Things arent exactly going swimmingly at Ubisoft right now. The publisher had a rough 2024, with Star Wars Outlaws failing to meet sales expectations and word of XDefiants demise coming around six months after the tactical shooter debuted. Skull and Bones finally arrived too, but it was a bit of a damp squib.Amid rumors of the company being sold or spinning out some of its assets into a joint venture with Tencent, Ubisoft really needs a win. Its not going to have a better chance to do that anytime soon than with Assassins Creed Shadows. After a couple of delays, the latest entry in the companys flagship series is set to arrive on March 20.After a few hours with AC Shadows, there are positive signs. The game at least looks and plays well enough for what Ubisoft needs it to be, with the company skirting the line between playing things extremely safe and trying something different.After the successes of AC Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla (as well as the enjoyably smaller-scale Mirage), Shadows marks new territory for Assassins Creed to a certain degree. It's the first game in the series that directly feeds into the Animus Hub project (formerly known as Infinity).Before you swan dive into Assassin's Creed Shadows, you'll enter the Animus Hub. From here, you'll be able to access various Assassin's Creed games (Shadows and the previous four mainline entries) from the memory section. They're placed on an easy to navigate timeline.The anomaly section of the hub includes missions for Shadows, which will offer exclusive rewards like weapons and gear. You can tweak your characters' loadout from the exchange section and explore the stories of modern AC games through the vault.The Animus Hub will expand in the years to come as Ubisoft releases more games. This is an ambitious project that aims to tie the series together. It had been reported that the company would try to turn the series into a live-service project with the Animus Hub, and we're seeing glimpses of that with those missions. There's not a ton to it as things stand, but Ubisoft clearly has grand ambitions here.UbisoftShadows brings the action to a long-awaited frontier for Assassins Creed: 16th century Japan. The other big twist this time around is that you can swap between two characters. Various points in the story will see you choose to play as either Yasuke or Naoe and, at least in the open-world, you'll be able to switch between them on the fly. Swapping can come in handy when one character is wanted by enemies, since the other can remain anonymous.Yasuke is the tank of the two, with the ability to ram though certain doors while sprinting. He can take advantage of ranged weapons such as guns and bows, so some players might want to use him to pick off a few enemies from afar at the start of a mission. He can knock baddies around using his kanab war club as well.Naoe plays more like a traditional Assassin's Creed hero. She is far more agile and her parkour skills are on point. The shinobi can quickly clamber up the sides of buildings and she has a grappling hook to help her reach higher parts of structures and swing across gaps. In direct combat, Naoe can spin kick an enemy in the teeth, or flip behind them to slit their throat.Perhaps most importantly (at least from what I've seen of the game), Naoe is the only one of the duo to have the classic hidden blade. Yasuke can still sneak up on an opponent to eliminate them with a single button press, but his "brutal assassination" sees him ram his sword through an enemy and lift them skywards. Not exactly subtle.UbisoftSwitching between Naoe and Yasuke is almost as seamless as it is to swap between, say, Peter and Miles in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. The latter requires a couple of quick in-game actions, and the action swiftly moves to the other Spider-Man. In Assassin's Creed Shadows, swapping characters means going into the menu, holding a button and waiting just a couple of seconds for the other hero to replace them.There's no immediate character swapping in the prologue, however, which is one of the two sections I played. Unsurprisingly, this acts as an intro to the story and how to actually play the game.In a first for Assassin's Creed, one of the playable characters actually existed in real-life. It won't take players long to learn how Yasuke, a Black African man, came to be a samurai. After a brief lore drop, we skip ahead six months to a battle sequence. It's an effective way to start getting to grips with what Yasuke can do, including special attacks like a dashing sword slash.Once his brief action sequence comes to an end, we rewind to earlier in the night and Naoe's introduction. After an important box (the contents of which remain a mystery) is stolen, she heads out to retrieve it from a compound. This short mission highlights some of the stealth features.One of the cooler additions to this game is the ability to take out light sources at night to create ad-hoc hiding spots in the shadows. Naoe can snuff out candles and destroy lamps from afar using a kunai or shuriken. That may not be needed depending on the terrain (and difficulty level) and how quickly you can hotfoot it over rooftops when you're spotted.The second section I played was an investigation mission. I had to get to the bottom of a mystery by completing some tasks and gathering information. All of this led to the inevitable but enjoyable boss fight and a satisfying resolution to the quest.The structure of Assassin's Creed Shadows will lend itself to multiple playthroughs for those who really dig it. I spent most of my preview as Naoe, but I'm interested to see how different things are playing as Yasuke. There are dialogue options throughout the game but there's a canon mode that will eliminate these choices and present you with the canonical story. Players might also be inclined to switch the dialogue languages to Japanese and Portuguese for deeper immersion after beating the game in their native tongue.Some of the gameplay changes Ubisoft implemented this time really shake things up. The eagle vision ability now enables Naoe to locate and tag enemies through walls. Her smoke bombs and distraction-causing bells come in useful when there are too many enemies for her to battle head on. Both characters can lie prone as well, which offers up more opportunities for hiding and sneaking.I quickly tried a couple of the side activities, such as the peaceful act of sneaking up on animals in certain situations to sketch them. In terms of slowing things down for a smidge of tranquility, this feels a little akin to the haiku composition sequences in Ghost of Tsushima (of note, that game's sequel, Ghost of Ytei is slated for a 2025 release and could provide competition for Assassin's Creed Shadows.)UbisoftIt wasn't totally clear based on what I've seen, but it does feel as though Ubisoft has cut down on much of the cruft that typically populates Assassin's Creed maps, which would help this game feel less overwhelming. Climbing up to a viewpoint and synchronizing only reveals important locations, rather than everything worth seeing in the area. The company pulled back on the map bloat a bit in Mirage, so it may have taken some positive lessons from that approach.Add all of this up and I came away from the session feeling just on the right side of satisfied. The game seems absolutely fine. Its just about what youd expect from an Assassins Creed game these days, but with enough tweaks, new wrinkles and quality-of-life updates to make it compelling enough. It feels like a decent entry point into the series while still holding enough interest for long-term fans. For what its worth, Im ready to play more, as someone who finished Assassins Creed Mirage but dropped off of Valhalla after about 10 hours.I'm looking forward to playing more of Assassin's Creed Shadows and seeing, for instance, how the weather system switches things up. Lakes freeze over in winter, removing the ability to swim or hide underwater. Icicles can be used as a distraction as well. I didn't get around to trying out the spy recruitment system, which can seemingly come in useful during investigations.Assassin's Creed Shadows inherently has a leg up on many other Ubisoft games given the popularity of the series. It already seemed poised to do well, but it appears to be in a good enough shape to become a success. If so, this could help Ubisoft finally redirect its ship away from the rocks.Assassin's Creed Shadows will hit PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows, Mac (and eventually iPad), Ubisoft+ and Amazon Luna on March 20.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/assassins-creed-shadows-preview-a-few-steps-in-the-right-direction-170028415.html?src=rss

Ubisoft has revealed that Assassin's Creed Shadows will feature more than 700 cinematics.

Two Assassins Creed Shadows developers tell me the coolest things theyre excited for fans to see.

La Bte (The Beast), a film by Bertrand Bonello, provides an unsettling glimpse of a world taken over by artificial intelligence where emotions have been ripped away from the human psyche. It was in these visuals that MPC Paris had crafted a huge contribution to bringing the haunting story into being.MPC Paris worked intensively on VFX and post-production for the film. Stunning water FX effects have been integrated that fit the mood and emotions in the story with intricate datamosh sequences created to give some dynamic, mind-bending transitions. Their sets were completed and improved to elevate visual storytelling to fit Bonellos compelling vision.A visual experience thats both striking and immersive, putting the viewer in the midst of the dystopian futures unsettling beauty and tension. La Bte not only challenges our perception of humanity but also showcases the artistry and innovation of MPC Paris in crafting cinematic worlds.The post La Bte (The Beast) VFX Breakdown by MPC Paris appeared first on Vfxexpress.

The Academy has spoken! Nominations for the 97th Oscars are out, and the fight is on in the Best Visual Effects, Best Animated Feature Film, and Best Animated Short Film categories. Each of the nominees presents extraordinary creativity and technical brilliance, and the ceremony promises to be unforgettable.Best Visual Effects Nominees:Alien: RomulusBetter ManDune: Part TwoKingdom of the Planet of the ApesWickedBest Animated Feature Film Nominees:FlowInside Out 2Memoir of a snailWallace & Gromit: Vengeance most fowlThe Wild RobotBest Animated Short Film Nominees:Beautiful MenIn the Shadow of the CypressMagic CandiesWander to WonderYuck!The Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood will be the venue for the 97th Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025. It is scheduled to be telecast live on ABC, streamed live on Hulu, and broadcast in more than 200 territories across the globe. Given the degree of talent that will be competing, this years Oscars promise to be a thrilling celebration of cinematic artistry.The post 97th Oscars: Best Visual Effects, Animated Feature, and Short Film Nominations appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Ever wimp out? Leave a situation wishing youd done or said something different? We all have. If you feel like you lack courage, its not due to a personal fault. Protecting your physical and emotional personal well-being is an innate drive that can override your goals.Humans are wired for safety, for certainty, for shoring up the status quo, and not for risking it, says Dr. Margie Warrell, author of The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action. Our instinct for self-preservation in the short term has always been strong.Our environment has changed since the caveman days when physical threats were frequent and real. What feeds our fears today is the digitalization of the world with a never-ending news cycle at our fingertips. The pandemic also kept people isolated from other perspectives, creating an unwillingness to be open to other points of view.Anxiety is higher than its ever been, says Warrell. We are being bombarded consistently with reasons that make us feel anxious. The algorithms are wired to fuel a sense of insecurity. When people feel less secure, it impacts who they vote for and what they buy. The digital landscape that were in is a digital fear economy.Conquering fear takes courage, which Warrell says has two core dimensions. The first is the regulation and management of fear. And the second is the willingness to act in the presence of fear and risk. To let go of your inner wimp and step into courage, Warrell recommends taking five steps:1. Focus on what you fearOften, our attention focuses on what we dont want or what were afraid will happen. Instead, we need to identify the highest intention for our current situation and for the long term.Focusing on what we want requires not letting our fear govern our decisions, says Warrell. Unless were clear about what we want, fear will govern our decisions, because thats the default wiring.2. RescriptHumans are wired for narrative. We tell ourselves stories about the world, our situation, and our beliefs, says Warrell.We create operating systems for the actions that we take, and were often living within belief systems that are limiting, she says. Theyre fueling doubt and anxiety, and theyre short-changing our future.Instead, step back and look at what are the vital lies you tell yourself that give you an excuse not to take action and to keep playing it too safe. What has kept you scared, stuck, or too safe?3. Breathe into courageThe next step is to connect to the courage that exists within you as well as in our relationships and social networks.A lot of people walk around from the neck up, says Warrell. They intellectualize things, but they cant feel things fully. So, this is about transforming the physiology of fear into the psychology of courage. Its learning to regulate fear in our nervous system, embodying courage in how we walk and talk and show up.The quickest way to regulate fear is through breathwork. Five mindful breaths can reset your nervous systems, allowing you to respond with greater calm.Warrell also recommends connecting to your external environment and people who embolden you to be braver. We know that fear is a contagious emotion, she says. Often people are in an environment where people around them are just continually stoking their fear and cycling away courage. Fear is contagious and so is bravery.4. Step into discomfortYou cant grow until youre willing to embrace being uncomfortable. We have to reset our relationship with discomfort and when we do, we turn fear into a catalyst for action, says Warrell.Practice the one brave minute maxim, she says. Give yourself permission to feel really uncomfortable for a minute. When we do, we strengthen our neural pathway. We strengthen and expand our capacity to take action amid our fear, and that makes it easier for the future.Courage is like a muscle that grows stronger with use. It also grows weaker when we dont use it. People that are constantly living in their comfort zone, actually lose confidence over time, says Warrell. If you meet someone whos continually been doing things that are a little bit scary, and continually been stretching themselves, theyre going to be far more confident.5. Rise when you fallFinally, mine through the nuggets of gold that failures hold for us so we can move forward smarter, says Warrell. We can never control the output of our actions, she says. If youre trying something new, theres no guarantee that youre going to get the result you want.But when you are willing to look at what went wrong and learn the lessons, youre able to move forward and take smarter actions that are going to elevate the outcomes that you get.Unless youre willing to look at failure and never let it go to waste, then you could end up just continually repeating the same mistakes again and again, says Warrell.Why courage is so importantAs humans, we thrive when were growing. Growth requires that you step into your courage gap, taking action even though youre afraid or feeling vulnerable.We humans are pretty good at putting ourselves in the shoes of an hour from now and a day from now, if we do something brave, says Warrell. What were lousy at is putting ourselves in the shoes of us five or 10 years from now and accurately assessing the hidden price that I have paid because I let fear of what could go wrong determine the actions that I take. Thats because our brains are twice as sensitive to what could go wrong versus what could go right.Without taking intelligent risks, you put yourself at risk of regret. People regret far more the risks that they didnt take than the risks that they did take, says Warrell. Even when they took a risk and it didnt pay off, they still learned something. They grew. They realized they were more resilient. . . . The difference between the life were living and the unlived life that we have within us, is closing the courage gap.

When the Palisades Fire started near a hiking trail in Los Angeles on January 7quickly spreading to more than 200 acres in 20 minutes, and nearly 3,000 acres by the end of the daysome critics argued that land management was to blame.Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer who lost the L.A. mayoral race in 2022, claimed that a root cause of the fires was failing to remove brush from the hills. Elon Musk blamed crazy environmental regulations that he said prevented creating firebreaks and clearing brush. Donald Trumpwho had said in the past that California needed to rake its forestscomplained again about the states forest management. And when Congress reintroduced a Fix Our Forests bill this week that would make it easier for the logging industry to cut down trees, some politicians implied that the fires in L.A. could have been prevented if it had been in place; on Thursday, that bill passed in the House.The problem: The landscape around Los Angeles isnt a forest, and clearing out the native plants could make fires even worse.Altadena, California, January 2025 [Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images]It drives me crazy when you hear people talk about how we need to manage the forests around L.A., says Richard Halsey, director of the nonprofit California Chaparral Institute and the author of Fire, Chaparral, and Survival in Southern California. There arent any.Unlike mountains in parts of Northern California that are filled with pine and cedar trees, the hills around L.A. are covered in chaparral, an ecosystem made up of small drought-tolerant shrubs like manzanita. In some Northern California forests, prescribed burns can help prevent extreme fires by clearing out undergrowth on the forest floor. (Decades of fire suppression in these forests have helped make fires bigger and more destructive.)But chaparral doesnt naturally burn as often, and deliberately burning it can kill it off. The result of that is you lose all the native shrubs and they are eventually replaced by more flammable, non-native grasses which then present a greater fire risk on the landscape than the chaparral ever does, Halsey says.Firefighters battle flames from the Smokehouse Creek Fire in March 2024 near Sanford, Texas. [Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images]Grass fires can be incredibly destructive. When the Marshall Fire burned in Colorado in 2021, destroying hundreds of buildings, killing two people, and forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate, it spread through grass, not trees or shrubs. In Texas last year, the record-breaking Smokehouse Creek Fire burned through more than a million acres of ranchland, not forests. Strong winds and hot weather made the fire spread quickly.In Southern California, the extreme weather conditions, with hurricane-force winds, meant that the fires almost certainly would have spread even if there were large fire breaks in place with no vegetation. You could have put a 10-lane freeway in front of that fire and it would not have slowed it down one bit, Brian Fennessy, the fire chief in Orange County, told the Los Angeles Times.High winds send embers flying off a burning palm tree during the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California. [Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images]The L.A. fires spread as embers flew miles through the air, not just through vegetation on the ground. And as houses ignited, they became the main fuel, not trees or shrubs. If clearing vegetation in wild areas isnt helpful, Halsey argues that cities should be focused on making homes more resilient to fires. That includes creating defensible space around a house, adding features like fire-resistant windows and decks, and making sure that sparks cant enter a house through vents. Halsey also advocates for exterior sprinklers for buildings that are more commonly used in places like Australia and Canada. (In a fire in Minnesota in 2007, nearly 200 houses that had sprinkler systems survived, while neighboring houses burned.)We keep going to vegetation, and weve been doing this for 100 years, he says. We keep losing more people and more homes. Youd think somebody in the room would say, You know, maybe we should be doing something differently.

In this exclusive video,Dezeen deputy editor Cajsa Carlson explores the history of five of the most iconic mid-century modern chair designs.This video focuses on the most iconic chairs of the mid-century-modern movement, including the Eames Shell Chair, Arne Jacobsen's Egg Chair and Verner Panton's Panton Chair.The Eames aimed to make good design affordable. Photo courtesy of the Eames Office.Designed by Ray and Charles Eames in 1949, theShell Chair was derived from a prototype created as an entry for the Low-Cost Furniture Design competition organised by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.The Eames were committed to making design more accessible, and the chairs fibreglass seat meant it could be mass-produced at a relatively low cost."The Shell Chair was revolutionary for its use of fibreglass, which had never been used in furniture before, as well as its customisable design each shell could be interchanged with different bases," explained Carlson.The chair is still in production today by brands Herman Miller and Vitra, with a new recycled plastic version released in 2024.Arne Jacobsen is remembered as a pioneer of Danish modernism. Photo courtesy of Radisson Collection, Royal Hotel CopenhagenAnother chair that was born out of an experimentation with new materials was Danish designer Jacobsen's Egg Chair.Created for the interiors of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1958, the chair was produced with furniture brand Fritz Hansen.Jacobsen sculpted the Egg Chair out of hard polyurethane foam, as opposed to creating a more traditional wooden or steel frame.Although the interiors of the hotel have now been redesigned, visitors can still find Jacobsen's preserved original design in room 606 of the hotel.Hans J Wegner designed over 500 chairs for Carl Hansen & Son. Photo courtesy of Carl Hansen & SonAnother iconic chair designed by a Dane was theY-backed Wishbone chair by Hans J Wegner, which was created in 1949 for Carl Hansen & Son.Also known as the CH24, the chair has become one of the best known icons of Scandinavian design."The chair shaped our ideas around Scandinavian design for years, with its minimalist form and use of natural materials like beech and paper cord," explained Carlson.Read: Dezeen's guide to mid-century modern design from A to ZThe chair came into production as Denmark was gaining international recognition as a design powerhouse, but Wegner initially looking outside of Denmark for his inspiration, taking notes from the high-backed thrones used by Chinese Ming dynasty emperors.The creation of the chair's seemingly simple form involved over 100 different steps, including creating a hand-woven seat made from around 120 meters of paper cord.Harry Bertoia used his experience as a sculptor when creating his Diamond Chair. Image courtesy of Knoll ArchivesWhereas Wegner's Wishbone looked to natural materials, Italian-American designer Harry Bertoia looked to the cutting edge of technology for his wired Diamond Chair.Released in 1952, the chair's has a frame constructed from welded steel rods, an unusual choice at a time when furniture was predominantly manufactured from wood.Bertoia chose steel for its strength and malleability, which enabled it to be bent into shape without heat."He wanted users to feel like they were sitting on air, and the Diamond Chair's wire frame is a study in negative space," said Carlson."In the 1950s and 60s, breakthroughs in science and tech were taking place at an unprecedented rate. Looking at Bertoia's chair, you can feel the excitement and possibilities of the Atomic Age."Verner Panton's colourful designs captured the mood of the 1960s. Image courtesy of VitraThe final chair is thePanton chair released in 1967. Panton was known for his experimental and playful designs, a strict departure from the more restrained styles of the 1950s.The Panton Chair was the product of several years of design development and technical experimentation, and is unique for being the first cantilevered chair to be manufactured out of a single piece of plastic.Panton worked to improve upon his design throughout his career, experimenting with materials and techniques such as polyurethane foam and moulding. In the 1990s he created a version using polypropylene with furniture brand Vitra, but passed away shortly before its release.Now regarded as one of the most recognisable chairs in history, Panton's deceivingly simple design continues to inspire today.Mid-century modernThis article is part of Dezeen's mid-century modern design series, which looks at the enduring presence of mid-century modern design, profiles its most iconic architects and designers, and explores how the style is developing in the 21st century.The post The five most impactful chair designs of mid-century modernism appeared first on Dezeen.

Remember when the first smartwatches were ridiculed for needing to be charged almost every night? Although the situation has improved significantly, the fact remains that they still need to be taken off your wrist and put on a charger every now and then. That might sound only like a hassle for smartwatches and wireless earbuds, but imagine the discomfort and risks of having to remove health monitors, not to mention devices like pacemakers whose batteries also need to be replaced regularly.They might be called wearables, but these devices are nothing like their analog counterparts, that dont cause stress. Then again, they dont offer features either, so its not exactly a fair trade. Solving the battery problem will go a long way in making these devices more sustainable and accessible, and this ongoing research is trying to do just that by removing batteries from these devices completely.Designers: Andy Kong, Daehwa Kim, Chris Harrison (Power-Over-Skin)Electrical devices need power to function, of course, and the most straightforward method is to have a battery inside them. Unfortunately, the trade-off is that these devices are thicker and heavier than they could be, and they have to be recharged or have their batteries replaced every so often. If you could power the devices without a battery or without even a cable, that could go a long way in shrinking their sizes down and potentially making them more fashionable.The trick is to hide the actual power source somewhere on your body and then use your body itself as the conduit for electrical power to travel to these wearable devices. This can, for example, be used to make earrings with flashing LEDs or a ring with a joystick that can control your smart TV. These devices need to be touching your skin to actually get power, but considering their use cases, that wont be much of a problem.Although the previous examples do sound contrived and a little ridiculous, the applications for this technology go beyond mobile accessories. Health sensors, like a skin-based thermometer or glucose monitor, can be stuck to any part of your body and work almost infinitely, at least as long as theres a power source attached to you. You can even have a calculator that powers up when you hold it in your hand, or a phone case that charges your phone bit by bit while youre using it.Power-Over-Skin does still require some transmitter to send power to those devices through your skin, so we cant exactly escape the need for batteries just yet. The devices are also quite unappealing, which is as expected of prototypes. Hopefully, there will be further research in improving not only the design of the wearables but also their ability to get power through other means, maybe from the abundant air around us.The post Battery-free wearable accessories could soon be powered through your skin first appeared on Yanko Design.

Examining what it means to make money by selling the bereaved on an illusion, the film feels like something of a warning.