Characters

A sample of Nvidia’s ACE (Avatar Cloud Engine) for games. | Image: Nvidia At Computex 2023 in Taipei, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just gave the world a glimpse of what it might be like when gaming and AI collide — with a graphically breathtaking recreation of a cyberpunk ramen shop where you can actually talk to the proprietor. Seriously, instead of clicking on dialogue options, it imagines you could hold down a button, just say something with your own voice, and get an answer from a video game…

Ever since the GTA franchise became what it is today with Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar has packed their worlds full of colorful and rich characters. While we’ve only been able to control male characters up until now (though that is set to change if the GTA 6 rumors are true), they have all had distinct and interesting personalities and stories. That said, sometimes it’s the side characters that can steal the show too. Looking back at the entire series, we’ve come up with our picks for the best GTA characters of all…

Photo via Disney It’s been a long time coming, but Disney’s biggest day of the year is finally here. The Little Mermaid is making its splash in theaters, but as predicted, the complaints have started rolling in. However, one look at early box office numbers and the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score will tell you that the ire isn’t originating from the fans this time around. (Shocking, I know).  In Disney Plus land, we have a convolution of excitement and sadness over shows gearing up for releases like Ahsoka, and…

Screengrab via Disney This article contains spoilers for The Little Mermaid. Disney’s live-action retelling of The Little Mermaid has made its highly anticipated splash into theaters, and fans are getting a new look at a beloved fairytale that we just can’t get enough of.  Everyone knows the magic in Ariel’s undersea realm and the misguided and torturous realm that belongs to Ursula and the sea witch’s path to vengeance. Ariel is light and innocence, beauty and love, and Ursula is the other side of that coin;…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Researchers have found a stark gender imbalance after carrying out the largest-ever study of video game dialogue, published today. The research, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, analyzed more than 13,000 video game characters and found that men speak twice as much as women. The…

Fantasy-themed game Raid: Shadow Legends has become something of an RPG phenomenon since first arriving on the App Store four years ago, with Plarium's turn-based combat game having recently spawned its own animated show.    The role-playing epic takes you to the realm of Teleria, which has been subjugated by the Dark Lord Siroth, and where you’re tasked with assembling a team of powerful Champions to defeat his marauding forces.Offering a similar playing style to PC role playing classic Divinity: Original Sin, the…

Fighting game fans are counting down to the release of the Street Fighter 6 open beta. The Street Fighter 6 open beta has a May 19 release date on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The good news for UK fans is that the Street Fighter 6 beta kicks off nice and early, launching at 8am BST. It finishes at the same time on Monday, May 22. To ensure you don't miss a second of the action, you can pre-load the Street Fighter 6 open beta now.One thing worth pointing out is that while the beta is open to all players on PS5, Xbox Series…

Opening the Google Docs character picker is done through the Insert menu. Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET By default, the character picker is in the Symbol selection, where you can add various arrows and other symbols. If you click the far left drop-down, you can select from the different types available. For example, the é and ü characters are found in the Latin type, so from the Symbol drop-down, select Latin. The Latin type houses plenty of commonly-used special characters. Screenshot by Jack…

Images via Marvel Studios/Warner Bros. Discovery The Marvels didn’t need any more reasons to court controversy, but it looks like the pressure on it has just increased after a doom-laden leak has emerged which is leaving fans incensed. Elsewhere, someone you’d think would be the ideal pick to replace James Gunn as the shepherd of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise is picked up and discarded at top-seed. But, first of all, the latest Marvel Studios movie to go before cameras just let slip a super-surprising…

Now, a study has found that the use of these characters may perpetuate harmful stereotypes about women and promote heteronormative notions of masculinity. Credit: jsks from Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_suit_anime_girl_temple.png In Japan, advertisements featuring anime characters are often used to sell goods and services. Marketing strategies that use anime characters exploit people's feelings toward…