Technologies

9 Tips for Starting Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Here’s some good advice to help you get started with the exciting RPG.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a gorgeous RPG from Sandfall Interactive. After previewing it during the Game Developer Conference, we’ve been anxiously awaiting its release. After playing over 20 hours of the title, I’ve compiled a short list of tips to help you start your journey on the best footing.

Pause cutscenes

Lengthy RPGs are known for having extensive cutscenes, and Clair Obscur is no different. It’s important to know if and how you can pause these in order to step away from the game momentarily — and luckily, you can do so in the middle of the game’s story-rich cinematic moments. Pressing A (when using an Xbox controller) is how you’ll pause a scene; from there, you can decide to skip or continue watching.

Get all three tokens in the early game

During the prologue you’ll get the chance to meet many of your teammates before heading off island. The game will grant you a single token to spend at one of three merchants located around the titular Expedition 33’s prelaunch festival. You can pick between a «pictograph,» an outfit and an item you don’t have use for yet.

However, you can unlock two more tokens in order to purchase everything available before moving on. The first optional token is won by completing the quiz that one of your friends asks (answers include that the first venture to defeat the Paintress was Expedition Zero, and that it’s been 100 years since the shattering). The second token you can get by battling against Maelle. There’s no need to worry about which item you should buy; you don’t have to miss out on any of them.

Automatic quick time events

Found within the settings’ accessibility menu, you can turn on automatic quick time events in order to avoid some of the game’s real-time combat. However, this only applies to QTEs that happen from your party’s attacks — which are nice to turn off if you just can’t get the timing right or have trouble seeing the icons. Actions that take place on an enemy’s turn, such as parrying or dodging, will not be performed for you.

Listen to your team

Often, one of your party members will call out when the team is being attacked. What they say will determine which of your team is the target. For example, if Lune shouts, «I’m ready to counter,» it means she’s about to be attacked. But if she says, «Gustav, dodge this,» then Gustav is the one in danger. Keep this in mind if you’re worried about a specific character receiving more aggro and getting focused down by enemies.

Avoid danger

You’ll quickly find side dungeons to explore after progressing far enough to unlock the overworld. Some of these will display a Danger marking under their name when you approach. While it may be fun to test your might against the difficult opponents there, I’ve found that they’re far too tough to battle my way through. It’s recommended to level up significantly and come back later.

Practice parrying

When enemies attack, dodging is far easier to perform than parrying, but the latter is too useful to ignore. Not only do you avoid taking any damage, but the counterattack you strike is super powerful. Even if you typically shy away from learning a game’s parry mechanic, as I often do, I highly advise you to practice and learn this from the beginning. While the timing is different for each enemy (and even attacks), it’s a surefire way to whittle down tough enemies.

Counters use elements

It’s worth noting that the element of your weapon will come into play when performing a base attack with it. This can be very useful when exploiting enemy weaknesses, but can be a hindrance if the elements match. For example, using a fire sword against an ice enemy will do increased damage, while the same sword will heal a fire-based opponent.

This elemental system comes into play when you parry as well. Even though you’re avoiding damage and performing a counterattack, you can still end up healing an enemy if you aren’t paying attention. Keep this in mind when deciding whether to parry or dodge enemy blows.

Dodge/parry multiple times

There’s enough time to dodge and/or parry repeatedly during an enemy attack. This is one of the reasons it can be hard to nail down the right timing, especially as enemies incorporate weird delays in their swings and projectiles. However, it can also be a blessing. If you miss the correct moment, you can try again before the attack lands. It’s not a single attempt per action. It’ll be hard to pull off, but there’s still a chance to try again.

Weak points

Many enemies have weak points that you can use your ranged attack (LT on Xbox) to shoot. This will often deal a decent amount of damage and may cause further status effects to the enemy and/or its companions. Every time you encounter a new foe, take a moment to survey the character design for something glowing or shiny. These points are often found in the center or near the head. However, I’ve encountered some located on the enemy’s arms and even floating around them in the form of orbs or hats. If something seems like it’s sticking out, shoot it first and ask questions later.

Those should give you good starting tips for the lengthy Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The game comes out on April 24 for Xbox, PlayStation and PC.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know