Artists concept of Parker Solar Probe. On Tuesday, Dec. 24, NASA's Parker Solar Probe got to within ... [+] just 3.86 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface.NASAs Goddard Space Flight CenterNASAs Parker Solar Probe has traveled to within just 3.86 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the suns surface a new record on Christmas Eve. You can follow Parkers landmark moment on NASAs Eyes On The Solar System page.In one of humankinds most impressive feats of space exploration, Tuesday, Dec. 24 saw a heavily armored NASA spacecraft no bigger than a small car become the closest human-made object to the sun in history. It also saw humanitys closest-ever approach to a star and the fastest-ever human-made object break its speed record.Monumental FeatThis monumental feat of exploration occurred at 11:53 UTC (6:53 a.m. EST) on Tuesday, Dec. 24, as Parker conducted an unprecedented close flyby of the sun, reaching just 3.86 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from its surface. It was its 22nd close approach to the sun.At 96% of the distance between the sun and Earth well within the orbit of Mercury, at about 39% it is the closest any human-made object has ever been to the sun.Dr. Nour Raouafi, the projects scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, equates this missions significance to the moon landing in 1969. Its the moment we have been waiting for for nearly 60 years, he said during a media roundtable at the American Geophysical Unions annual meeting on Dec. 10, 2024. In 1969, we landed humans on the moon. On Christmas Eve, we embrace a star our star.Artists concept of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. Launched in 2018, the ... [+] probe is increasing our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.NASAMORE FOR YOUHyper-CloseIn what NASA calls a hyper-close regime, Parker will cut through plumes of plasma still connected to the sun and be close enough to pass inside a solar eruption, like a surfer diving under a crashing ocean wave, according to NASA.The heat that Parker will be subjected to when at its closest to the sun was nearly 500 times the hottest summer day we can witness on Earth, said Raouafi.Parker was already the fastest object ever built on Earth, but as it reached its closest point to the sun, it will go one further by traveling at 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), breaking its records for speed and distance. According to the missions website, thats fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second.Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, will lose contact with the probe for three days and wait for a beacon tone on Dec. 27, 2024, that will confirm its survival.Parker will complete two more hyper-close passes at the same distance on March 22 and June 19, 2025.Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

Your Average SundayGame of the year 2024? For me, it was all about karaoke, a trip to Yorkshire, and irradiated teaForget Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo - here are the real big three that matter.Image credit: VG247 Article by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Dec. 24, 2024 You know all those games we were talking about potentially being the thing this year around the time that Geoff Keighley was putting on his best corporate forced smile and preparing to take to the stage at The Game Awards?They can all go do one.Well, maybe aside from Balatro, because everyone likes Balatro.But I digress, Im not here to write about Balatro, no matter how many spare moments its robbed us all of. Im here to write about my personal games of the year. There are three of them, because Im an indecisive prick.Three games which have come to be in very different ways, and for different reasons.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Ill start off with Infinite Wealth, as 2024 did. Dropping in January (categorically the best month because its the one I was born in) Like A Dragon 8 faced a tough task. It had to out-do its critically-acclaimed direct predecessor, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, as well as somehow give iconic series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu a better ending than the one from Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. You know, the ending that had all of us Yakuza-heads bawling like babies just a few months earlier.In my estimation, it did a better job of both than it had any right to. Its really two games. Ones a love letter to how far the long-unbeaten, but mentally bruised prize-fighter has come before he goes out to have what he believes could well be his final fight - the one in which the inevitable uppercut of time will knock him to the canvas through the gloves of his latest opponent. The other is the next chapter in the tale of someone whose life is all about approaching things in a way that Kiryu never has - to rely on others to do the fighting for you.You can argue that RGG bringing Kiryu back for what is his third attempt at a retirement tour gets in the way of letting Ichiban Kasugas portion of the tale (which is supposed to have him properly establish himself as the face of the franchise after his excellent debut) do just that. To me, with Kiryu in there, you get an entire package thats a lot more balanced in the tale its trying to tell. Its 'Doing It Yourself' versus 'Doing It With Help', and (spoiler alert) it ends with the guy who represents the former finally accepting the help he needs. Some of that supposedly infinite wealth. | Image credit: VG247/SEGAFallout: London, meanwhile, is set on sadness island, which is a lot less nice than Hawaii. While Shadow of the Erdtree has had us all debating whether DLC should be eligible for GOTY consideration, Id argue Team FOLONs massive creation makes a pretty good case that if DLCs allowed, mods should be, too.Its an incredible achievement in and of itself that a huge volunteer-led project like this actually got over the release finish line in a form anything close to what it did, and its kind of a tragedy that that initial release build ended up being so buggy. If you can get past that, the mods not just a nice little extension to Fallout 4 - its exactly the kind of expansive, interesting attempt at taking the Fallout series beyond its North American roots that Id have been impressed to have seen a professional studio with fairly hefty publisher backing deliver.Im not sure itll ever eclipse New Vegas on my list of best Fallout games, even with the fixes, but as someone who didnt quite enjoy the first series of Amazons Fallout TV show as much as others simply because it didnt really have capacity to offer the kind of different, unique take on the series world Im looking for, Im really glad London did just that. What a load of bank. | Image credit: VG247/Team FOLONFinally, Thank Goodness Youre Here from indie studio Coal Supper is the kind of game that, once youve shown it to someone, you dont really have to explain why you love it. I might be from somewhere slightly north of Yorkshire, but this picture of the quaint and quirky English town is one thatll speak to you no matter where in our crap nation that you happened to grow up, assuming you did so in a house without access to a butler and pony both called Giles.Its a hilarious love letter to working class people living working class lives, and in a year when weve had more and more soulless slop shovelled onto our plates, including the AI crap clogging up the socials, the simple and human deserves to be celebrated. It takes a village. | Image credit: VG247/Coal SupperAlright, you can bring all those other games back in now.

Image: Nintendo LifeFor the younger readers amongst you, I suspect that many 3D games from the 90s and 00s seem rather quaint at best and downright unplayable at worst. It was a period in which the medium was geting to grips with a completely new third dimension; couple this with the limited graphical capabilities of the PlayStation and N64, and you could argue that many titles havent aged well.Me, though? I absolutely love this era. I was six when the PS1 launched in the UK; the perfect age to start enjoying classics like WipEout, Spyro the Dragon, and yes, games that perhaps werent suitable for me yet like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. So when I go back and play titles from this era today, I find them reasonably approachable thanks to an intimate familiarity with the period. Even remasters of games that Ive not experienced before feel oddly comforting in a way that I cant quite describe.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kWatch on YouTube Image: Nightdive StudiosNightdive Studios, founded in 2012, specialises in revamping early 3D games from the 90s and 00s for the modern age, enhancing the visuals, improving the gameplay, and often adding a host of supplemental material to provide context behind the original titles development. It's enjoyed some excellent success stories over the years with the likes of Turok(s), Quake(s), and Doom 64 alongside the disappointing Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition but 2024 has undoubtedly been the studios best, most prolific year so far.Nightdive has put out a total of five games this year. Five. And thats not including the console release for the excellent System Shock remake (which, before you go searching for it, isn't on Switch). For a large company like Nintendo, five games in one year might sound pretty standard given its numerous dev teams and partner studios, but Nightdive is a much smaller, singular team made up of around 40 employees (as of 2022). Granted, its now got Atari behind it after the acquisition went through in 2023, but even the once-mighty Atari is an incredibly lean operation compared to its heyday.The company's CEO, Stephen Kick, called the studio's output this year "stunning" and explored its rapid growth in a recent livestream of its 'Deep Dive' series. "It's a big obstacle," he said, "where we have a lot of companies coming to us with a lot of projects, and we just don't have enough people." He is, however, quick to clarify that this is a good problem to have, noting that development costs remain conservative and that the company can operate on a "lean and mean" level without necessarily worrying about meeting lofty targets to maintain a huge staff.Image: Nightdive StudiosAs for which games its put out, youve got Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, POed Definitive Edition, the updated DOOM + DOOM II (and the brand-new Legacy of Rust campaign), Killing Time: Resurrected, and The Thing: Remastered. Jeez Louise. While theres an obvious preference for the FPS genre here, Nightdives output nevertheless represents a delicious combination of beloved known entities and long-forgotten curios. I had never heard of Killing Time before Nightdives remaster, but after rinsing it earlier this year, its become one of my absolute favourites thanks to its utterly bizarre narrative and outrageous enemy design.The release of DOOM + DOOM II seems particularly noteworthy given that both games were already available on Switch courtesy of the now-defunct studio Nerve Software. These versions had their issues at launch, but were patched to the point of being genuinely excellent portable versions of the original classics. These are no longer purchasable, meaning the new version, built in Nightdive's KEX engine, has completely supplanted Nerve's.Of course, Nightdive cant get all of the credit; were it not for developers like Studio 3DO and Computer Artworks, there would be no originals to remaster. But the work that Nightdive puts into these titles to not only modernise and preserve them, but also improve upon near-enough every aspect of the gameplay experience is second to none. Youve got rock-solid 60fps performance on every game with the ability to fine-tune the visuals as you see fit. For those on PS5 and Xbox, meanwhile, you can max out the presentation at 4K/120FPS, and its simply divine. A sign of things to come on Switch 2?Image: Nightdive StudiosFor some, Im sure that no amount of polish would make some of these games seem even remotely appealing, and thats fine. POed Definitive Edition is still a weird, often frustrating experience regardless of how nice it looks now or how smoothly it runs. Its cool if these sorts of games arent your thing - although I was personally aghast when POed was included in Metacritics Worst Games of 2024 list. Come on now, let's be sensible!What we can all wholeheartedly agree on, however, is that regardless of a game's original quality, the work Nightdive does in bringing it up to modern standards is exemplary. Its easy to see why Atari wanted to snap up the studio. With the one-two punch of Nightdive and Digital Eclipse (which also had a great 2024, by the way), Atari seems well on its way to fulfilling its mission of becoming the final word on retro gaming. While Digital Eclipse is a true pioneer of the current wave of interactive gaming documentaries, Nightdive has the early 3D era all wrapped up. The team has absolutely killed it in what is easily its best year yet, and I cant wait to see what 2025 brings.What's your favourite Nightdive Studios game from 2024? (21 votes)Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (Switch eShop)29%PO'ed: Definitive Edition (Switch eShop)5%DOOM + DOOM II (Switch eShop)52%Killing Time: Resurrected (Switch eShop)14%The Thing: Remastered (Switch eShop) 0%Have you played any of Nightdive's games from 2024? What are you hoping to see from the studio in the new year? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789k

Image: Nintendo LifeNintendo of America has kicked off its 'Hits for the Holidays' eShop sale, bringing a wave of beefy discounts to thousands of titles across the storefront until 5th January.There are so many to choose from, in fact, that it can be difficult to see the very best among the savings. That's where we come in. In the following list, we have highlighted every game in the Nintendo's North American 'Hits for the Holidays' eShop sale that we awarded 9/10 or higher and yes, it's a rather long one.If you're keen to splash the holiday cash in this sale, you can pick up some eShop credit from our store by following the links below. 'Tis the season, after all.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kWatch on YouTube Buy Nintendo eShop CreditUSACANUKEURJPNWithout further ado, here's the very best of the Nintendo eShop 'Hits for the Holidays' sale in alphabetical order...A Short Hike (Switch eShop)Publisher: Whippoorwill / Developer: Adam Robinson-YuRelease Date: 18th Aug 2020 (USA) / 18th Aug 2020 (UK/EU)$4.79 (-40%)A Short Hike is a fat-free experience from top to bottom or should we say bottom to top? It's the kind of game that makes us sigh with happiness when we recall our time with it, and even having played it through to its ostensible conclusion multiple times, we know for a fact there are still things to see and do on that mountain.It's something of an apotheosis a milestone in indie games akin to Cave Story or Spelunky. The very best bits of multiple game genres, stripped of all padding and bloat, mixed perfectly into a delicious video game stew that only gets richer the more you play.An exploration in every sense of the word, A Short Hike is cute without being twee, challenging without being obnoxious, and emotional without being cloying. A landmark game for all ages. Don't miss this one.Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition (Switch)Publisher: Bandai Namco / Developer: Project AcesRelease Date: 11th Jul 2024 (USA) / 11th Jul 2024 (UK/EU)$35.99 (-40%)Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the absolute pinnacle of the series and despite coming to Switch over five years after other platforms, this 'impossible' Switch conversion does very little to degrade the experience. Long-time franchise players and military aviation enthusiasts will be overwhelmed by the fan service at every turn, from craters on the ground to airplanes, liveries, callsigns, and emblems shouting out to previous entries.We understand the genre is uniquely niche, but if this is your first foray into the franchise, this conversion is a perfect gateway into this rich, revered series. You get tons of content and an epic single-player campaign wrapped up in triple-A presentation that delivers the most comprehensive portable experience ever from Project Aces.Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.Alien: Isolation (Switch eShop)Publisher: SEGA / Developer: Creative AssemblyRelease Date: 5th Dec 2019 (USA) / 5th Dec 2019 (UK/EU)$14.99 (-25%)Alien: Isolation is a survival horror masterpiece and straight-up one of the very best horror video games ever released. It's a nerve-wracking affair a slow, methodical game of cat and mouse against a brilliantly clever recreation of one of cinema's most infamous killers but if you're up to the task you'll find one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences in the genre; a brilliant and beautiful homage to one of the greatest Sci-Fi movies of all time. Feral Interactive has done a stellar job with this Switch port and the excellent motion controls and inclusion of all previously-released DLC only go to sweeten the deal. This is essential stuff for survival horror fans.Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: NintendoRelease Date: 20th Mar 2020 (USA) / 20th Mar 2020 (UK/EU)$41.99 (-30%)Animal Crossing: New Horizons improved upon every single facet of the series imaginable. There's more to do, more to see, more to change, more to mould, and more to love; fans and first-time players can find themselves losing hours at a time gathering materials, creating new furniture, and making their island undeniably theirs.Every moment is unashamedly blissful, with excellently written characters that truly feel alive and an island paradise that gives back infinitely more than you put in. Back when Animal Crossing: New Leaf hit the shelves all those years ago and created a whole new generation of fans, many people were wondering how Nintendo could possibly top it, but here we got our answer.This is a masterpiece that's worth buying a Switch (or two) to play.Animal Well (Switch eShop)Publisher: Bigmode / Developer: Shared MemoryRelease Date: 9th May 2024 (USA) / 9th May 2024 (UK/EU)$19.99 (-20%)Developer Shared Memory's stated goal was to craft complete experiences that will be playable long after the world loses its internet connection, and screen after screen, Animal Well excels in delighting your eyes and giving your brain something to stew on.Its a riposte against a culture of post-launch updates in favour of a meticulously crafted, singular vision with potentially years worth of discoveries baked in. By all indications, Animal Well delivers on that long-term promise and does so with a one-of-a-kind elegance.Astral Ascent (Switch eShop)Publisher: MP2 Games / Developer: Hibernian WorkshopRelease Date: 14th Nov 2023 (USA) / 14th Nov 2023 (UK/EU)$16.24 (-35%)Astral Ascent is a prime example of a game that amounts to more than the sum of its parts. Its strong character design, hi-bit visuals, tight combat, memorable bosses, and broad build variety have all featured in games youve probably played beforetheres nothing new here.But to write it off as just 'another one of those' in a crowded genre would be to miss out on one of the most delightful and surprising releases of 2023. Astral Ascent is comfortably one of the best roguelites available on the Switch. Don't miss it.Axiom Verge (Switch eShop)Publisher: Thomas Happ Games / Developer: Thomas Happ GamesRelease Date: 5th Oct 2017 (USA) / 5th Oct 2017 (UK/EU)$2.99 (-85%)Axiom Verge on Switch is truly an outstanding port of an outstanding game, no more and no less. We would strongly urge those of you who missed this game on other platforms to pick it up here; this is the full Axiom Verge experience and it's available in a format that supports both handheld and home play.For those of you who have played it before on other platforms, its ultimately a question of just how much you love this game. This is the exact same, excellent game that youve played before, so whether or not you want to buy it again is personal choice.Regardless of which side you fall on, Axiom Verge is a fantastic example of how to do a Metroidvania right.You'll also find Axiom Verge 2 in this sale for $5.99 (-70%).Balatro (Switch eShop)Publisher: PlayStack / Developer: LocalThunkRelease Date: 20th Feb 2024 (USA) / 20th Feb 2024 (UK/EU)$13.49 (-10%)Balatro is a roguelike for gamers who don't like roguelikes... and then everybody else on top of that. It utterly nails what it sets out to do, providing an instantly accessible, satisfying, and addictive gameplay loop that anybody can grasp.It's an immensely enjoyable experience from the start, but as you get deeper in, there's really nothing else quite like it. Utterly sublime.Blaster Master Zero 2 (Switch eShop)Publisher: Inti Creates / Developer: Inti CreatesRelease Date: 20th Mar 2019 (USA) / 20th Mar 2019 (UK/EU)$4.99 (-50%)Inti Creates knocked it out of the park with Blaster Master Zero 2, improving on the original 'reboot' in nearly every conceivable way while also setting a clear path forward for what could hopefully become a flagship series for the company.Tight platforming action, memorable boss battles, plenty of extra side content, and some gorgeous pixel art make this one of the easiest recommendations on the eShop; wed strongly encourage you to pick this one up.Whether youre a long-time fan of the series or are just getting into it for the first time, Blaster Master Zero 2 is a stellar experience from stem to stern, and further cements Inti Creates legacy as one of the best developers in the retro gaming business.Botany Manor (Switch eShop)Publisher: Whitethorn Games / Developer: Balloon StudiosRelease Date: 9th Apr 2024 (USA) / 9th Apr 2024 (UK/EU)$19.99 (-20%)It looks like The Witness and it plays a bit like StreetPass Garden, but Botany Manor blooms into something that's not only entirely its own, but also something quite special. Don't let its cosy aesthetics fool you Botany Manor is packed with nicely challenging, well-designed puzzles, and isn't afraid to tackle heavy subjects, too.Braid: Anniversary Edition (Switch eShop)Publisher: Number None / Developer: Number NoneRelease Date: 14th May 2024 (USA) / 14th May 2024 (UK/EU)$10.99 (-45%)Braid remains a landmark equally for indie game development and puzzle platformers. The time control mechanics are mind-bendingly satisfying to play with and the puzzles are wickedly inventive. This Anniversary Edition is an exquisite expression of the original concept, with everything spruced up to perfection.And, even on top of that, it includes interactive creators commentary that sets a high watermark for in-game analysis and represents a new key text for anyone interested in how games are made. In short: this package is an all-timer.Castlevania Dominus Collection (Switch eShop)Publisher: Konami / Developer: KonamiRelease Date: 27th Aug 2024 (USA) / 27th Aug 2024 (UK/EU)$19.99 (-20%)Castlevania Dominus Collection is quite possibly the best compilation that Konami and M2 have produced to date. It presents three exceptional DS games that easily stand the test of time and provide just as much enjoyment now as they did back in the 2000s.Not only that, but the impossible has seemingly been achieved with the remarkable addition of Haunted Castle Revisited. Included as a fun little bonus, this revamped take on a reviled arcade curio is fantastic, and while it can't compete with the very best 'classic' games in the franchise, it's the closest we've gotten to a brand new Castlevania in years. An exquisite package.And for even more Castlevania action, you'll also find the Castlevania Advance Collection in this sale for $9.99 (-50%).Chained Echoes (Switch eShop)Publisher: DECK13 Spotlight / Developer: Matthias LindaRelease Date: 8th Dec 2022 (USA) / 8th Dec 2022 (UK/EU)$21.24 (-15%)Chained Echoes is a wonderful mash-up of '90s JRPG tropes, masterfully woven together to produce an experience that feels simultaneously nostalgic and fresh. A well-paced story, unconventional progression system, tactical combat system, and expansive world all come together to make for a game that is shockingly one of the very best RPGs that we played in 2022. Really, theres no place where it feels like Chained Echoes drops the ball, which is all the more impressive when you consider that the vast majority of it was put together by one person. If you consider yourself a fan of JRPGs, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up as soon as possible. It stands as a shining example of everything that makes RPGs great.Chicken Police - Paint it RED! (Switch eShop)Publisher: HandyGames / Developer: The Wild GentlemenRelease Date: 5th Nov 2020 (USA) / 5th Nov 2020 (UK/EU)$9.99 (-50%)An extremely impressive first game from The Wild Gentlemen, Chicken Police - Paint it RED! is one of the best visual novel/adventure games we've played in a long, long time and one hell of an absorbing tale. It looks and runs great on the Switch, with only a couple of really minuscule interface issues which are easily ignored. At roughly eight or nine hours, the story is surprisingly lengthy for its genre, but we were never bored and wanted to investigate every little thing just to wring out more precious droplets of banter and fascination. Chicken Police is a polished, captivating experience and we're very excited for whatever's coming next from this team.Chicory: A Colorful Tale (Switch eShop)Publisher: Finji / Developer: FinjiRelease Date: 15th Dec 2021 (USA) / 15th Dec 2021 (UK/EU)$9.99 (-50%)As an adventure game, Chicory: A Colorful Tale is quite sincerely up there with the very best of the genre. Theres plenty to see and do and a full completion run will probably take you 25-30 hours. The characters and their travails are rich and likeable, the games sense of humour is generally inspired, and its all very sweet without being sugary-twee and talking down to the player. Its also an affecting little tearjerker that will definitely strike a chord if you make art, and almost certainly will even if you dont so long as youre capable of pretty basic empathy. Chicory is simple to play but impressively long and complex, with perfect controls, performance and visuals. Throw yourself into painting the world and youll be left with a game thats very much your own and speaks to you directly a beautiful marriage of mechanics, themes and visuals.Collection of Mana (Switch)Publisher: Square Enix / Developer: Square EnixRelease Date: 11th Jun 2019 (USA) / 11th Jun 2019 (UK/EU)$15.99 (-60%)What you've got here are two of the finest examples of the genre, accompanied by a third likeable entry which is also well worth a look. When you consider how many titles Konami is packing into its Anniversary Collection packages and that their retail price is almost half what Square Enix is demanding for the three games included here it's impossible to not question the value of Collection of Mana. However, there's no denying the fact that Secret of Mana is one of the finest console RPGs of all time, and even though it's readily available elsewhere, playing it on Switch is like wrapping yourself up in a warm and familiar blanket; it's just right somehow. We could argue that Secret of Mana is merely the appetiser for the real star of this collection: Trials of Mana. It's nothing short of a masterpiece and finally getting the chance to play it officially in English is a landmark moment for SNES and RPG fans alike.Core Keeper (Switch)Publisher: Fireshine Games / Developer: PugstormRelease Date: 17th Sep 2024 (USA) / 17th Sep 2024 (UK/EU)$14.99 (-25%)Core Keeper is a wonderfully engaging and mysterious survival sandbox that is tough to put down once it gets its hooks in you.An expertly judged progression curve, tons of secrets and unlockables, and excellent presentation all come together to make this one an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a great new survival game. If youve had your fill of stalwarts like Minecraft or Terraria and are looking for the next great game to scratch that itch, look no further.Crimzon Clover - World EXplosion (Switch eShop)Publisher: DEGICA / Developer: YotsubaneRelease Date: 29th Oct 2020 (USA) / 29th Oct 2020 (UK/EU)$11.99 (-40%)While Crimzon Clover does owe a tremendous debt to many arcade shooters through the 1990s and 2000s, it's clear that Yotsubane has a great love and understanding of them. Its not only a homage (look at the default high score table for some familiar initials) but also brings some mechanical brilliance that makes it stand out against most of its doujin shoot-em-up peers, and enough to hang with the genre greats. Its flashy, its exciting, its addictive, and its an essential purchase for genre fans.Crypt of the NecroDancer (Switch eShop)Publisher: Brace Yourself Games / Developer: Brace Yourself GamesRelease Date: 1st Feb 2018 (USA) / 8th Feb 2018 (UK/EU)$3.99 (-80%)A roguelike at heart with a rhythm-game soul, Crypt Of The NecroDancer is a sublime experience thats a must-play for fans of the genre(s). Its upbeat, uptempo take on dungeon crawling is infectious, and theres enough content here to last even the savviest of spelunkers for many, many dance-fuelled dives into the depths if youve never tangoed with the NecroDancer, this fully-featured Switch edition is the perfect way to jump in. For anybody who never played this but loved the Zelda spin-off Cadence of Hyrule (and was left wanting more), what are you waiting for?Cuphead (Switch eShop)Publisher: StudioMDHR / Developer: StudioMDHRRelease Date: 18th Apr 2019 (USA) / 18th Apr 2019 (UK/EU)$13.99 (-30%)Cuphead was an absolute masterpiece when it originally launched on Xbox One and nothing has been sacrificed in its move to the Switch. A run-and-gun boss battler dressed up like a 1930s Fleischer or Disney animated short, its the same visually jaw-dropping, aurally delightful, knuckle-whiteningly difficult game it was on Microsofts console and the Switchs library is all the better for its presence. Its focus on intense boss battles wont be to everyones tastes, but as long as you know what youre getting yourself into we cant recommend it enough. Just look at it!And the Delicious Last Course is the icing on the cake, too.Cyber Shadow (Switch eShop)Publisher: Yacht Club Games / Developer: Mechanical Head StudiosRelease Date: 26th Jan 2021 (USA) / 26th Jan 2021 (UK/EU)$10.99 (-45%)If you consider yourself a fan of retro action platformers, you owe it to yourself to pick up Cyber Shadow. Its clear in virtually every facet of Cyber Shadows design that this project was a labour of love and that its designer is intimately familiar with what makes the stalwarts of this beloved genre so great.Well-built levels, authentic presentation, tight controls, and high difficulty all combine to make this a supreme and focused experience, and one that we can easily say is well worth your time. Mechanical Head Studios set a high bar with its inaugural release.

Sony knows how to put on a show at CES. The companys pressers are high-octane, star-studded affairs, as these things go. In addition to standard Sony fare like TVs and audio systems, theres always a curve ball or two, be it a car, a drone, or a Gran Turismo movie. Thats one of the perks of being a massive corporation with your fingers in a lot of verticals.This years press event kicks off at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on January 6. Weve already seen some of what Sony will offer, including the SRH-S1 extended reality headset and additions to the Bravia home theater line.Sony will be streaming the press conference over on its own site and on YouTube.

In BriefPosted:9:19 AM PST December 24, 2024Image Credits:Stefano Guidi / Getty ImagesOpenAI considered building a humanoid robot: ReportOpenAI has recently explored building its own humanoid robot, according to The Information. The report cites two people with direct knowledge of those conversations. The ChatGPT maker has been involved in the space for some time now, by way of financial backing. It has thus far invested in Figure and 1X, along with the general purpose AI firm Physical Intelligence.In 2021, OpenAI abandoned such ambitions after quietly closing its robotics division. Of course, plenty has happened in the past three years, with breakthroughs in both hardware and the AI systems that power them. Short of making some big-ticket startup acquisitions, a re-formed OpenAI robotics division would have a lot of catching up to do in an already competitive young category.Topics

Is it possible for an AI to be trained just on data generated by another AI? It might sound like a harebrained idea. But its one thats been around for quite some time and as new, real data is increasingly hard to come by, its been gaining traction.Anthropic used some synthetic data to train one of its flagship models, Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Meta fine-tuned its Llama 3.1 models using AI-generated data. And OpenAI is said to be sourcing synthetic training data from o1, its reasoning model, for the upcoming Orion.But why does AI need data in the first place and what kind of data does it need? And can this data really be replaced by synthetic data?The importance of annotationsAI systems are statistical machines. Trained on a lot of examples, they learn the patterns in those examples to make predictions, like that to whom in an email typically precedes it may concern.Annotations, usually text labeling the meaning or parts of the data these systems ingest, are a key piece in these examples. They serve as guideposts, teaching a model to distinguish among things, places, and ideas.Consider a photo-classifying model shown lots of pictures of kitchens labeled with the word kitchen. As it trains, the model will begin to make associations between kitchen and general characteristics of kitchens (e.g. that they contain fridges and countertops). After training, given a photo of a kitchen that wasnt included in the initial examples, the model should be able to identify it as such. (Of course, if the pictures of kitchens were labeled cow, it would identify them as cows, which emphasizes the importance of good annotation.)The appetite for AI and the need to provide labeled data for its development have ballooned the market for annotation services. Dimension Market Research estimates that its worth $838.2 million today and will be worth $10.34 billion in the next 10 years. While there arent precise estimates of how many people engage in labeling work, a 2022paperpegs the number in the millions.Companies large and small rely on workers employed by data annotation firms to create labels for AI training sets. Some of these jobs pay reasonably well, particularly if the labeling requires specialized knowledge (e.g. math expertise). Others can be backbreaking. Annotators in developing countries are paid only a few dollars per hour on average, without any benefits or guarantees of future gigs.A drying data wellSo theres humanistic reasons to seek out alternatives to human-generated labels. For example, Uber is expanding its fleet of gig workers to work on AI annotation and data labeling. But there are also practical ones.Humans can only label so fast. Annotators also have biases that can manifest in their annotations, and, subsequently, any models trained on them. Annotators make mistakes, or get tripped up by labeling instructions. And paying humans to do things is expensive.Data in general is expensive, for that matter. Shutterstock is charging AI vendors tens of millions of dollars to access its archives, while Reddithas made hundreds of millions from licensing data to Google, OpenAI, and others.Lastly, data is also becoming harder to acquire.Most models are trained on massive collections of public data data that owners are increasingly choosing to gate over fears it will beplagiarized or that they wont receive credit or attribution for it. More than 35% of the worlds top 1,000 websitesnow block OpenAIs web scraper. And around 25% of data from high-quality sources has been restricted from the major datasets used to train models, one recentstudyfound.Should the current access-blocking trend continue, the research group Epoch AIprojectsthat developers will run out of data to train generative AI models between 2026 and 2032. That, combined with fears ofcopyright lawsuitsand objectionable material making their way into open datasets, has forced a reckoning for AI vendors.Synthetic alternativesAt first glance, synthetic data would appear to be the solution to all these problems. Need annotations? Generate em. More example data? No problem. The skys the limit.And to a certain extent, this is true.If data is the new oil,syntheticdata pitches itself as biofuel, creatable without the negative externalities of the real thing, Os Keyes, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington who studies the ethical impact of emerging technologies, told TechCrunch. You can take a small starting set of data and simulate and extrapolate new entries from it.The AI industry has taken the concept and run with it. This month, Writer, an enterprise-focused generative AI company, debuted a model, Palmyra X 004, trained almost entirely on synthetic data. Developing it cost just $700,000, Writer claims compared to estimates of $4.6 million for a comparably-sized OpenAI model.Microsofts Phi open models were trained using synthetic data, in part. So were Googles Gemma models. Nvidia this summer unveiled a model family designed to generate synthetic training data, and AI startup Hugging Face recently released what it claims is the largest AI training dataset of synthetic text.Synthetic data generation has become a business in its own right one that could be worth $2.34 billion by 2030. Gartnerpredictsthat 60% of the data used for AI and analytics projects this year will be synthetically generated.Luca Soldaini, a senior research scientist at the Allen Institute for AI, noted that synthetic data techniques can be used to generate training data in a format thats not easily obtained through scraping (or even content licensing). For example, in training its video generator Movie Gen, Meta used Llama 3 to create captions for footage in the training data, which humans then refined to add more detail, like descriptions of the lighting.Along these same lines, OpenAI says that it fine-tunedGPT-4o using synthetic data to build the sketchpad-like Canvas feature for ChatGPT. And Amazon has said that it generates synthetic data to supplement the real-world data it uses to train speech recognition models for Alexa.Synthetic data models can be used to quickly expand upon human intuition of whichdatais needed to achieve a specific model behavior, Soldaini said. Synthetic risksSynthetic data is no panacea, however. It suffers from the same garbage in, garbage out problem as all AI. Models create synthetic data, and if the data used to train these models has biases and limitations, their outputs will be similarly tainted. For instance, groups poorly represented in the base data will be so in the synthetic data.The problem is, you can only do so much, Keyes said. Say you only have 30 Black people in a dataset. Extrapolating out might help, but if those 30 people are all middle-class, or all light-skinned, thats what the representative data will all look like.To this point, a 2023 study by researchers at Rice University and Stanford found that over-reliance on synthetic data during training can create models whose quality or diversity progressively decrease. Sampling bias poor representation of the real world causes a models diversity to worsen after a few generations of training, according to the researchers (although they also found that mixing in a bit of real-world data helps to mitigate this).Keyes sees additional risks in complex models such as OpenAIs o1, which he thinks could produce harder-to-spot hallucinations in their synthetic data. These, in turn, could reduce the accuracy of models trained on the data especially if the hallucinations sources arent easy to identify.Complex models hallucinate; data produced by complex models contain hallucinations, Keyes added. And with a model like o1, the developers themselves cant necessarily explain why artefacts appear.Compounding hallucinations can lead to gibberish-spewing models. A study published in the journal Nature reveals how models, trained on error-ridden data, generate even more error-ridden data, and how this feedback loop degrades future generations of models. Models lose their grasp of more esoteric knowledge over generations, the researchers found becoming more generic and often producing answers irrelevant to the questions theyre asked.Image Credits:Ilia Shumailov et al.A follow-up study shows that other types of models, like image generators, arent immune to this sort of collapse:Image Credits:Ilia Shumailov et al.Soldaini agrees that raw synthetic data isnt to be trusted, at least if the goal is to avoid training forgetful chatbots and homogenous image generators. Using it safely, he says, requires thoroughly reviewing, curating, and filtering it, and ideally pairing it with fresh, real data just like youd do with any other dataset.Failing to do so could eventuallylead to model collapse, where a model becomes less creative and more biased in its outputs, eventually seriously compromising its functionality. Though this process could be identified and arrested before it gets serious, it is a risk.Researchers need to examine the generated data, iterate on the generation process, and identify safeguards to remove low-quality data points, Soldaini said. Syntheticdatapipelines are not a self-improving machine; their output must be carefully inspected and improved before being used for training.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once argued that AI will someday produce synthetic datagood enough to effectively train itself. But assuming thats even feasible the tech doesnt exist yet. No major AI lab has released a model trainedAt least for the foreseeable future, it seems well need humans in the loop somewhere to make sure a models training doesnt go awry.TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter!Sign up hereto get it in your inbox every Wednesday.Update: This story was originally published on October 23 and was updated December 24 with more information.

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Massachusetts-based industrial 3D printer manufacturer Desktop Metal has filed a lawsuit against Nano Dimension, alleging that the Israeli firm has failed to make reasonable best efforts to secure timely regulatory approval for their merger.Filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, Desktop Metal is requesting specific performance from Nano Dimension, including cooperation with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to finalize a mitigation agreement and complete the transaction within five business days of receiving approval.In addition, Desktop Metal seeks a Court declaration that Nano Dimension has not met its contractual obligations and requests injunctive relief to prevent any actions that might hinder the mergers completion. An expedited hearing is scheduled for December 30, 2024, aiming to hold a trial in January.With all other regulatory conditions met, CFIUS approval remains the final hurdle to closing the deal. Desktop Metal has reaffirmed its commitment to upholding its contractual obligations and expressed confidence in the timely completion of the transaction, provided Nano Dimension fulfills its responsibilities under the agreement.Responding to the lawsuit, Nano Dimension has described it as without merit and inconsistent with the terms of the Merger Agreement. According to Nano Dimension, Desktop Metals claims attempt to impose deadlines and obligations beyond what the agreement stipulates.Adding to that, the Israeli firm has emphasized its commitment to working through the CFIUS review process and stated its intention to vigorously defend its rights under the agreement.Events leading up to the lawsuitThe legal dispute comes amid a complex series of developments that have unfolded since the merger plan was announced in July 2024. At the time, Nano Dimension unveiled plans to acquire Desktop Metal in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $183 million, offering a 27.3% premium on Desktop Metals stock price, gaining board approval from both companies.Shortly after, Nano Dimension CEO Yoav Stern described the deal as transformative, likening it to acquiring a renovated property at a reduced price. He emphasized its potential to create a 3D printing juggernaut while also addressing Nano Dimensions 15% stake in Stratasys, calling it a strategic investment.Stern hinted at possible collaborations, referencing Stratasys past interest in merging with Desktop Metal, although it was ultimately terminated. However, the Israeli manufacturers own constant bids to acquire Stratasys werent fruitful, reflecting broader challenges in its consolidation strategy.For Nano Dimension, the Desktop Metal transaction marks a step toward creating a global leader in additive manufacturing, combining complementary technologies to drive growth. Both Fulop and Stern highlighted their commitment to scaling 3D printing from prototyping to mass production, emphasizing the mergers potential to transform the industry.Nano Dimension offices in Munich. Photo by Michael Petch.Shareholder discontent and financial challengesAlthough the deal was framed as a transformative step, the Nano Dimension-Desktop Metal merger sparked mixed reactions among shareholders. Some Desktop Metal investors expressed dissatisfaction with the terms, citing the companys significant valuation decline in recent years.Once trading at over $20 per share, Desktop Metals stock dropped to historic lows trading marginally above $4.30 per share by mid-2024, raising concerns about the fairness of the acquisition price.As these concerns unfolded, Desktop Metals financial struggles became more apparent. In Q2 2024, the company reported a 26.9% year-over-year revenue decline to $38.9 million, alongside a growing operating loss of $101.3 million.During the investor call, Fulop described the merger as essential for the companys survival, warning that failure to complete the transaction could lead to a fatal prognosis for Desktop Metal. The companys financial challenges, driven by slowing capital expenditures and rising interest rates, underscored the urgency of the proposed merger.Despite pockets of shareholder discontent, Desktop Metals stockholders approved the transaction, with over 96% of votes cast in favor. This approval marked a significant milestone, but the merger still required regulatory clearance, including approval from CFIUS.Meanwhile, Nano Dimension pursued another acquisition, announcing plans to acquire Markforged for $115 million in an all-cash deal. The successful acquisitions of Desktop Metal and Markforged aimed to solidify Nano Dimensions position in the AM sector. Together, the deals were said to generate a combined annual revenue of $340 million based on FY 2023 figures.Leadership turmoil and mounting pressuresAlongside these consolidation efforts, Nano Dimension is facing internal challenges driven by activist shareholder Murchinson. Critical of Nano Dimensions acquisition strategy and governance, the investment firm initiated a campaign in early 2023 to overhaul the companys Board of Directors.One possible explanation for the attention Nano Dimension has received from activist investors is the substantial cash balance it had accumulated prior to embarking on an M&A spree.After months of disputes and legal battles, Murchinson succeeded in removing Yoav Stern from the Board earlier this month, though Stern continues to serve as CEO. During Nano Dimensions 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM), Murchinson described the Desktop Metal and Markforged deal as overpriced and misguided, further straining the merger plans.This development has raised questions about the stability of Nano Dimensions leadership and Sterns ability to effectively execute the companys M&A strategy amid growing internal and external pressures.As the lawsuit moves forward, the future of the merger remains uncertain. Desktop Metal contends that Nano Dimension has failed to meet its contractual obligations, while Nano Dimension claims it is adhering to the terms of the agreement.If successful, the merger would create a combined entity with significant resources, including over 1,000 patents and an installed base of 8,000 3D printers, positioning it as a key player in the additive manufacturing industry.The courts decision will play a pivotal role in determining the future of this contentious transaction and the strategic trajectory of the companies.What 3D printing trends do the industry leaders anticipate this year?What does the Future of 3D printing hold for the next 10 years?To stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news, dont forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter or follow us on Twitter, or like our page on Facebook.While youre here, why not subscribe to our Youtube channel? Featuring discussion, debriefs, video shorts, and webinar replays.Featured image shows Nano Dimension 3D printed electronics. Photo by Michael Petch.

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