Monthly Archives: January 2024

Avowed, Obsidian’s big fantasy RPG, will land in fall 2024

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Avowed, the fantasy roleplaying game from Outer Worlds studio Obsidian Entertainment, is due to hit Xbox and PC in the fall. This is a slight update from the game's original release window, which was just "2024." Specifically, Avowed will hit Xbox Series X/S, PC via Xbox and Steam, and it'll be available through Game Pass on day one.

Avowed is an expansive first-person RPG with old-school fantasy vibes. Players will set off on a journey across the Living Lands, on a mission for the kingdom of Aedyr. A plague is spreading across the island of the Living Lands and players have been sent to investigate what's going on — along the way, they'll discover how they're personally tied to the region and its mysteries.

The game supports multiple play styles, allowing players to approach combat and conversations in their own ways. The world is filled with magic, monsters, firearms, swords and shields, and companions will join the party along the way. If you liked Skyrim, you'll probably like Avowed.

Obsidian is known for creating Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Pentiment, Outer Worlds, and other games. Microsoft purchased the studio in 2018.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/avowed-obsidians-big-fantasy-rpg-will-land-in-fall-2024-203343619.html?src=rss

Avowed, Obsidian’s big fantasy RPG, will land in fall 2024

Posted on by

Avowed, the fantasy roleplaying game from Outer Worlds studio Obsidian Entertainment, is due to hit Xbox and PC in the fall. This is a slight update from the game's original release window, which was just "2024." Specifically, Avowed will hit Xbox Series X/S, PC via Xbox and Steam, and it'll be available through Game Pass on day one.

Avowed is an expansive first-person RPG with old-school fantasy vibes. Players will set off on a journey across the Living Lands, on a mission for the kingdom of Aedyr. A plague is spreading across the island of the Living Lands and players have been sent to investigate what's going on — along the way, they'll discover how they're personally tied to the region and its mysteries.

The game supports multiple play styles, allowing players to approach combat and conversations in their own ways. The world is filled with magic, monsters, firearms, swords and shields, and companions will join the party along the way. If you liked Skyrim, you'll probably like Avowed.

Obsidian is known for creating Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Pentiment, Outer Worlds, and other games. Microsoft purchased the studio in 2018.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/avowed-obsidians-big-fantasy-rpg-will-land-in-fall-2024-203343619.html?src=rss

AI-generated content can sometimes slip into your Google News feed

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Correction, January 18, 2024, 4:55 PM ET: This story originally claimed that AI-generated content was being promoted in Google News. We did not note that to find such stories required heavily manipulating the search results in Google News, so much so that it didn't surface an original, more legitimate source. As 404 Media itself writes, "Both of these rip-off articles appear in Google News search results. The first appears when searching for “Star Wars theory” and setting the results to the past 24 hours. The second appears when searching for the subject of the article with a similar 24 hour setting." Those search parameters are essentially set to that the original stories don't appear. 

A Google spokesperson provided us with the following statement regarding this issue: Claiming that these sites were featured prominently in Google News is not accurate - the sites in question only appeared for artificially narrow queries, including queries that explicitly filtered out the date of an original article. We take the quality of our results extremely seriously and have clear policies against content created for the primary purpose of ranking well on News and we remove sites that violate it.

We apologize for overstating the issue and are including a slightly modified version original story that has been corrected for accuracy, and we've updated the headline to make it more accurate. 

AI-generated content can be found everywhere online, including your Google News feed. A report from 404 Media revealed that Google News can potentially websites filled with AI-generated articles ripped from other outlets. Google News used to be a place you’d find the latest and most accurate information on most topics. But just because something makes it to Google News doesn’t necessarily mean the information is reliable.

404 Media cited several examples of AI-written articles getting past Google. One example involved a “news site” called Worldtimetodays, that recently published an article about Star Wars. An analysis of the article showed it was highly similar to one published earlier by Distractify. The Worldtimetodays article included the same author photo along with some odd phrasings, as you’d expect with AI. The ripped article read “Let’s be honest, war of stars fans,” instead of Star Wars fans. The site also had articles that were barely rewritten from Heavy, without bothering to replace Heavy’s watermarked images.

As AI advances and becomes even more accessible, we will likely continue to see mass output of plagiarized articles and unreliable information, some of which may hit Google News. The company told 404 Media that while it tries to filter spam on Google News, it isn’t overly concerned whether an article is written by humans or AI. A Google representative told the publication said it’s more about the quality of the content.

“Our focus when ranking content is on the quality of the content, rather than how it was produced. Automatically-generated content produced primarily for ranking purposes is considered spam, and we take action as appropriate under our policies,” the statement read.

Google went on to reiterate that websites are considered for Google News automatically, and new websites may not be immediately detected by the system. The company added that its goal is to reward “original content that demonstrates things such as expertise and trustworthiness,” but it looks like it’s missing the mark by letting these AI-generated articles through in the first place.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/your-google-news-feed-is-likely-filled-with-ai-generated-articles-194654896.html?src=rss

AI-generated content can sometimes slip into your Google News feed

Posted on by

Correction, January 18, 2024, 4:55 PM ET: This story originally claimed that AI-generated content was being promoted in Google News. We did not note that to find such stories required heavily manipulating the search results in Google News, so much so that it didn't surface an original, more legitimate source. As 404 Media itself writes, "Both of these rip-off articles appear in Google News search results. The first appears when searching for “Star Wars theory” and setting the results to the past 24 hours. The second appears when searching for the subject of the article with a similar 24 hour setting." Those search parameters are essentially set to that the original stories don't appear. 

A Google spokesperson provided us with the following statement regarding this issue: Claiming that these sites were featured prominently in Google News is not accurate - the sites in question only appeared for artificially narrow queries, including queries that explicitly filtered out the date of an original article. We take the quality of our results extremely seriously and have clear policies against content created for the primary purpose of ranking well on News and we remove sites that violate it.

We apologize for overstating the issue and are including a slightly modified version original story that has been corrected for accuracy, and we've updated the headline to make it more accurate. 

AI-generated content can be found everywhere online, including your Google News feed. A report from 404 Media revealed that Google News can potentially websites filled with AI-generated articles ripped from other outlets. Google News used to be a place you’d find the latest and most accurate information on most topics. But just because something makes it to Google News doesn’t necessarily mean the information is reliable.

404 Media cited several examples of AI-written articles getting past Google. One example involved a “news site” called Worldtimetodays, that recently published an article about Star Wars. An analysis of the article showed it was highly similar to one published earlier by Distractify. The Worldtimetodays article included the same author photo along with some odd phrasings, as you’d expect with AI. The ripped article read “Let’s be honest, war of stars fans,” instead of Star Wars fans. The site also had articles that were barely rewritten from Heavy, without bothering to replace Heavy’s watermarked images.

As AI advances and becomes even more accessible, we will likely continue to see mass output of plagiarized articles and unreliable information, some of which may hit Google News. The company told 404 Media that while it tries to filter spam on Google News, it isn’t overly concerned whether an article is written by humans or AI. A Google representative told the publication said it’s more about the quality of the content.

“Our focus when ranking content is on the quality of the content, rather than how it was produced. Automatically-generated content produced primarily for ranking purposes is considered spam, and we take action as appropriate under our policies,” the statement read.

Google went on to reiterate that websites are considered for Google News automatically, and new websites may not be immediately detected by the system. The company added that its goal is to reward “original content that demonstrates things such as expertise and trustworthiness,” but it looks like it’s missing the mark by letting these AI-generated articles through in the first place.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/your-google-news-feed-is-likely-filled-with-ai-generated-articles-194654896.html?src=rss

Call of Duty didn’t top the yearly sales charts for one of the first times since 2009

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Just like death and taxes, you can usually rely on a Call of Duty game to top the sales charts each year. The various entries in Activision’s warfare simulation franchise have mostly done just that, going all the way back to 2009. This year’s a bit different. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has fallen to second place, as reported by media research firm Circana.

According to the list, Hogwarts Legacy topped the charts for 2023, selling around 22 million copies. This is despite the not insignificant controversy the game generated, both by its association with franchise creator JK Rowling — who has leveraged her celebrity position to espouse anti-trans views — but also tropes within the game itself which some (but not all) saw as drawing from antisemitic caricatures. Still, fans had been waiting for a high-quality AAA game set at the wizarding school for decades and Hogwarts Legacy delivered on the promise of a true open-world Harry Potter title. The sales obviously reflect that.

As a matter of fact, there have been only two other occasions in which Call of Duty was knocked from first place. Those were the years in which Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) were released. Both Rockstar titles absolutely dominated the conversation upon launch, becoming bona-fide cultural touchstones. Hogwarts Legacy, while very good, hasn’t approached that level of buzz, so maybe this data illustrates that players are finally getting sick of Call of Duty, or maybe it's just that Modern Warfare III wasn’t a particularly inspiring entry.

There’s also the Hyrule-sized elephant in the room. Circana’s list puts The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the number five top seller of 2023, but Nintendo keeps its eShop numbers close to the vest, so the list only includes digital sales data up to September. In other words, there’s around four months of sales data missing here, which we won’t get until the company releases quarterly revenue information at the end of the month.

It’s possible that Tears of the Kingdom will end up on top when all is said and done: it's sales figures (19.5 million copies) are a mere 2.5 million units away from dethroning Hogwarts Legacy, and that's without the four months of sales that include the holiday season.

2023 sales list from Circana.
Circana

Other top sellers include Madden NFL 24 at number three and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at number four. Interestingly, 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 actually took the number seven spot. Finally, there’s the game that will sell forever and ever until the heat death of the universe. Mario Kart 8 came in at number 19, but also without digital data from September onward.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/call-of-duty-didnt-top-the-yearly-sales-charts-for-one-of-the-first-times-since-2009-191641232.html?src=rss

Call of Duty didn’t top the yearly sales charts for one of the first times since 2009

Posted on by

Just like death and taxes, you can usually rely on a Call of Duty game to top the sales charts each year. The various entries in Activision’s warfare simulation franchise have mostly done just that, going all the way back to 2009. This year’s a bit different. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has fallen to second place, as reported by media research firm Circana.

According to the list, Hogwarts Legacy topped the charts for 2023, selling around 22 million copies. This is despite the not insignificant controversy the game generated, both by its association with franchise creator JK Rowling — who has leveraged her celebrity position to espouse anti-trans views — but also tropes within the game itself which some (but not all) saw as drawing from antisemitic caricatures. Still, fans had been waiting for a high-quality AAA game set at the wizarding school for decades and Hogwarts Legacy delivered on the promise of a true open-world Harry Potter title. The sales obviously reflect that.

As a matter of fact, there have been only two other occasions in which Call of Duty was knocked from first place. Those were the years in which Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) were released. Both Rockstar titles absolutely dominated the conversation upon launch, becoming bona-fide cultural touchstones. Hogwarts Legacy, while very good, hasn’t approached that level of buzz, so maybe this data illustrates that players are finally getting sick of Call of Duty, or maybe it's just that Modern Warfare III wasn’t a particularly inspiring entry.

There’s also the Hyrule-sized elephant in the room. Circana’s list puts The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the number five top seller of 2023, but Nintendo keeps its eShop numbers close to the vest, so the list only includes digital sales data up to September. In other words, there’s around four months of sales data missing here, which we won’t get until the company releases quarterly revenue information at the end of the month.

It’s possible that Tears of the Kingdom will end up on top when all is said and done: it's sales figures (19.5 million copies) are a mere 2.5 million units away from dethroning Hogwarts Legacy, and that's without the four months of sales that include the holiday season.

2023 sales list from Circana.
Circana

Other top sellers include Madden NFL 24 at number three and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at number four. Interestingly, 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 actually took the number seven spot. Finally, there’s the game that will sell forever and ever until the heat death of the universe. Mario Kart 8 came in at number 19, but also without digital data from September onward.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/call-of-duty-didnt-top-the-yearly-sales-charts-for-one-of-the-first-times-since-2009-191641232.html?src=rss

Vibrant Lighting Collection Is Breaking Lighting Standards With Its Unconventional Yet Subtle Form

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A beautifully designed lighting fixture has the ability to completely uplift and elevate a living space! A well-designed lighting fixture should not only be able to efficiently illuminate any living space but also add that extra oomph factor! I mean, of course, we need them to see in the dark, but as highly functional as they should be, a lighting fixture also needs to be aesthetically pleasing, adding an attractive and visually soothing element to your home or office space. And, a stunning lighting design that would make a fitting addition to your home is the Array lighting by Umut Yamac for Vibia.

Designer: Umut Yamac for Vibia

Dubbed the Array collection, this group of beautiful and subtle pendant lights is designed by architect and designer Umut Yamac for the Barcelona-based brand Vibia. This collection marks the first collaboration between the Spanish brand and the British designer. The light collection is crafted from tightly strung threads, creating lighting fixtures with unique and captivating bodies and forms.

The brand described the lighting collection as “an exploration of thread and its potential to create lightweight and dynamic sculptures of light”, and it is composed of fine threads that have been tightly pulled together between two aluminum rings. The taut threads are dainty held between the two rings. A soft and subtle light source is hidden within the lower ring, building an appealing gradient effect that washes upwards along the textured threads.

“Solid, yet translucent, the layered lines of cord influence the visitor’s perception of volume, weight, and depth to create a new spatial experience,” said Vibia. “The layering effect creates an interference pattern, or more, which produces the illusion of movement with the shifting gaze of the viewer, the threads seeming to vibrate as the light passes through.” The lighting design is available in various versions such as a conical and cylindrical one, and they can be combined to create an alluring lighting installation. They’ve been created in three different sizes – the largest one is 124 cm in diameter, and 2 m tall. The threads are available in terra red, sober green, or neutral beige, and they perfectly contrast with the matte black rings.

The post Vibrant Lighting Collection Is Breaking Lighting Standards With Its Unconventional Yet Subtle Form first appeared on Yanko Design.

Rock Band 4’s next weekly DLC drop will be its last

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Rock Band 4’s weekly DLC drops are coming to an end. Harmonix said Wednesday the upcoming batch of new songs on January 25 will be the game’s last. Although all other live services will remain active, the developer plans to give full attention to the Rock Band-like Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game inside Epic’s digital world.

Product manager Daniel Sussman waxed nostalgic about Rock Band 4’s impressive eight-year run of new song drops each week. “Taking a longer look back, I see the Rock Band DLC catalog as a huge achievement in persistence and commitment — over the years we’ve cleared, authored and released nearly 3,000 songs as DLC and well over 3,000 if you include all the game soundtracks,” he wrote in an announcement blog post. “That’s wild.”

Sussman says Harmonix is committed to protecting its licensing, promising that purchased content will remain available. He adds that all the game’s other live services, including Rivals and online play, will continue as usual. There just won’t be any more new music for the rhythm game, which arrived in 2015 with 65 tracks.

Marketing screenshot for Fortnite Festival, a music game within Fortnite. A virtual avatar of The Weeknd sings on stage as a rhythm timer sits prominently down and center.
The Rock Band-like Fortnite Festival
Epic Games

Fortnite Festival, launched in December, is a rock god stage in the popular battle royale title. It has the advantage of being free: You don’t have to pay a couple of bucks to fulfill your dreams of jamming out to “Seven Nation Army,” The Cranberries’ “Zombie” or Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison.”

Rock Band 4 instrument support is on its way to Epic’s virtual stage. “If you are a fan of the rhythm game category, Fortnite Festival is the place to be; and with support for RB4 instruments coming, this is not the time to hang up your guitars just yet…”

Harmonix is tight-lipped about its final tracks, but it promises thematic relevance. “We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB DLC of this era,” Sussman explained. “The last two weeks will feature some tear jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment. We thank you for your commitment to and passion for this wonderful game.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rock-band-4s-next-weekly-dlc-drop-will-be-its-last-175227879.html?src=rss

Rock Band 4’s next weekly DLC drop will be its last

Posted on by

Rock Band 4’s weekly DLC drops are coming to an end. Harmonix said Wednesday the upcoming batch of new songs on January 25 will be the game’s last. Although all other live services will remain active, the developer plans to give full attention to the Rock Band-like Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game inside Epic’s digital world.

Product manager Daniel Sussman waxed nostalgic about Rock Band 4’s impressive eight-year run of new song drops each week. “Taking a longer look back, I see the Rock Band DLC catalog as a huge achievement in persistence and commitment — over the years we’ve cleared, authored and released nearly 3,000 songs as DLC and well over 3,000 if you include all the game soundtracks,” he wrote in an announcement blog post. “That’s wild.”

Sussman says Harmonix is committed to protecting its licensing, promising that purchased content will remain available. He adds that all the game’s other live services, including Rivals and online play, will continue as usual. There just won’t be any more new music for the rhythm game, which arrived in 2015 with 65 tracks.

Marketing screenshot for Fortnite Festival, a music game within Fortnite. A virtual avatar of The Weeknd sings on stage as a rhythm timer sits prominently down and center.
The Rock Band-like Fortnite Festival
Epic Games

Fortnite Festival, launched in December, is a rock god stage in the popular battle royale title. It has the advantage of being free: You don’t have to pay a couple of bucks to fulfill your dreams of jamming out to “Seven Nation Army,” The Cranberries’ “Zombie” or Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison.”

Rock Band 4 instrument support is on its way to Epic’s virtual stage. “If you are a fan of the rhythm game category, Fortnite Festival is the place to be; and with support for RB4 instruments coming, this is not the time to hang up your guitars just yet…”

Harmonix is tight-lipped about its final tracks, but it promises thematic relevance. “We deliberated long and hard about how to frame the last blast of RB DLC of this era,” Sussman explained. “The last two weeks will feature some tear jerkers that sum up our feelings about this moment. We thank you for your commitment to and passion for this wonderful game.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rock-band-4s-next-weekly-dlc-drop-will-be-its-last-175227879.html?src=rss

Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour confirms layoffs due to ‘changing market conditions’

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Behaviour Interactive is the latest notable game developer to lay off workers. The Dead by Daylight studio confirmed to Game Developer that the cuts affected less than three percent of the total workforce. Kotaku first reported on the layoffs, stating that they took place earlier this month and affected around 45 people across several departments. It initially appeared that the layoffs were limited to Behaviour's Montreal headquarters, but the publisher hasn't confirmed whether that's the case.

"Recently, changing market conditions necessitated adjusting the scope of several Behaviour projects," Behaviour told the publications in a statement. "In these situations, our preference is always to reassign talent to other projects. Unfortunately, this option is not always available to us. These departures represented less than three percent of our total workforce."

Behaviour bought several studios last year, including ones in the UK and the Netherlands as part of a deeper expansion into Europe. While much of the company's focus is on Dead by Daylight (a new Alan Wake-focused chapter will arrive later this month), it has been working on other projects, such as last year's Meet Your Maker.

According to estimates, more than 9,000 workers in the video games industry were laid off in 2023. We're just 18 days into 2024, and there have already been more than 3,000 layoffs at gaming and gaming-adjacent companies (including Twitch and Discord). Unity alone is reducing its headcount by around 1,800 — a quarter of its workforce.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dead-by-daylight-studio-behaviour-confirms-layoffs-due-to-changing-market-conditions-173751623.html?src=rss