In a new pre-launch community update stream, the development team for Monster Hunter Wilds outlined the changes and improvements coming to the title. Visual improvements were reported during the recent round of previews, but Capcom has outlined the graphical modes for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.On PS5 and Xbox Series X, Prioritize Graphics runs at 30 FPS while rendering at 30721728 resolution and outputting at 2160p. Meanwhile, Prioritize Framerate runs at 60 FPS while rendering at 1080p and outputting at 2160p. Xbox Series S only features a single mode, rendering and outputting at 1080p while running at 30 FPS.While the open beta featured Checkerboard Rendering, the game will use AMD FSR for upscaling. A rendering bug in Prioritize Framerate mode has also been fixed, improving performance. Furthermore, PS5 Pro support will be available with the day one patch at launch.For PC, Capcom is looking at lowering the minimum specifications and potentially releasing a benchmark tool before launch.Monster Hunter Wilds launches on February 28th, 2025, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Falcoms Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a remake of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC, will launch worldwide in Fall 2025. Instead of NIS America, GungHo Online Entertainment will handle publishing duties. Check out the latest trailer below, showcasing iconic environments, other playable characters, and combat.Along with fully 3D visuals in the developers proprietary engine, the remake features the combat system introduced in Trails through Daybreak. Players can attack enemies in real-time with Field Action, unleashing attacks and Crafts, or enter into turn-based Command Battles. It even includes team-up attacks introduced in Trails in the Sky SC.Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the first title in the series to launch simultaneously worldwide. Its confirmed that English and Japanese audio will be available alongside English, Japanese, German, and French subtitles. Stay tuned for further details on the remake in the new year.Of course, fans can also look forward to The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak 2, which launches on February 14th, 2025, for PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

It's been easy to forget that Helldivers 2 has still had an Illuminate invasion going on over the past couple of days, as everyone's been distracted by the pricing backlash against the game's Killzone crossover gear. But, the aliens are still doing their thing in-game, and the next step in their warpath could delay yopu getting your hands on a new ride.Remember the Omens of Tyranny update's announcement mentioning Helldivers 2's first driveable car, the Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle or FRV? Well, the baddies have it in their crosshairs, and players reckon they're aiming at something else too.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "The AM Defense Factory Hub on Achernar Secundus has come under attack by the Illuminate, threatening production of the Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle (FRV)," this latest Major Order from Arrowhead reads, "If the Illuminate are not repelled, distribution of the FRV will be severely delayed. Importantly, many colonists will also be killed or abducted."So, naturally, the folks on the Helldivers 2 subreddit and in the game itself were like 'oop, better get my bum over to Achernar Secundus', only to look at their maps and realise something. This new order's main battleground planet isn't far from Meridia, which long-time Helldivers will remember as the planet that got spaghettified into a purple black hole all the way back in June. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Now, in a fun coincidence, players have noticed that the black hole's apparance has recently been revamped alongside the deployment of that Killzone crossover, taking on a darker hue and gaining some extra floaty bits around it. Naturally the conclusion being reached is that the Illuminate will make a move for Meridia soon, maybe to do something like pull some fresh reinforcements through this hole.Given a lot of folks have spent the majority of this year since the hole became a thing believing that it could well be where the Illuminate would enter the game from, it doesn't seem like too big a leap in logic, but Arrowhead itself's not convinced yet.A recently released in-game alert from the studio issues folks with the following edict: "Some helldivers may have noticed novel electromagnetic phenomena in the vicinity of the Meridian Black Hole. High Command is aware of the situation, which is being closely monitored by experts in the field. "Helldivers are advised to avoid distractions and focus their full attention on replling the Illuminate threat."So, there you go. No thinking, leave that to the experts. I'm sure everything with Meridia will be just fine.At leasdt if anything does happen with the back hole soon, you'll have some gear from Helldivers 2's Killzone crossover on hand as you dive into the fray, after Arrowhead responded to the pricing controversy by gifting everyone the second part of it for free.

SmoothMonster Hunter Wilds' performance has been improved in the final game, and we may even get a second betaCapcom just revealed a bunch of new Monster Hunter Wilds details, and addressed several points of criticism from the recent open beta.Image credit: Capcom News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 20, 2024 Just before we all check out of 2024 and prepare for the new year, Capcom hosted one final community update to address pretty much all the major topics the recent beta of Monster Hunter Wilds generated.The livestream touched on a number of key topics, including some that have caused some controversies amongst the Monster Hunter community. It was full of good news, and even the promise of another chance with the beta.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Anyone who played the recent Monster Hunter Wilds beta, or even got to watch others play, will very clearly tell you that the game just didnt run very well on any system. Even high-end PCs struggled with constant framerate drops and lower than expected performance. The beta was clearly heavily CPU-bound, meaning even those lucky enough to own the most expensive GPUs couldnt brute-force their way into a smoother experience. Things were even worse on consoles, too.This was one of the first things game director Yuya Tokuda addressed on the livestream. We got to see a gameplay video from an updated build, which certainly looked smoother than the beta. According to Tokuda, the team fixed a rendering bug in the PS5s Prioritize Framerate mode that was responsible for some of the performance woes, and generally improved it elsewhere.The team also shared target framerates and resolutions for all console versions. Unsurprisingly, Prioritize Graphics modes run at a higher resolution but limit the framerate to 30fps, whereas Prioritize Framerate can go as high as 60fps by rendering at a lower resolution.All of this is good news for everyone. The even better news for PC players is that Capcom is considering releasing a benchmarking tool to help players understand how the game is going to run on their systems. The games minimum specs will also be lowered. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.One of the more heavily discussed issues with the open beta was the lack of a hitstop/impact of weapon attacks. The hitstop effect will return in the final version, and you can expect weapons to generally feel more weighty as a result. Sound effects have been improved there, too.Another controversial topic has been the degree of friendly fire, particularly when using upswing attacks of the hammer. That has been adjusted, and so has the gunlance's fire. Friendly fire will always be an element of combat in Monster Hunter, of course, but as Tokuda explained, its all about the balance.As for whether were going to get a chance to go hands-on with Wilds one last time prior to launch, Tokuda teased that we may potentially get a second open beta, but couldnt outright confirm it. Though it may have more content the first beta, dont expect many of the improvements discussed on the livestream to make it into that.Monster Hunter Wilds is out February 28 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kWatch on YouTube Vanillaware's tactical RPG Unicorn Overlord is one of the Switch highlights this year, and if you're hoping for more adventures in the form a sequel or even DLC, you might want to read on...Sadly, it won't be happening (at least right now). Speaking to GamesRadar+, the game's director Takafumi Noma says he's aware of how many players have "expressed a wish" for this type of content, but there are "currently no plans" for further development.If there was an opportunity to make this happen in the future though (and it was up to him), he would love to see it happen:Takafumi Noma: "We are profoundly grateful for the sheer number of players who have embraced our vision for a new strategy RPG. Many of these players have expressed a wish for DLC or a sequel to the game. While there are currently no plans for further development of this nature, I definitely wouldn't say no if it were up to me. It would be great if we could make this happen sometime down the line."So, there you go - maybe "something down the line" will be announced. Until then, you'll just have to keep enjoying the current release.When Unicorn Overlord landed on the Switch in March of this year, we gave it an "excellent" nine out of ten stars - labelling it a "crowning tactical RPG achievement". My kingdom for a unicorn"A unicorn is worth more than riches"Celebrating one million salesWould you be up for a sequel or DLC if it was a possibility? Tell us in the comments.[source gamesradar.com]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related Articles'Hyperdimension Neptunia' & 'Death End' Switch Releases Scrapped For "Not Complying With Nintendo Guidelines"Death end re;Quest: Code Z still on for PS5/4, though'Switch 2' Is Projected To Be The "Clear Winner" In The Next Console GenerationWhile either Sony or Microsoft will "struggle mightily"

Mario's Wii adventure is back.Modders are always evolving games in new ways and the latest effort is touted as the "biggest" Super Mario Odyssey mod yet.If you haven't already seen it, it's called Super Mario Odyssey - A Galaxy Story and is a "mod by Slycer and many more". It brings the universe of Super Mario Galaxy to Mario's 2017 Switch release, completely recreating the Wii-era outing on Odyssey's game engine.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

@Freek HiAllow me to do exactly the opposite.I ordered a fair amount of games. Around 12 orders. So I can say I pretty much know their businessTheir graphic designer(s) is top notch. Manufacture quality is bad.signed NMH 3 for Switch quality is bad. Poorly made. Outer box had manufacture issues. Replaced it and shipped a copy with similar issues. Windjammers had a similar issue.Their site still crashes.communication is not great.Their shipping is crazy expensive (and I live in FR)Their products are beautiful. Everything else is average to bad.About this release...for Switch, same version as the one previously released, just a different cover. However, this time, 15 bucks more expensive for the same dealThe price for this special release was never communicated until the actual release You had seconds to find out what the price was and make your decision.Regarding the lovely PS4 box, they limited that to 50 I believe. For the customers that already own all 4 ps4 releases, they could have sold the box separately. But no.They basically made ONLY 50 big nice boxes, 4 different covers and everything else was the same, sold at 450 bucks. You find out what the price was when they opened preorders, not before. You had 5 seconds to decide. Just the KoF. celebration fans wanted, right?Not even LRG tried something this pathetic and manipulative. I don't even own a ps4, don't need to be a KoF fan and PS4 owner to find this FOMO attempt abhorrent. Greed, through FOMO is killing the physical gaming industry.

Uzbekistans mobile-exclusive bank, TBC Bank Uzbekistan, has raised $37 million in a new funding round to bolster its dominating digital presence in the Central Asian nation by developing new AI and tech products and attracting more tech-savvy customers.The fresh investment, made by the banks London-based parent TBC Group, comes just five months after it raised $38.5 million in July. The parent company also led the last round, which included participation from its shareholders, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Banks International Finance Corporation (IFC). Uzbekistan has been an attractive market for digital businesses in recent years, with nearly 90% internet penetration and a young population 60% of its total population is under 30, per UNICEF. However, a significant share of the countrys banking assets remains with its state banks. TBC Group sees this as a growth opportunity.Started in 2020 under TBC Group Uzbekistan, the bank offers a mobile app through which customers can open bank accounts and access banking services, including cash loans and deposits.The Uzbekistan group, which is 60% owned by Londons TBC Group and 20% each by IFC and EBRD, recently expanded its financial lineup in the country with its in-house processing center to streamline payment operations and shorten time-to-market for new offerings, and entered strategic partnerships with Visa and Mastercard. Further, it introduced the Salom debit card and Osmon credit card and launched TBC Business, a digital banking service for small and medium Uzbek enterprises.In the last few months, TBC Uzbekistan also started building its proprietary AI solutions, including agents to handle payment reminder calls for customers taking loans. Hughes told TechCrunch that those agents attended 42% of all the reminder calls in the third quarter.Next year, TBC Uzbekistan plans to expand its AI developments by bringing service and sales bots and a dialog-based mobile service to let customers interact with its app using their voice instead of going through a text-based interface.Were going deeper into the financial life of retail customers across Uzbekistan. So were building out vertical by vertical into different products, Oliver Hughes, head of international business at TBC Group, said in an exclusive interview.Hughes told TechCrunch that the group hired AI experts who built AI assistant Alice for Russias Yandex. These experts have built a finance-specific LLM based on Metas Llama that understands local nuances and local languages, including Uzbek, the executive said.While Hughes did not disclose the exact capital the group is specifically putting into its AI effort, he said that a material portion of the money raised will be going to the AI projects, but still, the overwhelming majority will be for building and scaling its business and consumer products.One of them will be insurance.TBC Uzbekistan currently offers insurance through a third-party service provider, but it plans to become an insurer in the country next year. It also plans a buy-now-pay-later solution and an SME lending product. Similarly, the mobile bank will enhance its Salom debit card with new benefits and offerings to attract more customers.Uzbekistan has not yet been a highly competitive market for a banking entity. However, the countrys growing digital base and young population have drawn interest from foreign players. Hungrys OTP Bank and South Koreas Korea Development Bank have already set up their shops in the country. Similarly, Frances Socit Gnrale, Kazakhstans Kaspi, and the U.S.s Citi Bank are exploring to enter the country.Its not super competitive today, but it will certainly become more and more competitive as we could go along over the next few years, Hughes said.TBC Uzbekistan, which also operates the digital payments app Payme and Sharia-compliant credit business Payme Nasiya, has a user base of 16.9 million users as of September, up from 13.2 million users in December 2023. It also has 4.9 million monthly active users and garnered a net profit of $27 million for the first nine monthsm of the year, up from $23 million in the financial year 2023. Moreover, its projecting $75 million in net profit in 2025.

AI creates a dilemma for companies: Dont implement it yet, and you might miss out on productivity gains and other potential benefits; but do it wrong, and you might expose your business and clients to unmitigated risks. This is where a new wave of security for AI startups come in, with the premise that these threats, such as jailbreak and prompt injection, cant be ignored.Like Israeli startup Noma and U.S.-based competitors Hidden Layer and Protect AI, British university spinoff Mindgard is one of these. AI is still software, so all the cyber risks that you probably heard about also apply to AI, said its CEO and CTO, Professor Peter Garraghan (on the right in the image above). But, if you look at the opaque nature and intrinsically random behavior of neural networks and systems, he added, this also justifies a new approach.In Mindgards case, said approach is a Dynamic Application Security Testing for AI (DAST-AI) targeting vulnerabilities that can only be detected during runtime. This involves continuous and automated red teaming, a way to simulate attacks based on Mindgards threat library. For instance, it can test the robustness of image classifiers against adversarial inputs.On that front and beyond, Mindgards technology owes to Garraghans background as a professor and researcher focused on AI security. The field is fast evolving ChatGPT didnt exist when he entered it, but he sensed that NLP and image models could face new threats, he told TechCrunch.Since then, what sounded future-looking has become reality within a fast-growing sector, but LLMs keep changing, as do threats. Garraghan thinks his ongoing ties to Lancaster University can help the company keep up: Mindgard will automatically own the IP to the work of 18 additional doctorate researchers for the next few years. Theres no company in the world that gets a deal like this.While it has ties to research, Mindgard is very much a commercial product already, and more precisely, a SaaS platform, with co-founder Steve Street leading the charge as COO and CRO. (An early co-founder, Neeraj Suri, who was involved on the research side, is no longer with the company.)Enterprises are a natural client for Mindgard, as are traditional red teamers and pen testers, but the company also works with AI startups that need to show their customers they do AI risk prevention, Garraghan said.Since many of these prospective clients are U.S.-based, the company added some American flavor to its cap table. After raising a 3 million seed round in 2023, Mindgard is now announcing a new $8 million round led by Boston-based .406 Ventures, with participation from Atlantic Bridge, WillowTree Investments, and existing investors IQ Capital and Lakestar.The funding will help with building the team, product development, R&D, and all the things you might expect from a startup, but also expand into the U.S. Its recently appointed VP of marketing, former Next DLP CMO Fergal Glynn, is based in Boston. However, the company also plans to keep R&D and engineering in London.With a headcount of 15, Mindgards team is relatively small, and will remain so, with plans to reach 20 to 25 people by the end of next year. Thats because AI security is not even in its heyday yet. But when AI starts getting deployed everywhere, and security threats follow suit, Mindgard will be ready. Says Garraghan: We built this company to do positive good for the world, and the positive good here is people can trust and use AI safely and securely.

Robin Capital the Germany-based, Solo GP-led VC fund by former entrepreneur Robin Haak has hit its final close of Robin Fund One at 13 million. Combined with its additional growth-focused investment vehicle of 2m, the fund now has a total of 15 million to play with. In the realm of European Solo GPs, who typically raise a lot less than their US equivalents, this is a decent figure.Launched in 2023, Robin Capital is aimed at European B2B mid-market enterprise SaaS startups, focusing on the DACH region, at the Pre-Seed and Seed stages. Its deployed across sectors such as HR, AI, Fintech, Climate, DevOps, Robotics, and Industrial Tech.Some 28 companies are now in the portfolio, and half of the fund has already been deployed into companies such as Kombo Dev (Germany) and Phacet Labs (France).Robin was founded in December 2022 by Haak, a former co-founder of Jobspotting (acquired by SmartRecruiters Inc. out of San Francisco in 2017), who put the first check into German neo-bank N26.Haaks fund has 70 Limited Partners, and includes GPs from Private Equity and Venture Capital firms, as well as founders and operators.He has also managed to rope in some venture partners including Renaud Visage, former CTO of Eventbrite and current founder of Slate.VC; Jerome Ternynck, founder of SmartRecruiters and the Rypples VC; and Lea Vajnorsky, co-founder of Wo\men Inc.Speaking to TechCrunch, Haak said it had been quite a difficult environment to raise the fund in.These one and a half years were probably the toughest times in venture, in history, due to the macroeconomics. I dont have institutions in the fund, I dont even have the EIF.However, he thinks the advantage has been having a wide network to draw on: The LP base I have today are 70 people, and all of them are professionals The good part now is its an amazing value-add community.Robin Capital joins the movement of other Solo GPs in Europe, many of whom have previously held roles as fund partner, entrepreneur, startup operator, or content creator (read: podcaster).While Solo GPs can sometimes make faster decisions compared to full-blown, multi-partner funds, they typically operate more like Angels on steroids. But it can also mean faster access to their network, expertise, and audience, especially in the case of creators who have developed a personal brand.Hypernova, a $25 million fund of fund soft-launched in 2022 to invest in Solo GPs in Europe. TechCrunch has identified 28 Solo GP VCs launched in Europe over the last couple of years, although one or two (like 20VC and Unruly Capital) are now large enough to have brought in other partners, and are slowly exiting the Solo phase:14Peaks CapitalGP: Edoardo Ermotti20VCGP: Harry StebbingsAir Street CapitalGP: Nathan BenaichAmino CollectiveGP: Manuel GrossmanAnamcaraGP: Annelie AjamiBackfuture VenturesGP: Alex TheumaBooomGP: Felix PlappererChalfen VenturesGP: Mike ChalfenCocoaGP: Carmen Alfonso RicoCommon Magic:GP: Sarah DrinkwaterDay One VenturesGP: Masha BucherEntropyGP: Sam CashFiredropGP: Pietro InvernizziForewordGP: Declan KellyHelloworldGP: Rodrigo MartinezInflectionGP: Alexander LangeLemonade StandGP: Siim TellerMonte Carlo CapitalGP: Ian SossoNomad CapitalGP: Marc McCabeNo Label VenturesGP: Ramzi RafihNP-Hard VenturesGP:Anke HuiskesNebularGP: Finn MurphyOpenseedVCGP: Maria RotiluPuzzle VenturesGP: Gloria BaeuerleinSystem.OneGP: Max ClaussenThe Nordic WebGP: Neil MurrayUnderline VenturesGP: Bogdan IordacheUnruly CapitalGP: Stefano Bernardi