Team Asobi has announced five free new levels for Astro Bot, starting today with Tick-Tock Shock, which first appeared during a speed-running tournament last month. Its in the Vicious Void Galaxy, another new addition. Check it out in action below.Subsequent levels will be available weekly, with Thrust or Bust following on February 20th. Cock-A-Doodle-Doom is next on February 27th, followed by Hard to Bear on March 6th and Armored Hardcore on March 13th. Each level will be available from 6 AM PT.Also, if the galaxys name didnt give it away, these new levels are much more challenging. Fortunately, there are new Special Bots to rescue. Time Attack is supported for those who want bragging rights online in the rankings.If that werent enough, an update for PS5 Pro players allows playing at the highest resolution and 60 FPS. For more details on Astro Bot, check out our review. The critically acclaimed platformer sold 1.5 million in its first nine weeks.

Developer Q-Games unveiled a new title in its PixelJunk series of games during Sonys recent State of Play. Titled Dreams of Another, the title is slated for release on PS5 and PS VR2. Check out the announcement trailer below.Creative director Baiyon took to the PlayStation Blog to reveal more details about Dreams of Another, including the philosophy that went into designing the game. One core aspect of the title is that shooting at things helps create things in the world rather than destroying them.Rather than destroying objects by shootingas in traditional shooting gameshere, your shots materialize and create the world, explained Baiyon. This unconventional mechanic offers a gameplay experience that challenges the norms of the genre and invites players into a whole new dimension.Dreams of Another also features a rather unique art style, with the players being dropped into a world where just about everything around them is an ethereal dreamscape. This was done using a new technology referred to as point cloud technology. The world will exist in clusters of countless particles, which can then come together through the players actions to from the actual world around them.Making further use of this new technology, Dreams of Another will also make use of the power offered by the PS5 Pro. This will allow the game to feature smoother animations at higher resolutions.The story will revolve around two characters: The Man in Pajamas and The Wandering Soldier. Both characters, described as being emotionally scarred, will have their own stories as players interact with the world that they are restoring around them.As for PlayStation VR2 players, Dreams of Another will allow them to explore the world with full 360 degrees of immersion.While Dreams of Another doesnt yet have a solid release date, Q-Games has stated that it plans for a 2025 launch.

The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae that grows between 5 and 10 metres (16 and 33 feet) tall. The pomegranate fruit husk is red-purple in color, with an outer, hard pericarp, and an inner, spongy mesocarp (white "albedo"), which comprises the fruit inner wall where seeds attach. Pomegranate seeds are characterized by having sarcotesta, thick fleshy seed coats derived from the integuments or outer layers of the ovule's epidermal cells. The number of seeds in a fruit can vary from 200 to about 1,400. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, the pomegranate is thought to have originated from Afghanistan and Iran before being introduced and exported to other parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. This photograph, which was focus-stacked from 10 separate images, shows a whole pomegranate fruit (right), and a fruit split open to reveal the arils, each of which surrounds a seed (left).Photograph credit: Ivar LeidusRecently featured: Jadeite CabbageCharles DarwinDolderbahn RailcarArchiveMore featured pictures

February 14: Valentine's DayDetail from Pale Blue Dot1655 Arauco War: The Mapuche carried out a series of coordinated attacks against Spanish settlements and forts in colonial Chile, beginning a ten-year period of warfare.1779 Native Hawaiians killed the English explorer Captain James Cook after he attempted to kidnap Kalanipuu, the ruling chief of the island of Hawaii.1990 The NASA space probe Voyager1 took Pale Blue Dot (detail pictured), a photograph of Earth from a record distance of 40.5 astronomical units (6.06billionkm; 3.76billionmi).2005 The online video platform YouTube was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.2007 The first of several bombings in Zahedan, Iran, killed 18 members of the Revolutionary Guards.Valentin Friedland (b.1490)Eleanora Atherton (b.1782)Nadezhda Krupskaya (b.1869)Vito Genovese (d.1969)More anniversaries: February 13February 14February 15ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Developers beware of the haunting downsides of changes to a games in-app purchase models. It turns out they can be so catastrophic that they can take the entire game down with them. Such is the case with the iOS version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, itself a remaster of a 2003 GameCube game then ported to mobile platforms. On all versRead More

Game designer Jeff Minter and his studio Llamasoft are going back to the past with a remake of Atari's I, Robot.For Minter and Llamasoft, I, Robot will be the latest in a legacy of remakes and retro-inspired adaptations, following 2018's Minotaur Arcade Vol 1. In the past, Minter has had a hand in remaking 8-bit classics Tempest and Defender, along with his own Atari ST/Amiga game Llamatron."Throughout his 45-year career, Jeff has retained the spirit of a true indie developer," reads a statement from Atari game VP Ethan Sterns. The remake, which is expected to release later this year for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, and Atari VCS was described by Sterns as "quintessential Minter."The upcoming "reality-defying reinvention" of the 1984 arcade future will see players explore levels and turn red tiles to blue to escape. Changes to the original game come in reducing the level count from 126 to 55, adding in the modern magic of online leaderboards, and implementing procedural music that "builds as you excel."A brief history of I, RobotDesigned by Missile Command and Tempest's Daid Theurer, I, Robot first released in June 1984 as an arcade game. At the time, it was famously the first commercially produced arcade game rendered entirely in real-time, 3D polygon graphics, and the first to feature camera control options. It's also one of Atari's final two arcade games (alongside Star Wars: Return of the Jedi that same year) before the company was split up and eventually formed into its current-day incarnation.Related:Initially, the game was a financial flop and fewer than 1,000 units were created. Few are said to currently exist, and the game has since been regarded as a pioneer for its then-innovative graphics. When Atari's 50th anniversary game bundle released in 2022, I, Robot was included, marking the title's first-ever re-release for non-arcade game hardware.If you're curious what a "quintessential Minter" reimagining of a game like I, Robot could look like, this 2024 interview with Minter offers an in-depth exploration of his game making ethos and a candid look at how--and why--he creates such distinctive games like Gridrunner, Polybius, and others mentioned above.As Minter explained in that 2024 chat, he's not typically the type to create games that chase a wide audience or as many people as possible. "That's a different kind of motive than what drives me, really. I'm more interested in pursuing the ideas I have, and I don't really care that much if they're wildly successful or not.""Oh, it'd be nice if they were. I'm not saying I would turn that down. But I'm not that bothered if they're not," said Minter. "As long as I can carry on doing what I'm doing, I'm happy, you know?

Googles Gemini AI assistant can now recall past conversations to provide more relevant responses if you have a subscription to Gemini Advanced via Google One AI Premium. With the update, youll no longer have to recap previous chats or search for a thread to pick up a conversation, as Gemini will already have the context it needs.You can also ask Gemini to summarize previous conversations and build upon existing projects. Google already widely rolled out the ability for Gemini to remember your preferences, but this latest update takes things a step further by letting the chatbot reference discussions from the past.You can review, delete, and manage your Gemini chat history at any time by selecting your profile picture in the top right corner of the Gemini app and then selecting Gemini Apps Activity.Geminis recall feature is rolling out now to Google One AI Premium plan subscribers. You can try out the new recall feature in English on Geminis web or mobile app. Google says it plans on bringing the feature to more languages, as well as Google Workspace Business and Enterprise customers in the coming weeks.ChatGPT can similarly recall details and preferences from past conversations.

As always, the most important Nvidia graphics card is the one you can actually buy, and Nvidias talked a big game for its RTX 5070, making the dubious but nuanced claim it can deliver RTX 4090 performance for just $549. On February 28th, AMD will get its chance to intercept with the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, in a streaming event it just announced today. But Nvidia has now made its own wiggle room, delaying the launch of the RTX 5070 from February to March 5th, its product page reveals today.Nvidia will ship its $749 RTX 5070 Ti ahead of AMDs event, though, on February 20th, a week from today. AMD has telegraphed that it wont be competing with Nvidias latest and greatest cards, so price is the one big lever that AMD can potentially pull in order to compete. (The AMD Radeon 9070 cards appeared to be targeting Nvidia 4070 Ti and 4070 Super levels of performance, not necessarily higher.) But Nvidia, a company that can now make $20 billion in pure profit in a single quarter, could theoretically counter that if it feels it needs to, and now has more room to do so.All that said, there is a rumor that AMD may be working on a more potent card than its already-announced RX 9070 and 9070 XT, one with 32GB of RAM. AMD gaming marketing boss Frank Azor says the 9070 XT wont be a 32GB card, but did not address the larger rumor.

How We Taught Machines to Think 0 like February 13, 2025Share this postLast Updated on February 13, 2025 by Editorial TeamAuthor(s): Vita Haas Originally published on Towards AI. And Occasionally Fail SpectacularlyThis member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Artificial Intelligence is no longer lurking in the shadows its in our pockets, powering our social feeds, recommending what to binge-watch next, and occasionally generating images of people with far too many fingers. AI has evolved from a niche academic pursuit into an inescapable part of daily life. But the journey to this point has been anything but smooth. It is a tale of grandiose predictions, crushing disappointments, and moments so ridiculous they could be lifted straight from a Monty Python sketch. Lets dive into the origins of AI and the often bizarre road that led us to todays world of neural networks, chatbots, and algorithmic absurdity.photo by authorThe story of AI starts in the 1940s, when scientists, fresh off a World War that had forced them to push technological innovation to its limits, started pondering a question: Can machines think? Enter Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, two neuroscientists who proposed the first theoretical model of a neural network in 1943. Their work suggested that the brain could be mimicked by a system of mathematical logic gates, inspiring later neural network research.Meanwhile, Alan Turing, the eccentric British mathematician Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

Broken Rage is now streaming on Prime Video.Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi) is as synonymous with Japanese mob thrillers as Robert De Niro is with American crime dramas. The similarities dont end there: Each has had successful runs in the comedy world though in Takeshis case, the laughs came first. You might remember Kitano as such no-nonsense tough guys the teacher from Battle Royale; if you watched a lot of cable in the 2000s, you may recognize him as one of the hosts of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, Spike TVs dubbed-over adaptation of the wacky game show Takeshis Castle. In his new Prime Video film, Broken Rage, a self-aware Kitano attempts (but doesnt quite manage) to fuse these facets of his onscreen persona, poking fun at the Yakuza genre alongside an ensemble crew of similarly typecast actors. Mercifully short, Broken Rage is an exciting premise suffering from a bland, stale execution. Broken Rage begins as a gritty, paint-by-numbers mob story about an old hitman named Nezumi (Kitano) donning disguises and pulling off a series of contract killings. When hes apprehended by detectives Inoue (Tadanobu Asano) and Fukuda (Nao Omori), the pair enlist Nezumi as an undercover agent to bust a Yakuza drug ring operated by crime bosses Kanashiro (Shido Nakamura) and Tomita (longtime Kitano collaborator Hakuryu). To say Broken Rages plot is painfully generic would be as much an understatement as saying there are some notable names in its cast: Asano just vaulted to new levels of fame and acclaim thanks to FXs version of Shogun! Hes reuniting with his Ichi the Killer co-star Nao Omori Ichi himself! But that boilerplate feeling is intentional, and it sets up the conceptual, but not successful, punchline that Broken Rage drops at the 20-minute: Retelling the same story, this time as a comedy. Broken Rage GalleryMost of the opening scenes were shot cheaply in empty buildings, gyms, and parking lots lit in muted colors and backed by an underused jazz score. The cast breathlessly deliver their lines in tensionless, clichd confrontations so matter-of-factly, they might as well be reciting the audio description track. Unfortunately, Broken Rages self-parody chops arent any sharper, and its comedic redux is populated with stale jokes that barely elicit a pity chuckle. It may be making its debut on an international streaming service, but the script is full of culturally specific gags that even the most seasoned weeb might find indecipherable. The humor of Broken Rage is like a thousand rapid-fire Goldilocks scenarios: They're either too cheap and repetitive to find funny or too absurdist and random to hit the mark. Kitano endures a gauntlet of pratfalls and slapstick bits where Nezumi trips up stairs, bangs his knees on the corner of a table, sits in a collapsing chair, and gets crushed by a crowd of partygoers. Elsewhere, Nezumi and company suddenly find themselves wearing luchador masks and mouse getups mid-conversation, watch extras pantomiming their private parts exploding, or engage in endless, over-explained misunderstandings about names.Broken Rage's humor is either too cheap and repetitive to find funny or too absurdist and random to hit the mark.As if to shield itself from criticism, Broken Rage twice cuts to a simulated livechat depicting the running commentary of two moviegoers. They bemoan the lack of explosions and shootouts, dissect the effectiveness of the comedy, and demand refunds. In a show of the movie throwing its hands up at itself, this self-described Runningtime filler ends in the agreement that most movies are too long, anyways. Broken Rage wants to take the piss out of crime dramas. Unfortunately, its approach to doing so amounts to prominent actors doing silly Adult Swim-style sketches. Given how doddering, random, and drawn out its antics are, its comedic sensibility is best suited to a grandparents Facebook timeline.