What you need to know

• Forza Horizon 5 is getting hit with a neon-soaked blast from the past, grabbing new futuristic cars, and rocking you with nearly two dozen new songs.
• Horizon Retrowave is the latest content update for Xbox's flagship open-world racing game.
• A new radio station, Horizon Wave, boasts 21 new tracks to blast while cruising the Neon Highway.
• Five new cars are also included in this update, as well as some Minecraft cosmetics to celebrate that game's 15-year anniversary.

Forza Horizon 5 simply refuses to stop racing forward, and Playground Games has now revealed everything we need to know about the epic racing game's next major content update. Horizon Retrowave is kicking off next week, and it'll take you straight to the 1980s with endless neon, pulsing new songs, and awesome car additions. This update is dripping with style, giving Forza Horizon 5 players more ways to party in Mexico.

Playground Games showed off the update in a new Let's Go! livestream you can check out below, but I'll go through everything coming in the Horizon Retrowave update so you don't have to sit through it all.

 

Without further ado, here are all the details you could possibly need on Forza Horizon 5's 'Horizon Retrowave' update, including the new cars, songs, props, and more. There's even a surprise appearance from Minecraft!

 

• Five new cars. As part of the new Festival Playlist, the Forza Horizon 5 car list is once again expanding with five new vehicles for players to collect. These cars are either 80s classics or inspired by them, fitting the Retrowave theme.
  • 1980 Lotus Esprit Turbo
  • 1986 BMW M635CSi
  • 1986 Citroen BX 4TC
  • 2021 Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4
  • 2022 Hyundai N Vision 74
• Horizon Wave radio station. FH5 players are in for a treat, as a brand-new radio station to fill your head with tunes while you drive is coming with Horizon Retrowave. This radio station features a new DJ, Isabel Moss, and is themed around pulsing synthwave music. There are 21 tracks on the radio station, including some new streaming friendly songs.
• Neon decorations. The Evolving World strikes again, as Forza Horizon 5 gets a little bit of a neon makeover. Most of it is centered around the legendary Highway, which is getting decked out in gorgeous and bright neon lights, complete with a neon drone show in the distance. Oh, but there's a lot more than that.
  • Neon decorations on the Highway actually sync to the music you're currently listening to
  • Nights are going to be longer for the duration of the update, too, giving players more time to enjoy the neon lights
  • Races that featured neon decorations during the Midnight at Horizon series are making a comeback
• New EventLab props. The EventLab is getting a sizeable injection of new props, and I can already see the potential for creators. There are 20 new neon props, and all but two of those props will sync to the music currently being played for a dynamic light show. Players can also choose between three light pattern variations.
• More cosmetics, including from Minecraft. Players are getting more ways to show off their style in Horizon Retrowave. There's a brand-new full-body suit complete with neon pants and a leather jacket, for one, but there's more beyond that.
  • Forza Horizon 5 is celebrating Minecraft's 15-year anniversary with two new hats modeled after the Creeper and Enderman from the iconic survival-crafting series. Players can redeem the hats for free from the Message Center
  • There will also be six new retro-themed car horns for players to earn in various ways

 

This is one epic way to spend a night driving.(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

 

The Hyundai N Vision 74 is a futuristic car taking inspiration from the classics we love.(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

 

Here's a list of every new song featured on the Horizon Wave radio station.(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

 

You can check above for a few images from the Horizon Retrowave update, including a list of all the new songs on the Horizon Wave radio station. Overall, I love FH5 updates that firmly stand behind their theme, and this update definitely qualifies. The neon decorations look great, and the possibilities for the new EventLab props are exciting. I'm also a huge fan of the new cars, especially the 2022 Hyundai N Vision 74 (I think it looks incredible).

 

If you're already impatient for what's next for the best Xbox racing game, though, Playground Games did offer a tease. 'Modern Horizons' is the next Forza Horizon 5 content update, and it'll apparently add a car that the FH5 community has been requesting for a long time. I'm not sure what car that could be, but I'm excited to find out.

 

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YouTube creator and Valve follower Tyler McVicker (via Eurogamer) has reported the game, which he says has been in development since 2018, is currently called Deadlock. The game, which he says was previously called Citadel and Neon Prime, is a third-person team hero shooter with some tower defense elements as well, according to him.

McVicker says the game was originally supposed to be part of Valve's Half-Life universe but has since evolved into its own original title with no Half-Life connections and with a mix of sci-fi and fantasy elements. He added that Valve has been holding closed alpha testing of Deadlock with hundreds of players and claims that an official announcement could be made soon.

X (formerly Twitter) user "GabeFollower" has some more alleged info about Deadlock. He writes:

6 vs 6 battling on huge map with 4 lanes. Usable abilities and items. Tower defense mechanics. Fantasy setting mixed with steampunk. Magicians, weird creatures and robots. Fast travel using floating rails, similar to Bioshock Infinite

He also posted some alleged screenshots of the game, featuring one of the hero characters, Grey Talon, who is seen using a sci-fi version of a bow.

It looks like one or more of the closed alpha testers decided to break some NDAs, which is why we are now hearing about Deadlock and seeing screenshots online right now. The big question is, "When will Valve officially announce Deadlock?". If the company truly is testing the game with hundreds of people, it's possible it could be revealed very soon, perhaps as part of the Summer Game Fest streaming event on June 7.

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The tough part is to find places that are just funny. Upon realizing that, I decided to accept the challenge and find places on Google Maps that would make me laugh.

I had an amazing time putting together this list of funny places on Google Maps, and I hope you’ll have as much fun reading it.

Funny Google Maps Coordinates

If you’ve ever explored Google Maps via Street View, you know how much fun it is. It’s like a game that can take hours of your time without you even noticing it.

The reward is finding a place that grabs your attention. Below, you’ll find which places caught mine and made me laugh.

1. This and That Street

Coordinates: 44°44’19.3″N 63°18’15.7″W

Chances are you’ve heard about these streets. If not, then at least about the other street.

This place isn’t so much about what you can see but the conversations people have when giving directions to this location.

To see all those streets, make sure to turn on Satellite View because you can’t access them via Street View.

See it in Street View

2. Flying Rabbit

Coordinates: 49°55’04.8″N 19°56’14.2″E

Google caught this little fellow in the village of Olszowice in Poland in 2013. More than a decade later, the bunny is still there.

This image got me wondering how high the bunny jumped. The official record for the highest rabbit jump is 3.2 feet. Google’s measurement tool can’t help measure this jump, but I don’t think this rabbit should be written off Guniess’s book of records.

What do you think?

See it in Street View

3. Pigeon People

Coordinates: 35°42’14.7″N 139°33’27.8″E

While looking for funny Google Maps coordinates, the image of people wearing pigeon masks kept popping out.

It turns out this is one of the most interesting Google Street images despite it being taken 11 years ago.

And the unconfirmed story behind these Japanese bird people is that they’re writers who wanted to be captured on Google Street View without having their faces blurred out.

Ironically, you can’t see this unusual sight from a bird’s eye perspective.

See it in Street View

4. Chimney Shark

Coordinates: 51°45’32.5″N 1°12’47.8″W

The image of a shark on a house roof was funny but also surprising.

The shark isn’t there to replace a chimney. So, what’s it doing there?

As funny and unusual as it is, the shark is a sculpture called Untitled 1986. A local radio presenter, Bill Heine, created this 25-foot piece in protest of war and nuclear weapons.

Today, you can book this four-room house and see the sculpture up close.

See it in Street View

5. Counting Reindeer

Coordinates: 68°39’35.2″N 27°32’18.7″E

A Google Street View car caught this deer family in the region of Lapland in Finland.

They were minding their own business, eating grass near a road.

They were too close to the traffic if you ask me. That prompted me to check if they’re an endangered species. People hunt them, but there’s still a large number of them – about 7.5 million. And 12 of them are in the neighborhood of the S-market Ivalo in Finland.

See it in Street View

6. Finally, Some Privacy

Coordinates: 37°51’02.1″S 144°59’41.2″E

This image is pure irony. How many times have you looked for a moment of privacy but couldn’t get it? Well, the man in the image thought he’d found that moment, but Google Maps interrupted it.

If you look at the image date, you’ll see it’s from 2009. The man has probably figured out that Cecil’s Place is not his private place. That’s why you won’t see him in other images from later dates.

See it in Street View

7. Road Guitarist

Coordinates: 41°19’14.4″N 88°39’37.3″W

You can’t control a good vibe or the urge to strum a few strings… well, on a shovel. You understand everything about this image if you’ve ever pretended your pen or a banana was a microphone.

I won’t add anything to this Chicago, Illinois moment from 2015. As Justin would say, sometimes the greatest way to say something…

Google Maps gave us directions to an amazing scene with this one.

See it in Street View

8. Strange Sidewalk Pattern

Coordinates: 40°43’05.6″N 74°01’00.5″W

What’s your view on sidewalk patterns? I’ve seen many of them, but never one resembling the image above.

Google blurred a man’s head, but because of a glitch, its back is embedded in New York City’s East River Greenway.

This place is often referred to as a pedestrian paradise and has a lot of spaces dedicated to sports activities such as a ping-pong table, and a basketball court. And back home, on your device, it has a glitch.

I don’t know about you, but for me, this walking route will never be the same.

See it in Street View

9. Year-Round Christmas

Coordinates: 41°12’53.6″S 173°27’04.6″E

This gem from Google Maps isn’t funny in a traditional but more in a nice way.

If you’re someone who loves Christmas, add a stop to New Zealand’s Delaware Bay, and more specifically, the Whangamoa Road.

Rain or shine, in 2009 or 2022, the tree remains decorated. Google captured in 2009 when it had only a few ornaments. In 2020, it was fully decorated, while the latest image from September 2022, shows that people, harsh weather, or wild animals have been borrowing items from the tree.

I checked Google Maps’ live traffic, and unsurprisingly, the traffic congestion around this place is moderate. Someone’s either taking pictures of this beautiful sight or adding decorations (or stealing them).

See it in Street View

10. Spontaneous Dab

Coordinates: 60°27’00.3″N 22°16’36.8″E

The next kind of funny is cute funny. The image above shows the famous dab, and this one was taken in Finland.

It all started back in the 2010s when rapper Skippa Da Flippa introduced the world to the now-infamous move. As time passed, the dab dance adoption rate went through the roof and divided people into ones who love it and those who hate it. There’s no middle here – except in this Street View image where you see a person in the middle of the street doing it.

If you google the phrase “Google Maps dab,” and switch the results to Images, you’ll find plenty of them. The question is whether you want to find these images.

See it in Street View

11. Competition Ahead

Coordinates: 58°59’49.7″N 6°04’54.6″E, 45°02’30.2″N 93°27’44.8″W

The next image that found its place on this list of funny Google Maps coordinates is Google’s competition.

Can you imagine the Google driver’s face when he saw these TomTom and Bing cars? Would’ve things escalated if any of the three drivers stepped out of their car and did the dab?

And there must’ve been some banter. The guy from TomTom could’ve asked the Google car driver if he’d received a traffic alert about a nearby road closure.

Or they could’ve just squinted their eyes at one another.

The humor is the eye of the beholder.

See it in Street View, See it in Street View

12. There’s the Explanation

Coordinates: 39°57’41.4″N 75°09’22.2″W

Everyone needs some time to unwind. And everyone has a different way of doing it.

According to Google, the POI on the image is a Mexican restaurant, La Chinesca. The guy captured at these funny Google Maps coordinates probably went out for a drink and things got a bit out of control (I hope he’s fine).

The graffiti on his right is what makes the image complete. No matter what happens, if you find yourself here, you’ll have an explanation.

See it in Street View

13. Giant Cup

Coordinates: 58°16’07.9″N 6°47’38.3″W

By merely glancing at the image above, it appears that there’s some kind of a giant cup in the sky. That’s a funny image, indeed.

However, if you look a bit closer, you’ll notice that the cup is nothing but a part of the street pole behind it. If you go past this location and turn around, you’ll see where this cup belongs.

It’s undoubtedly more fun to look at the poll top as a separate object, but the truth is that’s just another Google Street View glitch.

See it in Street View

14. Batman in France

Coordinates: 50°21’50.4″N 3°31’36.9″E

The first thing I did when I stumbled upon these funny Google Maps coordinates was googling Batman’s real estate possessions. I figured he might have a cabin in the northern region of France because that’s where this image was captured.

The area where Batman was spotted is home to two UNESCO World Heritage sites. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

And if you look at the dates, you’ll only see Batman in the image from August 2016. Street View didn’t capture an image of him after that.

See it in Street View

15. Gift Car

Coordinates: 52°17’41.1″N 20°57’37.6″E

The last place on this list of funny Google Maps coordinates is a “beautifully” wrapped car.

The image was captured in Poland where someone had too much free time on their hands.

If you want to immerse yourself in the mystery of who’s done this, rotate Street View and observe the four people in the back.

See it in Street View

That’s it for this edition of funny Google Maps coordinates. If you’ve found some funny places you’d like to share with us, feel free to do so in the comments below.

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In a press release today, the EC stated that it asked Microsoft earlier this year to send over information on “Copilot in Bing” and “Image Creator by Designer” to see if those services violated the EU's Digital Services Act. The EC says Microsoft has not yet provided that information and has now set up a new deadline for the company. It added:

The request for information is based on the suspicion that Bing may have breached the DSA for risks linked to generative AI, such as so-called ‘hallucinations', the viral dissemination of deepfakes, as well as the automated manipulation of services that can mislead voters. Under the DSA, designates services, including Bing, must carry out an adequate risk assessment and adopt respective risk mitigation measures.

The EC added that the use of generative AI was especially concerning this year, as it could be used to influence the European Parliament elections in June.

If Microsoft does not provide the requested information about its generative AI tools to the EC before May 27, the regulatory agency could impose fines against the company. Those fines could total up to 1 percent of Microsoft's total annual income. That same fine could be imposed if Microsoft sends over "incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information" over to the EC.

In December 2023, the EC officially launched a probe of X (formerly Twitter) to see if the social network has violated the Digital Services Act. In April, the EC opened an investigation into TikTok to see if it had violated the DSA due to the launch of TikTok Lite in France and Spain.

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Twitter's official rebranding to X started in July last year with a new logo available across its web version and mobile apps, followed by name changes for the services and official social media accounts operated by the company. TweetDeck became X Pro, Twitter Blue became X Premium, and the official @X handle was taken away from its owner.

Fast forward to now, Twitter's journey to X is complete as Elon Musk announced on the platform that "All Core systems are now on X.com." As part of the change, it will display the URL X.com instead of Twitter.com when you visit the social media platform using your web browser.

The social media platform has also put a notice on its sign-up page stating," We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same." However, the URL shift has been gradual over the months since July last year when Elon Musk announced the rebranding.

At the time of writing, there are places where the old URL is still visible, for instance, the premium signup page for X Pro.

X.com isn't a new brand; it has been associated with Musk for more than two decades now. Musk founded an online bank called X.com in 1999, which later merged with Confinity to become PayPal.

Musk took charge as X Corp's CEO (then Twitter Inc.) after purchasing the company but later hired NBCUniversal's Linda Yaccarino. The billionaire's idea is to turn X into a one-stop shop with offerings such as job listings, video streaming, AI chatbot, and more. There were rumors of an X stock trading app in development but Elon Musk denied those claims.

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What is new in the May 2024 firmware update for Surface Go 4?

Improvements and fixes:

 

• Addresses Wi-Fi related security issues and connection stability during Reset/Recovery.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

You can download the latest firmware update for your Surface Go 4 from Settings > Windows Update. Alternatively, go to the official Surface support website and download a manual installation package.

So far, the Surface Go 4 has only been available to commercial customers. Unlike the three previous generations of Microsoft's 10.5-inch Windows tablets, which were also offered to "regular consumers." However, that may change soon. Rumors say that Microsoft is getting ready to launch a consumer version of the Surface Go 4 that will feature the same hardware as its business-focused sibling.

The Surface Go 4 has a 10.5-inch IPS display, 8GB of LPDDR5 memory, 64-256GB UFS storage and the Intel Processor N200 chip. It also has a 1080p FullHD front-facing camera with Windows Hello, stereo speakers, dual far-field studio mics, and more. Commercial customers can purchase the Surface Go 4 starting at $579. The price of the upcoming consumer version is currently unknown.

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Reddit's Data API is already accessible to Google through a partnership announced earlier this year. In its latest blog post, Reddit explained:

OpenAI will bring Reddit content to ChatGPT and new products, helping users discover and engage with Reddit communities. To do so, OpenAI will access Reddit’s Data API, which provides real-time, structured, and unique content from Reddit. This will enable OpenAI’s AI tools to better understand and showcase Reddit content, especially on recent topics.

It's not a one-way street, and the social news aggregator will also benefit from the partnership. Reddit will bring new AI-powered features for Redditors and mods in the coming future, "building on OpenAI’s platform of AI models to bring its powerful vision to life."

Addressing potential privacy concerns, Reddit said:

This partnership is consistent with other content arrangements, and does not change Reddit's Data API Terms or Developer Terms, which state content accessed through Reddit’s Data API cannot be used for commercial purposes without Reddit’s approval. API access remains free for non-commercial usage under our published threshold.

The announcement comes at a time when many things are happening under OpenAI's roof. Its co-founder Ilya Sutskever and co-leader of its Superalignment group Jan Leike announced their departures just days after OpenAI revealed its GPT-4o model and a new desktop app for Mac users.

Meanwhile, Reddit announced its Q1 2024 earnings results earlier this month, which was its first time after becoming a public company. Its daily active users reached 82.7 million, with a 37% growth year-over-year, and its revenue increased by 48% to $243 million.

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Since the Hidden Blades were first unsheathed in new countries following the rise of Ubisoft's stealth-action franchise, players have desperately wanted to see a game set in Japan. The reasoning makes perfect sense, as the work the Assassins undertake in their war against the Templars seems well-suited for a game filled with samurai and ninjas. 

For years, this plea went unanswered, with Assassin's Creed instead tackling myriad settings like Colonial America, Paris in the grip of revolution, Ancient Egypt, and even the Viking invasion of Saxon-held Britain. Now, at long last, players will get to take up a katana and shuriken with Assassin's Creed Shadows. 

Initially revealed as Codename Red alongside the further-off, witchcraft-focused Codename Hexe, Assassin's Creed Shadows got its official title in a May 2024 reveal. It's a big game, which means players have big questions. I've rounded up the answers to some frequently-asked questions, so here's everything you need to know about Assassin's Creed Shadows.

What is Assassin's Creed Shadows?

Yasuke and Naoe in Assassin's Creed Shadows. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the latest entry in the Assassin's Creed series, which first began all the way back in 2007. Development on Assassin's Creed Shadows is being led by Ubisoft Quebec, the same studio that led work on Immortals Fenyx Rising, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Naturally, the game is also being developed with support work from 15 of Ubisoft's other studios. 

Assassin's Creed Shadows is set in the year 1579, with 16th century Japan at the close of the Sengoku period. Players will be playing as not just one character, but instead two protagonists. Yasuke, an African retainer to Oda Nobunaga, is one playable character, while the other is Naoe Fujibayashi, a Japanese woman trained as a Ninja and an Assassin.

The two characters provide vastly different playstyles and perspectives, and are forced to work together as the Tenshō Iga War causes strife across all of Japan. According to Ubisoft, Naoe is embarking on a quest for revenge to fulfill an "impossible promise," while Yasuke is forced to confront "demons of his past."

Assassin's Creed Shadows is also the first title being developed as part of the ongoing Assassin's Creed Infinity platform. Details are still vague, but Ubisoft has described Infinity as being a unifying platform for all future Assassin's Creed titles.

Assassin's Creed Shadows gameplay details

Taking the stealthy approach to a castle. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Gameplay in Assassin's Creed Shadows is similar to past titles, with stealth, Hidden Blade takedowns, and brawling combat. These features are split across the two playable characters, with Yasuke and Naoe each having distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Yasuke is a warrior, capable with large weapons like the bow, katana, naginata, or war club. Capable of fighting multiple opponents and dishing out powerful blows, Yasuke is not stealthy, and is essentially unable to hide in traditional Assassin's Creed fashion. Meanwhile, Naoe uses stealth-oriented gear like the Hidden Blade, kunai, or shuriken, and she can easily slip through crowds and avoid detection. 

Every weapon in the game has a unique skill tree for upgrades. Yasuke and Naoe do not share skills, but they do share XP, so you don't have to worry about one character being horribly under-leveled if you've spent a particularly long time playing as the other. 

Ubisoft is using a new, advanced version of the Anvil engine in Assassin's Creed Shadows, and that's resulted in some new gameplay features. Lighting has been improved, with real-time global illumination that has a direct impact on stealth. It'll be easier for players to tell if they can be spotted or not as they stick to the shadows, something that invites comparisons to older games like Thief. 

Assassin's Creed Shadows also features changing weather, with the seasons advancing as you play through the game. This can have a direct impact on how you play, changing the terrain and in turn your approach. As an example, a pond of water might freeze over in winter, meaning you can now run across it at the cost of being unable to hide underwater.

Is Assassin's Creed Shadows multiplayer?

Players will go back and forth between two protagonists. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Despite having two playable characters, there is no co-op or multiplayer in Assassin's Creed Shadows. The game has been specifically built as a single-player role-playing game, with players simply going back and forth between both playable protagonists. 

If you're hopeful that there'll be multiplayer at some point in the future however, it seems like there will be, just not in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Ubisoft is currently working on an Assassin's Creed multiplayer experience, which is being developed under the working title Invictus. We don't know much about it, but like Assassin's Creed Shadows, this is meant to be part of the Assassin's Creed Infinity platform. 

Assassin's Creed Shadows: Platforms

Overlooking before infiltration. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed Shadows is being developed for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC via Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Mac via the Mac App Store. The game will not be available on the previous generation of consoles, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. 

This is a big deal, as bar one technicality I'll explain in a bit, this marks the first time in over a decade that mainline Assassin's Creed games haven't been developed with the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 in mind. That lone technicality is 2014's Assassin's Creed Rogue, which was initially developed just for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This game was later remastered and ported to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2018.

Leaving the previous generation of hardware behind, Assassin's Creed Shadows employs multiple advanced features that wouldn't be possible on older machines. This includes upgraded lighting, which directly impacts the new stealth gameplay mechanics. It also means the game can be built around the ultra-fast internal SSDs used in the latest consoles.

Assassin's Creed Shadows: internet connection

Yasuke was born outside Japan, and is now trained as a retainer. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

When some players saw mentions of an internet connection being required in the store listing for Assassin's Creed Shadows, they understandably worried that this meant the game would be locked behind having internet, which could be problematic if the servers were ever shut down. 

Ubisoft has clarified that this is not the case, as Assassin's Creed Shadows only requires an internet connection once, when you first set the game up. After that, you are completely free to play the game offline.

Assassin's Creed Shadows: Release date

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed Shadows is set to launch on Nov. 15, 2024 for standard edition buyers. This means it's coming four years after the launch of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the last major game in the series, as well as one year after 2023's smaller title, Assassin's Creed Mirage. 

Anyone who buys the Gold or Ultimate Editions of Assassin's Creed Shadows can hop in early on November 12. We have a full Assassin's Creed Shadows preorder guide available, so you can determine which version of the game is the one that's best for you.

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It's amazing, and a little sad, to think that something created in 1989 that changed how people used and viewed the then-nascent Internet had nearly vanished by 2024.

 

Nearly, that is, because the dogged researchers and enthusiasts at The Serial Port channel on YouTube have found what is likely the last existing copy of Archie. Archie, first crafted by Alan Emtage while a student at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, allowed for the searching of various "anonymous" FTP servers around what was then a very small web of universities, researchers, and government and military nodes. It was groundbreaking; it was the first echo of the "anything, anywhere" Internet to come. And when The Serial Port went looking, it very much did not exist.

 

The Serial Port's journey from wondering where the last Archie server was to hosting its own.

 

While Archie would eventually be supplanted by Gopher, web portals, and search engines, it remains a useful way to index FTP sites and certainly should be preserved. The Serial Port did this, and the road to get there is remarkable and intriguing. You are best off watching the video of their rescue, along with its explanatory preamble. But I present here some notable bits of the tale, perhaps to tempt you into digging further.

 

 

The Serial Port notes the general loss of the Internet's FTP era, including the recent shutdown of the Hobbes OS/2 Archive. Emtage, interviewed at length by the team, sent a tape copy of Archie to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, but it was unrecoverable. Emtage's company, Bunyip Information Systems, last sold version 3.5 of Archie's server software for $6,000 in the mid-1990s (almost $12,000 today), and yet you can't find it anywhere on the web. The Internet Archive wasn't really running until 1996, just as Archie was fading from the web and, likely, memory.

 

The Serial Port team works dozens and dozens of resources to find a working copy of Archie's code, including the Internet Old Farts Club on Facebook. I won't give away the surprising source of their victory, but cheers (or na zdrowie) to the folks who keep old things running for everyone's knowledge.

 

Not only did The Serial Code rescue the last working version of Archie (seemingly a 3.5 beta), but they posted its docs and now run an actual Archie server on an emulated Sun SPARCstation 5. It's currently indexing its own mirror of the Hobbes archive, along with the FTP sites for FreeBSD, Adobe, and D Bit emulation. Searching for "word" in Archie found me a bunch of files, including the classic "Antiword" app and password managers and generators for OS/2.

 

Emtage, who would later help define the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) standard, gave his blessing to The Serial Port's efforts to recapture and preserve the code of Archie's server. It's a happy ending to a story about archiving the early Internet in a way that's relevant to today, with hopefully more to come.

 

Listing image by The Serial Port/YouTube

 

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Security updates in the latest release include the following:

• Intel-SA-00923 Description: Uncontrolled resource consumption for some Intel® SPS firmware versions may allow a privileged user to potentially enable denial of service via network access.
• Intel-SA-00929 Description: Race condition in BIOS firmware for some Intel(R) Processors may allow a privileged user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via local access.
• Intel-SA-00950 Description: Sequence of processor instructions leads to unexpected behavior for some Intel(R) Processors may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable escalation of privilege and/or information disclosure and/or denial of service via local access.

Note that the update does not apply to the Surface Pro 7+.

What is new in the May 2024 firmware update for the Surface Pro 7?

• Addresses a potential security vulnerability related to Intel® Security Advisories INTEL-SA-00923, INTEL-SA-00929 & INTEL-SA-00950.

• Prevents overheating and maintains energy efficiency of the device.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

You can get the latest firmware update for the Surface Pro 7 in Settings > Windows Update. Alternatively, head to the official website and download a manual installation package.

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What you need to know

• One of the Fallout 4 mods often considered "essential" for the game is the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch, or UFO4P. The mod fixes countless bugs with the vanilla game and is available on both Xbox and PC.
• Following the release of Fallout 4's next-gen update, though, several PC players have reported (one with video evidence) that UFO4P is causing hitching and stuttering issues in their game. One player on Xbox has reported the issue as well.
• A UFO4P team member has pointed to a recent Digital Foundry analysis of vanilla Fallout 4 on console that shows the base game has stuttering issues after the next-gen patch, but many players say the stuttering only occurs in their game when UFO4P is installed.
• I loaded Fallout 4 up with nothing but UFO4P installed to test it myself, and found there were fairly consistent, albeit rare, stutters in denser parts of Fallout 4's map like Lexington and the downtown Boston areas that went away when I disabled it. However, your mileage may vary.

Since its release in 2016, one of the most popular mods for Bethesda's post-apocalyptic 2015 RPG Fallout 4 has been the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch, or UFO4P. Frequently updated with countless fixes for the game's various bugs and glitches, it's widely considered to be one of the most essential mods for the game ever developed. At the time of writing, it's the fourth most popular mod of all time on the Fallout 4 Nexus Mods hub with over 8 million downloads, and it's also the second most downloaded Fallout 4 mod on Xbox. Without a doubt, it's one of the best Fallout 4 Xbox mods and best Fallout 4 mods on PC.

UFO4P is a staple in many players' load orders, including fans who prefer a vanilla experience, and several mods depend on it to function — after all, extensive bug fixes benefit everyone and help make Fallout 4 as stable of a foundation for mods to add onto as it can possibly be. However, following the release of the controversial Fallout 4 next-gen update (and a follow-up patch for it), UFO4P may be causing stutters and framerate drops for players that have it installed.

I first caught wind of this when browsing the Fallout modding subreddit and noticing a few recent trending posts about these issues (such as this one from a few days ago and another from May 14), in which several players have reported experiencing them on PC until disabling UFO4P. User u/flatfeet recorded video evidence of this (edited and unedited) that shows some specific spots in Sanctuary where the stutters occur, and said in a now-deleted exchange in the UFO4P comments (it begins at the bottom of page four) that they've "done many tests" with "just this mod." In busier areas of Fallout 4's Commonwealth, they also said that the stutters happen "walking 30 seconds in any direction" and that they "usually last two or three times longer" than the ones in their videos.

Arthmoor — member of the UFO4P team and the uploader of the mod itself — directed u/flatfleet and others to a recent Digital Foundry analysis of vanilla Fallout 4 posted after the "Next-Gen Update 2" patch that shows the game has some hitching and stuttering issues on Xbox Series X|S and PS5, saying that what's shown "likely applies equally to PC as well" and that "any issues with variance are NOT caused by the UFO4P" and are instead "inherent to the NG update."

However, many players still maintain that the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch is the source of the stuttering problems on PC, as they say they experience consistent hitching problems with it enabled and smooth performance whenever it's uninstalled. Reportedly, further comments about the issue on the UFO4P page were removed; the comments were then locked, with Arthmoor stating that "our team needs a break from all the BS associated with bad information about the patch and it's interaction with the NG Update."

For what it's worth, I loaded up a vanilla Fallout 4 save with nothing other than the UFO4P mod installed to run a few quick tests, and found that I did come across a handful of fairly consistent hitches in denser parts of the map like Lexington and the downtown Boston area. These went away completely when I disabled the mod, so there definitely seems to be something specific to UFO4P going on here. Notably, the stutters I encountered were rare and short, but your mileage may vary — it wouldn't surprise me if the problem is influenced by the combination of hardware in your system, especially since game performance issues tend to have inconsistent severity from player to player in general. I have an i5-12600K rig with an RTX 3070 and a Samsung 980 PRO SSD, while u/flatfleet (who seems to have a worse experience) said they play on a machine with an i9-13900K, an RTX 4090, and a Samsung 990 PRO SSD.

The stuttering problem that seems to be caused by UFO4P is reportedly more severe in denser parts of Fallout 4's map. (Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

 

If you've noticed stuttering issues in Fallout 4 on PC recently and have UFO4P installed, try disabling it and seeing if that fixes your problem. You may want to disable it regardless until this situation gets figured out, though it's a great mod and one I'd keep installed if you aren't running into drastic hitching issues with it in your load order (disabling a mod this big mid-playthrough is risky, so if you aren't far along in one, you may want to start over). Note that I've only seen one report of the Xbox version of UFO4P causing stutters, so the problem may be less prevalent on console.

Some sort of problematic interaction between UFO4P and the Fallout 4 next-gen update is one of several reasons for players to be annoyed with the latter, with some others being its terrible ultrawide support and the fact it still hasn't fixed crashes for NVIDIA RTX GPU users caused by the Weapon Debris setting (modders took care of that, thankfully). At least you can downgrade Fallout 4 to roll the update back, and reportedly the version of UFO4P under "Old Files" on its files page does work with the pre-NG update Steam version of the game even though it's "for use on GOG versions of Fallout 4" that haven't gotten the new patches yet. It "will be removed once that version has been updated," however, as the UFO4P team doesn't keep older releases of the mod available to download.

Fallout 4 itself is benefitting greatly from the ongoing Fallout player count resurgence, as it's one of the best-selling games right now thanks to all the fanfare brought about by the excellent Fallout TV show. It's arguably one of the best Fallout games to play if you're checking out the legendary RPG series for the first time, and one of the best titles available on Xbox Game Pass.

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Bethesda announced at the start of May that the biggest update yet for Starfield is being prepped. Now, after a couple of weeks in beta via Steam, the studio is rolling out the 1.11.36 update to the sci-fi RPG across all PC and Xbox platforms. As previously announced, this update is carrying major gameplay changes alongside a large number of bug fixes.

Easily the biggest change Bethesda has made is the inclusion of brand-new surface maps. The overhauled system shows detailed cities and explorable areas when players pull up local maps. This also includes markers for points of interest, fast-travel enabled vendor locations, ship landing locations, and much more.

Speaking of ships, Bethesda has brought over the customization aspects of base building over to ship interiors with this update. Space ship interiors can now be ripped apart and put together in whatever style players require. Other gameplay changes include more options to tweak difficulty, New Game Plus options to change character appearance and traits, and even a remove dialog camera toggle.

Bethesda has also given Xbox Series X players more control over how their game looks and performs. A frame rate target of 30. 40, 60, or uncapped can now be set on top of prioritizing "Visuals" and "Performance" modes. The options utilize dynamic resolution and details of "special effects, lighting, and crowds" to keep the desired frame rates. Vsync can also be toggled on and off by players on the console.

A massive number of bug fixes focused across gameplay, graphics, outposts, and quests departments have landed with the update too. Find the complete patch notes for Starfield update 1.11.36 over here.

Following the May update, Bethesda has teased that it is working on a land vehicle for "speedier planetary exploration," which will land with a future update for free. The studio is also working on the Shattered Space story expansion as well as official mod support for the sci-fi RPG, though no release windows have been given yet for any upcoming content or features.

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The next Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft today received its first cinematic trailer, giving fans a first look at the feudal Japan setting it will be offering and the new protagonists. Catch the Assassin's Creed Shadows trailer above, which introduces the Shinobi and Samurai players will be controlling in this single-player RPG experience.

Set in the late Sengoku period (late 16th century), Assassin's Creed Shadows introduces the real-life historical samurai, Yasuke and a Japanese shinobi, Naoe as the protagonists. Regarding how the story arcs of the two characters mix, Ubisoft said:

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ dual protagonists are ultimately brought together by Nobunaga, whose goal of unifying Japan takes his army – and Yasuke – to the province of Iga for the Second Tenshō Iga War. The Igan resistance, though greatly overpowered by Nobunaga’s army, is courageously led by Naoe’s father. The two protagonists find each other through Nobunaga, although, for obvious reasons, they don’t exactly get off to a great start.

The duo will excel in different forms of combat. Yasuke will be a damage dealer, capable of using various melee weapons and can even take more hits thanks to his armor. His status as a Samurai will also garner respect from ordinary people. Meanwhile, being an Assassin, Naoe is the only one with a hidden blade, and relies much more on stealth and dodging-based combat, while also utilizing the classic parkour and gadget elements. She will be able to blend in by pretending to be a peasant in cities.

Ubisoft also teased that new elements like changing seasons as time passes in-game and using actual shadows for stealth will be introduced in this entry too. "The game world is dynamic and highly detailed, built with the goal of letting players get lost within it – and as both Naoe and Yasuke, players will have new, unique ways to connect with the beauty that surrounds them," adds the company.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is releasing on November 15 across PC (Ubisoft Store and Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Apple silicon Macs, and Amazon Luna platforms. The game will also be available via the Ubisoft Plus Premium subscription.

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Raspberry Pi prepares for a $630 million IPO.

Photo by Emma Roth / The Verge

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Google kicked off its annual I/O developer conference today. The company typically uses the Google I/O keynote to announce an array of new software updates and the occasional hunk of hardware. There was no hardware at this year’s I/O—Google had already announced its new Pixel 8A phone—but today’s presentation was a resplendent onslaught of AI software updates and a reflection of how Google aims to assert dominance over the generative AI boom of the past couple years.

Here are the biggest announcements from I/O 2024.

Gemini Steps Up

Courtesy of Google

Gemini Nano, Google’s on-device mobile large language model, is getting a boost. It’s now going to be called Gemini Nano with Multimodality, which Google CEO Sundar Pichai said onstage lets it “turn any input into any output.” That means it can pull information from text, photos, audio, web, or social videos, and live video from your phone’s camera, and then synthesize that input to summarize what’s within or to answer questions you may have about it. Google showed a video demonstrating this where someone scanned all the books on a shelf with a camera and recorded the titles in a database to recognize them later.

Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google’s beefier cloud-based AI system, is available for all developers globally today. For more about all of Google’s AI ambitions, read Will Knight’s WIRED interview with the cofounder of Google’s DeepMind, Demis Hassabis.

Better Search for Photos

Google has built some robust visual search tools into Google Photos. With a new feature called Ask Photos, you can ask Gemini to search your photos and deliver more granular results than before. One example: Tell it your license plate number, and it will use context clues to find your car in all of the pics you’ve ever taken.

In a Google blog post, Google Photos software engineer Jerem Selier says the feature doesn’t collect data on your photos that can be used to serve ads or train its other Gemini AI models (aside from what’s being used in Google Photos). Ask Photos is rolling out this summer.

Gemini Goes to Work

Google is also infusing AI into its Workplace suite of office tools. Starting today, a button to toggle Google’s Gemini AI will appear in the side panel of many Google apps, including Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The Gemini helper can answer questions, help you craft emails or documents, or provide summaries of long docs or email threads.

Lest you think this stuff is all about office work, Google showed off a few features that will appeal to parents, like AI chatbots that can help students with their homework or provide a summary of the PTA meetings you may have missed. Google’s Circle to Search, which debuted earlier this year, is also getting an upgrade and will soon be used to help students with schoolwork, like detailing how to solve math problems.

Also embedded into apps like Docs and Gmail is a Gemini-powered AI Teammate. This is like a coworker productivity buddy, which you can name anything you want. (For the purposes of today’s demo, it was named Chip.) The AI Teammate can help you better coordinate communications between your coworkers, keep track of project files, assemble to-do lists, and follow up on assignments. It’s like a turbocharged Slackbot.

We also saw a demo of Gems, a new feature that sets automated routines for things you want Gemini to do on a regular basis. You can set it up to manage various digital chores, then run those with a voice command or a text prompt. Google calls each of those routines “Gems” as a play on the Gemini name.

Read Julian Chokkattu’s story for an even deeper dive into all the big things coming to Gemini on Android. We’ll learn more about AI Teammate and the Workspace integrations soon.

New Gemini Models

Google has two new models of its Gemini AI, focused on different types of tasks. Gemini 1.5 Flash is the faster, lower latency one, optimized for tasks where quickness is preferable.

Project Astra is a visual chatbot, and sort of a souped-up version of Google Lens. It lets users open their phone cameras and ask questions about just about anything around them by pointing the camera at things. Google showed off a video demo where somebody asked Astra a variety of questions in a row based on their surroundings. Astra has a better spatial and contextual understanding, which Google says lets users identify things out in the world like what town they are in, the inner workings of some code on a computer screen, or even coming up with a clever band name for your dog. The demo showed Astra’s voice-powered interactions working through a phone’s camera as well as a camera embedded in some (unidentified) smart glasses.

Will Knight goes deeper in his news story on Project Astra from earlier today.

Creativity Tools

The creative side of Google’s AI efforts got a nod; we saw demos for a suite of tools developed by the company’s experimental AI division at Google Labs.

The new thing is VideoFX, a generative video model based off Google DeepMind video generator Veo. It creates 1080p videos based on text prompts and allows for more flexibility within the production process than before. Google has also improved ImageFX, a high-resolution image generator that Google says has fewer issues with creating unwanted digital artifacts in pictures than its previous image generation. It is also better at analyzing a user’s prompts and generating text.

Google also showed off its new DJ Mode in MusicFX, an AI music generator that lets musicians generate song loops and samples based on prompts. (DJ mode was shown off during the eccentric and delightful performance by musician Mark Rebillet that led into the I/O keynote.)

An Evolution in Search

From its humble beginning as a search-focused company, Google is still the most prominent player in the search industry (despite some very good, slightly more private options). Google’s newest AI updates are a seismic shift for its core product.

Some new capabilities include AI-organized search, which allows for more tightly presented and readable search results, as well as the ability to get better responses from longer queries and searches with photos.

We also saw AI overviews, which are short summaries that pool information from multiple sources to answer the question you entered in the search box. These summaries appear at the top of the results so you don’t even need to go to a website to get the answers you’re seeking. These overviews are already controversial, with publishers and websites fearing that a Google search that answers questions without the user needing to click any links may spell doom for sites that already have to go to extreme lengths to show up in Google’s search results in the first place. Nonetheless, these newly enhanced AI overviews are rolling out to everyone in the US starting today.

A new feature called Multi-Step Reasoning lets you find several layers of information about a topic when you’re searching for things with some contextual depth. Google used planning a trip as an example, showing how searching in Maps can help find hotels and set transit itineraries. It then went on to suggest restaurants and help with meal planning for the trip. You can deepen the search by looking for specific types of cuisine or vegetarian options. All of this info is presented to you in an organized way.

Lastly, we saw a quick demo of how users can rely on Google Lens to answer questions about whatever they’re pointing their camera at. (Yes, this sounds similar to what Project Astra does, but these capabilities are being built into Lens in a slightly different way.) The demo showed a woman trying to get a “broken” turntable to work, but Google identified that the record player’s tonearm simply needed adjusting, and it presented her with a few options for video- and text-based instructions on how to do just that. It even properly identified the make and model of the turntable through the camera.

WIRED’s Lauren Goode talked with Google head of search Liz Reid about all the AI updates coming to Google Search, and what it means for the internet as a whole.

Security and Safety

One of the last noteworthy things we saw in the keynote was a new scam detection feature for Android, which can listen in on your phone calls and detect any language that sounds like something a scammer would use, like asking you to move money into a different account. If it hears you getting duped, it’ll interrupt the call and give you an onscreen prompt suggesting that you hang up. Google says the feature works on the device, so your phone calls don’t go into the cloud for analysis, making the feature more private. (Also check out WIRED’s guide to protecting yourself and your loved ones from AI scam calls.)

Google has also expanded its SynthID watermarking tool meant to distinguish media made with AI. This can help you detect misinformation, deepfakes, or phishing spam. The tool leaves an imperceptible watermark that can’t be seen with the naked eye, but can be detected by software that analyzes the pixel-level data in an image. The new updates have expanded the feature to scan content on the Gemini app, on the web, and in Veo-generated videos. Google says it plans to release SynthID as an open source tool later this summer.

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Google Search is about to fundamentally change—for better or worse. To align with Alphabet-owned Google’s grand vision of artificial intelligence, and prompted by competition from AI upstarts like ChatGPT, the company’s core product is getting reorganized, more personalized, and much more summarized by AI.

At Google’s annual I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California, today, Liz Reid showed off these changes, setting her stamp early on in her tenure as the new head of all things Google search. (Reid has been at Google a mere 20 years, where she has worked on a variety of search products.) Her AI-soaked demo was part of a broader theme throughout Google’s keynote, led primarily by CEO Sundar Pichai: AI is now underpinning nearly every product at Google, and the company only plans to accelerate that shift.

“In the era of Gemini we think we can make a dramatic amount of improvements to search,” Reid said in an interview with WIRED ahead of the event, referring to the flagship generative AI model launched late last year. “People’s time is valuable, right? They deal with hard things. If you have an opportunity with technology to help people get answers to their questions, to take more of the work out of it, why wouldn’t we want to go after that?”

Google's new search features make it possible to use video and voice to make complex queries.

 Courtesy of Google

It’s as though Google took the index cards for the screenplay it’s been writing for the past 25 years and tossed them into the air to see where the cards might fall. Also: The screenplay was written by AI.

These changes to Google Search have been long in the making. Last year the company carved out a section of its Search Labs, which lets users try experimental new features, for something called Search Generative Experience. The big question since has been whether, or when, those features would become a permanent part of Google Search. The answer is, well, now.

Google's search overhaul comes at a time when critics are becoming increasingly vocal about what feels to some like a degraded search experience, and for the first time in a long time, the company is feeling the heat of competition, from the massive mashup between Microsoft and OpenAI. Smaller startups like Perplexity, You.com, and Brave have also been riding the generative AI wave and getting attention, if not significant mindshare yet, for the way they’ve rejiggered the whole concept of search.

Automatic Answers

Google says it has made a customized version of its Gemini AI model for these new Search features, though it declined to share any information about the size of this model, its speeds, or the guardrails it has put in place around the technology.

This search-specific spin on Gemini will power at least a few different elements of the new Google Search. AI Overviews, which Google has already been experimenting with in its labs, is likely the most significant. AI-generated summaries will now appear at the top of search results.

One example from WIRED’s testing: In response to the query “Where is the best place for me to see the northern lights?” Google will, instead of listing web pages, tell you in authoritative text that the best places to see the northern lights, aka the aurora borealis, are in the Arctic Circle in places with minimal light pollution. It will also offer a link to NordicVisitor.com. But then the AI continues yapping on below that, saying “Other places to see the northern lights include Russia and Canada’s northwest territories.”

Reid says that AI Overviews like this won’t show up for every search result, even if the feature is now becoming more prevalent. It’s reserved for more complex questions. Every time a person searches, Google is attempting to make an algorithmic value judgment behind the scenes as to whether it should serve up AI-generated answers or a conventional blue link to click. “If you search for Walmart.com, you really just want to go to Walmart.com,” Reid says. “But if you have an extremely customized question, that’s where we’re going to bring this.”

AI Overviews are rolling out this week to all Google search users in the US. The feature will come to more countries by the end of the year, Reid said, which means more than a billion people will see AI Overviews in their search results. They will appear across all platforms—the web, mobile, and as part of the search engine experience in browsers, such as when people search through Google on Safari.

Another update coming to search is a function for planning ahead. You can, for example, ask Google to meal-plan for you, or to find a pilates studio nearby that’s offering a class with an introductory discount. In the Googley-eyed future of search, an AI agent can round up a few studios nearby, summarize reviews of them, and plot out the time it would take someone to walk there. This is one of Google’s most obvious advantages over upstart search engines, which don’t have anything close to the troves of reviews, mapping data, or other knowledge that Google has, and may not be able to tap into APIs for real-time or local information so easily.

The most jarring changes that Google has been exploring in its Search Labs is an “AI-organized” results page. This at first glance looks to eschew the blue-links search experience entirely.

One example provided by Reid: A search for where to go for an anniversary dinner in the greater Dallas area would return a page with a few “chips” or buttons at the top to refine the results. Those might include categories like Dine-In, Takeout, and Open Now. Below that might be a sponsored result—Google’s gonna ad—and then a grouping of what Google judges to be “anniversary-worthy restaurants” or “romantic steakhouses.” That might be followed by some suggested questions to tweak the search even more, like, “Is Dallas a romantic city?”

AI-organized search is still being rolled out, but it will start appearing in the US in English “in the coming weeks.” So will an enhanced video search option, like Google Lens on steroids, where you can point your phone’s camera at an object like a broken record player and ask how to fix it.

If all these new AI features sound confusing, you might have missed Google’s latest galaxy-brain ambitions for what was once a humble text box. Reid makes clear that she thinks most consumers assume Google Search is just one thing, where in fact it’s many things to different people, who all search in different ways.

“That’s one of the reasons why we’re excited about working on some of the AI-organized results pages,” she said. “Like, how do you make sense of space? The fact that you want lots of different content is great. But is it as easy as it can be yet in terms of browsing through and consuming the information?”

But by generating AI Overviews—and by determining when those overviews should appear—Google is essentially deciding what is a complex question and what is not, and then making a judgment on what kind of web content should inform its AI-generated summary. Sure, it’s a new era of search where search does the work for you; it’s also a search bot that has the potential to algorithmically favor one kind of result over others.

“One of the biggest changes to happen in search with these AI models is that the AI actually creates a kind of informed opinion,” says Jim Yu, the executive chairman of BrightEdge, a search engine optimization firm that has been closely monitoring web traffic for more than 17 years. “The paradigm of search for the last 20 years has been that the search engine pulls a lot of information and gives you the links. Now the search engine does all the searches for you and summarizes the results and gives you a formative opinion.”

Doing that raises the stakes for Google’s search results. When algorithms are deciding that what a person needs is one coagulated answer, instead of coughing up several links for them to then click through and read, errors are more consequential. Gemini has not been immune to hallucinations—instances where the AI shares blatantly wrong or made-up information.

Last year a writer for The Atlantic asked Google to name an African country beginning with the letter “K,” and the search engine responded with a snippet of text—originally generated by ChatGPT—that none of the countries in Africa begin with the letter K, clearly overlooking Kenya. Google’s AI image-generation tool was very publicly criticized earlier this year when it depicted some historical figures, such as George Washington, as Black. Google temporarily paused that tool.

New World Order

Google’s reimagined version of AI search shoves the famous “10 blue links” it used to provide on results pages further into the rearview. First ads and info boxes began to take priority at the top of Google’s pages; now, AI-generated overviews and categories will take up a good chunk of search real estate. And web publishers and content creators are nervous about these changes—rightfully.

The research firm Gartner predicted earlier this year that by 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop by 25 percent, as a more “agent”-led search approach, in which AI models retrieve and generate more direct answers, takes hold.

“Generative AI solutions are becoming substitute answer engines, replacing user queries that previously may have been executed in traditional search engines,” Alan Antin, a vice president analyst at Gartner, said in a statement that accompanied the report. “This will force companies to rethink their marketing channels strategy.”

What does that mean for the web? “It’s a change in the world order,” says Yu, of BrightEdge. “We’re at this moment where everything in search is starting to change with AI.”

Eight months ago BrightEdge developed something it calls a generative parser, which monitors what happens when searchers interact with AI-generated results on the web. He says over the past month the parser has detected that Google is less frequently asking people if they want an AI-generated answer, which was part of the experimental phase of generative search, and more frequently assuming they do. “We think it shows they have a lot more confidence that you’re going to want to interact with AI in search, rather than prompting you to opt in to an AI-generated result.”

Changes to search also have major implications for Google’s advertising business, which makes up the vast majority of the company’s revenue. In a recent quarterly earnings call, Pichai declined to share revenue from its generative AI experiments broadly. But as WIRED’s Paresh Dave pointed out, by offering more direct answers to searchers, “Google could end up with fewer opportunities to show search ads if people spend less time doing additional, more refined searches.” And the kinds of ads shown may have to evolve along with Google’s generative AI tools.

Google has said it will prioritize traffic to websites, creators, and merchants even as these changes roll out, but it hasn’t pulled back the curtain to reveal exactly how it plans to do this.

When asked in a press briefing ahead of I/O whether Google believes users will still click on links beyond the AI-generated web summary, Reid said that so far Google sees people “actually digging deeper, so they start with the AI overview and then click on additional websites.”

In the past, Reid continued, a searcher would have to poke around to eventually land on a website that gave them the info they wanted, but now Google will assemble an answer culled from various websites of its choosing. In the hive mind at the Googleplex, that will still spark exploration. “[People] will just use search more often, and that provides an additional opportunity to send valuable traffic to the web,” Reid said.

It’s a rosy vision for the future of search, one where being served bite-size AI-generated answers somehow prompts people to spend more time digging deeper into ideas. Google Search still promises to put the world’s information at our fingertips, but it’s less clear now who is actually tapping the keys.

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The version of Windows 11 installed is the ARM version with KVM enabled, and given the Switch's hardware it should come as no surprise that it isn't exactly quick as far as ARM machines go. All models of the Nintendo Switch run on a custom NVIDIA Tegra processor based on the Tegra X1, which dates all the way back to 2015.

It's not just Windows 11 that has been set up and run on this particular console, with versions of Linux and Steam having been seen and set up on the console with VM installs as well. When attempting to run Peggle on the console the performance clearly struggles and slows to a crawl.

Given the age of the hardware it is surprising that Windows 11 managed to run at all, which is testament to how optimised these ARM builds of operating systems are.

The Nintendo Switch's successor however has been confirmed by Nintendo to be announced within the current fiscal year (before April 2025) and will reportedly bring system performance up to a level between the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox Series S. Even though it will be announced then, there is no confirmation of an estimated launch window currently.

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Microsoft is hosting a special event in Seattle on May 20, and as always, the company is remaining tight-lipped about what exactly we're going to see. Luckily, we already have a pretty good idea about what the company intends to talk about, and it's likely to involve Windows, Surface, and yet-to-be-announced AI experiences that will join them together. 

Unfortunately, this year's event will not be livestreamed, which means you will have to follow our live blog to see the news as it happens. Or, keep reading for a preview of the announcements I'm expecting to see.

Windows 11

AI experiences in Windows 11 will be the main focus. (Image credit: Windows Central)

 

Microsoft is expected to spend some time taking the wraps off its next major Windows 11 update, which will ship later this year as the Windows 11 2024 Update. This release will ship first on new Qualcomm Snapdragon X-based PCs launching in June and will roll out to everyone else in the fall.

The big focus for this year's Windows 11 update is on next-gen AI experiences, some of which are expected to require a neural processing unit (NPU) with around 40-45 TOPS of power. Qualcomm's upcoming SoC is capable of running this, and next-gen chips from Intel and AMD coming in 2025 are also expected to run these next-gen AI experiences.

AI Explorer

AI Explorer is expected to be the blockbuster AI feature coming to Windows 11. (Image credit: Windows Central)

 

The likely star of the show will be AI Explorer, an internal umbrella term for a number of next-gen AI experiences coming to Windows 11 later this year. AI Explorer will deliver a set of features that utilize next-gen NPU hardware to allow Windows to run AI in the background, which analyzes everything you do and turns that into snapshots and memories that can be recalled at a later date using natural language.

According to my sources, the feature includes a timeline interface that will let you scroll back through all the different things you've done on your PC that the AI has captured, and let you Recall any moment just by typing in a search criteria. 

For example, if you were chatting with a friend called Sarah on WhatsApp who casually mentioned a list of movies they wanted to see, typing "show me that list of movies Sarah said she wanted to see" would bring up that exact moment in time when that conversation was happening.

AI Explorer can also analyze what's currently on-screen and provide contextual suggestions based on what it can see. An example of this is looking at two apps or webpages side by side, and asking AI Explorer to compare the two things. Or you could be looking at an image sent to you in an email, and AI Explorer can suggest removing the background of that image using Photos with a single-click.

You can learn more about these upcoming AI Explorer features in my in-depth write-up.

Advanced Windows Studio Effects

Studio Effects will enhance webcam feeds with artistic styles.  (Image credit: Microsoft)

 

Microsoft is also planning to unveil a number of enhanced Windows Studio Effects, specifically with new video effects which will apply filters in real-time in a handful of different artistic styles. These are expected to be built-in to Windows, and can be applied in any app that uses the built-in webcam and Studio Effects feed. 

Live Captions

Live captions are expected to get an AI upgrade that can translate different languages in real time. (Image credit: Windows Central)

 

Live Captions may also get a mention too. I hear Microsoft has been working on a new AI-powered feature that will enable the ability to translate different languages in real time based on whatever audio is being played on the system. Microsoft will tout this as an example of how AI is improving accessibility software. 

Local Generative AI

Copilot should gain some local AI capabilities.  (Image credit: Windows Central)

 

I also expect Microsoft to talk a bit about how it's enabling on-device Generative AI experiences. Up until now, many of the AI experiences on Windows 11 are cloud-based, which allows PCs without NPUs to utilize LLM technology. Starting later this year, Copilot will gain some local generative AI capabilities, reducing their reliance on the cloud on PCs with dedicated NPUs.

Surface

The Surface Pro and Surface Laptop will be top billing at this event.  (Image credit: Microsoft)

 

The other half of this event is expected to be all about Surface and Windows on Arm. Specifically, I am expecting Microsoft to unveil consumer variants of the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, both powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Series SoCs. 

Qualcomm's new chip beats Intel's latest Core Ultra chips in both performance and efficiency benchmarks, and even trades blows with the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. It's the first Windows on Arm chip that truly competes, and hardware makers are finally confident enough to position Windows on Arm devices as part of their mainstream lineups.

That's what we're going to see with the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 at this event. As far as I'm aware, Microsoft only intends to offer these consumer variants with Arm chips, a first for the Surface line. I also expect other OEMs such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo to announce their own Qualcomm-powered laptops around the same time. 

The first Snapdragon X Series powered laptops are expected to start shipping in June, and Microsoft's Surface Pro and Surface Laptop offerings are expected to be some of the first available. 

Surface Laptop

Expect the Surface Laptop to ship with a refreshed design. (Image credit: Windows Central)

 

It's the Surface Laptop line that's in the most need of a design refresh, and it sounds like that's what we might be getting with the Arm-powered Surface Laptop 6. According to my sources, the new Surface Laptop with Arm will be available in both 13.8- and 15-inch display sizes, both consisting of thinner bezels with rounded display corners.

Additionally, the device is also said to ship with an updated keyboard deck with a larger haptic trackpad, which is said to be similar to the trackpad found on the Surface Laptop Studio 2. I also hear the device will have a revised selection of ports, including one USB-A, two USB-C, and Surface Connect.

Surface Pro

The Arm-powered Surface Pro 10 may ship with an OLED display option.  (Image credit: Microsoft)

 

As far as I'm aware, the Arm-powered Surface Pro is less of a major update. I expect it to ship with a similar design to the Surface Pro 10 for business, including the rounded display corners that debuted with that model. The device will be available in more colors, as will the Surface Pro Type Cover, which has been updated with a dedicated Copilot key.

I'm told Microsoft is planning to offer the Arm-powered Surface Pro in an OLED display configuration for the first time, matching that of the new iPad Pro. The device will also offer an anti-reflective coating, similar to the Surface Pro 10 for business. 

Surface Go 4

Surface Go 4 may finally go on sale for consumers. (Image credit: Future)

 

While I don't expect this to get a mention during the event, I have heard that Surface Go 4 will be made available to buy for consumers this summer. Up until now, the Surface Go 4 has been exclusively available for commercial customers, but that means you've not been able to find the Surface Go 4 in retail stores like Best Buy or Amazon.

I understand that the Surface Go 4 for consumers will be identical to the Surface Go 4 for commercial customers, meaning it will be powered by the same Intel N200 processor and not an Arm chip.

Surprises?

It's always a possibility that Microsoft may have one or two surprises up its sleeve. I know we're not going to hear about any other Surface products at the event. That means no Surface Laptop Studio, no Surface Studio, and definitely no Surface Duo or headphones. The focus is on Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, and Qualcomm's newest SoC.

So, that's everything I'm expecting to see (and not see) during Microsoft's event on May 20. I will be on the ground covering the event as it happens, so keep it locked to Windows Central for all the news. 

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Titled Assassin's Creed Shadows, the game's first trailer will premiere on May 15 at 9 AM PT. Ubisoft announced the imminent arrival via a short social media post today without revealing any other information about the title.

When the title was originally announced to be in development in 2022, it ran with the codename RED. Shadows is said to be a fully RPG take on the Assassin's Creed universe again, much like Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, but this time taking players on a Shinobi fantasy.

Ubisoft Quebec, the studio behind titles like Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Syndicate and Immortals Fenyx Rising, is developing the new entry. In 2022, Ubisoft said the RED would become the "next evolution of Assassin's Creed's open-world RPG design."

A cinematic trailer reveal this week means a gameplay trailer will not be far behind. Even with the official death of E3, a number of major gaming showcases are happening in June. Ubisoft has already announced its next Ubisoft Forward presentation will kick off on June 10, which may be where fans will get to see gameplay of Assassin's Creed Shadows for the first time, and possibly even a release date.

If sticking to Ubisoft's original 2022 schedule, following Shadows' release, the publisher is on track to launch Codename Hexe next. This Assassin's Creed title is in development at series lead studio Ubisoft Montreal. The mysterious title is said to involve the witch trials of the Roman Empire and is rumored to bring magic, witchcraft, and even more mythical elements to the series.

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What is new in the May 2024 Surface Laptop Studio 2 firmware update?

• Ensures seamless audio playback and recording, improves stability preventing audio failures and drop out.

• Addresses a potential issue that could unintentionally mute the device when using a Jabra Headset.

• Improves device connectivity to the Wi-Fi and addresses concerns regarding Bluetooth pairing when device is on standby.

• Fixes a flickering or screen flashing issue when the device is connected to Surface Dock 2.

• Addresses a problem with the camera showing a black box instead of an image while using Teams.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

You can install the latest Surface Update by heading to Settings > Windows Update and clicking "Check for Update." Alternatively, go to the official Surface Support website and install it manually.

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This week was a big one for Microsoft news, though unfortunately much of it was negative. The tech giant shocked many when it announced that several game studios will be shut down, including the studio behind Hi-Fi Rush. A controversial controller launch followed that announcement as well, adding more bad news to the pile. We also saw Apple unveil a new processor that will compete with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and a Windows bug block VPNs from working.

Microsoft closing gaming studios

Microsoft shocked the gaming world by announcing the end of Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Tango Gameworks. In addition to those three studios being shut down, Roundhouse Studios will be folded into ZeniMax Online Studios. The news surprised many, but the planned shutdown of Tango Gameworks was particularly surprising. Tango Gameworks released Hi-Fi Rush in 2023, a game which earned critical acclaim and received honors at the Game Awards and the BAFTAs.

Microsoft laid off 1,900 people across Activision Blizzard, Xbox Game Studios, and ZeniMax Media earlier this year. At the time, that seemed like potentially the worst news of the year when it comes to people working within the industry. Unfortunately for those working at Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Tango Gameworks, more bad news came out this week.

Our Samuel Tolbert said "there aren't words to describe how idiotic, short-sighted, and downright grim this move is," and he was far from alone in feeling that way.

Tone deaf Xbox controller

Controversy emerged as Microsoft announced a new Fire Vapor Special Edition Controller this week. On most other news days, the announcement of a new Xbox controller would be welcome news. Many people love collecting Xbox controllers and gamepads top our collection of the best Xbox accessories. But the "Feel the burn" tagline originally used to market the controller proved controversial with the unveiling of the Fire Vapor Special Edition Controller.

Microsoft has since changed its marketing material to say "Introducing the Fire Vapor Special Edition Controller." While that phrasing is less charged, the fact that Microsoft announced a new controller the same day it announced plans to shut three studios was received poorly, regardless of marketing language.

Apple unveils M4

Apple had the biggest story in tech this week. The company unveiled its new iPad Pro, which is powered by the brand-new M4 processor. The M4 promises 50% faster CPU performance than Apples M2 and is four times faster than the M2 on the GPU side of things.

The comparison to the M2 is interesting, though there is some logic behind it. The previous iPad Pro features an M2 processor, so it makes sense to share figures comparing the M4 to the last chip inside an iPad Pro. But Apple not including comparisons between the M4 and M3 made some question if the tech giant is trying to frame the conversation about new Arm processors in 2024. Apple has been accused of rushing the M4 to market by some who argue the company rolled the chip out in an iPad Pro to ensure the M4 hit the market before the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite or the lower-tier Snapdragon X Plus. 

While it's fun to compare tech and decide which side "won" the year, the bottom line is that consumers will have some excellent options when it comes to tablets in 2024. The new iPad Pro looks fantastic, and Microsoft has a new Surface Pro 10 on the way. Other OEMs are ready to ship devices powered by new Snapdragon processors as well.

GPT-5 news

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has an interesting habit of criticizing his company's own products. Altman said GPT-4 is "mildly embarrassing at best" and promises "with a high degree of scientific certainty" that GPT-5 will be better. I suppose it shouldn't come as a shock that GPT-5 will likely be better than GPT-4, but the way Altman phrased the claim is interesting.

"GPT-4 is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again by a lot," said Altman. That quote echoes previous comments when the CEO said GPT-4 "kind of sucks." The good news for users of GPT-based technology is that GPT-5 will be better. Altman said with "a high degree of scientific certainty that GPT-5 is going to be a lot smarter than GPT-4."

Windows 11 VPN bug

Some users of Windows 11 and Windows 10 ran into a bug recently that prevents PCs from connecting to a VPN. The bug, which was acknowledged by Microsoft, is included in the April 2024 update for both versions of Windows. "Windows devices might face VPN connection failures after installing the April 2024 security update (KB5036893) or the April 2024 non-security preview update," said Microsoft.

The tech giant is aware of the issue and is working on a fix. For now, it's likely best to pause Windows updates for a bit. Microsoft will give people the green light to upgrade PCs again after the fix is addressed.

Reviews

Our experts take a close look at the latest gadgets each week. Recently, our team checked out a CPU cooler with a "THICC" radiator and Homeworld 3.

• The most ridiculous CPU cooler I've ever tested is also one of the best — with a cute IPS display and THICC radiator
• Homeworld 3 review: A strong, character-driven return to space strategy

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ExplainingComputers (1.01 million subscribers)

29 April, 2024

Video length: 16m 54s

Chapters

00:52 EEPROM Excitement

10:47 NVMe Configuration

13:55 Installing Another OS

15:58 Wrap

YouTube Source

Paul's Hardware (1.48M subscribers)

May 12, 2024

Video length: 11m 52s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - May 12, 2024

1:26 NVIDIA RTX 50 Rumors - 5080 before 5090? 250W to 600W Testing

3:49 Intel Core Ultra “Arrow Lake-S” desktop lineup leak, including 24-core 285K

5:49 AMD Might Brand CPUs “Ryzen AI” - Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 Leaked By ASUS

TECH BRIEFS

7:41 New LPCAMM2 Memory Modules arrive for Laptops

8:25 Intel Panther Lake to feature up 16 CPU cores and 12 “Celestial” Xe3-Cores

9:04 VESA Rolls Out DisplayHDR 1.2 Spec

9:40 PCIe 6.0's new thermal throttling technique

10:20 ASUS unveils ROG Ally X

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In 2024, we are looking forward to playing a ton of great PC titles, some of which were supposed to be released last year. Our list includes quite a few strategy titles in many different styles, a genre that has proven itself highly successful on the PC platform.

We will mention that all of our games on the Xbox 2024 list are planned for a PC release as well. We didn't want to duplicate our Xbox list for our most anticipated PC games, so we picked some more upcoming titles, many of which will be released either exclusively for PC or will likely be the prime platform for that game.

Update: May 12—We have added Tempest Rising, Frostpunk 2, and Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut to the list and have also removed some games that have been released.

Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut - May 16, 2024

• Developer: Sucker Punch and Nixxes
• Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainmnet
• What's it about: In 13th century Japan, your character is a samurai who has to protect his land from a Mongol invasion
• Why we want to play it: Not only is this PC version of the hit PlayStation game have features like support for image upscaling, frame generation and ultrawide displays, but it also is the first Sony PC port to include a PlayStation overlay.

Life By You - June 4, 2024 (Early Access)

• Developer: Paradox Teutonic
• Publisher: Paradox Interactive
• What's it about: You are in charge of this game world, as you create humans and put them in homes and settings that you build and see how they interact.
• Why we want to play it: Life By You is Paradox's attempt at a game that seems similar to Elecoonic Arts' The Sims but with perhaps even more control for gamers via mods. Will it be enough to make Sims players switch sides?

Frostpunk 2 - July 25

• Developer: 11 Bit Studios
• Publisher: 11 Bit Studios
• What's it about: In a post-apocalypse world that's been frozen in arctic temperatures, a city still needs to expand and build just to survive.
• Why we want to play it: City builders have received a new lease on life lately, and this very different take on the genre looks incredible, and we hope it plays just as well.

Ara: History Untold - TBD 2024

• Developer: Oxide Games
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• What's it about: You control your "civilization" from the beginning until the present, unlocking new tech, new challenges, and more.
• Why we want to play it: Oxide Games has a number of people who worked on the Civilization strategy games, and they want to expand that 4x gameplay in new directions, including support for crafting and more.

Stormgate - TBD 2024 (Early Access)

• Developer: Frost Giant Studios
• Publisher: Frost Giant Studios
• What's it about: Earth has to fight demonic-like alien threats with big units like mechs and even robot dogs.
• Why we want to play it: Former Starcraft developers at Blizzard form Frost Giant Studios to make a three-faction RTS game that looks an awful lot like what we would imagine StarCraft III might be like. You can check out Stormgate's Kickstarter campaign now so you can play in the early beta tests.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024- TBD 2024

• Developer: Asobo Studio
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• What's it about: It's time to get on board your plane and fly around the world, but this time you can participate in different aviation jobs.
• Why we want to play it: In addition to updated graphics and aviation physics, this update to the 2020 revival of Microsoft Flight Simulator will let you assume different roles, like air rescue, private charter flight, and much more.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 - TBD 2024

• Developer: The Chinese Room
• Publisher: Paradox Interactive
• What's it about: Vampires are out and about in modern-day Seattle, and you have to deal with the various clans of the Kindred.
• Why we want to play it: Here's another game that's been a long time coming, but with the new developer The Chinese Room, this game looks like it's finally coming together to become the sequel to the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG title.

MechWarrior 5: Clans - TBD 2024

• Developer: Piranha Games
• Publisher: Piranha Games
• What's it about: The Smoke Jaguar clan is ready to go to war against the tyrants of the Inner Sphere with their big, big mechs to handle the job.
• Why we want to play it: After releasing MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries several years ago, Piranha Games will launch a more linear single-player game with some updated Unreal Engine 5 graphics.

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred - TBD 2024

• Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
• Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
• What's it about: Mephisto has some evil, demonic plans for Sanctuary, and it's up to you to stop them. It will require you to visit a previously unseen region called Nahantu.
• Why we want to play it: Blizzard had a big hit on its hands with Diablo IV in 2023, and it looks like it will continue to give players even more monsters to slay in the first expansion pack for the game in 2024.

Age of Mythology: Retold - TBD 2024

• Developer: World's Edge
• Publisher: Microsoft
• What's it about: You will go on a truly epic quest to battle enemies and monsters from several different mythological pantheons in this remake of Ensemble Studio's spin-off of the Age of Empires series.
• Why we want to play it: The enhanced editions of the three previous Age of Empires series have been very successful, and it looks like this new version of Age of Mythology, with revamped graphics and new single and multiplayer features, could be even better.

Tempest Rising - TBD 2024

• Developer: 3D Realms
• Publisher: THQ Nordic
• What's it about: In the near future, the Global Defense Forces have to fight off the Tempest Dynasty faction before they take over the world
• Why we want to play it: Much like how Stormgate is a homage to Starcraft, this game has heavy influences for the Command and Conquer series of RTS games. We just hope this game is as fun to play as those classic C&C games.

That's our list of our most anticipated PC games of 2024. Again, we will be updating this list every so often as more games are announced and other games get release dates.

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