Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-15-2018, 02:35 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Pokemon Go Adds More Gen 4 Pokemon
The first wave of Gen 4 Pokemon arrived in Pokemon Go early last month, and since then, developer Niantic has been gradually introducing more monsters originally from the Sinnoh region. During Pokemon Go's third annual Halloween event, Niantic added a handful of new Ghost- and Dark-type Pokemon, and now a few more are available.
Gen 4 was notable for introducing a variety of new evolutions for older Pokemon such as Electabuzz, Magmar, and Rhydon, and now a number of these have been added to Pokemon Go. You're able to obtain Electivire, Magmortar, Rhyperior, Togekiss, Weavile, Porygon-Z, and several other new Pokemon if you have their previous forms and the requisite number of Candies.
You'll also need one more item in order to obtain these evolutions: the Sinnoh Stone. However, getting your hands on one may require a bit of work. At present, it seems the only way to acquire a Sinnoh Stone is through a Research Breakthrough, which is achieved when you complete enough Field Research tasks.
Coinciding with the arrival of the new Gen 4 Pokemon is another in-game event. From now until November 27, Niantic is holding the Hatchathon event, which gives you a chance to hatch Rhyhorn, Magby, Porygon, and other Pokemon that have evolved forms first introduced in the Gen 4 games from 2 km Eggs. On top of that, you'll be able to hatch a Shiny Elekid if you're lucky.
The Pokemon series' next console titles, Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, release for Nintendo Switch on November 16. The pair feature connectivity with Pokemon Go; you're able to transfer any Gen 1 Pokemon from the mobile game over to the Switch titles. Doing so will reward you with the Mystery Box, which is the key to catching the new Mythical Pokemon Meltan.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-15-2018, 02:35 AM - Forum: Windows
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New updates and technologies will help businesses do more with AI
As AI breakthroughs abound, businesses look to score benefits
When Arccos Golf launched its first performance tracking system for golfers, it combined the telemetry from sensors and a smartphone app to give players detailed data and feedback about every shot.
Knowing how far and how accurately they could hit the ball under different conditions helped players uncover weaknesses and improve their game. But there was so much more that could be done.
“We had an ‘a-ha moment’ about providing a virtual caddie for every player. Just like a human caddie, ours would know the player, know the course, know the weather and provide the player with a club recommendation,” said Jack Brown, senior vice president of product & software at Arccos Golf. “So we thought, ‘Why don’t we use AI to create a virtual caddie?’”
Enter mankind's greatest conflict with Battlefield 5 as the series goes back to its roots with a never-before-seen portrayal of World War 2. Lead your squad to victory with new ways to turn the battlefield to your advantage. Assemble your Company of customized soldiers, weapons, and vehicles then take them on an epic journey through the Tides of War. Experience the most intense, immersive Battlefield yet. You will never be the same.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Legendary Bear Pelt Guide: What To Do With It
When you're not robbing folks, riding from town to town, and trying to keep your gang out of trouble in Red Dead Redemption 2, chances are pretty good you'll be hunting. Tracking and killing animals keeps you and your gang fed and earns you crafting materials, as well as goods to sell to make money to get Arthur better equipment. But for any hunter in Red Dead Redemption 2, the ultimate prize are the various Legendary Animals scattered around the map, whose pelts yield unique rewards--if you're canny enough to bring them down.
In Chapter 2, you'll be introduced to your first Legendary Animal in a story mission with Hosea, in which he and Arthur set out to hunt a huge grizzly bear. You can return to the hunt later if you're so inclined, but it's possible to take the bear on your first encounter with it, if you're skilled (or more likely, lucky). If you manage to kill and skin the big grizzly, you'll get a Legendary Bear Pelt, a unique item in the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 that can be used to make special new gear.
The question is, what exactly do you do with the huge Legendary Bear Pelt once you have it? Red Dead 2 isn't very clear on this point. In fact, there are special requirements for using the pelts of Legendary Animals--you can't just sell them to any store in a town, or donate them to Pearson back at your camp. In the case of the Legendary Bear pelt, there's a good chance you won't even have heard of the person yet who you need to interact with in order to use it.
Here's what you need to know about hunting the Legendary Bear, where you'll find it, and what to do once you've killed it.
Where To Find The Bear
The easiest way to get to and deal with the Legendary grizzly is in Chapter 2, when you take on the mission Exit Pursued By a Bruised Ego from Hosea. Arthur and Hosea will head out to find the Baharati Grizzly Bear in the Grizzlies East region, north of O'Creagh's Run, and once you've finished the mission, the bear will be hanging around in the area for you to hunt. Once you've fought off the bear during the mission, Hosea will decide to take his leave of hunting giant killer animals with some "I'm getting too old for this s---" dialogue. At that point, you can choose to stick around and finish what you started and take down the bear.
It's worth noting that the bear is no pushover and it can definitely kill you if you're not careful. If you're not outfitted super well at this point in the game, you might want to take some time in the world to earn better gear and improve Arthur's well-being before you commit to the fight. That said, it's possible to kill the bear here and now--we did it with Arthur's stock weapons that he had at this point in the game.
Bring down the bear and you'll be able to skin it, taking a whole bunch of stuff, including the Legendary Bear Pelt. This is the unique item you need for crafting special clothing you can't get anywhere else.
You've Got The Legendary Bear Pelt--Now What?
Once you have the pelt, you'll probably be pretty confused about what to actually do with it. Regular shopkeepers won't take the pelt off your hands, and neither will Pearson in camp. You need to go to a specific person to deal with the pelt: the Trapper.
If you talk to Pearson, he may well off-handedly mention the Canadian fur trapper who hangs around in the area, which will mark the Trapper's location on your map. He roams around, so make sure to check your map for his icon before heading out. He also has a shop in Saint Denis, located in the southeast corner of the map, in the outdoor market, where you can reliably find him.
When you find the Trapper, you'll be able to check out his goods, all of which are unique clothes made from the pelts of Legendary Animals. The thing is, you'll need more than to just take down the bear if you want the whole outfit. Various Legendary Bear items also require other pelts, as well as for you to spend some money. Here's what you'll need to craft each piece of the Legendary Bear outfit:
Legendary Bear Head Hat: Legendary Bear Pelt, $40,
Completing the outfit also requires the Boar Riding Gloves, which require a Perfect Boar Pelt and two Perfect Rabbit Pelts, and will cost you $15.
Though each of the bear items notes that a Legendary Bear Pelt is required, there's only the one. Once you've taken down the Baharit Grizzly, you'll have fulfilled the Bear Pelt requirement for each clothing item.
What Happens If You Lose Your Bear Pelt?
You'll likely sling the Legendary Bear Pelt onto your horse and then find yourself riding for quite a ways to track down the Trapper, whether you're headed south to Saint Denis or out into the wilderness. In all that travel time, misfortune can easily befall even the most careful of cowboy, and if your horse falls or you're killed, you'll likely lose the Legendary Bear Pelt.
That's okay! Don't panic. Whether you carry the pelt physically to the Trapper or not, once you've killed and skinned the Baharati Grizzly Bear, the pelt is unlocked. That requirement will be fulfilled on the Trapper's list even if you don't actually carry the skin all the way to him. You can still access the clothing items once you have everything you need for the recipes.
There are a whole lot of other Legendary Animals to find out there in the big world of Red Dead Redemption 2--check out our guide on where to locate them all. And try our clothing guide for information about where you can get more clothes to customize Arthur's look.
An unpleasant sludge is corrupting the ocean, but thankfully a team of likeable heroes is ready to spring into action and save the kingdom. Their mission will be fraught with danger but hopefully they can avoid becoming calamari. Squids Odyssey isn’t actually a new game, but an amalgamation of two previous releases. The original Squids was released way back in 2011 and a Wild West themed sequel was released a year later. The game proved popular enough to warrant a release on a range of Nintendo platforms.
These console versions were entitled Squids Odyssey and merged the two previous releases into one continuous adventure, whilst adding some extra content of its own. Now, this latest version has made its way back to mobile devices. This is great because the well-received original games fell by the wayside and will no longer work on modern devices. What isn’t so great is that at the time of writing the App Store doesn’t make it clear that this is not an original game. In respect to past customers, the publishers really should make this more transparent.
Squids Odyssey is a light-hearted turn-based strategy game in which you command a squad of squid. The big difference is that instead of using action points to move your guys around the map, you instead catapult them across the screen. This is achieved by dragging their elastic appendages back with your finger before sending them hurtling across the landscape. This landscape in question is usually full of hazards. Care needs to be taken to avoid spiky sea urchins and to ensure that your squid doesn’t end up plunging off a narrow path into an abyss. The environments are also home to a range of crustacean enemies who will be doing their best to bash you into oblivion.
Moving around the screen costs stamina and you can usually squeeze at least two full powered flings from a squid on each turn. When a little more finesse is required you can reduce the power to ensure accurate positioning. Combat is hugely enjoyable; launch your squid into the melee and watch the mayhem ensue. Squid ricochet around the environment rebounding from enemies whilst inflicting damage or sending them plummeting to their doom. The physics are solid with just the right level of inertia to ensure that the game doesn’t descend into total chaos. Scattered around each map are bonus bottles that contain numerous helpful consumables. These give various buffs such as stamina boosts or protective spiky shells. Public Health Warning: A squid really has to make sure that it chews its food properly, as their epiglottis runs through the middle of their doughnut-shaped brains.
You can build your party from a range of fifteen different squid, each of which will fall into one of four categories. Scouts can increase their movement and offensive capabilities by employing an extra dash action. Shooters can attack from a distance, whilst troopers have an area attack that can strike multiple enemies. Finally, healers can give a health-restoring hug – I imagine that a hug from a squid is something to remember. Your squid can further improve their abilities by wearing one of a multitude of different hats, or by increasing their overall skill levels. Obtaining hats and level upgrades cost pearls, which can be obtained as you progress through each level. Pearls can also be used to purchase various special items from the shop.
The squid games have always looked great and presentation has further benefited from the extra polish of a console release. There are some terrific cartoon visuals, cheery music and an engaging comical storyline. It feels like you have stepped into an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, complete with an array of oddball aquatic characters. Apart from Bikini Bottom style levels, your squad will also battle through levels inspired by ancient Greece, imperial Japan and the Wild West. In total there are over ninety levels, with an estimated playtime of fifteen hours and that is even before you consider the expert mode. Perfectionists can also strive for faultless three-star ratings. A star is awarded for completing the level in a set number of turns, another for keeping all party members alive and the final star is hidden somewhere within the environment.
The levels are quite varied, with strong currents and warp gates adding to the challenge. There are even seahorse mounts that you can saddle up and ride into battle. On some levels you will simply be heading for the exit, whilst on others, you will need to survive for a set number of turns. There are also some more arcade-style levels that will have you trying to traverse spiky mazes as quickly as possible. One issue is that the difficulty curve is rather inconsistent. The first few Wild West levels that actually appear later in the game feel like a return to the initial training levels. As you would expect from a game designed for touchscreen the controls are responsive and smooth. The only problem I had was that triggering special powers sometimes felt unresponsive and on occasion caused the entire game to crash.
Despite the simple premise and cartoony characters, you will find that there is a lot more depth to Squids Odyssey than initial impressions suggest. Ensuring that your cephalopods are not left isolated, using the environment to your advantage and judging ranges to ensure that you hit with the maximum momentum, all need to be considered. The mix of straightforward tactics and simple arcade gameplay may sound like a bit of a gimmick but the ideas have been implemented really well. These is enough variety to maintain interest and although the challenge will not trouble most players, the game does come with a generous supply of levels without any IAPs in sight.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-14-2018, 07:42 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Fallout 4 GOTY Edition Black Friday 2018 Deals On PC, PS4, And Xbox One
Black Friday 2018 is almost here, and we're now seeing more games that will eventually be on sale during the big retail rush. With the release of Fallout 76, the series' first attempt as an online multiplayer action-RPG, it should come as no surprise that its predecessor will see some action during the upcoming Black Friday sale. On November 23, you can expect to see Fallout 4: Game Of The Year Edition on PC, PS4, and Xbox One go on sale.
In addition to sales for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, SoulCalibur VI, and God of War, Fallout 4 is one of many games that you can find during the Black Friday 2018 sale. As of this time, these discounts aren't active yet, but this will give you plenty of time to plan ahead of the big November 23 retail event.
For now, we've spotted discounts for Fallout 4: Game Of The Year Edition on Best Buy, Target, and Walmart--ranging from $25 to $30 for the Black Friday sale. In addition to the GOTY release, the base version of Fallout 4 is also on sale at Target for the low price of $12, making it a solid deal for anyone looking to get into the game for cheap.
Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition is a collection of all the released content from the game, which includes major expansions Far Harbor and Nuka World. Much other Bethesda titles, Fallout 4 focused on allowing players to create their own story within an open world. Set in post-apocalyptic Boston, you play as the Lone Survivor of Vault 111, who must find his son after being in suspended animation for more than 200 years. In typical Fallout fashion, you'll explore a setting that shows off shades of 1950's sci-fi--post nuclear--and acquire a set of weapons that can vaporize or blow your enemies to pieces. Over the course of your adventure, you'll level up and make important decisions about which characters you should align with or go against.
In our review of Fallout 4 back in 2015, managing editor Peter Brown stated: "In the grand scheme of things, Fallout 4's minor issues pale in comparison to its successes. When you put the controller down, you think about the friend you betrayed to benefit another, the shifting tide of an incredible battle, or the moment you opened a drawer and found someone's discarded effects, making you wonder how they felt before the bombs fell. In moments like these, Fallout 4 can be an intoxicating experience. You're often forced to sacrifice something--a relationship, a lucrative opportunity, or your health--to make gains elsewhere. And the deeper down the rabbit hole you go, the more you wonder: what if I chose a different path? You second guess yourself, not just because you had other options, but because you aren't sure if you did the right thing. The fact that your decisions stick with you after walking away from the game is a testament to the great storytelling on hand. Fallout 4 is an argument for substance over style, and an excellent addition to the revered open-world series."
This deal is just one of many happening on Black Friday 2018. For now, be sure to keep track of the our round up for upcoming sales on our unique posts for each major retailer. And remember, these deals aren't active just yet, so keep track of the deals that stick out most to you. Be sure to to keep up with all of our Black Friday 2018 coverage on GameSpot.
Contributing to Open Source projects leads to collaborating with people around the world this is traditionally done via emails or instant messages. But with the rise of extreme programing practices like pair programing being able to remotely share a code editor is a great feature. VS Code has a plugin Live Share that does just that.
Getting Started with Live Share
If you do not have VS Code already installed, you can read our previous article to get started.
In VS Code, use the [Ctrl+K, Ctrl+O] combination to select and open the git repository.
Then from the Live Share extension menu start a collaboration session.
Live Share requires its user to sign in so that it can display the identity of the session participants. You can easily sign in using a GitHub account for example.
Ready to collaborate
To start collaborating Live Share provides a link that can be shared with others. You can get this link in you clipboard by clicking on the Invite paticipants … text.
Once one or more participant have joined the session you can start collaborating.
Sharing Code
This is where Live Share really shines as it shows clearly which participant is currently editing the file.
It is also possible to follow a participant. This has for effect to open in your editor all the files that the participant you are following opens.
Sharing Resources
Another feature of Live Share is to share resources like a server, a terminal or even a debugger session. For example it is very easy to share a terminal session and help a participant setting up a development environment, another example would be to share a database server and to inspect the content of a table.
Connectivity
By default the Live Share connection automatically checks if the host machine and the guest machine can communicate directly, if not Live Share uses a relay hosted in the Azure cloud.
It is possible to configure Live Share to use only direct connection between the host and the guest. For that the host machine needs to open a port in the 5990-5999 range and accept inbound local network connections. The guest needs a network route and outbound access to the host on the same port.
Finally set the connection mode to direct in the Live Share settings.
The documentation provides more details on the connectivity options.
Please note that the Live Share extension is available as Public Preview. The extension source code is currently not open source but this should change once the extension is generally available.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-14-2018, 07:42 AM - Forum: Windows
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Microsoft driving intelligent, connected smart cities
Barcelona may be one of the world’s major global centers for tourism, the economy, trade and culture but, starting today, it’s the apex for smart cities. Our Microsoft CityNext team and partners are excited to join government and civic leaders as well as experts at the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC2018) to address key issues facing cities, including:
Enhancing urban mobility
Building smarter infrastructure
Improving citizen and social care
Strengthening public safety.
Innovations for smart cities
While the Internet of Things (IoT) has been part of smart cities strategy from the early days, we are now reaching a tipping point where these solutions can be created at scale and securely, using sophisticated models and artificial intelligence capabilities to improve our work and personal lives across these scenarios. Microsoft is bringing its leading capabilities from the intelligent cloud to the intelligent edge into these solutions.
This approach for creating intelligent, connected smart cities results in digital transformations and services that address priorities, better serve citizens, and enable more sustainable, prosperous and inclusive communities. For example, the convergence of the cloud, AI and IoT is behind our new Azure Digital Twins service, which allows cities and other customers to model the relationships and interactions among people, places and devices before connecting devices to that model. Learn more about Digital Twins here.
In another indication that the Azure cloud continues gaining momentum, Moovit, the world’s largest urban mobility data and analytics company and No. 1 transit app, announced last week that it will integrate its sophisticated API data into Azure Maps. This partnership provides a comprehensive mapping solution that brings together location awareness with public transit data, enabling developers to build richer apps requiring public transportation routing services—such as city planning around public transit, multi-modal routing and HOV or toll-road avoidance route optimization—helping cities harness intelligence to minimize urban congestion and reduce their carbon footprint.
Cities transforming with the cloud, AI and IoT
During SCEWC2018, Microsoft will join city leaders, solution experts and partners to showcase modern solutions built on our cloud, AI and IoT. These powerful technologies are enabling “intelligent cities” across the U.S. and around the world, for example:
Antwerp, Belgium, chose Microsoft Azure-based Be-Mobile technology to build its SlimNaarAntwerp platform, which is providing citizens with a mobility-as-a-service solution to identify an optimum trip, combining different means of transportation—car, train, shared bikes and on foot. The plan is to avoid 20,000 car movements to Antwerp’s city center during rush hours while improving satisfaction.
Denver is aggressively embracing and testing new and better ways to deploy technology and using data to improve services for residents, businesses and visitors. Building on Azure and other Microsoft technologies, the Mile-High City is in the middle of a four-year, $12 million smart city program to reduce traffic congestion, improve pedestrian safety and enhance quality of life, particularly in underserved communities.
Espoo, Finland, is a hub of technology and business innovation, and the city wants to deliver public services that are just as innovative. To better understand the service needs of its 282,000 citizens, Espoo together with software and services company Tieto built an experimental City-as-a-Service platform that combines Tieto’s AI and advanced analytics know-how with cloud services from Microsoft Azure. A challenge is how to offer the right services in the right time for the right customers in predictive ways. To do that, Espoo needed a platform that could process more than 500 million rows of data—from social and healthcare, daycare services and other agency records—at any one time. The successful experiment demonstrated that the city can use the platform to predict which citizens may need social welfare services, provide services proactively—and deliver far better outcomes.
Houston is partnering with Microsoft to drive the city forward with technology innovations that address key priorities, including disaster recovery and response, building and school safety, and more efficient, capable transportation, as shown in this video. For example, using our cloud-powered IoT hub, AI and Cognitive Services, Houston is deploying a connected buses solution to provide internet access to riders and increase safety by: installing a driver panic button to get help with onboard medical emergencies or altercations, a fleet management system to confirm buses are being driven safely and an alert to identify near-term maintenance requirements that help prevent breakdowns.
Partners joining us at SCEWC2018
These 12 CityNext partners are joining us in Barcelona to showcase solutions built on our platform to support smart city initiatives and modernization projects around the world:
Connect with us—at SCEWC2018 or your city
Microsoft CityNext looks forward to connecting with city leaders attending SCEWC2018 this week. We invite you to join us at the Intelligent Cities Forum at Smart City Expo, hosted in the East Agora from 4 to 7 p.m.,Tuesday, Nov. 13. During this fast-paced agenda, city leaders, solution experts and Microsoft executives will showcase industry-leading, modern technology to enable intelligent cities. We’ll highlight areas such as smart infrastructure, urban mobility, social care and public safety in the context of two critical scenarios. This forum will focus on the “how” of building an intelligent city and provide you with real examples to implement today. Tapas and refreshments provided.
We also welcome the opportunity to help your city find its path to digital transformation with our cloud, AI and IoT solutions. To get started, please utilize these additional resources:
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-14-2018, 07:03 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Sony†s PlayStation Classic is powered by the open-source emulator PCSX
Sony has opted to license a long-running open-source PlayStation emulator, PCSX, to power the games on its upcoming plug-n-play PlayStation Classic system.
Ars Technica has a pretty detailed write-up worth reading on what exactly the PlayStation Classic’s PCSX roots mean, but its an interesting observation given that Nintendo’s recent mini systems were powered by an emulator of the company’s own design.
In short, the PlayStation Classic runs on PCSX ReARMed, a modern version of an emulator that has been around since the early 2000s. PCSX has seen its fair share of versions and plugins over the years from a variety of developers, resulting in versions like PCSX reloaded and PCSX ReARMed.
Sony has obviously used emulators in the past to do things like bring PlayStation 2 games forward to PlayStation 3 and, through a subscription service, PlayStation 4. The recent HD release of Parappa the Rappa on the PlayStation 4 was even found to be the PSP version of the game running on an emulator. But the notable departure in this case is that Sony is looking to community-made tools to power the PlayStation Classic rather than create their own emulator or enlist another developer to create one for the system.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-14-2018, 07:03 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Watch Lucas Pope discuss the making of Return of the Obra Dinn
A few weeks ago, Papers, Please developer Lucas Pope released his latest game, a mercantile murder mystery called Return of the Obra Dinn. It’s another entry in Pope’s history of making interesting games about ordinary people, and its deductive sudoku-like nature have captured the attention of other game developers.
Luckily for you, Pope was game to come by and chat about his experience making Return of the Obra Dinn over on the GDC Twitch channel and answer questions about everything from 1-bit art direction to his work/life balance on the four-and-a-half year project.
Be sure to click the video above for the full conversation! And For more game developer interviews, you can now follow the GDC Twitch channel and participate in regular Q&As with talented developers behind interesting games.
