Game Dev Digest Issue #283 - Retro, Graphics Tricks, Multiplayer, and more posted in GameDevDigest Newsletter Published May 23, 2025 Advertisement This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.comEnjoy!“ZLinq”, a Zero-Allocation LINQ Library for .NET - I’ve released ZLinq v1 last month! By building on structs and generics, it achieves zero allocations. It includes extensions like LINQ to Span, LINQ to SIMD, LINQ to Tree (FileSystem, JSON, GameObject, etc.), a drop-in replacement Source Generator for arbitrary types, and support for multiple platforms including .NET Standard 2.0, Unity, and Godot.neuecc.medium.comPathfinding - I've recently been working on the pathfinding for NPCs in my game, which is something I've been looking forward to for a while now since it's a nice chunky problem to solve. I thought I'd write up this post about how I went about it all.juhrjuhr.itch.ioMy Work at Unity - I worked as a developer at Unity Technologies from 2009 to 2020. When I started, there were around 20 employees worldwide and Unity was still largely unknown. When I left, there were over 3000 employees and Unity had become the most widely used game engine in the industry.runevision.comIndie Game Marketing Examples: Campaigns We Loved - From Crabs to Chess: Creative marketing lessons from indie game campaigns that really worked!impress.gamesMaking Video Games in 2025 (without an engine) - I genuinely believe making games without a big "do everything" engine can be easier, more fun, and often less overhead. I am not making a "do everything" game and I do not need 90% of the features these engines provide. I am very particular about how my games feel and look, and how I interact with my tools.noelberry.caWelcome to Unity Design Patterns - Examples of programming design patterns in Unity C#NaphierPalette lighting tricks on the Nintendo 64 - Below I have some notes on the directional ambient and normal mapping techniques I developed. They are both pretty simple in the end but I haven’t seen them used elsewhere.30fps.netCan Itch.io Success Translate To Steam Success? - In my previous blog I looked at the stats for an itch.io game and what an over performing game looked like. Today I want to deep dive on a couple games that took their early itch.io success and parlayed it onto Steam with varied results.howtomarketagame.comWork with strings efficiently, keep the GC alive - This tip is not meant for everyone. If your code is simple, and not CPU-heavy, this tip might be overkill for your code, as it's about extremely heavy operations, where performance is crucial.old.reddit.comIndie Survival Guide - ProductsThe Indie Survival Guide is your ongoing archive of real talk and hard-won insights from the devs and industry experts making games happen—often against the odds. Whatever tools you’re using, this growing library of Q&As, livestreams, and VODs is here to help. There’s no magic formula, but we believe shared experience—across design, business, and survival—can give you the best shot.Unity VideosMultiplayer Systems in 10 Minutes/1 Hour/1 Day | Clocked and Loaded - Unity Developer Advocate Esteban Maldonado shows us how he scales multiplayer systems based on time constraints and how his approach differs depending on the circumstances.UnityFrom States to Trees: How Behavior Trees Revolutionized Game AI - In this final video of our NPC evolution series, we explore how Behavior Trees transformed game AI. Moving beyond the limitations of Finite State Machines, Behavior Trees introduced hierarchical decision-making that allowed NPCs to evaluate complex situations, prioritize actions, and respond intelligently to player choices.Mindplay with AaronInside Doom: The Dark Ages - Creating id Tech 8 - Interview With id Software - Want to know more about Doom: The Dark Ages and the technical make-up of the new id Tech 8? John Linneman has this extensive interview with id Software's Director of Engine Technology, Billy Khan. Every key aspect of the new technology is discussed here, along with answers to key questions like why The Dark Ages simply isn't possible without hardware accelerated ray tracing.Digital FoundryLet's Fix Unity's Animator - Let's fix the missing animation preview in Unity's Animator!Warped ImaginationWhy Did Older Games Feel So Much Bigger? - The evolution of game design has taken an interesting turn, where modern level design often feels more constrained despite technological advances. While retro games created vast worlds with limited resources, today's AAA games sometimes sacrifice that sense of wonder for visual fidelity.Devin ChaseMind-blowing graphical tricks in classic games - Your questions answered! | White_Pointer Gaming - It's time to answer even more viewer questions about how classic games achieved their graphical tricks! This video includes not just Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo games, but Neo Geo as well. Plus the big one that you might have been waiting for - Final Fantasy VI / Final Fantasy III! What mindblowing tricks will be unveiled this time?White_Pointer GamingJetBrains AI Assistant Just Got a Lot More Useful (and FREE) - JetBrains AI Assistant, improved in version 2025.1 with enhanced context awareness and deeper IDE integration, brings intelligent code generation, inline prompts, and web-enhanced context directly into our workflow. Together, we’ll explore how it uses these upgrades to incorporate external knowledge into its suggestions as we refactor a simple C# class into a clean and reusable programming pattern—then save that refactoring as a custom prompt for future use.git-amend AssetsLevel Up: 5K World Building Assets Bundle - Build the game of your dreams in any setting or scenario with our Level Up: 5K World Building Assets Bundle.__The Supreme Unreal & Unity Game Dev Bundle - Dive into an asset collection that offers the widest range of stylized towns, buildings, and more with The Supreme Unreal & Unity Game Dev Bundle! Save time and money by accessing this library of 50+ asset sets, ranging from medieval Viking villages to deserted military outposts—specific standouts include Whispering Grove Environment and Asian Dynasty Environment. Get the assets you need to help bring your game to life, and help support the charity of your choice with your purchase!Humble Bundle AffiliatePoiyomiToonShader - A feature rich toon shader for unity and VR Chatpoiyomi Open SourceAPFrameworkUI - A Text Mesh Pro based text only UI system for Unitydklassic Open SourceUnityProcgen - Library of procedural generation code for use in Unitycoryleach Open SourceGeneLit - GeneLit is an alternative to standard shader for Unity built-in pipeline.momoma-null Open Sourcebarelymusician - a real-time music engine.anokta Open SourceColliderMeshTool - Generate custom mesh colliders in Unity with hulls or hand-drawn outlines.SinlessDevil Open SourceGraphlit - Custom node shader editor for Unityz3y Open SourceEasy Peasy First Person Controller (FREE) - Easy Peasy First Person Controller is a user-friendly, ready-to-use first-person controller for Unity. It provides a wide range of customizable features for seamless integration into your game.assetstore.unity.com AffiliateUnityInGameConsole - A powerful Command Line Processor and log viewer for Unity. It can be run in the editor or in a built out player for any platform, allowing you to see your log and callstacks in you final product, without having to search for unity log files.ArtOfSettling Open SourceDescant - An enhanced and user-friendly Unity dialogue system pluginOwmacohe Open Sourceposition-visualizer - Unity editor tool to visualize positions in the scene.mminer Open SourceLua-CSharp - High performance Lua interpreter implemented in C# for .NET and Unitynuskey8 Open SourceUnityNativeFilePicker - A native Unity plugin to import/export files from/to various document providers on Android & iOSyasirkula Open Sourceusyrup - A runtime dependency injection framework for the Unity Game Engine!Jeffan207 Open SourceUnityIngameDebugConsole - A uGUI based console to see debug messages and execute commands during gameplay in Unityyasirkula Open SourceContentManagementSystem - CMS based on XK's realization for unitymegurte Open SourceIsoMesh - IsoMesh is a group of related tools for Unity for converting meshes into signed distance field data, raymarching signed distance fields, and extracting signed distance field data back to meshes via surface nets or dual contouring.EmmetOT Open SourceNavigathena - Scene management framework for Unity. Provides a new generation of scene management.mackysoft Open SourceUI Cursors - UI for Mouse Cursors is a great start for the development journey you are looking for either testing or a finished game it offers a great variety. Animatable and make the game look alive!verzatiledev.itch.io25% Off Unity Asset Store - Get 25% off your next purchase—even on discounted assets! Use code TWXJ982ND at checkout and keep building something amazing. Limited to 5 redemptions.Unity AffiliateShop up to 50% off Kyeoms - Publisher Sale - I'm an individual game VFX artist. I'm interested in Cartoon style and Stylized VFX. PLUS, get New Stylized Explosion Package for FREE with code KYEOMS2025Unity AffiliateUltimate World Building Asset Bundle - Imagine it—build it—love it Elevate your next project with elite 3D assets, textures, references, and more from the Ultimate World Building Asset Bundle by ScansMatter—featuring 300 free commercial credits on ScansMatter.com, Rooftop Asset Kit, Office Environment Kit, and much more. This limited-time partnership with ScansMatter gives Humble Bundle members a unique opportunity to access countless professional-quality assets at a fraction of the price. Get the assets you need to bring your next visual project to life—and help support the World Wildlife Fund with your purchase!Humble Bundle AffiliateUnlock Pro 3D Modeling Skills With Blender - Software Bundle - Unlock awesome 3D tools for Blender__ SpotlightBrine - An upcoming boomer shooter from Studio Whalefall, a 3rd year university team from Falmouth's Games Academy.Slippery fishy enemies are attacking your quaint Cornish town, and it's up to one disgruntled fisherman to save the day. Fight your way through waves of local seafood and paint the town with red.[Get the demo on Itch.io]Studio WhalefalMy game, Call Of Dookie. Demo available on SteamYou can subscribe to the free weekly newsletter on GameDevDigest.comThis post includes affiliate links; I may receive compensation if you purchase products or services from the different links provided in this article. Comments Nobody has left a comment. You can be the first! You must log in to join the conversation. 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Readers were annoyed to discover something galling: evidence that an author used AI, right in the middle of a novel.The novel, titled "Darkhollow Academy : Year 2," penned by author Lena McDonald, falls under a romance subgenre called "reverse harem," which conventionally follows a female protagonist with multiple male partners.But as eagle-eyed fans of the genre were irritated to discover, the author left glaringly obvious evidence of not only using an AI chatbot to write portions of the book — but also of a naked attempt to copy the style of a real fellow writer."I've rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree's style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements," a since-deleted passage in chapter three of the novel reads, as seen in screenshots posted to the ReverseHarem subreddit earlier this month.J. Bree is the human author of an internationally bestselling series of romance and fantasy novels.The instance is yet another illustration of how Amazon is being flooded with self-published AI slop, a trend that has been going on ever since the tech went mainstream a few years ago. It's a real problem for human authors, too, with AI-generated books drowning out their work in search results pages.In one particularly egregious example, author Jane Friedman discovered back in 2023 that roughly a dozen books were being sold on Amazon with her name on them.Understandably, the small ReverseHarem community on Reddit was outraged after McDonald was caught blatantly using AI to rip off the voice of a real author."I just about fell out of my chair when I read this!" wrote the user who shared the screenshots."I got the book to provide secondary confirmation that this is real," another user chimed in. "Which means everyone has now read part of the book, which qualifies for a Goodreads rating, and possibly even Amazon."Readers tore into the book in a storm of one-star reviews."This was written with generative AI, as is clear by the prompt that was left in the book before uploading to Amazon," one disgruntled reviewer wrote. "I will support authors in many, many ways, but generative AI is theft and it’s not a replacement for actual writing.""I would assume all of her other writing uses AI as well, as book 1 of this series released 1/24/25, book 2 on 3/13/25, and book 3 on 3/23/25," one GoodReads reviewer wrote. "That's faster than Steven King."A book reviewer account called Indie Book Spotlight put it a lot more bluntly in a Bluesky post."F**k you if you steal and copy authors’ works," the user wrote. "F**k you if you use gen ai and call yourself a writer. You’re an opportunist hack using a theft machine."McDonald's blunder is just the tip of the iceberg. Two other purported authors identified by Indie Book Spotlight were caught dabbling with generative AI to churn out novels.Earlier this year, a writer who goes by KC Crowne was also seemingly caught leaving ChatGPT prompts in the text of their work."Thought for 13 seconds," one passage of a book titled "Dark Obsession" on Amazon reads, as seen in screenshots posted to the RomanceBooks subreddit in January. "Certainly! Here's an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori."Crowne's Amazon page features a whopping 171 titles, each adorned with an AI-generated cover of topless, tattoo-covered men."International Bestselling Author and Amazon Top 8 US Bestseller," the author's bio reads.A third writer, who goes by Rania Faris, was also caught using an AI chatbot."This is already quite strong, but it can be tightened for a sharper and more striking delivery while maintaining the intensity and sardonic edge you're aiming for," reads a passage one Threads user discovered in a printed copy of Faris' book.Oddly enough, Crowne's novels are getting predominantly positive reviews on GoodReads, indicating they have found their niche, and readers may either not care or not be aware of the use of AI.Users on Bluesky were sharing theories as to why."Oh wow, I just caught up on the KC Crowne AI thing," award-winning Canadian author Krista Ball wrote in a post back in January. "So setting aside the AI prompt left in the book, I am amazed that this wasn't mentioned anywhere by the early readers, the street team, etc - which leads into my paranoid theory that a percentage of readers are just skim reading.""Remember back in the day when writing fast was like a good reputation builder?" she added. "Now it's sus as all hell."Neither McDonald nor Faris has publicly listed contact information. Crowne, at least, is taking accountability for the situation."Earlier this year, I made an honest mistake," Crowne wrote in an email to Futurism. "I accidentally uploaded the wrong draft file, which included an AI prompt. That error was entirely my responsibility, and that's why I made the tough decision to address it publicly."Crowne claimed that "while I occasionally use AI tools to brainstorm or get past writer’s block, every story I publish is fundamentally my own," saying that "I only use AI-assisted tools in ways that help me improve my craft while fully complying with the terms of service of publishing platforms, to the best of my ability."AI or not, Crowne has somehow published 171 novels over the last seven years.Whether the use of generative AI in self-published books on Amazon breaks any rules remains somewhat unclear. An Amazon spokesperson pointed us to the company's content guidelines, which govern "which books can be listed for sale, regardless of how the content was created."The guidelines have an entire subsection dedicated to the use of AI, which stipulates that "AI-assisted content" is permitted and sellers aren't even "required to disclose" its use. However, any "AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork" have to be labeled as such.The internet at large is also facing an existential threat in the shape of an AI slop tsunami. Do we really need to extend that trend to 300-page fantasy novels to read on the subway to work?Self-published authors who are trying to stand out in an already busy marketplace aren't hopeful."They bring down the reputation of those of us who don't touch AI to write our books," author Catherine Arthur tweeted. "Being tarred with the 'self-published = written by AI' label is not good, and if they don't stop, then that's what may happen."Share This Article

It looks like a machine built in the background of a Nine Inch Nails video – blunt, dirty, furious. The Droog X Volcon Grunt doesn’t care about looking sleek. It’s industrial as hell and twice as aggressive. You don’t ride it, you strap in for the kind of electric street brawl that leaves burn marks on the asphalt and a vibration in your teeth. Based on the Volcon Grunt EVO, Droog Moto’s latest creation wears its attitude like armor. The frame looks sculpted with a sledgehammer and finished by a welder who ran out of patience but had plenty of talent. Up front, a thin horizontal LED headlight slices through the night like a katana caught mid-swing. The fat tires – massive 8-inch-wide slabs of rubber – promise grip on anything short of lava. Gravel, sand, pothole-ridden backstreets? It’s game on. Designer: Droog What makes this brute tick is a dual 60V battery configuration, delivering a top speed of 60 mph with a torque curve that feels immediate and unforgiving. It’s powered by a 10.6 kW Gates carbon belt drive system, which means you’re getting that sweet, near-silent thrust that only a torquey electric drivetrain can give. It’ll cover up to 60 miles on a single charge – plenty of time to stir up trouble or head off-grid without breaking a sweat. But here’s the trick: while it looks like something that belongs in a post-apocalyptic scrapyard drag race, there’s precision in the chaos. Droog’s aesthetic might scream Mad Max, but the execution is meticulous. Custom LED lighting, a brutally minimalist saddle, and a stance that looks like it’s always mid-pounce. This is where off-road DNA meets streetfighter brawn… and the result isn’t subtle. Only two of these beasts exist… and one’s already spoken for. That’s less of a production run and more of a clarion call. If you see one in the wild, you’re either at an elite underground race meet or you’ve stumbled into Bruce Wayne’s mansion.The post The Droog X Volcon Grunt Is a Street-Legal Post-Apocalyptic Electric Monster first appeared on Yanko Design.

Microsoft is now testing a new feature in Notepad that can generate text for you using AI. It’s part of a Windows 11 update being released to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels with Copilot Plus PCs. The update also includes new AI-powered features for Paint like a sticker generator, and improvements to the Snipping Tool that can automatically crop and resize screenshots based on what you’re selecting.Notepad’s new Write feature can be used to “quickly draft text based on your prompt,” according to the Windows Insider Blog, “or build upon existing content with AI-powered assistance.” You can either right-click where you want new text to be inserted in a document or after selecting existing text you want to use as a reference.After selecting the new Write feature in Windows’ Copilot menu, a prompt will appear where instructions can be entered. The AI-generated output will appear in the document but you’ll have the option to keep it, discard it if it’s not what you’re looking for, or refine the output by entering follow-up prompts. The feature was first discovered earlier this year in code included in test builds of Windows 11.Write follows two other AI-powered tools Microsoft has been testing with Notepad. Summarize, first introduced last March, can generate a summary of the text in a document while Rewrite, which began testing last November, can adjust the tone of text, shorten or lengthen it, and rephrase sentences.Paint’s new Sticker generator creates a small selection of stickers based on your description that can also be used in other apps. Image: MicrosoftJoining AI features already being tested in Microsoft Paint like Generative Fill, Generative Erase, and the Cocreator tool that can create images based on text prompts and reference sketches, is a new Sticker generator. A new button in the Copilot menu opens a prompt where you can describe the sticker you want to create. Paint will then generate a small set of stickers based on your description that can be added to your canvas or copied over to other applications.Paint is also getting a new Object select tool that relies on AI to create smart selections that takes most of the grunt work out of isolating and manipulating specific elements in a photo or painting.Windows 11’s Snipping tool will use AI to automatically adjust the size and cropping of a screenshot based on what you’re selecting on screen. Image: MicrosoftTo potentially make it easier to screenshot exactly what you need and immediately share it without edits, Windows 11’s Snipping Tool is gaining a new Perfect screenshot button on its toolbar. When framing a screenshot using the rectangle tool Perfect screenshot will use AI to “intelligently resize based on the content in your selection,” but you’ll still have the option to resize or reposition the selected region of your screen before capturing it.It’s being joined by a new Color picker in the Snipping tool that lets you see the HEX, RGB or HSL color values below an eyedropper cursor, and it can be zoomed for more precision by either scrolling or using Ctrl +/- keyboard shortcuts.You’ll need to be signed into your Microsoft account to use Notepad’s new Write feature which will use the same credits system as other AI-powered Windows 11 features do. Microsoft hasn’t yet announced what pricing for these credits will be if it eventually starts charging for them.See More:

Pros Impressive visual upgradeMemorable quest linesDLC is includedUnintentionally hilarious moments Cons Bugs, new and oldDungeons lack variety The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Specs ESRB Rating M for Mature Games Genre RPG Games Platform PC Games Platform PlayStation 5 Games Platform Xbox Series S Games Platform Xbox Series X All Specs It's been 14 years since Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim debuted, and since then, there have been seven unique releases of the seminal open-world RPG (including a voice-only version for Amazon Alexa). Its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, has not been so lucky, left behind to languish in its original form on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3—until now. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered ($49.99, tested on PlayStation 5 Pro, also available on PC and Xbox Series X/S) is a visual update of one of the most important RPGs ever made. It gives the nearly 20-year-old title a much-deserved facelift thanks to Unreal Engine 5—and for better or worse, it preserves everything that made the game iconic. Nearly two decades in, Oblivion remains a highly enjoyable RPG that appeals to newcomers and veterans alike, earning it our Editors’ Choice award. What's New in Oblivion Remastered?"Find him, and close shut the doors of Oblivion." Those were the final words uttered by Emperor Uriel Septum—played by none other than Star Trek's Patrick Stewart—before an assassin leaped out of the shadows to cut him down. That not only capped Elder Scrolls IV's tutorial and began the game in earnest, but also kick-started my Elder Scrolls love nearly 20 years ago. (Credit: Bethesda Game Studios/PCMag)At the time, open-world games were dominated by urban, Grand Theft Auto-like titles, so The Elder Scrolls IV was my first experience with a fantasy realm cut from that template. Even after hours of fast traveling, horseback riding, and slowly jogging from point A to point B, there were more quests to find, gear to loot, and havoc to wreak. Oblivion was rough around the edges, but it touched me in a way that contemporary Bethesda releases, such as Fallout 4, Skyrim, and Starfield, do not.I was surprised by how much Oblivion was ingrained in my brain when I loaded up the remaster on my PlayStation 5. I was also surprised by how much of that original title remains in the new version. From the Lord of the Rings-esque opening track to the weird, center-of-the-screen zoom that frames every conversation, it's immediately apparent that 2025's Oblivion Remastered is nearly the same game as the 2006 release, albeit wrapped in an Unreal Engine shell.(Credit: Bethesda Game Studios/PCMag)That's not to say that nothing has changed, and Oblivion Remastered's new coat of paint comes with art direction shifts that may not resonate with fans of the original. Upon stepping out of the Imperial Sewers and into the world of Cyrodiil, I immediately noticed that the high-contrast green hills I remembered were now muted and shaded more realistically. This gives Oblivion Remastered some visual inconsistencies, as some outfits and characters look noticeably dull. But for every ugly NPC, I found a gorgeous Aurora Borealis stretched across the night sky, or stared at the shadows dancing behind a burning torch illuminating a dark dungeon.I was also impressed by Oblivion Remastered's sound design, which preserves much of the original release's charm. The iconic score is just as I remember it, but most importantly, the fully voiced characters return. Performances from notable actors like Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart stand out, but the real stars are the voice actors who portray dozens of unique characters throughout Cyrodiil. (Credit: Bethesda Game Studios/PCMag)They remind me of a community theatre doing medieval impressions at the local Renaissance Fair. I mean that with love. However, bizarre line deliveries and intonations make it hard not to laugh. Couple that with bugs and the less-than-stellar AI, and you'll encounter many bizarre interactions.In one instance, as I traveled to an objective, I spotted an elf running across the plains with her fist up, punching every deer in her way. In another case, I had just closed an Oblivion Gate, and as soon as the guard captain congratulated me, he became disgruntled and told me to get out of his face. As I walked through the survivors' camp after a Daedra attack, three characters began talking over one another, spouting the same dialogue. Those moments helped solidify Oblivion as an unintended comedic masterpiece. As modern games become obsessed with movie-quality performances and hyper-realistic graphics, it's nice to step back and appreciate the jank that persists underneath Oblivion Remastered's Unreal Engine glow. That authenticity defines and elevates Oblivion for the same reasons an earnest B-movie becomes a cult classic.Recommended by Our Editors(Credit: Bethesda Game Studios/ PCMag)That said, Oblivion's open world, as new as it was at the time, wasn't the real reason I fell in love with it. Rather, I was obsessed with the idea of consequences. More so than being good or evil, Oblivion remembers your actions and responds accordingly. Killing the wrong person gets you kicked out of guilds, while other characters react to you negatively when you try to steal from them. Guards chase you down and toss you into jail. Quests become inaccessible if you take the wrong action. This made the game world feel alive in a way that many games do not. That was true in 2006, and it remains true in the 2025 remaster.GameplayThe beat-by-beat gameplay remains fun, if simple. Although Oblivion Remastered isn't as deep as Baldur’s Gate III, it has a wide variety of classes, races, and playstyles that enable player creativity. I played as a Redguard, a race that's proficient in Athletics, Blade, and Blunt weapons, and Light and Heavy Armor. Born under the Warrior sign, my character enjoyed increased strength and endurance. As a result, I approached almost every situation like a medieval Terminator.(Credit: Bethesda Game Studios/PCMag)There's room to adjust your playstyle. So, if your heart desires a Battlemage for one situation and a stealth archer for another, you can easily pivot in one direction or the other. New gameplay changes claim to improve the combat, but I didn't notice much of a difference during testing. However, the improved controls, camera, and sprint are greatly appreciated.The guilds feature some of the more memorable quest lines. The Dark Brotherhood, one of my favorites, sees you murder targets, Hitman style. Meanwhile, the Thieves Guild tasks you with outwitting guards to steal high-profile gear, but only after you've done a certain amount of independent thievery. The Oblivion Remastered includes the two expansion packs, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles, plus additional DLC packs (yes, that includes the infamous horse armor pack). The Deluxe Edition includes a digital artbook and new quests, armor, and weapons.(Credit: Bethesda Game Studios/PCMag)The main quest line, which focuses on finding a new heir to battle the evil pouring from giant Oblivion gates, is pretty forgettable. Dungeon crawling is also fairly trite, with caverns and temples that repeat ad nauseam. Although there's much to explore in Cyrodiil, it isn’t too exciting if it's not attached to a quest.Graphics and PerformanceI spent my review time playing on the PlayStation 5 Pro (Oblivion Remastered is PS5 Pro Enhanced), and performance was mostly good. The game defaults to Performance mode and targets 60 frames per second. It didn't hit that target often, especially during large battles. However, switching to Quality mode was just awful. It tanked the frame rate and didn't add much visual fidelity. It's not worth the performance trade-off.Although I praise Oblivion Remastered's core for being authentically stuck in 2006, I must remove my nostalgia goggles for a moment to address the game's bugs and glitches. Many are funny, while others are game-breaking. Oblivion Remastered crashed multiple times during testing. In some cases, quest-giving characters refused to spawn or spawned in the wrong locations. On one occasion, I fell through the floor. A generous auto-save system prevents losing lots of progress, but it's still a pain to retread your last 20 minutes.Some may argue that glitches are part of the Oblivion experience, and in a way, they aren't wrong. However, there's no denying that annoying bugs from nearly 20 years ago should have been squashed by now.

20 Frank Lloyd Wright Houses That Changed AmericaThroughout the architect’s 70-year career, he created new blueprints for living that are still relevant to this dayWith a career that spanned 70 years, there are no shortage of facts about Frank Lloyd Wright to dissect. But it’s not just his buildings that offer fodder for intrigue, the architect was equally a magnet for personal controversy. With three wives and eight children (seven biological, one adopted), Wright spent much of his adult life racking up sensational, though not untrue, headlines like “Suit ends Wright Romance; Sculptress Who Fled With Architect to Japan Obtains Alimony” (New York Times, 1925) or “Issue Warrant for Wright; Architect's Wife Seeks to Re-enter Their Wisconsin Home” (also New York Times, also 1925). Each refers to the personal tumult that seemed to follow the architect through much of his adult life.Scholars have long been tempted to link these fascinating personal dramas to the singular genius of Wright’s work, particularly in how the architect would come to shape 20th-century home life in the U.S. But for all that’s common knowledge about Wright, there are a number of tantalizing details lying just below the surface. Below, ten little-known facts that offer a glimpse into the architect’s fascinating life.The most fascinating facts about Frank Lloyd Wright1. Wright’s childhood nursery was decorated with engravings of English cathedralsIn his autobiography, Wright discusses how his mother prophesied his future as an architect, decorating his nursery with buildings to encourage this development. She also famously purchased her son a Froebel Gifts block set, and used it heavily in his early childhood education.2. Wright abandoned his practice for a year in 1909 to run away with Mamah Borthwick CheneyThe pair were first connected in 1903 when Cheney and her husband Edwin commissioned Wright to build their Oak Park, Illinois, home. The amorous couple abandoned their spouses, children, and lives (and Wright his practice) in 1909 to spend a year together in Europe before relocating to Taliesin in 1911. This elopement would estrange Wright from several of his children for decades to come.The Edwin Cheney house in Oak Park, Illinois Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust3. A disgruntled servant carried out a brutal seven-person murder at Wright’s Taliesin estate in 1914While Wright was away on business in Chicago in 1914, a disgruntled servant at Taliesin set the structure’s living quarters on fire before murdering seven of the home’s residents, including Wright’s then-partner, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. The incident has been dramatized several times, including in an opera called Shining Brow (the English translation of “Taliesin”) that premiered in 1993 and the 2007 novel Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.4. Wright was vehemently against the American Institute of Architects (AIA)Wright was famous for his disdain for other architects, and he refused to join the AIA. According to the biography Frank Lloyd Wright by Meryle Secrest, Wright would refer to it as the “American Institute of Appearances,” and make other disparaging remarks about the institution publicly. “His slights had the effect of maintaining the gulf between himself and other professionals and of adding further weight to the idea of himself as a gifted maverick, an iconoclast,” Secrest writes. Even so, the organization awarded the architect its gold medal in 1949.Wright with Olgivanna Lazovich Hinzenburg ullstein bild5. In 1926, Wright was arrested in violation of the Mann Act, a stipulation that made it illegal for men to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposesThough his divorce with second wife Miriam Noel was not yet final in 1926, Wright was already in a committed relationship with the woman who would become his third wife, Olgivanna Lazovich Hinzenburg. The pair had met at a Russian ballet and had a daughter together, Iovanna, in 1925. In 1926, Wright drove with Olgivanna to a cottage in Minnesota, crossing state lines and leading to a night in the county jail. The charges would later be dropped, and the pair would be formally married in 1928.Frank Lloyd Wright, the Fashion MuseFrom collaborations with Kith to partnerships with Maya Brenner, America’s favorite architect remains a steadfast source of inspiration for designers of all kinds6. Wright dabbled in fashion designWright was known for his obsessive eye for detail, insisting on specific furnishings and challenging clients who threatened to compromise his vision for their homes by trying to inject their own taste into the spaces. According to Wright biographer David Hanks, this interest in the total environment led him to create select clothing as well. The architect designed dresses for his wife Catherine Tobin Wright and female clients. Though little documentation exists around the designs, two images are shown in Hanks’s book The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The struggles never seem to end for Tesla.Elon Musk's embattled electric vehicle empire is floundering on its long-anticipated robotaxi launch as sales plummet to record lows and Tesla bulls dump their stocks.Tesla's Cybertruck — the garish luxury all-electric truck — is no exception to the carnage. With a reputation for breaking down constantly and drawing the ridicule of just about every other driver on the road, the stainless steel tanks aren't exactly a popular choice for car buyers.Earlier this month, news emerged that Tesla was sitting on over 10,000 unsold Cybertrucks, an estimated $800 million worth of inventory.Now, Tesla has decided to start taking Cybertruck trade-ins after over a year of deliveries, and disgruntled customers are already revealing what Tesla is willing to pay for a used rig.Though an AWD foundation series Cybertruck will set you back $100,000, Tesla's only willing to pay $65,400 to take it off your hands — and that's presumably if it has 6,000 miles or less on it, according to Electrek.A screenshot of the trade-in estimate was obtained from a disgruntled poster in the Cybertruck Owners Club, noting that it gives the Cybertruck a depreciation rate of about 34.6 percent in just one year.A typical pickup truck, claims Electrek, should take three to four years to lose that kind of value.It's not exactly shocking news. The cracks had started to show as early as spring of 2024 — just months after Cybertrucks hit the market — as news of the EV's shoddy production quality became well-known. Back then, Tesla didn't accept returns, while resellers were understandably reluctant to get involved, sending the aftermarket price of a new Cybertruck into the toilet.Of course, this is all in stark contrast to Musk's absurd claim that Tesla vehicles would only increase in value, a promise he made back in 2019."If you buy a Tesla today, I believe you are buying an appreciating asset, not a depreciating asset," he said in an interview.The Cybertruck isn't the only floundering Tesla product. By last year, a 2021 Tesla Model 3 — which retailed for about $40,000 — was reselling for just $23,700, a 29 percent markdown compared to its price in 2023. The used-car average over the same period was just 19.5 percent, according to Edmons.com, a used car site.Tesla is also facing fallout from a bizarre leasing program revealed by Reuters last week. Typically, customers will have an option to buy a car outright at the end of their lease. Instead, Tesla's internal policy made potential buyers send their cars back to Tesla, to be part of Musk's "robotaxi" network.Of course, that robotaxi network has yet to actually materialize. In reality, those cars were being outfitted with the latest software updates and flipped to new buyers for much more than they would have sold to those wrapping up a lease.Basically, the writing's on the wall: don't count on a new Tesla's value to go anywhere but down.Share This Article

For the 110 people working on Anno 117: Pax Romana, the upcoming city-builder from Ubisoft Mainz, every game in the franchise has led to its Winter 2025 release. The Anno series has had some hits and misses — its most recent game, 2019’s 1800, is widely considered one of its best, while future-focused titles 2205 and 2070 had mixed results. But Pax Romana has something for die-hard tactics players, beauty builders, and even newcomers like me: the franchise’s first-ever simultaneous release on PC and console, the reintroduction of land combat, the promise of finally bringing Anno to Rome, and major updates to existing game systems. Recommended Videos Some team members have worked on the series for 10, 15, or 20 years, know exactly what diehard Anno fans want (prettier palettes that take advantage of improved graphics, a greater variety of choice, more robust gameplay systems, and diegetic moments of hilarious catastrophe), and are determined to deliver. I travelled to Rome to be one of the first people in the world to go hands-on with Anno 117: Pax Romana and chat with creative director Manuel Reinher and game director Jan Dungel, emerging from the experience thoroughly jet-lagged and with a newfound appreciation for the series and the genre. Andiamo! A new Anno Anno 117: Pax Romana is the first game in the series since the beloved 1800, which was set during the Industrial Revolution. It’s also the series’ biggest historical leap backwards. The team didn’t want to set the next Anno game during the bloody, war-fueled throes of the Roman Empire, but during the height of a 200-year-long period of peace and prosperity.  “Our fans have asked for this for a very long time,” Reinher tells Digital Trends. “The power of Rome, it’s a very appealing setting, but we struggled because with Rome there’s a certain fantasy that is well-delivered, and delivered so often people have a certain expectation … We found Pax Romana is the playground for us, it ticked all the boxes. It’s almost 200 years of stability in the empire, peak growth … and it’s a good fit because conflict is not the core of the Anno experience.” U In Anno 117, you’ll play as a freshly appointed Roman governor in Latium, a province close to the center of the Empire, tasked with upholding that aforementioned peace and prosperity. Will you govern with an iron fist and hope that fear keeps the peace, or show empathy and kindness and pray to one of your chosen Gods that rival governors don’t step on your exposed toes? And then there’s Albion, the fog-covered Celtic lands where no “civilized” Roman dares tread lest they face the ire of the strange, savage locales. You can go there, as well (though I didn’t get to that during my hands-on), and decide what to do with the land and its people.  Anno 117: Pax Romana hopes to offer players deeper, more meaningful choices than any other game in the franchise. A massive discovery tree, with over 150 “discoveries” divided into three main categories (economy, civic, and military), will help “soften the linearity” players may have felt in previous titles.  Researching improved storage capacities can help you store more product to trade with neighboring provinces, while civic research allows you to explore different religions, or build new public buildings. And you won’t be locked to a certain branch on this discovery tree, you’re free to research paved roads, or learn Latin, or beef up your military presence.  Like any Anno game, 117: Pax Romana is centered around economic simulation with some traditional city builder mechanics and 4X strategy features sprinkled in. But 117 is bringing back a controversial feature players haven’t seen in the franchise in a very long time: land combat. Ub The team is pretty close-lipped about it during our preview, but confirmed Anno 117: Pax Romana will have both land and naval combat, with more depth when it comes to integrating the two, and the promise that only big, powerful cities can have a thriving military. But don’t fret — Anno is not a war sim franchise, and the team considers land combat to be “another choice, another tool.” Diplomacy could be your vibe, rather than wielding steel. Aside from gameplay features, the team wants 117 to be the “most beautiful builder gamer, period.” There’s a new day and night cycle that elicits some big “ooohh” moments, like when the flickering fires of the lucernae come alive as the sun sets, or when burgeoning cities are cut through with gorgeous lavender fields. The added ability to create curved roads allows for more freedom in city layouts, and the team’s attention to detail can be found in every pixel, from the waves breaking around a sailing ship to grain crops shifting softly in the wind. Ubisoft is excited to show people how multicultural ancient Rome was, how it pulled inspiration and even religions from Celtic and Egyptian lands, and how the expansion of the empire led to cultural exchange. “Religious ideas, technologies, resources, they travel from one province to the other,”  Reinher explains.  This ancient melting pot helped stabilize the empire. “People are surprised by that fact … This happened 2,000 years ago. Ideas travelled like this, and it’s a fascinating story that breaks the boundaries of what we all have in our minds when we think about such an economic empire.” Roman onboarding Ubisoft Mainz promises Anno: 117 Pax Romana’s gameplay experience is for both newcomers and old heads alike, thanks to an improved onboarding system. “Anno can be quite complex, but it’s rewarding step-by-step,” Dungel says. “You don’t need to completely understand the universe to enjoy [the games].” To describe sitting down to play an Anno game for the first time while surrounded by the cold stone walls of an ancient Romane estate as “surreal” wouldn’t do it justice. Overwhelmed by the game’s systems and in awe of the Horti Sallustiani (the gardens of Sallust), I worry I won’t be able to create an Empire my ancestors would be proud of. I consider lingering around the craft services table and eat as much olive bread (a staple of the Romane diet) to avoid embarrassing myself. But I have a job to do, and gawking at the marble structure soaring overhead won’t do me any good.  So I sit down, load in, and am immediately tasked with placing my governor’s villa somewhere on this newfound island that’s far enough inland to avoid getting attacked by coastal invaders, but central enough that it can easily connect to warehouses and other important commerce buildings. Ubi An in-game pop-up urges me to ensure that my villa is connected to another important building, but fails to tell me I have to build that second structure. I glance around, helpless, until someone comes over and walks me through it, just for me to immediately get stuck again because I can’t see a missing pixel of road that means the buildings were technically still not connected.  I let out a grunt of frustration. I am jetlagged and my brain is functioning at its lowest possible capacity. I need more olive bread. Soon enough, my Italian ancestors smile upon me. I start to get the hang of things after my little roadblock (teehee). I build a sawmill in the center of a forest to ensure we have a steady supply of wood, and place a collection of houses for my lowest class working folks probably a bit too close to the governor’s house for a man of his stature’s liking (I believe in solidarity across classes in my ancient Rome). I ring the workers’ homes with purple wildflowers, place a tavern and a market close enough to their quarters so that they buff everyone who lives there (which helps you earn more money faster), and send my sole ship out to treaty with a neighboring isle.  “[Building Anno 117] was a little bit challenging, because we have very different audiences,” Dungel admits. “Some people want to collaborate, they are super hardcore, they want to value share and network, but some people are more casual. For the first time, we decided we would try to find a way to please both of these groups, not make it less deep and less complex, but give an option for people who want to go more casual. That’s why you don’t have to deliver all the needs [requirements for every population tier that must be filled in order to progress] … you don’t have to immediately go to another province.” Ub Though I stumble at first, after about 1.5 hours of playtime, I have a tier 3 city sprawling out before my eyes, complete with soap production, ship-building, tunic and sandal makers, tilers, and a temple to worship our chosen goddess, Ceres, who helps boost our farms’ output. There’s a plethora of emergency services, including doctors, Vigiles Urbani (basically Rome’s NYPD), and firefighters, the last of whom successfully snuff out a fire that starts near my sheep pasture. I even have a massive new ship that can carry far more cargo than the one I started with.  But my city is net negative, and losing money fast. I get a loan, then another, then another, and then I start to panic. Despite my efforts, there just aren’t enough people to produce my much-needed products (the pretty lady on a neighboring island really wants tunics), or enough raw material for the people to form into something usable for the empire. I need to build more homes to get more able-bodied workers, but I don’t have enough lumber, and my island is looking more and more like a desert every minute.  Even the Anno experts next to me are struggling with their financials. “I can’t take another loan,” one player bemoans.  Before I can right my ship, the hands-on is over. I had just gotten my negative income out of the triple digits and was in the process of conquering another island that had some crucial resources (olives, mackerel), when we were given a times-up signal. “I was getting the hang of it!” I protest. “I just need more plebeians!” The Ubisoft dev who pulled me from the depths of dirt road despair two hours earlier laughs. He has just seen a new city builder player be born before his eyes. Anno 117: Pax Romana releases later this year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

China has launched the first 12 satellites of a planned 2,800-strong orbital supercomputer satellite network, reports Space News. The satellites, created by the company ADA Space, Zhijiang Laboratory, and Neijang High-Tech Zone, will be able to process the data they collect themselves, rather than relying on terrestrial stations to do it for them, according to ADA Space’s announcement (machine-translated).The satellites are part of ADA Space’s “Star Compute” program and the first of what it calls the “Three-Body Computing Constellation,” the company writes. Each of the 12 satellites has an onboard 8-billion parameter AI model and is capable of 744 tera operations per second (TOPS) — a measure of their AI processing grunt — and, collectively, ADA Space says they can manage 5 peta operations per second, or POPS. That’s quite a bit more than, say, the 40 TOPS required for a Microsoft Copilot PC. The eventual goal is to have a network of thousands of satellites that achieve 1,000 POPs, according to the Chinese government.The satellites communicate with each other at up-to-100Gbps using lasers, and share 30 terabytes of storage between them, according to Space News. The 12 launched last week carry scientific payloads, including an X-ray polarization detector for picking up brief cosmic phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts. The satellites also have the capability to create 3D digital twin data that can be used for purposes like emergency response, gaming, and tourism, ADA Space says in its announcement.The benefits of having a space-based supercomputer go beyond saving communications time, according to South China Morning Post. The outlet notes that traditional satellite transmissions are slow, and that “less than 10 per cent” of satellite data makes it to Earth, due to things like limited bandwidth and ground station availability. And Jonathan McDowell, a space historian and astronomer at Harvard University, told the outlet, “Orbital data centres can use solar power and radiate their heat to space, reducing the energy needs and carbon footprint.” He said both the US and Europe could carry out similar projects in the future, writes SCMP.See More:

China has launched the first 12 satellites of a planned 2,800-strong orbital supercomputer satellite network, reports Space News. The satellites, created by the company ADA Space, Zhijiang Laboratory, and Neijang High-Tech Zone, will be able to process the data they collect themselves, rather than relying on terrestrial stations to do it for them, according to ADA Space’s announcement (machine-translated).The satellites are part of ADA Space’s “Star Compute” program and the first of what it calls the “Three-Body Computing Constellation,” the company writes. Each of the 12 satellites has an onboard 8-billion parameter AI model and is capable of 744 tera operations per second (TOPS) — a measure of their AI processing grunt — and, collectively, ADA Space says they can manage 5 peta operations per second, or POPS. That’s quite a bit more than, say, the 40 TOPS required for a Microsoft Copilot PC. The eventual goal is to have a network of thousands of satellites that achieve 1,000 POPs, according to the Chinese government.The satellites communicate with each other at up-to-100Gbps using lasers, and share 30 terabytes of storage between them, according to Space News. The 12 launched last week carry scientific payloads, including an X-ray polarization detector for picking up brief cosmic phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts. The satellites also have the capability to create 3D digital twin data that can be used for purposes like emergency response, gaming, and tourism, ADA Space says in its announcement.The benefits of having a space-based supercomputer go beyond saving communications time, according to South China Morning Post. The outlet notes that traditional satellite transmissions are slow, and that “less than 10 per cent” of satellite data makes it to Earth, due to things like limited bandwidth and ground station availability. And Jonathan McDowell, a space historian and astronomer at Harvard University, told the outlet, “Orbital data centres can use solar power and radiate their heat to space, reducing the energy needs and carbon footprint.” He said both the US and Europe could carry out similar projects in the future, writes SCMP.See More: