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Latest PS5 Pro Firmware Beta Automatically Enables PSSR 2.0 Override
Given how much better it is, this makes a lot of sense.
Trump unbound: the making of an imperial presidency
Donald Trump’s second term is unlike his first. The politicians who challenged him are gone. The lawyers who once pushed back now choose their battles. What remains is an imperial president with almost no internal checks - using executive power to reshape everything from the economy to immigration and even the presidency itself.
Surprise! The original Quake gets a free expansion on all platforms to celebrate its 30th birthday
A 19-level campaign, a deathmatch map, a new soundtrack: now that's a 30th birthday present.
New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
Judge’s ruling comes after landmark trial in March that found social media company enabled harm against users
Hackers Stalked Me by Hijacking a Smartwatch for Kids
Security researchers tracked and eavesdropped on a WIRED reporter using vulnerabilities in a pink plastic smartwatch. It’s just one piece of a deeply insecure supply chain of GPS-enabled gadgets.
Sony’s new PS5 Pro beta update automatically enables PSSR 2.0 for every game
Sony’s latest PS5 system software beta enables PSSR 2.0 by default across all PS5 Pro games, promising sharper visuals and fewer frame-rate drops without requiring manual setup.
Which type of thinker are you? + US explosive diarrhoea outbreak
Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, Guardian science editor, to discuss three eye-catching science stories including an investigation that has identified four distinct types of thinker. Also on the agenda is the unprecedented cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US which has now been linked to two fatalities, and the funding cuts that threaten the iconic Jodrell Bank world heritage site, home to the Lovell telescope
Big Walk simulates the strange, childlike sensation of being unexpectedly separated from your friends, and the joy and relief of finding your way back
It might be disconcerting to wander out of voice range in Big Walk, but half the fun is working out ways to regain contact.
Pokémon Pokopia's free 2.0 update is here, and it's making a splash with new underwater features and improvements
Pokémon Pokopia's 2.0 update has added a bunch of underwater features and fixes to the popular spin-off title.
Scientists deploy AI agents to accelerate discovery of new materials
Researchers develop a system of AI agents to automate a powerful simulation method that accelerates discovery of new materials. The system makes these simulations easier to use and enables them to be much more widely adopted by the scientific community.
Sony Forces PSSR 2.0 On Every PS5 Pro Game, As New Beta Update Flips The Upscaler Toggle On By Default
Sony's new PS5 Pro beta update enables "Enhance PSSR Image Quality" by default to sharpen unpatched games
Halo Studios hit by layoffs after release of Halo: Campaign Evolved
An unconfirmed number of developers have been let go from Halo Studios just over a week since Campaign Evolved's release.
Minecraft finally has a Switch 2 release date, but there may be bad news for Switch 1 owners
Mojang is done teasing us about an imminent release of Minecraft on Switch 2.
NSF Inouye Solar Telescope Enables Major Discovery of a Hidden Solar Process - NSO
Scientists using the NSF Inouye Solar Telescope discovered Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the Sun, shedding light on solar activity and space weather.
"We take your feedback to heart" - Game Freak promises to improve Beast of Reincarnation following a divisive launch
Beast of Reincarnation has been described as unfinished by some players, and Game Freak is working on making things better.
Marvel Rivals’ next update drastically reduces the game’s install size on PC and console
As of Season 9.5, Marvel Rivals is going to take up a lot less space on your platform of choice.
There are a few gooduns in August's Xbox Game Pass line-up, including a surprisingly sexy, and funny, furniture dating sim
Ever dated a door before? Don't knock it until you've tried.
How Mateer 'shows up in the depths of preparation,' according to Ben Arbuckle
OU head coach Brent Venables and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle spoke ahead of the Sooners' 2026 season.
New NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs will power AI-enabled scientific research across the country
New initiative will accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery by expanding access to compute for researchers, students and educators through regional partnerships among state and local governments…
You can try the newly-launched Switch 2 port of Final Fantasy 14 for free, right now, if you have a spare 117GB
"To help ensure a stable launch experience, subscription fees will be waived for approximately one month following release," says Square Enix.
Xbox's FanFest world tour is still going ahead, for some reason, even after Microsoft fired the guy who created it
"How about those layoffs!" One can only imagine the atmosphere there.
Microsoft is working on making Xbox 360 games playable on PC, leaked document reveals
Microsoft's plan to bring its back catalogue of console games to PC doesn't stop at the original Xbox.
10 AI-Powered Side Hustles: Smart Business Ideas Using ChatGPT Or Claude
AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude enable aspiring entrepreneurs to accomplish more, faster. Here are 10 great AI-powered side hustle ideas.
If Not AOC, Then Who?
What do we do if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decides not to run for president in 2028? It makes sense that many leftists are currently focused on calling on her to take the plunge. But the absence of a Plan B, or even much discussion about one, is worrisome. The US Left can’t afford to sit out the 2028 Democratic primary. Doing so in 2024 was a disaster: our abstention self-marginalized anti-billionaire politics from the national conversation and thereby gave space for Harris to pivot to the “center” (i.e. the policy preferences of corporate donors, establishment hacks, and AIPAC). Abstaining again in 2028 would be especially counterproductive since democratic socialists now have so much wind in our sails after our big electoral wins in NYC and across the country. It’s time to deepen our momentum, organization, and profile — not to retreat to the margins during America’s single most important political battle. Even more urgently, keeping Trump’s heir out of the White House may depend on whether leftists and the party’s unprecedentedly disenchanted base can force the Democrats in 2028 to take meaningful steps towards a very angry electorate and away from the corporate-consultant blob that has helped get us into this mess. If AOC (or Abdul El-Sayed) decides to run, we should enthusiastically go all in — DSA, fighting unions, progressive organizations, anybody who wants to see a better country and world. But, as far as I can tell from the outside, there’s a real chance that she doesn’t run. And we can’t just wait and see where she lands before discussing alternatives, since AOC’s decision might not come for quite a while, giving us little time to scramble at the last minute for an alternative. So we should start working now on getting a Plan B into motion, and recruiting a good candidate for the role. Here’s one idea. A Worker Candidate — Healthcare Not Warfare 2028 Run a union worker Leftists don’t need to always run experienced, well-known socialist politicians for high-profile contests. Lula, the current president of Brazil, began his political career as a metalworker militant who ran for governor of São Paulo in 1982. Especially in an era of institutional distrust, it’s possible to lean hard into making a virtue out of a working-class comrade’s distance from traditional politics. Experience abroad shows this clearly. Rachel Kéké — an immigrant hotel housekeeper — ran as the candidate of the leftist La France Insoumise for the National Assembly in 2022, defeating a former minister in the Macron government. The Belgian Workers’ Party in 2024 won its first Flemish seat in the European Parliament by running Rudi Kennes, a three-decade veteran of the Opel Antwerp auto factory. And the South Korean left in 2024 elected auto factory militant Yoon Jong-oh to the National Assembly. If a tiny French Trotskyist organization could make such a big splash in 2002 and 2007 by running a well-spoken postal worker cadre for office — the LCR’s Olivier Besancenot received about 1.5 million first-round votes — it’s not far-fetched to expect that a much larger organization like DSA, together with a broader coalition of the willing, could run this playbook to much greater effect. This is especially the case now that almost everything DSA does immediately becomes a national news story. We don’t need someone famous. We just need a charismatic, well-vetted comrade who works in a relatable working-class occupation — e.g. a nurse, or a worker in auto or construction, or at Amazon. Ideally, they have a compelling personal story or have been part of a significant strike or organizing campaign, but even those criteria don’t necessarily have to be deal-breakers. The main lesson of the Graham Platner fiasco isn’t that we should never run outsiders for office (the momentum he generated proves the exact opposite), but that they need proper vetting and roots in democratic membership organizations like DSA or a union. In any case, there are plenty of ways to signal working-class authenticity without resorting to Platner’s or Fetterman’s performative macho white dude affect. Better to have someone of any gender or race who is actually working class, with firm socialist politics, who can speak from experience about the day-to-day realities of trying to make it in America. There are surely at least a dozen such worker leaders in our movement nationwide; we just need to sit down and convince one that their personal sacrifice for the greater good (i.e. running for president) will be worth it. If we don’t have a frontrunner with a clear path to victory like AOC (or El-Sayed, were he to win Michigan), it’s better to embrace someone whose decision to run in itself tells an important story about US politics: workers have been iced out of our political system and are now fighting hard to break back in. The novelty factor, in itself, would generate press. And it would help democratic socialists signal to the American public that our movement’s defining characteristic is that we represent workers vs. bosses, not that we’re “the furthest left” force in American politics — a framework that suggests we’re extremists and that helps our opponents isolate us from non-college-educated voters by highlighting extremely minoritarian (and misguided) stances included in DSA’s platform like prison abolition. We don’t get many opportunities to speak to tens of millions of Americans; we need to use these opportunities to broaden our appeal beyond those already in our orbit. Run to polarize the 2028 primary and general election around “Medicare for All” and “End All Aid to Israel” Why should democratic socialists use our scarce time and volunteer energy to run in a race we’re unlikely to win? Running in the 2028 primary will not only recruit us scores of members (imagine having a DSA member intervening in eleven nationally televised primary debates!), but — more importantly — it has the potential to be a decisive leap forward towards an America that finally starts meeting the needs of working people instead of HMO and AIPAC billionaire donors. Polarizing litmus tests are good, actually — as long as they’re fought for around popular demands in a thoughtful and strategic way. Democratic socialists have an opportunity and responsibility to make the 2028 primary about two of the most widely and deeply felt issues of our moment: domestically, America’s unaffordable, family-breaking private healthcare system; internationally, America’s bankrolling of the genocidal Israeli government. A candidacy relentlessly demanding Medicare for All and No Aid to Israel would pose a sharp question to the American public, the Democratic Party, and other 2028 contenders: Why can’t working-class Americans afford their healthcare bills at the same time that our government is spending at least $3.8 billion yearly to fund an Israeli regime eager to keep dragging us and the world into more forever wars? Our candidate can agitate around a clear message: I’m running to give voice to all those working-class Americans who are struggling to get by. No matter what state you live in, who you voted for in 2024, or your background, it’s just plain common sense that we should make healthcare more affordable instead of spending billions to enable the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity. Every American who agrees with me when I say ‘Medicare for All — Not a Dime for Israel’ should make their voice heard through our campaign. Racking up a high number of votes for this agenda is a crucial way to show the Democratic Party and the country as a whole that we can’t keep supporting a life-destroying status quo in our healthcare system and in the Middle East. If we want to defeat Trump’s handpicked crony this coming November, we need to speak to ordinary people’s frustrations with the status quo — we can’t keep running the same tired establishment playbook and expecting a different result. For those highly engaged voters (or skeptical media pundits) who raise concerns about wasting votes, the candidate can take the time to explain why this isn’t the case: It's true I'm a long shot. But Zohran showed anything can happen — and voting for me is a pragmatic decision, not a wasted vote. In a heavily divided primary with a large number of candidates and a very discredited establishment, my campaign and the democratic socialist movement I’m part of are positioned to be the balance of power if we can get a large enough number of voters to loudly demand Healthcare Not Warfare. Since there’s a high chance no candidate will get to 50% in the 2028 primaries, the Democrats could very well be heading towards a brokered convention, where a disciplined, principled current committed to breaking from corporate donors can play an outsized role in making sure whoever ends up with the nomination raises the banner of single-payer healthcare and cutting aid to Israel. How exactly could running this sort of primary campaign be translated into actual leverage? The candidate replies: I’m aiming to win the nomination, but if I don’t achieve that goal, my delegates and I will pledge our support in the primary only for a candidate who agrees in the general election to call for ending US aid to Israel and establishing Medicare for All at home. These are both winning planks for November against the Republicans, and the only reason I can see that other candidates haven’t yet raised these is that they’re still more scared of the donor class than they are of the people. That needs to change. If Democratic leaders want young people, workers, and those sick of the status quo to show up in big numbers this November, they need to meet us halfway. In this way, whether or not we win the nomination, democratic socialists could still play a decisive role in 2028. The approach outlined here is similar to what radical left parties periodically do in parliamentary democracies like Denmark or Sweden when they find themselves as a junior partner electorally: they dictate to center-left allies what their terms would be for enabling, from the outside, the formation of a new government. Running a Healthcare Not Warfare candidate will make it significantly more likely that the 2028 Democratic candidate stands with ordinary people instead of donors on these two pivotal planks — a shift that will, in turn, make it easier to achieve the existentially important task of defeating MAGA’s heir in November. Look at how much popular traction the Uncommitted movement got with a similar strategy in 2024 with so little on-the-ground organization — surely we can go much further with a working-class candidate, a much bigger DSA, and a Democratic Party base that has turned against Israel, billionaires, and the hacks in the party who prop them up. Objections and Responses There are quite a few objections to this proposal, many of which are very reasonable. Let me briefly address each here. Socialists shouldn’t waste their scarce time and resources on a candidate unlikely to win. This is a good rule in general, but there are important exceptions, and presidential elections are the main one. There’s no other political contest that gets anything like this level of attention and engagement in the US, so if you want to be a serious force in nationwide politics, you basically can’t afford not to have a candidate. Far from being an overall drain on our resources, running a dynamic 2028 campaign would likely result in a major net increase in members and capacity. In that spirit, the very pragmatic Milwaukee sewer socialists — who mostly ran to win at home in Wisconsin — supported Eugene Debs’s propagandistic presidential campaigns, which they correctly saw as a crucial means of recruiting to the Socialist Party. And now that the (post-1972) Democratic Party gives more weight to voters than party operatives in determining its presidential nomination, it’s become feasible to run as a socialist in primaries without risking a split in the vote against the Republicans in November. We should just support Ro Khanna, who also supports M4A and ending aid to Israel. I like Ro Khanna and would enthusiastically vote and canvass for him for president were he to get the nomination. But there’s a real chance that Khanna’s bid for office doesn’t catch on; he lacks the grassroots organizational apparatus of DSA, and, because he’s not really of the Left or labor (despite his current very good positions), he’s unlikely to generate the type of buy-in and enthusiasm that a DSA candidate would. Moreover, Khanna would be running as an individual, not as someone emerging from and building an organized movement — his campaign would not likely focus on building sustained power from below, nor would it likely polarize the 2028 primary around M4A and Israel aid. Also, and not inconsequentially, the poor electoral results for Tom Steyer and Saikat Chakrabarti this spring suggest that there’s perhaps not much of a popular appetite in the Democrats’ base to support multi-millionaire class traitors. Much better, then, to run a democratic socialist worker. If by Super Tuesday it’s clear that our campaign has captured the main left lane in the primary, Khanna should drop out and endorse us; conversely, if he’s managed to capture this lane, DSA could at that point transform its Healthcare Not Warfare campaign into an independent campaign to elect Ro Khanna focused on winning (and holding him accountable to) those two critical planks. An openness to consolidating an anti-corporate candidate by Super Tuesday is a necessary component of the strategy I’m proposing, because otherwise we risk splitting the primary votes (per DNC rules, you need at least 15% to get any delegates to convention). We should convince Shawn Fain or Sara Nelson to run for president instead. I agree it’d be great if either ran for president, but my impression is that there’s basically no chance that will happen in 2028, because both are firmly focused on their union leadership duties (and, in the case of Fain, beating back a federal witch-hunt). This plan could have DSA end up endorsing a non-socialist, non-DSAer for president. That’s against our principles. It’s a myth, and bad politics, that socialists can’t ever support candidates who aren’t members of their organization and/or who don’t call themselves socialists. Bernie, after all, was not a DSAer. And socialists abroad regularly make tactical decisions about if and when supporting a non-socialist candidate makes sense from the standpoint of promoting working-class interests, defending democracy, and building a socialist current in the process. If your “principles” prevent you and DSA from helping achieve the momentous stride forward of having a Democratic candidate in 2028 run on Medicare for All and ending aid to Israel, those “principles” are not very good. In fact, they actively undermine the causes they’re aiming to support. We shouldn’t confuse principles (working-class independence) with tactics (the best way to advance this in a given context). In my recent article in Catalyst on Milwaukee sewer socialism (I’ve uploaded the full text here), I have a section showing how similarly rigid rules about endorsements had to be eventually discarded in the old Socialist Party nationwide after WWI because they tended to lead socialists towards a sectarian abstention from broader anti-corporate electoral insurgencies beyond their party’s control. For what it’s worth, Lenin’s current under Tsarism frequently backed bourgeois candidates in the second round of elections and Lenin himself advocated that British Communists support Labour Party candidates; for his part, Kautsky in 1912 defended the German Social Democracy’s electoral pact with the Progressives in the runoffs. If our predecessors could be that tactically flexible in an era before the limits of their underlying strategic assumptions about intransigent class politics in capitalist democracies were made clear, then there’s no need to insist on being more tactically rigid today, after a century’s worth of accumulated experience. As long as you maintain your own political profile and organization while engaging in broader coalitional efforts, there’s zero inherent contradiction with the principle of political independence. More specifically: DSA and allied organizations should enthusiastically back Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed if AOC declines to run and he throws his hat in the presidential ring. (I have no idea whether he’s even considering this path, but there’ll surely be chatter about it if he wins his Senate race this November.) Though he doesn’t call himself a socialist, El-Sayed is a principled Berniecrat, a consistent fighter for Palestine, and would have a clear path to victory. Using the “s” word is far less important than whether a campaign fights for the interests of working people at home and abroad — and whether actively participating in it can grow the organized working class and the Left. And the same holds true if a less anti-corporate candidate were, under pressure, to adopt our two Healthcare Not Warfare planks. Why focus only on M4A and ending US aid to Israel? There are so many other important issues to fight for! Obviously there are many pivotal issues beyond healthcare and Israel, and our candidate — and especially our organizations involved in the campaign — should be prepared to speak on all of these. But one of the crucial lessons of the Zohran campaign is that you have to relentlessly stay on message if you want to cut through the noise. CNN and Fox News will want to talk about DSA’s views on Venezuela and abolishing the police; we need to polarize the debate on the widely and deeply felt issues that are most favorable for growing the Left, isolating our opponents, and winning urgently needed changes. One recent poll found 63% of Americans support M4A, even after respondents were told it would raise taxes and eliminate most private insurance. Another found that 74% of Democrats opposed “providing additional economic and military support to Israel.” And focusing on two demands sets the campaign up to be able to leverage its mandate to make clear demands upon other candidates (which we can’t do if we run with a laundry list of demands). Talking about a Plan B is a distraction from the more urgent work of building a groundswell of calls on AOC to run. It’s good for DSAers, fightback unionists, and progressive organizations to try to convince AOC to run. This proposal is meant as an addendum to pushes to get AOC to run and to line DSA up for that eventuality, not as a substitute for those efforts. But I’m worried that, like in 2024, we might eventually find ourselves with no time to find a viable alternative unless we start now. DSA, with its abundant deliberative processes, moves slowly. The approach you’re suggesting seems risky. If a DSA candidate runs but doesn’t receive a lot of votes, it’ll undercut our current national momentum. This is a reasonable worry. All big initiatives always carry risks, and the path I’m advocating is certainly not free of these. That said, if a Healthcare Not Warfare campaign doesn’t catch on like we envisioned, it’s a pretty simple pivot in March 2028 to explain that in the future we really need our standard-bearers like AOC, or our growing bench of national electeds, to step up in presidential primaries. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the risk of my Plan B proposal is on the whole significantly less than the risk entailed by an AOC run. We should all back her if she runs, since she’d fire up the base, provide huge openings for organizing, have a real shot at defeating a Republican (especially given MAGA’s unpopularity), be a great standard-bearer for our issues, particularly M4A and ending aid to Israel, and be less willing than mainstream candidates to capitulate to any anti-democratic machinations from Trump and co. But it’s also true that AOC could lose, which would be a devastating setback to the country and the Left. Or she could win and find herself unable to pass much, if any, of her (and our) program, a demoralizing prospect. So if we’re willing to take these risks with AOC (and we should), it follows that we should be able to take lower-level risks if she doesn’t throw her hat in the ring. What’s Your Plan B? The US Left is facing its biggest opening for growth and influence since the 1930s. Initiatives that would have been impossible a few months ago are now potentially feasible. A President AOC is now easier to imagine, but if she ultimately assesses that the risks aren’t worth the potential reward in 2028, we can’t be left flat-footed. So even if you’re not convinced by the specifics of my Plan B, I hope you can at least agree that it’d be a disaster for us not to have one — and not to start getting a Plan B into motion. Hopefully other organizers and political currents will put forward their responses and alternative ideas ASAP. The stakes are too high to just wait and see. More As always, please share this article widely. This newsletter depends on all you lovely people to get the word out. Thank you! I uploaded the full text of my Catalyst article on Milwaukee sewer socialism here (it’s updated and 3x as long as the version published earlier on this substack). If you haven’t yet, please make sure to subscribe to Catalyst here; I read every issue front to back, highly recommend. 🌹🎵 Ivan Lins (arranged by Arthur Verocai) — “General da Banda” 🌹🎵
NSF stands up 2 Materials Innovation Platforms with $50M investment
The U.S. National Science Foundation is investing $50 million in research infrastructure to enable the discovery and development of materials that can withstand extreme conditions, from lightweight…
Palworld Online is a new MMORPG coming to iOS and Android later this year
Developed by Garena, Palworld Online is a shared world MMO where players can collect and level their Pals together.
Remember Pokemon Ruby? Game Boy Advance Remake Is on the Way
Though it won't support using vintage cartridges, the Android handheld will enable emulation of classic console titles, while retaining the general look and feel of the 2001 Nintendo handheld.
Silent Hill: Townfall's dev team wrecked old TVs with magnets to make its in-game gadget feel real
Silent Hill: Townfall studio Screen Burn used broken TVs and magnets to make its in-game gadget, the CRTV, feel analogue as well as look it.
Got a spare $10? Net yourself almost 150 games and help support laid off game devs with the game industry hardship fund bundle
What's the worst that could happen?
"We will not live on past successes or be trapped by past failures" – Xbox CEO outlines priorities to turn platform around in FY27
Asha Sharma expects growth to return to Xbox by "investing in what players value"
Could Switch 2's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake be squaring up for a GTA 6 head-to-head? Newly sighted amiibo suggest a potential November release
Despite being announced back in June, Nintendo's Ocarina of Time remake still doesn't have an official launch date.
PlayStation reports flat Q1 sales, says it's "cautiously moving forward" with halting physical disc production
"We have received various opinions, and people have strong views, and we understand that the community has put forward those views to us," says CFO
AOC 2028: could she be the first female US president?
Leftwing Democrats are having their political moment in the sun, with Zohran Mamdani in New York, Adbul El-Sayed in Michigan and the endless calls for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president in 2028
Shift-Up promotes Stellar Blade 2 with AI-generated KPop music video featuring the game's main character
The video ends with Shift-Up developers interacting with an AI-generated Evie from Stellar Blade 2, chatting and eating together.
Sony vows to press on with discless plans, saying "digitalization is progressing" across all media despite heavy protest from players
Sony has heard your complaints, but it's done little to move the needle when it comes to PlayStation physical media and discs.
Countries urged to strengthen breastfeeding support and health systems to give every child a healthy start in life
Too many mothers and families around the world still lack access to services and interventions that enable and support breastfeeding. Yet breastfeeding is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to protect a child’s health. It provides infants and young children with essential nutrition, increases immunity, helps protect against serious illness, and supports cognitive development.
Senate committee looks to stop AI-enabled fraud against older adults
AI-enabled fraud is projected to reach $40 billion in the United States next year
Harvard Business School announces 2026-2027 Blavatnik Fellows
Harvard Business School (HBS) has named its 2026-27 Blavatnik Fellows. The fellowship offers HBS alumni and Harvard-affiliated postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to advance new life science technology ventures and develop their leadership talents during a 12-month fellowship year. To date, Blavatnik Fellows have founded 50 biomedical companies developing innovations including gene writing technologies, engineered cell therapies, oral biologic drug delivery platforms, AI-enabled digital health solutions, and therapeutics for cancer, neurological, and metabolic diseases. Collectively, Fellows have raised more than $800 million in private and public capital to advance their ventures.
AppMagic: Pokémon Go generates $48.5m during 10th anniversary celebrations
Weekly in-app purchase revenue reaches record high from July 6 to July 12
Halo: Campaign Evolved's 'death barriers' and ungenerous out-of-bounds restrictions are making the 42 skull grind a real bore
42 skulls, 10 terminals, and an out-of-bounds auto-death that is frustrating even the most seasoned reclaimers.
Nvidia GPUs see yet another price hike of up to 30 percent, as the generative AI hardware crisis worsens
In response Samsung announced another price increase across DRAM as the personal computing nightmare deepens.
Xbox revenue plunges $1.7bn, with hardware dropping 29% YoY
Platform holder also faced losses during Q4, with content and services revenue falling 10% and hardware dropping 13%
How AI Can Help Your Business Grow: Real-World Use Cases and Potential ROI
Learn how to evaluate AI ROI for business, explore AI use cases for business growth, and see how Windows 11 Pro PCs and Copilot+ PCs can support AI-enabled work.
RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Researchers Find AI Tool Helps Detect Patient Deterioration Earlier, Reducing Hospital Deaths
Researchers from RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found that an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled early warning system helped identify hospitalized patients at risk of rapid clinical decline sooner, contributing to fewer deaths among high-risk patients.
Valve has released the CAD design files for the Steam Machine's exterior, leaving us asking: how long before someone makes a GabeCube skin?
The release, which has been done under a Creative Commons licence, follows Valve's CAD files for the new Steam Controller.
Tentpole Xbox release Halo: Campaign Evolved performs better on the PlayStation 5, with the PS5 Pro providing the best experience
According to a new Digital Foundry article, the PS5 version of the game meets Xbox Series X quality, without cutscene stuttering.
Taufer Leads Team Awarded $9M by NSF To Enable US Transition to AI-Driven Discovery
A project led by Michela Taufer has been awarded $9 million by the National Science Foundation to accelerate AI-driven scientific discovery.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs are working on a Nintendo Switch 2 version, but note the "big technical challenge" of getting it up and running
Sandfall Interactive knows there is demand for a Switch 2 version of the breakout RPG, and the studio is working on it.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour has competitive multiplayer, and you've got a chance to play it very soon
Crazy Taxi: World Tour may not be about until 2027, but if you're lucky, you could be playing it in a matter of weeks.
After laying off Battlefield 6 devs, EA boss Andrew Wilson's bonus rose $8m to $38m last year, thanks to the game's success across "all milestones"
Andrew Wilson took home the staggering bonus, alongside his $1.3m base salary.
Silent Hill: Townfall promises to "massively subvert" your expectations, and it's left me painfully excited
Our hands-on impressions of Silent Hill: Townfall, plus producer Motoi Okamoto and director Jon McKellan's thoughts on evolving the series.
New data suggests layoffs will affect 14,259 people by the end of 2026, up 78% from first forecast of the year
"The pace of layoffs is accelerating faster than our models initially predicted"
National Science Foundation to help build AI-enabled labs
Carolina is part of a program that will use artificial intelligence to speed the testing of research ideas across the country.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was reportedly being turned into a 2.5D brawler by CD Projekt Red and Shantae studio WayForward, but its fate is uncertain
The spin-off was in development between 2025 and 2026, before layoffs hit the retro-inspired developer famous for its beat 'em ups and platformers.
John Hight steps down as Wizards of the Coast president
John Hight, the president of Wizards of the Coast, will be stepping down on September 1. The news was given through a U…
Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem bolster a strong quarter for Capcom, as Monster Hunter and Street Fighter sales hit record highs
According to the latest quarterly report from Capcom, Pragmata has sold over 2.5m copies, while Resident Evil Requiem has sold over 8m.
Rockstar Games and GTA co-founder chimes in on the raging physical games debate: "If people want that, companies should provide it"
Dan Houser and Lazlow quickly talk about digital and physical media, while promoting the American Caper comic series.
Indie Game Suddenly Becomes Popular Due To Undertale Mod
Take care of yourself kid, ‘cause someone really cares about you (because you enable them to play Undertale together online)
Baldur's Gate 3 players on PC can't decide if the latest third-person camera mod is a revelation or a crime against Larian's original vision
A new cinematic third-person camera mod for Baldur's Gate 3 is sparking debate among fans of Larian Studios' massive RPG.
User-made maps from Steam top-seller Meccha Chameleon have been found to contain malware, just as the game's official Discord server got hacked
Meccha Chameleon's Discord was breached on the same day some of its Steam Workshop maps were discovered to contain malware.
Xbox service is down, with outages meaning players can't play any digital or physical games, after similar PlayStation Network issues last week
Shortly after PlayStation Network's outage last week, Xbox's online services are facing trouble too, with the support team saying work is underway.
"4 or maybe even 5 instalments" If you want Remakes of older Final Fantasy games, prepare for them to be even bigger than the FF7 Remake trilogy
Final Fantasy 14's Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida has been thinking out loud about what future remakes could look like in the FF series.
Will you power down your PS5 for a week in protest of Sony's all-digital future? A new petition encourages you to pull the plug on PlayStation
Players will not accept the all-digital future posited by PlayStation as a new petition aims to show the company strength in consumer unity.
Rockstar clarifies which GTA 6 pre-order download codes are going to be region-locked, and how that is going to affect the game in your country
If you plan on pre-ordering GTA 6 on PlayStation 5 at retail, you should be very careful not to get a code that won't work with your account.
The next Kratos God of War game will follow and connect to Laufey, says Cory Barlog
Talking at a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Barlog revealed that "everything" the team at Santa Monica was doing in the Faye game will "set up what comes next".
007 First Light's first major patch is here – and it's a doozy if you're playing on PS5
007 First Light's first major post-launch update, Patch 1.1.0, is here, introducing "fixes and improvements for over 200 issues reported by the community and ou
“Graphic Talk About Science: Adventures in Science Engagement”
Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO), Southern California’s esteemed home to several of the most groundbreaking astronomical discoveries in history, welcomes the public to the third Saturday Evening Talks & Telescopes of the season on Saturday, July 25, 2026. MWO is honored to present “Graphic Talk About Science: Adventures in Science Engagement,” a lecture by Clifford V. Johnson, from UCSB. This lecture explores how graphic storytelling can make cutting-edge physics more accessible, as Johnson discusses the science and creative process behind his illustrated book, “The Dialogues: Conversations About the Nature of the Universe.” Tickets are available here: www.mtwilson.edu/events/lecture072526 During the six-month season, each Talks & Telescopes event runs from 5:30pm to 11:30pm with the “talk” portion of the evening beginning in the Observatory’s Auditorium. The 60+ minute presentation is followed by picnic dining—bring your own, or purchase from a food truck or caterer—and then, after the sun goes down, stargazing through Mount Wilson’s immense telescopes, the largest in the world made available to the public. Additional stargazing around the grounds will be available thanks to members of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. Both the 60-inch telescope and the 100-inch—the latter famously used by Edwin Hubble to discover the expanding universe—will be available for viewing the night sky. Priced at $50, this event series offers the most economical stargazing event option on the mountain. Tickets and more information are available on Mount Wilson Observatory’s website here: www.mtwilson.edu/lectures. Advance purchases are highly recommended. UPCOMING SATURDAY EVENING TALKS & TELESCOPES OF THE 2026 SEASON August 22: “Towards a Functional Cosmology” www.mtwilson.edu/events/lecture082226 Join artist Lita Albuquerque for a lecture on her multidisciplinary practice at the intersection of art, science, and cosmology. Drawing on decades of work across painting, land art, performance, and installation, she reflects on projects created in remote, astronomy-linked environments and how they shape her exploration of time, space, and human perception. September 19: “The Brightness of Stars: Henrietta Leavitt and the Transformative Nature of Attention in Art and Science” www.mtwilson.edu/events/lecture091926 Visual artist and author Anna Von Mertens explores the life and legacy of Henrietta Leavitt, whose study of variable stars enabled the first reliable measurements of cosmic distances. Working among the Harvard Computers, Leavitt laid the foundation for breakthroughs at Mount Wilson, including Harlow Shapley’s mapping of the Milky Way and Edwin Hubble’s discovery of an expanding universe. Drawing from her book “Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt,” Von Mertens shares archival materials alongside her own artwork inspired by Leavitt’s life, to celebrate how careful attention leads to both scientific discovery and a meaningful life. October 17: “The Duality of Genius and Struggle: G.E. Hale” www.mtwilson.edu/events/lecture101726 This talk, presented by Sam Hale, explores the extraordinary life and legacy of his grandfather, George Ellery Hale—the visionary behind some of the world’s most important astronomical institutions. Drawing on both history and personal connection, Sam Hale offers insight into a legacy that continues to shape science and culture today. VISITING MWO The gate to Mount Wilson’s campus opens at 10:00am daily and closes at 5:00pm from early April through November. Entrance to the grounds is free. Visitors can hike, gaze at the telescope domes and towers that dot the landscape, and take a look at historic Mount Wilson photos and letters in the Museum. The Cosmic Cafe (www.mtwilson.edu/cosmic-cafe), located above the main parking lot at the Observatory entrance, is open on weekends in the spring, summer, and fall. In addition to traditional menu items such as hot dogs, drinks, and snacks, the Cafe offers wraps, salads, and sweet treats from Little Flower. PARKING A U.S. Forest Service Adventure Pass is required to park at the Observatory. A $5 day pass or a $30 dollar annual pass may be purchased at the Cosmic Cafe on weekends between 10:00am and 5:00pm. During the week, passes are available at locations around Los Angeles. The most convenient location before heading up is at the Shell station in La Canada Flintridge at the bottom of the Angeles Crest Highway (https://find.shell.com/us/fuel/10007957-4530-angeles-crest-hwy/en_US). Visit the U.S. Forest Service website for more information about Passes and other locations to buy them: www.fs.usda.gov/r05/passes/adventure-pass For more information about Visiting Mount Wilson Observatory, please visit: www.mtwilson.edu/visiting NOT ADA-COMPLIANT Please be advised that access to the 100-inch dome is via an open-air, 53-step staircase inside the building. There is no ADA-compliant access.
Lara Croft can't catch a break: after delaying one Tomb Raider game, Amazon is delaying another and this one won't show up until 2028
Amazon head of gaming Jeffrey Gattis broke the news following the company's decision to delay its Tomb Raider 1 "reimagining" into next year.
Blizzard fire World Of Warcraft developer over use of forbidden magicks to insta-kill bosses for regular players during dungeon run
Blizzard have fired a World Of Warcraft developer after dev-only insta-kill spells were used to take out bosses for regular players during a dungeon run.
PlayStation Network down, as tens of thousands of players queue to play Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls newly-launched beta
PlayStation owners trying to get a few hours in during work hours are reporting network issues en masse.
A Pitt-led team plans to automate quantum computing research with a Department of Energy grant
Part of the Genesis Mission, a national effort to harness AI for scientific discovery, the project could enable new chemistry and materials science.
Sweeping, strafing and suppression: Total War: Warhammer 40,000 threatens to blow up Total War's combat fundamentals
Creative Assembly show off Total War: Warhammer 40,000's ranged combat and unit behaviour in detail in a new livestreamed battle.
If PlayStation kills physical media, it should "get rid of the hardware" too, says the creator of popular RPG series Disgaea
Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa has strong thoughts on Sony's planned move away from physical media.
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner can't remember why he green-lit Kingdom Hearts
This comes after Eisner left a panel on new video game company Delphi Interactive.
NSF will support effort to build “self-driving” chemistry laboratories - College of Arts and Sciences
NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will work together as part of a new National Science Foundation-funded effort to establish a nationwide network of artificial-intelligence-enabled automated laboratories across the United States.
RSU professors develop AI-powered business simulator
Rogers State University professors developed an AI-enabled platform to assist students with leadership development, critical thinking, decision making and organ
When It Comes to Fusion, Materials Matter
Fusion at high temperatures powers the sun and, if harnessed, could provide a potential source of energy here on Earth. But controlling fusion reactions has other benefits. The process also generates subatomic particles called neutrons that are used in a range of applications spanning medicine, research, and national security. Now, scientists at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that the materials surrounding a fusion reaction can dramatically increase how often it occurs, particularly at low energies where fusion is rare. The study was published July 18 in Nature Communications. Their approach sets up a way to study and engineer nuclear reactions within solid materials, opening a new field of “materials-driven fusion.” Instead of designing materials just to survive the harsh conditions of fusion, researchers might be able to design materials that boost the reaction in specific conditions, similar to the way catalysts speed up chemical processes. “It gives you a new knob to turn that you didn’t have before,” said Arun Persaud, head of the Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology group in Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division. “If we understand this effect better, it opens the door to engineering new materials that would affect the fusion rate under certain conditions. Someday future progress might enable more compact and efficient neutron generators, which have all kinds of applications, like cargo screening, planetary science, and medical therapy and imaging.” In the experiment, researchers used two different methods to pack deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen atoms that is often used in fusion, into thin foils of palladium and titanium. They then fired a beam of deuterium ions at the foils at different energies and measured how often fusion happened. Then they compared the rates from the different materials and methods with the “bare” fusion reaction (not in a material). The team found that fusion rates depended on how the deuterium was loaded into the metal foils. The biggest effect was at the lowest energies, below 2.5 kiloelectronvolts (keV), where theory predicts fusion rates drop off sharply. Instead, researchers found a surprising plateau: Some samples showed elevated fusion rates roughly a quintillion times higher than bare fusion reactions. (A quintillion is a 1 followed by 18 zeroes.) Researchers are not exactly sure why that’s happening, though they have some ideas and ways to test them. The electrons and defects within the material might partially shield repulsive electrostatic forces between deuterium nuclei, making it easier for them to get close together and fuse. Tuning the electronic structure, defects, and composition of materials could help make nuclear reactions happen more readily. “It comes down to better understanding the mechanism so that we can try to enhance it,” said corresponding author Jeremy Munday, a professor at UC Davis. “We’ve seen that we can increase fusion rates, but what is the limit? Can we bring it to lower temperatures or energies? There’s obviously a lot of interest and excitement about fusion, so if there’s something we can learn about the physics at these lower energy scales, maybe there’s something we can translate to other areas of nuclear science.” The team plans to explore a wider range of materials and continue probing the unexpected fusion plateau at lower energies. Their work establishes a reproducible experimental platform to study how solid materials influence nuclear reactions, creating a new area of research that links fusion science with materials science and chemistry. “The work shows conclusively that the material environment where fusion occurs at low temperatures is an active participant rather than a passive container,” said Cameron Geddes, director of ATAP. “That adds a new dimension to fusion research.” This work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
Cigna expands chronic care management, projects $200M savings
Cigna Healthcare is broadening its AI-enabled care management programs to reach more customers with emerging, complex and chronic health needs. The expanded approach is expected to support 20% more customers across areas including behavioral health, cancer, heart disease, kidney disease and high-risk pregnancy. The initiative combines predictive analytics with AI-enabled tools to help identify customers […]
Nine-Year-Old RefluXFS Linux Flaw Gives Local Users Root on Default RHEL Installs
CVE-2026-64600 lets local users overwrite root-owned files on reflink-enabled XFS systems, preserving metadata and persistent root access after reboot
Steam wishlists are getting categories, making it even easier to organise all those games you'll definitely buy next sale
Gifting games is a lot easier now too.
Following layoffs and muddy strategy shifts, Xbox announces Backward Compatibility on PC program, with Blinx and Conker leading the first wave
Xbox is bringing classic games to personal computers and handhelds through a newly announced Backward Compatibility on PC program.
Carnegie Mellon's AI Science Foundry Selected by NSF To Help Build National Infrastructure for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery
Carnegie Mellon University's AI Science Foundry, one of the world's most advanced AI-powered research facilities, has been selected as a node in the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Programmable Cloud Laboratory (PCL) Testbed, a national initiative to build a network of AI-enabled laboratories.
Sony's decision to kill off PlayStation discs could destroy the $7.2bn used game market, according to analysts
Sony decided to kill discs at a time when everyone is concerned about affordability, and it may take out the pre-owned games market along with it.
TECfusions, a Rapidly Growing Developer and Operator of AI-Ready Data Centers and Power Infrastructure, Signs Business Combination Agreement with Apex Treasury Corp.
TECfusions is positioned where accelerating AI data center demand meets a scarcity of power-secured capacity. Company ethos centered on the fusion of ‘Technology, Environment, Community’ focuses on delivering AI-ready capacity while advancing environmental redevelopment and local community outcomes. Unique adaptive reuse strategy designed to convert legacy industrial sites into AI-ready, power-enabled data center infrastructure, accelerating deployment in power-constrained markets. The Transacti
Asha Sharma-appointed Xbox VP of engineering leaves just three months after moving over from Microsoft's CoreAI team
Xbox engineering boss, who only joined the team three months ago, is leaving for an AI startup.
Hailup Is Building the Digital Future of the Caribbean Entertainment Industry
ATLANTA, Georgia , July 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hailup Influencers Inc., founded by Byron Aris, is transforming how Caribbean influencers, artists, and creative professionals connect with fans and generate income worldwide. Designed exclusively for Caribbean talent, Hailup enables creators to monetize their brands through personalized video messages, premium fan experiences, live streaming, and exclusive digital content while strengthening authentic connections with audiences across the Car
Darkest Dungeon is getting its first dollop of DLC in several years, as the gloomy old RPG celebrates its 10th birthday
Red Hook Studios has surprised fans of the first Darkest Dungeon with a new DLC pack that will add two heroes from the sequel and more.
DiMe launches initiative to build operational AI governance tools
With the support and expertise of Qualified Health, FDA and 30 healthcare organizations and tech companies, the Digital Medicine Society says it will release tools that enable broader adoption of artificial intelligence as they are created.
Xbox Game Pass was a good idea in theory, former Forza Horizon 5 director says, but "the reality is not enough people have subscribed"
One of the lead creatives behind Forza Horizon 5, who departed developer Playground Games, still believes Xbox Game Pass was a solid concept.
Nintendo files motion to dismiss consumer lawsuit over tariff refunds
"If a consumer did not want to pay the advertised price, they were free to abstain from purchasing the product or seek out competing products"
Despite outrage at Sony's shift towards a discless future, only seven PlayStation games have managed more than 100,000 physical sales in the US this year
Game discs might be loved, but data shows they don't sell in meaningful quantities.
Modern Warfare 4 open and closed beta dates announced, including for Switch 2, alongside the return of Call of Duty: Next
Modern Warfare 4 will be the first Call of Duty in recent memory to host a beta on Nintendo Switch 2.
Valve suggests memory crisis is "still getting worse," admitting, "we're limited by memory capacity, for sure"
Steam Machine developer and gaming giant Valve has admitted that sourcing memory and storage supply for the Steam Machi…
Modern Warfare 4 gameplay debut reignites community debate about how fast Call of Duty movement should be
Though many would argue it wasn't the best format, Infinity Ward finally showed off Modern Warfare 4 gameplay, and it's clear not everyone is on board.
"Honestly, it’s still getting worse" - Valve Steam Machine engineer says component prices are still rising, potentially paving the way for a price increase
The memory crisis is not showing signs of abating, according to people whose job it is to price-out every component that goes into Valve's hardware.
"Professional lurker" Todd Howard reappears on internet forums following Bethesda's Fallout and Elder Scrolls announcements to thank fans for their support
Reddit is apparently a font of inspiration for Fallout and Elder Scrolls boss Todd Howard, and he's back being active there again.
Apple's Secret Siri Interface Buried in macOS 27 Beta: How to Enable
Apple appears to be testing a hidden popover interface for Siri AI in the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta that surfaces Writing Tools and contextual actions whenever the user selects some text. Spotted by a member of Reddit's r/MacOSBeta community, the floating icon appears at the top-left of the selected text, expanding when the pointer hovers over it to a compact popover of Writing Tools and contextual actions.
"The Gears of War trilogy was largely developed hungover by me" - Cliff Bleszinski reckons with a difficult past while plotting a return to games and a brighter future
Cliff Bleszkinski, the designer instrumental in the creation of Gears of War - the face of the series for three games -…
Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link may have been cancelled, but that hasn't stopped footage of Keyblade-wielding astronauts from leaking online
A year has passed since the game was canned, but this new snippet shows it's not lacking in wackiness.
Leaftronics: greener electronics learnt from leaves
Hans Kleeman describes how inspiration from leaves will enable a new generation of sustainable, biodegradable electronics.