Tag: phantom
Regional Finals preview: The Southeast Asia spectacle
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Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra replaces the Galaxy Note (and it’s about time)
Diehard Note users may think otherwise, but Samsung made a good call in replacing the Galaxy Note with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which is launching today along with the S22+ and S22 smartphones. Ten years is more than enough time to concede the inclusion of a stylus doesn't necessitate a separate phone brand—and it's also now debatable whether a stylus makes a modern phone any more useful.
Don't get me wrong, the Note was necessary in its day. When Samsung launched the original Galaxy Note a bit more than a decade ago, the phone was innovative beyond its included S Pen. Indeed, that first Note launched with a then-mammoth 5.3-inch display—a nice piece of real estate on which to draw. Over the next few years, the Note's display expanded to 5.7 inches (the Note 7), and then to 6.3 inches (the Note 8), and then to 6.9 inches (the Note 20 Ultra). The “phablet” phone era was not only introduced, but also embodied, by the Note. And today all competitors follow suit with massive phones.
But let's consider what's changed since the Note launched in 2011. When the first Note hit the market, users were still used to jotting down notes in journals and legal pads. These folks adopted the Note as an extension of their habits. But what we all now realize, explicitly or subconsciously, is that we've evolved beyond inking notes with a pen—electronically or otherwise—and have adopted other methods of archiving data. We're adept at typing with our thumbs in cloud documents and email. We record our Zoom calls. We use voice recording and voice dictation. We all have our own methods of taking notes and keeping track of to-dos, and the wide variety of options has made inked notes less relevant than ever before.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
That's not to say Samsung's new Galaxy S22 Ultra doesn't benefit from its integrated S Pen, which now fits within an integrated holster, just like in previous Notes. It's a fine accessory, though I believe the S22 Ultra's S Pen will be used more as a controller than a note-taking or drawing tool by most people. Beyond that, the S Pen gives Samsung an excuse to release a slightly taller S22 Ultra, with a slightly larger battery inside. The new Galaxy S22 and S22+ lack the integrated S Pen, and they're slightly thinner and smaller than the Galaxy S21 and S21+ as a result.
By now, Note diehards should be chasing me with pitchforks. To them, I say use your S Pens on the new Galaxy Tab S8 tablet, also released today. Its inking experience is superb.
Galaxy S22 Ultra specs: Here's what's new
Samsung is releasing three new phones within the Galaxy S22 lineup: the 6.8-inch S22 Galaxy Ultra, the 6.6-inch Galaxy S22+, and the 6.1-inch Galaxy S22. Prices range from $799.99 for the base S22, to $999.99 to the S22+, to $1,199.99 for the S22 Ultra. Memory options on the Ultra range from 8GB to 12GB, and storage from 128GB to 1 TB. On the S8 and S8+ tablets, the choices are much simpler: 8GB of memory, with 128GB or 256GB of storage. Samsung also told us the Galaxy S22 series includes Qualcomm's 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor inside.
The phones come in a variety of colors, from Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Burgundy, plus Pink Gold for the S22+ and S22 models.
If that all sounds too expensive, consider a number of ways to save: Through February 24, 2022, consumers who pre-order a device are eligible to upgrade to the next storage tier when purchasing 128GB or 256GB models. This offer also includes eligibility to redeem an additional Samsung Credit of up to $200 for Galaxy S22 Ultra, $150 for Galaxy S22+, or $100 for Galaxy S22. This credit can go toward the purchase of the new Samsung Freestyle projector or recently updated Galaxy Watch 4. Those who pre-order a Galaxy S22 device starting today can also receive up to 25 percent off any Galaxy Tab S8.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
Samsung's S22 Ultra replaces the S21 Ultra 5G, essentially adding just the integrated S Pen to the S22 generation. (Note that the S21 Ultra was compatible with the S Pen, but the pen shipped separately.) Both the S21 Ultra and S22 Ultra offers what Samsung calls a “Dynamic AMOLED 2X adaptive 120Hz display,” (3200×1400) with the same 6.8-inch screen size. The S22 still uses in-display fingerprint recognition.
The S22 Ultra's quad camera specifications haven't changed as far as the number of lenses and their resolution. Its “space zoom” is still 100X (10X optical, 10X digital zoom). Samsung deserves credit for slightly shrinking the S22 Ultra from 165 mm to 163.5mm, whi le only widening the phone from 75.6mm to 77.9mm. The other notable improvement is in the battery capacity, as it's increased from 4855mAh to 5,000mAh. The S22 Ultra and S22+ now has integrated WiFi 6E, up from WiFi 6 (802.11ax) in the S21 generation.
Specs notwithstanding, the camera's AI has improved, as it can now track and focus on 10 different people, and even recognize the penumbra of pet hair for accurate portrait mode. Samsung says it uses depth maps to focus on even a single strand of hair. It also reportedly adjusts the zoom angle, though we'd have to test that to see the full impact.
The S22 boasts improved optical image stabilization (OIS), which Samsung calls Super Steady. And in low light, Samsung's Adaptive Pixel technology will combine nine pixels into one shot with the phone's multiple cameras, compositing them into a single pixel with an improved image. (The pixel sensor remains 2.4um, the same as in the S21 Ultra.) The Ultra cameras ship with Samsung's Expert RAW app, offering controls like ISO, shutter speed, histogram control and more.
The idea is that you'll be able to capture a 108-megapixel detail image plus a separate image optimized for lighting, then combine the two. Samsung says that these new cameras process four times more data than the previous generation thanks to the camera using uncompressed data internally. Night portrait mode is available on both the front and rear camera.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
Galaxy S22+ and S22 specs: Here's what's new
The S22 and S22+ physically offer only slight differences from the S21 generation: At 6.1-inches and 6.7-inches, both the S22 and S22+ are just 0.1 inches smaller. The S22+ is both slightly shorter and thinner as well, while the s22 is shorter, thinner, and narrower than the S21. Battery life has slightly decreased as a result. The display density remains unchanged, Samsung said. In terms of screen brightness, the S8 offers 1,300 nits, while the S8+ can put out 1,750 nits of brightness. (The S22 Ultra does as well.)
The cameras, though, differ more significantly. While the user-facing selfie cameras remain the same, the S21 and S21+ offered a 12Mpixel ultrawide camera, a 12MP wide-angle camera, and a 64MP telephoto. Both the S22 and S22+ offer a 12Mpixel ultrawide (F2.2), an 50Mpixel (F1.8) wide camera, and a 10Mpixel (F 2.4, 3X optical zoom) telephoto.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
Samsung's new phones include a new Digital Wallet app, which will store digital IDs, payment, and even digital keys for cars, home and office. They're stored within the Knox digital lockbox.
If you'd like to dive deeply into the full list of specifications, they're listed below. You can open the image in a new tab to zoom in.
Samsung
During a product briefing, I spent less than 60 minutes with the S22 line-up, and didn't notice any obvious weak points. Note, though, how the S22's form factor doesn't allow you to scroll more than a few notes within the space allowed by the screen. Instead, it feels far more useful to use the S Pen as a way of navigating to utilities, or other controls.
We'll have to test how the improved camera AI features play out in real life: Can we actually track 10 people during the waning (?) days of a pandemic? Will the processor prove to be faster and more responsive over daily use? And how long will the battery hold up? Samsung has promised performance leaps for its cameras, though they sound vaguely similar to the previous generation. All of these are questions the new S22 phones will have to answer during the course of a review. Stay tuned for coverage on PCWorld or sister site, Tech Advisor.
Fintech funding deals globally 31 January – 6 February 2022
Dota 2: Which Heroes Should You Get to Counter Bane?
A quick look at some of the best heroes you should pick to counter Bane. Dota 2 is one of…
The post Dota 2: Which Heroes Should You Get to Counter Bane? appeared first on Esports News Network | ESTNN.
Changpeng Zhao Warns Users Of New SMS Phishing Scam
Demon’s Souls’ Old Monk Boss Fight Is Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Favourite
Calls it an "intriguing boss".
In a new PlayStation Blog post, various developers have been asked what their favourite boss is from games developed by FromSoftware. Chief among them is creator Hidetaka Miyazaki himself, who explains the Old Monk encounter from Demon's Souls is his personal favourite. The boss fight first appeared in the PlayStation 3 original before being remade by Bluepoint Games for PS5.
For those who do not know, the Old Monk boss encounter is quite unlike anything the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice have done since. Instead of fighting a traditional boss, the Old Monk summons a black phantom to fight on its behalf. That black phantom just so happens to be another real-life player, so your PvP skills are actually what's being tested. If nobody is summoned then the fight isn't nearly as special, but it's cool when it does happen.
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Best VPN services: Top picks for speed, price, privacy, and more
Chances are you're considering a virtual private network (VPN) service for its ability to safeguard your identity, location, and activities online. That's an important task, so you want to consider your VPN options carefully. For instance, a VPN should keep your internet usage private and secure but not sacrifice too much speed. If anonymity is a concern, you need to know a VPN's data collection policies. It also behooves you to know the number of servers and country locations a VPN offers; and what, if any, useful extras are part of the service.
Our in-depth VPN reviews cover all these issues and more, to help you choose the best VPN service for your needs. Whether your primary concern is anonymity, streaming your favorite shows from another country, speeds, or price, we have a number of picks for each category. Below those you can find information about how we test and what sorts of things to look for when choosing a VPN.
Updated 2/4/21 to update our top VPN picks and the layout of the article.
Best VPN overall: ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN – Best VPN overall
It's hard to select the best overall VPN. Some services are weaker on privacy, but are significantly easier to use with tons of features, while others could stand an interface redesign.
For many years we chose the best VPN based purely on privacy, but that is no longer the sole concern of most people when choosing a VPN. Privacy is important, to be sure, but so are performance, extra features, a wide country selection, and ease of use. ExpressVPN has it all, making it our top choice for VPNs. ExpressVPN is one of the fastest VPNs we've tested, and it has a very easy-to-use app. Its servers are all diskless, running everything in RAM—a welcome practice that's become fairly standard these days. ExpressVPN also has wide device support, as well as a smart DNS feature for set-top boxes, consoles, and more.
It's not the cheapest VPN out there, but you do get solid value for the price, and the service is regularly bringing in third-party auditors to bolster its privacy credentials.
NordVPN – Best VPN for features
If you like ExpressVPN's speeds and features, but want something a little different, NordVPN is also an excellent choice. Nord is argu ably more feature-filled than ExpressVPN, and the service is just one part of a larger suite of privacy and security focused products. The desktop app is very easy to use, and offers a lot of different features including access to the TOR network over VPN, multi-hop VPNs, and ad-tracker and malware blocking.
NordVPN has gone a long way to bolster user trust. After years of not being transparent, the company is now upfront about who's running the show, it also undergoes third-party audits, carries out vendor assessments, and uses diskless servers.
Hotspot Shield – Fastest VPN
While our pick for best overall VPN, ExpressVPN, boasts above-average speeds, Hotspot Shield is on another level. No other service comes close to hitting the speeds we've seen with this service. This isn't just a one-off occurrence either; Hotspot Shield has consistently been at the top with speeds that are 12 to 15 percentage points above the competition. In our tests, Hotspot Shield maintained around 67 percent of the base speed. That's substantially faster than you'll see with most VPN services—though your experience may vary.
On the downside, Hotspot Shield doesn't allow for a way to pay anonymously and its privacy policy may not sit well with some.
Still, Hotspot Shield has excellent speeds, it's desktop application is very nice, and as a bonus it works with U.S. Netflix.
Mullvad – Best VPN for privacy
As Hotspot Shield is to speeds, so Mullvad is to privacy and anonymity. We've never seen another VPN that actively resists knowing who you are the way Mullvad does. Mullvad doesn't ask for your email address, name, or anything else. Instead it assigns a random account number that acts as your identifier and login. Mullvad accepts payments using standard methods such as credit cards and PayPal, but you can also mail your payment in cash to remain as private as possible. Mullvad has a no-logging policy and doesn't collect any identifying metadata from your usage.
Mullvad is also fast, ranking within our top five for speeds. Though oddly we did find that on Windows, Mullvad's OpenVPN configuration was actually faster than its Wireguard implementation.
IVPN
Coming in behind Mullvad is IVPN. This Gibraltar-based VPN recently moved to dumping email-based identifiers and going with randomly assigned account numbers instead. Similar to Mullvad, it accepts a variety of payment options for privacy including cash, as well as the standard credit cards, PayPal, and other options like Bitcoin and Monero. IVPN doesn't rank as one of our fastest VPNs, but it does have acceptable speeds for most casual uses.
Another option is OVPN. This VPN doesn't go to the levels that Mullvad and IVPN do, but it does only require a username and password to create an account. OVPN doesn't require an email address, though you can add one as a backstop for account recovery should you forget your password. OVPN doesn't rank in our top 10 for speeds, but it's just outside the top performers at number 12.
AirVPN – Best VPN for torrents
Torrents get a bad rap, and if we're honest, that's for good reason. Using torrents is the number one way to download pirated material including movies, TV shows, music, and games. But that's not all there is to torrenting. It's a very efficient way to download legitimate software such as Linux distributions and authorized content from sites such as BitTorrent Now.
Whatever your reasons, when it comes to torrenting, a VPN makes it easier—especially if the network you're on blocks torrenting. There are many VPNs among our top picks that could be used for downloading torrents, but our preferred choice is AirVPN. This no-frills VPN has a reasonable number of servers and country locations, really good speeds, excellent network transparency, and a focus on user protection. The price is also right at about $58 a year.
AVG Secure – Best VPN for novices
If you want something that's all about ease of use then AVG Secure is a good choice. First, it comes from a known and trusted security company, so there are fewer worries about data security than with one of the indepen dent services. The key thing with AVG Secure is that the interface is easy to understand and use. It has a big “Change location” button to help you select the country you'd like to appear to be in. The app also tells you what your current IP address is and how long you've been connected to the VPN. That's pretty much it. This VPN also works with streaming services and it has P2P servers. One thing it doesn't have is a lot of extra features, which is actually perfect for anyone looking for a no-frills VPN.
PrivateVPN
Private VPN is also a nice option for novices, with a mobile-style interface featuring a big on/off button and location options just a tile-click away. The other nice feature about Private VPN is that once you're done being a novice you can click the Advanced view to get a more complex interface and mess around with other features that are beyond a simple click-and-go app.
PersonalVPN – Best U.S.-based VPN
If you want a VPN based in the good ol' USA, we recommend WiTopia's PersonalVPN. The speeds are good, the price is right, and the app is very easy to use. It's true that a lot of VPN review sites stress the importance of having a VPN that's outside of the so-called Five Eyes countries, which includes the U.S.—some will even say to avoid the Fourteen Eyes. The idea being that if you use a U.S.-based VPN your activities may end up being secretly monitored by Western authorities. Snowden revealed such truths back in 2013. But if you're using a VPN to access your accounts for Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other U.S.-based service, then staying outside the Fourteen Eyes is more or less pointless. Sure, that VPN with an exotic locale may be able to easily ignore U.S. subpoenas for data, but the American online services you use are another story. Besides if an American VPN does you wrong, it'll be a lot easier to hold it to account than one based in Singapore, or even Sweden.
Private Internet Access – Best budget VPN
Choosing the best VPN for you can often come down to price. When that's the case it's hard to beat Private Internet Access. It's got very good speeds and an everyday price of just $40 for a full year. It really is hard to beat for that simple reason. This no-frills VPN offers a good server and country count. Plus, advanced users can adjust their level of data encryption, data authentication, and handshake protocols.
VPN Unlimited
At $60 a year, VPN Unlimited is not quite the steal that Private Internet Access is, but it covers the bases, works with Netflix, and is priced affordably for five-device support.
What is a VPN?
VPNs create a secure tunnel between your PC and the internet. You connect to a VPN server, which can be located in the United States or a foreign country—say, France or Japan. Your web traffic then goes through that server to make it appear as though you're browsing from that server's location, and not from your actual location.
When you're using a VPN, it's difficult for others to snoop on your web-browsing activity. Only you, the VPN service, and the website you're visiting will know what you're up to.
A VPN can be a great response to a variety of concerns, such as online privacy, anonymity, greater security on public Wi-Fi, and, of course, spoofing locations.
While a VPN can aid privacy and anonymity, I wouldn't recommend fomenting the next great political revolution by relying solely on a VPN. To become an internet phantom (or as close as you can realistically get to one), it takes a lot more than a $5 monthly subscription to a VPN.
Beyond that, a VPN is an excellent choice for staying secure while using Wi-Fi at the airport or your local café. Hackers sitting on public Wi-Fi can try to hack your PC, but a VPN makes that task much harder.
Finally, you may want a VPN to spoof your location to download content you shouldn't have access to, but this too has limits. A VPN used to be the go-to solution to watch U.S. Netflix overseas. That changed in 2016 when Netflix opened up to almost every country on Earth. Since then, the company has invested a lot in detecting and blocking VPN users. Even people using a VPN inside their own country will be blocked by Netflix if detected.
There are VPNs that can fool Netflix, but they are rare and there are no guarantees these services will outsmart Netflix forever.
Beyond Netflix, a VPN can help to download an Android app that is only available on a foreign version of Google Play, or stream content from regionally restricted services such as the UK-bound BBC iPlayer or Disney Plus.
One final note of caution: Do not rely on your VPN to protect banking information on an open Wi-Fi connection. Whenever possible, leave online financial dealings for home over a hard-wired connection.
What to look for in a VPN
Before anything else, understand that if you want to use a VPN you should be paying for it. Free VPNs typicall sell your browsing data in aggregated form to researchers and marketers, or give you a paltry amount of data transfer every month. Either way, a basic rule of thumb is that a free VPN will not protect your privacy in any meaningful way.
The next thing to consider is a VPN's logging policies. In other words, what kind of data is a service collecting about you and your VPN activity, and how long is that data saved?
Privacy is the basic principle of a VPN, and what good is it to avoid passive government surveillance only to have a VPN provider record all your website visits?
Ideally, a VPN will say it only keeps logs for the briefest of periods. Some providers, for example, only log activity in RAM during a session or automatically send all records to oblivion once they're created. Other providers may keep records for a few hours, days, weeks, or even months.
VPN policies also vary when it comes to personal information. Some VPNs want to know very little about you, preferring users sign on with a pseudonym and pay with Bitcoin. That's a little exotic for most people, which is why many services also accept PayPal.
Paying this way isn't ideal for privacy, but it means the VPN doesn't have your payment information on record—though it would be available from PayPal.
After the logging policies, you want to know how many servers the VPN offers and how many country connections it has. The number of servers provides an idea of how much load a VPN can take before slowing to a crawl due to overwhelming traffic.
The country connections, meanwhile, matter most to those who want to spoof their location; however, non-spoofers should also make sure there are connections in their home country. If you live in Los Angeles, for example, and want access to American content, then you'll need a VPN that provides U.S. connections. It won't work to try and watch Amazon Prime Video over a Dutch VPN connection, because as far as Amazon's concerned your computer would be in the Netherlands.
Some users will also want to research a VPN provider's peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing policies. There are VPNs that block torrents. Others turn a blind eye to them, but will sell you out in a heartbeat should you be up to no good. P2P is not our main focus here, but we will note in each review whether a particular provider allows file sharing or not.
Finally, how many devices does a VPN support from a single account? In this age of smartphones, table ts, laptops, and PCs, a VPN's cost should include licensing for at least five devices. Also, a provider should have Android and iOS apps to make it easy to connect a smartphone or tablet to the service.
How we tested
We judge VPNs on a variety of criteria including overall connection speeds, privacy protection, usability of the interface, country choices, server count, and cost.
Speed tests are kept as simple as possible. We connect to five different global locations for a given VPN—typically North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, and a wild card somewhere in Asia–on three different days at different times of the day running the test at each location multiple times.
Before the test begins we check the speed of our base Wi-Fi connection using an online speed test. Then we connect to the VPN's servers around the world and run the speed test again. We then show each result, average them out, and calculate the average as a percentage of the base speed.
Remember that internet speeds can vary wildly based on location, routers, PCs, time of day, connection type, the load on the VPN and speed test servers, and numerous other factors. In other words, our test results will likely differ from yours. For that reason, consider our speed results only as a rough guide for how each VPN performs.
Judging server choices by country is also kept simple. We expect a VPN to offer a variety of country connections with a minimum of at least 20.
Privacy and anonymity is judged on the guarantees the companies make, as well as its reputation from any news items we're aware of that may impact the trustworthiness of these claims. We also take a look at the data encryption, authentication, and handshake protocols used.
Finally, for pricing we expect to pay $60 per year, and anything over that needs to justify its cost with extra features or unique selling points of some kind.
Other notable VPNs
There are many more worthwhile VPNs than just our favorites listed above, including AVG Internet Security, CyberGhost, ESET Security Premium, FastestVPN, Hide.me, HMA Pro 4, OVPN, Trend Micro Maximum Security, Windscribe Pro, Perfect Privacy, PrivateVPN by TrunkSpace Hosting, PureVPN, Speedify 10, VPNCity, ClearVPN, Malwarebytes Privacy, TorGuard, VeePN, AceVPN.com, and SurfEasy.
We'll keep evaluating new ones and reevaluating services we've already tested on a regular basis, so be sure to come back to see what else we've put through their paces.
Editor's note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, our reviews are subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the services.
Do Psychedelics Help To Treat Pain?
Do Psychedelics Help To Treat Pain?
Psychedelics works well for psychological disorders. But what about for ailments of the body? What about pain?
The post Do Psychedelics Help To Treat Pain? appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
Another Israeli Firm, QuaDream, Caught Weaponizing iPhone Bug for Spyware
Ghostwire: Tokyo Wants To Mix Up The Tired Open-World Formula
It feels appropriate that Ghostwire: Tokyo--a game set in a version of Japan's capital city that has been overrun with demons, spirits, and otherworldly forces--feels both familiar and unlike anything I've seen in a while. While watching an extended demo, I was mentally ticking off checkboxes for the ingredients of a modern open-world action game: expansive city environment; areas that need to be liberated by interacting with landmarks; skill trees that develop your arsenal of weapons and abilities; an emphasis on traversal; check, check, check, and check. But while these, and some other aspects of Ghostwire: Tokyo, look typical for your run-of-the-mill open-world game on paper, their execution in-game is anything but.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a marked departure from what we're used to seeing from developer Tango Gameworks. Its previous two games, The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2, carried the DNA of studio co-founder Shinji Mikami's most famous work: Resident Evil. Ghostwire: Tokyo, however, seems like the studio's way of saying it's more than just Shinji Mikami and Resident Evil 4-alikes. The irony of this is that Ghostwire: Tokyo actually began life as a sequel to The Evil Within 2.
"Yes, [Ghostwire: Tokyo] did start as a sequel to Psychobreak, the Japanese title for The Evil Within. I think the next in the series, at least," explained director Kenji Kimura. "And through a long and winding road, it has evolved into this different idea to create a fun game that's based in a city in Japan. At the time, there weren't that many games that were using a city in Japan as a base. And so we thought there was a big opportunity there to make something really fun and cool."
In this line of thinking, Kimura and his team are technically correct (the best kind of correct). Fans of Sega's beloved Yakuza series will no doubt "um, actually" the idea that games set in Japanese cities were a rarity, but beyond that series, there aren't many Tokyo-based games. And, outside of Square Enix's The World Ends With You and Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei titles, I've never seen the city depicted as strikingly as it is in Ghostwire: Tokyo.
The influence of Japanese mythology is immediately evident; this is a game steeped from top to bottom in the culture and history--past and present--of the studio's home country. My gameplay demo began with a description of Ghostwire: Tokyo as a "supernatural action-adventure thriller set in an eerie, haunted vision of Tokyo." Taking the idea of the familiar clashing with the extraordinary, the game's setting looks like the Tokyo you're probably familiar with. The one with gleaming buildings and advertising billboards stacked on top of each other and spread across your sightline, their eye-searingly colorful lights shimmering in on a sheen of rainwater spread across the ground, and bouncing off the puddles pooled here and there. A kaleidoscope of shopfronts are crammed into each block, with smatterings of vibrant foliage standing defiantly amongst the concrete and glass. Close your eyes and think of Tokyo or search for it on Instagram, and that's it.
"You know how you see some of the YouTubers out there showing Japan, like a travel channel type thing? It does definitely have that kind of essence to it. In a way, the execution of how Tokyo is made in GhostWire: Tokyo, is pretty detailed," said combat director Shinichiro Hara. "Sometimes you can actually find some cup of noodles in a store and you can actually see it. You can see the logo, and you can read those words and stuff--it's that detailed. You can't quite go that close to objects and stuff like that in a third-person game. So this particular game has an essence of visiting Tokyo in a way, very much like those YouTubers who actually show off [the city] from their point of view, in a first-person style."
But then, naturally, something has also gone terribly wrong in this version of Tokyo. A deep red blood moon ominously hangs over the city, which seems to be blanketed in perpetual darkness. Places that should be bustling with life, like bar-lined back streets, convenience stores, and restaurant districts, are devoid of life. Even the iconic Shibuya Crossing, where people are almost always stampeding back and forth, is eerily empty. Actually, it's worse. There are clear signs that people have been snatched from the world and spirited away: piles of clothes remain where they once stood, and in their place, horrifying monsters wander the streets.
The Tokyo depicted in the game is dense in detail, to the extent that I suspect that it's not likely to be as expansive as some of the open worlds that we come to know, love, and then be exhausted by--though that's just a hunch on my part for now. Regardless of its eventual size, I can confidently say that it was stunning, and it certainly helps that you experience it in first-person--a perspective shift that is also a first for Tango.
"We [used] a first-person camera because immersion was the keyword that we chose to be paramount for us. It's the most important thing," said Kimura. "Story- and scenario-wise, we had this normal human as our main character, who upon the path of the story, meets this other being that has superhuman, supernatural abilities.
"When they get together and try to accomplish a specific goal, they go through this process of walking through this city and encountering supernatural elements. Together, they become like a hero. We wanted to have that sense of the character that's inside the game actually be the person that's playing the game. We wanted to help break that wall between the game and the actual [player]. And to help with that is the first-person camera."
The narrative setup for Ghostwire: Tokyo involves the population of the city mysteriously vanishing and a flood of supernatural creatures called yokai appearing. The design of these beings is sure to catch your eye either because they're familiar to you, like the headless schoolgirl or the featureless Slender Man-like figure walking around in a pristine suit, or they're just so weird that you can't help but stop and stare, like the large office worker man wielding an umbrella, the lady that is just a big gaping maw with sharp stained teeth, or the very tall lady wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and wielding a comically large pair of scissors. Move over, Lady Dimitrescu.
The story begins with you, a mostly ordinary lad, awakening in the fallout of what is being called "The Vanishing." However, you've now got a voice in your head and the ability to harness elemental powers. The phantom hitching a ride in your body has its own agenda but, for the time being, it aligns with your own objective, which is to find your missing sister before she is spirited away by an ever-encroaching fog.
The idea of the "passenger" is something that is pretty common in stories but, more recently, has become popular again, particularly in fantasy anime and manga like Jujutsu Kaisen, for example.
"The concept here is definitely a normal person character. Then, through this meeting with this other worldly thing, his world is turned totally upside down, where everything becomes non-normal. And it's just a strange experience," said producer Kimura Masato. "And that happens in other forms of entertainment, but in our game, what we thought was unique is that it's taking you into Tokyo, and especially into a city like Shibuya. We wanted to create a world where there's nobody there. What would that feel like? And it's that uneasiness that makes this game a little bit special, a little bit more spooky in regards to the other universes that might exist in other brands of entertainment."
"I love Tokyo Ghoul and Jujutsu Kaisen. And I have been reading those, but I never actually compared them to Ghostwire: Tokyo," explained Kimura. "But the thing we are really trying to go for is, in this game, you're looking for things that you normally cannot see. And also, you're being threatened by things that you cannot see. But they're all in the usual world, in the familiar Shibuya that we normally walk around in.
And for example in Jujutsu Kaisen, the characters there and the enemies there, yes, they do have superhuman abilities because of those supernatural things inside their bodies. But the story there is basically based on humans versus humans. And so that might be a little different between our game and those other similar-sounding forms or brands of entertainment."
That brings us one of the core pillars of the game: combat. Again, that idea of something ordinary seemingly being delivered in an unconventional way carries through to the combat. Interestingly, Hara describes the game as a "first-person shooter," and he's again technically correct (still the best kind of correct). But there are no guns in Ghostwire: Tokyo. Instead, there's something way cooler: hand seals, which are used in a mystical art called "Ethereal Weaving"--it looks as badass as it sounds. The idea is that the player is able to channel an energy called ether to use elements like wind, fire, and water spells to aid in offense, while using perfectly timed blocks to mitigate incoming damage in defense.
"When I actually joined Tango, making this particular game in the first-person shooter genre was already decided," said Hara. "Going with something like firearms--submachine guns and other guns against these ghost-like enemies--it is not quite fitting. So we explored how you would actually defeat these enemies and what actually came to our minds was Ethereal Weaving, which is similar to a magic type [where you're] casting gestures that shoots out projectiles basically.
I thought this was actually interesting because [in] most first-person shooters, you have the rifle come up, then the shotgun, and you have these switches [between weapons]. But actually the transition between the weapons are not really cool. If you actually do it with these cool hand gestures, transitions between these weapons switching can be exciting."
And based on what I've seen, they certainly seem to be exciting. I will admit that I've been a massive sucker for hand seals and gesture-based combat since watching Kakashi take on Zabuza in Naruto as a teen, but even still, there's something undeniably cool about seeing the protagonist in Ghostwire: Tokyo rapidly form different shapes with his hands to fling magical spells from his fingers. It's like if you did finger guns and a different, dazzling firework appeared every single time--sometimes it's a fiery missile, other times you can have a whip of deadly water cutting through enemies, or a two-fingered flick of energy that staggers a target on impact.
The spells aren't infinite, as they have what is effectively "ammo" for each one, but one way you can replenish your energy seems to be tied to another cool mechanic. Against weakened enemies, it becomes possible to connect an ethereal golden thread to a core inside them, at which point your character pulls at it until the thread is taut enough to tear the core away, giving him a bit of ether to use. Even on-screen, without actually doing it myself, it looks pretty satisfying.
On top of those abilities, Tango has said there will be a range of traditional tools at the player's disposal. In the gameplay demo, I was shown an ornate bow and arrow number being used for ranged attacks.
"I think when you hear about magic casting, people have this idea that magicians are not really physically strong, or [that they're] not very powerful," said Hara. "But in GhostWire: Tokyo, we wanted the player to be like a magic-casting badass, basically. It's actually quite physical. So it's almost kind of combining magicians with martial artists in a way. We needed to define this element, the actual mechanics of how you defeat the enemy, [in a way] that it's fitting to this world. That's where the casting stuff came into being.
"All the things that the player can fire are actually projectiles. So they do actually travel through the world. And it's not instantaneous, like hitscan stuff. So it does actually contribute to that kind of element of the actual combat style. The other thing is, it is consistent with the enemy as well, so everything an enemy shoots is a projectile, too. It's not like some of the military shooters where when an enemy fires, you instantaneously get hit, and the only way to actually avoid that is hiding behind the cover."
He continued: "But also, we implemented the guard and parry system. So the projectiles, you can actually parry and deflect that stuff against an enemy and the enemy gets knocked down. It's not a [must-master] feature in order to finish the game, but it feels quite good when you succeed in parrying enemies' attacks and so on. As far as accessibility is concerned, it's not punishingly hard, because parrying is a risk-reward thing."
One aspect of Ghostwire: Tokyo that I didn't expect was verticality, which is leveraged by the traversal options available to the player. By grappling onto a Tengu Yokai, it becomes possible to take to the skies and land on rooftops, where another dimension to gameplay reveals itself. Though it remains to be seen how well it's realized, it seems there's a fair bit of platforming in Ghostwire: Tokyo. While on the rooftop, the player in my demo was shown using a katashiro doll--a human-shaped doll made from paper--to absorb untethered spirits to free them and earn experience. While up on the roof there were combat encounters, torii gates to cleanse thereby uncovering more of the map, and it was possible to latch on to other distant tengu yokai to move around. The player also leapt off a rooftop and entered a glide, carrying them further before dropping back down to street level. Interestingly, Tango says that there's a fair bit of the game that takes place underground, too.
"We consider this game to be a sandbox type of game," said Kimura. "It's not huge, but sizable, as the city of Shibuya. And so it's fairly big, but we wouldn't call it huge. The thing here that's different from other games would be that it's not just a horizontal-sized map, it's also vertical, because there are some buildings that you can climb and go to the rooftops. And also, some parts of Shibuya [are] underground in the game. It's a pretty big, wide space.
In normal life, when we're walking around the city, especially places like Shibuya, you would stay on the main streets, basically. You would see the side alleys and the back streets between the buildings and stuff, but you would never actually go into those small alleys because it's dark, or it might be a little too scary. There might be paranormal things. There might be spiritual things, but we just don't know. We just go about our normal lives."
He continued: "So in this game, we wanted to help scratch that itch in regards to that curiosity that's being piqued there, by allowing you, in the world of GhostWire: Tokyo, with the help of the yokai, like the Tengu, to the rooftops and see. So that you can see for yourself what kind of cool things might be there."
Despite not having played a single second of Ghostwire: Tokyo, I came away from my look at the game incredibly excited. There are a lot of familiar open-world game design elements that I know work for me, but I have derived little satisfaction from them in games from the past few years due to their traditionally iterative implementation. Ghostwire: Tokyo is setting itself up to be a distilled version of the open-world games I love, while also delivering the loops I want in their most potent form. Aspects like combat, traversal, and progression are familiar, there's no doubt about that, but it all comes across as considered, offering mechanical depth alongside visual and stylistic flair. I was always going to be intrigued by whatever Tango Gameworks had to offer, but Ghostwire: Tokyo has quickly become one of my most anticipated games for 2022.