CS:Legacy - Official Announcement TrailerCounter-Strike 1.6 is getting a full remake, courtesy of the ProMod team. Dubbed CS: Legacy, this remake will be a ground-up rebuild using the official Source Engine SDK. If you arent familiar with ProMod, it was a mod created after the community (mostly unanimously) agreed that CS: Source didnt live up to its potential. ProMod was designed to provide competitive players with a more streamlined, focused experience that revolved around high-level gameplay.Recommended VideosCounter-Strike 1.6 is widely considered to be the best entry in the franchise, so news of a remake from a celebrated modding team is exciting especially when Counter-Strike 2just broke its all-time player record over the weekend. While details remain scarce, the team says the game features fully custom assets and game code as well as rewrites to the renderer, shaders, and various systems.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe social media announcement is accompanied by a two-minute trailer that shows off some of the maps, movement, and more. The most obvious change is the updated graphics, but its not hard to see a jump from a game first released in 2003. Even though the look of the maps are more polished, dont worry: it still retains that classic, grittyCounter-Strike feel.Introducing CS:Legacy, a fully standalone remake of Counter-Strike 1.6, built from the ground up on Valve's official Source Engine SDK, and our follow up project to CSPromod.The game features fully custom assets and game code, on top of our own major rewrites to the renderer, CS:Legacy (@CSLegacyGame) March 16, 2025The custom graphics system gives the game a more modern look, but if we had to guess, it wont be too demanding even on older systems. The trailer only demoed a few guns, but each had a heavy, visceral sound that fit the original game. Everything weve seen so far suggests CS: Legacy will capture everything that set Counter-Strike 1.6 apart from the crowd and will breathe new life into the competitive shooter scene.The team didnt provide a release date, but says the game is launching later this year in early access. Anyone interested in supporting the team can do so through CS: Legacys Patreon page. Updates are available through most social media platforms, and theres a Discord interested players can join.Editors Recommendations

Oppos compact flagship phone is close to launching, is confirmed to be called the Oppo Find X8s. The company has been teasing its advancements over the competition fervently and recently threw light on the phones display upgrades over other phones, including one way it beats the iPhone 16 Pro.The Oppo Find X8s is claimed to feature extremely thin bezels along all four sides of its display. Zhou Yibao, the product manager for Oppos flagship Find series, shared an image on Chinese social media Weibo comparing the bezels on the upcoming compact phone previously speculated to be called the Find X8 Mini with those on what appears to be an iPhone 16 Pro or the iPhone 16 Pro Max.Display bezels on Oppo Find X8s (left) vs. iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max Zhou Yibao/WeiboObviously, Oppos bezels are seemingly thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro. While the representative does not specify the exact measure, they say its only 1.xx mm in thickness, with the xx suggesting two decimal points following the numeral 1. Oppo has supposedly achieved this feat with an in-house chip-level screen packaging technology.Recommended VideosA similar technology was touted when Oppo announced its previous flagship in November last year, with the Find X8s display featuring 1.45mm bezels on all sides.Please enable Javascript to view this contentComparatively, the iPhone 16 Pro is supposed to bezels measuring 1.41 mm along the top and the bottom and 1.46 mm on the sides. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, despite being mounted by a larger display, has bezels that measure only 1.36mm. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has significantly larger borders, measuring over two millimeters.But if Oppo is taking the liberty to brag about these sizes, we could assume it aims to challenge the smaller value among the two iPhone 16 Pro models. To the naked eye, these comparisons may be meaningless, but Oppo isnt giving away any chance to be called the phone brand with the leanest bezels.The Oppo phone is visibly narrower than the iPhone in the picture, too, which could be because of its smaller display size, expected to be just 6.3 inches.Oppos larger flagship, the Oppo Find X8 Pro, already beats the iPhone 16 Pro with its versatile camera, though we dont anticipate the same of the smaller phone. As for more details, we wont be waiting longer to hear them as Oppo has already confirmed the ultra-thin, small-screen flagship that would rival the Galaxy S25 Edge and the iPhone 17 Air will launch in April. Whether the Oppo phone beats others in a comparison of overall slimness is something to be seen next month.That seems to be the timeline for its launch in China, though, and with Oppo recently skipping a global launch of its book-style foldable, the Find N5, we wouldnt have our hopes too high for the Find X8s either.However, the same phone could launch as the OnePlus 13T, if there arent any changes mid-way.Editors Recommendations

Beaming with joy Alphabet spins off laser-based Internet backbone provider Taara Goal is to compete with Starlink, connecting remote areas to the Internet. Stephen Morris, Financial Times Mar 17, 2025 9:27 am | 19 Taara works by firing a beam of light from one terminal to another. Credit: Moonshot/Taara Taara works by firing a beam of light from one terminal to another. Credit: Moonshot/Taara Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAlphabet is spinning out laser-based Internet company Taara from its moonshot incubator, hoping to turbocharge the start-up that provides high-bandwidth services to hard-to-reach areas in competition with Elon Musks Starlink network of satellites.Taara is the latest project to spring from XAlphabets experimental hub that produced AI lab Google Brain and Waymos self-driving carsand has its origins in a concept called Loon. That envisaged shooting beams of light between thousands of balloons floating on the edge of space to provide phone and Internet services across remote areas.Loon was wound up in 2021 due to the political and regulatory hurdles to flying the balloons and the difficulty of servicing the 20-mile-high equipment. However, its lasers found a second life on Taaras towers under engineer Mahesh Krishnaswamy.The technology works by firing a beam of light the width of a pencil from one traffic light-sized terminal to another, using a system of sensors, optics, and mirrors to fix it on a 1.5 inch receiver. Alphabet says the system can transmit data at 20 gigabits per second over 20 km, extending traditional fibre-optics networks with minimal construction and lower costs.Based in Sunnyvale near Googles headquarters in Mountain View, California, Taara has two dozen staff and is hiring aggressively. The start-up has secured backing from Series X Capital, and Alphabet will retain a minority stake, but the company refused to disclose any details about its seed funding or financial targets.Weve realized over time that for a good number of the things we create, theres a lot of benefit to landing just outside of the Alphabet membrane, said Eric Astro Teller, Xs captain of moonshots. Theyre going to be able to get connected quickly to market capital, bring in strategic investors, and generally be able to scale faster this way.Taara already operates in 12 countries including India and parts of Africa. It has created a 5 km laser link over the Congo River between Brazzaville and Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where Internet costs are much higher. It also supplements overloaded mobile phone networks at events such as the Coachella music festival in California.Krishnaswamy, Taaras general manager, says the next stage of development is a tiny silicon photonic chip that will obviate the need for many of the terminals mirrors and lenses and allow multiple connections from one transmitter. The light-based chip units could also potentially replace radio-based Wi-Fi networks in offices down the line, so-called Li-Fi.Taara has a long way to go before it can compete with SpaceXs Starlink, whose 7,000 satellites generated an estimated $9.3 billion in revenue from 4.7 million subscribers last year.While Musks business sells subscriptions directly to consumers, Taara partners with large telecommunication companies such as Bharti Airtel and T-Mobile, extending their core fibre-optic networks to far-flung locations or within dense urban areas where laying cables is expensive or impossible.Think of it as a backbone that helps augment and accelerate existing infrastructure thats out there, Krishnaswamy said.Teller and Krishnaswamy claim that Taara has numerous technological advantages over Starlink. Musks satellites use radio signals that transmit a limited amount of bandwidth to a fixed area, so more people in that space means a smaller amount of signal available to each one, slowing overall speeds.That makes Starlink most effective in remote areas or on cruise ships and in airlines, but it is unable to compete with wired fiber- or light-based systems in cities at its current capacity.Moreover, Taara terminals can be strapped to poles, trees, or buildings in hours rather than being blasted into space on rockets, and there are no politicized auctions of radio spectrum to navigate. The laser beams can criss-cross without the interference that radio frequencies suffer from.Connectivity is a pretty big problem...theres still 3 billion people left behind, said Krishnaswamy of the rivalry with Starlink. I actually think theres a lot of room for both of us.Teller said that as more people come online, the world will run out of traditional radio frequency bands and will have to shift even further up the electromagnetic spectrum.If you can figure out how to be the first business that starts moving data via light, once the whole world moves to that part of the spectrum, we think Taara is going to be in a really nice place, Teller said, adding that it is skating to where the puck is going to be. 2025 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.Stephen Morris, Financial TimesStephen Morris, Financial Times 19 Comments

Shane Snider, Senior Writer, InformationWeekMarch 17, 20254 Min ReadInset profile photo of Red Hat CIO Marco Bill provided by company.imageBROKER.com / Alamy Stock Just one month into his new role as chief information officer, Red Hats Marco Bill is already helping the company reach for the stars -- literally. From a unique space collaboration, to helping businesses navigate their AI ambitions, to rolling with quickly emerging technologies, Bill is forging ahead in his new role.The Raleigh N.C.-based open-source software giant recently announced a new collaboration with Axiom Space to run a data center on the International Space Station. The mission will launch this spring and Red Hats Device Edge will power Data Center Unit-1, enabling hybrid cloud applications and cloud-native workloads -- in outer space.Axiom says the effort will allow data center customers to have access to satellite data closer to the source, making transmission quicker and more efficient. Bill says the collaboration was an opportunity for Red Hat to innovate in a new space.It was a mutual interest, Bill says of the space project. We dont really have a space mission at Red Hat, but its obviously a use case that fits very well with us and what we do. Its very intriguing. For us at Red Hat, its good to be exposed to these new environments. We always learn and we can improve our products.Axiom says its Orbital Space Center (OBC) will have tangible benefits, including reducing delays by utilizing cloud storage and edge processing infrastructure, allowing for faster and more secure connections in orbit. Reducing latency in space will allow quicker access to orbital data sources for terrestrial users, the company says.Related:(Editors Note: Be sure to check out this weeks DOS Wont Hunt Podcast, which features a panel discussion about data centers in exotic locations, including space).Earthly AI AmbitionsBack on Earth, Red Hat is facing more terrestrial issues, like the sudden AI arms race sparked by booming enterprise interest in generative AI (GenAI). Like any company, Red Hat is balancing increasing AI infrastructure costs.The development of AI is definitely our big mission, Bill says. We want to be a leader there and thats where the budget goes from a company perspective. I have to provide infrastructure there -- the data is important as well, so Ive got to follow that. I have to provide an environment with the right GPUs, right?CIOs struggling to balance budgets with priorities can learn from Red Hats process, Bill says. I do spend quite a bit of money on the whole transformation of data, because thats where we were lagging. So, we cleaned this up over the last two years And then theres not much budget left, right? So, you really have to work with the business and identify the priorities.Related:CIOs need to place a high priority on AI, Bill says. The biggest advice I would give to other CIOs is not to ignore AI or to find excuses why AI doesnt work in their environment. Dont ignore this. [AI] is bigger than the internet when it came around and companies who ignored the internet arent around anymore. Dont find excuses, really double down and find ways to experiment. Finding that right use case is important, but this is not hype.Securing Open SourceMany IT leaders may struggle with the option of open-source solutions as they struggle with increasing cybersecurity threats. They may see open-source software as a risky proposition, despite benefits in cost and innovation. Bill says CIOs can take advantage of the open-source value proposition and maintain a strong security stance.We have a whole cyber team engaged globally 24/7 and theyre engaged in the communities, he says. When you have a good team of people, you can mix open source. In our culture, if you have a lot of open-source engineers, they want to have some freedom. I cannot give them a Windows laptop and lock it down -- youve got to give them environments they can actually work with in the open-source community. But you still need to control it. Thats one of the biggest challenges.Related:Red Hat and the Future of TechFor Bill, the next several years of tech will bring more diversity in cloud infrastructure and placement. You will have some applications running on the ground, you will have some in the public cloud, and youll have data centers in space. Youll have to be on different footprints, and that can be for geopolitical reasons or because of cost. So being on a hybrid-cloud infrastructure is really important.And that infrastructure will usher in a new era of AI, where companies can begin reaping benefits and seeing a return on investment.There is so much we can do with AI, Bill says. With Red Hat, our infrastructure is important. Linux is still important to us. Thats our foundation with open source and having the Kubernetes platform. How do those work together? How do they work on a hybrid cloud and enable AI? There will be a lot of evolution with the large language models thats the future that we see.About the AuthorShane SniderSenior Writer, InformationWeekShane Snider is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of industry experience. He started his career as a general assignment reporter and has covered government, business, education, technology and much more. He was a reporter for the Triangle Business Journal, Raleigh News and Observer and most recently a tech reporter for CRN. He was also a top wedding photographer for many years, traveling across the country and around the world. He lives in Raleigh with his wife and two children.See more from Shane SniderWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Artists impression of a future Interlune moon mining missionInterluneA space start-up will launch a moon mining mission in 2027, with the eventual goal of delivering a rare form of helium that is essential for some quantum computers and future nuclear fusion reactors. If successful, it will be the first commercial mission of its kind.Helium-3, a form of helium with one neutron as opposed to normal helium-4, which has two is extremely rare on Earth, at a ratio of roughly one part per million

Do gravity-carrying particles need to exist in order to explain how gravity arises?koto_feja/Getty ImagesAll the fundamental forces are thought to be carried by a particle, but a new mathematical model suggests gravity may be a striking exception. Building on a decades-old idea, researchers have revealed a path towards understanding this possibility in detail and testing it experimentally.Manthos Karydas at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California says that gravity stands out from the other fundamental forces. One reason for this

Chatbots are changing how we connect to each other and ourselves. But are these changes for the better, and how should they be monitored and regulated? To learn more, join me for a live Roundtable session this Thursday at 12pm ET. Ill be chatting with MIT Technology Review editor Rachel Courtland and senior reporter Eileen Guo, and well be unpacking the landscape around chatbots. Register to ensure you dont miss out!The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 How Trump's foreign aid cuts will hurt millions of peoples' health The world is going to struggle to cope with the loss of US support. (Vox)+ Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to lose their lives as a result. (New Yorker $)+ The cuts could cause tuberculosis to become untreatable again. (The Atlantic $)+ Top scientific universities are being forced to slash jobs. (The Guardian)+ Pregnant women may die because of cuts to reproductive care. (MIT Technology Review)2 Left-leaning Americans are abandoning TeslaAnd conservatives face an uphill climb to plug the sales gap. (NYT $)+ The company is turning its back on the typically pro-EV buyers that made it a success. (WP $)3 VC firms are rushing to invest in Israeli startupsTheyre betting that the firms are likely to do future business with the US. (WSJ $)+ Heres the defense tech at the center of US aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. (MIT Technology Review)4 NASA is scheduled to return the two stranded astronauts on Tuesday A new crew arrived to relieve them of their duties over the weekend. (NPR)+ Lets see if they make it home this week or not. (Ars Technica)+ Space travel is seriously hard on the human body. (WP $)5 Baidus new reasoning AI model is designed to challenge DeepSeek It claims Ernie X1 offers the same performance at half the price. (Insider $)+ DeepSeeks shock success is sparking a new wave of AI investment. (Bloomberg $)+ Four Chinese AI startups to watch beyond DeepSeek. (MIT Technology Review)6 Alphabet has big plans for its laser-based internet projectTaara has been spun out of its moonshot incubator and into the real world. (FT $) + Its a rival to Musks Starlink network. (The Verge)

2025-03-17T14:29:05Z Read in app Zehra Naqvi (angel investor), Derek Chu (FirstMark), and Maitree Mervana Parekh (Acrew Capital) are on the look for the next big thing in social. Courtesy Zehra Naqvi; FirstMark; Acrew Capital This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Investments in consumer social startups have declined, but some are still searching for the next big app.I spoke with 12 investors about the state of social networks and what they are looking for.They talked about how AI will spur new apps and how Gen Z and Alpha will shape what's ahead.It's just a matter of time until the next big thing in social media drops.TikTok's future hangs in limbo. Instagram feels less and less social. And more recent newcomers, like BeReal and Clubhouse, flourished and faded like fashion trends.Where are venture capitalists and angel investors hunting for the new killer app? I spoke with 12 investors who have either backed buzzy social startups, recently launched funds focused on the category, or are angel investors with their own apps."We finally are at a tipping point because of frustration with policy changes, algorithmic feeds, privacy breaches, excessive commercialization," Alex Hofmann, CEO of mobile app conglomerate 9count and founding partner of early-stage venture firm Progression Fund, recently told me. "It's time for a change. It's time to build better products."Startup founders have been seeing opportunities in areas like dating apps, where consumer disgust at the status quo has been the sentiment of a string of trend pieces. And rampant loneliness is also fueling a wave of new apps trying to connect people IRL.It's not easy to snag investment in the consumer space, though.VCs have generally cooled on consumer investments and are eyeing deals in AI and enterprise instead. According to data from Crunchbase, investments in consumer-focused social companies slumped from $3.1 billion in 2021 (with 487 deals) to $900 million in 2024 (with 128 deals). Just 6% of investments from top VC firms went to consumer tech companies in 2024, per an analysis of PitchBook data by Silicon Valley Bank.A tougher market has made new social startups start out lean and focus on monetization earlier."It's when you're building in times of difficulty that makes you really creative," said Derek Chu, a partner at consumer-focused venture firm FirstMark. The firm invested in IRL events startup Posh in 2024 and previously backed Discord and Pinterest.Here are five takeaways from my conversations with investors on the future of social.1. Get ready for a whole lot of apps thanks to AIBuilding off of AI tech from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini, some startups are churning out mobile and web applications often described as AI wrappers that are consumer-facing."There is room for real, disruptive application-layer innovation," said Maitree Mervana Parekh, a principal investor at Acrew Capital. She's particularly interested in startups building consumer-facing developer tools that help anyone create their own app using LLMs, and listed a few examples, including Websim and Lovable (neither are in Acrew's portfolio). Maitree Mervana Parekh is a principal investor for Acrew Capital. Courtesy of Acrew Websim, for instance, shared several social-media tools created by users to X (formerly Twitter) in February, including a way to share events, post hot takes, or vote on "would you rather" prompts. Meanwhile, Swedish startup Lovable recently announced it had raised $15 million in pre-Series A funding and said in a blog post that it had produced over 1 million apps since launching in 2024.AI is already a "seismic" platform shift in consumer, FirstMark's Chu said, comparing it to the shift to mobile that defined the 2010s.Hugo Amsellem, general partner at Intuition VC, has his eye on startups leveraging AI that can curate and match people, such as professional networking platform Boardy. Amsellem is betting that in the next two to three years, more "multiplayer" AI protocols will emerge and begin to see similar network effects to social media platforms. Derek Chu is a partner at FirstMark. Courtesy of FirstMark Still, there are questions about scalability for this new wave of apps and where a winner could emerge."A lot of investors are trying to figure out, 'Is there an internet-scale consumer AI company to be built?'" said Charles Hudson, managing partner and founder of Precursor Ventures. "If there is, is it going to be something like a Character AI? What is it going to be? We don't know."2. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are driving new trendsYounger internet users have a new way of interacting: sharing every single thing they watch, listen to, or do."Consumer social is evolving from sharing moments to sharing metrics," said Rhian Horton, an investor at Stellation Capital. "People are creating platforms where users can track, curate, and share their digital footprints automatically with friends."Spotify Wrapped, the yearly summary of everything people listened to, is a cultural cornerstone for a lot of these platforms."Young people want to obsessively share what they were doing with all their friends," said Zehra Naqvi, an angel investor and founder building a fandom-focused AI platform Lore. She previously was an investor at VC firm Headline. Zehra Naqvi is an angel investor and startup founder. Courtesy of Zehra Naqvi Both Horton and Naqvi listed Airbuds, a music-sharing platform that was one of my favorite apps in 2024, as an example of this. The feed lets users see every song their friends are listening to, regardless of what streaming service they use. It also summarizes who their top artists and albums are by the week.Shelf, a landing page for everything you are watching, reading, and listening to, was also mentioned by Horton and Naqvi. Stellation invested in Shelf's parent company, Kudos.3. Goodbye, mass algorithms. Hello, close friends and niche communities.Naqvi said some internet users are feeling fatigued on legacy social networks. This could result in a "death of mass algorithms," which she thinks will spur more "highly personalized" platforms."What I've been seeing, especially in consumer around connection, is more niching down and products being built for people around certain interests," said TJ Taylor, who launched a pre-seed stage fund called Hobart Ventures late last year.Niche-interest social apps are a category Progression's Hofmann has also focused on. His company, 9count, acquiredthe LGBTQ+ social appLex in 2024 and recently invested in the real-life friends app Mozi.Mozi, founded by Twitter cofounder Ev Williams and Molly DeWolf Swenson, launched in late 2024 and helps users find friends nearby.James Joaquin, cofounder and managing director of Obvious Ventures, invested in Mozi as well (Williams is also a cofounder at Obvious)."One of the consumer areas that my team and I have done a lot of work on is around mental health and around the loneliness epidemic that's happening worldwide," Joaquin said. "This is a big part of our thesis with Mozi, is it's a new kind of social network to actually help people build and strengthen in-person relationships."Others aren't so sure this category can stand alone."I'm not yet convinced that's going to look like an entirely new platform," Mervana Parekh said. Instead, maybe a larger platform or network will add more features around this.Nia Johnson, founder of Party Ventures (an investment DAO focused on pre-seed and seed startups), said that this category of social networks also faces hurdles in terms of monetization and retention."There isn't a lot of reach by design," Johnson said, and limited interactions could cause users to "get bored and churn out." Nia Johnson founded Party Ventures in 2024. Courtesy Nia Johnson 4. Dating is ripe for disruption, but investors aren't so sure there's promise for returnsAs larger dating app companies face headwinds, there's a new generation of startups trying to disrupt the landscape.Some new dating startups are leveraging AI as a way to differentiate themselves from the standard apps available right now. Amsellem pointed to the French dating app Gigi (he is an angel investor), which uses an AI agent that acts like a matchmaker.Kathryn Weinmann, a principal investor at FirstMark, pointed to the similar AI matchmaking app Sitch.Gen Z is also going to shape a lot of the new dating apps right now, Hobart's Taylor said. Taylor worked at Raya, a dating app known for its exclusivity, for several years. He's been interested in dating apps that are tapping into social niches like gaming, or trying to build products focused around "real-world interactions" and "community approaches" that feel more natural.Younger people are also interested in apps that help them find any form of connection, whether that's a date or a new friend especially IRL."The next platform that is going to be great for dating, or for even just friendships, will be in this category of 'utility first, community second' and obviously won't look like a traditional dating app," Stellation's Horton said. Rhian Horton is an investor at Stellation Capital. Courtesy of Rhian Horton And at the end of the day, any social network can be a dating app if it has profiles and DMs, Taylor added.However, some investors have soured on dating apps, and a few told me they were either not interested in writing checks in the space or just hadn't seen anything promising yet."If we're looking for the multibillion-dollar outcomes though, as a venture investor, I don't think you're going to find it there," said Marlon Nichols,MaC Venture Capital.5. The biggest problem facing the next wave of social apps will be Big Tech"The elephant in the room is watching what Meta and Apple and Google are doing," said Obvious Ventures' Joaquin.When it comes to investing in new internet companies, Joaquin said the biggest challenge startups face is "flying too close to the sun."Any hot new social app can quickly be copied by a giant. More recently, we've seen this happen with Apple launching its own event invite app for iCloud users, potentially cutting another slice into the pie for the next wave of events apps like Partiful, Posh, or Luma."The road is lined with skeletons of startups," Joaquin said.

Updated 2025-03-17T14:27:07Z Read in app I go on about six cruises a year, so I've tried a number of different routes. Megan duBois This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? I've been on over 50 cruises (at least six a year), and some routes are better than others.I now try to avoid cruises that make stops at Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas.My favorite cruise I've ever been on was a Mediterranean voyage from Barcelona.I've taken over 50 cruises with family and friends, and I'm always looking to try out new routes with different port stops.Before I ever book a cruise which I do about six times a year I try to find either a new-to-me ship or a new-to-me route. If neither of those options works for my budget or timeframe, I opt for a familiar favorite.Here are my favorite cruise routes that I'm always happy to book, and the ones I don't need to sail again.My favorite route is a Mediterranean cruise that starts and ends in Barcelona.I think Mediterranean cruises are underrated. Megan duBois Mediterranean cruises start and end in various ports of call around Europe, typically throughout the summer sailing season.Last year, my family and I took a Disney Cruise that started and ended in Barcelona, with stops in France and Italy.My favorite part of this trip was splitting a day between Nice and Eze in the French Riviera. I was able to walk through cobblestone streets overlooking the ocean while sipping on limoncello.I love Caribbean cruises along the western ports.I enjoyed spending a day in Honduras on a Caribbean cruise. Megan duBois I've taken many western Caribbean routes over the years on Carnival and Disney Cruise Line, and they never disappoint.The route usually includes stops at Cozumel, Mexico, and Georgetown, Grand Cayman. But it may also include ports of call at Falmouth, Jamaica; Costa Maya, Mexico; or Roatn, Honduras.I always get off the ship in Cozumel, even if it's just to have lunch at a taco shop. Don't get lured into the restaurants right at the docks because the best food is in the spots farther down the main street.I also love getting off in Roatn. On a semi-recent cruise, I took an excursion to Roatan Island Brewing Company to try different beers made with local ingredients.I also enjoy routes that only stop at private islands.Great Stirrup Cay is Norwegian Cruise Line's private island in the Bahamas. Megan duBois Every once in a while, I can find a short three-night cruise on Royal Caribbean or Disney that only visits the brand's private islands.These short cruises are ideal weekend getaways and go to some of my favorite ports of call, like Royal Caribbean's CocoCay and Disney's Castaway Cay.I love both of these destinations because there's so much to do you really can spend the entire day at the beach or exploring the various parts of the island. I also love that food and drinks are all provided, so I don't have to return to the ship for lunch.On the other hand, I don't need to go to Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas again.Nassau is beautiful, but I've already seen most of it. Daniel Korzeniewski/Shutterstock I love short cruises from Port Canaveral or Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but they often mean stopping at Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas.I don't really think there's much to see at either stop once you've done it once or twice. If my route includes them, I usually stay on the ship to enjoy the less crowded pool and spa.The trade-off for these two ports is often getting to visit a cruise line's private island, so I think it's worth it for that. However, I don't need to go on another long cruise through the Bahamas.I'm also not a big fan of Bimini, Bahamas.I like stopping in spots with more than just a beach. Megan duBois Many cruise lines, like Carnival and Virgin Voyages, are now taking cruisers to Bimini for an easy beach day. In my opinion, though, if you're not a big fan of chilling at the beach, there's not much else to do on the island.I'd also skip cruising to Key West because I'd rather spend more time there.I would prefer to spend more than a day exploring Key West. Megan duBois I love Key West in the Florida Keys, but as a port stop, it was hard to see a lot of the island and explore beyond Duval Street.I'd prefer to spend a few days in the destination to explore all that it has to offer instead of making it a cruise stop.This story was originally published on February 20, 2024 and most recently updated on March 17, 2025.

More than four years after its announcement and after two last-minute delays, the latest title in Ubisofts historical fiction series Assassins Creed will finally be released on Thursday. Set in Japan in 1579, a time of intense civil war dominated by the feudal lord Oda Nobunaga, it follows two characters navigating their way through the bloody chaos: a female shinobi named Fujibayashi Naoe, and Yasuke, an African slave turned samurai. Japan has been the series most-requested setting for years, Ubisoft says."I've been on [this] franchise for 16 years and I think every time we start a new game, Japan comes up and we ask, is this the time? says executive producer Marc-Alexis Cot. We've never pushed beyond the conception phase with Japan until this one."The game comes at a crucial time for Ubisoft after the disappointing performance of last years titles Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and the expensive closure of live service shooter XDefiant. There has also been a furore over the games Black and female protagonists, with the usual rightwing YouTubers criticising them as woke and historically inaccurate, despite the fact that female warriors fought throughout the feudal period, and that Yasuke, the games Black samurai, is a historical figure.It is something the team is keen to address. In-house historians were some of the first people to get staffed on the production team, says creative director Jonathan Dumont. A huge data bank is continually fed. As we get a sense of the era, the research effort then requires the help of specialists from around the world, including Japan, to narrow down details or understand finer cultural points.The game features advancements in lighting on landscapes. Photograph: UbisoftThere were also field trips to the games key locations of Kyoto and Osaka, which revealed elements the team hadnt thought of. Cote recalls travelling to Japan to show local colleagues some technological breakthroughs the development team had made with lighting on landscapes. But they all shook their heads and said it wasnt working. I was like, Why?! he says. And they just replied: Thats not how light falls on the mountains in Japan. So when our art director was there I asked him specifically to go look at the mountains. He went, took reference photos, and now weve captured it.The team also had to render individual characters socks, because they are always depicted removing their footwear when entering a building. The expectations have been this high throughout. Its been a challenge.Like all the previous Assassins Creed titles before it, Shadows uses authentic locations and historical figures to seat the games time-hopping narrative. Takeda, Fukuchiyama and Himeji castles are all replicated along with the villages, ports and rural landscapes of Central Japan. But as ever, this is first and foremost a game about sneaking over rooftops and skilfully taking down enemies. In a demo we played just before release, the lead characters are assaulting Himeji castle, and you can choose to play either as Naoe, skulking in the shadows using smoke bombs and silent attacks to escape detection, or Yasuke, running in with his sword and lopping off limbs. While Ubisoft has put immense effort into capturing the Azuchi-Momoyama period and the nature of the Iga peasant class (the possible origin of the modern ninja archetype), what matters equally is how good it feels to leap off a rooftop and decapitate a passing enemy.Incredibly bloody combat. Photograph: UbisoftIn many ways, it seems the game draws as much from modern cultural depictions of the period and its warriors as from history. Japanese storytelling has been very influential to the development of the game and to all occidental arts in general, says Dumont. Kagemusha from Kurosawa, 13 Assassins, Zatoichi, Sekigahara, The Tale of Genji or Musashi from Eiji Yoshikawa, to name the more obvious, have [all] helped shape our vision for the game. Even Studio Ghibli movies such as My Neighbour Totoro have helped us understand the countryside and vegetation.Its certainly an interesting time for Shadows to release. Multiple high-profile failures of recent live service games have left players yearning for the era of big single-player adventures, with decent sales reported for Obsidians recent RPG Avowed. Meanwhile, the huge success of FX/Hulus Shgun series has brought feudal Japan back into the cultural spotlight, and its story of stranded English navigator John Blackthorne becoming a high ranking samurai somewhat reflects that of Yasuke.The game does look beautiful, with intricate environments, a dramatic weather system and incredibly bloody combat. Ubisoft has survived a difficult period; a lot now rests on its most treasured possession.