This week, as well as releasing a large patch for Starfield, Bethesda unexpectedly dropped a new update for Skyrim Special Edition. The Special Edition was released in 2016, five years after the game first came out, and is the ‘definitive’ edition, with all the DLCs included.

This new update focuses on ironing out issues that arose from the last update in December which added Steam Deck support and combined the Mods and Creations Club menus into a unified Creations Menu. There are a lot of bug fixes and a change to some controller functionality.

As well as the general bug fixes, there are some platform-specific changes and fixes. Epic Store users will now be able to see their Creation Credits properly; some PlayStation-specific issues such as menu flickering and crashes are fixed, Xbox users can now properly download certain Creations that were causing crashes, and even GOG users weren’t forgotten, with fixes to the Anniversary Upgrade being fixed.

Since the game’s release it has rarely dropped below 25,000 concurrent players, and that’s just on Steam. It is undoubtedly one of the most successful and beloved games of all time, and Bethesda’s dedication to it even after all this time is undoubtedly part of that.

Skyrim Update Patch Notes

• When using a controller, the right analog stick is now exclusively bound to the description field. When using a controller “Search” is now bound to “A”, not Right Trigger.

Bug Fixes

• Menu items no longer “bounce”.
• Author names should no longer shift upon inspecting the details page.
• Fixed issues requiring the user to select menu options twice when returning to the main menu.
• Fixed issues with the Download Bar not rendering correctly.
• Fixed an issue causing the order of screenshots to change between sessions.
• Fixed an issue causing deleted Creations to appear in your Load Order.
• Fixed an issue rearranging the Load Order when updating a Creation.
• The correct warning message is now displayed when a Creation is downloaded without its dependencies.
• Fixed issue preventing Creation downloads after an extended time browsing the menus.
• Fixed issue causing large Creations to sometimes fail to download.
• Restoring your Load Order will now properly enable disabled Creations.
• The “Download All Creations” menu option will no longer deactivate previously installed Creations.
• Canceling “Download All Creations” will no longer result in a crash when returning to the Main Menu.
• Uploading and restoring Load Orders to and from Bethesda.net will no longer fail on large Load Orders.
• The “Updated” category in the Channels List now shows Creations from your library with available updates, instead of showing “Latest” uploads.
• Gallery images no longer change in size when browsing.
• Resolved a crash that could occur after loading Anniversary Edition after linking a new account.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wrong Load Order to be uploaded.
• Fixed flickering of arrows on the Banner on the initial load of the Creations Menu.
• Categories are now sorted by “latest.”
• File size now properly displays after updating a Creation.
• Resolved an issue that could prompt a deletion confirmation when exiting the menus.
• Resolved an issue that would show some Creations as owned even if unpurchased.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Epic Only

• Resolved an issue preventing Creation Credits from displaying in the user’s account.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​PlayStation Only

• Fixed a crash that could occur from repeatedly entering the in-game Creations screen.
• Creation names should no longer flicker after downloading.
• PS5: Fixed Crash when browsing the menu while it is loading.
• PS5: “Delete all Creations” now works as intended.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Xbox Only

• Fixed an issue that would kick the player to the Main Menu when attempting to download Survival Mode or Goldbrand.
• The “Show Missing Content” box on the Search Menu after loading a save with missing Creations now works.

​​​​​​​GOG Specific

• Fixed an issue preventing the Anniversary Upgrade prompt from working.
• Fixed issue that could occur, resulting in the wrong saves being overwritten.
• Localization fixes.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Resource Pack

• Resolved unfilled alias on Carriage Quest.
• Added “CalendarDay” script.
• Modular jugs now have audio when dropped.

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In an attempt to bring Tekken 8 to as many people as possible, developers Bandai Namco inadvertently introduced a potentially dangerous filter in their accessibility options. The game’s director, Katushiro Harada, has announced that changes will be coming to accessibility options to minimize the risk, reports PC Gamer.

@Harada_TEKKEN you urgently need to remove one of your filters (the striped one), it cannot be present at launch as it may hospitalise players (or worse), in the same way as the infamous Pokémon episode.

— Ian Hamilton (@ianhamilton_) December 27, 2023

The concern was that the striped filter could induce seizures in users with photosensitivity. Users also reported migraines arising from watching a clip of the game with the striped filter active.

Harada took to Twitter/X after a clip of the filter went viral to say that people were taking the filter out of context and that there are a lot of customizable options that had been used to create the effect seen in the original Twitter post. “These color vision options are a rare part of the fighting game genre, but they are still being researched and we intend to expand on them in the future.”

Speaking at the Tekken World Tour 2023 Finals, Harada said “Many people have been talking about the accessibility features in the demo for Tekken 8. That was just a work in progress, so we’ve actually tweaked that quite a bit to try to address some of the issues and to make sure it works better for a wider variety of people.”

It is unclear at this time whether these tweaks are going to be part of Tekken 8 when it launches or whether this will come in a future update, but it is a step in the right direction. Accessibility is a relatively new concern for game developers and the fact that the developers of a huge game franchise like Tekken are taking it seriously and trying to get it right is encouraging for many.

In 2020 Cyberpunk 2077 contained flashing lights and imagery that could trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy.  After several gamers reported suffering seizures, developer CD Projekt Red apologized and quickly released a software update with a new warning, removed or reduced the flashing effects, and told gamers to be mindful of their health.

While most games don’t require warnings about photosensitive epilepsy risks, Cyberpunk 2077 demonstrated that rapid red-and-white flashing visual effects can directly endanger a small portion of the gaming community.

Featured image credit: Bandai Namco

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Falling in place alongside OpenAI and Google’s stated goals, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has acknowledged that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the direction Meta’s research is heading, in an interview with The Verge. Meta recently restructured its AI teams, combining its responsible AI research team with its generative department.

As for what artificial general intelligence is, Zuckerberg can’t really define it: “I don’t have a one-sentence, pithy definition. You can quibble about if general intelligence is akin to human-level intelligence, or is it like human-plus, or is it some far-future super intelligence. But to me, the important part is actually the breadth of it, which is that intelligence has all these different capabilities where you have to be able to reason and have intuition.”

See? Crystal clear. A very simplistic definition of AGI is it refers to machines that can learn and reason across a broad range of domains at the level of the human mind or beyond.

Just in case you don't want to click over to the other sites, Big Zuck update

– Open sourcing will continue
– Currently training LLama 3
– AI + Metaverse
– Will have 350,000 H100s and ~600 H100 equivalents of compute
-Ideal AI formfactor is pic.twitter.com/xJSi7yVzXe

— Alex Volkov (Thursd/AI) (@altryne) January 18, 2024

In the interview, Zuckerberg acknowledges talent as one of the key limiting factors in AI research. “We’ve come to this view that, in order to build the products that we want to build, we need to build for general intelligence. I think that’s important to convey because a lot of the best researchers want to work on the more ambitious problems.”

“We’re used to there being pretty intense talent wars,” he says. “But there are different dynamics here with multiple companies going for the same profile, [and] a lot of VCs and folks throwing money at different projects, making it easy for people to start different things externally.”

One thing that Zuckerberg isn’t worried about losing out on though is computing power. AI development and research take an exceptionally high level of computing power, and Meta is prepared to meet the challenge with over 340,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. Nvidia has emerged as a leader in AI chips.

“We have built up the capacity to do this at a scale that may be larger than any other individual company,” said Zuckerberg.

As Meta set out to develop Llama 3, Meta hopes to continue its trend of what Zuckerberg calls “responsible open sourcing”. He acknowledges that Llama 2 was not a leading AI model, but wants Llama 3 to be. “Our ambition is to build things that are at the state of the art and eventually the leading models in the industry.”

Featured image credit: Julio Lopez/Pexels

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The Last of Us Part II picks up four years after the end of the first game. Joel and Ellie have settled down in Jackson, Wyoming, with Joel’s brother Tommy. Their relationship is fractious – instead of the happiness they have earned, there is strife borne of Joel’s decision to save Ellie at the end of Part I.

One day on a regular patrol, Joel and Tommy save a stranger from some Infected. The woman, Abby, guides them to an abandoned building to wait out the storm, but it’s an inevitable trap. Abby is now a fearless member of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF, or sometimes Wolves), a militia group from Seattle, but she was once a helpless onlooker as Joel murdered her father, who was a surgeon set to operate on Ellie at the end of Part 1.

What happens to Joel in The Last of Us Part II?

Abby and her companions viciously beat Joel to death, but not before Ellie arrives and is forced to watch. Tommy swears revenge and heads off alone to Seattle. Ellie and her new girlfriend Dina go after him to help. These first couple of hours of gameplay are extremely effective and introduce the game’s main theme – the cyclic nature of violence and how anger and hate just perpetuate endlessly. Anyone who played Part I will probably have a fairly complex relationship with Joel depending on how they feel about his choices at the end, but it will certainly hit hard to watch him get killed.

In a tender moment, Ellie reveals to Dina that she is immune to the virus, and Dina reveals that she is pregnant with her ex’s baby. With impeccable timing, the ex, Jesse, turns up. Ellie and Jesse leave Dina in relative safety in the theatre as the physical effects of her pregnancy begin to make themselves known.

Ellie and Jesse find one of Abby’s companions, who they torture and kill to gain information about where Abby is. A further theme of the game is the idea that ‘hurt people hurt people’ – when you are traumatized, how do you break free of the cycle of trauma? Ellie and Jesse follow the lead to two more of Abby’s gang, Owen and Mel. Mel is pregnant but Ellie only learns this after killing the pair.

At this point, we get a flashback that confirms what we already suspected. Ellie went back to investigate the Firefly hospital from the first game and discovered that the yarn Joel spun was indeed a yarn, and he robbed her of her autonomy and possibly the world of a cure. They have a big falling out and spend over two years almost estranged.

Back in the present, Abby finds where Ellie, Dina, Jesse, and now Tommy are hiding out in the theatre. She shoots Jesse dead in cold blood and Tommy is seriously wounded. Cut to black, and suddenly, we are Abby.

The second half

We start with a flashback underlining the strong relationship Abby had with her father and then land at a point about three days before the showdown in the theatre. We get some relationship-building and scene setting before Abby discovers her ex-boyfriend Owen has gone missing while out hunting Seraphites, a religious cult.

Abby gets herself caught in a snare trap on her search but is freed by Yara and Lev, who were Seraphites but have been shunned due to Lev being a trans man. Abby finds out that Owen has tried to leave the city and its fighting and violence behind to reunite with the Fireflies. It emerges that Yara’s arm was broken so badly in their escape that it will need to be amputated if there’s any hope of survival. During surgery, Lev runs off to try and convince his mother one last time to accept him and break free of the Seraphites. When Abby and Yara eventually find him, he is forced to kill his mother in self-defense. As they are trying to get away, the WLF arrive to wage war on the Seraphites and Yara heroically sacrifices herself so Abby and Lev can escape.

Abby and Lev arrive at Owen and Mel’s hideout to find information but instead, Abby is faced with the dead bodies of one of her closest friends and his pregnant partner. Helpfully for her, Ellie had dropped the map highlighting her hideout, and Abby seeks her revenge.

After a brutal showdown in the theatre where Abby beats Ellie into a paste and threatens to kill Dina, Lev convinces her that it’s not worth it and Abby lets them go with the warning that she better not see them again.

The Last of Us Part II ending

It would be easy to end the game here, but The Last of Us: Part II isn’t interested in easy. After a brief interlude where it seems that Ellie and Dina will get to live happily ever after on a farm, raising Dina’s baby, Tommy arrives with news. He has located Abby and wants Ellie to leave her idyllic new life to pursue his revenge. He leaves in anger when Ellie won’t be convinced. Except, of course, Ellie can’t escape from this cycle and abandons Dina and their child in the night to perpetuate the violent cycle.

The last hour or so of the game introduces a new faction, the Rattlers. These are unambiguous bad guys and Ellie has no qualms about killing her way through scores of them to reach Abby and Lev, who are being held as slaves. Ellie cuts Abby loose. Abby is confused to see Ellie but doesn’t question it, heading straight to free Lev and trying to escape.

Ellie is not satisfied, and the gameplay climax is an incredibly brutal, dirty, emphatic fistfight on the shore of the beach. Abby bites off two of Ellie’s fingers, but Ellie gets the upper hand and tries to drown Abby before a flashback snaps her out of it. She thinks of Joel and the forgiveness she had found for him just before his death. It is fitting that it is Joel who pulls Ellie back from the brink at the end here.

Letting Abby and Lev go, Ellie returns home. But of course, you can never come back from something like this. The farmhouse is empty and Dina and the baby are gone. There is a poignant scene where Ellie tries to play the guitar, her strongest connection to Joel, but finds that with her missing fingers even that has been taken from her. She leaves the farmhouse and walks towards…whatever is next.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered is out now on PlayStation 5.

Featured image credit: Naughty Dog

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Until now, users needed 1,000 followers on TikTok to access its live-streaming features. Now, however, any user who is a “LIVE creator on another platform with a stable live-streaming history” can apply to live stream on TikTok.

The criteria TikTok is basing this on seem nebulous and non-specific. The page states that each application will be evaluated based on the “influence you have” and the “quality of your LIVE content on other platforms”. Any user who is approved will be able to live stream on TikTok from both LIVE Studio and PC or console.

Essentially this means that anyone who has a history of streaming on a platform like Twitch or YouTube can apply to stream on TikTok without meeting the previous 1,000 follower minimum requirement.

TikTok appears to be letting any gamers, regardless of follower count, apply to access streaming on TikTok Live, as long as they have a stable history of streaming on another platform.https://t.co/s8axqdu33R#StreamerNews #TOSgg pic.twitter.com/XFlzHLeQqB

— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) January 18, 2024

What are the requirements to renew access?

If you get approved for TikTok live streaming, it will only last 14 days initially. However, access will be automatically renewed for 180 days if:

• You haven’t had your access revoked through breaching TikTok’s community guidelines
• You have gone live on TikTok for more than 25 minutes at least twice during the first 14 days

Then after the 180 days elapse, you’ll be automatically renewed for another 180 days if:

• You have gone live on TikTok for more than 25 minutes at least three times during the past 30 days

How to stream on TikTok from PC

1. Download TikTok LIVE Studio and install it on your PC
2. Login with your TikTok login information
3. If you’ve never streamed from your PC before, you can use the “set up now” option, which walks you through setting up microphone and camera
4. If you’ve streamed using another tool such as OBS, you can import settings to TikTok studio
5. Set up the settings you want when the Settings dialogue pops up. Setting video quality to 1080p will allow viewers to have a better experience than a lower quality if your PC can handle it.
6. Finally, the Scene Setting window will pop up. Choose ‘Fullscreen desktop’ to stream just your game, or ‘Fullscreen desktop and camera’ if you want to show your face. Showing your face helps viewers connect with you so is generally worth doing.
7. You’re ready to go live! Hit the ‘Broadcast LIVE’ button and give your stream a name then press ‘Go LIVE’.

After TikTok’s parent company ByteDance closed down the Nuverse gaming brand in late 2023 it seemed that they were moving away from gaming as a primary part of their strategy. Opening up live streaming to a wider audience will certainly regain some of that lost ground.

Featured image credit: Alexander Shatov/ UnSplash

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The UK’s high street chain Game will be phasing out its pre-owned and trade-in services over the coming months, reports Eurogamer. The British retailer has long been known for its pre-owned selection but new owners Frasers Group are moving in a different direction.

Speaking to the BBC, a Frasers Group spokesperson said, “As part of the integration of Game, we will be phasing out the trade-in, pre-owned, and Game Elite offerings in the UK over the coming months. Pre-owned will still be available in our stand-alone stores across the UK while stock lasts, and Game Elite will still be available until the end of summer.”

According to Eurogamer, who spoke to members of staff at the brick-and-mortar game store across several branches, customers will no longer be able to trade in games after February 16. Game will still accept trade-ins before this date so if you have some ready to go, act now. Pre-owned games will be available for purchase until stock runs out.

Frasers Group is also phasing out Game Elite, the premium version of Game’s rewards scheme. The scheme has been running since 2017 and costs £36 per year to gain extra reward points and special deals available only to Elite members. To encourage membership to what proved to be an unpopular scheme, Game offered points back to customers who did not earn enough to offset the cost of membership. The scheme was described as “unattractive” when it launched.

Where can you get pre-owned video games in the UK now?

There’s no denying the appeal of being able to save money on new games when launch prices for AAA games have reached £70 in some cases.

Speaking to the BBC, Sophie Smart, production director at UK game studio No More Robots said the decision was “a real shame”.

“I think so many of us can remember not being able to afford the cost of a full-price game when it launched, and waiting a couple of months and saving up pocket money to go and get the game pre-owned”.

She went on, “However, with new AAA titles costing as much as £70 when new, and presumably, physical versions dropping in price fairly quickly after launch, I would have expected a greater demand for pre-owned titles and Game making a large mark-up on these in particular”

Luckily, UK customers can still get second-hand games at high street staple CEX, who offer money in exchange for products, whereas Game simply offers store credit in the form of gift cards. CEX has 385 stores in the UK and focuses exclusively on pre-owned media and electronics. With media ownership a question in people’s minds already, it seems possible we will see a resurgence of physical media purchasing.

Featured image credit: Game

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Ubisoft has announced changes coming to the Ubisoft+ subscription service in a blog post. Ubisoft+ Multi-Access and PC Access will combine to become Ubisoft+ Premium, and a new tier will be introduced; Ubisoft+ Classics on PC.

What is included in the new Ubisoft+ tiers?

Ubisoft+ Premium will include day-one access to new releases and even early access to certain titles. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will be available to Ubisoft+ Premium subscribers three days early – previously only available with the purchase of the Deluxe edition of the game. It also includes a back catalog where players have access to “premium” editions of games, plus DLC.

Ubisoft+ Premium is available on PC, Xbox, and Amazon Luna, will cost players $17.99 per month, and currently has 141 games in its catalog.

Ubisoft+ Classics will include access to games from Ubisoft’s back catalog, but a much smaller quantity than the Premium offering. Ubisoft+ Classics has just 47 games available currently, and many of these are the standard release versions rather than full deluxe editions with DLC that Premium subscribers have.

Ubisoft+ Classics is included in PlayStation+ Extra and PlayStation+ Premium subscriptions or standalone on the PC for $7.99 per month.

Anyone with an existing subscription to Ubisoft+ PC Access will be grandfathered in at their existing price point. Ubisoft are also working on bring ing Activision Blizzard games to their subscription plan, but will share more details in the future.

The shape of things to come?

In the blog post, Ubisoft’s Director of Subscriptions, Phillipe Tremblay, revealed some interesting information. Currently, 1 in 10 subscribers to Ubisoft+ has never played a Ubisoft game before. “As a result, they go on to discover more of our games, so it really speaks to the model as a means to expand their horizons,” said Tremblay.

Following the announcement of this overhaul, Tremblay gave an interview with GamesIndustry.biz in which he said that gamers need to become comfortable with not owning their games in the same way as they have with music and films. Fans have not reacted well to this, with social media awash with disgruntled responses. One highly shared post on Twitter/X called it “anti-consumer propaganda”.

Ubisoft exec needs to get comfortable with people not buying their games. This is anti-consumer propaganda and a way to milk gamers generation after generation. pic.twitter.com/Im5b5pXyZw

— Reid Southen (@Rahll) January 16, 2024

Featured image credit: Ubisoft

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For over 10 years Samsung has reigned supreme over the smartphone market as the world’s biggest brand, but that changed in 2023 as Apple overtook them to the top spot.  This is the first time the American giant has ever sold the most smartphones in a year, an achievement Samsung has laid claim to since 2010.

Apple, the maker of the iPhone, sold 234.6 million iPhones in 2023, which amounted to 20.1% of the market share in 2023, whereas South Korea’s most valuable company shipped 226.6 million Galaxy smartphones, which was 19.4% of the market, according to market research firm IDC, as reported by Business Wire. The data also shows that the global smartphone market was down in 2023 by 3.2%, though this still represents 1.17 billion smartphones being sold.

This number marks the lowest full-year volume in a decade, but despite this overall decline, data suggests that the market will recover into growth in 2024. Quarter four of 2023 showed 8.5% year-over-year growth, which was higher than forecasts of 7.3%.

Of the top five smartphone brands, only Apple and Chinese company Transsion saw growth in 2023, with gains of 3.7% and 30.8% respectively. Transsion is focused on developing markets such as Africa and South America. Samsung saw the largest losses year on year, ending 2023 at -13.6%. Xiaomi and OPPO were also down by -4.7% and -9.9% respectively.

What can Samsung do to regain its position as the largest smartphone brand?

Samsung won’t take this lying down and has much in the pipeline in 2024 which may help it recover the top spot. Unified Quick Share, unveiled at CES 2024, with Google, Samsung, and Windows computers will help bridge a gap created by Apple’s popular AirDrop feature.

In addition, leaks suggest that Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S24 range will be a doozy, with impressive specs and features. Samsung reportedly aims to sell over 35 million of its S24 range by the end of 2024, though issues with a recent update launch will not help consumer confidence.

Featured image: John Tekeridis/Pexels

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Game Of The Year, Baldur’s Gate 3, has rolled out a hotfix to address several issues in the game, and among the updates is a change to one of the game’s popular characters.

One of the most notable changes announced on Monday (Jan.15) by developers relates to the compression of saved files. Issues with save files have plagued Xbox users since the game’s launch, with some users losing many hours of progress after a firmware issue caused their files to be deleted. Save files have also been notably large, and the nature of the game means players save many times, clogging up their systems.

The new hotfix has increased the compression of save files, “which should fix several issues caused by large savegame files,” according to  Larian Studio, the game’s makers. They have also reduced the size of save files by removing summoned elements from the world that don’t exist anymore. It isn’t clear yet to what extent this will change things for users.

The hotfix clears up some other minor issues such as a camera bug and an issue with Thieves’ Tools being inaccessible. A bug relating to characters getting “stuck in a story event” and not being controllable after a death in the fight with Grym has also been fixed.

What does the latest Baldur’s Gate 3 update do to Gale?

Everyone’s favorite wizard-with-issues, Gale, needs something from the player, and before this hotfix, might have flounced off, permanently removing himself from the party, if the player was unable to provide for him immediately. Now though, he’s willing to stick around unless you tell him you will never help him.

In the patch notes, Larian said: “Poor Gale – we know your pain, sometimes it’s easy to read something into a situation that wasn’t there. We’ve sat him down and explained that if someone doesn’t offer him a shoe to eat every time, that doesn’t mean they never will. You’ll find him more likely to stick around now.”

Featured image: Larian Studios

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Palworld, the open-world survival crafting creature-collection game with a twist, has announced its early access release date, with the welcome news that it will also launch on Xbox Game Pass at the same time.

Despite its many resemblances to Pokemon, Palworld has a slightly more grownup twist with the presence of modern, real-world guns. Palworld’s Steam page suggests players can either live peacefully with their Pals come what may, or they can fight back against a syndicate of poachers. “Pals can be used to fight, or they can be made to work on farms or factories. You can even sell them or eat them!” proclaims the description.

The developers behind Palworld are Pocketpair, most famous for their game Craftopia, which is also still in early access and has been for three years.

When will Palworld be released in early access?

Palworld is due to launch in early access on January 19 on Xbox and PC, including Xbox GamePass. The developers expect the early access period to last at least a year.

The screenshots and videos released so far, along with some pre-release content created by selected creators, show off the colorful world well. Exploration seems to be a key focus and what we’ve seen certainly makes Palworld look like somewhere enjoyable to look around. There are multiple biomes, each with a unique look and with Pals living in them exclusively.

The design of the Pals is very visually appealing, but there’s no getting away from just how much like Pokemon some of them look. There are lots of Pokemon-alikes out there, notably TemTem, and it seems that for now, Nintendo is content to live and let live. It remains to be seen whether the more adult nature of Palworld, with its guns and dark undertone, will provoke Nintendo into action.

Palworld is set to join a host of other exciting new games on GamePass and on PC and Xbox for its early access launch on January 19th, 2024.

Find out everything you need to know about Palworld ahead of its launch with our handy guide.

Featured image: Pocketpair

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There is currently an issue affecting some YouTube users which causes huge slowdowns when trying to view content, and there is no consensus on the cause. People believe this could be due to ad blockers for YouTube being cracked down by Google.

In November, 9to5Google began reporting on this issue, and although speculation began with the idea that it was an issue with Firefox, designed to force users to use the Google-owned Chrome browser, the most popular theory became one that suggested ad blockers were the cause.

A post on Reddit seemed to show this being the case, with the user showing the slow load speeds, then disabling their ad blocker and having speeds return to normal. Users also reported problems with turning a video into full-screen or theatre mode.

Youtube started slowing video buffer with adblock enabled
byu/NightMean inyoutube

YouTube seemingly confirmed this in a statement they made to 9to5Google: “Ads are a vital lifeline for our creators that help them run and grow their businesses. That’s why the use of ad blockers violates YouTube’s Terms of Service. We’ve been urging users for some time to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience. In the past week, users using ad blockers may have experienced suboptimal viewing, which included delays in loading, regardless of the browser they are using. Users who have uninstalled their ad blockers may still experience a temporary delay in loading, and should try refreshing their browser.”

However, as Ars Technica pointed out, the slow buffering experienced by some users might be due to a bug in one of the most popular ad blockers, Adblock Plus. Adblock Plus recently posted a bug report about “performance issues” and said it should be fixed in the next version. Developers of a different ad blocker, uBlock Origin, said the issue only affected Adblock Plus users.

What are the ad blockers for YouTube?

Although record numbers of users are uninstalling their ad blockers, it remains unclear whether this is the right course of action or not. Most of the most popular ad blockers are working hard to get around YouTube’s crackdown. Here are the most popular ad blockers for YouTube:

• uBlock Origin (free and open source, supports most popular browsers)
• AdBlocker Ultimate ($2.49 per month billed annually, claims to work on a system level to overcome new ad technology)
• AdGuard ($2 per month, billed annually, works similarly to AdBlocker Ultimate)
  

Featured image credit: Freestock/Pexels

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GameStop has announced that effective February 2, its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace will be shut down, and users will no longer be able to buy, sell, or create NFTs using the platform.

2021 was a wild year for GameStop as it became one of the most popular meme stocks in the world and announced its foray into NFTs. However, the GameStop NFT marketplace shutdown is coming just 18 months after its launch in 2022.

Reassuringly for anyone who has purchased an NFT through GameStop’s marketplace, the nature of the blockchain means that the NFT won’t be going anywhere just because the marketplace will be closing down. They will still be able to buy and sell the NFTs on other marketplaces.

The full statement on GameStop’s NFT website says:

“Important Update

GameStop has decided to wind down our NFT marketplace due to the continuing regulatory uncertainty of the crypto space.

Effective as of February 2, 2024, customers will no longer be able to buy, sell or create NFTs. Your NFTs are on the blockchain and will remain accessible and saleable through other platforms.”

This marks GameStop’s exit from crypto and the blockchain entirely. As pointed out by Decrypt, the regulatory uncertainty of crypto was the reason cited by GameStop when they closed down their crypto wallet four months ago.

The future of NFTs

Just a couple of years ago, NFTs looked like they might be The Next Big Thing. However, the market has soured somewhat and the future of NFTs looks uncertain. The crypto space is wracked with changing regulations, and NFTs in particular have seen setbacks.

Logan Paul was recently forced to buy back $2.3 million worth of ‘CryptoZoo’ NFTs in the face of a class-action lawsuit. Additionally, Twitter/X has removed support for NFT profile pictures, a move that dismayed crypto enthusiasts.

Despite these setbacks, or perhaps because of them, the crypto industry spent a record-breaking amount of money on lobbying in 2023, with the hopes to smooth the regulatory landscape around crypto.

Featured image credit: Screenshot of GameStop NFT marketplace

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In an interview at CES24, Intel Fellow Tom Petersen went into detail about Intel’s upcoming graphics cards, the Xe2 Battlemage line.

Battlemage, Intel’s second unit in the Arc range of graphics cards, seems to be on track for a 2024 launch, with Petersen confirming that the cards are performing in Intel’s labs. Hardware development is complete, and the focus is now on the software of Battlemage.

Petersen also stated that around 30% of Intel’s graphics card engineers are working on Battlemage, primarily on software. Most of the engineers have moved on to the next generation of cards, known as Celestial.

“It’s coming, I am excited about it, and all our engineers, you know how they are constantly doing their engineering things. I’d say about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mostly on the software side because our hardware team is on the next thing (Celestial). So, think about it as the Battlemage already has its first silicon in the labs which is very exciting and there’s more good news coming which I can’t talk about right now. We hope we are going to see it before CES ’25.” Petersen said in the interview.

Fans will be pleased with this dedication to the software – the Xe1 Alchemist, Intel’s first-generation graphics cards, had notably finicky drivers, with PC Gamer damning them with faint praise: “less buggy than expected.”

When will Xe2 Battlemage be released?

Despite speculation, there is no confirmed release date for Xe2 Battlemage yet. The Xe1 Alchemist was hit by delays which disappointed fans. This may discourage Intel from giving a launch date until they are certain they can meet it to avoid further disappointment.

There is a huge degree of hope resting on the success of Intel’s graphics offerings. PC gaming graphics has been a two-horse race between Nvidia and AMD for a long time and the introduction of a third option into the market promises more options and fairer pricing for consumers.

Featured image credit: Intel

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Coming in ahead of competitors PlayStation and Xbox, the Nintendo Switch was the console with the most releases in 2023, with 2360 games on the platform. According to GameRant, this is a record for the Switch.

Despite being nearly seven years old, the Switch continues to delight fans. The much-anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, sold over 19.5 million copies in its first five months after release, with over 10 million of those being in the first three days after its release.

In a Twitter/X post, games industry analyst Mat Piscatella, of Circana (a consumer behavior analysis company), said that the information was found by a colleague of his, Anthony Silva. The post was discussing Steam’s record-breaking year.

According to @WeAreCircana 's own @SilvaStandard , the closest any other platform has come in the US is the 2,360 games released on Switch, also in 2023.

14,000 is a lot.

"Steam breaks another annual record, launching more than 14,000 games in 2023" https://t.co/f0VlXy7vfl

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) January 3, 2024

The Switch is the third best-selling games console of all time. The only more popular consoles were Sony’s PlayStation 2, and Nintendo’s own Nintendo DS. According to GoNintendo, the Switch sold over 4 million copies in 2023, the seventh year it was available, which beats a long-standing record set by the Nintendo DS for most units sold in the seventh year.

What will be released on the Nintendo Switch in 2024?

Despite rumors running rampant about the so-far unannounced Switch 2 release date, 2024 looks to be a strong year for Nintendo in terms of Switch releases.

Nintendo themselves are releasing several much-anticipated games including a game starring Princess Peach named Princess Peach: Showtime, which is due in March, and a remake of the fan-favorite Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet.

Switch users won’t be missing out on some of 2024’s most anticipated games either. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (releases today, Jan 15) as well as the upcoming Tomb Raider 1-3 remasters (Feb 14), and Little Nightmares 3 (no release date yet) are all coming to the Switch and are games not to be missed this year.

Featured Image: Pexels

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In a bid to capture some of the demand springing up in the USA, LG Electronics has opened its first electric vehicle (EV) charger factory in Texas, and America – its first outside of South Korea.

LG’s CEO William Cho stated last year that ‘electrification’ is a primary driver for growth for the South Korean company. The expansion into the American EV market will allow them to tap into a rising demand and help them reach their goal of $79 billion in sales by 2030.

“By establishing our EV charger production factory in Texas, we will be able to actively respond to the rapidly growing demand for EV infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Jang Ik-hwan, president of the LG Business Solutions Company, in a press release.

What do we know about LG’s new Texas factory?

The new site in Fort Worth is 5,500 square meters and has an annual capacity allowing it to churn out more than 10,000 EV chargers. It has begun production of 11kW chargers and will start assembling 175kW fast chargers shortly. By the end of 2024LG also expects to be producing 350kW ultra-fast chargers in the facility.

In 2021, President Joe Biden announced plans to have at least 500,000 public EV chargers by 2030. LG stated that they believe they are “strategically and philosophically aligned with several of the energy and environmental goals set out in the U.S. government’s Inflation Reduction Act.”

The electronics giant has opened its new factory in Texas for several reasons, describing the move as “strategic”. There are existing facilities in the state, and it “boasts excellent logistics and transportation networks”. It is also already home to multiple major automobile operations – Toyota, GM, and Tesla all have vehicle assembly plants in Texas.

With companies such as Amazon expanding their EV fleets and consumer buzz over upcoming electric vehicles, this seems like a forward-looking move by LG, who are already well regarded in the EV space for their batteries.

Featured image credit: LG Electronics

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In a now-deleted post on X, PlayStation seemed to announce Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare was due to come to the PlayStation Plus Premium Classics catalog. Although the post in question has been removed, there are multiple responses from users who saw it.

I saw Alone In The Dark in your post and now it's gone

— Shane Sanderson (@shanoscapanos) January 10, 2024

It was also briefly featured in a PlayStation Access video, though the video has since been reuploaded without the game in it. PlayStation Access is the official YouTube channel of PlayStation UK, the same branch of PlayStation that made the erroneous post.

And alone in the dark pic.twitter.com/zSefFsZwRp

— Quba (@_qubady_) January 10, 2024

Fans are hopeful that this mistake is indicative of the game coming to the Classics catalog at some point in the not-too-distant future. Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare is a survival horror title originally launched in 2001 for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, PC, and Game Boy Color. It was named the first-ever 3D survival horror game by the Guinness Book of Records.

How was this mistake made?

There is an upcoming Alone in the Dark remake by THQ Nordic and Pieces Interactive, announced in August 2022. Originally due October 25, 2023, the game was delayed initially until January 16, 2024, to avoid a chaotic release window and then again until March 20, 2024 to avoid crunch over Christmas.

This second rescheduling could be where the error happened. If the classic Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare was due to be released alongside the launch of Alone in the Dark 2024, it could be that the Tweet was prepared in advance and not changed when the launch of the game changed. PlayStation could have chosen to delay the release of Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare on the Classics catalog to retain the proximity to the new game.

This is speculation of course and PlayStation themselves are staying mum about the mistake. However, it seems more likely that Alone in the Dark: A New Nightmare’s launch as a Classics title was done at the wrong time due to the new release date for Alone in the Dark 2024 than it being entirely a mistake.

There are 14 games coming to PlayStation Plus in January to keep you distracted from thinking about Alone in The Dark. Make sure you check them out.

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The rumors that Nintendo is gearing up to release a new version of the Switch are ramping up. In a press release from Altec Lansing about the upcoming relaunch of the Game Shark (now the AI Shark), it said “The official launch is planned to coincide with the Nintendo Switch 2 in September 2024.”

It has since been changed to say “Altec Lansing plans on introducing its new offering in time for the holiday season 2024,” though the original is still visible on the Wayback Machine archive.

When the news was broken by Digital Trends, AI Shark confirmed that “Fall 2024” was the tentative release window, and then backpedaled further to state that “Nintendo has not officially clarified launch.”

Reporter Jason Schrier was told by an AI Shark spokesperson that they were simply guessing at the Switch 2 release date. This is notably different to what AI Shark told DigitalTrends.

FYI: An Ai Shark spokesperson tells me they're just guessing about the next Nintendo console's release date https://t.co/CqPE9oBSDr

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 11, 2024

When is the Switch 2 likely to be released?

September would be a logical time for the Switch 2 release date, coming right before the Christmas shopping period and allowing plenty of time for announced releases on the Switch to drop. Given that the original Switch dropped in March, Christmas shopping might not be top of the inscrutable Nintendo’s list of priorities.

We reported in December on rumors that the Switch 2 would be released early this year. These now seem less likely to hold water, but a quarter-one or early quarter-two announcement from Nintendo seems more plausible. Nintendo was reportedly showing off new hardware at Gamescom 2023 to selected partner developers, but this is also unconfirmed.

As reported by Polygon, in a Nintendo earnings call they stated that their predictions for the current year do not include a new console release. This reaches until March 31.

All we really have for the Switch 2 release date at the moment are a lot of rumors. Nintendo itself has refused to engage with speculation, but the mountain of jigsaw pieces is falling into place, and the sheer number of rumors seems promising. Take the guesses with a grain of salt however as Nintendo has never been a company to conform to expectations.

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Despite being dead for 15 years, comedian George Carlin defied expectations by dropping a new comedy special this week. Except it wasn’t George Carlin, it was Dudesy the comedy artificial intelligence (AI).

Kelly Carlin, George’s daughter, took to X to express her unease at this development. She also stated that Dudesy and its creators Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen had not received permission before creating the video.

ZERO PERMISSION GRANTED. https://t.co/BAm62WrWSU

— Kelly Carlin (@kelly_carlin) January 11, 2024

“My statement regarding the AI-generated George Carlin special: My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain, and imagination.  No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI-generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again. Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there.” She said in a thread on the social media platform, continuing, “Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”

In the video description on YouTube, ‘Dudesy’ said, “I tried to capture his iconic style to tackle the topics I think the comedy legend would be talking about today. The chaos of the current American political landscape and class system, the influence of reality TV, and the increasing role of technology in society as AI is poised to change humanity forever are just a few of the subjects I cover.” The AI tried to liken the special to Elvis impersonators or other comedy impressionists in the video.

Is there legal recourse for AI impersonation?

Some X users have noticed that critical comments on the YouTube video are being removed. “The people who made that grave-robbing AI George Carlin video are predictably deleting negative comments. I hope they get sued.” said one user.

On the subject of legal action, Kelly Carlin has expressed that she is researching her options and consulting with lawyers, but there is a lack of clarity on the legalities of this issue. Earlier this year, Dudesy and its creators were subject to legal threats from Tom Brady, the NFL player, who was the subject of a prior AI-generated fake by the team. The creators addressed this in their podcast.

Lawmakers are only just beginning to grapple with how AI and deepfakes might affect the next election and there is currently little recourse in situations like this. It is vital that legislators catch up with AI developments.

Featured Image: Dudesy

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Pixar, a subsidiary of Disney, is the latest in a long line of firms facing layoffs in 2024, reports TechCrunch. Initial reports suggested that the layoffs could be as much as 20% of Pixar’s workforce, but Pixar has since denied that it will be that many.

The scope of the layoffs and the number of staff who will be affected is being decided based on production schedules and future films that have already been greenlit.

According to insiders, Pixar was required to hire additional staff to bolster its workforce on streaming content for Disney+. As these shows complete production, the studio has more staff than necessary and cuts are inevitable. Disney’s streaming division is yet to turn a profit, despite multiple new Pixar releases being straight-to-streaming.

Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors during a recent earnings call that Disney+ is expected to become profitable by Q4 2024. Iger put this down to restructuring, which “enabled tremendous efficiencies.”

From cinema to streaming and back to cinema

‘Elemental’, Pixar’s most recent film, was considered to be a box-office flop, bringing in just $29.5 million during its opening weekend. However, it went on to be successful and profitable, making its mark as the most-watched film on Disney+ during the quarter it was released.

Analysts believe that the release of several huge Pixar movies (such as ‘Soul’ and ‘Turning Red’) on Disney+ instead of in cinemas has “trained audiences to expect big, hot Pixar content at home.” Speaking to TechCrunch, Brandon Katz of Parrot Analytics continued, “Retraining the audience to re-embrace the theatrical experience and prioritize that…takes time.”

As well as this consumer habit shift, Katz mentioned the other changes undergoing audience behavior, which include a move away from sequels. In the 2010s, pre-established IPs were popular with audiences, requiring lower effort marking and coming with pre-established buy-in from fans. Now though, franchise fatigue is plaguing audiences.

The race to streaming profitability will be a driving force for companies in 2024, with mergers and buyouts abound. However, a spate of layoffs has plagued the tech industry and does not look to be stopping. It is a tumultuous time as a whole and staff everywhere will be uneasy at the continued job cuts.

Earlier today (Jan.12), the communication platform Discord released plans to lay off 170 staff.

Featured image credit: Disney/Pixar

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ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, has released a new artificial intelligence tool called MagicVideo-V2 that significantly pushes boundaries in text-to-video generation.

MagicVideo-V2 leverages state-of-the-art AI to produce high-quality video content from text inputs. In human evaluations comparing videos created by MagicVideo-V2 and other leading text-to-video generators like Pika 1.0 and Stable Diffusion-XT, ByteDance’s new tool noticeably outperformed competitors.

According to the project’s GitHub page, it combines a “text-to-image model, video motion generator, reference image embedding module and frame interpolation module into an end-to-end video generation pipeline.”

The MagicVideo-V2 model starts off by creating a 1024×1024 image that depicts the inputted text. That still image is then animated, enhanced, and refined. Finally, the interpolation module lengthens the animation to 94 frames. This creates a richly animated output.

ByteDance just announced MagicVideo-V2

Multi-Stage High-Aesthetic Video Generation

paper page: https://t.co/OczWLXhIrx

The growing demand for high-fidelity video generation from textual descriptions has catalyzed significant research in this field. In this work, we introduce… pic.twitter.com/kxik2HA7h5

— AK (@_akhaliq) January 10, 2024

That’s the science but in practical terms how might MagicVideo-V2 be used?

In theory, it could streamline video creation for social media influencers and marketers, help drastically increase video production for media organizations or create animated clips for education and entertainment.

There have been huge advances in video generation AI

The rate at which generative AI is improving is high and shows no signs of slowing down. Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, recently began experimenting with 3D model generation and also launched a subscription pricing model. Runway, an AI video startup in New York, released a huge update to its flagship AI-filmmaking tool in September last year.

With its domination of the short-form video entertainment market through TikTok and Douyin (a Chinese video-sharing platform), ByteDance is in a position to maximize the value of MagicVideo-V2.

Mid last year it also launched an AI-powered music generator named Ripple. The opportunity for users to create incredibly intricate videos and add generated audio using these tools puts TikTok in front of its competitors in video-focused social media and it will be a challenge for others to keep up if their innovations continue.

Featured image credit: MagicVideo-V2

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