One of the more exciting releases for the first quarter of 2025 is Rebellion's Atomfall: an alternate-history action survival game set in the wake of the Windscale incident of 1957, one of history's most devastating nuclear disasters. Historical games are nothing new for Rebellion, who are primarily known for its long-running Sniper Elite series, but Atomfall presented the team with a different challenge. Namely, this was creating a post-apocalyptic game that still maintains the picturesque beauty of northern England (among other things). As a result, Atomfall is a game that looks a lot different from what most players would expect when they hear that it's set after an apocalyptic incident.

The annual WWE 2K games are a showcase of talents who have made waves on WWE programming, as well as an homage to legendary wrestlers. WWE 2K25 continues this legacy with enhanced gameplay and a new immersive experience in the form of The Island. For the next few months, WWE 2K25will also come out with DLCs that offer additional wrestlers, excluding one highly-requested star: Joe Hendry.

Last week, we asked you to focus your lens on the various monsters of Monster Hunter Wilds using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this weeks highlights:shimo_ps shares their hunter taking on an Arkveld in the desertxenobitz shares a Lala Barina in the dark forestSyrenSigh shares a slimy Nu UdraLny_Trpr_EE7 shares an angry long-horned Rey DauPhotoingame shares a Guardian RathalosLeeeshP shares a Arkveld attacking in a caveSearch #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this weeks theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?THEME: Assassins Creed ShadowsSUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on March 26, 2025Next week, leap into Assassins Creed Shadows, and share epic moments of Naoe and Yasuke exploring feudal Japan using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

In 1768, Voltaire wrote If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him, and boy, was he right (in the specific case of role-playing fantasy worlds). When Tolkien laid down the Ur-texts of modern fantasy fiction, he created a world where, just like in the myths and legends that influenced him, gods were absolutely real. They had desires and voices, and sometimes bodies. They acted on the world in ways that made faith unnecessary. You could see with your own eyes.Dungeons & Dragons leaned in and heaped more deities into its Dungeon Masters guides. These days, its pretty much theological Fortnite. With the religious toothpaste out of the tube, establishing a pantheon and creation myth is a part of fantasy world-building 101. But Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee mulligan are doing it at a 400 level at least. Their Exandria Unlimited Critical Role campaign follows the messy fallout of a war between gods, and the efforts of mortals to assert themselves against forces that seem beyond their control.They seemed qualified for the task, so we did a little exercise. I gave them brief descriptions of fantasy worlds, and I asked them to create the gods that those worlds would worship. Even under pressure, they didnt disappoint! Check out the video to enter Mouth World, the world where we are all bacteria living in a big mouth and we pray to the beneficent goddess SODAA. @polygon Ahead of the new Exandria Unlimited: Divergence miniseries, we asked Brennan Lee Mulligan and Matt Mercer to riff on some godless fantasy worlds. #dnd #dndtiktok #criticalrole original sound Polygon

If you have an internet connection and the right subscriptions, Monster Hunter Wilds allows you to play in a lobby with a whole bunch of other people online. But sometimes you just want to play offline single-player.For some, an online lobby can be super helpful. Stronger players can swoop in and help you defeat tough monsters and give you the support you need. However, thats not always the experience a hunter wants, and many might prefer to take on each challenge by themselves.This guide will show you how to play both online and offline single-player in Monster Hunter Wilds. How to play online single-player in Monster Hunter Wilds Before we get into all the ways to play offline, there is technically a way you can stay online but continue the game in a single-player.To do so, go and find Alma, the character who manages the quest counter. (Finding her shouldnt be too hard since she accompanies you almost everywhere in between assignments however, you can also find her in any basecamp. She often sits by your tent in at each basecamp.)Talk to her to access the Quest Counter and tab over to the Change Lobby Menu page. Once there, select the option, Online Single Player the setting will alter the game so you continue your adventure in single-player. If you play in this mode, other players will only be able to join you for the duration of the quest youre on. (If you dont fire an SOS flare, you will never see another player in this mode.)For more information on how to play with other people, check out our online multiplayer guide. How to play Monster Hunter Wilds offline There is one sure way to make sure you play Monster Hunter Wilds offline: Disconnect your console or PC from the internet.If youre using a PC, you can either unplug your ethernet cable or turn Wi-Fi off under Network & Internet in the system settings. But heres how to do so on consoles.For PlayStation 5:Go to the home screen and select the Settings menu that looks like a small gear in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Scroll down to Network and select it. Click on Settings and then toggle the setting for Connect to Internet so that its off. For Xbox Series X:Go to the home screen, scroll all the way to the top, and select the Settings menu that looks like a small gear.Select the settings option that says general and then select network.Select the offline option.Our Monster Hunter Wilds guides can outline your progress with ourmain story walkthroughandmonster listahead of reachingHigh Rank, help you settle on an armament with ourweapons listandbest weaponsexplainers, uncoverores,bones, andmonster tails, and teach you how tojoin friends in co-op multiplayer.

Your iPhones camera is smartperhaps too smart. Its smart enough to relight your selfies and remove distracting background objects from your photos. Its the kind of reality-altering power that normally requires an Infinity Stone. It can also make it much harder to get photos that are accurate representations of the real world. Fortunately, there are alternatives.Its worth noting that its difficult to get absolutely zero processing on any smartphone camera. Theres always some amount of interpretation of raw data in order to display it. What we want to minimize here is how much your phone makes decisions about the right way your photos should lookdecisions like how saturated colors should be, what parts of the image should be in or out of focus, and how your subject should be lit. Sometimes its better to let your phone make these decisions for you, but if you want more control, these are the options that are best for you.Get more flexibility with Apple ProRAW Normally, when you take a photo, your phone compresses the image to save space and tosses data thats not necessary to display it. But that data can be useful if you want to do your own photo editing. Thats where Apple ProRAW comes in. This format (which takes up more storage space) saves almost all of the data from your cameras sensor when the photo was taken.This lets you adjust things like exposure, contrast, saturation, white balance, and other basic aspects of an image. Theres still some unavoidable image processing done to these photos, but ProRAW gives you a lot more flexibility to make changes than you normally would have.To enable ProRAW images, tap the RAW button while youre using your camera to use it for the current session. If youd rather permanently switch your default settings, go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings and enable ProRAW & Resolution control. With this enabled, the camera will be in ProRAW mode unless you specifically disable it each time.Use ZeroCam, the anti-AI camera appZeroCam makes the pitch that less is more, especially when it comes to camera features. In fact it only has one: a shutter button. Theres no post-processing, no filters or effects, and the only optional toggle is which of your phones lenses to use. It literally cant be easierfor better or worse.In my experience, images taken with ZeroCam in low-light settings had noticeably more noise, which is to be expected without a lot of post-processing. However, photos that were properly lit looked a bit more natural than with the stock camera app.The main downside to the ZeroCam app is the cost: A subscription will run you $2/month, or $13 if you pay for a year up front. You can get a free three-day trial (for the monthly plan, bumped up to a week if you opt for the annual plan), at which point youll probably know for sure whether its worth the expense to you.Use Halide for more control over AI-free photosUnlike ZeroCam, Halide Mark II provides extensive manual controls over your camera. You can precisely adjust focus, ISO, shutter speed, and white balance before capturing the image. Some of these controls are available in the default camera app, but Halide adds other useful tools like focus peaking and live histograms.Halide also has a dedicated Process Zero mode, which touts zero post-processing AI. This is as close as you can get to photos that are straight from the sensor with only the minimum processing required to create a viewable image.Like ZeroCam, this app isnt free, although you can get a seven-day free trial to see if it serves your needs. After that, monthly subscriptions start at $10, or you can get a year for $20. If you know for certain you love the app and will be using it for a long time, a lifetime license will set you back $60.Try the Blackmagic Camera app for filterless videoBlackmagic makes the free video editing suite Davinci Resolve, as well as a line of cinema cameras that tie deeply into the software. More recently, the company has released an app for the iPhone that leverages its expertise for the camera you always have with you. The Blackmagic Camera app is primarily focused on video, but you can use it to grab stills from your clips as well.If you only want still photos, one of the other options on this list is probably better for you, but this app is perfect for videographers. It offers pro-level camera controls like ISO, shutter speed, and white balance, as well as features like an RGB histogram to see which parts of your image are clipping, and image stabilization to reduce the camera shake from holding it in your hand.

While Ive known about the aquafaba (chickpea brining liquid) hack for a while, Ive always thought of it more for folks with food allergies. Why would I, a happy egg eater, ever need to use it to replace eggs? Well, here we are. Egg prices dont seem to be coming down anytime soon, and if youre as reliant on the ovum as I am, you may be looking for ways to cut costs. While Ill still be splurging on the real thing for perfect, jar-scrambled eggs, Ill be using aquafaba for these other egg-related recipes.Chickpea liquid gets its magical binding properties from the starches that leach out of the bean and into the brine. When cooked, the water evaporates and youre left with the starches, salt, and traces of other ingredients bound together in a sticky sort of web. I boiled some straight-up chickpea liquid in a pan to see. When the water evaporates, chickpea liquid leaves behind a net of starches and other ingredients. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Is it an egg? Decidedly not. While a thin sheet of cooked, slightly browned starch doesnt look so impressive, it actually shows us what this simple liquid is capable of. Do note, however, that salt varies considerably in cans of chickpea liquid. When using it in baking, taste the aquafaba, and if its very salty, reduce the salt in the recipe by a quarter-teaspoon per two eggs in the recipe.Use aquafaba in battersBinding is a big part of why eggs go in cookie dough and cake batters, and luckily aquafaba can function in this way. What aquafaba doesnt do naturally that eggs do, is puff. Even if you dont whip an egg, it has some body to it after it cooks. Chickpea liquid doesnt naturally have the same consistency, but this challenge is not impossible to overcome. Aquafaba whips up pretty easily and manages to hold that aeration. (More on that in a moment)For batters where you dont need to see much puff in your baked goods, like brownies, you can pour aquafaba straight into the batter. For one whole large egg, use three tablespoons of aquafaba. For one egg white, use two tablespoons of aquafaba.For batters and doughs where youd like to see a little lift, whip the amount of aquafaba youre using in a small bowl. Just whip it until its soft and foamy; stiff peaks arent necessary for this use. Then mix it into the dough as usual during the egg step. This bit of aeration will give your cookies a mounded shape and the average cake batter a smidge of lift. While it might be an annoying extra five to 10 minutes of your time, its worth it. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Use aquafaba for meringueTypical meringue consists of only two major ingredients: egg whites and sugar. And frankly, its only meringue because the egg whites do all the heavy lifting. And yet, aquafaba can make it happen. Again, Ive never been heavily reliant on this bean syrup, but its never let me down when I whip it up.Egg or otherwise, no meringue lasts very long unless you stabilize it in some manner. Always whip aquafaba with a small amount of cream of tartar to give you more time to work with the whipped meringue. For every cup of aquafaba, use a half-teaspoon of cream of tartar to help stabilize the structure. Whip the two together until the mixture becomes foamy on top, about three to five minutes, then add the sugar and whip it until the mixture has stiff peaks. Use this meringue to make meringue cookies, pavlovas, or fold it into other batters for maximum lift.Use aquafaba for egg washEgg wash is one of the most understated baking techniques. Adding an egg wash can help seal together pies and pastries so they dont explode, and it can add color and shine to the exterior of breads and countless other treats. While sour cream makes a good exterior egg wash, it doesnt do much for binding. Aquafaba is here to help though. Simply brush the liquid onto the pastry or bread how you would normally do with eggs and get on with the recipe. You wont taste any off flavors, but you might get a tickle of salt.

Twitter may be dead, but the 12-foot tall bird logo from its San Francisco headquarters will live on. The sign one of two birds that formerly adorned Twitters office has been sold at auction for $34,375.That's a bit less than $40,000 auctioneers RR House estimated it would fetch, but is nonetheless a pricey piece of social media history. The massive logo that marked the companys headquarters on San Francisco's Market Street is undoubtedly one of the most iconic symbols associated with the social media company. (The sign was unceremoniously removed after Musks rebranding of the company to X.)The unknown buyer will also responsible for costs to move the sign from the San Francisco storage facility where its currently located. That alone will be no small feat. The sign is 145 x 105 (roughly 12 feet by 8 feet) and weighs in at 560 pounds, according to the listing. A YouTube video accompanying the listing shows that it took a crane and a team of several workers to remove the sign from the building.RR AuctionExactly where "Larry" will end up next isn't clear as the winning bidder's identity hasn't been disclosed, but the 12-foot tall sign is bound to make quite a statement, wherever it lands.Notably, this isnt the first time Larry (the nickname former Tweeps gave to the sites iconic bird logo) hit the auction block. Following Elon Musks takeover of Twitter in 2022, much of the contents of Twitters former offices were auctioned off in 2023. Other, slightly smaller versions of the logo proved to be popular at the time, with one statue that decorated the office selling for $100,000. The buildings other large bird logo was auctioned off in that sale for an undisclosed price.Update, March 21, 2025, 1:47 PM ET: Now that the auction has closed, this story has been updated to add information about the winning bid.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-560-pound-twitter-logo-has-sold-for-34000-180326846.html?src=rss

In November, Google said it would conduct a "test" in eight European countries that would omit results from EU-based news publishers for a small percentage of users. The results are in, and the survey says the news has no meaningful monetary value for the company. But the "public experiment" was hardly done for scientific curiosity. European copyright law says the company must pay publishers for using snippets from articles, and Google will likely use the data to try to kneecap news outlets' negotiating leverage."During our negotiations to comply with the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), we've seen a number of inaccurate reports that vastly overestimate the value of news content to Google," the company bluntly wrote in its blog post explaining the experiment's results. "The results have now come in: European news content in Search has no measurable impact on ad revenue for Google."Google Economics Director Paul Liu said that when the company removed news content from one percent of users in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, it saw no change in ad revenue and only a 0.8 percent drop in usage. (It initially included France, but a court warned the company that it would break a previous agreement and face fines, so it backed out.) Liu concludes that "any lost usage was from queries that generated minimal or no revenue."Interior of Google's Madrid campusGoogleTechCrunch notes that Google is walking a fine line here. It's already faced antitrust fines in France over news content, and Germany is ratcheting up pressure on the company's news licensing tactics. Neither country was ultimately included in the "experiment."The company has a long history of using the potential withdrawal of visibility as a negotiating stick in similar situations (with success in some cases), including tests in Canada, California and Australia. In the latter case, Aussie grit prevailed: After Google threatened to remove its entire search engine from the country, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, "Let me be clear. Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia." The bill was passed and enacted, and Google struck deals with Australian media companies to license content. And yes, Google search is still available Down Under.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-says-its-european-experiment-shows-news-is-worthless-to-its-ad-business-161103352.html?src=rss

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