At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Small, compact stand Excellent SDR contrast and color gamut Good HDR performance Crisp 240Hz refresh rate with broad adaptive sync support Cons Small, unimpressive RGB-LED lighting elements Lacks USB-C video input with Power Delivery Slim on features: speakers, a KVM switch, 3.5mm audio-out, and HDR brightness adjustment are absent Our Verdict The Alienware AW3425DW ditches features to deliver top-notch SDR and HDR image quality at an aggressive price. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Alienware AW3425DW Retailer Price $799.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket OLED monitors are incredibly prolific, so much so that it’s easy to forget they weren’t really a thing just five years ago. The Alienware AW3423WF was arguably the monitor that changed that, but it’s now several years old. So, Dell has discontinued the AW3423DWF in favor of a successor: the Alienware AW3425DW. Like its predecessor, the AW3425DW is a 34-inch ultrawide with 3440×1440 resolution, but it now has support for refresh rates up to 240Hz. While not necessarily the most impressive OLED monitor on the market, the AW3425DW’s design and pricing make it a sensible choice. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best ultrawide monitors for comparison. Alienware AW3425DW specs and features The Alienware AW3425DW’s basic specifications don’t look much different from its predecessor. This is still a 34-inch ultrawide monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a display resolution of 3440×1440. It still has a Samsung QD-OLED panel, too, although the refresh rate has increased to 240Hz. Display size: 34.2-inch 21:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3440×1440 Panel type: Samsung QD-OLED 10-bit Refresh rate: 240Hz Adaptive sync: Yes, VESA Adaptive Sync, Nvidia G-Sync Compatible, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro HDR: HDR 10 Ports: 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB 5Gbps Type-B, 1x USB 5Gbps Type-A, 1x USB-C 5Gbps with 15 watts charging Additional features: AlienFX Audio: None Warranty: 3-year warranty Price: $799.99 MSRP The monitor unfortunately lacks a USB-C input, which is disappointing for a premium monitor sold in 2025. On the plus side, however, the monitor provides official compatibility with VESA Adaptive Sync, Nvidia G-Sync, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, so you should enjoy smooth pacing no matter what video card you use. Pricing might be the most appealing specification as the monitor retails with an MSRP of just $799.99. Older QD-OLED ultrawide monitors currently sell around $700 or slightly below, so you’re only paying a roughly $100 premium for a newer QD-OLED panel with a higher refresh rate. Alienware AW3425DW design The Alienware AW3425DW’s design doesn’t follow the same script as its predecessor. Like other recent Alienware monitors, it ditches the older model’s retro-futuristic vibe for a curved, organic look. It’s also available in just one color: dark blue. To be honest, I don’t much like the look of it. I think it’s a clear downgrade from Alienware’s earlier models, which seemed more premium. The AW3425DW also reduces the RGB-LED lighting elements found on earlier models. Only the Alienware logo and the power button provide RGB-LED lighting, and both are rather small. Matthew Smith / Foundry It’s not all bad news, though. While the design isn’t remarkable, it’s inoffensive, and the monitor feels solid in-hand. I also like the monitor’s subtle curve. Personally, I prefer flat-screen ultrawides (in the 34-inch size, at least). The AW3425DW isn’t flat, but the curve is often unnoticeable in day-to-day use. I also like the small and compact stand, which minimizes the monitor’s impact on your desk. It’s an upgrade over the large, wing-shaped stand that shipped with the AW3423DWF. Like its predecessor, and most competitors, the AW3425DW’s stand adjusts for height, tilt, and swivel. It can also “slant” up to five degrees for fine-tuning the angle at which the panel sits relative to your desk. A 100x100mm VESA mount is available for connecting a third-party monitor stand or arm. I like the AW3425DW’s subtle curve — it’s often unnoticeable in day-to-day use. Alienware AW3425DW connectivity The Alienware AW3425DW’s video connectivity includes two HDMI 2.1 ports and a single DisplayPort 1.4, all of which can handle the monitor’s full refresh rate and resolution. What you won’t find, however, is a USB-C port with DisplayPort and USB Power Delivery. Many competitive monitors now offer USB-C with Power Delivery, so the lack of USB-C is notable. The lack of USB-C also means the monitor doesn’t have a KVM switch. The monitor’s downstream USB connectivity doesn’t impress, either. It has just one USB-A downstream port and one USB-C downstream port. The USB-C port offers 15 watts of Power Delivery, and both ports provide 5Gbps of data. Because the AW3425DW doesn’t have USB-C upstream, owners instead need to connect their PC to the monitor over a USB-B upstream connection (a USB-A to USB-B cable is included in the box). You won’t find a 3.5mm audio-out jack for audio passthrough, either. This is unusual for a gaming monitor in 2025, and it’s bad news if you use headphones with a 3.5mm connector. In short, the AW3425DW’s connectivity is as basic as it gets for an OLED monitor in 2025. This is exactly the opposite of what I would have expected, as most of Alienware’s competitors are going all-in on USB-C. However, USB-C carries a premium, and competitors with it are often more expensive. The MSI MPG 341CQPX is very similar to the AW3425DW but offers USB-C with 98 watts of Power Delivery, and it retails at $899.99. Owners can control the Alienware AW3425DW’s options with a joystick centered behind the monitor’s lower bezel. This is a typical arrangement for a 34-inch monitor, and the AW3425DW’s joystick feels responsive. The monitor’s features can also be changed through Alienware’s Command Center software. It’s an attractive utility that provides quick access to many monitor settings including brightness, contrast, and input, to name a few. It doesn’t offer adjustment for gamma or color temperature, however. The AW3425DW’s range of image quality options is decent, though there’s still room for improvement. Alienware provides a Creator image mode preset, which has sub-modes for sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamut, as well as gamma calibration which targets precise values. However, this mode doesn’t allow for color saturation, temperature, gain, and offset adjustments. These instead are found in different modes; all game modes, as well as the custom color mode, provide significant color calibration. There’s enough here for most users to calibrate the monitor’s image quality as desired, but it’s odd that Alienware doesn’t provide an image mode that allows adjustment for all the above simultaneously. Matthew Smith / Foundry Moving beyond image quality, the AW3425DW offers a good range of gaming-centric features. It has a dark stabilizer, which can increase brightness in dark scenes to make enemies easier to see, plus an on-screen crosshair, timer, and FPS monitor. Gamers can also customize and select from three Alienvision presets, which apply some of these features to a limited portion of the display (sort of like looking down the scope of a gun in an FPS game). One feature you won’t find is a pair of built-in speakers. This is common among gaming monitors, as built-in speakers rarely perform well enough to do games justice. Still, the lack of built-in speakers means you’ll have to use headphones or desktop speakers if you want to hear anything at all. Much as with connectivity, the AW3425DW’s feature set feels built to a budget. It covers the basics but doesn’t provide any significant features not available from competitors. Alienware AW3425DW image quality The Alienware AW3425DW has a Samsung QD-OLED panel with a refresh rate of 240Hz. Monitors with QD-OLED panels tend to look great in SDR (as well as HDR), but there’s often not much difference between monitors from different manufacturers. The AW3425DW doesn’t change that trend, though it does score a few small victories. Matthew Smith / Foundry First up is brightness. As expected, all the OLED monitors performed more or less the same. The Alienware AW3425DW’s maximum sustained SDR brightness of 258 nits is a little higher than some QD-OLED alternatives, but in the real world, these results will look rather similar. It should also be noted that the LG Ultragear OLED 45GX950A-B scored the highest of the monitors used for comparison, and it uses an LG WOLED panel. So, if you do want the best SDR brightness, you might want to look at that monitor, although it is quite a bit larger than the 34-inch alternatives. Even so, the Alienware AW3425DW’s SDR brightness is more than adequate for use in a typical home office or a gaming den. However, if you’re trying to use it in a brightly lit room or room with large windows that don’t have shades or blinds, it might not be bright enough. Also, the AW3425DW has a rather glossy finish over the display panel, which can make glare more obvious. Matthew Smith / Foundry Next up is contrast. There’s not much to say here because all OLED monitors perform exceptionally well. OLED provides an effectively infinite contrast ratio due to its ability to reach a minimum brightness of zero nits. This allows for an extremely immersive and deep image. This is a perk for the AW3425DW, but it’s also not a competitive advantage, as all OLED monitors offer the same level of performance. Matthew Smith / Foundry Next up is color gamut. QD-OLED monitors offer some of the widest color gamuts of any display that you can put on your desk. The Alienware AW3425DW hits 100 percent of sRGB, 98 percent of DCI-P3, and 95 percent of Adobe RGB. As the graph shows, all the QD-OLED monitors have basically the same level of performance, give or take a percentage here and there. The LG Ultragear OLED 45GX950A-B, which again uses an LG WOLED display, is the only monitor at a notable disadvantage because it only displays up to 95 percent DCI-P3 and 89 percent of Adobe RGB. These results are more applicable to content creators than they are to gamers. All of these monitors have a color gamut that’s more than wide enough to make games look vibrant, but if you want a very wide color gamut to ensure that you’re seeing as many colors as possible when editing a video or a photo, the Alienware AW3425DW is a good choice. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Alienware AW3425DW excels in color accuracy, delivering an average color error that significantly outperforms its competitors. While any average color error below 2 generally produces realistic imagery (and none of these monitors struggle with accuracy), the Alienware has a clear advantage for content creation tasks like video and photo editing. Gamma and color temperature testing revealed both strengths and weaknesses. The AW3425DW ships with an ideal gamma curve of 2.2, which is what most PC applications target. This ensures images don’t appear artificially dark or bright, and it’s a welcome improvement over QD-OLED competitors that tend toward a gamma curve of 2.3, which displays content slightly darker than intended. Color temperature, however, misses the mark. At 50 percent brightness, I measured a color temperature of 6100K, which is warmer than the standard 6500K target. While I personally don’t mind a warmer tone, this deviation is noticeable. The AW3425DW’s sharpness is merely adequate. Like all 34-inch QD-OLED ultrawides currently available, the AW3425DW offers 3440×1440 resolution (approximately 110 pixels per inch). This feels increasingly dated as the market shifts toward new 27-inch and 32-inch 4K QD-OLED displays. For those willing to go larger, options like LG’s UltraGear 45GX950A-B deliver 5120×2160 resolution, which works out to about 125 pixels per inch. Overall, the AW3425DW’s SDR image quality is excellent. Its great out-of-box color accuracy and spot-on gamma curve deliver a slightly more refined and realistic image than alternatives like the Gigabyte MO34WQC. QD-OLED monitors tend to look far more similar than different, but a win is a win, and my testing shows the Alienware has a slight edge in SDR image quality. Alienware AW3425DW HDR image quality Things get more interesting in HDR. The Alienware AW3425DW supports HDR and has VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification. Testing results show the AW3425DW is an exceptional HDR performer that outshines many past WOLED and older QD-OLED monitors. It reached a peak brightness of 978 nits in a 10 percent window, which is the second highest in this competitive set, just behind the MSI MPG 341CQPX. The Alienware also performed well in a 50 percent window, again coming in just slightly behind the MSI. The AW3425DW offers a significant advantage over older QD-OLED displays in HDR content. I measured peak brightness of just 400 to 500 nits from the Gigabyte MO34WQC and the veteran Alienware AW3423DWF. If you’re looking for a reason to upgrade from the older Alienware QD-OLED, HDR performance is it. Matthew Smith / Foundry Beyond the test results, HDR content looks fantastic on the AW3425DW. In the “Into the Storm” scene from Mad Max: Fury Road, lightning bolts streak through the dust storm with eye-searing brightness. Viewing the gargantuan scene from Interstellar, I could see excellent detail in the accretion disk around the black hole—an area that often appears blown out and featureless in SDR or on less capable HDR displays. While the AW3425DW is solid in HDR, I was disappointed to see that it wouldn’t let me adjust brightness while in HDR. Some QD-OLED monitors now offer optional HDR adjustment. It’s a handy feature, as HDR content can at times feel overly bright on a computer monitor. The AW3425DW is a good monitor for HDR content. Only Mini-LED monitors, which can reach higher brightness levels when large portions of the display are lit, will outperform it. However, Mini-LED hasn’t gained much traction in the market, so trying to find a Mini-LED alternative may not be worth the effort. Alienware AW3425DW motion performance The Alienware AW3425DW has a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, meaning the image can update up to 240 times each second. It also has a minimum pixel response time of 0.03 milliseconds, which is typical for a QD-OLED monitor. For comparison, IPS LCD monitors typically have a response time between 1 and 8 milliseconds. These specifications conspire to provide excellent motion clarity. Fast-moving objects are rendered with good detail and quick camera pans keep most of a game’s scenery intact. Viewing fast-scrolling test images from League of Legends, I found character silhouettes and terrain looked crisp. Character names and moving UI elements (like HP bars) could be a little hard to make out but were generally legible. This is great performance and, if you happen to be upgrading from a 60Hz or 144Hz IPS LCD, it’s going to knock your socks off. However, virtually all of Alienware’s direct competitors offer a 34-inch 240Hz QD-OLED ultrawide, and they all have similar motion clarity. 240Hz is table stakes for a gaming monitor in 2025. Alienware also provides official support for VESA Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. Most competitive monitors only list official support for one or two of these standards. The Gigabyte MO34WQC2 lists AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, for example, while the Corsair Xeneon 34WQHD240-C lists Nvidia G-Sync. Should you buy the Alienware AW3425DW? Much like new Alienware’s 27-inch 4K QD-OLED, the Alienware AW3425DW takes the brand in an unexpected direction. The AW3425DW doesn’t try to beat its competitors on design or features. Instead, it’s all about delivering the best image quality possible at an affordable price. If this was Alienware’s mission, I must admit it was successful. The monitor’s retail MSRP of $799.99 is lower than the MSRPs of similar monitors and still competitive with the best sale prices I’ve seen on competitors. Yet despite its pricing, the AW3425DW delivered great results in both SDR and HDR. On the other hand, the Alienware AW3425DW is slim on features. There’s no USB-C video input with Power Delivery, no speakers, and no KVM switch. RGB-LED lighting is technically included, but it’s so subtle it’s basically non-existent. The monitor also lacks an HDR brightness adjustment. If it were my money, I’d spend a little bit more on the MSI MPG 341CQPX, which offers nearly identical image quality and does have USB-C with 98 watts power delivery, a KVM switch, and other features not found on the Alienware. But if you just want QD-OLED image quality and a 240Hz refresh rate at an attractive price, the Alienware makes a lot of sense.

Bagging and boosting are two powerful ensemble techniques in machine learning – they are must-knows for data scientists! After reading this article, you are going to have a solid understanding of how bagging and boosting work and when to use them. We’ll cover the following topics, relying heavily on examples to give hands-on illustration of the key concepts: How Ensembling helps create powerful models Bagging: Adding stability to ML models Boosting: Reducing bias in weak learners Bagging vs. Boosting – when to use each and why Creating powerful models with ensembling In Machine Learning, ensembling is a broad term that refers to any technique that creates predictions by combining the predictions from multiple models. If there is more than one model involved in making a prediction, the technique is using ensembling! Ensembling approaches can often improve the performance of a single model. Ensembling can help reduce: Variance by averaging multiple models Bias by iteratively improving on errors Overfitting because using multiple models can increase robustness to spurious relationships Bagging and boosting are both ensemble methods that can perform much better than their single-model counterparts. Let’s get into the details of these now! Bagging: Adding stability to ML models Bagging is a specific ensembling technique that is used to reduce the variance of a predictive model. Here, I’m talking about variance in the machine learning sense – i.e., how much a model varies with changes to the training dataset – not variance in the statistical sense which measures the spread of a distribution. Because bagging helps reduce an ML model’s variance, it will often improve models that are high variance (e.g., decision trees and KNN) but won’t do much good for models that are low variance (e.g., linear regression). Now that we understand when bagging helps (high variance models), let’s get into the details of the inner workings to understand how it helps! The bagging algorithm is iterative in nature – it builds multiple models by repeating the following three steps: Bootstrap a dataset from the original training data Train a model on the bootstrapped dataset Save the trained model The collection of models created in this process is called an ensemble. When it is time to make a prediction, each model in the ensemble makes its own prediction – the final bagged prediction is the average (for regression) or majority vote (for classification) of all of the ensemble’s predictions. Now that we understand how bagging works, let’s take a few minutes to build an intuition for why it works. We’ll borrow a familiar idea from traditional statistics: sampling to estimate a population mean. In statistics, each sample drawn from a distribution is a random variable. Small sample sizes tend to have high variance and may provide poor estimates of the true mean. But as we collect more samples, the average of those samples becomes a much better approximation of the population mean. Similarly, we can think of each of our individual decision trees as a random variable — after all, each tree is trained on a different random sample of the data! By averaging predictions from many trees, bagging reduces variance and produces an ensemble model that better captures the true relationships in the data. Bagging Example We will be using the load_diabetes1 dataset from the scikit-learn Python package to illustrate a simple bagging example. The dataset has 10 input variables – Age, Sex, BMI, Blood Pressure and 6 blood serum levels (S1-S6). And a single output variable that is a measurement of disease progression. The code below pulls in our data and does some very simple cleaning. With our dataset established, let’s start modeling! # pull in and format data from sklearn.datasets import load_diabetes diabetes = load_diabetes(as_frame=True) df = pd.DataFrame(diabetes.data, columns=diabetes.feature_names) df.loc[:, 'target'] = diabetes.target df = df.dropna() For our example, we will use basic decision trees as our base models for bagging. Let’s first verify that our decision trees are indeed high variance. We will do this by training three decision trees on different bootstrapped datasets and observing the variance of the predictions for a test dataset. The graph below shows the predictions of three different decision trees on the same test dataset. Each dotted vertical line is an individual observation from the test dataset. The three dots on each line are the predictions from the three different decision trees. Variance of decision trees on test data points – image by author In the chart above, we see that individual trees can give very different predictions (spread of the three dots on each vertical line) when trained on bootstrapped datasets. This is the variance we have been talking about! Now that we see that our trees aren’t very robust to training samples – let’s average the predictions to see how bagging can help! The chart below shows the average of the three trees. The diagonal line represents perfect predictions. As you can see, with bagging, our points are tighter and more centered around the diagonal. image by author We’ve already seen significant improvement in our model with the average of just three trees. Let’s beef up our bagging algorithm with more trees! Here is the code to bag as many trees as we want: def train_bagging_trees(df, target_col, pred_cols, n_trees): ''' Creates a decision tree bagging model by training multiple decision trees on bootstrapped data. inputs df (pandas DataFrame) : training data with both target and input columns target_col (str) : name of target column pred_cols (list) : list of predictor column names n_trees (int) : number of trees to be trained in the ensemble output: train_trees (list) : list of trained trees ''' train_trees = [] for i in range(n_trees): # bootstrap training data temp_boot = bootstrap(train_df) #train tree temp_tree = plain_vanilla_tree(temp_boot, target_col, pred_cols) # save trained tree in list train_trees.append(temp_tree) return train_trees def bagging_trees_pred(df, train_trees, target_col, pred_cols): ''' Takes a list of bagged trees and creates predictions by averaging the predictions of each individual tree. inputs df (pandas DataFrame) : training data with both target and input columns train_trees (list) : ensemble model - which is a list of trained decision trees target_col (str) : name of target column pred_cols (list) : list of predictor column names output: avg_preds (list) : list of predictions from the ensembled trees ''' x = df[pred_cols] y = df[target_col] preds = [] # make predictions on data with each decision tree for tree in train_trees: temp_pred = tree.predict(x) preds.append(temp_pred) # get average of the trees' predictions sum_preds = [sum(x) for x in zip(*preds)] avg_preds = [x / len(train_trees) for x in sum_preds] return avg_preds The functions above are very simple, the first trains the bagging ensemble model, the second takes the ensemble (simply a list of trained trees) and makes predictions given a dataset. With our code established, let’s run multiple ensemble models and see how our out-of-bag predictions change as we increase the number of trees. Out-of-bag predictions vs. actuals colored by number of bagged trees – image by author Admittedly, this chart looks a little crazy. Don’t get too bogged down with all of the individual data points, the lines dashed tell the main story! Here we have 1 basic decision tree model and 3 bagged decision tree models – with 3, 50 and 150 trees. The color-coded dotted lines mark the upper and lower ranges for each model’s residuals. There are two main takeaways here: (1) as we add more trees, the range of the residuals shrinks and (2) there is diminishing returns to adding more trees – when we go from 1 to 3 trees, we see the range shrink a lot, when we go from 50 to 150 trees, the range tightens just a little. Now that we’ve successfully gone through a full bagging example, we are about ready to move onto boosting! Let’s do a quick overview of what we covered in this section: Bagging reduces variance of ML models by averaging the predictions of multiple individual models Bagging is most helpful with high-variance models The more models we bag, the lower the variance of the ensemble – but there are diminishing returns to the variance reduction benefit Okay, let’s move on to boosting! Boosting: Reducing bias in weak learners With bagging, we create multiple independent models – the independence of the models helps average out the noise of individual models. Boosting is also an ensembling technique; similar to bagging, we will be training multiple models…. But very different from bagging, the models we train will be dependent. Boosting is a modeling technique that trains an initial model and then sequentially trains additional models to improve the predictions of prior models. The primary target of boosting is to reduce bias – though it can also help reduce variance. We’ve established that boosting iteratively improves predictions – let’s go deeper into how. Boosting algorithms can iteratively improve model predictions in two ways: Directly predicting the residuals of the last model and adding them to the prior predictions – think of it as residual corrections Adding more weight to the observations that the prior model predicted poorly Because boosting’s main goal is to reduce bias, it works well with base models that typically have more bias (e.g., shallow decision trees). For our examples, we are going to use shallow decision trees as our base model – we will only cover the residual prediction approach in this article for brevity. Let’s jump into the boosting example! Predicting prior residuals The residuals prediction approach starts off with an initial model (some algorithms provide a constant, others use one iteration of the base model) and we calculate the residuals of that initial prediction. The second model in the ensemble predicts the residuals of the first model. With our residual predictions in-hand, we add the residual predictions to our initial prediction (this gives us residual corrected predictions) and recalculate the updated residuals…. we continue this process until we have created the number of base models we specified. This process is pretty simple, but is a little hard to explain with just words – the flowchart below shows a simple, 4-model boosting algorithm. Flowchart of simple, 4 model boosting algorithm – image by author When boosting, we need to set three main parameters: (1) the number of trees, (2) the tree depth and (3) the learning rate. I’ll spend a little time discussing these inputs now. Number of Trees For boosting, the number of trees means the same thing as in bagging – i.e., the total number of trees that will be trained for the ensemble. But, unlike boosting, we should not err on the side of more trees! The chart below shows the test RMSE against the number of trees for the diabetes dataset. Unlike with bagging, too many trees in boosting leads to overfitting! – image by author This shows that the test RMSE drops quickly with the number of trees up until about 200 trees, then it starts to creep back up. It looks like a classic ‘overfitting’ chart – we reach a point where more trees becomes worse for the model. This is a key difference between bagging and boosting – with bagging, more trees eventually stop helping, with boosting more trees eventually start hurting! With bagging, more trees eventually stops helping, with boosting more trees eventually starts hurting! We now know that too many trees are bad, and too few trees are bad as well. We will use hyperparameter tuning to select the number of trees. Note – hyperparameter tuning is a huge subject and way outside of the scope of this article. I’ll demonstrate a simple grid search with a train and test dataset for our example a little later. Tree Depth This is the maximum depth for each tree in the ensemble. With bagging, trees are often allowed to go as deep they want because we are looking for low bias, high variance models. With boosting however, we use sequential models to address the bias in the base learners – so we aren’t as concerned about generating low-bias trees. How do we decide how the maximum depth? The same technique that we’ll use with the number of trees, hyperparameter tuning. Learning Rate The number of trees and the tree depth are familiar parameters from bagging (although in bagging we often didn’t put a limit on the tree depth) – but this ‘learning rate’ character is a new face! Let’s take a moment to get familiar. The learning rate is a number between 0 and 1 that is multiplied by the current model’s residual predictions before it is added to the overall predictions. Here’s a simple example of the prediction calculations with a learning rate of 0.5. Once we understand the mechanics of how the learning rate works, we will discuss the why the learning rate is important. The learning rate discounts the residual prediction before updating the actual target prediction – image by author So, why would we want to ‘discount’ our residual predictions, wouldn’t that make our predictions worse? Well, yes and no. For a single iteration, it will likely make our predictions worse – but, we are doing multiple iterations. For multiple iterations, the learning rate keeps the model from overreacting to a single tree’s predictions. It will probably make our current predictions worse, but don’t worry, we will go through this process multiple times! Ultimately, the learning rate helps mitigate overfitting in our boosting model by lowering the influence of any single tree in the ensemble. You can think of it as slowly turning the steering wheel to correct your driving rather than jerking it. In practice, the number of trees and the learning rate have an opposite relationship, i.e., as the learning rate goes down, the number of trees goes up. This is intuitive, because if we only allow a small amount of each tree’s residual prediction to be added to the overall prediction, we are going to need a lot more trees before our overall prediction will start looking good. Ultimately, the learning rate helps mitigate overfitting in our boosting model by lowering the influence of any single tree in the ensemble. Alright, now that we’ve covered the main inputs in boosting, let’s get into the Python coding! We need a couple of functions to create our boosting algorithm: Base decision tree function – a simple function to create and train a single decision tree. We will use the same function from the last section called ‘plain_vanilla_tree.’ Boosting training function – this function sequentially trains and updates residuals for as many decision trees as the user specifies. In our code, this function is called ‘boost_resid_correction.’ Boosting prediction function – this function takes a series of boosted models and makes final ensemble predictions. We call this function ‘boost_resid_correction_pred.’ Here are the functions written in Python: # same base tree function as in prior section def plain_vanilla_tree(df_train, target_col, pred_cols, max_depth = 3, weights=[]): X_train = df_train[pred_cols] y_train = df_train[target_col] tree = DecisionTreeRegressor(max_depth = max_depth, random_state=42) if weights: tree.fit(X_train, y_train, sample_weights=weights) else: tree.fit(X_train, y_train) return tree # residual predictions def boost_resid_correction(df_train, target_col, pred_cols, num_models, learning_rate=1, max_depth=3): ''' Creates boosted decision tree ensemble model. Inputs: df_train (pd.DataFrame) : contains training data target_col (str) : name of target column pred_col (list) : target column names num_models (int) : number of models to use in boosting learning_rate (float, def = 1) : discount given to residual predictions takes values between (0, 1] max_depth (int, def = 3) : max depth of each tree model Outputs: boosting_model (dict) : contains everything needed to use model to make predictions - includes list of all trees in the ensemble ''' # create initial predictions model1 = plain_vanilla_tree(df_train, target_col, pred_cols, max_depth = max_depth) initial_preds = model1.predict(df_train[pred_cols]) df_train['resids'] = df_train[target_col] - initial_preds # create multiple models, each predicting the updated residuals models = [] for i in range(num_models): temp_model = plain_vanilla_tree(df_train, 'resids', pred_cols) models.append(temp_model) temp_pred_resids = temp_model.predict(df_train[pred_cols]) df_train['resids'] = df_train['resids'] - (learning_rate*temp_pred_resids) boosting_model = {'initial_model' : model1, 'models' : models, 'learning_rate' : learning_rate, 'pred_cols' : pred_cols} return boosting_model # This function takes the residual boosted model and scores data def boost_resid_correction_predict(df, boosting_models, chart = False): ''' Creates predictions on a dataset given a boosted model. Inputs: df (pd.DataFrame) : data to make predictions boosting_models (dict) : dictionary containing all pertinent boosted model data chart (bool, def = False) : indicates if performance chart should be created Outputs: pred (np.array) : predictions from boosted model rmse (float) : RMSE of predictions ''' # get initial predictions initial_model = boosting_models['initial_model'] pred_cols = boosting_models['pred_cols'] pred = initial_model.predict(df[pred_cols]) # calculate residual predictions from each model and add models = boosting_models['models'] learning_rate = boosting_models['learning_rate'] for model in models: temp_resid_preds = model.predict(df[pred_cols]) pred += learning_rate*temp_resid_preds if chart: plt.scatter(df['target'], pred) plt.show() rmse = np.sqrt(mean_squared_error(df['target'], pred)) return pred, rmse Sweet, let’s make a model on the same diabetes dataset that we used in the bagging section. We’ll do a quick grid search (again, not doing anything fancy with the tuning here) to tune our three parameters and then we’ll train the final model using the boost_resid_correction function. # tune parameters with grid search n_trees = [5,10,30,50,100,125,150,200,250,300] learning_rates = [0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 0.95, 1] max_depths = my_list = list(range(1, 16)) # Create a dictionary to hold test RMSE for each 'square' in grid perf_dict = {} for tree in n_trees: for learning_rate in learning_rates: for max_depth in max_depths: temp_boosted_model = boost_resid_correction(train_df, 'target', pred_cols, tree, learning_rate=learning_rate, max_depth=max_depth) temp_boosted_model['target_col'] = 'target' preds, rmse = boost_resid_correction_predict(test_df, temp_boosted_model) dict_key = '_'.join(str(x) for x in [tree, learning_rate, max_depth]) perf_dict[dict_key] = rmse min_key = min(perf_dict, key=perf_dict.get) print(perf_dict[min_key]) And our winner is — 50 trees, a learning rate of 0.1 and a max depth of 1! Let’s take a look and see how our predictions did. Tuned boosting actuals vs. residuals – image by author While our boosting ensemble model seems to capture the trend reasonably well, we can see off the bat that it isn’t predicting as well as the bagging model. We could probably spend more time tuning – but it could also be the case that the bagging approach fits this specific data better. With that said, we’ve now earned an understanding of bagging and boosting – let’s compare them in the next section! Bagging vs. Boosting – understanding the differences We’ve covered bagging and boosting separately, the table below brings all the information we’ve covered to concisely compare the approaches: image by author Note: In this article, we wrote our own bagging and boosting code for educational purposes. In practice you will just use the excellent code that is available in Python packages or other software. Also, people rarely use ‘pure’ bagging or boosting – it is much more common to use more advanced algorithms that modify the plain vanilla bagging and boosting to improve performance. Wrapping it up Bagging and boosting are powerful and practical ways to improve weak learners like the humble but flexible decision tree. Both approaches use the power of ensembling to address different problems – bagging for variance, boosting for bias. In practice, pre-packaged code is almost always used to train more advanced machine learning models that use the main ideas of bagging and boosting but, expand on them with multiple improvements. I hope that this has been helpful and interesting – happy modeling! Dataset is originally from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and is distributed under the public domain license for use without restriction. The post Strength in Numbers: Ensembling Models with Bagging and Boosting appeared first on Towards Data Science.

Not long ago, 4K gaming monitors felt like an expensive indulgence, but that's changed over the past couple of years. The kind of money that once bought you a solid 1440p display – think $400 to $500 – can now land you a genuinely great 4K gaming monitor. Upscaling tech has improved, OLED is making moves at smaller sizes, and the barrier to entry is lower than ever. Since our last update to this buying guide, we've seen more 4K OLED panels enter the 27-inch gaming segment, and we've tested a bunch of them. We've also reviewed a wide array of other new releases, some impressive, some not so much, so it's a good time to reassess what actually delivers the best value. There's a catch, though: pricing is a bit of a moving target at the moment. Tariffs in the US are still a mess, and monitor prices are fluctuating as old stock sells out and new shipments roll in. That makes it harder to talk about value in absolute terms, but we'll do our best to stay grounded with a wide range of options and navigate the situation to make this guide useful for people in the US and other regions around the world. As always, our monitor recommendations focus on products we've personally reviewed and tested. We have comprehensive reviews for many of the products mentioned in this article, which provide more in-depth testing and insights. With that in mind, whether you're upgrading from 1440p or going all-in on a new build, now it's a great time to jump into 4K gaming. And with even more new panels on the horizon, 2025 is shaping up to be an excellent year to make the leap. Top 32-inch 4K Gaming Monitors Choose From Your Favorite OLED: Asus, MSI, Dell, Gigabyte, Samsung In numbers Price: $1,177 on Amazon Right now, the best 4K gaming monitors on the market are 32-inch 4K OLEDs. While 27-inch models are also available, we find the larger 32-inch panel size more immersive for 4K gaming, and prices aren't significantly higher than for the smaller models. But why choose OLED over LCD? There are two key advantages of OLED panels that significantly enhance the gaming experience compared to LCDs. First, OLEDs have lightning-fast transition times, delivering elite motion clarity that surpasses LCDs running at the same refresh rate. Second, they feature individual pixel control, allowing each pixel to turn off completely to produce deep, true blacks. This also means OLEDs offer per-pixel local dimming for precise HDR control – eliminating the need for traditional backlight zones. There are two main types of 32-inch 4K OLED panels available: a 240Hz QD-OLED and a 240Hz WOLED. Both offer the same core OLED benefits: fast response times and per-pixel control, but they differ in several ways. Initially, we leaned toward QD-OLED being better, but after extensive testing, we've found it difficult to declare a clear winner. Ultimately, your preferences will determine which panel is the better choice. Our in-depth 4K WOLED vs. 4K QD-OLED comparison dives deeper into this. Choose a 4K QD-OLED monitor if you prefer a glossy screen coating. Currently, only QD-OLED models offer this, as all WOLED options use a matte finish. While this is a matter of personal preference, some buyers won't consider an OLED unless it's glossy. QD-OLEDs also offer the widest color gamut and highest color brightness. In some cases – though not always – they deliver higher overall brightness. On the other hand, choose a 4K WOLED monitor if you want access to dual-mode functionality, which allows the panel to switch between 4K at 240Hz and 1080p at 480Hz. This is especially valuable for competitive gaming, offering increased motion clarity and lower input lag. We've found the feature works seamlessly and adds versatility to the panel. WOLEDs also tend to provide a more consistent brightness experience across high and low APL content, eliminating concerns about aggressive panel dimming or toggling between HDR modes. MSI MPG 321URX There are many 32-inch 4K OLEDs on the market, and within the two panel families, performance is generally similar. You won't see major differences in response times, brightness, contrast, or core capabilities. Most models also have similar out-of-the-box configurations. As a result, the best monitor often comes down to manufacturer tuning and additional features. Here are the monitors we recommend and why: Here are the monitors I recommend and why you might consider each one: Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDM ($980): This is possibly the best overall 4K QD-OLED currently available. It offers a robust feature set including an accurate sRGB mode with unlocked settings, excellent HDR accuracy, ELMB black frame insertion, and Dolby Vision support. While its MSRP is $1,300, we're seeing regular sales bringing it down to the ~$1,000 range. As of writing, there's a $200 rebate. At that price, it's a very strong option. MSI MPG 321URX ($1,049) and MSI MAG 321UPX ($950): The MSI 321URX is the better of the two, offering more USB ports and superior factory calibration. The 321UPX is available if you're looking to save a bit more. They lack some of the premium features found on the Asus model, such as black frame insertion and Dolby Vision support, but still deliver excellent performance and strong value. MSI also offers the MPG 322URX, which is nearly identical to the 321URX but includes DisplayPort 2.1 instead of 1.4. Dell Alienware AW3225QF ($899): This is the go-to model if you prefer a curved screen. We personally prefer flat panels at this size and aspect ratio (32-inch, 16:9), but for curve enthusiasts, Dell has you covered. Performance is very similar to the Asus and MSI offerings, and it includes Dolby Vision support. In many regions, it's also among the most affordable options. Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2P ($1,299) and Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2 ($829): These are solid monitors but can be hard to recommend in some regions due to higher pricing – often several hundred dollars more than competing models. However, they offer more HDR mode customization than competitors and excellent calibration. The FO32U2P includes DisplayPort 2.1, which contributes to its higher price, but we don't think it justifies a substantial premium. We generally lean toward the FO32U2. Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 G80SD ($1,049) and OLED G8 G81SF ($1,299): These QD-OLED models from Samsung offer a matte finish, which is rare among QD-OLEDs. We've tested the G81SF and found it to perform well, although calibration isn't as strong as models from other brands. The G80SD includes smart TV functionality, while the newer G81SF does not. If you find one of these on sale, it could offer excellent value, but we think the MSRP is too high. Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDP ($1,200): This is our recommended 4K WOLED model. We've also tested the LG 32GS95UE, but the Asus version stands out for its superior tuning, performance, and features. Choose the PG32UCDP if you want WOLED with dual-mode functionality, better brightness in bright scenes, and a matte coating. It's an excellent display but priced a tad higher than most others. Let pricing and the key features we just mentioned drive your decision. All of these models have strengths worth considering, and the performance differences between them aren't drastic. These 4K 240Hz QD-OLED and WOLED panels are top-tier displays, and we believe you'll be very satisfied with any of them. Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 G81SF We generally recommend OLED displays for content consumption, such as gaming or video playback. There is a risk of permanent burn-in with OLEDs, especially when displaying static content like productivity apps or web pages. For mixed or work-heavy usage, it's still difficult to recommend OLED at this time. What about 4K LCD monitors for HDR gaming? Right now, these are hard to recommend because OLED panels are simply better. We understand some are concerned about brightness or burn-in with OLEDs, but most alternative LCD options currently on the market are underwhelming. The Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 remains available and you can often find it for around $700. It's a solid 32-inch 4K 165Hz VA LCD with a 1,196-zone full-array local dimming backlight. It offers fast response times, impressive HDR performance, and no risk of burn-in. This is usually our top LCD alternative, though we're still looking for a better option – ideally something with a 240Hz refresh rate and without major flaws. Until then, the Neo G7 remains our recommendation for an HDR-capable LCD gaming monitor. Back to top ▵ Top 27-inch 4K Monitors with HDR Asus ROG Strix XG27UCDMG 27" In numbers Price: $980 While the 32-inch models we've just covered are excellent choices, they can be a bit large for some setups. That's why many gamers prefer 27-inch monitors instead. If you're one of them, there's good news: 2025 has brought the release of 27-inch 4K 240Hz QD-OLED panels. These panels come from the same product family as the 32-inch versions, offering very similar performance... essentially a a shrunk down version with a higher pixel density. We've tested four of these displays so far in 2025, and all are strong contenders: the Asus ROG Swift PG27UCDM, Asus ROG Strix XG27UCDMG, the MSI MPG 272URX and the Dell Alienware AW2725Q. Like their 32-inch counterparts, these monitors perform similarly overall, so your decision will likely come down to features and pricing in your region. Currently, the best value on the market is the Asus ROG Strix XG27UCDMG. It's very similar to the PG27UCDM – which remains the top performer overall – but is available at a significantly lower price. Compared to the PG version, the XG model drops DisplayPort 2.1 and Dolby Vision support but retains many useful features, including the Neo Proximity Sensor, OLED Anti-Flicker, unlocked sRGB mode, KVM switch, and more. Despite its lower price, it's still one of the most feature-rich OLED monitors available. The XG27UCDMG has a listed MSRP of $900, though tariffs and regional variations may affect the final price. Still, it's around $200 cheaper than the PG27UCDM for a very similar experience. We'd only recommend the PG model if you specifically want its additional features. If the price gap narrows in the future, either model could represent a solid buy. The Dell Alienware AW2725Q is also worthy of strong consideration, typically being the most affordable option in most places. It may not offer as many premium features as the Asus, but its performance is excellent. With a current price of around $830, it represents fantastic value. For instance, in Australia, it retails for about $1,200 compared to $2,000 for the PG27UCDM and $1,700 for the MSI MPG 272URX – making Dell's model by far the better value. In Europe, a sub-1,000 euro price tag puts it in direct competition with the XG27UCDMG, and these two are clearly the front-runners right now. The MSI MPG 272URX is not a bad monitor by any means, but it lacks the feature set of the Asus variants and is often priced closer to the PG27UCDM. In our view, it should be priced closer to the Dell model. We'd only recommend the MSI display if it's available at a comparable price to the Dell. There are several other 27-inch 4K QD-OLED monitors hitting the market right now using the same panel. These should offer similar performance to the displays we've tested. For example, we'd expect the 27-inch Samsung Odyssey G81SF to perform similarly to its 32-inch counterpart. Depending on pricing, these may also be worth considering. Later this year, we expect to see 27-inch 4K WOLED panels arrive, but for now, QD-OLED is the only option in this size category. As for LCD alternatives... unfortunately, we're still searching for a standout alternative. The 4K LCDs we've tested so far have been underwhelming. We don't want to recommend anything without proper testing, especially since mini-LED LCDs can sometimes display unusual performance characteristics. Recommending something subpar just to fill the space would be a disservice. If you're interested in a 27-inch 4K HDR LCD, we suggest checking back throughout the year as we continue to test more options. Back to top ▵ Best 4K SDR Monitors in the 27-inch Range LG 27GR93U or Asus ROG Strix XG27UCS In numbers Price: $496 on Amazon If you're looking for a more affordable 4K gaming monitor, the best bet would be a 27-inch 4K mid-refresh SDR display. Pricing in this segment is quite attractive, with many solid options available for under $500. There's no reason to spend more than that on a 4K 144Hz monitor in 2024, as our testing has shown that most of these displays deliver similar performance due to the widespread use of fast IPS panels. One of our favorites in this range is the LG 27GR93U, a 27-inch 4K 144Hz IPS LCD with well-tuned performance. It delivers fast response times in line with other modern IPS panels and offers a single overdrive mode for a straightforward user experience. Factory calibration is solid, brightness is excellent, and LG includes hardware calibration support – a feature not often found in this segment. It's a well-rounded product, suitable for both gaming and desktop productivity. You can find the 27GR93U for around $450. While not the absolute cheapest 27-inch 4K option, it still represents good value, and discounts occasionally push the price lower. A strong alternative is the Asus ROG Strix XG27UCS, which features a 27-inch 4K IPS panel with a slightly higher 160Hz refresh rate. Motion clarity is comparable to the 27GR93U, and factory calibration is slightly better in the sRGB mode. Otherwise, the two monitors are closely matched. Pricing is also similar between the two in both Europe and the US, while in Australia, the Asus model tends to be a bit cheaper. Asus ROG Strix XG27UCS Another option worth mentioning is the Asus ROG Strix XG27UCG, a dual-mode version of this display that can also operate at 1080p 320Hz. This mode provides better clarity and lower input lag for multiplayer gamers at the cost of resolution. In terms of performance, it's similar to the XG27UCS, with comparable response times and color accuracy. The UCG typically costs a bit more, which makes sense given the added dual-mode functionality. However, if you find both models priced similarly, we'd lean toward the UCG – it's the more feature-rich of the two. Gigabyte also offers solid 27-inch 4K options, including the M27U, M27UA and M28U. The M27U and M27UA are essentially the same product, featuring a 27-inch 4K 160Hz IPS LCD panel. The M27UA is the newer model and includes tuning improvements that slightly boost performance, offering faster response times and more accurate colors. These Gigabyte displays are closely matched with the Asus and LG monitors mentioned above. There's no definitive winner – each offers a well-balanced experience at a comparable price. The Gigabyte M28U is also still in the mix despite being an older product, and in fact in the United States it's one of the cheapest 4K monitors on the market. It's pretty similar to the M27U family in performance and color accuracy, but it doesn't get as bright, consumes more power and has a somewhat lower DCI-P3 gamut coverage. Finally, if you're seeking a higher refresh rate, the LG 27G850A features a 27-inch 4K 240Hz IPS LCD panel. It performs well, but at around $800, it's nearly double the price of the 144Hz to 160Hz models. Additionally, you're still only getting an SDR experience, as its HDR functionality relies on basic edge-lit dimming. For people that really want a 27-inch 4K 240Hz LCD we don't think the price or its lack of true HDR support should be a dealbreaker, especially as it has some other neat benefits like its "IPS Black" technology that produces a much better than usual contrast ratio for an IPS. It also supports dual mode, giving multiplayer gamers access to a 1080p 480Hz configuration. However, we don't think it offers great value compared to the other options we've discussed. Back to top ▵ Best 32" 4K Monitors without HDR LG 32GR93U or Gigabyte M32UP In numbers Price: $599 on Amazon There are no changes to our recommendations for a 32-inch 4K SDR gaming monitor. There are two strong contenders in this category, but the leading option is the LG 32GR93U, a 32-inch 4K 144Hz IPS LCD. Over the last six months, prices have remained relatively stable, typically ranging between $500 and $600. Ideally, you'd want to find it closer to the $500 mark, so it's worth waiting for a discount as it follows a predictable pricing cycle. The 32GR93U performs well across a range of areas. It delivers solid response times, and LG has tuned it to provide a single overdrive mode experience. While it's not the absolute fastest 144Hz monitor, it's optimized to avoid inverse ghosting artifacts. Among 32-inch LCDs, this is one of the best we've seen in terms of motion handling – especially important, as older models from a few years ago were quite underwhelming in that regard. This is complemented by great factory color tuning, an excellent sRGB mode, hardware calibration support, wide DCI-P3 color space coverage, and solid brightness levels. It offers great versatility for users who want a monitor suitable for both gaming and productivity, thanks to its large 32-inch 4K panel. It's an excellent dual-purpose display. The main drawback is the lack of HDR capabilities, but that's acceptable at this price point. Another solid choice in this price range is the Gigabyte M32UP, along with the older M32U. The M32UP is the more recent model and goes head-to-head with the 32GR93U in both performance and pricing. The LG display is slightly better tuned for response times and motion clarity, and it also offers higher SDR brightness. On the other hand, the Gigabyte model has slightly better factory calibration and includes a few extra features such as a KVM switch and a USB-C port. Back to top ▵

Three Formerly Enslaved Artists Created Beautiful Pottery 150 Years Ago, and Now Their Wares Are Coveted Around the World The stunning vessels from the H. Wilson & Company were forgotten for generations, only to gain new appreciation for the craftsmanship that went into them Photographs by DeSean McClinton-Holland Jacoba Urist June 2025 A jar made by H. Wilson & Company in Capote, Texas. Right, the muddy banks of Salt Creek, a tributary of the Guadalupe River about 50 miles northeast of San Antonio, where Wilson’s pottery company sourced its fine red clay.  The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; DeSean McClinton-Holland In 1856, the Reverend John McKamie Wilson Jr., a Presbyterian minister and entrepreneur interested in clay science, relocated from North Carolina to Texas. There in the Capote Hills—a rural, sparse enclave in Guadalupe County, 12 miles from the town of Seguin—Wilson opened a business called Guadalupe Pottery. Wilson mainly sold jugs, churns, crocks and cemetery flower jars. The pots featured crescent handles and a deep chocolate-colored interior of liquefied clay. Before refrigerators and iceboxes, high-fire, nonporous pottery was essential to life—the Tupperware or Ziploc bags of the 19th century. Clay pots preserved everything from grains, beef and butter to whiskey and even drinking water. The potters who worked under Wilson’s direction mostly used alkaline glaze, one of the oldest methods in ceramics, to create a glassy exterior from a slurry of wood ash, sand and clay. An arduous process in the 1850s, it took days to stoke underground wood-burning kilns to a high enough temperature for a successful firing. Three of Wilson’s potters were enslaved servants who traveled to Texas with him—Hiram, James and Wallace. For more than a decade, these men were responsible for nearly every facet of Guadalupe Pottery’s production: from mixing clay and expertly “throwing” the pots on a kick wheel to glazing and stacking vessels and meticulously controlling the temperature and duration of the kiln’s flames. The men kept working for the reverend even after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. In Texas, slavery didn’t end until June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order No. 3, informing the people of Texas that all who’d been enslaved were free—the event commemorated as Juneteenth.  Paula King Harper, a descendant of Hiram Wilson, sits on the steps of the Sebastopol House in Seguin, Texas, with Wilson vessels from her own collection. Harper leads the Wilson Pottery Foundation and coordinates the Wilson Pottery Show each October. DeSean McClinton-Holland Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99 This article is a selection from the June 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazine In 1869, Hiram founded his own stoneware business at a new site with James and Wallace, H. Wilson & Company. (Though not biologically related, all three took their enslaver’s surname, the practice of some Black Americans at the time.) Some scholars believe that H. Wilson & Company was the first business in Texas founded and owned by formerly enslaved people.  Pots created by the hands of Hiram Wilson and his colleagues have been passed down through households and sold at garage sales over the course of many generations. Today, their rich history, as well as their distinctive styles and glazes, make the jugs sought-after acquisitions for museum collections. Left to right: A preserve jar, a three-gallon butter churn and a large jar with a lid from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; a stoneware jar from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.  The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (3); NMAH A century and a half later, the pots they made are celebrated in the ceramics world. In silvery grays and greens, with uneven salt drips and textured glazes that resemble the moon’s surface or, sometimes, an orange peel, Wilson wares are coveted both as objets d’art and for their extraordinary story of Black self-determination in the postwar South. Wilson pottery now resides in museums across the United States, from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston—an indelible part of the country’s entrepreneurial and creative heritage.   The story of Hiram, James and Wallace Wilson is woven through with threads of folklore, given the sparse records kept at that time, particularly for people born into slavery. But over the last 50 years, researchers have uncovered more details about the Wilsons. Georgeanna Greer—a San Antonio pediatrician and ceramics collector-aficionado—was passionate about locating abandoned kilns, and she left a trove of Wilson information behind, including a 1973 taped interview with James Wilson’s son, James Wilson Jr.  Capote Baptist Church has been in the midst of a restoration since 2012. After a new pastor, Terry Williams, arrived, its membership surged from 4 congregants to 85. DeSean McClinton-Holland A wooden cross on the property of the Capote Baptist Church that Hiram Wilson founded in 1872 DeSean McClinton-Holland Emancipation offered the Wilsons an opportunity none had ever expected. Establishing a pottery business was complex and costly. It meant finding a suitable site, testing clay, constructing a kiln and hiring proficient workers. And the men did all this in an “intensely dangerous environment,” said Ashley Williams, a recent fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the late 1860s, Black residents of Guadalupe County “filed almost 200 complaints with the Freedmen’s Bureau for unpaid wages and violent crimes” perpetrated against them. A Baptist missionary from Maine, the Reverend Leonard Ilsley, helped Hiram buy 600 acres of land for $500 and likely either gave Hiram a personal loan or served as a guarantor in the transaction. When Hiram died in 1884­—survived by his wife, Senia, and 11 children—Ilsley served as administrator of his estate. One of Hiram’s great-great-granddaughters, LaVerne Lewis Britt, first discovered her connection to the potters after her retirement, when she became interested in genealogy. Over the course of five years, she researched and wrote a book called In Praise of Hiram Wilson, which describes how her ancestor created a thriving post-slavery community in Capote. Hiram set aside 10 of his 600 acres for a Baptist church and became its minister. The white steepled chapel remains active today, beside a cemetery with cedar and crape myrtle trees. Many Wilsons have been laid to rest there, including Hiram, whose grave is marked by a tall obelisk.  Pastor Terry Williams has been leading the Capote Baptist Church since 2015. When he arrived, he says, he felt the spirit of Hiram Wilson and other former slaves who founded the church in 1872—“a cold breeze coming up in the summertime.”  DeSean McClinton-Holland A Bible rests on the piano at Capote Baptist Church. Right, the building has been in the midst of a restoration since 2012. After Pastor Williams arrived, its membership surged from 4 congregants to 85. Hiram also founded a one-room schoolhouse where Paula King Harper, another of his descendants, says her grandmother once taught. King Harper is the current president of the Wilson Pottery Foundation. On the phone, she described how interest in her celebrated ancestor’s technique has spread in collector circles since the organization’s founding in 1999. A pottery collector in San Antonio was at a garage sale and noticed the green salt glaze drip from underneath dirt that had dried on a gallon jug. “They purchased it for less than $10, went home, cleaned it up, and guess what it was? A stamped H. Wilson.” Finding that stamp is now the equivalent of finding a signed painting by a renowned artist. King Harper once sat at an auction that included several pieces of Wilson pottery from someone’s private estate. “There was a beautiful, pristine five-gallon jug I watched sell for $12,000,” she said. Traditionally, clay artists, who made quotidian jugs and jars rather than purely aesthetic works, have been considered second-tier makers, ranking below sculptors. But over the last few decades, contemporary and historic ceramicists like the Wilsons are receiving new scholarly and art-world attention. Williams, the recent Smithsonian fellow, is researching the Wilsons as part of her doctorate at Columbia University. She notes that most enslaved potters wouldn’t have been able to inscribe their names or initials on a pot. But once the Wilson potters were free, they added a maker’s mark, which made all the difference. Future generations were able to dive into the records and find out more about the remarkable potters. “Because we can tie the makers to these objects, which is so rare, it allows us to see the story about the resilience of the Wilson potters during slavery, and their extreme success and survival,” Williams said. Elmer Joe Brackner Jr. was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Texas when he unearthed buried ceramic shards and located the original kilns at two different H. Wilson & Company sites. DeSean McClinton-Holland Ashley Williams, a recent pre-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, has been researching the Wilson potters as part of her PhD dissertation on crafts made by enslaved and imprisoned artists. DeSean McClinton-Holland The Wilsons’ style may have been influenced by the works coming out of the Edgefield district in South Carolina, a place then known as a kind of pottery Mecca. It was famous for massive, bulbous jars and glazes, features that the early Wilson pots share. Edgefield has its own significant history of highly skilled Black craftsmen, including David Drake, the earliest known enslaved potter to inscribe his work. CollectorsDeSean McClinton-Holland Later, the Wilsons’ pottery took on more distinctive features. The men started out using alkaline glaze, but once they opened their own business they switched to salt glaze, likely for its strength and waterproofing properties. Salt glaze also produces more consistent colors and textures, such as the bumpy orange-peel finish admired by H. Wilson & Company collectors. At the time, the method was uncommon in Texas, according to Michelle Johnson, project manager of the William J. Hill Texas Artisans and Artists Archive at the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “And it was dangerous,” she said, because salt glaze produces highly toxic chlorine gas from the wet salt thrown into the kiln during firing. (For this reason, contemporary ceramicists avoid the method altogether.) The Wilsons may have learned the technique from Isaac Suttles, an Ohio-born potter known for salt glazing, who is listed in the United States census as living in Seguin at the time.  The Sebastopol House, a Greek Revival home, was built in the 1850s by enslaved laborers who had advanced skills in working with concrete. Today, the building houses the Wilson Pottery Museum.  DeSean McClinton-Holland Lid rims are another notable element of H. Wilson & Company’s jars. At the first pottery-making site, during their enslavement, the men made more tie-down rims—jars without lids that require paper or cloth as a cover, which were easier and faster to make. Later, at their own shop, they crafted rims fitted for lids. Those lid rims allowed for more watertightstorage, but they also required more sophisticated expertise.If you think you may have stumbled on one of these treasures at a garage or estate sale, look for a horseshoe-like handle—the most significant visual identifier of a Wilson pot. It’s still unclear why Hiram, James and Wallace switched to these thicker, rolled handles from their original Edgefield-inspired crescents. It may have been because horseshoe handles are sturdier, offering more surface connection to the pot’s body. It’s another puzzling question that Williams is pursuing and hopes to answer in the future.  It took a long time for the art world to discover the Wilsons’ creations. After Hiram’s death in 1884, James and Wallace Wilson went on to work at another pottery site run by Marion Durham, a potter from South Carolina who had moved to Texas with John Chandler, who was most likely his enslaved servant at the time. By the time the Wilsons joined them, Durham and Chandler were in business together. That site closed in 1903. These pots remained in circulation, but many details of their story were lost.  Modern replicas of the Wilson pottery logo created by Earline Green. DeSean McClinton-Holland Earline Green, an educator and a member of the Wilson Pottery Foundation’s board of directors. Green helps promote the potters’ legacy by demonstrating their innovative 19th-century techniques.  DeSean McClinton-Holland Decades later, an anthropology graduate student named Elmer Joe Brackner Jr. conducted a magnetometry survey to find buried pottery. (Clay contains iron oxides that can become magnetized.) At the original Guadalupe Pottery site he found what’s known as a “groundhog kiln,” a uniquely Southern, semi-subterranean kiln used in the 19th century for firing alkaline-glazed pottery. At the second site, home of the independent H. Wilson & Company, Brackner found ceramic-glazed shards and another groundhog kiln. His research, and that of Georgeanna Greer, the ceramic historian, helped piece together the Wilsons’ unusual story. After many years of advocacy by the Wilson Pottery Foundation, art historians and curators began scouring land deeds, court documents and handwritten capacity marks (numbers that denote the volume of each jug) to present a fuller picture of the Wilsons, sometimes correcting previous theories about their methodology and timeline. Texas ceramic artist Earline Green researches the Wilsons’ past while creating her own pottery to honor their legacy. In 2018, she interviewed Wilson descendants and collectors and visited historical societies in Texas for archival information. Two years later, she curated an exhibition on her campus in Fort Worth; the show also displayed ceramic pieces she created based on the work of the Wilson potters. Deacon Willie Hightower Sr., a descendant of Hiram Wilson and one of the current deacons at Capote Baptist Church. DeSean McClinton-Holland Hiram Wilson’sDeSean McClinton-Holland The narrative continues to evolve, due in no small part to proud descendants of Hiram, James and Wallace. Every three years, hundreds of people gather in Seguin, Texas, for a jubilant three-day Wilson family reunion that is open to the public. In 2023, festivities included the Wilson Pottery Foundation gala and a tenth anniversary celebration at the Wilson Pottery Museum. The last reunion fell on the weekend before Juneteenth, and the reunion committee arranged a kickoff concert Sunday evening followed by Juneteenth events in Seguin’s downtown square. “I was fortunate to grow up in Texas in the 1980s, around the time when our cousin LaVerne Lewis Britt had uncovered the history,” explains DeSean McClinton-Holland, the photographer of this story and a Wilson descendant through his maternal grandmother. “I grew up knowing bits of the story and visiting the church.” He describes the process of documenting Hiram Wilson’s legacy as a healing journey. “To think, he was born into slavery and was able to accomplish so much shortly thereafter,” he says. “It’s inspiring and motivating to think of all the freedoms we have now, and that we really have to push a bit harder.”  Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Corporations make a lot of stuff they want to sell you, and invest a lot of money, effort, and time into convincing you to not only to buy a product, but to buy a specific version of it. While there’s nothing wrong with pointing out the advantages of one product over another, sometimes marketers use specifically vague or deceptive phrases in order to convince you to choose the one they're offering up.The problem with these phrases is that they exist in a kind of gray area—they’re not outright lies, but they’re also not particularly transparent. When you see one of these eight terms printed on a product’s label, it's a good reminder to engage in some critical thinking about what it's actually telling you.FDA-approvedSeeing the phrase “FDA Approved” on a medicine’s product label probably gives you a certain sense of confidence. After all, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t just approve everything! Getting that FDA stamp of approval must mean it’s safe and high-quality, right?But that’s not actually what “FDA Approved” means at all. The phrase specifically means “the drug is determined to provide benefits that outweigh its known and potential risks for the intended population.” It has absolutely nothing to do with quality, and it doesn’t even mean it’s low-risk—just that the benefits outweigh the risks. That’s useful information, but in marketing, the phrase is used as an indicator that you’re getting a superior product that you can trust to be safe, when all it really means is that it works, and the downsides are (probably) worth it.Genuine leatherThe word “genuine” is doing a lot of work here. You probably think it must be some kind of industry term, with all kinds of meaningful grading and quality testing behind it. But in the words of Lifehacker editor Beth Skwarecki, “‘genuine leather’ just means it’s...leather." It literally just means the thing you’re holding in your hand is, in fact, made of leather. It says nothing about the quality of that leather—good or bad.PatentedIf you watch Shark Tank, you probably have a high opinion of the patent process, and assume that if a product is patented—and shouts that information everywhere in its advertising—it must be innovative and unique. You’d better buy this version, is the implication, because no one else can replicate its patented magic.Eh, not necessarily. Sure, some patents do, in fact, protect innovative ideas. But patents can be issued for a lot of reasons—sometimes minor technical improvements, or new ways of combining ingredients or components. The U.S. issues hundreds of thousands of patents every year, and not all of them are meaningful in the sense of describing amazing breakthroughs or even unique applications. But the term conveys a certain gravitas to a product’s other claims around effectiveness, utility, and value, so marketers use it any time they can.Maximum strengthThe “it goes to 11” of marketing copy. This phrase always looks convincing— it's usually written in all caps at the top of the label to let you know that the product is not messing around, and that it is the most product you can buy.The problem is, what does “maximum” mean? Maximum compared to what? If it means compared to the other versions of the product, that doesn’t necessarily mean competing brands won’t be stronger. If it refers to some sort of legal or physical limitation on how powerful a drug or other product can be, then that same restriction applies to competing products as well. It’s a relative term that doesn’t mean anything unless you put in some research to understand what the reference points actually are.All-naturalEvery now and then, someone falls for the classic “dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO)” prank, agreeing that a dangerous chemical like DHMO should be banned after hearing about all the potential hazards it causes, like death if accidentally inhaled. DHMO is, of course, water (H2O)—dangerous under the right conditions, but also necessary for life. The point being, many chemicals are all-natural, technically speaking, and there’s no clear guidance from the FDA on what the term means. Most products are processed to such a degree that it’s impossible to determine what “natural” even could mean, so labeling something as “all-natural” doesn’t mean much.Doctor-approvedWhen shopping for health-related products of any kind, it can be persuasive to see one is “doctor approved” in some way. You might think this means that a major medical association has come together to recommend that product, or at least conducted some sort of study and determined that this product did the job best. It probably doesn’t mean that, though. While it often means that at least one doctor tested or reviewed the product, that doctor may have been on the company payroll, and either way the phrase doesn’t mean a more formal or official approval process of any kind took place.Clinically provenSimilarly, the phrase “clinically proven” can be deceptive because the clinical studies being referenced are often paid for by the manufacturer itself. While that doesn’t necessarily mean these studies are fake, it does call into question how objective the study and its designers were, and whether any independent bodies corroborate its findings.Worse, sometimes the studies being cited for the “clinically proven” claim don’t actually prove that the product works. Sometimes fine print hidden somewhere on a label or website will clarify this, but not always. Even if a study was reasonably well-conducted and independently organized, you need more than one study to have confidence that an active ingredient or specific formulation of something actually works as advertised.RecyclableIf you’re worried about the future of the planet, you might be seeking out products that lower your carbon footprint. Seeing that a product’s packaging is recyclable makes you feel better about using it, because you know that when you toss it away you’re not adding to a landfill.Except, often, you are. Companies sometimes use materials in their packaging that are technically recyclable, but practically not recyclable. In other words, the specific plastic or other material can be recycled, but aspects of the packaging itself—shape, size, and the stuff it contains—mean that it will be separated out and tossed into a landfill regardless. And sometimes the specific material used isn’t recycled universally—for example, HDPE plastic can be recycled, but not all recycling facilities accept it.

Molex, global manufacturer of electronic and fiber optic connectivity systems, is working with Czech FDM 3D printer manufacturer Prusa Research to support the integration of connector technologies into 3D printing systems. Key components in this collaboration include Molex’s CLIK-Mate wire-to-board connectors, Micro-Fit power connectors, and ultra-microcoaxial RF connectors.  With support from American multinational electronics components distributor Arrow Electronics, these systems are designed to streamline assembly processes and simplify upgrades and new product introductions. “Prusa Research needed connectivity systems with the right balance of functionality and simplicity without compromising quality,” said Brian Hauge, SVP and president, Consumer and Commercial Solutions, Molex. “With support from Arrow Electronics, we provide a full portfolio of connectors that are robust yet easy to use. Molex also stays in lockstep with Arrow and Prusa engineers to align emerging printer designs with new innovative connector solutions to ease new product introductions and upgrades.” The Original Prusa MK4 printing a component. Photo via Prusa Research. Prusa: Scaling Operations to Meet Global Demand In 2024, Prusa Research processed over 300,000 orders for printers, filaments, resins, and accessories. To further strengthen its global presence, the company also established a U.S. subsidiary, Printed Solid, in Newark, Delaware, focused on producing printers and filaments within the United States. As part of its ongoing expansion, Prusa Research incorporated Molex connector systems into its manufacturing process. The CLIK-Mate connectors were selected for their low insertion force, secure terminal design, and audible engagement feature, ensuring precise installation. Prusa highlighted that CLIK-Mate connectors not only ensure DIY users avoid incorrect connections, but also assist engineers in enhancing production efficiency by accelerating the surface mount technology (SMT) assembly process. By early 2025, Prusa is utilizing up to 16 variations of CLIK-Mate connectors across its printer lineup, including the newly launched CORE One model. “In 2024, Prusa grew 25% year over year, and we are excited for this year, which will be even bigger,” said Josef Prusa, CEO of Prusa Research. “We populated over one million parts using Molex CLIK-Mate connectors last year, and they’ve all delivered excellent performance. With over 20 printer models using Molex connectors, we’re continuing our collaboration with Arrow and Molex to expand further across Europe and scale our U.S. operations.” Additional Molex systems used by Prusa include Micro-Fit Connectors for combining signal and power in constrained spaces, and ultra-microcoaxial RF connectors for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. The company is also evaluating Molex’s Easy-On FFC/FPC connectors and other customized connectivity solutions for potential implementation in future models. Prusa Research’s Expanding Lineup Prusa Research continues to evolve its 3D printer portfolio to meet the needs of both professional and advanced desktop users.  One of Prusa’s latest innovations is the Prusa XL, featuring a CoreXY configuration and a 360 mm³ print volume. This model stands out with its tool changer that includes five independent toolheads, reducing waste compared to single-nozzle alternatives and offering increased versatility. While the Prusa XL may not be the fastest desktop FFF 3D printer, with a maximum 3D print speed of 400 mm/s, its ability to seamlessly switch between toolheads for different nozzle sizes and filament types enhances productivity, especially for multi-material parts. The fully assembled version of the Prusa XL is priced at €2,599, while the semi-assembled model is available for €2,099 on the official Prusa website. Additionally, Prusa’s professional-grade offerings include the Prusa Pro HT90, a delta-kinematics 3D printer designed for high-speed, high-temperature FDM printing. The Prusa Pro HT90 delivers impressive performance with travel speeds of up to 600 mm/s, 3D print speeds of 250 mm/s, and acceleration rates of 20,000 mm/s². The system features lightweight, quick-swap printheads, with a direct-drive extruder to enhance production efficiency. Its High-Temp printhead can reach temperatures up to 500°C, suitable for challenging materials, while the High-Flow head operates best at 300°C, enabling the printer to deposit 1 kg of PETG or ABS in just 8 hours. The Prusa Pro HT90 is available starting at €11,490. Take the 3DPIReader Survey — shape the future of AM reporting in under 5 minutes. Who won the 2024 3D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content. Featured image shows the new Prusa Core One. Photo via Prusa Research.

After reviewing almost 500 projects, we’re excited to share the winners of the 2023 Unity for Humanity Grant. All of the social impact creators receiving funding this year are using real-time 3D to drive change in truly innovative ways.Projects were judged based on vision, impact, inclusion, and viability. Winners will receive a bespoke grant from a pool of $500,000 USD, plus mentorship and technical support to help bring their projects to life. If you have a project you’d like to submit in the future, sign up to the Social Impact mailing list for updates about when next year’s grant will open.What’s the project?X-Ray Fashion is a VR documentary by Denmark-based XR studio MANND that uses immersive storytelling to educate audiences about issues within the fashion industry. The project combines virtual reality with corresponding physical elements (for example, when walking through water in the documentary, you walk through shallow water in the real world) to create a truly sensory experience that takes viewers through the various stages of a typical garment’s production process, from the sweat shop all the way to the catwalk.What’s the purpose?The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world. It accounts for 10% of all global carbon emissions, and a huge 60% of textiles are thrown away within one year of being made. On top of that, a single pair of denim jeans requires 10,000 liters of water to make.The creators of X-Ray Fashion recognize that our habit of constantly changing our wardrobes and disposing of clothes we no longer like is having a big impact. Their goal is to use this immersive experience to change consumer behavior by helping viewers understand the impact that their wardrobes have on the environment and people working in the industry. Ultimately, the project encourages lifestyle changes such as buying second-hand garments, taking better care of what we already own, and minimizing our overall fashion consumption.What’s the project?Trying to put how you’re feeling into words when experiencing complex emotions and mental health issues can often be difficult. Sarah Ticho encountered this challenge when trying to describe her grief and mental state to a doctor during a time when she needed help. The experience led her to collaborate with experience designer Niki Smit to develop SoulPaint, a VR project in which participants create artwork on an avatar that expresses their inner world using color, shapes, movement, and imagery.What’s the purpose?According to Harvard Medical School, miscommunication is at the heart of most medical errors. SoulPaint is a unique experience that aims to transform the way we communicate our emotions with others, remove the stigma around mental health, and trigger impactful conversations by creating a shared exhibition experience in public spaces worldwide. It will also ultimately provide a tool that allows patients to improve communication with health care professionals.What’s the project?Quantum’s Pursuit is a game by Limbitless Solutions that lets children with bionic limbs play the limb-different grandchildren of Dr. Quantum, a tech genius and wizard who has developed renewable energy. Dr. Quantum has been kidnapped by evil Galacdorks trying to steal his invention, and it’s the player’s goal to journey through the levels, defeat the boss, and save Dr. Quantum.The game allows hospitals to teach children how to use their new bionic limbs in a fun, engaging, and stress-free way, while also gaining insight into the needs of each child based on their muscle strength – information that is usually difficult to ascertain.What’s the purpose?Limbitless Solutions provides free bionic arms, training, and even covers travel costs for patients and their families. This incredible project can vastly improve the quality of life of children with limb differences and ease the transition to a bionic limb during an otherwise difficult time.What’s the project?Using VR, Follow the Investigation: Inside the ICC shows International Criminal Court (ICC) cases at various stages of the judicial process. The experience provides valuable insight into how the ICC system works to bring those responsible for crimes against humanity – including war crimes and genocide – to justice.Viewers witness testimonies from survivors of past ICC cases, visit field investigation sites, process evidence in ICC forensic labs, and sit in on courtroom proceedings drawn from a variety of infamous global cases.What’s the purpose?This project serves as a somber reminder of and education about the work of the ICC and the process of seeking justice, helping to raise awareness of atrocities and the experiences of survivors to ensure continued global support for their recovery and the work of the ICC. The project also offers an impactful way for victims of horrific crimes to better understand the legal processes that relate to their own cases.What’s the project?In World Reborn, the world’s first activism adventure game, your goal is to save the world after a cataclysmic event fractures it into multiple realities. The mobile game uses AR to combine actions in the real world with choices in the virtual world, encouraging players to make a difference in both. Real-world actions that help you progress through the game include donating money, picking up trash, completing breathing exercises, and more.What’s the purpose?90% of the 72 million teenagers in the U.S. play video games. Having grown up with an awareness of pressing global issues – including climate change, mental health, and racial injustice – they want to make a difference, but often feel powerless to do so. The founders of Wicked Saints, creators of World Reborn, worked for the world’s largest peacebuilding organization and trained young movement leaders all over the world. They saw how many lives were transformed using an approach called Common Ground Activism – attacking the problem, not the person. Now, they’re building World Reborn to empower young people with CGA skills and drive change through incremental steps in the real world. Join their Discord community to get special access and be part of building the game.What’s the project?“What would the children of the future think about the mistakes of our past?” is the question that Team Gramps sought to answer with A Week at Belisamas Lake. This narrative-based mobile fishing game follows young Lotus and their grandmother Pearl as they recover 21st-century trash from a local lake in a future where humanity has overcome the climate crisis – and profoundly changed in the process. Using gyroscopic controls, you fish for items, inspect them, and listen as Pearl sheds light on relics of the past.What’s the purpose?Through a wholesome, optimistic narrative, A Week at Belisamas Lake shines a light on the possibility of a future society in a post-climate change world. Weaving together intergenerational relationships and items of the present day, the story examines just how drastically things might change if we don’t take action now, and how meaningful climate action will ultimately change us.Trigger warning: griefWhat’s the project?Drawing on the 17-year life cycle and symbolism of the Brood X cicadas, this virtual reality experience follows a mother’s journey to find meaning after the loss of her son. Using personal audio files, music, and images, the player is taken on a journey through the mother’s narrative, interacting with the experiences of passing time and grief.What’s the purpose?Year of the Cicadas is a mother’s reflection on the power of finding meaning in the most tragic of stories, and how that meaning transforms over time. The goal of this experience is to provide a window into the life-long journey of meaning-making after child loss for those who may know or work with bereaved parents and family members.Trigger warning: sexual assault, child abuseWhat’s the project?This mobile game is designed for parents who suspect their child may be the victim of sexual abuse or who want to talk to their children about topics like consent. Patito uses minigames to show a young character realizing he is a victim, providing a sensitive approach to educating children and parents on these difficult topics.What’s the purpose?According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), over 4.5 million children are victims of sexual abuse every year in Mexico. Pink Bear Games have created Patito to raise awareness of this issue and help give parents an effective way to communicate about sexual abuse and consent with their children. Their goal is to provide the app for free in an effort to help prevent future cases.Congratulations to all of this year’s winners – we can’t wait to share more of their projects with you. If you’re a social impact creator, join the Unity for Humanity Community Discord to meet like-minded creators.

Straw Stack Space in Houhu Art Park / WCY Regional StudioSave this picture!© Jinquan KongCommunity Center, Cultural Center•Chang Sha Shi, China Architects: WCY Regional Studio Area Area of this architecture project Area:  748 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2023 Photographs Photographs:Jinquan Kong, Haohao Xu Lead Architects: Chunyu Wei, Sheng Ouyang More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Straw Stack Space is located in Houhu Art Park in Changsha, Hunan Province, which is a special 'village in the middle of the city' in Changsha that grew up spontaneously, located at the foot of Yuelu Mountain, and in the centre of the university town. Since the 1950s, the Houhu Art Park has become a unique cultural landmark in Changsha through its history of fisheries, art training and art exhibitions. And, Straw Stack Space is a small community cultural complex in Houhu Lake, integrates exhibitions, art salons, music performances and cultural and creative exchanges.Save this picture!Using pure 'Euclidean Geometry' ---square and circle as the basic graphic language, Straw Stack Space tries to revive the poetic atmosphere of Houhu's past as a field and countryside through the abstraction and metaphor of 'wheat (rice) haystacks', round barns, sunbathing yards and other memorable scenes in the rural landscape. The building occupies two residential sites, and we combined one house with six 'cylinders' in juxtaposition, while the other house has one 'cylinder' implanted in a pure 'square'. The cylinder array and the standard square form an isomorphic and inverted base relationship.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The public cultural and artistic activities that take place in the Straw Stack Space with a sense of 'autonomy' or 'accident', such as contemporary art exhibitions, university graduation design exhibitions, small-scale music parties, modern dances, lawn music festivals, etc. At this point, the 'space' has the ability of 'functional transformation',and it has already departed from the original design preconception, and has generated other interpretations, but it is also an unexpected praise to us.Save this picture!The windows of the Straw Stack Space are mainly orientated to spatial experience, especially strengthening the use of natural top light: when the light is thrown down from the upper part of the building's cylindrical space, through the vertical directivity of the cylinders, it draws one's visual focus to the sky, establishing a relationship between the space, the body and the sky and the earth. Together with the geometrical order of the arrayed cylinders, it tries to let the body deeply perceive a certain ritual, quiet and poetic spatial atmosphere.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!After the completion of the project, whether it is the indigenous villagers, neighbouring citizens, teachers and students of the university, or foreign tourists, when they are relaxing in the Straw Stack Space, they will feel a special kind of 'spatial' information, which tries to evoke the memory of a familiar place or unfamiliar reverie, which belongs to the unique 'sense of place' of the Houhu Art Park or the Straw Stack Space, and it is also the power of the Archetype that we are looking for.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Chang Sha Shi, ChinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeWCY Regional StudioOffice••• MaterialBrickMaterials and TagsPublished on May 15, 2025Cite: "Straw Stack Space in Houhu Art Park / WCY Regional Studio" 15 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030097/straw-stack-space-in-houhu-art-park-wcy-regional-studio&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 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

Xbox Game Pass is, without question, one of the best deals in gaming. Whether you want to play the biggest new Xbox games the day they launch or dive into thousands of hours of content for one monthly fee, it is a goldmine for players looking to keep up to date with the latest and greatest releases without having to worry about the price tags attached to them.That being said, Game Pass is a huge service. Across PC and console, there are hundreds of games currently available, with more titles added pretty much every single month. So, for new subscribers wondering where to start, we've put together a list of some of our personal recommendations, so you can get cracking on some fantastic games and make the most out of your first few months.Xbox Game Pass TiersThe first thing to note about Game Pass is that it has a selection of different tiers depending on what platform you're using and how many games you want to be able to access. Let's quickly run you through the price structure so you know what you're getting before you buy.Xbox Game Pass Ultimate - As the name implies, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the premium subscription tier. When buying, you'll get access to online multiplayer, Xbox Game Pass Standard, Xbox Game Pass PC, and Xbox Game Pass' cloud streaming services. You'll also get an EA Play membership and bonuses, discounts and in-game perks only available to members. In essence, it's essentially a combination of Xbox Game Pass Standard and Xbox Game Pass PC, plus a few extra benefits (like playing on a FireTV Stick). It costs $19.99 per month.Xbox Game Pass Standard - Xbox Game Pass standard is the base subscription available exclusively on Console. You'll be able to access the full library of Game Pass games available on Xbox consoles, as well as play online multiplayer and access perks and discounts only available to members. It costs $14.99 a month.Xbox Game Pass PC - Game Pass' PC-exclusive tier, Xbox Game Pass PC will provide access to the full PC Game Pass library. You'll also get an EA Play membership and perks and discounts only available for members. It costs $11.99 a month.Xbox Game Pass Core - The other console exclusive Game Pass tier, Xbox Game Pass Core offers a lower monthly cost for a significantly smaller library of "core" games available on consoles. Members will also get access to online multiplayer, as well as deals and discounts in the Xbox store. It costs $9.99 a month.Best New Games to Play on Xbox Game PassWant to get stuck into some brand new additions to the Xbox Game Pass catalog? The following titles are all recent additions that you should absolutely give a go.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33A symphonic blend of turn-based strategy and intense real-time combat, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is already being lorded as a potential game of the year contender, and it's pretty easy to see why. Expedition 33 is an emotional, visually stunning odyssey. Top that off with a bold reimagining of classic JRPG combat systems, which melds fast-paced action game mechanics and the tactical turn-based battles of games like Persona and Final Fantasy, and you have one of 2025's first unmissable experiences. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can get stuck in right now on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredNineteen years after its original release, Bethesda surprised the world by announcing the return of one of its most beloved and widely revered games, unveiling The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and then releasing it that very same day. With stunning new graphics, various overhauls, major UI changes, a fresh character creator and much more, it's never felt better to be accosted by a heavily armored, teleporting Legion Guard who labels you "criminal scum" for accidentally sitting on his horse. With over a hundred hours of quests to complete, demonic Oblivion gates to close and even two full DLCs to conquer, the return of Oblivion is an absolute must for those who missed it the first time around. If you want to discover what all the fuss is about or take a nostalgia tour around Cyrodiil all these years later, you can play Oblivion Remastered now on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Blue PrinceNot only recently added to the Xbox Game Pass library but also just a brand new release, Blue Prince is a critically acclaimed puzzler where you enter the shifting hallways of Mt. Holly, a mysterious manor hiding an array of secrets. You're tasked with searching that ever-changing mansion full of tricky puzzles to conquer, all the while uncovering a rich story through clues left behind by the former owners. Blue Prince has already garnered huge buzz since its release, with our own review saying, "If The Witness, Portal, and Myst are already emblazoned on the Mount Rushmore of first-person puzzle games, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blue Prince carved alongside them soon enough." If you want to uncover the mystery for yourself, you can play it on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.Blue Prince is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Best Games to Play on Xbox Game PassSearching through the broad catalog of Game Pass games? The selections below are some of our absolute favourites the library has to offer.Halo: The Master Chief CollectionWhere better to start your Game Pass journey than with a rundown of some of Xbox's greatest hits. Halo has forever been the face of Xbox, and its armour-clad, hulking space marine hero, Master Chief, has had some of the most iconic adventures in gaming history. If you want to experience the first four of his outings enhanced with better graphics and shooting bundled into one seamless package, then the Master Chief Collection is a surefire recommendation. Compiling Halo 1, 2, 3, and 4 together, it'll take you from Master Chief's original battle with the covenant all the way to his first showdown with the Forerunners. Better yet, you can install Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach as additional DLC. The Master Chief Collection can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.MinecraftWhat's there to say about Minecraft that hasn't already been said? Among the most influential and universally loved video games of all time, the experience of jumping in, building your first home, digging for resources and exploring an endless open world has, for many, become a seminal gaming memory. But for those that haven't played in years or have yet to even try Mojang's block-based titan, Minecraft should definitely be on your list of Game Pass stops. Over the years, it's transformed into a hub of endless possibility, so whether you want to build a rollercoaster that runs on Redstone, gear up to face the might of the Ender Dragon or simply create a small riverside farm, you can do all that or more by finding the game on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.Minecraft is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Persona 3 ReloadA remake of one of the best JRPGs ever released, Persona 3 Reload is everything that made the original Persona 3 special repackaged with the stylish flourishes, gorgeous visuals, faster-paced combat and jaw-dropping UI that turned Persona 5 into such a hit. In short, it's a modernized Persona 3, and that means it's an absolute must-play. Whether you're trying to grow your friendships between exams or using your off hours to conquer the halls of Tartarus and the various demonic entities dwelling within it, this is just 100 hours of exceptional writing, free-flowing turn-based combat, creative boss encounters and some of the catchiest tunes humanly imaginable. And that's all without mentioning it centers around arguably the most emotional, hard-hitting story in the Persona franchise to date. If you want to uncover the mysteries of the Dark Hour, you can begin your adventure on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S or PC.Persona 3 Reload is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Resident Evil 2Although remakes are pretty prevalent in the current gaming landscape, few have had such big boots to fill as Capcom's return to Resident Evil 2. Reimagining such an iconic and beloved horror title is no small feat, but not only did Capcom succeed in making a loving ode to the iconic franchise's second entry; they made one that succeeds on its own merits. With a wonderfully cheesy B-movie-esque plot, tense survival horror gameplay, stunning visuals, immensely satisfying exploration and an endless supply of horrifying monstrosities waiting around every corner, Resident Evil 2 is an absolute must play for those that love a gory, shlocky zombie horror adventure. It can be played on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.Resident Evil 2 is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.InscryptionThe latest release from developer Daniel Mullins, Inscryption is one of the most original and utterly unique horror games of the modern era, which is surprising considering it's a roguelike card game. Handed a deck of bizarre cards, you find yourself trapped in a small log cabin with an ominous stranger who forces you to keep playing a tabletop game with him while you try to stack the deck in your favor and solve puzzles. But the longer you play Inscryption, the deeper the rabbit hole goes, leading you to discover there's far more to its simple premise than meets the eye. It's hard to talk about why its so special without spoiling its best-kept secrets, so trust us and give it a go. We promise you won't regret it. You can get stuck into this deck-building nightmare on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.Inscryption is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Doom Eternalid Software's second entry in their Doom reboot series, Doom Eternal knows exactly what it is. It casts you as a terrifying angel of death wielding a steel-barrelled sword of justice, and you're job is to rip and tear your way through anything even vaguely demonic that gets in your way. Cut to 15 hours of non-stop, gloriously over-the-top violence, as you shoot, stab, burn and chainsaw your way through hordes of demons while being serenaded by a heavy metal soundtrack that feels pulled straight from the pits of hell. Doom Eternal is sheer first-person shooting perfection that effortlessly combines satisfying gunplay, exploration and impeccable design to make a must-play symphony of carnage. If you're ready to rip and tear, you can find it on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.Doom Eternal is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.PentimentIt's easy to look at Pentiment's detailed, historically accurate 16th-century setting and assume it may not be for you. However, the absolute genius of Obsidian's small-scale, dialogue-heavy RPG is that it not only makes such a dense period of history deeply accessible; it makes it absolutely riveting. Between a scandalous murder mystery, strange gossip shared among the local townsfolk and long-hidden secrets that concern the ostensibly altruistic members of the nearby monastery, the small town of Tassing quickly becomes a location that demands to be investigated. And as you do, information, secrets and relationships become a core currency, creating a world where who you talk to and what you tell them comes with heavy consequences. It's Obsidian refining their talent for crafting phenomenal dialogue and designing challenging moral decisions to a sharp point, creating a deeply poignant tale where no issue is black or white and misinformation is deadlier than any weapon. Pentiment is an underappreciated masterpiece, so if you love compelling, layered storytelling, make sure to give it a go on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.Pentiment is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Dishonored and Dishonored 2Dishonored and its sequel, Dishonored 2, are front-to-back two of the best immersive sims ever made. From the moment you step foot in Dunwall and Karnaca, both worlds are filled to the brim with inventive ideas, both through their protagonists' varied skill sets and the way they can interact with the world itself. From offering you a range of shadowy supernatural powers to experiment with and combine to pull off creative kills, to the way each mission constantly reveals new routes to seek out your targets and execute the ultimate assassination, no one does it quite like Arkane, and these back-to-back stealth action masterpieces are truly their magnum opus. So, if you want to dive into two of the last generation's finest offerings, do yourself a favour and get both Dishonored 1 and 2 downloaded on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S or PC.Dishonored: Definitive Edition is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate. Dishonored 2 is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Fallout: New VegasIf you're looking to dive into the wealth of Fallout games available on Game Pass, you can't go wrong starting with Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian's spin-off takes everything that made Fallout 3 such an ambitious reimagining of the franchise and doubles down on it, throwing players into the seedy streets of post-apocalyptic Las Vegas and embroiling them in the power struggle between the various factions vying to control it. But where New Vegas exceeds is not by just being more Fallout 3. Obsidian uses their exceptional storytelling chops and talent for posing morally challenging decisions to create a world that operates purely in shades of grey. The end result is an RPG where every quest, no matter how big or small, has depth, and with four equally great DLCs to play too, it's sure to keep you invested well past the 100-hour mark. New Vegas can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.Fallout: New Vegas is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Psychonauts 2If you're looking for a top-notch platformer that's absolutely crammed to the brim with charm, humour and wacky worlds to uncover, Psychonauts 2 is bursting at the seams with creative ideas. Double Fine's sequel to its cult classic hit is just as gloriously wacky and irreverently silly as ever, with the studio managing to surpass the original's boldest concepts with world after world of strange ideas, novel mechanics and phenomenal characters. So, if the idea of going on an espionage mission in a spiralling hellscape built of teeth or being led on a psychedelic, musical journey by an eyeball voiced by Jack Black appeals to you, you can get stuck into Psychonauts 2 on Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PC.Psychonauts 2 is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.ControlA culmination of everything that makes Remedy Entertainment such a stand-out studio, Control is a sci-fi action horror game that revels in stretching the boundaries of all three of those genres. As you navigate its central setting of the Oldest House, you'll move between different universes, fight a variety of monstrous foes and uncover secrets about the strange building's most unsettling mysteries. But the true strength of Control is how willing it is to embrace its weirdness, whether that's through motel lobbies that let you move across time and space, mazes that you'll need to jam out to heavy rock to escape or the kind but bizarre janitor who appears to be an extradimensional being of extraordinary power. It's a world that begs to be explored, and considering you can do that while wielding an arsenal of mind-melding psychic powers, it's absolutely an easy recommendation. It can be played on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC.Control is avaliable on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.BalatroIf you didn't catch it last year, Balatro should be high up on your list of games to check out. Pitched as a roguelike Poker game, the concept is, initially, relatively simple. Moving through increasingly challenging blinds, you're dealt cards you need to combine to make poker hands, with each hand accumulating points. Earn enough points, and you beat the blind, allowing you to progress forward. Lose, and your run is over. But while Balatro may seem like a straightforward idea, its sheer creativity turns a mere poker game into an obsessive gauntlet. Whether it's specific buffs that task you with playing in unique ways, boss battles that completely stomp on your strategies and force you to think around them, or special power-ups that you need to employ in just the right way to win a brutal blind, it's not only one of the best card games you can play on a console, but one of the best roguelikes in years. It's constantly challenging you to think outside the box and experiment with its systems to pull off a hard-fought win, and once it's got its hooks in, you'll spend every waking moment thinking about how you'll do just that. Balatro can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.Balatro is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Mass Effect: Legendary EditionIf Bioware's seminal sci-fi space opera trilogy, Mass Effect, has somehow eluded you up until this point, we're jealous, because now you can play all three of these epic RPGs in the best way possible. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition repackages all three experiences with updated visuals and refined mechanics to deliver the definitive way to experience Commander Shephard's hard-hitting mission to save the galaxy from the Reapers. If you've yet to experience Mass Effect, it's front-to-back a masterclass in interactive storytelling, intense squad-based combat, and hyper-immersive sci-fi world-building, and absolutely worth the hundreds of hours you could spend conquering each of its three entries. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.Mass Effect Legendary Edition is available on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass PC via each tier's included EA Play Membership.Hollow Knight: Voidheart EditionEver wondered why "Silksong" trends every single time a publisher holds a game showcase? Well, it's because its predecessor Hollow Knight was so damn good. This action RPG casts you as a silent, sword-wielding bug venturing through a dark, forgotten kingdom on a quest to cleanse it of an infection that violently transformed its inhabitants. It's the set-up to a darkly beautiful masterclass in 2D Metroidvania design, as our small but mighty hero takes on fearsome foes in incredibly challenging combat encounters while exploring, growing stronger and learning exactly how this kingdom fell to ruin. If you want to join the agonizing wait to finally see Silksong hit shelves, get this downloaded and be prepared to lose all your free time until you hit the credits. You can delve into the depths of Hallownest on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition is avaliable on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.It Takes TwoIf you're looking for something a little more collaborative to jump into with your membership, Hazelight's game-of-the-year-winning co-op adventure, It Takes Two, is absolutely a must-play. Framed entirely around split-screen play, you and a partner embody Cody and May, a couple going through a complicated divorce that find themselves shrunk down and turned into toys. Committed to finding a way to return to their original bodies, they traverse an overgrown world of magic and mayhem, forced to work together to escape. It Takes Two is absolutely overflowing with creativity, and its greatest strength is how willing it is to experiment with fresh and novel mechanics so frequently that it never loses its breakneck pacing across its fourteen-hour runtime. And that's without mentioning that it's hugely accessible and downright fun to play with almost anybody. If you want to live out your ultimate Honey I Shrunk The Kids fantasy with a friend, you can download it on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.It Takes Two is avaliable on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass PC via each tier's included EA Play Membership.InsideIf you love an indie horror that's equal parts a haunting narrative adventure and a creative puzzler, Inside is a top-shelf pick. Throwing you into a dark world with no guidance, it absolutely excels in building a sinister mystery that will stick with you long after the credits roll, as you tangle with skin-crawling monsters, explore a factory full of bizarre, twisted experiments and are left to piece together who you are, why you're here and what exactly your ultimate goal is. It's a classic for a reason, and while it's mostly remembered for its jaw-dropping final moments, the journey leading up to its horrifying conclusion is equally as phenomenal. If you want to investigate the game's eerie facility for yourself, you'll find it on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.Inside is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.No Man's SkySince its slightly underwhelming release, No Man's Sky has had one of the biggest glow ups in video game history. Turning a relatively bare-bones, endless space exploration simulator into a vast, fully-fledged universe that can be explored in a multitude of different ways, Hello Games' stream of incredible updates have gradually made No Man's Sky a multiplayer experience like no other. Its sheer scope and freedom allow you to jet across the cosmos freely, exploring planets, building bases and teaming up with friends to create your own communities, make discoveries and chart a wealth of planets that only you have ever stepped foot on. So if you want to venture across the untamed stretches of the galaxy and join a passionate community of fellow adventurers, get stuck in on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.No Man's Sky is available on Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.CelesteA deeply moving story that lets challenging and incredibly satisfying platforming act as the driving force of its plot, Celeste is one of the best of its generation. Telling the tale of Madeline, a girl climbing the mysterious slopes of Celeste Mountain in hopes of proving her worth to herself, this powerful platformer is a beautiful, heartfelt, emotional odyssey. But where it truly stands out is how it makes you feel that journey through the gameplay itself. While learning to climb the mountain's treacherous, icy terrain can, at times, be tough, Celeste always pushes you to persevere in the face of its various hazards and adversities, as Madeline, and by extension the player, comes to realise that only through failing can they learn to grow. It's a masterful experience that also happens to look gorgeous, is frequently funny and, for completionists, has a hearty supply of tough-as-nails optional challenges for you to spend hours trying to overcome. If you want to start your ascent, you can begin the climb on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S.Celeste is available on Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, Game Pass PC and Game Pass Ultimate.Dead SpaceThe original Dead Space is one of the most influential and deeply unnerving horror games ever made, and back in 2023, EA somehow found a way to make it even scarier. Bringing Isaac Clarke's journey through the USG Ishimura back for a full, from-the-ground-up remake, Dead Space's return is some of the best video game horror of the decade so far. With stunning graphics, impeccable sound design, tense, weighty gunplay and enemies that stalk your every move, it takes everything that works about the original and finds a way to make it twice as intense. So if you love a horror game that leaves you jumping at every sound for weeks after, Dead Space is absolutely for you. You can find it on PC, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.Dead Space is avaliable on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass PC via each tier's included EA Play Membership.What's Next For Xbox Game Pass?As for what you can look forward to next on Game Pass, the biggest release set to hit the marketplace this month is undoutedly Doom: The Dark Ages. A prequel to Doom and Doom Eternal, it'll once again have players strapping into the heavy boots of the Doomslayer, as he rips and tears his way through a fresh horde of demons using an arsenal of medieval weaponry. It'll hit Series X, Series S, and PC on May 15, and be avaliable on Game Pass the day it launches.Alongside that, you can expect to see Warhammer: Vermintide 2 on May 13, as well as Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo on May 16. We'll be sure to update this page with any new upcoming Game Pass additions as Xbox announces them, so be sure to check back soon for updates!Callum Williams is an IGN freelancer covering features and guides. When he's away from his desk, you can usually find him obsessing over the lore of the latest obscure indie horror game or bashing his head against a boss in the newest soulslike. You can catch him over on Twitter at @CaIIumWilliams.