Remedy Entertainment is no stranger to unconventional ballistics. The Finnish game developer is well known for its eclectic, boundary-pushing approach to third-person shooters with titles such as Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control. But a co-op first-person shooter where you fight, among other threats, a sentient swarm of Post-it notes? Thats a new one.On Thursday at Future Games Show, Remedy debuted a new trailer for FBC: Firebreak, the studios upcoming first-person shooter set in the Remedy Connected Universe. Taking place six years after the events of 2019s Control, the game centers on Firebreak, a team of volunteer first responders who act as the first and last line of defense between the remaining members of the Federal Bureau of Control and the Hiss, the hostile supernatural resonance thats possessed their former co-workers. FBCs Firebreak team finds itself trapped inside the extradimensional office building known as the Oldest House, with the Hiss trapped alongside them, waiting to attack.The trailer, titled Paper Chase, shows a three-player team working together to clear out an infestation of malevolent sticky notes that have overtaken the executive sector of the Oldest House, along with a swath of Hiss-possessed FBC employees. Using improvised weapons and tools including what appears to be an electrified pneumatic jump firearm, a high-pressure water cannon to blast away sticky notes obscuring a players field of vision, and an explosive Object of Power resembling a piggy bank, players move between various containment zones and safe rooms collecting ammo and items.The trailer culminates with players fighting against a group of anthropomorphic masses of sticky notes before facing off against a massive monster referred to simply as Sticky Ricky. Its impressive, exciting, and unabashedly bonkers.Polygon attended a virtual press event on March 11 where Remedy showed off an extended playthrough of the mission featured in the trailer, as well as a presentation on the games core pillars led by FBC: Firebreak game director Mike Kayatta.From day one, we asked ourselves this question over and over again anytime we had an idea we wanted to pitch out to the others in the team: Could this happen only in Control, and could this happen only at Remedy? Is this something that only us weirdos on the team were willing to put into a game with the Remedy label on it, and if the answer was yes, then we thought we were on the right track, Kayatta said.At its core, FBC: Firebreak is designed to prioritize pick-up-and-play potential, ditching the engagement stress of daily check-ins, monthly grinds, and battle passes that bifurcate experiences between casual and hardcore gamers. However much youve played or your friends have played, no matter how good you are versus how good they are, it doesnt matter, said Kayatta. We want to have some way of playing this game with anyone who wants to play it with us, and well give you a lot of options to kind of create that experience.Those options boil down to three major factors at the outset of the game. The first are jobs, FBC: Firebreaks in-game terminology for missions that players can choose to tackle. Each job is set in one of the sectors of the Oldest House with its own unique objective. The second is Threat & Clearance Level, which are essentially modifiers that players can select before embarking on a job that determines the combat difficulty (Threat) and the number of combat zones from one to three (Clearance). The Threat & Clearance Level you choose can afford for greater challenges and the possibility of greater rewards. Finally, there are Crisis Kits weapon and skill loadouts that give players the ability to emphasize one of three unique play styles that players can switch between mid-job.In addition to all these options, players can also collect and equip Research Perks that entail different abilities that modify your skills, la Controls Personal Mods, and become stronger when paired with perks of the same type. The result, in theory at least, is an interoperable core experience that emphasizes teamwork, creativity, and moment-to-moment spontaneity.When prompted as to whether or not players would have to play Control in order to fully understand or enjoy FBC: Firebreak, Kayatta emphasized that Remedys 2019 action-adventure game is intended to be complementary to this new game, not compulsory. Its really important to us to kind of protect two groups of players with this game. One are the Control people. We dont want you to feel as though you have to divert into a genre you dont feel comfortable with to follow the story of these characters and to understand what happened. We also want to protect non-Control players by making sure that they dont need to have that backstory to fully understand anybody that we present them with.All post-launch downloadable content, such as new jobs, will be free for all FBC: Firebreak owners, with optional cosmetic items available to purchase. Cross-play will be supported, allowing those who own the game to play with one another regardless of whether they own the game on console or PC. While Kayatta and co. were cagey about the exact details of what Remedy has in mind for the games post-launch content map, its likely that FBC: Firebreak will at some point in the future bridge the gap between the events of 2019s Control and the upcoming Control 2, which is currently in production.As a longtime fan of the studio, Im impressed with what Ive seen of the game so far and eager to dive back into the paranatural shenanigans of the Remedy Connected Universe when FBC: Firebreak launches on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X this summer.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Welcome to Cookbook of the Week. This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own.I love cookbooks that combine comfort food with a smattering of unfamiliar recipes that make me think, Ooh, I wonder what that's like. This mingling of brand-new dishes with ones that stir a bit of nostalgia is usually a hit for me. This week, I chose Salt, Sugar, MSG to feature for my cookbook of the week. Not only does it tick those boxes above for this Asian-American kid, but this book is also a reliable resource for those dinners when you're in the mood for a little bit of everything.About the bookSalt, Sugar, MSG is hot off the pressesit was published on March 18and comes from chef Calvin Eng along with Phoebe Melnick. It may be Engs cookbook debut, but if youve ever tried his food at Win Son or Bonnies, you know that he is no flash-in-the-pan recipe developer. Hes been charming New Yorkers with interesting and bold flavors for some timeand there are many great examples of exactly that in Salt, Sugar, MSG.As you might guess from the title, this cookbook is not MSG-free. Quite the opposite actually: Youll find MSG popping up here, there, and in unexpected placeskind of like how MSG and other glutamates naturally pop up in a lot of our food. Eng uses MSG like any other seasoning in this cookbook, because thats exactly what it is: A cheap, easy, and harmless solution to boosting umami in your dishes, like Fuyu Cacio e Pepe Mein and MSG Caramel.Not only does the actual food benefit from the addition of monosodium glutamate, but I appreciate him using MSG in the title. It normalizes an ingredient and an entire community that once heavily suffered from the complete bullshit toxic myth of Chinese restaurant syndrome. Chef Eng has even teamed up with Ajinomoto to help dispel the myths surrounding MSG. If youre just stretching your MSG wings, this cookbook offers plenty of opportunities for you to start getting your reps in.A great cookbook for mix-and-match pairingsThroughout the book, in the headnotes and in chapter introductions, youll read anecdotes from Calvin Engs childhood and his current shopping habits in Chinatown. His stories about the smell of warm soy milk and shopping for vegetables reminded me of grocery shopping with my mom at our local Asian market in New Jersey. One of my favorite parts of that shopping trip was (and still is) the fresh bakery section. Everything in that area of the store had been freshly made that morning, and wed pick up a little bit of everything. Wed grab congee, pork buns, soy milk, hot noodle dishes, vegetable stir fries, and armfuls of scallion pork floss buns. At home, my mom would unpack everything and wed all snack and basically chow down on this kitchen table banquet. Salt, Sugar, MSG welcomes this mix-and-match style of eating.Many of the dishes in this book are satisfying as single snacks or parts of a greater meal. Somehow, they all seem like theyd pair well with each other. If you picked three recipes out of this book blindfolded, youd likely have a well matched meal. To test that theory, I just did exactly that and heres the menu I came up with: the Lemon Cola Chicken Wings, Perfect Pot of Steamed Rice, and Shrimp and Pork Wonton Soup. See? You need some vegetables? Same technique in the vegetable chapterHot Salad (romaine lettuce with a sweet and salty soy sauce dressing). Done.While other cookbooks might give you a single recipe that includes the meat, veg, and carbs all together, Salt, Sugar, MSG gives you space to formulate the perfect meal for what youre craving. This style of eating reflects how you might order at a dim sum restaurant or banquet halla plate of greens, a dish of steamed prawns or roast pork, steamed egg custard, and some rice. Its actually a great cookbook for small appetites (just make a few plates for snacking) as well as for big family meals.The dish I made this week Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann I did my own version of mix and match for lunch this week with the Piggies in Scallion Milk Bread Blankets and Yeun Yeung (milk tea with coffee). I dont much care for the average American hot dog on a bun, but dammit, if you change that bun to milk bread and add scallions, its a whole different ball game for me.The milk tea recipe, as simple as it is, was the first thing I decided on. It asks for orange pekoe tea, so I grabbed the Twinings Ceylon at my Shoprite and set up my boiling water, evaporated milk, and condensed milk. I was a little nervous that it would be too sweet (sometimes Thai iced tea overwhelms me) but it was perfectly creamy and sweet with a welcome bitter edge. I saved the rest for the morning so I could make the Bonus Recipe Yuen Yeung, which is just the addition of black coffee.The piggies were fantastic. I should have made all 12 like the recipe told me, but I turned the other half of the bread dough into a large milk bread loaf. (I was such a fool.) The milk bread recipe starts with a simple tangzhong (roux) which helps keep the bread dough soft and spongy. The sugar, egg, and butter enrich the dough and give the finished bun that perfect balance of richness along with the salt and umami from the hot dogs. Scallion hot dog buns and milk tea coffeemy new favorite lunch.Where to buy itSalt, Sugar, MSG is available as a hardcover, or as an e-book for a reasonable price. Since its brand new, you will definitely be seeing this one at the big box book shops and likely even at the local independent bookstores. Even if you dont see it on their shelves, ask to see if they can order it to their location. Salt Sugar MSG: Recipes and Stories from a Cantonese American Home $14.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $14.99 at Amazon

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Home renovations are expensiveand exciting. Its never cheap to rip out the old and install the brand-new, but a quality renovation can turn your house into a dream home, or at least solve some nagging problems that have bothered you for years. While not every renovation project gives you the results youre looking for, theres no doubt that putting some work into your home usually results in a happier, more valuable place to live.But renovation projects arent set it and forget it. Youve hired people to come into your private space with tools and materials, to rip out old stuff (that sometimes doesnt want to be ripped out and puts up quite a fight), and generally make an enormous mess of the place. Hiring reputable contractors will protect you from the worst-case scenarios in most renovations, but any time tools and big, heavy materials are involved theres a chance of damage. If your contractors smash up the place, your homeowners insurance may cover the costs, but its best if you avoid the damage in the first place. Here are some straightforward precautions to take to protect your home during a renovation.Sequester the renovation zonesIf youre only renovating part of your home, your first step should be encapsulating the area with plastic sheeting. This doesnt have to be a complicated process:Apply painters tape around the doorway or opening that leads to the area where the renovation will occur.Cut a sheet of plastic sheeting so that it fits over the doorway or opening with margins of an inch or more all around.Tape the plastic into place with duct tape, making sure to adhere it to the painters tape so you dont damage the walls or floors.Apply a tarp zipper to the plastic barrier, then slice it open to create an opening for you and your contractors to pass through.This will help contain dust and debris, preventing damage to your furniture or HVAC systems.Turn off the HVACIf your home has central heating and cooling, you should take some precautions to ensure that it isnt affected by dust and debris, which can clog the filters and damage the unit itself:Cover vents. Use magnetic vent covers or tape down more plastic to completely cover vents within the work zone.Turn the system off. When mudding drywall or painting, some contractors want to run your HVAC system to assist with drying, but dont let them. In fact, turn the HVAC system off (in just the affected zone, if you can) to ensure it isnt sucking up heavy construction dust all day long. If your contractors want to speed up the drying or setting process they can bring in portable heaters or dehumidifiers to do the job without risking your homes infrastructure.Protect important surfaces from damageNow that dust isn't going to coat your entire home in a fine layer, it's important to protect various parts of your home from scratches, dings, and dents.DoorsDoors are easy targets for damage during a renovation. Contractors carrying large, bulky items can smash into them, and tools can easily scrape and dent as theyre carried around a space. Adding some snap-on door jamb protectors and removing or covering the door with builders paper will protect it from these kinds of accidents.Tubs and sinksIf your workers will be anywhere near your kitchen and bathroom fixtures, youll want to protect them from dirt and dust as well as scratches and other damage. You can plug drains with some rags or tape them up, then cover the sinks and bathtubs with heavy-duty cardboard (or invest in an adjustable tub protector or temporary, peelable tub film). This way, when your contractor drops their hammer on your brand-new tub, youll be able to just shrug it off.FlooringFloors take a beating during any sort of construction. Dirt and grit can act like sandpaper on the finish, and there are endless opportunities for scrapes and scratches. Depending on the work being done, you might get away with a simple drop cloth or carpet film, but if the work is more involved, you should consider something a little tougher to protect your hardwood, tile, or laminate flooring. Floor surface protection sheets are relatively easy to install, and are very effective at protecting against damage from even the most careless contractors, and neoprene runners are a solid option for easier, more temporary protection because they can be rolled out and rolled up quickly. You could also useTo protect your stairs, an easy and effective solution is a no-slip drop cloth like this that will stay in place, even on stairs.CountertopsIn kitchens and bathrooms, contractors usually cant resist seeing countertops as extra workspace, a place to drop tools, store materials, and otherwise abuse. Covering your countertops with a dropcloth or protective film can spare them dust, dirt, and greasy spills, but wont protect them from chips and gouges. Covering them with the same board material you use on the floors can give you that extra layer of protection that ensures you still have countertops when the work is done.

Bloober Team is taking its horror game cred into a new direction with the launch of publisher Broken Mirror Games. This "co-development label" is collaborating with Rock Square Thunder, an indie outfit founded by ex-Bloober devs, for a new open-world survival horror game called I Hate This Place. It's scheduled for release in the final quarter of 2025 on PC, PlayStation, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch.The source material for this adaptation is a comic book series of the same title from Skybound Entertainment by writer Kyle Starks and artist Artyom Topilin. Fittingly, the game has kept a hand-drawn style for its tale of protagonist Elena, who has accidentally unleashed a nightmarish force and now has to fight for her life by using her wits and finding shelter before the sun sets.While its exact focus in the genre has shifted, Bloober Team has created several well-received horror games such as Layers of Fear, last year's Silent Hill 2 remake and the upcoming Cronos: The New Dawn.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/bloober-team-launches-horror-publishing-label-with-debut-game-i-hate-this-place-220032691.html?src=rss

Theres something really exciting about FBC: Firebreak, Remedys take on cooperative, online first-person shooters. Ive been trying to pinpoint a specific wow factor since attending the games developer-led demonstration last week, but Ive concluded its a combination of multiple cool features blended perfectly together. FBC: Firebreak is set in the sterile headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control and it features Remedys trademark dark surrealism, but its also infused with a healthy dose of silliness and mechanical depth. The result feels like a modern Left 4 Dead in the best possible way, just with Hiss instead of zombies and three players instead of four.Left 3 Dead, anyone?FBC: Firebreak takes place six years after the end of Control. The Oldest House, which used to be the seat of power for the FBC, has been sealed with the Hiss inside, and its now time to eradicate the invasion and lift the lockdown. The agency is sending in the Firebreak team, a unit composed of government volunteers with no extra combat training and little hope of making it out alive. As a member of Firebreak, youre handed some special equipment, patted on the back, and locked inside the headquarters with the Hiss and every unfortunate employee its infested. Good luck.The game is broken down by Jobs, which are essentially custom-built missions in specific regions of The Oldest House. All Jobs have three zones, but otherwise each one has a unique objective, crisis, and environment. After selecting a Job, you get to customize your run by setting the Threat Level and Clearance Level Threat Level determines combat difficulty and the number of rewards up for grabs, while Clearance Level sets the number of zones you have to clear and the type of rewards.I will say we do have more than three clearance levels, and you get into some pretty interesting stuff later, such as corrupted items that appear during the job, game director Mike Kayatta said.Remedy EntertainmentBefore the match begins, each player gets to select one of three Crisis Kits, loadouts designed with specific playstyles in mind. Crisis Kits come with a tool and an item each. The Jump Kit is based around electricity and it has the Electro-Kinectic Charge Impactor, a portable jackhammer kind of device with a conductive metal plate on the end, capable of slamming into enemies or propelling yourself into the air. It also has the BOOMbox, which plays music to attract enemies before exploding. The Fix Kit gives you a big wrench thats able to repair machinery and stagger Hiss, and it also includes a turret that you have to smack with the wrench to assemble. The Splash Kit is for all the water signs out there it features the Crank-Operated Fluidic Injector, an industrial water cannon that can extinguish fires and soak enemies so theyre primed for extra damage, plus a Humidifier, which sprays healing water in a wide area.A good way to look at all of this is that you're going to kind of combine the threat level and the clearance level and the type of job you want to play to sort of create your own load, your own experience, exactly the session that you're looking for with whatever group you're playing with that night, Kayatta said.Members of the Firebreak squad have their own Research Perks, or upgrade slots. You purchase Perks with currency earned during Jobs, and stacking upgrades of the same type strengthens their effect. Equipping three Perks of the same type lends that ability to nearby teammates as well.Remedy EntertainmentFor example, one perk might give you the feature that each missed bullet has a chance to return to your clip, or the ability to extinguish yourself by jumping up and down, which is how that of course works, community manager Julius Fondem said. If you equip just one perk, you get its effect. Simple, straightforward. If you equip two of the same type, you get a stronger version of that perk. And if you equip three of the same perk type, you can actually share its effect with your nearby crewmates. As you increase your kit proficiency, you'll increase the slots you have to play with, giving you the opportunity to play with a lot of different builds and strategies.Killing Hiss is all fine and dandy, but collecting currency is a major goal of each run in FBC: Firebreak, too. Currency is used to purchase new gear and cosmetics as well as Perks.Ultimately, Firebreak is about efficiency, Fondem said. You can't fail objectives, but the longer you spend doing them, the more and more Hiss will show up to stop you, increasing the chance that your crew dies on the job. That means the longer you spend exploring for currency, the more risk you're inviting and the harder it will eventually become to make it back to headquarters in one piece.Speaking of currency Remedy promises it wont charge for critical content post-launch.We want to keep all of our players united, which means that all playable post-launch content, such as Jobs, will be free for everyone who has the game, Fondem said. We'll support the game by offering paid cosmetic content as well.The Job that Remedy showed off in the media briefing (and featured in todays Future Games Show Spring Showcase) was Paper Chase, a mission filled with flying yellow sticky notes, sticky-note monsters, and one hulking sticky-note titan as the final boss. Its set in a classic FBC office space, concrete walls and blood-orange carpet, and players have to eradicate the rogue, multiplying sticky notes as well as the rushing Hiss. Little squares of paper swirl through the air and cling to the players face, covering the screen at times, amid explosions, flickering lights and showers of bullets. At one point, a player places a piggy bank in their melee weapon and smashes it on the Hiss, screaming, Stand back, piggys coming out! It activates an AOE wind effect on nearby enemies. There are environmental factors to mess with and a range of weapons to deploy shotguns, machine guns, rifles, pistols, water cannons, turrets, grenades, electrified impact devices, boomboxes and overall, Paper Chase seems like a damn good time.Remedy EntertainmentIts taken plenty of iteration to get to this point. And as it turns out, FBC: Firebreak isnt limited to three players just to differentiate itself from a slightly similar 16-year-old game with a four in its title.The reason why we did three-player squads, really, it was like an organic quirk of the development, Kayatta said. We actually started testing with four players. I think it just didn't feel quite as good. It was a little harder to understand where people were. That's something that's, like, not required but definitely helpful in this game. And it just felt like, with all of the chaos and all of the fun systems going off, three just felt right over time. So that's it. And yeah, you can play solo or duo.FBC: Firebreak is due out this summer, and its heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, plus itll be available day-one on Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. Itll support cross-play. Remedy is aiming for a lower-minimum PC spec requirement and optimizing the game for Steam Deck. Still, FBC: Firebreak will ship with full ray-tracing support, DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex capabilities.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fbc-firebreak-first-look-left-4-dead-but-with-remedys-silly-surreal-touch-214657219.html?src=rss

GMKtec challenges industry giants with the EVO-X2, a compact AI powerhouse featuring AMDs latest processor.

Another round of leaked dummy units for the iPhone 17 has appeared online, with an interesting detail.

Micron shares rose in extended trading Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected results and issued guidance that topped estimates.

At Nvidias developer conference on Thursday, a large group of energy companiesalong with a few technology companiesannounced plans to collaborate on building AI models and apps aimed at improving the generation and distribution of electric power.The initiative, called the Open Power AI Consortium, is organized by the Palo Alto-based Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Founding members include Nvidia, Microsoft, AWS, and Oracle. Notably absent from the group are all of the leading developers of frontier AI models, such as Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI.This is about getting the right data, and getting it clean, so that it can be used for AI, Jeremy Renshaw, who leads the consortium at EPRI, tells Fast Company. Renshaw says energy companies have mountains of data, but organizing it in a way that AI models can process is key.But already, more than two dozen regional power companies in the U.S. have signed on, including Con Edison, Duke Energy, New York Power Authority, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Westinghouse Electric Company.EPRI president and CEO Arshad Mansoor said in a statement that the consortium will create an AI model, datasets, and apps to enhance grid reliability, optimize asset performance, and enable more efficient energy management. It will also foster a collaborative environment where utilities, startups, academics, and national labs can work together to address power-sector challenges using AI.The consortium doesnt include representatives from government agencies, but Renshaw said hed like to see their inclusion. We intend to include anyone involved in the making and moving of electricity, he says. Government is important because they do the permitting, licensing, and they provide regulations.The announcement comes amid growing concern in the tech sector over the strain that AI workloads can place on data centers. (Google even pledged last year to buy energy from small modular reactors developed by Kairos Power to support its growing AI ambitions.)Axios climate reporter Alex Freedman notes that the power demands of the so-called AI boom have become a top priority for energy company CEOs in the U.S. Freedman highlights an ongoing debate within that sector over whether the power demands of AI will prolong the use of fossil fuels. Should that prove to be the case, AI could further push back constructive work toward climate goals.

Its World Happiness Day, otherwise known as International Day of Happiness, but if youre not feeling the love, youre not alone. Many Americans arent that happy, according to the World Happiness Report 2025, which ranks happiness across nations. In fact, America doesnt even crack the top 20 happiest countries in the world, and instead now sits at No. 24earning its lowest ranking yet. (Spoiler alert: Finland once again is the happiest.)The report, which asked people from 140 countries to evaluate their life, looked at six major factors to predict happiness: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and perceptions of corruption. Each person ranked their own happiness over the past three years from 2022 to 2024.While all those factors are important, the key to happiness is often attributed to Harvard Universitys landmark 85-year Study of Adult Development, which discovered that close relationships are the strongest predictor of happinessthroughout our lives.The young and the hopelessPerhaps one reason for Americas plummeting levels of happiness can be understood through the eyes of Gen Z, who are currently experiencing an epidemic oflonelinessand isolation (as are many Americans, but not to the same extent). The report found young people worldwide were increasingly lonely, with 19% reporting in 2023 that they have no one to count on for social support, a 39% increase from 2006.The decline in the U.S. in 2024 was at least partly attributable to Americans younger than age 30 feeling worse about their lives, Ilana Ron-Levey, managing director at Gallup, part of the World Happiness Report 2025, toldCNN. Todays young people report feeling less supported by friends and family, less free to make life choices and less optimistic about their living standards.It also found that in the United States and parts of Europe, lower levels of both happiness and trust have greatly contributed to more polarization along political lines.The silver lining? One positive finding was that people often underestimate other peoples kindness; that is to say, people are often kinder than we think, and doing nice things for others actually makes you happier.What are the worlds happiest countries?Here are 2025s top 20 happiest countries in the world.FinlandDenmarkIcelandSwedenNetherlandsCosta RicaNorwayIsraelLuxembourgMexicoAustraliaNew ZealandSwitzerlandBelgiumIrelandLithuaniaAustriaCanadaSloveniaCzech RepublicThe five countries where people were most unhappy? At the bottom of the list: Afghanistan, once again the last-place holder; Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.The report is the result of a partnership between Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and an editorial board.