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VILLAGE ARCADE: Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla learns from the past to create a uniquely polished experience – GuelphToday

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I picked up Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla shortly after it went on sale around Boxing Day. I had just started some much deserved vacation time and I wanted to see what third-party developers were doing with the Xbox Series X—most of what I had played up to that point was from my backlog of games or first-party games optimized for next generation consoles.

I’ve always been interested in the science fiction/historical non-fiction mix that the series has offered and I had also just finished Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey—so I was looking forward to playing something new in that universe.

I had read a few user reviews that painted the game in a negative light. People complained about the setting—it wasn’t as beautiful as Odyssey’s ancient Greece—and others said the game’s combat lacked the finesse and elegance that past iterations offered.

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But one of the biggest complaints I read was something I was looking for in a game: the length of time people were spending on it. I’ve always enjoyed games that offered a rich world that you could really sink some time into, but during a global pandemic I’ve been even more drawn to games with a lot of moving parts.

I took a gamble and spent some money hoping that the game would have enough to keep me interested despite having all these flaws people brought up online. 

But what I didn’t expect was that I’d fall in love with the game’s “flaws,” because what a lot of these reviews didn’t provide was one crucial detail: context.

Gritty combat for a gritty era

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla follows Eivor—a Viking—as she embarks on a journey through Europe, starting with Norway, trekking through the United Kingdom and eventually a portion of Vinland (now what we call North America).

As a seasoned Viking, Eivor is no stranger to battle. Players focused on exploration will face battle in the form of raids with Eivor’s crew—a team of Vikings known as Raven Clan.

And while those reviewers were right about the combat being different from past entries to the series, I disagree that this is a bad thing.

Valhalla’s combat makes the game that much more believable. If Eivor was running around raiding with finesse, the game would feel a lot less immersive.

Instead, the combat in Valhalla feels more like a hack and slash with a layer of grit on top—something that resonates a lot better with the time period.

This truth carries into the graphical appeal of the game because of its authentic setting. The game might not be as pretty as Odyssey’s ancient Greece, but that’s because the game primarily takes place in the United Kingdom, where plains and hills are the common scenery.

But Valhalla makes these details stand out on a level that truly has to be experienced. The game takes place mostly in the fall and winter season, which gave the development team a lot of opportunities to create a really incredible colour palette.

The images might miss that Mediterranean appeal, but introducing fog, dynamic weather and vibrant autumn colours adds a new level of beauty to the Assassin’s Creed universe.

A completely polished package

The point I’m trying to make here is that the sum of Valhalla’s parts can’t be compared to other games in the series.

I first looked at Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla because I wanted something that could entertain me for hours as pandemic restrictions continued to escalate. I definitely got that from Valhalla, but more importantly I also found a polished game that completely immersed me in its world.

The game also evolves beyond the formula set up by Odyssey or even Origins. The new trilogy of Assassin’s Creed games introduces an interesting web of stories, but Valhalla approaches this in a better way than past titles.

Rather than pummeling the player with side quest after side quest in order to gain enough skills to progress the main story, Valhalla puts the majority of its chips into the main story. That’s not to say that Valhalla doesn’t have any side content, but instead treats side quests as mysteries, rather than an overwhelming journal full of quests.

It’s these changes, as well as a level of authenticity, that makes Valhalla an impressive game. Where Odyssey often felt like a job, Valhalla has proven itself to be that escape I was looking for.

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Apple announces Worldwide Developers Conference dates, in-person event – CityNews Toronto

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Apple has announced their annual developers conference will take place June 10 through June 14.

The big summer event will be live-streamed, but some select developers have been invited to attend in-person events at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California, on June 10.

The company typically showcases their latest software and product updates — including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AppleTV and Vision Pro headset — during a keynote address on the first day.

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Contributing to a drop in Apple’s stock price this year is concern it lags behind Microsoft and Google in the push to develop products powered by artificial intelligence technology. While Apple tends to keep its product development close to the vest, CEO Tim Cook signaled at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in February that it has been making big investments in generative AI and plans to disclose more later this year.

The week-long conference will have opportunities for developers to connect with Apple designers and engineers to gain insight into new tools, frameworks and features, according to the company’s announcement.

The Associated Press

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iPhone 16 Rumors Point to Action Button and New, Vertical Camera Layout – CNET

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The upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are still months away from their expected launch this fall, but a new set of images published online may give us a better sense of their potential features. Among the revelations, the iPhone 16 may include an action button, similar to the one on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, and it may have redesigned cameras in a vertical stack.

AppleInsider published a series of photos it says show dummy 3D prints of the upcoming iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro from an unnamed leaker. Aside from the action button and reworked cameras on the iPhone 16, AppleInsider also said its source found the iPhone 16 Pro to be “slightly larger” than its predecessor. Analysts had earlier said they expect the Pro model screens will grow somewhat.

Read more: iPhone 16: All the Major Rumors on Apple’s Next iPhone

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The new details suggest that a series of expected hardware updates are likely for this year’s new iPhones. Apple typically announces new iPhones around September, and the company tends to offer incremental upgrades to each new phone, introducing, over the period of several years, better cameras, screens and battery life, features that end up seeming like major upgrades when people get around to buying a new phone

Last year, Apple added a new titanium frame, action button and USB-C charging to its iPhone 15 Pro, which starts at $999. For its entry-level iPhone, Apple followed its well-worn strategy of trickling pro features down to the mainstream, adding the iPhone 14 Pro’s well-received Dynamic Island to the $799 iPhone 15, along with USB-C charging.

AppleInsider didn’t indicate whether its leaker had divined a reason for the iPhone 16’s shifted camera placements, but the two lenses will now reportedly be stacked one on top of the other, instead of diagonally. Apple has previously said it uses stacked lenses on the iPhone 15 Pro for spatial video capture, a key new technology the company highlighted as part of its $3,499 Apple Vision Pro headset, released in February.

Though AppleInsider’s leaks appear to confirm many previous rumors, not all renders and 3D prints are accurate, something the rumor blog notes itself in its report. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the veracity of the leaks.

Watch this: What Google Gemini AI on the iPhone Could Look Like

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I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites

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Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units hint at larger sizes and new buttons

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The iPhone 15 Pro Max, with a 6.7-inch screen
(Image credit: Future)

We’re already counting down to the arrival of the iPhone 16 series – most probably sometime in September – and a leak showing dummy units of the upcoming phones has revealed a few of the changes we can expect to see later this year.

These dummy units are usually based on supply chain information, and have various business uses – like helping case manufacturers get their wares ready for new phones before they’re launched, for example. In this case, the images were posted to Chinese social network Weibo, as spotted by MacRumors.

Perhaps the most interesting reveal from these blocks of plastic and metal is that they show the previously rumored increase in size for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max displays – up to 6.3 inches (from 6.1 inches) and 6.9 inches (from 6.7 inches) respectively.

That’s not a huge jump of course, but it does mean more screen space for apps and media. The bezels are apparently shrinking down to accommodate the larger screens, which means the increase in the physical size of these handsets is only a slight one.

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On the button

iPhone 16 dummy units leak

The next iPhones might look a bit like this, but less blue (Image credit: Weibo)

Further reveals from this leak match up with what we’ve heard before: that all four models are going to get the Action button that replaced the Ring/Silent switch on the 2023 Pro models, as well as a brand-new Capture button for getting more creative with photos.

Also of note is the redesigned rear camera module that we think is coming to the back of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. The new vertical, pill-shaped look has been leaked already, but this is more evidence that it’s on the way – taking us back to a design that’s more reminiscent of the iPhone 12, which came out in 2020.

As always with such rumors, be somewhat cautious about reading too much into the look of these dummy units. That said, as more and more similar leaks pile up, it becomes more likely that they’re based on accurate information.

The next big Apple date for your calendar is WWDC 2024 – its Worldwide Developers Conference starts on June 10, at which time we should hear much more about what’s coming this year with iOS 18 and Apple’s other software platforms.

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Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

Leaked iPhone 16 dummy units hint at larger sizes and new buttons

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