Aladdin joins SMITE 2 as a part of the ‘Tales of Arabia’ Pantheon. Developed completely on Unreal Engine 5, the new God brings unique mechanics to the game. Aladdin is a highly mobile God thanks to his ability to run along walls and structures. His companion, the Genie, grants him three powerful wishes throughout the game including a chance for revival upon death. Aladdin’s ultimate ability allows him to use his Lamp to capture enemies in a one-on-one challenge.

Four further Gods have been added to SMITE 2 with the free-to-play patch including Geb, the Egyptian God of Earth, and Mulan the Chinese Ascendant Warrior. Agni comes to SMITE 2 representing the Hindu Pantheon, while Ullr from the Norse Pantheon rounds out the long list of new playable Gods.

Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone is a post-apo action RPG game, mixing free exploration of huge and extremely realistic open world, challenging combat, unique crafting, team and base management with non-linear storytelling. You’re a planewalker who travels through parallel worlds in search of the precious, high-energy material called Chernobylite. Cut off from the world, trapped in the Zone, attacked by hordes of nightmare creatures, you must fight for survival and unite the handful of remaining survivors.

Welcome to Forest Reigns, a survival FPS with RPG elements set in a post-apocalyptic Paris overwhelmed by an evolving forest.

It isn’t just part of the environment—it’s a conscious entity with its own desires and intentions. Interact with it to reveal its mysteries, use it for defeating enemies, or face its wrath as it reacts to your choices.

Immerse yourself in a non-linear story with dozens of missions. Cooperate or compete with the unique in-game factions. Every decision influences the story's final outcome.

Descend into the shadow-choked depths of Moroi’s Cosmic Engine, a maddening labyrinth of twisting corridors and forgotten horrors. Plagued by amnesia, your name, past and sins are beyond memory, shrouded in darkness. As you claw your way through this realm of torment, you face grotesque inhabitants in a land where dark-as-night humor is the only silver lining. Cling to your sanity in an otherwise deteriorating existence styled as grimdark fantasy, a subgenre of fiction distinguished by bleak, dystopian settings and scenarios.

Wage war against Moroi’s battalions of mages, guards and the cursed undead while wielding a gruesome arsenal of unorthodox weaponry. Tear through the flesh of your foes with the jagged teeth of a hellish duck, or unleash a storm of projectiles with the aid of a flying brain. Around every corner lies an unexpected discovery or new instrument of death.

This patch fixes compatibility issues with Windows 11 update 24H2.

• Annihilate The Spance (Windows) on Steam. "RTS base builder with constant production and minimal micromanagement. Direct fleets of autonomous ships in huge battles. Features a singleplayer story campaign with 3 distinct playable factions and many subfactions, and full level editor. Test your abilities in the shifting tides of the Spance."
• Asfalia: Fear on Steam (Windows, macOS). "Adventure awaits you in this colorful, family-friendly point-and-click delight! Navigate through a world painted with emotions, where even 'fear' becomes a playful friend. Solve puzzles, collect stickers, and share giggles in a heartwarming journey in the world of emotions."

• Mark of the Deep on Steam (Windows). Updated demo. "Mark of the Deep is an epic pirate-themed adventure with a strong narrative and a thrilling mix of Metroidvania and Souls-Like elements. Embark on this journey, explore the mysteries of a cursed island and find your missing pirate crew!"

• Godfall studio Counterplay Games has reportedly ‘disbanded’ - VGC.

• Simulation Promo is here! - GOG.com.*
• Save 40% on Ready or Not on Steam.
• Save 35% on Lethal Company on Steam.
• Save 50% on Funko Fusion on Steam.
• Save 20% on The Bus on Steam.

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item.

• Space Ape Games launches offshoot studio NextBeat - Game Developer.

• Larian gives Baldur's Gate 3's Withers a pair of -big naturals- to celebrate 100m mod downloads - Eurogamer.net.
• Marvel Rivals Fans Are Using the Invisible Woman to Detect Alleged Bot Matches - IGN.
• Marvels Rivals will add a new hero every 6 weeks - VGC.

• Stop Killing Games- UK Edition - Accursed Farms (video). New U.K. petition.

• Gothic: A Shadow's Quest by THQ Nordic - Gamefound. Tabletop game plans.

• Pirates VR Jolly Roger - Official Launch Trailer.

• Everhood 2 - Release Date Announcement Trailer. March 4th.
• Mark of the Deep – Cinematic Release Date Trailer - Launching January 24, 2025.
• Skull and Bones: The Legend of Nian Event Trailer.

• 33 Immortals Third Playtest is Back from Jan 28 to Feb 7 - Xbox Wire.

• Why China may be OK selling TikTok to Elon Musk - CNN Business.
• MrBeast in Talks to Become Partner in Potential TikTok Ownership Group - TMZ.

• NVIDIA GTC 2025 Quantum Day - NVIDIA Blog.
• Elon Musk Says His Boring Company Could Dig The $20 Trillion Tunnel Connecting America With Europe For '1000X Less Money' - Benzinga. Pulled that figure out of his tunnel.
• Prediction: This Will Be Wall Street's First $5 Trillion Company -- and It's Not Nvidia - The Motley Fool. Amazon. Article has to be AI-written to bury the lede under that much blather.

• Inside Meta’s race to beat OpenAI- “We need to learn how to build frontier and win this race” - The Verge.
• Healthcare Leaders, NVIDIA CEO Share Industry AI Innovation - NVIDIA Blog.
• ChatGPT wants to become your reminder app with 'Tasks' feature - 9to5Mac.

• Sonos' chief product officer is also leaving the company - Engadget.

• US SEC sues Elon Musk over late disclosure of Twitter stake.
• Investigation: GamersNexus Files New Lawsuit Against PayPal & Honey - Gamers Nexus. Different (for now) from the recent lawsuit by LegalEagle.
• Court tells SEC to lay out why it has declined Coinbase's request for crypto regulations - AP.
• Lawsuit: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to quietly track driving behavior - Ars Technica.

PGA TOUR 2K25 features several franchise advancements, including the addition of new EvoSwing mechanics with a whole host of new shot types, ball flights, roll physics, and visual improvements; the most immersive and customizable MyCAREER experience to date; a diverse suite of creation tools; and much more. In addition, fans can look forward to a roster of 11 male and female pros at launch*, including Tiger Woods, Max Homa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Lydia Ko, Tom Kim, Brooke Henderson, and more.

Project Pantheon is a free-to-play live service game that will take players on a journey into a strange afterlife, where they are tasked by Death itself to aid in restoring order to a shattered reality. Players explore diverse maps, battling enemies in dynamic PvPvE combat. Successful extractions will see players haul back valuable loot, while failure may result in losing their gear for good. In their hidden fortress, players will be upgrading their base, customizing loadouts and experimenting with gear to find their optimal playstyle. An open market will foster a player-driven economy that is going to allow players to trade and support each other.

Closed Alpha 1 serves as a primarily technical evaluation, focused on validating the stability and performance of Project Pantheon’s backend systems, server infrastructure and community channels. This phase is critical for ensuring a smooth reliable experience throughout Alpha testing and will heavily depend on player feedback to fix any issues.

Founded in 2012, EFGAMP represents more than 20 heritage institutions and other organizations, ranging from grassroots initiatives to national libraries, that collect and preserve digital games. Its members include renowned members such as VIGAMUS — The Video Game Museum in Rome, MO5.COM in France, Computerspielemuseum in Berlin, The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, and Embracer Games Archive. GOG is the first Polish institution to join, marking a significant step in bridging the private sector with cultural organizations across Europe.

14th century Europe. Bloody conflicts sweep the lands, and the Black Death comes for the survivors. In the wake of the disasters claiming thousands of lives, the decimated human population struggles for survival. It's a moment of weakness. In Vale Sangora, somewhere in a forgotten corner of the Carpathian Mountains, vampires seize their opportunity to walk out of the shadows, overthrow the feudal lords and claim what they've been denied for centuries: freedom, and ultimate power that comes with it. Legends turn into reality, and history as we know it will never be the same.

THE BLOOD OF DAWNWALKER is the first chapter of the Rebel Wolves’ original dark fantasy saga. You play as Coen, a young man turned into a Dawnwalker, forever treading the line between the world of day and the realm of night. Not fully human, not entirely a vampire, you have 30 days and nights to save your family or swear revenge on your sire and destroy everyone standing in your way.

Inspired by folklore and strange tales in ancient China, Threefold Recital creates an oriental fantasy realm inhabited by humans, beastlings, and majestic dragons. After a golden age spanning thousands of years, the bustling metropolis of Bluescales now faces tumultuous times. Here, magic and technology coexist, complicating social governance. To further stir the pot, the secret art behind ancient miracles—presumed long lost—is resurfacing. Beneath the city's clamor, a storm unlike any other is quietly brewing...

A long, long time ago, there lived a wolf, a fox, and a snake. But these weren’t just your ordinary wild animals. They were very patient and wise, and after a lot of hard work, they gained human form and became "beastlings", as they liked to call themselves.

• UNYIELDER demo on Steam (Windows). "UNYIELDER is an intense Single-Player Boss-rush Movement FPS with an absurd and exploitable Rogue-Looter. Assemble your Arsenal of Destruction, Smash your way through Antarctica, Face your own Final Boss."

• Freshly filed Sega trademarks hint at the return of another classic series, 25 years after its last entry - Eurogamer.net. Ecco of a bygone era.

• Valve dev says SteamOS isn't about killing Windows- 'If a user has a good experience on Windows, there's no problem' - PC Gamer.

• Humble Software Bundle: Make Your Own Games In Unreal Engine 5 from GameDev.tv (pay what you want and help charity) - Humble.*

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item.

• Games Workshop profits surge amid video games and Amazon TV deals - The Independent.

• Marvel Rivals devs promise to release a new hero every 45 days, give or take, in efforts to “keep everyone excited” - VG247.

• A video game’s Scottish Gaelic translation got deeply political - Polygon.

• Until Dawn Movie Has A Unique Mechanic Inspired By The Game, See First Footage - GameSpot.
• Helldivers 2 developer will be involved in film adaptation, but not as much as you may have hoped - Eurogamer.net.

• PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS - Patch Notes - Update 33.2.

↑ Official patches. ↓ Unofficial games, patches, and mods.

• Fallout- New Vegas got a bunch of brand new lore-friendly quests - DSOGaming.

• Fortnite - Karvinus Rooftop Rumble launch trailer.

• Trigger Happy's Sam Prebble on perfecting the survival horror of Total Chaos - and playing the genre's classics for the first time - Rock Paper Shotgun.

• Develop-Brighton is now accepting speaker applications for its 2025 conference - MCV/DEVELOP.

• Starfield's abandoned gore and dismemberment system sure would have made it less grey - Rock Paper Shotgun.

• All the Games Reportedly Set for Release on Nintendo Switch 2 - IGN.
• Halo Finally Looks Set to Make the Jump to PlayStation This Year - IGN.
• (For Malaysia) Level Up New Year’s Play! Purchase PlayStation 5 and stand a chance to win rewards! – PlayStation.Blog.
• Honkai- Star Rail Version 3.0 “Paean of Era Nova” Arrives January 15 – PlayStation.Blog.

• Asus Zenfone 12 Ultra gets a launch date in AI-filled teaser - 9to5Google.
• Turnip Boy Robs a Bank - Mobile trailer.
• Why Apple is offering rare iPhone discounts in China - BBC.
• US finalizes rule to effectively ban Chinese vehicles, which could include Polestar - The Verge.

• The ‘Largest Illicit Online Marketplace’ Ever Is Growing at an Alarming Rate, Report Says - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).
• Meta will lay off more ‘low-performers,’ says CEO Mark Zuckerberg - The Verge (may require registration or subscription).
• TikTok- Firm calls report of possible sale to Elon Musk 'pure fiction' - BBC.
• Mozilla Firefox 134.0.1, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes. Thanks Frans.

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 reviews go live January 24, RTX 5080 on January 30 - VideoCardz.com.
• DLSS Accelerates Performance In Assetto Corsa EVO, DYNASTY WARRIORS- ORIGINS, SMITE 2 & Honkai- Star Rail - GeForce News - NVIDIA.
• Apple will soon receive ‘made in America’ chips from TSMC's Arizona fab — company in final stages of quality verification - Tom's Hardware.
• Arm crafts plan to raise prices by up to 300% — mulls designing own chips to rival competitors - Tom's Hardware.
• Overclocker pushes Intel Core i9-14900KF to 9.12 GHz, setting new CPU frequency world record - TechSpot.
• Samsung tops patents for third year in a row - Axios.
• The Next Robot Invasion - The New York Times (free account required). NYT goes ADD on CES.
• Der8auer reverse engineers NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition- blown away with findings - TweakTown. Thanks Max.
• Truck with $1.8M in smuggled electronics seized by Hong Kong Customs — 670,000 undeclared chips and 80,000 PC hardware component - Tom's Hardware.
• HDMI 2.2 — Everything We Know So Far - Audioholics.
• Visual Studio Code version 1.96.3.
• Evernote version 10.122.1.

• Sony patents include idea to lower input lag by using AI to predict which buttons you'll press next - Eurogamer.net. Next: Full AFK mode.
• A Spymaster Sheikh Controls a $1.5 Trillion Fortune. He Wants to Use It to Dominate AI - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).
• Amazon must solve hallucination problem before launching AI-enabled Alexa - Ars Technica.

• The Sonos app fiasco: how a great audio brand nearly ruined its reputation - The Verge. Thanks RedEye9.

• Hackers have devised a simple text scam to bypass Apple's iPhone protections - Macworld. Thanks Ant.
• Vulnerability Summary for the Week of January 6, 2025 - CISA.
• Stolen Path of Exile 2 admin account used to hack player accounts - Bleeping Computer.
• FBI hacked thousands of computers to make malware uninstall itself - The Verge.
• YouTubers Sponsored This Scam- Pluralsight Revokes Lifetime Licenses & demand you pay again - Louis Rossmann (NSFW). Thanks RedEye9.

• Google faces UK investigation over search dominance - BBC.

• Dynasty Warriors: Origins Benchmarks & PC Performance Analysis - DSOGaming.
• Aloft Early Access Review - IGN.

• Keyboard: Epomaker Galaxy 100 wireless mechanical keyboard hands-on review- A num pad and 500 hours of battery life - NotebookCheck.net. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Monitor/Projector: ThieAudio Origin In-Ear Monitors Review - Basshead Love - TechPowerUp.
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B860-A Gaming Wi-Fi Review - TechPowerUp.
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite Wifi 7 Review - Tom's Hardware.
• SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 1TB SSD Worth It? A 2025 analysis - Guru3D.

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

Breakfast Links

• I aggregated (110) "Best TV Shows of 2024" lists because Metacritic wouldn't - Final Update - Reddit.
• The Perm Is Back: How the Broccoli Haircut Became Popular Among Gen Z Men - Xataka On.

Stories
Thanks RedEye9.

• Planes are dumping ocean water to fight the Los Angeles fires. Here’s why using saltwater is typically a last resort - PBS Newshour.
• Starbucks’ new rules: Buy something or get out - CNN Business.
• Elon Musk Promotes Video Claiming He Saved 'Thousands of Lives' From Wildfires.

Science

• Why we need parasites, despite them leeching life from others - Live Science.
• Why you probably aren't washing your towels often enough - BBC. Thanks RedEye9.

Media
Thanks A.M.

• Prime Target — Official Trailer - Apple TV+. Thanks Dark Horizons.
• PRESENCE - Official Trailer #2 - In Theaters January 24.
• Boating Nutshot - Ozzy Man Quickies (NSFW).

Airborne Empire is a one-of-a-kind Open World RPG City Builder. It challenges players to build, manage, and grow their own unique city in the skies. They traverse a vast and rich open world full of new dangers, exotic wonders, and many hidden treasures. They must manage lift, balance, and propulsion needed for a flying city. Sky pirates can upend the city’s tranquility, and players must defend their inhabitants – and the kingdoms below! – from destructive attacks. Only clever and daring leaders can grow and protect their homes, seek out and destroy enemy strongholds, and finally reunite the peoples of this world.

Joni Evers lives alone in the Cunningham House, an old, secluded mansion in Harvest, Oklahoma. She is estranged from her family, and finds the solitude pleasant - until trouble follows her home. A sudden fight with her only friend sets in motion strange events that engulf the old house and shatter the peace of small-town America.

Step into her shoes and explore the massive mansion, experiencing an emotional tale of a broken family. Delve into the dark, forgotten corners of the mansion, uncover the secrets of Joni’s family, and break the mystical snare in time.

In "You Have A Delivery", as you race through brutal combat and high-octane levels, the voices of the developers guide you—but they don’t always agree. Picture this: a heated debate about whether a door should be on the left or the right, and suddenly, the door keeps moving during gameplay. These arguments create unpredictable, chaotic moments that force players to adapt on the fly.

This innovative feature adds a layer of humor and unpredictability to an already fast-paced, stylish game. It's not just about winning—it's about how you navigate the madness created by your guides, who can’t seem to agree on anything.

• Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake details surface as leaker says it's coming in June - Eurogamer.net.
• The first Assassin’s Creed Shadows expansion details have been revealed - VGC.

• Save 40% on Ready or Not on Steam.
• Save 60% on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on Steam.
• Save 40% on Space Prison on Steam.
• Save 64% on Simulacra Trilogy Bundle on Steam.

• Report- Godfall dev Counterplay Games has quietly closed down - Game Developer.

• Firefly Studios on X: "What a great start to the week! We're excited to announce that we've sold over 500,000 copies of Stronghold: Definitive Edition."
• ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Is Doing 70,000 Steam Players A Night, Four Years Later - Forbes.

• Zerg Rush! Blizzard drops first cards from its StarCraft x Hearthstone crossover mini-set - PC Gamer.

• FuturLab turns off the spigot for Powerwash Simulator's VR support - Game Developer.

• Path of Exile 2 devs agree that its endgame ‘is a bit too severe’ - Polygon.

• The Blood of Dawnwalker — Cinematic Trailer & Gameplay Teaser.
• Hyper Light Breaker - Early Access Launch Trailer. Coming tomorrow.
• RuneScape Dev Diary: Return to the Desert: Beneath Scabaras' Sands - New Quest Live Now.
• Starlight Legacy Trailer (Steam).

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• Loot boxes are basically gambling - Viva La Dirt League (NSFW). Thanks Ant.

• Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster Interview with Stephen Kick - Deep Dive - Nightdive Studios. Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Luck be a Landlord - Coming to Consoles on February 6th (video).

• Samsung is adding two new Galaxy Ring sizes - The Verge.

• New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill - Ars Technica.
• With a TikTok Ban Looming, Users Flee to Chinese App ‘Red Note’ - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).

• Did AMD Just Say -Checkmate- to Nvidia? - The Motley Fool.
• Lenovo led global PC shipment in 2024 with 61.8 million units — Apple is gaining PC market share with a 17.3% growth - Tom's Hardware.
• Intel's Core Ultra 9 285H outperforms the Ryzen AI 9 365 in user review — Alchemist+ offers a nice bump in synthetics, but gaming performance remains similar to Meteor Lake - Tom's Hardware.

• Biden administration puts quotas on global AI chip sales - Ars Technica.
• Microsoft forms a new AI org with a former Meta executive at the helm - Neowin.
• In the future, we will all manage our own AI agents - Jensen Huang Q&A - VentureBeat. Or, you know, vice versa.

• Samsung & Google Unveil Eclipsa: A New Royalty Free Immersive Surround Audio Format! - Audioholics.

• Top cannabis brand Stiiizy says hackers got access to its systems - TechRadar.

Step into the shoes of a Vegas hitman on a mission to obliterate the local crime lords and loot their gambling dens. In Jackal, players will raid casinos and hotels, executing unsuspecting mobsters in unforgiving close-quarters combat. Success hinges on your ability to wield anything within reach—be it guns, knives, pool cues, chairs, or even household items. No two playthroughs will be the same, thanks to randomly generated rooms and stackable gameplay mutators.

"Jackal combines my love of John Wick fight scenes, Scorsese's mobsters, Tarantino's storytelling, and the soul of the 1970s," says the creator Michał Marcinkowski. Jackal is set to launch at the end of Q2 2025.

• Dynasty Warriors- Origins review- -A stripped back approach champions the explosive combat's focus on visceral clashes and tactile battlefields" - GamesRadar+.
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review - IGN.
• Dynasty Warriors Origins review – a major comeback for the king of crowd combat - PCGamesN.
• Review- Dynasty Warriors- Origins turns in a bold new direction - Polygon.
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins review- a glorious, melodramatic and convincing illusion of tactical warfare - Rock Paper Shotgun.
• 'Dynasty Warriors: Origins' Is a Monotonous Musou Hack-and-Slash - Rolling Stone.
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins Review - RPGFan.
• Review: Dynasty Warriors Origins Reboots the Series' Gameplay - Siliconera.
• Dynasty Warriors Origins review - VG247.
• Dynasty Warriors Origins (PS5) Review - Way of the Musou Warrior - Wccftech.
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins review - Omega Force finds their way into the heart of this Dynasty Warriors veteran - Windows Central.

• Baldur's Gate 3 Dev Now Giving "Full Attention" To Next Game, Codenamed Excalibur - GameSpot.
• Hideo Kojima Says His New Game Is Now In "Crunch Time," Wonders How Much Longer He Can Stay Creative - GameSpot.

• STJV union calls for extended strike at Don't Nod with layoffs looming - Game Developer.
• Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp appoints new CEO - Game Developer.

• It now takes 882 hours to unlock a single new champion in League of Legends for a new player - Reddit.
• Ryan K. Rigney asks game devs about getting their first 1,000 players - Polygon.
• Marvel Rivals breaks record following Season 1 release - VGC.

• California Fire Relief Bundle is calling for submissions from game developers - Game Developer.

• The new Grand Theft Auto 3 Dreamcast port is an astonishing achievement - Eurogamer.net.

• Path of Exile 2 - 0.1.1 Patch Preview (video).

↑ Official patches. ↓ Unofficial games, patches, and mods.

• This mod brings Fallout 76's survey area mechanics to Fallout 4 - DSOGaming.
• Modders have recreated Icewind Dale's prologue in Skyrim - DSOGaming.

• Marvel Rivals Players Are Risking Account Bans to Mod the Game Even After Season 1 Clampdown - IGN.

• When 2K removed its annoying launcher it broke a bunch of XCOM 2 mods - PC Gamer.

• Largest Gathering of Minecraft Steve - Guinness World Records - Dorkly. Thanks Ant.

• Dynasty Warriors- Origins — hands-on report – PlayStation.Blog.

• Next Week on Xbox- New Games for January 13 to 17 - Xbox Wire.
• Alarmo Alarm Clock Staying a Nintendo Switch Online Member Exclusive for Longer - Siliconera.

• Samsung launches 'Galaxy Easy Compensation' program to promote recycling - Neowin.
• Smartphone sector returns to yearly growth after two years - Neowin.
• There's almost nothing left to learn about the Galaxy S25 after this week's news - Android Police. Thanks Reddit.
• Two Square Enix RPGs are among the latest wave of games added to Apple Arcade - VGC.
• Mark Zuckerberg Slams Apple For Losing Its Innovative Edge Since Steve Jobs And Claims iPhone Sales Are Tanking By The Year - Wccftech. He's becoming quite the edgelord.
• Candy Crush Solitaire - Official Announcement Trailer.

• How to use Google Deep Research to save hours of time - Popular Science. Thanks Max.
• Mastodon’s CEO and creator is handing control to a new nonprofit organization - The Verge.

• AMD RX 9070 XT allegedly tested in Black Myth Wukong and Cyberpunk 2077 — RDNA 4 flagship purportedly lands 4% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti Super per limited testing - Tom's Hardware.
• AMD Delaying RDNA 4 Release Was a Calculated Move As Team Red Looks Eager To Overshadow NVIDIA's RTX 50 Series Showcase - Wccftech.
• Apple board pushes against diversity rollback call - BBC.
• Rich Men Rule the World - WIRED (may require registration or subscription). You buy it, you break it.
• Mapping Elon Musk’s Global Empire - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).
• A Major Global Bank Expects NVIDIA To Earn $236 Billion From Datacenter GPUs In CY2025 - Wccftech.
• Do Game Devs Care About DLSS? - The Game Dev Circle (video). Thanks The Flying Penguin.
• Microsoft made updating to Windows 11 from Windows 10 easier - Neowin. But can it make not updating easier?

• NVIDIA Statement on the Biden Administration’s Misguided 'AI Diffusion' Rule - NVIDIA Blog. Appealing to Trump's love of China?
• NVIDIA and IQVIA Build Domain-Expert Agentic AI for Healthcare and Life Sciences - NVIDIA Blog.
• Report warns thousands of Wall Street jobs could soon be replaced by AI - TechRadar. Where AI's tendency to lie makes it an asset?
• Adobe’s new AI tool can edit 10,000 images in one click - The Verge.
• Why CEO Matt Garman is willing to bet AWS on AI - The Verge.

• Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch - The Verge.

• Around 66 accounts in Path of Exile 2 were compromised, due to a one-two punch of an old unused Steam account and a backend bug - PC Gamer.
• Apple iPhone USB-C Hacked—What Users Need To Know - Forbes.
• This new Philips smart lock combines palm recognition with a built-in camera for ultimate security - ZDNET. Over/under for LPL probably 30 seconds.
• Ransomware crew abuses AWS native encryption • The Register.

• Supreme Court to decide fate of porn bans this month - thecentersquare.com. Thanks Reddit.
• New US Rule Aims to Block China's Access to AI Chips and Models by Restricting the World - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).
• Chinese university applies for undersea cable cutter patent — device developed by coastal university located across the sea from Taiwan - Tom's Hardware.
• Europe coughs up €400 for breaking its own GDPR rules • The Register.

• Halls of Torment review - PC Gamer.

• Game Controller: Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot Wireless Smart Controller - Christ Centered Gamer.
• Keyboard: MechLands AULA F99 Pro Review - APH Networks.
• Monitor/Projector: Aorus FO27Q2 240 Hz QHD QD-OLED review- Blinding speed and stunning color - Tom's Hardware. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• RAM: ACER Predator Hera RGB 32GB DDR5 8000MHz CL36 Dual-Channel Kit - Nikk Tech.

Garbage-man Round-up
Thanks Ant, Neutronbeam, and Max.

Play

• Tetris packed inside a PDF file to run in any PC browser — Pdftris runs from a 60KB PDF - Tom's Hardware.

Science

• Common sleeping pill may pave way for disorders like Alzheimer's - Futurity.
• Scientists Unveil First Detailed Image of Huntington’s Disease Fibrils - SciTechDaily.
• Can you read cursive? It's a superpower the National Archives is looking for - USA Today/Yahoo! Thanks RedEye9.

Media

• Tesla Robots Fight Back - Action Film - SoKrispyMedia.

Creature Features

• Man reunited with his dog thought lost in the Palisades fire (video) - Boing Boing.

Follow-up

• Bird flu: Cats died in California after drinking recalled raw milk. Thanks RedEye9.

The Funnies

• Savage Chickens.
• The Latest A.I. - Savage Chickens.