Mario Party is a game that can either strengthen or ruin friendships. It has always been a competitive style game, as gamers fight to see who will become the Superstar and get bragging rights over their friends or family. Over the years, several Mario Party games have been released which have experimented with different features and brought various changes in style, to say the least.

Strategy games have branched out from a niche genre in gaming, covering a wide range of settings and styles. From epic sci-fi RTS like Starcraft to isometric fantasy games like Might & Magic, there's a strategy game for any aesthetic. Some players are looking for a more down-to-earth, grounded approach to their strategy games, though.

About the Project: God Vain is an ambitious indie game exploring themes of faith, rebellion, and the blurred lines between divinity and monstrosity. The game centers on the archangel Michaels fall from grace and his crusade through a hellish, gothic city known as Abastia. Using grotesque powers to mold flesh and bone into weapons, Michael wages righteous carnage against humanitys manifested sins. The game combines viscera

Sega surprised long-suffering Virtua Fighter fans in December with the announcement of a new Virtua Fighter project otherwise (unofficially) known as Virtua Fighter 6 but kept details about its new fighting game under wraps. Now, thanks to a showing a Nvidias CES 2025 press conference, we have a better sense of what Virtua Fighter 6 will look like.Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega showed off what they called a special preview of the concept video for the new Virtua Fighter. Sega cautioned that the footage was created before official development began, and that actual gameplay and characters may differ from what is shown. What is shown is impressive, albeit limited. We see two versions of Virtua Fighter mainstay Akira Yuki squaring off against each other, looking varying degrees of disheveled. Whats impressive about the footage is how smooth and natural the animation looks. The Virtua Fighter series has always been a looker, as an early adopter of advanced 3D graphics. But the realism behind Akiras punches and kicks are astounding. Characters dodge and block strikes in a natural, dynamic fashion; we only see a few of Akiras blows landing, but they do so with an impressive weight. Its noticeably different from the floatier, flurry-of-strikes combat of current VF games, including the most recent release, Virtua Fighter 5 REVO. Whether the final game will look like this footage remains to be seen, but RGG Studio has definitely set a high bar.Virtua Fighter 6 looks graphically dazzling in other ways. The stage on which the Akiras fight is packed with detail. Both fighters kick up grime and dirt, leaving footprints in the street, and smash through objects in the environment believably. Like the developers Judgment and Like A Dragon games, expect to fight in vibrant, action-packed settings whenever VF6 comes around.Riichiro Yamada, producer and game designer on the new Virtua Fighter, said on social media that the concept video was created in about a month and that Akiras design is a prototype. But the footage certainly looks like it could fulfill Yamadas desire to provide players with a new experience.Virtua Fighter 6 doesnt yet have a release date or platforms. But dont count on it any time soon.

Several families of victims killed or injured in a 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, sued Activision Blizzard for its alleged role in chewing up alienated teenage boys and spitting out mass shooters, per the lawsuit filed in May 2024. The families look to the court to hold the company accountable for its alleged promotion of guns and violence to kids, claiming that 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos played Call of Duty obsessively. Activision Blizzard filed a response in late December invoking Californias anti-SLAPP statutes, which protect companies right to engage in creative expression.Activision Blizzards lawyers state in the response that the lawsuit is the latest attempt to revive an old playbook, echoing claims made in lawsuits filed in the aftermath of Columbine and other violent crimes. It cited several court cases that ruled creators and distributors of video games cannot, as a matter of law, be held legally responsible for school shootings or other violent crimes.SLAPP stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation, and anti-SLAPP protections are used to dismiss meritless lawsuit[s] targeting the legitimate exercise of the right to engage in truthful speech, lawful petitioning, and legal association, according to Bloomberg Law. For example, a court granted an anti-SLAPP motion to strike a negligence and liability complaint over video game addiction in 2014. Thats because courts and legislatures had previously agreed that video games should be treated as creative works subject to the First Amendment, rather than as products, legally speaking.The cause of Plaintiffs injuriesboth legally and morallyis the perpetrators violent attack. And if Plaintiffs seek to restrict artistic expression, they must make their appeal to the legislature, not the courts, Activision wrote. In this latest episode in a long series of failed attempts to censor violent entertainment (id. at p. 804), there can be only one result: the Complaint must be stricken.Throughout the 25-page response document and its accompanying materials, Activision Blizzard argues its case as to why Call of Duty should be considered artistic expression and more than just a product. Part of that argument is detailing how games and, specifically, Call of Duty are a matter of public interest: The games also tackle real-world issueslike geopolitics, how technology affects war, and the moral complexities of combatinspired by historical events, including Russias intervention in the Syrian civil war and the 2012 Benghazi attack.Activision says all of this is done using creative and artistic cinematic and literary devices, while also looking to technology to boost immersion and realism something that doesnt strip it of its First Amendment protections. If anything, cutting-edge technologies have only increased video games artistry and creativityand made them more expressively convergent with film and televisionby transporting players into rich landscapes, quickly evolving and engaging storylines, and dynamic battle scenes, the lawyers say. All Call of Duty games include realistic depictions of guns, which Activision Blizzard argues has artistic relevance to the franchise. Therefore, Activision Blizzard says, the plaintiffs dont have a basis for negligence nor product liability claims. It also argues other claims, like aiding and abetting. Several other documents were filed alongside the arguments, including a lengthy declaration from Call of Duty creative lead Patrick Kelly, which disclosed that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War cost $700 million in development, and one from University of Notre Dame media professor Thomas Payne, who outlines the cultural history of Call of Duty and military games.But attorney Katherine Mesner-Hage alleged in the original complaint that Activision, Meta (with Instagram), and gun manufacturer Daniel Defense are a three-headed monster that knowingly exposed [Ramos] to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it. Its a conversation that springs up every once in a while around tragedies such as the Uvalde shooting or with violence like the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson; with Thompsons death, some media pointed to suspect Luigi Mangiones history with video games like Among Us, despite a lack of evidence connecting the killing to the social game.The next hearing, on April 15, will decide whether the complaint is stricken due to anti-SLAPP protections.

Amid all the weird and wonderful announcements at CES 2025, there is one accessory for an Apple product that caught my eye. Remember the M4 Mac mini's awkwardly placed power button, which requires you to lift the device to power it on? It's one of the most baffling design decisions Apple has ever made. Now, accessory maker Satechi has a solution for that.The company's CES launches include the Mac Mini M4 Stand & Hub with SSD Enclosure, which has a cutout exactly where the Mac mini's power button is located. This means that you can press the power button without moving the Mac mini all that much. The dock sits flush against the base of the Mac mini, and only raises the height of the device a little bit. That, coupled with the cutout, is enough to let you easily press the power button.The Satechi dock has a USB-C cable that allows it to connect to the M4 Mac mini, which means that you'll have to sacrifice one USB port on your computer to use this dock. It also has an SSD enclosure that lets you expand your Mac mini's storage by up to 4TB. Additionally, it includes useful ports on the frontan SD card slot and three USB-A ports. (Every photographer will tell you that it's incredibly convenient to not have to contort yourself to plug in an SD card.) Satechi claims that the aluminum dock has heat-dissipating vents that keep the device cool, but those claims remain untested at the moment.This Satechi dock is scheduled to release in Spring 2025; there's no price for it yet. If it's priced well and works as advertised, then it may offer a nice alternative way to upgrade the storage on the new M4 Mac mini. Now, someone: Please make something as elegant to let me charge Apple's Magic Mouse.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.If youve got a sliding door in your home, or even a regular window, youre probably familiar with the dirt and grime that has a tendency to gunk up the track. Cleaning that track might not be a regular priority, but when it starts slowing down the door (or causing it to stick altogether), its time to tackle the job. Luckily, its a fairly easy taskheres what youll need to do.What you need to clean a sliding door track You dont need special tools or expensive cleaners to get in between the metal tracks of your sliding door. Instead, just use hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to lift the dirt and clean the track without any scrubbing. The items you need are: Hydrogen peroxideBaking sodaA microfiber cloth or paper towelsA vacuum cleanerSteps to cleaning the sliding door track Vacuum the track firstFirst, grab your handheld vacuum (or a vacuum with a hose attachment) and vacuum out any loose, visible dirt. Larger vacuum attachments aren't great for this, especially if you have a really small track or one with a bunch of levels and components inside. If that's the case, grab a cardboard tube, the kind you're left with when you run out of toilet paper. You just stick it to the end of your vacuum hose or stick like you would any other attachment, as shown in this Instagram Reel from A Clean Bee. Bend the unattached edge of the roll to make a slit and shove it into the small space. It works really well for pulling dirt out of crevices and, since you can manipulate the cardboard easily, you have control over how precise you can be.Pull up dirt that is stuck deeper down in the trackOnce you've gotten the large bits of dirt out of the way with the vacuum, you need to take on any crusty, caked-on, or smaller debris deeper in the sliding door track. Take your baking soda and sprinkle a fine layer of powder to thoroughly cover the track. Next, grab your hydrogen peroxide and pour it onto the metal track, over the powder, and let it sit for five to 10 minutes. The baking soda and hydrogen peroxide combination will create a reaction that pushes all dirt, seen and unseen, right to the top. Clear everything out to fully clean the sliding door trackAfter the dirt has lifted, you'll see it; the mixture you created will look pretty funky. Take a cleaning cloth or paper towel and wipe down the track, taking care to fold it small enough that you can really stuff it in the grooves. You can use a little water to rinse and remove any leftover residue, if needed. Finish off by using a dry paper towel or rag to dry the track out, since the last thing you want is to create new layers of residue and gunk on what you just cleaned.

The start of the new year is a perfect time to resolve to max out contributions to your retirement accounts before April. You should work IRA contributionstraditional or Rothinto your budget all year long. In 2025, if you're under age 50, you can contribute up to $7,000 across one or more IRAs. If you're age 50 or older, the limit is $8,000. And the sooner you can invest your IRA money, the more time it has to potentially grow through compounding. So while you should grow your nest egg consistently throughout the year, there is a best time of year to put money into your IRA, and it's right now. Why you should contribute to your traditional or Roth IRA right nowYou can make an IRA contribution for a given year anytime between Jan. 1 and the tax-filing deadline of the following year (usually April 15). So, technically, you can keep making 2024 IRA contributions until April 15, 2025but I don't recommend it. Not when you can instead start making 2025 IRA contributions for an April 15, 2026 deadline. By making your IRA contribution in January or February, that money can be invested and start accumulating potential returns right away. The extra months compounding could make a big difference. Consistency is keyeven small, regular contributions add up over decades.Remember, you can make contributions any time throughout the year. Some other good times to consider adding money to your retirement account include:After a bonus or tax refund. Got an influx of cash from a work bonus or tax refund? Consider putting some or all of it into your IRA to give your retirement savings a healthy boost. The first few months of the year is often when people receive lump sums that can be put straight into retirement accounts.When you get a raise. If your salary goes up, consider putting all or part of that raise toward increasing your retirement contributions. This can be a relatively painless way to boost your IRA contributions over time without noticeably impacting your take-home pay.By the tax deadline. You technically have until your tax filing deadline (usually April 15) to make IRA contributions for the previous year. Try to make contributions by this date.If nothing else, right now is a fresh start for savings goals. A new year brings a clean slate for reaching your financial targets. By front-loading your IRA contribution for the year, you take advantage of momentum and enthusiasm for saving money in 2024. And motivation hacks asidemathematically, contributing early in the year gives your investment more time to potentially grow.The bottom lineTry to make IRA contributions early in the calendar year if you can. The sooner you get your money into the account, the sooner it can start growing tax-deferred. Making your contribution in January, February or March maximizes the amount of time your money is invested.When it comes to retirement, the key is to start saving early (compound interest rules!) and use a mix of accounts to build your retirement funds. Here are our guides to opening an IRA and opening a 401(k).

It turns out that Roborock isnt the only company that brought a robot vacuum with a mechanical arm to CES 2025. Rival company Dreame, which unveiled its stair-climbing robot vacuum earlier in the week, is also working on a robot vacuum with an arm for picking up objects.The device is still a prototype, according to the company, but the as yet unnamed robo vac was on full display at Dreames CES booth. Considering its still a prototype, the actual arm looked far more substantial compared to the one on Roborocks Saros Z70. It was much thicker and had a bigger claw that looked like it might be able to pick up slightly heavier objects. (Roborock says its vac can pick up object that weigh up to 300 grams.)Plot Twist: Dreame also brought a robo vac with an retractable arm to CES pic.twitter.com/dLPGC135k5 Karissa Bell (@karissabe) January 8, 2025 Unfortunately, Dreame wasnt showing it actually grab anything, but I was able to watch the arm extend and retract several times. It appeared to be on a similar device as the X50 as the prototype vacuum also rocked up onto legs, much like Dreame's stair-stepping X50.A Dreame rep at the booth told me that the company has been working on the prototype for a while, but decided to accelerate its plans for the vacuum at CES. After a quick glance up, I knew exactly what he was referring to: Dreames booth is positioned directly across from Roborock, which was displaying a massive replica of its arm-wielding Saros Z70 on top of its booth.Maybe next year we'll see the two robot vacuum arm wrestle.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/more-than-one-company-brought-a-robot-vacuum-with-a-mechanical-arm-to-ces-2025-014056459.html?src=rss

We may no longer be at the height of the tiny home craze, but the idea of a resource-light, efficiently built home that can be plonked down just about anywhere still appeals. Today at CES, I got to tour the 2025 model of the microhaus Pro from California-based Haus. It was shiny, swankily appointed and, honestly, not as expensive as I thought it'd be. The interior of the 120-square foot unit is all wood tones, glass and soft neutrals. It's like you took a shipping container and replaced the hard lines and corrugated steel with rounded corners and floor-to-ceiling windows. The surfaces glint and every part of the space is maximized with an Ikea-like small-space efficiency, like the queen-sized Murphy bed that folds up to reveal a table and two bench seats. The kitchen has a small fridge, microwave and included in the price is a full suite of Villeroy & Boch dishware and there's a full-sized shower in the bathroom. The units truly can go just about anywhere with no site preparation required if the ground is flat, it'll work. The microhaus Pro is also climate agnostic, with the ability to set up in snowy forests, hot deserts and temperate beaches (though hot and cold climate packages are about $10,00 extra each). It's also seismic California fire code and CAT-5 hurricane compliant. Amy Skorheim / Engadget Installation takes usually under an hour and doesn't require any special hook ups a garden hose and an extension cord is all it needs. And thanks to its size, it falls below the size threshold that would require a permit. The included 3.6 kWh battery can run everything in the home for four days and there's an optional atmospheric water generation and a battery life of four days. Drinking water is reverse osmosis filtered and the waste disposal system "melts" everything into liquid, which can be run out an extendable pipe you can connect to septic or a holding tank. The Pro model also features high-end perks like voice control via the Apple HomePod mounted to the wall. During my tour, Max Gerbut, Haus's CEO asked Siri to lower the shades, and it complied. You also get the full package, dishes, towels et cetera I even saw a drawer full of M&Ms in the kitchen and was assured you get those too. The Pro model is a more deluxe and robust edition meant for Airbnb and rental use and goes for $89,99. If you don't need the smart home features, the battery backup and the included dishes, you can grab the microhaus Lite for $59,990. There's also a $35,000 shell version that includes just the HVAC system, lights, wiring, bathroom fixtures and plumbing. One thing none of the microhaus models include is solar generation. For that, you'll need to switch up to the 400 and 800 square-foot units. Those have the same put-it-anywhere convenience but are fully autonomous and go for $199,000 and $299,000, respectively. Note that none of the prices include delivery. It's true none of these prices are small numbers. But I've helped build yurts, tiny homes and sheds. I've lived in more than one hand-built home and have looked into many other modular, pre-fab options. Comparatively, these prices aren't terribly high, especially when you consider there's nearly no site prep, no installation and no contractor required. The microhaus Pro is available to order now from the Haus website. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/at-ces-2025-i-toured-the-haus-microhaus-pro-a-self-contained-living-pod-you-can-put-just-about-anywhere-011604860.html?src=rss