Table of Contents If you've enjoyed watching Kaitlin Olson's supersmart single mom and Daniel Sunjata's seasoned detective solve crimes on High Potential, you may find yourself occupied with another mystery: When will the show be back on ABC and Hulu?High Potential premiered on Sept. 17 and currently has a score of96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Olson plays Morgan, whose exceptional mind catches the attention of the Los Angeles Police Department. High Potential comes from The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard and also stars Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz, Amirah J, Matthew Lamb and Judy Reyes.There's only one episode left in High Potential's first season. No need to keep inspecting Hulu -- here's when the finale drops on the network and streamer.When to watch High Potential's season 1 finale on HuluEpisode 13 of High Potential -- the season 1 finale -- will air on ABC on Tuesday and stream the following day on Hulu. It won't mark the end of the crime drama, as ABC has renewed High Potential for season 2.Episode 13, Let's Play: Premieres on ABC onFeb. 11at 9 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT/8 p.m. CT. Streams on Hulu onFeb. 12.How much is Hulu?After a price increase in October 2024, Hulu's basic, ad-supported plan costs $10 a month, or $100 a year, and its ad-free plan costs $19 a month. The hike also affected Hulu Plus Live TV plans, Disney Plus plans and mostDisney bundles. James Martin/CNET While Hulu's price has gone up, you may be able to score savings through a free trial, student discount or by signing up for a specific T-Mobile plan. Bundling multiple services, such as the trio ofHulu, Disney Plus and Max, could also lead to savings. See at Hulu How to watch ABC without cableIf you don't have cable, you can watch with alive TV streaming servicethat includes ABC in its channel lineup. There's YouTube TV, the aforementioned Hulu Plus Live TV and, if you'rein a select city, Sling Blue could be a less expensive way to stream High Potential the day it airs.

Our Experts Written by David Carnoy Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement Why You Can Trust CNET 16171819202122232425+ Years of Experience 14151617181920212223 Hands-on Product Reviewers 6,0007,0008,0009,00010,00011,00012,00013,00014,00015,000 Sq. Feet of Lab Space How we test CNETs expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.Table of Contents 8.8/ 10 SCORE Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 $250 at Apple Pros Improved design and sound quality with smaller case Equipped with more powerful H2 chip Good noise canceling Excellent voice-calling performance Heart-rate sensors Strong battery life Wireless charging Cons Small percentage of users may not get a tight seal Some features missing from AirPods Pro 2 More basic Find My feature (no Precision Finding) Table of Contents It's been almost five years since thePowerbeats Prowere released in May 2019, so Beats has had a lot of time to plot how to improve the second generation of its popularear-hook styletrue-wireless sport earbuds. And improve they have -- by quite a bit.Not only do they feature a new, more refined design with better ergonomics, but new drivers, a more powerful Apple H2 chip, a new built-in heart-rate sensor and, yes, active noise canceling for the first time in a pair of Powerbeats. Available in four color options, they cost $250, or the same price asApple's AirPods Pro 2, which are also powered by the H2 chip.Read more: Best True Wireless Earbuds With Ear Hooks for 2025 Watch this: Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 Are Upgraded in Every Way 08:59 Design upgradesTruth be told, I've never been a huge fan of the Powerbeats. Not really any of them. They didn't quite fit my ears right, they were priced too high and the original Powerbeats Pro's case was too big. However, I did recognize why many people liked the ear-hook design and the original Powerbeats Pro sounded a whole lot better than earlier Powerbeats. Ultimately, I preferred the Beats Fit Pro, which have an integrated wingtip to help lock the buds in your ears.The Powerbeats Pro 2's design offers a few big upgrades. First, Beats says it's improved the overall ergonomic shape of the earbud and acoustic housing and completely redesigned the ear hook -- it's 50% smaller and incorporates nickel-titanium alloy, so it's both flexible and durable. The buds themselves are 20% lighter. The Powerbeats Pro 2 come in four color options, including this new orange color. David Carnoy/CNETThey definitely felt more comfortable to wear and fit my ears significantly better overall. But I still couldn't quite get a tight seal from any of the ear tips Beats provides, which now include an extra-large set of tips that's barely bigger than the large tips. (Like with Apple's AirPods, there's an ear tip fist test that lets you know if you have a tight seal.) To be clear, most of you -- probably upwards of 90% -- will not have the problem I had. My ears typically require a certain shape of eartip and the Beats ear tips are a little too conical for me and don't quite extend far enough into my ear canal to seal it. Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkens tips work best for my ears, and that's what I ended up sticking on these buds to get a tight seal. The Powerbeats Pro 2 comes with five different sizes of eartips, including a new XL tip that is only a tad bigger then the L tips (the default medium tip is not shown here). David Carnoy/CNETI mention this because the quality of the seal greatly impacts how these buds sound and how well their noise canceling works. Basically, if you get a tight seal, both are impressive, but I'll get into all that in detail later in the performance section.One of the nice things about Beats buds is their physical "b" button to control playback and the Powerbeats Pro 2, like their predecessor, have that button along with a physical rocker for volume. When you're running or biking, it tends to be easier to use physical control buttons, and this ear-hook design will obviously appeal to folks who worry about keeping their buds in their ears during sporting activities -- or just in general. Like the original Powerbeats Pro and AirPods Pro 2, these are splashproof (IPX4 rated), but Beats says they've undergone rigorous testing for sweat resistance, so they should work fine even for heavy sweaters.Though the case is still a little beefy, Beats has made it 33% smaller and included wireless charging, a first in a set of Beats earbuds (hallelujah!). Battery life has improved slightly from the original Powerbeat Pro's battery life. Instead of nine hours, the Powerbeats Pro 2 are rated for up to 10 hours with noise canceling off at moderate volume levels. That drops to eight hours with noise canceling on and you get an additional three and a half charges in the case. That's almost double the battery life of the AirPods Pro 2, and my tests bore those numbers out. Enlarge Image The case is 33% smaller than the original Powerbeats Pro's case. David Carnoy/CNETPacked with new techBeats has managed to pack a lot of tech into the buds. They're not only equipped with Apple's H2 chip (Bluetooth 5.3), the same chip found in the AirPods Pro 2, but ear-detection sensors along with a tiny heart-rate sensor in each bud. Most earbuds I've tried with heart-rate sensors have only a sensor in a single bud. For example, Sennheiser's Momentum Sport Earbuds (2024) feature both a heart-rate and a body-temperature sensor in the left bud. I had high hopes for those Momentum Sports Earbuds, and while the heart-rate sensor worked pretty well, the buds felt uncomfortable in my ears, and their sound and noise-canceling performance fell short, especially considering their $330 list price. Each bud has a heart-rate sensor along with ear-detection sensors. David Carnoy/CNETIf done right, ear-based heart-rate sensors can be quite accurate, and the dual sensors in the Powerbeats Pro 2 are designed to replace a heart-rate sensor you strap across your chest, though not the heat-rate sensor in an Apple Watch. In fact, if you have an Apple Watch, its heart-rate sensor takes precedence over the one in the Powerbeats Pro 2, so if you're wearing your Apple watch at the same time as the buds, your heart rate will be monitored by the watch.I'm not doing an in-depth review of the earbuds' heart monitoring here, but I did try it with the Nike Run Club app. It seemed to work fine, and battery life was barely affected. Heart-rate data was archived in Apple's Health app.At launch, Beats has partnered with a handful of fitness apps, including Open, Peloton, Runna, Nike Run Club, Slopes Ladder and YaoYao. With iOS devices, the heart-rate monitor starts up automatically when you put the buds in your ears and outputs parsed data every five seconds. Beats says all Android fitness and wellness apps with heart-rate monitoring capabilities should be fully compatible with Powerbeats Pro 2, but you'll have to manually start the monitoring. The Powerbeats Pro 2 retain their physical buttons. David Carnoy/CNETiOS exclusive features but support for Android usersWith some of its earlier earbuds and headphones, including its Studio Buds line and Studio Pro and Solo 4 headphones, Beats marketed them toward both Apple and Android users.The Powerbeats Pro 2 work just fine with Android devices and link up with the Beats Android app, but they do have several Apple exclusive features, including Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking, Hands-Free Siri, Audio Sharing and iCloud Pairing across all your Apple devices logged into your iCloud account. Alas, they have the more basic Find My feature for both Apple and Android users (Find My Beats for Android), not the more advanced Precision Finding found in the AirPods Pro 2, which have a U1 chip and a case with an integrated speaker that plays a sound to help you locate your buds. Android users have to manually start the heart-rate monitor in the app or using the control button on the buds. Screenshot by David Carnoy/CNETExcept for that U1 chip, the Powerbeats Pro 2 seem built on the same foundation as the H2-equipped AirPods Pro 2, and are ultra low-latency and can even do lossless audio like the AirPods Pro 2 when paired with Apple's pricey Vision Pro headset. On a side note, from what I've been told, the reason the AirPods Pro 2 and Powerbeats Pro 2 are able to do true lossless audio with the Vision Pro headset is that the buds and headset sit only a few inches apart, making for a extremely short wireless connection that can reliably transmit lossless audio. In other words, with current technology, you'd have to wear your phone on your head to get a true lossless audio connection with your wireless earbuds and headphones. (I'll spare you a discussion over audio codecs like Qualcomm's AptX Lossless that claim to be lossless and also have specific hardware requirements to work).All that said, the Powerbeats Pro 2 are missing some of the AirPod Pro 2's newer features, at launch anyway, and that shouldn't surprise anyone. They have active noise canceling, a Powerbeats first, along with a transparency mode to let ambient sound in. But there's no Hearing-Aid feature, no Conversation Awareness mode that lowers your music's volume when you start a conversation and no Adaptive Audio mode that automatically adjusts noise canceling levels based on what's going on around you. I'm personally a fan of the Conversation Awareness mode, so hopefully that feature gets added in the future. The Powerbeats Pro 2 are sports earbuds that can also be used as everyday earbuds. BeatsPowerbeats Pro 2 vs. AirPods Pro 2As I said, the Powerbeats Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 2 are fundamentally similar. So how do their sound and noise canceling compare? To my ears anyway, the Powerbeats Pro 2 actually sound better and both their noise canceling and transparency mode seem very close to what I get from the Airpods Pro 2 (the transparency mode sounds quite natural).My seal is slightly more consistent with the AirPods Pro 2, so the noise cancelling on the AirPods Pro 2 seemed a touch better overall, but Beats says it's "leveraged Apple's best noise canceling" for these buds, so performance should be pretty similar. While it may not be quite on par with the noise canceling you get with Bose's and Sony's flagship earbuds, it's playing in the same league; Apple has some of the best noise canceling out there. The buds in hyper purple. David Carnoy/CNETAgain, the Powerbeats Pro 2 have new drivers as well as a new venting system and amplifier. The sound seems bolder and clearer than the AirPods Pro's with better overall separation. As you'd expect from a Beats product, the these have strong bass performance, but it's well-defined and the earbuds seem pretty well balanced with bass that doesn't overwhelm the treble and midrange, giving them a nice tonal depth.By comparison, I got the slightly more pure, accurate sound fromBowers & Wilkin's pricier Pi8 earbuds or even Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 4 buds. With the Pi8's, the quality of the bass is a step up, the treble has a little more sparkle to it and the overall listening experience is a tad more immersive, with the Bowers & Wilkins buds sounding slightly more natural. I know it's a little unfair to compare these to $400 earbuds, but when it comes to more premium true-wireless earbuds, the Bowers & Wilkins are among my reference buds for sound quality (their noise-canceling, voice-calling performance and overall feature set aren't as good as the Powerbeats Pro 2's).The long and short of it is the Powerbeats Pro 2 have excellent sound and are a noticeable step up from the original Powerbeats Pro. I also thought their sound was a little more detailed with a bigger soundstage than the Beats Fit Pro's.Some of my test tracks include Billie's Eilish's Everything I Wanted, Spoon's Knock Knock Knock, Alicia Key's No One, Pete Townshend's A Little Is Enough, Travis Scott's The Plan, Foo Fighter's Everlong, The Doors' Touch Me - Take 3, Orbital's Dirty Rat, Taylor Swift's Vigilante Shit, Jvke's Golden Hour and The Strokes' Adults Are Talking.Excellent voice-calling performanceHow good is the Powerbeats Pro 2's voice-calling performance? Well, thanks to the H2 chip, new microphones and voice accelerometers to help pinpoint your voice, Beats has made some big improvements in the voice department and callers were impressed with how well they could hear me, even in noisier environments.I did some torture tests in the streets of New York where I was dealing with not only a lot of traffic noise but a decent amount of wind noise. With a lot of other earbuds, in similar conditions, the people I'm speaking with usually complain about my voice modulating (glitching) and having a hard time hearing me. But during the three test calls I made, all the people I spoke with said they could hear me fine and could barely hear any background noise. In other words, the buds did a very good job filtering out background noise while keeping my voice sounding relatively clear and only slightly robotic (you can view and hear a sample call in my companion video review). Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 final thoughtsWhile I personally had some issues with the included ear tips, I do think the Powerbeats Pro 2 are improved in every way from their predecessor and people who liked the originals will be impressed with this next-gen version.Despite their similarities, the AirPods Pro 2 still have some advantages, including a smaller design for both the case and buds, and a few extra features. But the Powerbeats Pro 2 have their own advantages, including a bit better sound and battery life along with the heart-rate sensor and ear-hook design that certainly helps keep the buds on your head. Just note that we may see new AirPods Pro 3 this fall that could feature their own performance and design improvements, making the choice between Apple buds even more challenging. There are a lof of new premium earbuds with built-in ear hooks, though the majority of them, like Shokz OpenFit 2, have an open design with no ear tips, which some people prefer. I like the Shokz and some of those other open earbuds, but if you're looking for ear-hook style earbuds with noise canceling and superior sound quality, the Powerbeats Pro 2 are the best right now.Beat Powerbeats Pro 2 key specsWeight: 8.7 grams per earbud (case weighs 69 grams)Bluetooth 5.3Apple H2 chipCustom designed, dual-element dynamic diaphragm transducerIPX4 splash-proof and sweat-proofActive noise cancellation (adaptive)Transparency modeAdaptive EQSpatial Audio with dynamic head tracking6 microphones total (1 dedicated voice microphone on each earbud)Sensors (per bud): Optical in-ear detection, optical heart-rate monitoring, accelerometer, gyroscopeCustomizable controls5 sizes of soft silicon ear tips (XS, S, M, L, XL)Wireless charging case (Qi compatible or via USB-C cable)Battery life: Up to 10 hours with ANC off (8 hours with ANC on)35 additional hours from charging case with ANC off (28 hours with ANC on)Fast Fuel: 5-minute charge gets you up to 1.5 hour of playbackTelephony: Up to 5 microphones employed for phone calls, wind-noise reduction, voice accelerometer isolates user's voiceColors: Electric orange, jet black, hyper purple and quick sandPrice: $250

February 10, 20254 min readAthena, Next U.S. Commercial Moon Lander, Is Set for Spectacular Lunar ScienceIn partnership with NASA, the Intuitive Machines lander Athena will send a water-seeking drill, a pogo-sticking crater probe and other novel technologies to the moonBy Gayoung Lee edited by Lee BillingsAn artists rendering of an Intuitive Machines lander making its descent to the lunar surface near the moons south pole. Intuitive Machines and Nokia Bell LabsAs the U.S. and China ramp up their 21st-century race to land humans on the moon, its easy to overlook another aspect of lunar exploration that in many respects has become a no contest: commercially built and operated missions.As part of NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, private U.S. companies have been hurling a steady stream of innovative robotic landers at the moon in unmatched numbers. And that trend is set to continue later this month with the launch of the next CLPS mission, IM-2, from the private company Intuitive Machines. Launching from NASAs Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than February 26, IM-2 is the companys shot at redemption after its inaugural predecessor, IM-1, tilted askew during its touchdown early last year. This time IM-2s lander, Athena, will seek to stick its landing and ferry a robust array of science and technology experiments to the vicinity of Mons Mouton, a plateau near the lunar south pole.Officials from NASA and Intuitive Machines confirmed the launch details and previewed the missions science during a press briefing on February 7.On 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.The IM-2 mission is particularly special..., as it is largely dedicated to lunar technology demonstrations that are truly foundational to creating a U.S.-led lunar infrastructure, Niki Werkheiser, director for technology maturation at NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate, said during the briefing. These demonstrations include NASAs PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1), which is capable of identifying and quantifying water [ice] and other volatile substances in lunar soil thanks to a drill that can reach up a meter into the surface. Demonstrating that we can collect these volatiles using the tech demonstrations onboard will not only help us better understand the origins of our solar system, but they will also be useful to our future astronauts for in situ resources, including drinking water, breathing air and creating rocket fuel, added Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASAs Science Mission Directorate, during the briefing.Other key technologies onboard Athena are the Micro Nova Hopper and the Lunar Surface Communication System (LSCS), developed by Intuitive Machines and Nokia Bell Labs, respectively, as part of NASAs Tipping Point technology initiative. Nicknamed Gracie after software pioneer Grace Hopper, the Micro Nova Hopper is intended to leap away from Athena sometime after the landers touchdown and to embark on a series of incremental hops toward Crater Ha 20-meter-deep, permanently shadowed crater about half a kilometer away. There it will poke around for any signs of volatiles at or under the surface.The Intuitive Machines IM-2 lander, Athena, as seen during prelaunch preparations in the companys Lunar Production and Operations Center.Intuitive Machines/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)The purpose of the [hopper] demo is to show that we can reach extreme environments with technologies other than rovers, explained Trent Martin, senior vice president of space systems at Intuitive Machines, at the briefing. Nokias LSCS, which uses the same 4G LTE communications technology as a smartphone, will keep all of Athenas payloads online and connected as they branch out on their respective objectives. We are set up to handle the very large number of payloads that we have on this mission ... and supporting operations from around the world from different control centers for various payloads that are on the mission, Martin added.But Athena is also helping to continue previous and ongoing missions. For instance, it carries a tiny, NASA-provided aluminum device called the Laser Retroreflective Array, or LRA, which the space agency intends to use as a node in a larger lunar network for more accurately pinpointing the locations of key moon landers. And on its rocket to the moon, Athena shares a ride with various secondary payloads, chief among them NASAs Lunar Trailblazer, a moon-orbiting satellite slated to provide sophisticated high-resolution maps of where water may lurk at or beneath the moons airless surface.Besides highlighting some of the missions science at the briefing, officials also offered reassurances that Athena wouldnt succumb to the same faults that led its predecessor, the IM-1 lander, nicknamed Odysseus, to land lopsided on the moon. During its landing on February 22 of last year, Odysseus touched down about 30 degrees off-kilter, breaking a leg and falling on its sidein spite of the prelaunch glitches Intuitive Machines purported to have fixed.After the mission, we went through what we call the hot wash, Martin said at the briefing. We identified 85 things that we need to go off and look at10 of them were required to be implemented prior to our IM-2 mission[and] weve actually implemented all 85 of those.The team also made it so that an error margin up to 10 degrees from the intended trajectory will still allow for Athena to begin normal operations. If the trajectory is further off, Athenas functionality will depend on how it lands, Martin said. If we are offlets say something happened like last time, and we ended up on our sideobviously we would not be able to deploy drills, he admitted. However, there are lots of instruments on all of those systems that we would still be able to operate, just like last time, [when] we were able to get quite a bit of the data from the instruments that were on the Odysseus lander, and we were able to send that back to Earth.With Athena, were taking kind of novel technologies and turning them into institutionalized capabilitiesand thats really important, Werkheiser said at the briefing. Given the heavily technology-centered nature of the IM-2 mission, technological blips are more or less an inevitable part of the whole scheme, she said. If we learn what we need to learn [from failures], and we could only do that by doing what were doing now, then that is a success for us.

Fallout made its bright and bloody TV debut last year, with a critically-acclaimed first season which not only drew in viewers but also led to droves of players venturing into one or many of Fallout's video game wastelands. In fact, Fallout 4 actually became the best-selling game in Europe at one point in April, despite already being several years old. Read more

South of Midnight bottles up some very special Southern magic, but is it enough?Different kettle of Catfish.Image credit: Compulsion Games Preview by Victoria Kennedy News Reporter Published on Feb. 11, 2025 From the moment Microsoft and Compulsion Games first teased South of Midnight back in 2023, my interests have been piqued. I fell for the game's stop-motion art style, eclectic cast of characters and its Gothic Deep South "folklorish" story-telling premise. As soon as Shakin' Bones began strumming on his guitar, I was left wanting to know more.But, what is it actually like to play? I went hands-on with South of Midnight last week, and I have to say, the game is absolutely beautiful. It has clearly been made with great attention to detail and respect for the Deep South by the team at Compulsion; the sights, the sounds, the music, the art - oh, they are lovely. The entire world of South of Midnight is alive with natural energy. Insects chirp, birds squawk, rabbits gamble around, alligators laze in the waters. This is all backed with soulful guitars and choral singing, which immediately puts you right into the depths of the Deep South.But, while the game itself has a wonderful atmosphere and setting, I do have some concerns.My preview build took place in South of Midnight's third chapter, which is known as A Big Fish. At the beginning of this chapter, protagonist Hazel is searching for both her house and her mother Lacey, who got swept away by a hurricane. But it is not just Hazel's home life the hurricane has rather unexpectedly affected. As Hazel makes her way through the world, it is clear there is something unusual going on. Gargantuan peaches can be seen here and there, a ghost by the name of Mahalia appears to Hazel as a spectral guide, and another voice calls out asking for help.There are also strange nightmarish creatures known as Haints popping up throughout the world. These Haints appear when the very fabric of the universe is damaged by deep-rooted sorrows and trauma. This in turn produces an anomaly known as Stigma, the source of the Haints, and only Weavers - that is to say, magical menders of broken bonds and spirits, such as Hazel - can see them. Yes, something otherworldly is afoot.Within minutes, I was met by some of these Haints, and got my first taste of South of Midnight's combat. Much of this relied on Hazel's recently acquired magical abilities, which are all themed around weaving. Hazel can use a power called Strand Pull to pull enemies towards her, and Strand Push to - you guessed it - push them away from her again. This tactic of pulling and pushing was especially useful when trying to deal with Haint nests in my preview, which would periodically produce explosive flying creatures known as Larva Haints from within. With Hazel's Weaver magic, I used these creatures to my advantage by pulling them towards me before launching them back towards the nest as they exploded.I used this pulling and pushing technique with the other Haint variations I came across. I ensnared an enemy from across the way, pulled it towards me, and then delivered some powerful slices with Hazel's Hooks - a pair of blades with a textile spinning wheel-themed twist. Each blow steadily whittled down the creature's health. Meanwhile, another magical ability known as Weave essentially allowed me to stun foes by confining them for short moments in an ethereal, threaded bind. These spells could all be upgraded by collecting items known as Floofs, which are earned by fighting Haints, or found throughout the environment as glowing threaded aura-like objects. This is a model of Crouton from South of Midnight. | Image credit: EurogamerBut, here's the thing. The first few times I fought off the Haints, I felt pleased with my efforts as I dodged and weaved (no pun intended) around the landscape. But soon, the rhythm of using these techniques became a little underwhelming and predictable. Despite coming across several different Haint varieties during the preview, including the projectile throwing Hurler Haint and the standard swiping Ravager type, each encounter became a little 'rinse and repeat'. I never felt like I was doing anything especially revelatory, and towards the end of the chapter I realised I was entering battle arenas almost on auto-pilot.I asked the South of Midnight team if there was going to be more combat variety in subsequent chapters, and was told I would encounter more types of Haint as the game progressed. Similarly, while chapter three had a very calm resolution (more on that in a moment), other chapters will include larger boss fights towards their close. We got a glimpse of one of these in an earlier South of Midnight trailer, in the form of mighty gator Two Toed Tom.There will also be an additional spell which is acquired later in the game: a little patchwork puppet pal named Crouton. Thanks to his diminutive stature, Crouton can make his way into areas Hazel is unable to reach, such as inside fox dens. Additionally, he will be able to be deployed in combat as a 'puppet master'-like spell, manipulating one Haint to attack another. However, as much as I love the sound of Crouton's abilities, these sadly weren't part of my particular preview build. Hazel fights off Larva and Ravager Haints. One of South of Midnight's Hurler Haints. Image credit: Compulsion GamesBut, while I did find combat in chapter three a little on the rote side, the game's story and setting went a long way to make up for it. After learning how to double jump and glide with the help of Mahalia, I soon found a mythical talking fish called Catfish, whose voice had been asking for help earlier.Following that destructive hurricane, poor old Catfish had been scooped up by a giant tree which was not letting him go. In order to free Catfish from its grasp, Hazel had to help the mighty tree resolve some of its emotional pain, which involved travelling to a nearby bottle tree, collecting a magical bottle from its branches, and attending to the Stigma and Haints in the nearby area.A simple task on paper, perhaps, but one that highlights just how much care and attention Compulsion has put into South of Midnight's lore, and its connection to the Deep South. For those unfamiliar with them, bottle trees are intertwined with folk beliefs in the South. It is said that a glass bottle placed on a tree can attract and capture evil spirits at night. Then, once these evil spirits have been lured in by the glint of the bottles, they will remain trapped until the morning sunlight destroys them.South of Midnight's bottle trees follow a very similar premise. In my preview, Hazel used a bottle to quite literally bottle up the painful memories which were trapped within the area, and as she did this, a story began to unfurl. With each new memory echo she collected, Hazel learned the tale of Benjy and Rhubarb, two brothers who were tormented by their community due to Benjy's differences. I found these memories incredibly affecting, and at one point had to put down my controller to gather myself for a moment. While these spectral flashes into the past were really only a small taster of what life was like for Benjy and Rhubarb, they were laced with emotion. Through the brothers' story, we began to understand the pain held in this area - a pain Hazel could help heal by using her Weaver abilities. Hazel meets Catfish. | Image credit: Compulsion Games Hazel and Rhubarb in South of Midnight's third chapter. | Image credit: Compulsion GamesOnce Hazel collected these memories in her bottle, she was able to use them to help Benjy deal with his trauma. Yes, Benjy is the giant tree clasping onto Catfish, and one of South of Midnight's mythical, folklore-inspired creatures.But healing Benjy wasn't simply a case of tapping a button and watching the game resolve itself in an artful cutscene. Rather, I had to climb up Benjy's trunk to the source of his pain, gliding, double-jumping and wall-running along the way. And truly, this climb was one of the most magical experiences I have ever had in a game, as while the platforming itself was fairly straightforward - look for ledges, avoid any spiky plants, glide over larger gaps and so on - it was all set to one of the catchiest and most poignant original songs I've heard in a game, which essentially recapped the chapter in aural form. "He was my brother, Benjy his name," it began. I am still singing it now.I felt buoyed by my climb, and empowered. Benjy's story was a sad one, absolutely, but there was hope that I could now help ease some of that pain and make the world a little bit better.I do wonder, though, if this formula of gathering and healing painful memories may - like the game's combat - become a tad predictable over time. South of Midnight is a linear game, and for now the impression I get is that Hazel will travel to a new area in each chapter, unravelling the story of a mythical creature by fighting Haints and uncovering memories at pre-determined points, before resolving their pain and moving on to the next chapter. Will this way of progressing begin to feel a little stale? I guess we will have to wait and see on that one. That big tree in the distance is Benjy, one of South of Midnight's mythical creatures. | Image credit: Compulsion GamesAs my time with the game came to a close, I also came away impressed by the team's approach to making South of Midnight accessible for all types of players. While I am personally quite enamoured with the game's stop-motion effects, I know it isn't for everyone, and there is the option to turn these off during gameplay (although, they will remain during cutscenes). Meanwhile, players will also be able to curate their difficulty settings on the fly, adjust camera shake and text size, skip chase sequences should they so choose, among other a collection of other options.As I have already said, I do have some small concerns about South of Midnight, but I'm also aware I have only played a relatively condensed section of it. If I put those concerns aside for a minute, I believe there's still a carefully curated substance to the rest of the game. The world Compulsion has crafted here is a magical one, and it holds a real spark of promise. I still eagerly await South of Midnight's April release, so I can once again venture back to the mythical Deep South with Hazel, uncover more of this beautiful game's secrets and listen to the stories it still has to tell.

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 Galacta has gone from being a mere character in Marvel Rivals to the cosmic voice directing every match. She narrates the battles with an energetic and authoritative tone, introducing objectives, highlighting important events, and even signaling the conclusion of bouts with her distinctive voice lines.However, in the comic lore, Galacta is the daughter of the notorious Galactus, making her narration crucial since it guides players through the mayhem of multiversal clashes, whereby Marvel heroes and villains from all over the cosmos square off.Having said that, Rivals players have expressed their frustration with her monotone voice lines, particularly after losses. Online communities have spoken, describing her comments as tilting and annoying, and many have asked for a way to silence her or choose an alternate announcer. But something thats even more amusing is that a similar dislike towards the character has been expressed by Marvels Senior Vice President Tom Brevoort who revealed her fate in comics. 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. Marvel SVP shuts down mainstream Galacta appearance due to Marvel RivalsMarvel Executive Editor, Senior Vice President, and X-Men Group Editor Tom Brevoort has mentioned a bunch of things in one of his recent Substacks where he mentions hes ill-motivated to write up a new newsletter and hopes his mood to pass. However, as Bleeding Cool reports, Tom has also offered his thoughts about his motivations for Galactas treatment in the comics, and where he sees her as a character.Marvel Rivals players even got a chance to complete some quests for Galacta in the early days. Captured by VideoGamerTom stated, Jordan D. White has been waiting for his chance to do more Galacta ever since he helped to innovate that character years ago. But as the Fantastic Four editor, I have to say that I dont like what the existence of that character does to Galactus, so I am very much in favor of refraining from more Galacta content, at least within the mainstream Marvel Universe. Must-Listen: Publishing Manor Lords w/ Joe Robinson VideoGamer Podcast Listen Now Regarding the rising prominence of Psylocke and Magik in comic books, coupled with their growing popularity in the Marvel Rivals scene, Tom Brevoort provides some clarity on the matter. He says, Marvel Rivals didnt have any influence in our decision to do Psylocke and Magik projects right at this time, though its a happy accident that the characters are so prominent in the game at a similar moment.While Galacta isnt your ideally favorable Marvel Rivals character, two much-awaited Fantastic Four members, Human Torch and The Thing are all set to join the hero roster in the first mid-season update of Season 1.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

Ogbog's Grog Barrel Generator By ogbog on February 11, 2025 Models & Rigs Oscar Baechler shares his new Geometry Nodes based model generator.I spent the weekend getting sick and making a barrel generator. It's $5, check it out!Poly Modeling Barrels Is DeadNever model a barrel again thanks to the Ogbogs Grog Barrel Generator! Its all generated off a curve, so hop into Edit mode and use Beziers, twist, and radius scale for the exact barrel profile you need.So Many Parameters on TapHop into the geometry nodes parameters and customize your barrels staves, hoops, head, rivets, and bung. The possibilities are endless!Other Uses As WellNeed a low poly version? Sure, just click the box and itll be included for output! (Youd have to apply/separate/bake it yourself, dear.) Wanna make something more abstract, like Colossus arm rings or a weird cage thing? Yeah! It can do that, kind of!Wood material CC-By Pixelpoops

Double jeopardy 22 states sue to block new NIH funding policycourt puts it on hold The first Trump administration tried this, and Congress passed a rule to block it. John Timmer Feb 10, 2025 4:20 pm | 71 Credit: Nicolas_ Credit: Nicolas_ Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOn Friday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a sudden change to how it handles the indirect costs of researchthe money that pays for things like support services and facilities maintenance. These costs help pay universities and research centers to provide the environment and resources all their researchers need to get research done. Previously, these had been set through negotiations with the university and audits of the spending. These averaged roughly 30 percent of the value of the grant itself and would frequently exceed 50 percent.The NIH announcement set the rate at 15 percent for every campus. The new rate would start today and apply retroactively to existing grants, meaning most research universities are currently finding themselves facing catastrophic budget shortfalls.Today, a coalition of 22 states filed a suit that seeks to block the new policy, alleging it violated both a long-standing law and a budget rider that Congress had passed in response to a 2017 attempt by Trump to drastically cut indirect costs. The suit seeks to prevent the new policy or its equivalent from being appliedsomething that Judge Angel Kelley of the District of Massachusetts granted later in the day. The injunction only applies to research centers located in the states that have joined the suit, however, essentially leaving red states to suffer the consequences of the funding cut.Directly targeting indirectsIndirect costs cover a huge range of things that can't be handled efficiently at the level of individual labs. This includes things like the maintenance of buildings, support staff, the care of animals and handling of dangerous wastes, and the administrative staff that provides things like IT support and ensuring compliance with the laws that apply to grant-funded research. Because they're set through negotiations between the government and the universities, the rates of indirect funding can vary considerably. But large research universities typically receive tens of millions of dollars in overheads every year.This isn't the first time that indirect funding has been threatened, though. In 2017, Trump's budget proposal would have set all indirect rates at 10 percent of the grant's value, but it was blocked by congressional action (we'll return to that). The Project 2025 document that seems to be guiding the initial weeks of the new administration also calls for indirect costs to be slashed, claiming "these reimbursements cross-subsidize leftist agendas."Regardless of what else they might be doing, the indirect costs pay for various critical campus services, including at research hospitals. Suddenly having that amount slashed would create a major budgetary shortfall that will be hard to cover without shutting programs down.The resulting damage to research campuses in their states was one of the harms cited by the states that joined the suit as part of their effort to establish standing. The other was the harm caused by the general slowdown in biomedical research that the policy will trigger, which the states argue will delay the availability of treatments for their citizens.The states taking part include most of those that were won by Kamala Harris in 2024, as well as states that voted for Trump but currently have Democratic governors and attorneys general: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Notably, the suit only seeks relief from the altered NIH policy for institutions located in those states; they're essentially leaving states controlled by Republicans to suffer the damages caused by the new policy.Allegations and backup allegationsThe states allege that the new NIH policy, by applying to all grants in progress, is equivalent to rewriting a contract. It cites an earlier legal decision that determined that Once the [Notice of Award] is signed or money is drawn, the [Notice of Award] and the grant terms are binding on the grantee and the government." Beyond that, the states argue the policy violates two separate pieces of legislation.The first is the Administrative Procedures Act, which describes the processes that agencies need to follow when they formulate formal rules to translate legislation into implementations. Among other things, this prevents agencies from formulating rules that are "arbitrary and capricious." It argues that, by including audits and negotiations in the process of setting them, the current individualized indirect rates are anything but.By contrast, the states argue, there's no significant foundation for the 15 percent indirect rate. "The Rate Change Notice is arbitrary and capricious in, among other ways, its failure to articulate the bases for the categorical rate cap of 15 percent," the suit alleges, "its failure to consider the grant recipients reliance on their negotiated rates, and its disregard for the factual findings that formed the bases for the currently operative negotiated indirect cost rates."The NIH announcement suggests that the process of deciding on the 15 percent rate involved checking the indirect rates of a handful of private foundations. The states are alleging that this fails to make the policy any less arbitrary or capricious.Should the judge decide that the new NIH policy isn't a federal rule governed by the Administrative Procedures Act, however, the states have a backup. As mentioned above, the first Trump administration had tried to slash indirect cost rates back in 2017. In response, the Democratic-controlled Congress of 2018 managed to attach a rider to an appropriations bill that prevented the NIH from spending any money to develop or implement any policy that alters the then-present system of determining indirect cost rates. That rider has remained in effect ever since, which suggests that, merely by announcing the new policy, the NIH has spent some of its budget in a manner specifically prevented by law.RemediesThe states were seeking a number of forms of relief. These include formally declaring the new policy a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act and hitting it with a temporary injunction. In a different suit, an injunction had been granted against a different Trump administration policy, only to see the policy continued under a different authorization. Mindful of this, the states also want an injunction against similar policies being enacted in a different form or under a distinct name.To make sure that no further action is needed to enforce the injunction, the suit asks the judge to order continued compliance reports from the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services. Judge Kelley has agreed and ordered these reports to be delivered bi-weekly.As noted above, the states only asked for this relief on behalf of institutions located within their borders, and that is all that was granted. So the NIH policy will be allowed to take effect in the other 28 states, creating a stark dichotomy between research support in neighboring states.Update 2/10: The story was updated to reflect the fact that an injunction was granted on the day the suit was filed.John TimmerSenior Science EditorJohn TimmerSenior Science Editor John is Ars Technica's science editor. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. When physically separated from his keyboard, he tends to seek out a bicycle, or a scenic location for communing with his hiking boots. 71 Comments

Johnny Soleverhand"Don't miss out on this gem my gonks" Cyberpunk 2077's lead quest designer gives a big toes up to a weird mod that turns your hands into feetWe agree, Pawe Sasko, Tarantino would probably love this.Image credit: CD Projekt/resetygk/MdseightythreE News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Feb. 11, 2025 There's now a Cyberpunk 2077 mod that swaps V's hands for a pair of feet. No, I'm not sure why. Well, actually, I might have suspicions, but to be honest I don't want to have to think about them enough to put them into words. Anyway, one of the key devs on both the original Cyberpunk and its upcoming sequel is happy that this mod exists.To be fair, you can see why Paweł Sasko - former lead quest designer and current associate game director at CD Projekt - has given the very literally named 'V feethand' by modder Resetygk his Twitter blessing. It's very funny. If also deeply terrifying.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Tarantino would be so proud," Sasko wrote at 11:30PM UK time on a Monday, in mod showcase tweet that's a thing because he was "Feeling creative tonight". "Don't miss out on this gem my gonks," he added, just in case you wrren't 100% clear that he's feet-ling the vibes V feethand's sitting down and kicking up right on the desk.That was pretty much the limit of the developer's commentary - he let Resetygk's self-penned description of the mod do the rest of the talking. "Change hand to feet. dont work well but i want one," it reads. Poetry. in fact, poetry so nice, they've written it in the mod's description twice. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Anyway, if you're wondering what this weird feethands mod is like to play, PC Gamer has given it a go, and it certainly looks like it delivers a similar level of wonderfully bizarre hilarity as the Witcher 3 mod that lets you turn Geralt into a slightly janky centaur.In case you're wondering - because against my better judgement, I was - this is far from the first feethands mod Resetygk's made. In fact, they look to be Granblue Fantasy: Relink's premiere foot-hand swapper, having made 11 different feethands mods for various characters and NPCs. You can find those here, on their modder page, alongside a work called 'No shoes feet collection'.Why would I link that, you ask? Well, I've now had to see this weirdness due to researching this article, so it's only fair you do too.If you're after more interesting Cyberpunk 2077 mods that're more handy and, er, less feety than this, here's one that should stop you from accidentally meeting your romantic partner's mute clone if you break into their flat instead of heading to an agreed meeting place.

Something Kir-newPromise Mascot Agency stars Kazuma Kiryus actor because he had the sexiest voice, but his characters designed to be much more than a supermarket own-brand Dragon of Dojima"We were quite worried about it, actually, because then we're already thinking people are gonna be saying, Oh, [you're] Yakuza rip-offs."Image credit: SEGA/Kaizen Game Works News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Feb. 11, 2025 If your game stars Takaya Kuroda as a tatted-up Yakuza member, you're inevitably going to face comparisons to the main character the voice actor's known for - the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series' stalwart protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu. Promise Mascot Agency is doing just that, but its devs are keen to let you know that their aim was never just to imitate the Dragon of Dojima.As part of a recent interview that also touched on how ex-PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida and Deadly Premonition designer Swery came to be in the game, I asked Paradise Killer and now PMA studio Kaizen Game Works what went into casting Kuroda.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Unlike with Yoshida and Swery, Promise Mascot Agency director Oli Clarke Smith told me casting Kuroda as the game's Yakuza protagonist Michi wasn't something that the Kaizen team pitched or pushed to make happen. "Our game has some similarities [with that series], its an open world Yakuza crime drama," the dev explained, "So, we never asked for him because we didn't want to be the guys that are copying [the] Yakuza games, but then he just turned up to audition."Obviously, his agent is very good at finding roles that say Yakuza man, he just rocked up. So, we had no idea. We auditioned for a few characters, not all of them, and I just let our localiser handle all of that. He said Kuroda-san has auditioned, I think we should go with him, he has the sexiest voice out of all of them, and we dont want to say no to Kuroda-san. I said Thats fine. We will use Kuroda-san.While they were obviously happy to be working with such an accomplished voice actor, how Kuroda's casting would be percieved did play on the team's minds. "We were quite worried about it, actually," Kaizen's art director Rachel Noy recalled, "because then we're already thinking people are gonna be saying, oh, we're Yakuza rip-offs and stuff, which - yeah, we love the Yakuza games. Thats no secret, but we also love a load of Yakuza books."When he came in, we were like, Oh gosh, is this actually going to be a really bad move?, but at the end of the day, we just listened to his voice [as] Michi. It was just great, we loved it, and [being] an indie studio, you can do what you want to do, and like, we don't have to explain this to a PR team.""Michi does have some similarities to Kiryu," Clarke Smith said, "but we wanted to push that a little bit further. You always get a sense with Kiryu that hes not as oblivious as his stony face makes out. He understands what's going on, he just maintains like a complete deadpan expression about it, whereas Michi doesn't have that. When he joined his Yakuza family, he was young and he was foolish, and then he's just devoted himself to that lifestyle, so he's become quite insular with his worldview and now that's exploded outwards, and he's having to come to terms with all of that. So he's a bit more oblivious than kind of the Kiryu stereotype.The developer added the genesis of Michi's personality wasn't mainly down to looking at Kiryu - it was creating the ideal surrogate for the player that'd fit within the Japanese Manzai comedy inspired "buddy cop dynamic" the team wanted for the character and the severed mascot named Pinky he runs the agency with.If you're keen to read more about Promise Mascot Agency and all of its wonderful weirdness, make sure to check out our fresh preview of it, for which I spent a couple of hours helping Michi and Pinky save costumed folks from normal-sized doors.