Frame Breaks Lightyear Frontier had a strong launch into early access this year alongside some new updates, but what does the future hold? For starters, a larger open world. In a new Steam Community post, the developer said this would allow more farming space and the team to explore bigger experimental features and changes together with you.Its also polishing the feel of ones Farmech, making it heavier without affecting the speed. By utilizing visual and sound effects, the developer wants to emphasize the mechs size, making it feel much more powerful. Then theres the prospect of building your own farmhouse, decorating its interiors and the outside. Its under investigation, but initial results look promising.Frame Break will return with more in January, so stay tuned for further updates. Lightyear Frontier is currently available for PC via Steam Early Access it had 700,000 players in its launch week. Check out our review when it first entered early access we gave it a seven out of 10 for its visuals, progression, and relaxing atmosphere.

Nintendo has released a new video for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, its enhanced port of the 2010 Wii platformer. Its a remade version of the intro, which sees the Tiki Tak Tribe emerging and immediately brainwashing the jungles animals into stealing all the Kongs bananas. Check it out below.While various creatures do their bidding, the song and dance routine doesnt work on Donkey Kong, who sets out with Diddy Kong to recover his hoard. Alongside improved, higher-resolution textures, the intro is much snappier than the original, getting players to the action faster.Donkey Kong Country Returns HD launches for Nintendo Switch on January 16th, 2025. Check out the overview trailer here, which outlines the gameplay loop and features from the Nintendo 3DS port, like Modern Mode. Compared to the difficulty of Classic Mode, it offers more Hearts and benefits like Crash Guard to prevent damage from a few Mine Cart collisions.

The year has seen many bizarre titles, big and small, and Bokeh Game Studios Slitterhead undoubtedly ranks among them. If you ever wanted to take the plunge, a free demo is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.The demo includes the first chapter and save data transfers to the game. For those who enjoy the demo and want more, Slitterhead is discounted on the PlayStation Store, Steam and Epic Games Store thanks to ongoing Holiday sales, retailing for $34.99. Unfortunately, since theres no sale for Xbox, Series X/S players will have to settle for full price.Directed by Keiichiro Toyama, who created horror classics like Silent Hill and Siren, Slitterhead is about Hyoki, who roams the streets of Kowlong in pursuit of the Slitterheads. Though lacking a form, he can possess humans known as Rarities and use their unique abilities to fight back. Check out our review of the game here.Slitterhead Demo & Holiday Sale now available!!!DEMOSlitterhead Demo is available on all platforms now!Play the first chapter including tutorial and your save data will carry over to the full version if you purchase it.HOLIDAY SALEHoliday sale is now live pic.twitter.com/QiowvRaqLn Bokeh Game Studio (@BokehGameStudio) December 20, 2024

Another year has come and gone and were rounding up the top 10 most read news posts of the year.From the many updates on the beloved Ontario Science Centre and Ontario Place to a review of the Well in Toronto, here are the top most-visited news posts of 2024 in order.Removal of trees in progress at Ontario Place on October 3, 2024, around 5 pm. Photo by Jason Ash10. Amid 865 trees coming down, Province releases 95-year lease with ThermeThe highly contested redevelopment of Ontario Place, a waterfront property in downtown Toronto, came to a head this fall with the abrupt demolition of the trees and structures in a large part of the property. The workwhich included the removal of every single tree on the western portion of the waterfront siteis part of the approximately $200-million in work that taxpayers are funding to prepare the land for Therme, an Austrian spa company, to develop a stadium-sized indoor waterpark on the site.The 7.7-acre site formerly housed The Globe and Mails facility, and is located in the midst of the densifying King West area. To the south, it adjoins the future Rail Deck District, a five-tower complex that is being planned to cantilever over the VIA and GO train corridor.9. The Well, Toronto, Ontario: Review by John LorincThe Well, a much anticipated and heavily publicized collaboration between RioCan and Allied Properties REIT, opened in Toronto this year. Several design firms were involved in the project, including Hariri Pontarini Architects, Urban Strategies, CCxA, BDP, architectsAlliance, Wallman Architects, and Adamson Associates. Journalist John Lorinc reviewed the complex, and explains its significance for Toronto urbanism.Ontario Science Centre. Photo by Amanda Large8. Cost of Ontario Science Centre temporary location exceeds cost of roof repairsOn June 24, 2024, Infrastructure Ontario put out an RFP for a commercial/retail space to house a temporary Science Centre until its planned new facility at Ontario Place is complete. Canadian Architect editor Elsa Lam noted that the temporary location, which would not be open until 2026, would put the Science Centre in a location that was significantly smallerand likely much more remotethan its current site. She also analyzes how the cost of the temporary location would exceed the cost of making necessary repairs to the existing Moriyama-design Science Centre.Courtesy the Future of Ontario Place Project Cinesphere pods and lagoon from the west7. Ontario Place project at risk as Canada ignores engagement requirements with Indigenous PeoplesA release issued by the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) stated that it believes that the Federal government has failed to meet Indigenous engagement obligations for the Ontario Place project on Torontos waterfront. The release noted that if the Government of Canada fails to fulfill its responsibility to engage and collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, the multi-billion-dollar Ontario Place development project could face significant delays.Construction fences were erected on Friday, June 21 around the perimeter of the Ontario Science Centre, following a provincial announcement of the Centres immediate and indefinite closure. Photo by Elsa Lam6. Ontario Science Centre doesnt require full closure: A close reading of the engineers reportJust after the Ontario Science Centre was abruptly closed, Canadian Architect editor Elsa Lam released a deep dive into Rimkus engineers roof report, which was used to justify the closure. Her analysis suggests that the buildings key exhibition areas could continue to operate safelyeven if the Ontario government choose not to invest in any structural roof repairs by the fall.Credit: Henry Saxon Snell Fonds, John Bland Canadian Architecture Collection, McGill University Library5. McGill University researchers say modern temperature control and ventilation design could be transformed with historic techniqueResearchers from McGill University say that by revamping a forgotten heat recovery technique used in the design of Montreals Royal Victoria Hospital, modern temperature control and ventilation design could be transformed.The current Ontario Science Centre on Don Mills Road, in Toronto. Photo by BuBZ at English Wikipedia Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30565824. TSA issues open letter on Ontario Science Centre closureOn June 21, 2024, the provincial government announced that the Ontario Science Centres landmark 1969 building, by Japanese-Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama, would be closed immediately, for an indefinite period of time. Organizations including Canadian Architect, ACO, and the TSA rallied quickly to voice their opposition to the closure.The Ontario Science Centre. Photo by James Brittain, Courtesy Moriyama Teshima Architects3. The true cost of repairing the Ontario Science Centre is much, much less than what Infrastructure Ontario has been sayingand the proof is in its own documentsTwo figures have been cited by the Ontario Government: $478 million and $369 million. The actual number is much lessaround $200 million, or just $24 million for tackling priority repairs to keep the museum open for several years to come, writes Elsa Lam.A pedestrian bridge linking the front building to the main exhibitions has been closed since June 2022. Photo by James Brittain, courtesy Moriyama Teshima Architects2. As Province edges towards demolition of Science Centre, documents point to a manufactured crisisThe documents issued by the government on July 11 point to known issues and minor problems that can be easily resolved, providing further evidence of a manufactured crisis surrounding the closure.Photo credit: Steven Evans1. Provincial government agrees to pause demolition at Ontario PlaceOn July 10, 2024, the Ontario government agreed to halt demolition pending the results of Ontario Place Protectors (OPP)s challenge to the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act on July 19. Unfortunately, after the groups challenge was unsuccessful, demolition continued. OPP has appealed the ruling.The post Canadian Architects most read news posts of 2024 appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Photographs selected by Allison Scates Text by Tracy Scott ForsonJolly Old Elf. Chris Kringle. Santa Claus. He has many names, but one timeless mission: providing toys to good boys and girls of the world. Once a year, he boards his sleigh to take to the sky with his flying reindeer, and that day, December 25, is drawing near. Children write letters, visit local malls and spread the word to their parentswho then relay the messages the Santaabout what they want under the tree.Some call it the most wonderful time of the year. These 15 images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest help convey why. Take a look. When its not the holiday season, Santa Claus, and his many impersonators, can be found living life among the public, checking whos naughty and whos nice. Benjamin Albright, North Carolina, 2022 Santa Claus observes his sleigh from afar, likely wondering why a single horse has replaced his reindeer. Irina Omelkovich, Russia, 2018 The jolly old elf isnt always ho-ho-ho-ing. Sometimes hes sitting quietly waiting for the next child to approach with a wish list. Eduarda Cota, Brazil, 2020 North Pole resident Santa Claus is usually associated with cold weather, but hes just as popular in warm climates where cacti grow as he is among the polar bears. Claudia Henze, Bonaire, 2017 Its no wonder that Mr. Claus enjoys a good Coca-Cola, a brand credited with creating an iconic likeness of him thats spanned generations. Amber Parker, Tennessee, 2008 The annual SantaCon events welcome thousands of elf enthusiasts to Portland, New York City, Las Vegas and other cities worldwide to help ring in the holiday. Erin McCown, Oregon, 2008 Mr. and Mrs. Claus arent exactly incognito as they observe churchgoers whom they might be able to add to the nice list. Doug Ross, Indiana, 2021 Sleighs arent Santas only mode of transportation. Here, he boards a holiday train to visit young passengers. Jessica Helgesen, Colorado, 2019 Who needs mistletoe? Miniature Santa and his wife share a smooch near a finely decorated Christmas tree. Michelle Hass, Idaho, 2018 A photo of Santa Claus hangs over the fireplace in a room that hes obviously visited, leaving toys and gifts. Jennetta Hill, Georgia, 2017 In a spin on the Nativity story, Santa Claus stands over the manger with the Virgin Mary looking on nearby. Natasha Snyder, Texas, 2019 A patriotic Santa Claus impersonator needs a bit more weight to adequately mimic St. Nicks physique. Ian Wuilleumier, Massachusetts, 2009 Santa Claus is ready and waiting to hear what you want this Christmasjust make sure its small enough to fit down a chimney. Kimberly Draughn, Louisiana, 2021Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

This year, Smithsonian magazine published more than 900 science stories. Most of those appeared in ourSmart News Science section, but we also published more than 100features, in addition to reprinting stellar pieces from other sites and sharing theoccasional book excerpt. Our stories included a feature on the discovery ofthe worlds oldest scrap of skin, an interview with a computer scientist and meteorologist onusing artificial intelligence to predict extreme weather, a photo gallery ofstunning images captured by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory over its 25-year history, several pieces on viral animals includingFlaco the owl andMoo Deng the hippo, a feature onscientists examining the rocks from the asteroid Bennu, and a news article examining a51,200-year-old cave painting that may be the earliest known instance of visual storytelling. Though these pieces were important and captivatingand many could have made our list of the top ten moments of the yearfor various reasons, other stories won out.Though we considered metrics like page views and readers time spent reading each article, we mostly picked our top ten the old-fashioned way. As the sites two science editors, we both met several times over the latter part of the year and discussed at length what to include. We were looking not only at events or discoveries that represented the biggest scientific milestones, but also at those moments or finds that inspired the most awe. And we wanted stories that represented a diversity of fieldsastronomy, climatology, geology, meteorology, biology and archaeology all made it into our final list.In the end, we picked ten stories that covered the scope of topics we published on throughout the year, often catered to subjects our readers like to spend time with. Leaving some significant events and amazing discoveries out is always difficult, but we think we ended up with a diverse collection of memorable stories that highlight what an important year 2024 was for science.A total solar eclipse wowed North American viewers People gather at Green-Wood Cemetery in New York City to witness a partial solar eclipse. Michael Nigro / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty ImagesOn April 8,tens of millions of North Americans donned funky glasses and looked skyward at a total solar eclipse.Such a rare and spectacular celestial event occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earthand our beloved satellite casts a shadow over a patch beneath it, creating darkness during the day. Over the course ofan hour and 40 minutes, this years path of totalitythe area marked by total darknessstretched from Mazatln, Mexico, to Newfoundland, Canada.An estimated 32 million people resided in the path, andanother 12 million people were expected to travel to the area, defining the moment asone of the biggest mass-transit events to ever occur in the United States. Throughout world history,ancient civilizations that witnessed solar eclipses thought them to be anything from a message from the gods to a signal to end a battle. This year, amateur astronomers, knowing what to expect, pointed high-end cameras at the moon and sun to capturestunning images, whilecitizen scientists noted unusual animal behavior around them.Unless North American residents travel beyond the lower 48, they will not have another opportunity to view a total solar eclipseuntil 2044, making this years occurrence even more special. In all,a couple hundred million people had the ability to see at least a partial eclipse. In Washington, D.C., while viewing a partial eclipse, National Air and Space Museum curator Teasel Muir-Harmony noted the importance of the occasion. This, she told the Associated Press, may be the most viewed astronomical event in history. Joe SpringScientists unveiled the first-ever complete map of an adult fruit flys brain Researchers mapped all 139,255 neurons in the brain of an adult fruit fly, which are linked by more than 50 million synapses. Tyler Sloan for FlyWire, Princeton University, (Dorkenwald, S. et al. Nature 634, 124138 (2024))The brain of a fruit fly is no larger than a poppy seed, but to chart the intricacies of its cells took a historic collaboration, leveraging hundreds of volunteers, an artificial intelligence model and thousands of painstakingly imaged brain slices. In October, that effort came to fruition when researchers unveiled a nine-paper package published in Nature that described the first-ever full map of an adult fruit flys brain.The stunning diagram contains roughly 140,000 neuronsincluding 8,453 different types of neuronsand more than 54.5 million connections among them, known as synapses. The findings represent the most complex map of a complete brain to date.By following the connections throughout the insects brain, scientists are even beginning to parse which parts of the organ have certain functions. They created a computerized version of the model brain and simulated exposing it to various stimuli. It reacted just as a fly wouldwhen presented with a sugary scent, the model activated the brain region for sticking out its proboscis.But that wasnt the only leap forward in brain mapping this yearin May, scientists released a data set charting the neurons, synapses and connections in a tiny piece of a human brain. The study, published in Science, details the complexity packed into a little slice of an anterior temporal lobe, thought to be involved in memory. The team mapped 57,000 cells and 150 million synapses, demonstrating the dense connections among them.Though it might not seem like it, the human brain has a lot in common with that of a fruit fly. Some 75 percent of the genes that cause genetic diseases in humans are also found in fruit flies, so understanding their neural underpinnings could shed light on our own. Fruit flies sing, get drunk and can be kept awake with caffeine, suggesting even more similarities between their brains and ours. As Sebastian Seung, a co-senior author of the research, told the Guardians Ian Sample, if we can truly understand how any brain functions, its bound to tell us something about all brains. Carlyn Kranking2024 marked the hottest year on record Boys bathe at a public water facility along a street on a hot June day during a heat wave in Jalandhar, India. Shammi Mehra / AFP via Getty ImagesOnce again, were ending a year that is set to be the hottest on record. According to leading weather and climate organizations,2024 is on track to eclipse 2023 for the warmest temperatures since records have been kept. Just about any time readers looked onlineApril, June,Augustheadlines noted the hottest given month of its kind in history. In fact, from June 2023 to September 202416 consecutive monthsthe global average temperature exceeded previous records for each month, according to the World Meteorological Organization. In all, 2024 is expected to be the first yearEarth is more than 1.5 Celsius hotter than the pre-industrial period. That one-year record does not mean the world has breached the Paris Agreement goal to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 Celsius, as such a markhas to be sustained over a longer period. But the past decade has been the warmest on record, and experts say this years highsignals a dangerous milestone.Global warming continues to accelerate,caused primarily by the burning of oil, gas and coal, which release heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased bymore than 50 percent since 1750, and they are set for a new record again this year. As they increase,glaciers recede, the ocean grows hotter, sea level rises, andthe most extreme weather disasters are made worse.The record-breaking rainfall and flooding, rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones, deadly heat, relentless drought, and raging wildfires that we have seen in different parts of the world this year are unfortunately our new reality and a foretaste of our future,Celeste Saulo, the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, said in a statement. We urgently need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen our monitoring and understanding of our changing climate. J.S.Dams were torn down on the Klamath River, clearing a path for salmon The Klamath River flows through Wards Canyonupstream from where the Copco No. 1 dam once stood. Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesSalmon returned to Oregons Klamath Basin for the first time in 112 years in October, aided by a historic dam demolition project. Four dams were torn downthe largest undertaking of its kind in U.S. historyto restore the Klamath River in California and Oregon to its historic flow.The $500 million effort removed aging dams that had been constructed in the 20th century, some having stood for more than 100 years. After the smallest dam, Copco No. 2, was taken down in fall 2023, the remaining three were deconstructed this year, beginning in January. The gates of each dam, in turn, were opened slowly, giving passage to the water that had built up behind them. Then, crews removed the remaining aging infrastructure.Decades of advocacy by local Native American tribes and environmentalists helped lead to the projects approval in November 2022. These pleas were centered on restoring the health of the river and once again providing salmon with an unobstructed migration path upstream to their birth waters, where they return to spawn as adults.Since the dams have been taken out, experts reported fewer algal blooms and that the water temperature was 14 degrees Fahrenheit cooler, conditions that help prevent some bacterial infections in salmon. Toz Soto, fisheries program manager with the Karuk tribe, said at a press conference that the fish coming up the river were really healthy. Others echoed that sentiment: Karuk tribe member Ron Reed told the Los Angeles Times Ian James that the salmon have been so much more beautiful this year. C.K.Two hurricanes destroyed parts of the Southeast Community members look through debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Marshall, North Carolina. Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty ImagesThe 2024 Atlantic hurricane season started off this summer with the stormsBeryl,Debby andFrancine, but the season really walloped the U.S. in the fall, when two powerful back-to-back hurricanes devastated the Southeast.Hurricane Helene hit Florida as a Category 4 storm on September 26, then moved north over the Southeast U.S. andcaused wreckage across the region, especially in western North Carolina. The storm spurred landslides,destroyed wildlife habitat, knocked out power to millions of people and flooded towns. More than 200 people across six states died due to the storm, making it thedeadliest hurricane since Katrina. Not long after that,on October 9 and 10,Hurricane Milton whirled across Florida, spawning tornadoes and leaving rubble andat least 24 people dead in its wake.Both hurricanes hadcharacteristics consistent with climate changes impact on storms. With warmer temperatures, storms are intensifying more rapidly.Helene grew disturbingly fast and Hurricane Milton even more so, morphing from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricanewith winds of 180 miles per hour in a day. Scientists also found the rain from Hurricane Helenewas 10 percent heavier as a result of climate change. In addition to those impacts, and the fact that hurricanes are increasingly moving slower, warming ocean waters due to climate changewill give future hurricanes a greater range. J.S.An ambitious space mission launched to search for signs of life on a moon An artists drawing of the Europa Clipper spacecraft NASA / JPL-CaltechAs skies cleared over Florida after Hurricane Milton passed over the state, a rocket carrying NASAs Europa Clipperblasted off on October 14. The interplanetary spacecraft successfully started its mission toward Europa, the fourth-largest moon ofJupiter, the eldest and most enormous planet in our solar system. While many of the planets biggest moons are geologically active, NASA targeted Europa because it has a subsurface ocean thatmay harbor life.Scientists sent NASAs largest spacecraft ever launched to another planet not to detect life itself, but to see if the moon has conditions that can support life. The Clipper is equipped with spectrometers, a dust analyzer, a thermal camera, instruments for measuring a magnetic field and gravity, and a radar. The crafts tools will help it find hot spots of activity, search for organic compounds and understand details about the ocean. Any discoveries that result from the trip could help scientists target a future effort to the surface that would search for signs of life.The missions goals are just to assess the habitability,Tracy Becker, a planetary scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio toldSmithsonian magazine. Its the first step in that sort of long-term discovery of: Are we aloneJ.S.Archaeologists find that mammoth was on the menu for Ice Age Americans In an illustration, the Anzick-1 infant is shown with his mother eating mammoth meat as other Clovis individuals butcher a mammoth. Artist Eric Carlson created the scene in collaboration with archaeologists Ben Potter (UAF) and Jim Chatters (McMaster University)The diets of the Clovis people, who crossed the Bering Strait from Asia into Ice Age North America, have been an enduring mystery. Though archaeologists have uncovered indirect signs of the cultures habitsstone points for hunting and animal bonesdrawing conclusions from that assemblage relied on a lot of assumptions. But in a study published this December in Science Advances, archaeologists looked for an answer using direct evidence: the 13,000-year-old remains of the only known Clovis individual, an 18-month-old boy known as Anzick-1.Scientists examined the infants bones, conducting tests known as stable isotope analysis. In this method, they studied atoms of an element with varying weights, which can act as a record of what an organism ate and drank. Being a baby, Anzick-1 primarily drank his mothers milk, but one-third of his diet was composed of solid foodsand chief among them was woolly mammoth.The team also reconstructed what was on his mothers menu, based on the remnants of her milk in his bones. Mammoths made up 40 percent of what she ate, supplemented by elk, bison and, in rarer cases, small mammals such as rodents.If the Clovis people were hunting mammoths, it would align with evidence that they migrated, perhaps driven by the mammals seasonal movements. But at the end of the Ice Age, mammoth populations had dwindled and fragmented. The authors add that its possible the natural environmental changes put stress on the mammothsand hunting pressure from humans eventually drove them to extinction. But other researchers are less ready to jump to those continent-wide conclusions based only on evidence from one individual and his mother. The only way to verify this finding, researchers say, is to get more dataso archaeologists will need to discover more human remains from the Clovis culture. C.K.Iceland erupted again and again Lava flows from the Sundhnukur volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula near Grindavik, Iceland. John Moore / Getty ImagesThe rumblings that alarmed officials near the town of Grindavik, Iceland,began last October. After earthquakes suggested a possible volcanic eruption, the town was evacuated.In December, lava poured out of the earth. But the eruptions really got going this year. Molten rock spewed out in January,February,March,May,August and Novemberseven eruptions in just one years time.Grindaviks residents grew used to evacuations in a country that is no stranger to volcanoes. Iceland experiencesat least one eruption every five years or so. There, the mid-ocean ridge rises above the ocean andmolten rock from the deep rises as the North American and Eurasian plates move away from each other. Beneath southeast Iceland, a column of molten rockknown as a hot spotspurs even more eruptions. But on the Reykjanes Peninsula, where Grindavik sits, the earth was quiet for quite a while. Before the recent period of eruptions there began in March 2021,the last volcanic activity had occurred around 1200 C.E.Now, while Grindaviks residents worry, scientists flock to the blazing rock to learn more. One thing they are finding is that the lavas from different eruptionshave chemical similarities, suggesting they are somehow connected deep belowa surprising find. And geologists will likely have plenty of opportunities to discover more, as they think this latest burst of molten rocksignals the onset of centuries of eruptions for the area. In the meantime, the lava continues to move,recently threatening to steamroll Icelands iconic Blue Lagoon. J.S.Bird flu infected cows and dairy workers Cows without bird flu are milked at the Cornell Teaching Dairy Barn at Cornell University. Michael M. Santiago / Getty ImagesSince it was first spotted in 1996, the H5N1 strain of avian flu has been spreading in domestic and wild birds. But in 2020, the strain experienced a mutation that makes it more infective in waterfowl. From there, it hit new milestonesthe strain left its typical range of Europe, Asia and Africa to reach the Americas and the Antarctic, wreaking havoc on birds. In 2022, scientists detected the strain in mammals. And in 2024, it made headlines once again as the virus cropped up in dairy cows in the United States.First, the strain infected a young goat in Minnesota, marking the first U.S. livestock to be infected. Then, dairy cows in Texas and Kansas were reported sick, experiencing symptoms and producing discolored milk. At the time of this writing, more than 800 dairy herds have been affected across 16 states. Researchers detected bird flu in grocery store milk, but federal health officials spread the word that pasteurization kills the virusso the only milk that could potentially be dangerous was raw milk.Texas health department announced a dairy worker in the state had contracted H5N1 in March, marking only the second person infected with the strain in U.S. history. Scientists have expressed concerns about potential under-reporting of human cases and worried that the nation as a whole is underprepared to deal with the virus if it spreads quickly. Now, the countrys reported total of human cases has approached 60.In recent weeks, the pathogen has made headlines again, as epidemiologists and policymakers share concerns about what disease preparedness might look like under the upcoming Trump administration. In December, the Department of Agriculture announced it would test all raw milk for avian flu. But because the virus does not appear to be spreading between people, the Biden administration reportedly has no plans to authorize a vaccine for humans. For now, though, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that the risk to the general public remains low. C.K.Colorful auroras dazzled viewers across the planet Northern lights are seen in Sugarloaf Key, just 15 miles from Key West, Florida. Jen Golbeck / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty ImagesEthereal greens and reds lit the skies across the Earth on May 10 and 11, during the most dramatic geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years. Some people spotted the shimmering colors with the naked eye, while others caught the glow with their cameras. But all experienced something highly unusual: The northern lights were even seen as far south as Floridasomething that surprised some seasoned aurora chasers.The source of this extreme space weather event can be traced to the sun, which is currently near the climax of its 11-year cycle of fluctuating activity. This period of high magnetic turbulence, known as the solar maximum, results in our nearest star launching elevated amounts of radiation as solar flares, as well as spewing more magnetic fields and plasma as coronal mass ejections. When these charged particles hit Earths atmosphere, our planets own magnetic field drags them to the poles, where they energize molecules of gas. In turn, the gases emit a colorful glow as they release the excess energy. Oxygen and nitrogen at various altitudes create different hues, and they blend together into the dazzling sights we know as auroras.Even during these periods of high solar activity, a storm like Mays is rare. Not only does the sun have to hurl a huge amount of material out into space, but that material also has to hit the Eartha small target on the grand scale of the solar system. Still, far-reaching auroras happened again in October, putting on a show for skywatchers in every U.S. state, except for Hawaii, as Forbes Jamie Carter reported.As the sun shifts closer to its solar maximum, astronomers expect widespread auroras to happen again. Aurora chasers are looking toward 2025 with hopeful anticipation: Historically, the highest solar activity has come on the tail end of the maximum, so we might be in for even more stunning displays of lights in the coming years. C.K.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, Astronomy, Avian Flu, Birds, Brain, Climate Change, Disease, Disease and Illnesses, Earth Science, Fish, Hurricanes, Iceland, Insects, Jupiter, Mammals, NASA, Natural Disasters, Outer Space, solar eclipse, Volcanoes

2024 was the year of Microsoft's grand pivot | OpinionExpectations this year would suffer a drought of high-quality releases were very much defied but it's the reinvention of Xbox that will be 2024's lasting legacyImage credit: Microsoft Opinion by Rob Fahey Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 20, 2024 At the outset of 2024, the most often expressed concern about this year in the games business was that it was going to have a very sparse and underwhelming release calendar, at least compared to the spectacular heights of 2023. This was to some extent a ripple effect from the pandemic years: a backlog of delayed software made its way onto the market during 2023, meaning that with many major studios set to be in the early stages of new projects, 2024's line-up did not look very inspiring.With the benefit of hindsight, that fear didn't entirely come to pass; or at least, whatever slump in the release schedule for 2024 we did experience was spread out rather unevenly around different parts of the industry.Fears of a fallow 2024 overall, then, did not come to pass at least not for everyoneFrom a consumer's perspective, it's actually been a pretty solid year for games in the end. It may ultimately come to be seen as the calm before 2025's GTA 6 storm, but this year has held up remarkably well thanks to a combination of hit titles nobody really saw coming Helldivers 2 and Astro Bot are especially notable here, having rescued Sony from what would otherwise have been a pretty shockingly empty year in the middle of its console cycle and, especially in the back half of the year, some games that really defied expectations.In terms of expectations being defied, quite a few games turned up that had largely been written off as development hell nightmares, and have ended up being actually pretty great. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the prime example; on a personal level I find its gameplay a little too much of a departure from previous games in the series for my tastes, but taken on its own merits it's a very enjoyable game and far better than many people had dared to hope for after so many years.Silent Hill 2 is a remake I don't think many people had expected to be quite so good, despite its developer's pedigree in the horror genre. The really unexpected surprise of the year, though, is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle a title that honestly feels like it has no right being quite as fantastically good fun as it actually is. Fears of a fallow year overall, then, did not come to pass at least not for everyone. For some publishers, the danger of 2024 being a lost year was very well-founded, with quite a few companies failing to find a hit title from one end of the year to the other.Poor old Ubisoft is the unwilling flag carrier for that unhappy bunch; it had probably hoped that the relatively quiet release slates of some other major publishers would give Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed Shadows a chance to shine, but the former title sank (arguably a victim of Disney's mishandling of the Star Wars brand as much as any issue with Ubisoft itself) and the latter has been delayed to 2025. Ubisoft isn't the only publisher that was struggling to find hits in 2024, but its ongoing struggle to reinvent and reinvigorate its business is likely to be a story that drags out well into next year.It wasn't just certain publishers having a rough 2024, though; the year's successes were spread rather unevenly around game genres as well. I wrote last week about the torrid year live service games had, with high-profile failures ranging from Sony's Concord disaster to the announcements that the likes of Suicide Squad and XDefiant would be shutting down. Helldivers 2 and Marvel Rivals were the only real bright spots in that market, though it's worth noting that established games like Fortnite have continued trucking on very nicely even as the live service model gets clobbered everywhere else (and even the bruised and battered Overwatch 2 seems to have had a bit of a comeback year).On the other hand, it was a great year for single-player action games, thanks to the likes of Black Myth Wukong, Stellar Blade, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and many others. Incidentally, it's also no accident that two of the high points mentioned here Marvel Rivals and Black Myth Wukong are from Chinese developers; after many false starts and a huge amount of investment, this was the year in which China really started flexing its muscle as one of the major global centres for game development.For all that, however, I suspect that when we come to look back at 2024 through some future lens, the most important story is going to be what happened to Microsoft this year.[Buying Activision Blizzard] was always part of a huge business transformation in the making, and the existing identity of Xbox as a platform was always on the chopping blockThis has been an incredibly pivotal year for Microsoft's strategy as a game publisher and platform holder, as it embarks on one of the boldest, and arguably trickiest, transitions that any company in this industry has ever attempted. It's a transition that seemed inevitable to many observers of its struggle to purchase Activision Blizzard there were plenty of voices warning that completing that acquisition would effectively mean the end of Xbox as we knew it but it seems nonetheless to have blindsided many of the most ardent Xbox fans (most of whom were vocal supporters of the deal in question, at that).Spending so much money on buying one of the industry's largest publishers was never going to be about just propping up a console business that was consistently losing out to both Sony and Nintendo in the global market. This was always a huge business transformation in the making, and the existing identity of Xbox as a platform was always on the chopping block.Microsoft has become one of the world's largest and most influential publishers (propped up massively in that role this year by Black Ops 6 being a high point in the series' recent history, and Indiana Jones being so well-received), but in the process it has become something very different from a traditional platform holder. Xbox hardware will now necessarily play second fiddle to the broader idea of Xbox as a platform service and Microsoft as a third-party games publisher. The business that will emerge will undoubtedly be more robust and successful; whether it will still be recognisably anything like Xbox was in the past remains to be seen.One thing to watch carefully in the coming months is consumer response to the 'This Is An Xbox' campaign, which is a bold attempt to explain and outline this complex strategy to the wide consumer audience. Not to be a downer on the campaign (it's a very well-executed piece of marketing), but to make an anecdotal judgement from the confused reactions I've heard personally, I'm not sure it's landing quite like Microsoft had hoped.Consequently, 2025 may well be a year of experimentation for the company as it tries to explain what exactly Xbox means now to a broad audience who are not quite so cued-in to boardroom buzzwords as the people to whom these ideas were pitched internally.As ever, we end the year with some broad strokes outlining how the next year will probably shape up. We know that it will be defined to a great extent by the impact of GTA 6 and Nintendo's new console launch; we can expect stories like Microsoft's repositioning and re-explaining of Xbox, Ubisoft's attempts to rebuild its publishing success, and the ongoing implosion of the live service dream all to continue to develop through the year.We can at least hope, though, that the enormous wave of stories of layoffs and studio closures that made headlines for the past two years will not follow us into 2025; fingers crossed for a year of green shoots and optimism instead.

Raccoon Logic: We're doing the last hurrah of the games industry we grew up withRevenge of the Savage Planet creative director Alex Hutchinson shares his views on finishable games, subscriptions and a hectic 2025 Feature by Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B Published on Dec. 20, 2024 Across the road from The Game Awards, in a car park featuring a couple of trailers and some plastic flamingos, sits the Racoon Logic team.The developer behind the upcoming Revenge of the Savage Planet is demoing the title and conducting interviews with journalists as opposed to doing a big Game Awards trailer. It's a very old school approach to PR."Just being part of the big show, you can get lost in the noise a little bit," reasons creative director Alex Hutchinson."Doing this for us is more fun, and a bit easier. And I like to think we're doing the last hurrah of the games industry I grew up with, which is you get an Edge cover, you fly journalists in to talk to you in actual person it feels like the end. We're doing a physical version of this game with Maximum Games. That's the industry I love. That's how I want to do it. I don't necessarily want to make a games-as-a-service title that costs $200 million, gets unplugged after a week and never gets played."As the industry ages, you would hope that there is an audience of slightly older games that would appreciate the classic approach."That's our bet," he adds. "We will find out next year if there are enough of us. People in their 40s even if you have kids, you have more disposable income than you did in your 20s, but you have less time. So you might still want to play games, but I feel repressed by games that want me to play every week. I don't want to. I want to spend time with the kids or to finish that house project." Revenge of the Savage Planet arrives in May during a busy year for new gamesHutchinson tells us that 2024, in contrast to what has been going on across the industry, has been a good one for the team at Racoon Logic."We were wise in that we didn't grow a lot. We stayed about 30 people. We have money in the bank, we haven't had to make any redundancies, we're pretty stable we have had to be serious in not growing the scope of the game, and not responding to requests from everybody. We're just polishing now and looking forward to its release, and hopefully there is a market for it."Revenge of the Savage Planet, which arrives in May next year, is the follow-up to 2020's Journey to the Savage Planet, although because of various ownership situations, the team isn't entirely sure how successful that first game was."We never saw numbers," Hutchinson admits. "It was 505 Games and then we sold to Google, so we never saw numbers. But we have the player base, and last we saw around five to six million people had played it. Which is great but that doesn't mean they paid for it, because it was on Game Pass, it was on Epic Store, it was on everything. So we don't know how many people bought it vs how many people played it."But it seems like enough people played it, and it's back on Game Pass right now which is great for us. If we're not going to make royalties from it, which we're not as we gave that up to 505 to receive the rights back to the IP, then that's all we want, more people to see and hopefully like it, and then want to buy this one.""I don't necessarily want to make a games-as-a-service title that costs $200 million, gets unplugged after a week and never gets played"Hutchinson has mixed feelings towards Game Pass and subscription services in general."It's tricky and it's unclear," he says. "Game Pass works if you're building an audience, and that's the hardest bit. But then if we're doing that stuff, we want to make sure we have a $10 extra stuff pack and all that, to try and make sure we get some money. Because the amount [subscription companies] are paying has dropped precipitously over the last three years, which means it is not the deal that it was. And I very much worry about a future where everyone is on subscription services and expect content for free. I don't think it's served the music industry well at all, for smaller artists especially."But the worst scenario is that you're not making any money and you're not being paid. I've spent 20 years trying to make games that people will have an opinion on, whether that's Army of Two or Spore or Assassin's Creed 3 or this one someone is going to say they hate it, and that's okay as long as someone else loved it. But if people don't even know the game you're talking about that's the bad one." We played Revenge of the Savage Planet in LA and it's shaping up nicelyRevenge of the Savage Planet arrives during a highly congested 2025 release slate, with an array of games due to arrive throughout the spring and summer, presumably to get ahead of the expected launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 at the end of the year."We're feeling pretty good," Hutchinson says. "We're tonally very different and distinct. I think the audience that likes us are not served by much a lot of the time. There is more coming out, with things like South of Midnight from Microsoft. So there is stuff. But the beauty of the game we're making is that people can buy both. Whereas if it's Concord or something, people buy one, and if they've got Overwatch, why would they buy Concord?"With ours even if they don't buy us early on, they might do later. In AAA, you get this enormous week one, two and three, and then it depreciates significantly. If there's DLC you get a bump, and you get a bump with a sequel, but it's really all or nothing. But with our games, and other smaller finishable games, there is this steady, linear growth where people bookmark it and get to it eventually. I wouldn't say we are optimistic that we'll be huge off the bat. But the sort of game we're making seems to age quite well. We had lots of people contact us when the last one went back on Game Pass, and that game's four years old. So we're cautiously optimistic that we can make it up over time."And it's $40. It's not a $70 game.""I very much worry about a future where everyone is on subscription services and expect content for free"Racoon Logic is self-publishing the game for the first time, and Hutchinson says that the firm has reasonable expectations. The studio's overall goal is to keep making slightly unusual fare. There's no desire to create a mega hit."The industry is always in flux," he continues. "It is always doing things and finding a way to survive. The joy for us is we're definitely going to do a third one. We're in a good spot for that. But we want to keep going and be a studio that does weird flavoured things. A big company always wants you to go on and be a 100-million seller or whatever. We just want to be successful and make games that people come up to us and mention at shows."So the game has only done $100 million? Well, it only cost $5 million and there's only 30 of us. That's a good day."I enjoyed my time with Revenge of the Savage Planet. A mix of action, puzzles, platforming and fun traversal across colourful and ridiculous open areas. And it's funny, too, with plenty of satirical references to the games industry. The villain is called Gunter Harrison, which is presumably a play on former Google games executive Phil Harrison [Hutchinson's previous company was shut down by Google in 2021]."Any similarity to anybody living or dead is purely incidental," he laughs. "Look subtlety's overrated. We took the British approach to humour."In fact, the game's overall tone reminded me of the sort of games UK developer Rare likes to make."There's a bit of Rare," Hutchinson says enthusiastically. "I'll tell you this because it didn't happen. We can have outfits in the game, and we said we can make a Conker outfit [from Rare's 2001 comedy platformer Conker's Bad Fur Day], which would be exclusive to the Xbox version. We didn't want anything for it. The guy said it got way further than he thought it would, but eventually the answer was 'no'. It's a real shame."He concludes: "But generally, there's not enough comedy in games. It's a huge market segment, and I hate saying those words, in movies and books and TV and comics. But it is a fucking empty aisle in video games."

George Jijiashvili, Senior Principal Analyst, GamesDecember 20, 20244 Min ReadImage via Apple.We recently published our latest consumer VR market research, showing that headset sales fell by 10% in 2024 to 6.9 million units, down from 7.7 million in 2023. The market is expected to decline further in 2025, in line with Omdias earlier projections. The outlook reflects a challenging period for the consumer VR industry ahead of a forecasted rebound in 2026. In this blog I lay out key drivers behind the downturn in 2024, as well as the factors driving the assumed growth in 2026 and beyond.VR headset sales see two consecutive years of decline, following the pandemic-induced upswingThe consumer VR market continues to face significant challenges, with several indicators highlighting a lack of momentum and adoption. The highly anticipated Apple Vision Pro debut has failed to deliver the resurgence the industry hoped for, with limited developer enthusiasm and fading momentum ten months post-launch. Meanwhile, Metas recent entry-level Quest 3S has yet to spark a notable sales boost, as evidenced by my analysis of Black Friday headset sales across eight countries, which shows a 16% decline. PC VR adoption also remains stagnant, with Valves latest Hardware Survey revealing that only 1.5% of Steam users are engaging with VR hardware. Adding to this, Omdias supply chain insights confirm earlier reports of Sony halting PlayStation VR2 production due to unsold inventory, prompting the company to resort to heavy discounting to clear stock.The challenges are further exacerbated in other markets and segments. VR headset sales in China have collapsed due to weak consumer demand, and the future of Pico remains uncertain following layoffs and restructuring by its parent company, ByteDance. The TikTok owner, which acquired Pico in 2021, appears to be losing interest in the segment. On the content side, developers are increasingly questioning the return on investment for VR games, with a recent Game Developer Collective survey revealing that half of respondents perceive the VR market as either stagnant or in decline.The number of VR headsets in active use fell by 8% in 2024 to 21.9 million. This was primarily due to a low share of Quest 2 owners upgrading, over 20 million of which have been sold since 2020. Meanwhile, $904 million was spent on VR content in 2024; for context, games console content spend will generate $37.4 billion in 2024, highlighting the nascent nature of the consumer VR market. The current state of the VR market is characterized by waning consumer interest post-pandemic, a sluggish inflow of compelling new content, and growing skepticism among developers about the viability of VR as a profitable platform.Growth is predicted to resume by 2026, but mass adoption of VR headsets in their current form remains unlikelyThe expected return to growth in the VR market is heavily reliant on the anticipated launch of a more affordable Apple Vision Pro model in 2026, which is projected to drive the market expansion through 2029. Meta is also expected to remain a key player in the space, though its headset sales are likely to remain flat. Metas recent move to open its Horizon OS to third-party manufacturers underscores its continued commitment to VR, but the company faces an uphill battle. Meanwhile, Googles announcement of the Android XR platform last week represents a much-needed competition in this space, but its history of launching and shortly shuttering new projects tempers expectations. Developer and manufacturer approach to these initiatives will be cautious, therefore, only incremental progress is anticipated in the short-term.The form factor of current VR and passthrough mixed reality headsets remains a barrier to mass adoption. Consumer and manufacturer interest is shifting toward lightweight glasses, promising all-day, anywhere access to multimodal AI as exemplified by Meta Ray-Ban glasses, which is seeing early signs of success. Companies in this space hope that this approach will help normalize face-based spatial computing, which could ultimately spur mass-market VR adoption. However, the progress towards achieving this will be slow, and isnt expected to happen within this decade. In the near term, VR is likely to remain a niche market, constrained by its existing limitations and the growing industry focus on AR as the future of immersive technology.Read more about:BlogsFeatured BlogsAbout the AuthorGeorge JijiashviliSenior Principal Analyst, Games, OmdiaGeorge is a regular contributor to Game Developer and a principal analyst at Omdia, leading research into games and AR/VR markets. Based in London, he produces insights into the games sector through regular reports, market sizing and forecasting. His specialisms include the video games market, cloud gaming, and wearable technology. He previously worked at CCS Insight.See more from George JijiashviliDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like