It'd be fair to say Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's next-gen makeover of characters, monsters, and more from the 1997 original has been a spectacular glow-up. The modern console era has returned an iconic cast and world to us with a level of realism in gameplay that even pre-rendered cutscenes over 25 years ago couldn't match. We asked Square Enix if they could crunch some numbers and share some insight into the changes nearly three decades of technological advancement have wrought. Here, main character modeler and lead character artist Dai Suzuki walks us through a selection of characters, creatures, weapons, and more.

Dai Suzuki: When people think of Cloud, most think of his gigantic sword and his unique hairstyle. Because it is so iconic, we needed to put special effort into creating Cloud's hair for Final Fantasy VII Remake, to properly express his personality. The hair was an extremely high-priority element and in fact accounted for half of the total polygon count for the whole model. In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the hardware has been changed to PS5, allowing for a higher polygon count to be used than in Final Fantasy VII Remake.

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?

During the CES 2024 international show, Wacom, one of the leaders in the digital design space, unveiled the new Wacom Cintiq Pro and Wacom One tablets. The company also showcased its digital rights management software, Yuify, and introduced Wacom Bridge, a tool designed to enhance remote collaborative workflows for studios. The new Wacom Cintiq Pro line, including the Pro 27, 22, and 17, was developed in collaboration with professionals in virtual production, VFX, CG, and animation. The latest Wacom Cintiq Pro 27, with its precision and best-in-class color fidelity, is poised to take virtual production workflows to the next level. Color accuracy is crucial in virtual production workflows, and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 delivers 100% Rec. 709 and 98% DCI-P3 color accuracy. Its 4K display, with 10-bit color, offers high color performance and calibration options, reducing the traditional setup footprint without compromising performance.

The new Wacom Pro Pen 3, redesigned for ergonomic comfort and customization, complements the Cintiq Pro 27's eight Express Keys and multi-touch screen, offering a harmonious workflow. Wacom Bridge, developed in partnership with AWS NICE DCV and Splashtop, is a technology solution that enhances the use of Wacom products on supported remote desktop connections, catering to the needs of remote and hybrid work environments. The Wacom One line, first launched in 2019, has been redesigned and upgraded, offering more options and customization opportunities. The line includes the Wacom One 13 and 12 displays and the Wacom One Medium and Small pen tablets. Finally, Wacom's commitment to protecting artists' work is embodied in "Yuify", a service that allows artists to protect their artwork, manage usage rights, and establish legally binding license permissions. This digital rights management platform enables creators to conveniently manage their authorship records and sign licenses and contracts.

Hundreds and thousands of storage products are now selling everywhere in an immense variety of shapes and sizes. There are also so many different types of new generation USB3.0 flash drives which have top line performance. However, performance alone can only partly satisfy consumer needs and demands; not only do people favor access speed, they must also be able to display personal style and uniqueness. This is the kind of perfect product that the Team Group T132 is! The designers from Team Group started with the idea of using the lines from a bird's nest with fine zinc alloy to create a refined look. The material they used for surface is processed with sandblasting; emitting a low-key and introverted silver glow, which further displays the calm tone of natural craftsmanship. It uses hollow interlaced lines that soften the hard metal design and comes along with slip-proof function. On the other hand, it also uses a one-piece cap-less design, totally eliminating the worry of losing the cover.

In addition to having a natural and meaningful design, the T132 also uses the new generation COB packaging technology, vastly reducing the weight and volume of the flash drive. It uses the high speed USB3.0 interface, with the addition of the newest control chip model, allows its read performance to easily reach 85MB/s. Also, in order to satisfy the data storage needs of different user groups, the T132 comes with many capacity selections including 16 / 32 / 64GB. It also has water-proof and dust-proof protection, allowing the user to have a stress free experience experience with the drive.

Microsoft's Hardware team has today revealed some colorful new additions to its mouse offer, five fresh artistic patterns, for the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 and Arc Touch Mouse, and several limited edition shades, for the Explorer Touch Mouse and WMM 3500.

The added Artist Edition surfaces come from five new designers - Kenzo Minami, Stina Persson, Oh Joy!, Tchmo and Sally Zou, and are available here (Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 Limited Edition Artist Series) and here (Arc Touch Mouse Limited Edition Artist Series).

As for the limited edition colors, they are Dahlia Pink and White for the Explorer Touch Mouse, and Aqua Blue, Citron Green, Cobalt Blue, Dahlia Pink, Flame Red, White and Black for the Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500.

Yesterday the creative mind behind SKYRIM and Fallout 3, Adam Adamowicz fell in his battle with cancer. Mr. Adamowicz was the lead artist behind the entire artistic concept of the two modern day gaming masterpieces Fallout 3 and SKYRIM, giving those worlds life and personality. Everything from coin operated fallout shelters to dragons atop snowy peaks was first visualized and created in the mind of Adam Adamowicz.