Weekend deals are in effect on Apple products at Amazon, as the retailer looks to start Q2 2025 off strong.Save up to $600 on Apple at Amazon - Image credit: Amazon, AppleAmazon's weekend Apple sale offers discounts of up to $600 off dozens of devices. Save on Macs, iPads, Apple Watches, AirTags, and more. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

It's time for another round of curated picks of architecture and design competitions listed recently here on Bustler. This week, we are featuring four unique competitions aimed at areas as far-reaching as delivering better quality affordable housing in Denver, a dramatic reinvisioning of the iconic Market Street in San Francisco, and the chance to be included in the annual AIA Canada Student Design Awards. For the complete directory of newly listed competitions, click here.

EA has released a new trailer for its upcoming racing game F1 25. The trailer focuses on the level of authenticity that the publisher, along with developer Codemasters has been able to achieve, as well as the host of customisation options that players will have available to them. When it comes to authenticity and realism, F1 25 is able to achieve a new level of realism thanks to more advanced techniques used by the developers to achieve higher fidelity visuals. As the trailer explains, LiDAR technology (light detection and ranging scanning) was used around various popular F1 tracks across the world. Through this, the game is able to capture every minor detail on a track. Through LiDAR, the visuals of the tracks have also been considerably improved. The trailer describes how the technology was used to also improve foliage around the tracks. Through this, the studio was also able to add in extra touches like cherry blossom trees in the Suzuka track. The visuals are also getting a big boost, especially on PCs that can support path tracing. If a PC is powerful enough to support the feature, F1 25 will feature even more realistic visuals, with light behaving like it would in the real world. Audio has also seen improvements. The game will feature a massive number of voice lines by real-world drivers and other F1 personalities like engineers and pit crew. Players will notice the differences in radio chatter depending on their performance throughout the game. It will also feature voice lines by F1 broadcaster Naomi Schiff, as well as F1 commentator Alex Jacques. Customisation will also be a big feature in F1 25, with the game introducing premade liveries based on the brand identity of the fictional companies that offer sponsorships in the game’s career mode. These liveries fit right in with real-world F1 car liveries, and have been designed to be as realistic as possible. The game will also promote players sticking with sponsors in the My Team mode by giving players access to more sponsor slots as well as the ability to add more sponsor decals to the cars in order to make more money. F1 25 was unveiled back in March. The game, coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, will be available for $59.99 for the standard edition. There will also be the Iconic Edition, priced at $79.99, which gives buyers a host of in-game goodies and three days of advanced access to the game before its May 30 release date. More details about the game were revealed through a trailer last month, including the fact that the Braking Point story mode will be making a return. The story this time around will revolve around Konnersport and its pursuit of the World Championship. The mode will also feature new difficulty settings for players that might want to focus more on the story as opposed to the gameplay. For more details, check out the trailer from last month. In the meantime, check out our review of last year’s entry in EA’s F1 series.

GuardianGamer aids worried parents who want to support their kids' social gaming activity while ensuring digital playground safety.Read More

Bryant Francis, Senior EditorApril 18, 20253 Min ReadImage via Nintendo.At a GlanceNintendo is reopening North American pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 on April 24.The console remains priced at $449, with no changes caused by tariffs on foreign goods imposed by the Trump Administration.However, prices on accessories for the console are set to rise by about 5 percent.Nintendo has announced that it's planning to re-open North American preorders for the Nintendo Switch 2 on April 24, and that device will still hit store shelves with its original $449.99 price point. This means the console itself will not be affected by tariffs imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump, at least for the time being.But Nintendo hasn't entirely dodged the tariff fireball. According to the company, accessories for the Nintendo Switch 2 will "experience price adjustment," with some now costing more than their initial price points revealed on April 2. Nintendo had originally planned to open pre-orders for the console and accessories on April 9, but delayed them following the eye-popping tariffs unveiled by the Trump administration on the same day the Switch 2 was fully unveiled.Those "price adjustments" amount to a roughly 5-6 percent price increase for devices like the Nintendo Switch 2 pro-controllers, Joy-Con 2 combos, the carrying case, dock, etc. The Pro Controller jumped in price from $79.99 to $84.99, while the price of a new Joy-Con 2 pair is leaping from $89.99-$94.99.The biggest price increases are hitting the Nintendo Switch 2 dock and the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera. The price of a new Nintendo Switch 2 dock is climbing 9 percent from $109.99 to $119.99. The camera is jumping 10 percent in price from $49.99 to $54.99.Related:The price increase on the camera could be disruptive to Nintendo's plans for its new social multiplayer functionality built into the heart of the Nintendo Switch 2. The pitch for "GameChat" is that it would allow the console to be an all-in-one online hangout spot for players to chat with each other whether they're playing the same game or different titles. Nintendo did confirm USB-C support for third-party cameras, which might ordinarily benefit from the price change, but manufacturers may be set to increase prices on those devices as well.The Trump tariffs could still hit Nintendo's bottom lineThough the Trump administration "paused" the majority of its announced tariffs on April 9, that pause only lasts 90 days, and did not exempt the 145 percent tariff on goods manufactured in China.Since the pause began, the administration's messaging on the tariffs has been tumultuous to say the least. Key electronic devices like smartphones and monitors received exemptions on April 11, but video game consoles were not included in that list. However administration officials stated on April 13 that these were not "exemptions" but that these devices had been moved into another category.Related:If the sky-high tariffs go into effect in 90 days, Nintendo's price increases might not be enough to combat the fees charged for each device entering the country. If the company is racing to get ahead of those tariffs, it might be spending this time racing to move consoles from its manufacturing hubs in Vietnam and China to the United States.That means Switch 2 and physical versions of games could still be set for a price increase. As the company stated in its announcement, "other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions."Read more about:Nintendo Switch 2Top StoriesTariffsNintendoAbout the AuthorBryant FrancisSenior Editor, GameDeveloper.comBryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios' upcoming 4X strategy game Zephon and Amplitude Studio's 2017 game Endless Space 2.See more from Bryant FrancisDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

If you want to make the most out of a world increasingly filled with AI tools, here’s a habit to develop: start taking screenshots. Lots of screenshots. Of anything and everything. Because for all the talk of voice modes, omnipresent cameras, and the multimodal future of everything, there might be no more valuable digital behavior than to press the buttons and save what you’re looking at.Screenshots are the most universal method of capturing digital information. You can capture anything — well, almost anything, thanks a lot, Netflix! — with a few clicks, and save and share it to almost any device, app, or person. “It’s this portable data format,” says Johnny Bree, the founder of the digital storage app Fabric. “There’s nothing else that’s quite so portable that you can move between any piece of software.” A screenshot contains a lot of information, like its source, contents, and even the time of the day in the corner of the screen. Most of all, it sends a crucial and complex signal; it says I care about this. We have countless new AI tools that aim to watch the world, our lives, and everything, and try to make sense of it all for us. These tools are mostly crap for lots of reasons but mostly because AI is pretty good at knowing what things are, but it’s rubbish at knowing whether they matter. A screenshot assigns value and tells the system it needs to pay attention.Screenshots also put you, the user, in control in an important way. “If I give you access to all of my emails, all my WhatsApps, everything, there’s a lot of noise,” says Mattias Deserti, the head of smartphone marketing at Nothing. There’s simply no reason to save every email you receive or every webpage you visit — and that’s to say nothing of the privacy implications. “So what if, instead, you were able to start training the system yourself, feeding the system the information you want the system to know about you?” Rather than a tool like Microsoft Recall, which asks for unlimited access to everything, starting with screenshots lets you pick what you share.Until now, screenshots have been a fairly blunt instrument. You snap one, and it gets saved to your camera roll, where it probably languishes, forgotten, until the end of time. (And don’t get me started on all the screenshots I take by accident, mostly of my lockscreen.) At best, you might be able to search for some text inside the image. But it’s more likely that you’ll just have to s scroll until you find it again.The first step in making screenshots more useful is to figure out what’s actually in themThe first step in making screenshots more useful is to figure out what’s actually in them. This is, at first blush, not terribly complicated: optical character recognition technology has long done a good job of spotting text on a page. AI models take that one step further, so you can either search the title or just “movies” to find all your digital snaps of posters, Fandango results, TikTok recommendations, and more. “We use an OCR model,” says Shenaz Zack, a product manager at Google and part of the team behind the Pixel Screenshots app. “Then we use an entity-detection model, and then Gemini to understand the actual context of the screen.”See, there’s far more to a screenshot than just the text inside. The right AI model should be able to tell that it came from WhatsApp, just by the specific green color. It should be able to identify a website by its header logo or understand when you’re saving a Spotify song name, a Yelp handyman review, or an Amazon listing. Armed with this information, a screenshot app might begin to automatically organize all those images for you. And even that is just the beginning.With everything I’ve described so far, all we’ve really created is a very good app for looking at your screenshots, which no one really thinks is a good idea because it would be just one more thing to check — or forget to check. Where it gets vastly more interesting is when your device or app can actually start to use the screenshots on your behalf, to help you actually remember what you captured or even use that information to get stuff done.In Nothing’s new Essential Space app, for instance, the app can generate reminders based on stuff you save. If you take a screenshot of a concert you’d like to go to, it can remind you that it’s coming up automatically. Pixel Screenshots is pushing the idea even further: if you save a concert listing, your Pixel phone can prompt you to listen to that band the next time you open Spotify. If you screenshot an ID card or a boarding pass, it might ask you to put it in the Wallet app. The idea, Zack says, is to think of screenshots as an input system for everything else. It’s one thing to screenshot a band you like. It’s another to be able to find them again later. Image: David Pierce / The VergeMike Choi, an indie developer, built an app called Camp in part to help him make use of his own screenshots. He began to work on turning every screenshot into a “card,” with the salient information stored alongside the picture. “You have a screenshot, and at the bottom there’s a button, and it flips the card over,” he says. “It shows you a map, if it was a location; a preview of a song, if it’s a song. The idea was, given an infinite pool of different types of screenshots, can AI just generate the perfect UI for that category on the fly?”If all this sounds familiar, it’s because there’s another term for what’s going on here: it’s called agentic AI. Every company in tech seems to be working on ways to use AI to accomplish things on your behalf. It’s just that, in this case, you don’t have to write long prompts or chat back and forth with an assistant. You just take a screenshot and let the system go to work. “You’re building a knowledge base, when today that knowledge base is confined to your gallery and nothing happens with it,” Deserti says. He’s excited to get to the point where you screenshot a concert date, and Essential Space automatically prompts you to buy tickets when they go on sale.Making sense of screenshots isn’t always so straightforwardMaking sense of screenshots isn’t always so straightforward, though. Some you want to keep forever, like the ID card you might need often; other things, like a concert poster or a parking pass, have extremely limited shelf lives. For that matter, how is an app supposed to distinguish between the parking pass you use every day at work and the one you used once at the airport and never need again? Some of the screenshots on my phone were sent to me on WhatsApp; others I grabbed from Instagram memes to send to friends. No one’s camera roll should ever be fully held against them, and the same goes for screenshots. Lots of these screenshot apps are looking for ways to prompt you to add a note, or organize things yourself, in order to provide some additional helpful information to the system. But it’s hard work to do that without ruining what makes screenshots so seamless and easy in the first place.One way to begin to solve this problem, to make screenshots even more automatically useful, is to collect some additional context from your device. This is where companies like Google and Nothing have an advantage: because they make the device, they can see everything that’s happening when you take a screenshot. If you grab a screenshot from your web browser, they can also store the link you were looking at. They can also see your physical location or note the time and the weather. Sometimes this is all useful, but sometimes it’s nonsense; the more data they collect, the more these apps risk running into the same noise problem that screenshots helped solve in the first place.But the input system works. We all take screenshots, all the time, and we’re used to taking them as a way to put a marker on so many kinds of useful information. Getting access to that kind of relevant, personalized data is the hardest thing about building a great AI assistant. The future of computing is certainly multimodal, including cameras, microphones, and sensors of all kinds. But the first best way to use AI might be one screenshot at a time.See More:

OpenAI has published a detailed and technically grounded guide, A Practical Guide to Building Agents, tailored for engineering and product teams exploring the implementation of autonomous AI systems. Drawing from real-world deployments, the guide offers a structured approach to identifying suitable use cases, architecting agents, and embedding robust safeguards to ensure reliability and safety. Defining an Agent Unlike conventional LLM-powered applications such as single-turn chatbots or classification models, agents are autonomous systems capable of executing multi-step tasks with minimal human oversight. These systems integrate reasoning, memory, tool use, and workflow management. An agent comprises three essential components: Model — The LLM responsible for decision-making and reasoning. Tools — External APIs or functions invoked to perform actions. Instructions — Structured prompts that define the agent’s objectives, behavior, and constraints. When to Consider Building an Agent Agents are well-suited for workflows that exceed the capabilities of traditional rule-based automation. Typical scenarios include: Complex decision-making: For instance, nuanced refund approvals in customer support. High-maintenance rule systems: Such as policy compliance workflows that are brittle or difficult to scale. Interaction with unstructured data: Including document parsing or contextual natural language exchanges. The guide emphasizes careful validation to ensure the task requires agent-level reasoning before embarking on implementation. Technical Foundations and SDK Overview The OpenAI Agents SDK provides a flexible, code-first interface for constructing agents using Python. Developers can declaratively define agents with a combination of model choice, tool registration, and prompt logic. OpenAI categorizes tools into: Data tools — Fetching context from databases or document repositories. Action tools — Writing or updating data, triggering downstream services. Orchestration tools — Agents themselves exposed as callable sub-modules. Instructions should derive from operational procedures and be expressed in clear, modular prompts. The guide recommends using prompt templates with parameterized variables for scalability and maintainability. Orchestration Strategies Two architectural paradigms are discussed: Single-agent systems: A single looped agent handles the entire workflow, suitable for simpler use cases. Multi-agent systems: Manager pattern: A central coordinator delegates tasks to specialized agents. Decentralized pattern: Peer agents autonomously transfer control among themselves. Each design supports dynamic execution paths while preserving modularity through function-based orchestration. Guardrails for Safe and Predictable Behavior The guide outlines a multi-layered defense strategy to mitigate risks such as data leakage, inappropriate responses, and system misuse: LLM-based classifiers: For relevance, safety, and PII detection. Rules-based filters: Regex patterns, input length restrictions, and blacklist enforcement. Tool risk ratings: Assigning sensitivity levels to external functions and gating execution accordingly. Output validation: Ensuring responses align with organizational tone and compliance requirements. Guardrails are integrated into the agent runtime, allowing for concurrent evaluation and intervention when violations are detected. Human Oversight and Escalation Paths Recognizing that even well-designed agents may encounter ambiguity or critical actions, the guide encourages incorporating human-in-the-loop strategies. These include: Failure thresholds: Escalating after repeated misinterpretations or tool call failures. High-stakes operations: Routing irreversible or sensitive actions to human operators. Such strategies support incremental deployment and allow trust to be built progressively. Conclusion With this guide, OpenAI formalizes a design pattern for constructing intelligent agents that are capable, controllable, and production-ready. By combining advanced models with purpose-built tools, structured prompts, and rigorous safeguards, development teams can go beyond experimental prototypes and toward robust automation platforms. Whether orchestrating customer workflows, document processing, or developer tooling, this practical blueprint sets a strong foundation for adopting agents in real-world systems. OpenAI recommends beginning with single-agent deployments and progressively scaling to multi-agent orchestration as complexity demands. Check out the Download the Guide. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join our Telegram Channel and LinkedIn Group. Don’t Forget to join our 90k+ ML SubReddit. NikhilNikhil is an intern consultant at Marktechpost. He is pursuing an integrated dual degree in Materials at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nikhil is an AI/ML enthusiast who is always researching applications in fields like biomaterials and biomedical science. With a strong background in Material Science, he is exploring new advancements and creating opportunities to contribute.Nikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/Uploading Datasets to Hugging Face: A Step-by-Step GuideNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/OpenAI Introduces o3 and o4-mini: Progressing Towards Agentic AI with Enhanced Multimodal ReasoningNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/MIT Researchers Introduce DISCIPL: A Self-Steering Framework Using Planner and Follower Language Models for Efficient Constrained Generation and ReasoningNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/From Logic to Confusion: MIT Researchers Show How Simple Prompt Tweaks Derail LLM Reasoning

Romeo & Juliet is one of the most famous and beloved stories ever written, but it's safe to say you've never experienced that story quite like it's being told in the new graphic novel Romeo vs. Juliet: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure. This bold reimagining is hitting stores just in time for World Shakespeare Day, and IGN has an exclusive preview.Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at Romeo vs. Juliet:Romeo vs. Juliet: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure - Exclusive Preview GalleryRomeo vs. Juliet is written by Anthony Del Col and illustrated by Stefan Tosheff and is published by Gemstone Publishing. The book acts as a loose sort of sequel to the original Shakespeare play, though it takes quite a few liberties with the source material as it reimagiens the two characters (and other Shakespeare icons) for a fantasy Western setting.Here's Gemstone's official description of the book:In this Shakespearean Western, warrior-for-hire (and pregnant) Juliet Capulet is hired to protect a border town nunnery from the evil forces led by her ex Romeo. As they prepare, she reluctantly reunites with her old allies, including Hamlet, Othello, Puck (a “Magnificent Shakespeare Seven”) but they soon discover something rotten in the state of the nunnery and a magical force that dreams are made on… all while Juliet must determine if the father of her child is Hamlet… or the man she must kill, Romeo.“No matter where someone’s from, or what language they speak, they know Romeo and Juliet as the world’s greatest lovers. Well, Romeo vs. Juliet provides the ultimate twist to that story,” said Del Col in a statment. “In our 'Shakespearean Western' they find themselves on opposite ends of a cause, forcing them to become rivals and culminating in a high noon-style showdown between the two.”Del Col continued, “I enjoy the process of playing with well-known characters, peeling them and their stories down to their very core and then building upon that.” Romeo vs. Juliet: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure will be released on April 22, 2025. You can preorder the book on Amazon.PlayThis isn't the only comic that'll be remixing and reimagining Shakespeare for a modern audience in 2025. We recently got an early look at Disciple, a Hamlet-inspired series that will be the first release from Joe Quesada's Amazing Comics.Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket byfollowing @jschedeen on BlueSky.

In the first episode of #1 Happy Family USA, the animated Prime Video comedy created by Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady, 12-year-old Rumi Hussein is given a precious gift: a hilariously oversized Chicago “Balls” jersey. “I think this jersey might be too big,” Rumi reports to his father Hussein Hussein (also Youssef). “Yes, Rumi, it will fit you forever. We didn’t come to this country to buy new clothes every year,” Hussein, who emigrated from Egypt to New Jersey, tells his son.The bootleg Chicago Bulls uniform discovered by Rumi’s Uncle Jamal through less-than-legal means is an important relic for the young sports fan and for #1 Happy Family USA itself. After all, the image of Rumi in his misspelled kit was the first bit of art released to promote the series. The jersey is also, it turns out, important to the show’s creator as well, who was gifted an enormous Michael Jordan jersey from his parents as a child. “It was so big that to this day I could still get into it,” Ramy Youssef tells Den of Geek. “When I started first grade I had on this thing that fit me like a dress. My parents’ whole plan was ‘Michael Jordan will be great forever, and this will fit you forever.'” It must be said that the Youssefs had a point. Michael Jordan was indeed great forever and it seems as though the jersey will fit forever. That childhood moment also served as the perfect entryway for #1 Happy Family USA‘s comedic but poignant depiction of a very specific time in American history. What specific time, exactly? Well, the series opens with a radio DJ happily anticipating the release of Jay-Z’s album “The Blueprint” the following day. Now to just head over to Wikipedia and check the date The Blueprint was relea…oh. Oh no. That’s right: #1 Happy Family USA is a 9/11 period piece, a genre that, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains rare. Taking place just before and then just after the events of September 11, 2001, the Prime Video series follows the Muslim-American Hussein family as they adapt to scary new times and make great efforts to prove to their white neighbors that they’re as American as apple pie and baseball. This involves many song-and-dance numbers. While the specter of 9/11 looms large, the show is really more of a typical slice-of-life sitcom about an ironically oft-forgotten place and time: American youth at the turn of the millennium. “This is a show that I wish had been on at the time, to kind of reflect what was happening,” Youssef says. “And I think a lot of that is even reflected in the animation style we chose to hone in on.” That animation style is developed by the show’s executive producer, Mona Chalabi. A British data journalist of Iraqi descent, Chalabi has received many awards (including a Pulitzer in 2023) for her illustrations that help publications present complex data. Aside from some work in documentaries and various explainer pieces, Chalabi had little experience in scripted animation and was grateful to finally get the opportunity. “This was a whole other level. I think it’s a real testament to how Ramy works. He’s always taking a chance on people,” Chalabi says. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Chalabi’s distinct, lowkey style turned out to be the missing piece that Youssef and Brady were looking for to recapture the early 2000s more analog, less computer-generated vibe. After connecting via Instagram DM, Youssef and Chalabi were able to collaborate on an animation plan that allowed for the story’s characters to visually “code switch” depending on their environment. Chalabi also heavily utilized the Internet Wayback Machine to get a refresher on what the world even looked like in 2001. “I looked up visual references for what a halal cart looked like in 2001 (spoiler: it looks exactly like it does today). But also: what did the buildings look like back then? What would a mosque in Hackensack have looked like? What was the fashion back then? What phones were people using?” Chalabi says. “When [Rumi’s sister] Mona is giving away freebies as a political candidate, is it a Walkman or a Discman or an iPod? That kind of stuff really helps you to feel like you are actually in that era.” Of course, the chief cultural exports of the 9/11 era weren’t just Discmans or iPods but also fear and political suppression. While Chalabi and Youssef were in their pre-teens in 2001, Brady was an adult and an active participant in the entertainment industry’s response to the terrorist attacks, having been a writer on South Park during the show’s first post-9/11 episode, “Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants.” She recalls the prevailing mood of the time and believes it applies well to young Rumi’s experiences. “[The show’s setting] is also a way to talk about the characters and what’s going on in the world now without being like ham fisted about it,” she says. “The word ‘fear’ kept coming up. What’s it like to be a 12 year old? The world’s kind of scary already. Your body’s changing and the world is treating you differently. So then let’s throw a globally-changing nightmare situation on top of that.” Younger viewers of #1 Happy Family USA might not fully understand the millennial-specific references but surely they’ll relate to its (again: comedic, we promise!) depiction of an era rife with paranoia, bigotry, and confusion. Even Rumi’s comedic “Balls” jersey has taken on an unfortunate new political context of late, with Fox News identifying the wearing of Chicago Bulls paraphernalia as grounds for extrajudicial rendition to El Salvador. “A lot of these conversations around surveillance and needing to overly prove your patriotism have proved to be of this era, just as much as they were of that era,” Youssef says. “That’s been the thing that we could have never expected.” All eight episodes of #1 Happy Family USA season 1 are available to stream on Prime Video now. The show has been renewed for a second season.

Category: Next Week on Xbox Next Week on Xbox: New Games for April 21 to 25 Joe Skrebels, Xbox Wire Editor-in-Chief Published April 18, 2025 Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in! FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves SNK CORPORATION ☆☆☆☆☆ 1 ★★★★★ Get it now Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves – Special Edition – April 21 with Pre-Order, April 24 Release Date After 26 years, Fatal Fury is back! Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves features a unique art style that stimulates the senses, an innovative REV system that supercharges the excitement, plus a host of other battle systems even more robust than before. The game also breathes new life into the series by introducing two distinct control schemes as well as other fresh features and elements. Pre-order now to play from April 21 – full release date is April 24. Steel Seed ESDigital Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Steel Seed – April 22 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Steel Seed is a stealth-action adventure set in a dark sci-fi world on the brink of extinction. Play as Zoe and her drone Koby as they explore a hostile underground facility. Uncover secrets, survive dangers, search for answers, and humanity’s last hope. Post Trauma Raw Fury ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Post Trauma – April 22 Post Trauma is a modern interpretation of genre-defining survival horror classics. As you venture deeper into the unknown, you’ll strive to solve the mysteries of your unfamiliar surroundings, hoping to discover hidden truths while trying to stay alive. Players will explore a terrifying, twisted reality that constantly unsettles as its story shifts and unravels. Sunderfolk Dreamhaven ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Sunderfolk – April 23 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Rediscover Game Night with the magic of Sunderfolk, a shared turn-based tactical RPG adventure where your mobile device becomes the controller. Built with a couch co-op experience in mind, up to four players adventure through the magical and dangerous Sunderlands. Once Upon A Puppet Daedalic Entertainment ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $29.99 $23.99 Pre-order Once Upon a Puppet – April 23 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S Welcome to Once Upon a Puppet, a 2.5D puzzle-platformer that unfolds within a vibrant world of theater. Take part in a magical tale that combines classic platforming with puppet-inspired gameplay, in a captivating story of friendship, self-discovery, and redemption. Unwittingly bound together by spool and thread, Drev and Nieve reluctantly embark on a quest to reclaim their place in the theater, against a heartbroken King. Oppidum EP Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $29.99 Pre-order Oppidum – April 23 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Oppidum is a survival adventure driven by its story, for 1 to 4 players. The fate of a marvelous world depends on you. Will you live up to the challenge? Explore the land of Insule, discover every resource it has to offer and collect it to craft your equipment in classic survival-crafting fashion. Viking Heroes V Collector's Edition Ocean Media ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Viking Heroes V Collector’s Edition – April 23 Embark on a festive journey as the vikings prepare for Yule! Amidst enchanting festivities, the Viking siblings discover Odin has lost control over the threads of fate, prompting a mysterious journey throughout the famous realms of the nine worlds. It is up to you to help the vikings confront mystical challenges, unveil the truth of their surroundings and rediscover the lost Rune of Balance. Golden Rails: Valuable Package Collector's Edition Ocean Media ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Golden Rails: Valuable Package Collector’s Edition – April 23 An exciting new adventure in the world of mail delivery! After being chased by bandits and losing some valuable packages, postman Philip turns to his new friends, Jack and Jill, for help in delivering all the remaining packages to their rightful owners. Hegzis Eastasiasoft Limited ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Hegzis – April 23 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere Master the hex grid as you puzzle through colorfully chill stages, clearing lines and strategically using tools to assist! Put your brain to the test across dozens of unique challenges in Hegzis, a chill hex-grid puzzle game presented in colorful 2D style! Select a stage from Serene Beach, Whispering Forest and more, then progress through multiple levels in each world. Out of Moves Xbox + Windows Bundle Afil Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Out of Moves – April 23 In a world of mysterious mazes, every move could mean the difference between glory and defeat. With limited moves, you must carefully plan each step to reach the jewel before time runs out. But beware! The path is filled with deadly dangers—sharp spikes, tricky arrows, and strategic teleporters that can either be your salvation or your downfall. Cooking ©RedDeer.Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Cooking – April 23 Run your own restaurant and prepare the most iconic Japanese dishes and traditional drinks. Take orders, prepare meals, decorate your restaurant and develop your cooking skills each day. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Kepler Interactive ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $49.99 Pre-order Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – April 24 Game Pass /  Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Xbox Play Anywhere Play day one with Game Pass. A ground-breaking turn-based RPG with unique real-time mechanics, making battles more immersive and addictive than ever. Explore a fantasy world inspired by Belle Époque France in which you battle devastating enemies. Purchase the Deluxe Edition or Deluxe Edition Upgrade for bonus cosmetics. Amerzone – The Explorer's Legacy Microids ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $39.99 Pre-order Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy – April 24 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Play Anywhere First released in 1999, Amerzone is a legend in the adventure game genre. This remake naturally pays tribute to the original game, but also offers a totally new experience of it. As a young journalist, you’ve been entrusted with a crucial mission: to cross the globe and reach the heart of a mysterious, faraway land. Your goal is to bring back the last egg of the mythical “Great White Birds” – will you manage to discover the sinister secret hidden behind the mystery? ANNIE:Last Hope NiuGamer ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $24.99 Pre-order Annie: Last Hope – April 24 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere An HD voxel top-down shooting game set in the 1990s. After a sudden invasion of unknown creatures, Annie is separated from her fiancé and embarks on a perilous journey to find him. Grab your weapon and fight through relentless waves of monsters in a world overrun by the infected. Experience intense and action-packed shooting gameplay! 9th Dawn Remake Valorware LTD ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $15.99 Pre-order 9th Dawn Remake – April 24 A massive open world RPG bursting with dungeon-crawling adventure. The game has been lovingly re-created based on the original 9th Dawn game released in 2012 … which spawned the 9th Dawn series you know and love! Play in single-player mode, or with a friend with Online or Local co-op modes! Experience a vast world filled with huge new dungeons, hordes of monsters, and ridiculous amounts of loot! NanoApostle PQube ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $19.99 $17.99 Pre-order NanoApostle – April 24 Deep within the bowels of a shadowy research facility, Anita, a girl birthed from experimental procedures, is implanted with the sentient nanomechanical entity known as ‘Apostle’. Working together with her nanite allies Anita must defeat a series of dangerous prototype bio-weapons as she searches for a way to break free from her nightmarish prison. Deep Deep Deep Nightmare QUByte Interactive ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Deep Deep Deep Nightmare – April 24 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Deep Deep Deep Nightmare is a 2D Top Down Shooter. A little boy didn’t listen to his mother’s warnings that eating too much at night would cause nightmares. Now, he must face hordes of monsters and defeat the nightmare bosses to escape. Paper Dash – Las Vegas EpiXR Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $4.99 Pre-order Paper Dash: Las Vegas – April 25 Jump into Paper Dash – Las Vegas, where your paper plane takes flight through the dazzling lights and vibrant nights of the city that never sleeps. Fly, glide, dash, scare away ghosts, and enjoy a peaceful journey, facing the ghosts of greed in exciting, relaxing, and jaw-dropping environments. Pacify Hitchcock Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $4.99 Pre-order Pacify – April 25 Pacify, weaken and capture supernatural monsters in this fun co-op horror. You just signed on with Paranormal Activity Helpers Incorporated. Yeah, sounds corny, but the pay is great. They say you won’t ever be in any real danger, and they have tons of work right now. Start helping today! Survivalist: Invisible Strain Ginormocorp Incorporated ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Survivalist: Invisible Strain – April 25 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S It’s been ten years since the pandemic began. Long-established settlements are collapsing, one after another, for unknown reasons. As another refugee, you’re here to carve out a new life for yourself by any means necessary. You can recruit other survivors by making them like you, or respect you, or fear you. You’ll need to keep them fed, keep them warm, and build a settlement to keep them safe from zombies, looters, and whatever else is out there. Use negotiation, friendship, violence, stealth or trickery to achieve your objectives. Sky Revolver ChiliDog Interactive ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $6.99 Pre-order Sky Revolver – April 25 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere Take control of the last remaining fighter in the war against the Empire. In this classic vertical-scroll shoot ’em up, you must break through enemy squadrons and destroy the fleet’s command to turn the tide of battle. EcoGnomix Untold Tales ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Xbox One X Enhanced EcoGnomix – April 25 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S A quirky combination of roguelite and city builder mixed into one! Sitting atop a vast network of mystical caves is your little gnome village. Send out your team of gnomes on rogue-lite runs to bring back resources so you can expand your tiny kingdom. As you grow your village, you’ll unlock new abilities, uncover new biomes, and take on bizarre creatures and extraordinary vegetation lurking underground. The Fairy's Secret Ratalaika Games S.L. ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now The Fairy’s Secret – April 25 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Two years have passed since the events of The Fairy’s Song, and Marnie has been happily living together with her adorable girlfriend, Lisbeth. Marnie is worried about her grandmother, Iris, who lives in the small, scenic village of Fenchapel. Soon events take a turn for the complicated when they run into a familiar face in Iris’s garden. Edmund, the vengeful knight, has returned seemingly from beyond the grave to deliver a grim and alarming message. Akinakes Phoenix Reborn Games ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Akinakes – April 25 A fast-paced shoot ’em up game where you pilot a powerful ship through vibrant levels, collect upgrades to enhance your firepower, and take on epic boss battles. Immerse yourself in beautiful pixel art graphics and an energetic soundtrack. AMAZE! QubicGames S.A. ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ $4.99 $3.99 Pre-order Amaze! – April 25 Xbox Play Anywhere Let’s pop & move the ball and paint – you’ve got to color and paint your way across the Amaze maze puzzles. Amaze gets harder as you play. Painting the maze puzzles sounds easy, but you have to be super strategic to color and fill every square. Let’s pop this maze with color! Gnomes and Knights Samustai LTD ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now Gnomes and Knights – April 25 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery Immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a gloomy medieval dark fantasy and try to find all the gnomes. Meet various characters on your way and try to figure out what happened to this damned world that you yourself (in fact, we) created. Related Stories for “Next Week on Xbox: New Games for April 21 to 25” Category: Next Week on XboxNext Week on Xbox: New Games for April 14 to 18 Category: Next Week on XboxNext Week on Xbox: New Games for April 7 to 11 Category: Next Week on XboxNext Week on Xbox: New Games for March 31 to April 4 The post Next Week on Xbox: New Games for April 21 to 25 appeared first on Xbox Wire.