Brazilian solo dev Rod3dArt has shown us the unique way to launch himself into 2025, using a clip showing fun interactions from his upcoming cartoonish shooter, CannonHead.Upon landing on a giant machine stage, the protagonist character, CannonHead, accompanied by a mecha turtle, decides to wave bye with its stylish running on its tire feet. Then, CannonHead decides to travel and selects one of the four destinations from the transparent crystal ball under the turtles back shell. The giant stage suddenly turns into a flying object, which takes them towards a bright sky.This solo project, inspired by 1920s animations and featuring intense combat and immersive exploration, has received a Steam page where it explains its major features: Explore unique worlds, recruit companions, and discover new weapons to face powerful enemies. Speaking of the enemies, one showcased earlier was a barrel that would fight back with its circular saw hands after being hit by the cannons. R3D R3DWe now could learn more about the story behind this third-person shooter. Your adventure begins with an escape from the boss, who was unhappy with your unusual way of quitting. It sounds like this is going to be an interesting running away.Rod3dArt also teases that a Discord channel will soon be launched. It could work as a great source of communication about the progress of development. Before its ready, lets have some fun watching the published demos on the developers X/Twitter:Dont forget to join our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads,where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post A Fun Clip That Shows How This Indie Dev Launch Himself to 2025 appeared first on CG SHARES.

Have a look a this impressive Houdini-powered procedural generator capable of creating skeletons and muscles for 3D creature models, showcased by Technical Artist Sahar Yousefi over on LinkedIn.According to Sahar, the idea of creating a procedural creature came to her nearly a year ago, which inspired her to study animal anatomy before starting the project. A few months ago, the projects pipeline was established, and Sahar developed procedural tools to generate skeletons, bones, and muscles from scratch. However, due to university and work commitments, the project was put on hold.Now, months later, Sahar has revisited the project and shared a quick demo video showcasing the real-time generation of muscles for a small section of the legs, highlighting the muscle generator in particular. Its a bittersweet moment. This project holds a special place in my heart, and I believe it has a lot of potential, yet I know I cant dedicate as much time to it as Id like due to my demanding schedule, the artist noted.Going forward, Sahar aims to make further progress with the project and enhance the setup by adding a procedural rig, since the skeleton base is already prepared, as shown in the video. Be sure to follow the artist on LinkedIn to stay updated on any future developments.Dont forget to join our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post This Procedural Generator Can Create 3D Skeletons & Muscles appeared first on CG SHARES.

The Hobbit: Tolkien Illustrated Deluxe Edition $97.50 (was $195) See at Amazon The Hobbit's Deluxe Special Edition has received its biggest discount yet since its October release. Like the Tolkien Illustrated Special Editions of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, The Hobbit carries a hefty price tag--$195 to be exact--but right now you can nab a copy from Amazon for $97.50. The 50% discount is by far the best deal we've seen so far for this gorgeous and ultra-premium version of Tolkien's Prelude to The Lord of the Rings. See at Amazon The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated: Special EditionThe Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated: Special EditionThis Special Edition has numerous unique features not found in the (very nice) standard edition--which is $43.64 (was $75)-- published by William Morrow in 2023. You'll get two fold-out, poster-sized maps of Thror's Map and the Wilderland, an 88-page illustrated booklet, an art card reproduction of the painting Tolkien made for The Hobbit's original dust jacket, a redesigned cover with a premium binding, and a clothbound slipcase to protect your expensive book. The ribbed binding around the spine is made of green leather, while the rest is black cloth board with foil-stamped cover art and text. The standard edition has blue stained edges, but the Special Edition switches to gold page edges, adding to the luxurious aesthetic.Continue Reading at GameSpot

In more than a few ways, Assassin's Creed Shadows feels like two different eras of the franchise trying to fit into the same experience. Two different playable protagonists let you choose between a more stealth-action approach or a pure action approach, for example, and before you start playing, you must pick whether the story will be driven by dialogue choices or follow the canonical timeline (which omits choices from dialogue). It's as if Ubisoft Quebec is attempting to squeeze together both of the experiences of the past two Assassin's Creed games it helmed: Syndicate and Odyssey. It results in what feels like a hybrid beast of an Assassin's Creed that I largely enjoyed playing for six hours. However, there are parts of the experience in which it seems like Shadows is straining to keep both sides of the equation happy.The introduction of a canon mode feels like the most clear-cut example of this, as it adds a means by which players can forgo all roleplaying choices and see Shadows' story play out as Ubisoft Quebec intends--basically how Assassin's Creed worked prior to Odyssey."Yeah, [canon mode] came from the fans," game director Charles Benoit told me. "We're the first that brought the choices in the dialogue [in Odyssey]. In Odyssey, we had a mixed reception. The core fan said, 'We're in the Animus. History is predefined--why do you have choices?' But, in another way, we have an RPG and it's cool to have the roleplay. So [for Shadows], we made it so the fan that wants to have the true story [can], while keeping the cool thing about roleplaying choices."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Many Manhwa series, like Solo Leveling and Tower of God, have already transcended the barriers of trans-media, and have reached anime status. Doing that is 50% merit, and 50% good luck. A series needs to find the right producer that understands the potential, and make a decent offer to the author to elevate it to a wider audience.

During the 2024 Triple-I Initiative Showcase, the Seattle-based studio Mega Crit announced Slay the Spire 2, the long-awaited follow-up to the hit roguelike deck builder that came out in 2019. The teaser trailer for the game that was shown at this event wasn't that informative, since it was just a brief animated short that revealed only a few new characters. Surprisingly, there was no hint of gameplay in the trailer, either. Although Mega Crit did share some images of Slay the Spire 2's gameplay in a press release at the time, the company remained mostly tight-lipped about its next big title.

Businesses across every industry are rolling out AI services this year. For Microsoft, Oracle, Perplexity, Snap and hundreds of other leading companies, using the NVIDIA AI inference platform a full stack comprising world-class silicon, systems and software is the key to delivering high-throughput and low-latency inference and enabling great user experiences while lowering cost.NVIDIAs advancements in inference software optimization and the NVIDIA Hopper platform are helping industries serve the latest generative AI models, delivering excellent user experiences while optimizing total cost of ownership. The Hopper platform also helps deliver up to 15x more energy efficiency for inference workloads compared to previous generations.AI inference is notoriously difficult, as it requires many steps to strike the right balance between throughput and user experience.But the underlying goal is simple: generate more tokens at a lower cost. Tokens represent words in a large language model (LLM) system and with AI inference services typically charging for every million tokens generated, this goal offers the most visible return on AI investments and energy used per task.Full-stack software optimization offers the key to improving AI inference performance and achieving this goal.Cost-Effective User ThroughputBusinesses are often challenged with balancing the performance and costs of inference workloads. While some customers or use cases may work with an out-of-the-box or hosted model, others may require customization. NVIDIA technologies simplify model deployment while optimizing cost and performance for AI inference workloads. In addition, customers can experience flexibility and customizability with the models they choose to deploy.NVIDIA NIM microservices, NVIDIA Triton Inference Server and the NVIDIA TensorRT library are among the inference solutions NVIDIA offers to suit users needs:NVIDIA NIM inference microservices are prepackaged and performance-optimized for rapidly deploying AI foundation models on any infrastructure cloud, data centers, edge or workstations.NVIDIA Triton Inference Server, one of the companys most popular open-source projects, allows users to package and serve any model regardless of the AI framework it was trained on.NVIDIA TensorRT is a high-performance deep learning inference library that includes runtime and model optimizations to deliver low-latency and high-throughput inference for production applications.Available in all major cloud marketplaces, the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform includes all these solutions and provides enterprise-grade support, stability, manageability and security.With the framework-agnostic NVIDIA AI inference platform, companies save on productivity, development, and infrastructure and setup costs. Using NVIDIA technologies can also boost business revenue by helping companies avoid downtime and fraudulent transactions, increase e-commerce shopping conversion rates and generate new, AI-powered revenue streams.Cloud-Based LLM InferenceTo ease LLM deployment, NVIDIA has collaborated closely with every major cloud service provider to ensure that the NVIDIA inference platform can be seamlessly deployed in the cloud with minimal or no code required. NVIDIA NIM is integrated with cloud-native services such as:Amazon SageMaker AI, Amazon Bedrock Marketplace, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes ServiceGoogle Clouds Vertex AI, Google Kubernetes EngineMicrosoft Azure AI Foundry coming soon, Azure Kubernetes ServiceOracle Cloud Infrastructures data science tools, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Kubernetes EnginePlus, for customized inference deployments, NVIDIA Triton Inference Server is deeply integrated into all major cloud service providers.For example, using the OCI Data Science platform, deploying NVIDIA Triton is as simple as turning on a switch in the command line arguments during model deployment, which instantly launches an NVIDIA Triton inference endpoint.Similarly, with Azure Machine Learning, users can deploy NVIDIA Triton either with no-code deployment through the Azure Machine Learning Studio or full-code deployment with Azure Machine Learning CLI. AWS provides one-click deployment for NVIDIA NIM from SageMaker Marketplace and Google Cloud provides a one-click deployment option on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Google Cloud provides a one-click deployment option on Google Kubernetes Engine, while AWS offers NVIDIA Triton on its AWS Deep Learning containers.The NVIDIA AI inference platform also uses popular communication methods for delivering AI predictions, automatically adjusting to accommodate the growing and changing needs of users within a cloud-based infrastructure.From accelerating LLMs to enhancing creative workflows and transforming agreement management, NVIDIAs AI inference platform is driving real-world impact across industries. Learn how collaboration and innovation are enabling the organizations below to achieve new levels of efficiency and scalability.Serving 400 Million Search Queries Monthly With Perplexity AIPerplexity AI, an AI-powered search engine, handles over 435 million monthly queries. Each query represents multiple AI inference requests. To meet this demand, the Perplexity AI team turned to NVIDIA H100 GPUs, Triton Inference Server and TensorRT-LLM.Supporting over 20 AI models, including Llama 3 variations like 8B and 70B, Perplexity processes diverse tasks such as search, summarization and question-answering. By using smaller classifier models to route tasks to GPU pods, managed by NVIDIA Triton, the company delivers cost-efficient, responsive service under strict service level agreements.Through model parallelism, which splits LLMs across GPUs, Perplexity achieved a threefold cost reduction while maintaining low latency and high accuracy. This best-practice framework demonstrates how IT teams can meet growing AI demands, optimize total cost of ownership and scale seamlessly with NVIDIA accelerated computing.Reducing Response Times With Recurrent Drafter (ReDrafter)Open-source research advancements are helping to democratize AI inference. Recently, NVIDIA incorporated Redrafter, an open-source approach to speculative decoding published by Apple, into NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM.ReDrafter uses smaller draft modules to predict tokens in parallel, which are then validated by the main model. This technique significantly reduces response times for LLMs, particularly during periods of low traffic.Transforming Agreement Management With DocusignDocusign, a leader in digital agreement management, turned to NVIDIA to supercharge its Intelligent Agreement Management platform. With over 1.5 million customers globally, Docusign needed to optimize throughput and manage infrastructure expenses while delivering AI-driven insights.NVIDIA Triton provided a unified inference platform for all frameworks, accelerating time to market and boosting productivity by transforming agreement data into actionable insights. Docusigns adoption of the NVIDIA inference platform underscores the positive impact of scalable AI infrastructure on customer experiences and operational efficiency.NVIDIA Triton makes our lives easier, said Alex Zakhvatov, senior product manager at Docusign. We no longer need to deploy bespoke, framework-specific inference servers for our AI models. We leverage Triton as a unified inference server for all AI frameworks and also use it to identify the right production scenario to optimize cost- and performance-saving engineering efforts.Enhancing Customer Care in Telco With AmdocsAmdocs, a leading provider of software and services for communications and media providers, built amAIz, a domain-specific generative AI platform for telcos as an open, secure, cost-effective and LLM-agnostic framework. Amdocs is using NVIDIA DGX Cloud and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software to provide solutions based on commercially available LLMs as well as domain-adapted models, enabling service providers to build and deploy enterprise-grade generative AI applications.Using NVIDIA NIM, Amdocs reduced the number of tokens consumed for deployed use cases by up to 60% in data preprocessing and 40% in inferencing, offering the same level of accuracy with a significantly lower cost per token, depending on various factors and volumes used. The collaboration also reduced query latency by approximately 80%, ensuring that end users experience near real-time responses. This acceleration enhances user experiences across commerce, customer service, operations and beyond.Revolutionizing Retail With AI on SnapShopping for the perfect outfit has never been easier, thanks to Snaps Screenshop feature. Integrated into Snapchat, this AI-powered tool helps users find fashion items seen in photos. NVIDIA Triton played a pivotal role in enabling Screenshops pipeline, which processes images using multiple frameworks, including TensorFlow and PyTorch.Snaps Screenshop AI workflow.By consolidating its pipeline onto a single inference serving platform, Snap significantly reduced development time and costs while ensuring seamless deployment of updated models. The result is a frictionless user experience powered by AI.We didnt want to deploy bespoke inference serving platforms for our Screenshop pipeline, a TF-serving platform for TensorFlow and a TorchServe platform for PyTorch, explained Ke Ma, a machine learning engineer at Snap. Tritons framework-agnostic design and support for multiple backends like TensorFlow, PyTorch and ONNX was very compelling. It allowed us to serve our end-to-end pipeline using a single inference serving platform, which reduces our inference serving costs and the number of developer days needed to update our models in production.Following the successful launch of the Screenshop service on NVIDIA Triton, Ma and his team turned to NVIDIA TensorRT to further enhance their systems performance. By applying the default NVIDIA TensorRT settings during the compilation process, the Screenshop team immediately saw a 3x surge in throughput, estimated to deliver a staggering 66% cost reduction.Financial Freedom Powered by AI With WealthsimpleWealthsimple, a Canadian investment platform managing over C$30 billion in assets, redefined its approach to machine learning with NVIDIAs AI inference platform. By standardizing its infrastructure, Wealthsimple slashed model delivery time from months to under 15 minutes, eliminating downtime and empowering teams to deliver machine learning as a service.By adopting NVIDIA Triton and running its models through AWS, Wealthsimple achieved 99.999% uptime, ensuring seamless predictions for over 145 million transactions annually. This transformation highlights how robust AI infrastructure can revolutionize financial services.NVIDIAs AI inference platform has been the linchpin in our organizations ML success story, revolutionizing our model deployment, reducing downtime and enabling us to deliver unparalleled service to our clients, said Mandy Gu, senior software development manager at Wealthsimple.Elevating Creative Workflows With Lets EnhanceAI-powered image generation has transformed creative workflows and can be applied to enterprise use cases such as creating personalized content and imaginative backgrounds for marketing visuals. While diffusion models are powerful tools for enhancing creative workflows, the models can be computationally expensive.To optimize its workflows using the Stable Diffusion XL model in production, Lets Enhance, a pioneering AI startup, chose the NVIDIA AI inference platform.Product images with backgrounds created using Lets Enhance platform powered by SDXL.Lets Enhances latest product, AI Photoshoot, uses the SDXL model to transform plain product photos into beautiful visual assets for e-commerce websites and marketing campaigns.With NVIDIA Tritons robust support for various frameworks and backends, coupled with its dynamic batching feature set, Lets Enhance was able to seamlessly integrate the SDXL model into existing AI pipelines with minimal involvement from engineering teams, freeing up their time for research and development efforts.Accelerating Cloud-Based Vision AI With OCIOracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) integrated NVIDIA Triton to power its Vision AI service, enhancing prediction throughput by up to 76% and reducing latency by 51%. These optimizations improved customer experiences with applications including automating toll billing for transit agencies and streamlining invoice recognition for global businesses.With Tritons hardware-agnostic capabilities, OCI has expanded its AI services portfolio, offering robust and efficient solutions across its global data centers.Our AI platform is Triton-aware for the benefit of our customers, said Tzvi Keisar, a director of product management for OCIs data science service, which handles machine learning for Oracles internal and external users.Real-Time Contextualized Intelligence and Search Efficiency With MicrosoftAzure offers one of the widest and broadest selections of virtual machines powered and optimized by NVIDIA AI. These virtual machines encompass multiple generations of NVIDIA GPUs, including NVIDIA Blackwell and NVIDIA Hopper systems.Building on this rich history of engineering collaboration, NVIDIA GPUs and NVIDIA Triton now help accelerate AI inference in Copilot for Microsoft 365. Available as a dedicated physical keyboard key on Windows PCs, Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of LLMs with proprietary enterprise data to deliver real-time contextualized intelligence, enabling users to enhance their creativity, productivity and skills.Microsoft Bing also used NVIDIA inference solutions to address challenges including latency, cost and speed. By integrating NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM techniques, Microsoft significantly improved inference performance for its Deep Search feature, which powers optimized web results.Deep search walkthrough courtesy of MicrosoftMicrosoft Bing Visual Search enables people around the world to find content using photographs as queries. The heart of this capability is Microsofts TuringMM visual embedding model that maps images and text into a shared high-dimensional space. Because it operates on billions of images across the web, performance is critical.Microsoft Bing optimized the TuringMM pipeline using NVIDIA TensorRT and NVIDIA acceleration libraries including CV-CUDA and nvImageCodec. These efforts resulted in a 5.13x speedup and significant TCO reduction.Unlocking the Full Potential of AI Inference With Hardware InnovationImproving the efficiency of AI inference workloads is a multifaceted challenge that demands innovative technologies across hardware and software.NVIDIA GPUs are at the forefront of AI enablement, offering high efficiency and performance for AI models. Theyre also the most energy efficient: NVIDIA accelerated computing on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture has cut the energy used per token generation by 100,000x in the past decade for inference of trillion-parameter AI models.The NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip, which combines NVIDIA Grace CPU and Hopper GPU architectures using NVIDIA NVLink-C2C, delivers substantial inference performance improvements across industries.Meta Andromeda is using the superchip for efficient and high-performing personalized ads retrieval. By creating deep neural networks with increased compute complexity and parallelism, on Facebook and Instagram it has achieved an 8% ad quality improvement on select segments and a 6% recall improvement.With optimized retrieval models and low-latency, high-throughput and memory-IO aware GPU operators, Andromeda offers a 100x improvement in feature extraction speed compared to previous CPU-based components. This integration of AI at the retrieval stage has allowed Meta to lead the industry in ads retrieval, addressing challenges like scalability and latency for a better user experience and higher return on ad spend.As cutting-edge AI models continue to grow in size, the amount of compute required to generate each token also grows. To run state-of-the-art LLMs in real time, enterprises need multiple GPUs working in concert. Tools like the NVIDIA Collective Communication Library, or NCCL, enable multi-GPU systems to quickly exchange large amounts of data between GPUs with minimal communication time.Future AI Inference InnovationsThe future of AI inference promises significant advances in both performance and cost.The combination of NVIDIA software, novel techniques and advanced hardware will enable data centers to handle increasingly complex and diverse workloads. AI inference will continue to drive advancements in industries such as healthcare and finance by enabling more accurate predictions, faster decision-making and better user experiences.Learn more about how NVIDIA is delivering breakthrough inference performance results and stay up to date with the latest AI inference performance updates.

Twenty years ago, the original Monster Hunter first introduced players to its ever-expanding arsenal of weapons and memorable monsters. Since then, the series has grown in popularity around the world, and been refined into one of the finest multiplayer experiences gaming has to offer. Theres still a special satisfaction that comes from taking down an unfathomably huge creature by the skin of your teeth, coordinating with your fellow hunters, and using everyones weaponry and abilities skillfully to topple the most fearsome foes out there.To celebrate 20 years of the series and Monster Hunter Wilds upcoming February 28 release lets examine how the series evolved alongside PlayStation since its 2004 debut.Monster Hunter | PS2The biggest behemoths often emerge from humble beginnings. The game that started it all was released in Japan in March of 2004, with a North American release a few months later in September and a European release in March of 2005. It introduced the core gameplay that would define Monster Hunter in the decades to come: quest-driven progression, resource gathering and management, weapon and armor crafting, and the need to approach and attack ferocious monsters with strategy, planning, and perseverance to succeed.By the series current standards, Monster Hunter looks a bit sparse, with only seven weapon types and thirty monsters (including many now-famous creatures like the Rathalos), but the game offered quite a bit of variety in quest types and difficulty. Also, the game was designed around online multiplayer when that was still somewhat of a novelty, even offering special event quests that could only be played online.Monster Hunter did very well in Japan, and while Capcom worked on the follow-up, they released Monster Hunter G, an upgrade with improvements, new features, more monsters, and higher-difficulty quests.Monster Hunter Dos | PS2The true Monster Hunter sequel would emerge late into the PS2 eraand only in Japan. Monster Hunter Dos released for the PlayStation 2 in February of 2006, with new weapons, the additions of subquests, a unique day/night and season system, and the addition of armor upgrades, among numerous other small tweaks and improvements. Monster Hunter Dos was warmly received in Japan, and was the final Monster Hunter game on the PS2. But for the larger global marketand the future of Monster HunterCapcom was looking towards the PlayStation Portable.Monster Hunter Freedom | PSPEven before Monster Hunter Dos launched, Capcom wanted players to be able to take the hunt on the go. Monster Hunter Freedom, known as Monster Hunter Portable in Japan, launched in December of 2005 in Japan and in May of 2006 for the rest of the world. It was based heavily on the aforementioned Monster Hunter G, offering up both new monsters (including the debut of Yian Garuga) and high-level G rank quests for players to enjoyIn retrospect, its easy to see why the PSP felt like a true home for Monster Hunter: the PSPs capability for adhoc local network play, along with its advanced graphical capabilities and analog control, fit the gameplay of Monster Hunter like a vambrace. It was followed up by Monster Hunter Freedom 2, which took cues from Monster Hunter Dos by expanding the weapon repertoire (adding series staples like the Hunting Horn and Gunlance to the armory) and revisiting Doss various locales.Monster Hunter Freedom Unite | PSPPhenomenon is exactly the word to describe how huge the follow-up to Monster Hunter Freedom became in Japan. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite released in 2008 in Japan as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, expanding on the success of the previous game and transforming Monster Hunter into a household name. Freedom Unite would go on to sell a whopping 3.8 million copies globally, with many of those sales coming from Japan.Building on Freedom 2, Freedom Unite offered a host of quality-of-life improvements to the core experience while adding more environments, more monsters, additional monster behaviors, and a host of new high-difficulty quests. It introduced the concept of CPU-controlled helper characters by giving solo players use of a Felyne companion to aid in battlea feature which later games in the series would build upon.Monster Hunter Portable 3rd | PSPHitting the PSP at the end of 2010, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd is another Japan-exclusive Monster Hunter titlethough that didnt stop it from becoming one of Capcoms fastest-selling games ever. Portable 3rd pushed the PSP to the maximum, showcasing some of the best-looking visuals on the system and setting a standard for high-quality visual designs that the series would continue in later installments. Portable 3rd also marked the first appearance of Zinogre, a fan-favorite monster to this day.Monster Hunter World | PS4If theres a turning point where the fervor for Monster Hunter became global, its probably 2018s Monster Hunter World. Headlined by the fearsome Elder Dragon Nergigante, Monster Hunter World was a tremendous evolution of the series both graphically and gameplay-wise, using the PS4 to create a seamless hunting experiencein more ways than one.Not only were the tutorials and early-game experience improved for series novices, but the various zones that made up the large hunting environments (and necessitated transitional load times) were streamlined into one big, open space for an epic monster pursuit. And, for the first time ever, a Monster Hunter game was released simultaneously worldwide, allowing players from all over the globe to team up and experience the thrill of devising new hunting strategies together. True to the name of the games setting, it felt like a New World had opened up for the Monster Hunter series.Monster Hunter World proved to be so successful globally that an expansion, Iceborne, released the next year, reintroducing some of the cold-weather mechanics seen in previous Monster Hunter titles. Monster Hunter World continues to have an active player base to this day.Monster Hunter Rise | PS5, PS4Monster Hunter Rise, alongside its main monster Magnamalo, vaulted onto PS5 and PS4 in early 2023. It brought with it a host of unique gameplay additions: the fast-traveling, aerial-launching Wirebugs, a new type of Canyne companion called a Palamute, and Rampage battles where hunters were tasked with protecting the village of Kamura from an onslaught of several monsters all at onceincluding particularly dangerous Apex monsters. Plus, alongside hunting and capturing monsters, you could actually commandeer the huge beasts for a brief time with the Wyvern Riding feature.The already massive adventure grew even bigger with the Sunbreak expansion, taking hunters to the far-away Kingdom, adding several new monsters (including new leading beastie Malzeno), additional hunting locales, and numerous new skills for all of the weapons.Monster Hunter Wilds | PS5The evolution of Monster Hunter from cult favorite to Japanese sensation to global popularity has been quite a ride, and the anticipation for the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds has already hit a fever pitch. From striking new weather effects to new abilities enabled by a birdlike mount called a Seikret, theres a mountain of new features for players to consider.Last years closed beta drew plenty of interest from old and new players alike. Fortunately for those of you itching to get that Hunting Horn back out for a trip to the Forbidden Lands, you wont have to wait too much longer Monster Hunter Wilds will be releasing on February 28.

OLED gaming monitors are becoming more affordable, but theyre still not what I, and presumably most other people, would consider cheap. As such, Im always watching out for deals that make buying one a more reasonable choice and I found one at eBay. Samsungs 34-inch ultrawide Odyssey OLED G8 gaming monitor is cheaper than ever right now. Thanks to a limited time coupon code that automatically applies at checkout (if it doesnt its SAVEBIG20), you can get it for $639.20 before tax through Jan. 27. This display is selling at Amazon for $1,199.99, and through Woot for $879.99, which was previously the lowest price wed seen before this. The closest a retailer comes to matching eBays deal is Samsung itself, which is selling it for $799.99.The Odyssey OLED G8 is a curved (1800R, so the curve is slight) QD-OLED gaming monitor that offers an ultrawide 3,440 x 1,440 resolution (this is 21:9 aspect ratio, which PCs support, but consoles dont), with a fast 175 Hz refresh rate, and a 0.03ms response time that matches the best out there. Its a beast of a monitor, and this a very good deal for this price. For context, most 27-inch flat 1440p OLED monitors usually cost about this much, if not more.There are numerous reasons why your next gaming monitor should be an OLED, instead of going with a less expensive screen. Its tough to call anything perfect, but OLED is as close to perfection as you can currently get in a screen. Thats because each pixel is self-lit as opposed to being backlit, so colors and brightness can achieve exactly the tone that your entertainment calls for. Also, the Odyssey OLED G8s fast refresh rate and response time make this an ideal monitor for casual gameplay as well as competitive matchups. Something I like about this monitor in particular is that it has a 3-year warranty that includes burn-in coverage.For some reason, Samsung opts to use Mini DisplayPort and Micro HDMI inputs on the rear of the Odyssey OLED G8, which means you need to use specialized cables to connect your PC and consoles to this display. However, at least it includes both cables in the box (if you need extras, you can buy adapters for your cables).Lastly, this eBay deal is being offered by BuyDig, a third-party seller. Typically, we dont recommend products sold by third-party sellers at Polygon, but Ive personally had good experiences purchasing products through it.

The famously obtuse colony management simulation Dwarf Fortress snagged itself a proper publisher in 2019 in part so that its creators could have medical insurance. But the relationship with Kitfox Games has done quite a lot to improve the gameplay experience for fans as well, including by adding things like graphics, mouse support, and now full-fledged video tutorials.Dwarf Fortress highly-anticipated Adventure Mode launches on Jan. 23. With it, players can create a party of fantasy characters and tramp around the procedurally generated game world in style. They can even explore their old fortresses, then reload their save files to see how the plucky adventurers have changed the history of their world. But how exactly youre supposed to do those things has been a bit of a mystery, even for long-time fans used to digging through wikis and obscure forum posts. The nearly 45-minute beginners guide, hosted by a veteran YouTuber who goes by BlindiRL, goes a long way to help get players up to speed.Kitfox now offers a total of five Dwarf Fortress tutorials on its YouTube channel.