Assassin's Creed Mirage was envisioned as an homage to its franchise—a celebration of how it began and what it accomplished between 2007's Assassin's Creed and 2023's Mirage. Beginning as an idea for a DLC expansion that would take Eivor to the Middle East, it grew into a standalone prequel starring Basim, the enigmatic Hidden One from Valhalla. Developed as a shorter experience by Ubisoft Bordeaux, the return-to-roots game presented a distinctive set of challenges, which are explored in the March 22 GDC talk "Between Legacy and Modernity: Creating an Homage Game to the 15-Year-Old Assassin's Creed Franchise."

During the talk, Creative Director Stéphane Boudon and Lead Producer Fabian Salomon discuss the game's beginnings, its growth into a "remoot"—that is, something between a remake and a reboot - and how a streamlined approach helped them make tough choices and focus the game on the Assassin experience. To find out more, we spoke with Boudon and Salomon about some of the early concepts behind the game, a few features that didn't make the cut, and how Mirage re-introduced and redefined stealth as a gameplay pillar.

Our favorite thing about Zau might surprise you. Or, it might be the first thing you noticed. In a recent Discord Q+A (viewable below), ZAU Creative Director Abubakar Salim throws the deceptively simple question to Lead Artist Ackeem Durrant and Lead Designer Zi Peters: what's your favorite thing about our main character? Since our reveal in December, we've been completely floored by how many of you took the leap to pre-order ZAU. We worked hard to give the game a fair price—and a 10% discount to everyone who buys before launch day - plus carefully crafted in-game content that feels special while not detracting from our central vision for the game. We're incredibly grateful for your support. Thank you.

Wield the dance of the shaman. Reclaim your father's spirit
A grieving boy begins to read a Bantu tale written by his late father. Adventure into the beautiful and treacherous lands of Kenzera as Zau, a young shaman who bargains with the God of death to bring his Baba back from darkness. With your cosmic powers and untried courage, you advance into unknown mythological lands. Once bursting with life, Kenzera is now rife with lost ancestral spirits. As Zau advances toward his goal, 3 mighty beings lie in wait, fearsome in their strength yet somehow strangely familiar. Will you embrace the dance of the shaman?

Helldivers 2 has exploded onto the gaming scene in a massive way. This co-operative third-person shooter packed with danger, action, humor, and surprises has already become one of this year's most talked-about games. What some people may be less familiar with though is its progenitor. The original Helldivers, which debuted in 2015 (and is still active) is a co-op, multiplayer overhead twin-stick shooter packed with action, intensity, and plenty of challenging situations that a player might find themselves in.

We asked Johan Pilestedt, CEO & Creative Director at Arrowhead Studios about the process of adapting the original overhead-view gameplay of Helldivers into the third-person format-after first congratulating him for the rip-roaring success of the game. We asked how the team felt about the positive reception. "Overwhelmed and ecstatic! Over the last 15 years, we've seen a keen interest in the types of games we make and it was great to see our work recognized at this scale."

MAINGEAR, the leader in premium-quality, high-performance, custom PCs, today announced the launch of its latest lineup of Pro Series Workstation PCs, meticulously engineered and configurable with the industry's most powerful components, to cater to the diverse needs of professionals across multiple industries.

Ideal for game developers, photo editors, graphics designers, videographers, 3D rendering artists, music producers, CAD engineers, data scientists, and AI/Machine Learning developers, the MAINGEAR ProWS Series introduces a range of desktop workstations crafted to crush the most intensive tasks, elevate productivity and streamline workflow.

Creative Technology today announced the release of the much-anticipated Creative Aurvana Ace and Creative Aurvana Ace 2, the latest true wireless earbuds featuring the groundbreaking solid-state, all-silicon MEMS-based drivers. The Creative Aurvana Ace series, powered by xMEMS drivers, has been expertly tuned to deliver remarkable audio clarity with a wider frequency response ranging from 5 Hz to 40 KHz. With this comprehensive range, users will get to enjoy a truly immersive and lifelike audio experience, whether it's for music, movies, or conference calls.

These latest wireless earbuds also feature LE Audio with LC3 codec, Bluetooth 5.3, and Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) plus Ambient Mode, along with up to 24 hours of total playtime, making them the definitive choice for audio enthusiasts seeking the very best in true wireless earbuds.

Creative Technology is excited to unveil the Creative Artisan Edition, an inspiring initiative aimed at empowering the creative community through collaborations with talented local artists from around the world. Handpicked products from Creative will be reimagined and elevated into exclusive art pieces, serving as a canvas for artists to convey their unique visions. With this initiative, Creative is looking to not only showcase the talents of local artists but also provide them with a platform to shine. By merging technology and art, Creative is opening new avenues for creativity and celebrating the diversity of artistic expression.

The launch of the Creative Artisan Edition marks the beginning of a series of partnerships with talented artists worldwide, and Creative is thrilled to kickstart this journey with Lester Lim, a Singapore-based artist and a true creative maven. Lester Lim's transition from a movie poster apprentice to a dynamic artist speaks volumes about his talent and dedication. Among his captivating works, JELILO stands out as a masterpiece, drawing inspiration from the elegance of the jellyfish. More notably, the anti-bully story behind JELILO sends out a powerful message that people can be bigger than their fears. This narrative behind the art holds profound significance and has the power to resonate with people universally.

Creative Technology today announced the release of Creative Live! Meet 4K, the latest conference webcam sporting an array of nifty features that sets the stage for a stunningly clear and seamless virtual conferencing experience. Equipped with an expansive wide-angle field of view, adjustable digital zoom, stunning 4K UHD resolution, and cutting‑edge Sony STARVIS IMX415 CMOS imaging sensor, this latest conference webcam serves as the ideal tool for hosting virtual meetings, guiding online classrooms, and even exploring creative endeavors.

With 4K UHD resolution, backed by the Sony STARVIS IMX415 CMOS Imaging Sensor, the Creative Live! Meet 4K transforms virtual interactions into vivid experiences, teeming with intricate details, vibrant colors, and outstanding clarity. To complement this visual prowess, the Creative Live! Meet 4K also boasts an expansive wide-angle field of view, spanning up to 115°, making it an exceptional choice for accommodating numerous participants in a boardroom setting or capturing a wide range of visual content, such as whiteboard presentations. Moreover, this latest conference webcam offers an impressive 7X digital zoom capability, enabling users to zero in on crucial details without compromising image quality.

Creative Technology is delighted to announce its strategic partnership with Skyworth, bringing the award-winning Super X-Fi Spatial Holographic Audio technology into their latest TV line-up, which includes state-of-the-art miniLED 4K models. After receiving 23 prestigious awards at CES 2019, Super X-Fi is set to revolutionize the way users experience sound on Skyworth's top-of-the-line TVs, making home entertainment truly exceptional.

Super X-Fi technology revolutionizes the audio experience for users by ingeniously recreating the immersive listening sensation of a high-end multi-speaker system, all within the confines of a pair of headphones or earphones. Unlike conventional audio processing, this innovative spatial audio technology breaks free from the limitations of flat and lackluster sound, infusing every note, beat, and whisper with a remarkable sense of depth, realism, and immersion.

Creative Technology today announced the release of the all-new Creative Zen Hybrid Pro wireless headphones and their accompanying bundles, the Creative Zen Hybrid ProClassic and Creative Zen Hybrid ProSXFI, all adorned with an alluringly sleek new finish. Equipped with nifty features such as Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Ambient Mode, a powerful 40 mm Neodymium driver, and an impressive battery life of up to 100 hours, these latest headphones are perfect for everyday adventures, from commuting to movie nights to gaming.

This pioneering launch also heralds a new era in wireless audio, as this latest range of Creative Zen Hybrid Pro headphones harness LE Audio to provide users with pristine sound quality, ultra-low latency streaming, and the versatility of multi-streaming for a truly elevated audio experience. Complementing this release are the all-new Creative BT-L3 and Creative BT-L4 audio transmitters, which serve as gateways to unlocking the core features of LE Audio and Super X-Fi technology as well as paving the way for an expanding LE Audio ecosystem.

Creative Technology today announced the release of the Sound Blaster Katana SE, the latest gaming soundbar to join the ranks of the well-established Katana series, which now allows users to effortlessly enjoy powerful audio without the heft. With its award-winning bi-amplified four-driver system and Creative's proprietary multi-core DSP, this latest soundbar can offer rich and powerful audio with excellent clarity and volume, even without the need for a subwoofer. Coupled with Super X-Fi technology, 5.1 virtual surround capabilities, and versatile connectivity options, the Sound Blaster Katana SE is the ideal soundbar for gamers, movie lovers, and music enthusiasts who want an elevated audio experience without compromising on space or audio quality.

The Sound Blaster Katana SE offers a seamless yet powerful audio solution for users looking to take their audio game up a notch. Fitted with 0.75" fabric dome tweeters that help to produce cleaner and more refined highs and upgraded dual up-firing 3" mid-bass drivers that deliver full-sounding bass, this latest soundbar surpasses expectations to deliver an impressive audio experience that belies its size. Like its predecessor, the Sound Blaster Katana SE is also a certified Dolby Audio decoder, which allows users to easily recreate the cinematic audio experience within the comfort of their own home.

Today, Adobe unveiled Generative Fill in Photoshop, bringing Adobe Firefly generative AI capabilities directly into design workflows. The new Firefly-powered Generative Fill is the world's first co-pilot in creative and design workflows, giving users a magical new way to work by easily adding, extending or removing content from images non-destructively in seconds using simple text prompts. This beta release of Photoshop is Adobe's first Creative Cloud application to deeply integrate Firefly with an exciting roadmap ahead that will transform workflows across Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud and Adobe Express.

Adobe has over a decade-long history of AI innovation, delivering hundreds of intelligent capabilities through Adobe Sensei into applications that hundreds of millions of people rely upon. Features like Neural Filters in Photoshop, Content Aware Fill in After Effects, Customer AI in Adobe Experience Platform and Liquid Mode in Acrobat empower Adobe customers to create, edit, measure, optimize and review billions of pieces of content. Firefly, Adobe's family of creative generative AI models, now brings even more precision, power, speed and ease directly into workflows where content is created or modified.

Today, Adobe introduced Firefly, a new family of creative generative AI models, first focused on the generation of images and text effects. Firefly will bring even more precision, power, speed and ease directly into Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud and Adobe Express workflows where content is created and modified. Firefly will be part of a series of new Adobe Sensei generative AI services across Adobe's clouds.Adobe has over a decade-long history of AI innovation, delivering hundreds of intelligent capabilities through Adobe Sensei into applications that hundreds of millions of people rely upon. Features like Neural Filters in Photoshop, Content Aware Fill in After Effects, Attribution AI in Adobe Experience Platform and Liquid Mode in Acrobat empower Adobe customers to create, edit, measure, optimize and review billions of pieces of content with power, precision, speed and ease. These innovations are developed and deployed in alignment with Adobe's AI ethics principles of accountability, responsibility and transparency.

"Generative AI is the next evolution of AI-driven creativity and productivity, transforming the conversation between creator and computer into something more natural, intuitive and powerful," said David Wadhwani, president, Digital Media Business, Adobe. "With Firefly, Adobe will bring generative AI-powered 'creative ingredients' directly into customers' workflows, increasing productivity and creative expression for all creators from high-end creative professionals to the long tail of the creator economy."

Creative Technology today launched Creative Outlier Free Pro, its latest wireless bone conduction headphones equipped with all the features desired by pro-level sporting enthusiasts who love a soundtrack. Built to be tough yet comfortable in fit, unstoppable in the heaviest of rains and even underwater, indefatigable battery life and without the need for a device to play music, the Outlier Free Pro is simply at the top of its game.

Thanks to bone conduction technology, where sound waves are transmitted into the inner ears through vibrations from transducers on the user's cheekbones, the benefits of open-ear listening are realized. With a much-heightened level of environmental awareness, users can enjoy a safer listening experience as compared to in-ear or over-ear headphones - joggers and cyclists can make their way down busy streets with ease; gym buddies can chat effortlessly during workouts. Additionally, for leisure activities such as the use of mobile karaoke apps, users can enjoy the better experience of singing while hearing themselves naturally.

Creative Technology launched Sound Blaster X5, its latest USB DAC and amplifier sound card that ticks all the boxes on a discerning audiophile's gear wish list. Decked with class-leading components, breakthrough audio technologies, a comprehensive connectivity profile and sporting a premium look and feel in a sleek build, the X5 simply pulls out all the stops as a compelling audio solution like no other.

Sound Blaster X5 personifies the best of Creative's audio engineering and design expertise, equipped with audiophile-grade components to achieve exceptional audio quality. It is the first Sound Blaster to feature a dual-DAC design - 2 Cirrus Logic CS43198 DACs deliver high-resolution lossless playback in 32-bit / 384 kHz over PCM with ultra-high dynamic range of up to 130 dB SNR. These DACs can also decode audio formats in DoP128 and DSD256 for high-fidelity audio streaming. Audio distortion is practically non-existent with an oversampled multi-bit modulator for an incredibly low Total Harmonic Distortion rating of 0.00018%.

Creative Technology today announced the launch of the Creative Zen Air, sporting a new stick-shaped earbud design with a pocket-friendly charging case that is both stylish and lightweight. These true wireless earbuds can also do more than just rack up style points, it comes with nifty noise control features such as Active Noise Cancellation and Ambient Mode for a seamless listening experience. Despite its compact form factor, the Creative Zen Air can deliver a total playtime of up to 18 hours and up to 6 hours of playtime on a single charge to keep the music pumping all day long. Coupled with 10 mm Neodymium drivers, Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and a certified IPX4 sweat-proof rating, the Creative Zen Air truly stands out as the ideal true wireless earbuds fit for every pocket.

Creative Zen Air offers users a better listening experience with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) that can help filter out unwanted background noises so users can stay focused - be it at the office during an important conference call or listening to their favorite beats on the go without any interruptions. With a simple tap of the earbuds, users can easily switch to the Ambient Mode to let just the right amount of surrounding sound in, which works perfectly when running errands or while hiking on a busy trail.

Creative Technology today launched Creative Pebble Pro, the popular Pebble speaker series' latest and best addition, which boasts a compelling mix of size-defying audio quality, minimalist elegance in form, and a subtle yet distinctive personable touch of RGB lighting to adorn any desktop setup. This new 2.0 USB speaker system sees various improvements across its features set, headlined by its audio performance. With revamped full-range drivers, and featuring digital amplifiers with built-in audio processing, which replace analog ones used in previous models the Pebble Pro belies its diminutive form factor with more headroom for louder, clearer audio across the volume range, as well as up to 3.5 times more bass than the previous model Pebble V3.

During the Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Adobe announced an expanded collaboration to support creative experiences on Snapdragon powered devices across mobile, compute, and XR platforms. Together, the companies will push the boundaries of creativity and document productivity for Snapdragon users.

Building on the rich experiences already found with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom for Windows on Snapdragon devices, Adobe remains committed to bringing the best of Creative Cloud natively to the Snapdragon platform, including Adobe Fresco and Adobe Acrobat. Bringing the strength of Adobe Sensei, Adobe's artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, alongside the dedicated on-device Qualcomm AI Engine on Snapdragon compute platforms, users can experience enhanced device performance for creative workflows and tasks including super-resolution, background removal and color enhancement, editing content on-the-go, and more.

Creative Technology today launched Creative Sensemore Air, its latest high-performance true wireless earbuds which allow users to hear more of their surroundings than ever before, without compromising on audio quality. The new Sensemore technology helps to address the oft-annoying inconvenience associated with earbuds - because they are in-ear and block out much of the aural environment, users tend to remove their earbuds in various everyday situations, for example when starting a conversation. This changes with the Creative Sensemore Air, as users are given full control on the level of environmental sounds they want to hear. With Sensemore Mode, which is 5 times more sensitive than Ambient Mode, users can hear much more of speech, and other environmental elements, which are amplified with higher clarity. As a bonus, when set to a higher intensity, it could even benefit folks with mild hearing deficiencies.

The Ambient Mode can be used when users would like to hear their music well while still being aware of the environment, for example while jogging along a busy street. Conversely, to shut the world out so as to fully immerse in the music, users can rely on the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) Mode. The intensity of all 3 modes is fully adjustable through the handy Creative app.

Creative Technology today announced the release of Sound Blaster Katana V2X, its latest gaming soundbar which offers the same all-conquering audio prowess that the Katana series is known for, and has been re-engineered to not just suit users with smaller spaces for their gaming set-ups, but is also easier on the pocket. It is the slimmed-down alternative to the highly-rated Sound Blaster Katana V2 which has won various plaudits from reviewers as a choice gaming soundbar, including "The best soundbar for gaming is now even better" (Windows Central), "The best PC upgrade you can make" (VentureBeat), "An excellent soundbar for PC gaming and all other media" (GamesRadar+).

A cluttered desktop or TV console may not be the fancy of every gamer - Sound Blaster Katana V2X frees up valuable footprint with a subwoofer that is 40% smaller than its predecessor. The peak power output of 180 W makes perfect sense for gaming set-ups in smaller rooms. That said, the audio quality is maintained where it always matters. This soundbar retains the familiar sound signature of a high-end Sound Blaster, delivering hi-fidelity multichannel audio via the acclaimed tri-amplified Xamp technology, where Creative's proprietary multi-core DSP controller powers the tweeters, mid-range and subwoofer drivers individually. Super X-Fi Headphone Holography, an award-winning technology which recreates the soundstage of a high-end multi-speaker system in headphones, is perfect for late-night game binges without disturbing the neighbors.

Creative Technology today launched Sound Blaster Blaze V2, which succeeds the original Blaze gaming headset with new features to energize the gaming experience on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch consoles. The Sound Blaster Blaze V2 looks the part, with an all-black color theme that means the business; plush premium velvet padding on the circumaural earcups and headband combine with a lightweight form factor (187 g) to raise the level of comfort for extended gaming.

But beyond making gamers look and feel empowered, they hear it too. Precision-tuned 40 mm FullSpectrum Neodymium drivers deliver impactful bass and crisp audio designed to create an exhilarating experience. With Creative app (on Windows), users get to access the Sound Blaster Studio Essential suite to enable sound processing technologies like virtualized 7.1 Surround Sound, Acoustic Engine (with features like Surround, Crystalizer, Smart Volume, Dialog Plus), built-in audio presets for various gaming profiles, movies and music, and CrystalVoice (with features like Acoustic Echo Cancellation, Smart Volume, Microphone Equalizer).

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solutions, announces the new Fogra-certified professional display, ColorPro VP2786-4K. Built with 100% Adobe RGB color gamut, it delivers true-to-life color reproduction on all digital and print mediums. The monitor is tailored for the all-new ColorPro Sense software, which automatically suggests color combinations from Pantone 's color library to best match the creator's vision. It is also equipped with the intuitive ColorPro Wheel for in-depth color control and management.

"Photographers, printing professionals, and colorists require precise color reproduction to best represent their visions, which is why we offer solutions that ensure their masterpieces can be replicated in their truest form," said Oscar Lin, General Manager of the Monitor Business Unit at ViewSonic. "The ColorPro VP2786-4K takes another step forward into the realm of true color management with its combination of software and hardware. With that, we hope to give creators the freedom to command how their work looks like."

Creative Technology today launched Sound Blaster X1, the ultimate USB DAC and headphone amplifier which offers the heralded Sound Blaster Acoustic Engine technology, together with the multiple award-winning Super X-Fi Headphone Holography first seen in the iconic SXFI AMP. As small as a finger, it serves up a huge treat of multi-channel, high-resolution and immersive audio, with authentic reproductions down to the last detail, powered by a high-end 128dB AKM4377 32-bit DAC and Ti/Burr-Brown INA1620 dual audio operational amplifier.

Sound Blaster X1 is best used with PC and Mac, and with the Creative desktop app, users gain access to the Sound Blaster Acoustic Engine, where they can tap on the full suite of sound processing technologies to enhance their experiences for both work and play.

TechPowerUp partnered with Creative, the pioneers of PC gaming audio, to bring you the "Hearing is Believing" Giveaway. Under Creative's technological leadership, PC gaming audio evolved with the times, and is now squarely in the era of game streamers and content creators. With the company's Sound Blaster GC7, not only do you get the highest quality audio tuned by experts, but also DSPs optimized for various game genres, and audio controls for content creators. We're giving away three prizes from the Creative stable, and without further ado, here they are:

• @truehighroller1 from the US, wins the Creative Sound Blaster GC7
• Gabriele from Italy, wins the Creative Sound Blaster X4
• Jeff from the US, wins the Creative Sound BlasterX G6

A huge Congratulations to you three! TechPowerUp and Creative with more such interesting giveaways!

Creative Technology today launched Creative Live! Cam Sync V3, its latest UVC-compliant digital webcam with stand-out features of 2K QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution quality and 4X digital zoom in a plug-and-play package - a choice solution for video calls at work or simply catching up with loved ones.

Creative Live! Cam Sync V3 is everything one wants in a webcam - and more. Users do not just enjoy crystal-clear visuals with the 2K QHD resolution quality; with 4X digital zoom, they get the flexibility to adjust their frame for both intimate heart-heart chats, or boisterous group catch-ups. Additionally, the webcam is fully adjustable with 360 o horizontal rotation and 30° tilt with the lens offering up to 95° field of vision. Advanced settings like brightness/contrast, white balance and backlight compensation can also be fine-tuned with the Creative app (available on PC). Everything and everyone can be projected in visual harmony while remaining in clear focus. An integrated lens cap protects for privacy easily when needed with the bonus of keeping dust away. A compact universal tripod mounting plate means it will fit any laptops, desktop monitors or even tripods.

The TechPowerUp and Creative "Hearing is Believing" Giveaway is well underway, with just a day before entries close! All it takes is a minute to drop your hat in, with details that help us get back to you if you've won! Creative is as old as PC gaming itself, and is one of the pioneers of PC audio, always being at the forefront of gaming audio innovation. They're out to be the leaders in audio for the latest generation of gamers that like to stream their gameplay, and are serious creators in their own might. We are giving away three such pieces of Creative engineering—the Sound Blaster GC7, the Sound Blaster X4, and the Sound BlasterX G6 portable sound card. The Giveaway is open worldwide. What are you waiting for?

For more information, and to participate, visit this page.