Evanston didn’t have a brewery before Temperance Beer Co. arrived at the end of 2013. The suburb’s first brewery was a historic moment, and the taproom quickly became one of the city’s finest with hits like Might Meets Right and Gatecrasher IPA. Temperance represented the rising popularity of the craft beer movement when home brewers crowded taprooms and stood in long lines for the latest release.
But times have changed. On Tuesday afternoon, Temperance founder Josh Gilbert announced the brewery would close on Sunday, October 27. All brewery tours had been canceled with refunds on their way. In a newsletter blast and Instagram post, Gilbert calls the craft beer world “barely recognizable” compared to a decade ago. “It’s difficult to even imagine that kind of excitement for a new brewery launch these days,” he writes.
Drinking habits have changed, and many craft beer fans have grown older, gravitating toward bourbon, non-alcoholic drinks, or even spiked seltzers Beer can be filling. Beyond beverages, the food scene has also shifted. Food trucks were a staple at Temperance, but the excitement for mobile eating has also snarled in this age of food delivery apps.
Temperance head brewer Claudia Jendron helped open the brewery in 2013 and was one of the few women in the industry. The taproom gave Evanston some credibility in the food and drink scene. Evanston has a long history of being a dry town. Customers, including Block Club Chicago co-founder Shamus Toomey and former Tribune beer and spirits writer Josh Noel, expressed their condolences with comments under the brewery’s Instagram post.
Now, fans have 12 days to relive the glory days before Temperance closes.
It’s been about a year and a half since we first caught wind of Dune: Awakening, the massively multiplayer online survival game set on the planet of Arrakis. On Friday, Funcom released a story-focused trailer at Summer Game Fest, teasing that the game will focus on an alternate telling of the story of Paul Atreides — but we’ll have to wait until Gamescom in Aug. 2024 for a gameplay trailer.
The game drops players first-person into the world of Dune (well, at least, the world of Arrakis) where they’ll traverse the desert, using the land and relying on its other inhabitants to survive and thrive. Players will be able to join house Atreides or the Harkonnen, or live a quieter existence as a crafter or trader — but they won’t be able to kill or ride sandworms, unfortunately.
The game harnesses the simultaneously desolate and claustrophobic setting of the desert to push players to their survival game limits: You’ll have to avoid the sun, evade sandworms, craft tools, and find water wherever it exists (and yes, that includes enemies’ bodies). But it’s not all treacherous walks through Arrakis — vehicles include thopters, thumpers, and sand bikes, and the Voice is at your disposal should you need to sway your enemies one way or another.
While past Dune games have (very successfully, mind you) leaned on real-time strategy to encapsulate the vibe of the books and films, Dune: Awakening promises the most immersive experience yet. We’ll have to see if it delivers on that promise when it’s released on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
Naughty Dog’s planned multiplayer game set in the world of The Last of Us is no more. The studio announced Thursday that it has “made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on” what it’s been calling The Last of Us Online.
“We know this news will be tough for many, especially our dedicated The Last of Us Factions community, who have been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently,” the studio said in a post on its website. “We’re equally crushed at the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands.”
The Last of Us Online was, at one point, supposed to be revealed to the public this year. The studio had released a handful of pieces of concept art for the game, but never showed gameplay.
Naughty Dog said developers at the studio had been in pre-production on The Last of Us Online since the development of The Last of Us Part 2, which it shipped in 2020. The online game was “unique and had tremendous potential,” the studio said, but it was also a daunting task that it did not have the resources to dedicate to.
“In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear,” the developer explained. “To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.”
In its announcement, Naughty Dog provided a silver lining for The Last of Us Online’s formal cancellation: “The learnings and investments in technology from this game will carry into how we develop our projects and will be invaluable in the direction we are headed as a studio. We have more than one ambitious, brand new single player game that we’re working on here at Naughty Dog, and we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we’re ready.”
The original The Last of Us launched with multiplayer component of its own back in 2013, which was also available in the PlayStation 4 version, The Last of Us Remastered. TLOU’s Factions mode used deathmatch and team deathmatch game types found in many multiplayer games, and layered a metagame and story on top.
The Finals, one of the buzziest new shooters of 2023 despite only existing in beta, finally has a release date. It’s out… right now! Developer Embark Studios announced the news at the 2023 Game Awards.
Created by ex-Battlefield devs, The Finals is a free-to-play first-person shooter in which various teams of three shoot each other a bunch to see which team is the best at shooting the other teams. Embark Studios ran a closed beta in the spring and an open beta spanning from late October through early November that racked up 7.5 million players.
One of the huge draws of The Finals is that it’s not a battle royale. There’s no circle or storm or slowly encroaching safe zone. You also don’t really get punished when you get eliminated, save for a brief 20-second respawn timer. Matches last no longer than 15 minutes. It feels like a throwback to the deathmatch modes that dominated the mid-2000s, except it’s as gorgeous and technically impressive as any other modern shooter. Nostalgia for an earlier, arguably simpler era of gaming is no doubt a factor in The Finals’ popularity.
The other huge draw is that every single building can explode.
Last week, I got a chance to play The Finals during a closed media session meant to illustrate The Finals’ final state before its launch. I cannot express how frequently the thing I was standing on exploded.
Image: Embark Studios
For the most part, that tracks with Polygon’s more extensive preview of The Finals from earlier this year. The general concept is that you’re a contestant in some sort of shiny, violent, futuristic game show. Matches take place on maps like Monaco and Las Vegas. (Get it? Because gambling!) When you’re eliminated, you turn into a pile of coins. (Also because gambling.) Buildings, however, don’t suffer such a cartoonish fate. Shooting a wall or floor with an RPG causes it to collapse into a pile of rubble. When a building takes enough structural damage, the whole thing comes crashing down — even if you’re meticulously perched on the eaves, trying to get the drop on an opposing team.
You can choose from three classes, simply named “light,” “medium,” and “heavy,” each replete with all the gear and movement speed (or lack thereof) you’d expect from those barebones classifications. For the session, Embark paired attendees off into squads of three. We played two different quick-play modes: Quick Cash and Bank It. Both modes tally your score not by how many eliminations you have but by how much cash you can steal from opponents and deliver to various drop points. But I’ll be honest: The shooting in The Finals is so distractingly solid — so emblematic of the golden age of Battlefield — I couldn’t help but spend my time prioritizing spraying and praying over learning “rules” and “objectives.” You’re welcome, teammates!
Image: Embark Studios
The Finals also features a tournament component with higher stakes than the quick-play modes. If your squad doesn’t finish in the top two for your existing round, you’re eliminated from the bracket. (I’m not sure what happens after the first round, because our squad finished last. Twice.)
I’d be remiss not to mention our experience playing The Finals was marred by technical difficulties. Such things are generally excusable for a beta; that is, after all, the whole point of betas. Still, for roughly half the games we played, one or two players of our three-person squad would inexplicably fail to load in. When we’d successfully get into a match, for about half of those matches, one player would get dropped. Since The Finals does not have an option to rejoin an existing match, one party member getting kicked out meant we all had to quit. (Let the record reflect that we totally would’ve won all of those matches otherwise.)
Aside from those hiccups, which may very well not be present at all in today’s full release, The Finals is an energetic and competent multiplayer shooter I could see myself dipping into for a few rounds when Halo Infinite gets too frustrating. Players have by and large moved on from the sort of arena-style gameplay on display here, so sure, like the contest that defines this game’s minimalist lore, The Finals is ultimately a gamble. But it’s one I hope pays off.
The Finals is out now on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
World’s first regulatory framework based in Abu Dhabi for voluntary carbon markets elevates confidence
ABU DHABI, SINGAPORE, October 25, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — • World’s first regulatory framework based in Abu Dhabi for voluntary carbon markets elevates confidence • First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and Helix Climate conduct first trade on the exchange • South Pole executes first over-the-counter transaction on Carbon Market Board
ACX (AirCarbon Exchange) proudly announces its exchange and clearing house in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), ACX Abu Dhabi, is live. Key trades have already been executed and settled on the platform, signifying the commencement of what is anticipated to be a burgeoning market for voluntary carbon markets (VCM).
ACX established its regional base in ADGM in August 2021 with the support of Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem. Hub71 is powered by Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (Mubadala), an Abu Dhabi sovereign investor. Mubadala invested in ACX in September 2022 as a strategic step in line with its economic diversification mandate and commitment to responsible investing.
In September 2022, ADGM, the international financial centre of the UAE’s capital that is established as a financial free zone, became the first jurisdiction to regulate voluntary carbon credits as financial instruments through the introduction of an Environmental Instrument…
Twitch is further broadening its simulcast rules, the livestream platform announced on Friday. As shared during TwitchCon in Las Vegas, streamers can now live broadcast streams onto even more platforms — YouTube and Kick, for example. That said, streamers with an “agreement with Twitch that requires exclusivity” won’t be able to do so.
“We truly believe that Twitch is the best service to be a live, interactive creator, and we want to give streamers more freedom in just how they want to build their communities,” said Twitch VP of community product Jeremy Forrester during an interview with Polygon at TwitchCon.
This news comes on the heels of Twitch bleeding big-name talent. On Oct. 19, Kick signed massively popular streamer and co-owner of FaZe Clan Nickmercs in a one-year contract worth roughly $10 million, according to a Forbes report. This summer, the upstart company also signed Amouranth, Twitch’s most popular female streamer, and former pro-Overwatch player xQc (the latter of whom, Kick offered a $100 million deal). This is not to mention talent that moved to YouTube: In the last three years, YouTube signed Valkyrae, Ludwig, Sykkuno, LilyPichu, and more. Some of these streamers left in the wake of Twitch changing its revenue share split from 70/30 (in favor of streamers) to 50/50.
Forrester said this talent departure was not the motivator for the expanded simulcast policy, instead calling it “community driven” and saying that it was an example for Twitch developers to demonstrate that they “listen” to creator’s “concerns, and react to them when we can.”
The most interesting part of the new guidelines might just be all the way at the bottom of the FAQ. Streamers who left Twitch now have a chance to become Twitch Partners again. Per the guidelines, Twitch Partners whose previous agreements were “terminated” because they left for another service — and they notified Twitch beforehand, thus not violating the agreement — will be “eligible to reinstate their Partnership status.”
Twitch also seems to finally be acknowledging the value of cross-platform discovery. In August, Twitch updated its simulcast guidelines to include TikTok and Instagram. During TwitchCon, streamers told Polygon that TikTok had become a vital way to draw in new fans — TikTok’s short video format basically functions like a highlight reel for Twitch streamers to post their funniest moments. “Being able to curate the highlights from your stream and feeding that into the TikTok algorithm is your chance for an entirely new audience to see you,” streamer Alex Labat told Polygon in anticipation of TwitchCon. And earlier this month, Twitch introduced its own short video feature, “stories.”
Even as simulcasting options broaden, there are still rules to follow that more or less ensure streamers won’t use Twitch to direct traffic to their other platforms, or attempt to interact with their fan communities on various platforms at the same time. Streamers must “ensure” the quality of a Twitch users’ experience is “no less than the experience on other platform services” — and this includes engaging with the Twitch community via chat. Nor can streamers use a third-party app to for “merging chat features,” for example. Streamers also can’t provide links during a Twitch stream, encouraging followers to leave Twitch for a simulcast on another platform.
“We believe that creators will do it with the intent to help bring people to Twitch,” Forrester said, optimistically.
/EIN News/ — Toronto, Ontario, Sept. 29, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Yooma Wellness Inc. (CSE: YOOM, AQSE: YOOM) (“Yooma” or the “Company“) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Yooma Europe Limited (“Yooma Europe”) has completed the sale of Birmingham-based Vitality CBD Limited (“Vitality”), a UK-focused CBD company, for a total consideration of US$2.0 million (the “Disposal”) to Psilobrain Therapeutics Inc. (“Psilobrain”). Psilobrain is a private Canadian biotech company that uses the latest in psychedelic medicine to design products that facilitate evidence-based healing & wellness. Further details regarding Psilobrain is available at www.psilobrain.com.
Details on the Disposal
The consideration payable by Psilobrain comprises US$1.0 million in cash (the “Cash Consideration”), and US$1.0 million in new shares of Psilobrain (the “Consideration Shares”). The Cash Consideration is to be paid to the Company in three instalments, with US$350,000 paid on completion, US$300,000 to be paid within 130 days of completion, and US$350,000 to be paid within 210 days of completion. The shares of Vitality that were sold are subject to a charge in favour of the Company and Yooma Europe to secure the payment and performance of Psilobrain’s obligations in respect of the Cash Consideration instalments that come due after the completion date. The consideration payable by Psilobrain is subject to customary…
/EIN News/ — PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — 180 Life Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: ATNF) (“180 Life Sciences” or the “Company”), today announced that an agreement has been reached with Prof. Avi Domb of the Hebrew University, School of Pharmacy, and with Prof. Elyad Davidson, of Hadassah Hospital, to perform a clinical pharmacology (“Pharmacokinetic” or “PK”) study of the uptake of cannabidiol (CBD) in a formulation which can be delivered as a pill orally. The PK study will seek to determine how much CBD is taken up into the blood of volunteers.
While CBD preparations have previously been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for rare forms of childhood epilepsy, a major problem in working with CBD is its low and unpredictable and variable uptake following the most convenient delivery form, by mouth, as CBD in oil. This has hampered progress and clinical trials seeking potential uses for CBD, such as for the treatment of pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), head trauma, and more, where reports have suggested the possibility of benefits. To help try to solve this problem, Prof. Domb and colleagues have developed “ProNanoLipospheres” (PNL), a mixture of components available over-the-counter, which form little droplets and have been shown to be absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into blood. The dosage form has been shown in preliminary testing in rats to…
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