Dark Deity 2 is a Strategy RPG featuring a rich story, an endlessly customizable party, and engaging tactical combat spanning a 30 hour campaign with huge replayability.

The First Berserker: Khazangives Soulslike fans a glimpse at some of the bosses they'll be facing off against when the game releases next month. One of the more unique-looking Soulslikes of the past few years, The First Berserker: Khazanwas first unveiled at The Game Awards in 2023 and has received a number of exciting trailers and updates in the months since.

Riot Games has officially announced that Hextech Chests will be returning to League of Legends in the near future, following their controversial removal in the game's newest season. The launch of Season 15 of the massively popular Riot Games MOBA saw plenty of major changes to the game, both from a gameplay and player progression standpoint. Season 15 introduced the "Feats of Strength" as a major new mechanic for the Noxus-based competitive year, granting powerful rewards to teams that clear set objectives first in a match. However, one of the most controversial changes came outside Summoner's Rift.

First off, thank you, @witchlord and @mindoftony , for the new features. We accept them gratefully.Second, supposing one wants to submit changes. Is there a formal Pull-Request procedure? As this is hosted in SVN on SourceForge, it's a little different from PR's on GitHub.Many thanks.

I am a strong believer in the philosophy of starting with the bad news and ending with the good news, so lets get the first part out of the way: Its probably going to be a while before were all able to curl up on the couch and dive into The Witcher 4. And so far, we havent had much to go on beyond the games reveal trailer from The Game Awards 2024.OK, now for the good news: That last part isnt quite true anymore! Not as of Wednesday, when developer CD Projekt Red published an in-depth video going behind the scenes of production for that six-minute cinematic trailer from December 2024. (As an aside, this is not just the studios second video about the trailer, but the second such video thats longer than the original thing: The day after the trailer premiered, CD Projekt Red released an eight-minute trailer breakdown featuring game director Sebastian Kalemba.)This making-of video has everything: Boatloads of concept art. Interviews about animating virtual cameras to look like handheld cameras versus ones on cranes or dollies. Writers explaining the thematic connections between Ciri and the village maiden shes trying to save; between the young woman and her father; between Ciri and Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist of the previous Witcher trilogy. Discussions of narrative elements common to Andrzej Sapkowskis Witcher stories and to the folklore of Central/Eastern Europe more generally. There are even clips from three days worth of test shoots that look like deleted scenes from Midsommar, which the developers used to get a handle on lens optics distortions, lens flares, blooms, how the bokeh behaves, according to Karol Stadnik, digital cinematographer at CD Projekt Red. They and the artists at Platige Image, the computer graphics studio that produced the trailer, then used this learning to accurately replicate those dynamics in Unreal Engine 5 for the trailer.But if you ask me, the coolest thing in this 10-and-a-half-minute video is the segment about how they put together the battle between Ciri and the monster, which is known as the Bauk a beast with the head of a goblin, the neck of a snake, the arms of a jaguar, pincers that are literally scorpion claws, and dinosaurlike hindquarters.We created a physical representation of Bauks shoulders and his attacking arms, and having four operators, we kind of re-created the whole monster, said Maciej Kwiatkowski, a motion capture professional who works under the name Alpha 7. On the screen, we saw in real time a moving Bauk.I love my job, but I wouldnt necessarily be opposed to spending my day manipulating giant plastic rods and playacting as one-fourth of a fantastical eldritch creature. Just dont make me don a mo-cap suit.

Dungeons & Dragons new anthology of adventures, Dragon Delves coming on July 8, is a little experimental, Wizards of the Coast vice president Jess Lanzillo told Polygon during a press panel at MagicCon Chicago. Ill absolutely admit that, in the sense that this is something that we havent done in this specific way for D&D ever. [] But it does harken back to some things that were really foundational for me in my love of Dungeons & Dragons, which is the really art-driven world-building concepts you saw with Planescape or Dark Sun.A former creative vice president overseeing Magic: The Gathering, Lanzillo knows from her art-forward fantasy game projects but she wasnt just talking about Dragon Delves psychedelic alternate cover art, crafted by veteran Magic artist Justine Jones. The new book is a collection of short, dragon-themed adventures for any D&D table, following 5th editions solid legacy of anthology books like Candlekeep Mysteries and Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. It also boasts veteran designer James Wyatt (who led the design of the4th-edition Dungeon Masters Guide among other projects) at the helm.And as the first new release to follow Wizards updated core D&D rulebooks, says Lanzillo, Dragon Delves represents a new era for the art inside D&D manuals as well.With 5th editions art, Lanzillo said, Wizards team has been trying to emphasize immersion and world-building. A little less of the spot art of the dude just standing there, and a little bit more of What is it like to be this person in this world? so that it can really inspire the imagination.Lanzillo joined the team during the production of Dragon Delves, and said, with humor, that the books art style or styles shows it. Im like, Great, Im so glad we have a very strong foundation. I would love for us to figure out diverse expressions of what that foundation is, and bring those principles in not only in the world-building sense, but psychologically what kind of art style expresses this.Dragon Delves doesnt just feature 10 dragon-themed adventures for any GMs who have yet to figure out how to get the dragon into their Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Each chapter features a different color of metallic or chromatic dragon, and each chapter also claims its own art style.This week, Wizards revealed the main cover by Greg Staples alongside Jones neon-colored heavy linework for the alternative, but the publisher also showed off the diverse styles of Dragon Delves interior pages featuring flat, stylized images; painterly sweeps of color; or intricate black-and-white linework. Any fantasy fan will tell you: Its not hard to make dragons look cool. But Dragon Delves certainly does it with style.Designer James Wyatt told Polygon about receiving printed copies of Dragon Delves for review. We had the experience of turning the pages, turning the pages, and suddenly [its], OK, were in a whole different world here. And its awesome. It is very unexpected. He explained that each chapter of the anthology opens with a gallery of classic dragon art of the appropriate scale color, naturally from across the history of D&D manuals, from 1st edition to the present.So you open up to any chapter, you page through that gallery of art, and then you turn the page and you see something that might be just an amazing piece of D&D art that is in line with what we do in other books, or it might be something completely different, just to make your head explode with awesomeness. I cant wait for folks to see it.

Lift heavy to build muscle: Thats advice youve probably seen in a million places, whether you're aiming to get stronger, get "toned," or simply reap the health benefits of putting on a little muscle. But how heavy is heavy, and how do you know if your workout qualifies? Theres no specific number of pounds that will constitute heavy for everyone. Whats heavy for a teenage girl picking up a dumbbell for the first time will be a lot less than whats heavy for a pro strongman. (If you do want to compare your lifts to other people's, sites like Symmetric Strength can show where you standbut please consider these comps as just for fun.) In basic terms, training heavy is shorthand for resistance training that is in a low-rep range and gets heavier over time. This is the type of training that delivers the biggest gains in terms of strength and muscle size. Training heavy is not the only way to build muscle, but its an effective one. Here are the questions you should ask yourself when trying to figure out whether you're training heavy enough.How many reps are you doing?Training for strength usually has you doing 1-5 reps in each set. Training for hypertrophy (bigger muscles) is often in the 8-12 range. The truth is, there isnt much difference in results between the two methods; getting stronger gives you bigger muscles and getting bigger muscles makes you stronger. Id say that as long as youre doing 12 reps or fewer, youre in an appropriate range to say you are training heavy. Once youre doing much more than that15, 20, 50 repsyoure training your muscular endurance more than strength. You can build some strength this way, but it's not what you're going for when you're trying to train heavy. How hard does the set feel?Lets say youre doing squats in sets of eight. That could count as heavy training, but only if youre loading the squats enough that its hard to do all eightof them. For some exercises and some goals, you might be aiming to train "to failure"literally, going until you cant do another rep. An example would be if youre doing eight bicep curls and cant manage a ninth. But you can also get close to failure without quite going there. For example, if youre doing squats, a set of eight might be done at a weight that you could manage for 10 or 11 reps if you really pushed yourself. That still counts as heavy training. What doesnt count is if youre doing eight reps of goblet squats with a light dumbbell because its the only dumbbell you have, or because youre intimidated about going up in weight. Heavy lifting is when youre doing the appropriate rep range with a weight that is challenging within that range.Are you increasing the weight over time?The only way to keep the lift challenging as you get stronger is to keep increasing the weight. This doesn't mean you need to go heavier every time, but it does mean that you pick up a heavier weight once you've gotten a bit stronger. To use that goblet squat example, maybe squatting with a 20-pound dumbbell was challenging the first time you tried it. But a week or two later, you can probably do the same eight reps with a 25-pound dumbbell. Before long, it may make more sense to do front squats with a barbell, to make it easier to add more weight. OK, now youre lifting heavy.But if you kept doing the same sets of eight squats with the same 20-pound dumbbell, youre not efficiently challenging yourself to build muscle or strengthyoure just doing an exercise that keeps getting easier. Thats still good for you, because its still exercise, but it no longer fits the description of lifting heavy.How long are you resting between sets?This is where a lot of people go wrong, especially if theyre doing home workouts or are focused on calorie burn. You shouldn't lift heavy for the calorie burn (or heart rate zones) during the workout; you should lift heavy to build muscle, and save the cardio for another day. If youre constantly working to keep your heart rate up, with little to no time to rest between exercises, you arent going to be able to train heavy. More likely youre doing a strength/cardio hybrid such as circuit training. Crossfit metcon WODs (workouts of the day) often fall into this category, as do many home workout videos that bill themselves as high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Theyre usually not really HIIT, but thats a rant for another time.If you arent resting, that means you arent approaching each set of lifts with fresh, rested muscles. Reducing rest times makes the workouts feel harder, but it also means youll be working with less weight. That means these exercises are usually too light fit the definition of working heavy. They might still help you build strength or muscle size, but not nearly as efficiently. If you take a few minutes rest between exercises, then youre lifting heavy. A typical range would be 2-4 minutes between exercises that work smaller or fewer muscles (like curls or presses) and 3-5 minutes or more between sets of big compound lifts (like squats or deadlifts). With an appropriate rest time, youll be able to properly lift heavy.

Are you ready to pay for Amazon Alexa? With the addition of AI to the assistant, Amazon thinks you are.Announced in a closed-doors meeting with press and business partners today, Amazons Alexa+ is bringing AI to the familiar digital assistant, plus a new $20/month price tag. The secret? If you have Prime, youll get access to it at no extra charge. Credit: Amazon As with standard Alexa, the assistant is built around vocal prompts, but is designed to be more conversational and personalized, and will supposedly be able to act on your behalf and integrate with partner apps including Hulu, Uber, and Xbox.It also enables new features in Amazons own apps, like Prime video or Ring, and should make smart home integration simpler.Amazon didnt go over every potential use case at its event, seemingly because there are so many, but a few key ones include:More complex questions: When asking Alexa+ a question, as with other AI, youll be able to keep a conversation going without multiple prompts or repeating yourself in each new prompt. For instance, you could tell Alexa that one of your family members is vegetarian, and any recipe suggestions it makes for them for the rest of the conversation will take that into account.Multimodality: Alexa+ is able to use photos as input, or peruse uploaded documents and provide summaries of them.Create new routines by voice: Rather than having to set up new smart home automations through a complicated app, youll be able to do them verbally. For example, you could tell Alexa once to remember to turn off the lights when you close the garage door, and it'll do that from that moment onward.Jump to a specific Prime Video scene: Alexa+ will be able to use details such as scene descriptions or actor names to take you to a specific moment in a specific piece of content within Prime Video. In a press release, Amazon claims that saying something like whats that movie where Bradley Cooper sings a duet? Jump to that scene will be enough to start it playing.AI-powered Ring: People with Ring subscriptions will be able to ask Alexa+ to summarize saved footage and show you highlights, plus use Smart Video Search to find specific moments just by describing them to Alexa, i.e. by saying When did I last take out the trash bins?While thats all set to make Alexa much more powerfuln (assuming it works) its also not too different from existing AI solutions. Where Alexa is set to go a step beyond is in taking action, in a way similar to what was promised by the Rabbit R1. Amazon says you could use it to order groceries, find event tickets, set up reservations, or book an Uber, among other things. Credit: Amazon Thats thanks to those partner integrations mentioned earlier. Supposedly, there are dozens of these partnerships set up and ready to go, including various news outlets like Time or The Washington Post, which should help make the assistants answers more accurate. As for actions, while its said to be hands-free, it seems like Alexa will ask for confirmation before actually making any final purchases or bookings.Similarly, Alexa+ is also set to integrate with Amazon Kids+, using AI to converse with kids using facts or interactive games and stories. Amazon promises extra safety guardrails for younger users, although details are still light at the moment. Credit: Amazon As is a lot about Alexa+. Amazon is promising transparency and privacy here, accessible via the Alexa Privacy dashboard, and has been surprisingly open about the technology powering Alexa+its a combination of in-house models and Anthropic. But itll be a bit before you get to try out the upgraded assistant, with early access set for sometime next month.One surprise is that there are no new devices here, with Alexa+ instead being compatible with almost every shipped Echo device, although the company says that early access will come first to the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21. Supposedly, the web and a new phone app will also get Alexa+, although its unclear when.Personally, Ive always been a little skeptical of Alexa and its always-on microphones, and I cant say Alexa+ is doing anything to move the needle for me. But I also havent seen much of it yet. I tend to be a bit more practical-minded when it comes to what Im willing to use AI for, so well see if Alexa+ can change my mind when I finally get my hands on itits ability to automatically turn emails into calendar events does seem pretty handy, assuming youre fine handing that data over to Amazon, and that Amazon makes it easy to do so.

Warner Bros Discovery recently shut down a trio of game studios, including the well-regarded Monolith Productions. This has put one of the coolest game mechanics of the 2010s in limbo. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's excellent Nemesis system is locked behind a patent owned by Warner Bros all the way until 2036, according to reporting by Eurogamer.The Nemesis system was featured in both 2014s Shadow of Mordor and the follow-up Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Simply put, its a gameplay mechanic in which enemies remember previous encounters with the protagonist. These antagonists, typically orcs in the LOTR games, would use these humiliating memories to fuel their thirst for revenge as they rose through the ranks. This mechanic also worked both ways, so enemies would remember besting you in a previous encounter.It was the best part of those two titles and Monolith had planned on bringing back the mechanic for a now-cancelled Wonder Woman game. Now the system is lying unused, locked behind a patent vault in David Zaslavs mega-yacht or whatever. Gigantic multinational corporations are awesome!*Monolith makes the awesome Nemesis system for Shadow of Mordor, everyone loves it**WB patents it, making it pretty much impossible for other devs to use it**WB shuts down Monolith*RIP the Nemesis system, I guess! pic.twitter.com/z2KVkT97tV Cade Onder (@Cade_Onder) February 25, 2025 Warner Bros Discovery patented the system in 2016, which you can read right here. The patent is active until 2036, so long as the company keeps up with the associated fees. Its worth noting that in the nine years since patenting the system, its only been used in a single game. Thats Shadow of War, which came out in 2017 and was already in development when Warner Bros went ahead with the patent.It remains to be seen if Warner Bros Discovery will do anything with the Nemesis system. It had nine years of heavy game development to make use of it across its entire IP portfolio, but didnt. In that time period, plenty of Batman games and Hogwarts Legacy allcame out. Those would have surely benefited from the unique mechanic. Oh well.WB will still focus some resources on game development, but the companys efforts will be primarily spent on four franchises. These include Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, the DC universe and Game of Thrones. Three of those four seem like good fits for the Nemesis system to me.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/shadow-of-mordors-innovative-nemesis-system-is-locked-behind-a-patent-until-2036-195437208.html?src=rss