TensorFlow Pi Port Is Strategic Move in Edge Analytics Game
Google’s recent announcement that it had ported its open source TensorFlowmachine intelligence (ML) library for neural networking to the Raspberry Pi was the latest in a series of chess moves from Google and its chief AI rival Nvidia to win the hearts and keyboards of embedded Linux developers. The competition is a part of a wider battle with Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, and others to bring cloud analytics to the edge in IoT networks to reduce latency, increase reliability, and improve security.
Thanks to a collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the latest TensorFlow 1.9 release can now be installed on Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 SBCs from pre-built binaries using Python’s pip package system. Raspbian 9 users can install it with two simple commands.
Integrating TensorFlow models into an embedded project offers further challenges. Yet, as Google has shown with its AIY Projects kits for the Raspberry Pi, you can add a bit of ML smarts in Raspberry Pi based robots, vision systems, and other embedded gear without a huge learning curve.
The TensorFlow port should be particularly welcome in the Raspberry Pi educational community. As the RPi Foundation’s Eben Upton wrote in a congratulatory tweet about the “massive news,” the TensorFlow port will enable “cool machine-learning educational content.”
TensorFlow was essentially born to run on Linux, but on servers or desktops, not on a modest SBC like the Raspberry Pi. It now runs on all major server and desktop platforms and has been ported to Android and iOS. Yet, the Raspberry Pi was a particularly gnarly challenge, writes Google TensorFlow developer Pete Warden in the announcement. It wasn’t even possible until the Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 came along with faster quad-core processors.
A year ago, Warden and his team managed to cross-compile TensorFlow on the RPi 3, but it was a slow, complicated, crash-prone process. The new ability to install from pre-built binaries now makes it feasible for a much wider group of developers to join the party.
While Google’s AIY Projects was attempting to squeeze a cloud-based platform onto a simple hacker board, its team started with low-cost cardboard constructed kits with add-on boards for connecting with Google Cloud related embedded technologies. These include the AIY Vision Kit for the Raspberry Pi Zero W and WH, which performs TensorFlow-based vision recognition. It incorporates a “VisionBonnet” board with an Intel Myriad 2 neural network accelerator chip. AIY Projects also launched an AIY Voice Kit with the same RPi Zero WH target that lets you build a voice-controlled speaker with Google Assistant support.
As noted in this Hackster.io post about the port from Alasdair Allan, the AIY Vision Kit has struggled to perform well when operating locally. The Voice Kit has done better due to its greater reliance on Google Cloud.
Google’s Edge TPU accelerator
According to a Warden tweet following the announcement, TensorFlow is not currently tapping the potential ML powers of Broadcom’s VideoCore graphical processing unit, as Nvidia does with its more powerful Pascal GPU. He goes on to suggest that there might be potential for developing a special GPU-related port for the single-core Raspberry Pi Zero boardlets, but for now there’s sufficient power on the Pi’s four CPU cores. Speaking of potential hooks to the GPU, he writes: “With quad-core CPUs and Neon on the latest Pi’s, there’s not as big an advantage, though it’s still interesting on Pi Zeroes.”
Another interpretation is that Google is skipping the GPU because it expects Raspberry Pi users and other embedded developers to tap its recently announced, Linux-friendly Edge TPU ML accelerator chip for TensorFlow. The Edge TPU will be offered this fall along with an NXP i.MX8M based Linux development kit and an Edge TPU Accelerator USB dongle that can fit into any Linux computer including the Pi.
The Edge TPU is a lightweight, embedded version of its enterprise focused Cloud Tensor Processing Unit (Cloud TPU) AI co-processor. In conjunction with a new Cloud IoT Edge stack, the chip is designed to run TensorFlow Lite ML models on Arm Linux- or Android Things based IoT gateways connected to Google Cloud services.
Nvidia launches industrial TX2i and octa-core Xavier Jetson modules
Nvidia is farther along in its attempt to bring its Pascal/CUDA-related AI technologies to embedded Linux developers. Its Jetson TX1 and TX2 computer-on-modules have found widespread adoption in embedded Linux projects for ML applications. The Jetson TX2 recently appeared in devices including Axiomtek’s eBOX560-900-FL box computer, as well as an upcoming, FPGA-equipped AIR-T Mini-ITX board for AI-enabled SDR applications.
In recent months, Nvidia has begun shipping a Jetson TX2i spin on the TX2 aimed at industrial applications. The TX2i adds -40 to 85°C support, vibration resistance, and a wider humidity range. There’s also support for ECC RAM, a 10-year operating supply lifecycle, and a 3-year warranty.
Like the Jetson TX2, the TX2i provides dual high-end Denver 2 Arm cores, a quad-core, Cortex-A57 block, and a 256-core Pascal GPU with CUDA libraries for running AI and ML algorithms. Like the TX2, the module also supplies 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 32GB of eMMC 5.1, and 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth.
Existing Jetson carrier boards work with the TX2i. Aetina just announced an ACE-N310 carrier for all the Jetson modules that matches the TX2i’s industrial temperature support and supports six simultaneous HD cameras.
The Jetson TX2 was recently joined by a more powerful new Jetson Xavier module. The Xavier core, which has already been used in Nvidia’s Drive PX Pegasus autonomous car computer board, features 8x ARMv8.2 cores and a high-end, 512-core Nvidia Volta GPU with tensor cores. It also provides 2x NVDLA deep learning engines and a 7-way VLIW vision chip. The Xavier ships with 16GB 256-bit LPDDR4 and 32GB eMMC 5.1.
Google and Nvidia are not alone in their campaigns to bring cloud AI analytics to the edge. For example, Intel’s Movidius 2 neural network accelerator chip is finding widespread adoption. Presumably, however, any future AIY Projects kits will replace the Movidius 2 with the Edge TPU. Although Amazon has yet to reveal a neural accelerator of its own, it is perhaps still the leader in the larger race for IoT edge analytics due to the popularity of its AWS IoT stack and its AWS Greengrass software for local processing of cloud analytics software on Linux devices. Meanwhile, Microsoft is also targeting the IoT space with its Arm Linux based Azure Sphere distribution and IoT framework. Azure Sphere will initially target lower-power applications running on Cortex-A7 chips. Future versions, however, may be more robust and may include a homegrown AI component.
Apple on Friday released a new beta version of its Shortcuts app to developers for testing, and while the update is light on big feature additions, some users who are concurrently running the latest build of iOS 12 beta have reported limited HomeKit integration.
In Shortcuts beta 2.0, HomeKit compatibility is seemingly restricted to contextual Siri Suggestions in iOS 12 beta 6, which saw release earlier this week.
Developers testing Shortcuts on devices running iOS 12 can find the new HomeKit actions under Siri Suggestions, a standalone workflow category, or by entering “Home” into the action search bar. It appears that Siri Suggestions, and not the Home app, is powering current HomeKit integration, as search results return Home app actions under “Siri Suggestions.”
For now, Siri Suggestions seems to be pulling in custom HomeKit scenes, or customizable macros that string together commands for multiple smart home appliances.
AppleInsider was able to confirm HomeKit integration in Shortcuts, though restrictions to Siri Suggestions makes the process of surfacing actions quite cumbersome. Instead of viewing a list of available HomeKit actions directly in Shortcuts, users must first trigger a desired scene in the Home app, return to Shortcuts and access the command via Siri Suggestions.
Along with HomeKit, the 2.0 release of Shortcuts builds on Apple’s initial beta release early last month with bug fixes and other minor system improvements.
Debuted at WWDC 2018, Shortcuts is a highlight iOS 12 feature that allows users to create and run app macros via custom Siri phrases. For example, an iPhone user can create a shortcut called “I lost my keys” that automatically pings a connected Bluetooth-enabled Tile tracker.
Apple product manager Kim Beverett demonstrated the system onstage, using the app’s drag-and-drop editor to add a series of actions to a customized Shortcut called “Heading Home.” When spoken, the phrase commanded Siri to query Maps for a navigation route, send a custom text via Messages, set a home thermostat and begin playback of KQED Radio.
Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. It’s the week after GenCon and the week of a new release for one of the biggest games out there, Hearthstone. The result is a slow week overall in new-releases, and fewer than average sales to boot! Fear not, we’ll make up for it by showcasing some games coming soon to an app store near you.
Hearthstone Boomsday Project Expansion (iOS and Android)
I suspect a lot of developers avoid Hearthstone release week like movie studios avoid the new Marvel films, so let’s talk about the latest and greatest from the king of collectible-card games. The Boomstown Project adds 135 science-gone-wrong themed cards to the game and focuses on the “mech” creature type. A new magnetic mechanic allows you to Voltron up smaller mechs by fusing them together, creating a giant and deadly robotic monstrosity. Attaching one mech to another combines stats, effectively giving the new mech charge. It’ll be interesting to see what the new set does to what is generally regarded as a pretty stable metagame (for once).
Asmodee Digital strikes again with King and Assassins, the digital recreation of a two-player turn-based strategy game. One player plays the role of a Joffrey Baratheon like monarch and his guards forcing his way through an angry mob back to the safety of the castle. The other plays an assassin, looking to move their agents through the mob and find an opportunity to strike the tyrant-king down. There are twelve peasants on the game board, but only three of them are the assassins, which creates interesting opportunities for strategy and deception. The game is fairly attractive, though there’s only two game boards at present, which could get a bit old. Perhaps they’ll add more down the road.
Project Highrise, where you build your own skyscraper, has released two new bundles for those looking for more options. The Highrise Deco Bundle is $4.99 and includes every decoration in the game. The Citywide Maps Bundle gets you all three extra maps, complete with special scenarios, for $5.99.
An arcade-style ball shooter isn’t the traditional Pocket Tactics game but it’s a slow week and Holedown is very, very good. You are a space-miner and must dig deep into asteroids, moons, and even planets to find valuable gems. You mine by firing balls that ricochet and chip away at rocks allowing you to delve deeper and deeper. As you earn gems you can unlock upgrades like more balls or a larger cargo hold, allowing you to grab more gems. It’s a clever design that’s been well executed and is rather hard to put down. The developer made rymdkapsel, so they have a pedigree of great games going.
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New & Noteworthy iOS Pre-orders
It’s a slow week so there’s no better time to look to the near-future of mobile game releases. Here are some games currently available for preorder on the App Store that look good. You can expect more on these from us upon release!
Release dates were accurate at the time of writing, but are subject to change – the app store will keep you up to date.
A real-time combat game that features a frenetic pace and big-time hits against hordes of enemies, Barbearian is almost upon us, releasing next week. I got a review copy of this one and have already written my review. I won’t spoil anything, but, if you’re into pre-ordering and enjoy real-time combat, this is a safe bet.
Mars Power Industries looks to be a puzzle game wrapped in a sci-fi story with a hidden mystery told through the game’s graphics alone. It’s an intriguing combination if it works.
Another game about electricity, this time interactive fiction meets simulation as you play through an “interactive doomsday simulator.” There are a bunch of levels/adventures including landing a helicopter during a solar storm, fighting a wounded gorilla, and escaping from a prison.
“Chaos Reborn: Adventures combines RPG-style turn-based combat with the tactical positioning of chess and the bluff of poker to create an entirely unique strategy game.”
Well OK, I’m intrigued. There’s also apparently tons of loot and both single-player and multiplayer modes. Oh, and it is a premium game that hopefully won’t have in-app purchases tacked on. We wrote more about it during the week, if you’re interested.
Minimalist, text-based RPG A Dark Room was a viral hit in 2014 and is on sale for just a buck. It’s entertaining and well worth the price if you enjoy text adventures.
We heard form Tabletopia this week that they’ve updated their iOS app to include online multiplayer. Huzzah! Players can now create games on their device, and then invite other players to participate over the internet to play or be a spectator. The platform currently has 31 boardgames in its library, including My Little Scythe, Clans of Caledonia, Roll Player and Hansa Teutonica. The next step is to create an Android version and enable cross-platform multiplayer.
Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
Elementary OS Juno Brings Only Slight Changes to an Outstanding Platform
Elementary OS has been my distribution of choice for some time now. I find it a perfect blend of usability, elegance, and stability. Out of the box, Elementary doesn’t include a lot of apps, but it does offer plenty of style and all the apps you could want are an AppCenter away. And with the upcoming release, the numbering scheme changes. Named Juno, the next iteration will skip the .5 number and go directly to 5.0. Why? Because Elementary OS is far from a pre-release operating system and the development teams wanted to do away with any possible confusion.
Elementary, 0.4 (aka Loki) is about as stable a Linux operating system as I have ever used. And although Elementary OS 5.0 does promise to be a very natural evolution from .4, it is still very much in beta, but ready for testing. Because Juno is based on Ubuntu 18.04, it enjoys a rock-solid base, so the foundation of the OS will already be incredibly stable.
With that in mind, I downloaded 5.0 and spun it up in VirtualBox. The results are as impressive as I assumed they’d be. Let’s get this open source operating system installed and see what it has to offer.
Installation
I’m not going to spend much time on explaining the installation of Elementary OS. Why? If you’ve installed any flavor or Linux (or any operating system at all), then you can walk through the installation of this distribution in your sleep. There’s a rumor that Elementary OS is working in conjunction with System76 on a new installer. As of the current release of Juno, however, there is no sign of such an installer, so you’ll find the same method of installation seen in previous iterations of the platform.
You can run Elementary OS live or install it immediately. Burn the ISO image onto a CD/DVD or USB flash drive and boot it on your machine (or use the ISO image to create a virtual machine). The installer will have you configure your language, keyboard, select the installation type (Figure 1), select if you want to download updates immediately and install third-party media codecs, and then create a user.
Once the installation completes, reboot the machine and log in. Shortly after logging in, you should be prompted that updates are available. I highly recommend running the updates before using the desktop (since this is still in beta, the updates will come often). Now that we’re installed and updated, let’s take a look at some of those new features.
The AppCenter
The Elementary OS AppCenter has been given a slight facelift. Although the previous version was quite serviceable, it seems the designers have taken a nod from GNOME Software (which is a good thing) and added recommendations under the featured titles (Figure 2).
Another upcoming feature to the AppCenter is the ability to pay developers “what you want” for apps. The Elementary OS developers are taking a unique approach to apps. Elementary OS first released the AppCenter in May 2017 and by February 2018 they’d processed $1,700.00 worth of payments from just over 750 charges. That means the average paid price for an app, purchased from the AppCenter was $2.30. To make things a bit more lucrative for developers (and to try an interesting experiment), Elementary OS will include a HumbleButton for paid apps that allow users to pay what they will. Another change will be that paid apps won’t automatically update (if you click the Update All button in the AppCenter). Instead, to update the app, you’ll have to donate to the app (starting with $0.00 to $10.00 or a custom amount). Hopefully, that change will translate into more developers getting paid for their work.
Aesthetics
You won’t find too much in the way of aesthetic improvements in Juno. You’ll find no complaint here (as Elementary OS .4 Loki was already quite elegant). The designers did officially decide upon an official color palette. The full palette can be viewed here (along with all logo and font information).
Along with the new palette, Juno brings:
A Night Light feature (to make late night staring at the screen a bit less harsh on the eyes).
Latest GTK+ features (which includes some animated panel icons).
Very slight changes to the default theme (icons are a bit brighter and colorful).
App Changes
Because there are so few apps shipped out of the box, you won’t find much in the way of change here. The developers have rebranded the default text editor, Scratch, as Code and even rolled in some basic code editor features. Outside of that, the standard default Elementary apps remain intact:
Mail — for your email needs.
Music — to play your tunes.
Files — serves as your file manager.
Videos — plays all of your videos.
Calendar — schedule your day.
Photos — manage your photos.
Epiphany
At one point, I would have said having Epiphany as the default browser was a big miss. However, Epiphany has come a long way. Case in point: The version of Epiphany shipping with Juno includes the ability to log into your Firefox Account, so it can now sync and share data (Figure 3).
Another really nifty feature with newer releases of Epiphany is the ability to install a site as a Web Application. What this does is save a site as a launcher in the Elementary OS menu, such that you only need to click the launcher to open the site. When the site opens as an installed app, you will notice the browser window missing a few components (such as the bookmarks and configuration buttons, as well as the tab button/feature). It’s a handy way to gain quick access to specific sites you use frequently.
To install a site as a web application, follow these steps:
Open Epiphany.
Navigate to the web site in question.
Click the Epiphany menu button (gear icon in the upper right corner).
Click Install Site as Web Application (Figure 4).
In the resulting popup, give the application a name and click Create.
A bit of clean up and a conclusion
Outside of the above features (and a few more minor details), the rest of the change comes by way of old code cleanup and closing out issues. Thanks to that codebase cleanup, you’ll find a bit of a performance and stability increase over previous releases.
All in all, Elementary OS continues to be my top-rated distribution for new Linux users. It’s incredibly clean, elegant, and user-friendly. Thankfully, the design and development team understand they have something special on their hands and, instead of bringing about new features and radical changes, are set on offering only slight changes and improvements to an already rock solid Linux distribution. So, if you’re looking for something magical and radical in the shift from .4 to 5.0, you might be disappointed. If, however, what you want is nothing more than an improved (and very familiar) experience with Elementary OS, Juno will not disappoint.
Learn more about Linux through the free “Introduction to Linux” course from The Linux Foundation and edX.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-10-2018, 02:03 PM - Forum: Windows
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What mixed reality’s amazing new health frontier means for you
In 1992, scientist and technologist Louis Rosenberg created Virtual Fixtures, one of the first augmented reality systems ever developed. By using a full upper-body exoskeleton, the wearer was able to control two physical robots, while innovative optics aligned the robot arms as an overlay of the user’s own arms.
In the nearly 30 years that followed, technology has advanced considerably, enabling fully immersive “virtual-reality” experiences, as well as “mixed reality”—the result of blending the physical world with the digital world.
While mixed reality is still a relatively new technology in health, it has the potential to make a significant impact on patient care. Its unique ability to project visualizations into physical space and its low barrier of entry is spurring health organizations to experiment in ways that are incredibly promising. Here are three examples of providers that are pioneering mixed reality in medical education, the perioperative pathway, and virtual care.
Enhancing medical education by helping students see the human body in three dimensions
While medical students have traditionally learned through textbooks and hands-on training, this approach has its disadvantages, such as a lack of real-world exposure to multiple anatomical variations. For practicing physicians, on-the-job training is often conducted via mannequins and simulators, which are an improvement over textbooks, but even these sophisticated tools have limitations. Each patient is different, and while mannequins are helpful, nothing beats actual patient care for learning.
Mixed reality enhances physician education by combining the anatomical and procedural to create a more robust education platform. Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland is utilizing mixed-reality devices to accelerate their medical students’ grasp of anatomy. With mixed reality, students can visualize the muscles on top of a skeleton and understand the body’s different layers. They can project any piece of anatomy digitally and examine it in three dimensions, move it around, or make it translucent to see through to what lies underneath.
As a result, students have more freedom to experiment and explore the ways anatomical systems work together, helping them build confidence and empowering them with stronger working knowledge of anatomy.
Expanding the opportunity to learn in a new dimension changes the way medical students and physicians see their patients and the world, opening new avenues to approach medicine from a “hands-on” perspective, not just a theoretical one.
Delivering new intelligence to the perioperative pathway by simulating the physical world
When approaching complicated surgeries, each scenario is unique. Some procedures are more complex than others due to the unique characteristics of the patient’s anatomy and the type of surrounding tissue and organs. A growing number of surgeons have already adopted innovative methods like three-dimensional (3D) printing to prepare for the intricacies of each surgery, but this approach is challenging to scale and hinders collaboration among surgical teams.
Mixed reality takes this innovation further, enabling surgeons to interact with an accurate digital representation of a patient’s unique organ structure, as well as collaborate with their teams to orchestrate and rehearse procedures. The University of Oslo is leveraging mixed reality to plan complex procedures, such as liver surgery. By creating a digital 3D model of the patient’s liver from a computed tomography (CT) scan, surgeons can move, scale, rotate and isolate different parts of the organ, as well as switch layers of the model off and on with simple hand gestures. Multiple surgeons can also share the same experience through separate devices.
The new technique enables doctors to navigate around the patient’s other organs and leave more of their healthy liver tissue undisturbed, improving their ability to withstand surgery during treatment. Researchers are looking for ways to apply this technology to patients undergoing other complicated procedures such as cardiac surgery.
Applying mixed reality to perioperative planning enables a customized approach for each patient, offering surgeons enhanced visibility into the patient’s unique anatomy. This approach can improve each individual surgery, helping surgical teams prepare more effectively to create the best possible outcome for each patient.
Bringing doctors and patients together virtually when they can’t be in the same place
Within certain patient populations, connecting patients with providers can be time-consuming and costly. For instance, getting to a provider’s office is a major challenge for elderly patients who lack transportation. Those in remote areas often face similar challenges in making the time to travel and finding transportation.
Through mixed-reality devices, doctors can provide high-quality care to patients in their own homes, saving time, money, and hassle while making them feel more comfortable. Silver Chain Group in Australia is doing this already by using Microsoft’s HoloLens to create an “Enhanced Medical Mixed Reality (EMMR) interface. By having a visiting nurse wear a mixed-reality headset at the patient’s bedside, a doctor can see the patient remotely as if they were in the same room. This extends doctors’ reach beyond the walls of the exam room and enables patients to receive care that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. As the world’s population continues to grow older, demand for community-based care will only increase, and innovative telehealth options will be even more critical.
Augmenting reality eliminates logistical challenges to providing care to remote and elderly populations, putting the patient and the problem in front of doctors’ eyes and removing the friction that can get in the way of patients receiving the right care at the right time.
Enable healthcare innovation with mixed reality
For years, technology adoption in medicine has been driven by doctors seeking ways to improve their techniques as well as by patients demanding high-quality care and convenience. Mixed reality is showing great promise in improving medical education, surgical planning, and even office visits, making healthcare delivery easier, faster, and cheaper while driving better results for patients. To learn more about what Microsoft and its partners are achieving with mixed reality, download our eBook on digital transformation in health.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-10-2018, 02:03 PM - Forum: Windows
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Tips and tricks on how best to tackle each season in ‘Forza Horizon 4’
In Forza Horizon 4, Seasons change everything where players must master driving in dry, wet, muddy, snowy and icy conditions. A first for the racing genre and rarely seen in any open-world game, dynamic seasons create a world that is constantly evolving each week and with more than 450 cars, novices and veterans alike can explore the beautiful open world of Britain filled with unique and challenging driving experiences.
While Forza Horizon 4’s deep upgrade system can optimize any car for any season, it’s always best to think about the right car choice for each weather condition, whether you need to adjust your suspension and how you need to change your driving style depending on the terrain. Luckily, we have some tips and tricks on how best to tackle each season and what to expect, sourced by Turn 10 Studios’ Design Director Jon Knoles.
Summer
Under a high, mid-day summer sun, conditions are perfect for putting the pedal to the metal on Britain’s fastest motorways or ripping along the golden sands of the northern coast past the brooding Bamburgh Castle. You may encounter the occasional summer rain, but most of the time you’ll find dry weather.
If you take a shortcut through fields, you’ll easily plow through tall grasses and flowers. Don’t worry about wood and wire fences, small trees, or stacked drystone walls. Whatever you’re driving, if you’re going fast enough they’ll break without breaking your car. Smaller, lighter cars will slow down considerably more than larger, heavier vehicles when you plow through these obstacles.
When Horizon summer arrives, as with all seasons, keep an eye out for seasonal gameplay events, challenges, and rewards, which expire at the end of the season. You may find summer events often take advantage of the perfect driving conditions to feature faster cars on faster, paved roads.
Autumn
Whether you call it autumn or fall, it’s perhaps the most beautiful and most colorful season to explore the tree-lined, winding roads of Britain’s Lake Country in the world’s greatest road cars, or to tackle the 4×4 Adventure Park’s muddy playground for off-roaders.
It’s after harvest, so fields that were full of tall grasses in summer are now plowed and full of soft or muddy earth that will slow you down a bit, and are peppered with new obstacles in the form of big and heavy bales of hay, which will definitely slow you down if you hit them. It will rain in autumn more than in summer and roads do become a bit slicker in the wet, so you’ll be wanting to plan a little earlier for hard turns.
When autumn arrives, keep an eye out for a seasonal barn find car—each season reveals a classic to discover and restore, but you’ll want to find it before the season changes again.
Winter
With the low sun shimmering through bare trees across a frosty landscape, you might be worried that you’ll be sliding all over the place. Don’t worry, all tires are good for all seasons, and will be enough to keep you on the roads if you remember to brake—and turn—for curves. If you want more grip on the snow and ice, you can equip your car with studded winter tires in the upgrade shop, and any car that was already equipped with off-road or rally tires will automatically switch to studded tires.
The weather may range from clear to light flurries, or the occasional blizzard. Higher elevations in the north will have more deep snow than lowland areas in the south. Coastal beaches are still sandy, and motorways, the city streets of historic Edinburgh, and other major roads are cleared of ice and snow. In winter, you can reach previously inaccessible areas to search for bonus boards to smash or barn find cars, such as on an island in the middle of a deep lake. And when you’re on the frozen lake, it doesn’t matter what you’re driving or what kind of tires you have, you will slide around a lot, which itself is a lot of fun.
Keep an eye out for snowmen, too. Smashing them is fun, and it will net you combo skill points. Seasonal events are sure to test your mettle on the slippery ice, but rest assured there are still clear roads to conquer.
Spring
After a cold winter, the British landscape bursts to life once again in vibrant color, and one thing you can be sure of is a lot more rain, but you’ll also get a lot of sun. Or as they say in much of Britain in the spring, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes.”
Of all the seasons, spring is probably the one with the most varied conditions throughout. Previously dry or shallow riverbeds become deep, rushing streams, which may bring low-slung supercars and lightweight cars to a crawl, but don’t pose much of a challenge for off-road vehicles such as SUVs, trophy trucks, and buggies. If you happen to climb to a mountain peak in the north, you’ll still find pockets of snow to play around in.
As with autumn, spring events may bring a more rally-heavy theme with mixed-surface races to suit the varied conditions. Whether it’s in a sturdy new Subaru WRX Sti, or a classic Group B rally monster from the 80s, you’ll be sure to discover some trail-blazing events in cars built to tackle all the tarmac, gravel, and mud that you’ll get plenty of in spring.
Forza Horizon 4 launches on October 2, 2018 on Xbox One, Windows 10 and Xbox Game Pass, and is now available for pre-order in the Microsoft Store. Stay tuned to Xbox Wire and ForzaMotorsport.net for future updates.
Detached is a space exploration VR game that demands tactics and skill to survive. Strap yourself in for hardcore gameplay uniquely designed for VR headsets.
Trapped in an abandoned space station, you must race against borrowed time to find your crew before your oxygen supply runs out. As you solve puzzles to open airlocks, locate power cores and disable transmitters, something tells you that you wont be alone when you finally escape into the universes deep infinity.
We Happy Few is the tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial. Set in a drug-fuelled, retrofuturistic city in an alternative 1960s England, you?ll have to blend in with its other inhabitants, who have their own set of not-so-normal rules.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-10-2018, 07:15 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Gets Castlevania's Simon And Richter Belmont
Nintendo kicked off its latest Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct by revealing a brand-new character: Simon Belmont from the Castlevania series. The new fighter was introduced via a grim cinematic trailer, which began with Luigi exploring a dark castle filled with supernatural monsters before being struck down by Death (but he's okay). The reaper was then attacked by a mysterious cloaked figure, who removed his hood to reveal his identity as the legendary vampire hunter.
Just as in Konami's classic series, Simon uses many of his signature items in battle, including his iconic whip. According to director Masahiro Sakurai, Simon's whip is a bit slow and leaves him vulnerable, but it has a longer average reach than other fighters and can be controlled freely. Simon can also throw axes and crosses, as well as use holy water in battle. His Final Smash, meanwhile, is the Grand Cross; it stuffs opponents into a coffin and launches them.
Simon's accompanying stage is Dracula's Castle, which Sakurai notes is the darkest stage in the game. Attacking candlesticks around the level will drop items. Iconic Castlevania bosses and enemies such as Medusa and Flea Man also appear on the stage, as will Dracula--although Nintendo is keeping the conditions that make him appear a mystery. The stage also features 34 new and classic music tracks.
Simon isn't the only Castlevania representative joining the Ultimate roster. His descendant, Richter Belmont, will also appear in the game as an Echo Fighter. He has his own distinct voice, appearance, and animations, but his moveset is similar to Simon's. Another iconic Castlevania protagonist, Alucard, also appears in Ultimate as an Assist Trophy, and his moves are inspired by Symphony of the Night.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches for Nintendo Switch on December 7. We learned a ton of other details about the game during the new Direct presentation and got a look at several other new fighters, including Chrom, Dark Samus, and the much requested King K. Rool from Donkey Kong Country. You can catch up on all the news in our roundup of every announcement from today's Direct.
