Rachael Ray says she doesn't regret not having kids even though she was "bashed for it" over the years.Instead, the celebrity chef said on her podcast that she prefers the company of her dog.And it's not just her millennials these days are choosing to raise pets over kids. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Rachael Ray, 56, doesn't regret her decision to not have kids.On Tuesday's episode of her podcast, "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," the celebrity chef and TV host spoke to guest Bob Harper, a celebrity trainer from "The Biggest Loser," about dealing with the societal pressure to have children.When Harper said he chose not to have kids of his own, Ray shared the same sentiment: "Me too. And boy, did I get bashed for it over the decades."Instead of having kids, both Ray and Harper said they preferred raising dogs."They never talk back, they always want to hug you," Ray said, adding that pets bring her "a ray of light.""It's that unconditional love, but it really gets you through dark days. Like for me, if I have the absolute worst day, or I'm sick as a dog as the expression goes the thing that makes me feel best is to go home and literally climb into bed under a blanket with my dog," Ray said.The celebrity chef also spoke about dealing with the death of her dogs, Boo and Isaboo, whom she shared with her husband John Cusimano."They were everything to us, and they both lived a very long life. One was over 13, one was over 15," Ray said, adding that she and her husband then decided to adopt their current dog, Bella.She said she believed that raising an animal can make a person "a better human.""I don't understand folks that are not into having an animal in their lives, because it just makes you happier and better," Ray said. "And you have all this love in your life all the time, no matter what."During a 2009 interview on ABC's "Nightline," as reported by The Wall Street Journal, Ray said she doesn't feel like she's missing out just because she doesn't have kids."I think that I'm 40 years old, and I have an enormous amount of hours that have to be dedicated to work," Ray told ABC journalist Cynthia McFadden, who pressed her about her decision to be child-free. "For me personally, I would need more time to feel like I'd be a good mom to my own child. I feel like a borderline good mom to my dog. So I can't imagine if it was a human baby... I feel like it would be unfair, not only to the child but to the people I work with."The decision to be child-freeA 2021 Pew Research study found that more and more Americans aren't interested in having children.Part of that is due to rising childcare costs: According to Business Insider's estimates, parents could spend at least $25,714 caring for a child this year, up 41.5% from 2016.Instead, more millennials are choosing to raise pets instead of kids, pampering their furry companions with artisan treats, clothes, and even expensive overseas vacations.Even in China, which is experiencing a shrinking population, the urban pet population is expected to surpass the number of toddlers by 2030.A representative for Ray did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

Amid rising costs, Saudi Arabia is scaling back Neom plans to focus on sports venues.Neom's plans include a stadium for the 2034 World Cup and a winter sports resort.The new city faces financial challenges, leadership changes, and scrutiny over human rights issues. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Saudi Arabia is changing plans for mega-city Neom to cut costs and prioritize building for international sporting events.The Middle Eastern country will focus on completing a 1.5-mile stretch of development, including a stadium expected to host soccer's 2034 World Cup, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the project.Plans for Neom were changed in September and October to integrate the World Cup stadium, a source told the news outlet. Another priority is completing a mountain resort slated to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029.The report comes two days after Neom said, without giving a reason, that its longtime CEO abruptly left the project.Reuters reported that Neom officials close to the ex-CEO might also leave the company soon.Earlier this month, Neom hosted a professional triathlon and men's 33 basketball.Neom did not immediately reply to a request for comment.Scaling back a big visionThe $500 billion mega-project was slated to house 9 million people about the same population as New York City. It includes several regions, including The Line, a proposed 106-mile horizontal structure clad in mirrors.Neom was planned to accommodate some 1.5 million people by 2030, but that number is thought to have been scaled back considerably as costs for the project have ballooned. Estimates for Neom have swelled to as much as $1.5 trillion.The city is a key part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 project that aims to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil by launching new industries and attracting more tourists.The megacity has faced a series of issues since its inception, including financial problems and construction delays. Last month, a Neom official said that Saudi Arabia is using one-fifth of all the steel produced in the world, a statement Business Insider could not independently verify.Governments and human rights groups have also scrutinized alleged human rights abuses, including of migrant workers building Neom. In July, Saudi Arabia rejected allegations that three men were sentenced to death because theycriticized evictions to make way for the Neom project. It said that the men were connected to two terrorist organizations.

Some 110 years ago, a picturesque new road known as Roosevelt Boulevard began ferrying vehicles across the nascent but burgeoning neighborhoods of North and Northeast Philadelphia. At first, traffic was light, but it rapidly thickened as car ownership rose and the surrounding area developed. By the 1950s, when the boulevard expanded to meet the new Schuylkill Expressway, it was lined with row houses and shops. Today, what was initially a bucolic parkway has become a traffic-snarled, 12-lane thoroughfare snaking its way through neighborhoods that house 1 in 3 Philadelphians.It is, by all accounts, a mess. Dubbed the corridor of death, Roosevelt Boulevard has been named the most dangerous street in the city (and among the most dangerous in the nation). In 2022, 59 pedestrians were killed there. Residents want to get across the street to the pharmacy to get their medication or get across the street to the supermarket, Latanya Byrd, whose niece and three nephews were killed in a crash on the boulevard in 2013, said in a video produced by Smart Growth America. It may take two, maybe three lights, for them to get all the way across. Its not just pedestrians who loathe Roosevelt Boulevard. People who walk, drive, or take public transit are all pretty badly screwed, Philadelphias public radio station declared in 2017. Aware of the roads shortcomings, city officials have long sought design changes that would reduce crashes. But they are powerless to act on their own, because the boulevard is controlled by the state of Pennsylvania.That situation is common across the United States, where many of the most deadly, polluting, and generally awful urban streets are overseen by state departments of transportation (DOTs). Often they were constructed decades ago, when the surrounding areas were sparsely populated. Although only 14 percent of urban road miles nationwide are under state control, two-thirds of all crash deaths in the 101 largest metro areas occur there, according to a recent Transportation for America report. In some places, this disparity is widening: From 2016 to 2022, road fatalities in Austin, Texas, fell 20 percent on locally managed roads while soaring 98 percent on those the state oversees. Related:The country is littered with roads that are a legacy of the past, that dont work very well, and that drive people crazy, said US Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who calls them legacy highways.Instead of fixing such roadways, state officials tend to keep them as they are, citing limited resources or a need to maintain traffic speeds. In doing so, they constrain the capacity of even the most comprehensive local reforms to respond to urgent problems like car crash deaths, which are far more widespread in the US than among peer countries, or unreliable bus service. Unless state DOTs recognize that a successful urban road must do more than facilitate fast car trips, that problem will persist. Why we have state highwaysIn the early 1900s, states from coast to coast created transportation agencies to build smooth, wide roads that enabled long-distance car trips. New high-capacity roadways traversed forests and farmland, often terminating at what was then the urban edge. When Americans went on a car-buying binge after World War II, states like Michigan widened their highways with the goal of keeping traffic moving quickly, a prime directive for engineers. High-speed roadways fed rapid suburbanization, with new developments mushrooming on the city periphery. Columbus, Ohio, for instance, roughly doubled in population from 1950 and 2000, while its land area quintupled. Sprawling cities in the South and Southwest emerged seemingly overnight, while new suburbs encircled older metropolises in the North.In these newly urbanized areas, state highways that had previously meandered through the countryside were now lined with retail and housing. Their designers had initially paid little attention to transit, sidewalks, or tree cover features that are often afterthoughts for rural roads, but crucial in more densely populated areas.As with Philadelphias Roosevelt Boulevard, the width and traffic speed of state roads in urban neighborhoods now frequently clash with local desires for street safety, quality transit service, and pedestrian comfort. But revising them is rarely a priority for state DOTs engaged in a Sisyphean battle against traffic congestion.If a state agencys primary focus is on moving vehicles, theyre looking at reducing delays and building clear zones that remove objects such as trees next to a road, where errant drivers might strike them, said Kristina Swallow, who previously led the Nevada DOT as well as urban planning for Tucson, Arizona. At the local level, youre looking at a bunch of other activities. You have people walking or on a bike, so you may be okay with some congestion, because you know thats what happens when people are coming into an economically vibrant community.City-state tensions over state highways can take many forms. Roadway safety is often a flashpoint, since fixes frequently involve slowing traffic that state officials want to keep flowing. In San Antonio, for instance, the city negotiated for years with the Texas DOT to add sidewalks and bike lanes to Broadway, a state arterial with seven lanes. Last year the state scuttled that plan at the 11th hour, leaving Broadways current design in place. Local efforts to improve transit service can also face state resistance. In September, Madison, Wisconsin, launched its first bus rapid transit (BRT) line, a fast form of bus service that relies on dedicated bus lanes. But much of its route runs along East Washington, an arterial managed by Wisconsin, and the state transportation department prevented Madison from making the entire BRT lane bus-only during rush hour. That could sabotage the new service out of the gate. These dedicated bus lanes would serve the bus best in the heaviest traffic, so its counterintuitive to typical BRT design, said Chris McCahill, who leads the State Smart Transportation Initiative at the University of Wisconsin and serves on Madisons transportation commission. Wisconsins DOT did not respond to a request for comment.The whole point of fast transit programs like BRT is to get more people to ride transit instead of driving, thereby increasing the total human capacity of a road since buses are much more space-efficient than cars. But that logic can escape state transportation executives oriented toward longer, intercity trips instead of shorter, intracity ones, as well as highway engineers trained to focus on maximizing the speed of all vehicles, regardless of how many people are inside them. Even sympathetic state transportation officials may not fix dysfunctional urban roadways due to limited resources and competing needs that include expensive upgrades to bridges and interstates. Critical but relatively small-dollar projects, such as street intersection adjustments that better serve pedestrians or bus riders, can get lost in the shuffle. Lacking the authority to make changes themselves, city officials are stuck. How do you create connected networks when you dont own the intersection, and to fix it you have to compete at the state level with 500 other projects? said Stefanie Seskin, the director of policy and practice at the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).As an example, Seskin cited the state-controlled St. Marys Street bridge in Brookline, a dense suburb adjacent to Boston. Its the only way to get to and from Boston that isnt on a major, super busy arterial, she said. Its not structurally deficient, but from the position of those walking, biking, and using transit, its just not functioning well. It requires a reconstruction something that Massachusetts has not done.The beginnings of a paradigm shift in transportation policyWith deaths among US pedestrians and cyclists hitting a 40-year high in 2022, a growing number of state DOTs are starting to acknowledge that maximizing vehicle speed is not the only goal that matters on urban roadways. The Pennsylvania DOT, for example, is now working with Philadelphia to at last bring lane redesigns, bus lane improvements, and speed cameras to Roosevelt Boulevard. On the other side of the country, the head of the Washington state DOT has requested $150 million from the state legislature to address the shortcomings of legacy highways. I think there are people in every single state DOT who want to be more proactive and to plan for safer streets for people who are moving, no matter what mode of transportation they use, Seskin told me. I dont think that that was necessarily the case 20 years ago. Still, fixing the deficiencies of state roadways requires a paradigm shift within state DOTs, with senior officials accepting that maximizing car speeds jeopardizes crucial local priorities like accommodating pedestrians, enabling rapid transit service, or supporting outdoor dining. Such nuance can escape state highway engineers trained with a myopic focus on vehicle speed. Many of the people doing roadway design work for states are still stuck in the old model, said Billy Hattaway, an engineer who previously held senior transportation roles in the Florida DOT as well as the city of Orlando.McCahill, of the State Smart Transportation Initiative, empathized with those toiling within state DOTs. Think about their position as engineers, he said. Theyve got their federal highway design guidelines, theyve got their state guidelines. Theyve been conditioned to be conservative and not try new things.Historically, those roadway design guidelines have prioritized free-flowing traffic. Making them more malleable could empower engineers to get more creative. Instead of applying one-size-fits-all rules for elements like lane widths and traffic lights, context-sensitive design encourages engineers working in urban settings to add pedestrian crossings, narrow lanes, and other features that can support local transportation needs. McCahill applauded Floridas DOT for recently rewriting its design guide to incorporate such context-sensitive layouts. Federal money could help finance such redesigns if state officials know how to use it. Theres a lack of knowledge about the flexibility of federal dollars, with misunderstandings and different interpretations, said NACTOs Seskin. Recognizing the issue, over the summer, the Federal Highway Administration published guidance and held a webinar highlighting dozens of federal funding programs available to upgrade legacy highways.Then there is an alternative approach: Rather than revise problematic roads themselves, states can hand them over to local officials, letting them manage improvements and maintenance. Washington state, for instance, in 2011 transferred a 2.5-mile strip of state road 522 to the Seattle suburb of Bothell. But such moves are not always financially feasible. The risk is that when you transfer a highway to local government, you take away the capacity to properly fund it over the long term because the city becomes responsible for upkeep, said Brittney Kohler, the legislative director of transportation and infrastructure for the National League of Cities. Unless the revamped road spurs development that creates new tax revenue, as it did in Bothell, cash-strapped cities may be unable to afford the costs of retrofits and ongoing maintenance.States and cities can work together to fix legacy highways and federal support can helpIn Portland, Oregon, pretty much everyone seems to agree that 82nd Avenue, a major thoroughfare that the state manages, is a disaster. Originally a little-used roadway marking the eastern edge of the city, 82nd Avenue has developed into a bustling arterial. Its been a dangerous eyesore for decades, with potholed pavement, insufficient pedestrian crossings, inadequate lighting, and minimal tree cover, said Art Pearce, a deputy director for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. According to city statistics, from 2012 to 2021, crashes on the thoroughfare caused 14 deaths and 122 serious injuries. At least two-thirds of crash victims were pedestrians, bicyclists, or occupants of cars turning left at intersections without traffic signals. During winter storms, Pearce said state workers would often clear nearby Interstate 205 but leave 82nd Avenue unplowed, leaving the city to do it without compensation. Our priority in snow and ice is to keep public transit moving, and 82nd Avenue has the highest transit ridership in the whole state, he said.Nearby residents and business owners have been begging local officials to revamp 82nd Avenue for decades, said Pearce and Blumenauer (whose congressional district includes Portland). The state was willing to transfer the roadway to the city, but the local officials wanted more than a handshake.We were like, if you give us $500 million, the city will take over 82nd Avenue and fix it, Pearce said. The state officials answered, We dont have $500 million, so hey, good meeting.A breakthrough came in 2021, when the American Rescue Plan Act offered states and cities a one-time influx of federal funding. Matching that money with contributions of their own, the state and city negotiated a transfer of seven miles of 82nd Avenue from the Oregon DOT to Portland. Some $185 million will go toward new features including sidewalk extensions, trees, a BRT line, and curb cuts for those using a wheelchair or stroller. Blumenauer, who said that reconstructing 82nd Avenue has been a personal goal for 35 years, led US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on a tour of the roadway last year.The success story is a bit of a one-off, Blumenauer admits, reliant on stimulus dollars tied to the Covid-19 pandemic. But a dedicated federal funding source could enable similar roadway reboots nationwide.At the moment, President-elect Donald Trump and incoming congressional Republicans show little appetite for transportation reforms, but a golden opportunity will come during the development of the next multiyear surface transportation bill, which is expected to be passed after the 2026 midterms. Although Blumenauer did not run for reelection this month, he said he hopes the future bill will include a competitive grant program that invites state and local officials to submit joint proposals to upgrade state highways in urban areas, with federal dollars acting as a sweetener.Otherwise, these state roads will continue to obstruct urban residents most cherished goals of safety, clean air, and public space. Flourishing cities cannot coexist with fast, decrepit roads. Too many state officials have not yet learned that lesson.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

This week, a number of social media users were, once again, disappointed by the selection of a certain man to a coveted position. Actor John Krasinski yes, Jim from The Office was given the title of Peoples Sexiest Man Alive. Its a choice thats less egregious than genuinely perplexing. Its not that Krasinski isnt an objectively handsome man. In his most recent television role on the Prime Video show Jack Ryan, which ended in 2023 he played a buff, butt-kicking CIA agent. Its more that his career has rarely ever required him to display any sort of sex appeal. His most crush-worthy role to date was arguably more than a decade ago on The Office as the funny and approachable Jim Halpert. Since then, the most female attention he gets on social media is when hes posing with his wife, actress Emily Blunt, on a red carpet. Plus, its not exactly his year for visible hotness: His work in 2024 was almost entirely behind the scenes, directing the childrens film IF and producing A Quiet Place: Day One. All this to say, in a pop culture landscape practically infested with internet boyfriends, Krasinski was a baffling choice. Amid look-alike competitions being held for Hollywoods hottest young men across the United States and Europe your Timmy Chalamets, your Paul Mescals the lack of excitement around this issue has never felt so loud. What does it even mean to be Peoples sexiest man alive in 2024, if it means anything at all? And why are we still so invested? For readers who witnessed Patrick Dempsey receive this honor just last year, it must be pointed out that the Sexiest Man Alive issue didnt always feel this arbitrary and untimely. From its (now-cursed) inaugural issue in 1985 with box-office star Mel Gibson up until Channing Tatums spread in 2012, the titular man felt representative of the tastes of the average (straight white) woman. Plus, it was often a star who was dominating at the box office. In the past, the cover served as the ultimate advertising vehicle for it guys who were either newly cementing themselves as full-fledged movie stars, like Brad Pitt in 1995 and George Clooney in 1997, or major celebs reassuring the public that they were still hot commodities, like Harrison Ford in 1998. While these selections have been overwhelmingly white, at least they once felt relevant. People is a stalwart in an industry weathering difficult times, and this special issue is arguably one of the things keeping the magazine on newsstands. According to Digiday, the sexiest man issue has a rate base, or guaranteed circulation, of 3.7 million, compared to a regular issue of the magazine, with a rate base of 3.5 million. Strategically published during the fourth quarter when consumers are doing Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping, its proven to be a huge cash cow for Peoples parent company, Dotdash Meredith. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel revealing actor Chris Hemsworths Peoples Sexiest Man Alive cover on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2014. Adam Rose/Walt Disney Television via Getty ImagesIn the 2010s, though, the issue started to receive some blowback or, more accurately, the advent of social media allowed these complaints to be expressed in a hypervisible way. It wasnt just that only two men of color, Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves, had received the award until 2016, when Dwayne The Rock Johnson graced the cover. The choosing of celebrities like Adam Levine, a rockstar with a reputation for being a so-called douchebag raised eyebrows in 2013 and also performed relatively poorly on newsstands. His co-star on The Voice, Blake Shelton, has maybe done the most damage to the issues reputation. The unveiling of his cover in 2017 sent the internet into hysterics for days. John Legend (another judge on The Voice) in 2019 felt almost equally random. Even Benny Blancos appearance in the current issue as an honorable mention was strongly objected to online. Year over year, the Sexiest Man Alive has become less of a trusted assertion and more of a platform for debate.The details of the selection process for this issue have largely been kept under wraps. In a 2012 interview with USA Today, former editor Julie Jordan said People temperature-checks in a few ways, including asking female celebrities, consulting focus groups, and observing social media. There are constant rumors, including in Krasinskis case, that the title can be bought or won by a convincing publicist. Its easy to forget, though, that the selected men also have to be willing to participate in this extremely public form of objectification. The less impeachable Ryan Gosling reportedly turned down the offer twice. Even with an increasingly questionable reputation, social media has remained invested in this frivolous honor, particularly this year. Maybe its because People did a good job of incessantly teasing the reveal on social media with the help of dominant X accounts like FilmUpdates and PopCrave. Maybe its because the public needed a distraction from a much more crucial and devastating election. In the midst of political tumult, Krasinski is ultimately a safe, fairly inoffensive option, a celebrity that millennials obsessed with The Office have a level of affinity for. Despite questions about his political affiliation, he hasnt been mired in any real controversy. Whatever relevance the title holds, the sport of debating and crowning famous men as sexy and hot has never really gotten old. Like awards shows, its one of the last examples of celebrity monoculture for consumers to collectively engage with. In an overly skeptical social media landscape, it also seems as though half of the fun of the issue is negotiating whether the awarded person is a genuine attempt to reflect consumers taste or some elaborate PR play being fed to us. However meaningless the issue has become these days, its been successful in producing two things: revenue and a good, hollow debate. Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Believe me when I say: I truly thought I knew the story of Tetris. The puzzle games journey from behind the iron curtain in 1980s Moscow to multi-million-selling video game has been the subject of countless articles, a greatly entertaining book and a recent film. I have played Tetris in various forms for more than 30 years, from the Game Boy to the Nintendo Switch, even in VR. So when I loaded up Tetris Forever, an interactive documentary on Tetriss 40-year history from the developers-slash-archivists at Digital Eclipse, I wasnt expecting to learn anything new. I was proven very wrong.Did you know about Hatris, the 1990 Tetris follow-up that involved stacking colourful hats on top of heads? I did, vaguely, but I did not know about the semi-authorised twist on that game put out by Spectrum Holobyte the same year, a mildly horrifying swap-and-drop puzzler that had players stacking up mouths, noses and eyes to try to make human faces. They called it Facestris III, which suggests that whoever named it gave up halfway through. No wonder it wasnt a hit. I didnt know that Henk Rogers, the charismatic Dutch-American who played a huge part in turning Tetris into a global phenomenon, spent his student years surfing and diving in Hawaii before (his words) chasing a girl to Japan and coding the countrys first bestselling RPG in 1984.Tetris Forever is comprised of five chapters, presented as timelines with an absolute treasure trove of images and video from Tetriss 40-year history, and faithful, playable recreations of the game that show how it has evolved since Alexey Pajitnov coded the game as something to entertain himself while working in Moscows computer research centre. Its a good four hours worth of stuff, at least. Theres camcorder footage from Henks famous visit to Moscow, where he turned up completely unauthorised at a Russian government building to fight for the rights to publish Tetris on the Game Boy. Theres fascinating footage from Nintendo of America in the 1980s, and photos of Henk and Pajitnov with the infamously hard-to-impress former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, with whom Rogers struck up a fruitful business friendship over games of Go.Alongside the 15 playable versions of Tetris from throughout its history, game boxes and adverts and marketing material are digitally recreated in perfect detail for you to examine and pan around. And of course, theres plentiful on-camera interview footage not just from Rogers and Pajitnov, but from the other people who played a part in Tetriss history, too.What emerges here is a much fuller picture of Tetriss history than the Apple TV film, which glossed over quite a lot of detail, especially about the four-way scrap over the rights to Tetris in the 1980s. Here, no detail is spared. Admittedly this does turn the second and third chapters into a bit of a shaggy dog story, as we hear about every last detail, but when it comes to gaming history this detail is important even when it threatens to be boring. This all paints such an interesting portrait of the games industry in the 1980s, which in the US and Europe was truly a wild west of have-a-go coders and entrepreneurs often coders themselves shopping games around the place and occasionally getting very rich off them. This contrasts strongly with the situation in Japan, whose gaming scene was dominated by a few stiffly traditional companies with enormous respect for process, and of course with Russia and the Soviet Union, where it was straightforwardly forbidden to do any kind of business deal with a foreign company.Tetris as it first appeared, on the Electronika 60 in 1985 Photograph: Digital Eclipse/The Tetris CompanyThis might all sound terrifically nerdy and, well, it is Digital Eclipse makes super comprehensive reissues that truly respect the history of the games involved. Tetris Forever is not a general-audience documentary, but one for people with a keen interest in gaming history. The playable versions of Tetris and other connected games, meanwhile, are impressively faithful, but obviously the versions that everyone really wants to play the Game Boy and NES versions remain within Nintendos vicelike grip. For what its worth, Tetris Effect is still the best version of Tetris in my opinion it was made by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, famed Japanese developer of synaesthesic music games, who also appears a lot in this documentary footage.Tetris has come to feel eternal, and theres something almost spiritual about playing a recreation of its first version, made for the Electronika 60 computer out of square brackets and exclamation marks lined up on a flickering black-and-green screen. Playing it, I feel a small echo of what I feel when I look at the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. It is an amazing thing, a rare example of a perfect game that despite all the drama outlined in this documentary and all the various version over the years, is still pretty much unchanged after 40 years.Tetris Forever is available now; 29.50

EXCLUSIVE: World of Warcraft will finally add player housing next year, and we got to speak to Executive Producer Holly Longdale about how long fans have been asking for it

Blizzard is celebrating a number of huge milestones this year across Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. Here's everything shown at the company's huge Direct event

Do you agree with Phil Spencer? (YouTube)The Thursday letters page isnt sure PS5 owners want to play Halo and Gears Of War, as one reader suggests an alternative to the Steam Deck 2.To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.ukDelusions of grandeurI dont think Im the only one thats sick of hearing from Phil Spencer at this point, but I think its obvious from the photo in this new interview that the stress of his job is starting to take its toll. I cant say Im all that sympathetic though. Given how much time and money hes had access to I dont see that hes done anything to improve either Xbox or video games in general.The comments about no red lines was interesting, but no less than is expected at this point, while his other comments were the usual guff about needing industry growth and mobiles being the way to do that even though more recent news suggests that bottom is falling out of that market.Spencer just seems washed up at this point and, frankly, so does Xbox. I dont even know what its supposed to be anymore. Its barely a console and streaming is just a sideshow for now, so that doesnt make it any more than a third party publisher with delusions of grandeur.And I do think that has always been Spencers problem. The Xbox business has never been more healthy, he says. But how do you figure that? Activision Blizzard has never been more healthy but Xbox itself seems to have outlived its usefulness and as an Xbox Series X owner that makes me bitter and angry.ColdsbaneLong waitIm sure that Im not the only one that got some second-hand cringe from that new Phil Spencer Xbox interview. The guy seems increasingly off his rocker, especially if he thinks Xbox is doing better than ever. I also think hes fooling himself if he thinks anyone still cares about Gears Of War or, especially, Halo.The most interesting thing was confirmation of a handheld console but the warning that it wouldnt be out for a while. Now this could just be a lie, like much of what Spencer says, but if its going to be later than 2026 what happens to Xbox in the meantime?I really dont see anything on its current slate becoming any kind of a big deal, unless Fable is both incredibly good and on PlayStation 5 from the start. 2026 seemed believable because it was obvious the Xbox Series X/S had failed but leaving it to fend for itself for much longer is going to cause even more problems.84ColbatNo more secretsI see were back to imaging that Sony has some secret store of new single-player games its suddenly going to announce out of the blue, now rumoured to be in early December. Im going to make my own prediction, not based on industry contacts but simple logic and observation: Sony aint going to announce anything.Maybe youll get a PlayStation Blog post about new action figures or something, which seems to have been partially leaked, but thats it. Theres not going to be any State of Play for the 30th anniversary, youll be lucky if you get a new trailer.Sony might be acting odd but not so odd that theyd keep lots of announcements in their pocket for a random rainy day. The more games they announce the more appealing their console looks, and they want it to look as appealing as possible ahead of Christmas so they can actually sell some for once.KikibombEmail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.ukUnsexy newsVery sad to see Tequila Works filing for insolvency, as I thoroughly enjoyed the game The Sexy Brutale. It is a little gem and one of my favourite games of all time, which I think they published or/and help make. It is very similar to Gregory Horror Show, with a very good story and interesting gameplay, which I have got the platinum for.Tequila Works also made the beautiful looking RiME, which I have on physical in my backlog to play and they also created Gylt, which was a Stadia exclusive for a while and then got released on other platforms and it is on my wishlist to play.Andrew J.GC: Tequila Works did publish The Sexy Brutale, and helped with development, but the lead creator was Cavalier Game Studios, who still seem to be going but havent announced any new game in some time now.Unequal termsAs a PlayStation 5 owner I cant wait to play all those amazing Xbox classics Ive been denied for all these years like, erm Microsoft Flight Simulator, maybe? I shouldnt be mean but Im just not sure what Microsoft thinks it has to offer the PlayStation 5, beyond Activision Blizzard games that were always multiformat anyway.Im not interested in Halo 8 and Gears Of War 7, or whatever were on now. Those series are well past their best and I really cant see any of the announcements so far turning out to be anything particularly interesting.The problem for Microsoft is that Xbox needs PlayStation but PlayStation does not need Xbox, as we see with Lego Horizon Adventures being on Switch but not Xbox Series X/S. Sony doesnt care if Halo is on PlayStation 5 or not and Im not sure many gamers do either.RollerTrue sequelRE: Shahzaib Sadiq getting upset about no Steam Deck 2 yet. Check out this article from Reviews.org Australia with two of the Steam Decks designers. The Steam Deck is about to released in Australia (19th November).They talk about their thoughts for Steam Deck 2 and the handheld PC space in general, where they dont see themselves as a one stop shop. One quote from it about the Steam Deck 2 is this:So we really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck. But it is something that were excited about and were working on.As the reader said these things in an Inbox letter, about the PS5 Pro, I think hell see their point: The PS5 Pro is a paperweight, A minimal update, reflections that will barely even be noticed, when moving through the next set of levels and puddles in Spider-Man 2. That is truly phenomenally mystifying and it totally justifies the ludicrous price tag? No, it never has and never will.Being overly dramatic seems to be the MO but no need in this case, about the Steam Deck 2. As the reader mentions, theres essentially the Steam Deck Pro in the market, in the form of the Pro priced 800 Rog Ally X.SimundoImpulse purchaseIm still not clear on why Microsoft has had to delay its big new mobile app. According to Phil Spencer its because they need to do more research into the industry. But did they not have a plan for all this before they paid multiple billions for Activision Blizzard?I thought getting control of King was one of the main reasons for doing it but now, a year later, theyre still looking into it? I carefully research a game before I spend 70 on it, I wouldve thought a company like Microsoft wouldve been a bit more cautious before spending so much money on something they apparently didnt even know what they were going to do with it.KorbieNon sequitur gamingCute review of the new Lego game. Agree that doing one for Horizon seemingly makes no sense, its not like they have a movie, TV show or even kids cartoon of it in circulation. Though once they had decided to do it, I thought itd turn out reasonably well; Horizon would transplant to the Lego video game formula pretty well.Noted you reviewed it on the PlayStation 5, Id be interested to see how it performs on the significantly less capable Switch. Putting it on Nintendos platform is a no-brainer though, given the demographics, just hope its not a phoned-in job. Sonic games sell the best on Switch yet even the recent Generations remake is a noticeable downgrade from the Xbox and PlayStation versions.As for Xbox, I have a feeling the reason it isnt on Microsofts machine has more to do with pure business than any kind of platform exclusivity or loyalty. Xbox has obviously struggled this generation, shifting less than half of Sonys 60 million odd units. Also, looking at recently released information about player stats and sales, most of those console owners are either just playing Fortnite and other live service titles or subscribe to Game Pass and play whatever is on there. So it probably just wasnt worth the cost and development to bring over to Xbox; Sony were probably right to assume that nobody would buy it.Pretty sad really that its ended up like this for Microsoft, Sony certainly need the competition to keep them on track but that even financing ports to Xbox isnt financially viable for publishers unless they cut a lucrative Game Pass deal doesnt look good for the future of the hardware.MarcGC: The small map areas and lack of destructible scenery is clearly a limitation introduced for the Switch, so we imagine it works okay. Its not a bad game, its just weird that it exists.Inbox also-ransSo when can we say definitively that the Switch 2 isnt going to be announced this year? Its the middle of November on Thursday and I cannot believe for a second its going to happen now its got to be January.RyanGC: Its not New Years Eve yet.I saw some Resident Evil 9 rumours saying that the game stars Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine on an island fighting something called Goat-Man. I notice you didnt report on this, does that mean its not true?LayuGC: Theres nothing to suggest those rumours are accurate, no.Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.ukThe small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Readers Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.You can also leave your comments below and dont forget to follow us on Twitter.MORE : Games Inbox: What will happen for the PlayStation 30th anniversary?MORE : Games Inbox: Is Silent Hill 2 the best remake ever?MORE : Games Inbox: Will the PS5 Pro delay the release of PlayStation 6?Sign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they're seen on the site.Privacy Policy This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The new Halo will almost certainly be on PS5 (Halo Studios)Phil Spencer has insisted there are no red lines preventing first party games coming to other formats, leaving the door open for anything from Fable to Blinx.The release of Lego Horizon Adventures this week which is also being released on Nintendo Switch reopens the question of how Sony feels about publishing their games on other formats. The truth is we have very little idea, since their only comments on the subject have been vague and ambiguous, but by comparison Microsoft has talked about it quite a bit.What theyve said has often bore little relation to what theyve done given they once insisted Indiana Jones And The Great Circle was not coming to PlayStation 5 but reading between the lines its seemed theyve been preparing the way for all or most Xbox first party games being released on other console formats.Now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has given the clearest possible indication of that, by insisting that I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say thou must not, in terms of individual games going multiformat.Spencer didnt mention any franchise by name, or give any indication of what would be next, but did say that its too early to make a decision about the next version of Halo.Thats no doubt because the next game is a long way off, with the developer only recently indicating that it has started work on new titles. Although rumours have already suggested that the move to Unreal Engine 5 is in part to make porting to the PlayStation 5 easier.The next big test for Xboxs multiformat plans will be the release of Avowed next February, which its somewhat surprising was not on PlayStation 5 from the start, given its a lower profile title.Theres still no release date for the PlayStation 5 version of Indiana Jones but if it becomes clear that Microsoft is planning a roughly six month exclusivity period for Xbox games, before releasing them on PlayStation, then it becomes easier to predict what will happen with other 2025 titles such as South Of Midnight and Fable.Like the new Halo, the likes of Perfect Dark, Gears Of War: E-Day, and State Of Decay 3 have no release year yet but if theyre 2026 or later then by that point first party Xbox games may be appearing on other formats as a matter of course.In theory this will include the Switch 2, although its uncertain how powerful Nintendos new device is and which titles it will be able to handle. Releasing Call Of Duty on Switch was one of Microsofts key arguments for allowing the Activision Blizzard acquisition, but whether the Switch 2 will be able to handle it and other high-end titles remains to be seen.Elsewhere in the interview with Bloomberg, a (rather bedraggled looking) Spencer indicated that Microsoft was still interested in buying other companies after Activision Blizzard, hinting at more mobile publishers and perhaps a studio in Asia even though they only just shut down Tango Gameworks.Despite continually falling Xbox Series X/S console sales, Spencer insisted that, The Xbox business has never been more healthy. The business is performing right now, and I think that means a more healthy future for hardware and the games we build.I feel pretty good about where this industry is going, he added. To reach new players, we need to be creative and adaptive of new business models, new devices, new ways of access. Were not going to grow the market with $1,000 consoles.Once again, he strongly hinted at releasing a handheld Xbox in the future, which is assumed to be the next gen console the company has technically already announced, but this time he implied that it is still a few years out and not necessarily aiming for the previously rumoured 2026 release date.Halo is still the crown jewels of Xboxs first party line-up (Halo Studios)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.MORE : Best Nintendo Switch deals for Black Friday 2024 will save you 100MORE : PS5 fans think new ad is teasing a 30th anniversary preview eventMORE : Gamers sue Ubisoft for shutting down classic racing game after buying itSign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they're seen on the site.Privacy Policy This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

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