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Barcelona was just named Europe's first Capital of Small Retail, crowning years of deliberate policy work.The city's small retail sector accounts for 13.2% of GDP and supports more than 152,000 jobs, with over 90% of ground-floor commercial premises occupied. But what earned Barcelona the designation isn't the size of its retail ecosystem so much as the depth of its strategy. The city runs over 40 interlocking initiatives spanning sustainability, digitalization, mobility and entrepreneurship.Among the most distinctive is Amunt Persianes ("Raise the Shutters"), through which the city council has invested EUR 17 million in purchasing empty ground-floor premises and offering them to local entrepreneurs at 30-50% below market rent. Rather than waiting for market forces to fill vacant storefronts, Barcelona is treating street-level retail space as public infrastructure. Italy's Silandro and Portugal's Caldas da Rainha also earned the EU-backed title, in the small and mid-sized city categories, respectively.TREND BITEThe European Capitals of Small Retail initiative formalizes a new urban strategy: treating small retail as a public good. For decades, small shops have been framed as casualties of progress: charming but doomed by e-commerce and big-box efficiency. Barcelona's approach flips that script, treating independent retail as essential civic infrastructure a generator of jobs, social cohesion and neighborhood identity that justifies active municipal investment.The playbook is practical: combine data-driven policymaking with direct intervention, embed sustainability into existing retail networks rather than bolting it on, and build public-private coalitions broad enough to survive political cycles. For businesses watching the slow hollowing-out of commercial streets in their own cities, the takeaway is that revitalization doesn't require a savior brand or a market upswing; it requires treating every shuttered storefront as a design problem with a policy solution.
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During its State of Play livestream on Thursday, Sony revealed the first PlayStation Plus Game Catalog addition for February and it's a doozy. Marvels Spider-Man 2 (PS5) will finally websling its way onto the Game Catalog on February 17. Marvels Spider-Man 2 was released in October 2023, and Insomniac's third Spidey game is the the best of the bunch. You can play as both Peter Parker and his protégé Miles Morales. Each Spidey has his own skill tree and moveset to master. Traversing New York (with a lot more of it explorable than in previous entries) has never felt better thanks to the addition of the wingsuit, while the set pieces are frequently breathtaking. Marvels Spider-Man 2 remains one of the PS5s flagship games, and with Marvels Spider-Man: Remastered and Miles Morales already on the Game Catalog, Extra and Premium subscribers can now play the whole series while they wait for Insomniac's Wolverine game to arrive later this year. Sony later revealed the full PS Plus Game Catalog lineup for February on the PlayStation Blog. It includes Neva (PS4 and PS5), a stunning 2D platformer that's pretty much an interactive fairytale. Engadgets Jessica Conditt opened her review of the game by saying she had "absolutely nothing negative to say" about it, which is surely about as effusive as a recommendation can get. (A paid expansion that acts as a prequel is on the way next week too.) The other titles coming to the PS Plus Game Catalog on February 17 are: Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (PS5) Season: A Letter to the Future (PS4 and PS5) Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (PS4) Monster Hunter Stories (PS4) Venba (PS5) Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition (PS5) Rugby 25 (PS4 and PS5) PS Plus Premium members will have an extra game to play on PS4 and PS5 in the form of Disney Pixar Wall-E. This version was originally released in 2008 for the PlayStation 2. Looking further ahead, Tekken Dark Resurrection will be available to Premium subscribers in March. Premium members will be able to play the original Time Crisis on their PS5 with gyro controls in May, which sounds fun. Also, Big Walk, a multiplayer game from Untitled Goose Game developer House House, will be available on all three PS Plus tiers when it debuts later this year. Update February 12, 6:43PM ET: Added the full list of PS Plus Game Catalog titles for February.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-ps-plus-game-catalog-additions-for-february-include-marvels-spider-man-2-232459779.html?src=rss
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Last year marked 20 years since God of War hit the PlayStation 2 and kicked off one of gaming biggest franchises. Now, at the tail end of that 20th anniversary celebration, Sonys Santa Monica Studio has announced two new project. First, and most significantly, the original God of War trilogy from the PS2 and PS3 is being remade for the modern era. Theres no footage of it yet the developer says that theyre very early in development, so we likely wont see or hear much about this for a while. But given renewed interest in God of War thanks to the excellent two Norse games from 2018 and 2022 (not to mention the upcoming Amazon series), it makes sense to revisit these classics. God of War and God of War II were released for Playstation 2 in 2005 and 2007, respectively, while the third of the Greek trilogy hit PlayStation 3 in 2010. The third game was also remastered for the PS4. But its safe to say that while the first two games are classics for their era, they also really show their age in some gameplay spots. Hopefully the remake will smooth out those rough edges. (Who else has nightmares in the Hades level near the end of the first game? Not just me, right?)While we wont see the remakes for a while, there is a new God of War-inspired game out right now: God of War Sons of Sparta. It was developed by Mega Cat Studios, a developer known for its love of retro games it even still releases games for the SNES and Genesis. Given their pedigree, its no surprise that Sons of Sparta has vibes of classic 2D action/platformer games. Its apparently canon for the series and takes place in Kratos youth while he trains with his brother. It obviously looks nothing like the other God of War games but the combat and monsters shown off in the trailer definitely feel right at home in the series. Perhaps the most fun part of all this is that its available today for $30. While Sons of Sparta looks like a fun curio for God of War fans, itll only go so far towards whetting our appetite for that remake series. Might I suggest binging some Valhalla in the meantime?This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/god-of-war-is-getting-a-remake-trilogy-and-a-new-retro-inspired-action-game-is-out-today-234056618.html?src=rss
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