The Roberts Space Industries Website reveals that another "fee fly" period is underway for Star Citizen/Squadron 42, the dual space games being developed thanks to a crowdfunding program that immediately spiraled out of control. As in the past, this offers a select roster of spacecraft to test fly in the alpha to see what 13 years and over $800 million gets you these days. The posts about the free fly are very economical with words, but it sounds like this includes more of the game than previous such sessions:

Take off into the expansive Star Citizen MMO universe for free from now until April 28!

Race through combat zones, salvage ships lost to pirate turf wars, mine distant asteroids, haul vital supplies to every corner of Human space, and so much more in the year 2955.

• Fortnite Galactic Battle Teaser Trailer.
• Jack in the Box announces bizarre Fortnite experience that turns players into fake CEOs for some reason - BetaNews.

Unofficial games, patches, and mods.

• Baldur's Gate 3 Mods Make Photo Mode Even Better - The Gamer.

Content creator videos.

• Konkey Dong - Monster Hunter Wilds - Carbot. Thanks Ant.
• Firearms Expert Reacts to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Guns - EXP.

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows may be coming to Nintendo Switch 2, according to a new rating - VGC.

• Apple Vision Air Battery Puck Allegedly Gets Pictured With A Smaller Design That Is Also Said To Be Lighter - Wccftech.

• AI-generated videos now possible with gaming GPUs with just 6GB of VRAM - Tom's Hardware.
• Precision Neuroscience Receives FDA Clearance for High-Resolution Cortical Electrode Array. Thanks Slashdot.
• Early RTX 5060 Ti benchmarks reveal why Nvidia withheld the 8GB version from reviewers - TechSpot.

• Famed AI researcher launches controversial startup to replace all human workers everywhere - TechCrunch.
• AI-generated videos now possible with gaming GPUs with just 6GB of VRAM - Tom's Hardware.

• Graphics Card: ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi 16GB OC - OCinside.

Happy Easter, and happy 4/20! This may seem like an odd juxtaposition, but an occasion that involves getting high and another that involves baskets of candy make a well-suited combination. Also, happy Passover! I failed to mention that when it began, but the eight day holiday ends today, so I'm barely in time for that. MrsBlue and I have plans today unrelated to any of today's celebrations, as we have tickets to a minor league baseball game. We're looking forward to a little fresh air and sunshine, and of course, $12 hot dogs.

Celebratory Round-up
Thanks Ant, Neutronbeam, and Max.

Story

• Opinion - How ‘The White Lotus’ Ran Aground - The New York Times (free account required).

Science

• Gamma-ray bursts reveal largest structure in the universe is bigger and closer to Earth than we knew- Space.
• Nasa’s oldest astronaut celebrates 70th birthday with return to Earth - Space - The Guardian.
• Annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks overnight Monday - NBC News.

Media

• The Canine Assassin: Dogs Launching Surprise Attacks. Thanks VideoSift.
• The power of lightning. Thanks VideoSift.

Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm officially announce Star Wars Zero Company, the turn-based tactics game it first teased earlier this week. Set during the Clone Wars, rather than the XCOM clone wars, this is in development at Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment, following years of speculation. It's coming in 2026 on PC and consoles, and listings for the Windows edition are now live on the Epic Games Store and Steam. An Official Announce Trailer has a cinematic intro and a first look at gameplay. Here's word:

In Star Wars Zero Company, players will embark on a campaign of tactical operations and investigations across the galaxy. Between missions, they will develop a base of operations and gather intelligence through a network of informants to stay one step ahead of Zero Company’s adversaries. Players will have the freedom to create and customize their own squad of recruited operators while getting to know a cast of newly authored Star Wars characters.

Hawks’ appearance and combat class can be fully customized, while recruited operatives can be personalized from a range of original Star Wars character classes and species. Tailor squadmates’ appearances, load-outs, and abilities across a wide variety of character archetypes, including Clone Troopers, astromechs and even a Jedi. While in the field, members of Zero Company will forge bonds between them to unlock powerful combat synergies that can turn the tide of battle. With near-endless possibilities and high-stakes encounters that could change the fate of the galaxy, players will need intense preparation, adept strategy, and the right squad to succeed.

A post from Fawkes Team announces the launch of Defiance, a revival of the free-to-play MMOFPS (thanks Dave). This game has a storied history, including a previous revival in 2018 under the title Defiance 2050. It initially launched in 2013 as an ambitious tie-in with a television series of the same name which ran for three seasons on SyFy. The new developer/publisher is enthusiastic about this death-defying project, while admitting to uncertainty: "This is a completely unknown journey for us, reviving a game that was closed years ago is rare in the industry. We’re not sure exactly what to expect, but the response so far has exceeded our expectations. Only time will tell, we’re excited about the future." Word is the new release combines the qualities of the original game with the previous revival. The post says this effort to revitalize the twice-cancelled game is moving forward with appropriate caution:

The game, for its initial phase, will run with a skeleton crew capable of maintaning the service operative, addressing major fires, and slowly work in small scale adjustments using the previously mentioned tools, obviously linked and aligned with the learning curve and response from those tools; while we have a decent understanding of them at this point, we don’t know if something else is hidden under the carpet.

If we reach a minimal financial success allowing us to increase the team’s size, rest assured that our priority number one would be to provide fresh content. We already have some ideas that we would love to share with the community moving forward; from expanding the story line, to completely new Arkfalls or even new map zones.

• Type-NOISE: Shonen Shojo on Steam (Windows). "Traumatized youth trapped in 'Noise Scramble City', a labyrinth of their own fears. Amnesiac teens solve puzzles in a multi-ending escape adventure."

Operating system edition.

• Fresh Classic Mac OS and PowerPC apps in 2025 • The Register. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• How to run FreeDOS, an open-source version of DOS, on any PC - Tom's Hardware.

• Game Of Thrones: Kingsroad Will Give Out More RP After Player Feedback - TheGamer.

• Dunk City Dynasty - Meet the NBA Stars Taking Over the Streets - Official Game Announcement Trailer.

• Google adds YouTube Music feature to end annoying volume shifts - Ars Technica.

Thanks Console General.

• Intel Acknowledges Performance Degradation When Arc GPUs Are Paired With Older Processors; Investigation Has Been Started - Wccftech.
• Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.5240 (Beta Channel) - Windows Insider Blog.
• Releasing Windows 11 Build 26100.3902 to the Release Preview Channel - Windows Insider Blog.
• Calibre e-book manager version 8.3.
• EASIEST Microsoft Account Bypass for Windows 11! - Memory. Thanks Simon.

• Watch: China races robots in Beijing half marathon - BBC.

• Enthusiast restores two Sound Blaster 16 cards documenting the challenges of vintage hardware repair - TechSpot. Thanks Reddit.

• Sunderfolk Review - A Great Tabletop-Inspired Game With Friends - GameSpot.

• Headset/Earbuds: beyerdynamic Aventho 300 Over-Ear Wireless Headphones - Nikk Tech.
• Keyboard: Chilkey ND75 LP Review- Impressive performance for $100 - Tom's Hardware.
• Keyboard: Epomaker Split 65 Mechanical Wireless Keyboard - Mad Shrimps.
• Laptop: ASUS TUF Gaming A14 (Strix Point + RTX 4060) Laptop - TweakTown.
• Laptop: Razer Blade 16 (2025) review- ultra settings on an ultra-thin laptop for an ultra-high price - The Verge.

I had a really great time with my friends last night. Thank you so much for your indulgence of my early departure. And I may need to ask for it again. Manhattan is a long round trip for me these days, but the timing was the only issue. My travels went smoothly and we had a blast, so I'm going to press to try and resume our get-togethers, which haven't really properly returned to their pre-pandemic regularity.

Regular Round-up
Thanks Ant, Neutronbeam, and Max.

Story

• Jeff "The Dude" Bridges Says He'd Welcome 'The Big Lebowski' Sequel - Deadline. While still abiding.

Science

• Scientists claim they've seen a 'jaw-dropping' new color, but you can only experience it by shooting lasers directly into your eyes - PC Gamer. They call it "black."
• Lichens can survive almost anything, and some might survive Mars - Ars Technica.
• Could taking carbon out of the sea cool down the planet? - BBC.

Media

• Superman - Superman Day - Behind The Scenes Look.
• Uncharted - Caravan of Garbage.

Follow-up

• Trump official to Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancée: “You cannot identify as an astronaut” - Ars Technica.