By taking a collaborative approach, the healthcare industry can build a resilient environment that protects patient data, ensures compliance and maintains trust.

Simply put, the hackers and bad actors target vectors that are new and pervasively used. AI will be no different.

In context: Nvidia is expected to unveil the next-generation RTX 5000 graphics cards next month, but leaks have uncovered most of the new lineup's technical details. The latest reports offer a close-up of the flagship GPU and answer lingering questions regarding the mid-range options. Leakers on the Chiphell forums recently provided two close-up images of the upcoming GeForce RTX 5090. Meanwhile, established tipster @kopite7kimi has provided near-complete specs for the 5070 Ti and 5070.The first RTX 5090 photo, appearing to show a naked custom PNY variant, confirms prior rumors that the card will be big. A PCIe 5.0 connector, a single-slot 12V-2x6 port, 16 memory modules, and over 40 capacitors are visible. Another image shows the flagship card with its components installed, including its GB202-300-A1 GPU, said to be Nvidia's largest consumer GPU die in six years at 24mm x 31mm.Based on prior reports, the RTX 5090 substantially outperforms the 4090 with 32 GB of GDDR7 VRAM running at 28Gbps on a 512-bit bus and 21,760 CUDA cores. While its TDP is rumored to be 600W, the final product's power draw might be considerably lower.Meanwhile, two recent Twitter posts from Kopite corroborate prior leaks regarding the RTX 5070 Ti and 5070. Notably, the 5070's 6,144 CUDA core count confirms that it is slightly cut down from the GB205's maximum of 6,400. The GPU features 12 GB of VRAM on a 192-bit bus and draws 250W a slight increase over the 4070.Customers who are disappointed with the RTX 5070's modest VRAM pool but unwilling to pay the 5080's likely quadruple-digit price tag should consider the 5070 Ti. This card boosts memory to 16 GB while drawing 300W with 8,960 CUDA cores. All RTX 5000 graphics cards are equipped with GDDR7 VRAM. // Related StoriesClock speeds and prices are the only remaining critical details that remain unknown. The latter likely won't leak before Nvidia's expected unveiling during its January 6 CES keynote, but the new images of the RTX 5090's monstrous PCB will likely stoke fears that it will break the $2,000 mark.The upcoming Radeon RX 9000 series from AMD is also expected to debut at the trade show. Together with Intel's recently launched Arc Battlemage lineup, it could pose a serious challenge to the RTX 5060, which Nvidia might introduce later in the first quarter of 2025.

Forward-looking: If you're thinking of buying a next-generation graphics card, you might want to do it sooner rather than later. Nvidia and AMD are reportedly increasing the production and shipping rate of their upcoming GPUs so they can avoid the Trump administration's tariffs, which could push prices up by 40%. The rival tech giants, along with other companies who will be impacted, are rushing to get their products into the US before January 20, which is when Trump's new tariffs are believed to come into effect.Trump plans to impose 10% to 20% tariffs on imported goods, while imports from China will be hit with a special 60% tariff. Their aim is to bring manufacturing back to the US.Manufacturers will certainly pass some of these new costs onto consumers in the form of higher selling prices. That means the likes of laptops, smartphones, monitors, desktop computers and TVs, most of which are primarily manufactured in China, would become more expensive.While Nvidia and AMD use the likes of TSMC and Samsung for chip manufacturing, the assembly and packaging of their graphics cards, including cooling systems, PCBs, and other components, are often done by companies in China, such as Foxconn or BYD. AIB partners like Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and Zotac carry out much of their assembly in China, too.According to Ctee, GPU manufacturers have been rushing to ensure their products arrive at US warehouses before the January 20 inauguration. // Related StoriesAlso read: Economists warn that Trump's tariffs could cause tech prices to skyrocketNvidia is set to unveil the RTX 5000 series at CES in just over a week, while AMD will reveal the Radeon 9000 series. The tariffs have the potential to push selling prices of these next-gen cards up significantly. If, for example, Nvidia's flagship RTX 5090 does come with the rumored $1,799 MSRP, a 40% selling price increase due to the new tariffs would push that figure to over $2,500.Manufacturers are trying to stockpile goods in the US before January 20 to avoid passing the tariff increases onto customers, as a sudden jump in prices would undoubtedly impact demand. But companies won't be able to avoid raising prices forever.It's not just graphics cards that could become much more expensive as a result of the tariffs. A recent Consumer Technology Association (CTA) report notes that laptops could go up by 45%. Smartphone costs are expected to rise by 25.8 percent, monitors are anticipated to see a 31.2 percent increase, and game consoles could become 40% more expensive.

It's time to round up the best CPUs on the market. After countless CPU reviews, benchmarks, retests, and revisits, we've put it all together into a single article to make your CPU shopping as straightforward as possible.Whether you're upgrading your PC or building a new one, choosing the right processor can be overwhelming, given the sheer number of options available. In this guide, we've done the heavy lifting for you by narrowing down the choices to the best options across five key categories that we believe effectively cover the market from top to bottom. Admittedly, there is no 5800X3D or 5700X3D pick here, which might draw some criticism upfront.It's also worth mentioning, there are a lot of CPUs currently on sale, but you can ignore the vast majority of them as they simply don't make sense for one reason or another, or the use case is just too niche. For example, we're often asked if it's worth getting one of AMD's APU's, such as the Ryzen 7 8700G or 8600G, but for desktop users, especially those planning on using a discrete GPU, they don't make sense mostly because the CPU portion is so weak.From budget-friendly processors to core-heavy monsters, we'll help you find the ideal CPU for your specific needs, whether it's productivity, gaming, or both. Let's dive in.Best CPU, Entry-Level Platform UpgradeIntel Core i5-12400FIn numbers Price: $111 on AmazonStarting with the most affordable option, our recommendation for the best value entry-level CPU depends on whether you're upgrading your CPU, motherboard, and possibly memory, or building an entirely new PC. These scenarios have different budget considerations.If you're upgrading your platform, the most cost-effective option right now is the Intel Core i5-12400F. This is the CPU we recommend for those looking to spend as little as possible, which also means pairing it with DDR4 memory.In the past, we recommended the Core i3-12100F, which is currently priced at just $75. However, this quad-core model is starting to struggle in newer games. As a result, we advise spending a bit more on the 6-core 12400F, which can now be found for $110.The 12400F has been one of Intel's most popular processors in recent years because it is both highly affordable and sufficiently powerful. The main drawback is that you're investing in a dead platform with LGA1700, so it only makes sense if you stick with cheaper DDR4 memory.In total, you can get the 12400F, a DDR4 LGA1700 motherboard, and a 32GB kit of DDR4-3600 memory for around $250 a hard-to-beat value. The only real alternative here is AMD's AM4 platform, which is arguably one of the best PC platforms ever created. However, the Ryzen 5 5600, which also costs $110, is slower than the Core i5, making the 12400F our clear recommendation.It's also important to note that there's no point in spending additional money on either Intel's LGA1700 or AMD's AM4 platforms, as they are effectively end-of-life. If your budget allows, you should focus on a current platform instead. Speaking of which, let's explore that next. Back to top Best CPU for a New Gaming PCAMD Ryzen 5 7600In numbers Price: $199 on AmazonFor those with a tighter budget who are building an entry-level PC they hope to keep for many years, we recommend spending a little extra on the CPU, motherboard, and memory by choosing the Ryzen 5 7600.The Ryzen 5 7600 is a significantly faster CPU than the Core i5-12400F, even though both are 6-core processors. In gaming performance, the 7600 is nearly 20% faster, and that advantage grows to almost 30% if the Core i5 is paired with DDR4 memory instead of high-speed DDR5.Of course, the Ryzen 5 processor costs more about 80% more if you compare just the CPU prices, and 60% more when factoring in motherboard and memory costs. However, when building an entire budget PC, the total cost difference shrinks. A complete Core i5 system might cost around $730, while the Ryzen 5 system could come in at $890. This means the Ryzen 5 costs roughly 20% more, and in the worst-case scenario, it offers the same cost per frame while delivering far better overall performance with the AMD platform.Additionally, the Ryzen 5 7600 offers a platform that will age better, thanks in part to the increased bandwidth provided by DDR5 memory. This platform is almost certain to offer a solid upgrade path in the future. While DDR5 memory can also be paired with the Core i5-12400F, doing so undermines the value of that CPU, making it a less financially viable option.For those building a new PC or upgrading to a more modern platform, we recommend the Ryzen 5 7600 or its Chinese counterpart, the 7500F, available on AliExpress. If you are shopping on AliExpress, keep in mind that not only are Ryzen CPUs often cheaper, but the Core i5-12400F is currently available for as little as $80. Back to top Best Value Mid-Range CPUAMD Ryzen 7 7700In numbers Price: $285 on AmazonThe best value mid-range CPU right now is the Ryzen 7 7700 or 7700X, depending on which is cheaper in your region. Currently, they can be found for around $270. In terms of cost per frame, the Intel Core i5-14600K at $235 offers slightly better value, and the 14600KF at $220 is an even better deal.Even though the Core i5 models are solid options, we would still recommend the Ryzen 7 for several reasons. First and foremost, the LGA1700 platform is effectively a dead end, with no meaningful upgrade path for the 14600K beyond the 14900K, which isn't significantly faster for gaming, costs considerably more, and consumes more power.The Ryzen 7, on the other hand, offers a decent upgrade path. We can envision a future where the 9800X3D becomes widely available at low prices, and it is already known to deliver over 30% better performance. Additionally, there's the potential for future Ryzen processors to provide even greater performance on the AM5 platform, which makes it a more appealing choice.If we focus on current performance, the gaming capabilities of the 14600K and Ryzen 7 7700 are very comparable. However, the 7700 consumes significantly less power, which results in less heat generation an advantage that makes AMD's option a clear winner in this regard.As a side note, some might wonder why the Ryzen 5 7600X3D wasn't chosen as the best mid-range deal. The reason is simple: the 7600X3D is a Micro Center exclusive. Unless you have access to purchase there, this CPU isn't an option for most buyers. That said, if you can buy from Micro Center, the 7600X3D is worth considering. It is currently priced at $300, which is a small premium over the Ryzen 7 7700/7700X but offers significantly better gaming performance in most cases.Finally, there's also the newer Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X, but for gamers, both models represent poor value at the moment. They are more expensive than the Zen 4 parts while offering no meaningful performance advantage. Back to top Best Gaming CPUAMD Ryzen 7 9800X3DIn numbers Price: $479 on AmazonThere's no room for debate here: the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is hands down the best gaming CPU money can buy right now. The only issue with this CPU is its availability. At $480, it's not ridiculously expensive considering it's the very best, but demand from gamers is extremely high. As a result, weeks after its release and it remains incredibly difficult to find.The next best thing is the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but that too is mostly out of stock and not worth paying a premium for. The best course of action is to be patient and wait for the 9800X3D to become more readily available. This reflects the current state of the PC hardware market: most products you don't want to buy because they're underwhelming, and the few great ones are nearly impossible to get. Perhaps the industry should focus on making fewer disappointing products but surely it's not that simple.Anyway, the 9800X3D is incredibly popular because it is undeniably the best of the best, and gamers naturally gravitate toward the top-performing hardware. That said, while the 9800X3D is excellent, not everyone needs it. For many gamers, the Ryzen 7 7700 will perform just as well and offer significantly better value.This is primarily because, in most cases, gaming performance is limited by the GPU rather than the CPU. With a modern and powerful processor like the Ryzen 7 7700, your frame rate will almost always be constrained by the GPU long before the CPU becomes a bottleneck.Of course, there are exceptions competitive shooters, strategy games, city builders, and turn-based games can sometimes be more CPU-intensive. However, for the vast majority of gamers, the GPU will remain the limiting factor. Keep this in mind when deciding whether the 9800X3D is truly necessary for your setup. Back to top Best Productivity CPUsAMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Intel Core Ultra 9 285KIn numbers Price: $499 on AmazonThere are just a handful of standout options for top productivity CPUs: the Ryzen 9 7950X, the Ryzen 9 9950X, and the Core Ultra 9 285K. All three are excellent for productivity tasks, and the best choice will largely depend on your specific workload, so it's important to research how each CPU performs for your use case.It's hard to overlook the Ryzen 9 7950X right now, as it is readily available and priced at just under $500. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 9 9950X, which is only marginally better in most scenarios, is priced at $600 and is also in stock, giving you the flexibility to choose either.On the Intel side, there's the Core Ultra 9 285K, which technically exists but has been largely unavailable since release. It sold just a small number of units at its $630 MSRP. Right now if you want one, but don't want to wait for stock to be replenished you'll have to pay around $800, so please don't do that.The 285K can outperform the Ryzen 9 9950X in certain workloads, so, as mentioned, it's crucial to review benchmarks for your specific applications. However, given the availability challenges, the 9950X might be the easier option to get. Do keep in mind that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is expected to launch soon, too, which could be worth waiting for. Its release might also drive down the prices of existing CPUs, making them an even better deal. Back to top

Wicked has been dazzling audiences in theaters around the world. Now, fans can hold space with the lyrics of Defying Gravity in their homes before the year ends.Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced Thursday that Wicked will be available to own or rent on digital platforms on December 31, 2024. The digital release will include special features, such as 10 deleted and extended scenes, a sing-along version, a 40-minute journey through Oz, personal stories from the cast about their relationship to the musical, an inside look at The Wizard of Oz, and special commentary from director Jon M. Chu and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.Recommended VideosWickedwill also be available in 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on February 4, 2025.Please enable Javascript to view this contentWickedis the first movie in a two-part feature film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical. The movie tells the origin stories of Elphaba (Erivo), a green, strong-willed outcast, and Glinda (Grande), a popular young woman. The two first meet at Shiz University in the Land of Oz and form an unlikely friendship. Their fateful meeting with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz causes a schism in their relationship, as the two head down paths to eventually become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, respectively.Wicked - Official TrailerWickedsensemble includes Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Ethan Slater as Boq, Bowen Yang as Pfannee, Bronwyn James as ShenShen, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond, and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.RelatedDirected by Chu,Wickedhas been a hit critically and commercially. Wickedgarnered four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and won Best Film from the National Board of Review. Wicked opened to $112.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, the largest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway musical.Wickedis now in theaters everywhere. The second part, Wicked: For Good, arrives on November 21, 2025.Editors Recommendations

NASAs Parker Solar Probe has phoned home, providing the eagerly anticipated confirmation that it managed to survive its close pass of the sun earlier this week.Following its record-breaking closest approach to the sun, NASAs Parker Solar Probe has transmitted a beacon tone back to Earth indicating its in good health and operating normally, the space agency said in an announcement on its website early on Friday.Recommended VideosThe data-gathering spacecraft zipped by the sun on Tuesday at 430,000 mph (692,017 kph) the fastest speed ever reached by a human-made object coming within 3.8 million miles of the solar surface.Please enable Javascript to view this contentBut the spacecrafts position in relation to Earth led to an expected communications blackout, meaning that the mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, had to wait until now to discover if it had survived the close encounter with the sun.RelatedTo the teams relief, a signal came through from the Parker Solar Probe late on Thursday night. The spacecraft is expected to send back detailed telemetry data on its status on January 1.This close-up study of the sun allows Parker Solar Probe to take measurements that help scientists better understand how material in this region gets heated to millions of degrees, trace the origin of the solar wind (a continuous flow of material escaping the sun), and discover how energetic particles are accelerated to near light speed, NASA said. Previous close passes have helped scientists pinpoint the origins of structures in the solar wind and map the outer boundary of the suns atmosphere.NASAs Parker Solar Probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2018. Its first significant flyby of the sun took place in April 2021, during which the probe became the first spacecraft to touch our nearest star by entering its outer atmosphere, known as the corona.Editors Recommendations

Star Lee Jung-jae is back for the second season of the Netflix hit with new co-stars. Let the game begin.

Carbo-preloading Craving carbs? Blame an ancient gene. We, Neanderthals, and Denisovans all have extra copies of a starch-digesting enzyme. Elizabeth Rayne Dec 27, 2024 7:25 am | 0 Credit: Yana Iskayeva/Getty Credit: Yana Iskayeva/Getty Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThere is now a genetic excuse not to bother cutting carbs. Humans have genetically adapted to eating starchy foods, and our ancestors may have been carb-ivores even before modern Homo sapiens emerged.The salivary amylase gene, known as AMY1, is already known to have helped us adapt to eating carbs. It encodes amylase, an enzyme that breaks starches found in pasta and bread down to glucoseand may have given us a taste preference for them. Humans have multiple copies of the gene, which may help us produce high levels of the enzyme.Researchers from the University of Buffalo and the Jackson Laboratory have now found that, while most copies of this gene arose with the advent of farming, modern humans and our closest relatives had accumulated extra copies long before agriculture.By mapping the genomes of individuals from both modern and pre-agricultural populations, and using long-read gene sequencing (which sequences long strands of DNA or RNA all at once), the team found several copies of AMY1 in humans as far back as 45,000 years ago and in our Neanderthal and Denisovan predecessors over 800,000 years ago.If the genes fitThe ancestral AMY1 gene, which is expressed in the parotid salivary gland, was present as a single copy and is thought to have originated in the common ancestor of great apes. We now have multiple copies of AMY1, which had been linked to the beginnings of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, which made starches more consistently available.Because there was a lack of information about when the additional copies of AMY1 appeared, the research team mapped and sequenced the genomes of 98 individuals from various ancient and modern populations to see if the number of copies increased around the same time that many hunter-gatherers transitioned to farming. Analysis of ancient and modern human genomes, along with those of our closest relatives, revealed a common haplotype, or group of alleles (different forms of a gene), inherited together from one parent. This haplotype has three copies of AMY1 and was present in samples that predated our migration out of Africa. Haplotypes with more copies of the gene also exist.This observation is concordant with the recent evidence of Neanderthal starch consumption, and perhaps the availability of cooked starch in archaic hominins made possible through the domestication of fire, the researchers said in a study recently published in Science.Out of eight genomes examined, multiple copies of AMY1 were found in two Eastern Neanderthal genomes, one from a Western Neanderthal, and one from a Denisovan. So why did these extra copies evolve? While the exact reason is still unknown, the team thinks that the gene itself was copy number variable, meaning the number of copies within a population can vary between individuals. This variation likely developed before humans diverged from Neanderthals and Denisovans.With the grainTo the research team, it was inevitable that copies of AMY1 in individual genomes would increase as former hunter-gatherers established agricultural societies. Farming meant grains and other starch-rich foods, and the ability to adjust those meant carbs.And the data here is consistent with that. The team found a general trend where the AMY1 gene copy number is significantly higher among samples excavated from archaeologically agricultural contexts compared to those from hunter-gatherer contexts, as they said in the same study.In genomes from pre-agricultural individuals, there were already anywhere from four to eight copies of the gene. The variation is thought to have come from groups experimenting with food-processing techniques such as grinding wild grains into flour. AMY1 copy numbers grew pretty consistently from the pre-agricultural to post-agricultural period. Individuals from populations that were in the process of transitioning to agriculture (around 16,100 to 8,500 years ago) were found to have about similar numbers of AMY1 copies as hunter-gatherers at the time.Individuals from after 8,500 years ago who lived in more established agricultural societies showed the most copies and therefore the most evidence of adaptation to eating diets high in carbs. Agriculture continued to advance, and the last 4,000 years have seen the most significant surge of AMY1 copy increases. Modern humans have anywhere from two to 15 copies.Further research could help with understanding how genetic variation of AMY1 copy numbers influences starch metabolism, including conditions such as gluten allergy and celiac disease, and overall metabolic health.Can we really blame AMY1 and amylase on our carb cravings? Partly. The number of AMY1 copies in a human genome determine not only the ability to metabolize starches, but will also influence how they taste to us, and may have given us a preference for them. Maybe we can finally ease up on demonizing bread.Science, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/science.adn060Elizabeth Rayne Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared on SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Grunge, Den of Geek, and Forbidden Futures. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she is either shapeshifting, drawing, or cosplaying as a character nobody has ever heard of. Follow her on Threads and Instagram @quothravenrayne. 0 Comments

Look what we found laying around Ars favorite games of 2024 that were not released in 2024 The games that found us in 2024, from 2003 space sims to 2022 backyard survival. Kevin Purdy Dec 27, 2024 7:00 am | 1 Credit: Aurich Lawson Credit: Aurich Lawson Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreMore than 18,500 games will have been released onto the PC gaming platform Steam in the year 2024, according to SteamDB. Dividing that by the number of people covering games at Ars, or the gaming press at large, or even everybody who games and writes about it online, yields a brutal ratio.Games often float down the river of time to us, filtered by friends, algorithms, or pure happenstance. They don't qualify for our best games of the year list, but they might be worth mentioning on their own. Many times, they're better games then they were at release, either by patching or just perspective. And they are almost always lower priced.Inspired by the cruel logic of calendars and year-end lists, I asked my coworkers to tell me about their favorite games of 2024 that were not from 2024. What resulted were some quirky gems, some reconsiderations, and some titles that just happened to catch us at the right time.Stardew ValleyConcernedApe; Basically every platformAfter avoiding it forever and even bouncing off of it once or twice, I finally managed to fall face-first into Stardew Valley (2016) in 2024. And I've fallen hardI only picked it up in October, but Steam says I've spent about 110 hours playing farmer.In addition to being a fun distraction and a great way to kill both short and long stretches of time, what struck me is how remarkably soothing the game has been. I'm a nervous flyer, and it's only gotten worse since the pandemic, but I've started playing Stardew on flights, and having my little farm to focus on has proven to be a powerful weapon against airborne anxietyeven when turbulence starts up. Ars sent me on three trips in the last quarter of the year, and Stardew got me through all the flights.Hell, I'm even enjoying the multiplayerand I don't generally do multiplayer. My cousin Shaun and I have been meeting up most weekends to till the fields together, and the primary activity tends to be seeing who can apply the most over-the-top creatively scatological names to the farm animals. I've even managed to lure Ur-Quan Masters designer Paul Reiche III to Pelican Town for a few weekends of hoedowns and harvests. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, Paul was already a huge fan of the game. And also of over-the-top creatively scatological farm animal names. Between him and Shaun, I'mamassing quite a list!)So here's to you, Stardew Valley. You were one of the brightest parts of my 2024, and a game that I already know I'll return to for years. Lee HutchinsonGroundedObsidian; Windows, Switch, Xbox, PlayStationMy favorite discovery this year has probably beenGrounded, a Microsoft-published, Obsidian Entertainment-developed survival crafting game that was initially released back in 2022 (2020 if you count early access) but received its final planned content updateback in April.You play as one of four plucky tweens, zapped down to a fraction-of-an-inch high as part of a nefarious science experiment. The game is heavily inspired by 1989's classicHoney, I Shrunk the Kids, both in its '80s setting and its graphical design. Explore the backyard, fight bugs, find new crafting materials, build out a base of operations, and power yourself up with special items and steadily better equipment so you can figure out what happened to you and get back to your regular size.Groundedcame up because I was looking foranother game for the four-player group I've also playedDeep Rock GalacticandRaftwith. LikeRaft,Groundedhas a main story with achievable objectives and an endpoint, plus a varied enough mix of activities that everyone will be able to find something they like doing. Some netcode hiccups notwithstanding, if you like survival crafting-style games but don't likeMinecraft-esque, objective-less, make-your-own-fun gameplay,Groundedmight scratch an itch for you. Andrew CunninghamFights in Tight SpacesGround Shatter; Windows, Switch, Xbox, PlayStationI spent a whole lot of time browsing, playing, and thinking about roguelike deckbuilders in 2024. Steam's recommendation algorithm noticed, and tossed 2021's Fights in Tight Spaces at me. I was on a languid week's vacation, with a Steam Deck packed, with just enough distance from the genre by then to maybe dip a toe back in. More than 15 hours later, Steam's "Is this relevant to you?" question is easy to answer.Back in college, I spent many weekends rounding out my Asian action film knowledge, absorbing every instance of John Woo, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Flying Guillotine, Drunken Master, and whatever I could scavenge from friends and rental stores. I thrilled to frenetic fights staged in cramped, cluttered, or quirky spaces. When the hero ducks so that one baddie punches the other one, then backflips over a banister to two-leg kick the guy coming up from beneath? That's the stuff.Fights gives you card-based, turn-by-turn versions of those fights. You can see everything your opponents are going to do, in what order, and how much it would hurt if they hit you. Your job is to pick cards that move, hit, block, counter, slip, push, pull, and otherwise mess with these single-minded dummies, such that you dodge the pain and they either miss or take each other out. Woe be unto the guy with a pistol who thinks he's got one up on you, because he's standing right by a window, and you've got enough momentum to kick a guy right into him.This very low-spec game has a single-color visual style, beautifully smooth animations, and lots of difficulty tweaking to prevent frustration. The developer plans to release a game "in the same universe," Knights in Tight Spaces, in 2025, and that's an auto-buy for me now. Kevin PurdyThe Elder Scrolls III: MorrowindBethesda; Windows, XboxThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind always had a sort of mythic quality for me. It came out when I was 18 years oldthe perfect age for it, really. And more than any other game I had ever played, it inspired hope and imagination for where the medium might go.In the ensuing years, Morrowind (2002) ended up seeming like the end of the line instead of the spark that would start something new. With some occasional exceptions, modern games have emphasized predictable formulae and proven structures over the kind of experimentation, depth, and weirdness that Morrowind embraced. Even Bethesda's own games gradually became stodgier.So Morrowind lived in my memory for years, a sort of holy relic of what gaming could have been before AAA game design became quite so oppressively formalist.After playing hundreds of hours of Starfield this year, I returned to Morrowind for the first time in 20 years.To be clear: I quite liked Starfield, counter to the popular narrative about itthough I definitely understood why it wasn't for everyone. But people criticized Starfield for lacking the magic of a game like Morrowind, and I was skeptical of that criticism. As such, my return to the island of Vvardenfell was a test: did Morrowind really have a magic that Starfield lacks, even when taken out of the context of its time and my youthful imagination and open-mindnedness?I was surprised to find that the result was a strong affirmative. I still like Starfield, but its cardinal sin is that it is unimaginative because it is derivativeof No Man's Sky, of Privateer and Elite, of Mass Effect, of various 70s and 80s sci-fi films and TV series, and most of all, of Bethesda Game Studios' earlier work.In contrast, Morrowind is a fever dream of bold experimentation that seems to come more from the creativity of ambitious designers who were too young to know any better, than from the proven designs of past hits.I played well over a hundred hours of Morrowind this year, and while I did find it tedious at times, it's engrossing for anyone who's willing to put up with its archaic pacing and quirks.To be clear, many of the design experiments in the game simply don't work, with systems that are easily exploited. Its designers' naivety shines through clearly, and its rough edges serve as clear reminders of why today's strict formalism has taken root, especially in AAA games where too-big budgets and payrolls leave no room at all for risk.Regardless, it's been wild to go back and play this game from 2002 and realize that in the 22 years since there have been very few other RPGs that were nearly as brazenly creative. I love it for that, just as much as I did when I was 18. Samuel AxonTetrisweeperKertis Jones; Itch.io, coming to SteamIf you ask someone to list the most addictive puzzle games of all time, Tetris and Minesweeper will probably be at or near the top of the list. So it shouldn't be too surprising that Tetrisweeper makes an even more addictive experience by combining the two grid-based games together in a frenetic, brain-melting mess.Tetrisweeper starts just like Tetris, asking you to arrange four-block pieces dropping down a well to make lines without gaps. But in Tetrisweeper, those completed lines won't clear until you play a game of Minesweeper on top of those dropped pieces, using adjacency information and logical rules to mark which ones are safe and which ones house game-ending mines (if you want to learn more about Minesweeper, there's a book I can recommend).At first, playing Tetris with your keyboard fingers whilemanaging Minesweeper with your mouse hand can feel a little unwieldya bit like trying to drive a car and cook an omelet at the same time. After a few games, though, you'll learn how to split your attention effectively to drop pieces and solve complex mine patterns nearly simultaneously. That's when you start to master the game's intricate combo multiplier system and bonus scoring, striving for point-maximizing Tetrisweeps and T-spins (my high score is just north of 3 million, but pales in comparison to that of the best players).While Tetrisweeper grew out of a 2020 Game Jam, I didn't discover the game until this year, when it helped me clear my head during many a work break (and passed the time during a few dull Zoom calls as well). I'm hoping the game's planned Steam releasestill officially listed as "Coming Soon"will help attract even more addicts than its current itch.io availability. Kyle OrlandFreelancerDigital Anvil; WindowsWhat if I told you that Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts previously tried to make Star Citizen more than two decades ago but left the project and saw it taken over by real, non-crazy professionals who had the discipline to actually finish something?That's basically the story behind 2003's forgotten PC game Freelancer. What started as a ludicrously ambitious space life sim concept ended up as a sincere attempt to make games like Elite and Wing Commander: Privateer far more accessible.That meant a controversial, mouse-based control scheme instead of flight sticks, as well as cutting-edge graphics, celebrity voice actors, carefully designed economy and progression systems, and flashy cutscenes.I followed the drama of Freelancer's development in forums, magazines, and gaming news websites when I was younger. I bought the hype as aggressively as Star Citizen fans did years later. The game that came out wasn't what I was dreaming of, and that disappointment prevented me from finishing it.Fast-forward to 2024: on a whim, I played Freelancer from beginning to end for the first time.And honestly? It's great. In a space trading sim genre that's filled with giant piles of jank (the X series) or inaccessible titles that fly a little too far into the simulation zone for some (Elite Dangerous), Freelancer might be the most fun you can have with the genre even today.It's understandable that it didn't have much lasting cultural impact since the developers who took it over lacked the wild ambition of the man who started it, but I enjoyed a perfectly pleasant 2030 hours smuggling space goods and shooting piratesand I didn't have to spend $48,000 of real money on a ship to get that. Samuel AxonCyberpunk 2077CD Projekt Red; Windows, Xbox, PlayStation (macOS in 2025)Can one simply play, as a game, one of the biggest and most argued-over gaming narratives of all time? Four years after its calamitous launch sparked debates about AAA gaming sprawl, developer crunch, game review practicalities, and, eventually, post-release redemption arcs, what do you get when you launch Cyberpunk 2077?I got a first-person shooter, one with some interesting ideas, human-shaped characters you'd expect from the makers of The Witcher 3, and some confused and unrefined systems and ideas. I enjoyed my time with it, appreciate the work put into it, and can recommend it to anyone who is okay with something that's not quite an in-depth FPS RPG (or "immersive sim") but likes a bit of narrative thrust to their shooting and hacking.You can't fit everything about Cyberpunk 2077 into one year-end blurb (or a 1.0 release, apparently), so I'll stick to the highs and lows. I greatly enjoyed the voice performances, especially from Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba (the latter in the Phantom Liberty DLC), and those behind Jackie, Viktor Vektor, and the female version of protagonist V. I was surprised at how good the shooting felt, given the developer's first time out; the discovery of how a "Smart" shotgun worked will stick with me a while. The driving: less so. There were moments of quiet, ambient world appreciation, now that the game's engine is running okay. And the side quests have that Witcher-ish quality to them, where they're never as straightforward as described and also tell little stories about life in this place.What seems missing to me, most crucially, are the bigger pieces, the real choices and unexpected consequences, and the sense of really living in this world. You can choose one of three backgrounds, but it only comes up as an occasional dialogue option. You can build your character in myriad ways, and there are lots of dialogue options. But the main quest keeps you on a fairly strict path, with the options to talk, hack, or stealth your way past inevitable shootouts not as great as you might think. Once you've brought your character up to power-fantasy levels, the larger city becomes a playground, but not one I much enjoyed playing in. (Plus, the idea of idle wandering and amassing wealth, given the main plot contrivance, is kind of ridiculous, but this is a game, after all).Phantom Liberty, in my experience, patches up every one of these weaknesses inside its smaller play space, providing more real choices and a tighter story, with more set pieces arriving at a faster pace. If you can buy this game bundled with its DLC, by all means, do so. I didn't encounter any game-breaking bugs in my mid-2024 playthrough, nor even many crashes. Your mileage may vary, especially on consoles, as other late-coming players have seen.Waiting on this game a good bit certainly helps me grade it on a curve; nobody today is losing $60 on something that looks like it's playing over a VNC connection. When CD Projekt Red carries on in this universe, I think they'll have learned a lot from what they delivered here, much like we've all learned about pre-release expectations. It's okay to take your time getting to a gargantuan game; there are lots of games from prior years to look into. Kevin PurdyKevin PurdySenior Technology ReporterKevin PurdySenior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 1 Comments