of Legends season starting soon, its been a big couple of months for the world of Runeterra. And its getting even bigger. On Thursday, Riot announced League is jumping into the real world again, this time with a physical card game set in Runeterra, currently codenamed Project K.While Riots announcement video gets into some of the details of the game, Polygon had the chance to preview Project K ahead of the announcement and speak to game director Dave Gaskin about how the game came to be, the process of turning League into a card game, and when exactly players might actually be able to play Project K.As the video explains, the game is playable in the traditional 1v1 TCG format, but the team is even more excited by the fact that players can play it in groups of up to four as a free-for-all or, even better, in teams of two. The game features a recognizable TCG mana system, which grants players two Runes a turn, with each unit and spell costing a certain amount of Runes to put into play.Project K started its life just last year, making it a relatively quick turnaround by the studios standards, as one of Riots many R&D department projects. After the idea of a physical League of Legends trading card game cropped up, Gaskin says that he and his team developed the basic game engine just a few months later. From there, Gaskin says he began staffing up Project Ks team from Riots deep well of TCG enthusiasts. Gaskin particularly mentioned the excitement he was met with at both the Riot Los Angeles and Shanghai offices.When we started looking for playtesters both in Shanghai and here, the first thing was internal, Gaskin said. So I offered to Riot to host some learn-to-play sessions, thinking, Oh, 20, 25 people will play it. Instead, it was like 150 to 200 people said We want to learn, which is crazy.As for the development process itself, it all happened pretty rapidly, but still required some iteration. One early example of that is the games 2v2 setup, which Gaskin credits to the team wanting to match some of the team-based, fun multiplayer of League. The bigger player count also lends itself naturally to bigger gatherings and more real-life social experiences, which according to Gaskin was another important goal for the team, since Riot has no plans to make a digital version of Project K at this point.I feel if you want to find out if something is fun, doing it in a social environment is a good way to figure out if people like this or if actually this just got in the way of just having a good time with their friends, said Gaskin. Once we started playtesting 1v1, we were like, Oh, this is missing some of the magic of multiplayer. And not too long after that were like, Hey, lets try 2v2. And that was when we were like, Oh, OK, this is actually really fun. This is the way we want to play.Once they settled on having teams, however, that created another problem: In other TCGs, like Magic: The Gathering, each player has health and can get eliminated, but in a team game, that could easily leave one or two players stuck on the sidelines for much of the game. To help deal with that issue, the team settled on Project Ks Battlefields system of points, rather than a player health system. According to Gaskin, this also had the added benefit of making the game feel a little more like League of Legends, too.One of the things we really cared about when you play the champions from the MOBA or TFT is that it plays similarly to what you expect in a different context, Gaskin said. So when youre sending in three champions to take a Battlefield it kind of does feel like laning or like jungling. I think theres a lot of room for us to explore there, especially 2v2, we talked about it being kind of like duos and, Oh, which two champs do I want to put together?While Gaskins particularly fond of the games 2v2 setup, its still totally playable in more traditional 1v1s, too. In fact, thats how I experienced the game with Gaskin in my brief preview. Our game lasted about 20 minutes, which Gaskin said was pretty typical of a 1v1, but still felt like it had distinct stages that should be familiar to most TCG fans. I played a traditional ramp deck revolving around the League champion Volibear, and spent the early game defending as best I could while I set up more powerful combinations of spells and strong cards to play in the late game. Each of the decks in the game has to be built around a specific champion, but Gaskin explained the teams goal was to make each champion card feel thematically consistent with the champion, without feeling limited by mimicking the gameplay experience from the MOBA version of League.For instance, Gaskin gave the example of decks themed around champions like Darius and Viktor, who both focus on building armies to defeat their opponents. This isnt exactly true of their abilities in League of Legends, but it is thematically consistent with their in-game characters. Meanwhile, one of my Volibear cards had a more direct link to his abilities, granting him a shield that makes opponents spells harder to cast against him, like his E ability in League.As someone with moderate TCG experience, Project K felt fairly easy to pick up. As Gaskin put it, if Pokmon and Marvel Snap are on the simpler end of TCGs, and Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic are on the other end, the teams aim for Project K was to fall somewhere in the middle. That felt about right to me the mana system is easy to understand and dynamic in the late game, without taking attention away from your more interesting cards, while the champion cards each have intuitive and easy-to-understand effects that provided lots of options for synergy between them. Of course, its hard to get much more than a brief impression after just one game, and its both easy and exciting to imagine how adding two more players might complicate the game, based on what I played.Project K is set for release in China in early 2025, but when exactly players in North America might get their hands on it is a much more complicated question mostly because Riot hasnt found the right publishing partner yet.What were looking for is a partner who cares as much as we do about bringing a great game experience to players in the places where they play, which for a physical card game like this is mostly the hobby stores where people will learn the game, Gaskin explained. So for [Riot] theres certain capabilities we dont have around printing, distribution, sales, organized events. [] So its looking for a partner who cares just as much as we do about doing that, whos willing to put in the time and energy to do it.While Gaskin couldnt offer a firm timetable for when exactly the game might come to the United States, he did make it clear that the goal is to get it out as close to the Chinese release as possible. But, like most of Riots projects, he says its about doing it right, even if that means it takes a little longer. For now, Project K will be playable for attendees of Riots Teamfight Tactics invitational tournament in Macao later this month, and Gaskin hopes that the team will have more news to share with players soon.

The roadmap for Marvel Rivals details what to expect next from the ongoing competitive romp through Marvels multiverse.At the moment, the official Marvel Rivals roadmap is pretty light on details, though developer NetEase Games says the launch slate of heroes, maps, and modes is just the beginner of what you can expect.In this Marvel Rivals guide, well explain what we know about the Marvel Rivals roadmap as of season 0.Marvel Rivals roadmap as of season 0NetEase Games release a bit of a roadmap for their game posted a little less than a month from launch. This video mostly goes over whats coming to the game at launch and the story the game is building toward. (Dr. Doom and universal meddling, a classic combo.)However, there is a bit of information in there about whats coming to the game in the next few months. Most notably, Marvel Rivals season 1 will start in January 2025, and will set the template for future seasons.While NetEase wasnt specific about what new content wed be getting in season 1, potential seasonal content could include new maps, modes, heroes, and Team-Up abilities.Each of these seasons comes with a battle pass for you to purchase (which lasts forever, unlike many other in-game battle passes), which will be twice the size of the one in season 0. Season 0 will last about a month. Starting with season 1, all future seasons will last about three months.For more Marvel Rivals guides, heres a list of all maps and modes, plus a list of all Team-Up abilities.

As an alternative to concrete and other conventional composites, wood has re-emerged as a popular building material. Long thought of as too fragile and prone to damage, this natural resource has been re-engineered into a suite of fortified structural elements known as mass timber: glued, nailed doweled panels and beams able to shore-up everything from large residences to full-scale skyscrapers. The especially articulated roof of the recently expanded main terminal at Portland Airport (PDX) might be its most impressive application yet.Photo: Ema PeterNationwide architecture firm ZGF implemented glulam (glue laminated) Douglas Fir for this massive nine-acre canopy, not only as an innovative and sustainable solution but also as a nod to local ecology and deeply-rooted cultural traditions. Its a far cry from the standard glass and steel found at any other airport around the globe. The surrounding region is known for its dense old growth forests and thriving lumber trade. Most of the 3.5 million planks implemented in the project were sourced from smaller family operated and sustainably minded purveyors, as well as indigenous nations, based within a 300-mile radius; accounting for a notable reduction in the new buildings embodied carbon footprint.Photo: Ema PeterWith the new PDX, we wanted travelers to know they were in the Pacific Northwest before they even left the airport. And for locals, we wanted it to feel like home, says Vince Granato, Chief Projects Officer at the Port of Portland. Creating that sense of place started with ZGFs spectacular design, which was brought to life by thousands of local craftspeople.Photo: Ema PeterPhoto: Dror Baldinger FAIAPhoto: Dror Baldinger FAIAWhen it came to finding a way to expand this major hub in place rather than build entirely anew and cause significant distributions the scourge of many other recent airport renovations the Port of Portland authority called on ZGF to devise a phased construction strategy. Their solution was to create the expansive roof as a way of defining a significantly increased floor area without taking away from vital and well-utilized gates. This new single volume colossus also vastly ameliorates passenger experience; both in terms of practicality and atmosphere.Photo: Dror Baldinger FAIAThe curvilinear installation is defined by a forest of open lattice structure slats that give way to concave recesses, which allows an ample amount of natural light to filter through. Inside, passengers engage with a series of streetscape and parkland-like plazas and fully-enclosed concessions before reaching their gates in one of four concourses. Biophilic design cues the bringing of nature indoors as a means of fostering a better sense of well-being can be found throughout. Everything from the flooring to the finishing in the individual hospitality spaces was also sourced locally. The canopy anchors large glass walls that frame unobstructed tarmac views and even the forests in the distance.Photo: Dror Baldinger FAIAEverybody loves Portland International Airport, concludes Gene Sandoval, ZGF Partner. We had a tall order to evolve a terminal thats essentially multiple buildings pieced together since the 1950s and double the capacity while designing an experience passengers and employees will love as much as the original.Photo: Ema PeterPhoto: Dror Baldinger FAIAThe largest mass timber building of its kind, Portland Airports new main terminal raises the bar in site-responsive and sustainable airport design but also non-disruptive expansion. For the redevelopment of Chicago OHare Airport, noted architecture firm Studio Gang is taking a similar approach. The next phase of the PDX mass timber transportation is set for completion in 2026.Photo: Ema PeterPhoto: Ema PeterPhoto: Dror Baldinger FAIADrawing: Courtesy of ZGFDrawing: Courtesy of ZGFTo see this and other projects by the firm, visit zgf.com.Photography by Dror Baldinger FAIA and Ema Peter as noted.