Demolition of Molsons factory on Lakeshore and Bathurst in Toronto (Photo courtesy of Catherine Nasmith)With climate change and housing shortages being two of the top issues in Canada and around the world, how does it make any sense to continue to have the virtually unfettered right to demolish buildings in Canada? Unless a building has heritage status, (less than 1 per cent do) you can obtain a demolition permit over the counter on demand anywhere in the country. The right to demolish is rooted in outmoded planned obsolescence practices that originated in the post-war building boom. A right to demolish has no place in the era of climate change. Conservation of all resources is critical to survival.Society rationalizes demolition by saying, the old must make way for the new. We would never apply that rationale to the elderly or infirm. We do all we can to extend the life or people as long as possible, surely, we should do the same for our buildings.Buildings contain irreplaceable environmental resources. In some Canadian jurisdictions, cultural heritage value or rental housing protection policies intervene between buildings and the wrecking ball. Heritage laws emerged in the 1960s and 70s to try to keep important buildings out of the demolition stream. In the 21st century, the question of cultural value is eclipsed by the environmental dangers of demolition. Its not only an issue of running out of landfill space to deal with the approximately 30 per cent of landfill from the construction industry, but it is also the loss of material that could, and should, be re-used, recycled, and repurposed. The best way to conserve material is to maintain our building stock where it stands. I am writing this article from home in a 100-year-old repurposed school building. Down the street an older hotel has been repurposed by the City of Toronto for social housing. Smart developers are rehabilitating office space for housing.With every new build, our debt to the environment mounts. In the middle of a housing crisis, in Torontos Regent Park, buildings that could and should be rehabilitated sit boarded up, waiting for demolition and new construction to create new housing units. With a bit more imagination, we could build over and around what we have.How is it that Canada has excellent policies on recycling small stuff like pop cans and paper but not buildings? How is it that the school boards and other institutional property owners are permitted to defer maintenance to the point that demolition and its associated waste and disruption become inevitable? The Toronto District School Board has a mounting maintenance backlog of more than 4.2 billion in 2023.The demolition of the Bata headquarters in Toronto, designed by Parkin Associates. North York refused to designate the structure as a heritage building. (Photo courtesy of Catherine Nasmith)Thinking is changing. The Declaration of Chaillot, passed March 2024 in France at the United Nations Environment Programs Building and Climate Global Forum, represents a major shift in approach. Endorsed by over 70 countries, including Canada, it calls for, among other things, prioritizing the re-use, repurposing and renovation of existing buildings and infrastructures to minimize the use of non-renewable resources, maximize energy efficiency and achieving climate neutrality, sustainability, and safety with particular focus on the lowest performing buildings. The report cites an annual production worldwide of 100 billion tons of waste annually generated from construction, demolition, and renovation processes, and that most of the materials are wasted at the end-of-use phase of these processes, with about 35 per cent sent to landfills.There are two things our Canadian governments can do right away. The first is to introduce planning policies that prioritize building adaptation and reuse over demolition and new build, with financial incentives to match; the second is to introduce a notice period of 60 days prior to issuing a demolition permit. That nominal notice period can be easily worked into the construction planning calendar and would give municipalities a chance to ensure that all measures are taken to avoid the environmental damage of demolition.As your grandmother said, waste not, want not.Catherine Nasmith is a recently retired architect. As a heritage consultant and volunteer advocate, she specializes in the conservation of buildings from her two offices (both rehabilitated buildings) in Muskoka and Toronto.The post Op-Ed: Its Time to Abolish the Right to Demolish appeared first on Canadian Architect.

PocketWorlds, maker of the popular social gaming appHighrisehas acquired Infinite Canvas, an AI-driven user-generated content team.Read More

Haptikos has unveiled a hand exoskeleton, meant to enable you to use your hands with precision in haptic applications in XR.Read More

Chris Kerr, News EditorJanuary 27, 20251 Min ReadImage via DeNA / Creatures Inc.Pokemon TCG Pocket players who engage in nefarious activities such as real money trading could be banned.Trading has yet to debut in-game, but it looks like some players have found a workaroundand managed to catch the eye of developers DeNA and Creatures Inc. in the process.A news post shared in-game (spotted by Eurogamer) confirms as muchbut warns players they could face account suspensions and "other action" if they breach the Terms of Use."We are aware that some players have engaged in data tampering, real money trading, and other behaviors that violate the Terms of Use," reads the post."If we confirm that a player has engaged in behaviour that violates the Terms of Use, we will warn them, suspend their account, or take other action. We will continue to strive to provide an environment where everyone can safely and comfortably enjoy their experience."Pokemon TCG Pocket launched in October 2024 but was missing a key feature in the form of trading. DeNA and Creatures Inc. have since confirmed the mechanic will be added on January 30, 2025.The free-to-play mobile title had topped 30 million downloads worldwide by November 2024. Concrete revenue figures remain elusive, but estimates from AppMagic suggested the game had earned around $24 million at the beginning of November.About the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Yellow Brick Games' Eternal Strands is one of the first success stories out of the many small studios spun up by former triple-A developers in the gold rush of 2020-2022. It's a third-person action-adventure game that stands out thanks to a striking physics system where players chain together magical abilities to battle creatures and navigate complex terrainsometimes both when the "terrain" is a giant creature.A decade ago, this kind of game would have seemed only possible from a team of hundreds of developers, but Yellow Brick Games is shipping Eternal Strands with less than a hundred workers (and a pivot from being published by Private Division to self-publishing). Technological advancements obviously made this task easier, but Unreal Engine hasn't gotten that much more efficient over the years. So what made this game possible?The answers offered by game director Frdric St-Laurent, creative director Mike Laidlaw, and executive producer Jeff Skalski will seem familiar to most of our readers (Laidlaw and Skalski pull double duty as Yellow Brick's chief creative officer and chief operating officer). They can be summed up simply as "constraint, cutting, and collaboration."But diving into the details, you start to see a process that led to such efficient development over four years of work. Like a well-guided snowball rolling down hill, the studio took a temperature system that would be at the heart of its magical gameplay and built a process for cooking up properly-scoped content that brought this game to life.Eternal Strands' magic system is built on temperature measurementWhen the Yellow Brick Team came together in 2020, the pitch for what would become Eternal Strands was exceptionally close to what would make it in the final game. The core game mechanics of crafting weapons, slaying giant monsters, and wielding physics-based magic were all there on day one, all to be set in a fantasy world spearheaded by Laidlaw, a veteran of BioWare's Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises.In Eternal Strands, players take on the role of Brynn, a member of a magical band of "Weavers" who stumble into a lost land called The Enclave, who's tasked with digging up its secrets in order to save the world, and more importantly, her friends. She does this with magical powers that dynamically interact with the environment, weather, and enemies.St-Laurent explained that the beating heart of the magic system is actually a temperature tracking tool. After producing a physics-based controller for the player that would fuel procedural animations for climbing on titanic creatures, the team got to work on a method for tracking the temperature within every two-meter by two-meter cell of air in a gameplay environment. Then objects like plants, rocks, and collectible ingredients needed "sensors" to track that temperature and determine what behavior to display. Hot objects start burning, cold objects become brittle, creatures slow down in the cold or freeze in place by ice, etc.The goal was to ensure magic and creature attacks could organically impact the environment. One example would be a dragon starting a massive wildfire with its fire breath thanks not just to the flames, but the convection put out by the heat. Another would be if a towering "Arc" automaton swung its mace into a wooden structure and send it crumbling to the ground.It's a smaller-scale version of what Nintendo pulled off with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. And because it's smaller-scale (and made by a smaller team), those two-by-two measurement cells began sprouting constraints really fast."It drove interesting decisions," Laidlaw said. "Our game cannot be open world because we cannot simulate all of those temperatures in a 25 kilometer-square [area]." Players instead explore a number of different "zones," each populated with different enemies and resources, which, along with quests, drive players to regularly double back to explored areas.The design of Eternal Strands' "epic" encounters with large monsters followed a similar pattern. Though some creatures, like different types of dragons and towering magic automatons, were there at the start, the Yellow Brick team approached their design in a top-down fashion, rather than just creating a list of enemies that had to be in the game.To make these creatures, St-Laurent and his colleagues first created the classic locomotion and health systems that would be universal to each creature. Then they created a "language of elements" that would be common to everything in the game (fire, ice, telekinesis, acid, etc.). Then they did what he called "subtractive design" to decide the traits of each creature, allowing them to use in-construction systems to define the traits of each enemy.So if "flight" is one system, then a creature that "flies" and "breathes fire" is the foundation for a dragon (or "breathes ice" for an ice dragon). The creatures are further differentiated by AI and the environments they're placed in. Most wander in a pattern, but some will engage the player directly while others attack from a distance, creating a challenge where they have to close the gap.Image via Yellow Brick Games.But again, the constraints appear. Building creatures in this manner ruled out monsters that would require other forms of locomotion like rolling or sliding. So no boulder-themed or snake creatures could be part of the mix. "I remember joking about adding a perfect sphere that had a tessellating amount of polygons, and it would cause you to lag," said Laidlaw. "The ultimate challenge was optimizing your system in real time."Skolski said this processand building the magic system in a similar wayallowed emergent play possibilities to pop out mid-cycle that the developers hadn't even considered. He recalled testing the Ice Wall power against a giant automaton enemy called the Arc of the Stricken Earth, and blasting a stream of ice at it as it wound up to smash him with a giant mace. By accident, he aimed the ice from the creature's chest up to its upper arm, holding it in place the way ice can freeze enemies to the ground."I just put my shield down because I went 'it can't hit me. It's trying, but it can't until it breaks the ice or [the ice] melts.'" Laidlaw explained that moments like this emerged all over the development processbut then it became a challenge to make sure the player understood what chain of events caused these surprises to happen.Cutting features before anyone wastes time on themWhen Eternal Strands was being scoped out, the plan was originally to create 12 epic creatures. The game shipped with 9. Cutting interesting ideas is part-and-parcel for game development, but Skalski said the goal with Eternal Strands was to allow as minimal work as possible on a feature before it was cut. Or in other words, to cut features before they slowed down production, not after."We were constantly cutting every time we had an offsite with directors," Skalski said. "It was a normal practice, because we wanted to try and be as healthy as we could be." Laidlaw added that it was vital for developers at Yellow Brick to see leadership making these cuts, so they would feel confident presenting planned features as being out of scope, knowing they'd take it seriously."At the beginning of every major phase of development, we'd sit down with every director and some of the leads and go 'okay, here's what we'd like the end of [this stage] to look like, does that fit, yes or no?"So if the end of say, a 6-month pre-production sprint, the team wanted all of Brynn's armor choices completed by the end of pre-production, they'd go to the team and ask if that was possible. If the team said "we can't make that much armor," they'd cut the number of assets or otherwise reshape the armor system as needed, rather than sacrifice the top production goal.Image via Yellow Brick Games.This process was done in service of ensuring developers wouldn't work on a feature for a year, only to have it completely cut from the game. So when Yellow Brick cut the number of epic creatures from 12 to 9, the 3 lost monsters didn't see "a single minute" of additional work. St-Laurent alluded to his experience at previous studios (going out of his way to not specify which ones) where developers would pour months of work into some portion of a game and then eventually realize it either it wasn't good enough or leadership just plain forgot it was being worked on.What a process like this makes possibleOne of Laidlaw's favorite memories in development came while toying with the interaction between temperature and lootthe crafting components that drop in the world that players use to craft and upgrade weapons and armor. He described how "rich boulders" in the game were a prime example of this system. After they were heated up, they were meant to drop rarer, better metals because they'd been magically "refined or smelted" by the heat in the world."I always joked with [St-Laurent]...I said 'my dream is that I can use telekinesis to hold a boulder in a dragon's breath so it produces excalibur-level materials.' And I remember one day he messaged me and he says 'hey, remember your jokes about combat smelting? I did it. It's in, and it works.'"And so "combat smelting" was born, allowing players to manipulate loot drops using the laws of thermodynamics. It's an example of how this systems-focused approach created "efficiencies" later in development after spending extra time early in the process. Not only was the team creating new content as the game went on, each new element introduced to the game had additive properties that didn't need to be designed by hand.With Eternal Strands now out in the wild, Yellow Brick Games and the game development community have a case study for what smaller teams of experienced developers can produce. It's still yet to be seen if these smaller teams will ultimately produce more successful games. But for now, the team can take pride in releasing one of the first exceptionally unique games of 2025.

Given the lack of traction that the characters were able to gain in years of comics, why would Marvel think that Echo or Agatha could carry a television show?Its laughable when put like that, but these shows came out the same year that Sony released Madame Web and Lionsgate put out another take on The Crow, a character who has only appeared in a handful of miniseries over the decades. Furthermore, Marvel and DC/Warner Bros had huge hits with Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad, movies filled with very minor superheroes.At the height of the superhero boom, people would flock to anything about a character in a cape. And because movie and television studios will drive into the ground any successful trend, they gave the greenlight to even the thinnest idea (remember Pennyworth?). But if even comic book readers dont care enough about these characters to accept them as leads, then general audiences certainly wont either.The same expectations cant be applied to Superman or Fantastic Four, both foundational titles that have remained constants in various forms since their founding. These character have not only carried multiple books at once, but theyve launched spinoffs that have had more success than anything enjoyed by Agatha Harkness or Echo. Superhero fatigue may diminish interest in Echo or Agatha All Along, but the failures of those shows shouldnt lead people to think that Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps, or the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again or season two of X-Men 97, will suffer the same fate. These are A-list characters.Of course, its worth pointing out that Daredevil and the X-Men werent always A-listers. Yes, both have starred in their own comics since their debuts in the early 1960s. But Uncanny X-Men simply reprinted earlier stories between 1970 and 1974, until Giant-Size X-Men #1 reimagined the team and paved the way for a 16-year-run by Chris Claremont. Daredevil was on the verge of cancelation in the late 1970s, which allowed penciller Frank Miller to make massive changes.Both of these examples show that any character can be an A-lister with the right creative team. Although incredibly talented creators have worked on Echo and Agatha comics, no one has yet found a way to make the characters compelling enough to drive stories. For that reason, it should surprise no one that their shows flopped.

The Traitors US, The Traitors NZ, The Traitors Australia and soon, Celebrity Traitors! If its TV shows similar to The Traitors youre after now that series three of the UK version has ended, you dont need to look further than the shows international and spinoff versions.In addition to that, you could opt for one of the many, many reality TV series with which The Traitors shares a good amount of DNA: Netflixs The Mole, The Trust: A Game of Greed, and Korean series The Devils Plan; or long-running show The Challenge on Paramount+ UK, Prime Videos House of Villains, and US-only shows The Hustler and Snake in the Grass.Those are your route-one choices. For something that scratches that The Traitors itch while also standing alone as great TV, why not look further afield to the shows below?The Jury: Murder TrialStreaming on: Channel4.comOne for the strong-stomached. If the discomfort of watching Faithfuls seize on spurious evidence and use it to build cases against their fellow innocents is too much, then this might break you. If youre fascinated by how peoples beliefs and convictions are swayed by argument, emotion, and group affiliation, then get watching.Unlike The Traitors admin-based murders, The Jury: Murder Trial recreates a real-life case using court transcripts. It then sets two randomly assigned juries to work on the case, without either of them knowing about the others existence. Will they both reach the same verdict, or will they come to different conclusions and thereby explode our faith in the UK legal system? This four-part documentary series was a deserved ratings hit for Channel 4 that won critical acclaim and Best Docu-Series at the 2024 National Reality TV Awards, and its already been recommissioned for a second run. Derren Brown: The ExperimentsStream on: Pluto.tvIf the suggestibility of the human mind is what fascinates you about The Traitors, then you can get the same kick (and even more insight) from any of mentalist and illusionist Derren Browns specials many of which are streaming on Channel4.com in the UK.The Experiments was a 2011 four-part series in which Brown set up scenarios to answer lurid what if? questions such as can somebody be hypnotised into committing (a fake) murder?; how do people behave when anonymous in a group?; can somebody be made to confess to a murder they didnt commit?; and how far a community can be manipulated using superstition. Whatever conclusions are drawn, each hour makes for captivating viewing that gives you pause over whether any of us should be allowed our own bank accounts and the power to vote.HeistStream on: NetflixThe moral quandaries of The Traitors contestants are some of its most fascinating viewing. How each player tries to justify their decisions, or qualify their backstabbing, paints a complex picture of human guilt, ego and conscience. This six-part Netflix documentary series, which revisits three real-life, big news heists and interviews the people who committed them, has all that and more.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!With two episodes devoted to each of the three major thefts, their planning, execution and aftermath, Heist is a rounded look at why people transgress and the lengths to which theyll go to end up on top. Read our review here.Race Across the WorldStream on: BBC iPlayerThis ones made by the same production company as The Traitors, which means it has the same excellent casting better even, because with less than half as many contestants most of whom will make it to the finale, everybody has to carry more individual screentime. (Theres also a celebrity spinoff.)The premise is simple: like The Amazing Race, teams of two have to navigate to various checkpoints around the globe, without phones, the internet or credit cards. Unlike The Amazing Race, the pairs arent allowed to travel by air. They have to choose their routes, diversions, where to stay, how to eat, and plan time out of travelling to work and earn money, all of which puts their relationships under an exposing amount of pressure. As well as the international backdrops and glimpses into different cultures, the relationships are what really works about this show. Just like The Traitors, its all about how their bonds are affected by gameplay.Jury DutyStream on: Amazon Freevee (Prime Video)This comedy-reality hybrid was one of 2023s most entertaining and under-the-radar TV shows. Its premise in which everybody apart from one person involved in making the show is in on a joke may sounds exploitative, but its all done in such a good-natured, light-hearted way that it gets a pass.From the producers of The Office US, and with a comedy cast that befits that shows documentary styling, heres the set-up: one guy thinks hes on a real jury thats being filmed for an educational documentary, everybody around him from his fellow jurors to the judge and legal teams, are actors improvising their way through some very silly scenarios. Its sweet, its fun and it runs on The Traitors-style tongue-in-cheek humour. Read our review here.Squid Game: The ChallengeStream on: NetflixHands up who thought this was the worst, most obtuse commissioning decision ever taken? Squid Game is an anti-capitalist satire about the exploitation of the poor at the hands of the callous rich, in which contestants in a series of sick games are killed for real and pitted against each other until theres one winner. Hey, thought a Netflix exec lets do that for real. (Well, not really for real seeing as nobody dies in the gameshow version of the South Korean streaming phenomenon, though judging from the lawsuit that followed, nobody had a good time making it.)Squid Game: The Challenge was indeed a callous and obtuse commissioning move, as well as being one of total genius. As entertainment, it works, and nowhere better is The Traitors work-together-but-stab-each-other-in-the-back money-building mission dynamic better replicated on TV.And If Its Fiction Youre AfterFocus FeaturesAnatomy of a Fall Guilt, remorse, lies and conscience all come under the microscope in this excellent Oscar-nominated film featuring courtroom scenes more gripping than The Traitors roundtables. Stream it on Prime Video.Conclave A sequestered group of cardinals must vote in rounds to elect one of their number as a new pope in this Oscar-nominated film, but is each of the candidates playing a fair game? Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence goes detective to find out. In cinemas now.Mindhunter David Finchers acclaimed Netflix series follows the FBIs behavioural science unit trying to decipher what makes serial killers tick.Showtrial But did they do it? Thats the question these two standalone BBC series asks about accused murderers Talitha and Justin, whose interviews with their counsel gradually tell the real story. Stream on BBC iPlayer.The Traitors series 3 is streaming now on BBC iPlayer in the UK.

PublishedJanuary 27, 2025 Eternal Strands launching into Game Pass today doesnt so much draw from its influences as treat them like some kind of thought experiment. What if, in a Monster Hunter game, every piece of armour could be made out of every kind of material (each one subtly changing their stats), and boss monsters had miniature puzzles built into their design? What if Shadow of the Colossus titans could appear in any environment, offering new challenges depending on where you are, and what the weathers like? And what if a BioWare RPG turned your spell wheel into a way not just to attack enemies, but alter the world around you?These are, of course, very big comparisons. Eternal Strands is the debut game from a small developer (albeit one with some very impressive experience in its ranks), and its more compact than the games its referencing. But this brand-new action RPG brims with ambition, fizzes with ideas, and invites you to experiment as much as its developers have.You step into the greaves of Brynn, who you might term a spellsword a seasoned warrior with the ability to use elemental magic, whos recently joined a travelling band of explorers, enchanters, smiths, and researchers. Their aim is to enter a long-closed kingdom, The Enclave once the worlds home of magical innovation, its now left in ruin after a still-misunderstood cataclysm. It promises many of the hallmarks of a fantasy action-RPG magic, monsters, mysteries but it quickly reveals itself to be presenting with some much less familiar ideas. Magic is at the heart of this world, and magic provides the most immediately surprising bit of game design in Eternal Strands. Far from simply being attacks, or traversal mechanics, the three elements of magic you can access are deeply simulated. Cast a fire spell, and flames will spread across vegetation, or leave stone walkways superheated, damaging those who pass through. Ice can be used to hold enemies in place, or cool a now-flaming area. Telekinesis allows you to pick up and move practically anything that isnt nailed down, or pull them into an orbit you create. Once youve understood these, you can start combining them a favorite combo of mine is attaching what amounts to a gravity well to an enemy, filling it with fire, then detonating the original spell to cause enormous explosions no hand-to-hand combat required.Each strand of magic becomes a means of truly affecting the world around you which means youre constantly left thinking about how to use your spells, long after you first unlock them. Youll discover that cold will uncloak enemies using active camouflage, or that you can rip the shields away from robotic guardians left wandering The Enclave. As a marker of how deep this goes, I only realised around 5 hours into the game that the ore-filled rocks Id been smashing for materials could be heated by flame spells first, effectively smelting the loot inside. If I smashed them after heating, the materials inside became more valuable. This attention to detail turns totally innocuous bits of environmental detail into useful, reactive pieces of design taken as a whole, Eternal Strands turns something as fundamental as video game magic into a tool and a toy. And magic is far from the only system Yellow Brick is tinkering with. The games setting is split into multiple zones, each an open world in miniature, filled with blueprints to unlock for new equipment, changing weather conditions, alterations based on whether youre entering during night or day, major and minor objectives, and secrets waiting to be uncovered. These areas are built outwards and upwards in a nod to the recent Zelda games, Bryn can climb almost any surface, meaning looking above you is as important as seeing whats on the horizon.But core to each area is the Great Foes they hold. From flying drakes to building-sized automata, these are titanic bosses left to wander each area. Theyre your biggest combat challenge, as well as the means for unlocking and upgrading your spells each one is tied to a specific ability, meaning youll need to defeat all the Great Foes multiple times to unlock and then fully upgrade each spell.The brilliance of the Great Foes is that theyre far more than a dangerous healthbar each one acts like a puzzle in itself. One automaton boss requires you to climb across its gigantic body, unlatching armor plates before attacking specific body parts. A drake can fly away and attack you from the safety of the skies but you can ice up its wings to keep it bound to ground level (at least until the next gout of flame).When youve defeated a Great Foe once, youll unlock a codex entry covering not only its lore, but offering clues as to how to beat it without grinding down its HP. Instead, you can find ways to tear out the magic that powers it (effectively an insta-kill) and offering another layer of puzzle. That drake, for instance, will only offer up its magic while its airborne, and when its horns have been smashed off but it can easily knock you off its back when fully mobile. So, youll need to target the horns and just a single wing enough to leave it able to fly, but unable to perform more difficult maneuvers in order to get your prize. Combine the fact that Great Foes can appear in any area, and can even react to the weather conditions in different ways, and each boss becomes a thrill to fight multiple times across the length of the game. And thats to say nothing of the rare loot they drop.Like the Monster Hunter series, progression in Eternal Strands isnt tied to XP, but the gear you wear. Youll find blueprints for new armor and weapons on your travels but the key change here is that any material can be used to build any equipment. One type of ore might boost your swords attack, but weigh more, slowing you down. The thread you choose to make your gloves out of might increase your heat resistance, but make you far more susceptible when stepping into an unexpectedly frozen zone. In a lovely touch, every material comes with a different visual aspect the same bow can look very different, depending on what youve chosen to make it from. Of all of Eternal Strands innovations, the fact that it makes the RPG staple of scattered loot not only useful, but interesting, might be one of its most impressive.And behind all of this restless tinkering, this game also offers a gently fascinating, surprisingly relaxing experience. As you explore, youll build relationships with your party back in the main hub area. Sure, you can relentlessly complete main objectives and push the story on, but equally you might want to complete some side tasks to hear more from your bands blacksmith, or simply ignore objectives altogether go loot hunting, secret finding, or boss killing. Theres no real pressure put on you to progress, meaning your route through the game is effectively self-directed I spent multiple hours simply gathering materials to make a metallic red suit of armor, simply because I wanted to. That became an exercise in relaxation, rather than a desperate grind something I wouldnt normally associate with the genre.Eternal Strands emerges as a game that pulls from so many familiar places, but comes together feeling vibrantly new. Experiments like this so often feel interesting, but remind you that the established way of doing things is there for a reason. Instead, this game offers a pointer for where the action-RPG could go.Eternal Strands launches today for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and cloud, and is available with Game Pass. It is also an Xbox Play Anywhere title, meaning when you buy it through the store on Xbox or Windows, its yours to play on Xbox and Windows PC at no additional cost, and your game progress and achievements are saved across Xbox and Windows PC. Eternal StrandsYellow Brick GamesGet it nowEternal Strands is the debut fantasy action-adventure title from Yellow Brick Games, a new independent studio founded by industry veterans. THE WORLD IS YOUR WEAPONAt the heart of Eternal Strands beats a revolutionary new system for gameplay interactions: heat spreads, cold chills, and real-time destruction allows for unprecedented reactivity in combat. Hurl burning tree trunks at enemies with telekinetic, snap nearby trees to block opposing fire, or channel raw telekinetic force to rip boulders from the ground. WEAVER OF MAGICWear the Mantle, a magical cloak that channels raw magic into raging flame, chilling ice, and telekinetic force. Combine your growing array of powers with enchanted weapons and armor crafted from slain enemies to create a custom look and style. Block incoming attacks with a wall of magical ice, lash out waves of flame from a massive two-handed blade, or toss enemies off a cliff with raw force. STAND AGAINST GIANTSFace gigantic adversaries and defeat them through a mix of sword, spell, and mobility. Leap onto and climb their massive forms to attack from different angles. Shatter armor or slice at weak spots to diminish their protection. Use ice to pin limbs of a towering foe, arcane flames to burn their fur, or catch lobbed projectiles and turn their attacks back upon them in battles that will leave scars upon the land. UNSTABLE CLIMATE TO MASTEREnhance the effectiveness of your ice abilities during a flash freeze to open up new paths. Use a heatwave to start a wildfire and watch it spread towards enemies as it consumes the tinder-dry trees and grass around it. A WORLD RICH WITH SECRETSExplore the wilds, the capital city of Dynevron, and the secrets beneath as every surface is climbable. Magical abilities can create bridges, burn barriers, or launch Brynn across the world. The next-generation physics system encourages and rewards player creativity in exploration as much as combat. As the Enclaves secrets unfold, return to base camp to consult with a rich cast of characters. Each are keen to discover the mysteries of what happened to this lost bastion of power and knowledge. A realm of mystery, opportunity, danger, and wonder: the Enclave awaits.

For interior designer Meghan Shadrick, the real challenge of renovating this Cape Codstyle cottage was knowing when to go all in and when to hold back. Parts of it needed a full gut reno (like the second floor), while other areas needed just cosmetic work (the family and living rooms). Some of these changes were made for the kind of unsexy practical reasons that give homeowners and contractors headaches: Shadrick and the architect and builder discovered rotten floorboards, support beans sawed three-quarters of the way through, and ancient DIY solutions to structural problems. There was a new curveball every week for many weeks once demolition started, Shadrick says. At one point, the builder said, Were lucky this house didnt fall down on us. Luckily, the rest of the changes were the fun kind.FAST FACTSDESIGNER: Megan Shadrick Interiors, based in Arlington, MassachusettsLOCATION: Harwich Port, MassachusettsTHE SPACE: A 3,200-square-foot, 4-bedroom, 3-bath house with a 1-bedroom, 2-bath attached apartment. Family RoomKristen Francis In this room, we married a beachy, vintage vibe with modern appeal, Shadrick says. She also improvised: Where there wasnt enough room in the wall to wire and install new lighting, Shadrick sourced plug-in sconces.Sofa: Lancaster Custom Crafted Upholstery. Coffee table and side table: O&G Studios. Camel armchair: Four Hands. Rattan cabinet: vintage. Art: Ramble Market. Pendant light: Anthropologie. Window coverings: Etsy. Sconces: Crate & Barrel.Courtesy of Meghan Shadrick InteriorsThe family room, before transformation.Courtesy of Meghan Shadrick InteriorsFloor plan of the houseLiving RoomKirsten FrancisThis room is cozy, dark, and moody for snuggling in during the harsh winter months, Shadrick says. The woven rush chairs add warmth and texture and match the whiskey-colored sofa.Sofa: Joybird. Rush armchairs: Noir Furniture. Coffee table: clients own. Rug: vintage, Brimfield Antique Show. Art: Ramble Market. Checkered pillow: Lulu & Georgia. Marbleized pillow: Rule of Three Studio. Rattan chest: Chairish.KitchenKirsten FrancisThe kitchen is where the homeowners made their biggest investment. They are really into entertaining and cooking, and wanted the kitchen to be a workhorse hub of the home, Shadrick says. The cabinetry is custom, and we selected wire-brushed cerused white oak for the hood surround and island. It really stands out in the space.Her biggest challenge was to work a range hood into the design despite a low ceiling height (it's 6'10") without making it look squat and puny. That took some finessing, she says. We elongated the whole design and connect the flanking cabinets in the same finish to draw the eye out and around.Cabinetry: Lewis & Weldon Cabinetry. Backsplash: Cle Tile. Hardware: Rejuvenation. Pendants: Lostine. Counter stools: Etsy. Faucet: Brizo. Range: Blue Star.Dining NookKirsten FrancisBanquettes work wonders when the dining area is small area and interferes with traffic flow in and out of space, Shadrick says. The seating group is off-center, which allows for a banquette and clears the way through the room.Dining table: William Sonoma Home. Dining chairs: Four Hands. Banquette: custom, in Romo fabric. Pendant: Regina Andrew. Picture light: Restoration Hardware. Sconce: Visual Comfort. Art: The Nines Art Gallery. Roman shade: custom, in Pierre Frey fabric. Fringed pillows: custom, in Romo fabric.BedroomKirsten FrancisUpstairs, Shadrick describes the rooms as a hodgepodge maze of small bedrooms with low ceilings and a sloping roofline. Nooks and crannies galore, she says. With rooflines, dormers, and many ins and outs, we created what feels like a nook for the bed setup.Bed: Rejuvenation. Bedding: Garnet Hill and Serena & Lily. Nightstand: Blu Dot. Window treatments: custom, in Quadrille fabric. Sconces: Arteriors Home. Girls RoomKirsten FrancisIn a different house, this pocket-sized bedroom would have been a walk-in closet, but Shadrick put it to work as a charming childs bedroom. We decided to get into the weeds on details to make it feel intentional and special. The width perfectly fit a built-in twin bed with a pull-out for overnight guests. Shadrick is particularly pleased with the decision to paper the walls and ceiling. It was the first time I used the same pattern on both, and Ive since done this on other projects with great effect, she says. I think it works especially well in this house because it distracts the eye of the low ceiling height.Bed: Built-Ins by Eddie. Wallpaper: Thibaut. Sheets: Garnet Hill. Coverlet: L.L. Bean. Sconce: Lumens. Rug: Anthropologie. Art: Ramble Market.BathroomKirsten FrancisKirsten FrancisThe zero-clearance shower is just a couple of feet away from the soaking tub, which essentially makes this bathroom one large wet room. Vanity: RH. Sconces: Rejuvenation. Mirror: Van Collier. Faucet and bath fittings: Waterworks. Pedestal table: CB2. Floor tile: Marble Online. Copper tub: Signature Hardware. Window treatment: Jim Thompson. Paint: Portola Paints.MudroomKirsten FrancisThis space, which is in a more recent addition, got a complete overhaul to make it feel consistent with the older parts of the house. The paneling was copied from the irregular built-ins in the family and living rooms. I think it really lends a nostalgic feeling, Shadrick says. These are features that help tell a story of time and place, and it is usually what Im trying to create in a new home. Wallpaper on the floor and ceiling also helps this space feel taller.Wallpaper: Hamilton Weston. Runner: Ramble Market. Pillow: Romo. Bench: Lewis & Weldon Cabinetry. Light fixture: Generation Lighting. Tile: Cl Tile.Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

The practice of medicine has undergone an incredible, albeit incomplete, transformation over the past 50 years, moving steadily from a field informed primarily by expert opinion and the anecdotal experience of individual clinicians toward a formal scientific discipline.The advent of evidence-based medicine meant clinicians identified the most effective treatment options for their patients based on quality evaluations of the latest research. Now, precision medicine is enabling providers to use a patients individual genetic, environmental and clinical information to further personalize their care.The potential benefits of precision medicine also come with new challenges. Importantly, the amount and complexity of data available for each patient is rapidly increasing. How will clinicians figure out which data is useful for a particular patient? What is the most effective way to interpret the data in order to select the best treatment?These are precisely the challenges that computer scientists like me are working to address. Collaborating with experts in genetics, medicine and environmental science, my colleagues and I develop computer-based systems, often using artificial intelligence, to help clinicians integrate a wide range of complex patient data to make the best care decisions.The rise of evidence-based medicineAs recently as the 1970s, clinical decisions were primarily based on expert opinion, anecdotal experience and theories of disease mechanisms that were frequently unsupported by empirical research. Around that time, a few pioneering researchers argued that clinical decision-making should be grounded in the best available evidence. By the 1990s, the term evidence-based medicine was introduced to describe the discipline of integrating research with clinical expertise when making decisions about patient care.The bedrock of evidence-based medicine is a hierarchy of evidence quality that determines what kinds of information clinicians should rely on most heavily to make treatment decisions.Certain types of evidence are stronger than others. While filtered information has been evaluated for rigor and quality, unfiltered information has not.CFCF/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SARandomized controlled trials randomly place participants in different groups that receive either an experimental treatment or a placebo. These studies, also called clinical trials, are considered the best individual sources of evidence because they allow researchers to compare treatment effectiveness with minimal bias by ensuring the groups are similar.Observational studies, such as cohort and case-control studies, focus on the health outcomes of a group of participants without any intervention from the researchers. While used in evidence-based medicine, these studies are considered weaker than clinical trials because they dont control for potential confounding factors and biases.Overall, systematic reviews that synthesize the findings of multiple research studies offer the highest quality evidence. In contrast, single-case reports detailing one individuals experience are weak evidence because they may not apply to a wider population. Similarly, personal testimonials and expert opinions alone are not supported by empirical data.In practice, clinicians can use the framework of evidence-based medicine to formulate a specific clinical question about their patient that can be clearly answered by reviewing the best available research. For example, a clinician might ask whether statins would be more effective than diet and exercise to lower LDL cholesterol for a 50 year-old male with no other risk factors. Integrating evidence, patient preferences and their own expertise, they can develop diagnoses and treatment plans.As may be expected, gathering and putting all the evidence together can be a laborious process. Consequently, clinicians and patients commonly rely on clinical guidelines developed by third parties such as the American Medical Association, the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. These guidelines provide recommendations and standards of care based on systematic and thorough assessment of available research.Dawn of precision medicineAround the same time that evidence-based medicine was gaining traction, two other transformative developments in science and health care were underway. These advances would lead to the emergence of precision medicine, which uses patient-specific information to tailor health care decisions to each person.The first was the Human Genome Project, which officially began in 1990 and was completed in 2003. It sought to create a reference map of human DNA, or the genetic information cells use to function and survive.This map of the human genome enabled scientists to discover genes linked to thousands of rare diseases, understand why people respond differently to the same drug, and identify mutations in tumors that can be targeted with specific treatments. Increasingly, clinicians are analyzing a patients DNA to identify genetic variations that inform their care.Output from the DNA sequencer used by the Human Genome Project.National Human Genome Research Institute/FlickrThe second was the development of electronic medical records to store patient medical history. Although researchers had been conducting pilot studies of digital records for several years, the development of industry standards for electronic medical records began only in the late 1980s. Adoption did not become widespread until after the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.Electronic medical records enable scientists to conduct large-scale studies of the associations between genetic variants and observable traits that inform precision medicine. By storing data in an organized digital format, researchers can also use these patient records to train AI models for use in medical practice.More data, more AI, more precisionSuperficially, the idea of using patient health information to personalize care is not new. For example, the ongoing Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948, yielded a mathematical model to estimate a patients coronary artery disease risk based on their individual health information, rather than the average population risk.One fundamental difference between efforts to personalize medicine now and prior to the Human Genome Project and electronic medical records, however, is that the mental capacity required to analyze the scale and complexity of individual patient data available today far exceeds that of the human brain. Each person has hundreds of genetic variants, hundreds to thousands of environmental exposures and a clinical history that may include numerous physiological measurements, lab values and imaging results. In my teams ongoing work, the AI models were developing to detect sepsis in infants use dozens of input variables, many of which are updated every hour.Researchers like me are using AI to develop tools that help clinicians analyze all this data to tailor diagnoses and treatment plans to each individual. For example, some genes can affect how well certain medications work for different patients. While genetic tests can reveal some of these traits, it is not yet feasible to screen every patient due to cost. Instead, AI systems can analyze a patients medical history to predict whether genetic testing will be beneficial based on how likely they are to be prescribed a medication known to be influenced by genetic factors.Another example is diagnosing rare diseases, or conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. Diagnosis is very difficult because many of the several thousand known rare diseases have overlapping symptoms, and the same disease can present differently among different people. AI tools can assist by examining a patients unique genetic traits and clinical characteristics to determine which ones likely cause disease. These AI systems may include components that predict whether the patients specific genetic variation negatively affects protein function and whether the patients symptoms are similar to specific rare diseases.Future of clinical decision-makingNew technologies will soon enable routine measurement of other types of biomolecular data beyond genetics. Wearable health devices can continuously monitor heart rate, blood pressure and other physiological features, producing data that AI tools can use to diagnose disease and personalize treatment.Related studies are already producing promising results in precision oncology and personalized preventive health. For example, researchers are developing a wearable ultrasound scanner to detect breast cancer, and engineers are developing skinlike sensors to detect changes in tumor size.Research will continue to expand our knowledge of genetics, the health effects of environmental exposures and how AI works. These developments will significantly alter how clinicians make decisions and provide care over the next 50 years.Aaron J. Masino, Associate Professor of Computing, Clemson UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Story by The Conversation An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. An independent news and commentary website produced by academics and journalists. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with