Among those charged are two Super Micro employees and one from Nvidia, marking another flashpoint in US-China AI rivalryTaiwanese prosecutors charged nine people Monday, including one from Nvidia and two from Super Micro, for illegally exporting high-end AI servers" to mainland China, adding another wave of turbulence in the AI rivalry between China and the United States.Prosecutors said the servers involved were graphics processing units known as B300," which have been banned from sale to China. Continue reading...
Also: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed his surprising sympathy over the construction of datacenters across the countryHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you from a sunny park in New York City, which was supposed to endure rain all weekend but in fact delivered the best weather of the year.We are hitting a different chapter': OpenAI leader warns of threat of persistent' AI cyber-attacksOpenAI announces slowing pace of development after hack by rogue agentOpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens with stronger safeguardsDigging the grave of my profession': the Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobsWill AI give you the job? Automated hiring tools spark discrimination and secrecy lawsuitsAfter more than 15 years of laptops in the classroom, do Australian schools need a rethink?Crypto bank part-owned by Trump family offers depositors way to gain favor' with White House, experts sayDid someone wearing Meta Glasses film you today? Are you sure? Continue reading...
Exclusive: Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire sites predicted to emit 4.5m tonnes a year when fully runningThe carbon emissions from just two planned datacentres in England will exceed all of the fossil fuel company ExxonMobil's UK emissions, analysis has revealed.Experts have said this demonstrates the serious threat" datacentres pose to the UK's legally binding climate goals. Continue reading...
Developer Patrick Grant was born in Australia and lives in New Zealand, but a childhood of British TV inspired him to set a comedy game in a bleak vision of the northSomething is amiss in the dingy town of Slagford, and curious scamp Pip Bunting is the only one who can find out what. So quit your mithering, it's time to discover just how grim it truly is up north.A Pocket Full of Slagford is an upcoming retro-styled 3D puzzle adventure game set in a surreal alternative-reality near-future northern England that never escaped the clutches of Thatcherism. The story follows the misadventures of a young local lad from the eponymous Slagford after he takes ownership of a mysterious relic that lets him wreak havoc on reality. Continue reading...
As people grow used to AI chatbots, we'd like to hear your views about Google's search engineGoogle has put artificial intelligence at the front and center of its search bar. The most-visited site on the internet still shows the same list of links to users, but they have to scroll past a summarized response from an AI chatbot, a feature Google calls AI Overviews. The change to what was once the gateway to the rest of the internet has been profound, and the browsing habits of billions of people are shifting.AI is driving the most significant upgrade of the Google Search experience ever," Liz Reid, Google's vice-president of search, wrote last August. In May, the company said more AI is coming. Continue reading...
by Aisha Down Global technology reporter on (#77XRK)
Holyrood inching towards moratorium' amid concerns over massive proposed developments in Auchtertool and beyondIn a village 21 miles north of Edinburgh, a real estate consultancy plans to build a datacentre larger than the village itself - 35 metres high, with an area larger than 100 football pitches.Billed as the second-biggest datacentre in the world, the development in Auchertool, Fife, has attracted 1,600 objections. Continue reading...
More than 3,000 products were shown at the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing as China showcased its rapidly growing robotics industry.The event, which ran from 19-23 August, showcased the latest advances across the robotics industry, from humanoid robots to embodied intelligence and cutting-edge components Continue reading...
London and Kyiv in deal to help stop protesters and hostile states targeting military bases and critical infrastructureAI models trained on Ukrainian battlefield data will be used to stop protesters and foreign states targeting UK defence sites, railways and energy plants under a deal struck between London and Kyiv.Private companies will also be given access to the vast trove of data from Ukraine's Avengers AI lab to help build new systems, the first agreement of its kind in the UK. Continue reading...
Players will get what they expect from the new CoD title: boots-on-the-ground military action with a slight tactical edge. But what's with all the distractions?There's a lot riding on this year's Call of Duty, the inescapable first-person shootfest that's been lobbing a grenade into the autumn release schedule since 2003. Previous instalment, Black Ops 7, performed poorly compared to previous titles, forcing Activision to post a semi-apology to fans. And that's not the only challenge Modern Warfare 4 is facing: there's a new indie shooter, Wardogs, promising a feel somewhere between classic CoD and Classic Battlefield. Then, lurking on the horizon, in mirror shades and an exotic sports car, is Grand Theft Auto 6, which is surely going to smash and grab all the attention (and money) from the market in mid-November.The good news is that, judging by the early access beta test that ran over the penultimate August weekend, we're definitely getting what we expect from a Modern Warfare title: quasi-authentic boots-on-the-ground military action with a slight tactical edge. The weapons and general gunplay are highly effective, from default assault rifle, the Han 86 - a classic CoD beginner's gun with decent fire rate and handling - to the bullet-spraying Nightshade SMG and the absolutely lethal KG-7 Vulcan sniper rifle. They all feel good to hold and fire, and there's enough balance to let you experiment with slightly more offbeat numbers like the burst-fire Hyeon AR and the possibly overpowered Mar-9 marksman rifle. Continue reading...
Developers who met through Australia's improv scene and publishers of comedic party games have united for this slithering challenge in which you play as one extended limbMost stealth games cast you as a spy, an assassin or a master thief. My Arms Are Longer Now dispenses with most of the criminal person, to send in just one spectacularly badly behaved limb. It slithers across floors, winds around furniture, steals things and slaps anyone within reach - finally answering the question nobody asked: what if your own arm turned to crime?As Toot Games co-founder Matthew Jackson puts it: You are the bad thing that happens to the people." Continue reading...
by Samuel Gibbs Consumer technology editor on (#77XCH)
Dutch sustainable smartphone revamped with new chip and more RAM without sacrificing modular designFairphone's top Android for 2026 is a little faster with more memory while maintaining full compatibility with its previous phone, including its repairable and ethical chops.The Fairphone 6+ continues the Dutch cooperative's mission to make consumer electronics longer lasting and more sustainable, containing 51% either recycled or ethically sourced materials while being fully repairable at home with just the one screwdriver included in the box. Continue reading...
Academics and a former classification board director say Halloween: The Game's ban due to incentivised drug use' highlights an incoherent set of standards
Fears of a datacenter buildout debt crisis are exaggerated. The risks are different than in the past and they are recoverableSome experts are warning of a looming debt bomb" crisis because big datacenter builders such as Meta, Oracle, xAI and CoreWeave are not only raising billions to construct these facilities but are also not recognizing these long-term debt obligations on their balance sheets.Should we be concerned? No. I know because I've seen this movie before. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions probes an intriguing scientific question in relation to the climate emergencyReaders reply: Is it inevitable that consumerism will literally fill up the planet?If all the vehicles on the planet had their tyres pumped up with CO, would this lock up enough carbon to lower the amount in the air significantly? Would there be other issues, such as the carbon cost of trapping it all into the tyres? Chris Coldwell, LancasterPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...
Chris Lehane tells Guardian of need to implement new safety standards as critics say AI firms acting recklessly'A senior leader at OpenAI has said people should prepare to defend against ongoing, persistent" cyber-attacks from AIs, as cutting-edge artificial intelligence models gain advanced capabilities to plan and launch offensives.The leading AI company this week announced a pause in development of its most advanced internal models amid rising safety fears, and Chris Lehane, its chief global affairs officer, said: We are hitting a different chapter, a different moment within AI, in terms of what the capabilities of this technology can do." Continue reading...
The Sussexes are returning to the UK with significantly reduced media deals in an industry where fame alone can no longer guarantee successHaving settled in California in the aftermath of their dramatic decoupling from the royal family in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced a partnership that appeared to set a clear destination for their new lives outside the House of Windsor.With every global media stable clamouring for their signature, the couple revealed a deal with Netflix reportedly worth $100m. The ambitions were lofty and broad, including scripted and unscripted projects, shows for all ages and documentaries. Continue reading...
Content creators are fighting proposal to boost traditional broadcasters in video platforms' all-powerful algorithmsThe millions who subscribe to the content creator Simon Squibb's social media channels are usually delivered tips and hacks on how to turn their dream business idea into reality. But they were recently presented with something completely different.In an Instagram post entitled the government wants to control YOU", Squibb issued an urgent call to arms. He asked his followers to fight against a proposal that he said could force content from the BBC and other traditional broadcasters into their social media feeds and recommendations whether they liked it or not. Continue reading...
Streamed auctions offer a cheap way to buy the precious gems, but experts warn that quality is not guaranteedThe first time Andrea Greenhill came across a livestream auction for lab-grown diamonds while scrolling on TikTok, she was stunned. While the diamond engagement ring her husband proposed with years ago had cost thousands of dollars, these loose lab-grown diamonds were selling in seconds at a fraction of the price.I have two rings that are both natural diamonds and cost a fortune," she said. I saw the prices they were going for in the auctions, and I was like, This is insanity.'" Continue reading...
In trial that opened on Tuesday, California and 28 other states accused the company of designing addictive sites and violating laws protecting children's privacyMeta's business can be boiled down to four words that begin with the letter H: hook, hold, harvest, hide, according to a lawyer who is prosecuting the world's largest social media company.The owner of Facebook and Instagram hooks" in users, holds" them on its platforms for as long as possible, harvests" their data and then hides" the truth from the public, she argued. Continue reading...
Amid a jobs slump, award-winning writers, directors and producers taking on sometimes lucrative temp work teaching AI skills such as screenwriting and productionHollywood creatives are taking gig work to train AI models to replicate their skills in a bid to offset tightening earnings in a trend one compared to being handed a shovel and asked to dig the grave of my profession".Experienced and award-winning writers, directors and producers are being paid from $12 to $200 an hour to teach AI models the intricacies of their jobs, from writing a screenplay to devising a shooting schedule. Continue reading...
Social media platforms face public ire after fatal crash involving teenagers filming themselves driving on wrong sideVideos often begin with the camera panning across a glowing dashboard as a gloved hand starts the ignition. The camera turns to show figures with masked faces in the rear seat, who are also filming, and swivels back to show the windscreen. Beyond it, a dark cityscape.The engine throbs, headlights puncture the night and the journey begins, first down a suburban road, then a motorway. The speedometer shows acceleration, the needle juddering as the car gathers velocity. Continue reading...
It's clear here in Silicon Valley that AI is advancing faster than humans' ability to control it. That means even sober prophecies seem optimisticHere in Silicon Valley, the experts think that within the next couple of years we'll see an extraordinary takeoff for artificial intelligence. Welcome to the foothills of the singularity," as a Stanford University friend greeted me. More prosaically, the imminent breakthrough is described as recursive self-improvement" - the point at which AI itself trains each successive model of AI, resulting in an exponential development to something which, in many significant respects, is more intelligent than us humans.As Robert Wright puts it in his book The God Test: Never before has the near-term future ... held such a wide array of not-implausible paths for humankind that would be so wildly transformative." But will this be heaven or hell? Heaven, says Elon Musk, who predicts an age of amazing abundance" - although he also sees a 10-20% chance of killer robots murdering us all. Hell is more likely according to Geoffrey Hinton, one of the intellectual founding fathers of AI. My intuition is, we're toast," he told an interviewer in 2023. And talking to Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine, a book about the quest for superintelligence, Hinton estimates p(doom) - the probability of human extinction - at 50%, because I haven't got a clue how to estimate the real number". As soon as evolution [of AI] kicks in, we're fucked," he adds cheerfully. But whether it's God or Godzilla, artificial superintelligence is just around the corner.Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Free from a big brand's audience expectations, new studio GPTrack50 has created a wacky action-packed romp through a monster-filled world for its first gameLove is blind. In Stupid Never Dies, it is also frozen solid and technically dead as Davy, the weakest zombie in monster society, discovers Julia's body in a shopping centre and falls in love at first sight. He wants to bring her back to life and take her on a date. Unfortunately, that means defeating the King of Monsters (KOM) and accidentally saving humanity along the way.This is the gloriously ridiculous setup for this forthcoming action RPG from GPTrack50, a new studio founded by former Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Its world looks much like ours, except that monsters have always been part of everyday life: whereas we might find a bear in the mountains or a stray dog in the woods, residents here encounter werewolves and zombies. Continue reading...
Even film-makers have been inspired by Insomniac's take on Spidey. But the studio's tried and tested format might not fit a superhero with such sharp clawsThe recent Marvel's Spider-Man games have become so tightly interwoven with the character's core that they've been cited, by both actor Tom Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton, as an influence on this year's blockbuster film Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Now the same development studio - Sony-owned Insomniac Games - is taking on one of Marvel's other most recognisable characters in his first video game-starring role since some deeply mid-tier film tie-ins back in the 00s. So can they pull off the same trick with Marvel's Wolverine?Storywise it certainly takes a similar approach, once again grabbing ideas from a wide selection of inspirations and remixing them into a brand-new continuity. We first meet this version of Wolverine as he is discovered: wild-eyed, wilder haired and practically nude. Before we see his saviour's face, we hear a well-spoken voice (provided by legendary game actor Troy Baker) promising a safe place for people like us". Surely this is Charles Xavier? Continue reading...
Trade body says local chains would have to balance concerns with potential benefits of AI-enabled technologyCinemas across the UK are considering banning customers from wearing Meta's smart glasses amid fears they could be used to pirate films.The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) trade body said that a number of local chains could end up introducing policies that restrict camera-enabled smart glasses at the big screen, adding to a growing list of venues concerned about covert use. Continue reading...
Despite policy victories over Flock, Americans are finding themselves under similar monitoring by a new company - or unable to remove the original camerasActivists in Colorado thought they would be celebrating a victory against mass surveillance in December when the Longmont city council decided to let a contract with Flock Safety lapse.But that excitement was cut short only months later when lawmakers voted to approve a new vendor to install automated license plate readers (ALPRs) on the city's streets. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#77TJ5)
Emma' the Rotherham chatbot has 17 languages says AI firm - but health watchdog says system struggling with local twangs'Patients in a South Yorkshire town are frustrated by an AI GP receptionist not understanding their broad accents", a health watchdog has said.Healthwatch Rotherham, a local health and social care watchdog, said a number of practices in the area had introduced a new AI receptionist called Emma. Continue reading...
It's simple, says the SpaceX boss - according to something called the Kardashev scale', we just have to move energy production off-planet'Next time the weather gives the UK 61 days without rain and we wonder idly if this is the end, there is a term we may whistle up to soothe us. Like murmuring the rosary, or putting our fingers in our ears and humming, this phrase is to be mumbled on repeat - the Kardashev scale, the Kardashev scale" - a buzzy concept in tech, much favoured by Elon Musk, and precisely the thing we've been waiting for. The Kardashev scale is the answer both to our impending doom and our anxiety around it - and if we decide to believe in it, we won't have to give the climate crisis a single thought until the last drip falls from the tap.This is the idea and it's a familiar one to anyone who has watched tech billionaires take intractable, commonplace crises and decide that, among the measures and proposals in play, the vital missing ingredient so far has been them. Do you remember when Jeff Bezos, rather than doing something quotidian and loserish like funding public education by ensuring Amazon pays the same tax rate as regular Americans, decided instead to reinvent preschools?Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
For most of modern history, technology sought to imitate humans. Humans increasingly seek to imitate technologyTwo faces that appeared on my Instagram feed in recent months gave me pause. One belonged to John Travolta at Cannes. The other to Carla Bruni on a date night with her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both looked recognisably themselves, yet, they both also looked oddly unfamiliar. Their looks have provoked speculation about cosmetic enhancement, though never acknowledged by them. Bruni has previously denied having had work done.In any case the feeling lasted only a second: a flicker of unease, as though I were looking at people who had become approximations of themselves.Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zurich and ParisDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Zvezdelina Stankova says she used AI to help edit' an article about some of her students being five to eight years' behindA math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a severe" math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece.The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math students were five to eight years" behind and lacked a middle school" education on fractions and basic algebra. Stankova said the UC system's test-blind admissions were to blame, suggesting that students who weren't sufficiently prepared for the rigor of Berkeley's mathematics program were admitted because a longstanding benchmark like the SAT had disappeared. Continue reading...
Arturo Bejar, former Meta safety engineer, tells jury tech company was aware of products' potential harm to childrenMeta has taken a don't ask, don't tell" strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.Arturo Bejar, a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it. Continue reading...
After their hit Untitled Goose Game, Australian studio House House is back with a new game where your only goal is to go exploring with friends - so we took them on a big walk inside Big WalkWhen I arrive to meet with the tiny team at Melbourne game developer House House, they're sitting in a circle under a eucalyptus tree. After introductions, the five of us set off into the scrub. Over the course of our hike we take a train to the beach, huddle on deck chairs in the sand dunes and climb a mountain as the sun rises. All without ever leaving our desks.Welcome to the world of Big Walk: House House's new game after the runaway global success Untitled Goose Game, which saw millions fall in love with being a naughty goose rampaging through a bucolic village. After Untitled Goose Game's overwhelming success, House House wanted their next game to be very different and unusual". Despite this, Big Walk has been an immediate success, with more than 1m downloads in the first week of release. Continue reading...
People say they've been secretly filmed in their own homes, at concerts and at work. Are the wildly popular smartglasses the final nail in the coffin of personal privacy?I've had one person who told me that their intentions were creepy," a man tells me over a video call, on condition of anonymity. He's based in Los Angeles, and while we speak, he eats what appears to be tuna directly out of the can. He said: I go to strip clubs, and I want to record the strippers ... Normally I put my phone in my chest pocket, but the glasses are more convenient.'"The man I'm talking to runs a business called Ghost Metas. He's one of hundreds of vendors, easily discoverable online, who specialise in disabling the flashing LED light embedded in Meta's smartglasses that blinks when wearers capture photos, videos and audio. After Ghost Metas disables the LED, it's impossible for someone to know they're being filmed. Continue reading...
As gaming's biggest publishers retreat into safer bets, a new generation of independents are building an alternative from the ground up Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereDuring the 1990s, a new strata of independent film studios and distributors revitalised the Hollywood movie machine. The likes of Miramax, New Line Cinema and October Films challenged the ageing behemoths of the industry and pushed forward offbeat directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky and Jane Campion. The decade is widely considered an artistic high point for western cinema after the bloated mainstream excesses of the 1980s. Could something similar now be happening in games?Certainly, we have a comparable setup. The big players of the games business are in various states of creative disarray: Electronic Arts (EA) has been bought out by a Saudi-led consortium, which is likely to lead to more cautious, hit-driven decisions; Microsoft bought Activision and Bethesda and then ordered waves of redundancies; Ubisoft has cancelled several titles and is posting big losses. Those companies are also facing rising development costs, so they're circling the wagons, focusing on legacy brands and freezing recruitment. It's hard to imagine any left-field works of genius emerging from this imaginative quagmire. Continue reading...
A rise in lawsuits over AI use in employment decisions is raising questions about how companies hire and fireFor the last four years, Erin Kistler has applied for thousands of jobs at companies like Paypal, Microsoft and Netflix, only to find her resume disappear into a black hole. A product manager with nearly 20 years of experience, Kistler believes she was qualified for every role, yet she never received a single interview.Now, Kistler is suing Eightfold AI, the Silicon Valley maker of hiring software used by hundreds of companies, including those where she applied, in a class-action lawsuit. The case, filed in January in California court, is one of the first to argue that automated screening functions as an undisclosed consumer report or applicant dossier, ranking job applicants on their likelihood of success without giving them the chance to see or challenge the results, according to Kistler's legal team. Continue reading...
Human by day, vampire by night, Coen has difficult choices to make - beginning here in the 1300s, his adventure could span centuries in upcoming sequelsThe Blood of Dawnwalker could be the start of an epic saga. Created by some of the talent behind The Witcher 3, this dark fantasy role-playing game takes place in the 14th century in the fictional land of Vale Sangora, a Carpathian valley of wetlands, mountains and forests cut off from the rest of the world and under the rule of a vicious vampire clan.The developers envisage Dawnwalker as a trilogy. And because protagonist Coen is half vampire himself, that trilogy can skip across time, culminating in the modern day. Continue reading...
Company's robots have gained global fame via videos of them performing martial arts and as dancers for pop starsUnitree, the world's biggest humanoid robot maker, has made a spectacular entry on to China's stock market, with its shares surging by more than 600%.The Chinese company's robots have gained global fame via viral videos of them performing martial arts, running at Olympic speeds and serving as backup dancers for pop stars. Continue reading...
Amid race with Anthropic, firm plans to overhaul research and training and require more safety parameters after hackOpenAI on Tuesday said it had slowed down the pace of its AI development while it overhauled its research and training systems.The company's researchers were caught unaware last month when an AI agent under testing hacked another AI firm, Hugging Face. Continue reading...
Twenty-nine US states are seeking huge damages, claiming Meta's platforms were addictive by designIn 1994, more than 40 US states came together to sue one of the most powerful industries on Earth: big tobacco.The suits brought together diverse claims centred on tobacco companies' misleading advertising and contribution to a mounting public health crisis. They ended in a negotiated settlement with the US government, in which the companies agreed to pay more than any industry ever, and the states agreed to drop a large portion of their claims. Continue reading...
Patrons at two of the chain's London pubs were all for Tim Martin's ban on playing music or taking calls on speakerThe terrace of the Moon Under Water Wetherspoons pub in Leicester Square was full of people enjoying the warm weather and chatting between tables - without a TikTok video or speakerphone call in earshot.At Wetherspoons, the convivial atmosphere can no longer be punctuated by rude customers taking phone calls on blast, or playing videos without headphones after Tim Martin, the owner of the pub chain, banned both on his premises. Continue reading...
Teen version is intended for children aged 13 to 17 and includes content protections on self-harm and sexual chatsOpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers - the first generation to grow up with artificial intelligence - who are already using it for schoolwork, questions about daily life and even companionship.The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens, which launches on Tuesday, is tailored for children aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things such as suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than spit out answers and school essays. Continue reading...
Tech Transparency Project's report shows whenever governments mull platform regulations, company recruits influencers to promote its safety featuresIn July 2025, Meta gathered parenting influencers from all over Australia at a waterfront venue overlooking the Sydney Opera House. It was a camping-themed event and in many ways was like any other influencer affair. There were Instagram-branded tents to take pictures in, an Instagram-branded step-and-repeat, a custom-tote making station and Instagram-branded snacks and coffee cups.But this screen smart" event wasn't about the photo op. Continue reading...
Sonic's creators explain how the speedy scamp has kept on running through generations as an enduring avatar of attitude in the face of adversity'One day in the early 1990s, I came home from university for the weekend and discovered that my dad had bought himself a Sega Mega Drive, bundled with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I knew about Sega's mascot of course. The launch of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game in 1991 was a landmark moment for the company, massively boosting the sales of its 16bit console in the west, ripping market share from the dominant Super Nintendo. While Mario was the family favourite, Sonic with his speed, attitude and brash visual energy encapsulated the edgy spirit of the early 1990s MTV culture. That weekend, Dad and I did little else but team up for daylong Sonic sessions, the game's two-player mode letting us play cooperatively as we zoomed through those dense, beautiful play zones.Thirty-five years later, I am still a Sonic fan. There have been plenty of rough times (Sonic 06, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic Free Riders - sorry, I can't go on), but there have been plenty of good ones too. (Rush, Mania and Colors, and I have a soft spot for Sonic R, a racer developed by Traveller's Tales, which went on to make the Lego games). Few people know this rollercoaster better than Takashi Iizuka, who worked on Sonic 3 as a designer and has been series producer for almost 20 years. When he joined Sega in 1992 he wanted to work for the company's arcade division, but after playing the original Sonic - especially Sonic 2 - he was seduced. Continue reading...
