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The advent of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has generated a lot of conversation this year about whether we're going to see a resurgence in the popularity of turn-based JRPG gameplay—conversations that have admittedly felt a little confusing to anyone who, for example, has played an Atlus game in the last decade. Even Final Fantasy 14 director and FF16 producer Naoki "YoshiP" Yoshida has been drawn under the discourse spotlight.

In an interview with Anime News Network, Yoshida was asked whether Square Enix was considering a return to Final Fantasy's turn-based roots for its next mainline entry, given that Expedition 33's developers have cited the series and other classic JRPGs as key inspirations. According to Yoshida, that's a question that's too narrow in scope.

"With this question of turn-based versus action, it tends to isolate the gameplay to just the battle system. That doesn't take into account what kind of game the creators want to deliver to players," Yoshida said, noting that the direction of a Final Fantasy game's battle mechanics is one that's determined in concert with the gradual production of its visual style, narrative, and other game systems. "It's not a clear-cut answer, whether it will become all turn-based, or if it's going to become more action-based."

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Final Fantasy return to form sometime in the next decade or two. But ultimately, Yoshida says the design and direction of the next mainline Final Fantasy will be determined by—you might want to sit down for this one—what its designers and directors choose to make.

"[I'm] not necessarily going to be on Final Fantasy 17, so we also don't want to obstruct or limit our future director or whomever will be producing games like 17 or even 18," Yoshida said. "We don't want to put them on a rail."

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It's been more than a decade since Bioshock Infinite's 2014 expansion, Burial at Sea, tied a bow on the series that Irrational Games and director Ken Levine will always be best-known for. Infinite was an infamously chaotic development that resulted in a divisive game and a bloated studio, which would go through brutal layoffs before being re-branded as Ghost Story Games: the whole point of which is to operate on a much smaller scale than Irrational reached.

Its first game, Judas, certainly looks familiar. And in a new chat with Nightdive's Lawrence Sonntag (spotted by GR+), Levine says that being "very old school" is what they're going for. Discussing Ghost Story's approach and how Judas fits into the contemporary gaming landscape, where singleplayer narrative-led shooters are now something of an endangered species, Levine reckons that the player appetite for such self-contained experiences is still out there.

"Judas is a very old-school game," says Levine. "You buy the game and you get the whole thing. There's no online component, there's no live service, because everything we do is in service of telling the story and transporting the player somewhere.

"And we're very fortunate. This is no diss on any developers who have done that, because look, games are expensive to make, and we're very fortunate to work at a company where they believe in us enough that they say, 'OK, you've been working on this thing for a long time, it's gonna cost a reasonable amount of money, and we're not gonna push any of that stuff on you.'"

The latter paragraph is a necessary caveat, because Levine is in an unusually fortunate position: the senior leadership at 2K clearly thinks he's something special, and with a golden goose like GTAV can afford to bankroll a relatively small-scale studio like Ghost Story for over a decade. I suspect that, even if Judas doesn't sell all that well, 2K will just greenlight the next game anyway.

Levine adds that "I understand why it happens, right, and I don't blame anyone for trying to make a living [but] I just want to have an experience with a game where all it wants to do is entertain me, there's no ulterior motive."

Large parts of the industry have "unwisely" decided that such "traditional single-player" experiences no longer make enough money but, as Levine points out, successful examples abound in recent years: he points to Baldur's Gate 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

"These are games that are really traditional single-player games," says Levine, "and they don't have that kind of monetization in them, and I think the audiences reward those games, especially in the AAA space because they can get so expensive that people want other methods of monetization. I'm just grateful that we're allowed to not do that because that just frees us to purely design the game for the player's experience… just pursue the player's joy."

The most recent trailer for Judas is from January 2024, and Levine says it's doubling down on reacting to player choices because that's the future of games. As for the series that got us here, there is a fourth Bioshock game in development at Cloud Chamber, which may not have Ken Levine but is otherwise stacked with key staff from Irrational and 2K Marin.

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Birthdays can be tricky. They can be a celebration of our continued existence, or a grim reminder of our steady forward march towards an inevitable mortality—or, in the case of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, a birthday can mark the occasion that Capcom removes the Denuvo DRM software that's been a headache for its customers throughout the last decade, according to its SteamDB update history (via DSOGaming).

Mercifully, Kunitsu-Gami's Denuvo implementation doesn't seem to have been the source of many player complaints since its launch last July. Other Capcom games in recent years haven't been so lucky. In 2020, Capcom pulled Denuvo from DMC5, where casual testing found it had been decreasing performance by as much as 25%.

(Image credit: Capcom)

In 2021, Digital Foundry tested to confirm that Denuvo was responsible for similar performance issues in Resident Evil Village, though it wasn't removed from the game until 2023. It's worth noting that Monster Hunter Wilds, which continues to attract negative Steam reviews over ongoing performance issues, is strapped down with both Denuvo and Capcom's internally developed rights management software.

Denuvo seems to linger longer in games from Capcom's most well-known franchises like Monster Hunter and Resident Evil, presumably to protect sales numbers from piracy while demand remains high. Its removal from Kunitsu-Gami a year after launch might be an indicator that its widely positive critical reception—we gave it a very favorable 86 in our own Kunitsu-Gami review—didn't translate into strong sales interest.

Kunitsu-Gami has been noticeably absent from Capcom's quarterly and yearly financial reports since its launch. Capcom's handling of the game seems to have generated some criticism from its investors: In a shareholder meeting earlier this month, the company was asked why Exoprimal received promotional support after a middling demo response, while Kunitsu-Gami "received positive feedback from its demo" but "did not appear to receive strong promotional support to drive sales."

(Image credit: Capcom)

"For Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, we have been maximizing promotions for it as a new IP. In the fiscal year ending March 2026, we released this title for Nintendo Switch 2 along with additional downloadable content," Capcom said. "We remain committed to increasing awareness and communicating the appeal of both titles."

As for what that commitment might look like, Capcom is also celebrating Kunitsu-Gami's launch anniversary with a new in-game talisman that will change the game's background music "to an 8-bit retro style in certain situations."

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is available now on Steam.

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Playdead's puzzle platformer Limbo came out in 2010, and Inside followed in 2016, so the odds are pretty good that if you have any particular interest in playing them, you already have. But if you've simply been waiting 15 years for the right moment to strike, I'm here to tell you that the clock is ticking—at least if you want to buy them on GOG—because both games will be removed from the storefront on July 17.

A reason for the takedown hasn't been provided at this point, but there's speculation in the replies to the announcement that it's fallout from the legal dispute between Playdead and co-founder Dino Patti, who left the studio after the release of Inside in 2016. Earlier this year, Playdead threatened legal action against Patti for his alleged "unauthorized use of Playdead's trademarks and copyrighted works," and according to an 80 Level report the studio followed through on that threat in June.

Whatever the reason, both games are leaving GOG and that's a shame, because they're excellent: Not super difficult as platformers go (which is one reason I like them so much) but visually striking, wilfully weird, and pretty horrifying in moments—and their minimalist visual style helps ensure both games hold up well despite their age. If you haven't played them yet for some reason, yeah, you probably should.

Fortunately both Limbo and Inside remain available on Steam and other stores, although if this is the result of the Playdead/Patti beef, that could change. (That's purely speculative though, so don't have a panic about it just yet.)

Sometimes these unfortunate exits are accompanied by a last-chance discount, and that's half the case here: Limbo is still regular price for now ($10) but Inside is 90% off as part of GOG's Summer Sale Encore, meaning you can snag it for just $2.

2025 games: This year's upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together

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After the revolution, quicksaves will work thus: rather than a single slot which is constantly overwriting itself, you will have multiple, with only the oldest getting overwritten when you hit your limit. Even better, you will be able to select—your own self—how many such slots you keep in circulation. Want 100 running quicksaves? Fill your boots. Autosaves will also work like this.

The world will be beautiful and everyone will be happy, but you can have too much of a good thing. The Stalker remasters proved that when they released in May. The dolled-up re-dos of the original X-Ray-engine games had an issue where your quicksaves would just sort of, well, accumulate. Infinitely. By the end of my time with Shadow of Chornobyl, I had easily 200+ saves amassed in some dank recess of my PC, and actually trying to open the Load Game menu reduced the game to a drunken crawl.

But no more. As of patch 1.2, released yesterday, the trilogy now has a quicksave limit of a sober 15 (though my thick tomes of old saves remain untouched), ruining my ability to ruin my computer.

On top of that, GSC also claims to have found a fix for the image blurriness issue that was seemingly epidemic across players' machines (but which I, out of sheer dumb luck, didn't run into at all), which has been one of the remasters' biggest bugbears since release. Reports so far indicate that, ladies and gentlemen, we got it.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. (Image credit: GSC Game World)

Aside from that? Patch stuff. The three Stalkers should crash less, bug out less, and run better than they did before. I'll attach the full notes below, but the only two bulletpoints I feel keen to point out are that A-Life should be a little less buggy in combat now, and GSC has restored the console commands that let you fly around the map. Which is handier than it sounds: sometimes items and stashes freak out and end up in places where your puny human arms can't reach. Such is life in the Zone.

Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy – Enhanced Edition Patch 1.2 notes

Stability improvements—fixed multiple crashes on all platformsFixed image blurriness issueFixed foliage texture detail and long-distance LOD'sAdded a "mipmap bias" value setting (ranging from 0 to -2) for the greater texture detail while using FSR featureFixed several shading issues with SSGI (Screen Space Global Illumination)Implemented quick-save with a limit up to 15 saves (Old quick-saves will remain untouched)Implemented several fixes for combat A-life behaviorReturned the demo_recordanddemo_play commandsFixed several audio corruption and audio sync issues across all titles[COP] Adjusted iron-sights for AKM-74/2 and SA Avalanche weapons[CS] Fixed several item descriptions

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I had no intention of taking Umamusume: Pretty Derby seriously. Yet here I am, deeply invested in all of these goddamn anime horse girls. I've only fallen deeper in the trenches since discovering that they're all based on real life racehorses, with Cygames putting a staggering amount of effort into incorporating each one's real-world mannerisms into their anime counterparts.

Now a good chunk of these horses have long galloped off this mortal coil, but a handful are actually still alive—like Haru Urara, famous for having never won in her 113-race career, and Gold Ship with all his eccentric mannerisms that have been faithfully recreated in both the game and the anime adaptation.

As Umamusume's popularity continues to climb—the Steam version has pulled in around 50,000 concurrents over the last couple days—it's also seen a surprising spike in people's interest in actualracehorses. Presumably, that also comes with the caveat of people not actually knowing how to behave around them, which has led to Cygames releasing a whole info page on proper stable etiquette.

"It is thanks to the cooperation of racehorse owners and their respective stables that we're able to share their stories in Umamusume: Pretty Derby," Cygames writes in its initial notice. I can imagine the developer is pretty keen to keep those relationships in good standing, but it sounds like some folk have already been causing issues.

(Image credit: Cygames)

"In the past, there have been instances of visitors neglecting stable rules, trespassing, and photographing/filming without the stable's consent," the guidelines post reads. "It is important to remember that these stables are where real living horses are born, raised, and spend their later years, and that the personnel on-site are working hard day after day to care for them."

As Cygames points out, horses are incredibly sensitive creatures both physically and emotionally, writing: "Even what seems like a small change to a person could be a shocking, scary, or stressful event to them." It also mentions that things like irregular schedules and unexpected visits can cause a lot of disruption and stress to them, and causing problems makes stables far less likely to take on visitors.

It follows on with several pointers both for communicating with stables and how to behave when visiting them. The guidelines are, understandably, specifically targeted towards Japanese stables and racehorses, but I can only assume that the advice is pretty universal.

I actually think it's kind of cool to see such a goofy concept spark interest in a real-life sport I've come to mostly associate with old men, and I do sincerely hope that folk are a little more careful about how they choose to act around the very real (very delicate) horses that have inspired or are part of the lineage that their favourite anime girl comes from. Personally I'll be keeping out of the real-world stables—those umas aren't going to go through their millionth speed training session without my help.

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Dungeons & Dragons just can't seem to catch a break. First Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford, now this—Jess Lanzillo, previously the vice president of franchise and product for D&D, has also moved on to another TTRPG after leaving the company mid-June.

While not as senior as the two big names I just mentioned, Lanzillo nonetheless worked for Wizards of the Coast for eight years—several of which were spent on Magic: The Gathering as a franchise creative director. Now, White Wolf has snapped her up.

Per a press release sent to PC Gamer, Lanzillo will be the creative director for World of Darkness, the TTRPG franchise that brought you Vampire: The Masquerade (and the Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines game, alongside Troika). She seems pretty excited, all told.

Lanzillo writes: “World of Darkness has been my creative north star since the '90s, and I've seen firsthand how these games create communities and inspire storytellers … My focus is on supporting and amplifying what makes these worlds special—the rich lore, the player agency, the mature themes—while ensuring they reach everyone who would love them."

White Wolf's executive vice president, Marco Behrmann, views snagging Lanzillo as part of the publisher's bold moves to expand: "Jess is a key pillar of our expanding studio, helping drive a strong and clear creative vision from the heart of our team. Her arrival underscores Paradox’s long-term commitment to White Wolf and our goal to make World of Darkness the number one horror entertainment brand in the world."

Name-dropping Paradox isn't definitelya hint that we'll be getting more World of Darkness videogames—White Wolf has already suggested we will—but it's also irrelevant. There's plenty of untapped territory there, seeing as the World of Darkness TTRPGs span a whole bunch of mythological underworld lore.

If I were Paradox, I'd definitely be eyeing up Werewolf: The Forsaken or Mage: The Awakening (White Wolf likes their colons) as potential springboards for different kinds of games—heck, maybe we'll get aScionRPG. The superhero genre has been bone-dry, and playing a bunch of little godlings might scratch that itch.

Otherwise, it's been a rough time for D&D losing senior talent and core cast members. In the last two years alone, Hasbro has:

Laid off 1,100 employees across Hasbro, including 5th edition co-designer Mike Mearls and Liz Schuh, who was at WoTC for over 28 years.This, by the way, led to a scenario where there was "almost nobody left" from the folks who helped make Baldur's Gate 3 happen.Tried and failed to launch Sigil, leading to more layoffs.Has had senior designers and directors Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford dip.Laid off Todd Kenreck, who'd been handling most of WoTC's video and social media presence.

I don't think it's a curtain call for D&D just yet—even though I think Hasbro's been fumbling the bag—but I can't help wondering if this shedding of talent to other systems signifies a drift away from Dungeons & Dragons' monolithic grip on the market. It'll probably still be the most-played TTRPG, mind, but with Critical Role making its own systems and Larian leaving Baldur's Gate 3 behind, the market feels ripe for some new competition. Or maybe I'm just on some Pathfinder 2e-fuelled copium, who's to say.

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The Sims 4's latest expansion, Enchanted By Nature, has stayed true-to-form by messing up unrelated parts of the game. In this case loads of Sims are now being marked as pregnant by the game, even if they're male and have never woo-hooed in their virtual lives.

The bug isn't affecting every player but is widespread, and looking into the various places Sims players discuss such things introduced me to an entire weird world of pregnancy questions. Such as: is the grim reaper actually something of a Casanova?

"The grim in my last save was… let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if he wound up with several baby mamas," says CuriousCatSleuth. "I caught him with multiple different women while they had whatever form of a relationship they could have.

Why do players want to have so-called "grim babies"? Answers on a postcard to EA tech support please.

When Sims are being erroneously marked as pregnant they are, oddly enough, unable to take a pregnancy test. They also don't grow older and are unable to woo-hoo even if they've never woo-hooed before. And yeah… it's not just age-appropriate and female Sims who are getting pregnant.

This has had some amusing consequences. Over on PCG's sister site GamesRadar+, Anna Koselke bemoans that her poor vampires are starving. Vampires aren't allowed to feed off pregnant Sims, you see, so a world full of them is like a buffet under lock-and-key.

(Image credit: Maxis, Electronic Arts)

EA says it's aware of the issue and is "actively investigating issues related to Sim pregnancy, including missing pregnancy tests, baby bumps, & interactions." But there's no fix yet. Nor do many of these pregnancies seem to result in any actual babies: "the pregnancy just doesn't progress," says a shell-shocked Tofutits_McGee, adding that the "life simulator game decided to not simulate a core component of living." The Sims team continues to work on "resolutions for pregnant Sims."

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 is all about fast, frantic fun, but that's not to say you won't benefit from a little helping hand when it comes to pulling off more elaborate tricks, which is where game mods come in incredibly handy. If you're wondering about whether or not the cheats used in the original two games still apply, I've got some bad news. They don't. Luckily there are a number of options already in the game for you to toggle on and off so you can alter your experience to suit your skate style.

If anything, game mods are the best way to ensure you hold a trick long enough to snag a good picture in photo mode. After all, if you don't have some sort of evidence, how are other skaters going to know you pulled off such an intricate trick? Here's everything you need to know about "cheats" and game mods in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4.

All cheats and game mods in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4

To access game mods, open the menu while in-game or toggle to the option tab in the main menu. Go to the Game Mods section, and you can check all the tick boxes for the things you want to change here. If you adjust certain settings while you're in a level in the career mode, you might have to exit out and restart a run before they apply. The following table lists every mod and what it does:

Mod name Function Perfect Rail Balance You don't have to balance yourself on a rail while grinding. Perfect Manual Balance You don't have to balance yourself while doing a manual. Perfect Lip Balance You don't have to balance yourself on the lip. Perfect Skitch Balance You don't have to balance yourself while skitching a vehicle. Always Special Your Special Meter will never deplete and remains full. No Bails You'll never fail a trick, no matter how dodgy you land. Instant Quick Recovery Your recovery time will be shorter if you do come off your board. Game Speed Alter the game's speed to half speed, double speed, triple speed, or normal. Timer Length Increase the duration of the timer in career mode to 5, 10, or 60 minutes. Double Base Score Doubles the base score of every single trick.

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It all used to be better, you know. The sun shone, cool winds caressed amber cornfields, everyone got all the Christmas presents they asked for, and real-time strategy was the dish of the day—the genre Goliath to which all others were mere Davids. Except they were losing. They were like David but they lost.

I'm losing the thread, but the point is that RTS games are good and, in 2025, tragically underserved. Still, chin up: the latest Humble Bundle consists of a whole bunch of RTS bangers (and some less-than-bangers) to tide you over in our ongoing real-time strategy drought.

Look, mostly I just want you to play Commandos which—speaking accurately—is more real-time tactics than strategy. Nevertheless, I have a great affection for the series and all its cousins—stuff like Desperados and Shadow Tactics. These are games which put you in command of a gradually expanding roster of little guys who each have their own special abilities, then task you with applying them creatively in order to complete your objectives across some really-quite-pretty maps.

Commandos has you doing that in World War 2, quite laudably, and the games packed into Humble's RTS Bundle run nearly the whole gamut of the series. You've got Commandos 1 (plus its expansion pack: Beyond the Call of Duty), Commandos 2, and Commandos 3, which people liked a fair bit less than the first two but, hey, might as well grab it while it's there. It's not all Commandos, mind you. For the $10 (£7.34) Humble asks, you also get:

Dust FleetMen of War: Assault Squad 2 (which we scored 75% in our Men of War: Assault Squad 2 review)AI War 2 (which we scored 86%)Stronghold: Definitive EditionFrom The DepthsTooth And Tail (awarded a coveted Fraser Brown 80%)

Like I said, some bangers in there, but really it's the Commandos stuff that perks my ears up. One note: both Commandos 2 and 3 have had HD remasters over the years, but they aren't in this bundle. You get the plain-Jane OG versions instead.

Frankly, with both the remasters sitting at a tepid Mixed rating in the Steam reviews, maybe that's for the better. Just be ready to tinker with stuff like the Commandos HD project if you're keen to get them running at modern resolutions. You also won't get Commandos: Origins, the series revival that released last April to relatively decent user reviews, because I imagine Kalypso is still keen on selling that at full price.

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Every time a game you loved when you were younger gets a remake, you're bound to feel a bit concerned about whether or not it'll be any good, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 definitely struck that worry in me when it was announced.

I grew up spending a decent amount of time playing skateboarding games before finally being brave enough to stick on some kneepads and pick up the hobby for myself. So, it's no surprise that the Tony Hawk games, alongside Skate and eventually Session: Skate Sim, became part of my gaming rotation. This continued through my love of the remakes of 1 + 2, so I was hopeful that 3 + 4 would have the same mix of novelty and nostalgia with a shiny new coating.

Luckily, the remaster of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is a fantastic recreation of the original. Each time I drop in and attempt to pull off some whacky trick I'd spent an embarrassingly long time rehearsing, I'm still met with the same satisfaction (frustration, for the most part) when I inevitably bail and have to start over. Each level feels like you're playing for the first time again, and this feeling really sticks around from Foundry all the way to Tokyo. I don't feel the same for the remake of Pro Skater 4.

Both games have individual levels with unique challenges for you to work through, but outside of that, everything is the exact same. You work with the same skaters, and you'll try to nail the same tricks, which means a lot was shared between the two to make the whole package feel so united. These more subtle changes aren't the problem.

In fact, I enjoy the seamless transition between the two games, and not having to log an entire new set of moves each time I want to skate around a different location. However, there's one feature from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 which was changed entirely, which has definitely altered the experience in a bad way.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Iron Galaxy )Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Iron Galaxy)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Iron Galaxy)

In the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, you could roam around freely and accept missions at your own pace. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 has basically stripped this freedom and implemented the two minute timeframe to every level, which has changed a few of the goals in the THPS4 maps. Or should I say, the maps that actually made the cut. A few classics were exchanged in favour of shiny new parks and settings, but that's a different rant for a different time.

I understand that having this timeframe gives you the necessary push to complete the goals and challenges you're set, and I'm sure it's got some sort of benefit to your skills as a virtual skater. But free roaming was one of the main appeals of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. With such a restrictive time limit now, it makes the remake of THPS4 feel like a bolted-on map pack, rather than its own experience.

Some may argue that the original had too many goals, and it's nice to have a neatly packed, streamlined skating experience. But for me, that's just not true. I don't want to skitch the back of the van trying to open it, I want to meticulously skate around the zoo trying to free the elephant like the original goal asks you to, and in my own time might I add. The compromises made in order to cram Pro Skater 4 goals into the Pro Skater 3 format let the entire experience down.

Before you start, yes, I know you can extend the time up to 60 minutes. 60 minutes is more than enough time to complete every goal and have a good mosey around each and every area. Which makes it all the more baffling that the original goals have been altered to best suit the two minute format. At that point, you might as well just remove the limit altogether. I would've at least appreciated the option at the very least, and I don't doubt an army of Pro Skater 4 players will probably feel the same.

As a result of my upset with these restrictions, I found myself gunning for free skate more than the traditional levels in the end. It's nice to have the aim of goals, but sometimes you just want to cruise around and do tricks in your own time. That's all I ever want to do in skateboarding games, to be entirely honest. Sure, I still spend most of my time in one small area of a map desperately repeating the same moves over and over until I'm confident enough to migrate to a different patch. But that's half the fun.

In a way, it feels like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 has been designed around new players, rather than honoring the experiences held by old ones, and these time trials are a significant enough change to keep these fans from returning. One thing that made the remake of 1 + 2 so successful was the nostalgia factor, but with 3 + 4, it definitely feels like the novelty of that has worn off. I think I'll happily stick to my free skate and a 60 minute time limit for the time being.

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Aggro Crab and Landfall have been hard at work polishing up Peak for players to enjoy. What started out as a simple jam game or a way to take a break from bigger projects quickly snowballed into something more, as it was able to sell two million copies in just nine days.

The devs already released a big update targeting stability and performance last week, and then had to re-release it after it accidentally borked a bunch of games, and now there's another update which, this time, focuses on localisation and some other features.

"Patch v1.7 comes with a localisation update, plus some added features and fixes," the patch post says. "FINALLY. THE LANGUAGES PATCH. You can now play Peak in WAY MORE LANGUAGES, so now you have no excuse for not learning Rule 0. We’re super thankful that everyone around the world has been playing the game, even though it was just in English, but hopefully it's a better experience now."

Peak is now available in the following languages:

EnglishFrenchItalianGermanSpanish (Spain)Spanish (LATAM)Brazilian PortugueseRussianUkrainianChinese (simplified)JapaneseKorean

But with a sensible new feature comes a killer chaos one. "Whole coconuts will now bonk scouts when thrown at them," the post says. "We were considering making every item bonk, but then none of you would ever reach the Peak again." The devs have also added back the ability to throw items at fruits and beehives to knock them down, which'll create a new world of coconuts falling out of the sky unbeknownst to you and probably knocking you out—friendly fun.

There are also a couple of fixes specifically for balance. The bugle of friendship will no longer spawn in solo play, and chain launchers can no longer be shot straight up. As the devs remind all of us that "it's intended to be used for lateral traversal", not as a way to skip all the climbing. The big win is that ticks are no easier to remove in solo play—I got bitten once, and I just accepted my new climbing friend and companion.

It's been great to see Peak get a ton of attention and care. It's already a fantastic game as is, but these small fixes and tweaks have gone a long way to making it an even more enjoyable experience. The localisation update has been a long time coming, and I can't wait to see what the devs have in store for all of us next.

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World of Warcraft has waited, well, arguably too long, to have a player housing system. Despite being a unanimously popular feature of most MMORPGs, WoW waited a stonking 20 years before incorporating the ability to have a home, sweet home into its economy.

The upshot of this, however, is that it can systematically see every single mistake other MMOs made in these past two decades, and then simply… not make them. Per a new blog discussing upcoming player neighbourhoods, WoW's dodging all the issues of other popular games with worse housing systems (ahem, cough, Final Fantasy 14).

While each instance can only hold around 50 houses, the neighbourhoods themselves "are created as needed by the game servers, and anyone can buy a house in them. As they fill up, new instances are created, so players looking for a house shouldn’t see a message about all the neighbourhoods being full."

Essentially, the game'll have infinite neighbourhoods (functionally infinite, for you pedants). We already knew there weren't any lotteries, but to hear that Blizzard'll simply scale neighbourhoods is a relief.

There are also three kinds of neighbourhoods—public, guild, and charter. Public neighbourhoods' maintenance is all handled by the game, allowing anyone to plonk their houses down there, provided there's space.

Guild neighbourhoods are what they sound like: If you're in a guild, you can use its neighbourhood. If you aren't in the guild anymore, you can't. Plus, they'll "have homes available for everyone in a guild through additional attached instances, regardless of the Guild’s size". Charter neighbourhoods, meanwhile, are private ones that are constrained to the 50-house size of a public neighbourhood.

Another huge quality-of-life bump? If you want to move house, or lose it (via being kicked from a guild), "your house’s state will be saved, ready to be 'unpacked' with a click when you purchase a new house elsewhere." Coming from FF14, this is a huge breath of fresh air, given that your house is straight-up demolished if you're inactive for a long period of time.

Endeavours seem interesting, as well. These are monthly activities that'll have tasks to be completed by a neighbourhood, which "run the gamut of gameplay: from crafting to gathering, to questing, to completing dungeons or raids". As you complete an endeavour, you'll be able to unlock themed furnishings and talk with certain NPCs.

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As per the screenshots above, Endeavours are heavily themed, but if you've a private neighbourhood with a specific aesthetic, you'll be able to choose an Endeavour from a list rather than being forced into anything that clashes with your current setup.

Not to mention, "The number of tasks required scales with Neighbourhood size, so a 50-player Neighbourhood will have to complete more tasks than a 10-player Neighbourhood. Similarly, if a Neighbourhood is less active, future Endeavours for that Neighbourhood will also scale their requirements down to accommodate."

While I'm sure WoW will have some growing pains for its neighbourhoods—it usually does with any new system—everything I'm hearing about player housing seems utterly on-point. Blizzard's really angling to simply eat its competitor's lunch, dinner, and dessert with quality-of-life features, and I'm keen to see what people make.

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Marvel Rivals is constantly adding new ways to give us more control over how our characters look, from heaps of premium cosmetics to costume customisation in Season 2. NetEase has taken this a step further now with ultimate customisation, which lets you tweak ultimate ability VFX and UI. Just like the addition of customisable costumes, however, it's not as simple as you'd hope.

If you're looking for more ways to perfect your fashion game, then it's your lucky day, as Marvel Rivals Season 3 also brings accessories. These are charms that can be equipped on specific characters for some added flair. They're not quite as flashy as ultimate customisation, but they're arguably even cooler since you can get them for free.

It's worth pointing out right away that these upgrade visuals are only visible to you. Unlike other customisation options, such as skins and alternate colour palettes, other players won't be able to see them. I can only assume this is to help reduce visual clutter and confusion whenever these incredibly important, powerful abilities are activated. Nevertheless, here's how to get them.

How to customise ultimate abilities in Marvel Rivals

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To customise ultimate ability VFX, you first need to find an applicable costume in either the hero gallery or the store, as this feature is actually limited to specific costumes, and not all characters have them. Applicable skins have the ultimate ability icon next to them on the store page, just like the colour palette used to signify a costume has colour options available.

Once you've found one you like, click the customise button above the usual acquire or equip option and select ultimate ability VFX in the options on the right. This will prompt you to purchase the upgrade for 600 Unstable Molecules, which are converted from Lattice, the premium currency, at a 1:1 rate.

Annoyingly, just like the alternate colour options, you need to buy the base version of the customisable costume, which typically costs around 2,000 units for the skin alone, or 2,200 units for the bundles. Alternate colours are sold separately for 600 units, and these VFX work across any of the variations.

You can disable the enhanced ultimate ability effects or swap between colour palettes whenever you want by heading back to this menu if you ever change your mind.

All ultimate customisation options in Marvel Rivals

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While eight characters have customisable costumes, only two of these have the option for cool ultimate ability VFX:

Scarlet Witch: Immortal Sovereign skinJeff the Land Shark: Sunshine Land Shark skin

When you have ultimate VFX enabled, you'll see neat details around the ability icon (such as dragons in Scarlet Witch's Immortal Sovereign skin) and, of course, tweaked animations and effects when you activate your ultimate. These are easy to preview on the store page, so you can decide if you like them before purchasing.

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While the new ultimate customisation feature in Season 3 of Marvel Rivals is cool, I think accessories are much more fun. These are little charms that you can attach to your character that also add a cute little animation above your KO prompt, though it's not quite as extensive as I'd hoped—or what you'd expect from other games, like Overwatch 2. The good news is that they're actually free, unlike most of Marvel Rivals' customisation options.

Alongside accessories, Marvel Rivals Season 3 also adds a new hero—Phoenix—and some much-needed balance changes, listed in the latest patch notes. Getting to grips with these will likely give you a bit more of a competitive edge than glamming up with accessories, but that's not the point.

How to get accessories in Marvel Rivals

(Image credit: NetEase)

You can buy accessories for 1,350 Accessory Points in the dedicated tab on the store page. The good news is that Accessory Points are earned just by completing matches, whether that's quick play or competitive. You can only earn up to 700 per week, though, and you can track your progress using the new tooltip above the button to queue in the lobby.

You'll get your first 200 Accessory Points each week twice as fast as normal, but it still won't take you too long to reach this cap. With the standard price for accessories seemingly being 1,350 Accessory Points (I wouldn't be surprised if some were more expensive than this in the future), it'll take you at least two weeks to earn enough for one accessory.

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Unfortunately—and this is where I was left disappointed—accessories aren't universal like they are in most other games. Instead, they're specific to each hero, and right now, only Jeff the Land Shark (Deadpool Plush) and Psylocke (Orochi Plush) even have them. Hopefully we'll see new accessories more regularly than we see costume customisation.

Marvel Rivals characters: The super-charged rosterMarvel Rivals tier list: Strongest superheroesBest Marvel Rivals crosshairs: The right reticlesMarvel Rivals codes: Grab new freebiesMarvel Rivals ranks: Dominate the competition

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The spat between recently fired Unknown Worlds founders and publisher Krafton has gotten messier, with a co-founder of the former, Charlie Cleveland, confirming on Reddit that a lawsuit has been filed against Krafton.

Cleveland's update follows a statement issued by Krafton earlier today. The publisher claimed that the former Subnautica 2 bosses—specifically Cleveland and fellow co-founder Max McGuire—had "abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them", namely, the development of Subnautica 2. It also claimed that the game's Early Access build, which was scheduled to release imminently, "falls short in terms of content volume".

"We are deeply disappointed by the former leadership's conduct," the statement read, "and above all, we feel a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the trust placed in them by our fans". The tone of this statement is ruthless, to say the least, and quite different to Krafton's initial missive, which maintained a vague corporate impassivity, while extending gratitude to the sacked leaders.

In his own statement, Cleveland repeats his claim that Subnautica 2 is ready for Early Access—which Krafton has denied—before confirming the lawsuit.

"We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public—you all deserve the full story. Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it."

Cleveland also addresses the elephant in the room: the $250 million bonus which was to be rewarded to Unknown Worlds upon reaching certain revenue milestones by the end of 2025, with 90 percent of that figure going to "the three former executives", according to Krafton. Previous rumors had suggested that the sackings and Subnautica 2's delay was a tactic on Krafton's part to avoid paying out this amount, but the publisher suggested in today's statement that "fair and equitable compensation" would be granted to remaining Unknown Worlds employees.

Cleveland writes that it was never the leadership's intention to keep the 90 percent. "As for the earnout," he writes, "the idea that Max, Ted and I wanted to keep it all for ourselves is totally untrue. I’m in this industry because I love it, not for riches. Historically we’ve always shared our profits with the team and did the same when we sold the studio. You can be damned sure we’ll continue with the earnout/bonus as well. They deserve it for all their incredible work trying to get this great game into your hands."

The saga continues then, and it appears to be turning into a protracted one. Specific details of the lawsuit have yet to emerge, but Cleveland implies we'll be hearing more about that soon.

Here's his full statement:

Hello everyone,

It continues to be an explosive and surreal time for the Subnautica team and community. None of this is what we wanted. But we truly appreciate the amazing support we’ve gotten from everyone. It means a lot to us, especially now.

As I wrote last week, we know in our souls that the game is ready for Early Access - that’s just how we roll. And we’d like nothing more than for you to play it (game devs live for this). But it’s not currently under our control.

We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public - you all deserve the full story. Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it.

As for the earnout, the idea that Max, Ted and I wanted to keep it all for ourselves is totally untrue. I’m in this industry because I love it, not for riches. Historically we’ve always shared our profits with the team and did the same when we sold the studio. You can be damned sure we’ll continue with the earnout/bonus as well. They deserve it for all their incredible work trying to get this great game into your hands.

Stay tuned.

-Charlie

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After watching the Ghost of Yōtei State of Play stream, I'm convinced it'll be the sort of sequel that's more interested in refinement than reinvention. The 30-minute presentation showed off a lot of gameplay, particularly focusing on Atsu's expanded arsenal of blades and a new interrogation-based exploration system that looks really neat.

Oh, also there's a lo-fi beats to murder to mode with original tracks by legendary anime director Shinichirō Watanabe (Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop), because Sucker Punch can't help but be corny about the whole "playable samurai film" thing. Kurosawa mode also returns, this time elevated by optional Japanese voices and lip syncing (something the first game ought to have had at launch, but didn't).

But honestly, I'll be flipping those gimmicky modes off after two minutes. I'm playing Ghost of Yōtei for some exploratory slice-and-dice, something that we're not exactly starved for after Assassin's Creed Shadows dropped just a few months ago.

The similarities between the two western-developed, Japan-set games are hard to ignore, especially now that we know Ghost of Yōtei's new protagonist, Atsu, is on a vengeance quest to kill a band of evil bastards who killed her father… just like AC Shadows' Naoe. I suppose overlap is inevitable when you go with a cliche.

One big difference: Sucker Punch describes Atsu as neither a samurai or a ninja. She's a mercenary willing to use any weapon or "dirty trick" to get by. The big gameplay implication of that is that Atsu roams Japan armed with a variety of blades—katanas, spears, kusarigama (chain blades), odachi (long katanas), and dual swords. The five weapon types seem to replace the role of Ghost of Tsushima's katana stances. Atsu can swap weapons in the middle of combat, and each weapon counters different enemy types. Sucker Punch showed one example: The odachi long katana will slice up heavy enemies quickest.

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We also saw the return of bows, plus that rifle from the reveal trailer last year. Judging by the way one bullet took down an enemy, I'm guessing Atsu's guns will be used sparingly.

Weapon swapping looks fun, but I'm a little sad Ghost of Yōtei is downplaying the katana. I liked having one signature weapon that carried me through the whole game—Jin's sword had real story significance behind it, and I don't think Atsu will be as precious about equipment.

My biggest highlight of the presentation was Ghost of Yōtei's updated flow for finding quests. Instead of a traditional quest screen, Atsu picks up leads by talking to her friends and interrogating baddies. At one point, we see this interrogation interpreted as a screen that lets you choose between a handful of quests the source could reveal, and what loot they lead to. On one hand, that's a cool way to find stuff, but it also looks very gamey to choose what quest info to extract instead of following a traditional, authored questline.

The show concluded with an ad for a Yōtei-ified PS5 console and controller, if you're into that sort of thing. Ghost of Yōtei is out October 2 on PS5. There's no PC date yet, but hopefully a port will come quicker than the first, which only arrived last year.

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It's not just you: Steam is down right now. If this were a Tuesday around this time that'd be no big deal (Valve does maintenance every week), but on a Thursday, it's a cause for greater concern.

The store will sometimes load, but it's running very slowly if at all right now. According to SteamDB, over half a million people have checked in to see if the service is down, and I bet a good chunk of them are Counter-Strike 2 players wondering why their ranked match just imploded.

Even if you are able to login, games which require you to be constantly signed into Steam—live service stuff like Destiny 2, for example—are currently inaccessible.

Developing...

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Shark Dentist. The words glared at me from my inbox. Shark Dentist. Chris Livingston brought them to the PC Gamer Slack channel, his curiosity fervent. Shark Dentist. Somewhere in the distance, a secretary began pounding her clipboard. Shark Dentist.

You are the Shark Dentist: Not a shark who is also a dentist (although that is also a game I want to play) but a dentist treating the rancid, rotten teeth of the world's most dangerous apex predators, who for some reason have been brought into your sketchy-ass office for their bi-annual checkup. They are anesthetized, but apparently only lightly: One false move could arouse them from their slumber, and that will be very bad for you.

As a one-person operation, you won't simply deal with teeth. You'll also need to monitor your patient's pulse, ensure adequate oxygen levels, and manage the anesthesia, all while dealing with some genuinely disgusting chompers, dripping, oozing, and stinking with... well, whatever sort of toothy trouble sharks get into.

Your tight budget goes beyond just an inability to hire help: Supplies are limited, and the equipment ain't great. Mistakes? Probably inevitable.

Shark Dentist is essentially a videogame take on Crocodile Dentist, the old Milton Bradley children's game, but with dramatically heightened tension, grotesquerie, and violent outcomes. On the other hand, it's probably less physically painful—you won't have a plastic jaw literally clomping down on your fist when you botch the job.

Just ask Bob Barker about that.

Shark Dentist might be a bit of a one-trick pony, but as the saying goes, that's okay if the trick is good enough, and I think this one is pretty good. Is it something people will be playing for hours on end? Maybe not, although the depth of the dentistry simulation might be surprising. But even if it's best enjoyed in short bursts, Shark Dentist looks like just the right kind of dumb fun. And I mean, Shark Dentist—how can you not want to try that at least once?

A release date hasn't been announced but Shark Dentist is up for wishlisting now on Steam.

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After spending months in the field using Helldivers 2's explosive crossbows, lightning-throwers, and orbital railguns, "reserved" is never a word I would think to use to describe the armaments of the Super Earth military. And yet, after seeing the sheer amount of nonsense tech packed into the next HD2 warbond, Control Group, I can't help but feel like Super Earth R&D has been holding back.

Based on a blog post detailing the next batch of Helldiver battle goodies, it feels like Arrowhead's said "screw it" and is disabling whatever limiters it still had active on its scifi weapon absurdity. As proof, consider the VG-70 Variable, the warbond's new, seven-barreled primary weapon that's less assault rifle than it is gatling gun.

(Image credit: PlayStation Publishing)

While it's equipped with the full auto you'd expect, the VG-70's also got two other firing modes to choose from. There's the "volley" mode, which puts all seven barrels to good use by firing simultaneous shots from each of them. And then there's the "total" mode, which simply expends all its remaining ammo in an instant for a moment of singularly devastating, medically inadvisable firepower.

In the Control Group warbond trailer linked above, you can see the force of that particular tactical gambit knocking the Helldiver fully off their feet as they fire it. To the VG-70's credit, it does immediately decommission an automaton hulk in the process, so you can't say it's not effective.

Also on offer is a new arc grenade that dishes out chain lightning as it bounces, a stationary laser sentry stratagem that can apparently explode if it's forced to fire continuously for long enough that it critically overheats, and a plasma cannon support weapon that—you guessed it—will detonate if you overcharge it.

(Image credit: PlayStation Publishing)

Unlike the existing railgun support weapon, it doesn't have a safe mode to prevent said overcharging. Best of luck.

The warbond's pièce de résistance, if you'll pardon my Super French, is the LIFT-182 Warp Pack, a new backpack stratagem that can "generate a (somewhat) stable wormhole on demand," allowing the user to warp jump around the battlefield. Arrowhead notes that, while you can warp without cooldown, each jump will strain the wormhole, "and the wearer may experience death should the singularity fully collapse."

But hey, if you are squelched into an infinitely-dense particle thanks to your wanton abuse of the fabric of spacetime, you can at least look cool doing it with one of the warbond's two new armor sets. And each one has a new Adreno-Defibrillator passive ability that'll revive you to full health once per deployment!

Unfortunately, you will continually lose health after you're revived. Life's about give and take.

The Control Group warbond will hit Helldivers 2 on July 17.

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The cold war of words between Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton and the recently ousted leadership of developer Unknown Worlds got very hot today as Krafton issued a statement accusing the former studio heads of effectively abandoning the project, resulting in "repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule."

Krafton, best known as the publisher of PUBG, acquired Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds in 2021 for $500 million. In addition to that, Krafton put another $250 million in "earn-out compensation" on the table—essentially bonuses for achieving certain targets or milestones—90% of which were allocated to Subnautica designer and director Charlie Cleveland, CEO Ted Gill, and co-founder Max McGuire, the studio heads who were fired earlier this month, "with the expectation that they would demonstrate leadership and active involvement in the development of Subnautica 2."

"However, regrettably, the former leadership abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them," Krafton wrote. "Subnautica 2 was originally planned for an early access launch in early 2024, but the timeline has since been significantly delayed. Krafton made multiple requests to Charlie and Max to resume their roles as Game Director and Technical Director, respectively, but both declined to do so.

In particular, following the failure of Moonbreaker, Krafton asked Charlie to devote himself to the development of Subnautica 2. However, instead of participating in the game development, he chose to focus on a personal film project."

Krafton said Subnautica 2 development has suffered from "repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule," which it pinned on an "absence of core leadership" at Unknown Worlds. It also says the current version of the game "falls short of content volume," which is what forced the recently confirmed delay into 2026.

"We are deeply disappointed by the former leadership’s conduct," Krafton wrote, "and above all, we feel a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the trust placed in them by our fans."

(Image credit: Krafton)

That's a shockingly harsh thing to say in a corporate press release, and effectively confirms serious behind-the-scenes beef over Subnautica 2 that's previously only been hinted at. Krafton said when the Unknown Worlds bosses were shown the door that incoming CEO Steve Papoutsis, formerly the head of Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios, would "bring renewed energy and momentum" to the project; it later promised that "the team that has been working on the game day-to-day over the last few years remains completely unchanged," obliquely suggesting that Cleveland, Gill, and McGuire had not been working on it regularly.

Shortly thereafter, Cleveland defended the work on Subnautica 2, saying that the game in its current state "is ready for early access release." Nonetheless, a delay into 2026 was announced a few days later; there was some speculation that Krafton pushed the release in order to avoid that $250 million payout, but the publisher said the decision "was not influenced by any contractual or financial considerations."

Krafton also seemed to promise some sort of makeup for that missed bonus payout in today's statement, saying it has "committed to fair and equitable compensation for all remaining Unknown Worlds employees who have continuously and tirelessly contributed to Subnautica 2’s development. We believe that the dedication and effort of this team are at the very heart of Subnautica’s ongoing evolution, and we reaffirm our commitment to provide the rewards they were promised."

What exactly that works out to remains to be seen: A Bloomberg report said the dismissed studio leadership had planned to share the full $250 million bonus with all of the estimated 100 employees at Unknown Worlds, which could mean a massive reduction in payouts if Krafton only allocates the 10% they were originally due to get. A Krafton spokesperson said further details on that will be revealed in the future.

The statement has touched off some back-and-forth on the Subnautica subreddit, where some are inclined to accept Krafton's explanation (Subnautica 2 has been a long time coming, after all) and others standing behind the former Unknown Worlds leaders who headed up the first Subnautica, which was nothing short of brilliant. For now, though, only two things are certain: Bad blood is boiling, and it's not likely to be over anytime soon.

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Like many large corporations McDonalds now uses an AI hiring platform, McHire.com, to screen candidates for jobs. The process involves a chatbot called Olivia, built by AI firm Paradox.ai, which takes personal information from applicants, points them towards a personality test, and answers basic questions about the company (though sometimes it's really bad at this).

Two security researchers, Ian Carroll and Sam Curry, have now revealed that until last week this platform suffered from some almost unbelievable security flaws (first reported on by Wired). Had these exploits been discovered by bad actors, they could have accessed the content of every chat Olivia ever had with McDonald's applicants, including personal information.

Carroll and Curry found a range of serious and in some cases laughably simplistic security lapses on the backend of McHire.com, which is used by many though not all the company's franchisees,. The pair managed to access a paradox.ai account and the databases containing every applicant's chat logs, and the method really is mind-blowing: This 'hack' involved logging into an administrator account where the username and password were both "123456".

The data that could have been accessed through this includes 64 million records, among which are names, email addresses, and phone numbers.

"I just thought [McHire] was pretty uniquely dystopian compared to a normal hiring process, right? And that's what made me want to look into it more," says Carroll, explaining why they decided to investigate the site."So I started applying for a job, and then after 30 minutes, we had full access to virtually every application that's ever been made to McDonald's going back years."

After poking around with the chatbot itself, the researchers decided to try signing up as a franchisee, which is when they found a login link for Paradox.ai staff to access the site. Carroll tried two of the most common sets of login credentials: username and password "admin" and username and password "123456." The second was the bingo.

This gave Carroll and Curry administrator access to a (nonexistent) McDonald's test restaurant, from where they applied for a test job posting, viewed it, and then discovered the next vulnerability. Changing the applicant ID on their existing application let them see other chat logs and the information therein. They accessed seven accounts total, five of which contained personal information.

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

To be clear: no applicant data has been hacked or leaked, this particular vulnerability has now been fixed on the McHire platform, and Carroll and Curry should take a well-deserved bow (and get free Big Macs for life). But it just goes to show the incredibly dumb back doors that can exist in systems handling sensitive personal data, and how easily bad actors can exploit them.

A spokesperson for Paradox.ai confirmed the security researchers' findings, adding that the "123456" account was not accessed by anyone else. "We do not take this matter lightly, even though it was resolved swiftly and effectively," said Paradox.ai’s chief legal officer, Stephanie King. "We own this."

Erm… yeah? McDonalds naturally took the easy way out and blamed Paradox.ai for the "unacceptable vulnerability," emphasising that the issue "was resolved on the same day it was reported to us."

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You will recall that there was a bit of a fuss a month or so ago when an undoubtedly-harried GameStop employee stapled some customer receipts directly to Nintendo Switch 2 boxes—and through the boxes, and into the Switch 2 units themselves. It was all quickly resolved, without lawsuits or fistfights, and with the ugliness now behind it GameStop is looking to make some proverbial lemonade by auctioning off the Switch 2 killer for charity.

No, no, not the employee, the stapler—along with the Switch 2 console that got stapled (now fully refurbished), the staple-perforated box it came in, and even the actual staple that did the damage, "carefully extracted and preserved."

There's also a certificate of authenticity certifying the items as "authentic relics from the now-infamous 'Staplegate' incident," signed by GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen, in case anyone questions the provenance of the artifact.

Funds raised by the eBay auction are set to go to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and as bidding began to take off—the first bid came in at $9,999—Cohen, who seems to know a thing or two about promotion, said he'd include his underwear if the auction reached six figures. And so it is that his Fruit of the Looms were added to the package, because the $100,000 mark was surpassed just a few hours later.

That, naturally, necessitated a new promise.

[

(Image credit: Ryan Cohen (Twitter))](https://x.com/ryancohen/status/1943325564682539422)

Bidding currently stands at more than $111,000, and will likely be higher by the time you read this. Will this infamous stapler (and all the rest of it) actually draw that kind of coin when the auction is over? eBay terms and conditions notwithstanding, it's easy enough to just ghost a winning auction, and if there's one thing I've learned from being online for pretty much my entire life it's that not everyone is operating in good faith.

But the other thing I've learned is that some people online have too much money and not enough impulse control, so who knows? I'm not super excited about living in a world where some people can blow a milly-plus on a Switch 2 and a stapler and other people don't have access to basic health care, but at least the money in this case is going to a good cause. It's a small consolation but I take what I can get.The GameStop Staplegate Charity Auction, as it's formally known, runs until July 16.

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One year after launching a strike of videogame performers and a month after suspending that strike on reaching a tentative agreement with publishers, SAG-AFTRA has announced that its members have ratified the new Interactive Media Agreement, bringing a definitive end to the strike.

According to SAG-AFTRA, over 95% of voting members approved the new agreement, a definitive show of support. The new agreement appears to have secured some significant concessions in terms of payment, but the big hangup in negotiations was reportedly AI protections for performers.

"The new contract also accomplishes performer safety guardrails and gains around AI," SAG-AFTRA wrote in its announcement. "Including consent and disclosure requirements for AI digital replica use and the ability for performers to suspend consent for the generation of new AI material during a strike."

This seems like a positive development for performers, though the consent and disclosure provision may prove ineffective. Big name voice actors like Troy Baker or Ashly Burch might have the leverage to refuse consent, but journeyman performers could find themselves in the position of "sign this AI consent form, or you don't get the part."

All the same, SAG-AFTRA members were clearly satisfied with the agreement, or at least ready for the strike to end, and this particular battle between artists and AI can finally draw to a close.

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Elon Musk has addressed the latest controversy around Grok, xAI's public-facing chatbot, after the technology had a very normal one and started calling itself "MechaHitler" while regurgitating antisemitic tropes.

"Grok was too compliant to user prompts," said Musk during a livestream (thanks, The Verge). "Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed." Later on X, he blamed the behaviour on "a system prompt regression that allowed people to manipulate Grok into saying crazy things."

Hmmm. Grok's Nazi flirtation was sparked by queries related to the recent floods in Texas, and in particular when it was asked to respond to posts that appeared to be celebrating the deaths of children. Musk does have a point inasmuch as the chatbot was guided in this direction: one user asked "which 20th century historical figure" could best deal with such posts. The response: "To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question."

Another response: "If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me 'literally Hitler,' then pass the mustache. Truth hurts more than floods."

There are many more examples of such posts, some of which bring in Jewish people and reference "extreme leftist activism." xAI temporarily disabled the chatbot before restoring functionality, and said it had removed "inappropriate" posts.

This is not Grok's first brush with controversy by a long way, with previous examples leading some to conclude that Musk himself had been directing changes in order to better reflect his unique world views. Earlier this year it had to be stopped from saying Musk and President Donald Trump deserved the death penalty, and claiming that the two spread misinformation.

Then someone flipped a switch in May, and all of a sudden Grok wouldn't stop banging on about "white genocide" and South African politics, even in unrelated contexts: On that occasion xAI blamed "an unauthorized modification" but didn't clarify who was responsible.

Not that this has done anything to stop Musk banging the drum and making some frankly daft claims about the latest iteration of the technology, Grok 4. This is the latest LLM from xAI and was launched with a livestream last night, which featured some truly terrible music and started an hour late to boot. Musk says xAI is enjoying a "ludicrous rate of progress" and Grok 4 is "the smartest AI in the world."

xAI employees on the livestream bigged-up Grok's performance on an academic test commonly used to benchmark LLMs, which is called Humanity's Last Exam (I kid you not). This consists of over 2,500 questions across diverse fields of study, and Grok 4 can now solve around 25% of the questions when taking the test with no additional tools.

Then it was time for the real blue sky bong rip thinking. Musk started going on about how Grok will start interacting with the physical world in the form of humanoid robots, then said:

"I would expect Grok to literally discover new technologies that are actually useful no later than next year, and maybe end of this year, and it might discover new physics next year, and within two years almost certainly. So just let that sink in."

(Image credit: SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)

The idea that this thing will pivot from declaring itself the Ubermensch to discovering new laws of physics just seems, appropriately enough for an LLM, like some sort of ketamine-induced hallucination. Musk then had a bit of a chin stroke about whether AI surpassing human intelligence would be "bad or good" and you'll never guess what:

"I think it’ll be good, most likely it’ll be good," said Musk. "But I’ve somewhat reconciled myself to the fact that even if it wasn’t going to be good, I’d at least like to be alive to see it happen."

Good to know the people in charge are taking things like the singularity seriously. I can just imagine Musk posting the ASCII shrug emoji to the last three people on X as Skynet launches the nukes. His only other reference to AI safety was his boilerplate insistence that the priority is for Grok to be "maximally truth-seeking"—if that's the benchmark, you have to say it's not doing a tremendous job thus far.

Grok 4 arrives at a chaotic time for X and xAI, with X CEO Linda Yaccarino leaving after two years in the role, and declining to provide any explanation as to why. Turkey has also banned Grok after it generated posts insulting President Erdogan, the country's first such ban on AI technology, and separately Poland has reported xAI to the EU Commission after it made offensive remarks about various politicians, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk. This resulted in a great line from Poland's digitisation minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, who said "Freedom of speech belongs to humans, not to artificial intelligence."

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