Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Trouble in paradiseI\u00a0picked up Europa at the suggestion of a friend, but his recommendation (\u201cit\u2019s very pretty\u201d) understated its breathtaking beauty. Masterminded by environment artist Helder Pinto (whose credits include Overwatch 2) and created by a small team of\u00a0developers in their spare time, it feels like a labour of love; at one point I ended up sobbing at my keyboard, although it should be noted that I was quite tired at the\u00a0time and I\u2019m generally a bit soppy.It\u2019s initially very tranquil, but the game\u2019s more sinister elements slowly creep up\u00a0on youThese factors notwithstanding, it\u2019s an emotionally resonant \u201clast human alive\u201d tale of a small android boy (named Zee, equipped with a jetpack) who wakes and sets out to discover the secrets of Europa\u2019s leafy paradise. Encouraged by words written on pages from his late father\u2019s notebook that he finds strewn along the way, he jumps, hovers and glides through lush fields, abandoned ruins and icy wastelands, solving elegant puzzles and steering clear of mechanical creatures (\u201cgardeners\u201d) who tend to the flora and deeply resent the presence of anyone in human form. It\u2019s initially very tranquil, but the game\u2019s more sinister elements slowly creep up\u00a0on you, superbly enhanced by Matthew Thomason\u2019s soundtrack.The gameplay is a joy,\u00a0particularly when manoeuvring Zee in flight, with clever in-game devices guiding you down the correct path. But it\u2019s the visuals and cinematics that really draw you in and propel you forward, and with no distracting heads-up display you become completely absorbed in Pinto\u2019s extraordinary world. Many of the creatures (both real and fantastical) are inspired by Cornish wildlife, and as Zee occasionally pauses on his quest to draw them in his own notebook, the actual draft sketches of those animals (by artist Uriel Cordas) are revealed on screen.Pinto aimed to recreate \u201cthe illusion of\u00a0a watercolour animated movie within a\u00a0game engine\u201d, which he has certainly achieved. Europa is a timely tale of nature trying to protect itself from the worst excesses of humanity, but it\u2019s told with tenderness and affection. I adored it.The art of noiseRazer\u2019s new flagship headphones bring together some of the best aspects of its range \u2013 flexibility, long battery life, immersive sound and LED lighting. The biggest draw, however, is the integration of its new haptic technology, Sensa HD, where compatible games can deliver feedback to the headset. So you\u2019ll feel the rumble of a vehicle or the crack of a gun through your head \u2013 and it\u2019s not only responding to audio; the effects can be programmed by the developer (Hogwarts Legacy is one current example). They come with a control hub with a screen that can display anything from graphics card diagnostics to details of the music you\u2019re listening to. (Speaking of which, dub reggae plus haptic feedback is really something.)A good turnIf you\u2019re standing up in an empty room, 360-degree VR games are amazing. When seated, however, they\u2019re locked in a battle with your brain. If your character turns, you can\u2019t, and that disconnect between your eyes and inner ear feels deeply uncomfortable. (Recognising this, developers rotate gameplay in 30-degree increments if you\u2019re sitting\u00a0still \u2013 far from ideal.) Roto VR, working together with Meta, has ingeniously addressed this with a chair that physically rotates you as\u00a0the game requires, effectively eliminating motion sickness. A seated session playing Iron Man VR, first without and then with the chair, was like night and day. Setting it up for the first time takes about 45 minutes, but thereafter it\u2019s a liberating thrill.Squeak performanceGram for gram, this super-light carbon fibre mouse is pricier than saffron. It was developed by ASUS\u2019s high-end gaming brand ROG (Republic Of Gamers) in collaboration with esports professionals, and it\u2019s a\u00a0perfectly contoured, supremely tactile device; no surprises button-wise (left, right, front, back and a scroll wheel) but its operation is highly customisable across multiple user profiles via the Armoury Crate Gear software. You can connect via\u00a0Bluetooth, a USB cable or a (provided)\u00a0RF dongle; the latter two\u00a0can optionally connect via a\u00a0thumb-sized booster that ups the\u00a0polling rate\u00a0to 8,000Hz, which is\u00a0as\u00a0high as any mouse can go. Reactive lighting effects are the cherry on the cake. \u00a3239.99Game and bikeNot a gaming product, but an electric motorbike inspired by retro gaming \u2013 specifically the \u201cAtomic Purple\u201d Game Boy Color. Freed from the constraints imposed by petrol power (eg, engines and exhausts), designer Simon Dabadie has embraced the idea of creating motorbikes as works of art. All the design cues of this machine are taken from the Nintendo console: a body made of translucent plastic to showcase the mechanics, handlebar-mounted controls based on the D-pad and A-B buttons, a vintage game cartridge start key, and hidden cheat codes integrated into the bike\u2019s software to unlock special features (eg, display variations and 8-bit sound effects). And it\u2019s all put together at Peugeot\u2019s motorbike factory \u2013 the oldest in the world. From \u20ac14,900@rhodri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Trouble in paradiseI\u00a0picked up Europa at the suggestion of a friend, but his recommendation (\u201cit\u2019s very pretty\u201d) understated its breathtaking beauty. Masterminded by environment artist Helder Pinto<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-149260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149262,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149260\/revisions\/149262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}