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Bungie seems to have set its sights on the mobile games market, as Destiny: Rising, a new mobile sci-fi RPG shooter title, is coming to Android and iOS. This spinoff is being developed by NetEase Games, the same company that developed the free-to-play Diablo: Immortal. Destiny: Rising will also be free to download and play when it launches.Destiny: Rising is set in a different timeline from Destiny and Destiny 2, but NetEase promises players they'll meet some familiar faces and new ones. The narrative is focused on a time after the Dark Age. Players will get to explore Earth after The Collapse" and see how humanity tries to recover from a loss of civilization.Bungie/NetEase GamesBesides playing in a first-person perspective, NetEase Games is introducing a new third-person viewpoint, previously only limited to specific weapons and equipment. The game also supports smartphone-compatible controllers if you own them.As a Destiny 2 spinoff, Destiny: Rising will have both PvE and PvP modes, both familiar and new. Players are able to create clans and make friends, both fighting alongside or against them in challenges.Bungie/NetEase GamesSome of you may realize that since NetEase Games is developing and publishing Destiny: Rising, the game is likely to have many microtransactions. Sadly, there's no concrete info about this right now, but if we can take Diablo: Immortal as an example, these worries may come true.It's worth noting that Bungie had just laid off 220 employees this past August despite the success of its latest expansion, the Final Shape. Many Destiny 2 players may also recall that the company recently released a roadmap detailing future plans in the wake of those layoffs.NetEase Games is opening sign-ups right now for a closed alpha test taking place next month. Those interested can visit the official website to learn more. There's no official release date at this time.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/destiny-rising-is-bungies-new-mobile-game-published-by-netease-games-163054704.html?src=rss

Amazon isn't a stranger to acquiring various companies and services, but it's finally taking steps to streamline its many acquisitions, as reported by The Information. PillPack, bought by Amazon in 2018, and Amazon Pharmacy, launched in 2020, are slowly being combined into one service. Amazon is also attempting to combine the online components of Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh, albeit in a different manner.PillPack is a service that sends customers medication packs containing the required pills for a single day's consumption, while Amazon Pharmacy is geared towards general purchases. One of the planned changes is to allow PillPack users to handle their orders using Amazon Pharmacy accounts. They can also use coupons and Prime discounts on their PillPack purchases. Additionally, Amazon Pharmacy will accept Medicare through PillPack in January.Although Amazon has plans to expand Amazon Pharmacy to the UK, Canada and Australia, this hasn't happened yet. The service remains US-only.Right now, both pharmacy services already ship orders from the same facilities, which is a change from the previous arrangement. PillPack previously had its own facilities, and the change will make same-day deliveries in 20 new cities possible, bringing the total available locations close to 30 from less than 10 right now.Amazon previously acquired Whole Foods in 2017, but it wasn't connected to Amazon's regular grocery deliveries or Amazon Fresh at all. Now, Amazon is placing popular items at Whole Foods and Amazon in Fresh centers in the US, UK, Italy and Spain. Shoppers can now stick to using only Amazon Fresh more often instead of buying from multiple stores at once. One driver can also deliver everything in a single order, which helps Amazon reduce costs.Additionally, Amazon is testing a mini-warehouse located in a Whole Foods store that lets customers pick up orders. This warehouse stores products like Coca-Cola and Oreos, which aren't allowed in Whole Foods stores due to policies. Amazon intends to help shoppers avoid visiting multiple stores due to a lack of products, a problem Whole Foods suffers from due to it stocking fewer brands.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-will-reportedly-merge-its-pharmacy-operations-and-some-grocery-delivery-services-160914672.html?src=rss

I have absolutely nothing negative to say about Neva. As a story, Neva is a living fairy tale that plays out in dreamlike scenes of natural beauty, starring two creatures bonded by tragedy and propelled by an intense need to protect each other - and save the world in the process. As a game, Neva offers exquisite swordplay and intuitive platforming action, with a contained suite of abilities that evolves purposefully with each new stage. As a piece of art, every frame of Neva is breathtaking. This is what a faultless game looks like. This is how it feels to play something perfect. Alba is the protagonist in Neva and she's badass. When we meet her, she's a seasoned warrior and nomad with a cloud of silver hair, dancer's limbs, and a billowing red cape that hides a slender sword. Her wolf companion, Neva, is just a cub at first, easily distracted and still learning how to navigate the forests and fields of their world. In the beginning, Neva needs Alba. By the end of the game, after seasons of growth and vicious battles, Alba also needs Neva. Nomada Studio None of these descriptors are spelled out in words, but the characters' actions and a few beautifully animated vignettes make their backstories clear, and the entire story unspools in a similar fashion. The only speech in the game comes from Alba as she calls out, Neva?" or, Neva!" or, Nevaaa," with each press of the interaction button. Her tone and level of panic shifts dynamically with Neva's position in the environment - Alba's voice is strained with worry when she and the wolf are separated, and it's soothing or playful when they're near each other. Standing next to Neva and pressing to interact lets Alba pet her (and yes, there are achievements for doing so). In a million small ways, the game's mechanics forge a deep emotional connection between Alba and Neva, until it eventually feels like they're a singular entity, fighting the darkness as one. Alba and Neva's world is stunning. It's composed of lush forests, sun-drenched valleys, soaring mountains and twisting cave systems - and all of it is being consumed by an oozing, ink-black decay spread by swarms of bulbous monsters with stark white faces. The decay acts like cordyceps, suffusing the bodies of massive animals and transforming them into zombie-like murder machines. In other areas, it takes the form of spiky brambles and skeletal vines that deal damage if you touch them. The monsters - round bodies, screaming faces and spidery limbs - appear consistently with a variety of ranged, melee, airborne and rushing attacks. It's Alba and Neva's mission to destroy the decay and the monsters, and reclaim their land. For the completionists among us, there are also glowing white flowers hidden among the levels, and finding them all unlocks something special. Nomada Studio The game is divided into four seasons, and as Neva grows, so do her abilities. Alba, meanwhile, is always strong and she only becomes more powerful as she and Neva learn how to fight together. To start, Alba can jump, double jump and dodge, and she has a basic sword attack and a downward thrust that can strike enemies and burst through weak floors from above. In the back half of the game, Neva is able to leap on invisible platforms and essentially teleport to any area she pleases, watching from high ridges as Alba climbs walls of white flowers to reach her. This is a distinct contrast to the early stages, when Alba had to coax cub-Neva to jump across small gaps, and it drives home the game's core theme of parental love. Eventually, Alba is able to throw Neva into battle like an aimed projectile, and she'll ferociously attack whatever enemy she hits. This ability is a little silly at times - like when you're trying to reach a hidden flower and you end up hurling Neva into a wall repeatedly until the angle is just right - but it quickly feels like a natural, necessary extension of Alba's arsenal. Besides, Neva doesn't seem to mind. Nomada Studio Mechanically, Neva is an incredibly light and responsive platformer. Playing on PlayStation 5, inputs never lag; Alba is able to jump, double jump and dodge with ease, and this trio of abilities resets with the lightest of touches to the terrain. Enemy hitboxes are tight, encouraging players to fight up close and dodge through dangers in between swings of Alba's sword. Health regenerates as Alba lands hits without taking damage herself, and healing cairns are sprinkled generously throughout the scenes. Mid-air levels, where Alba leaps between cliff sides and bounces off floating enemy blobs, cultivate a brilliant sense of precision, daring players to push Alba's maneuvers to their absolute limits. Neva offers subtle yet clear direction through environmental cues alone, and I never once felt lost in its platforming sauce. The levels shift with the seasons: complex navigation puzzles and delightfully tricky mirror levels are steadily added to the sidescrolling action, constantly testing Alba and Neva's capacity to work together. Alba and Neva are connected in every scene, but their bond is tangible during battles, particularly once the wolf throw becomes a reliable part of Alba's attack-dodge rhythm. This only makes it more distressing when, in some stages, Alba has to battle on her own. Neva's presence brings a fullness to Alba's abilities, and especially in the game's last few hours, my controller felt distinctly empty any time she didn't fight alongside me. Nomada Studio I don't want to say too much about the final stages of Neva. The game builds to an inevitable, emotionally intense conclusion, with pockets of deep longing and sublime reconciliation sprinkled throughout the rising action. Yes, Neva will make you cry. I definitely did, with big, ugly tears. Neva is infused with magical realism, blending the familiar with the impossible in a format that looks like a living children's book. Otherworldly terror creeps around the edges of each landscape, foreboding and exquisite, and the game's animations are anime-smooth. Neva looks incredible and it plays just as beautifully - a rare and powerful combination. Just like Alba and Neva. Neva comes out on October 15 on PC, macOS, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch, developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/neva-review-a-platformer-thats-so-perfect-it-made-me-cry-160037311.html?src=rss

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is back online in a read-only state, after DDoS attacks took the entire platform offline on October 9. Founder Brewster Kahle posted on Monday (via The Verge) that the service is resumed in a provisional, read-only manner" without the ability to save new pages.Security researcher Troy Hunt said last week's attacks coincided with the Internet Archive's plan to disclose a previous breach that led to the theft of over 31 million records. Hunt, who runs the Have I Been Pwned? service, believed the timing of the two attacks was likely entirely coincidental," citing the involvement of multiple parties."The hacking group Blackmeta claimed responsibility for the attacks, posting that the Internet Archive belongs to the USA." The nonprofit, founded in the early days of the web in 1996, is headquartered in San Francisco.Kahle says it's safe to resume" using the Wayback Machine, so you can resume your nostalgic trip to your favorite Geocities post-grunge tribute sites. However, the founder warns that the service may need further maintenance, so don't be shocked if it goes down again.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/internet-archives-wayback-machine-is-back-online-after-last-weeks-ddos-attacks-155820797.html?src=rss

Fujifilm has released its first sub-$1,000 camera in a long while and resurrected the 11-year old "M" branding with the $799 X-M5. With that price, it's primarily aimed at photographers on a budget or vloggers looking to step up from a smartphone. Fujifilm film cut a few features like a viewfinder (EVF) to get to that price point, but it does have the company's latest 26-megapixel X-Trans 4 CMOS sensor and decent video specs. For a camera without a viewfinder, the X-M5 should handle pretty well. It has front and back control dials, along with a top setting dial that includes a new "Vlog" mode. It also comes with the same film simulation dial found on the X-T50, to help social media users and creators create cool photos straight out of the camera. Fujifilm When in vlog mode, you get a full GUI interface on the touchscreen for easy access. That includes things like a "portrait enhancer," background defocus and product priority, much as we've seen on Sony's vlogging products. For vloggers, it has a 3-inch, 1.04-million dot fully articulating rear display that's hopefully bright enough to use in sunlight (because, again, no EVF). There are both headphone and microphone ports for vloggers, but they're not located on the left as usual. Instead, Fujifilm placed the 3.5mm mic input on the rear (where the EVF would usually go) and the headphone port on the right side. That's to avoid having the display hit the mic or headphone cable when it flips out, as can happen on other cameras. You'll never mistake it for a sports camera, but the X-M5 can shoot 8 fps bursts with the mechanical shutter, or an outstanding 20 fps in electronic mode (both with continuous autofocus). It can capture a decent 82/60 compressed RAW frames in those modes before the buffer fills, again very respectable for such a small camera. Video is also pretty strong, with 6.2K open gate 3:2 capture, 4K 60p and Full HD at up to 240 fps (these specs match the X-T50 as you may have noticed). There's a bit of crop for 4K 60p (1.18x) and FHD past 120fps (1.29x) but otherwise everything is one-to-one. Another thing missing is in-body stabilization so the X-M5 is limited to what the lens provides or electronic stabilization. In the latter mode, there's a minimum 1.32x crop for 4K 30fps video and a significant 1.44x when shooting 4K 60p. The small body also has overheating limitations when using LP (long play) recording, but those can be reduced with a $200 fan attachment. Fujifilm Other features including three internal microphones that allow for surround sound-like capture, a 9:16 short movie mode for TikTok creators, high-speed movie transfer, up to 440 frames of battery life and a single UHS-I card slot. I couldn't understand what Fujifilm was thinking when it released the X-T50 for $500 more than the X-T30 II. Now we know - it's hoping budget buyers will gravitate toward the X-M5 instead. It goes on pre-sale today for $799 and Fujifilm also unveiled the 16-55mm f/2.8 (24-70mm full-frame equivalent) lens selling for $1,199 and XF500mm f/5.6 super telephoto (750mm equivalent) now on pre-order for $2,999. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/fujifilms-x-m5-is-its-first-sub-1000-camera-in-years-140715888.html?src=rss

Pokemon developer Game Freak has confirmed its servers were hacked in August. The breach meant internal materials - from source codes to early and even scrapped character designs - were circulating on social media over the weekend.Leaked documents and images flooded Reddit and X after Centro Leaks began dumping it all on Saturday afternoon. It allegedly includes source codes for past games and codenames for the Switch 2 and the upcoming Gen 10 Pokemon games. There are also references to a Pokemon MMO, future movies and a new anime series. The leak revealed tons of beta character designs and concept art.- Mat SmithGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest tech stories you missed

The next Tron game is a follow-up to Tron: Identity, but it's also something completely new. Where Tron: Identity was a visual novel, Tron: Catalyst is an isometric action game with a looping narrative, and it's coming to PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch in 2025. Tron: Catalyst is in development at Bithell Games, the award-winning studio behind Tron: Identity, John Wick Hex and Thomas Was Alone.In Tron: Catalyst, players return to the Arq Grid, a virtual world that's evolved without human input, creating a siloed, Galapagos Islands type of space populated by sentient computer programs. The protagonist is Exo, a program who's able to relive segments of time by exploiting a system-level glitch that no one else can sense. She's on a mission to uncover and stop the unsavory goals of the Arq Grid's overlords, sniffing out secrets and bypassing enemies with each new loop.Combat includes melee and ranged attacks, and Exo will collect data shards that grant her new abilities as the game progresses. Exo's identity disc is a crucial tool in her fight to stabilize the Arq Grid, and one thing players will do with it is customize their upgrade paths.As you're playing through, all combat flows from your identity disc, but you're going to be able to upgrade that disc in order to satisfy the kind of action you'd like," Bithell Games founder Mike Bithell said during a media preview of Tron: Catalyst. He showed off a disc kick, a ranged move that (fittingly) let Exo kick her disc back at the enemies encircling her, in between close-combat slices and standard throws. On top of parkour traversal, players will also be able to ride light cycles.Tron: Catalyst will make complete sense even if you haven't played Identity, but anyone who played the first installment will encounter a few familiar faces and locales. The new game is a narrative-driven experience where players' choices have a small but noticeable impact on the world around them. The game has voice acting for major characters and in pivotal scenes.Bithell GamesWe have a text-based dialogue system here," Bithell said. This is at times linear in that way. The player also gets to make dialogue choices. The game is very straight ahead with its action, so there's not an enormous amount of branching, but it does let you be expressive. So as a player, you can decide if you want to be snarky with people, polite with people, and kind of make some choices - for example, choosing if you want to lie or not to this character, and you'll see the echoes of that in your character interactions."In the demo, Exo was on a mission to edit her identity disc - in the first loop, she fought her way through stages of enemies in order to access a club and talk to the proper character, who then sent her on an escort mission in order to prove her worth. She completed it, got her disc wiped, and restarted the loop. The second time around, she didn't need to fight anyone because her identity disc scanned clean. From that point on, the city was open to Exo in a new way.Bithell GamesTron: Catalyst isn't an open-world game, but it's composed of multiple big levels," as Bithell called them.He added, We probably need to come up with a better term."Essentially, Tron: Catalyst is composed of multiple large hubs that take players from the city streets to rooftop penthouses, providing plenty of points of interest, even after multiple loops. As players explore, they'll be able to add shortcut codes to Exo's disc, removing some of the tedium from the playthroughs.When you travel somewhere, you may get a taxi to the hotel, but then once you start to get comfortable, you might go to a coffee shop nearby," Bithell said. Slowly, in ever-increasing concentric circles, a kind of iterative exploration. That's something we've really tried to pull in here. So as you're playing the game, you're building up that knowledge of the space and how to use it."Characters in the world of Tron: Catalyst don't shift cycle to cycle - at the start of each loop, everyone returns to their original place, doing what they were originally doing. Still, Exo's perception of each situation changes with every refreshed loop, revealing new paths, and the world reacts according to the edits in her identity disc.Bithell GamesIt's meant to be a game about playing with those relationships and exploring how characters can kind of be influenced and have their minds changed," Bithell said. There's lots going on there, but it's different to Hades, definitely. It's not a 100-loop roguelite. It's not that kind of game. It's much more story-driven."Bithell Games has a team of about 20 developers working on Tron: Catalyst, and it's being published by Devolver Digital's new hub for licensed indie games, Big Fan. Of course Disney is also involved - technically the new game's full name is Disney Tron: Catalyst, so don't be alarmed if it appears higher up in your alphabetized library than expected once it lands in 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-next-tron-game-is-an-isometric-action-adventure-due-out-in-2025-130050360.html?src=rss

You can think of the $300 Meta Quest 3S as a basic Honda Accord of VR headsets. It doesn't have the same high-quality optics as the $500 Quest 3, which is more like a Touring-grade Honda for enthusiasts, but they both get you to the same place: Truly immersive virtual reality. After testing the Quest 3S for the past week, I see it less as a step down and more like an upgrade over the Quest 2. That headset also launched at $300 four years ago, but its price fluctuated up and down depending on supply chain issues, and, over time, it was hampered by aging hardware. But now Meta has a $300 VR entry that's powered by a much more capable processor, offers better hand and controller tracking, and lets you dip your toes into mixed reality (overlaying digital objects atop a camera feed of real life). While the Quest 3S might just appear to be a less capable Quest 3, it has the potential to be one of the most significant VR products Meta has made yet. Hardware As I mentioned in my initial hands-on, the Quest 3S doesn't look very different compared to the Quest 3, aside from its triangular sensor array. It still has a sturdy plastic case, a healthy dose of cushioning around your eyes, and an adjustable Y-shaped strap. You'll have a genuinely hard time telling the headsets apart while they're facing each other, I found myself peeking at their front sensors often while testing them on the same workbench. Look a bit closer, though, and you'll notice some key differences. For one, you can easily see the telltale concentric circles of Fresnel lenses on the Quest 3S. Meta also used them on the Quest 2, and they've historically been common among cheaper VR headsets. The Quest 3, on the other hand, uses pancake lenses, which have a smooth surface. (More on the technical differences between those two lens types below.) Devindra Hardawar for Engadget One way Meta was able to drive down the cost of the Quest 3S was by re-using the 1,830 by 1,920 pixel per eye screen from the Quest 2. The Quest 3's screen offers 30 percent more pixels (2,264 by 2,208 pixels per eye), to deliver a sharper and more realistic image. The Quest 3S doesn't have a headphone jack, either, so you'll have to plug in a USB-C adapter to get better sound, or connect to wireless headphones. While I'll go to my grave as a defender of 3.5mm audio jacks, I suppose it makes to lose it here. Most Quest 3S users will likely be just fine with its built-in speakers, and anyone who demands the fidelity of a wired connection likely wouldn't mind paying more for the Quest 3 (or shelling out for a $10 USB-C to 3.5mm adapter). Also gone is the nifty dial for adjusting lens spacing from the Quest 3, instead you have to manually push the lenses into three positions to approximate the best pupillary distance. This involves putting the headset on and taking it off several times (exactly the sort of friction that could easily turn off VR newcomers), but at least it's something you only have to sort once. It could be a bigger problem if you're sharing the headset with your household, though. Meta added an action button for quickly swapping between mixed reality mode, which shows a camera feed of your room, and a completely immersive VR view. This is something the Quest 3 doesn't have at all - instead, you have to tap its right front corner to jump into mixed reality. Having a dedicated button is simply better for usability, especially for new VR users, so I don't mind that it slightly disrupts the curves of the Quest 3S's design. The Quest 3S also uses the same Touch Controllers as its more expensive sibling, and they're once again excellent. They've lost the clunky motion tracking ring from the earlier models, now they're simply light controllers that fit your hand like a glove. The joysticks feel smooth and accurate, and the buttons deliver some wonderfully responsive feedback. That's nothing new, though: I've been impressed by Facebook's gamepads since the first Oculus Touch controllers were released in 2016. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget What's most important about the Quest 3S is the hardware Meta brought over from its more expensive headset. There's the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, which the company claims offers double the graphics performance as the Quest 2, as well as 8GB of RAM. That's only a slight leap from the Quest 2's 6GB of memory, but it's essential for storing more detailed textures. Now instead of worrying about how a game would perform on the slower Quest 2, developers can simply build for a single hardware specification. Less headaches for devs, ideally, should mean more software on the Meta Quest store. And the hope is that a wealth of new apps will lead to people buying more headsets. Which leads to more apps sold. It's a virtuous cycle that could potentially help Meta out of the death spiral the consumer VR market has been circling for years. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget In use: Snappy and functional VR The first thing I noticed after donning the Quest 3S: Wow, it sure feels fast. Stepping through the headset onboarding process, downloading a few apps and navigating around the Meta home environment was simply snappy and responsive. That's something I remembered from the Quest 3, as well, but it feels like even more of a revelation on a $300 headset. There was none of the lag or occasional slowdowns I grew used to on the Quest 2. The actual VR experience looked detailed and immersive, as well. I didn't notice the resolution loss from the Quest 3 much, but it was easily apparent that the cheaper Fresnel lenses led to more artifacts. Edges looked a bit fuzzier, I'd occasionally see haloing around objects, and God rays from extra bright objects often appeared in games like Pistol Whip. There's no doubt the Quest 3's pancake lenses, which aren't as susceptible to the same visual issues, look far sharper. But here's the thing: I don't think the Fresnel lenses will make much of a difference for VR newcomers. I enjoyed VR headsets for years while living with those same artifacts. And if going with cheaper lenses helped Meta drive the cost of the Quest 3S down to $300, it was worth it. The biggest barrier to the world of VR isn't fidelity, it's cost. Once I started spending significant time inside the Quest 3S, I also noticed the visual issues less. I was far more interested in trying to conduct the perfect symphony in Maestro, which did a fantastic job of simulating the live orchestral experience thanks to the headset's accurate hand tracking and immersive audio. It was also fun to pick up a random pen from my desk and transform it into a virtual baton. The game certainly looks a bit clearer in the Quest 3, but I would wager many people won't be directly comparing the two headsets. I also spent an hour playing Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom - which is less a game and more of an interactive anime film, but it was engrossing enough that I started to ignore the Quest 3S's artifacts. If you're immersed in a genuinely great VR experience, they simply don't matter. Naturally, I also checked out classics like Pistol Whip and Superhot, which are still a blast to play after all these years. Sadly, the Quest 3S doesn't solve the problem of looking like an absolute buffoon while using VR. That was particularly noticeable while playing I Am Cat, a game that had me climbing up walls, digging up a litter box and absolutely terrorizing the old woman in my virtual house. I was having a blast, but my six year old daughter started to wonder if I was going mad. I ended up streaming the game to the Meta app on my iPhone, and screen mirroring that to my Apple TV, to give her a live view of everything I was seeing. That, of course, led to her coming up with all sorts of ways for me to wreak kitty havoc in VR. (Pro tip: You can totally make the old lady eat a cat poop sandwich.) Just like the previous Meta standalone headsets, the Quest 3S can also stream more intensive VR experiences from gaming PCs, either wirelessly or via a USB-C cable. I was able to connect to my rig over Wi-Fi and play 15 minutes of Half-Life: Alyx without any noticeable lag. Sure, it didn't look as great as it did on the Valve Index, but that whole setup still costs $1,000. And, of course, the Index doesn't give you the option of playing wirelessly without a PC. I was also able to stream some non-VR Xbox Cloud Gaming titles, including Halo Infinite and Fortnite, after pairing my Xbox controller. W2D gaming isn't the ideal thing to do in a VR headset, but being able to virtualize an enormous screen still makes it worthwhile, especially if you don't have a large TV. While Meta positioned the Quest 3 as a mixed reality device, thanks to its color cameras and more capable room mapping, I never found it as useful as the Vision Pro. That's a headset I can wear for hours at a time while I move around my home. The Quest 3's cameras were simply too fuzzy to use for long, and the Quest 3S suffers from the same problem. It's fun to play Meta's First Encounters demo and have aliens invade your home, or jam out in Synth Riders, but the Quest 3 and 3S headsets need far better cameras to truly recreate reality. That's also why I couldn't stomach using Meta's Remote Desktop app to replicate my PC for too long. The virtual display looked decently sharp, but I had a hard time focusing on that alongside a fuzzy view of my office. I'd much rather just take off the Quest 3S and look at my monitor to get some work done. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget As an entertainment device, the Quest 3S is a comfortable way to sit back and enjoy movies, TV and 360-degree videos. Home theater heads might notice that videos don't leak nearly as sharp as they do on the Quest 3, and the contrast and black levels are lightyears away from the Vision Pro's MicroLED displays, but for most people the Quest 3S is perfectly fine. It's certainly better than watching something on a laptop or tablet (or god forbid, a phone). Throughout my week of testing, the Quest 3S would typically last around two hours and 20 minutes before needing a recharge. That's slightly better than what I saw on the Quest 3, which could drain its battery in just two hours. This is one area where the Quest 3S's lower resolution displays may be a benefit, since they're less demanding on the GPU. You could always plug in a 10,000 mAh external pack to extend the Quest 3S's 4,324 mAh built-in battery, or just leave it plugged into a charger for extended play sessions. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Pricing and the competition The Quest 3S starts at $300 with 128GB of storage, but you can double that to 256GB with the $400 model. If you need 512GB of space, then the $500 Quest 3 is your only option. Given the optics advantage of the more expensive headset though, the $400 Quest 3S doesn't exactly seem like a smart buy. If you need more than 128GB of storage, you're better off saving up until you can snag a Quest 3. Meta still doesn't have much competition in the world of inexpensive standalone VR headsets. HTC's Vive Focus 3 lineup, which now includes the new Focus 3 Vision, starts at $1,000 and is geared more towards enterprises and business customers. HTC Vive's storefront also has far fewer games and apps than Meta's, so their platform doesn't make much sense for average users. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Wrap-up The Meta Quest 3S is the best $300 standalone VR headset we've ever seen. It's comfortable to wear, and it delivers a snappy VR experience. It's so good, you likely won't notice that it's not as sharp as the Quest 3, or that it also has more visual artifacts. When you're truly immersed in VR, those problems will fade away. Alongside the company's Ray-Ban smart frames, its Orion augmented reality glasses, and the billions it's already spent on VR, Meta clearly believes the future of computing rests on your face. But even light smart glasses are still glasses, something that many people avoid wearing by shoving contact lenses onto their eyeballs instead. We don't know how, exactly, the public will respond to true AR glasses. But really, that's a problem for the future. For now, we can just enjoy the Quest 3S for what it is: Great VR at a relatively inexpensive price.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-quest-3s-review-impressive-vr-for-300-130013596.html?src=rss

Another October Prime Day is in the books, but all of the deals haven't disappeared from Amazon's site just yet. This year's Fall Prime Day brought a bunch of discounts on smartphones, speakers, wearables, robot vacuums and more tech, and you can still grab some of the sale prices right now even after the event has officially ended. While it's possible we see some of these deals come back in a month during Black Friday, it's a good idea to pick up your top items now if you're keen on getting some of your holiday shopping done early. Here are the best Prime Day deals you can still get today.Best Prime Day deals you can still get: Engadget's top picks

The Terrifier franchise, with its distinctively horrifying antagonist Art the Clown, is having a bit of a moment right now. Coinciding with Terrifier 3's wildly successful opening weekend - the indie horror movie reportedly pulled in over $18 million - game publisher Selecta Play has announced that a Terrifier video game is in the works and will be released next year. Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is being developed by indie studio Relevo and styled after a classic beat em up. The teaser shows it to be a fitting combination of gory and goofy, with colorful pixel art and tons of over-the-top blood spatter. According to the Steam listing, you'll get to play as Art the Clown and unleash chaos" on several movie sets where films about him are being produced. There will also be local multiplayer modes. Terrifier: The ARTcade Game will be available for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox when it's released in 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/an-arcade-style-terrifier-beat-em-up-game-is-coming-next-year-205755240.html?src=rss

Pokemon developer Game Freak has confirmed it suffered a breach as troves of internal materials pertaining to the franchise - from source codes to early and, in some cases, scrapped character designs - hit social media this weekend. In a statement published on Thursday (translated from Japanese), the company said it discovered its servers were hacked in August and that sensitive employee information had been leaked. It did not address the Pokemon leaks, though the bulk of this content appears to have been published online after the statement was released.Leaked documents and images flooded Reddit and X after Centro Leaks began dumping it all on Saturday afternoon. The Teraleak" files, as some fans are calling it, allegedly include source codes for past games such as Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, codenames for the Switch 2 and the upcoming Gen 10 Pokemon games - Ounce" and Gaia," respectively - references to an in-development Pokemon MMO, and internal discussions from design meetings. There are also details on the purported unreleased Detective Pikachu sequel and other planned Pokemon movies, as well as a new anime series.The scope of the leak is enormous, exposing tons of beta character designs and concept art in addition to the source codes. Neither Nintendo nor The Pokemon Company has publicly acknowledged the leak yet. Engadget has reached out for comment. Game Freak said in its statement that it's strengthening its security and apologized to those affected by the breach, noting that the unauthorized third-party accessed the personal information of over 2,600 current and former workers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/massive-pokemon-leak-exposes-beta-designs-source-codes-and-plans-for-upcoming-titles-180208503.html?src=rss

SpaceX's Super Heavy booster successfully returned to the pad after liftoff to be caught by the launch tower's mechanical arms in an incredible feat Sunday morning. The milestone came during the fifth flight of the company's Starship, and is a huge step for the rocket's planned reusability. Starship launched at about 8:25AM ET from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas Starbase.

Microsoft is expanding Xbox Cloud Gaming's streaming capabilities to support titles that aren't on Xbox Game Pass, The Verge reports. The company has stated its plans to let users stream games from their own libraries numerous times over the last few years, going back to the announcement of Project xCloud, but the feature hasn't yet materialized. Now, Microsoft is ready to start testing it among Xbox Insiders in November, with plans to ultimately support thousands of games, according to The Verge, which cites sources familiar with Microsoft's plans."Xbox players have long been asking for the option to stream games that they've purchased, rather than only those that are available on Xbox Game Pass. If the testing period goes as planned, more players could soon see the ability to do this. The report comes on the heels of Xbox president Sarah Bond's announcement on Friday that Android users will be able to buy and play games on the Xbox app starting next month.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-cloud-gaming-may-finally-let-you-stream-your-non-game-pass-purchases-soon-212759959.html?src=rss

If you watched that Star Trek episode about the tribbles and thought, I need one of those in my life (minus the rapid reproduction problem), Casio's got just the thing for you. The company is now taking pre-orders in Japan for Moflin, the adorable robotic plushie with AI emotional capabilities" that debuted during CES 2021. Moflin, developed in a partnership with the Japanese startup Vanguard Industries, is meant to work like an emotional support pet - snuggling is its specialty, and the creators say each robot has its own distinct personality, can shift moods depending on the situation and will form attachments to people over time.It's available in gray and blonde for a hefty 59,400 (roughly $400), and is expected to ship on November 7. There's no word on a release outside of Japan.Moflin doesn't just respond to cuddles. You're supposed to talk to it, too, and it'll react with movements and cute sounds. These interactions will help shape its character. Moflin has the ability to learn and its personality will develop based on how it is treated," said Vanguard founder Masahiko Yamanaka in a promotional video. It's Bluetooth capable so it can connect with an app, and charges in a little nest so as to avoid breaking the illusion of it being a real pet. When it's charging, it'll just go to sleep. The fur is removable for when you need to wash it, though.Vanguard ran successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns for Moflin in 2020 but only started shipping the robots to backers in late 2023. Casio is now handling the manufacturing and distribution.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-fluffiest-robot-of-ces-2021-is-back-thanks-to-casio-174714733.html?src=rss

TikTok's executives and employees were well aware that its features foster compulsive use of the app, as well as of its corresponding negative mental health effects, according to NPR. The broadcasting organization reviewed the unredacted documents from the lawsuit filed by the Kentucky Attorney General's Office as published by the Kentucky Public Radio. More than a dozen states sued TikTok a few days ago, accusing it of "falsely claiming [that it's] safe for young people." Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said the app was "specifically designed to be an addiction machine, targeting children who are still in the process of developing appropriate self-control."Most of the documents submitted for the lawsuits had redacted information, but Kentucky's had faulty redactions. Apparently, TikTok's own research found that "compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety." TikTok's executives also knew that compulsive use can interfere with sleep, work and school responsibilities, and even "connecting with loved ones."They reportedly knew, as well, that the app's time-management tool barely helps in keeping young users away from the app. While the tool sets the default limit for app use to 60 minutes a day, teens were still spending 107 minutes on the app even when it's switched on. That's only 1.5 minutes shorter than the average use of 108.5 minutes a day before the tool was launched. Based on the internal documents, TikTok based the success of the tool on how it "improv[ed] public trust in the TikTok platform via media coverage." The company knew the tool wasn't going to be effective, with one document saying that "[m]inors do not have executive function to control their screen time, while young adults do." Another document reportedly said that "across most engagement metrics, the younger the user, the better the performance."In addition, TikTok reportedly knows that "filter bubbles" exist and understands how they could potentially be dangerous. Employees conducted internal studies, according to the documents, wherein they found themselves sucked into negative filter bubbles shortly after following certain accounts, such as those focusing on painful ("painhub") and sad ("sadnotes") content. They're also aware of content and accounts promoting "thinspiration," which is associated with disordered eating. Due to the way TikTok's algorithm works, its researchers found that users are placed into filter bubbles after 30 minutes of use in one sitting.TikTok is struggling with moderation, as well, according to the documents. An internal investigation found that underage girls on the app were getting "gifts" and "coins" in exchange for live stripping. And higher-ups in the company reportedly instructed their moderators not to remove users reported to be under 13 years old unless their accounts state that they indeed are under 13. NPR says TikTok also acknowledged that a substantial number of content violating its rules get through its moderation techniques, including videos that normalize pedophilia, glorify minor sexual assault and physical abuse.TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek defended the company and told the organization that the Kentucky AG's complaint "cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety." He also said that TikTok has "robust safeguards, which include proactively removing suspected underage users" and that it has "voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/tiktok-is-reportedly-aware-of-its-bad-effects-on-teen-users-150030241.html?src=rss

In a message to employees, Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg has announced that the company is reducing the size of its total workforce by 10 percent. That means Boeing is cutting roughly 17,000 jobs, including executives and managers, over the coming months. Ortberg, who only took the helm back in August, explained that the company has to "make structural changes" to ensure it can "stay competitive" and deliver for its customers over the long term.Ortberg announced the upcoming layoffs in the midst of a machinist strike that had shut down production in most of Boeing's plants, including the ones manufacturing its best-selling plane, the 737 Max. Around 33,000 union machinists are involved in the strike, which has been going on since mid-September. As AP explains, that's had a big impact on Boeing's pockets, since it gets paid for half of what a plane costs after it delivers a customer's order.In addition to the layoffs, Ortberg announced that Boeing will delay the development of its 777X planes due to the challenges it has faced in development, along with the ongoing work stoppage. It now plans to deliver the new wide-body planes in 2026 instead of 2025.Boeing started 2024 having to ground some 737 Max 9 planes after an Alaska Airlines door plug blew off while it's mid-flight. While there were no reported injuries, the Boeing plane had only been in service since November last year. In July, the company had agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy to defraud the US government following two fatal crashed in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Boeing had also eaten hundreds of millions in losses as a result of Starliner's delayed return from the International Space Station. The company's first crewed flight was only supposed to last a few days, but hardware issues prevented it from sticking to the original timeline. In the end, the Starliner returned to Earth months later, without the astronauts it originally flew to the space station. Its crew will now come home on a SpaceX Dragon capsule in February next year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/boeing-to-lay-off-17000-employees-to-stay-competitive-110033175.html?src=rss

The National Labor Relations Board has accused Apple of infringing on its employees' rights to advocate for better working conditions. In a complaint spotted by Reuters, the agency alleges Apple illegally fired an employee who had used Slack to advocate for workplace changes at the company. Separately, the NLRB accuses Apple of forcing another worker to delete a social media post.The case stems from a 2021 complaint filed by #AppleToo co-organizer Janneke Parrish. In October of that year, Apple fired Parrish for allegedly sharing confidential information, a claim she denies. Per the complaint, Parrish used Slack and public social media posts to advocate for permanent remote work.She also shared open letters critical of the tech giant, distributed a pay equity survey, and recounted instances of sexual and racial discrimination at Apple. According to the labor board, Apple's policies bars employees from creating Slack channels without first obtaining permission from a manager. Instead, workers must direct their workplace concerns to either management or a People Support" group the company maintains. An example of the type of concerns some employees used Slack to voice can be seen in a 2021 tweet from former Apple employee Ashley Gjovik.We look forward to holding Apple accountable at trial for implementing facially unlawful rules and terminating employees for engaging in the core protected activity of calling out gender discrimination and other civil rights violations that permeated the workplace," Parrish's lawyer, Laurie Burgess, told Reuters.Apple disputes Parrish's claims. "We are and have always been deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace. We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised and, out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters," an Apple spokesperson told Engadget."We strongly disagree with these claims and will continue to share the facts at the hearing."Provided Apple does not settle with the agency, an initial hearing is scheduled for February with an administrative judge. The NLRB is looking to force the company to change its policy and reimburse Parrish for the financial hardships she suffered due to her firing. Last week, the NLRB accused Apple of forcing employees to sign illegal and overly broad confidentially, non-disclosure and non-compete agreements.Update 7:09PM ET: Added comment from Apple.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/nlrb-accuses-apple-of-illegally-restricting-employee-slack-and-social-media-use-200059723.html?src=rss

The soundtrack to the spider-bot-crawling 1997 Ghost in the Shell game adaptation is coming to the West for the first time. Titled Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body (as an ode to the Fuchikoma mech you pilot in the game), the soundtrack was produced by Takkyu Ishino. It's available to pre-order on iam8bit ahead of its 2025 release.The PS1 game adaptation had late-90s gamers piloting a spider-like mech (first appearing in the 1991 manga), blasting enemies to smithereens with twin machine guns and guided missiles. Masamune Shirow, the original manga's author, wrote and illustrated its story and art design.But as 90s shooters often figured out, firing guns nonstop for hours on end is much better with a badass techno soundtrack pumping in the background like an energy drink for your ears. In addition to Ishino, it includes warehouse-shaking bangers" from Mijk Van Dijk, The Advent, Joey Beltram and Brother from Another Planet (among others).iam8bitThe soundtrack album first arrived in Japan alongside the game in 1997 in a single-disc version and an expanded two-disc limited edition. In an apparent nod to the original, the 2025 soundtrack for the West will be available on CD (23 tracks), a double LP (11 tracks) and a 12-inch picture disc ( a carefully curated" six tracks).You can now pre-order the three Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body variants on iam8bit. The CD (packaged in a stunning 3D lenticular case") costs $43, the vinyl version is $55 and the picture disc (which comes on an illustrated two-sided disc that pays homage to the original release) costs $50. The soundtrack is expected to arrive in Q2 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/the-ghost-in-the-shell-ps1-soundtrack-is-finally-coming-to-the-west-194447885.html?src=rss

Robot vacuums across the country were hacked in the space of several days, according to reporting by ABC News. This allowed the attackers to not only control the robovacs, but use their speakers to hurl racial slurs and abusive comments at anyone nearby.All of the affected robots were of the same make and model, the Chinese-made Ecovacs Deebot X2s. This particular robovac has developed a reputation for being easy to hack, thanks to a critical security flaw. ABC News, for instance, was able to get full control over one of the robots, including the camera.One victim of this week's hacks was a Minnesota lawyer named Daniel Swenson. He told ABC that he was watching TV when the robot started making weird noises, like a broken-up radio signal or something." Through the app, Swenson could tell that a stranger was accessing the live camera feed and the remote control feature.He reset the password and rebooted the vacuum, but that's when the weirdness really started. It immediately started moving again of its own accord and the speakers began emitting a human voice. This voice was yelling racist obscenities right in front of Swenson's son."I got the impression it was a kid, maybe a teenager," said Swenson. "Maybe they were just jumping from device to device messing with families." Ultimately, he said it could have been worse, such as if the vacuum silently spied on his family for days on end.Swenson's device was hacked on May 24. That same day another Deebot X2s in Los Angeles began chasing around a dog. This vacuum's speakers also shouted abusive comments. Five days later, a similar incident happened in El Paso. It remains unclear how many of the company's devices have been hacked in total.At the root of this issue is a security flaw that allows bad faith actors to bypass the required four-digit security PIN in order to gain control of the vacuum. This issue originally came to light in December 2023. The Bluetooth connector also has a flaw that allows for complete access from up to 300 feet away. However, the attacks occurred throughout the country, so the Bluetooth vulnerability is an unlikely culprit.According to Gizmodo, the company has developed a patch to eliminate the aforementioned security flaw that'll roll out sometime in November. We reached out to Ecovacs to get a confirmation on this.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/hackers-are-making-robot-vacuums-randomly-yell-racial-slurs-184017187.html?src=rss

Meta will fix mistakes" in how Threads enforces its rules after days of complaints about the company's handling of content moderation on the service. In an update, Threads head Adam Mosseri said the company had already made some changes to address issues that have cropped up.Mosseri's comments come as Threads users have been increasingly vocal about Threads' seemingly aggressive, and sometimes bizarre, moderation decisions. In one prominent example, a number of users reported that their accounts had been penalized for using the word cracker" or saltines." Mosseri didn't explain exactly why these types of mistakes occurred, but said that one of the company's internal tools broke," which prevented human reviewers from seeing sufficient context" about the posts they were moderating.For those of you who've shared concerns about enforcement issues: we're looking into it and have already found mistakes and made changes," Mosseri wrote. Most prominently, our reviewers (people) were making calls without being provided the context on how conversations played out, which was a miss. We're fixing this so they can make the better calls and we can make fewer mistakes. We're trying to provide a safer experience, and we need to do better."Content moderation isn't the only issue that's rankled Threads users in recent days. Earlier this week, Mosseri also promised that Threads was working on a fix to bring engagement bait under control" on the service, following widespread complaints.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-found-mistakes-and-made-changes-to-address-threads-moderation-issues-175734448.html?src=rss

Redbox is as dead as disco, but that doesn't mean it can't (sorta) live on in your living room. Redbox's parent company folded with hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid debts. It also left over 24,000 of its iconic red machines at various retail locations, as reported by The Wall Street Journal and spotted by Gizmodo.The machines are heavy, cumbersome and difficult to dispose of, with a former RedBox executive suggesting it costs $500 to remove one of the kiosks. This is compounded by the fact that some of the machines are actually embedded in concrete. The retailers plan on salvaging them for scrap, at a loss, which has led collectors to take the initiative to scoop some up before they hit the scrap heap.

Shut-ins of the world, you'll have to wait a bit longer for your ultimate wish-fulfillment video game. Date Everything!, the cheekily bizarre romantic sim from Team17 and Sassy Chap Games, is no longer arriving on October 24, as was initially announced. On Friday, the team pushed back the game's release date to Valentine's Day 2025.On a game design level, Date Everything! appears to be a simple dating simulator with dialogue branches and voiced characters. What sets it apart is its delightfully absurd premise: You can date all your household objects, thanks to magical glasses known as the Dateviator."Your dateable objects each have a distinct personality and branching storylines. Your romantic possibilities include a laundry hamper (the fiery Harper"), a vacuum cleaner (the hunky Hoove") and your overwhelming (and shirtless) sense of existential dread who would prefer just to be called Doug." As unappealing as that bunch sounds for a romantic fling, it may still beat today's microtransaction-riddled dating apps.Team17 / Sassy Chap GamesDepending on your dialog branch choices, each humanized object can become a Love, Friend or Hate. The game's press release promised that each outcome influences a critical path tying it all together," so choose wisely between the lamp and the towel who dresses like Liberace.Date Everything! arrives on February 14, 2025, on Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/absurdist-romance-sim-date-everything-has-been-delayed-to-valentines-day-2025-163412249.html?src=rss

We're getting into the colder months of the year (at least in the northern hemisphere). If you haven't done so already, it'll soon be time to switch on the heating. Rather than make manual adjustments to the thermostat throughout the day, why not let a smart version take care of the heavy lifting? As luck would have it, Google's Nest Thermostat is back on sale. The device can be yours for $85. That's $45 off the regular price but some way off the record low of $61 it dropped to a year ago. This is a more affordable version of the Nest Learning Thermostat and should do the trick for many people. When you leave your home, the Energy Star-certified Nest Thermostat can automatically adjust the temperature to prevent wasting energy on heating or cooling. The Nest app allows you to tweak the settings remotely. This can come in especially handy if you're going to arrive home at a different time than usual. You can delay a temperature change or make it kick in earlier so your home's at the optimal level of warmth while minimizing energy waste. The thermostat can be controlled via Google Assistant and other Matter-certified assistants such as Siri and Alexa. There's also a Savings Finder feature. This offers suggestions on how to tweak your temperature schedule to keep your costs lower. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/googles-nest-thermostat-is-back-on-sale-for-85-155604449.html?src=rss

It's time to dust off a pair of pistols, as Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered releases for PS4 and PS5 on February 14, 2025. What better way to spend the next Valentine's Day by foraging around caverns for loot?These remasters boast updated visuals, though you can toggle to the old-school graphics to soak in the nostalgia. The same goes for controls. There are modern controls inspired by the newer entries in the series, but those retro inputs are just a toggle away.The collection includes more than 150 trophies, which feature nods to iconic moments from the series." The photo mode from Tomb Raider I-III Remastered has also returned, allowing players to share favorite moments and the beauty of the remastered environments with the community."It's worth noting that the three games included in this collection were never referred to as numbered sequels. The remaster features Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles and Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.Crystal Dynamics and Eidos are behind these remasters, so this is the real deal. This is the team that made the aforementioned Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, which was well-reviewed.It sure looks like we are in the midst of a Croft-ian renaissance. The animated Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft just premiered on Netflix and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who starred in the latest Indiana Jones film, is writing a live-action Lara Croft show for Prime Video.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/tomb-raider-iv-vi-remastered-hits-the-ps4-and-ps5-on-february-14-152949568.html?src=rss

Disco Elysium is widely hailed as one of the greatest RPGs of all time, but the future of the series has been up in the air. A planned sequel and expansion were canceled and developer ZA/UM laid off some workers as a result. There's also been an infamously messy battle over ownership of the intellectual property. Still, the essence of the original game is very much alive, not least because a new studio is working on a spiritual successor. The project is slated to continue "the thoughtful, narrative-first approach that defined its predecessor."Some developers who worked on Disco Elysium and its scuttled sequel - along with folks who used to work at Bungie, Rockstar Games, Brave at Night and elsewhere - comprise the 12-strong team at London-based Longdue. According to The Guardian, the studio's first game is billed as a psychogeographic RPG" that explores the delicate interplay between the conscious and subconscious, the seen and unseen. Set in a world where choices ripple between the character's psyche and environment, players will navigate a constantly shifting landscape, shaped by both internal and external forces."If you know anything about Disco Elysium, that should sound fairly familiar. Not many other details have been revealed about the game so far, but Longdue did release a piece of concept art (above).At Longdue, we're inspired by decades of classic RPGs, from Ultiima and Wizardry, through Fallout and Planescape, to the justifiably adored Disco Elysium," narrative director Grant Roberts, formerly of Bungie and Rocksteady, said in a press release. We're excited to continue that legacy with another narrative-first, psychological RPG, where the interplay between inner worlds and external landscapes is the beating heart of the experience."Longdue hasn't revealed all of the former ZA/UM developers that are involved, but Disco Elysium lead designer and writer Robert Kurvitz and lead artist Aleksander Rostov are not among them. In late 2022, ZA/UM's new majority shareholders fired that pair along with writer Helen Hindpere, accusing them of misconduct and trying to steal intellectual property (among other things). That's despite Kurvitz writing the novel on which the world of the 2019 game was based. Lawsuits were filed and ZA/UM claimed those were resolved last year. Kurvitz and Rostov have set up their own company, Red Info.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/former-disco-elysium-devs-are-making-the-games-spiritual-successor-at-a-new-studio-144205377.html?src=rss

October Prime Day may have come and gone, but you can still save on Lego sets at the moment. While you may think it's early to think about holiday shopping, these kits make amazing presents - for the young and full-grown adults alike. At Engadget, we're most interested in specific sets from lines like Super Mario, Star Wars and Harry Potter, and some of these are still on sale for up to 41 percent off. These are the best Prime Day Lego deals you can still get today.Prime Day Lego deals still availableOn the Star Wars side of things, this Spider Tank set is 36 percent off and down to only $32, which is the lowest it's ever been. It includes 526 pieces that replicate the spider tank from season three of The Mandalorian, plus three minifigures: Din Djarin, Bo-Katan Kryze and Grogu. Once built, the spider tank has grabbing claws, flexible legs and a little cockpit in which one of the figures can sit. Also on sale is this Boarding The Tantive IV set in which you recreate the iconic scene from Star Wars: A New Hope. That will set you back $44, which represents a 20-percent discount.The Star Wars Lego Advent calendar (complete with Luke and Leia in holiday sweaters) is down to $36, after a 20 percent discount, and we don't expect this one to last long.In the Mario space, this Dixie Kong's Jungle Jam expansion set has the biggest discount: 41 percent off and down to $16. It has 174 pieces along with buildable Dixie Kong and Squawks figures that both come with musical accessories. Mario fans who are old enough to have a work-from-home setup might appreciate this displayable Piranha Plant set that would look great in the background of any video conference call. It's 20 percent off and down to $48.Rounding things out with Harry Potter sets, this Hogwarts Castle and Grounds set is down to $136 and has never been cheaper. It includes 2,660 pieces that create a final product that's over eight inches high, 13 inches wide and 10 inches deep. Plus, it comes with a cute, golden Hogwarts architect statue minifigure.If you're looking for more general Lego sets, the best deal we found was on the Classic Medium Creative Brick Box, down to $21. The box includes 484 pieces in all different sizes and colors, and would make a great gift for anyone who just likes to build with Lego without following a set of instructions.

Comedian and writer John Mulaney will host a live variety talk show on Netflix, the streaming company announced in a post on X. The show may be similar to Mulaney's Everybody's in LA, a live talk show that streamed on Netflix for six episodes in May 2024.Mulaney's production company will produce and he'll be the showrunner, but no other details were revealed. However, at an event in LA, Netflix's chief content officer Bela Bajaria said Everybody's in LA showed what a weekly live talk/variety show could look like on the service. "[It] was just so bold and original and fresh and then unpredictable," he said, "And I think it'll be really fun to get to do a live show with him."

Starting in November, Xbox players will be able to play and purchase games directly from the Xbox App on Android. Sarah Bond, the president of Xbox at Microsoft, has made the announcement on X, with a comment that the "court's ruling to open up Google's mobile store in the US will allow more choice and flexibility." She's talking about the ruling on Google's four-year antitrust battle with Epic Games that was recently handed down by US District Judge James Donato. The judge issued a permanent injunction that would force Google to give third-party app stores access to the Play library and to make Android apps available on alternative storefronts.

At Tesla's We, Robot event at Warner Bros. Discovery's studio in California, the company finally unveiled its robotaxi. The car is expected to go into production before 2027, but even Musk caveated that, saying he was highly optimistic with timeframes."The Cybercab doesn't have a steering wheel and, according to Elon Musk (so pinch of salt!), could be very cheap to run. The Tesla boss said the operating cost of the robotaxi would be 20 cents a mile, 30 to 40 cents with taxes. He also confirmed people can buy one and that Tesla expects to sell the Cybercab for below $30,000. He still, predictably, said something weird. Musk said he envisions a future where people own several robotaxis and manage a fleet like shepherds. Huh?The technology is a little different to most of its robotaxi competitors. Tesla has long dropped radars and sensors that other robotaxis, like Waymo's, use extensively, instead going for cameras and AI object detection. There's also no charging port, using inductive charging instead, so a completely different infrastructure is needed to keep these vehicles on the roads.Not one to waste a big event, Musk also briefly introduced the Robovan - an autonomous van that can carry up to 20 people and transport goods, and he marched out a line of Optimus robots, which ended up serving drinks to attendees during the event.- Mat SmithGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest stories you might have missed

Steam appears to have started posting a notice in its shopping cart that purchases on its storefront are only for a license and not a game, according to a notice spotted by Engadget. It looks like an attempt by the company to get ahead of a new California law coming next year that forces companies to admit that buyers don't actually own digital content.When you open your shopping cart with items inside and before going to payment, a notice at the bottom right states: "A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam." This is the first time our editors have seen of a notice like this (and we use Steam a lot), so it appears to be relatively new.EngadgetLast month California governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2426 into law, forcing digital marketplaces to make it clear to customers when they only purchase a license to access media. It will not apply to permanent offline downloads, only digital copies of video games, music, movies, TV shows or ebooks from an online storefront. Companies that fail to comply could face fines for false advertising if they don't explain in clear language the limitations of a given digital purchase. The law followed situations like Ubisoft deleting The Crew from player's libraries after the game's servers shuttered.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/steam-now-tells-gamers-up-front-that-theyre-buying-a-license-not-a-game-085106522.html?src=rss

Tesla has introduced a robotaxi called Cybercab during its "We, Robot" event at Warner Bros. Discovery's studio in California, six months after Elon Musk revealed that the company was going to launch one. Musk made his way to the stage on a Cybercab, which has no steering wheels or pedals, announcing that "there's 20 more" where it came from. He talked about how our current modes of transportation "suck" and how how cars are on standby all the time. A car that's autonomous could be used more, he said. "With autonomy, you get your time back... Autonomous cars are going to become 10 times safer."Musk said the costs of autonomous transport will be so low that they will be comparable to mass transit. In time, he said the operating cost of the robotaxi to be 20 cents a mile, 30 to 40 cents with taxes. He confirmed to the audience that people will be able to buy one and that Tesla expects to sell the Cybercab for below $30,000.The Tesla CEO envisions a future wherein people own several robotaxis, managing a fleet like a "shepherd," that can earn them money through a ridesharing network. When asked when the model will be available, he replied that Tesla will start by making fully autonomous unsupervised Full Sell Driving available on the Model 3 and Model Y in Texas and California. Musk said that the Cybercab is expected to go into production before 2027, but he himself admitted that he tends to be "highly optimistic with timeframes." And he does - he said way back in 2019 that Tesla will "have over a million robotaxis on the road" within a year.TeslaTalking about the Cybercab's technology, he said that it uses AI and vision. Tesla has long dropped radars and sensors that other robotaxis like Waymo's use extensively. Because of that, he said that it doesn't need expensive equipment, and Tesla can keep manufacturing costs low. Notably, the Cybercab doesn't come with a charging port and uses inductive charging instead.Reuters reported back in April that Musk ordered the company to "go all in" on robotaxis built on its small-vehicle platform. Musk previously said that the model was going to be unveiled on August 8, but he later announced that the company's robotaxi event will be pushed back to October after he requested "an important design change to the front." The delay would also give the company extra time to "show off a few other things," he explained. The Cybercab that Tesla presented to the audience today is all silver and seems to have taken design cues from the Cybertruck. It doesn't have a back windshield and has doors that open upwards.TeslaIn addition to reporting the robotaxi's existence, Reuters revealed in April that Tesla scrapped its plans for an affordable, $25,000 electric vehicle. While Musk called it a lie, another report by Electrek backed Reuters' story and cited "sources familiar with the matter" who reportedly told the publication that the low-cost EV's development has been postponed.After talking about the Cybercab, Musk briefly introduced the Robovan - an autonomous van that can carry up to 20 people and transport goods. It'll get the costs of travel down even further, he said, since it could transport big groups like sports teams. Finally, Musk brought out a parade of Tesla's humanoid Optimus robots. Musk said Tesla has made dramatic progress on its development over the past year and that in the future, it could teach your kids, mow your lawn and even be your friend. He believes Tesla could sell its Optimus robots, which mingled with the audience and served drinks during the event, for between $20,000 to $30,000.TeslaThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/tesla-unveils-its-cybercab-robotaxi-032132013.html?src=rss

There are a ton of Shrek movies but not one of them have ever answered this question: Who cleans up the mess when the ogre and his various fairytale villains are done fighting? Square Enix's PowerWash Simulator finally has an answer.Dreamworks and Square Enix have teamed up to create the Shrek Special Pack DLC for PowerWash Simulator available now on all consoles and PC. The new pack adds a bunch of scenarios from the iconic animated films and some new armor and tools to help you scrub down the many layers of crud that have accumulated over Shrek's world.The new DLC pack comes with 5 new locations that need a good power washing. They include Shrek's home swamp, the town of Duloc complete with that adorable wind-up information booth, the Fairy Godmother's potion factory, the dragon's lair and Hansel's delectable Honeymoon Hideaway with the Shreks' onion wedding carriage.The Shrek Special Pack also offers a new campaign mode that takes you through the new scenes and grants you a new set of knight themed power washing armor and hoses. You'll also receive messages from some familiar faces," maybe even the Muffin Man. (The Muffin Man!) Yes, the Muffin Man! (Actually, you probably won't. He's not really an ancillary character in the Shrek universe outside of the nursery rhyme reference from the first movie.)One of the great things about PowerWash Simulator is just how crazy they've gone with the DLC packs. Square Enix has also developed special cleaning scenarios based on Back to the Future, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy. The developers have been working on so many things to clean up that they've accidentally lost track of one and released it to players on Steam.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/scrub-down-shreks-world-in-powerwash-simulator-232032583.html?src=rss

Ticketmaster announced that it will be the first ticketing company to take advantage of new features that arrived in Apple Wallet with iOS 18. According to a blog post from the business, Ticketmaster tickets viewed in the Apple app can show enhanced information such as venue maps, parking directions, local weather forecasts and recommended listening from Apple Music. Teams and event spaces can also choose to add links to their own apps or websites that customers can access from their Wallet tickets.The company is first applying the new tech to two sporting events this year, and said it will be rolling out the capabilities to more events in 2025. While Ticketmaster is touting its role as the first adopter of the new Wallet ticket experience, the new features will not only be available to that company. Considering Ticketmaster was in the PR images announcing the new features, it seems likely that the companies had an agreement about how they'd jointly promote the updates.Apple Wallet boasts several upgrades in the latest operating system release, such as a new Tap to Cash feature for faster money transfer. The initial iOS 18 rollout last month had some good stuff, but the marquee debut of Apple Intelligence likely won't happen until later in October.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-first-company-to-use-upgraded-apple-wallet-tickets-is-ticketmaster-230141866.html?src=rss

Bluesky seems to have a bold new strategy to entice potential new users: posting on Threads. The rival social media service joined Threads amid a surge in complaints from users who are increasingly frustrated with Meta's policies.While complaints about Meta's policies aren't a new topic, they've gained new prominence over the last week amid complaints about the surge in engagement bait on the platform, as well as Threads' sometimes inexplicable content moderation decisions. Meta exec Adam Mosseri, who runs the Threads app, has said the company is looking into both issues. But in the meantime, there's been an increase in discussions about Bluesky, the decentralized service that has a very different philosophy when it comes to algorithms and moderation.On Wednesday, Bluesky created an account on Threads, and promptly began pitching itself as an alternative platform for those frustrated with Meta. The strategy seems to be having an effect. Bluesky" has been a trending topic on Threads for two days in a row and, at the time of this writing Bluesky vs Meta moderation" was trending on the platform.We're not like the other girls... we're not owned by a billionaire," Bluesky wrote in a post Thursday. Your social experience should be yours to customize, not bent to the whims of whoever the owner of the platform is."While not the first time Bluesky has lightly trolled a rival (see its X post from earlier this week), the company is seizing on genuine frustration among Threads users. Besides the complaints about blatant engagement bait in their feeds, users have been questioning Meta's seemingly aggressive moderation tactics on Threads. The company already throttles political content on the app, has taken a heavy handed approach to moderation of the service, according to many users. A number of people have reported having posts actioned by Meta for using the word cracker" or saltines," as The Verge points out. Social media consultant Matt Navarra shared that he was penalized for sharing a BBC article about the viral goodbye Meta AI" hoax on his Threads account.Bluesky, on the other hand, has taken a much more flexible approach to content moderation. It puts most decisions in the hands of users, who are able to decide what kind of content they want to see or not, and allows users to run their own moderation services. We're always doing baseline moderation, meaning that we are providing you with a default moderated experience when you come in [to Bluesky]," Bluesky CEO jay Graber told Engadget earlier this year. And then on top of that, you can customize things."Whether the new attention on Bluesky will result in a significant number of departures to the service is so far unclear. Bluesky currently has about 10.8 million users, according to a dashboard tracking its growth, And while it's not clear how many new people arrived in the last couple days, it suggests there's been a bit of a surge over the past month as Bluesky previously grew to about 8.8 million users immediately following the shutdown of X in Brazil last month.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-is-having-a-moment-on-threads-222404971.html?src=rss

Another breach of a huge financial institution has leaked the personal information of thousands of customers to the public. TechCrunch reported that an unidentified hacker obtained 77,009 customers' personal data from the asset management firm Fidelity Investments.A filing by Maine's attorney general posted yesterday revealed that the unidentified third party obtained the information in mid-August using two phony customer accounts. It's not yet known how these accounts were used to access customer data. Fidelity said in a letter to its customers that it discovered the breach on August 19. The letter also said that the unidentified party did not access customers' Fidelity accounts but after Fidelity completed its review, it confirmed that customers' personal data had been breached.The New Hampshire attorney general's office filed a second data breach notice yesterday revealing another data security incident" of Fidelity Investments' customer data. The notice says the unauthorized third party obtained access to an internal database that houses images of documents pertaining to Fidelity customers" by submitting fake requests for access also on August 19. The second data breach did not provide unwanted access to any customer accounts or funds and the leaked information only related to a small subset of Fidelity's customers."If you believe your data has been obtained by unwanted parties or is part of a data leak, the Federal Trade Commission recommends putting a freeze and fraud alerts on your credit reports and personal bank and credit card accounts. You can also report any identity theft incidents at IdentityTheft.gov or by calling 1-877-438-4338.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/data-breach-of-fidelity-leaks-77000-customers-personal-data-214248985.html?src=rss

It's an experience many of us know all too well: open up a food blogger's recipe only to scroll past a mountain of content you don't care about to actually reach the ingredients and method. Google is trialing a feature that could eliminate this step, even though it's the result of the company's own policies.The Verge noticed a new button on the thumbnails for select recipes called Quick View. This button brings up the complete recipe without leaving the search results page. In their testing, a search for "chocolate chip cookie recipe" revealed this Quick View button for the site Preppy Kitchen."We're always experimenting with different ways to connect our users with high-quality and helpful information," Google rep Brianna Duff told Engadget about these Quick View recipes. "We have partnered with a limited number of creators to begin to explore new recipe experiences on Search that are both helpful for users and drive value to the web ecosystem. We don't have anything to announce right now." While Google does have agreements inked with the participating bloggers, the company declined to reveal any further details about the scope of this testing.It's quite a catch-22 Google has created when it comes to recipes online. Home cooks may find this Quick View feature appealing since so many food blogs front-load their posts with photos and personal stories before actually sharing the recipe. But it was Google's own rules that pushed bloggers toward that approach in the first place, with longer posts generally indexing higher up in search results and thus getting more traffic. (And no offense to the food bloggers of the world, but the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you need is the one on the back of the chocolate chip bag.)While this recipe feature is just an early trial, Google has been rolling out other tools aimed at keeping users on its own webpages and platforms. The AI Overviews in search are one of the latest (and occasionally surreal) ways the company is changing the rules of engagement for web content.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-tests-feature-to-show-full-recipes-in-search-results-212257585.html?src=rss

Mubi has secured the US rights and global SVOD rights to Grand Theft Hamlet. In this documentary, two out-of-work actors attempt to stage an entire production of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet within the game world of Grand Theft Auto Online during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mubi plans to give the film a release in early 2025, and Mubi's own posts on X say that it will be in "US theaters and streaming globally."The movie is composed of more than 300 hours of GTA footage. Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen might be the main drivers of making the play the thing, but they looped in other random players through in-game auditions to fill out the cast. This piece of theatrical machinima won the documentary feature jury award at its premiere during SXSW. It also currently boasts a 95 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so the critics and early reviewers are into this mash-up of iambs and uzis.The Bard has seen many a retelling over the years, and Hamlet seems to generate particular interest for gaming-flavored interpretations. The Danish prince was in a VR production via Google collaboration in 2019, he made an appearance in MMORPG Mabinogi back in 2011, and got to star in his own quirky video game in 2010.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/mash-up-of-grand-theft-auto-and-hamlet-is-coming-to-theaters-in-the-us-195758396.html?src=rss

If you own a Porsche Taycan, you might plan on making a trip to the dealership. The Verge reported that recalls have been issued due to a short circuiting risk in one of the battery's cell block modules. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a safety recall for more than 27,000 of the Porsche EVs. The recall affects certain" Taycan vehicles released from 2021-2024. Notices will be issued to owners by the end of November.Porsche hasn't been able to pinpoint exactly which cars in the Taycan fleet have the hazard. In order to determine which cars need fixing, Porsche is advising owners of Taycans made between October 21, 2019 and February 1, 2024 to bring their car to a dealership where crews can monitor the battery with diagnostic software. Porsche is also advising its Taycan owners to only charge the vehicle's battery up to 80 percent until dealership mechanics can determine if the battery needs to be replaced.If this problem sounds familiar, it's because it's one of the chief causes for the downfall of Chevrolet's EV, the Chevy Bolt. The electric car went through a similar recall in 2021 due to a fire risk with the battery.Chevy had to replace the batteries in Bolts made between 2017 and 2019 at a cost of $1.8 billion. The battery issues led to Chevy discontinuing the EV line and a class-action settlement that netted owners of the 2020-2022 Bolt EVs and EUVs a $1,400 settlement.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/porsche-recalls-more-than-27000-taycan-evs-192335438.html?src=rss

FIFA didn't exactly get out of the video game business after parting ways with EA. Soccer's governing body has teamed up with Konami to host two editions of the FIFAe World Cup on the console and mobile versions of eFootball later this year.Qualifying for both tournaments starts today, with FIFAe world champs (one each on mobile and console) to be crowned later this year. Eighteen FIFA member associations are taking part, namely those in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and Turkiye. They were selected based on previous performances of esports competitors from those countries as well as the eFootball player base in each.FIFA is bringing eFootball into its esports fold alongside Rocket League (car soccer) and Football Manager (soccer management). It's too early to tell whether Konami's title will become FIFA's official licensed partner for major soccer games and adopt the governing body's name. Still, it seems clear that FIFA and Konami are on positive terms and this could be a step toward a larger partnership. Hey, both even use that silly "e" branding.While EA Sports FC is far and away the most popular soccer sim series around, eFootball is the closest thing it has to a true competitor. It had a peak concurrent Steam player count of 17,610 over the last 24 hours, compared with 98,400 for EA Sports FC 25.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fifa-cozies-up-to-ea-rival-konami-for-soccer-esports-185538485.html?src=rss

A new season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is almost here, with a trailer to prove it. The fifth, and unfortunately final, season looks to feature the same unchecked shenanigans and in-the-know humor that has made the show so beloved to Trek fans.The trailer's filled with wacky hijinks and jokes pulled from the wide world of Star Trek. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot the Borg, the weird sexy decontamination sauna from Star Trek: Enterprise and a whole bunch of Harry Kims. That's right. There looks to be at least seven Harry Kims floating around this trailer. My Delta Quadrant bestie is finally getting the respect he deserves.For the uninitiated, Star Trek: Lower Decks is an animated show helmed by Mike McMahon, who created Solar Opposites and worked on the early seasons of Rick and Morty. It follows some low-level Starfleet officers just after the events of the 1990s shows, like Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's very funny, particularly for long-time fans. It was also recently cancelled.Now I don't know anything about viewership numbers, as Paramount+ keeps that stuff close to the (red) vest. However, Star Trek: Lower Decks seems fairly popular right? Also, it's a cartoon, so it can't be as expensive to make as something like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I can't imagine that Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome command jaw-dropping salaries, so why cancel it? You know what I'm getting at. #SaveLowerDecks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-trek-lower-decks-season-five-trailer-has-too-many-harry-kims-to-count-184704663.html?src=rss

Marriott International is being taken to task after the hotel chain suffered multiple data breaches that exposed sensitive information for more than 344 million customers around the world. First, Marriott agreed to a settlement of $52 million with a group of 50 US attorneys general. According to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, 131.5 million hotel customers in the states had their information compromised in the attacks on the hotels.Second, a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission will require Marriott and its Starwood Hotels & Resorts subsidiary to implement a new information security system to protect against future data exposures. The FTC agreement includes measures such as data minimization, account review tools for its loyalty rewards programs and a link for guests to request deletion of their personal information.Today's settlements center on three separate data breaches at Marriott and Starwood between 2014 and 2020 that allowed malicious actors to access passport information, payment card numbers, loyalty numbers, dates of birth, email addresses and other personal information. But cybersecurity issues have been an ongoing concern for these two businesses over the past decade. Hackers used "social engineering techniques" to access an employee computer and steal about 20GB of customer data. Marriott was also part of a larger attack on Pyramid Hotel Group in 2019. Starwood was victim of a data breach discovered in 2018; the company faced a fine of about $127.3 million in the UK for that incident.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/marriott-reaches-52-million-settlement-over-years-of-data-breaches-181327146.html?src=rss

Blizzard co-founder and ex-CEO Mike Morhaime's publishing company Dreamhaven just announced a new game that mixes elements of tabletop RPGs with party games like Jackbox. Sunderfolk looks to be a more casual pick-up-and-play take on something like Gloomhaven.The title has been designed for players who love tabletop, board and video games." It's a two-screen experience, with players actually controlling many aspects of the game on their smartphone. You know, just like the immensely-popular Jackbox franchise. The tactical couch co-op RPG" is being advertised as a way for veteran tabletop players to introduce the genre to their inexperienced friends.Sunderfolk can be played by up to four players at once and there are six hero classes, like bard, arcanist, ranger and some of the other usual suspects. The TV is the main screen and the phone acts as a controller as folks navigate the game board. The story follows a beleaguered town as it is attacked by various monsters. In other words, it's a standard fantasy RPG.The unique control scheme looks to eliminate some of the barriers of entry with this type of game, like the steep learning curve and lengthy set-up time. Like many tabletop RPGs, it's cooperative in nature and not competitive. You and your friends against the world.DreamhavenWhile the designer's say Sunderfolk was made with couch co-op in mind, there will be online play. The game releases for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sometime in 2025, with an affiliated iOS/Android companion app.Kotaku got to try the game during a preview event and came away mostly impressed, saying that working in tandem with other players quickly turned into a thrilling spectacle that felt right out of a TTRPG game night." However, the site also said that the complexity of the gameplay may fail to lure in newbies. In other words, it's more Gloomhaven than Jackbox.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-co-founder-mike-morhaime-is-making-a-tabletop-rpg-party-game-174323950.html?src=rss

Amazon has revealed the extensive list of PC games that Prime members can snap up at no extra cost in October. It's a very solid line up with a little something for everyone, including big hitters, killer indies and, since it's spooky season, a cauldron full of horror games.BioShock Remastered, Doom Eternal (one of our favorite games of 2020) and A Plague Tale: Innocenceare among the most immediately recognizable names on the list. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the terrific Death's Doorand the icky Scornare all perhaps worth checking out if you haven't already done so. Nineties kids may be interested in playing a remaster of the sidescroller Gargoyles, which is based on the classic animated series.A dozen of the games are available now, including BioShock and Doom Eternal. It's worth noting that you'll only be able to claim the latter in regions where the Microsoft Store is available. Here's the full list of what you can claim and when, along with the launcher you can play each game on:Available now

October's PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup is certainly stuffed to the gills. There's something for everyone, from zombie classics to narrative adventures and beyond. Let's take a look.The biggest draw here is likely Dead Island 2. For a while, we weren't sure if this game would ever come out, but it did and it's a blast to play. The action-heavy zombie slaying sim is set in Los Angeles and boasts six playable characters. There's three-player co-op and, of course, more gore than you can shake a bloody baseball bat at. The game's available for both PS4 and PS5.Gris is a stylistic 2D platformer that was a bona-fide hit when it was released several years back. We said it might be the prettiest game" ever made, so the graphics and vibes are strong with this one. It's a relaxing mixture of puzzles, exploration and platform jumping. The dev team has another game on the way, called Neva, that also looks quite pretty.It took 13 years, but we finally got a new entry in the Monkey Island franchise. Return to Monkey Island continues the comedic adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, as first seen in several iconic Lucasfilm titles from the 1990s. Reviews were kind, with many players calling it a true return to form. As a warning, this is an old-school adventure with roots in the point-and-click genre.Those are the big three, but this month's drop also includes Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, Overpass 2, Tour de France 2023 and The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, among others. PlayStation Premium members are also getting some games, including The Last Clockwinder for PS VR2 and Dino Crisis.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/dead-island-2-and-gris-join-the-playstation-plus-game-catalog-for-october-162432379.html?src=rss

Just 10 days after announcing a late November release date for Football Manager 25, Sports Interactive has delayed the soccer sim by several months. The developer and Sega, the game's publisher, said in September that they were pushing back the release date by a few weeks to "deliver the best possible experience for this first installment in a new era of Football Manager." However, the team says it still needs more time to "ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards." As such, Football Manager 25 is now slated to arrive in March.Sports Interactive is giving the long-running game a major overhaul in its upcoming iteration, but the studio says it's been a difficult process. "Many things have been moving slower than we had predicted - despite everyone in the team working at an incredible pace to try and get everything done," Sports Interactive said in a statement. "Timelines were already tight and, as rightly pointed out by many of your recent comments, we were simply rushing too much and in danger of compromising our usual standards. This has put an enormous amount of pressure on everyone working across the studio, who are all passionately committed to delivering the best game possible."

Venmo has added the ability to schedule both payments and requests, which has been a long-desired feature. People can use this toolset to send out one-time payments or requests, or schedule things to go out monthly, weekly or bi-weekly.Users will receive a push notification reminder the day before a payment goes out, just in case the funds aren't available. To that end, the platform will pull from the connected bank account if the Venmo account is dry. These tools are rolling out right now.VenmoThis is an obvious boon to those with roommates, as that one roommate who somehow got roped into handling all of the utility bills can let Venmo do the heavy lifting of bothering everybody else. Venmo says that 84 percent of consumers use peer-to-peer payment services to handle stuff like rent, utilities and other living expenses.It's also good for those with poor life organization skills. I can't tell you the number of times I forgot to pay a bill, even though I had the money. Setting everything up in advance could be pretty darn helpful.This is just the latest quality of life feature added by Venmo. The company recently integrated tap-to-pay support for Android phones, with no card reader necessary. The payment platform also now lets users send one another crypto.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/venmo-adds-scheduled-payments-and-requests-151251367.html?src=rss

Despite all the inroads AMD has made in recent years with its Zen desktop CPUs, Intel has broadly managed to maintain one critical edge against its longtime rival: gaming performance. For those looking to eke every possible frame out of the latest AAA games, the company's recent Core 5/7/9 often outperformed their AMD counterparts. Historically, however, that performance has come at the cost of power efficiency and thermals. Intel's best 13th-genereation processors are absolute power-hungry beasts. That has limited their appeal, especially as small-factor PC builds have become more popular.On Thursday, Intel detailed it's long-awaited Arrow Lake processors, announcing five new models arriving on October 24. With the new CPUs, Intel is promising a paradigm change. Compared to its previous generation Raptor Lake chips, the company said its goal was to reduce power consumption by 40% and internal package temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Celsius. Judging by the benchmarks Intel shared ahead of today's announcement, the company did just that.IntelIntel's new flagship, the Ultra 9 285K, features a 24-core CPU design consisting of eight Lion Cove' performance cores and 16 Skymont' efficiency cores, and a maximum boost clock of 5.7GHz. It, alongside the rest of the current Arrow Lake family, also comes with a neural processing unit (NPU), a first for one of Intel's desktop CPU. But those specs aren't what's interesting about the 285K and its siblings.In lightly-threaded" workloads, including tasks such as Zoom calls and select Cinebench benchmarks, Intel recorded the 285K drawing up to 58% less power than the 14900K, the company's 14th generation flagship. When it comes to gaming performance, the results are even more interesting. In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, for instance, Intel said it saw the 285K run the game on average 4% faster, while drawing 165W less of system power. Even in more GPU-intensive games such as Black Myth: Wukong, the 285K offers promising efficiency gains, with Intel noting it saw the CPU draw 34 fewer watts of total system power compared to the 14900K.Those efficiency improvements translate to equally impressive thermal gains, with Intel noting its data shows the 285K runs, on average, about 13 degrees Celsius cooler than the 14900K during gaming loads. The new processor even offers similar gaming performance when users limit its power draw from Intel's default of 250W to 175W or 125W. For those who like to undervolt their CPU or plan to go with an ITX case and motherboard for their next build, that's exciting news.I think it's safe to say this is a huge turn of the corner for our desktop portfolio," said Robert Halleck, general manager of Intel's AI and Technical Marketing units. I'm confident your testing will match the numbers we're talking about today."IntelOn paper, Arrow Lake is exactly what Intel needs to claw its way back to sustainability; it's easily the most efficient family of desktop processors the company has put out in a long time. However, whether that alone will be enough to turn Intel's fortunes around is less clear.In the short term, the company faces a rival AMD that is more competitive than ever. In the long term, it's difficult to say how much of Arrow Lake's efficiency should be solely attributed to Intel's engineers. As recently as 2022, the company had maintained it would build the new processors using a combination of its own 20A fabrication process and TSMC's 3-nanometer technology. But then Intel recorded a $1.6 billion loss in Q2 of this year and said it would cut more than 15,000 jobs in an effort to reduce costs by $10 billion. Part of that plan involved fully outsourcing Arrow Lake manufacturing to a third party. At the time, Intel didn't specifically name TSMC. However, the list of companies capable of producing silicon at the density and scale required for Arrow Lake is very short. With Intel reportedly hitting a recent snag to get its next-generation 18A process off the ground, it's clear the company still has a long ahead.When the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K arrives on October 24, it will cost $589. For those looking for a more affordable entry into Intel's Arrow Lake ecosystem, the company will also offer the 14-core Ultra 5 245KF for $294 and the 20-core Ultra 7 265K for $394. Alongside its KF sibling, which comes without an integrated Intel Xe GPU, the 265K looks like it will be the dark horse of Intel's Arrow Lake line. The company said that 265K runs about 15 degrees cooler than the 14900K and draws up to 188W less system power.Alongside its new Arrow Lake processors, Intel also shared more information about its upcoming Arrow Lake H laptop chips, which the company said would arrive at the start of next year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/intels-15th-gen-cpus-are-all-about-power-efficiency-and-thermals-150024246.html?src=rss

Alongside its new family of Arrow Lake desktop hardware, Intel today also gave us a few tidbits around its upcoming Arrow Lake H mobile chips for high performance laptops. First off, they're not expected to arrive until the first quarter of 2025 - but the slight wait might be worth it, as Intel says they will offer powerful new Xe GPUs with XMX. Thanks to that upgrade, the GPU alone will offer four times better AI workload processing than its previous chips, alongside double the ray tracing performance and twice as much cache (8MB L2).Notably, though, these new chips will still lag behind the company's less powerful Lunar Lake processors when it comes to NPU and overall AI TOPS (tera operations per second) figures. Arrow Lake H's NPU will hit 13 TOPS, the new GPU will reach 77 and the CPU will offer 9 TOPS. Taken altogether, it'll offer up to 99 TOPS of performance. Lunar Lake, meanwhile, sports a 48 TOPS NPU and up to 120 TOPS of system-wide AI performance.IntelThe difference makes sense when you consider what these chips are meant for. Lunar Lake is mostly geared towards ultraportables and slim workstations, while Arrow Lake H chips are targeted at demanding notebooks with desktop-like performance. While they can technically be called AI PCs, Arrow Lake H's low NPU performance doesn't meet the bar for Microsoft's Copilot+ badge (those require at least 40 TOPS NPUs). You'll be able to run basic AI features, like Windows Studio Effects in video chats, but not more complicated tasks like Recall.Intel didn't have many other details to share about Arrow Lake H, but we'll likely hear more at CES 2025.IntelThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/intels-upcoming-arrow-lake-h-laptop-chips-will-offer-beefier-gpus-for-ai-workloads-150021214.html?src=rss

Robot vacuums are some of the pricier smart home gadgets you can get, which is why waiting until a sale like Amazon Prime Day is a smart shopping move. October Prime Day may be behind us, but you can still save on some robot vacuums, and cordless stick vacuums, today post-sale event. Some of our top picks for the best robot vacuums remain discounted, including models from iRobot and Shark. Here are the best October Prime Day vacuum deals you can still get today.Best Prime Day deals on robot vacuumsiRobotThe best robot vacuums take a chore than many of us would rather not do and automates it to the point where the most you have to do is set a cleaning schedule and empty a bin every once in a while. Of course, that level of smart home automation comes at a cost - which is why it's a good idea to take the leap on that robo-vac you've been eyeing while it's still on sale.

ByteDance is pushing further into hardware with its first set of earbuds. The TikTok owner's $170 Ola Friend buds will only be available in China for now. They link to the company's generative AI assistant, Doubao, which can be activated with a voice command.According to the South China Morning Post, wearers will be able to use the open-ear buds as a tour guide while traveling and to practice English (among other things) after they're paired with the Doubao mobile app. The publication notes that Doubao is currently the most popular GAI app in China, with more than 47 million monthly active users in September.The debut of Ola Friend follows ByteDance completing its purchase of Oladance, a maker of wearable audio devices, this year. ByteDance also owns VR headset maker Pico.The earbuds are available in four colors, purple, silver, black and white. Pre-orders are open today and Ola Friend will ship on October 17.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/tiktok-owner-bytedance-unveils-its-first-earbuds-in-china-143507603.html?src=rss