Is it still January? Barely, but yes. Is it still dry? Well, that all depends on how you look at it. Maybe youre interested in incorporating a teensy bit of alcohol back into your life, or maybe youve never enjoyed an overly potent drink regardless of the month. I think the answer in both of these scenarios is the same: Switch to low ABV (alcohol by volume) cocktails. Theyre light, easy-going, and there is a wide world of options to suit your preference. I've got three recommendations to get you started.What is a low ABV cocktail?First of all, lets get our terminology straight. Again, ABV stands for alcohol by volume. This is usually understood as what percent of a drink is alcohol. Straight vodka can be 30% or 40% alcohol. So a vodka martini, after being stirred with ice and some added vermouth, might be 25%-35% alcohol. That is decidedly not low ABV.Wines can vary greatly but typically theyre around 13% to 18% ABV, and beers can range from 4% to 12%. While there is no precise ABV that defines a low ABV cocktail, I usually prefer them around 5% and below. Its nothing that will make me feel wobbly, but enough to add a touch of spice to the occasion. If youre at a bar or restaurant, they might have a different opinion of what fits into low ABV territory, so be sure to ask (or check the menu for the ABV) if youre wondering.How to make a low ABV cocktail at homeAside from buying a mocktail cookbook and adding a splash of gin to any of those concoctions (which you can totally dotry The Mocktail Club, an excellent recipe book that I recently reviewed) you can pore over your home bar and do some light experimentation. Personally, I like to think of low ABV drinks as giving the supporting characters a bit of shine. Its a chance to highlight aperitifs, vermouths, bitters, juices, shrubs, syrups, tonics, and sodas. Thats where many of the biggest, boldest flavors are anyway.If youre starting from scratch, start simple and try some juicy spritzes. A loose ratio could be 1:3:3: one part "supporting character" alcohol, three parts juice, and three parts bubbly, non-alcoholic liquid. Choose an aperitif, liqueur, or cordial that you like, and add equal parts of a complementary juice and soda water. Serve in a glass with plenty of ice.If youre starting from a classic cocktail recipe, try replacing the high-proof alcohol with a heavy pour of seltzer, or even a sparkling wine. The ABV for the latter would be higher than with using seltzer of course, but sometimes you just want to take it down a few notches. For example, proseccos 12% is much lower in alcohol content than gins 40%. In fact, thats what the negroni sbagliato doesswaps the gin for prosecco. Both are delicious cocktails, but the classic negroni is about twice as alcoholic.Three of my go-to low ABV cocktailsIve always enjoyed the activity of sipping socially, but not the inevitable headache of stiff drinks. Here are three I lean on when Im in the mood to take it easy. Dont try to reinvent the wheel here, folks: Simple is often best.Low ABV bellinisBellinis are light, flirty sparkling cocktails that are classically made by mixing a bit of white peach pure with a lot of prosecco. To bring down the ABV, cut the prosecco in half and replace it with a bit of seltzer water. Alternatively, you can use fruit juice instead of seltzer for a bigger dose of fruit flavor. (By the way, you can use any fruit pure you like; it doesnt have to be peach.)Negroni Sbagliato or AmericanoAs I noted above, the Sbagliato is a lower ABV version of the classic Negroni, and the Americano is the next step down. To make a Sbagliato, mix equal parts Campari, sweet vermouth, and prosecco (pour this last as a topper). Serve in a glass with plenty of ice. For an Americano, simply replace the prosecco with plenty of soda water. If I'm making it at home, I'll add a splash of simple syrup. Juicy Aperol SpritzThe classic Aperol Spritz uses three parts prosecco, two parts Aperol, and one part soda water. To make it less alcoholic, I knock out the prosecco and opt for a splash of juice. To make a Juicy Aperol Spritz, mix two parts Aperol, and one part orange juice in a glass half-filled with ice. Top it with three parts soda water.

Home ownership is a key goal for many Americans despite the financial and environmental challenges posed in today's real estate marketand the transition from renting an apartment to owning a house is, in itself, a challenge in many ways. One of those challenges is adjusting your approach to furnishing and decorating your living spaces, especially if youre going from a small rental to a large house. Decking out a house you own can be a different experience from making a rental into a comfortable space because the scale is different: Budgets have to be bigger because youre usually filling more space, purchases tend to be more long-term because youre not sweating the end of a lease, and suddenly, that couch youve been moving from place to place since college is no longer socially acceptable. Heres how to approach decorating a house when youve only ever lived in an apartment.Pause and planStep one is to take a moment and slow down, resisting the urge to be moved in as quickly as possible. Moving into an apartment is often an exercise in making your existing furniture somehow work in the new space, which encourages a haphazard approach and a utilitarian feel. The key to decorating a house, though, is to embrace whats known as slow decorating:Instead of just dragging all your existing furniture in and filling rooms with stuff, be thoughtful about what you plan to use the room for.Measure each space so you can pick and arrange your furniture thoughtfully.Choose furniture and accents that fit that plan. If an existing piece works in that plan, great! Otherwise, consider whether it fits elsewhere or if it needs to be replaced with something different.Think in terms of roomsMoving from a small rental to a sprawling house poses another psychological challenge: scale. Going from a modest and maybe even crowded place to a home with a lot more square footage can be overwhelming. Going from a small space you didnt have a stake into a more permanent place that requires a lot more stuff can be overwhelming.Instead of trying to come up with a comprehensive plan (and budget) to furnish and decorate the entire new space, take it room by room:Start with the rooms you will use immediately and all the time: the primary bedroom, the kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Narrowing down your decisions to a specific room at a time will make the whole process more psychologically and financially manageable.You can create a sense of cohesion by using the same pop color in each space and repeating decorative elements like vases or other decorative objects. Wall art thats part of a series, for example, can link rooms even if youre approaching them individually.Once you have the main rooms set up, you can tackle the remaining rooms one at a time.Another reason this works is the fact that small apartments often require you to make rooms multi-functional, but houses often have dedicated spacesdining rooms, offices, living rooms, etc. If youre going from a space where one room was your office, living room, and exercise space, taking each room individually will help you envision what your ideal version of that space would be instead of what you can fit or what can easily be stashed out of sight.Embrace spaceIn smaller rental spaces, we often make decisions around furniture that solve apartment-related problems, like a lack of a guest bedroom (resulting in a heavy, bulky sleeper sofa) or a lack of useful storage (resulting in buying everything with extra storage space, like an Admiral bed). But a house may not present those same challenges, so its time to ask yourself if that sleeper sofa or other storage piece still makes sense.The size of the rooms also has to be taken into consideration. In an apartment, for example, cramming a couch and a coffee table into a room is all it takes to make a living room, but a larger room in a house might feel empty, requiring more thought about how youre going to use the room. Will it mainly be a viewing experience, with lots of comfortable seating arranged in front of a screen? Or do you want to foster more of a conversation space, with seating facing each other? Or, if you have the space, will it be both?Finally, a house with more space can benefit from larger statement-type pieces of furnitureoversized furniture, or large artwork on the walls. Remind yourself that you can go big and go home in a house.

Doom: The Dark Ages is set to come out on May 15 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Its a single-player sandbox experience with an emphasis on exploration, bloodshed and upgrading skill trees, introducing massive mech battles and a ridable cyber dragon that spits fire on command.Doom: The Dark Ages is the largest Doom game id Software has ever made, but to be perfectly clear and possibly assuage some fears, its not open-world. In fact, the directive for developers was to edit down everything controls, levels, menus, upgrade paths in order to emulate the reactive rush that made the original Doom games so addictive. According to executive producer Marty Stratton and game director Hugo Martin, Doom: The Dark Ages is a refined and thoughtful return to the series classic loop, set in the medieval wastelands of Hell and starring a super tanky Doom Slayer.In The Dark Ages, the Slayer has three basic inputs: shield saw, melee and gun. The shield saw is a critical tool, allowing players to parry and block incoming attacks, and also acting as a boomerang-style projectile that can embed itself into enemies to rip through their demonic flesh. Parrying is a massive factor in the new game, and its also one of many aspects that players can customize in the difficulty settings. Youll be able to change the size of the parry window, adjust the actual game speed and fine-tune a dozen other factors to make each run feel just right.The Slayer has a choice of three melee weapons and he carries just one at a time. Theres an iron flame, an electrified gauntlet and a spiked mace, and each one can be upgraded as you make your way through Hell. The final main input is the trigger, which controls all of the gruesome guns. Theres a wondrous array of weapon-based brutality on display in The Dark Ages, including the Skullcrusher, a gun that eats the bones of murdered enemies and uses the shards as ammo.Certain levels will support skyscraper-sized Atlan battles and allow the Slayer to ride on the back of a cybernetic dragon, spraying flames on the gathered demons. These abilities wont be available at will, and are instead contained to specific regions of the map. There are also swimming levels which, speaking as someone with a phobia of deep water, is possibly the scariest thing in the new game.id SoftwareThe Slayer in Doom: The Dark Ages is beefy. Hes thick, heavy and armor-plated, and as he hunts demons through the medieval wastelands of Hell, hes going to feel different than the Slayers in 2016s Doom and its 2020 follow-up, Doom: Eternal. In terms of development mottos, Doom was run and gun, Eternal was jump and shoot, and The Dark Ages is, stand and fight. Strafing and twitchy teleportation-like abilities are still on the menu, but the emphasis this time around is on holding your ground and strategizing while shooting.What people didn't like in 2016 was that it was too repetitive, Martin said in a media Q&A before Thursdays Xbox Developer Direct, where id showed off new bits of the game. And in Eternal, some people said it was too hard. I actually think it's too complex. I think that the complexity of the control scheme led to unnecessary difficulties. You really want to be fighting the demons, the bad guys, not your controls.Martin and Stratton emphasized the importance of streamlining the core loop in The Dark Ages, while also building the largest, most adventure-feeling Doom game that id has ever made. There are skill trees, currency and more secrets to find than ever before, but theres not a lot of filler everything has a purpose and there are no unnecessary frills in the actual mechanics of combat, resource-collecting and upgrade paths.id SoftwareThere is a lot of exploration in this game, and it's for power, Stratton said. That's one of the things that is really important. You're finding resources and other things that allow you to improve yourself, upgrade your guns, upgrade your shield, your melee. So it isn't just the secrets, just the toys, that kind of thing. It really is an exploration for power.Martin added, I want to feel strong. It's got to be a good amount of speed and exploration and power, but I'm okay with you changing what that power fantasy is, especially if the change you make brings it back closer to classic Doom. I'm super down for that.The points of inspiration for Doom: The Dark Ages include Batman: Year One, Frank Millers The Dark Knight, and the film 300, specifically that iconic tracking shot of Leonidas slamming and stabbing his way through hordes of Persian warriors at the Hot Gates. Miller's The Dark Knight was a particularly poignant source for Martin.He drew an older, more powerful, thicker Batman, he said. And I just love that comic so much. And I always thought it would be so interesting to just, instead of a Ferrari, you'd be more of a monster truck. And that's what were working on, we've been talking about that for years and years.Doom: The Dark Ages is due out on May 15 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, including Game Pass.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/doom-the-dark-ages-hits-pc-ps5-and-xbox-on-may-15-190015221.html?src=rss

Today's Xbox Developer Direct kicked off with the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 4. Aside from the news of Ragebound, the series has been quiet for the past 13 years, and there's a mix of new and old in the latest entry.The protagonist is a new character named Yakumo, a member of the Raven clan, who will battle his way through a dystopian Tokyo. Longtime fans of the games will be glad to see that Ryu Hayabusa is returning and will play a central role.The new game is being co-developed by Team Ninja and Japanese action game specialists PlatinumGames (known for Bayonetta and NeiR:Automata). Ninja Gaiden 4's trailer shows all the flashy slashing you'd expect from a 3D action game, with aerial combat and lots of big power moves. Yakumo will also have traversal skills such as riding on rails, slinging across gaps and wall-running.The game is due out in fall 2025, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass at day one. It will also launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC and PlayStation 5.As an extra treat, Team Ninja has also dropped a surprise remaster of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. This new version of the 2008 game is available today on Xbox and PC.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/ninja-gaiden-4-is-coming-out-this-fall-184041420.html?src=rss

Assassin's Creed Shadows won't hold your hand the entire time

Assassin's Creed Shadows' main story won't feature multiple endings, Ubisoft has confirmed.

After stepping in to restore TikTok in the U.S. and delaying a law that would effectively ban the app, Trump is looking for avenues to keep the popular platform afloat.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is exciting as it up the ante with heart-pounding action and dynamic storytelling. In this exclusive extended clip, Shadow, the enigmatic and powerful new antagonist, makes a daring prison escape, which sets the stage for an epic pursuit. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles reunite to face this extraordinary challenge that pushes Team Sonic beyond their limits. As their powers are outmatched in every way, the trio considers forming an unlikely alliance to protect their world from Shadows looming threat.The visual effects in this sequence are nothing less than spectacular; fast-paced action and intricate details blend together so that every moment is filled with intensity. The VFX was created by the industrys finest studios, which include ILM (VFX Supervisors: Hayden Landis, Rhys Claringbull), Fin Design + Effects (VFX Supervisor: Roy Malhi), Rising Sun Pictures, Rodeo FX, and Untold Studios. With Production VFX Supervisor Ged Wright and Production VFX Producer Paul Molles at the helm, visual effects enrich the films energy and thrill intensity.Higher stakes, faster speed, and electrifying visuals; this is what Sonic the Hedgehog 3 promises to be-one wild ride!The post Shadow Escapes Prison Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Extended Clip) appeared first on Vfxexpress.