 |
|
|
|||||
I found myself in a variety of odd situations while solving puzzles in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. I spent some time staring at a mid-century movie poster for a documentary about a decomposing cat, wondering if I should focus on the runtime or the date it came out. I pulled up old hotel blueprints and deciphered the math of dead architects. I played a handful of ASCII-style PC games to receive messages from a 19th-century magician who calls me his sister. I found some toy blocks and shoved them into the walls of a secret cathedral. I slipped between realities and traversed a maze that shattered into shard-like pieces under my feet. I watched a woman fall to her death. I wondered if that woman was me. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a third-person noir detective game set in a haunted hotel with impossible architecture and a gruesome history. Its hallways are dense with logic-melting puzzles about magicians, mazes, astrology, filmmaking, mausoleums and physics, and it isnt even clear why the protagonist is there in the first place. With artifacts from the 1800s, set pieces from the 1960s and technology out of the 2010s, its barely clear when shes there. Lack of direction is a key tenet of the game, resulting in a sense of solitude thats oppressive and supremely unsettling. Its also empowering. The hotel in Lorelei is a playground of secrets with no set path for players, and theres a rich density of riddles and lore to untangle in every scene. Though I still have no idea where Im heading in the game, Ive rarely felt lost. It's kind of like Tunic in that regard, but it also feels like something directed by David Lynch, and visually, the game resembles Kentucky Route Zero or Sin City. Theres really no direct comparison for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. Playing it feels like nothing Ive experienced before. Simogo The actual gameplay in Lorelei is straightforward: Walk around and press a button (on a gamepad, literally any button) to interact with objects that glow when youre near. Otherwise, pressing a button pulls up a menu with the protagonists stats, inventory, reference materials, unsolved puzzles and handheld gaming system. Her stats include caffeine, stress, temperature, cash and bladder trackers, her inventory comes with a tampon and the hotel provides both coffee machines and bathrooms that she can actually use. I havent discovered a gameplay reason for the bathrooms or the tampon yet, but Ive enjoyed the fact that they exist, and I will keep trying to insert the tampon into every statue and keyhole until it finally works. If it ever does. With Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, you just dont know until you know. Loreleis world is built on Roman numerals, Greek letters, zodiac signs and 24-hour clocks, and its filled with puzzle boxes, keypad codes, logic riddles, mazes, image reconstructions, memory tests and other ultra-satisfying mystery-solving mechanics. Even then, part of the games genius lies in the actions that take place off-screen. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is meant to be played with a notebook and pen close by, and I do not suggest starting without these tools. Yes, even you, the person who just scoffed and thought, I wont need to write anything down. I promise, you will. Simogo Lorelei definitely has puzzles with straightforward solutions, but the bulk of its queries are challenging, relying on previous answers, significant amounts of reading, object manipulation, deduction and creative thinking. The simple riddles supply a steady cadence of endorphin hits, especially in the early game. They also provide a guide for approaching the trickier puzzles: Trust your instincts. If you think of something, try it, no matter how outlandish it may seem. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes rewards curiosity and the game is incredibly adept at planting the seeds of concepts thatll be useful hours later. I hit my first mental wall around hour seven, and thats when Loreleis pacing shifted downward for a spell. I went from consistently but not effortlessly solving puzzles and unlocking new areas of the hotel, to lingering on a handful of rooms I simply couldnt figure out, pacing among them and scouring my notes for hidden clues. After 45 minutes or so, I remembered I still had a simple puzzle from my first hour waiting to be solved; I returned to it, completed it, and the game expanded beautifully in response, offering up an entirely new area of the hotel to explore and increasing the tempo once again. Simogo Each eureka moment in Lorelei introduces more questions, and the secrets pile up as a grand, overarching narrative elegantly unfurls around the protagonist. There are classic horror elements here: children in owl masks giving advice from beyond the grave, hell-dark hallways, spooky phonograph music, ghosts with no eyes. A man with a maze for a head floating right behind you, reaching for the back of your neck. The game seamlessly introduces various visual styles at regular intervals, breaking its own reality in perfectly orchestrated ways. All of this weirdness forms a cohesive experience because Simogo knows how to make a damn fine puzzle game. This is the studio behind Device 6, an iOS title that played with text and physical input methods in trippy ways, and Year Walk, a haunting adventure about Swedish mythology and death. Lorelei feels like a magnum opus for Simogo, an atmospheric powerhouse of a puzzle game that proves how deeply its developers understand these systems, and pushes the genre into strange and unchartered territory. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a rat king of riddles. Its a game composed entirely of mysteries, with each puzzle twisted around the previous one and strangling the next, solutions knotted with concealed information. Mark my words, the game guides for this thing are going to look like House of Leaves. Im ten hours in and plenty of mysteries remain. Theres a six-handed clock with zodiac signs and Roman numerals in the west wing that I still cant figure out, and theres a journal with a lock based on moon phases thats been slowly driving me batty. More than a dozen puzzles are waiting to be solved in my characters on-screen scratchpad. In real life, the pages of my notebook look similar, covered in hastily scribbled numbers, letters, dates, arrows and symbols, solutions sprinkld among the chaos. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is due to hit Steam and Switch on May 16.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lorelei-and-the-laser-eyes-preview-this-may-be-my-goty-140030011.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Instagram is overhauling its recommendation algorithm for Reels to boost original content in a move that will have significant implications for aggregator accounts and others that primarily repost other users work. The company is also changing the way it ranks Reels in an attempt to give smaller accounts more distribution in the app. In a blog post announcing the changes, the company said its trying to correct its ranking system so that accounts with smaller followings will have an easier time expanding their reach. Historically because of how weve ranked content, creators with large followings and aggregators of reposted content have gotten more reach in recommendations than smaller, original content creators, the company explains. We think its important to correct this to give all creators a more equal chance of breaking through to new audiences. Its unclear exactly how Instagram is tweaking its recommendations to make them "more equal, but the company suggests that the algorithm will no longer prioritize accounts with more followers. Eligible content is shown to a small audience that we think will enjoy it, regardless of whether they follow the account that posted it or not, the company says. As this audience engages with the content, the top performing set of reels are shown to a slightly wider audience, then the best of these are shown to an even wider group, and so on. The change will roll out over the coming months so it could still be some time before creators see the effects of this update. The apps changes around original content, however, could be much more immediate. Instagram says it will actively replace reposted Reels with the original clip in its suggestions when it detects two pieces of identical content. Accounts that share reposted Reels will also be slapped with a label prominently tagging the original creator. The company says these changes wont apply to creators that make significant changes like recording voice-overs or reaction clips, or if posts are materially edited to become a meme. Aggregator accounts that repeatedly'' publish posts from others will be penalized even more harshly. Instagram says it will stop recommending Reels from these accounts altogether if they have posted unoriginal content 10 or more times over the previous 30 days. That change could crater the reach of popular aggregator accounts that share other users clips, often in order to promote affiliate shopping links and other schemes. Of note, all of these changes for now only apply to Reels and not other types of posts on Instagram (a spokesperson said the company will explore expanding to other formats in the future.) The changes also broadly reflect the fact that Instagram has tried to decrease the importance of follower counts. That has frustrated some creators who complain that most of their followers dont see their posts in their feeds. In recent weeks, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has taken to Threads to field complaints from several creators sharing their account statistics and demanding to know why more of their followers dont see their posts. In one recent exchange, nature photographer Nate Luebbe who has 142,000 followers on Instagram, pressed Mosseri on why a popular post only reached about 20 percent of his followers. In his reply, Mosseri suggested that was how Instagrams algorithm is intended to function. So while these latest changes are directed at Reels specifically, the updates suggest Meta will continue to focus on other metrics besides follower counts. That may be disappointing to those who have built up a large audience over several years, but Meta seems to view it as a better way of leveling the playing field for small accounts. Instagram previously updated its algorithm in 2022 in order to prioritize original content. Mosseri said at the time that he didn't want the app to overvalue aggregators though he acknowledged it was difficult to know for sure when a piece of content was original. Whatever changes were made at the time, though, may not have gone far enough if the company is still trying to correct imbalances a full two years later.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagrams-algorithm-overhaul-will-reward-original-content-and-penalize-aggregators-130018977.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
The Federal Communications Commission has slapped the largest mobile carriers in the US with a collective fine worth $200 million for selling access to their customers' location information without consent. AT&T was ordered to pay $57 million, while Verizon has to pay $47 million. Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile are facing a penalty with a total amount of $92 million together, since the companies had merged two years ago. The FCC conducted an in-depth investigation into the carriers' unauthorized disclosure and sale of subscribers' real-time location data after their activities came to light in 2018. To sum up the practice in the words of FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel: The carriers sold "real-time location information to data aggregators, allowing this highly sensitive data to wind up in the hands of bail-bond companies, bounty hunters, and other shady actors." According to the agency, the scheme started to unravel following public reports that a sheriff in Missouri was tracking numerous individuals by using location information a company called Securus gets from wireless carriers. Securus provides communications services to correctional facilities in the country. While the carriers eventually ceased their activities, the agency said they continued operating their programs for a year after the practice was revealed and after they promised the FCC that they would stop selling customer location data. Further, they carried on without reasonable safeguards in place to ensure that the legitimate services using their customers' information, such as roadside assistance and medical emergency services, truly are obtaining users' consent to track their locations. The companies told Fast Company that they intend to challenge the fines. T-Mobile, which faces the biggest penalty worth $80 million Sprint was fined $12 million said it was excessive. AT&T said the decision lacked "both legal and factual merit" and that the decision "perversely punishes [the companies] for supporting life-saving location services."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fcc-fines-americas-largest-wireless-carriers-200-million-for-selling-customer-location-data-121246900.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Meta is offering some creators thousands of dollars if they go viral on Threads. The payouts are part of a new invitation-only bonus program that rewards creators who use Metas newest app. An Instagram support page offers some details. It says creators can earn money based on the performance of your Threads posts or the number of posts you create. So, go for either quality or quantity, it seems. It appears terms of the bonuses are unique to each creator. According to one post on Threads, at least one creator was offered up to $5,000 for Threads posts or replies with 10,000 views or more. Unfortunately, we cant see how many views that screenshot has so far, and whether it's making him money. While not nearly as high as the $10,000 bonuses Reels creators could earn in the past, its still pretty generous, given the lower effort needed to type a Threads missive. The company refers to it as being in testing, but it offers a preview of how Meta may try to boost engagement on the service. Its the same playbook as Meta used for Reels on Facebook and Instagram. Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed The DJI Mini 4K is a $299 drone for beginners OpenAI will train its AI models on the Financial Times journalism Gadgets that make great Mothers Day gifts You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! Peacock is raising its prices again Just in time for the Olympics. Peacock just announced its raising prices again, less than a year since it did it last. The new price will be $8 per month for Peacock with ads and $14 per month, ad-free. Those prices start on July 18 for new subscribers and August 17 for existing users. The 2024 Summer Olympics is right around the corner, and the streamer will show every sport and event, including all 329 medal events. So theres a reason. Continue reading. The EU will force Apple to open up iPadOS Apple now has six months to allow competing stores on its tablets. Engadget Apples iPad has been added to the list of tech products that must abide by the EUs DMA rules. The European Commission has officially designated iPadOS as a gatekeeper under the DMA, alongside Apples Safari web browser, iOS and the App Store. To ensure iPadOS compliance, Apple will have to allow third parties to interoperate with iPadOS, so that means third-party app stores for those tablets. Continue reading. WalmartRoblox collaboration offers IRL items to kids Teens can shop for goods in virtual stores before shipping products to their house. Walmarts Discovered experience started out as a way for kids to buy virtual items for Roblox inside the game. But today, that partnership will include a pilot program for teens to buy real-life goods stocked on digital shelves before theyre shipped to your door. Anyone who buys a real-world item will receive a free virtual twin. The first products to benefit from this are a crochet bag from No Boundaries, Onn Bluetooth headphones and a TAL stainless steel tumbler. And we all know: Kids love to show off their stainless steel tumblers. Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-meta-is-offering-popular-threads-users-thousands-of-dollars-in-bonuses-111551945.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Yelp, like many other companies recently, has been coming out with more and more new AI features. Its latest ones include the new Yelp Assistant, which the company says can help you find the right contractors or service provider for your needs. The idea is to point you in the right direction without having to do a search on your own, which sounds especially useful if you have a very specific job in mind that requires specialists in their field. It "alleviates the guesswork on the type of specialists you may need," Yelp claims. You just need to let Assistant know what your project is and then type in your own replies or choose from a selection of one-click responses. In the sample above, for instance, Yelp Assistant created a personalized conversation with one-click responses based on the customer's initial inquiry about wanting to have their bathtub replaced. It suggested different types of bathtubs, which the customer could then choose from so that Yelp could conjure a list of providers that are capable of doing the job. The company says its new Assistant can efficiently anticipate your needs and identify service providers on the website, because it uses a large language model that's trained on Yelp's vast dataset, including providers' business information and the website's "Request a Quote" feature, on top of OpenAI's. At the moment, though, it's only available to iOS users under the Projects tab and won't be out on Android until later this summer. In addition to Yelp assistant, the company also released the Yelp Fusion AI API, enabling third-party partners to create conversational AI experiences for their own services. It released a new suite of features for the Yelp Guest Manager, as well, to help restaurants manage server shifts better, monitor table status in real time and automate credit card holds for reservations. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yelp-debuts-ai-powered-assistant-to-help-you-find-the-right-contractors-110019639.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Sites : [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] next »