Zavaritskii volcano in the Kuril Islands was responsible for the mysterious 1831 volcanic eruption that cooled the climate and turned the sun different colors, a new study finds.

Record-breaking Wolf 907F, the alpha of the Junction Butte pack, died after a confrontation with a rival pack at Yellowstone River on Christmas Day.

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Between massive open-world games like Elden Ring and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, or live-service titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Marvel Rivals, there are no shortage of games that can eat up players' free time. And that's why the industry may have reached a tipping point with its seemingly endless games, according to Bethesda veteran Will Shen.Shen--who was previously the lead quest designer on Starfield--recently shared his thoughts about players being put off from jumping into large games during his appearance on Kiwi Talkz. He accepted that some of his previous Bethesda titles, including Skyrim, which "you can play pretty much forever, " may have contributed to player fatigue. However, Shen contends that the oversaturation of giant games leaves players without enough time to fully invest in new titles."We're reaching a point where people are fatigued, or a large section, a growing section of the audience, is becoming fatigued at investing 30-plus, 100-plus hours into a game," explained Shen. "Because they already have that. They already have the games that they will continually come back to, and adding another one to that list is a tall order. It's always a tall order."Continue Reading at GameSpot

What happens when you install nearly every World of Warcraft Classic add-on all at once? A cacophony of nonsensical sounds, the most cluttered interface imaginable, and, ultimately, the game ceasing to function entirely.User-made add-ons are a big part of WoW, enabling players to customize their UI and tailor their experience how they like. WoW Classic, in particular, benefits greatly from add-ons, adding quality-of-life features that make playing the old-school version of Blizzard's MMORPG more manageable. There are over 3,800 WoW Classic add-ons available for download on Curseforge, a website and app many WoW players use to manage their add-ons. Recently, one user by the name Baltoboulbobbi (via Wowhead) took it on themselves to see what exactly would happen if they tried to play the game with every add-on installed all at the same time. The brave soul installed 3,703 WoW Classic add-ons all at once and documented their experience in a seven minute video that is equal parts hilarious and existential nightmare. Some add-ons had to be immediately disabled due to them pushing Baltoboulbobbi over their 16GB RAM limit, while others had to be turned off as they prevented the game from running entirely. That left them with 3,683 add-ons running at the same time.Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dur Lego Set (5,471 Pieces) $460 | Save $46 with My Best Buy Plus/Total See at Amazon See at Best Buy See at Walmart The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell Lego Set (6,167 Pieces) $500 See at Amazon See at Target See at Lego Store Lego's enormous recreation of Sauron's stronghold in The Lord of the Rings is no longer exclusive to the Lego Store. The 5,471-piece Lord of the Rings: Barad-dur Lego set is now available to purchase at major retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. The set is priced at $460, but My Best Buy Plus/Total members can save 10%, which drops the cost to $414. Considering My Best Buy Plus costs $50/year, the $46 discount lets you get 12 months of perks--including 10% off all Lego sets--for only $4 when you buy this set. The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dur Lego Set (5,471 Pieces) $460 | Save $46 with My Best Buy Plus/Total This $460 Lord of the Rings set includes 5,471 pieces, and the completed build stretches 32.5 inches high (nearly three feet!). It's a massive and intricately designed kit with numerous modular structures. It's capped off with the Eye of Sauron, which illuminates for added authenticity.While J.R.R. Tolkien never specified the number of floors in Barad-dur, the Lego recreation of the dreary and terrifying structure has five levels. On the main floor, you'll create Gollum's hideout, an armory, and a prison for Orcs with a cage that opens and shuts. Level two has a dining hall and kitchen. The middle floor contains Sauron's throne room. The throne itself has a secret passageway to the Palantir chamber--where Sauron does his magic crystal ball activities--which features several cool Easter Eggs, including a map of Middle-earth. Above the throne room is the Mouth of Sauron's study, and the top floor has the library with a movable ladder.Barad-dur is 17.5 inches wide and 12 inches deep, so you'll need ample shelf space and nearly three feet of open space above for the tower spire.The set comes with 10 minifigures: Sauron, Mouth of Sauron, Frodo, Sam, Gollum, Gothmog, an Orc, and several minor characters to place inside the sprawling tower. It also includes accessories based on the Peter Jackson film trilogy such as the One Ring, Sauron's mace, light of Earendil, helmets for each Sauron figure, various armor and weapons, and more. See at Amazon See at Best Buy See at Walmart The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell Lego Set (6,167 Pieces) $500 Lego's recreation of Rivendell is actually even bigger than Barad-dur, at least in terms of piece count. The Rivendell LOTR Lego set is 6,167 pieces and takes up a lot of space, too. The completed build is 28.5-inches wide, 19.5 inches deep, and 15 inches tall.Rivendell is home to 15 Lego minifigures: Frodo, Sam, Bilbo Baggins, Gimli, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf the Grey, Boromir, and various unnamed characters. See at Amazon See at Target See at Lego Store Lego Lord of the Rings: Barud-durGallery New Lego Sets Over 100 new Lego sets released on January 1 Check them out at Amazon For another large-scale fantasy set, check out Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale, a 3,745-piece kit featuring a densely packed recreation of a town in the Forgotten Realms. Red Dragon's Tale was the first Lego set based on D&D. You can add villagers to the scene by purchasing a six-pack of Dungeons & Dragons Lego minifigures for $30 at Amazon.Continue Reading at GameSpot

In Hyper Light Breaker, the player and their allies are tasked with defeating the Abyss King, a powerful force threatening the Overgrowthand re-threatening it, every time the player enters a new procedurally generated world. But the Abyss King does not work alone; he sends out his Crowns, powerful boss enemies that Hyper Light Breaker's players must face before they can confront the King himself.

Ranma 1/2 tells the story of a teenage boy named Ranma Saotome, who transforms into a girl when splashed with cold water. But there is much more to the anime's titular character besides his gender-bending curse. Before the events of Ranma 1/2, the teen experienced rigorous (and sometimes traumatic) martial arts training. And that's only scratching the surface of his character.

Handheld RPG players can rejoice as the popular Square Enix title Triangle Strategy is finally available on the Nintendo Switch once again after it was previously delisted from the Nintendo eShop. This means that fans on the console looking to play Triangle Strategy can finally purchase and download it from the online store again without any issues following a hiatus that lasted several days.

If I could travel back in time and award a film the Academy Award for Best Action or Thriller of 2006, the winner would be Dj Vu.In this pseudo-sci-fi thriller, Tony Scott directs Denzel Washington as an ATF field agent investigating a bomb explosion that killed 543 people on a New Orleans ferry. While that premise would be enough to carry most action flicks, writers Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio layer on a love story, a critique of post-9/11 surveillance, and augmented reality goggles that allow government agents to view four days into the past through a wormhole.Can Denzel Washington use time travel to save a woman he first met as a corpse at the morgue? You can watch the film right now on Criterion Channel to find out!Filmed in New Orleans the year after Hurricane Katrina and released globally five years after 9/11, Scotts film reflects on a half-decade of American trauma and the diminishing sense of control. Its spiced with the leery sex and violence of its sibling Jerry Bruckheimer films but is more reflective like its creators were desperate to find some meaning in their play mayhem after witnessing so much real carnage in the news.Action film creators conscious (and subconscious) anxieties inspire the villains they select, the places they destroy, and the fears for which they provide catharsis. So what might come across as saccharine or bitter upon release can age like a fine wine. Its anxieties bloom as we get some distance from the film and the events that inspired it.Which brings me back to the Oscars. Of course, the Academy Awards didnt (and still doesnt) have a category for Best Action or Thriller Film. It likely never will. To many critics and audience members, action films and thrillers lack the gravitas of biopics and period dramas. But these films often contain that same creative magic; Its just concealed beneath the exploding boats, oily body bags, and time-bending gizmos waiting patiently for its audience to see it.Dj Vu is part of Criterion Channels Surveillance Cinema collection, which debuted this month and contains a bunch of similarly enticing thrillers, including The Truman Show, Minority Report, Gattaca, and Body Double. Dj Vu is streaming on Criterion Channel, and is also available to stream via VOD on Amazon Video and Apple TV.