ChatGPT was first released two years ago.Since then, its user base has doubled to 200 million weekly users.Major companies, entrepreneurs, and users remain optimistic about its transformative power.It's been two years since OpenAI released its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT.And a lot has changed in the world since then.For one, ChatGPT has helped turbocharge global investment in generative AI. Funding in the space grew fivefold from 2022 to 2023 alone, according to CB Insights. The biggest beneficiaries of the generative AI boom have been the biggest companies. Tech companies on the S&P 500 have seen a 30% gain since January 2022, compared to only 15% for small-cap companies, Bloomberg reported.Similarly, consulting firms are expecting AI to make up an increasing portion of their revenue. Boston Consulting Group generates a fifth of its revenue from AI, and much of that work involves advising clients on generative AI, a spokesperson told Business Insider. Almost 40% of McKinsey's work now comes from AI, and a significant portion of that is moving to generative AI, Ben Ellencweig, a senior partner who leads alliances, acquisitions, and partnerships globally for McKinsey's AI arm, QuantumBlack, told BI.Smaller companies have been forced to rely on larger ones, either by building applications on existing large language models or waiting for their next major developer tool release.Still, young developers are optimistic that ChatGPT will level the playing field and believe it's only a matter of time before they catch up to bigger players. "You still have your Big Tech companies lying around, but they're much more vulnerable because the bleeding edge of AI has basically been democratized," Bryan Chiang, a recent Stanford graduate who built RizzGPT, told Business Insider.Then, of course, there is ChatGPT's impact on regular users.In August, it reached more than200 million weekly active users, double the number it had the previous fall. In October, it rolled out a newsearch featurethat provides "links to relevant web sources" when asked a question, introducing a serious threat to Google's dominance.In September, OpenAI previewed o1, a series of AI models that it says are "designed to spend more time thinking before they respond." ChatGPT Plus and Team users can access the models in ChatGPT. Users hope a full version will be released to the public in the coming year.Business Insider asked ChatGPT what age means to it."Age, to me, is an interesting concept it's a way of measuring the passage of time, but it doesn't define who someone is or what they're capable of," it responded.

Trump on Saturday floated "100% tariffs" on the BRICS group of emerging markets.Trump is pushing back on efforts to dethrone the US dollar as the primary global reserve currency.Trump's remarks come as the BRIC nations seek to flex their economic strength on the global stage.President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday lashed out at the BRICS group of emerging market countries, threatening to impose 100% tariffs if they try to "move away" from the US dollar.BRICS comprises nine countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates which are aiming to flex their economic power in a world where the US dollar continues to reign supreme as the leading global reserve currency.Amid Russia's push for BRIC nations to curb the international dominance of the US dollar, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to decry such a move."The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER," he wrote. "We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy."The president-elect continued: "They can go find another 'sucker!' There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America."During an October summit of the BRICS nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of "weaponizing" the dollar."It's not us who refuse to use the dollar," he said at the time, according to The Associated Press. "But if they don't let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives."Trump's latest remarks came just days after he threatened 25% tariffs on imports from Canada, China, and Mexico, the top three trading partners of the United States. Trump pressed the three countries on the flow of drugs and illegal migrants coming into the United States.Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, spoke with Trump earlier this week following the president-elect's pledge to target his country and touted the long-standing relationship between the two countries. Trudeau later reiterated that tariffs would hurt both Canadian and American consumers.On Friday, the prime minister traveled to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he said he had an "excellent conversation" with the president-elect.Trudeau's office said in a statement that the prime minister and Trump "shared a productive wide-ranging discussion.""As Canada's closest friend and ally, the United States is our key partner, and we are committed to working together in the interests of Canadians and Americans," the statement continued.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, meanwhile, also spoke with Trump on Thursday, saying afterward that "there will not be a potential tariff war" between Mexico and the United States.

Everyone wants to hold space for Defying Gravity, the powerhouse anthem from Wicked, the Broadway musical-turned-movie blockbuster. But behind the in-your-face themes of female rivalry and friendship, unrequited love, and the unfortunate circumstance of being green, theres a deeper undercurrent: the alienation that comes when you stand behind what you believe in.The story a reimagining of L. Frank Baums 1900 The Wizard of Oz explains how the notorious Wicked Witch of the West came to be. Like the musical, the movie takes place in the Land of Oz and follows Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), a kind but hardened young woman who has been ostracized her whole life for her green skin, as she enters Shiz University to cultivate her strong magical powers. Its here where she meets, rooms with, and eventually befriends Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande), an aspiring sorcerer whos been beloved and popular her whole life. But what seems to get ignored is the root of Elphabas supposed wickedness: her horror at the mistreatment of animals and her determination to free them. In the Land of Oz, animals are regular members of society, living and working alongside other Ozians until theyre silenced and forced out of the public eye.Yes, Wicked is a fantasy tale, but if one focuses just a bit longer on Elphabas origin story, its hard not to see the parallels between the movie and the real-world state of animal welfare. The reality of animal oppression is not only stranger than the fiction in Wicked, but unfortunately much more cruel. And those who seek to expose this abuse and create change are ridiculed, jailed, and, much like Elphaba, ostracized for their stance and deemed wicked.How the animal rights message in Wicked connects to real lifeFrom the very beginning of her life, the movie shows that Elphaba has felt a connection to animals, at least partially because of the prejudice shes faced in her own life. When Elphaba is born and its revealed she has green skin, her father rejects her. Shes raised mostly by Dulcibear, her nanny who happens to be a brown bear and who empathizes with Elphaba and sees the good in her, while her father berates and chastises her for being different.Years later, when Elphaba enrolls at Shiz University after showing her magical powers, shes ostracized by much of the student population for her skin. She finds solace in her studies, particularly her class with Doctor Dillamond, a goat who teaches history. Its in his class where the disenfranchisement of animals becomes clear to Elphaba: Dillamond tells the students he is one of the few animal professors left, after animals were blamed for a widespread drought in Oz years before. Later in the class, Dillamond finds that someone has written Animals should be seen and not heard on the other side of his chalkboard. Someone has written on Doctor Dillamonds chalkboard, Animals should be seen and not heard. Universal Pictures International/Wicked trailerElphaba learns more about the oppression of animals after eavesdropping on a conversation with Dillamond and other fellow creatures about stories of animals losing the ability to speak, being forced out from their jobs, and leaving Oz entirely. This becomes Dillamonds own fate, when hes violently removed from his classroom and replaced by a new human instructor who shows his latest invention to keep animals from learning how to speak: a cage, with a scared lion cub inside. Can you imagine a world where animals are kept in cages and they never learn to speak? Elphaba asks.In the real world, animals dont speak (at least, not in languages we can understand). But caging animals? Thats a reality that most of the world widely accepts in exchange for food and entertainment though few understand what it really looks like.Humans raise about 75 billion animals for food annually, and while caging animals is not a new practice, modern factory farming has taken the confinement and exploitation of animals to new extremes. For example, female breeding pigs are held in gestation crates, small cages barely bigger than their own bodies where theyre essentially immobilized, forcefully and artificially inseminated, and made to go through repeated cycles of pregnancy and birth. Chickens, whose eggs are often sold with misleading claims like humanely raised, are also stuffed in cages so small they cant fully spread their wings (and even cage-free eggs could mean that thousands of chickens are all together in a space too small for them all, effectively living on top of each other.)And when disaster strikes, these trapped animals have nowhere to go. A fire at a pig farm in August left more than 1,000 pigs to die in flames (a routine occurrence on factory farms), after the pork industry lobbied against fire code updates that would require them to install sprinklers in barns. When Hurricane Helene hit Georgia, the countrys top chicken-producing state, its likely that millions of chickens were killed.Inhumane confinement is the tip of the iceberg. Multiple investigations have exposed the stomach-churning reality of factory farms. On one pig farm, an undercover investigation showed piglets gasping for air after being poisoned with carbon monoxide, while others were fed a mixture of pig parts and feces. One years-long investigation at livestock auctions across multiple states showed animals like cows and goats violently abused by being kicked, dragged, and thrown. While these particular findings are just snapshots, these forms of cruelty are ubiquitous, consistently reflected in investigations into the meat industry.Though farmed animals may face the worst and largest-scale abuse, they are not the only animals to be confined. Zoos, where animals are whisked away from their natural habitat and forced to live in much smaller spaces, are largely forms of entertainment for the public. While zoos do contribute to conservation work, they also come at a cost for the very beings withheld in these facilities, like zoochosis. Animals confined in zoos have been recorded engaging in repetitive behaviors like pacing around and self-harming.Elphaba, the animal rights activistAt the end of the movie, Elphaba meets the Wizard of Oz and is given the chance to work under him. While there, she tells the Wizard that her hearts desire is to help the animals, which the Wizard seemingly agrees to. But after tricking her into casting a spell that painfully sprouted wings on the Wizards monkey servants backs (the origin story of the famous flying monkeys), the Wizard reveals he can now use them to spy on other animals. Realizing its the Wizard behind the subjugation and villainization of animals in order to hold onto power, Elphaba refuses to use her magic to help him any further and flees but not before being labeled a wicked witch and a threat to all of Oz by Madame Morrible, her sorcery instructor.Vegetarians, vegans, and animal rights activists can probably relate especially the ones who put their freedom on the line. In recent years, a string of activists have been criminally prosecuted for rescuing sick and injured animals from factory farms. In November 2023, the lawyer and animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung was convicted for his role in helping Direct Action Everywhere members remove 70 chickens and ducks from two factory farms in Sonoma County, California. He faced up to 3 1/2 years in prison, but was released after 38 days in jail, much of it spent in conditions that experts have said are tantamount to solitary confinement. And even non-activists who simply point out the climate, public health, and moral ills of factory farming and animal abuse are accused of being radical, or wanting to take peoples burgers away. Just as Elphaba is made fun of after she stands up for Doctor Dillamond when he mispronounces Galindas name, those who question the cruelty of animals and its consequences are often ridiculed and socially alienated for speaking out against the status quo. Related:Vegans are radical. Thats why we need them.Like Doctor Dillamond, Dulcibear, and the flying monkeys in Wicked, animals in real life are sentient beings, according to a growing body of research. Like humans, studies show that animals feel pain and they experience joy. And in Wicked, most of Elphabas classmates seem to ignore the treatment of animals in Ozian society, even Galinda who (often superficially) seeks to do good. Its not too different from how our real world interacts with animal welfare largely, our society accepts the subjugation of animals, even if it involves large-scale cruelty. Perhaps this helps explain part of why the animal rights activism portions of the film so often get left out of the conversation: Animals being confined and stripped of autonomy is considered normal in our reality.The second installment of Wicked is scheduled to hit theaters in 2025. While the first part gave more attention to Elphabas radicalization through animal rights than did the Broadway musical, it still treats it with a lighter touch than did Maguires Wicked novel, allowing all the (very) catchy songs and sweet depictions of unexpected friendship to hit viewers harder than the animal rights message. How much of Wicked: Part Two will focus on animal rights is not entirely clear but it certainly would be much more interesting to see the movie attempt to better grapple with animal rights than its predecessor.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:

In 2022, surgeons transplanted the first genetically engineered pig heart into a human. Fifty-seven-year-old David Bennett, a patient with heart failure, survived almost two months with a pig heart beating in his chest, one of five people who have received pig organs as a part of an experimental procedure called xenotransplantation the transplanting of living cells, tissues, or organs from one species to another.Some scientists view these pig organs transplants as potentially lifesaving for many like Bennett.In the US alone, more than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant, and almost 20 people die every day because they cant get one in time. But a major challenge remains in making xenotransplantation work: scientists havent figured out how to get a human body to accept a pig organ for very long. None of the five patients who received these pig organs have survived beyond two months, though researchers believe theyre making progress toward overcoming rejection and eventually moving to clinical trials.This push to make pig organs viable for humans also comes with enormous ethical implications from concerns surrounding the use of humans in an experimental procedure that theyre highly unlikely to survive, to the impacts on animals who are supplying the organs themselves. At first glance, the pursuit can feel like hubris. I wanted to better understand these questions, so I spoke with bioethicist L. Syd Johnson, author of a 2022 paper on the ethics of xenotransplantation, for Unexplainable, a Vox podcast that explores unanswered scientific questions. A portion of our conversation, edited for clarity, is included below. Mandy Nguyen: Before you started doing this research, what were your general impressions of xenotransplantation?L. Syd Johnson: My initial impressions of it were, Boy, this doesnt really sound like something thats going to work. Its something that in theory might be possible, but there have actually been experiments in xenotransplantation going back to the 1960s, and some of the first experiments involved hearts from chimpanzees.One of the reasons why doctors were looking to get organs from other animals was because there wasnt a supply of [human] organs at the time. Transplantation was sort of just starting out and they were just starting to have success with figuring out how to do it, but there was no legal mechanism at that time to obtain organs from humans who had died. So they were looking at animals, which they could kill and take their organs. I think the first time I ever heard of xenotransplantation involved a case in the 1980s, which was a pretty famous case involving an infant named Baby Fae, who received a baboon heart. She was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is a fatal condition, and then, as now, it was very difficult to obtain organs that were the right size for an infant. That was a really famous case where the doctor involved was actually sort of notorious and was criticized for what he had done. And of course, baby Fae also died.From those initial experiments that failed, how did we suddenly get to this being done in living people today? What was that jump?The leap was that we have this relatively new genetic editing technology, CRISPR Cas9, and it has enabled scientists and investigators to perform lots of gene edits on an animal.Several decades ago, the US Public Health Service essentially told investigators that it was too dangerous to try to transplant organs from monkeys, baboons, chimpanzees [into humans], because they were so similar to humans and had a lot of viruses that could be transmitted to a human patient through an organ. That took organs from non-human primates off the table. The effort to use pigs comes about because of the ability to genetically modify those pigs. We are not nearly as closely related to pigs as we are to the nonhuman primates, so the development of CRISPR, the ability to do lots of gene edits on an animal, is what has led to the current optimism on the part of scientists about the possibility that xenotransplantation using organs from pigs might be able to work.Right. And now to temper that optimism what do you see are the biggest ethical concerns or potential harms when it comes to the people who get the transplant?The biggest concern is that we havent figured out how to make this work. Its very possible that xenotransplantation will never work, that no animals organs could be made to support life in a human being, that the risk of xeno-zoonotic transmission of viruses from pigs to humans is still a live possibility. That for me is a major concern. Were in the middle of a zoonotic pandemic right now, the Covid pandemic. We are still dealing with another zoonotic pandemic in AIDS, which is a worldwide problem. There is a concern that putting an organ from an animal that has a virus into a human, and that human is immunosuppressed [as organ transplant recipients are], will result in the mutation of a virus that might plausibly be transmitted to other humans, and who knows what the results of that could be.Right. So in my mind, there are two big buckets of potential harm to people. One is the infectious disease aspect, and one is the danger to the patients themselves and the ethics around informed consent. Id love to hear a little bit more about that. What are the concerns there?The living patients that they have attempted these organ transplants in have been individuals who are quite sick, who are in organ failure, and who are not able to get an organ from a human. So those are all patients who have few good options. Some of them are facing almost certain death if they dont get a transplant of some kind. So the worry is that we are making these patients an offer they just cant refuse because their alternative is that they are going to die.You have to be concerned about whether or not theyre truly providing voluntary informed consent under those circumstances, whether they really understand the risks of xenotransplantation which so far has never worked and has never actually saved a human life in all the decades of experimentation and whether or not those patients understand the difference between being part of an experiment and receiving therapeutic treatment. This is something called the therapeutic misconception, where patients believe that being part of an experiment, that experiment is actually intended to benefit them. And we cant say that at this point about xenotransplants.But unfortunately, the patients who have agreed to these transplants have all said in media interviews that it was their last chance at survival, that they really had to do this because they had no other options. And that suggests that they did truly believe that these transplants would save their lives, and that is, unfortunately, a misconception. And unfortunately, all of these patients so far have died.Ive spoken to scientists and ethicists who are working with scientists to try to make sure informed consent is really tight and transparent. Do you think thats a possible solution?Is it possible to get informed consent from someone whos put in this position?Of course its possible, and someone might go into this thinking, well, its never worked before and its really a long shot and Its probably not going to work for me, but a one in a million chance is better than a zero in a million chance, so Im going to take it. We can provide patients with all of the information that they need in order to make an informed choice.Theres been lots of research showing that despite our best efforts, lots of people who are enrolled in clinical trials or enrolled in experimental therapies do still misunderstand what might happen and that the purpose of the experiment is not to benefit them, but to benefit others, to, to acquire more scientific knowledge that will be a benefit to patients in the future.But I think people are complex and they can understand both of those things at the same time, and still have this hope that this might work for them. Youve done a lot here on animal research and the use of animals as models for humans. How are you thinking about xenotransplantation here?So two things. One is, there are questions about whats happening to the pigs, and the welfare of these pigs. And the other is that we are actually still doing research transplanting monkeys with these pig organs. So far the longest that monkeys have been kept alive with a pig organ is two years. Theres not a lot of information about what happened to that monkey, what that monkey had to undergo in order to get it to survive for that long. Any time were talking about experimenting on animals, there are welfare concerns about what happens to those animals and how were using them. But theres also the fact that having a monkey living in a laboratory in a cage where we can do just about anything we want to that monkey is very different from the circumstances in which human patients exist.A human patient doesnt want to spend the rest of their life in a hospital bed. They want to be able to go home and, and go on with their lives. So were not replicating the conditions of a human life or a human existence in a laboratory animal. So I have concerns that what were doing with those monkeys actually isnt really telling us anything very useful about whether or not this will work in humans and whether it will provide the kinds of benefits that were hoping it would provide to humans.So one question is whether what we are doing with other animals is telling us anything useful about long-term survival for humans with pig organs. For the pigs themselves, there are a few concerns here. One is what the effects of the genetic modifications are on those pigs, on their health, on their survival, and on their wellbeing. Of course, those pigs are not actually created to survive. We are creating them to produce organs so that they can be killed and those organs can be used in humans. With gene editing, were trying to sand off the edges of pig organs to force it to fit into a human and to work in a human. So what are we doing to the pigs under those circumstances? What are the conditions under which they are bred or cloned and raised? Much of it requires them to stay in unnatural environments in isolation, with multiple invasive medical procedures and tests, and thats before theyre killed for their organs. These are animals who would not exist at all, except for our human intervention. And I think were treating them just for the purpose of taking them apart to provide spare parts for humans. They dont see the sky. Theyre not going to touch grass. And we are attempting to undo 80 million years of evolutionary divergence in this way that involves the radical exploitation of an animal that weve created and built for a purpose. I think we really do need to reflect on what were doing there and on the harms that were causing to living, conscious, intelligent creatures, in part so that a handful of biotech companies can profit from their existence.I was recently reading how GalSafe pigs, a kind of pig being used for xenotransplantation research, were recently FDA-approved for both consumption and therapeutic uses. I think theres something really strange about the idea that someone could get a pig heart from this pig and also be eating the same pig. Its very bizarre.That does raise some weird issues. That I am now part pig, I have this heart that I got from a pig and it saved my life, so that I could go eat parts of that pigs relatives.Say we get into a future where xenotransplantation works, it becomes common. Is there a concern that were just replicating some of the environmental harm of, say, factory farming?This would absolutely be factory farming. These would be animals grown and bred and raised in a facility. And you presumably have a fairly resource-intensive facility, even perhaps beyond what we see currently with pig farms. These are pigs that are being grown and created and controlled by these private biotech companies with this hope that we might actually have on-demand organs for everyone who needs one at some point in the future. But we are talking about expanding the footprint of factory farming expanding the use of resources to grow these animals. And we would be talking about growing perhaps millions of these animals rather than however many we are currently growing.It has been really interesting to learn how much funding is coming from these biotech companies into all this research. Are there any other concerns around that that you have?This is sort of what biotech companies do. They spend a lot of money and invest it in products that are speculative, that may or may not work, that may or may not improve human life for people in general. And part of my concern is that they are currently in control of what is being done experimentally.They create the pigs, they create the organs, and they are paying investigators at academic research hospitals to do these experiments on their patients. You cant just find patients on the street you have to access them through doctors who have patients who are in dire straits and who dont have good options So what we have now is this kind of private enterprise with lots of hype around it, but not enough attention, I think, to the profit motive behind this and how much that is driving research in xenotransplantation.Do you think were moving too fast here? What needs to be done to be able to get to a point when it feels safe to do clinical trials? Or do you think thats not really possible?I think were not close to that yet. But I also think its important for us to think about what else we might be doing as an alternative to xenotransplantation. In some sense, xenotransplantation seems like the least likely technology to be used out of the gate as the solution to this problem. We have other options that people are also working on, things like being able to grow a human organ from the cells of the actual recipient, which would be an organ that is made from that persons own cells where they wouldnt face problems of rejection. There is potential for therapeutics that would actually help address organ failure so that the patient doesnt get to the point where they need an organ transplant. There are opportunity costs in terms of the time and the effort and the resources that are being put into xenotransplantation, which, if it doesnt work, is a lot of money and a lot of time and effort down the drain. There are other possibilities that we could be pouring more resources into that dont require us to overcome 80 million years of evolutionary divergence between humans and pigs. A really important option, one of the least glamorous ones, is what else could we be doing to prevent organ failure in the first place because an organ transplant, whether that organ comes from an animal or comes from another human, is not a quick, easy fix. Youre looking at a patient who has a lifetime of immunosuppressive therapy ahead of them. Theres always going to be the potential for the rejection or the failure of that transplant for that individual where they may need another transplant somewhere down the line.One of the major causes of kidney failure is diabetes, and another one is hypertension. And those are both illnesses that we have treatments for if we provided them to the people who actually need them. And so instead of pouring however many billions of dollars are being poured into xenotransplantation research, what if we put that money somewhere else where we might actually be able to prevent organ failure in the first place? That would truly benefit lots and lots of patients.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:

TechThis Argos offer is the best Nintendo Switch Black Friday deal of the dayLooking to pick up a Nintendo Switch this Black Friday? Argos has just the deal for you, with a significant discount on a bundle including Super Mario Bros. Wonder.dailystarBookmarkShareTechByLloyd CoombesGames Writer12:13, 29 NOV 2024BookmarkThe Nintendo Switch is one of the most popular consoles in history (Image: Future via Getty Images)Black Friday is here, and if you've been holding out to pick up a Nintendo Switch we've got just the bundle for you. Argos is offering our favourite deal on the hybrid console, which can operate as a handheld or home console, saving you plenty of cash. The retailer is offering the Switch's latest OLED model, with a bigger, brighter display, for just 289.99 with Super Mario Bros. Wonder and an additional 12 month subscription to Nintendo's Online service. Here's why that's an astonishingly good deal. READ MORE: Elon Musk branded 'right-wing Karen' over pronouns spat with Xbox developer READ MORE: Diablo 4 2.1 PTR Patch Notes including Witch powers, new gear and more This is the best Black Friday Nintendo Switch deal we've found The console comes with the hit Super Mario Bros. Wonder The Nintendo Switch, as mentioned above, is two consoles in one. You can take it on the go, which is much more enjoyable with the OLED version's larger display, or you can dock it to connect it to your TV. The Switch OLED in this bundle includes the console, two nifty Joy-Con controllers, a grip to attach them to, and the dock. That makes it an ideal pickup for anyone expecting to travel over the Holiday season but who wants to take their games with them. Buy it now for 289.99 Speaking of games, this bundle includes Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a fantastic 2D platformer with a whopping 92 score out of 100 on Metacritic. Wonder takes the Super Mario Bros. formula and mixes it up with the new Wonder Flower, which can cause the world to shift, pipes to turn into worms, and even Mario to turn into an elephant. The Daily Star joins Bluesky as we Make Social Media Fun Again Come and join The Daily Star on Bluesky, the social media site set up by ex-Twitter boss Jack Dorsey. It's now the new go-to place for content after a mass exodus of the Elon Musk-owned Twitter/X. Fear not, we're not leaving Twitter/X, but we are jumping on the bandwagon. So come find our new account on https://bsky.app/profile/dailystar.co.uk, and see us social better than the rest. You can also learn more about The Daily Star team in what Bluesky calls a Starter Pack. So what are you waiting for?! Let's M.S.M.F.A (Make Social Media Fun Again) Finally, the 17.99 annual Switch Online membership will let you play games online, but even if you're less interested in that, it includes cloud saves, additional eShop deals, and the option to add the Expansion Pack at a later date - adding Game Boy and Nintendo 64 game emulation. Considering the OLED console alone is around 280, you're essentially getting a 50 game and the Switch Online membership for the combined price of a tenner. Other retailers are also offering great deals on the Switch with Very offering the regular model of the console with Switch Sports and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for 269. While game is offering the OLED version with Super Mario Wonder for 309.99, but it goes down to 299.99 with Fraser Plus. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters. Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.More On

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Why are so few big budget video games set in the real world? Readers FeatureGameCentralPublished December 1, 2024 1:00am GTA 6 an uncommon modern setting (Rockstar Games)A reader thinks they know why there are so few triple-A video games set in the modern world and worries that the situation might never change.GameCentral ran a very interesting article recently about why there are so few GTA clones nowadays, which is not something I had really thought about before. There used to be a lot the recent resurgence of interest in the PlayStation 2s The Getaway was a fun bit of nostalgia but now there are basically none, even though open world games are more common than ever.Im not a big fan of GTA though, so this was really only of passing interest to me, until I read further and got to the point about there being very few games of any kind set in the modern day, real world. Basically, theres just Call Of Duty, then sports and simulation games and thats it.Therere outliers like Life Is Strange, and a lot of indie games, but in terms of big budget mainstream games theyre extremely rare. None of the top titles at the moment are set in the real world, and even ones we used to see fairly often, like Far Cry and Watch Dogs, are becoming increasingly rare. I find this very interesting and very strange.The first assumption is that it must be cheaper to make fantasy worlds, but I really dont see how. As GC points out, you have to invent a fantasy world from scratch and make a new one again for each franchise. Make a photorealistic city and you can copy and paste that into any real world setting you like, with minimal changes.You dont have to make up monsters or background lore with a modern day game or come up with weird weapons and vehicles. You dont even have to get real world licences to make things look realistic, because GTA doesnt bother with that and you know Rockstar could easily afford it if they thought it was important.One of the main reasons this seems so strange to me is that modern video games are often obsessed with being seen as serious and grounded (oh how I hate that phrase) and yet its always in the context of a fantasy world. Final Fantasy 16 is perhaps the most extreme example of this with, its miserable Game of Throne style world, which is vastly less interesting to explore than the whimsical strangeness of Final Fantasy 7 Remake.If youre so obsessed with telling a serious and plausible story, why dont you just set it in the real world? Its not as if that stops you from having any action. Does Call Of Duty not have action? If you want to look at movies you dont even have to be super serious like Heat, because something like James Bond or Mission: Impossible (okay, maybe not the last one) are still far more realistic and grounded than 99% of video games. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 the first impressions are good (Activision)The question of why publishers dont make more GTA clones basically comes down to the expense and the fact that Rockstar has a stranglehold on the market, which is fair enough. But why does that mean no real-world games or crime thrillers at all?Sadly, I think the reasons are more pathetic than even GC realised. I think its because theres no one else to copy and because there are no old franchises that do that, that you can be a part of. Video games, just like movies, are all based on nostalgia and existing properties nowadays. Publishers would rather remake a game for the third time than create a brand new one.But most older games, especially ones going back decades, arent set in the real world and so that fact never changes. But even if someone was brave enough to make something new, theyd at least like to copy something else thats popular. They cant do that with GTA though and so that leaves Pay Day?More TrendingIts a real shame and all the worst because theres no obvious way out of the rut. For all of the industrys talk about appealing to a more modern, adult audience most video games are still living in a fantasy world. When Silent Hill 2 is one of the most grounded and realistic games of the year you know that something isnt quite right.By reader Orion Silent Hill 2 not quite the real world (Konami)The readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.ArrowMORE: Why I blame Xbox for Sony buying FromSoftware GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Is the PS4 Sonys best console? (Sony)A reader explains why hes disappointed by the PS5 and yet considers the PS4 to be his favourite console ever.Following on from my Readers Feature about my favourite PlayStation video games of the last 30 years, this time I thought Id look at some games that, although they were either originally multiformat or are now multiformat, I still associate with PlayStation. But I also want to talk about my top five PlayStation consoles and accessories.Top 5 games I associate with PlayStation5. Tomb Raider The first Tomb Raider game I actually played was Rise Of The Tomb Raider and it was for the Xbox One. However, Im old enough to remember seeing one of my friends play the game on their PlayStation. I remember being blown away by the T-Rex and seeing them locking the butler in the fridge. I also remember the rumours of a pervy cheat that showed Lara in the shower. Id like to think things have changed since then but probably not.4. Tony Hawks Skateboarding Me and my friends played this to death. I cant actually remember if it was split screen or not. I remember we usually played to see who could get the highest score and it was either that the winner stayed on or if not wed take it in turns.3. Metal Gear Solid I was a late adopter of the PlayStation and cant actually remember how I got my hands on one. I didnt have much money for new games, but I knew someone that sold copied discs. Metal Gear Solid was one of the few games at the time that I managed to complete.I replayed it recently and its kind of weird in that theres not actually that much stealth and most of the game consists of boss battles. At the time I thought it was the peak of what video game storytelling could be but actually, after my replay, its cheesier than a fondue.2. Resident Evil 2 This, again, was one of the few games I actually finished. Before I played the game, Id played the demo version to death, as it came free with the Official PlayStation Magazine, which I bought from time to time. I remember being blown away by the graphics, especially the fire effects and the environments. I had played a bit of the first game, but this seemed an improvement in every conceivable way.1. FIFA 98 onwards I remember my friend had FIFA 98 on PC and I was so envious, as it was on another level to other football games at the time. When I got a PlayStation, I remember my parents got me the World Cup 98 iteration for my birthday and having to wait an agonising number of days before I could play it, since we were on holiday at the time.Me and my friends would go down to the local Blockbuster (remember those?) and rent the latest edition when it came out and play it, usually in the school holidays. In later years we defected to Pro Evolution Soccer, but I still dip in to FIFA (now EA Sports FC) now and again.Top 5 PlayStation consoles and peripheralsHonourable mention: PS VitaI didnt mind the PS Vita. I had a good time with Tearaway and it was my first time playing an Uncharted game. Ultimately though it didnt seem to have enough support.5. PlayStation VRI picked up the original PlayStation VR for cheap during its later years. Like most I found it mindblowing at first and its great to show off to people that arent usually bothered by video games.However, with the exception of Astro Bot: Rescue Mission I didnt really care for many games. I feel Sony missed a trick that PlayStation VR2 wasnt backwards compatible. I felt games like Iron Man, for example, showed promise but I found the Move controllers too clumsy and games of that ilk would be greatly improved with better controllers.4. PlayStationI dont have strong connection to the PlayStation, as I wasnt hugely into gaming at the time. However, I cant overlook the impact the console has had on gaming over the years. I kind of wish I could go back in time and experience games like Spyro The Dragon, Ape Escape, PaRappa the Rapper, Tomb Raider, and Soul Reaver, among others, as I feel Ive probably missed the boat to play them now.3. PlayStation 5Im somewhat on the fence about the PlayStation 5. I was an early adopter and the first few years were decent, with games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sackboy: A Big Adventure at launch, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Horizon Forbidden West, and God Of War: Ragnark coming a few year later. However, most of these titles have been cross-generational and even with PlayStation 5-only games Ive struggled to see how they differ from PlayStation 4 games. Has the PS5 been a disappointment? (Sony)I actually got rid of my PlayStation 5 for while, to get a portable gaming PC, as it was better for me in terms of being able to play more. I ended up regretting this shortsighted decision and ended up buying back a second-hand PlayStation 5 for a good price 18 months later. This was mainly so I could play Astro Bot and Ive loved the game. With Silent Hill 2 also exceeding expectations this year, lets hope Sony can ensure the later years of the PlayStation 5 go with a bang.2. PSPIve always been won over by the ability to play games on the move. For me, the novelty never really wore off. In terms of games, I played a lot of FIFA, Grand Theft Auto, Ridge Racer, and Tekken. I also used it for going on the Internet, listening to music, and very occasionally watching films. As a handheld multimedia device, it was probably ahead of its time.1. PlayStation 4For me the best console Sony have produced, hands down. Id only started to get into gaming properly towards the end of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era, after a bout of pneumonia left me housebound for several weeks.I was an early adopter and although I cant really remember much of those early games you could see already a step up in quality from PlayStation 3 games.Because I had more disposal income those days, I was often able to buy a number of newly released games day one. Having not played much of the original I managed to complete the GTA 5 remastered version. I also experienced the Uncharted trilogy for the first time.However, the first must-have AAA release for me was Batman: Arkham Knight, having been a fan of the previous games. The game looked absolutely stunning and still holds up well today. I also think its a worthy sequel, despite the tank battle fights.2018 for me, though, is the year that it really came into its own, with the excellent God Of War and Spider-Man released within a few months of each other. And although I wasnt hugely impressed with Red Dead Redemption 2 at the time, I have since reevaluated my opinion and consider it one of the best games ever made.More TrendingThe fact that games are still being releasing for the PlayStation 4 goes to show what a great console it has been.By reader matc7884 The PS4 certainly had some great games (Sony)The readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.ArrowMORE: Why I blame Xbox for Sony buying FromSoftwareGameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Sure, you can get any cloud storage, but why settle when you can have the best on the market? pCloud proudly leads the pack, offering incredible discounts for Black Friday, continuing all the way through Cyber Monday. Youre looking at a 62% discount for the 3-in1 Lifetime bundle consisting of:pCloud Pro 5 TB (cloud storage)EncryptionPass Premium (password manager)Thats not all; pClouds other plans have massively gone down in price.Stay tuned to find out more about them and use the buttons below to claim them.Get pClouds 3-in-1 Bundle At 62% OffpCloud Black Friday & Cyber Monday DealsHave you ever wanted to give pCloud a try? Perhaps it was expensive for you. Now, you cant use this silly argument. This Black Friday, pClouds bundle is talked about by many cloud storage experts and enthusiasts.pClouds 3-in-1 bundle comes with a whopping 5 TB of fast, secure, and reliable storage! Thats just 33% because pCloud Encryption is now here, offering a zero-knowledge architecture for maximum security. pCloudAs said, Pass Premium will grace you with its presence.You can manage and protect your passwords with ease while keeping files safe and sound on the cloud. But what if you want only storage?The best cloud storage service has your back. Were looking at three more Lifetime plans:Premium 1 TB at 54% off and $199Premium Plus TB at 53% off and $279Ultra 10 TB at 58% off and $799All Black Friday pCloud offers are protected by a 14-day money-back guarantee. Unimpressed? No worries. pClouds diligent team will reimburse you in a day.Why Get This Exclusive pCloud Offer?Frankly, weve never seen such a great offer from pCloud.5 TB is ample storage, and when combined with encryption and a password manager, the bundle is feature-heavy. However, even opting for the 10 TB plan alone yields massive savings and even MORE storage.In short, pClouds most notable features in all plans include:Up to 10 TB of fast storageZero-knowledge-encryptionUnlimited file syncingFull drive backupsFile versioning of up to 365 daysApps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOSSelective and block-level syncServers in the US and EUTLS/SSL encryption in all plansOutside the pCloud Black Friday deal, this cloud storage will be pricier. This begs for a quick reaction, especially if youre reading this on Cyber Monday.pClouds unique offer stormed the online storage industry with a blitzkrieg. Grab it while it lasts and enjoy one of the most amazing cloud storage providers at only $599 for your entire life!See at pCloud

The Ultimate Universe is growing with a new take on one of Marvel's top mutants hitting shelves in January 2025.