Nintendo Treehouse Live Airs Friday With Reveal Of New WayForward Game
Nintendo has revealed that it will be broadcasting a Treehouse Live event on Friday 10th July (that’s today in the UK, but tomorrow if you’re in the United States) which will include gameplay footage of Paper Mario: The Origami King.
The event will also give us the first reveal of “a title in a franchise new to developer WayForward,” which is perhaps a more exciting prospect for many people than the Paper Mario footage. Before you get too excited, though, Nintendo has confirmed that the game is a third-party property, and not a Nintendo franchise.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-11-2020, 03:10 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Elijah Wood Responds To Amazon's Lord Of The Rings TV Show
Actor Elijah Wood, who played Frodo in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film series, has sounded off on Amazon's new TV show based on Middle-earth. He told IndieWire that he's "super fascinated" with what Amazon is doing, but he believes calling it "Lord of the Rings" is misleading.
"They're calling it 'The Lord of the Rings,' but I think that's slightly misleading. From what I understand, the material they are working on exists chronologically further back in history in the lore of Lord of the Rings or Middle-earth than any characters represented in Lord of the Rings," he said. "It sounds more Silmarillion era. Not to get nerdy, but it's the Second Age of Middle-earth."
Wood, who stressed that he has no inside knowledge about Amazon's series, said he's "curious" about the stories the new Lord of the Rings show may choose to tell. He added that he's happy that it's filming in New Zealand because that will give it an element of continuity with the film series, which also filmed there.
Here Are Japan’s Top Ten Best-Selling Games Of 2020 So Far
With June now well and truly behind us, we find ourselves in the second half of 2020. In that time, we might not have had quite as many top tier Nintendo releases as we might have expected, but the Switch continues to sell well and one title in particular has been smashing records all over the place.
Newly compiled data from Famitsu has given us a look at just how well things are going in the gaming world in Japan this year. A new report has detailed both hardware and physical software sales for the first half of 2020 (technically covering 30th December 2019 to 28th June 2020), showing us which games have been selling best and how the market has performed compared to the same period last year.
We’ll start with the games. Here’s a list of 2020’s top ten best-sellers (physical sales and download card purchases only):
01./00. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo) {2020.03.20} – 5.004.720 02./00. [PS4] Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix) {2020.04.10} – 931.165 03./00. [NSW] Pokémon Sword and Shield (Pokémon Co.) {2019.11.15} – 650.859 04./00. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo) {2019.10.18} – 577.875 05./05. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) {2017.04.28} – 346.034 06./02. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) {2018.12.07} – 284.717 07./07. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft Game Studios) {2018.06.21} – 280.662 08./00. [PS4] Resident Evil 3 (Capcom) {2020.04.03} – 263.625 09./00. [NSW] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (Pokémon Co.) {2020.03.06} – 260.802 10./00. [PS4] Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Sega) {2020.01.16} – 259.580
Next up, hardware sales. As you can see, Switch is comfortably the best-selling console of the year so far in Japan, with its sales actually being significantly higher than the same period last year.
Famitsu’s report notes that the gaming market is doing particularly well this year in Japan, with both software and hardware sales being up year-on-year. Japan has actually had its best first half of a year since 2012, and this is reportedly the first time since 2006 that both hardware and software sales have risen. The table below shows the market value (millions, yen):
First Half of 2020
First of of 2019
Hardware Sales
79,340
66,120
Software Sales
95,470
73,990
TOTAL
174,810
140,110
Will the Nintendo Switch continue to outperform last year’s sales as 2020 goes on? And will the likes Paper Mario: The Origami King be able to break into that top ten? Time will tell.
This week at Bungie, the Season had more arrivals.
The Pyramid ships have continued to arrive across the system. Along with Io, they now loom above Titan, Mercury, and Mars, with unknown intent. Guardians have continued to aid Eris in making contact through the new public event which is now located on Titan. There is also a new Exotic weapon quest available. Here is a peek if you haven’t already set out to claim it.
The timing of Pyramid reinforcements was impeccable, showing up on Bungie Day no less. No matter –the festivities went on. Bungie Day is a celebration of you, the community. And once again, we use this totally made up holiday as a reminder of how thankful we are to get to create worlds that inspire friendship.
More in Store
Speaking of Bungie Day, as part of the celebration, we added new items to the Bungie Store and are running a sale until July 13. Make sure you go check out the goods.
Now that Moments of Triumph is live, the Moments of Triumph T-Shirt is available for pre-order through Bungie Rewards (assuming you have completed the necessary Triumphs).
If you are brave enough to complete all five of the featured raids during Season of Arrivals, we are also offering a new Raid Ring for purchase through Bungie Rewards. It goes great with one of your many raid jackets to further showcase your PvE prowess to jealous clan mates or certain community managers.
Winner Winner, Emblem Dinner
Leading up to Bungie Day, we ran a Fashion Show and an Art Show to show off the community’s talents. We were blown away with how many truly unique and amazing entries we received for both contests. It was difficult to choose the winners, but here are the ones we liked the most.
#BungieDayArtShow I had this idea some time ago how would look weapons if they were guardians. So I did some sketches, first finished is the famous duo Thorn & Lumina, hunter of darkness and warlock of light ?#Bungie#Destiny2pic.twitter.com/w4kqACw1wJ
DDDDDRIFTER！ Finished my three favorite characters ☑️ Drifter+Cayde6+Saint14 I’m working on a composition for Shax and Osiris ｀･ω･)9 And #BungieDayArtShow I hope I’m not too late @Bungiepic.twitter.com/iRPjnKcoR5
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to create something to share with the community. To all the winners, congratulations and please make sure you reply to your winning post with a link to your Bungie.net profile so we can send out your emblems.
Prime Continued
It’s been six months since Bungie and Twitch Prime joined forces as part of Twitch Prime Rewards. During that time, Destiny 2 players who have Twitch Prime memberships have benefitted by claiming some amazing rewards – from Exotic weapons like SUROS Regime and Prometheus Lens to Legendary and Exotic ships, Sparrows, Ghosts, weapon ornaments, and emotes.
Today we’re pleased to announce that we’re extending the Twitch Prime Rewards program in Destiny 2 for another four months. That means more amazing goodies coming your way, and all you need to take advantage of it is a Twitch Prime membership.
If you haven’t yet, make sure you have an active Twitch Prime subscription (visit this page to start your free trial) and then link your Bungie.net account. Each month, when a new drop becomes available, you can visit this page to claim your haul. Once that’s done, visit Amanda Holliday in the Tower… just make sure you’ve got room in your inventory for all the sweet loot! Our next set of Twitch Prime rewards are scheduled to arrive on July 22 featuring a certain Exotic weapon used for booping.
If you have other questions regarding Destiny 2 and Twitch Prime Rewards, check out our Help article with more details on how everything works.
Giving Back
There have been a lot of opportunities this year for you to support a good cause. From Direct Relief to our own Bungie Foundation, you all embrace the Guardian spirit and never shy away from stepping up to help others.
We’ve been working with our local Boys & Girls Club to provide essential services and meals to kids who are currently out of school.
Our iPads for Kids program has allowed doctors across the country to provide visual telehealth and communication services for patients while saving valuable PPE equipment.
Here is a look at how your support is helping with these ongoing endeavors.
We’re continuing our campaign that began on Bungie Day and a direct donation of $25 or more will earn you the Bungie Foundation Destiny 2 emblem. 100% of your donation will support the iPads for Kids program!
*Note: A unique emblem code will be emailed to you within 48 hours of your donation. One emblem per donor.
The Exotic Empathetic Ghost Shell is still available on the Eververse Store! 100% of profits will support the iPads for Kids program.
*Note: Perks include the following:
Guiding Light
Speed Demon
Random Destination Perk
The Bungie Foundation emblem and Exotic Empathetic Ghost Shell will be available until July 21.
Masterful Triumphs
Sometimes there are a few rough edges to smooth out when new content launches. The Player Support team is there to monitor the help forums and identify any issues that arise so we can keep you informed and get fixes rolling.
This is their report.
TWITCH EXTENSION
Last week, our Destiny 2 Twitch Extension received an upgrade. Viewers can now gift two subs to their favorite streamer in exchange for a shader, emblem, and other loot.
Please note:
Gift sub progress only counts in a desktop browser. Gifting subs through the Twitch mobile app and mobile browser won’t count.
Viewers should refresh the stream they are watching if they encounter issues with bounty progress after purchasing gift subs.
NIGHTFALL: THE ORDEAL STRIKE CHANGE
After Update 2.9.1 went live, it was discovered that the Festering Core Nightfall: The Ordeal strike wasn’t reflecting the correct difficulty level at the Master tier. To mitigate this issue, on Wednesday we changed the Nightfall: The Ordeal strike to The Pyramidion.
BUNGIE DAY EMBLEM
The Bungie Day emblem, Septenary Encryption, will be available to redeem next Tuesday, July 14, after the weekly reset.
GCX CHARITY EMBLEM
Earlier this week, emails were sent out to those who donated exactly $50 or $100 during our June 18 GCX Charity Stream time of 9 AM to 1 PM PDT. Those who donated $100 will receive another emblem next Season. Players who believe they didn’t receive an email should look in their Spam folder, or create a thread in our Help Forum.
While emblem codes are no longer available, St. Jude is still accepting donations here.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues we’re looking into that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:
Players should only destroy Savathun’s Eyes using the Ruinous Effigy Exotic Trace Rifle itself. Progress doesn’t count toward the Hive-God Optimist Triumph in the Moments of Triumph 2020 Seal if a player destroys Savathun’s Eyes using the Orbs generated from Ruinous Effigy.
The Lucent Blade armor mod doesn’t always appear on Season 11 armor.
The Energy Converter Mod won’t grant Super energy if a player already has over 50% of their Super. This is by design.
Armor ornaments from the Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars Raids no longer appear on player Collections.
Some players can’t progress the “Means to an End” quest. While we continue our investigation, players can progress this quest by using an alternate character or joining another players who has already started the mission.
Players who didn’t claim the reward for completing the “Means to an End” quest in one previous week will be locked out from acquiring and completing it the following week. Players will be able to acquire the quest again the week after the blocked week.
Players unable to launch the “Interference” mission may be able to play through and complete it by joining someone else already in the mission.
We continue to investigate the BEAVER error code appearing frequently on the Steam platform.
For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.
Plays Adapted for Movies
Well, here we are. It’s that time again, Movie of the Week time. This is where we sample from a buffet of videos the community has been cooking up and choose a few of our favorites. Here are the top chefs this week.
Movie of the Week: Shaxx on Your Wall
Honorable Mention: Glowing Arrival
If you are a winner, please make sure your Bungie.net profile is in the description of the video and we’ll send out your special emblem soon.
It feels strange that 2020 is already half over, but at the same time, January seems like it was 10 years ago. It should be a fun summer full of raiding and Solstice of Heroes is just around the corner, coming in August. Now go finish up those Triumphs. This is your moment.
Wonder Woman, DC’s champion of truth and warrior for peace, has arrived in an all-new, immersive, comic book-inspired experience on Roblox for Xbox One! Journey to the mythical birthplace of one of DC’s most iconic superheroes and unlock an epic collection of avatar items featuring some of Diana’s most quintessential gear, outfits, accessories, and more.
Welcome to Themyscira
Born of mythological royalty on the paradise island of Themyscira and raised as a princess, young Diana trains to become a warrior for her people and the world at large. Now it’s your turn to follow in her footsteps and discover the rich history of her birthplace.
As you and your friends explore this vast island, some of the warrior inhabitants will invite you to hone your skills in a variety of heroic challenges. Complete these quests and you’ll be rewarded with currency that can be exchanged for special avatar items from Themyscira’s vendors, such as Wonder Woman’s indestructible bracelets, her Lasso of Truth, or even her classic armor set. And that’s only a taste of some of the gear you can collect. More merchandise will be added to the shops over time. The best part? Once you unlock these rewards, they’re yours to keep. Show off your Wonder Woman spirit wherever you go on Roblox!
More Updates to Come
The Wonder Woman Experience marks the beginning of a new series of dedicated places on Roblox where you’ll be able to play, watch exclusive content, shop for virtual items, and interact with your favorite brands. These experiences will be permanent additions to the platform, with the ability to expand and evolve with new content over time. Be sure to keep an eye out for even more of your favorite characters, experiences, and stories from the DC universe on Roblox!
For the latest Wonder Woman updates on Roblox, visit roblox.com/dcwonderwoman. We’ll see you in Themyscira!
THQ Nordic’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning remaster opens the door for new DLC
THQ Nordic is working on a remaster of 38 Studios and Big Huge Games’ 2012 RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, cleverly named Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, and now plans to release a brand new expansion for the game at some point after Re-Reckoning’s September 2020 launch.
While remakes and remasters have been a bit of a trend for several years now, more and more companies are using those revivals as a platform to launch entirely new games or content based on IP that may have otherwise fallen to the wayside.
We’ve seen it with Activision’s upcoming Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy follow-up Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, with new content promised for Hangar 13’s (now slightly delayed) Mafia remake, and now with new post-launch content heading to THQ Nordic’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning revival.
For now, THQ Nordic hasn’t said a ton about how this new addition will play into the nearly decade-old story of the original game, noting only that it is billed as a “a brand new expansion” currently due out at some point in 2021.
VGDC: Em Reed’s ‘All Time Greats’ article/video picks
The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
[Time for our fourth Video Game Deep Cuts guest post, following Kyle Orland’s, Bennett Foddy’s and Brandon Sheffield’s ‘best ever game article/video’ picks. This time, writer & cultural commentator Em Reed contributes some really interesting links that straddle history, art, academia and culture adeptly.
It’s hard to decide the “best-ever” anything, especially writing. Assembling this list was a good chance for me to think back over my experience writing about games from around 2013, and an even longer-standing interest in them.
These pieces are all well-written and interesting, that should go without saying. But to really narrow down the field I decided to focus on ones that also expanded my perspective and had a lasting influence on my own writing practice.
This is an article that always jumps to mind when I think of really important, formative work. Lana Polansky has gone on to do amazing critiques of the game industry and its labor practices, and has even started a Twitch channel which features lesser-known, experimental games.
But this one sticks with me because of how it upends the standard narrative of “art games” and instead widens the field to include some fascinating aesthetically and conceptually ambitious work from across gaming history.
Remember when everyone was making custom versions of 2048? I like teaching this article alongside Nick Montfort’s “Combat in Context” because it is a deep read on a videogame that is far from the first thing to come to mind when you ask people to think about videogames.
This article explores the mechanics of the game PAP 2048, as well as the platforms which enabled its creation and distribution alongside the political and cultural context of Singapore masterfully illustrates the variety of elements effecting a game’s reception and meaning.
Despite being a recreational activity, videogames’ technological nature and the effort they often demand can make them feel a lot like the technologically-mediated work many of us already spend a lot of time doing. This article, and the subsequent instalments of Vicky Osterweil’s work on this site, don’t avoid this contradiction, tracing it across topics like the gaming industry, game design, and live streaming.
I both love and see myself in this charmingly personal comic that still incorporates an insightful analysis of not only the mechanics of gacha games, but why so many people are so attached to them. If you’re baffled as to why Fate/Grand Order was the most discussed game on Twitter of 2019 (really!) then read this.
This piece sticks with me because it evaluates the issue of videogames and representation of gun violence from an alternative angle that does not rely on psychological speculation one way or the other. Instead, Simon Parkin literally follows the money, examining how the intersection of high-quality digital gun models and official licences from firearm brands are seen as a marketing opportunity for videogames and weapons manufacturers alike.
So this is not really a piece of writing, but I find Suzanne Treister’s evocative Fictional Videogame Stills, made on an Amiga in the early 90s, to capture the imagery and tone of videogames, the mysterious experiences they offered, and the excitement and tension of this new technology.
They’re still extremely inspiring to me. Treister captured these images by photographing the screen of her Amiga, so clicking on the thumbnails also reveals lovely material traces of the CRT monitors of the time.
This article uses a ton of wonderful historical details to come at videogames from a different angle. Instead of focusing on their relation to other, longer-lived forms of play like sports, boardgames, or make believe, Erkki Huhtamo puts videogames in dialogue with issues of automation and human-machine relationships that emerged over the 19th and early 20th century.
This article is a fascinating look at how videogames come to serve different purposes and are created and distributed in very different ways in an area without an established gaming entertainment industry. It’s a reminder that the history of videogames is much broader than even what we know, and that creativity and expression have always played a role at every level of production.
While this video essay is primarily about a piece of New Media art, which led to some controversy, it is also a rigorous investigation of the code and structure of the original Super Mario Bros., its related romhacking scene, and Nintendo’s broader cultural influence. You will definitely learn something, either about art or homebrew.
This was a fairly recent read for me, but I still found it incredibly impressive. Combining personal reflections, multiple theoretical perspectives and careful analysis into an inventive format leads to a definitive longform essay about a wildly ambitious game that hardly anyone has played.
However, YU-NO is also an eroge or H-game, and the discussion does not shy away from some of its more controversial and graphic sexual and violent content, so heed the content warnings!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-10-2020, 10:04 AM - Forum: Python
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Python One Line Quicksort
In this one-liner tutorial, you’ll learn about the popular sorting algorithm Quicksort. Surprisingly, a single line of Python code is all you need to write the Quicksort algorithm!
Problem: Given a list of numerical values (integer or float). Sort the list in a single line of Python code using the popular Quicksort algorithm!
Example: You have list [4, 2, 1, 42, 3]. You want to sort the list in ascending order to obtain the new list [1, 2, 3, 4, 42].
Short answer: The following one-liner solution sorts the list recursively using the Quicksort algorithm:
q = lambda l: q([x for x in l[1:] if x <= l[0]]) + [l[0]] + q([x for x in l if x > l[0]]) if l else []
You can try it yourself using the following interactive code shell:
Now, let’s dive into some details!
A Conceptual Introduction
The following introduction is based on my new book “Python One-Liners”(Amazon Link) that teaches you the power of the single line of code (use it wisely)!
Introduction: Quicksort is not only a popular question in many code interviews – asked by Google, Facebook, and Amazon – but also a practical sorting algorithm that is fast, concise, and readable. Because of its beauty, you won’t find many introduction to algorithm classes which don’t discuss the Quicksort algorithm.
Overview: Quicksort sorts a list by recursively dividing the big problem (sorting the list) into smaller problems (sorting two smaller lists) and combining the solutions from the smaller problems in a way that it solves the big problem. In order to solve each smaller problem, the same strategy is used recursively: the smaller problems are divided into even smaller subproblems, solved separately, and combined. Because of this strategy, Quicksort belongs to the class of “Divide and Conquer” algorithms.
Algorithm: The main idea of Quicksort is to select a pivot element and then placing all elements that are larger or equal than the pivot element to the right and all elements that are smaller than the pivot element to the left. Now, you have divided the big problem of sorting the list into two smaller subproblems: sorting the right and the left partition of the list. What you do now is to repeat this procedure recursively until you obtain a list with zero elements. This list is already sorted, so the recursion terminates.
The following Figure shows the Quicksort algorithm in action:
Figure: The Quicksort algorithm selects a pivot element, splits up the list into (i) an unsorted sublist with all elements that are smaller or equal than the pivot, and (ii) an unsorted sublist with all elements that are larger than the pivot. Next, the Quicksort algorithm is called recursively on the two unsorted sublists to sort them. As soon as the sublists contain maximally one element, they are sorted by definition – the recursion ends. At every recursion level, the three sublists (left, pivot, right) are concatenated before the resulting list is handed to the higher recursion level.
This brings us to the following code:
Python One-Liner Quicksort [Code]
Create a function q which implements the Quicksort algorithm in a single line of Python code – and thus sorts any argument given as a list of integers.
## The Data
unsorted = [33, 2, 3, 45, 6, 54, 33] ## The One-Liner
q = lambda l: q([x for x in l[1:] if x <= l[0]]) + [l[0]] + q([x for x in l if x > l[0]]) if l else [] ## The Result
print(q(unsorted))
Listing: One-liner solution for the Quicksort algorithm using recursion.
What is the output of this code? Let’s see…
Explanation Quicksort One-Liner
We have already discussed the recursive Quicksort algorithm above. The one-liner resembles exactly the discussed algorithm. First, we create a new lambda function q which takes only one list argument l.
The lambda function has the following structure:
lambda l: q(left) + pivot + q(right) if l else []
The lambda function returns the empty list [] in the recursion base case (that is – the list to be sorted is empty and, therefore, trivially sorted).
In any other case, it selects the pivot element as the first element of list l, divides all elements into two sublists (left and right) based on whether they are smaller or larger than the pivot. To achieve this, we use simple list comprehension.
As the two sublists are not necessarily sorted, we recursively execute the Quicksort algorithm on them. Finally, we combine all three lists and return the sorted list. Therefore, the result is:
## The Result
print(q(unsorted))
# [2, 3, 6, 33, 33, 45, 54]
Related: For an interactive experience of what you’ve just learned, check out our Instagram post about the Quicksort algorithm:
To become successful in coding, you need to get out there and solve real problems for real people. That’s how you can become a six-figure earner easily. And that’s how you polish the skills you really need in practice. After all, what’s the use of learning theory that nobody ever needs?
Practice projects is how you sharpen your saw in coding!
Do you want to become a code master by focusing on practical code projects that actually earn you money and solve problems for people?
Then become a Python freelance developer! It’s the best way of approaching the task of improving your Python skills—even if you are a complete beginner.
[www.indiegala.com] Awesome Summer days await you with the IndieGala Scratchy Summer Sale. Get huge discounts on your favourite games + a Scratch Card with a secret Steam game in it!
Epic Games, creators of the popular Fortnite series, as well as Unreal Engine, have just announced they have received a $250M investment from Sony, makers of the PlayStation consoles. It was announced in June that Epic Games were looking for investments valuing the company at 17B dollars. While this does not appear to be that investment, it does in fact value Epic Games at over 17B USD.
The $250M dollar investment represents an ownership stake of 1.4%, a far cry from the 40% Tencent received for it’s 2012 $330M investment. The ultimate question is… what does Sony get out of this? Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat discusses exactly that subject:
The deal is important for Sony because it needs allies in the upcoming console war. Later this year, Sony plans to launch the PlayStation 5 game console in competition with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. But Epic has said that its Unreal Engine 5 and Fortnite will work with all game platforms, as Epic has generally been neutral when it comes to making cross-platform technology. If Sony gets any advantage from investing in Epic, it isn’t clear from this deal.
In a statement, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said that Epic’s technology keeps it at the forefront of game development and that is exemplified in the features of Fortnite. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, meanwhile, said in a statement that both Sony and Epic have created businesses at the intersection of creativity and technology and they share a vision of real-time 3D social experiences that will lead to a convergence of gaming, film, and music. He also said the parties plan to build a “more open and accessible digital ecosystem for all consumers and content creators.”
The bolded point above is perhaps the most important part for game developers, Unreal Engine should not be affected by this investment. You can learn more in the video below.
