Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1 life is irritating (Dont Nod)The creators of Life Is Strange return with a brand new franchise that shares an awful lot in common with the stories of Max and Chloe.Life Is Strange has had a peculiar history. It celebrated its 10th anniversary in January, with the first game becoming a surprise hit that managed to offer a much more nuanced style of interactive storytelling than Telltale Games, in terms of both its characterisation and its branching narrative. But despite main characters Max Caulfield and Chloe Price becoming instant fan favourites, French developer Dont Nod made the daring choice to not feature them in the sequel.Instead, Life Is Strange 2 told a completely separate story, with an entirely new cast of characters. It was nowhere near as successful though and so Dont Nod parted ways with publisher Square Enix and all the other games have been made by American studio Deck Nine which was going fine until last years hugely disappointing Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, which brought back Max but, inexplicably, not Chloe.Well never find out whether Dont Nod wouldve returned to either character, given the choice, but what we have now is Lost Record: Bloom & Rage, which can be seen as very much a spiritual successor to the series and is made by one of the original co-directors and several others that were involved in the original two games. Nobody has superpowers in this one but theres still plenty of teenage angst and vague supernatural mysteries, but what there isnt, at the moment, is much sense of purpose.Technically, Bloom & Rage is episodic, although it comes in only two parts, with the second one due for release on April 15 as a free download if you buy part one (or Tape 1, as the game has it). That means we dont know how the story is going to end, and it is possible that it could take an unexpected swerve at the halfway point, but it starts off with four former friends Nora, Kat, Autumn, and Swann meeting up again for the first time in 27 years, in the rural US town they used to call home.Although they know they purposefully agreed never to see each other again, none of them can apparently remember why, although whether this is because of repressed memories or, as it seems, plot convenience is frustratingly unclear. Combine this with the general lack of forward momentum in the story and the game becomes very aggravating, very quickly, as it simply refuses to tell you things your character should already know.You play as Swann, who shares a lot of qualities with Max, except more exaggerated. Shes very shy, with no real friends, and prefers to view the world through a camcorder creating a literal barrier between her and other people. Her situation improves when shes saved from a bully by the other three girls but unfortunately shes due to move to Canada soon, so they can only spend the one summer together.Whatever calamity is at the heart of the games story causes them to vow never to see each other again, until Autumn receives a mysterious package addressed to the old punk band they were in (the sub-titular Bloom & Rage). Maddeningly though, nobody actually opens the parcel, which given the already glacially thin plot development is just perversely irritating.The game is set in both 1995 and 2022 but almost everything in the present-ish day (which, unlike the 90s is viewed from a first person view) is deadly dull, with the four estranged friends mostly just sitting around talking except never about the things you want them to.The 90s is more interesting though, not least because of how well the camcorder is integrated into the game. In the absence of any traditional gameplay, its an effective way to make the game feel more interactive without resorting to QTEs, especially as you can use motion controls with it on the DualSense controller. Tape 2 is going to have to be a real banger (Dont Nod)The grainy, low resolution view looks great, although having to record scenes and objects, to get clues and advance the plot, feels less organic than Dont Nod probably think. The same could be said for the dialogue and voice-acting, which is rarely bad but often feels inauthentic and clunky, and without the saving grace of trying to make hella sound cool.What is good about the dialogue though is the clever way it overlaps and how youre able to make choices during a conversation, rather than just when someone has finished talking. Its very obviously inspired by Oxenfree and, frankly, we wish more games would have borrowed from that game, considering how old it is now.More TrendingIn terms of the characters themselves, its hard to imagine them becoming as popular as Life Is Stranges dynamic duo. Not only is Swann just Max 2.0 but the others are disappointingly one dimensional. Nora is the older girl who wants to be famous, Nora is the sensible one, and Kat is the one most into the supernatural aspects of the story although her backstory and voice-acting make her the most compelling of the group.In terms of branching narrative, its hard to say how complicated the full game is going to get but so far everything seems to be limited to your relationships with the other women, with decisions and responses affecting your friendships throughout the game. Thats good but weve yet to see anything as impressive as Life Is Stranges dramatically different plot strands.Bloom & Rage is a well made game, that has clearly had a lot of thought and love poured into it, but the slow pacing and opaque storytelling are hard to engage with. Perhaps its meandering approach will make more sense once the second part is out but at the moment we have no idea where its going or whether the journey is going to be worth the effort.Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1 review summaryIn Short: A disappointing follow-up to Life Is Strange, that tells its story in the most frustrating way possible, but theres some signs it could turn things around in the second half.Pros: The dialogue system is very impressive and the camcorder is used well. Fun 90s feel in the flashbacks.Cons: Very slow and awkward pacing, with the 2022 sections really dragging and frustratingly little plot. The script and voice-acting rarely excel.Score: 5/10Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: 32.99Publisher: Dont NodDeveloper: Dont Nod MontralRelease Date: 18th February 2025Age Rating: 18 Does nobody remember what happened? (Dont Nod)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.ArrowMORE: Games Inbox: When will Fallout 5 be released?GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

During a recent Alien: Romulus screening with Collider, director Fede Alvarez talked about the potential of diving back into the franchisespecifically if hed be up for taking on an Alien vs. Predator crossover picture. As it turns out, he has actually given such a project some thought, but is realistic enough to know that his ideal version of a new Alien vs. Predator film would be all but impossible to realize. The way I would do it, most likely, if it could be done this way Its harder to keep secrets online The best AVP will be the one that you dont know is AVP until the other guy shows up. he told Collider. You think youre watching a Predator movie, and then they land in some place and there are creatures, and fucking hell, its a Xenomorph. That would get me. Fuck yeah! Youd go crazy. Or vice versa, youre in an Alien movie, and then suddenly a mysterious creature is there, and you can hear that sound, and you see the cloak, and you go, Is that a fucking Predator? And then turns out it is. That would be the way to do it, dont you think? Once you put it in the title, its like, Spoiler alert. Pull one over on us and get away with it? In our age of internet spoiler culture, he really thinks this could fly? I mean they had to cover Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in giant raincoats to hide their Wicked cameos. Are we really going to expect our Alien Queen to go by unnoticed under an umbrella? Kidding aside, any Alien or Predator production would have set pieces that are pretty obvious with iconic weapons and eggs, so we hardly think it will be an easy path for Alvarez to take now that its known. Dropping a surprise reveal on the audience is something Alvarez thought about doing in Alien: Romulus, he explained; his original pitch, he said, was We dont say Alien. We just put any random science fiction title It was this whole thing, And then suddenly [the characters] walk into a room, and theres a fucking egg That was the original plan. Of course, that didnt end up happening, but Alvarez did tuck one big element into Romulus that he hoped would at least surprise audiences who saw it early enough to avoid being spoiled. Rook [the Ian Holm-inspired character] in this movie was something that we kept as a secret until it was the last second, he said. Most of you, hopefully, didnt know until you went in on opening night .. the few screenings we did before the movie [opened in theaters], I begged everybody, Please do not ruin it for everybody else. Do not post about Ian Holm being in the film.'As for the possibility of a new Alien vs. Predator movie, surprise or otherwise, Alvarez sounded more than open to working with Prey director and current Predator franchise architect Dan Trachtenberg. I cant speak for Dan, Alvarez said. At some point one day if we feel like, Yeah, [a new AVP is] what we cannot wait to see, I think thats a movie we could do. Trachtenberg has Predator: Badlands arriving this fall. 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.

In 2022, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red and renowned anime studio Trigger jointly released the Netflix anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. In quick succession, the show joined the super exclusive club of phenomenal video game adaptations and revitalized its player base, which had long lost faith in the monumentally hyped game from its historically rocky launch. The show achieved a hat trick by winning Crunchyrolls 2023 Anime of the Year awardbeating out shows like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and Spy x Family. Although CD Projekt Red has stressed that there are no plans to make a sequel season, theyre far from done with creating more anime content for the series. Key among them are characters like Lucy being a guest character in Guilty Gear Strive, a tabletop epilogue, and a spin-off animated series in production at Netflix. While the aforementioned content drops are a ways away from releasing, CD Projekt Red and Trigger are keeping folks sated with new prequel manga series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Madness. The series, which will soon get an English release courtesy of Dark Horse, follows the exploits of fan-favorite character Rebecca and her brother Pilar before the animes events. A prequel to the prequel, if you will. We spoke with manga writer Bartosz Sztybor to gain insights into the series creation and what fans can expect from CD Projekt Red and future Edgerunners stories. Isaiah Colbert, io9: What sparked the idea to revisit Cyberpunk: Edgerunners as a manga? Bartosz Sztybor: There are many stories not only in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners but in the whole Cyberpunk 2077 universe. Our idea for the whole franchise is to show that this is a big, authentic, and believable world and you can achieve that through complex characters and grounded stories. You need to feel that these characters are alive, that they have their own lives, that they have a past and dreams. Thats why Doc from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners had a role in the Cyberpunk 2077: XOXO comic book. Cormac, a fixer from Cyberpunk 2077: You Have My Word was seen in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout and was even mentioned in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.It makes the audience feel that these characters are alive, that theyre not just from one story, but they had a life before that and maybe after if they didnt die of course, what can easily happen in our world But also some characters arcs are finished, which is why we dont like creating prequels or origin stories just for the sake of doing so. CD Projekt Red / Trigger / Netflix Vs arc was told from start to finish, David and Lucy had their story closed, but some other characters were passengers and have the potential to be main stars. In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, there were a few characters with such potential. When Kadokawa, a legendary Japanese manga publisher, raised interest in creating a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners manga we were super excited. Its a historic thing, as not many Western IPs have a manga treatment. So when we learned about the opportunity, I started thinking what we could do.David and Lucy were out of the picture for the reasons I mentioned above, but there were other characters with amazing stories. Becca as a fan favorite seemed the best idea, but I already knew that it shouldnt be just about her. As one of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners themes is parent-child relationships, we needed to add Beccas brother Pilar to the story and explain how their childhood traumas made them who they are. They were also a perfect match as I wanted to tell a dark comedy with this manga, following a very tragic anime; something more fun, but still brutal, of course. I always saw Becca and Pilar as the perfect characters for a sitcom with a cyberpunk twist. So you have lots of slapstick, but you dont laugh when someone slips on a banana peel but when they slip on a banana peel and shoot their head off with a shotgun. Though its not only humor, its still a character-driven tale with a complex story, soas always with CDPRits a tale about morality and shades of gray.io9: How long has the manga been in development?Sztybor: Almost two years. Kadokawa liked the idea of Becca and Pilar so I started writing pretty early, but its a big project; each chapter is 40 pages and the first book will have six chapters in total. After a few passes on the storyline, I dove into the scripts and Asano (the amazing artist behind the manga) started drawing the first pages soon after. io9: In what ways has making a manga series in collaboration with Trigger artist Asano differed from the production of the Edgerunners anime?Sztybor: In many ways, but its because making comic books or manga is much different than creating a TV show. Its mostly you, the artist, and editors that are helping tell the story in the best possible way. And Im blessed with amazing editors here. Our in-house CDPR editor Tetsuya Seya and Kadokawas Koeda-san are great, and help to bring the best out in me. In anime, you talk with many more people: you have producers, a director, and other writers. You all need to be on the same page and you all need to believe in the story youre telling so its a much longer process to understand each other and align. Making manga/comic books is more introverted; its about a spark between the writer and the artist and fortunately that spark happened pretty early while working on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners MADNESS. So making anime is a team effort, its a football match. Making a manga is a date, sitting on the beach, looking at the ocean, and holding hands. io9: Will the manga be a limited-run series, or are there plans to explore it further as an ongoing work? Sztybor: Well see. Were planning to create two books, six chapters each, but if the readers will demand more, then Im ready. I could write stories about Becca forever! io9: Rebecca is a popular character in Edgerunners. Did that impact choosing her as the focus of Madness story? Sztybor: Of course, but it was also the idea to create something more light and action-packed, and the manga format seemed perfect for telling a story about a very manga-eqsue character. At first, I was thinking about Maine, Becca, and Falco. Maine seemed a bit too noir for the genre I wanted to tackle and Falco lost against Becca and Pilar because of their popularity, but also because the ideas for Beccas and Pilars storyline were just coming to my head in hordes. CD Projekt Red / Trigger / Netflix io9: Should the prequel manga yield success, will other plans exist to explore the Edgerunners universe further with different characters from the anime? Sztybor: Honestly, the success or lack of it wont change anything. If there is a good story to tell about someone from that universe, we will do everything to tell it.io9: Is there an expected date for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Madness to be available in English for readers? Sztybor: The first book, which collects the first six chapters, will be out this summer through Dark Horse Comics. So, a nice treat a few weeks before the third anniversary of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Until then, you can rewatch all 10 episodes of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix and look forward to copping its Blu-ray when it arrives later this year. 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.

eArthshala Campus / ThumbimpressionsSave this picture! Nikhil PatelArchitects: ThumbimpressionsAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:970 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Nikhil Patel Lead Architects: Milind Jhaveri, Sankalpa, Nikhil Patel, Manu Narendran More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. Located amidst luscious tea gardens, the campus is designed to house a Training Hall, Office Studio & Residential units. The building is designed to respond outside to extend the training activities into the landscape and the space in between the buildings to absorb different activities during different times of the day varying in scale and privacy. This approach also confirms a campus built in a rural setup with many non-programmed activities anticipated by the PP team in the future.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The design intends to create an intimate yet expansive interior space making most of what a pitched roof can do as opposed to a flat roof in large-span spaces. The recessed windows with built-in seating and storage below contribute to its intimate and inviting quality. The complexity in spatial design in addition to the plan is substantially enhanced by formal articulation, nuanced color application, varying the pitched roof form and tectonics, and the overall craftsmanship.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officeThumbimpressionsOfficePublished on February 19, 2025Cite: "eArthshala Campus / Thumbimpressions" 18 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1027029/earthshala-campus-thumbimpressions&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

Scifi panels shader node in Blender cycles.Get it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sci-fi-panels-122386160 Shops:blendermarket.com/creators/blenderguppygumroad.com/blenderguppyPatreon:patreon.com/blenderguppy#b3d #conceptart #blender3d #blenderaddon #blendermarket

Free procedural cycles shader group with scifi panels effect.Watch Random Flow videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFJy6TgdDCIC8rEkGbY09tE0IEn5j5b3&amp ;amp;si=99m9czjgBALNZY8ZGet the shader node here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sci-fi-panels-122386160 Check out my tools: https://www.blenderguppy.com/add-ons Visit my shops:https://gumroad.com/blenderguppy https://blendermarket.com/creators/blenderguppy Become my Patron:https://patreon.com/blenderguppy Follow me:https://facebook.com/blenderguppy https://instagram.com/blenderguppy https://twitter.com/blenderguppy #b3d #blender3d #3dmodeling #3dtexturing #conceptart

Nature, Published online: 18 February 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08714-8Author Correction: Fetal hepatocytes protect the HSPC genome via fetuin-A

Nature, Published online: 18 February 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00460-1The country is betting on AI to develop practical, cost-effective business tools for global markets, especially lower-income countries.

Bra ner and Dersu Deer, co-founders of @freshcan3d, spoke about their production workflows, explained how they simulate drone flythrough footage, and shared some advice on selling 3D assets.Read the interview: https://80.lv/articles/freshcan-3d-founders-on-asset-creation-selling/