Sunscreen is a crucial last step in a skincare routine. Help prevent sun damage & wrinkles in the future with Elta MD’s sunscreen!
Sunscreen is a crucial last step in a skincare routine. Help prevent sun damage & wrinkles in the future with Elta MD’s sunscreen!
The Game Awards has grown enormously and has become a much-awaited annual year-end celebration for video game fans around the world since it first took place in 2014. If you’re looking forward to watching it this year, you can now fire up your calendars and add a reminder: The 10th annual show is scheduled to stream live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 7th, 2023. Just like in the previous years, the event will stream for free across various platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok Live, Steam and X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
Last year’s show was the biggest one yet, with an estimated 103 million viewers tuning in, which was almost 20 million more than 2021’s numbers. It also introduced the Best Adaptation category, reserved for projects that translate video games into popular media, like movies, TV shows and books. Plus, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, stars of The Last of Us, which fans were still looking forward to and had yet to premiere back then, attended the event to present an award. The organizers haven’t revealed just yet whether they’ll have big stars guesting again this year, but they did say that the event will feature musical performances by The Game Awards Orchestra and other artists. Of course, you can expect to see new game trailers and announcements for launch dates and expansions, among other things.
Geoff Keighley, creator and executive producer of The Game Awards, said: “Each year, we look forward to hosting a show that honors the stand-out games of the year, while also announcing and previewing some of the world’s biggest and most anticipated video games. With so many beloved video game franchises exploring new mediums and developers creating new experiences across platforms, whether in games, television, movies, and beyond, the industry continues to expand in many surprising ways, and we can’t wait to honor the year’s best games and to show viewers around the world what’s next.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-game-awards-2023-will-stream-live-on-december-7th-160040230.html?src=rss
‘SNL’ will be live from New York for season 49 — at some point! The legendary series is expected to return for its 49th year. Here’s everything we know about ‘Saturday Night Live’ season 49.
‘SNL’ will be live from New York for season 49 — at some point! The legendary series is expected to return for its 49th year. Here’s everything we know about ‘Saturday Night Live’ season 49.
Camille Lamb made quite the splash during her time on ‘Below Deck.’ So why did she leave the show? Here’s everything we know.
Camille Lamb made quite the splash during her time on ‘Below Deck.’ So why did she leave the show? Here’s everything we know.
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what would be the next vintage synth to get the Arturia emulation treatment. At this point the company has tackled many of the most iconic synths in history, and spent much of last year focused on its original creations like the Augmented series, Pigments, Fragments and Dist Coldfire. We did get a version of the Korg MS-20 in May of 2022 as part of V Collection 9, but otherwise things have been pretty quiet. Well, I feel slightly embarrassed because there was a pretty obvious gap in Arturia’s lineup I had overlooked: The Roland TB-303.
Arturia Acid V is probably one of the simpler instruments the company has made in recent years. In part because the original 303 is a reasonably simple instrument. It’s a bass machine — monophonic with a single oscillator, a 24db lowpass filter and an envelope generator to manipulate the filter. That’s kind of it. What made it special was its odd squelchy sound that, when paired with the slides in its sequencer, produced something totally unique and became the core of acid house, hence the name Acid V.
As usual the company does a solid job bringing the TB-303’s physical interface into a virtual space. But we all know Arturia can’t stop there. There’s the customary advanced tab. This is where you’ll find the three modulation sources which go well beyond your standard LFO, the dedicated effects section (where you can combine up to four effects) and the sequencer.
The sequencer on the 303 is part of what granted it squelchy super powers, it was also notoriously annoying to program. Thankfully Arturia recognizes that it’s 2023 and there’s no need to saddle its VST with some arcane 16-step logic puzzle in the name of authenticity. There’s a pretty straightforward piano roll interface, with toggles under each step for slide, accent and vibrato. Across the top you can shift individual notes down an octave, up an octave or up two octaves, to get that signature jump that almost any good 303 bassline has.
On the left you can lock the sequencer into a particular scale to simplify things, add swing, change the sequence length (up to 64 steps) and even generate random sequences. You can easily shift sequences up or down a note chromatically or to the left and right to change the note order. And there’s even a polymetric option that allows you to change the sequence length of the notes, slides, vibrato and accents individually. This gives you a lot of power to build something that’s constantly evolving, especially if you’re taking use of the full 64 steps. Oh, and if that’s not enough there are different playback modes so you can pingpong through a sequence, play it backwards or just bounce around randomly.
Arturia didn’t save all the upgrades for the advanced tab, though. The main instrument has added a few welcome amenities, including a sub oscillator with three selectable waveforms which gives the Acid V more oomph than the original ever had. Next to that you’ll find the vibrato controls and then the dedicated distortion circuit. One of the most common tricks used on the 303 was to overdrive it into oblivion, and Arturia puts 14 algorithms at your fingertips for doing that. Some are better than others. For example, the crusher is fine, but there’s a better bit crushing option in the effects section. And the destroy algorithm fails to live up to its name. Still, the tape, soft clip and overdrive are excellent.
Acid V goes a step beyond typical modern amenities. There’s a little arrow over the name of the instrument in the top right hand corner, and if you click that you’re in effect “opening” the machine. Here you’ll find virtual trim pots for adjusting things like the pulse width of the square wave, the cutoff range of the filter, the pitch tracking off the filter, clipping level and even a bass boost knob.
Of course, all the features in the world don’t matter if the instrument sounds terrible. But, there was never much concern about that, honestly. Arturia has been in the game for a long time now delivering excellent quality plugins that a misstep would be a true shock at this point.
I’ve never played an original TB-303, but I did briefly own a Behringer clone and I’ve tested the Roland Boutique TB-03. The Acid V compares pretty favorably to those. Being an actual analog synth, Behringer’s TD-3 does sound slightly warmer than Acid V and the TB-03, but in the context of an actual song I think you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the three. And, as much as I love a good piece of hardware, if I had to choose between the three I’d probably opt for Arturia’s plug in just because it’s so much easier to use and has infinitely more sequencing versatility.
Arturia Acid V is available now at an introductory price of $99. Or you can get it free when you buy the entire V Collection for $599, though, you’re probably better off waiting for that to go on sale.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arturias-acid-v-is-a-roland-tb-303-without-the-headaches-150035249.html?src=rss
Microsoft is acting on its promise to bring PC Game Pass to NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service. The companies have announced that Game Pass and Microsoft Store titles will be available to stream on GeForce Now starting August 24th. Not every title will be playable right away, but this will give Game Pass subscribers access to releases like Deathloop and No Man’s Sky through NVIDIA’s platform.
The two companies have been forging a partnership for a while. Microsoft struck a deal with NVIDIA in February to bring Xbox games to GeForce Now for 10 years, and the first title (Gears 5) arrived in May. Bethesda’s first games, including Doom Eternal and the Wolfenstein reboots, surfaced earlier this month. In that sense, PC Game Pass just expands the selection further.
The pact was announced as part of Microsoft’s bid to get regulatory approval for its purchase of Activision Blizzard. In theory, this shows that Microsoft won’t have unfair dominance over cloud gaming. The company also plans to sell Activision Blizzard game streaming rights to Ubisoft to address UK officials’ concerns, and has been signing smaller cloud deals in recent months.
It may seem odd to access one streaming service’s games through another, but there may be advantages. GeForce Now is aimed at enthusiasts who want maximum visual quality and reduced lag, with the Ultimate tier supporting 4K at 120 frames per second. If your PC and internet connection are up to the task, Game Pass might shine on GeForce Now where it would otherwise be limited.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-will-bring-pc-game-pass-to-nvidias-geforce-now-on-august-24th-151526248.html?src=rss
The ‘Friends’ actress opened up about a wide array of topics, including the classic sitcom, co-producing with Reese Witherspoon, and dating.
The ‘Friends’ actress opened up about a wide array of topics, including the classic sitcom, co-producing with Reese Witherspoon, and dating.
Jennifer Aniston looked stunning on the cover of ‘WSJ’ in a pair of daisy dukes & a cropped jacket while revealing shot got a salmon-sperm facial.
Jennifer Aniston looked stunning on the cover of ‘WSJ’ in a pair of daisy dukes & a cropped jacket while revealing shot got a salmon-sperm facial.
Basketball season is fast approaching, and so is a new opportunity to virtually get in on the action: NBA 2K24 New Gen. 2K shared preliminary information about the game in July but has just announced new details about September 8th’s NBA 2K24, including adding a LeBron Era. This new mode follows LeBron James’ 2010 journey of leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat and leads into the already existing Modern Era. NBA 2K23 also introduced the Magic vs. Bird Era, Jordan Era and Kobe Era to the game.
Another potentially exciting eras update (if you like being reminded about the passage of time) is an aging feature, which shows the athletes growing older as you play across a person’s career. Other new era additions include curated reactions from spectators and journalists, depending on the time period you’re in. After a game, you’ll also see an article sharing a summary of your match — initially as a newspaper and, as time passes, a social media webpage.
NBA 2K24 should also reflect aspects of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) reached by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association and currently in place through the 2029 to 2030 season. These include each NBA team being positionless and shifting the Restricted Free Agent Right of Refusal Period to 24 hours.
MyNBA online has some updates as well, including a range of roles for you to take on: commissioner, admin, gameplay tuner, time manager, designer, appearance editor or attribute editor. Each position has specific tasks, such as the designer, who can make and change logos, arenas and jerseys. Plus, there’s now MyNBA Lite which removes some of the steps typically required for gameplay, such as CBA restrictions and scouting.
WNBA gameplay also has new features coming on NBA 2K24, such as the ability to start as either a college basketball star or an up-and-comer. There’s also “In Pursuit of Greatness,” which has you play against rival players to be the best. These games, and those against a veteran of your team or a historic all-star player, allow you to earn badge perks. You can use these rewards to get updated 2K Breakthrough Skins and MyTEAM Jersey Cards.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nba-2k24-introduces-a-lebron-era-and-more-updates-140015258.html?src=rss
Never forget Poot Lovato. Demi Lovato’s birthday cupcakes featured a tribute to the viral meme about her fake twin sister from 8 years ago.
Never forget Poot Lovato. Demi Lovato’s birthday cupcakes featured a tribute to the viral meme about her fake twin sister from 8 years ago.
