Chris Pratt will headline his first big screen, non-VO movie in years with next January's sci-fi detective thriller Mercy.

TheMass Effectseries has always held a special, and often divisive spot in fans hearts. BioWares sci-fi RPG saga blew up with its first game back in 2007, and its sequel took the franchise to bigger, more mainstream heights. In the years since that games release, its cast a long shadownot just over its own franchise and creator, but the larger RPG space, particularly those from western developers. Mass Effect 2first released on January 26, 2010, and its a sequel of two different types. Narratively, it continues Commander Shepards storyafter theyre killed by aliens called the Collectors, Shepards revived by the human supremacist group Cerberus and told to build a team to investigate abductions of human colonies that may be connected to the growing Reaper threat. But the sequels also a soft gameplay reboot: the original Mass Effectwas an RPG dinged for being an occasionally awkward third-person shooter, so BioWare strived to make the combat feel better. That meant streamlining and trimming down some of the first games fat, so no planet exploration in the Mako, and Shepard regenerates health and uses ammo for their guns rather than heatsinks. Those changes didnt stopMass Effect 2from becoming a critical and commercial darling, or from being considered one of the best games ever. But it did lead to fans of the first lamenting how BioWare had really made an action game that happened to feature RPG elements rather than an action-RPG. The studios shift to immediate, real-time fights had been coming for a while now, starting with Jade Empire, and has continued up to last yearsDragon Age: The Veilguard;Mass Effect 3smore action than RPG to the point Shepard has a dodge roll and melee finishers, and uses workbenches to mod out their guns. 2017sMass Effect: Andromedatried to split the difference between its series gameplay contrasts by keeping and expanding upon the sequels action focus, while also bringing back the originals stats and passive skills through its Profiles system. Whatever else one thinks about Andromeda, itmight be the most RPG the franchise had felt in a decade. BioWare/EA What is an RPG anymore? Its been asked about the genre over the past decade as several big names in the space have either faded, decreased in output, or pivoted. Look no further than Final Fantasy: mainline titles in Square Enixs flagship franchise have gradually shifted from turn-based combat to full-on action, like 2024s Final Fantasy VII Rebirthor 2023sFinal Fantasy XVI. While Final Fantasy VIIs remakes have pause-and-prep combat that allow for some tactics,Final Fantasy XVIis character action through and through, further helped by the pedigree behind it. Combat director Ryota Suzuki previously worked as a designer on CapcomsDevil May Cryseries, which is apparent almost immediately upon playing. You can also look at Stranger of Paradise,an AU prequel to the first Final Fantasy. The underrated 2022 game was made by Team Ninja, which previously made the NiohandNinja Gaidenfranchises, a pedigree more than apparent in Strangersclass-switching, melee-focused combat. The line between action games and RPGs became greatly blurred in the past decade thanks to triple-A action games borrowing RPG elements that often feel tacked-on or unneeded. Theres also the matter of linearity: the Mass Effectsequels pulled back from full branching storytelling to provide players with outcomes that varied depending on choices they previously made, either earlier in the game or in prior installments. While it was more manageable for the developers, this method has its drawbacks. With Veilguard, BioWare brought over three specific events from Dragon Age: Inquisition for players to base the world state around, which reflected the decade-long gap between installments and didnt fully sit well with players. Western-made RPGs like BioWare titles and Baldurs Gate 3 are famously built around choices, a promise which can be a double-edged sword: players will always hold Mass Effect 3s ending against BioWare, andAssassins Creed Odyssey,that franchises second go at being an action-RPG, drew controversy for a DLC that funneled players toward starting a family, even when their character may not have wanted to or was romantically inclined toward their own gender.Not all of this spawned directly fromMass Effect 2srelease, but that game helped set the foundation for how the genres transformation. For better or worse, publishers wanted to court mainstream western audiences however they saw fit, and chased any attention-grabbing trend. The west liked shooters, multiplayer, zombies, and crafting, so developers have spent years making games built around one or all of those ideas. Its only been fairly recently that things are swinging back in favor of Japanese developers, particularly with RPGs. Atlus Personafranchise has been grown bigger and bigger thanks to various Persona 4 follow-ups and re-releases or remakes for the likes ofPersona 3and4, not to mention the developers newest title, Metaphor: ReFantazio. Similarly, SegasLike a Dragonfranchise pivoted to a turn-based RPG style with 2020s soft reboot, which reflects new lead Ichiban Kasugas love for theDragon Questfranchise. And despite its main franchises devotion to real-time brawls, Square Enix also hasnt completely abandoned its turn-based roots; its still got the long-running Dragon Questseries, the very good Octopath Travelergames, re-releases of the originalFinal Fantasies, and various HD2D titles. BioWare/EA As for western developers? Thats a little harder to determine. Some, like CD Projekt Red or Larian, have leaned more toward immersive sims or tabletop games for their recent role-playing ventures. Meanwhile, others seem ready to play their hits in new ways (see Obsidian with AvowedandOuter Worlds 2) or try at being a successor to newer masterpieces, like the manystudios spawning out of Disco Elysiumcreator ZA/UM. And then there are the anomalies, games we have some idea of, but nothing quite so concrete yet.What will Fablebring to the conversation under Playground Games direction opposed to Lionheads? What has Bethesda learned from the ultimately muted reactions to Starfieldthat makesElder Scrolls VIand eventually (maybe)Fallout 5feel like something different?Or, as this relates to BioWare, how RPG will its nextMass Effectbe after the series has moved away from, and then back to, its roots? This upcoming installment is led by several franchise veterans, but RPGs have evolved. For all the flak Andromeda took, it also made attempts at evolving parts of the original games thatd already been dated, like the conversation wheel and the binary Paragon/Renegade system. The team behind that game knew Mass Effect needed to grow, and that mindset is needed as the series attempts a genuine return. With the Legendary remasters out, the series cant play its own hits and act like the last decade of RPGs, or its last game, didnt happen. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

House in Serrado da Adega / AA. ArquitectosSave this picture! Nuno SerroHousesCmara de Lobos, PortugalArchitects: AA. ArquitectosAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:184 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2022 PhotographsPhotographs:Nuno SerroManufacturersBrands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: BRUMA, Cifre ceramica, Efapel, Fassa Bortolo, Finsa, JNF, Sanitana Lead Architects: Andr Ferreira, Adriana Henriques More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The land is located in Cmara de Lobos, in a residential development about 77.50m from the sea. It borders a road to the East, a house to the North, an empty lot to the South, and a slope to the West. The view is more interesting to the South (sea) and West (opposite hillside). The house has two emerging floors, and its shape creates two strips, one longer (to the west) than the other (to the east) in accordance with the trapezoidal shape of the land.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!On the ground floor, in the eastern strip, there is a covered outdoor parking area, a storage room with access from the outside, an entrance served by a large closet that extends to the living room, a guest bathroom (with access through the closet), and the staircase leading to the upper floor. The entire eastern facade is sheltered by a porch formed by a flower bed, intended to bring a bit of garden closer to the house. Following, in the western strip, are the open space living room, dining area, and kitchen, along with a pantry. Attached to the living room is a porch facing South and West. On the opposite side (North/West) there is another porch, similar, supporting the barbecue. On the upper floor, in the eastern strip, there is a bedroom, a laundry room with access to a drying patio, the staircase, and the bathroom and walk-in closet of the suite. In the western strip is the other bedroom, the common bathroom for the bedrooms, and the suites bedroom. Above the ground floor porches are two balconies, one for the suite (South/West) and a common one for the bedrooms (North/West). The balconies have flower beds, similar to those that form the eastern porch, with the same purpose. There is also a patio immediately in front of the stairs, facing West.Save this picture!Save this picture!The house will be thermally insulated from the exterior and painted white. Except for the slabs, flower beds, and the pillar of the parking area, which will be in exposed concrete. Panels made of sucupira wood will cover the corner between the parking area and the front door of the house and will conceal a storage compartment dedicated to parking and a shoe cabinet in the leftover space under the stairs. In the surroundings, attached to the North wall is the barbecue, and to the East wall are the trash house and a shelter for dogs.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officePublished on January 26, 2025Cite: "House in Serrado da Adega / AA. Arquitectos" [Casa no Serrado da Adega / AA. Arquitectos] 26 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1026131/house-in-serrado-da-adega-aa-arquitectos&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Exposure to low temperatures for prolonged spells can trigger an array of different health conditions, some of which may be life-threatening.

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The Elder Scrolls has been consistent with its openings, where the player character is an unknown prisoner, and it's likely that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be no different. For Oblivion and Skyrim in particular, the player character begins as a nobody with no remarkable features, and it is during the events of the game that their actions earn them their reputation. This works well for Bethesda RPGs in particular, as it allows players to build a new character from a blank slate, but there are advantages to having some kind of background for a player character.

Pokemon GO has been around for quite some time, and there is always more to learn about the beloved game. There is a lot that goes into the game, whether that be the season, the event, or even the weather that will give into effect how the experience will go for the player. When catching Pokemon, there is a lot to consider with each catch.

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Progress Update: Using glBufferSubData, custom drag routines, onHover line coloring, One vertex buffer. Thanks, this project is fun.

The Legend of Ochi premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. This initial review was timed for its world premiere embargo.A child befriending a creature everyone else thinks is too dangerous to befriend is the backbone of many memorable coming-of-age stories, from Free Willy and The Black Stallion to E.T. and How to Train Your Dragon. Its the ultimate fantasy for young people: just getting a strange, misunderstood, unique creature in a way no one else can.A24s almost-fantasy-adventure, almost-family-drama movie The Legend of Ochi, from writer-director Isaiah Saxon, follows in that vein. The creature in question is an ochi, an apelike animal unique to the film and native to the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Europe. And the child is Yuri (Helena Zengel), a lonely teenage girl whos still dealing with the aftermath of a family tragedy.While some moments of the movie spark the same magic and sense of connection as the classic movies in this very specific movie subgenre, the family drama and the creature plotline never quite click together. While these elements often go together like Hiccup and Toothless, they end up undermining each other in The Legend of Ochi.[Ed. note: This post contains setup spoilers for The Legend of Ochi.]The Legend of Ochi takes place in a remote Carpathian village, where the ochi, mythical creatures that look a bit like yeti-ape hybrids with sharp teeth, roam the mountains and forest. Yuri feels isolated from her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe), whos made it his mission to recruit the young men of the village in hopes of driving the ochi out. Maxim blames the ochi for his failed marriage, because his wife left him after they lost their son to ochi attacks.Yuri butts heads with both Maxim and Petro (Stranger Things Finn Wolfhard), an orphan Maxim took in and is raising to be a seasoned ochi hunter. After Yuri finds a baby ochi, she decides to run away and return the creature to its home in the woods. She bonds with the creature and also comes face-to-face with her mother (Emily Watson), who now lives alone in an isolated cabin and studies the ochi, much like Hiccups lost mother, Valka, in How to Train Your Dragon 2.The relationship between Yuri and the baby ochi is the strongest thread of the movie. The creature is adorable, and Saxons use of puppetry to bring it to life makes their interactions more tactile and believable. Its charming when the ochi communicates in little murmurs and growls, and even more so when Yuri begins to understand what those sounds mean. Zengel does a great job of acting against the puppet, and really sells Yuris almost bullheaded conviction that she can bond with this creature and march safely into ochi territory to take it home, even when her mother warns her that it would likely mean the babys death, because the adult ochi will reject it.While Yuri and the ochi are captivating, Saxon doesnt spend nearly enough time with them. Nor does he spend enough time on the messy family dynamics that motivate Yuri to run away in the first place. That latter lack ends up undermining the movie the most. Yuris family has supposedly been broken apart by the ochi, but viewers dont get much sense of what their family was like before the attack, and their current motives feel unclear and contradictory.When a family movie splits up the family for most of the run time, its important to make sure the audience still understands who these characters are and what they mean to each other. But Saxon doesnt take time to establish them as people before sending Yuri off on her adventure, and the rest of the movie only has a few interactions between them.Still, the actors pull off a few small, touching moments quite well when they are together. Yuris mom gently braids her hair while Yuri rests after getting hurt. A late conversation between Yuri and Maxim is a lovely throwback to their first interaction, one that feels genuine, as father and daughter try to relate to each other in the movies endgame. But there arent enough of these moments to really sell the family story.Given that Saxon doesnt spend enough time either with Yuri and the ochi or with Yuri and her family, the movies two biggest emotional arcs never fully come together. The ending, which is supposed to bring them together in a big cathartic moment, doesnt feel earned. Theres a slight twinge of relief, but its immediately muddled by a sense of Wait how did this even happen? because there isnt enough meaningful buildup. All the threads are there, and theyre even looped in and out of each other. But theyre never pulled tight or tied together enough to hold the story together.The Legend of Ochi hits theaters on April 25.