Tag Archives: Underworld

Hades II Review: A Witch’s Touch Enhances This Underworld Sequel | Games

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fA few years back, during a time when we sought refuge from the chaos of the outside world, “Hades” by Supergiant Games provided a welcome distraction. Zagreus, the underworld’s rebellious son, attempted to escape his prison while the rest of us remained confined at home. There was no shame in its alluring charm, and it embraced its sensuality without reservation. The character designs by artist Jen Zi showcased Olympian perfection, and winning the favor of these irresistibly charismatic Greek gods was essential for thriving in this realm. It was a tale filled with apologies.

Alongside this, a series of challenges awaited. In “Hades II,” composer Darren Korb delivers a powerful and dramatic score to underscore the climactic stages of Olympus. This level of operatic grandeur surpasses anything from the original game. Zee’s new character illustration (including one wearing a leopard skin pouch) may even inspire further fan art and fan fiction. The brilliant script by writer Greg Casabin is wittier, smarter, and more layered than ever before.

Revenge is sweet, but this time, you are not playing as Zagreus; instead, you take on the role of his sister, Merinoe, at a crucial juncture. Rather than being trapped in a motel, she calls a haunted forest home, guided by the spectral shade and her mentor Hecate. While it may be dim and dreary, unlike Zagreus, she does not seek escape. Instead, she faces nightly adventures. Supergiant invites us to reclaim our time as we dive into the same struggles we faced five years ago, navigating two frontlines of intense battles—from the depths below to the heights of Mount Olympus.




Hardships and troubles… Hades II. Photo: Super Giant Game

Preparing to face Hecate in your first attempt may be a challenge—your showdown with the “Head Mistress” is merely the initial test of your combat abilities. However, the allure of run-based games like “Hades II” lies in the opportunity for improvement each night presents. Every failure offers lessons, and with each attempt, you gain some measure of progress. Emphasizing its occult theme, you will gather materials to throw into a cauldron during quests, enhancing your spells and boosting your odds of survival.

The game also draws inspiration from another pandemic hit. Animals that cross your path can sense resources and assist you in battle. The pale raven Raki surprises both rocks and foes, while the faithful hound Hecuba can distract enemies while unearthing recovery items. Personally, I found Wildcat Toula hard to overlook; she charges at nearby opponents with her claws—when she feels like it. Plus, she grants you a single chance to evade death during each run. With nine lives, she can afford to be daring.

To defeat Cronos, we will require the help of these newfound allies along with other forms of essential support. Encounters are as intense as you might expect, and it takes time to get accustomed to Merino’s captivating weapons. Interestingly, even if you wield the witch staff like a spear, combat feels intimately magical. The dark cloak allows you to send enemies into the ether and serves as a magical jetpack. As challenging as “Hades II” may become, you are afforded more avenues than ever before to tip the scales in your favor. Conversely, you can make the slopes of Olympus even steeper: nightmare boss fight variations demand mastery of the game’s delectable yet perilous risk-reward mechanics.

One of the delights of “Hades II” lies in its exploration of an internal conflict within a Dysfunctional Extended Family. But this is merely a setup for the resolved conflict. Not every character seems aware of the stakes: Scylla, the frontwoman of the Pop-Punk Trio of Sirens, cheerfully sings I will captivate you and make you my own deep down in Oceanus. Nonetheless, even amidst chaos, the fickle nemesis of your power suit could sporadically challenge you before blocking potential exits, but you can overcome them with the gifts of Nectar or Ambrosia. The conclusion of the game makes it abundantly clear: the fight against oppression’s power requires every ounce of our collective strength, no matter how insignificant we may feel. Regardless of our stance, true resistance arises from solidarity.

Source: www.theguardian.com

How Did You Obtain My Number? Exploring the Underworld of Data Brokers | Privacy Issues

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Priya Dev suspects she knows why political spam inundated her inbox during the 2025 federal election campaign.

Like many Australians, the developer endured an avalanche of unwanted patriotic text messages—Clive Palmer himself admitted to sending 17 million of them. However, it was the email spam from one of the major political parties that caught her attention.

Political parties are exempt from privacy laws, meaning they aren’t required to inform individuals about how to access their data, nor is there an option to opt out.

Nonetheless, clues surfaced for the Australian National University Data Science Academic. The email was sent to a pseudonym she used for an online purchase years ago—also employed in 2020 when she received spam from a minor political party.

“It appears to originate from a transaction,” she stated. “It could likely be from some online e-commerce deal, or energy trading, etc.”

Tracing how organizations access personal contact details is “extremely challenging for political parties because they often ignore inquiries,” Dev notes. “If we could uncover how this data was sourced, it would be groundbreaking.”


This marks the second time Dev has tried to trace how her data was accessed. Data brokers frequently buy and sell information to advertisers and other entities seeking insights into people without their consent.

After receiving numerous unwarranted calls last year, the developer tracked down who had her phone number. She returned to the real estate giant CoreLogic Australia, which informed her in 2023 that her data had been legally obtained from another data broker.

The company explained that it retrieved her data through a marketing campaign from 2014 and shared her information with at least 50 other companies.

Dev’s situation isn’t unique. Reports indicate that a child’s email, registered in a charity fundraiser over a decade ago, also received political spam from the Liberal Party during the recent election.

How did you get my number?

Understanding how marketers and others acquire your contact details and personal information is complex.

Katherine Kemp, an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales leading the Public Interest Law and Technology Initiative, explains that this often occurs through data matching services that merge personal information from various service providers, subsequently sold via data brokers.

Kemp mentions she has encountered mortgage brokers in the mortgage industry.

Yet, discovering how they obtained that information can be quite elusive, Kemp adds.

When she inquires where people got her details, she often hears, “They either evade the question or abruptly hang up… providing vague answers, and if pressed, they quickly end the call.”

Federal Privacy Commissioner Carly Kins described the data-broking sector as “extremely opaque” and possessing “a convoluted value chain of personal information.”

“Thus, people are left in the dark, lacking authority to voice their concerns,” she states.

“Many find it unsettling. I believe it’s concerning how personal information is relayed through data brokers, landing in unexpected places.”

Who are the data brokers and what do they collect?

A global data broker organization claims it will “facilitate the exchange of information for consumer benefit and support to Australian businesses and small enterprises,” as stated in a 2023 submission to the Australian Consumer Watchdog’s data brokerage survey.

Information collected can include name, address, age, viewing habits, purchasing patterns, financial status, employment background, qualifications, tenant history, and other socio-economic and demographic details.




Dev notes discussions about expanding privacy responsibilities for political parties may lead to mandated transparency in how they obtain personal data. Photo: Hilary Warduff/Guardian

According to Reset.Tech Australia, last year’s report highlighted the types of data purchased and sold by brokers, including location tracking over time, financial details, tendencies related to gambling and drinking, and recent online purchases.

Data broker companies include credit reporting agencies, identity verification firms, news organizations, real estate companies, tenancy data firms, marketers, loyalty programs, and social media platforms.

“Unpleasant” Australians whose personal information is sold

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission uncovered in last year’s data broker report that privacy policies often use “ambiguous language,” complicating consumers’ ability to identify data sharing practices. This makes it tougher to ascertain who has their data and opt out of such collections.

The average privacy policy contains 6,876 words, and it reportedly takes 29 minutes to read.

A survey featured in the report indicated that 74% of Australians are uncomfortable with the idea of their personal information being shared or sold.

Some companies attempt to downplay privacy concerns by outlining data collection to consumers and offering access to information held upon request. A consumer group found last year that a data broker claimed it didn’t retain data from loyalty program members.


Privacy Commissioner Kins noted that claims from data-collecting companies suggesting that personal information falls under the Privacy Act could be a “creative interpretation” of the law.

According to the ACCC, identified data, when aggregated with data points from other sources, still poses a risk of consumer identification.

Overall, without naming specific companies, many Australians expressed that some practices within the data brokering industry feel “very uncomfortable at best, often indicating serious breaches of trust.”

“Data transfer often occurs multiple times, creating a complicated environment. While much of this is legal, [privacy] practices remain vague and often reside in a gray area with minimal legitimate actions.”

Regulators can flex their muscles

Although the ACCC report didn’t issue any recommendations, it endorsed the strengthening of privacy laws in Australia.

Commissioner Kins indicated that the ACCC’s work could pave the way for her office to investigate practices in the sector, stressing that current privacy laws contain “various elements that could restrict practices applicable to data brokers.”

“I want to prioritize this issue, and my regulatory team is currently contemplating how to utilize our authority in this realm,” Kins remarked.

Dev emphasizes the need to discuss expanding privacy responsibilities for political parties to ensure they transparently disclose how they acquire personal data.

The current exemption allows political parties to bypass her inquiries concerning what data they hold, according to Dev.

Kemp believes there’s potential for stricter laws concerning data brokering, but expresses little desire to alter the legal obligations of political parties.

“However, I don’t believe we should abandon discussions on reform in this area.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Drawn from the Cantina: The Intriguing Sounds of the Star Wars Underworld | Culture

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk into a sweaty, dusty club on a desert planet from Star Wars? What would be played on the radio in a casino on a planet like Las Vegas? What do Tatooine’s merchants and villains listen to when they’re not working on moisture farms or fighting off Tusken Raiders? Cody Matthew Johnson’s life these past few years has been spent pondering such questions. The composer and artist has previously worked in video game music, including Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Bayonetta, and the cult indie Akira Kurosawa’s sidescroller Trek to Yomi. Surely is credited to. However, in Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws, he was tasked with creating music for a shady criminal organization.

“While the scope of musical expression within the world was limited in the original trilogy, this was an opportunity to legitimately explore the music of the time on a broader scale,” Johnson said. It was offered for his work in The Outlaws. “Creating bar music in the style of the original trilogy has its own set of ‘rules’, and while this game is certainly set in that era, we have was only encouraged. slightly Inspired by the cantina music from the original trilogy.”

We’re all familiar with John Williams’ 1977 Cantina Band music (unfortunately, the genre was commonly known as “jazz”), but it’s mainstream. Matthew Johnson digs deeper, exploring the dirt under the fingernails of Star Wars dunces and getting a real feel for the culture of those forgotten by the Empire and too demoralized to join the Rebellion. There was a need. He had to make different music for a world we were already familiar with.

Cody Matthew Johnson, composer, songwriter, producer of Star Wars Outlaws Photo: Knocking Bird

“The galaxy is vast, typically with thousands (some say millions) of planets, and the last 40 years of in-universe music have only scratched the surface of the possibilities., was not only about the main character Kay Vess and what she listens to, but also the underworld subcultures she exists in, such as Toshara, Akiba, Tatooine, and Kijimi. Not only music, but also music. created By that subculture.”

The result is a full album’s worth of tracks, over an hour long, and more than 10% of all diegetic or “in-universe” Star Wars music ever created. To my ears, Songs from the Underworld has elements of ELO, Bonobo, Snarky Puppy, Kraftwerk, and Ry Cooder. It bounces between genres and utilizes weird and wonderful instrumentation. Matthew Johnson is just as happy to use the didgeridoo as he is the guitar, which is not surprising considering he is a trained ethnomusicologist.

“All kinds of sounds, textures and instruments were on the table: spider monkeys, seals, vintage carbon phone microphones, cimbalom, yair tambour, furushi, shakuhachi, gamelan arranged on a drum set…” he says of this Maxima. Let’s talk about rhythm. “I searched every nook and cranny for inspiration to best represent these worlds, and every once in a while, I heard the sounds of gamelan, trash cans, didgeridoos, and kazoos being smashed together.” Just right For the outlaws of Star Wars.”

Matthew Johnson was “making it hard on himself” to avoid having “funny alien music” playing in every den of scum and villains where the player controls Kay Vess. He seriously considered and thought about the sounds of instruments within the world that the inhabitants of these worlds could physically play. He describes “the tonal elements of different instruments, the emotions and symbolic meanings they evoke, and how they can be combined to create instruments that may have been created or inspired by the world’s natural resources and cultures.” I had to think about whether I could create sound.

“I heard the gamelan, trash can, didgeridoo and kazoo being smashed together.” It’s just right”… Star Wars Outlaws. Photo: Ubisoft

For example, he explains in great detail that the sympathetic, resonant buzz of the sitar, the aggressive attack of the drumsticks of the saz and bouzouki, must be considered in conjunction with the playing style of the nylon-string guitar and charango of flamenco. I’m doing it. All these incredibly special sounds combine to give you a unique melodic instrumental sound that you would get on a desert planet. This is also the case with the track “If These Sands Could Speak.”

To create the collaborative spirit and “all in this together” attitude at the heart of so much alternative underground music, Matthew Johnson needed a band. “The joy of life is being able to collaborate with friends,” he explains. “It was a dream gig for everyone involved in this project, including musicians, engineers and instrument designers.The joy of playing and creating music is something we all share. That’s why we decided to dedicate our lives to this. Projects like Star Wars Outlaws combine my background as a record producer, performing musician, recording artist, and video game composer. , the perfect instrument for making music feel It’s like having a party.”


That’s right. The diegetic music in Star Wars Outlaws complements the equally great original score by Wilbert Roget II, providing some great musical ebbs and flows rarely seen in open-world games. The score is designed to be heard by you, the player. The music on the radio and in the bar is for Kay Vess. I think Outlaws is one of the best examples of how in-game music can add texture and depth, even to a world with as much history and lore as Star Wars.

“‘The Outlaws’ is the perfect vessel to show how music can reveal narrative information without literally conveying it,” says Johnson. “As Kay walks down the hallway and turns a corner, she hears the faint sound of a reverbed subwoofer hitting a kick drum. As she approaches the door at the end of the hallway, more musical elements can be heard. When Kei opens the door, music floods her body, and there’s a band on stage, dancing patrons, dim neon lights, and two stories of fog throughout. An underground nightclub has appeared.

“Even before they arrive at the club, the music, and equally importantly the implementation of music into the game itself, reveals a lot about our setting to the player.”

Songs from the Underworld is one of my favorite albums of the year so far. For me, it gives me a sense of what it’s like to be planetside in Star Wars, what it’s like to actually put yourself in the shoes of characters who live and breathe different atmospheres.

  • Star Wars Outlaws is available now on PS5, Xbox One, and PC. the song of the underworld Available on Spotify.

Source: www.theguardian.com