NieR: Automata rewards players heavily for playing aggressively and quickly taking out their enemies before they even get the chance to attack. That being said, there are multiple ways to counter incoming attacks, with the lesser-known one being counter.

Take a trip to Tokyo's most famous fictional district, and the not-so-fictional restaurants, products, and clubs in Like A Dragon's Kamurocho!

With there being well over 9000 video games based on Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga and subsequent anime, narrowing down the list to the best titles of all time is far from an easy feat. Admittedly, this is less about being spoiled for choice and more a case of there just being a ton of mediocre Dragon Ball games that barely try to stick out from the crowd.

While fans eagerly anticipate Grand Theft Auto 6, players are still getting plenty of mileage out of the games predecessor. Rockstar is continuing to provide official updates for GTA Online, and players are building their own role-play servers set in San Andreas. These servers players build their own cultures, implementing homebrewed mechanics and new ways to role-play. One of these servers is PurpleRP, which recently launched a 1.0 update that includes racing and boosting systems, housing and property, agriculture, drugs, and turf systems. The server currently hosts hundreds of players every day.GTA Online lets players dabble in a dozen professions, from a humble taxi driver to a prestigious nightclub owner. But none of these lifestyles provide much in the way of depth; theyre essentially just an excuse to undertake new missions. On role-play servers, a players career is a big deal: Cops go out on patrol with their partners, criminals join gangs to plan heists or go to war with a rival syndicate, and a variety of citizens work at shops, run agencies, and found their own companies.PurpleRP offers unique mechanics for medical services, the department of justice, auto mechanics, and other professions. There are also custom NPCs hanging out around this version of San Andreas, giving out tasks to passing players like washing nearby cars or completing race challenges.These custom servers offer a very different experience to GTA Online, with an emphasis on player property, creative expression, and building a progressive narrative. They feel like broader versions of a Sims game, with plenty of crossover into the realm of cops and robbers. While theres obviously the abstract role-play youd expect on such servers, there are also mechanics taken from action RPGs.While FiveM, a popular mod, serves as a broad framework, developers are able to write their own scripts and develop their own internal systems. For instance, players can earn profession points, which allow them to excel at a particular field like scavenging, hunting, cooking, or carpentry. Criminals start with petty crime, but slowly build experience to access greater heists. Players can rent apartments and slowly save up to buy new homes, which they can then decorate and use as backdrops for domestic role-play.Even though we can expect Grand Theft Auto 6 to arrive later this year, volunteer developers and a community of players continue to invest their time in ongoing experiences like PurpleRP. These worlds have taken on lives of their own, and theyre growing increasingly sophisticated.Rockstar clearly sees the promise in role-play servers, because the company acquired FiveM, the mod that enables players to run their own role-play servers, in 2023. We dont know what the future of that deal looks like, but fan developers are already building their own versions of large-scale role-play environments, and it seems likely that Rockstar will take inspiration from these bustling communities.

Happy New Year, Polygon readers! 2024 is dead and gone; long live 2025, or at least for the next *glares at calendar* 361 days.The year is starting off strong with a ton of highly anticipated theatrical releases, including Steven Soderberghs Presence, Leigh Whannells Wolf Man, and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. If youre looking for something to watch from the comfort of your home, though, theres just as many options to choose from, if not more! This month, weve got a Christopher Nolan masterpiece that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, Paul Thomas Andersons breakthrough debut starring Mark Wahlberg and Burt Reynolds, and arguably the best Batman movie ever made.Lets dive in and see what this month has in store!Editors pick: InterstellarGenre:Sci-fi dramaDirector: Christopher NolanCast:Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica ChastainIts been a decade since the initial, wildly successful release of Interstellar. Now, just a few weeks after its return to theaters in IMAX and 70mm, its on Netflix for you to enjoy as many times as you want. But if you havent seen it recently, and you missed the theatrical revival, you should still revisit Nolans galactic masterpiece.There are plenty of great reasons to give Interstellar another look, including the fact that its probably even better than you remember it being. But in the years since Oppenheimer, its become clear that Interstellar marks an interesting midpoint in Nolans career. The director has always been fascinated with time, but this is the first point in his career where he really starts to examine how time affects the humanity of his characters. Its a much more mature and dramatic approach to the concept than movies like Inception, but its also a critical experiment on the road to making his Best Picture-winning biopic too. Austen GoslinNew on NetflixMelancholia Genre:Sci-fi dramaDirector: Lars von TrierCast:Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander SkarsgrdLars von Triers Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette) as Justine, a young bride who experiences a depressive episode on the eve of her wedding. When a rogue planet known as Melancholia appears hurtling toward Earth on a collision course, Justines sister Claire struggles to maintain composure in the face of imminent disaster, while Justine navigates a strange euphoric resignation that washes over her in the planets last days. Melancholia is an achingly beautiful, somber, and harrowing journey through depression and ennui and one of von Triers finest films to date. Toussaint EganNew on HuluHeatGenre:Heist dramaDirector: Michael MannCast:Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Tom SizemoreMichael Manns 1995 crime thriller stars Al Pacino as Vincent Hanna, an eccentric and hyper-competent police detective caught in a tense cat-and-mouse struggle, and Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, a career criminal. Its a film made of moments and set-pieces that could comprise an entire third-act finale in a lesser movie. Here, they exist in a triumphant assemblage of carefully interlocking components, working in concert with the precision of a Swiss timepiece.Pacino and De Niro deliver two of their greatest performances as a pair of obsessive workaholics whose razor-sharp proficiency at their trades comes at the cost of all they otherwise love or hold dear. Dante Spinottis cinematography transforms the vast cityscape of Los Angeles into a shimmering expanse of lights strobing across the surface of a sea of pitch darkness, a den of moral inequity from which no soul emerges wholly clean or unscathed. TENew on MaxBatman: Mask of the PhantasmGenre: Superhero dramaDirectors: Eric Radomski, Bruce TimmCast: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Dana DelanyBatman: Mask of the Phantasm is one of the greatest Batman films of all time, full stop. Initially produced by Batman: The Animated Series producers Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm as a direct-to-video feature before being released in theaters, 1993s Mask of the Phantasm pits the Dark Knight against a mysterious new enemy alongside his longtime nemesis the Joker. The film probes at the inherent tragedy and history of the character with a level of nuance and depth that few subsequent incarnations (live-action or otherwise) have successfully attempted since, conjuring a portrait of fatalistic loss and heartbreak that endures to this day. TENew on Prime VideoBoogie NightsGenre: DramaDirector: Paul Thomas AndersonCast:Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt ReynoldsTheres no other movie quite like Boogie Nights. Paul Thomas Andersons 70s-set epic is at once one of the funniest movies ever made, and one of the most tragic.The film follows nearly a dozen characters in and around the adult film industry just as the advent of mass-produced home video took over the old-world artistry that made them fall in love with the industry in the first place. Anderson presents each of these characters, and their complications and flaws, with care and love, building a beautiful world of found family and the occasional tragedy that can only come as one era of art gives way to another. AGNew on Criterion ChannelMinority ReportGenre: Sci-fi actionDirector: Steven SpielbergCast:Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha MortonThis is a slightly complicated recommendation, not because theres anything wrong with Minority Report, but rather because its the perfect jumping-off point to recommend an entire series of movies thats being highlighted on Criterion Channel this month: Surveillance Cinema. This Criterion feature is all about the surveillance state and characters who have a sneaking suspicion theyre being watched. It includes an excellent mix of absolute classics (THX 1138, The Conversation, Body Double, Gattaca, The Truman Show) and movies you may not have seen before (The Anderson Tapes, Death Watch, Sliver, The End of Violence, and Demonlover).Also included in this series is Steven Spielbergs Minority Report, and what better place to start when talking about surveillance? This paranoid thriller follows John Anderton (Tom Cruise) in a near future where nearly all crime is prevented via predictions from a few state-kept individuals with psychic powers. However, when the system accuses John of a pre-crime, he wonders whether or not his societys justice system is entirely fair or not and sets off to prove his innocence. AG

Microsoft has published a lengthy piece talking about its vision for artificial intelligence development over the next four years, under the incoming Trump administration. In the piece, the company has revealed that it's spending a total of $80 billion on AI-enabled data centers in 2025. Microsoft said it's building out the data centers to be able to train and deploy AI models, as well as to power its cloud-based applications. While that's the entirety of its budget for projects around the world, more than half of it will go towards building data centers in the United States.The company explained that none of the progress on AI the industry has achieved thus far would be possible "without new partnerships founded on large-scale infrastructure investments." It's now calling for the incoming Trump administration to expand the government's support for the advancement of AI within the US, such as providing the National Science Foundation and US universities more funding for research.Microsoft admitted in the piece that it knows AI will "disrupt the economy and displace some jobs," but it also said its "confidence has grown that AI will create new opportunities that will outweigh many of the challenges ahead." The key, Microsoft explained, is to train Americans so that they'd be able to use AI as a tool for their jobs, similar to how they're currently using smartphones and laptops. Finally, it said that the third critical priority for 2025 is the promotion of American AI exports. There will be a race between the United States and China to spread their technologies to other countries, so the US needs a smart strategy because the race "will be won by the fastest first mover."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-is-spending-80-billion-on-data-centers-this-year-130016150.html?src=rss

Here are all of the TV shows and movies that'll be released on Apple TV Plus before January 31.

Nows the perfect time to curl up with a great movie or binge watch a new TV show, and Prime Video has something for everyone.

The GTA 6 launch is on track to be one of the biggest ever.

Want more housing market stories from Lance LambertsResiClubin your inbox?Subscribeto theResiClubnewsletter.Since the pandemic housing boom fizzled out in 2022, the number of unsold completed new homes has been on a steady climb. The number of unsold completed new single-family homes in October 2024 (113,000) was the highest level since August 2009 (118,000)although still far below the all-time high in September 2007 (194,000).This raises the question: Is rising standing inventory simply a sign that the new construction market is normalizing after a historic pandemic housing boom, or do buildersparticularly in areas where unsold inventory is increasing the mostneed to make further affordability adjustments, such as cutting prices or offering greater incentives?To get a better understanding, ResiClub rounded up three different perspectives explaining what the rise in unsold completed new home inventory means.Click here to view an interactive version of the chart below.1. Meritage Homes CEO says theyre building more spec inventory because theyre expecting a strong 2025 spring market.Speaking on CNBC in December, Phillippe Lord, CEO of publicly-traded homebuilder Meritage Homes, said that rising new home inventory isnt bearish for builders.Inventory is definitely up across all the markets, both existing home inventory is slowly coming back and then new home construction is definitely up as wellbut thats really intentional by all of us [homebuilders], Lord told CNBC. We still see an opportunity to fill that void [not enough existing home supply] by providing move-in ready inventory for all these customers that cant find that inventory in the existing home market, which is traditionally where they shop. So, a lot of new home builders are building more speculative inventory to really fill that void, and were all expecting a strong spring [2025] selling season based on what were seeing today.2. Housing analyst Kevin Erdmann thinks its a bullishnot bearishsign for builders.Most of the time, the number of completed homes for sale rises because there is demand for them. That has never been more true than it is today, Erdmann, who publishes the Erdmann Housing Tracker, tells ResiClub. Normally, we might worry that at the end of a cycle, declining sales will lead to one last, unsustainable increase in completed homes for sale. In todays market, builders need to keep working to add more completed home inventory so that sales can increase. Rising inventory is bullish [here]. 3. High standing inventory could prompt builders to offer discounts or slow down activity in Texas and Florida, suggests housing analyst Rick Palacios Jr.Homebuilders are heading into 2025 with the highest standing inventory since 2010. Elevated mortgage rates, more resale competition, and the new home industrys push toward spec construction are all contributing forces, Palacios Jr., director of research at John Burns Research and Consulting, wrote on LinkedIn last month. Standing inventory varies locally, with Florida, the Southeast, and Texas all at cycle highs according to our survey work, he writes. These three regions represent the meat of the new home market, so any strategic slowing of single-family starts due to this shifting supply backdrop will have major implications for overall industry growth numbers. Were already seeing single-family starts activity cool more than expected seasonally through November.