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The Guardian
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Pragmata, the quirky science-fiction game that's back from the dead
When Pragmata was first announced five years ago, it wasn't clear exactly what Resident Evil publisher Capcom was making. The debut trailer featured eerie, futuristic imagery, an astronaut, and a blond-haired little girl, but there was nothing concrete or clear about its content. And when it missed its 2022 release window and was 'paused indefinitely' in 2023, it wasn't clear if Pragmata would ever come to be. That all changed on 4 June, when a brand-new trailer was broadcast during a PlayStation showcase. The blond-haired little girl turns out to be a weaponised android, accompanying an astronaut called Hugh (of course) through space-station shootouts. I played about 20 minutes of the game during Summer Game Fest the following weekend. A lengthy, troubled development cycle is usually a bad omen, but my time with it was promising. Pragmata begins with the aforementioned astronaut, Hugh Williams, unconscious and lying prone amid metallic detritus, his suit is blaring a repeat warning: 'integrity compromised'. A child with long, unkept blond hair wearing an oversized blue jacket and nothing else (a bizarre choice, if I'm being honest) runs past Hugh and struggles to tip over a large case nearby. When she finally knocks it on its side, she opens it up to reveal a device that emits lunafilament nanoweave, a material that absorbs and copies any information it is exposed to. She uses it to repair his suit, which in turn heals his wounds, and he's on his feet (though confused) in no time. We learn they ,are on a moon-based space station, to which Hugh was dispatched after an earthquake. This facility appears to have an autonomous robotic security system that considers Hugh an intruder, however, which means it's time to fight. And I was not ready for how much fun fighting is. The robot adversaries in Pragmata all have powerful shields, which means Hugh's arsenal of weapons (which you can add to by finding different firearms around the map) is essentially useless. Thankfully, the barefoot little girl, whom we now call Diana, can hack these enemies to make them vulnerable – you'll just have to do it while they're attacking you, and she's riding on your shoulder. With the face buttons on your controller, you'll have to navigate through the robot's mainframe, depicted as several rows and columns of tiles, until you get to a green tile, which will temporarily disarm its shield. You have to do this fast, however, often while dodging their strikes, and failing these hacks and starting over made for some incredibly tense (and fun) combat. Pragmata's hacking feels like when you call in a Helldivers 2 stratagem and have to swiftly but purposefully push buttons while under extreme pressure. It turns every firefight into a white-knuckle moment: different robot types require different hacks, and messing up will set you back. In the brief time I spent with Pragmata, there was a pleasing variety of enemies and weapons already. I was engrossed in combat by the time someone tapped me on the shoulder and told me the demo time was over (right before a big boss fight, boo). Despite five-plus years in development, it feels fresh. Pragmata will be out in 2026 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
CNET
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Pragmata Is One of the Most Exciting Games at Summer Game Fest
Capcom had one of the best showings at this year's Summer Game Fest. Despite Resident Evil 9 Requiem's very exclusive demo, the publisher's other hands-on preview, Pragmata, was much more open. This is an upcoming action shooter that impressed me with its unique gun-hacking mechanic. Capcom My hands-on demo started with the game's protagonist, Hugh Williams, regaining consciousness on a space station with the help of Diana, an android companion that looks like a young girl with long blonde hair and, for some reason, no shoes. We're quickly attacked by a robot that is slowly walking toward us ,and our pistol is doing little to no damage. This is when Pragmata introduces the hacking element to its combat, a unique mechanic you perform while fighting. This was a lot to juggle at first, but it becomes easy and fun pretty quickly. Capcom While you can aim with L2 and shoot with R2, like a typical shooter, you must utilize Diana's hacking ability to open up weak points on each enemy. When targeting an enemy, a grid appears, called the Hacking Matrix, on the right side of the screen. From there, you must use the face buttons to move an icon through the grid in order to reach a specific point. The face buttons work like a D-pad: triangle goes up, square moves left, and so on. There are also unique points within the grid that must be avoided or optionally passed through for additional benefits. Reaching the end of the grid will open up an enemy's armor, allowing you to do much more damage with your weapons. It's a unique combat mechanic I hadn't seen before in a shooter and was quite easy to wrap my head around, making for a very fun gunplay loop. Capcom After fighting the first enemy, I was able to proceed to the adjacent hallway with more obstacles and enemies. Hugh can jump with X and also hover if the button is held down. This was useful for crossing over large gaps or to evade damaging lasers. This came into play when I encountered a door that required me to search and hover around to find five locks to hack open and proceed. Several new enemy types appeared, including flying drones. The drones would easily dodge my fire, but a quick hack stunned them in place while making them susceptible to attacks. A walking tank-like enemy also appeared just as I unlocked a new weapon: the shockwave gun. The shockwave gun functions like a shotgun, allowing me to deal much more damage to one or more enemies once hacked. In addition to this, I also unlocked the final weapon for the demo, the stasis gun. This fired similarly to a grenade launcher, with an arched shot, but would put down a bubble that would trap enemies inside and stun them. It's super useful when dealing with more than one opponent at a time, especially since each enemy requires careful hacking to be done -- sometimes more than once. Capcom As we approached the final room of the demo, we were able to pick up a hacking node. This is a limited-use item that would slot itself into a random space within the hacking grid that appears when targeting an opponent. Moving my cursor over these nodes and then reaching the finish line in the hacking mechanic would cause a buff to deploy. This node lowers an enemy's shields further, allowing our shots to do more damage once vulnerable. To make things more interesting, the game mentioned you could stack these nodes and pass through more than one before finishing to get more and more benefits. Keep in mind, however, that you can't move your cursor over a square you've already passed, so don't get yourself cornered hacking while in the middle of a gun fight, which could result in having to restart the hacking matrix. Capcom In a surprising decision, just as the final boss of the demo appeared, our hands-on preview ended. For whatever reason, Capcom didn't allow anyone to fight the big baddie. This is especially odd, since the vast majority of demos and previews usually end after an exciting climax, like a boss battle. It was also a real shame since I had had a good amount of practice navigating the Hacking Matrix while dodging and shooting opponents, and I wanted to put my new skills to the test. If anything, it got me even more excited to get my hands on Pragmata again to play more and see what Capcom has come up with for its unique combat. Pragmata is coming in 2026 to Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and PC.
Digital Trends
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Pragmata is a game from a bygone era, and that era rules
Most modern big-budget games don't have the most complicated sales pitches these days. Assassin's Creed Shadows? It's an open-world action-adventure game with stealth. Doom: The Dark Ages? It's a first-person shooter with some extra melee combat. The First Berserker: Khazan? Soulslike. They all have elevator pitches that are easy to boil down to a quick genre descriptor. Capcom's Pragmata, on the other hand, is the rare modern AAA project that will make you sound like you're making a game up when describing it. I know that feeling firsthand because it was playable for the first time at this year's Summer Game Fest. I had a demo scheduled for it on day two of the event, but those who played it before me kept hyping it up to me. I asked what it is, expecting a reply like 'it's a third-person sci-fi shooter.' Instead, I was given a sales pitch about how I had to do puzzles in order to shoot. I couldn't even picture what that looked like from the description, and that's exactly what makes Pragmata special. It is a throwback to a specific kind of early 2010s action game that is built around a wild idea that you need to try to truly appreciate. Recommended Videos Hack in My demo takes me through around 20 minutes of gameplay that introduces the world and gameplay of Pragmata with efficiency. I get a quick introduction to my hero, Hugh Williams, a guy in a cybernetic spacesuit. He wakes up in a confused panic during the demo before meeting Diana, an android who takes the form of a small blonde child. Their meeting is quick as the two are ambushed by a robot. Hugh tells Diana to stay behind him so he can protect her, but his shots are doing next to nothing against the metalloid maniac. That's when Diana disobeys his orders, hops up on his shoulders, and lends a hand. This is where Pragmata gets fascinating. In order to do real damage to an enemy via your standard third-person shooting, players first need to complete an on-screen hacking minigame. Whenever I hold the left trigger to aim at a target, Diana opens a hacking interface on the right side of the screen. It's a small grid, keypad like in nature, with some symbols on it. Using ABXY like direction arrow keys, I need to essentially draw a line from the starting point to a marked end point somewhere on the grid. There are other symbols on the grid, and passing through those before hitting the exit will add extra damage to my guns when the hack finishes. When I complete the puzzle, my enemy's defense drops for a short amount of time and my shots can now tear them apart. When their shields regenerate, I need to hack them again. Note that the game doesn't pause while that puzzle is active. I still have full control of Hugh underneath the interface and need to use my control sticks to keep him out of harm's way. If that sounds like a demanding multitasking operation, it's not. While it took me a second to get the hang of it, the grid puzzles can be completed in lightning speed. By the end of the demo, I was zipping through them in no more than two or three seconds. It's an incredibly satisfying little hook and I feel like Capcom barely showed me how deep it goes. During my demo, I eventually began finding grid panels from crates around the world. Those would add new buffs on my grid that I could pass through on next hack, allowing me to take enemy defenses down even more if they are part of my line. I can see that idea escalating into a more engaging puzzle hook that lets skilled players stack up several buffs at once during a well routed hack. Pragmata will need that kind of evolution, because I can imagine that the simple nature of the early grids could get old after 10 or 15 hours (we don't know how long Pragmata is yet, but I'd wager it's a fairly typical compact action game from the linear slice I played). The combat twist goes a long way towards making Pragmata feel special, because the third-person shooter under it would feel fairly typical without it. It's your average over the shoulder shooter where players swap between four weapons, from a basic pistol to a more devastating blaster with limited ammo. The robotic enemies have plenty of weak points in their metal joints, so it's important to take aim at those while their defenses are down. The mission I played had me unlocking a door by looking for four locks in a facility that I could hack. The light exploration and minigames were interspersed with moments where a few enemies would ambush me and I'd need to stop and take care of them. It's all very straightforward, but the hacking was enough to leave me raving about it by the end of Summer Game Fest. What stands out to me is how Pragmata feels like a game from another era. It has the energy of a Sega game circa 2010. Vanquish was the first point of comparison that came to my mind after playing even though the two games are nothing alike in terms of gameplay (though they have a similar sci-fi aesthetic). It's more that the two have the same design philosophy: build an action game around one out-there gameplay idea that nothing else can claim. A lot of modern AAA games feel too afraid to take that experimental approach these days, instead cobbling together gameplay features from a menu. Doom: The Dark Ages' idea of a twist is adding parrying, and a lot of other games have the same idea. That makes for a lot of reliable experiences, but ones that leave the landscape feeling less vibrant than it used to be. Pragmata feels restorative in some way, bringing us back to a time where 'gimmick' wasn't such a dirty word. The trick here will be making sure Pragmata doesn't run a great idea into the ground. This is the kind of hook that makes for a fantastic 20-minute slice, but I'm itching to see it in a wider context. I don't necessarily need combat depth here — nor do I actually want it — but I do want to see how much more Capcom can play with the hacking idea to create even stronger puzzles. I saw some different UI minigames while hunting for door locks, so it seems like more twists are coming. It's not going to take much more to sell me though; I'm already sold on the idea of playing a glitzy action game that's unlike anything else out today. That's the only sales pitch I need these days. Pragmata will launch in 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
NZ Herald
25-04-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Jonathan Jamieson awarded Ravensdown's Hugh Williams Memorial Scholarship
'During last year's harvest, I woke up at 5.30am to go asparagus picking to help fund my studies. 'This scholarship will allow me to focus even more on my academic and career goals.' The science Now in his second year of study, Jamieson's focus is on agribusiness and the science behind the industry. 'I've grown up working on farms with the goal of one day owning my own farm,' he said, calling during a break from the tractor. 'But deepening my understanding and learning the science behind it has been fascinating. 'My studies relate directly to what I'm doing now. 'When I'm at work, I can now identify different plants and know how to care for them.' 'I also learnt that farming is about looking after the soil, it sustains everything in the agricultural sector. 'We have a responsibility to care for it for future generations.' International travel Last year, Jamieson was awarded the Prime Minister's Scholarship, which allowed him to travel to Vietnam for six weeks. There, he completed an agribusiness paper and learned about the Vietnamese agricultural sector. 'It was an unreal opportunity,' he said. 'I loved getting out of my comfort zone and immersing myself in the Vietnamese culture. 'In Vietnam, they have combined rice farming and shrimp farming to make the most from the land. 'The shrimp help enrich the soil in the rice paddies, while the rice provides a natural environment for the shrimp to thrive.' About the Hugh Williams Scholarship The Hugh Williams Memorial Scholarship was founded in memory of the late Hugh Williams, a Ravensdown director from 1987 to 2000. The scholarship, for the children of Ravensdown shareholders, aims to encourage undergraduate study in an agricultural or horticultural degree. Ravensdown chief executive Garry Diack said Jamieson's academic excellence and enthusiasm for the science behind farming made his entry stand out. 'Ravensdown and this scholarship were built on using science to better agricultural practice in New Zealand,' Diack said. 'Jonathan shows a clear understanding of the importance of science for all forms of farming, and a passion for its ability to improve how we farm in the future.' The scholarship offers $5000 a year for a student studying agriculture or horticulture at Lincoln or Massey universities for the duration of their studies. Applications for next year's scholarship are open and will close on December 15.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ASOS unveils restructure to drive growth and customer focus
British online retailer ASOS has unveiled a series of organisational changes aimed at reinforcing its customer-centric strategy to stimulate growth and strengthen global leadership in fashion. These adjustments follow significant strategic advancements such as stock level reduction, product improvement, debt refinancing and operational efficiency enhancements. The company emphasised that the revamped structure prioritises the customer in all its operations, expedites decision-making and fosters a culture of ongoing innovation and enhancement. The initial phase of restructuring, which started in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, concentrated on the technology department, leading to a nimbler and more effective framework dedicated to serving ASOS customers better and fostering growth. The company has transitioned to a product operating model, establishing product development teams (PDTs) that concentrate on key areas such as loyalty programmes, and Test & React initiatives. PDTs operate under the leadership of an engineering lead in collaboration with a product manager. ASOS has augmented its workforce with more than 100 software engineers and more than 40 product managers. In February 2025, the company appointed Przemek Czarnecki as technology executive vice-president (EVP), succeeding interim tech vice-president Hugh Williams. With the reorganisation of the digital product and technology functions now complete, ASOS is set to restructure other critical business segments to maintain its growth trajectory and improve customer service efficiency. The commercial and customer functions will merge into a unified team responsible for delivering an engaging customer experience both on-site and off-site. This amalgamated team will be led by a new commercial and customer EVP. ASOS is also adopting a geography-based structure to enhance local strategies and customer engagement. The company appointed Sean Trend as managing director for the UK and US. Jag Weatherley will serve as managing director for Europe and the rest of the world. Brand and creative strategies are combined under Vanessa Spence as EVP for this area of operations. This move aims to establish a cohesive creative vision for ASOS as a fashion destination. ASOS has formed a dedicated team for the Topshop and Topman brands, spearheaded by Michelle Wilson as managing director. Wilson will also oversee ASOS' global wholesale business which involves partnerships with Nordstrom, Reliance Retail and BESTSELLER. The people experience and corporate affairs and strategy departments have merged to align strategic decision-making with communication efforts. Ras Vaghjiani will lead as EVP for people, communications and strategy with support from Rishi Sharma as senior vice-president for corporate affairs and strategy. These changes will take effect in April 2025. CEO José Antonio Ramos Calamonte stated: "These changes represent an exciting new chapter for ASOS. By reorganising and focusing on our strengths, we're better equipped to seize opportunities and accelerate our growth. 'We will continue to innovate, collaborate and lead with our passion and commitment as we relentlessly pursue our goal of becoming the world's number one destination for fashion-loving twenty-somethings." In January 2025, ASOS revealed plans to overhaul its global distribution network as it aims to enhance its US operations. "ASOS unveils restructure to drive growth and customer focus " was originally created and published by Retail Insight Network, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
