Kalakshar US

Build a Rocket Boy has unveiled a new trailer for Everywhere, an ambitious sandbox title that will enable players to build their own experiences and explore others. If that sounds a bit like Fortnite on the surface, just wait until you see the art style. It looks very much like Epic’s game, right down to the stylized character models.

The clip provides the first look at gameplay. It’s clear Everywhere has much more to offer than shooting and driving around pretty landscapes — the trailer shows a skeeball game and one character dodging obstacles in a gauntlet. It puts a heavy onus on the building aspect too, via the narration and some of the creative tools it shows off.

Build a Rocket Boy, which is led by former GTA producer Leslie Benzies, says the trailer shows off some of the “scale and variety” of what Everywhere has to offer. It says the project “seamlessly blends gameplay, adventure, creativity and discovery in an all-new multi-world gaming experience that redefines how players connect with one another and the digital world around them,” according to VGC.

The studio announced Everywhere at Gamescom 2022 and it said at the time that the game would arrive sometime this year. There’s no release date as yet, but Build a Rocket Boy plans to host a closed alpha test soon. You can create an account and claim your username now to have a shot at taking part in the first PC test.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/everywhere-gameplay-trailer-shows-off-an-ambitious-sandbox-with-a-fortnite-aesthetic-140222957.html?src=rss 

Despite it nominally being a Surface-centric event, Microsoft sure spent a lot of time talking about AI on Thursday. “We believe it has the potential to help you be more knowledgeable, more productive, more creative, more connected to the people and things around you,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the assembled crowd of reporters. “We think there’s also an opportunity beyond work and life to have one experience that works across your entire life.” To that end, Microsoft announced that its CoPilot AI, which currently exists in various iterations in the Edge browser, Microsoft 365 platform and Windows, will be bundled into a single, unified and ubiquitous generative AI assistant across all of Microsoft’s products — from Powerpoint to Teams.

“It’s kind of like your PC now it’s kind of becoming your CP. We believe Copilot will fundamentally transform the relationship with technology and user in a new era of personal computing, the age of Copilots,” Nadella said. He also noted that the new AI will also have the “power to harness all your work data and intelligence,” inferring that the system will be tunable to a customer’s personal data silo.

Microsoft has been at the forefront of the generative AI revolution since the debut of ChatGPT last November. The company has spent years and millions of dollars in R&D working on the technology, including purchasing GitHub in 2019 and dramatically expanding its ongoing partnership with OpenAI that past January.

“It’s starting roll out on September 26th, informed by what you’re doing on your PC,” Yusuf Mehdi, CVP Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, said on stage. The AI will arrive as part of the new Windows 11 release, which Medhi confirmed will “have over 150 new features and be the biggest update since it was first released.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/windows-copilot-ai-starts-rolling-out-september-26-143148644.html?src=rss 

It’s been an AI-heavy year for Microsoft, following the explosive launch of Bing’s ChatGPT-powered AI chat. Today, Microsoft has even more AI news to drop alongside its annual refresh of Surface PCs. While the hype may be low, we’re expecting to see the a lot of new hardware today. Judging from the most recent batch of rumors, we’ll be hearing about the Surface Laptop Studio 2, Surface Laptop Go 3 and Surface Go 4 today. It’s also a great time for Microsoft to update the Surface Pro with Intel’s latest chips (and perhaps deliver a better 5G option than the Arm-powered Surface Pro 9).

Microsoft’s Surface event kicks off at 10AM Eastern today, and we’re here in attendance, ready to bring you every announcement as it happens, so follow along with our live coverage below! Unfortunately, there’s no livestream, but the company says there will be a recording of the event available later today. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-surface-2023-liveblog-live-updates-130031998.html?src=rss 

Glen Schofield, the co-creator of survival horror game Dead Space, has is leaving Striking Distance Studios. He will be replaced by current Chief Development Officer Steve Papoutsis as CEO. Schofield conceptualized Dead Space when he was with EA, before leaving the company and founding a couple of game studios. One of them is Striking Distance, where he created The Callisto Protocol, which people have been calling the spiritual successor to Dead Space since it was still in development. Like the older game, Callisto is also in the survival horror genre, except it was generally panned by critics. 

Engadget’s Jessica Conditt was optimistic after playing an hour-long preview of the title, which turned out to be best portion of the game that suffered from glitches and unwieldy mechanics as a whole. Meanwhile, the Dead Space remake EA released shortly after Callisto’s launch won over critics and old fans alike. 

Striking Distance Studios’ parent company Krafton, which had poured over $160 million into the game’s development, was originally hoping to sell 5 million copies of Callisto this year. However, it lowered its expectations to 2 million units after seeing how it performed in its first few weeks. The company likely won’t be able to recoup its losses and has laid off employees over the past months. 

Krafton told Bloomberg, though, that Schofield’s departure is voluntary and that he intends to “pursue new opportunities.” Striking Distance’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer are also leaving the company voluntarily, the company said. It’s unclear where Schofield is headed next: His LinkedIn still lists the studio as his current place of employment. “Creating Striking Distance Studios has been an incredible journey and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved with The Callisto Protocol, a game close to my heart,” he said in a statement. “While pursuing a new adventure is exciting, leaving SDS is bittersweet, but I know the studio is in excellent hands.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dead-space-co-creator-leaves-callisto-protocol-studio-after-it-flopped-115021265.html?src=rss 

When Octopath Traveler 2 launched earlier this year, Microsoft’s consoles were noticeably missing from the list of supported platforms. Now, at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix has revealed that the game is making its way to Xbox One, Series X and Series S sometime in early 2024. Xbox’s Sarah Bond introduced Square Enix VP Yu Miyake during the event and also revealed that the platform has more than doubled its number of Japanese games over the past five years. 

The high definition 2D pixel-based game that’s reminiscent of a different era in gaming came out in February for the Switch, the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 5 and Steam. It built on the strengths of its predecessor, with its new battle dynamics and game mechanism, but we still found its eight storylines too disconnected to make us feel a meaningful connection between the characters. Still, we thought it was a pretty game with better cinematic cutscenes than the first entry of the series and a polished soundtrack.

Square Enix and Xbox don’t have an exact date for the game’s release just yet. But it doesn’t come as a surprise that Xbox is getting it much later than other consoles, seeing as the first Octopath Traveler didn’t become available for the Xbox One until three years after it launched. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/octopath-traveler-2-arrives-on-xbox-in-early-2024-121817577.html?src=rss 

The United States government is once again providing free COVID-19 tests following a summer that saw cases spike and the cost of at-home tests fall on individuals. Starting Monday, September 25, every household can request four free COVID-19 tests through the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) site COVID.gov. The tests are intended for use through the end of 2023, with the HHS noting that previously distributed tests have extended expiration dates displayed here.

A previous program to supply free COVID-19 tests stopped in May following the end of the public health emergency. In that time, the government claims to have been restoring its stockpile. However, $600 million is now going towards the manufacturing of COVID-19 tests and subsequent purchase of 200 million for at-home use. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra announced the free tests and further investment while getting his COVID-19 booster at an event in Washington, DC. “These critical investments will strengthen our nation’s production levels of domestic at-home COVID-19 rapid tests and help mitigate the spread of the virus,” Becerra said in a statement. 

COVID-19 cases across the US started to increase in early July after months of decline. In the week of September 3 to 9, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported hospital admissions increased by 7.7 percent to 20,538, and deaths due to COVID-19 increased by 4.5 percent to 2.3 percent. 

Two-plus months after the spike began, the HHS has acted and addressed the common sentiment of being “done” with the virus — despite its continued existence. “We know, if past is prologue, it’ll circulate to a higher degree and spread, and cases will go up in the fall and winter seasons,” Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, said in a statement. “Anticipating that that would be true again, or something similar, we want to make sure the American people have these tools.” The new COVID-19 boosters are also rolling out across the country, with the CDC recommending everyone six months or older get the latest shot. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-brings-back-free-at-home-covid-19-tests-as-cases-continue-to-spike-122441678.html?src=rss