Astro Bot has once again won big at an awards show, this time securing five gongs at the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards, including Best Design, Best Family Game, and Best Game.The BAFTA Games Awards — the UK's independent arts charity celebrating excellence in games — took place overnight on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in London, UK. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Astro Bot, and Still Wakes the Deep led the charge with 11, eight, and eight nominations, respectively. Thank Goodness You're Here! also received seven nominations, Black Myth: Wukong six, and Helldivers 2 was up for five awards.Accepting the award, Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet paid tribute to the game developers of the past, who paved the way for Sony-owned Team Asobi and other current studios to find success in the modern era.Whilst Astro Bot was the night's most-crowned game, The Chinese Room's impressive Still Wakes the Deep secured three wins — including both performer awards — and Helldivers 2 won two BAFTAs.Thank Goodness You're Here!, Balatro, and Metaphor: Refantazio were also among the winners. BAFTA Game Awards 2025 winners:Best Animation: Astro BotArtistic Achievement: NevaAudio Achievement: Astro BotBest Game: Astro BotBest British Game: Thank Goodness You're Here!Best Debut Game: BalatroBest Evolving Game: Vampire SurvivorsBest Family Game: Astro BotFellowship: Yoko ShimomuraGame Beyond Entertainment: Tales of Kenzera: ZauBest Game Design: Astro BotBest Multiplayer: Helldivers 2Best Music: Helldivers 2Best Narrative: Metaphor: RefantazioBest New Intellectual Property: Still Wakes the DeepBest Performer in a Leading Role: Alex Newman (Still Wakes the Deep)Best Performer in a Supporting Role: Karen Dunbar (Still Wakes the Deep)Best Technical Achievement: Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2Play2024 BAFTA Game Awards winners included Baldur's Gate 3, which secured five wins, including Best Game, with other wins for Alan Wake 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Viewfinder.BAFTA recently revealed that the most influential video game of all time, according to the public, is Shenmue, which left the internet somewhat puzzled.BAFTA polled the public to discover that while games like GTA, Tetris, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Doom, and Half-Life 2 did make the list, the top as ranked by the number of votes received was Sega's 1999 action-adventure game.Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Apple TV+ is available here at 70% off for a limited time, as part of a new promotion the company is running. From now until April 24, new and returning subscribers can get Apple TV+ for just $2.99 per month for three months. The special offer is timed to the launch of new Jon Hamm series Your Friends & Neighbors, premiering this Friday. The cut-price offer is being promoted to both new and returning subscribers. It seems if you haven’t been subbed to Apple TV+ in the last month or so, you will be able to get the $2.99/mo deal. (The offer is only available to people who subscribe directly to TV+, not through their phone carrier or other bundle methods.) After the three months is up, the subscription automatically renews at the regular $9.99 per month price. But of course, you can cancel at any point before then to avoid being charged extra. You can watch TV+ on almost any device, including on Android using the new app available in the the Google Play Store. A single subscription can be shared with up to six people through Apple Family Sharing. This is the first major TV+ promo for the year, since the free weekend in January. The company is clearly hoping to attract a new wave of viewers, who can catch up on buzzy hits like Severance and The Studio and watch along with the release of Your Friends & Neighbors later this week. Apple clearly sees the Jon Hamm drama as a winner, having given the series an early season two renewal last fall. In the show, Hamm plays Andrew Cooper, a former hedge fund manager who resorts to stealing luxury handbags and watches from his rich neighbors, in order to fund his own luxurious lifestyle. Apple TV+ shows and movies: Everything to watch on Apple TV Plus Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Apr 09, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Ransomware Microsoft has revealed that a now-patched security flaw impacting the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) was exploited as a zero-day in ransomware attacks aimed at a small number of targets. "The targets include organizations in the information technology (IT) and real estate sectors of the United States, the financial sector in Venezuela, a Spanish software company, and the retail sector in Saudi Arabia," the tech giant said. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-29824, a privilege escalation bug in CLFS that could be exploited to achieve SYSTEM privileges. It was fixed by Redmond as part of its Patch Tuesday update for April 2025. Microsoft is tracking the activity and the post-compromise exploitation of CVE-2025-29824 under the moniker Storm-2460, with the threat actors also leveraging a malware named PipeMagic to deliver the exploit as well as ransomware payloads. The exact initial access vector used in the attacks is currently not known. However, the threat actors have been observed using the certutil utility to download malware from a legitimate third-party site that was previously compromised to stage the payloads. The malware is a malicious MSBuild file that contains an encrypted payload, which is then unpacked to launch PipeMagic, a plugin-based trojan that has been detected in the wild since 2022. It's worth mentioning here that CVE-2025-29824 is the second Windows zero-day flaw to be delivered via PipeMagic after CVE-2025-24983, a Windows Win32 Kernel Subsystem privilege escalation bug, which was flagged by ESET and patched by Microsoft last month. Previously, PipeMagic was also observed in connection with Nokoyawa ransomware attacks that exploited another CLFS zero-day flaw (CVE-2023-28252). "In some of the other attacks that we attribute to the same actor, we also observed that, prior to exploiting the CLFS elevation-of-privilege vulnerability, the victim's machines were infected with a custom modular backdoor named 'PipeMagic' that gets launched via an MSBuild script," Kaspersky pointed out in April 2023. It's crucial to note that Windows 11, version 24H2, is not affected by this specific exploitation, as access to certain System Information Classes within NtQuerySystemInformation is restricted to users with SeDebugPrivilege, which typically only admin-like users can obtain. "The exploit targets a vulnerability in the CLFS kernel driver," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team explained. "The exploit then utilizes a memory corruption and the RtlSetAllBits API to overwrite the exploit process's token with the value 0xFFFFFFFF, enabling all privileges for the process, which allows for process injection into SYSTEM processes." Successful exploitation is followed by the threat actor extracting user credentials by dumping the memory of LSASS and encrypting files on the system with a random extension. Microsoft said it was unable to obtain a ransomware sample for analysis, but said that the ransom note dropped after encryption included a TOR domain tied to the RansomEXX ransomware family. "Ransomware threat actors value post-compromise elevation of privilege exploits because these could enable them to escalate initial access, including handoffs from commodity malware distributors, into privileged access," Microsoft said. "They then use privileged access for widespread deployment and detonation of ransomware within an environment." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

Company DescriptionIt all started in sunny San Diego, California in 2004 when a visionary engineer, Fred Luddy, saw the potential to transform how we work. Fast forward to today — ServiceNow stands as a global market leader, bringing innovative AI-enhanced technology to over 8,100 customers, including 85% of the Fortune 500®. Our intelligent cloud-based platform seamlessly connects people, systems, and processes to empower organizations to find smarter, faster, and better ways to work. But this is just the beginning of our journey. Join us as we pursue our purpose to make the world work better for everyone.Job DescriptionWhat you get to do in this role:   The Specialist Solution Consultant is a technical & business consultant with the advanced ability to develop, position and provide industry and product specific solutions during sales cycles while achieving quarterly and annual sales goals for an assigned territory. Support product sales as the technical, industry and domain expert of a client-facing sales team that pursues customers and prospects across one or multiple industry markets Lead discovery workshops to determine customers' challenges and give persona and value-based product demonstrations to align our solution with customer needs Develop client partner relationships Guide strategic programs in top accounts such as customer journey sessions for roadmap and outcome agreement Provide feedback to product management to influence the product roadmap and strategy in support of your customers and changing market dynamics Share and learn best practices and re-usable assets with other Solution Consultants to enhance the quality and efficiency of the team Stay current on competitive analysis and market differentiation Support marketing events including executive briefings, conferences, user groups, and trade showsQualificationsTo be successful in this role you have: Experience in leveraging or critically thinking about how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving. This may include using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI’s potential impact on the function or industry. 7+ years of pre-sales solution consulting or sales engineering experience in Enterprise Applications  Industry experience in Retail desirable Proficiency with the ServiceNow platform or technical expertise with other enterprise cloud software solutions Experience working collaboratively with product management, product marketing, partners, and professional services Territory management skills, including pipeline building and working with Sales counterpart to promote execution excellence Travel, as necessary Not sure if you meet every qualification? We still encourage you to apply! We value inclusivity, welcoming candidates from diverse backgrounds, including non-traditional paths. Unique experiences enrich our team, and the willingness to dream big makes you an exceptional candidate!For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $131,925 to $217,725, plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation and benefits. Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the base pay shown is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location. We also offer health plans, including flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) Plan with company match, ESPP, matching donations, a flexible time away plan and family leave programs. Compensation is based on the geographic location in which the role is located and is subject to change based on work location.Additional InformationWork PersonasWe approach our distributed world of work with flexibility and trust. Work personas (flexible, remote, or required in office) are categories that are assigned to ServiceNow employees depending on the nature of their work. Learn more here.Equal Opportunity EmployerServiceNow is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or nationality, ancestry, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other category protected by law. In addition, all qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with legal requirements. AccommodationsWe strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, or are unable to use this online application and need an alternative method to apply, please contact [email protected]for assistance. Export Control RegulationsFor positions requiring access to controlled technology subject to export control regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), ServiceNow may be required to obtain export control approval from government authorities for certain individuals. All employment is contingent upon ServiceNow obtaining any export license or other approval that may be required by relevant export control authorities. From Fortune. ©2024 Fortune Media IP Limited. All rights reserved. Used under license. 

Nuclear reactors could someday power a chemical plant in Texas, making it the first with such a facility onsite. The factory, which makes plastics and other materials, could become a model for power-hungry data centers and other industrial operations going forward. The plans are the work of Dow Chemical and X-energy, which last week applied for a construction permit with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency in the US that governs nuclear energy. It’ll be years before nuclear reactors will actually turn on, but this application marks a major milestone for the project, and for the potential of advanced nuclear technology to power industrial processes. “This has been a long time coming,” says Harlan Bowers, senior vice president at X-energy. The company has been working with the NRC since 2016 and submitted its first regulatory engagement plan in 2018, he says. In 2020, the US Department of Energy chose X-energy as one of the awardees of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which provides funding for next-generation nuclear technologies. And it’s been two years since X-energy and Dow first announced plans for a joint development agreement at Dow’s plant in Seadrift, Texas.   The Seadrift plant produces 4 billion pounds of materials each year, including plastic used for food and pharmaceutical packaging and chemicals used in products like antifreeze, soaps, and paint. A natural-gas plant onsite currently provides both steam and electricity. That equipment is getting older, so the company was looking for alternatives.   “Dow saw the opportunity to replace end-of-life assets with safe, reliable, lower-carbon-emissions technology,” said Edward Stones, an executive at Dow, in a written statement in response to questions from MIT Technology Review. Advanced nuclear reactors designed by X-energy emerged as a fit for the Seadrift site in part because of their ability to deliver high-temperature steam, Stones said in the statement. X-energy’s reactor is not only smaller than most nuclear plants coming online today but also employs different fuel and different cooling methods. The design is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, which flows helium over self-contained pebbles of nuclear fuel. The fuel can reach temperatures of around 1,000 °C (1,800 °F). As it flows through the reactor and around the pebbles, the helium reaches up to 750 °C (about 1,400 °F). Then that hot helium flows through a generator, making steam at a high temperature and pressure that can be piped directly to industrial equipment or converted into electricity. The Seadrift facility will include four of X-energy’s Xe-100 reactors, each of which can produce about 200 megawatts’ worth of steam or about 80 megawatts of electricity. A facility like Dow’s requires an extremely consistent supply of steam, Bowers says. So during normal operation, two of the modules will deliver steam, one will deliver electricity, and the final unit will sell electricity to the local grid. If any single reactor needs to shut down for some reason, there will still be enough onsite power to keep running, he explains. The progress with the NRC is positive news for the companies involved, but it also represents an achievement for advanced reactor technology more broadly, says Eric Cothron, a senior analyst at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, a nonprofit think tank. “It demonstrates real-world momentum toward deploying new nuclear reactors for industrial decarbonization,” Cothron says. While there are other companies looking to bring advanced nuclear reactor technology online, this project could be the first to incorporate nuclear power onsite at a factory. It thus sets a precedent for how new nuclear energy technologies can integrate directly with industry, Cothron says—for example, showing a pathway for tech giants looking to power data centers. It could take up to two and a half years for the NRC to review the construction permit application for this site. The site will also need to receive an operating license before it can start up. Operations are expected to begin “early next decade,” according to Dow.

The Department Store in Brixton, where Squire & Partners is based Squire & Partners has reported an 83 per cent fall in profits, with turnover dropping 9.3 per cent  and staff numbers also down The Brixton-based practice earned £9 million in the eight months to 31 March 2024, compared with £14.8 million for the 12 month period ending 31 July 2023. This represents a 9.3 per cent drop on a like-for-like basis.  Squire & Partners turnover in the UK for the eight-month period saw a 25.7 per cent like-for-like reduction, dropping from £13.7 million to £6.8 million in its 2023-4 period. However its international fees increased by 125 per cent like-for-like, from £1.1 million to £1.7 million.  The practice’s profit fell from £694,000 to £83,259, an 83 per cent drop on a like-for-like basis, while its average number of staff dropped from 87 to 80.Advertisement Squire & Partners booked a deferred income of £6.4 milliion, up from £5.5 million a year earlier, relating to contracts novated to it in 2018 from its previous corporate entity. Senior partner Henry Squire told the AJ that the eight months were ‘actually a good period for the practice’, adding that ‘the drop in turnover does not account for deferred income’. He added that, if allowing for deferred income, ‘then the drop in income is much less’. Deferred income is a type of liability: payment that has been received but for which the services have not yet been delivered and has not yet been reported as income/revenue. Squire continued: ‘There are obviously difficulties in the London market at the moment for reasons that have been widely published and discussed, but we are well placed to grow the business abroad and in other sectors whilst also retaining a strong London focus and base. ‘We have managed to source a significant amount of work both in the Middle East and in the Bahamas, reflecting the changes in the market and our ability to win work in many different parts of the world.’Advertisement He added: ‘Other income (for example interiors) is booked through a different company (Department Store Brixton Ltd) and therefore is not reflected in the LLP turnover. Interiors grew significantly in that period, reflecting the change in the way clients are commissioning work, particularly office interiors.’ Department Store Brixton, which is named after the building where Squire & Partners is based, reported a £7.3 million turnover for the eight-month period ended 31 March 2024. During this time, it charged Squire & Partners £4.6 million.  Department Store Brixton says it ‘provides services and facilities out of the Department Store building, including serviced office space, extended co-working space, screening room and restaurant, a members’ club on the fourth floor, and other services departments’.  Squire & Partners' latest financial update comes after the practice undertook a ‘radical restructure’ following the death of its founder, Michael Squire, in May 2023 – creating 10 partners, with three senior partners.  Amid the changes, the group is understood to have made around a dozen members of staff redundant.  2025-04-09 Will Ing comment and share

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Vampire Survivors' previously announced cross-save feature will not be launching on PlayStation 4 and PS5 at the same time as other platforms due to a "legal issue". Read more

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here After spending decades at the developer, Larian Studios studio head Arthur Mostovoy is leaving after the runaway success of Baldur’s Gate 3. While Larian wraps up work on its award-winning RPG to focus on its next project, Mostovoy is working to support the games industry’s “golden age of indies”. Larian Studio head joins Aonic After spending the last six years at Larian, Mostovoy is joining Anoic, a “multiplatform gaming group comprised of several studios globally”. At the company, Mostovoy fills the newly-created Head of Games role, covering the company’s entire portfolio of titles. Over the years, Anoic has been supporting lower-budget titles such as the newly-released diselpunk tactics roguelite game Grit and Valor 1949 and Deus Ex creator Warren Spector’s upcoming Thick As Thieves. Mostovoy explains that his role will help to support the continually growing age of indie gaming, a market of gaming that is still growing at a rapid pace. “We are entering a golden age of indies and small teams, resulting in some incredibly creative games,” the ex Larian Studios head explained. “The market share for small and indie teams is growing year on year, and this will continue. My role at Aonic is to support these teams in creating and delivering creative titles that can make a major impact.” Prior to his work at Larian, Mostovoy worked as a freelance project lead on Mount and Blade: Warband’s massive A World of Ice and Fire mod before joining Pixonic, then Azur Interactive Games and then Larian Studios. During his time at Larian Studios, the developer was “responsible for running and growing the UK studio to consistently deliver best in class RPG[s] like Baldur’s Gate 3”. As evidenced by the sheer quality of BG3 on launch and post-launch, their role was certainly a success. For more Baldur’s Gate 3 news, read about the truly unhinged mod that allows players to summon an endless army of any creature in the game. Additionally, read about Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke’s thoughts on single-player games and why studios need to invest in them. Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

With time continuing to tick down until President Trump’s higher tariffs take effect after midnight, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on the idea that products like iPhones could realistically shift to US manufacturing, claiming that “if Apple didn’t think the United States could do it they probably wouldn’t have put up that big chunk of change,” citing its recently announced $500 billion US investment plan.The only problems with this argument are that at least one analyst has described Apple’s planned investment as “in line with what one might expect the company to be spending anyway,” and that Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have been saying iPhone manufacturing isn’t possible in the United States for over a decade now.RelatedAfter about US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s comments over the weekend that the tariffs would lead to things like “the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones” coming to the US, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman asked Leavitt directly if Trump thought iPhone manufacturing was the type of technology that could move to the US. Leavitt said “Absolutely. He believes we have the labor, we have the workforce, we have the resources to do it.”Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs, clearly describes meetings between Jobs and then-president Barack Obama in 2010 and 2011, where Jobs explained that the problem is that America lacks the 30,000 properly trained engineers needed to support a factory workforce rivaling the 700,000 workers employed in China:Apple had 700,000 factory workers employed in China, he said, and that was because it needed 30,000 engineers on-site to support those workers. ‘You can’t find that many in America to hire,’ he said.Tim Cook has been just as blunt, describing the issue in 2017 at Fortune Magazine’s Global Forum event.…the truth is China stopped being the low labor cost country many years ago and that is not the reason to come to China from a supply point of view. The reason is because of the skill and the quantity of skill in one location, and the type of skill. It is like the products we do require really advanced tooling and the precision that you have to have in tooling and working with the materials that we do are state-of-the-art, and the tooling skill is very deep here. You know in, in the US, you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I’m not sure we could fill the room — in China you could fill multiple football fields.See More: