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Why Rust Is So Popular?

In this stimulating game, you are marooned on an isolated small island. You have to survive in the hostile wild environment without any outside help. You get immersed in the cacophonic silence unless the untamed roar of the ocean or crunching of pebbles and twigs underneath your feet. You have to find your own ways to satisfy your hunger and use jute fabric to cover your embarrassment. You need some innovation and craftsmanship to build a shelter from the natural resources of fresh water and woods. This is necessary to survive in the wilderness. But these encumbrances are the tip of an iceberg. Lots unfold as the game progress.

To survive in the wild

There are many aspects of human nature encompassed in the Rust game, the unpredictable savage behavior of man to survive in the wild, the brutal enormity of nature. Your only assignment is to survive. The voice chat is proportionate to distance, so if you spot someone, as they come closer, you hear their talks more clearly, and most of them are ruthless. And suddenly, you find in the midst of a volley of shotgun shots with the entire vocabulary of abuses. Most of the assailants are equipped with stones or battle axes, but if you are resourceful and made an indigenous weapon, you can face them fearlessly.

Its popularity is ever-increasing 

The game was published by Facespunch Studio in 2013, but its popularity of it has never decreased but increased last year. It generated revenue of more than $1 million twice a week. The full version of this multi-player survival game was launched in 2018. In procedurally produced maps, the players must hunt and forge weapons to survive in the inhospitable environment. At the initial stage, you have only stones and a torch, but to survive, you need more; rust hacks with aimbot make the difference between life and death. The other players are not your comrades but your head hunters, but using those hacks, you ensure a worthy fight before perishing.

The player base witnessed a significant surge since the multiplayer game was launched in 2013. The number of players reached its apex on 7th January 2021, surpassing the previous record of 3rd January 2021, according to the official newsletter. The surge in popularity was due to the involvement of many high-profile streamers making the game more difficult and competitive. This exposure is attracting more players. The gender of the chosen character is based on your streamer ID, along with your ethnicity and size of genitals. As female characters were introduced in the game, there was mixed reaction among players. But developers were quick to clarify gender of the character does not impact the gameplay in any way. Since Rust is in Early Access, regular updates and patches are coming changing various aspects of the game, including graphics, weapon use, and environment.

Resource for survival is minimal

The shelf life of this game is long that is because it is still immersive. The available resource for survival is minimal and scarce. The only supply you get is stone and a torch. You learn quickly how to use the stone to harvest basic requirements like wood, stone, and jute fabric clothing. You can forge some Stone Age weapons such as hatchet and spear. But the saga of transformation from prehistoric to contemporary weaponry is amazing. Eventually, from these crude weapons, you can possess pistols, rocket launchers, and grenades. The path is tedious, requiring amazing craftsmanship by using a furnace and other mechanical tools.

 

Else you can use the hacks and cheats to armor with the most sophisticated arsenal. With these cheats, you have an invincible edge over other players and join the elite group of winners. The domain of multiplayer games is fiercely competitive. To survive and accomplish, you need extra resources, and nothing is more effective than these cheats and hacks. Moreover, at entry-level, you could face troops with shotguns and pistols with stones tied to sticks. The very encounter could cease further journey in the game.

The Crux

The crux of the Rust game is survival, you need to do all odds to breathe, and for that, there is no grander storyline or perquisites. The preset schedules of most dedicated game servers are weekly or monthly, implying any existing shelter or fortifications built by previous players would be eradicated, leaving the landscape pristine. From the start of the voyage, you need to find ways to keep healthy and quench your thirst and hunger. But as the game progress, you will find ways to enhance your lifestyle and arsenal. Occasionally you may find an area highlighted with radiation in the terrain, giving you rays of hope, but it is more of window dressing than an oasis of food and shelter. You may want to go solo in the game but will come across disreputable bands waging wars even when they are offline. They keep their shelters fortified with land mines. Some even hire players from different time zone to guard their base.

Album Review: Kurt Vile, ‘(watch my moves)’

On (watch my moves), Kurt Vile achieves a level of comfortability that seems practically impossible. Even for a songwriter known for his spacey, easygoing style of indie rock, his ninth LP and major-label debut makes the idea of building on and gradually refining your signature sound – while still paying tribute to your musical peers and heroes – sound like a relatively simple prospect. But it’s not the fact that the record maintains a loose, languid atmosphere throughout its 73-minute runtime that makes it such a delightful and inviting listen. It’s what grows out of this breezy landscape: the surprising moments of inspiration, self-confidence, and near transcendence that seem to crop up from nowhere, in the middle of a thought, or as a random memory crosses the mind. Unlike most established artists attempting to make a “sprawling” statement, (watch my moves) is rich and lovingly rendered without coming off as self-indulgent, which makes it feel like a rare blessing.

At this point in his career, Vile seems to know himself better than ever. Though he’s not the kind of songwriter who takes himself too seriously, he remains playfully self-aware in a way that feels natural, like someone who’s been hustling for a while and has earned the privilege of taking it slow. On the captivating lead single ‘Like Exploding Stones’, he welcomes us to “the KV hard drive-in movie marathon,” where “thoughts become pictures become movies in my mind,” before quickly breaking the illusion: “I’m just kidding and I’m just playing/ And this is just the way that I’m making a living.” Yet the joke ends up underlining his personality rather than downplaying it, much less cloud the anxiety that’s baked into the track. On ‘Fo Sho’, he sings, “Even if I’m wrong, gonna sing-a-my song till the ass crack o’ dawn/ And it’s probably gonna be another long song,” taking pleasure in stretching out the syllables. It doesn’t sound like such a terrible idea.

(watch my moves) makes for a warm, satisfying experience even if you’re just putting it on for the vibe, but it’s the kind of record that’s most rewarding when you pay closer attention to how the music snakes in and out of Vile’s free-flowing meditations. Either way, you don’t doze off to it so much as you tune in – and if it loses you for a bit, it’s not hard to fall back into its groove. While others might focus on abstract fantasies, Vile’s brand of dreamy psychedelia zeroes in on just how present you can feel when you’re in a hazy, transitional state, which makes it feel uniquely grounded. (watch my moves) might sound far removed from the lofi aesthetic of his early work, but it still feels like you’re watching him piece things together, in his mind or in a song, as he’s traveling from one place to the next or trying to settle in. “Words to this song come and go and fly away,” he observes on ‘Say the Word’, which reads like a particularly inspired diary entry.

Occasionally, Vile’s stream of consciousness will lead to an unexpected revelation; in that song, it’s that “Every time I grow into a man/ Chaos comin’ ’round the bend.” Growth and childhood are recurring themes on the LP, which starts off with him “Shrinking back into a little kid/ Just as I’m just getting old,” on the piano-led opener ‘Going on a Plane Today’. His perspective can range from mature to absent-minded, but what’s refreshing is that it’s more emotional than most records of its ilk – ‘Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)’ might be the most affecting song here – and even downright sentimental at times, like on the endearing ‘Hey Like a Child’, where he sings, “In a dream I drew my blueprint/ And it was you on every page that I drew there.”

What he says doesn’t always end up being incredibly meaningful, but it feels genuine and organic nonetheless. And even when there’s no particular destination lyrically, he’ll light things up by turning to a guitar solo or creating a vibrant sense of community, whether he’s working with his longtime band the Violators or teaming up with the likes of Chastity Belt, Cate Le Bon, and percussionists Stella Mozgawa and Sarah Jones. As much as it finds him embracing collaboration and wearing his influences on his sleeve (the album includes a compellingly haunting rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Wages of Sin’), though, this is a Kurt Vile record through and through. That means it’s about the journey, which means it’s all about time passing by: “I’ve been drivin’ all day and night inside my mind,” he concludes on the final track, “And inside I’mma stay for awhile.”

Kendrick Lamar Announces New Album ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’

Kendrick Lamar has announced his new album: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is out May 13. The rapper revealed the news by tweeting a link to his Oklama website, which comes with a press release “from the desk of oklama”, noting that “all factual information for this release will come directly from this source only.”

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers marks Lamar’s first new album in over five years, following 2017’s DAMN. He also curated the Black Panther soundtrack that came out in 2018. In March of 2020, the rapper launched pgLang, “a new multi-lingual, at service company,” with longtime collaborator Dave Free. When he teased his new record last year, Lamar described it as his “final TDE  album.” Earlier this year, he performed at the Super Bowl halftime show.

 

Young Guv Announces New Album, Shares Video for New Single ‘Change Your Mind’

Young Guv, the solo project of No Warning vocalist and former Fucked Up guitarist Ben Cook, has announced his new album GUV IV, the sequel to last month’s GUV III. It’s set to drop on June 24 via Run For Cover Records and Hand Drawn Dracula (Canada). The LP will include the previously released songs ‘Cold in the Summer’ and ‘Maybe I Should Luv Somebody Else’ as well as the new single ‘Change Your Mind’, which Young Guv recorded with frequent collaborator James Matthew VII. Check out its Enrique Leyva-directed video and find the LP’s cover art and tracklist below.

GUV IV Cover Artwork:

GUV IV Tracklist:

1. Too Far Gone
2. Change Your Mind
3. Sign From God
4. Overcome
5. Love Me Don’t Leave Me
6. Cry 2 Sleep
7. Cold In The Summer
8. Maybe I Should Luv Somebody Else
9. Helium
10. Nervous Around U
11. No Where At All
12. Wind In My Blood

The Main Benefits of Using Stablecoins

While the cryptocurrency is still a mystery to many users who prefer to use the usual fiat (dollars, euros, etc.), among the crypto coins themselves, various types are already beginning to be distinguished. The undoubted leader of the crypto market, Bitcoin, as well as other traditional crypto assets, has shown its highly volatile nature. In opposition to them, stablecoins have emerged, which also often become the choice for investors, traders, USDT casino players, other enthusiasts, and seem to have their own prospects in the future. What are they, what is a stablecoin in general, and is it worth paying attention to it now? Let’s find out!

The Essence of Stablecoins and Their Most Widespread Types

Much can be understood about stablecoins from their name, which is given to these tokens for a reason. Being a cryptocurrency, stablecoins, unlike other e-assets, have such a characteristic as a stable price. Only a small number of people were not interested in the value of the most popular cryptocurrencies and were probably surprised by the sharp fluctuations on the chart. Such volatility is not always appropriate for investors who do not want to deal with risks and would prefer assets with a more stable value. There is a solution already, and it lies in stablecoins.

If we talk about the correlation between fiat money and cryptocurrencies that have turned the usual state of things in the financial market upside down (old news, we know), then only differences come to mind, but not similarities. Still, there are common grounds between stablecoins and fiat. At a minimum, the cost of a stablecoin is tied to some kind of reserve asset, like fiat, gold, cryptocurrencies, and even algorithms. It is this factor that helps to distinguish between stablecoins and affects the relative stability of such a coin – if the commodity on which it is based is also stable. 

Today, the most popular stablecoins are those that are pegged specifically to the dollar. While their price does not differ, the difference is palpable in terms of capitalization. Tether (USDT), the third largest cryptocurrency in the world by capitalization, is the undoubted leader here. Tether (USDT) is issued by the eponymous company Tether Limited, which has also issued so far less popular assets pegged to other fiat currencies, such as the euro, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, and ounces of gold.

Main Current Use Cases for Stablecoins, Their Advantages and Disadvantages

To better understand how a new stablecoin is created, let’s take any organization that makes a project to issue a stablecoin. To begin with, the company must create a reserve of basic funds and this amount is entered into circulation as stablecoins in a ratio of 1 to 1. Further, stablecoins can be used for conversion on exchanges instead of dollars for those who appreciate the benefits of cryptocurrencies. Among them:

  • the ability to make quick payments
  • use for smart contracts
  • absence of intermediaries
  • privacy and transparency
  • a cost-effective way in general

The reasons why people buy cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are very different, but the main thing is that there are several such opportunities to dispose of them.

  • First, for the storage of capital. Virtual money can be used as a differentiated way to store part of funds without being tied to a country and a banking institution and mitigate risks. For example, while the price of bitcoin fluctuates a lot, you can store assets in the electronic equivalent of a dollar.
  • Also, it is a convenient tool for trading on exchanges, including for transferring funds between cryptocurrency platforms. Using stablecoins, you can count on higher limits than with fiat transactions, when the bank may have questions regarding volumes. Transactions with stablecoins can play into the hands of traders who want to quickly transfer funds from one exchange to another and capitalize on the difference in price.
  • Such way of earning on stablecoins as lending and staking is gaining popularity. In the first approach, the owner lends stablecoins and receives interest from the borrowers. Also, you can verify crypto transactions using staking and earn rewards.
  • Stablecoins provide liquidity to DeFi projects. Thus, users can more accurately predict their profits and not be afraid of a sharp drop in the price of cryptocurrency.
  • In addition, stablecoins can be used as a regular currency for purchases and payments, for instance, in online gaming; these tokens, unlike traditional crypto coins, are not subject to fluctuations. Also, the absence of high volatility of coins plays a big role in the conclusion of smart contracts and allows you to avoid frequent changes in prices and contract terms, ensuring security and stability.

Is Stablecoin an Investment in a Stable Future?

How stablecoins will evolve is not yet entirely clear and you can only build on what is known today. At this stage, coins perform an important function of protecting against hyperinflation and volatility of the crypto market and reducing risks for investors, increasing confidence in cryptocurrencies.

Investors can enjoy the opportunity to trade, invest, buy, simply hold crypto assets with the help of stablecoins. Transactions with stable tokes take only a few minutes and are carried out even on weekends, unlike through financial institutions like banks. In most cases, transaction costs for such coins are minimal or non-existent, such as between Tether wallets. Plus, many exchanges do not accept fiat, but they do accept stablecoins.

Thus, in simple words, many call stablecoins the crypto equivalent of fiat money, which many are still embracing. While they do not provide the opportunity to get rich quickly as traditional cryptocurrencies did, their main function is to store value and allow the user to make predictable calculations.

Casinos and Gambling on Film, 1895-2019

You certainly know your 1967 Casino Royale from its 2006 remake, and you have probably watched the 1995 Casino too many times. How about going over some features that rarely make the casino film list but which deserve the attention of a film fan?

Card playing, baccarat, blackjack, poker, and different sport betting options have all been recorded on film… since the cinema began in 1895! Today visiting sites like 1XBet is the same as going to The Bellagio or Caesar’s Palace where some classics were actually shot. But rather than just enlisting the “25 best casino films” let us step down in the history of cinema and see how gambling was portrayed in lesser known films.

First Card Playing Movies

One of the first ever gambling “movies”, Partie de Cartes, was made by the Lumière Brothers in 1895. This nod to gambling was repeated a year later as Une Partie de Cartes by the first cinema artist, George Méliès. These first films were a little less or a little over a minute long, and the directors realized that they needed some interesting action to show. Card playing was obviously regarded as the second best subject after an approaching train that begged an emotional response. For Méliès, it became the director’s first movie, only 67 seconds long.

Gambling and Sport Betting in Silent Films

The perils and fortunes of gamblers remained in the focus of film-makers throughout the silent period. Charlie Chaplin films, The Champion (1915) and The Immigrant (1917), illustrated the passion of the game and the troubles of cheaters.

The Queen of Spades, a story by Alexander Pushkin, was first adapted to screen in 1910, as a short film based on the opera by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. However, the Yakov Protazanov adaptation of 1916 earned it a place in history for outstanding performances and a vast array of cinematographic techniques, unusual at the time, including flashbacks and split screen shots. The Queen of Spades is a story of poverty and greed that lead to madness and death.

Sound On, Color On!

When the film-makers learnt how to record the voice and to add the color to the film, a whole new universe opened. Emotional roller-coasters were now accompanied by vocal expression. The color profoundly affected cinematography. At first, the parts of the film were colored during editing: blue meant boredom or sadness, while red was all about passion, love, and death. Green as the color of dollars and casino tables symbolized vice and greed. When Technicolor arrived, directors promptly began to exploit the new opportunities.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler, a riveting loosely autobiographical story, was adapted to screen several times, starting with the 1938 German flick that was not properly released until after the war due to a scandal. The novel later inspired two well-known films under the same name. The 1974 film with John Caan was remade in 2014 with Mark Walberg. Moreover, a 1997 production with Michael Gambon studied Dostoyevsky’s own addiction to casinos.

Gamblers were often portrayed as charming and suave, apparently to indicate that their charms were indispensable in making people lend them money that they subsequently wasted at casinos. Gaylord Ravenal from Showboat (1936) was precisely this kind of man and he did make life difficult for his wife Magnolia Hawks (Irene Dunne). The story about the lives of people who travel the Mississippi on a showboat is interesting to watch today for its inclusion of black actors, including Paul Robeson and Helen Morgan.

After the WW2

Following the end of the Great War, both spectators and film-makers wanted some action-packed features, preferably with some beautiful leads. Charles Vidor hit all the right buttons with Gilda (1948), starring Rita Heyworth. Gilda is the object of rivalry between a casino owner and a gambler. After a series of chases, accidents, unlikely escapes and a murder she reconciles with Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), whom she has known long before the film’s story. Photography by Rudolf Mate and costume design by Jean Louis earned this film its everlasting appeal. The film poster features the redhead Hayworth in a green evening gown – as a symbol of greed, envy, and casino luck.

With time, the stories about casinos developed further. We have knowingly omitted many star-studded films, like Casino Royale (1967, 2006), Casino (1995), Hard Eight (1996), and others. It is more interesting to look into the minds of players. Rain Man (1988), starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, boasts a casino scene that can be a key to understanding how the best gambling minds work. Hoffman’s character exhibits the typical traits of those who manage to break the bank, e.g. superb recall and the ability to calculate fast.

Uncut Gems (2019) starring Adam Sandler is an action thriller about a Jewish-American gambler addict in search of an expensive gem to pay off his debts. The film ends tragically but is regarded by many as the finest performance from Sandler. And so we draw the line here by reminding you to play responsibly.

Xenia Rubinos Shares New Single ‘Madrugada’

Xenia Rubinos has released a new single called ‘Madruga’. The track, a reworking of ‘What Is This Voice’ from Rubinos’ 2021 album Una Rosa featuring Cuban rapper El Individuo, is the first in a series of reimagined versions of songs from the LP. Give it a listen below.

“El Individuo had just arrived to NYC from Habana for the first time and came straight into this session without us ever having met and just blew us all away,” Rubinos said of the track in a statement. “It feels like the thaw of Spring, like the last frost leaving, like the first flower buds starting to poke through. In the lyrics he talks about dawn and the mysterious vale of those hours right before the morning light hits. I added in a Rhodes line in post production at the end of the track that kind of reminded me of the melody that clocks play, ‘Westminster Quarters’ and the main riff from Mt. Airy Groove by Pieces of a Dream. Creating this rework in a whirlwind cypher with this supergroup of musicians felt like opening a secret trap door we found in the original song.”

Watch Finneas Give ‘Turning Red’ Song ‘Nobody Like U’ Its Live Debut at Coachella 2022

Finneas gave his Turning Red song ‘Nobody Like U’ its live debut during his solo at Coachella 2022 yesterday (April 17). The track was co-written by Finneas and his sister Billie Eilish and performed by the fictional boyband 4*Town. Elsewhere in the set, Finneas debuted tracks from his album Optimist and brought out Lizzy McAlpine for a performance of ‘Hate to Blame’. Watch clips from the set below.

The previous night, Finneas performed with his sister during her headlining set, where they were joined onstage by Damon Albarn.

Watch the Weeknd Debut ‘Dawn FM’ Songs and Cover Kanye West‘s ‘Hurricane’ at Coachella 2022

The Weeknd headlined the final night of the first weekend of Coachella alongside Swedish House Mafia last night (April 17). During his set, Abel Tesfaye debuted several tracks from his latest album Dawn FM, including ‘Sacrifice’, ‘How Can I Make You Love Me’, and ‘Out Of Time’. He also played his songs with Future (‘Low Life’), Ty Dolla $ign (‘Or Nah’), and Drake (‘Crew Love’), as well as the Kanye West collaboration ‘Hurricane’. The set came to a close with a performance of the Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia’s collaborative track ‘Moth to a Flame’. Check out footage from it below.

The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia replaced Ye as Coachella headliners after the rapper pulled out of the festival a few weeks ago. Earlier this year, Swedish House Mafia remixed the Weeknd’s Dawn FM track ‘Sacrifice’.

This Week’s Best New Songs: Phoebe Bridgers, 100 gecs, Wild Pink, and More

Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this best new music segment.

On this week’s list, we have the infectiously fun and hooky new single by 100 gecs, ‘Doritos & Fritos’, which fuses ’90s pop-rock and ska; Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Sidelines’, a typically somber yet strikingly resonant track written for the upcoming Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends; Wild Pink’s new single ‘Q. Degraw’, a dark, distorted track about dealing with health problems; ‘Gonna Lose’, the vibrant lead single off Built to Spill’s upcoming Sub Pop debut; Tomberlin’s ‘sunstruck’, a tender and layered reflection on choosing to focus on your own growth; Jamie xx’s exuberant and dazzling ’Let’s Do It Again’, his first original solo release in two years; and Mallrat’s catchy and occasionally hilarious new track ’Surprise Me’, which features a guest verse from Azealia Banks.

Best New Songs: April 18, 2022

100 gecs, ‘Doritos & Fritos’

Song of the Week: Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Sidelines’

Wild Pink, ‘Q. Degraw’

Built to Spill, ‘Gonna Lose’

Tomberlin, ‘sunstruck’

Jamie xx, ‘Let’s Do It Again’

Mallrat feat. Azealia Banks, ‘Surprise Me’