Last year, Microids and PlayMagic announced they would be releasing a remake of the cel-shaded first-person shooter XIII for Nintendo Switch and multiple other platforms. It was scheduled to arrive before the end of 2019 and was then delayed.

It’s now been confirmed the game will be launching on 10th November. There’s no mention of price just yet. Alongside this announcement comes a first look at the gameplay. Here’s a bit more about the trailer above, courtesy of the press release:

The gameplay trailer unveils the artistic direction chosen, especially the cel-shading treatment, trademark of the original game! Discover the new look of two iconic environments of the game: Brighton beach or the FBI headquarters ; and get a glimpse of some of the weapons and useful items needed to progress through the game, hinting of the different play styles. Will you play sneakily or choose the frontal confrontation?

The game includes a solo campaign and also the option to “challenge your friends” in multiplayer matches. On top of this, the team has been able to remaster the original game soundtrack and actors’ voices.

There’ll also be a limited edition released on 10th November – including a copy of the game, a two-sided metal case, three art cards, and 13 in-game weapon skins. And if you pre-order any version of the game, you’ll get the Golden Classic Weapons Skins Pack (containing a pistol and golden knife).

Is this the remake you’ve been waiting for? Tell us down below.

To join and replace all strings in a list lst between start index 1 and end index 5, use the one-liner lst[1:5] = [''.join(lst[1:5])]. This solution is based on slice assignment that selects the slice you want to replace on the left and the values to replace it on the right side of the assignment.

Problem: Given a list of strings. How to join all strings in a given list slice and replace the slice with the joined string?

Example:You start with the following list:

lst = ['i', 'l', 'o', 'v', 'e', 'u']

You want to join the slice ['l', 'o', 'v', 'e'] with start index 1 and end index 4 (included) and replace it in the list to obtain the result:

# Output: ['i', 'love', 'u']

You can get a quick overview of all three methods in the following interactive Python shell. If you’re short on time—method 1 using slice assignment is the most Pythonic solution!

Exercise: Modify the code so that only elements with start index 2 and end index 4 (included) are replaced by the joined string!

Method 1: Slice Assignment

Slice assignment is a little-used, beautiful Python feature to replace a slice with another sequence. Select the slice you want to replace on the left and the values to replace it on the right side of the equation.

Here’s how you can join and replace all strings in a list slice (between indices 1 and 5) in a single line of Python code:

# Method 1: Slice Assignments

lst = ['i', 'l', 'o', 'v', 'e', 'u']

lst[1:5] = [''.join(lst[1:5])]

print(lst)

# ['i', 'love', 'u']

The one-liner lst[1:5] = [''.join(lst[1:5])] performs the following steps:

• Select the slice to be replaced on the left-hand side of the equation with lst[1:5]. Read more about slicing on my Finxter blog tutorial.
• Create a list that replaces this slice on the right-hand side of the equation with [...].
• Select the slice of string elements to be joined together ('l', 'o', 'v', 'e') with lst[1:5].
• Pass this slice into the join function to create a new string with all four characters 'love'.
• This string replaces all four selected positions in the original list.

If you love the power of Python one-liners, check out my new book with the same name “Python One-Liners” on Amazon (published in 2020 with San Francisco’s high-quality NoStarch publishing house).

Method 2: List Concatenation + Slicing + Join

A simpler but quite readable method is to use simple list concatenation. Read more on my Finxter blog tutorial to master all different ways to concatenate lists in Python.

# Method 2: List Concatenation + Join

lst = ['i', 'l', 'o', 'v', 'e', 'u']

lst = lst[:1] + [''.join(lst[1:5])] + lst[5:]

print(lst)

# ['i', 'love', 'u']

This approach uses three slicing calls to select (or create) three lists. Then, it glues them together using the + operator. This approach has the slight disadvantage that a new list is created in memory (rather than working on the old list). Thus, it’s slightly less memory-friendly as the first method.

Method 3: Naive

This method is what a non-Python coder (maybe coming from Java or C++) would use. It’s NOT the recommended way though.

# Method 3: Naive

lst = ['i', 'l', 'o', 'v', 'e', 'u']

new = ''

for i in range(1,5): new += lst[i]

lst = lst[:1] + [new] + lst[5:]

print(lst)

# ['i', 'love', 'u']

Instead of selecting the slice of strings to be joined using slicing, the coder creates a string variable new and adds one character at-a-time. This is very inefficient as many different strings are created—each time one adds one more character to the string.

Where to Go From Here?

Enough theory, let’s get some practice!

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.

Join my free webinar “How to Build Your High-Income Skill Python” and watch how I grew my coding business online and how you can, too—from the comfort of your own home.

Join the free webinar now!

Indie developer Milky Tea Studios has announced that HyperBrawl Tournament will be bringing its arcade-style sports-brawler action to Switch and other platforms this summer.

The game is said to be a “beautiful and fast-paced PvP experience” where players take each other on in 1-4 player arena battles. Players can choose different abilities and weapons to bring into the arena as they fight for control of the ball, before throwing it into the opposition’s goal to score points, and must try to master the ‘HyperCurve’, a trick which allows you to seize control of the ball mid-flight to score “legendary goals”.

Here’s some PR:

HyperBrawl Tournament features twelve intergalactic heroes, divided into three distinct classes: Swift, Core and Tank. Each hero has their own unique stats, offering a very different experience. Players will compete in twelve arenas spread across all of space and time, each packed with dynamic obstacles, from portals and risers to moving floors that make each match even more unpredictable.

Our heroes have eight mythical weapons to choose from, including the earth-shattering Slam Hammer, the lightning-quick Turbo Thruster, or the deadly, deadly and decisive Grapple Gun. As players learn the intricacies of HyperBrawl Tournament they can experiment with over 4,000 different hero and weapon combos to create their own unique playstyle, along with a custom-designed hero decked out with your choice of unlockable weapon skins, goal blazes and ball trails.

The game’s already out on Apple Arcade but has been “rebuilt from the ground up to leverage the power of PC and consoles”.

Think you’ll be playing this one on Switch this summer? Let us know with a comment below.

Given a list of strings. Join the first with the second string, the second with the third, and so on. The one-liner [lst[i] + lst[i+1] for i in range(0, len(lst), 2)] solves the problem by using the range function to iterate over every other index i=0, 2, 4, 5, ... to concatenate the i-th and the i+1-th elements in a list comprehension expression with lst[i] + lst[i+1].

You may already know the normal join function in Python:

Intro: Python Join

Problem: Given a list of elements. How to join the elements by concatenating all elements in the list?

Example: You want to convert list ['learn ', 'python ', 'fast'] to the string 'learn python fast'.

Quick Solution: to convert a list of strings to a string, do the following.

• Call the ''.join(list) method on the empty string '' that glues together all strings in the list and returns a new string.
• The string on which you call the join method is used as a delimiter between the list elements.
• If you don’t need a delimiter, just use the empty string ''.

Code: Let’s have a look at the code.

lst = ['learn ', 'python ', 'fast']

print(''.join(lst))

The output is:

learn python fast

However, what if you want to do something different. Rather than joining all strings in the list to a single string, you want to join the strings in the list in pairs.

Problem: Python Join List Pairs

Problem: Given a list of strings. Join the first with the second string, the second with the third, and so on.

Example: Let’s consider the following minimal example:

['x', 'y', 'v', 'w']

Is there any simple way to pair the first with the second and the third with the fourth string to obtain the following output?

['xy', 'vw']

Note that the length of the strings in the list is variable so the following would be a perfectly acceptable input:

['aaaa', 'b', 'cc', 'dddd', 'eee', 'fff'] 

You can play with all three methods before diving into each of them:

Exercise: What’s the most Pythonic method?

Method 1: Zip() + List Comprehension

You can use the following smart one-liner solution

lst = ['aaaa', 'b', 'cc', 'dddd', 'eee', 'fff']

out = [x + y for x,y in zip(lst[::2], lst[1::2])]

print(out)

# ['aaaab', 'ccdddd', 'eeefff']

The one-liner uses the following strategy:

• Obtain two slices lst[::2] and lst[1::2] of the original list over every other element starting from the first and the second elements, respectively. If you need to refresh your slicing skills, check out my detailed blog article.
• Zip the two slices to a sequence of tuples using the zip(...) function. This aligns the first with the second elements from the original list, the third with the forth, and so on. To refresh your zip() skills, check out my blog tutorial here.
• Use list comprehension to iterate over each pair of values x,y and concatenate them using list concatenation x+y. For a refresher on list comprehension, check out this free tutorial—and for a refresher on list concatenation, check out this one.

Method 2: Iterator + List Comprehension

You can also use an iterator to accomplish this:

lst = ['aaaa', 'b', 'cc', 'dddd', 'eee', 'fff']

it = iter(lst)

out = [x + next(it, '') for x in it] print(out)

# ['aaaab', 'ccdddd', 'eeefff']

Here’s the idea:

• Create an iterator object it using the built-in function iter().
• Use list comprehension to go over each element in the iterator.
• Concatenate each element with the return value of calling the next() function on the iterator. This ensures that the iterator moves one position further iterating over the list. So, the next element x won’t be a duplicate.

Method 3: Use List Comprehension with Indexing

This method is the most straightforward one for Python beginners:

lst = ['aaaa', 'b', 'cc', 'dddd', 'eee', 'fff']

out = [lst[i] + lst[i+1] for i in range(0, len(lst), 2)]

print(out)

# ['aaaab', 'ccdddd', 'eeefff']

The idea is simply to use the range function to iterate over every other index i=0, 2, 4, 5, ... to access the i-th and the i+1-th elements at the same time in the expression statement of list comprehension (to concatenate those with lst[i] + lst[i+1]).

Where to Go From Here?

Enough theory, let’s get some practice!

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.

Join my free webinar “How to Build Your High-Income Skill Python” and watch how I grew my coding business online and how you can, too—from the comfort of your own home.

Join the free webinar now!

This Week At Bungie, Season of the Worthy is ready for departure.

Before we talk about anything else, we’d like to maintain your focus on the events unfolding around the world. You may have seen demonstrations in your town, or like many of us here, down the street from the place you call home.

Support does not end with a single statement or action. We’ll continue to use our games and our shared voice to make the world a better place. We hope you’ll join in supporting these efforts by visiting the following resources noted above, and more, by getting directly involved.

Diversity Comittee: Our Pride pin was specifically designed to include black and brown stripes, in an effort to be inclusive and show support for people of color within the LGBTQIA+ community. In that spirit we want to continue our support for all intersectional communities; including LGTBQIA+ individuals who are also part of the Black community currently fighting against racial oppression, demanding justice and equality. We can support the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBTQIA+ community at the same time, because without the leadership and heroism of Transgender Black and Brown individuals, like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, today’s LGBTQIA+ rights would not exist. And so now is a time to do more to help both, rather than dividing our efforts.

If you snag a pin, you’ll also receive a code for the True Colors Emblem to show your support in-game when playing Destiny 2.

We’ll continue sharing Bungie initiatives to support LGBTQIA+ communities throughout the month of June, so stay tuned. Our commitment to racial justice is just getting started, so you can expect to hear more soon.

Within Destiny 2, you may have been watching the approach of the Almighty. You’re itching to see the conclusion of the Season, but you’re also starting to hear whispers of what’s coming next. Join us on Tuesday, June 9 at 9 AM PDT to learn about the future of Destiny 2.

See you soon.

Preview 2.9.0

Destiny 2 Update 2.9.0 will become available next week, meaning we have a pile of patch notes to get through. Let’s take a quick moment to look through some of the changes.

We’re expecting to have an update later in Season 11 on further changes to Bright Dust acquisition, so keep your eyes peeled.

Sandbox

NOTE: Drop chance begins at 10% and increases to a max of 50% over 20 clears.

Trials Rewards

Hope you enjoyed this appetizer. Full course (and more) coming on June 9. See you then.

Mixing a Green Thumb with a Bumper Jumper

So, we heard you like patch note previews. They’re short, sweet, and to the point. This topic, though, needs a bit more time to get through. Today, Staff Designer Lisa Brown takes center stage to walk us through the upcoming Controller Remapping feature that the team has been working on.

Lisa: Greetings, Guardians! I’m Lisa, a staff designer on the sandbox team here at Bungie, and I’m going to give an overview of the controller remapping feature for gameplay actions that will be coming to Destiny for all players in the Season of [REDACTED].

Although we have controller presets in Destiny, these aren’t enough to meet basic accessibility guidelines for motor control and mobility. We’ve been working with some amazing accessibility consultants – Cherry Rae Thompson (https://www.cherryrae.com/) and Ian Hamilton (http://ian-hamilton.com/blog/) – to create support for remapping buttons on the controller. Here, I’ll give an overview of how to use the feature, what it can and can’t do, and then share some setups that have been used by various Bungie employees as examples. As a quick note, all of the below examples will be shown using Xbox button layouts.

Overview

Players can create a custom controller layout by going to the Controller section of the Settings screen and choosing Button Layout. A “Custom” option is available in the list.

On this screen you’ll be able to customize mappings for gameplay actions on your character, in vehicles, and in general settings (like emotes and interacting with prompts).

If you’re like me and you typically use a preset other than Default, you can use the “Reset” button to start from one of those presets.

To rebind a button, select the button mapping next to the action you want, and the next screen will allow you to input the button you want to remap to.

Verbs, Verbs, Verbs

One of the challenges with controller remapping in Destiny is that we have a LOT of player verbs. Think of verbs as actions – throwing grenades, triggering your Super, jumping, sprinting, sliding, etc. With PC remapping, there’s a whole keyboard at your disposal to map buttons. On the controller, though, there’s only so many buttons, and we have many more verbs than buttons.

To solve this, we allow the player to map an action not just to a button, but also a type of input. Our three supported input types are:

As an example, some of our Exotic weapons (Borealis, Symmetry, Hard Light, etc.) have an alternate weapon action, which has typically been activated by holding the reload button. Now this can be mapped separately, to a different button or different input. For example, I like to change it from long press X to double press X. Now when I want to switch Symmetry’s firing mode, I double press the X button.

For the Double Press input type, you can also increase the amount of time between button presses for it to register as a double press. This option is on the main controller page.

Chord Support

In addition to mapping actions to an individual button, we also support mapping to Chords, meaning two buttons pressed simultaneously. In the default layout in Destiny, pressing the Left and Right Bumpers together to execute your Super is an example of a Chord.

Here’s a custom layout example where a player has mapped some of the basic character options to just the face button using Chords:

We’re excited to bring another form of accessibility to Destiny 2, and will be watching as this first iteration goes live.

Last Call

It’s pretty much closing time. You don’t have to go home, but you should definitely get your Triumphs done before the servers go offline next Tuesday. Player Support has a full roundup.

This is their report.

CLOSING OUT SEASON OF THE WORTHY

When Season of the Worthy ends at the weekly reset on June 9, 2020, there will be a number of items, activities, and Triumphs that will no longer be available to players. Some of these items include:

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.

Last Screening of the Season

This is our final MOTW of the Season. How time flies, eh? We’ve featured hundreds of creations in this space, and this week had the most individual contributors of any creation we’ve selected so far. Congrats to all of the Guardians who are taking a W home as Season of the Worthy comes to a close.

Movie of the Week: Quarantine Guardians

There are so many important things going on in the world, it’s difficult to maintain focus on much of anything right now. I’ve been spending a lot of time with friends in Discord servers while hitting weekly milestones, talking to them about their health, thoughts, and feelings concerning current world events. Much of our attention has been on what’s happening right outside our windows. The thing is, this isn’t new. This has been happening since well before many of us were born. It’s time to listen and learn from our neighbors and communities. Check in with your fellow Guardians, friends, and family. Take action to help them out if or when they need it. It’s perfectly OK to press pause, put your controllers down, and focus your attention elsewhere – especially if you’re going out there to demand justice and to support the Black community. You may find many of us out there with you in the greater Seattle area. Destiny will still be here when you want to sit down for a few games. It isn’t going anywhere.

Be well, be safe, and we’ll see you starside.

-Dmg04