If youve watchedThe Fantastic Four: First Stepstrailer as much as we have, first of all, stop. Its too much. Go outside. Breathe some fresh air. The movie doesnt come out for months.Okay, feeling better? Great. As we were saying: If you watchFirst Steps trailerveryclosely, you can spot a silent, hidden appearance by none other than the Watcher, the charactervoiced by Jeffrey Wright on Marvels Disney+ animated seriesWhat If...?The Watcher plays a central role in the arrival of Galactus to Marvel Comics, so its not shocking he appears in the trailer somewhere.In our latestFantastic Fourvideo, we show you where to find the Watcher in theFantastic Four trailer, give you the characters history from Marvels comics and earlier Marvel Cinematic Universe shows, and explainwhy his role in this film is absolutely essential to connectingFantastic Four to the rest of the Marvel Multiverse Saga.Watch the full video below:READ MORE: The Worst Marvel Comics EverIf you liked that video on the hidden Watcher cameo in TheFantastic Four: First Stepstrailer and what it means for the future of the MCU, check out more of our videos below, including onebreaking down all the Marvel Easter eggs in the new The Fantastic Four: First Steps teaser, one on all of the clues that Doctor Doom was the secret Big Bad in the Marvel Cinematic Universe all along, and one on the controversial casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and whether Marvel is making a mistake with the shift away from Kang. Plus, theres tons more videos over atScreenCrushs YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes.The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to open in theaters on July 25, 2025.Sign up for Disney+ here.Get our free mobile appEvery Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to BestIt started with Iron Man and its continued and expanded ever since. Its the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 34 movies and counting. But whats the best and the worst? We ranked them all.

To an action movie connoisseur, the name 87North is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. These guys know and love practical action fights, chases, shootouts and they do it, in films like John Wick,Atomic Blonde, andNobody,better than just about anyone in modern Hollywood. If theyre involved, you know a film is gonna deliver the goods, at least on a technical level.Unfortunately, movies are more than their technical levels, or even their bravura action. Love Hurts fight scenes are as expertly executed as youd expect from the 87North crew. Its everything else thats below par. The story is a jumbled, hurried mess and the award-winning cast cantsettle on a cohesive tone. And to be honest, as crisp asthe action sequences are, with so little variety and without anything else of note onscreen to latch on to, they start tofeel a little repetitive.The film should be a showcase for Ke Huy Quan, theformer child star of The GooniesandIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doomwho had a welcome career revival (and won an Oscar) for his role in 2022s Everything Everywhere All At Once. Here he plays Marvin Gable, a mild-mannered real estate agent with a dark secret: He used to work as a vicious enforcer for his gangster brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu) until he was granted his retirement from The Lifeafter agreeing tokill a woman named Rose (Ariana DeBose).LOVE HURTSUniversalloading...READ MORE: The Best Movie Titles in HistoryExcept Marvin didnt kill Rose. He spared her life and hid the evidence. Everything was fine until Rose beginssending taunting Valentines Day cards to Knuckles and his men. (The onlyexplanation sheoffers for thisbaffling choice is to repeatedly announce toMarvin that hiding isnt living.) Roses returnsets off a flurry of violence, with Knuckles goons trying to findher through Marvin while Marvin, who secretly loves Rose, tries desperately to protect her and his new life as a humble realtor.The notion of a retired hitman forced toreturn to his aggressive ways is a familiar one from action movies in general, and 87Northproductions in particular. Thats the premise of theJohn Wick saga, where it served as the foundation for an operatic revenge tale, and also ofNobody, a dark comedy about the incongruity of seeing scrawny Bob Odenkirk as a bone-breaking badass.Love Hurts leans into that same incongruity, with the diminutive Quan wiping the floor with enormous adversaries like Mustafa Shakirand former NFL pro Marshawn Lynch.But theres no shock to Quans martial arts skills, at least not for anyone who saw him pull off a similar trick inEverything Everywhere All at Once. Still, Quan is way more convincing in the fight scenes than when hes asked to play Lothario; he has no chemistry with DeBose, whose over-the-top mannerisms are a total mismatch forQuans grounded, sheepish performance.LOVE HURTSUniversalloading...It doesnt help thatLove Hurts is barely 80 minutes long, and everything around the action has been trimmed to the absolute minimum, meaning the script has zero time to offera single reason why these two people withwildly different temperaments, ambitions, and ages (DeBose is almost 20 years younger than Quan) would ever fall for each other. Director Jonathan Eusebiosurroundsthe already threadbareA plot with a few loose threads about romance one hitman sendsapologetic texts to an unseen spouse, another falls for a witness to his brutal acts but the ValentinesDay setting add nothing of substance to the film except a reason to release it in theaters in the middle of February.In a world where many big-budget filmmakers are content to let visual effects artists sort out their action scenes for them, it isnice to see a film filled with old school stunts and intricate fight choreography. And Quan remains an extremely likable actor, as well as an impressive martial artist. (Even beforeEverything Everywhere All at Once, he hadworked on several Hollywood productions as a fight choreographer.) Its great to see him back on the screen, but hes let down by his material here. When hes not kicking butt,Love Hurtsis downright painful.LOVE HURTSUniversalloading...Additional Thoughts-Marshawn Lynchs performances in this and the recentBottoms suggest he is a natural comic screen presence. Also, hes credited in this film as Marshawn Beast Mode Lynch, and I deeply respect that decision.RATING: 4/10Get our free mobile appThe 10 Most Ridiculous Tropes In Action MoviesGood luck finding an action movie that doesn't have at least a few of these stereotypes.

All jobs Senior Backend Engineer Posted 0 hours agoUpdated 0 hours ago Elevate Labs is on a mission to improve people's minds.Weve helped millions of people around the world learn and improve concrete communication, memory, and math skills through Elevate, our first mobile app which has won Apple's App of the Year Award and been downloaded more than 60 million times. With Balance, our second mobile app and winner of Google's Best App award, weve personalized meditation and made it free for an entire year to help more people reduce stress, improve sleep, sharpen focus, and much more.Elevate Labs is a fully remote company of voracious learners and passionate doers, driven by our vision to help billions of people lead healthy, joyful, and productive lives.If our mission resonates with you, please consider applying! Apply now About Us:Elevate Labs is on a mission to improve people's minds.Weve helped millions of people around the world learn and improve concrete communication, memory, and math skills through Elevate, our first mobile app which has won Apple's App of the Year Award and been downloaded more than 60 million times. With Balance, our second mobile app and winner of Google's Best App award, weve personalized meditation and made it free for an entire year to help more people reduce stress, improve sleep, sharpen focus, and much more.Elevate Labs is a fully remote company of voracious learners and passionate doers, driven by our vision to help billions of people lead healthy, joyful, and productive lives.If our mission resonates with you, please consider applying!The Role:You'll be responsible for building and maintaining the backend that powers our award-winning app, Balance. We're looking for an experienced backend engineer with a deep understanding of scalable systems and a passion for performance & reliability. Youll collaborate closely with all engineers to build products that educate and delight our customers. As a senior member of the team, youll have the opportunity to guide the direction of our products and our engineering team.This is a fully remote position anywhere in North or South America. We are happy to sponsor US visas and green cards, if applicable.How Youll Make an Impact Here:Lead the technical design and implementation of complex projects by working closely with Product Management, Marketing, and Content to define problems, come up with solutions, and deliver high-performance, reliable backend systems that support our appsIntroduce new ideas to help the team iterate on process and technologyMentor fellow engineers, help them grow their skills, and be open to learning from your teammates as you continue to grow your own skillsFocus mainly on backend development but occasionally help out your teammates in other areas of the stack (Data, DevOps, iOS, Android, etc.)Qualifications:You have 7+ years of professional software experience in backend developmentYou are experienced with Ruby on RailsYou are passionate about product-focused problem-solvingYou stay up to date with the latest backend development news and technologiesYou have experience integrating 3rd party APIs, especially single sign- on, purchasing, and analyticsYou communicate clearly and are willing to give critical feedback to improve the productYou can identify areas for improvement and drive projects to completion without a manager consistently directing your workYou have shipped at least one customer-facing productOur Stack:Backend: Ruby on RailsScripting: Python & ShellCloud: Heroku, AWS, & CloudFlareDatabases: PostgreSQL & RedisData Analytics: Snowflake & DBTCI/CD: GitHub ActionsIaC: TerraformBonus:Experience with multiple technologies in our stackExperience with backends specifically for mobile appsExperience with web or full stack developmentExperience with building and maintaining content delivery systemsExperience with billing systems like Stripe, App Store, & Play StoreInterest in mental health, brain training, and meditationBenefits:Competitive salary and equityMedical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your familyDistributed team flexibility, with a home-office stipend and co-working reimbursementAnnual learning, wellness, and travel stipendsGenerous PTO, flexible sick leave, and paid parental leaveAnnual company meetup in fun locationHow We Hire:At Elevate Labs, we seek to build high-impact teams with high talent density, and we invest a lot of time and care into the hiring process. Your resume will be reviewed by a human, so we encourage you to keep resumes short (one page should do), double-check for grammar errors, and submit it as a PDF.During the interview process, you can expect conversational-style sessions, some with a technical focus, and coding exercises in a common backend language of your choice, with Ruby or Python preferred.Please note that all communication with applicants will be sent from elevatelabs.com or our Applicant Tracking System, Ashby (ashbyhq.com). Elevate Labs will never ask you to create a Microsoft Teams or any other online account before your interview process begins. If you are asked to provide information and do not believe it is a legitimate request from Elevate Labs, please contact [emailprotected] to validate before proceeding.Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Elevate Labs View company Jobs posted: 28 Related Jobs See more Full-Stack Programming jobs

All jobs Senior Accountant Posted 0 hours agoUpdated 0 hours ago BenefitsCompetitive compensation including an organization-wide goal-based bonusPaid Time Off: 5 Weeks PTO upon joining + Winter Holiday Break and Summer Holiday Break. Each year with the company, youll receive 2 extra PTO days80% Work Option: Work with your manager to choose between working 5 day weeks (standard full-time) or 4 day weeks @ 80% payPaid Parental Leave for primary and secondary caregiversSabbatical: After 5 years with the team, youre eligible for a 1 month paid sabbaticalHealthcare (US residents): Medical, Dental, Vision with HSA option (US residents), Dependent care FSA (US residents)401k (US residents): We match 6% contributions with immediate vestingOur ValuesBuild a house you want to live in - Examine long-term thinking and actionNo BS - Practice transparency and honesty, especially when its hardInvest in each other - Build successful relationships with your coworkers and customersDiscipline equals freedom - Keep your word to yourself and othersStrive for greatness - Constantly challenge yourself and othersLearn MoreListen to our CEO and Founder, Steli Efti, tell the story of Closes journey in the $0-30m Blueprint.Watch our culture video from our 2023 team retreat in Milan. Every year our entire team gathers in person to build connection, foster cross-functional collaboration, and have fun. In 2025, were headed to Paris, France.Explore our product. You can watch a ten-minute video demo on our home page.Our Hiring ProcessWe ask a few role-specific questions as part of our application process. These questions are designed to help us learn more about you from the start so please answer each question thoughtfully. We see this as an opportunity to get to know you beyond your resume.While we are excited by all the opportunities that generative AI has unlocked, we request that you refrain from relying on AI tools when completing an application. Every application is read closely by humans and any obviously AI generated applications will be disregarded.Regardless of fit, you can expect to hear back from our team with an update on the status of your candidacy.If you progress to the interview process, youll receive a full outline of the role-specific interview process in your first touchpoint with us. We do our best to make the hiring process clear and human. Apply now About UsClose is building the modern CRM for small, scaling businesses - just like us.Today, were 100+ people across 22 countries. Were united in our goal to help small businesses sell better by eliminating manual work and empowering them to focus on what matters most: relationships.Close sets our compass by our customers and our people. Sustainability is core to serving both; we care deeply about the health of our business and the wellbeing of our team. Were bootstrapped - meaning weve accepted no outside funding - and fully remote since 2016. The way weve chosen to build the business allows us to chart our own course.Our team prioritizes impact, ownership, and quality. As a growing, remote-first company, we favor asynchronicity over meetings and we relentlessly prioritize work that moves the needle. We practice a mature approach to the workplace -- we expect our team to manage time effectively, communicate thoughtfully with teammates and customers, and produce great work.About the RoleOur Senior Accountant will oversee all things accounting and compliance-related while contributing to the FP&A process. You will be responsible for providing technical accounting expertise, improving financial processes, and internal audits. This position will be responsible for month-end, general ledger, accounts payable, payroll, sales tax, and billing. This will be a very hands-on position.You areA seasoned finance professional with 5+ years of progressive experience in a public or late-stage technology company.A SaaS revenue recognition expert with deep knowledge of ASC 606 and U.S. GAAP.A data-driven decision-maker with advanced Excel and data management skillsSQL knowledge is a plus!A modern finance technologist, skilled in leveraging automation and SaaS financial tools to drive efficiency.A self-starter with high autonomy, able to take direction and execute without requiring hands-on management.You willOwn SaaS revenue recognitionensure compliance with ASC 606 and U.S. GAAP while optimizing financial reporting processes.Manage and streamline financial operations by leveraging modern SaaS accounting tools and automation.Collaborate cross-functionally with finance, operations, and leadership to improve efficiency and financial transparency.Work autonomously, taking general direction and executing with minimal oversight.Stay ahead of industry trends, continuously improving financial and operational processes to support a high-growth SaaS business.Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Close View company Jobs posted: 155 Related Jobs See more Management and Finance jobs

Since the pandemic, remote work has radically changed our conception of "the office." The Pew Research Center estimates that 14% of all employed adults over 18, or roughly 22 million people, are currently working from home all the time.However, if you're a remote worker filing your taxes, you still might not be able to claim the home office deduction. The home office deduction allows eligible taxpayers to reduce their tax obligation by writing off their workspace as a legitimate business expense. In most cases, the home office deduction applies only to self-employed and independent contractors, not those under traditional contracts who are classified as remote employees. This story is part of Taxes 2025, CNET's coverage of the best tax software, tax tips and everything else you need to file your return and track your refund. It all depends on how your employment is categorized by the IRS and if your office is solely used for business. Read on to learn more about how the home office deduction works in 2025.Who qualifies for the home office deduction?Though telework has become widespread for traditional W-2 employees, the home office deduction specifically applies to fully self-employed people or independent contractors who use a designated area for business on a regular and/or exclusive basis. That means you probably qualify if you work for yourself or own a small business and have allocated a part of your home as your primary workspace.Are full-time W2 employees working from home eligible?If you're a W-2 remote employee hired for a period of time to complete ongoing work on a company's payroll, you probably can't claim the home office deduction.* So even if your boss gave you the green light to handle Zoom meetings in your guest room or kitchen, the only real benefit you get is that you can work in your pajamas.However, there are some caveats. For example, if you use your home office as a dedicated space to conduct business for an independent side hustle -- that is, during hours outside of your regular job -- you might be able to take advantage of the deduction, according to Lisa Greene-Lewis, CPA and expert at TurboTax.In that case, you could claim a portion of expenses like home mortgage interest, property taxes, rent and utilities based on the percentage of the home used for your side hustle, Greene-Lewis said.Working out the exact expenses for a dedicated side business isn't easy to estimate. If you're trying to balance your W-2 income on top of self-employment, it's smart to consult a tax professional.*Note that this applies to work-from-home employees under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which is in place through 2025. Keep an eye on potential changes in the future. What type of space is eligible for the home office deduction?To claim the deduction, your home office must be reserved for work you do to earn a living, not just for occasional or incidental work."The space has to be a dedicated space where you conduct business," Greene-Lewis said. "It can't be the same area where you and your family eat dinner and your kids do homework."According to the IRS, you do not meet the requirements if the area is used for both business and personal purposes. To qualify, your home office must be used "exclusively and regularly as your principal place of business" or somewhere "you meet or deal with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your trade or business."This applies regardless of whether you live in a house, apartment or condo, or whether you rent or own. And the space doesn't have to be inside your home, either. For example, if you're a musician who set up a studio in the garage, you might be able to take advantage of the home office deduction.There are some exceptions to the "exclusive use" guideline, including storing inventory or using your home as a daycare facility. If you're wondering whether your workspace meets the criteria, the IRS has a helpful page with examples of arrangements that qualify.What should you do to claim the home office deduction?The IRS might want to verify that you're actually eligible for the home office deduction. Plan to keep copies of all your expense receipts (like buying a new desk and chair, for example) and any records demonstrating the office space is used exclusively for business use."It is important for taxpayers to maintain good records and ensure they can back up that they followed the eligibility rules if the IRS has follow-up questions in a correspondence or if the taxpayer ends up in an audit," said Garrett Watson, director of policy analysis at Tax Foundation.To show your home office is the real deal, you can use the IRS's "simplified method" or regular method for your calculation. The simplified method is based on a set amount, allowing you to claim $5 per square foot up to a total of 300 square feet, without having to deduct specific expenses for the business use of your home.You may want to consider the trickier method of calculating expenses, which can pay off with a bigger deduction. For example, if you're running a licensed daycare center from your home, you would need to determine how much of the space is used for the business and what percentage of time it's occupied for the business.What other IRS deductions or business expenses can I claim as a remote worker?If you're working remotely as a W-2 employee, there aren't too many options to itemize deductions for work expenses.If you're self-employed and working from home, however, your list of potential deductions is quite long. Anything you're spending money on to fuel your business (a new computer, new software to manage your invoices, ink cartridges for your printer and more) could be a business expense that will reduce your tax bill.Can I get reimbursed for business expenses from my employer?Getting reimbursed for business expenses depends on who you work for, where you live and the arrangement you have with your employer. If your company has implemented a return-to-office mandate that requires you to be in the office several days a week, don't expect reimbursement.However, some locations must legally help employees who are covering business costs at home. According to PayCor, 11 states (along with Washington, DC, and Seattle) have laws that require reimbursement of a portion of certain expenses, such as internet and cell phone service.Read more:Best Tax Software 2025: 7 Services That Can Help You File Your Taxes RightWhat else should I know about taxes this year?Regardless of the tax category you fall into, there's one date you need to circle on your calendar: Tuesday, April 15, the 2025 tax deadline.If you're worried about having your forms completely squared away by then, you can request a six-month extension. Just make sure you pay your estimated tax bill before then. Otherwise, you'll wind up paying a late penalty.Taxes aren't easy to navigate. The more complicated your personal situation is, the more likely you are to benefit from finding expert assistance. From hiring a dedicated tax professional for your return to leveraging help from software like TurboTax and other well-known tax preparation services, you can benefit from understanding the nuances of deductions.

Table of Contents We Live in Time stars Oscar nominees Andrew Garfield and Florence Pughas Tobias and Almut, a couple whose relationship begins with a car crash meet-cute. The movie follows their story through various snapshots over a decade -- from dating to building a family. When they're dealt with a brutal truth, their relationship faces new challenges and the revelation that they must cherish each and every shared moment.Technically categorized as a romantic comedy, We Live in Time is a profoundly moving, decade-spanning drama. Appearing opposite Garfield and Pugh in the film are Lee Braithwaite, Marama Corlett, Grace Delaney, Nikhil Parmar, Aoife Hinds, Adam James and Douglas Hodge. It was written by Nick Payne and directed by John Crowley.Read on to learn how to stream We Live in Time and how using a VPN may enhance your viewing experience.Read more: Max Streaming Service Review: Loads of Content, but You Have to Make It Fit YouWhen to Watch We Live in Time on MaxA24's hit romantic dramedy will debut onMax on Friday, Feb. 7. It will then premiere on HBO linear onSaturday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. ET. Max/Warner Bros. Discovery/James Martin Max Carries We Live in Time If you're interested in streaming We Live in Time, getting Max would be your next step.Subscriptions cost $10 per month (with ads) or $17 per month (ad-free). Want to watch in 4K? The Ultimate plan offers that feature and costs $21 per month. There's also theHulu, Disney Plus and Max megabundleto consider. The ad-based bundle comes with a $17 monthly price tag, while the ad-free version costs $30 monthly. How to watch We Live in Time with a VPNPerhaps you're traveling abroad and want to stream We Live in Time on Max while away from home. With a VPN, you can virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to access the movie from anywhere in the world.But there are other good reasons to use a VPN for streaming. A VPN encrypts your traffic and is the best way to prevent your ISP from throttling your speeds. It's also a great idea if you're traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network and want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins. Streaming TV can be a bit smoother with a reliable, quality VPN that'spassed our testsand security standards.You can use a VPN to stream content legally as long as VPNs are allowed in your country and you have a valid subscription to the streaming service you're using. The US and Canada are among the countries where VPNs are legal, but we advise against streaming or downloading content on illegal torrent sites. We recommendExpressVPN, but you may opt for another provider from ourbest list, such as Surfshark or NordVPN. James Martin/CNET ExpressVPN isour current best VPN pickfor people who want a reliable and safe VPN; the service is compatible with a variety of devices. It's typically $13 a month, but if you sign up for an annual subscription for $100, you'll get four months free and save 70%.Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. See at Expressvpn Follow the VPN provider's instructions for installation and choose a country where your title of choice will be streaming on Max. Before opening the streaming app, ensure you're connected to your VPN using your selected region. If you want to stream We Live in Time on multiple devices, you may need to configure each to ensure you're signed in. Go to settings and check your network connections to verify you're logged in and connected to your VPN account. Now, you're ready to open the service to stream.If you encounter streaming issues, first make sure your VPN is up and running on its encrypted IP address. Then, double-check that you've followed installation instructions correctly and picked the right geographical area for viewing. If you still encounter connection problems, you may need to reboot your device. Close all apps and windows, restart your device and connect to your VPN first. Note that some streaming services have restrictions on VPN access.

February 5, 202516 min readWho Discovered the Cause of Down Syndrome?It took more than 50 years for Marthe Gautier to set the record straight about her discovery of the genetic cause of Down syndrome Selina PavelIn the mid-1950s Marthe Gautier, a young French doctor and cytogenetics researcher, led a cutting-edge experiment to investigate the cause of Down syndrome. She painstakingly cultured cells in a ramshackle lab until one day she discovered an extra chromosome in the cells of people with Down syndrome. This proved beyond a doubt that Down syndrome is genetic.In this first episode of our two-part series about Gautier, who passed away in 2022, she sees her discovery appropriated by a male colleague as he rushes to publish her findings. Jrme Lejeune is listed as the lead author of the study about the discovery even though Gautier did the work. Her name is listed second on this groundbreaking paper, published in 1959. And to add insult to injury, it is misspelled. It will take decades for Gautier to speak out.LISTEN TO THE PODCASTOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.TRANSCRIPTTatiana Giraud: So that's me, uh, playing the flute with Marthe, uh, and with, uh, the piano and my sisters.Lorena Galliot: This is Tatiana Giraud. She's a research director in evolutionary biology. We're sitting in her office at a botanical campus about 45 minutes outside of Paris.My colleague, Sophie, and I came here to discuss Dr. Marthe Gautier, a French doctor who also happens to be Tatiana's great-aunt. That's for her painting. Tatiana's own grandmother died before she was born. So Marthe stepped in. She hosted Christmas. She came to visit for birthdays and other holidays, and she bought Tiana and her siblings gifts from her travels.Right now, we're huddled around Tatiana's laptop, looking at old family photos.Tatiana Giraud: Yeah, so, um, it's Marthe in her flat in Paris when she was 80.Lorena Galliot: In this photo that Tatiana is showing us, Marthe looks straight at the camera with a piercing expression. She's wearing a yellow polo shirt, a black cardigan, and she's holding a magnifying glass that she used to help her read.She's sitting at her dining table in this massive room with ornate wall moldings and bookshelves, and spilling out from the bookshelves and completely submerging the table are papers.Tatiana Giraud: Oh yeah, she had a lot of papers everywhere in her flat.Lorena Galliot: So far it's been all smiles as we look through these old photos, but then Tatiana's tone changes...Tatiana Giraud: and actually, so she has a perruque, a wig.Lorena Galliot: A wig?Tatiana Giraud: Uh, because actually, because of this story, uh, with Jrme Lejeune and the 2014 story. That really upset her. She had forgotten about all this and it came back quite violently and she lost her hair.Lorena Galliot: Wow.Tatiana Giraud: At that time, uh, really because of that.Lorena Galliot: Wow, wow.This story that culminates in an incident in 2014, that led an 88-year-old scientist to lose all of her hair. This story is the heart of today's show. It's a story that says a lot about how women scientists were treated in a country like France in the 1950s. Treatment that, decades later, Marthe Gautier herself would finally blow the whistle on.Marthe Gautier (in French with voice-over): I was very sad and very upset when I saw the order of the names. Lejeune, Gautier, Turpin. To me, it was an insult.Lorena Galliot: I'm Lorena Galliott, and this is Lost Woman of Science, where we tell the stories of groundbreaking women who never got the recognition they deserved until now. This is a story of a woman who played a key role in a discovery that advanced our understanding of Down syndrome and many other genetic diseases.But for 50 years, the face of that discovery was someone else. And Marthe was all but forgotten. Today's episode. Who discovered the cause of Down syndrome?This is Part One.Before we get to that incident in 2014, when Marthe lost all her hair and distress. Let's go back to the beginning. Marthe was born in September 1925, on a farm in Montigny, about 60 miles east of Paris. She was the fifth of seven children. Marthe didn't come from a family of scientists. Her parents were farmers.There was no master plan that she'd one day take up a white coat. But her mother was ahead of her time. She encouraged her daughters to pursue higher education, even if their family wasn't part of the Parisian elite who traditionally attended the country's top schools. And Marthe was smart and hardworking.So she followed in her older sister's footsteps and moved to Paris to study medicine.Tatiana Giraud: Actually, so her father, uh, sold, uh, like a cow, um, how do you say that? Un troupeau de vache.Lorena Galliot: Uh, a cow. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah.Tatiana Giraud: A whole uh.Lorena Galliot: Like a herd of cows.Tatiana Giraud: Yeah. Exactly, to buy her a flat in Paris.Lorena Galliot: So, Marthe moves to Paris in 1942, in the middle of the Second World War.Then in 1944, there's a big battle in the city between German and Allied troops, and tragically, Marthe's sister is killed. Later on, Marthe would write that after her sister died, She had to be both her sister and herself.Tatiana Giraud: She had to be twice as good. So maybe that was kind of a burden and, um, forced her to be, uh, more independent and more successful.Lorena Galliot: And Marthe was very successful. She was a brilliant student. In 1952, she's one of just two women out of 80 students from all of France to pass the residency entry exam for Pariss top hospitals. She trains in pediatric cardiology. In 1955, she completes her dissertation on rheumatic fever in infants, but this is the post-war period in France.David Wright: In the post-war period, the infrastructure in France and Europe, et cetera, have been devastated by the war. The funding was thread bear.Lorena Galliot: That's David Wright. He's a professor of the history of medicine at McGill University in Montreal. He wrote a book that's key for this story. It's called Downs: The History of a Disability. He explains that not only were resources in France extremely limited at the time, but also French medical systems were very rigid and very hierarchical.David Wright: The U.S. was just overflowing with money and resources and, you know, Gautier and others would go to the U. S. and go, Oh my God, it's just like the incredible, the facilities are fantastic. People are collaborative rather than the, this old traditional 19th-century French hierarchical approach. And soLorena Galliot: So when Marthe has offered a fellowship to study pediatric cardiology in the United States at Harvard Medical School, she jumps at the chance.In September of 1955, Marthe boards a steamship with two other fellows from France, both men, to make the five day trip across the Atlantic to Boston. At Harvard, Marthe studies pediatric cardiology and rheumatic fever, and she also works as an assistant at a lab. And by a twist of fate, one that turns out to be very important, someone at the lab goes on maternity leave.So, MartheDavid Wright: She got a part-time job there and learned, really, state-of-the-art cell culture treatment and staining and photography.Lorena Galliot: Let's take a step back for a moment. We're going to explain exactly what cell culture is, because this detail is actually an important one for this story.Anita Bhattacharyya: So cell culturing is the ability to take a piece of tissue, let's say, from a plant or an animal or a person and put that tissue in a culture dish with media and allow the cells in that tissue to survive, first of all, but also to show some of their behavior.Lorena Galliot: That's Anita Bhattacharyya. She runs a lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where cell culture is used to study the brain of people with Down syndrome.Anita Bhattacharyya: So, it's a way to look into tissue in a way you can't otherwise, and see the behavior of the individual cells.Lorena Galliot: Cell culture as a basic technique emerged in the late 1800s. But now, in the 1950s, it's starting to be used for something new, looking at genetic material.These new techniques were being developed mostly in the U.S. and Sweden, very little in post-war France.Anita Bhattacharyya: It actually still is, kind of specialized. It was very hands on. It wasn't, take your cell, put it in a machine, it comes out, it looks the way you want it to. It was a lot of finesse, I would say, and tedium to get things the way you want them, get the preparation right.I have to say, I've only done it once, I thought it was really hard.Lorena Galliot: And now Marthe, while she's in Boston, has just been specially trained in this highly technical skill. Something that's still quite new. She happens to be at the right place at the right time.After her year in Boston, Marthe returns to France. But there, the position she was hoping to get in pediatric cardiology, her specialty, doesn't work out. So she takes a job in a different department, with a doctor named Raymond Turpin. Raymond Turpin was a senior professor at the time. He headed the pediatrics department at the Hpital Trousseau. It's a hospital in the southeast of Paris.He ran it in that very rigid, very hierarchical way that historian David Wright described earlier in the episode.David Wright: You actually see these photographs of Turpin and his team, and there's like 25 of them or so, and they're dressed differently depending upon their seniority, etc. And unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of them are men.Lorena Galliot: Turpin has always been interested in what's now known as Down syndrome, and at this time he's working with a young doctor on his team called Jrme Lejeune. They're analyzing the physical characteristics in the palms and the fingers of people with Down syndrome. In particular, single palmar crease, a trait often found in people with Down syndrome, where the person has one crease on their palm, instead of two or three.David Wright: He had done a lot of work on fingerprint, uh, analysis and, uh, single palmar crease in Down syndrome individuals. And so, this was sort of leading him in a certain way, research-wise, it didn't necessarily bear that much fruit.Lorena Galliot: But in the mid-1950s, when Marthe Gautier joins the team, an entire new field is emerging that completely changes the focus of their research.And again, Marthe happens to be at the right place at the right time. What was this brand new field? And what did Marthe bring to the table? Find out after the break.[mid-roll]Lorena Galliot: We're back with the story of Marthe Gautier. So what's the thing with this new field of research that's exploding just as Marthe was coming home from Boston? Well, for one, it's called cytogenetics.Anita Bhattacharyya: Cytogenetics is really being able to look into a cell and see the chromosomes within the cell.Lorena Galliot: That's Anita Bhattacharyya again.Anita Bhattacharyya: And so that was just emerging at the time of Dr. Gautier's work, where people were just starting to be able to take cells and look at the chromosomes. So it's a combination of good cell culture, but also knowing how to treat the cells in a way that you could make the chromosomes act like they might act in a tissue.Lorena Galliot: So chromosomes, as you might remember from high school biology, are the structures in our cells that carry our genetic material, our DNA. Two points to highlight. One, cytogenetics, the study of chromosomes, was very new. And two, cell culture was the backbone of this research field. Without proper cell culture, chromosomes in cells are almost impossible to see.When you look through a microscopeDavid Wright: It's sort of like looking at pieces of spaghetti through the bottom of a Coke bottle.Lorena Galliot: Historian David Wright explains that for the first half of the 20th century, no one knew exactly how many chromosomes were present in a human cell.David Wright: It wasn't until actually 1956 that there is definitive scientific evidence that says, okay, you know, we, we, we know now there's, there's 46, it's not 48, it's not 47, it doesn't differ between, you know, it's, it's supposed to be, as it were, 46.Lorena Galliot: So to summarize, just as Marthe Gautier returns to France, It becomes clear that under normal circumstances, humans always have 46 chromosomes, which come in 23 pairs. This sets off a scientific race to find out what happens to chromosomes in situations that are not normal. Finding abnormalities in chromosome counts would allow researchers to determine, once and for all, if a certain condition was genetically linked.One of the researchers to enter this race is Raymond Turpin, Marthes new boss. He suspects, and he's not the only one, that Down syndrome is genetic. People with Down syndrome share similar characteristics, and consistent and striking shared characteristics can often denote a genetic cause.Lorena Galliot: So in 1956, Turpin wants to apply this new understanding of human chromosomes to analyze the cells of people with Down syndrome.There's only one problem. Almost no one in France at the time knows how to culture cells to study chromosomes. Certainly no one on Turpin's team. Or so he thinks.Marthe Gautier (in French with voiceover):If you give me a lab, a room, I will be able to culture cells. I know how to do it.Lorena Galliot: That's Marthe Gautier herself. It's an interview she gave French television in 2018, when she was 92. She's recalling this 1956 staff meeting of Turpin's team, and according to her, she volunteered to lead an experiment aiming to identify the chromosomal cell count of people with Down syndrome.As she remembers it, Turpin was surprised to hear what this new young woman on his team claimed to be able to do.Marthe Gautier (in French with voiceover):He gave me this sort of sideways look as if he was thinking, is this young lady making up tales?Lorena Galliot: This is David Wright again.David Wright: Gautier sort of said, well, actually, I was doing this for the entire year in Boston. So he sort of sets her up with this ramshackle lab.Lorena Galliot: Ramshackle is a good way to describe it. Turpin provided Marthe with a room, a centrifuge, and a microscope, but not much else. Here's Marthe's great niece, Tatiana Giraud again.Tatiana Giraud: Because after the war, there was really no resources, so she had to make a loan on herself, uh, to borrow money. And, uh, so she paid herself for the material and everything. Like, um, 100,000 francs at the time.Lorena Galliot: Not only does Marthe need to take out a loan of about 2,600 US dollars in today's money, she also has to get creative with other things. For example, she draws her own blood for the human serum, and she brings a rooster down from her family farm to gather its plasma.She even asks, one of the nurses who lives on the hospital grounds if she can keep the rooster in her yard.Marthe Gautier (French with English voiceover):The poor resident was woken up by a rooster crowing loudly every morning, so that's what went down in hospital history.Lorena Galliot: The trickiest part is actually getting the right kind of human tissue for this sort of analysis. But Marthe eventually, luckily, got eye tissue samples from deceased hospital patients. Once she has these, she gets to work. She carefully cultures cells from patients without Down syndrome to compare against samples of patients with Down syndrome.Marthe Gautier (in French with voiceover):I prepared the same cell cultures for four months and I always counted 46 chromosomes in the cells. After these four months, I said to myself, let's do it.Lorena Galliot: By which she means she was ready to try it on tissue samples from people with Down syndrome. But those samples are even harder to come by. So when she finally obtains onenearly two years latershe repeats the experiment.Marthe Gautier (in French with voice over): And that's when I saw there were 47 chromosomes.David Wright: Even using the bad, bad microscopes that she had, she could see that they had 47 rather than 46 chromosomes.Lorena Galliot: It's a startling discovery. A big discovery. And in order to tell the world, Marthe needs proof. She needs photographs.And her lab doesn't have the equipment to do this. But Marthe's in luck. Jrme Lejeune, the young researcher who'd been working closely with Turpin when Marthe arrived at the lab, offers to help.David Wright: He's a young, in effect what we would call in North America, a fellow. He's in the hospital before Gautier comes back from Boston. So you could argue that he's, he's a little bit more senior, not a lot. But he's been there a couple more years. So on the, on the very important hierarchy of that team, he's maybe one rung, as it were, above, uh, Gautier, uh, in terms of authority in the hospital.Clara Gaymard: My father started in 52, at the pediatric department of the professor, Raymond Turpin.Lorena Galliot: That's Clara Gaymard. She's Jrme Lejeune's daughter.Clara Gaymard: And he decided in the very beginning to, uh, try to understand why, what you call in English, Down syndrome, why they were like that. And it was very original at this time to think about a chromosomal origin.Lorena Galliot: She published a biography of her father based on his memoir.She explains that before Marthe joined Turpin's lab in 1956, Jrme Lejeune had already been trying to figure out the origin of Down syndrome for several years.Clara Gaymard: My father was obsessed by that. He wanted to discover why they were sick, to be able to find a way to cure them.Lorena Galliot: So until then, Jrme's research had focused on the fingerprints of babies born with Down syndrome. In fact, he published a few papers on this. And then, the discovery of the 46 chromosomes came along and opened these new avenues of research. According to Clara, her father immediately saw the potential of this new avenue, and he worked closely with Marthe on her experiment.Clara Gaymard: He worked very closely with Marthe Gautier on this technique. Really, uh, Jrme Lejeune has the best relationship with Marthe Gautier.Lorena Galliot: There is some evidence to support Clara's statement. Letters that Marthe and Jrme Lejeune exchanged at the time show that they addressed each other in a friendly and collegial way. But of course, it's impossible to know what Marthe truly felt inside.Jrme Lejeune was her boss's protg. She was an outsider. He was educated in Paris, at a well-known Catholic private school. She was a farmer's daughter from the provinces. She may have felt that she had to remain in his good graces. Or maybe their working relationship had been perfectly pleasant. Until this point.In any case, when Jrme offers to take the slides to a lab he has access to to get them photographed, Marthe trusts him. She gives him her slides. And then she waits. And she waits. And nothing.David Wright: I think the important thing about the story from Gautier's standpoint is that Lejeune never showed her the photographs.So she saw them through the microscope, right? So she knew what she had. But then he took the photographs. She said, what are the photographs? He said, well, I gave them to Turpin.Lorena Galliot: But Jrme Lejeune didn't just hand over the photographs to Turpin. In fact, he took them with him to the International Congress of Genetics in Montreal in 1958.And although he didn't formally present them, he began showing them to people. He even gave an impromptu seminar at McGill University presenting the findings.David Wright: And it's not clear whether Turpin would have been very happy if he'd known that, that basically, Lejeune was blabbing about this potentially, you know, international scientific discovery in public.Lorena Galliot: And then, in early 1959, Marthe gets a call. It's Jrme Lejeune. He reads a short paper to her over the phone. It's a paper about her slides. Her research. Jrme asks Marthe if she has any corrections. The paper is coming out next week. Marthe is startled. Until then, she hadn't even known a paper was in the works.It was only later that Marthe actually learned what happened. This is what went down. First, Jrme showed the slides to Turpin. Turpin was skeptical. He wanted to see more proof. But then, they learned that a Scottish team had conducted a very similar experiment, and they were very close to publishing. So Jrme Lejeune and Turpin rushed to get theirs out first.They published the findings in a weekly roundup of presentations at the French Academy of Science. This is a kind of weekly scientific news bulletin basically that meant that research could be highlighted without going through the standard peer-reviewed journal route, which can take months.David Wright: That was a sort of mad rush in early 59 to get the article out so they could be the first to actually claim that they had discovered a non-sex-specific trisomy.Lorena Galliot: So real quick: the term trisomy, or trisomy as it's pronounced in the United States, means having three copies of a chromosome instead of two, and it would, in the not-too-distant future, be associated with Down syndrome, aka trisomy 21. Anyway, the paper is rushed out. It's called Human Chromosomes in Tissue Culture.Jrme Lejeune is the first author, Raymond Turpin is the third and senior author, and sandwiched between the two of them is Marthe Gautier. But her name is misspelled. She's listed as Marie, not Marthe, and Gauthier with an H.Which for me is like the smoking gun in this entire story.Lorena Galliot: Tatiana Giraud again.Tatiana Giraud: I don't see how he can claim anything because she did all the work about the cell culture, so he only took the picture.Lorena Galliot: But it was too late. The paper had come out and the discovery had slipped through Marthe Gautier's hands.Next week on Lost Women of Science:Tatiana Giraud: But Jrme Lejeune not only took the discovery, but also really used it to launch his career.David Wright: Gautier would come out and say, hey, let's wait a second here, right? He was not the saint that some people are painting him out to be. This has been Lost Women of Science.This episode was produced by Sophie McNulty and me, Lorena Galliot. Hansdale Hsu was our sound engineer. Lexi Atiya was our fact-checker. Our thanks go to co-executive producers Amy Scharf and Katie Hafner, senior managing editor Deborah Unger, and program manager Eowyn Burtner. Thanks also to Jeff DelViscio at our publishing partner, Scientific American.Audio of Marthe Gautiers interviews is from INA, the French Audiovisual Institute. And from Wax Science, a non-profit promoting women in science. We're grateful to Hlne Chambefort and the archivists at INSERM, the Jrme Lejeune Foundation, as well as to Laurent Apfel and Cline Curiol for their help with this episode.Thank you also to Selina Pavel, who created the art. Lost Women of Science is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Anne Wojcicki Foundation. This podcast is distributed by PRX. You can learn more about our initiative at lost women of science.org. And don't forget to click on that omnipresent, donate button.Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @LostWomenSci. That's at Lost Women of Sci. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Lorena Galliot. See you next week.Senior Producer and HostLorena GalliotSenior Producer and Sound DesignerSophie McNultyGuestsTatiana GiraudTatiana Giraud is Marthe Gautiers grand-niece. She leads the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Evolutionary Genetics and Ecology team, University of Paris-Saclay.David WrightDavid Wright is Professor and Canada Research Chair in History and Classical Studies at McGill University.Anita BhattacharyyaAnita Bhattacharyya is Associate Professor of Cell and Regenerative Biology at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Clara Lejeune GaymardClara Lejeune Gaymard is the daughter of Jrme Lejeune. She is co-founder of the innovation investment group RAISE, as well as the author of Life Is a Blessing: A Biography of Jrme LejeuneGeneticist, Doctor, Father, first published in French in 1997.Further ReadingRandy Engel Interview with Dr. Marthe Gautier, Discoverer of Trisomy 21, by Randy Engel, in RenewAmerica. Published online March 26, 2013Downs Syndrome: The History of a Disability, by David Wright. Oxford University Press, 2011

Helldivers 2 launched last year to great acclaim, with near-constant death-defying thrills and mayhem. But its PS5 version wasn't perfect, with somewhat compromised image quality when targeting 60fps - and performance issues to boot. Enter PS5 Pro. While developer Arrowhead Game Studios hasn't announced a PS5 Pro enhancement, there's evidence the multiplayer shooter has indeed seen a substantial PS5 Pro bump. So is this enough to solve the game's remaining technical concerns? Or is this a bit of an illusory Pro upgrade?Helldivers 2 looks significantly improved on PS5 Pro in performance mode when compared against its PS5 counterpart, with a number of image quality improvements. The Pro delivers more stability, doing a better job of resolving fine detail. There's less shimmering visible to the eye and the image generally appears more coherent in motion. There's also a perceptible jump in image detail. Text is clearer, edges are sharper, and textures resolve finer patterns. I wouldn't say it's a huge improvement, but side-by-sides reveal a clear edge for the Pro console.Rendering-wise, the differences are fairly uncomplicated. In my pixel counts, the PS5 version comes in at 1080p, while the Pro gets an upgrade to 1440p, which is technically 78 percent more pixels. I couldn't find any signs of dynamic resolution in my testing, suggesting both consoles run with locked pixel counts. Critically though, this isn't combined with temporal upsampling to achieve a higher effective final resolution. Instead, a pretty mediocre TAA seems to be in use, providing edge treatment at the cost of some instability at rest.How does Helldivers 2 look and run on the PlayStation 5 Professional? Watch and enjoy.Watch on YouTubeA lot of games this generation render at comparable - or lower - pixel counts, but end up with much better final image quality than this due to the use of reconstruction-based upsampling solutions like TSR or FSR 2. Arrowhead is sticking with a simple spatial upscale instead, with results that are somewhat mixed. Still, I think the PS5 Pro performance mode crosses an image quality threshold where I'm generally fine with the way it looks on a 4K set.The quality mode is less compelling. Here, the image improvement is relatively slight - not really amounting to much generally speaking, though fine detail resolves more clearly and foliage generally looks better. The rendering setup is again familiar. PS5 clocks in at around 1728p, though with a characteristic sharpness and edge smoothing that makes me think it's using FSR 1 as an upscaling solution. PS5 Pro takes the brute force approach instead, pulling off a full native 4K image. It's not a perfect solution as the Pro can still struggle with depth of field, and doesn't deliver a perfectly stable rendition of all geometry - but it does have an edge over the base machine. Again, to see better results still we'd have to see some revision of Helldivers 2's anti-aliasing technique. Performance? Even on PS5 Pro, the same frame-pacing issues we saw at launch are present.So, there is strong visual evidence that Helldivers 2 has received a Pro upgrade - despite no public confirmation of one and no Pro Enhanced label on the PlayStation Store. However, one of the DF audience tipped me off that an Arrowhead employee said in a Discord chat that the game had indeed been upgraded for Pro. It's a strange way to announce - or not really announce - that a game has received a Pro upgrade, but we can confirm that there is a clear visual difference.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Helldivers 2 offers some other image quality tweakables as well. The anti-aliasing toggle, which was broken at launch, actually works now, so if you'd prefer that pin-sharp no AA look, Arrowhead has you covered. TAA is pretty integral to the game's presentation, which I think is evident when you look at the screen-space reflections, just as one example, so I wouldn't recommend dropping it. However, TAA does soften the image substantially.Arrowhead also provides a slider to dial in post-process sharpening to your taste. The performance mode looks soft with zero sharpening and reasonably clear with max sharpening at the cost of additional edge artifacts. The difference in quality mode is more subtle but sharpening has a definite role to play there too. 0.75 is the default in both modes, which I think is sensible enough. Even the maximum value doesn't really have that 'crunchy' look with ultra-defined edges, so any value here I think is pretty defensible.Performance-wise, when we looked at Helldivers 2 last year, we found that frame-rates were generally reasonable on PS5 in its performance mode, with dips in certain busier sequences. However, that wasn't really spelling out the full picture, because we only had time to unlock and play through the game's more moderate, less hectic difficulties. Fortunately though, a close friend of mine is also a world-class Helldivers 2 player, so I asked him to carry me through some of the toughest missions around on the game's maximum 'Super Helldive' difficulty setting, which promises the largest, most aggressive swarms of foes. Performance mode is where it's at with Helldivers 2 on PS5 Pro. The 60fps mode works well enough, but in the most punishing end-game content, drops into the 40s are possible. Despite the higher resolution, frame-rates are more stable than the base PS5. | Image credit: Digital FoundryUnsurprisingly, the frame-rates are indeed worse than what we logged last year. On PS5 in performance mode, most of my gameplay in Super Helldive missions is sub-60fps, with long stretches in the 50s and 40s. Sometimes, I'd even clock an extended run in the 30s, with the game clearly struggling to keep pace. The outset of any given match usually runs fine, but more enemy-heavy gameplay later on tends to suffer, with constant frame-rate drops. Lower difficulties present less of a concern, but players who are made of sterner stuff will find the higher challenge levels quite taxing on a base PS5.PS5 Pro has a lot of similarities. Helldivers 2 does like to spend a good amount of time in the 40s and 50s here in more challenging endgame content but generally speaking, it doesn't seem to dip quite as hard in its worst moments - I didn't spot extended gameplay in the 30s, for instance, despite playing quite aggressively. I did notice brief stutters at one point as well across a few hours of capture. Of course, it's virtually impossible to match content across my capture sessions, given the hectic multiplayer-oriented nature of Helldivers 2. However, my general impression is that the performance level is indeed higher on the Pro machine. It does a better job of sticking within a reasonable frame-rate window and is more often compatible with the PS5 Pro's VRR range. The game doesn't support 120Hz output on PS5 or Pro, so you're limited to 48fps and above to get VRR smoothness.It's a curious situation, given that the Pro's resolution bump should theoretically eat up most if not all of the console's extra GPU capability, and it only has a mild CPU clock increase. But I consistently found a clear, meaningful frame-rate advantage on Pro in these ultra-demanding missions. Quality mode for Helldivers 2 targets native 4K and this 30fps mode is more stable than its base PS5 counterpart. Inconsistent frame-pacing remains, however, which is a shame. | Image credit: Digital FoundryHelldivers 2 is great fun. No other player versus environment multiplayer game captures the same sense of chaos, the same wild improvisation of explosions and retreats. With a squad firing on all cylinders - or indeed, just one very skilled teammate - you can perform some incredible death-defying feats. Arrowhead has been steadily adding content to the game as well. Updates have brought player-controllable vehicles into the game, along with a new enemy faction, melee weapons, and a ton of guns and vanity skins. It's been expanded considerably since we first played it.At the same time the game does have some lingering technical quirks. It lacks modern upscaling technologies like DLSS and FSR, frame generation, more advanced rendering features like ray tracing, and has some performance issues. It's also still somewhat unstable. Over a few hours of testing, we encountered a couple of dropped games and even experienced a disconnection issue at one point, requiring a game restart. Helldivers 2 had notorious network connectivity problems at launch and those problems still haven't been resolved completely.We'd like to see further improvements then and it might be nice to see the adoption of FSR 2 or PSSR for the console versions of Helldivers 2, just to get image quality to a really good place for 60fps play. That's assuming it would be manageable given the team's technical expertise and the deprecated state of the game engine. The PS5 Pro at least offers enough raw pixels to look decent enough, if not quite meeting the 4K60 standard many Pro titles aim for. Even so, Helldivers 2 is a good Pro experience. It's not transformatively upgraded, but it does look and run decidedly better than the base machine.

Excellent indie adventure Dungeons of Hinterberg will belatedly launch on PlayStation next month. Read more

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 NetEase Games Marvel Rivals has been killing it with the rapid release of new events for players to experience. Following the awesome Christmas Jeff event and the ongoing Lunar New Year event, a Marvel Rivals Valentines Day event is just around the corner.Marvel Rivals Valentines Event gets leakedFollowing leaks of a swarm of X-Men characters that some believe might be fake, renowned Rivals leaker X0X_Leak has revealed that an official Valentines Day event is coming to the game. However, details are incredibly scarce and by that we mean essentially non-existance.At the time of writing, the upcoming Marvel Rivals Valentines Day event is planned to start on, well, Valentines Day. Starting on February 14th at 4AM Eastern Standard Time, the event will last for three weeks, ending on March 6th at 3.59AM Eastern Standard Time. Save Up to $1,200 on the Samsung Galaxy S25! Pre-order now and save big with trade-in and Samsung credit. Limited time only! *Includes trade-in value + $300 Samsung credit. At the time of writing, thats literally everything we know about the Valentines Day event. However, judging by the fact that every other event in the game revolves around a small pool of characters, we can guess what characters will appear.For example, if we were designing an in-game Valentines Day event, we would probably revolve the event around in-game couples. For example, we could have a 2v1 event with Mr Fantastic and Sue Storm fighting back against that pesky Namornow that would be something very fun indeed. Must-Listen: Publishing Manor Lords w/ Joe Robinson VideoGamer Podcast Listen Now Whatever happens, its awesome that a Marvel Rivals Valentines Day event is coming to the game. Hopefully, other live-service gamessuch as Infinity Nikkiwill also get some great events for the annual celebration. Of course, we also expect a tonne of amazing Valentines themed skins to be added to the game.For more Rivals news, read about how the games extreme focus on new heroes is letting down its map variety or listen to our podcast interview with Marvel Rivals game director Thaddeus Sasser! Check out what he thinks of PlayStations Concord right here!Marvel RivalsPlatform(s):macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Fighting, ShooterSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share