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The Xbox Series X Has Arrived

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The Xbox Series X Has Arrived

The Series X is the most powerful console ever built. But so far the games available haven’t been able to show what it, and developers, are capable of. Around the time the first Xbox was released, in 2001, Peter Molyneux – the mercurial British creator of the Fable series – began talking up a giant leap in gaming, which he claimed could be found in the game he was developing. Every corner of Fable’s Gameworld, he explained, would be so responsive and overflowing with life that as the hero walked across the countryside, he could toss an apple core into the long grass, only to return years later (in game time) to find a tree had grown.

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The Xbox Series X Has Arrived

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But faced with the reality of the original Xbox hardware, Molyneux’s boast was far beyond what he could deliver, and the apple core concept went down as an ambitious ideal for what Gameworld design could someday hope to achieve. Now, nearly two decades, and three generations of Xbox consoles later, such realism and responsiveness is no longer out of reach, says Jason Ronald, the development chief of the Xbox Series X.

 

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Ronald is explaining what’s under the hood of the new generation consoles and why it matters. “I think it really comes down to larger, open, dynamic, more living worlds, where what you’ve done a couple hours ago is persistent in the world,” he says. “It’s really about creating that universe.”

 

 

 

 

 

Some reviewers have been struggling to find the feature or the game that makes a Series X worthy of purchasing over a PlayStation 5. This is the beginning of Microsoft’s answer. “Historically, when you think about console generations, it’s primarily driven by graphics innovation or graphics fidelity,” says Ronald, speaking days before the global launch of the Series X, along with its lower-spec sibling Series S. “The reality is developers can already deliver a really high quality, amazing, visual, 4K, HDR-enabled experience. So much of this generation is going to be how games feel and how they play.”

 

 

 

 

 

Reviewers have been impressed by the console’s mighty specs and evident power, but the delay of Halo Infinite into 2021 has left them without a standout game to show how this translates into the “emotion” and “immersion” that its manufacturer has promised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vanishing away loading times (which the big, boxy Series X certainly achieves) is welcome news for sure, but it’s a fairly lukewarm promise. However, developers from major studios who have spent months working with Xbox’s new architecture say the consoles’ Quick Resume feature is best seen as a teaser of the true achievements Microsoft has made under the hood.

 

 

 

 

Hands-on, the power is genuinely impressive, earning praise from PC gamers used to spending four or five times the Series X list price on a top-end rig. Microsoft has doubled down on calling this the developer’s console, and played up its co-development with input from its own game studios, major players and smart indies. In practice, this means developers no longer have to constrain the play space or programme in arbitrary work-arounds – “funneling the player through a hallway or a corridor or an elevator” which takes them out of the experience or slows down the play experience, Ronald says.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet for all the talk of teraflops, the fan response to July’s video of Halo Infinite’s gameplay was just what Microsoft didn’t want: its flagship release being met with a chorus of shrugs. A bad game would have been one thing, but an underwhelming game that failed to show what, if anything, the console could do differently, sounded alarms about whether Microsoft could match competitors’ marriage of hardware and experience (with Nintendo’s Switch still charmingly setting the benchmark, here).

 

 

 

On launch day, Halo will be missed, with neither the enhanced Gears 5 nor the three-year-old Destiny 2 filling that hole. There’s always a launch-day racer that shows off the latest graphics and physics, and Dirt 5 fills that slot, with satisfyingly wet mud and slippery performance, but even that isn’t a next-gen exclusive.

 

 

 

 

For gamers still expecting a new generation to mean a big step forward – think taking Mario’s first 3D leaps on N64 or Master Chief crash-landing onto Halo‘s ringworld on Microsoft’s first console – today’s launch can’t help but feel like a disappointment.

 

 

 

 

 

This strange moment is partly due to Microsoft’s decision to look beyond console gaming’s generation-by-generation leaps. Ronald says Microsoft is now committing to give the best possible experience “wherever a player chooses to play”. Its Amazon Prime-like subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, already has 15 million subscribers and allows them to play the same game while swapping between last-gen Xbox One hardware, Windows PC, and Android devices. Since September, subscribers have had access to its xCloud feature, which allows them to cloud stream games, ala Google Stadia.

 

 

 

 

No doubt Game Pass means a novel kid-in-a-sweet-shop experience the morning when the Xbox Series X arrives. Subscribers will have hundreds of titles at their fingertips, visually tuned up from older generations by the systems “AutoHDR” feature, with faster load times and higher resolutions. But the games themselves will largely be the same ones that were available on older consoles.

 

 

 

Ronald says he doesn’t believe this is the “last generation” of truly new Xboxes we’ll see before cloud computing takes over. However, with the Series X, Microsoft – which has in the past spoken of its desire for a more PC-like evolution of hardware – appears to be putting to bed the generational lurches of the past. But in Microsoft’s embrace of truly cross-platform play, it has robbed gamers of the thrill of past generations’ launch day excitement.

 

 

 

Microsoft seems to be playing the long game. It has recruited talent to pair with this hardware, including the $7.5 billion purchase of ZeniMax, parent of Elder Scrolls and Fallout publisher Bethesda. The company’s massive outlay (the acquisition cost more than Disney paid for Marvel, Pixar or Lucasfilm) is an indicator of how important first-party exclusive experiences are, in a generation when consumers are not just buying hardware but very likely joining a subscription ecosystem. Potential buyers want to see a formidable line-up of games coming up, at least to match Placentation’s upcoming exclusives including Spider-Man: Miles Morales and a new God of War sequel.

 

 

 

In Microsoft’s camp, there are notable absences (some blamed on Covid-19 related delays) the standout games from their key franchises have failed to materialize – with Halo delayed and a Fable sequel teased but not released. Other titles have been pushed back too, including The Medium – a psychological horror in which the player flips between the real and spirit realms – which has slipped to January.

 

 

 

In the short term, perhaps the best indication we’ll have of whether Series X can set itself apart from previous gens or competitors will come soon from Ubisoft’s two highly anticipated launch titles Watchdogs: Legion and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – which are also released on PS5, and both previous gen consoles, as well as PC.

 

 

 

Claude Langlais, technical director at Ubisoft, says the Series X has allowed developers to finally convey the joy of real-world exploration. Rather than giving players a kind of coach-tour view of a Gameworld – creating impressive scenes but being forced to push players back into confined environments as they shuttle them in between – the graphical detail and CPU combine to create a sense of awe in open play.

 

 

 

 

“It’s a big world, and at any moment, you can stop and get breathtaking views,” says Langlais of Assassin’s Creed. “I really feel like you get the same kind of thing in this game where you’re traversing the real world, exploring, and then you stop and just soak it in. This really comes out clearly because you see that very high resolution and very high quality of detail.”

 

 

 

 

In the longer term, Bungie, which built the launch-defining Halo: Combat Evolved for the original Xbox back in 2001 (but is not in charge of Infinite), says increased CPU time, in addition to meaning better resolutions, opens up developers choices for future releases. “We could, in the future, plan on having more players, if that was something that design wanted to do,” says Andy Firth, lead platform engineering architect. “We could have a significant amount more simulation in the world, more trees,” says Firth. And more of the ray-tracing light simulation – which Ronald calls the “the holy grail of computer graphics” – rendering in real time, say, the headlights of a moving car reflecting off damp tarmac. “With the previous generation, we had hit kind of the peak of what could be done. With this new generation, we’re doing that same fidelity, but we’re barely touching the surface,” adds Firth.

 

 

 

 

Coalition, the makers of Gears 5 and Gears Tactics go one further in hype (although they are part of Xbox Game Studios). “We can load up and display a whole section of the world, as fast as you spin the camera around and you won’t even notice the [loss of] detail,” says Mike Rayner, Studio Technical Director at The Coalition. “And so we can actually render and draw more than we can possibly fit in memory.

 

 

 

 

“You know the metaverse? This holy grail of being able to create a lifelike replication of the world? This is the box that’s really designed to do that.” But without the games to back it up, the Series X remains a black box of hype and possibilities. It may well live up to Molyneux’s boasts about Fable, but until truly next-gen games finally arrive, it’s just unfulfilled potential – a seed planted in the ground.

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Top celebrities,, movie enthusiasts, entertainment dons attend ‘Reflections’ premiere at Silverbird Abuja

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Top celebrities,, movie enthusiasts, entertainment dons attend 'Reflections' premiere at Silverbird Abuja

Top celebrities,, movie enthusiasts, entertainment dons attend ‘Reflections’ premiere at Silverbird Abuja

 

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It was an influx of topnotch investors and practitioners of the Nigerian entertainment sector that attended the premiere of a record breaking thriller titled ‘Reflections’.

 

Top celebrities,, movie enthusiasts, entertainment dons attend 'Reflections' premiere at Silverbird Abuja

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The block buster movie was premiered on Saturday, the 16th of March at the highly octane Silverbird Cinemas. From the stable of Deep End Entertainment, ‘Reflections’ is a true life story reflecting the life of a man in his fifties facing his life’s ultimate accountability. He has a split personality that chastise him for his numerous atrocities in his last hours as he reflected on his alter egos and past evil deeds, that are haunt him into self condemnation. ‘Reflections’ is full of suspense, a super thriller, an enthralling block buster well conceptualized and thoroughly directed for optimum excitement and dynamically creative entertainment stakeholders such as Paul Obazele, prominent Nollywood stars like Kelly Ogbeide the lead actress in the movie and also Nollywood veteran Iyobosa Legema including the director of ‘Reflections’ Osaretin Festus Isibor. The event was also graced by top comedians like Pikolo, Youngest Oldman and Fidel Castro among others. Senator Ned Nwoko who sent a representative, APC Deputy National Treasurer Hon. Omorede Osifo were also in attendance.

‘Reflections’ was first premiered on the 30th of December 2023 at the Deep End Cinemas Benin City, at the Vivas Cinemas Saturday feb 24th this year before hitting the Silverbird’s Cinemas last Saturday. The successful premiere of ‘Reflections’ is a testimony to the long years of research on innovatively creative movie production of the director Osaretin Festus Isibor and and Deep End Entertainment. Quite a lot of energy, creativity and innovation were unleashed on the production of ‘Reflections’ and it’s a movie that is very well set to emerge as market leader, and indomitable chart topper and an epic.
Deep End Entertainment premieres Block buster “Reflection”

 

REFLECTION is about a man in his mid fifties facing his ultimate accountability in his darkest mind. His split personalities would taunt and chastise him for his atrocities in his last hours as he mirrors himself against his alter ego. All his bad deeds would hunt him to self condemnation. It’s a crazy movie, full of suspense and it’s also a thriller.

On the concept of the Movie, the director Mr. Osaretin Festus Isibor said “ I just thought about a crazy idea one cool evening and remembered this guy Paul Obazele whom I’ve worked with before and every time he takes Coca Cola Coke, he gets high and he can behave certain ways and I said to myself I’m gonna write a script that will depict this guy’s character. So, I grabbed my iPad immediately. I sat up all night and wrote the script, Reflections and I am glad I did and it turned out to be a really interesting movie”.

The film recently hit the Cinemas as many fans who watched the most thrilling film gave kudos to all the actors and actress that took a role in the film, Particularly the Actors and actress that took a duo role.

One of the eye witness that Graced the Premiere of “Reflection” said a lot of energy and Ability were pushed into making the film a Blockbuster, therefore describing the work as International standard and the one that will stand the test of time.

Osaretin Festus Isibor who is the founder of Deep End Group of Companies has mostly and heavily delved into the Nigerian entertainment and hospitality industries. He is the CEO Deep End Farms, Deep End Studios, Deep End Records, Deep End Cinemas, Deep End Hotels, Deep End Fun House, Deep End Haunted House, Deep End Villa Obagie.
Osaretin Festus Isibor is a devoted businessman who is so much passionate about people’s happiness and that is why he invested majorly in the fun value chain. He is a film producer, a music expert and an overall entertainment guru.

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Sisterhood Saga: “E’tanu” Movie by Ayonimofe Badejoko Set For Release

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Sisterhood Saga: “E’tanu” Movie by Ayonimofe Badejoko Set For Release

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Ayonimofe Badejoko, popularly known as Aolat, is once again set to captivate audiences with her latest movie creation, “E’tanu”. Following the success of her previous work, fans have eagerly awaited her next cinematic masterpiece, and their anticipation is about to be rewarded.

 

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“E’tanu” delves into the intricate dynamics of sisterhood, portraying the compelling story of two siblings. The younger sister’s jealousy spirals out of control, leading her down a path of betrayal and treachery, as she schemes to usurp her elder sister’s life to claim her husband. Blame is placed on their father, whose favoritism towards the elder sister exacerbates the younger one’s insecurities.

However, the plot takes a dramatic turn when an unforeseen event unfolds, promising twists and revelations that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Ayonimofe Badejoko not only pens the script but also takes on the role of producer, ensuring her creative vision is fully realized on screen.

Directed by the dynamic duo of Afeez Owo and Afeez Balogun Adio, “E’tanu” boasts an ensemble cast of seasoned actors, including Eniola Afeez, Odunlade Adekola, Omoborty, Kemi Korede, Jamiu Azeez, Adekola Tijani, Mama Ereko, Titi Adeoye, Omolara Kasali, Omolara Dauda, Majek, and Kaymoney, among others.

As the Easter festival approaches, fans can anticipate the premiere of “E’tanu” on a YouTube channel, offering them an engaging and immersive cinematic experience. With its blend of drama, intrigue, and stellar performances, “E’tanu” promises to be a must-watch for movie enthusiasts seeking riveting storytelling and compelling characters.

 

 

Sisterhood Saga: "E’tanu" Movie by Ayonimofe Badejoko Set For Release

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AFRIMA President speaks on fostering collaboration within African music community as BridgeAfric launches in Malawi

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AFRIMA President speaks on fostering collaboration within African music community as BridgeAfric launches in Malawi

 

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In continuation of promoting and showcasing African artistes, providing them with platforms to reach a global audience beyond their home countries, the President/Executive Producer, All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, Mike Dada, would be sharing his thought at the BridgeAfric’s Southern Africa launch in Malawi on March 23, 2024.

BridgeAfric is a revolutionary initiative aimed at connecting African artistes and industry professionals across the continent led by the dynamic Victoria Nkong.

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With the theme; importance of fostering collaboration within the African music community, Dada would be speaking on the significance of working together in promoting African music on a global scale.

In his statement, the AFRIMA President noted that there are potentials for growth and success that come from uniting artistes, producers, and other stakeholders in the industry.

Dada, who lauded BridgAfric for its efforts in connecting Malawians artistes with industry professionals, helping them to build their careers and reach a wider audience, said he is committed to supporting initiatives like BridgAfric that empower African artists and promote the rich diversity of African music. He believes that by working together, they can create a more vibrant and inclusive music industry that celebrates the talent and creativity of artists from across the continent.

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“This is very significant for the growth, development and promotion of the arts and music industry in Africa, especially when you look at it from the point of view of collaborations, the Malawi music industry and connecting to the center of the journey of the ongoing movements and the development of the African industry to the global audience,” Dada submitted.

Speaking on its widely acknowledged Africa’s prestigious annual music awards, Dada noted, “AFRIMA is for Africans, and everybody is entitled to be part of it. Malawi is entitled to be part of it being an African country, if you are a Malawian, it’s your right to be part of it. I think from records, if I’m correct, only two or three artistes from Malawi have won the AFRIMA Awards in the past, so we encourage more Malawians to be part of it so that you can get the benefit of being part of the collective movement of the continent. They should come on board more when it’s time for the submission of works, they should be part of the people to submit their works because we believe they have good sound and music coming from Malawi, so they use the AFRIMA platform to showcase to the rest of the world.”

Expressing her excitement, The BridgeAfric President, Victoria Nkong noted that the AFRIMA President’s insights and expertise will undoubtedly provide valuable knowledge and inspiration to all those in attendance.

“The presence of the AFRIMA President at the launch signifies the importance of this initiative and the potential impact it can have on the music industry in Malawi. BridgeAfric aims to provide a platform for emerging artists in Malawi to showcase their talent and connect with industry professionals. We look forward to a successful launch event and the positive impact that BridgeAfric Malawi will have on the local music scene,” Nkong submitted.

The star-studded event slated to be held at the majestic Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) Banquet Hall, in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, is expected to attract several corporate executives, African artistes, entertainment stakeholders, celebrities, local and international media.

The BridgeAfric’s launch in Malawi will facilitate a talent workshop: Collaboration, Investments & Talent Development with seasoned African music giants in attendance. The workshop will provide a platform for local artists to interact and share their experiences with big names in the entertainment industry.

Some of the biggest acts from Malawi, such as the Nyau King Tay Grin, Phyzix, Che Kalonda, Lulu among others would be headlining the Southern African launch of BridgeAfric.

Other dignitaries expected to grace the event include Trace Representatives, representative of Live Nation in France, Ace Video Directors, 50 cents Producer and a lot more music business executives and international artists from around Africa.

Veteran music producer and entrepreneur Taps Bandawe will also be part of the speakers at the event while award-winning television personality Priscilla Kayira Nsane will be the moderator, as DJ Neptune will be on the decks.

 

 

AFRIMA President speaks on fostering collaboration within African music community as BridgeAfric launches in Malawi

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