Xbox Game Pass February titles announcedAvowed! Madden! Far Cry!Image credit: Microsoft News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on Feb. 4, 2025 Microsoft has announced its line-up of Xbox Game Pass titles for the beginning of February. The selection is, as you'd expect, headlined by this month's big Xbox Game Studios arrival Avowed, the fresh role-playing game from Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian.But, of course, you'll only get the game on 18th February - its launch date - if you have either PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate.Here's the full line-up of Xbox Game Pass titles for February:Far Cry: New Dawn - 4th February (Standard, Ultimate, PC)Another Crab's Treasure - 5th February (Now with Standard)Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - 5th February (Now with Standard)Starfield - 5th February (Now with Standard)Madden NFL 25 - 6th February (Ultimate, PC)Kingdom Two Crowns - 13th February (Now with Standard)Avowed - 18th February (Ultimate, PC)To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Is this an Xbox? Probably yes.Watch on YouTubeIf you're already on Ultimate or PC Game Pass, your other new additions this month include Far Cry spin-off New Dawn, a follow-up to Far Cry 5, and the arrival of this year's Madden NFL installment from EA Sports.Subscribers to the newer Standard tier now join Ultimate and PC subscribers in gaining access to Bethesda's space RPG Starfield, plus Another Crab's Treasure, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and Kingdom: Two Crowns.As ever, whenever Microsoft giveth, it also taketh away. Seven games are set to leave Xbox Game Pass on 15th February, in case you want to give them a quick bash before they go:A Little to the Left (Cloud, Console, and PC)Bloodstained Ritual of the Night (Cloud, Console, and PC)EA Sports UFC 3 (Console via EA Play)Indivisible (Cloud, Console, and PC)Merge and Blade (Cloud, Console, and PC)Return to Grace (Cloud, Console, and PC)Tales of Arise (Cloud, Console, and PC)If you want to keep playing these games after they leave Game Pass, you'll need to purchase them. On the plus side, Game Pass subscribers get a 20 percent discount.For everything else in Microsoft's subscription service, you can check out Eurogamer's handy Xbox Game Pass guide detailing the many titles available.Last week, Microsoft gave us a glimpse at Doom: The Dark Ages, Ninja Gaiden 4 and South of Midnight as part of its Xbox Developer Direct. It's taken eight years, but could Game Pass finally be positioned to save the Xbox console business and give Xbox a point?

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide Diablo 4 fans want more expansions Blizzards original plan for Diablo 4 was to have paid annual expansions that bring new stories, classes, enemies and sweet, sweet loot. However, following comments from head of Diablo Rod Fergusson and a lack of news from the developer, fans are worried that the annual expansion plan is already over for the ARPG in favour of seasons.Diablo 4 fans want more expansionsWith Diablo 4 seasons now in a good place following the release of the Season of Witchcraft, a large number of players are finally happy with the state of the games progression systems. However, with 60% of players immediately jumping ship to the new Spiritborn class on launch of the previous expansion, the hunger for large content drops is obvious.In a post on the games official forums, Diablo 4 players expressed worry that the ARPGs previously announced expansion plans arent actually happening.I know Rod [Fergusson] acted like he forgot about their annual expansion plan but will we have any infos or leaks? Or is the annual plan already ditched? the post reads. If it works like seasons they should be already in works right? Will we ever play a holy class in a Diablo game? Can we go to Westmarch? Charms? Set items? Class balance and client stability?The communitys worries have only been exacerbated since the release of Vessel of Hatred. In a GameSpot interview last year, head of Diablo Rod Fergusson explained that he never technically promised yearly expansions for the game.I dont think Ive ever said that officially, he told fans. We know were going to be supporting Diablo for years to come. Must-Listen: Publishing Manor Lords w/ Joe Robinson VideoGamer Podcast Listen Now However, players waiting for an update have been left in the dark. While the community has been frequently updated with plans for bug fixing strategies and season release changes, the core expansions that Diablo 4 fans truly care about have been kept secret.Weve gone from an expansion each year to silence in under two years of live game time, one fan explained on the forums.Hopefully, Diablo 4 does receive another expansion in the future, one that adds the teased Holy Class included in past artwork. However, we have no idea if this will actually happen. With D4 planned to be properly supported for years to come, it would be a shame if we only had seasons to play through.Diablo 4Platform(s):PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/XGenre(s):Action, Action RPG, RPGSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide Destiny 2 Episode Heresy is finally here! This will hopefully be a lot better than Revenant Act 3, and odds are looking pretty good as it is launching side-by-side a crossover with Star Wars. Prior to its release, Bungie has revealed a lot of details to get fans excited, and here you will find some early Destiny 2 update 8.2.0 patch notes detailing Episode Heresy buffs, nerfs, and more.Early Destiny 2 update 8.2.0 patch notes for Episode HeresyThe Destiny 2 update 8.2.0 patch notes will be released at roughly 9AM PT/12PM ET/5PM GMT on February 4th. Prior to the official release, below are some early update 8.2.0 patch notes detailing buffs, nerfs, and more for Episode Heresy:Destiny 2 update 8.2.0 patch notes balance changes (via TWID Jan 16th):HunterArc StriderTempest StrikeNew additional effect added.Killing any jolted target grants a stack of Bolt Charge.Increased damage against PvE enemies by 57%.Disorienting BlowNow grants a moderate amount of Bolt Charge stacks when dealing damage with Disorienting Blow.Disorienting Blow now deals significant damage in an area around the target hit, instead of just single target damage.Increased the Blind AoE from 6m to 9.6m.Arc StaffReflecting an attack will grant a stack of Bolt Charge.AscensionIncreased Fragment slots to three on Arc.Note: Ascension was already granting three Fragment slots on Prismatic.Activating Ascension will now activate the effects from the following abilities: Gamblers Dodge, Marksmans Dodge, Empowering Dodge, and Threaded Specter.Note: We dont plan to make Ascension activate every Hunter class-ability perk, but we may add more interactions in the future.ThreadrunnerEnsnaring SlamActivating Ensnaring Slam will now activate the effects from the following abilities: Gamblers Dodge, Marksmans Dodge, and Threaded Specter.Note: We dont plan to make Ensnaring Slam activate every Hunter class-ability perk, but we may add more interactions in the future.Threaded SpecterIncreased the clones PvE damage resistance from 40% to 70%.Titan Must-Listen: Publishing Manor Lords w/ Joe Robinson VideoGamer Podcast Listen Now All Titan SubclassesBarricadeIncreased damage resistance vs. combatant splash damage attacks when standing behind Barricade from 60% to 80%.Taunt strength and range no longer fall off over time.StrikerJuggernautWhile Juggernaut shield is active, players now have splash damage resistance.60% splash damage resistance in PvE, 10% in PvP.While the Juggernaut shield is active, players now have 10% damage resistance vs PvE combatants.When the Juggernaut shield blocks damage, players are granted a stack of Bolt Charge.Ballistic SlamSprint time requirement before activation significantly reduced.Damage now scales based on distance traveled.Damage vs. PvE combatants increased by 30%.Each enemy damaged by Ballistic Slam grants a stack of Bolt Charge.Up to the max of 10 stacks if you manage to hit 10 targets with a single activation.SentinelUnbreakableIncreased the rate that the Unbreakable offensive throw charges up when blocking damage.Increased max damage dealt from the offensive throw by 20%.Increased the health pool of the shield to make it less likely to break when under heavy fire.Increased the Void Overshield charge rate while holding the shield.Throw now costs half of a grenade-energy charge instead of a full charge.While Sentinel Shield is equipped, Orb of Power creation cooldown increased from 1s to 4.5s.Note: Unbreakable has received a significant buff here. We want it to be strong, but well be monitoring it closely to make sure we havent gone too far.Ward of DawnWard of Dawn now does a Weaken pulse when the Ward is created.SunbreakerConsecrationReduced scorch-wave and slam-wave damage in PvE by 55%.Note: When reviewing the damage-cost ratio for certain abilities, it became clear that Consecration was doing too much for too little. We didnt want to take away from the dramatic pop moment of landing both waves on a target though, so we kept its increased Ignition damage bonus and instead reduced the wave damage. We suspect we may also need to adjust the Ignition damage in the future.WarlockStormcallerStormtranceIncreased non-champion PvE damage by 20%.Chaos ReachIncreased non-champion PvE damage by 15%.Lightning SurgeRemoved Amplified on cast.Now grants a stack of Bolt Charge for each enemy hit with Lightning Surge.Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 30%.VoidwalkerHandheld Supernova (Chaos Accelerants Magnetic Grenade Variant)Increased total projectile count from five to nine.Increased the width of the cones blast by roughly two meters.Increased the height of the cones blast by one meter.Reduced projectile damage in PvP from 20 to 15 per projectile to account for additional projectiles.Note: Adding four projectiles is potentially a substantial damage increase, but due to the increased size of the cone blast, all projectiles wont land on a single smaller target. This means PvP potency should remain similar but in PvE this becomes a much more reliable add clear tool or single target burst damage option against larger targets.All ClassesSolarRadiantDamage bonus reduced from 25% to 20% in PvEWell of Radiance damage bonus remains unchanged.StasisFrost ArmorIncreased DR per stack from 4.5% to 6.25%.At max stacks, DR goes from 36% to 50%.Note: This change is PvE only, PvP values remain unchanged.ArcAmplifiedWhile Amplified, PvE combatants are now less accurate against you.This is similar to how The Manticores Exotic effect works while in air.While Amplified, players now have 15% damage resistance against PvE combatants.Spark of DischargeAdded effect: Picking up an Ionic Trace grants a stack of Bolt Charge.Spark of MomentumAdded effect: Sliding over ammo bricks now also grants a stack of Bolt Charge.Removed the bespoke melee energy bonus from sliding over ammo bricks since each stack of Bolt Charge comes with bonus melee energy.Reduced the amount of time you need to be sliding to activate Spark of Momentum.This should make it so if you start your slide on top of an ammo brick, Spark of Momentum will still activate instead of previously needing to slide into the brick after roughly 0.75s.Spark of FrequencyAdded effect: While Amplified, gain a bonus stack of Bolt Charge from all sources, in addition to previous effect.Spark of VoltsAdded effect: Finishers grant a stack of Bolt Charge in addition to granting Amplified.Spark of IonsAdded effect: Targets defeated with Bolt Charge will also make an Ionic Trace, in addition to previous effect.PrismaticFacet of HopeCan now be activated by Bolt Charge.Facet of PurposeNow grants a stack of Bolt Charge on orb pickup when an Arc Super is equipped instead of granting of Amplified.Facet of SacrificeCan now be activated by Bolt Charge.ModifiersBrawnTuned healing sources to better balance the health economy when this modifier is active.Trials of Osiris (via Episode Heresy Crucible updates):Trials of Osiris Rework for HeresyMove Trials away from a Flawless based system to a get seven wins on a card system that rewards win streaks, with multiple tiers and exclusive aesthetic rewards for higher win streaks.Provide a selectable alternative experience that is closer to Iron Banner in terms of reward structure and matchmaking to get more players into the Trials ecosystem.Adding new rewards, including an armor set, Ghost Shell, ship, Sparrow, and emblem.Simplify engagement and matchmaking systems.Skill and Player Score Stat, Competitive Point System ReworkWe want skill to be more transparent and easily understood so players can get a better feeling of where they sit or how they performed relative to other players in their games.Competitive point gains should feel like they make sense and give you more agency over climbing the Ranked ladder.Playlist ReorganizationUsing what weve learned over the last year, consolidate and solidify our playlists into options that better represent the experiences Destiny PvP can offer, without splitting the population into too many separate slices.Introduce Iron Banner Quickplay, which offers a more relaxed variant of Iron Banner, using our Open Skill matchmaking to provide minimal stratification and a focus on the less serious game modes.Ability Sandbox Updates We arent going to spend too much time discussing the ability tuning, as much of it is self-explanatory and we have a lot to discuss in terms of the other three items.GeneralBaseline Crucible ability cooldown penalty increased from 15% to 20%.Supers go from 20% to 25%.Prismatic OnlyUnpowered Knockout melees will no longer spawn Diamond Lances on kills against players.Active energy refund on Prismatic decreased by 20% in Crucible.This affects energy refunds from things like Gamblers Dodge, Shiver Strike, and armor mods, but generally excludes Exotic effects.Added a 10% cooldown penalty to Supers so that there is more of a tradeoff to picking these subclasses in modes where Super timing can be vitally important, like Trials or Competitive.Destiny 2 Episode Heresy patch notes Weapons and armor (via TWID January 23rd):HunterSealed Ahamkara GraspsSealed Ahamkara Grasps have struggled on Hunter due to the large array of alternate reload options that Hunters already had access to. Weve reworked its behavior to have a bit more Exotic flair in terms of playstyle.Reworked with a weapon-swapping focus to differentiate it from other Hunter reload Exotics. Perk description now reads as follows:Powered melee and finisher final blows grant Nightmare Fuel, increasing handling and airborne effectiveness. While active, freshly drawn weapons deal additional damage and grant Nightmare Fuel on final blows. Gaining Nightmare Fuel reloads all holstered weapons.Gwisin VestWith the recent roaming Super changes, we decided to give this Exotic a bit of tuning to let it shine in its role, as well as giving some utility outside of the Super.Now progresses its Super returns on Super hits as well as kills before becoming invisible.Improved the maximum possible Super energy gains per return while also increasing the amount of progress needed for maximum gains.Now also emits a cloud of weakening smoke when you exit invisibility while nearby an enemy.Works both in neutral and while in Super.Renewal GraspsNow that Frost Armor has settled in the sandbox, we feel that Renewal Grasps can safely be more generous in granting it.Doubled the rate of Frost Armor gain while in the enhanced Duskfield grenade.FoetracerWhile Foetracer offers an excellent way to increase ones damage, weve found that the benefit is too brief when compared to other alternatives.Increased the bonus weapon damage duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.Radiant Dance MachinesRadiant Dance Machines has been reworked to allow the multiple dodge charges that it grants to count as real dodges for the purposes of perks and aspects. The trigger mechanism for granting extra dodges requires more effort to compensate for that, but the overall change is a large increase in strength and utility. We have also added some flat benefits to Primary weapons that are a real gamechanger for players who prioritize gun feel and performance when mobile.Improves airborne effectiveness and hip fire mobility, range, and accuracy for Primary ammo weapons.Multi-kills with Primary ammo weapons refund dodge energy. When dodge energy is full, multi-kills grant extra charges. Powerful combatants and Guardians count as more than one kill.RelativismSpirit of GalanorWith the ability to regenerate a roamer more quickly than ever, it was quite easy to end up chaining roaming Supers back-to-back and effectively never need to rely on your weapons during activities. So, to combat this, we are reducing this capability a little on the armor side specifically for Silkstrike and Golden Gun.Reduced the maximum amount of energy refunded for Silkstrike and Golden Gun to 30% (down from 50%).RelativismSpirit of the FoetracerSpirit of the Foetracer has inherited the changes made to Foetracer.TitanCitans RampartsCitans Ramparts was last adjusted to account for its problematic dominance in PVP, but that came at the cost of its value across the game. In the current sandbox, weve found that many of its downsides can be removed safely in PVE, even with the small buff that gives it in PVP, without introducing those toxic play patterns.Removed several downsides applied by Assault Barricade to bring it in line with base Towering Barricade behavior. Cumulatively, these changes result in a Towering barricade you can shoot through with no other downsides while Citans is equipped (in PVE see below).Increased barricade health from 400 to 500.No longer increases Barricade cooldown.No longer decreases Barricade duration.Further increased damage dealt to Citans barricades by Guardians from 125% to 160%.This results in near-identical effective Barricade health in PVP (~2.5% less after these changes).Eternal WarriorWe want Eternal Warrior to be an appealing option in both PvP and PvE for players interested in building into Fists of Havoc. Were giving it increased Super duration on final blow a nostalgic effect for longtime players that is thematically aligned with the Exotic.Final blows with Fists of Havoc now grant extended Super duration.Ursa FuriosaOur recent changes to Ursa Furiosa to integrate it with the Unbreakable aspect have yet to encourage significant use. So, we want to lean further into supporting Unbreakable by changing the energy returned by blocking with Unbreakable to be grenade energy.Blocking damage with Unbreakable now returns grenade energy instead of Super energy.Grenade energy is returned at the end of Unbreakable and is scaled based on the amount of damage you blocked with it.Khepris HornKhepris Horn is getting a glow-up: It will still causes your Barricade to emit waves of damaging Solar energy, but with this update they have been significantly enhanced.Now sends out three waves of flame instead of just one.These waves no longer return towards the Barricade they only travel outwards once.Tracking on the waves has been enhanced.Combatants damaged by these waves are enveloped in a Sunspot. Players are enveloped if they are defeated.Now requires a Solar Super to be equipped to create the flame waves from the Barricade.An Insurmountable SkullfortAs difficulty goes up, Skullfort can feel overly punishing when you fail to land the final blow its perk demands. To alleviate this issue, we are extending its effect to grant partial refunds from any melee attack to help rebuild that crucial momentum.Now grants energy to Arc melee abilities when hitting targets with any melee attack. Amount granted varies based on the melee used.From most to least energy granted: Powered melees, non-Glaive unpowered melees while Knockout is active, and unpowered melees (including Glaives).StoicismSpirit of the BearSpirit of the Bear has inherited the changes made to Ursa Furiosa.StoicismSpirit of the HornSpirit of the Horn has inherited the changes made to Khepris Horn. On Thruster, Sprit of the Horn will now emit four waves in an X-pattern.WarlockStormdancers BraceMuch like Spirit of Galanor, we wanted to tune back how much returned energy was given for roaming Supers via Exotics. To compensate, we wanted to give Stormdancers Brace a little love in the potency granted to Stormtrance while you are in Super.Doubled the damage benefit per stack of Ascending amplitude (up to 20% per stack, from 10%).Now also reduces the cost of Ionic Blink during Super by 50%.Reduced the maximum amount of energy refunded to 30% (down from 50%).Geomag StabilizersPart of the charm of Geomag Stabilizers was lost when sprinting to get Super was removed due to PvP issues. With the introduction of Bolt Charge to the Arc kit, there was an opportunity to bring this experience back without breaking PvP.Added a new perk: Sprinting while near max Bolt Charge will top it off.Starts at six stacks of Bolt Charge.Reenabled VFX where boots spark while sprinting near max Bolt Charge.Increased Super energy gained from ionic traces to 7% from 2%.Secant Filaments (and Spirit of the Filaments)Ever since anti-Champion capabilities were expanded to work with elemental verbs inherently, Secant Filaments have felt like an Exotic lost to the flow of time. Giving it a satisfying loop felt like a nice way to give the perk some love for both the base Exotic and its Spirit counterpart.Now gives class ability energy per kill while Devour is active.Speakers SightSpeakers Sight paired with Ember of Benevolence allowed Warlocks to earn a massive amount of ability energy via the Healing Turret even if they and their fireteam were all at full health. Speakers Sights impact should be rooted in the actual healing of injured Guardians, so we are making a change to how the Healing Turret selects its targets.Healing Turret no longer targets allies at full health.Allies need some damage done to their shields to be eligible targets.Veritys Brow (and Spirit of Verity)The Death Throes buff is quite potent, but it is easy to let it run out and lose all your grenade benefit. We have updated this Exotic to bring it in line with how the similar Titan Exotic Wormgod Caress works: Stacks of Death Throes are now represented by a meter that decays backwards through each tier rather than falling off entirely when the duration elapses.Now uses a meter to track Death ThroesNew durations per tier:x1: 8 secondsx2: 7 secondsx3: 6 secondsx4: 5 secondsx5: 4 secondsWhen one tiers duration elapses, the buff will downgrade to the next lower tier rather than expiring entirely.Bonus grenade recharge per tier:x1: 0.5% per secondx2: 1% per secondx3: 1.5% per secondx4: 2% per secondx5: 2.5% per secondWe will update this article with the full official Destiny 2 Episode Heresy update 8.2.0 patch notes when they are shared.As for more Destiny 2, check out our guide to thebest Legendary weaponsalong with thebest weapons for PvP.Destiny 2Platform(s):Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Web, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/XGenre(s):Action, Adventure, First Person, Massively Multiplayer, Shooter8VideoGamerRelated TopicsDestiny 2 Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

AdvertisementGo ad freeGithubForbidden Words: Github Reveals How Software Engineers Are Purging Federal Databases Feb 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM A project called "Remove-DEI" shows the tweaks used to remove "forbidden words" from a database about childhood school readiness. Code updates to a government database that helps track whether a federal program to get children ready for school at age five is actually working show software engineers are purging it of references to "forbidden words" related to DEI.The updates, shown in Github commits, are to a database for the Department of Health and Human Services Head Start program. They show a project called Remove-DEI, which reveal some of the back-and-forth that is happening behind the scenes to align federal agencies with Donald Trumps executive orders that forbid almost anything having to do with race or gender within federal agencies. The Github pages show software engineers discussing amongst themselves how to best remove all instances of forbidden words from a specific database, and the code updates they used to do it. The changes also show that, while thousands of government datasets are disappearing from the internet, even ones that remain are having parts of their utility deprecated or broken in a way that may not be visible to those outside the government.The Office of Head Start is a government agency that spends roughly $12 billion per year to get families and children between birth and age five ready to succeed in schools, with a special focus on providing and administering grants to groups that provide assistance for Americas most vulnerable young children. Head Start centers were briefly impacted by Trumps spending freeze, leading centers to worry about making payroll.Are you a federal worker or contractor? Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +1 202 505 1702. Otherwise, send me an email at jason@404media.co.The changes show that the U.S. government or people working on its behalf are not just manually deleting references to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) but are also writing and tweaking code to remove references to DEI in a more blunt-force way. The HHS change is emblematic of hundreds that 404 Media has reviewed in recent days. At HHS, a recent GitHub commit details a project called Remove-DEI which removes the ability to search or filter in this HeadStart for information on how well programs that target families affected by systemic discrimination/bias/exclusion are actually working.The changeswhich are among at least hundreds across the federal governmentcome to a database operated by the HHS Office of Head Starts Training and Technical Assistance Centers.This specific database is behind a government login wall, but allows government employees to search for information about grants and programs that had a focus on Equity and had a target population of Children/Families affected by systematic discrimination/bias/exclusion.Code in the database was tweaked to remove the ability to search or filter according to these terms. A description of the change explained on Github reads Review the option for equity: Removal of the equity topic from the topic drop down, removal of the equity topic from all filters, Removal of the DEIA standard goal, Families affected by systemic discrimination/bias/exclusion removes as a target population.The coder also explains that they tweaked how topics are filtered in the database as a way of making sure that when we mark a topic as deleted, it is removed from all the relevant places.The coder asked their colleagues to confirm equity has been removed from the places above. I ask also that you scan the website for other places where we need to remove the forbidden words. The code was written by employees at a company called Ad Hoc LLC, a government contractor that works with HHS on the database. Ad Hoc is being paid $7.2 million to manage the database, according to federal records.Ad Hoc was created in the aftermath of the HealthCare.gov launch debacle, and describes itself as a digital services company that helps the federal government better serve people. Ad Hoc declined to comment. HHS told 404 Media that it is not allowed to comment: "HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health. This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization. There are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis.The tweak is one of hundreds that have been revealed across government via Githubs commit tracking, which shows version changes to code, websites, and other projects managed on the site. It also gives insight into how the hundreds of websites and datasets being deleted are actually being purged. WIRED reported earlier Monday that the federal government is now using scripts to forcibly remove gender pronouns from federal employee email signatures.

Sage WisdomKingdom Come Deliverance 2 is incredibly hard, and thats the point, but these 7 essential tips should make it just a little bit easier for youIf you're going to make a life for yourself in Medieval Europe, then follow these 7 essential Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tips!Image credit: Warhorse Studios/VG247 Article by James Billcliffe Guides Editor Published on Feb. 4, 2025 If there was ever a game where you might need a helping hand and a few wise tips, its Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.After his unlikely rise over the course of the original Kingdom Come Deliverance, Henry of Skalitz is back down on his luck, forced yet again to climb the slippery slope of medieval society in pursuit of a more purposeful life.If youre feeling just as lost as Henry wandering the Bohemian countryside, here are a few of our best Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tips gleaned from our experience with the game.To He Who WaitsIf youre completely new to the world of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, then there are a few basics you need to understand:You cant rush anythingYou can only save in very specific circumstancesRealism can only go so far in a video gameTo the first point, the most important thing to remember in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is that you cant rush or force any of the games mechanics, otherwise youre going to have a bad time, or fail completely.Nowhere is this more apparent than in the combat system. People, swords and armour in Kingdom Come Deliverance are built as physical objects within the games engine, which can bump and slide off of one another. This, on the one hand, makes for a patient melee that truly feels like a life-or-death situation. However, it also means that you simply cannot button mash your way through any encounter, even if your opponent has just a sliver of health left.All that will happen is Henry will swing impotently, run out of stamina, and land you in an extremely difficult spot.In this game you need to concentrate on what youre doing for the entire duration of the activity, patiently complete the action "correctly", then celebrate a job well done.Im outta hereCompounding this is the saving system, where you can only save by sleeping in your own bed, when a major quest updates, or by drinking a special potion.The game obviously doesnt want you to abuse this, but theres actually another situation where you can make an advantageous save: using the Save & Quit option in the menu before immediately reloading the game.There are multiple times throughout the game, usually at the climax of a quest or ahead of you on a road, where its clear a fight is about to break out or you need to persuade a key character to come around to your way of thinking.To test out these potential multiple outcomes, you can Save & Quit before you jump into the encounter, safe in the knowledge you can start again if it doesnt quite go the way you want.Be aware though, you can only have one exit save and making a new one will overwrite your previous state - so choose wisely!Look your Sunday bestIronically in a medieval world where everyones caked in stinking mud and worse, appearance is everything.If you take nothing else away from this tips page, let it be this: in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, you must have a separate set of fancy clothes you can use to pass speech checks.As well as your Speech skill, which dictates how silver-tongued and articulate you are, Henry also has a separate value for Charisma, which is a measure of persuasive his outward appearance is. Dirty, ruined clothes make him out to be a pauper and untrustworthy, while a jaunty, expensive hat marks him as a man with influence. Image credit: Warhorse Studios/VG247The thing is, you can grab many high Charisma garments for a relatively reasonable price quite early in the game; the peacock-feather hat is my go-to. This allows you to quickly don your persuasion suit whenever you think you will need to sweet talk someone (like a guard with a warrant for your arrest or a key quest participant) and get away with murder, sometimes literally!Visit the tailor, Bartoshek, in Troskowitz, where you can pick up said peacock-feather hat, good quality pants and coats, and embroidered hoods for a few groschen each.Also look out for jewellery and necklaces in graves and on defeated enemies. These give big boosts to Charisma without having to mess around with your core outfit (they still need to be kept clean however).Bed, Bath and BeyondSpeaking of keeping clean, the bathhouse has many uses in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Theyre not only an affordable way to restore the Charisma of your clothes, but let you rest and heal your wounds much more quickly than sleep.If youre so inclined, its also the quickest path to romance and what the Sims would call woohoo.Dont ignore forks in the roadThe main quest of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 diverges quickly into multiple, equally valid paths.Henry can either pitch up to the blacksmith and ask for a job, or head down to the Miller who youre warned theres something not quite right about.Because of this warning, its very easy to discount the Miller as a malevolent reprobate because he kind of is. However, thats only because his quests serve as the games stealth, thievery and pickpocketing tutorials, whereas the blacksmith introduces you more to crafting, speech and survival.These routes arent exclusive, and even after youve completed one set of quests you can still go and complete the other too. This is not only a great way to get more familiar with some of the games most difficult mechanics, but grind some vital XP too.Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is more forgiving than its predecessor, with fewer quests which progress in real-time without your involvement. This means you can explore and take on more quests to your hearts content, allowing you to gain skill and quest rewards as you find your feet in Bohemia.Ask and you shall receiveThere are easy, cheap and fast ways to get most essential items in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. For example, you can get a free dagger, which gives Henry the ability to perform a stealth kill, from the Millers farm next to the lockpicking tutorial chest. Image credit: Warhorse Studios/VG247A shovel can be procured with a five-finger discount from Troskowitz cemetery, or purchased for cheap from the general merchant on the west side of Troskowitz. From that same merchant, you can also get a pouch to use potions in battle.These might seem minor, but when you need them, you really need them!The pen is mightier than the swordSkill books are very good in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and often hidden in plain sight.You can sit down to read them on a bed (like you get for starting the blacksmiths quests in Tachov) and they dish out a huge amount of XP for the time investment.Theres a very useful Strength Skill book behind the very easy locked door in the basement of Troskowitz Rathaus, while the Miller gives you two Stealth books during the Wedding Crashers quest line.For even more Thievery XP, theres a Skill Book on the cart next to the Voivodes tent in the Nomad Camp which you can freely pick up.And finally, in the early game, if you return to Gerta the alchemist's wife in Troskowitz after you've solved the mystery of The Hermit, she'll give you an Alchemy skill book which is great for levelling the notoriously tricky system.

Make it Make SenseSony made the PSN account requirement optional with some games, so why are those games still not on sale everywhere?In the countries that would benefit the most from Sony dropping the PlayStation Account linking requirement, we still cannot buy the very games this decision was made for.Image credit: PlayStation, VG247 Article by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Feb. 4, 2025 Somehow, Sony continues to make decisions around the PlayStation Networks PC presence that no one could explain, and I doubt the publisher could even justify. But here we are, months on from the Helldivers 2 disaster, when Sony executives woke up one day and decided to enforce the PlayStation Network linking requirement in the co-op shooter.Even then, that couldve been the end of it. Sure, many wouldve complained, but needing yet another account or launcher to play a game you paid for has become such a norm on PC that most wouldve just bitten the bullet and created a free PSN account; satisfying whatever desire to juice the numbers Sony had.Except, of course, Sony - seemingly unaware of the limited reach of its own service - realised that most countries in the world arent recognised by PSN, which caused it to remove the game from sale in all those countries.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. I know everyone and their dog has poked holes into whatever logic got Sony to make the game inaccessible in over 170 countries, but I have no choice but to do it again here to highlight just how asinine that decision was, how clumsy it got carried out, how utterly sloppy Sonys handling of the entire debacle since has been, and its consequences now in 2025.From that moment on, every single Sony Interactive Entertainment release on PC has been unavailable in those countries. Most of those games are strictly single-player, so theres no need for them to hit a server or require any sort of regional support that would necessitate this removal.In some cases, players who own the original game were unable to buy the sequel and continue the story. In fact, when Sony released a remaster of a game and offered existing owners a discount, the majority couldn't take advantage of that, as the remaster simply wasnt on sale where they are. But perhaps the most egregious is that, because of the remasters existence, the original game was itself no longer on sale.If you purchase a Steam key from somewhere, or have one sent to you - say, by a Sony PR person because you work in games media - you cannot redeem that key. There you are, with a key Sony is willingly offering you to play its upcoming PC release, and theres nothing you can do to get it to work.But you know what the most frustrating part of all this is? None of it needed to happen! Love to see this when I try to spend money! | Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment, VG247No, I am not talking about corporate greed or whatever other reason spurred the original decision. I mean the PSN linking requirement couldve continued to exist, and there would still be no need for the games to be inaccessible to so many.The PlayStation is the default console in most of the world. Its been that way since the PS1, and continues to be true today. The majority of the countries that buy PlayStation consoles, accessories - and crucially, games, never had official PSN support. In fact, hardware warranties are often rarely offered in many of them.In the age of physical games, people simply imported copies from the EU and US. When digital picked up steam and discounts made it possible to secure better deals, everyone moved most of their yearly buys to digital. Everyone I know in Egypt, one such country Sony shunned, had a UK/US/or some Gulf country PSN account. Theyd buy PSN cards of various denominations, charge their account balance, and get whatever they wanted off the PlayStation Store. I was happy to do the same, and I even used the same account I created with my PS3 to play Helldivers 2 on PC last year! I guarantee you many of the people playing that game at launch did the same exact thing. Only one other way I can think of to play those games on PC... | Image credit: VG247 / Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive EntertainmentSo, imagine my surprise when Sony announced last week that its dropping the PSN linking requirement with some games, and instead making it optional. I thought, surely that means this is the companys way of saving face as it puts those games back on sale in the dozens of countries they were previously unavailable in.Nope, all those games remain inaccessible to me and millions of other players. I cant get them on Steam or the Epic Games Store. I cant even ask Sony for a review key, because as weve established, its not going to work. Ive gotten so sick of seeing This item is currently unavailable in your region every time I have to view the Steam page of one of Sonys recent games.I could go buy those games through the PlayStation Store on PS5 right now and Sony would happily take my money. I would be using the same PSN account with the same very real UK address - the one Ive been using for over a decade - to do it. Why cant I do the same on PC? Why is it possible to overlook whatever perceived regulatory hurdles there are and offer the games on the console PlayStation Store, but not on PC?

Image: Nintendo LifeWith last month's Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, Nintendo teased something we'd all been waiting for (well, following weeks of leaks) a potential 'mouse' mode. A little sneak peek at the optical laser, the Joy-Con swiftly rolling along a surface like a mouse.There are a few obvious candidates for games that'd work wonders with a mouse controller, but the most apparent is next week's new release, Sid Meier's Civilization VII. So trust the folks over at IGN to ask developer Firaxis about its thoughts on the potential feature in an interview.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube795kWatch on YouTube Speaking to IGN were Civilization VII's lead designer Ed Beach and the game's executive producer Dennis Shirk. On the subject of Switch 2, Shirk gave an expectedly tight-lipped response, calling it "intriguing" rather than confirming anything.Of course, that's to be expected why show your hand when Nintendo has only teased the feature? But Shirk is full of praise for the reveal and the potential, particularly because "You always do some trade-offs when you have to deal with pure console controls." Additionally, he told IGN on the console's reveal:"And the announcement has some great stuff in it. I love what they're doing with the controllers. It's all very cool. That's about all I can say about it in terms of an opinion. I think it looks awesome and they're not wrong, so it would be cool for something like that."At the very least, Firaxis does love the sound of a mouse controller and we do, too. But what on earth could Nintendo do with the thing?We've been speculating, of course, but there are a few obvious candidates, including Civ VII this is a PC-first franchise, or at least it used to be. But whether Nintendo will go backwards compatible with that functionality remains to be seen.Civilization VII launches on Switch on 11th February 2025, which is day one with every other version. Reviews dropped for the game yesterday, though all of them are for PC, and the general consensus is good, if a little mixed on the more streamlined design.Do you think we'll see mouse compatibility with Civ VII on Switch 2? Let us know down below. New entry launches this monthFlexing that backward compatibility[source ign.com]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:02 Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesEx-PlayStation Boss On Switch 2's Name: Nintendo Created So Much "Brand Value""Why would you mess with that?"Rumour: Switch 2 Game Cases Might Take Up More Space On Your ShelfHere's how they could compare to the current Switch casesJapan's Switch eShop Will Soon No Longer Accept Overseas Payment MethodsChange will come into effect in MarchPlatinumGames Wipes Several Games From Its Website's PortfolioIncluding Star Fox Zero and 'Project G.G.'

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)Developer G.Rev may not be all that familiar to those who werent fully immersed in the shoot-'em-up scene of the early noughties. A boutique independent, it was assembled by former Taito employees who previously contributed to the likes of RayStorm and G-Darius. G.Revs most famous work, and the one that put it on the map, is Border Down: a wonderfully original 2003 shooting game for Segas Naomi arcade hardware and Dreamcast console. It was followed in 2006 by Under Defeat, switching from the horizontal to the vertical and trading sci-fi for a grounded militaristic theme.Not to be confused with that other Dreamcast helicopter shoot 'em up, Psikyos Zero Gunner 2, Under Defeat pits pink-haired German soldier girls against the enemy forces of The Union. While any real-world similarities are dispelled by impossibly giant gunships torn from the pages of anime fiction, one of Under Defeats more interesting aspects is how hard-boiled it feels.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)There arent any world-breaking power-ups, barking hidden mascots, or zany thematic intrusions. Its desaturated world of dirt paths and jungle enclaves is peppered with tanks, enemy choppers, and naval destroyers; a landscape of smoking metal and phosphorescent detonations, base encampments and soaring missiles. Graphically, its quite beautiful, especially with the high-definition upscaling and redone textures, and its numerous terrific explosions never get old.Your gunship has one of two movement options, normal and inverted. Your craft cant fully turn back on itself, instead tilting on an invisible pivot with a large diagonal range. Holding the fire button locks it in place, allowing you to strafe. It may sound basic, but these mechanics are what makes Under Defeat so compelling. Tactical positioning is everything, and learning where to camp, where to angle, and where to lock yourself into safe spots will make or break a one-credit clear attempt.While the campaign is relatively short at 30 minutes end to end, its no walk in the park. While not as difficult as Border Down (few are), Under Defeats five stages require real learning. Its angles of fire can take some getting used to, and enemy bullets have a slow, but unusual downward-sloping trajectory that can regularly catch you out if you dont prime your position.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)Your ship comes with a set of bombs that should be used with prejudice, as youre regularly granted replenishments; and, while you cant power up your shot, alternating pickups allow you to switch between one of two secondary weapons: a Vulcan cannon that pumps out an additional stream of machine gun fire, or a single, powerful rocket.The only drawback with your secondary weapon deployed by a satellite that pops out, fires, and then detonates is that you need to completely release the fire button for a couple of seconds to have it recharge. For the rocket, this takes a little longer, owing to its heightened power.A major survival strategy, then, is picking the right secondary weapon for the right juncture. An early example would be the giant naval destroyers on stage two, where the heavy-duty rocket will deal more damage to their various gun emplacements - but youll be more frequently dancing with death during recharge windows.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)This particular release of Under Defeat is mostly the same as Under Defeat HD, released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in 2011. As well as completely overhauled graphics many totally redrawn by the original team it features three modes: Arcade; New Order Mode (adapting the action to a full widescreen format and allowing your craft a greater deal of horizontal firing range); and New Order Mode Plus, which is an arrangement that mixes up enemy layouts and firing patterns for a new experience. Practice modes are provided for all, and theyre well worth using, allowing you to modify your starting position by area, as well as configure secondary weapons and rank adjustments.There are now four stellar soundtracks on board that can be applied to any mode, providing plenty of audio variety. Composer Shinji Hosoe (Ridge Racer, Street Fighter EX) is responsible for Original, Arrange, and New Order cuts, while Boosted comes courtesy of Yousuke Yasui, taking things into a techno overdrive, that, while cool, isnt quite matched to the tempo of the action.Swedish publisher Clear River Games has billed this as Under Defeats ultimate release, and were more inclined to agree than not. There is, at least, nothing missing from the package. Its stuffed with modes, galleries, online rankings, and screen and audio configurations; and for the first time the occasional audio chatter between pilots is now subtitled. It also unlocks all the DLC previously behind paywalls, meaning you can choose up to four ship types from the outset, each with varying sizes, speeds, and shot properties.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)The New Order modes also work really nicely in handheld, with bright enough bullets to make the widescreen display fizz, and the whole things runs incredibly smoothly. No doubt, owing to the lag that the Switch seems to produce as a matter of course, purists will be counting the frame digits and publishing them online soon enough, but for us there was no real disabling impediment, especially on a TV with a decent game mode.Most important, however, is the quality of G.Revs original product. While sadly, the studio never quite reached the heights of Under Defeat again, on the upside it remains brilliantly made and eminently playable. It's a game that tortures you with its rank, tightening the screws based on how efficiently you play, but thrillingly rewards any effort to learn your way through the maelstrom. The lock and fire system is perfect, even if it takes some getting used to, and figuring out boss patterns and enemy formations from one step to the next is utterly thrilling.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)It feels boldly hardcore, its warring map of gritty landscapes flourishing under some of the best explosions in the business, with plumes of smoke barrelling in the wind. Theres a depth to it that feels unique, and, while the boss designs are somewhat unremarkable, the opening of stage five remains one of the genre's more poetic moments.ConclusionWhere helicopter gunship-themed video games are concerned, Under Defeat is one of the best ever. It signifies a point in time when the shoot 'em up was being propelled by a new area of creativity, and young development studios like G.Rev were leading the charge. Love it or loathe it, its lock-shot strafe and creeping bullet patterns work terrifically once you get a feel for them, and theres a cinematic scale to it all that feels somehow poignant. Its not the longest game, nor the most visually diverse, but it does what it sets out to do exceptionally well.Looks fantastic, relatively speaking, especially in widescreenRemains unique in its feel, and is a real blast to learnWith all its legacy and newly added content, this is indeed the ultimate Under Defeat packageA tough game to crack, the rank, bullet trajectories, and gameplay mechanics may be difficult to warm to initiallySome may not find its graphical theming particularly varied or interestingGreat 8/10

Swiss startup LogicStar is bent on joining the AI agent game. The summer 2024-founded startup has bagged $3 million in pre-seed funding to bring tools to the developer market that can do autonomous maintenance of software applications, rather than the more typical AI agent use-case of code co-development.LogicStar CEO and co-founder Boris Paskalev suggests the startups AI agents could end up partnering with code development agents such as, say, the likes of Cognition Labs Devin in a business win-win.Code fidelity is an issue for AI agents building and deploying software, just as it is for human developers, and LogicStar wants to do its bit to grease the development wheel by automatically picking up and fixing bugs wherever they may crop up in deployed code. As it stands, Paskalev suggests that even the best models and agents out there are unable to resolve the majority of bugs theyre presented with hence the team spying an opportunity for an AI startup thats dedicated to improving these odds and delivering on the dream of less tedious app maintenance.To this end, they are building atop large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAIs GPT or even Chinas DeepSeek taking a model-agnostic approach for their platform. This allows LogicStar to dip into different LLMs and maximize its AI agents utility, based on which foundational model works best for resolving a particular code issue.Paskalev contends that the founding team has the technical and domain-specific knowledge to build a platform that can resolve programming problems which can challenge or outfox LLMs working alone. They also have past entrepreneurial success to point to: he sold his prior code review startup, DeepCode, to cybersecurity giant Snyk back in September 2020.In the beginning we were thinking about actually building a large language model for code, he told TechCrunch. Then we realized that that will quickly become a commodity Now were building assuming all those large language models are there. Assuming theres some actually decent [AI] agents for code, how do we extract the maximum business value from them?He said that the idea built on the teams understanding of how to analyze software applications. Combine that with large language models then focus into grounding and verifying what those large language models and the AI agent actually suggest.Test-driven developmentWhat does that mean in practice? Paskalev says LogicStar performs an analysis of each application that its tech is deployed on using classical computer science methods in order to build a knowledge base. This gives its AI agent a comprehensive map of the softwares inputs and outputs; how variables link to functions; and any other linkages and dependencies etc. Then, for every bug its presented with, the AI agent is able to determine which parts of the application are impacted allowing LogicStar to narrow down the functions needing to be simulated in order to test scores of potential fixes. Per Paskalev, this minimized execution environment allows the AI agent to run thousands of tests aimed at reproducing bugs to identify a failing test, and through this test-driven development approach ultimately land on a fix that sticks.He confirms that the actual bug fixes are sourced from the LLMs. But because LogicStars platform enables this very fast executive environment its AI agents can work at scale to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were, and serve its users with a shortcut to the best that LLMs can offer.What we see is [LLMs are] great for prototyping, testing things, etc, but its absolutely not great for [code] production, commercial applications. I think were far from there, and this is what our platform delivers, he argued. To be able to extract those capabilities of the models today, we can actually safely extract commercial value and actually save time for developers to really focus on the important stuff.Enterprises are set to be LogicStars initial target. Its silicon agents are intended to be put to work alongside corporate dev teams, albeit at a fraction of the salary required to hire a human developer, handling a range of app upkeep tasks and freeing up engineering talent for more creative and/or challenging work. (Or, well, at least until LLMs and AI agents get a lot more capable.)While the startups pitch touts a fully autonomous app maintenance capability, Paskalev confirms that the platform will allow human developers to review (and otherwise oversee) the fixes its AI agents call up. So trust can be and must be earned first. The accuracy that a human developer delivers ranges between 80 to 90%. Our goal [for our AI agents] is to be exactly there, he adds.Its still early days for LogicStar: an alpha version of its technology is in testing with a number of undisclosed companies which Paskalev refers to as design partners. Currently the tech only supports Python but expansions to Typescript, Javascript and Java are billed as coming soon. The main goal [with the pre-seed funding] is to actually show the technology works with our design partners focusing on Python, adds Paskalev. We already spent a year on it, and we have lots of opportunity to actually expand. And thats why were trying to focus it first, to show the value in one case.The startups pre-seed raise was led by European VC firm Northzone, with angel investors from DeepMind, Fleet, Sequoia scouts, Snyk and Spotify also joining the round. In a statement, Michiel Kotting, partner at Northzone, said: AI-driven code generation is still in its early stages, but the productivity gains were already seeing are revolutionary. The potential for this technology to streamline development processes, reduce costs, and accelerate innovation is immense. and the teams vast technical expertise and proven track record position them to deliver real, impactful results. The future of software development is being reshaped, and LogicStar will play a crucial role in software maintenance.LogicStar is operating a waiting list for potential customers wanting to express interest in getting early access. It told us a beta release is planned for later this year.

On a clear spring evening in Michigan, the stars aligned just not in the way Upfront Ventures partner Nick Kim expected.Hed just led a $9.5 million seed round for OurSky, a software platform for space observational data, and was eager to see what its telescope partner PlaneWave Instruments could do.But when they rolled out the telescopes that night at PlaneWaves manufacturing facility, he was stuck waiting.It took them quite a long time to get the first image. Im talking like, multiple hours. And these are the people who make the telescopes! They were using all this, like, off-the-shelf, open-source software that they kind of cobbled together, Kim said in an interview with TechCrunch.Kim wasnt upset, though. He was excited. This is why OurSky needed to exist, right? This is the problem, he remembered thinking. What a perfect match.It was such a good match that, now, OurSky and PlaneWave are merging to create a new company called Observable Space.OurSky founder Dan Roelker and PlaneWave founder Richard Hedrick say this will make the telescopes easier to use. And they also believe the tighter integration will open up new markets especially as they leverage their position as the only U.S.-based telescope manufacturer. They already count NASA, the U.S. Space Force, and Georgia States Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy as customers.My dream was to integrate all the components on the telescope, even the parts we dont sell, and then integrate the control of the telescope, Hedrick said in an interview. It was very obvious for us to be working together.Roelker, who was SpaceXs VP of software engineering from 2015 to 2019, said telescope users have to deal with what he called a mash of integration bullsh. PlaneWaves vertical strategy combined with OurSkys software will eliminate those headaches, he said.Solving that integration problem is an opportunity for Observable Space to grow the market, Roelker said. (The platform OurSky has built will continue on in that name, and the telescopes will continue to be sold under the PlaneWave brand.)That can involve a number of things, like letting users tap multiple telescopes at a single site or even around the world to mimic the capabilities of a much larger telescope, or sending communications to and from space via laser, all while lowering cost.Squeezing more out of his high-quality telescopes sold Hedrick on the merger. It will make the tech more approachable and affordable for enthusiasts and institutions alike.Hedrick said one of those institutions recently designed some one-meter telescopes and had them custom built by someone else. And they were like, God, if you had existed, we never would have done that, he said.New businessAs the cost to get to orbit shrinks, more companies are sending things to space, Roelker said. That means there is increased demand for the ability to locate and track objects orbiting the Earth, communicate with spacecraft, and enable defense and intelligence applications.Observable Space can be a key player in that new economy, according to Mislav Tolusic, managing partner at dual-use venture fund Marlinspike, which has invested in Observable Space.Every day youre relying on space, Tolusic said in an interview. If you take out GPS constellations, were in trouble economically. Its a big, big, big deal. A lot of systems stop functioning. And guess what? The future is going to be even more dependent on that infrastructure.Tolusic praised PlaneWaves quality, and noted Hedrick built up the company at a time when basically all telescope manufacturing is overseas which he believes is an advantage.If you want to replicate that [in the U.S.], you have to go figure out how to make those fine lenses, how to make gimbals and not just how to design them but how to spit them out by the thousands, he said.Jordan Noone, general partner at Embedded Ventures, explained his funds investment with a specific example of what OurSky and PlaneWave can do as a combined company.Shortly before the merger, Noone was at Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles for a demo of the companies products working together.He told TechCrunch that the teams pulled an observation request from the queue on OurSkys platform: a satellite operator had lost radio contact with its spacecraft. The OurSky and PlaneWave teams located it quickly.What he described was a much smoother experience than Kims demo in Michigan, and served as proof in his mind that Observable Space was a good bet to make.Many of the worlds most valuable companies, like Apple, Nvidia theyre hardware/software platform combos, Noone said. Companies that approach just one of those two can have a lot of inherent value, but the combination of both in todays world is extremely powerful.Star Wars or Star Trek?Observable Space has about 100 employees, with the manufacturing operations remaining in Michigan, some engineering happening in Los Angeles, California, and an observatory outside Washington, D.C.Its already revenue-generating, and the combined company has raised $11 million to date, including funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIAs non-profit strategic investment arm.Hedrick and Roelker said the two companies have fit together easily, since they were both focused on such different businesses and didnt have massive back office operations.Going through the merger process itself was actually really valuable, because when youre going through it, a lot of issues pop up, Roelker said. You actually get a really good sense of how youre going to work together. And I think both Rick and I felt really good about that, because we actually went through some really hard things during the merger.When asked, the pair did not describe those hard things, and Hedrick instead quipped: We had to decide on whether [the company] was going to be Star Wars or Star Trek.The answer?Battlestar Galactica, Roelker said.