Month: November 2023

All Super Mario RPG post-game content you might miss

Super Mario RPG post-game content transforms the familiar Mushroom Kingdom into a playground of challenges, secrets, and rewards, inviting players to extend their adventure beyond the main storyline. As the credits roll and the dust settles on the epic quest, a new chapter unfolds

Let’s delve into the details of the post-game content, exploring the various features and activities that await players seeking to achieve 100% completion.

All Super Mario RPG post-game contents

Super Mario RPG Remake offers an extensive post-game experience that adds layers of depth and challenge for players who have completed the main storyline, including:

  • Boss rematches
  • Sound player
  • Play report
  • Monster List unlockables

Boss rematches: Enhanced challenges

One of the standout features of the post-game content is the ability to rematch certain bosses. These bosses, such as Scratchy-Throat Belome, Leveled-Up Punchinello, and Engine 023 Booster, return with increased difficulty, providing a fresh and challenging experience. To unlock these rematches, players must complete the main story, watch the credits, visit Marrymore Hotel, and then head to Star Hill to initiate the post-game content. Talking to Frog Sage at Tadpole Pond reveals the first boss available for a rematch.

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Each boss rematch yields unique rewards, such as the Sage Stick, Wonder Chomp, Stella 023, Enduring Brooch, Extra-Shiny Stone, and Crystal Shard. The order in which you rematch bosses matters, and returning to Frog Sage after each victory unveils the next rematchable boss.

Sound Player: Musical Nostalgia

The Sound Player is a delightful addition to the remake, allowing players to listen to tracks from the original game as well as newly arranged compositions by Yoko Shimomura. To unlock the Sound Player, players simply need to complete the game, with a notification appearing upon starting the post-game. The Sound Player can then be accessed through the Journal.


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Play report: Comprehensive records

The Play Report feature becomes available upon defeating the game and provides an in-depth look at various records within the game. This includes battle records and minigame records, making it a valuable tool for those aiming for 100% completion. The Play Report helps track progress, revealing information such as hidden treasures yet to be unlocked and the maximum consecutive Super Jumps performed.

Monster List unlockables: Revealing the unknown

Upon entering the post-game, players unlock all previously unknown names (marked as ???) in the Monster List. This feature allows players to view the monsters they may have missed during the main storyline, completing their Monster List and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the game’s creatures.

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How to achieve 100% clear: A checklist

To attain the coveted 100% clear status, players must embark on a comprehensive checklist:

  • Complete all side quests: Explore the game thoroughly to discover and complete side quests, each offering unique rewards.
  • Get Gold medals in minigames: Master various minigames to achieve high scores and earn gold medals, tracked in the Play Report.
  • Raise your party’s levels to the max: Engage in battles to reach the maximum level of 30 for each character, unlocking their full potential.
  • Get the strongest weapons and accessories: Pursue the most potent equipment, including challenging achievements like obtaining the Super Suit.
  • Collect all music for the Sound Player: Explore the game world to find and complete the musical collection in the Sound Player.
  • Defeat the secret bosses: Challenge optional secret bosses, Jinx and Culex, to test your skills and achieve true mastery.
  • Defeat the rematchable bosses: Conquer powered-up versions of bosses in higher difficulty settings to solidify 100% completion.
  • Complete all records in the monster list: Check off every entry in the Monster List to receive the Monster Trophy.
  • Check the Play Report: Confirm 100% completion by reviewing the Play Report in the Journal, ensuring no ??? or incomplete records remain.

Super Mario RPG Remake’s post-game content enriches the gaming experience, offering a plethora of challenges, rewards, and unlockables for those dedicated to exploring every corner of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Amazon thinks a human touch to AI is necessary

Amazon is introducing a groundbreaking tool, Model Evaluation on Bedrock, aiming to transform the evaluation process for AI models. Revealed during the recent AWS re: Invent conference, the tool addresses the challenge of accurately selecting models for specific projects, preventing developers from using models that may not meet accuracy requirements or are too large for their needs.

Inside Amazon’s Bedrock Model Evaluation Revolution

The tool consists of two components: automated evaluation and human evaluation. In the automated version, developers can assess a model’s performance on metrics like robustness and accuracy, covering tasks such as summarization, text classification, question and answer, and text generation. Bedrock includes popular third-party AI models, enhancing the variety of choices available.

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AWS provides standard test datasets, but developers can also bring their own data into the benchmarking platform, offering a more realistic evaluation. The system generates a comprehensive report, shedding light on the model’s strengths and weaknesses.

Human benchmarking

For human evaluation, users can collaborate with AWS’s team or use their own resources, specifying task type, evaluation metrics, and preferred datasets. This human touch allows for insights that automated systems may miss, such as empathy or friendliness.

Importantly, Amazon recognizes the diverse needs of developers and doesn’t mandate all customers to benchmark models. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for developers familiar with Bedrock’s foundation models or those with a clear understanding of their preferences.

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During the preview phase, AWS will only charge for model inference used during evaluation, making the benchmarking service accessible. This move reflects Amazon’s commitment to facilitating responsible and effective AI practices, providing a tailored solution for companies to measure the impact of models on their projects.

In essence, Amazon’s Bedrock Model Evaluation addresses the ongoing challenge of selecting the right AI models by offering both automated and human-driven evaluations. This initiative aligns with Amazon’s commitment to empowering developers and fostering responsible AI practices in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.

No more easy Microsoft Rewards

Microsoft Rewards has recently made headlines with its latest updates. Reports suggest that the program, known for its journey from Bing Rewards to its current Microsoft Rewards branding, has undergone significant changes, including the elimination of the daily Edge search bonus. Finally, Microsoft clarified the issue.

A brief history

Originating as Bing Rewards and rebranded as Microsoft Rewards in 2016, the program absorbed the Xbox Live Rewards in 2018. It consistently allowed users to earn points for various activities, redeemable for gift cards, sweepstakes, or charitable contributions.

Recent changes: Reports from TrueAchievements highlight the elimination of the daily Edge search bonus, where users could earn up to 20 points daily in the US. Additionally, a “cool down” period has been introduced for regular search activities, altering the user experience.

Rumors also circulate about Microsoft potentially shutting down the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox consoles, favoring the new Rewards hub in the Xbox user interface.

Microsoft’s statement

The company’s spokesperson emphasizes the ongoing evolution of the program to align with growth and member satisfaction with these words:

“Over the last few years, the Microsoft Rewards program has regularly evolved to reflect our growth and expansion. We evaluate every change for consistency and fairness, tuning the methods and frequency through which our members can earn points. Whether searching with Bing, browsing with Edge, playing on Xbox, or making purchases in the Microsoft store, we know our members take delight in the added incentive the Microsoft Rewards program offers. We aim to grow in ways that continue to provide value to our members, and we eagerly monitor feedback to ensure satisfaction. We appreciate the enthusiasm and loyalty of our Microsoft Rewards members and remain excited for the program’s future.”

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Nevertheless, the fundamental essence of the program has persevered. Users can still accrue points by engaging in activities such as completing surveys, conducting searches on Bing, and more. These earned points can be converted into digital gift cards, entries into sweepstakes, or contributions to charitable causes.

Activision Blizzard planned to set up its own app store?

New details emerge in the Epic Games vs. Google trial revealing a secret project by Activision Blizzard. Known as the “Boston Project,” its aim would have been to boost revenues in the company’s mobile sector, now owned by Microsoft, drastically altering its relationship with Google.

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According to The Verge, one of the strategies involved creating an independent Android app store, either alone or in partnership with Epic Games and Supercell, to bypass the Google Play Store’s intermediation. Another strategy was to negotiate a deal with Google worth over $100 million to achieve better financial outcomes across various channels (mobile, YouTube, advertising, media investment, and the cloud).

Activision Blizzard’s Chief Financial Officer, Armin Zerza, conceptualized the idea of their own mobile game store as the “Steam for mobile” in private emails exchanged with Epic’s CEO, Tim Sweeney.

The proposed store would have charged a transaction commission of 10-12%, significantly lower than the 30% commission imposed by Google and other gaming platforms. The ultimate goal was to release all titles from Activision, Blizzard, and King’s first on Android and later on iOS.

The initial plan for the mobile store was a small-scale project with fewer than 70 people working on it by 2021, starting with a pilot program featuring games like Candy Crush. In January 2020, Activision Blizzard signed a deal with Google worth much more than $100 million. According to Google’s Head of Partnerships, Don Harrison, now “billions of dollars flow between the two companies.”

Epic has claimed that Google paid Activision Blizzard not to create its own app store through a deal called “Project Hug,” aiming to prevent a “contagion effect” that could lead major game developers to leave Google Play. Another company offered a similar deal was Netflix, although Netflix chose to reject the offer and disable the option to subscribe to its service through the Android app.

In the ongoing trial, lawyers, experts, and witnesses from Epic and Google debated whether Activision Blizzard genuinely planned to launch the app store or if it was a ploy to gain an advantage, as one of the program’s objectives was to “pressure Google (ongoing negotiations).”

Zerza stated in his testimony that the app store idea was “a very early exploratory discussion” and was never executed because Google’s offer was more financially appealing. Since then, Activision Blizzard has continued to “explore” the possibility of launching its own app store.

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New Reddit logo might be surprising at first but you will get used to it in time

Big news from Reddit! The social media giant has given itself a makeover with a brand-new logo and style. This tells us that Reddit is putting a spotlight on talking, building communities, and being a part of the internet.

So, what’s different? Well, Reddit didn’t just change its logo; it gave its mascot, Snoo, a cool new three-dimensional look. Snoo, that little robot buddy we all know, now looks more modern and has a thumbs-up to make it even more unique. But it’s not just Snoo getting a makeover—Reddit changed the writing style too. They now use fonts called “Reddit Display” and “Reddit Sans.”

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This isn’t the first time Reddit is making big moves. A couple of years ago, they made headlines by removing some not-so-great parts of the platform to make it a friendlier place. Since then, Reddit has been growing, adding new tools for ads and cleaning up to shake off its wild reputation.

But not all changes are high-fives. Some decisions, like making API access more expensive and tweaking how subreddit moderators work, have caused a bit of a stir. Still, these changes show Reddit is serious about moving forward.

The company made an official statement about the change. You can read the full announcement here. Below is a part of the announcement that emphasizes on the reason behind this change.

Back in 2017, we launched the first Reddit mobile app, redesigned our desktop experience, and began to define the Reddit brand. Fast forward to today, a lot has changed in the world and with Reddit, so it’s the perfect time to evolve our brand to be more integrated, intuitive, and global.

These updates amplify what makes us unique – the conversations and discussions that can only happen on Reddit, so our new brand emphasizes these conversations and evolves to be more consistent, identifiable, and accessible to audiences everywhere.

Reddit

The new Reddit logo is surely different than the previous one

Now, let’s talk about the star of the show—the new logo. It’s Snoo’s head in a bright red chat bubble. You can already see it on Reddit’s website. Snoo wasn’t always a cool robot. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian drew Snoo back when he was in college at the University of Virginia. Since then, it has been one of the most iconic creatures on the internet, thanks to Reddit’s fame.

Apart from the new look, Reddit is also changing how it writes things. They’re using new fonts that look like chat bubbles, reminding us that Reddit is a place for conversations. One of these fonts, Reddit Sans, will be free for everyone online.

Now an AI allows you to create your own voice: we introduce you to Voicemod

Users can now create and modify unique synthetic voices with AI Voice Changer and share them with other users on Community Voices.

These days, anyone can sound like a celebrity. The artificial intelligence that mimics the voices of Cristiano Ronaldo or Joe Biden became popular a couple of months ago. What was once a revolution now seems like a thing of the past.

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Now what’s trending is being able to create your own voices, and that’s where Voicemod comes in, a tool that will make it easier for users to create and share their own AI voices from scratch.

Users can now create and modify unique synthetic voices with AI Voice Changer and share them with others on Community Voices. This allows you to both mimic familiar voices and create entirely new ones from scratch.

A highly useful tool for streamers

For those not involved in the gaming world, Voicemod is a highly popular AI voice cloning program among streamers and gamers.

Prior to this update, it offered over 100 AI voice options, including popular fantasy characters, famous actors, astronauts, and even the main characters from Rick and Morty.

Now, users can utilize Voicemod’s AI Voice Creator feature to craft a unique synthetic voice by choosing from a wide variety of genres, ages, and tones.

Furthermore, users can utilize the Voicelab feature to fine-tune their synthetic voices – without the need for Audacity – by altering the pitch, volume, frequency, and adding audio effects.

According to Voicemod, this will result in an almost “limitless” number of voices. Users can also share their voices on Community Voices and access those created by other users.

Essentially, Voicemod has created a tool that allows users to start with one of the AI-generated “voice characters” within Voicemod, then adjust various parameters and effects to create an entirely new voice empowered by AI.

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As AI voice technology becomes more ubiquitous, the companies behind these tools encounter few legal obstacles.

And because voices are not protected by copyright, voice cloning tools can duplicate an endless number of famous voices, both real and imaginary.

The Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 5 will add something that fans have been asking for since day one

Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 5 will add something that fans have been asking for since day one, in addition to fixing various problems present in the game

Baldur’s Gate 3 is on track to become the most acclaimed game of the year. Nominated for Game of the Year at the Game Awards, selling extraordinarily well, and being a surprise hit both critically and in sales, especially for Microsoft, it’s a game that keeps delivering surprises. And it continues to refine itself over time. Patch after patch, Larian Studios, the game’s creators, have been refining aspects that were causing unpleasant friction among players. And with Patch 5, they’re addressing one of the most discussed issues.

Because Larian Studios has announced that Patch 5 will contain an epilogue. While they haven’t disclosed many details about it, thanks to the image accompanying the announcement, we can get an idea of what it will contain: new scenes of the group at the camp, reminiscing about the time they’ve spent together and what they’ll do in the future. This has been a point of criticism since its release. With an abrupt ending and a real lack of an epilogue beyond the character we choose to romance, the game’s final minutes feel less rewarding than they should. Especially after spending dozens of hours with a set of characters who, in the end, seem to matter very little.

On the other hand, it’s not the only thing that this Patch 5 will include. Another major issue with the game was serious slowdowns in Act 3 following Patch 4, something they have been able to fix with this patch along with other minor issues of lesser importance. Although not necessarily for the public. Because these minor issues include the possibility of Astarion making disgusted faces when kissing us; something that the community didn’t remotely take as a small problem.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on PC and PlayStation 5. The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S version should be released before the end of 2023, and Larian Studios told us that we would know more at the Game Awards, which take place on December 7th.

Baldur's Gate 3 DOWNLOAD

The co-creator of GTA has announced two new intellectual properties

The co-creator of GTA has announced two new intellectual properties, and although neither of them is a video game, it has our curiosity

Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar who left the studio on March 11, 2020, is making headlines these days. If yesterday we told you that he had signed two important veterans from his former company for his new venture, Absurd Ventures, today he has decided to continue dropping some information about what they are working on. Although it’s not related to video games, it’s likely to eventually materialize into video games.

Because today, the names of the two new IPs and the media in which the first projects of Absurd Ventures will begin development have been announced. The first one is American Caper, a comic drawn by the British artist Simon Bisley —known for works like Lobo or Sláine—, which will focus on “two normal and severely damaged American families in a world of corrupt businesses, inept politicians, and clumsy crimes.” The second one is named A Better Paradise and it will be an audio fiction of twelve episodes in collaboration with QCODE Media, described as an “existential suspense thriller set in the near future.”

Although neither of the two projects has a specific release date yet, the idea is for them to appear at some point in 2024. Additionally, Absurd Ventures intends to develop the universes where these stories take place across more formats and platforms. Therefore, it’s expected that, if successful, these narratives will extend beyond their initial stories and, who knows, possibly evolve into some form of video games.

In fact, this is something that Houser himself has emphasized. Stating that this is a way of storytelling that allows them to introduce universes while working on other iterations and expansions, he has concluded that this is just the beginning of something larger. And coming from one of the masterminds behind GTA, we believe him.

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Elon Musk loses his temper in an interview: “to hell with them…”

"If someone is going to blackmail me with publicity or money, screw them. Go away. Go to hell” he said. “Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re there, that’s what I think.”

Our friend Elon is in the news again. Yes, this is something that repeats every day, as the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter tends to be very controversial in his statements. What we hadn’t seen until now is what happened last night in the middle of an interview.

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Elon Musk, in his first media interview since his anti-Semitic post on X earlier this month, apologized on Wednesday for what he called his “dumbest” social media post.

However, he lashed out at the advertisers leaving his platform due to the rise of anti-Semitism on Twitter.

A clear message to the sponsors: “screw you”

At the DealBook summit of The New York Times in New York, Elon Musk stated, ‘I don’t want advertisers. If someone’s going to try to threaten me with advertising or money, screw them. Get out. Go to hell,’ he said. ‘Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel,’ he added, referring to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who spoke earlier at Wednesday’s summit.

Elon Musk made these statements while X CEO Linda Yaccarino was among the audience. Yaccarino joined the company to attract major advertisers back.

In a conversation that lasted over an hour, Elon Musk also mentioned that he has no problem with being hated. ‘Let them hate me,’ he said. ‘There’s a real strength in not caring if you’re liked.’

Clad in a leather jacket, black cowboy leather boots, and a necklace gifted by a family member of an Israeli hostage that reads “bring them home,” Elon Musk added that it has been “a hell of a year” and admitted that sometimes he says “wrong things.”

A series of major companies paused their advertising on X, formerly known as Twitter, this month after Musk publicly embraced an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory favored by white supremacists.

The advertising exodus included media companies like Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate, and Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN. Elon Musk wants them back, but not through coercion. Meanwhile, his social network is depreciating every passing hour under his leadership.

The best games and apps from Google Play of 2023

With the 2023 progress bar about to reach 100%, it’s time for the services we use daily to release their annual awards and summaries. Among them, we encounter the Google Play Best of 2023 Awards, which highlight the best apps and games that have arrived on the Play Store this year.

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As a big novelty, this year, Google has added several new categories: Best with AI, Best Game for Good, Best game on Google Play for PC, and Best Multidevice App and Game.

Google opened the voting for the User’s Choice Awards (awards chosen by users) in early November for a couple of weeks. Besides apps and games, this year the company also allowed voting for your favorite book on the Play Store (another category that didn’t exist in the last two years).

While we’re yet to know which apps and games have made a big impact in Spain, these are the highlighted winners in the United States:

  • Best app – Imprint: Learn Visually
Imprint: Learn Visually DOWNLOAD
  • Best Game – Honkai: Star Rail
Honkai: Star Rail DESCARGAR
  • Best Multidevice App – Spotify
Spotify DOWNLOAD
  • Best Multi-Device Game – OUTERPLANE: Strategy Anime
OUTERPLANE DOWNLOAD
  • App chosen by users – ChatGPT
ChatGPT DOWNLOAD
  • Game chosen by users – MONOPOLY GO
MONOPOLY GO DOWNLOAD

Imprint, which received the award for the best app, uses visual storytelling to help you understand important topics in finance, business, science, technology, etc. This app is only available for download in the United States, so don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it before. On the other hand, Honkai: Star Rail, a science fiction and space fantasy RPG, won the award for the best game.

It’s no surprise that ChatGPT won the award for the app chosen by users, given that AI and ChatGPT have been the two hottest topics in the tech industry this year. WhatsApp has been crowned as the best app for smartwatches, while AllTrails and Audible received honorable mentions.

Concepts, a vector-based drawing and sketching app, won the award for the best app for tablets, with Canva and Everand receiving honorable mentions. Google awarded FlipaClip, a 2D animation application, as the best app for Chromebooks, with Evernote receiving an honorable mention.

If you want to know all the winners of the Google Play Best of 2023 Awards, you can check out the complete list at this link.

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