A man from Vancouver caught people's attention because they thought he was RedNote's CEO.Jerry welcomed new users who had been flocking to the app ahead of a potential TikTok ban.People got a bit carried away, and it became a viral case of mistaken identity.Americans flocking to the Chinese app RedNote thought the platform's CEO had left them an encouraging message.Turns out, he wasn't the CEO. He's just a guy from Vancouver.Jerry, who shares a RedNote account with his girlfriend Dani that has about 31,000 followers, posted a video on January 13.In the video he welcomed US users who had been signing up ahead of a possible ban on TikTok. He said the app, also known as Xiaohongshum, was mainly Chinese-speaking, and it was a place people mainly used for finding restaurants and sharing lifestyle content such as makeup videos."But do feel free to speak English and post English content because I believe there are a lot more English-speaking people on this platform nowadays," Jerry said. "We need to build this community."Mistaken identityFor reasons that aren't entirely clear, some users assumed Jerry was RedNote's CEO.His video got reposted on TikTok, and the rumor quickly spread around the platform. People thanked him for welcoming them with open arms while the potential TikTok ban loomed.Jerry's video was also mentioned at the end of a Fox 5 New York news segment about the ban threat."The CEO of RedNote even made a video welcoming new users who speak English to the app, and he also encouraged them to never stop sharing their voice," said Jennifer Williams, a sports reporter for FOX 5 News.On Tuesday, Jerry and Dani, on their TikTok account FakeCEORealGF, tried to clear up the confusion. In the video, Dani showed Jerry what had happened, and he responded with disbelief."Guys, I'm not the RedNote CEO, just to be clear," Jerry said."I'm just another normal guy in Vancouver," he added. "I didn't expect this post to go viral like this, and thank you for all the comments, but I want to clarify that I'm not the CEO of RedNote."Jerry said all the points he made were still true, and he hoped new users enjoyed the platform.Dani, who is Chinese and grew up in North America, and Jerry, who was born in Shanghai and moved to Canada a decade ago, said they had enjoyed watching Chinese and American cultures merge on RedNote."Guys, I hope you guys aren't mad at us," Dani said. "We're really sorry for any misunderstandings this caused."TikTokers who made the error joked in the comments that Jerry had been promoted."We married the first guy to be nice to us," one viewer wrote. Another said: "He said 'welcome' and we said 'THE CEO?!?!'"Others remarked on Jerry's American accent, remarking, "We have to start using critical thinking skills."Jerry and Dani and Fox 5 New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. @fakeceorealgf Hey guys! Its really us - we woke up to find that apparently Jerry went viral as the accidental CEO of red note so we recorded this reaction/clarification video to diffuse the confusion He is flattered but also very embarrassed by how this misunderstanding came about. We decided to reupload this video natively on TikTok (this is our only account) to spread the word - if you see this video, please help us share it for the people From Jerry: I stand by what I saw in my original welcome video. For all the TikTok refugees coming over to Red Note, we stand with you all to make your voice heard! I am flattered by all the kind and polite comments and hope the TikTok refugees find a new home and friends to discover a new side of Chinese culture and community #rednote #rednoteceo #tiktokrefugee #xiaohongshu #xhs #littleredbook #redbook #rednotemigration #rednotewelcome #accidentalceo #tiktok #china original sound - FakeCEORealGF TikTok faces a January 19 deadline to comply with a divest-or-ban law requiring its US operations to be sold. It remains unclear what the ramifications of the bill could be. Creators have been highly critical of the ban, saying their small businesses and livelihoods will be destroyed. Black creators, who were instrumental in the platform's growth, could be significantly affected.Element of trollingIn response, TikTok users have been considering their options and downloading alternative apps,including Lemon8and RedNote. Both haverapidly climbed theapp download charts in recent days.The influx to RedNote has beenhelping some of its users learn English, BI reported this week.There's also an element of trolling going on. Frustrated about losing a valuable resource for their income and ability to mobilize, TikTokers are leaning into downloading other Chinese apps to send a message.A major criticism of the potential TikTok ban is that it is hypocritical. Many claim it focuses heavily on one app while leaving alone other tech companies such as Meta, which owns Instagram.

Vox reader Dov Stein asks: Why do people think the past was so much better when so many things have drastically improved?Thats an excellent question, one I think about a lot as someone who runs a section at Vox dedicated in part to covering how meaningful economic and scientific and social progress can and is being made.Theres nothing new about yearning for a supposed golden age, or feeling as if the present doesnt measure up to an imagined past. But youre right that a hatred of the present seems particularly acute these days and youre right that hatred ignores all the many, many ways in which today is better than yesterday.Much of the world is gripped by a politics of nostalgia, one grounded in the assumption that we have to turn back time to a moment when everything was better. After all, what is Make America Great Again but a slogan that implicitly argues that the US was great, once; is no longer great, now; and can be made great, again, by turning back the clock. Its not just a right-wing thing the politics of climate change is grounded in the idea that the climate of the past is the best one.I share your frustration that so many people miss the ways in which the present has improved on the past. Its not really our fault: Humans have memories that are both short and bad, which leads us to forget just how bad many things used to be in even the recent past, and take for granted the improvements that have been made. But lets go deeper.Do people wish they could turn back the clock?Apparently! A 2023 survey from Pew Research Center found that nearly six in ten respondents in the US said that life was better for people like them 50 years ago. While certain groups, like Republicans and older adults, were more likely to say the past was better than the present, these feelings were fairly widespread. And that nostalgia is deepening the share of Americans who said life today is worse than life in the past was up 15 percent in 2023 from two years before.Nor is this just an American phenomenon. Another Pew poll, this one from 2018, surveyed people from 27 countries. In 15 of them, a plurality of respondents reported that the financial situation of average people in their country was better 20 years ago than it is today. A poll by YouGov of people in the UK found that 70 percent of respondents felt the world was getting worse, compared to less than 10 percent who felt it was getting better. (Although to be honest, the UK has had a rough 21st century.) Beyond polls, theres evidence that popular culture is stuck in a nostalgia loop around the past. According to MRC Data, a music analytics firm, old songs represent some 70 percent of the US music market, while the market for new music is actually shrinking. Movies and TV programs turn overwhelmingly to sequels and reboots, continually mining the same old stories. (In 2024, nine of the top 10 highest-grossing movies were sequels and the one exception, Wicked, was an adaptation of a 21-year-old Broadway musical that was an adaptation of a 29-year-old novel that was a prequel of a 85-year-old movie that was, itself, an adaptation of a 124-year-old novel. Whew.)You see a lot of nostalgia politics memes like this one:Were things better in the old days?Putting aside pop culture like movies or music, where I think we can all agree that whatever was happening when you were 15 to 25 years old represents the zenith of human progress, the answer is: no, definitely not, almost entirely.Take the meme above. As Matthew Yglesias writes, the argument implicit in nostalgia politics memes is that material living standards of the typical American family have gotten worse since the post-WWII era. This is completely wrong.Is it ever! Beyond the fact that we have access to all kinds of technology that did not exist 70 years ago even for the richest people on the planet, Americans are much, much wealthier now than they were back then. You can see that in everything from car ownership which is twice as high now as it was in 1960 to the size of our houses, which are roughly 25 percent bigger on average than they were in 1960. One standout statistic from Yglesiass piece: In 1950, just having running water was about as common then as having air conditioning is now. Thats just economics. Educational attainment the percentage of Americans who graduate from high school or above is far greater now than it was then. While its true that college was less expensive in the past, it was also much rarer; a tiny proportion of the US population had a bachelors degree in 1960, while today more than a third of adults have such degrees. Perhaps most important of all is social progress. The 1950s might have been an okay place if you looked like the family in the meme above provided you were fine with much diminished living standards. But thats not true if you were a woman who wanted to work, or a person of color, or LGBTQ, or disabled, or just about anyone other than a straight white man. In the 1950s, interracial marriage could still be banned, anti-sodomy laws would still be on the books for decades, and the Civil Rights Act was still a decade away. Oh, and we were living under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation far greater than what we face today.And thats just America. In 1950, more than half the world lived in extreme poverty, meaning they lacked enough money to afford a tiny space to live, heat, and enough food to stave off malnutrition. As of 2018, it was just about 10 percent, even though the global population has more than tripled over that time period. Nearly 30 years has been added to average global life expectancy since 1950 thats almost the equivalent of adding an extra life for people. While the world has experienced a democratic backsliding in recent years, dont forget that in 1950 three-quarters of the global population lived in what political scientists call closed autocracies, including much of Europe. Today less than 20 percent of the worlds population lives under such oppression.Of course, saying the past is better than the present means making a judgment of what we mean when we say the past. Not everything has improved, and sometimes periods of progress are followed by periods of decline. The arc of history doesnt only go up and to the right. But if you step back a bit, although youll see some dips, the trend lines are quite clear. So why do so many people think that?One reason, I think, is the reality of progress itself.As I wrote late last year, as the world improves politically and materially, so do our expectations. Theres a term for this in climate science: shifting baselines. When things improve by, say, coming up with a vaccine that essentially eliminates polio we dont remain in a constant state of gratitude that we dont live with the same limitations and threats that our grandparents did. We reset our expectations and forget how things used to be. When progress does stumble like the major recession in 2008 we dont remain grateful that were still much better off than we were in the distant past. Instead, we get angry that were somewhat worse off than we were a few years ago, even though its almost certain that well be better off a few years from now.Our brains help deceive us. Thanks to selective memory, humans have a tendency to forget negative events from the past and reinforce positive memories. Its one reason why our feelings and memories about the past can be so inaccurate we literally forget the bad things and give the good things a nice, pleasant glow. The further back the memory goes, the stronger that tendency can be.Were also wary of change. Psychologists call it loss aversion we fear the sting of losing something will hurt much more than the benefit of gaining something. As a result, change can feel fundamentally scary, which also makes us feel more warmly about the era before change: the past. Then theres nostalgias ineffable pull. I was serious when I said that for most people, whatever movies or music were popular when they were young is the best pop culture. What many of us are yearning for when we think the past was better isnt the past itself, but our past selves when we were younger. Because while things really have been getting better over time, we really have been getting older, with everything that comes along with that experience. And no amount of progress at least not yet can reverse that.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:

The Moon is one of 25 sites to be concerned about this year, according to a leading cultural heritage watchdog organization. That organization is the World Monuments Fund, which today announced the 25 sites on its annual World Monuments Watch. The sites were selected from over 200 nominations that underwent two review cycles before selection by an independent panel of experts. The Moon stands apart from the rest as a cultural heritage site that is not on Earth. For the first time, the Moon is included on the Watch to reflect the urgent need to recognize and preserve the artifacts that testify to humanitys first steps beyond Eartha defining moment in our shared history, said Bndicte de Montlaur, the president and CEO of the fund, in an organization release. Items such as the camera that captured the televised moon landing; a memorial disk left by astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin; and hundreds of other objects are emblematic of this legacy, de Montlaur added. Yet, they face mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities, undertaken without adequate preservation protocols.There are over 90 historic sites on the Moon where spacecraft have made contact with the lunar surface, the release noted. One of the most famous artifacts are astronauts first footprints beyond Earth, made by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969.As we embark on a new era of space exploration, we must ensure that the traces of these extraordinary milestones in humanitys historythe first moon landingsare preserved, the release stated. The inclusion of the Moon on the 2025 Watch advocates for international agreements and protections for lunar heritage sites and invites a broader public conversation on what this new Space Age might mean for the Moons cultural and natural landscape. The Moons inclusion on the list is a prudent one, as humankind intends to return to the Moon and stay there for the long term. NASAs Artemis mission plans to put a crewed mission on the lunar surface by mid-2027though that is later than the space agency intended. But thats just the tip of the iceberg, as a host of private missions, many funded through NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, are planned in the coming months and years. Just this morning, for example, SpaceX launched a pair of landers to the Moon, namely Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost lander and ispaces Resilience lander.SpaceXs Starship is also in the mixNASAs chosen lander for Artemis missions, yet ultimately a privately owned vessel that could one day ferry tourists to the Moon and its many historic sites.Plans are also in the works to mine the Moon for its various resources, including water ice, helium-3, and rare earth elements (REEs). Some private ventures are also hoping to use the Moon as a kind of graveyard, in which the remains of loved ones are plopped onto the dusty surface. Needless to say, the Moon will never be the same again, prompting the World Monuments Fund to voice its concerns. Indeed, the Moon does not have wind or flowing water on its surface, so natural degradation of lunar artifacts has not been a problem. In fact, the lunar surface is immaculately preserved. But exploitative visitation, souveniring, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could eventually compromise this truly unique cultural heritage, removing artifacts and forever erasing iconic prints and tracks from the Moons surface, the fund warns on its landing page for the Moon.Other sites on the World Monument Funds list this year include those damaged by conflict and natural disaster, such as the historic city of Antakya (ancient Antioch) in Turkey, which was devastated by earthquakes in 2023, and Gazas historic urban fabric, which is on the receiving end of ongoing Israeli airstrikes. Sites on the list that are under threat from climate change are Africas Swahili Coast and Maines historic lighthouses. Other sites include the monasteries in Albanias Drino Valleyunder pressure from over-tourismFrances Chapel of the Sorbonne in Paris, which has been closed for years, and historic buildings in Indias Musi River, which suffers from pervasive pollution issues.Cultural heritage needs protection from a range of threats, both natural and anthropogenic. In 2023, Greenpeace experts found that 4th-century Buddhist murals in China were being damaged by heavy rain and humidity. Last year, a group of researchers from the University of Virginia found evidence that the Russian military is damaging Ukrainian archaeological sites during its occupation of the country. The World Monuments Funds full list of 25 sites for 2025 can be found on the organizations website, but it is (obviously) not comprehensive. Though weve said goodbye to 2024, plenty of the sites featured in last years list remain under threat, many from the same causes that are endangering this years sites.

Yarn Residence / REACT ARCHITECTSSave this picture! Panagiotis VoumvakisHousesAliki, GreeceArchitects: REACT ARCHITECTSAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:240 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2023 PhotographsPhotographs:Panagiotis VoumvakisManufacturersBrands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: DIMITRIS KYRIAKOPOULOS, ECO -FIRE, EFARMOGES KRITIKOS, GESCOVA, Home deco, Kitchen Gallery, MODA BAGNO, NIKOS PAPADATOS, SKANDALIS, SMK GROUP-PAROS, YDRO PAROS Lead Architects: Yiorgos Spiridonos, Natasha Deliyianni Lighting Designers: LUUNMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. Yarn is located in the settlement of Agkairia on Paros. It has a southwestern orientation to maximize light and protect against the strong northern winds characteristic of the Cycladic island. The plot allowed for the development of this residence with open floor plans, following a jagged line that embraces the volumes of the house, creating sheltered courtyards, outdoor spaces, visual boundaries, and sheltered outdoor seating areas. By incorporating elements of Cycladic architecture found in similar buildings, we designed a house that harmoniously integrates with the landscape, adhering to the principles of bioclimatic architecture aimed at minimizing the building's environmental footprint and creating protected spaces from the strong winds and heat of the summer months.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Although oriented toward the view, the residence possesses an interiority that exudes tranquility, inspired by the Cycladic monasteries. The large volume of a single building is fragmented into smaller masses, ensuring a harmonious adaptation of the structure to the landscape and significantly reducing the building's bulk. The courtyard space that connects the separate volumes creates a cohesive residential ensemble. The entrance on the eastern side is marked by a large stairs descent and endemic planting that define the central axis around which the residence develops. Living spaces are located on the southern side with an open floor plan, while the sleeping and guest quarters are arranged on the northern side in smaller, independent volumes.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Particular attention has been given to every morphological element added to the building to meet the needs of modern residents. The design of the openings is integrated with the architectural character of the structure. The element of repetition and standardization of openings dominates the design. Additionally, the pergola in the BBQ area rests against the stone wall. The dry stone walls, a unique construction characteristic of the Cyclades, extend in a ribbon along the entire length of the residence, defining its aesthetics in relation to the existing landscape. The largest white volume of the living area is centrally positioned within the residence, adjacent to the swimming pool courtyard.Save this picture!All elements that compose the surrounding outdoor spacesmall scales, pergolas, planting, materials, and floor coveringsare directly related to the unique geometry of the project. The composition leverages the irregular layout of the stone walls, which nonetheless conform to the topography and shape of the plot, creating a living space with functions that are interconnected and developed in sequence. The stone "ribbon" symbolically defines the space and organizes the development of the residence, primarily establishing human intervention by utilizing earth materials, namely stone masonry, with the aim of ensuring the building's harmonious integration into the environment. Endemic planting complements and connects the building with its surroundings, delineating the space. The distinct geometric arrangement, the simple volumes, the use of unplastered stone walls, and the economy of hard surfaces emphasize the archetypal form of this residence. The landscape architecture is integrated into the project, covering much of the land with vegetation while leaving the majority of the plot intact, preserving its original flora.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officeREACT ARCHITECTSOfficeMaterialsStoneConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on January 15, 2025Cite: "Yarn Residence / REACT ARCHITECTS" 15 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025616/yarn-residence-react-architects&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

The first version of Tetris visible in the Lenin Museum in Tampere. It's displayed on a SyncMaster 750s monitor and can be played by visitors using a Key Tronic keyboard. Credit: WikicommonsShareTheres a global community dedicated to finding new ways to challenge themselves in Tetris, from speedruning the classic puzzler to technically beating it. But the latest feat isnt a newly discovered hidden glitch or high scoreits an entirely new way to play the game.Thomas Rinsma, a security analyst and hobbyist tinkerer, recently figured out how to create a version of Tetris that runs inside a PDF file. According to a personal website post subsequently highlighted by BoingBoing on January 15th, Rinsma tackled the project just for fun after learning the potential implementations of PDFs JavaScript API. The result is a novel version Rinsma calls PDFTRIS.PDFTRIS in action. Credit: Popular Science [I] realized there just might be enough I/O possibility there for a game, he wrote. I/O stands for Input/Output, and refers to the communication between a computer and its users.Rinsma explained that its already relatively well-known that PDFs can support a number of features such as dynamic content scripting when opened in something like Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Some of that same scripting support, however, is also available in both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chromiums respective PDF readers, PDF.js and PDFium.[ Related: Is Tetris infinite? Teen world champ reaches fabled rebirth ]It gets a bit complex to the layperson from there, but regardless, the end result is a PDF containing a 1020 grid of field buttons. These alternate between shaded and empty blocks depending on the JavaScript input, allowing a player to use preprogrammed keyboard instructions to move and shift the tetronimoesthe official term for four-block shapes such as those in Tetris blocks.It was a bit tricky to find a union of features that work in both engines, but in the end it turns out that showing/hiding annotation fields works well to make monochrome pixels, and keyboard input can be achieved by typing in a text input box, Rinsma wrote in a post to Hacker News. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.Throw in the ability for the file to automatically loop and reload each command, and you have a functional game of Tetris. It even speeds up as your score increases. Anyone interested in checking under PDFTRISs hood can check out Rinsmas open-source files available on GitHub.For those in the know, the ability to play a video game in a PDF file begs a certain, extremely specific programming community question. As luck would have it, Rinsma already has the answer: Yes, PDFs can also run Doom.

NewsHealth & MedicineLethal snake venom may be countered by new AI-designed proteinsAn artificial intelligence tool designs proteins that match toxins scientists want to target When snakes like this Mozambique spitting cobra bite, they deliver potent toxins to victims via their venom. AI-designed proteins that stick to these toxins could one day be part of new antivenom therapies.Digital Vision/gettyimagesBy Meghan Rosen17 seconds agoArtificial intelligence could take the bite out of snake venom.Using AI, scientists have designed proteins that say not so fassst to toxins wielded by cobras and other venomous snakes. Its a proof-of-concept approach that could one day offer a new treatment for snakebites. In lab experiments, the custom proteins saved the lives of mice given an otherwise lethal dose of toxins, researchers report January 15 in Nature.These proteins are really doing their job, says Michael Hust, an antibody researcher at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany who was not involved with the new research. The mice are surviving. This is what we all want.

Nature, Published online: 15 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-04214-3Evidence from 2,000-year-old DNA reveals that women in Celtic society stayed in their ancestral communities after marriage, whereas men were mobile, and that the southern coast of Britain was a hotspot for cultural exchange.

The bone fragments were once thought to be some of the oldest human fossils found in Japan.

If you're looking to kick back with a few games that you might have missed when they were first released, you can check out all the new arrivals coming to the PS Plus Game Catalog on January 21. This month, 11 games are being added and these range from PS1 and PS2 classics, to indie hits from not too long ago.Back in November we got the Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon: Ishin, and if you're hungry for more of RGG Studio's signature blend of action and gangland melodrama, you can hop into Like a Dragon Gaiden this month. There's also God of War Ragnarok in case you want to dip into Sony's first-party library, Sayonara Hearts will let you break hearts and bones, you can check out the first Citizen Sleeper game before its sequel arrives at the end of the month, and catch up with an undead knight from the original PlayStation console days.As a reminder, all PS Plus subscribers can also claim this month's batch of new games, as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered are all available to download right now. God of War Ragnarok (PS5, PS4)The final chapter in Kratos' Nordic saga, God of War Ragnarok is an action-packed game that also tells a heartfelt story. Set shortly after the events of the 2018 God of War game, Ragnarok expanded on its ideas to deliver a bigger and grander adventure as Kratos and his son Atreus found themselves in conflict with the Norse pantheon of gods. On top of the excellent single-player campaign, there's also a cool roguelike mode if you want to test your strength. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5, PS4)An interquel set between the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Like a Dragon Gaiden is a short and action-heavy detour from the turn-based RPG games starring Ichiban Kasuga. If you prefer old-school Yakuza, then you'll get a kick out of this spin-off, which once again stars Kazuma Kiryu in a leading role. There's a fun story here, a fighting style to master that revolves around the use of cool gadgets, and an ending that'll leave you in tears. Atlas Fallen: Reign Of Sand (PS5)While it was one of the more forgettable action games of 2023, Atlas Fallen is definitely worth checking out if you're looking for something to try out between your commitment to new game releases. The Reign of Sand update helped fine-tune Atlas Fallen's gameplay, as it expanded the world, revamped progression, added new quests, overhauled the voice acting, and dropped in a new difficulty mode. SD Gundam Battle Alliance (PS5, PS4)There's nothing cooler than one of the signature mobile suit mechs from the Gundam universe, and if you've been wondering if they could look cute as well, SD Gundam Battle Alliance will answer that question for you. This adorable action-RPG puts you in control of multiple mobile suits, and you'll need to fix an altered history by battling your way through legions of mechs that stand in your way. It's a fun way to experience pivotal moments from the Gundam anime series, and the multiplayer mode is also quite fun in case you're feeling social. Sayonara Wild Hearts (PS4)Motorcycles, sword battles, and skateboarding in a neon-lit world makes for a killer combo, and you can experience all of that in the cult-classic Sayonara Wild Hearts. Not just a fun arcade-inspired game, Sayonara Wild Hearts also pairs its gameplay with a banger of a soundtrack that'll live rent-free in your head long after the end credits have rolled. ANNO: Mutationem (PS5, PS4)Another neon-soaked game to check out this month is ANNO: Mutationem. The action-RPG puts you in the boots of Ann, a one-woman-army on a personal mission to take down sinister mega-corporations and mysterious fringe groups. Orcs Must Die 3 (PS5, PS4)The Orcs Must Die games have been fun entries in the Tower Defense genre, and Orcs Must Die 3 ups the ante by throwing an obscene number of the vile creatures at your fort. Fortunately, you've got an arsenal of weapons, traps, and defenses that you can build, destroying any orcish war machine that dares to cross your borders. Citizen Sleeper (PS5, PS4)With a sequel out on January 31, now is a great time to check out the original Citizen Sleeper. A sci-fi indie adventure inspired by the flexibility and freedom of TTRPGs, it has a great art direction, interesting gameplay mechanics, and an intriguing story. Poker Club (PS4)For the card sharks out there, you can sit down for Poker Club this month. Designed to be an immersive simulation of the popular card game, there are tournaments to enter and a community of online players to face off against. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (PS5, PS4)What better way to prepare for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle than by revisiting an Indy classic? 2009's Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings was a pretty sold third-person action game at the time of its release on PS2, and this new version comes with up-rendered visuals, rewind, quick save, and custom video filters. MediEvil 2 (PS5, PS4)Finally, you can get Medievil on some asses with the return of Sir Daniel Fortesque. Following the success of the first game, MediEvil 2 was a fun sequel that allowed you to wield all manner of ye olde melee weapons--and the occasional chicken drumstick--against foul enemies, solve puzzles, and chuckle at some ghoulish humor along the way.

As part of the approaching Spring Fest 2025, developer Krafton has released PUBG: Battlegrounds update 33.2, which includes a new Crafter Pass, a new Gunplay Labs feature, and the return of the Loot Truck to the Sanhok map. Alongside the new content, PUBG: Battlegrounds update 33.2 addresses many UX/UI and performance issues while tackling various bugs.