Path of Exile 2 launched into Early Access in December. The Steam Listing for Grinding Gears' action/RPG has this to say about how long the game might continue in the Early Access stage: "As long as needed. We believe it will be at least 6 months." Now that that Early Access is well over halfway to that six-month mark, PC Gamer checks in on how things are progressing. Game director Jonathan Rogers admits the six-month minimum was probably a stretch. He says the goal is still to officially launch this year, but it's altogether possible Early Access will continue into 2026:

The Path of Exile 2 Steam page says early access will last "as long as needed," with a timeline of "at least six months" to get it all done. Given the December 2024 release, a quick finger-count puts the full release—at the soonest—around June. That's three months from now, which at this point doesn't seem very likely—and Rogers confirmed it's not just unlikely, it's straight up out of the question.

"In terms of the overall time, I think we're still broadly on track," Rogers said. "Initially, before we kind of got to the crunch period, we were sort of saying six months in early access, which in retrospect was not going to happen. My current feeling is kind of a year of early access. Like, I want to get it done this year, but we'll see how things go. I mean, maybe it'll take a little bit of extra time, but I'm hoping.

• PlayStation’s extraordinary effort to preserve its game-making history - Game File.

• Test Your Might Against Scorpion in Fortnite BR Trailer.

Official patches.

• After 16 years, The Dark Mod finally has guards as perceptive as in Thief: 'The days of seeing knocked-out AI in the middle of a bright spotlight get ignored are over' - PC Gamer.
• GTA 5 Enhanced Edition RealityV V3.0 Released & Detailed - DSOGaming.
• You can now play Bloodborne in first-person on PC via shadPS4 - DSOGaming.

• Zombie Army VR – Release Date Trailer - PS VR2, Meta Quest Platforms & PCVR. May 22nd.

Official trailers.

• Friday Night - Announcement Trailer.

• XBox president Sarah Bond: The secrets of her success - Mashable. Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Digital Foundry confirmed- PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro have prevalent VRR stuttering problems - Eurogamer.net.

• EU iPhone users can set Google Maps as default navigation app - 9to5Google.
• No, Apple isn't going to release a new 'iPhone mini' - 9to5Mac. Thanks Ant.
• Are Vehicle Infotainment Screens Headed for the Scrap Heap? - Gizmodo.

• YouTube tests turning off notifications for channels you don’t watch - The Verge.
• Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale lock - Ars Technica.
• The amateur photographers fixing Wikipedia's 'terrible' pictures - BBC.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• AWS wants its customers to use its Trainium chips rather than Nvidia's H100 AI GPU and has a plan to convince them - TechRadar.
• US hits lithium jackpot- 18M tons worth $540B found underground - Interesting Engineering. Thanks Reddit.
• Japan is 3D printing train stations now • The Register.
• DIY biohacker community gathers to compare implants as they seek cybernetic reality - ABC News.

• How to use the Warp AI-enabled terminal for Windows or Linux - Tom's Hardware.
• Credit where credit's due? Inside Experian's AI framework that's changing financial access - VentureBeat.

• Malware is harder to find when written in obscure languages • The Register.

• Bleach Rebirth of Souls Review - IGN. Thanks Neutronbeam.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Laptop: HP Envy x360 15 Core Ultra 7 convertible review- Disappointing for the price - NotebookCheck.net Reviews.
• Laptop: Razer Blade 16 (2025) - IGN.
• Miscellaneous: BLUETTI AC180 Portable Power Station - Nikk Tech.
• Monitor/Projector: Dell Pro 14 Plus (P1425) 14-inch portable monitor review- Long on performance, short on value - Tom's Hardware.
• Motherboard: ASRock Phantom Gaming B850 Riptide Wi-Fi Review - Amazing Price-Performance - TechPowerUp.
• PSU: Enermax REVOLUTION D.F. 12 850 W Review - TechPowerUp.
• PSU: Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition 80 PLUS Titanium ATX 3.1 PSU - TweakTown.

Major League Baseball had its opening day this week, as sure a sign of spring as spotting the first robin. My Mets are now 1-1, but I'll take it as a positive sign that they lost on opening day. Despite being a fairly downtrodden franchise through much of its history, the Mets actually own the league's best all-time record in season openers. Their record is 41-23 on opening day, a .641 winning percentage that's only more startling when you note the team lost its first eight openers in a row. That makes them 41-15 after day one since then (a startling .745 winning percentage!). So I won't take losing the opener as a bad sign. Looking past regular season results makes this a toss-up however, as the Mets have won two championships: One in 1969 after losing opening day, and the other in 1986 after an opening day victory. But looking for hope where we can find it is human nature, so here I am being hopeful.

Obituary: Young Scooter Dead- Atlanta Rapper and Future Collaborator Was 39 - Variety.

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

Stories

• Myanmar earthquake death toll soars past 1,000 as scale of disaster starts to emerge - CNN.
• Technicolor Bankruptcy: TransPerfect Acquires Parts of MPC, The Mill’s France Operations - Variety.
• Volunteer ‘Puppy Raisers’ Work to Tackle a Service Dog Shortage - The New York Times (may require registration or subscription).

Science

• Glucose's double life- Study reveals its surprising role as a master regulator of tissue regeneration - Phys.org.
• Drug For Rare Disease Turns Human Blood Into Mosquito Poison - ScienceAlert.

Media

• Snow White Pitch Meeting.

Creature Features

• Have you ever heard a goat snore? - Boing Boing.

Follow-up

• Peter Marks, top US vaccine official, forced to resign, reports say - BBC.
• The CDC buried a measles forecast that stressed the need for vaccinations - Ars Technica.