Collectibles are nothing new to games from Don't Nod. However, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage takes its collectibles to a whole new level. Players will have access to a camera they can use to capture footage; capturing footage of a specific moment will add it to one of the players memoirs.

The 2025 Monster Manual is the final member of the revised trifecta of core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons, and is currently available to purchase. While not mandatory for running a fifth-edition game of Dungeons & Dragons, the new Monster Manual introduces some changes to streamline this reference text, including making it easier to scale more basic baddies and simplifying skill checks. In addition to a wealth of awesome new illustrations, the new Monster Manual also includes 85 new monsters to inhabit your adventures.Physical copies of the 2025 Monster Manual are available on Amazon for $49.99, while a $29.99 digital copy is available from DMs Guild. D&D Beyond also offers a bundle, which includes both a physical and digital copy of the new text for $59.99.If youve been waiting until the triad of revised rulebooks is complete before investing, it would seem that your patience has paid off. You can currently purchase a physical bundle of all three revised core rulebooks on Amazon for $141.33, a slight discount on the $149.97 price offered by D&D Beyond. Of course, the newly revised editions of both the Players Handbook and the Dungeon Masters Guide are also available to purchase piecemeal from various retailers.

The Umbrella Academy comics are set to return this summer, six years after the last issue was published.Out June 11, The Umbrella Academy: Plan B will be co-written by Gerard Way and Gabriel B, who will also illustrate. Per the official description first reported by Variety, the comic will go deep on the dynamic between the Umbrella Academy and their new rivals, the Sparrows:After the mass release of The Citys greatest foes and the chaos that followed in Hotel Oblivion, the Umbrella Academy faces their most fearsome challenge to datetheir other brothers and sisters. Known only as The Sparrows, they share a different connection to Sir Reginald Hargreeves and Mom. No one knows how to hurt each other more than family, and this powerful, ruthless brood will spare no brutality in favor of their sole objectivecontrol and the obedient glare that comes with it.The Sparrows were briefly introduced in the final panels of The Umbrella Academys third volume, Hotel Oblivion, when they showed up to help fight the the supervillains that escaped during the jailbreak. But this glimpse of the new group of super-powered siblings was so brief, it wasnt until the third season of the Netflix adaptation that fans were able to learn much of anything about the Sparrows.In the show, the Sparrow Academy was a mirror group of siblings who were adopted by Reginald Hargreeves in an alternate universe. When the Umbrella Academy siblings found themselves in the Sparrows timeline, their arrival sparked a universe-threatening time paradox, as well as a heated rivalry between the two groups.The TV series also interwove the Sparrows with elements of the Hotel Oblivion arc, rather than introducing them at the end, creating a storyline largely unrecognizable from anything in the comics meaning, whatever Plan B has in store should still feel fresh to fans of the franchise.Just as it happened with every season of the show, they took elements from our original story and worked it out into telling it their way, B told Variety. They used ideas we havent done yet, but differently than we originally intended for the comics. And thats the fun of the show, in my opinion. It began very similar, but it grew to become a completely different thing, even though it has some elements that are the same. So we might see things in the comics that have appeared on the show, like the Sparrows, but the reader will soon be reminded what makes our comics so unique and why we love this medium so much.Given how much weirder the Umbrella Academy comics are and how disappointing the TV show became its hard not to get excited about finally seeing what Way and B always intended the Sparrows to be when Plan B hits shelves this summer.

We found the limits of the current generation of AItooling.Can modern AI dev tools enable kids (and an zany father) to build a mobile game on a snowday?SummaryTools like Replit and Vercel v0 can deliver impressive resultsThe tools struggle with accuracy, humans are better at finedetailsRight now, tools like the ones tested are best for getting to 80%doneTwo years ago, my kids and I built Simple Kid Games. As the name implies, the website has a few very simple web-based desktop HTML games designed bykids.The goal then was to teach my kids about technology and how to write HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. You can read about that adventure here.In what seems like a blink of an eye, AI has completely revolutionized the way we build technology. So, we thought wed expand Simple Kid Games by using AI to build a new mobilegame.Heres how it went building BirdDash.Presidents Day 2025 was a surprise snow day. We got to work in ourpajamas.Getting startedAll good projects start with a plan. Armed with markers and paper, the kids sketched ideas for a side-scrolling runner. They worked on level and character designs while I spun up Vercel v0 andReplit.I started a doc to capture our initial prompt as well as some reflections along theway.After a little trial and error, we settled on a collaborative approach to crafting the prompts based on real-time collaboration. The kids initially struggled to describe the mechanics of ourgame.Once we got rolling, and after a little help, they got more excited and skilled at suggesting prompts to make improvements to theapp.Like stealing candy from anLLMReplit and Vercel v0 are similar tools with similar capabilities. Both turn text prompts and files into functioning apps, all written in modern front-end code. Each tool also offers deployment and hostingoptions.The same initial prompt was used for each tool. We started withReplit.Replits Agent turned our initial prompt into a neat summary and offered new ideas (although it never did add sound effects).Replit took about 4 minutes to build the first version of the app from this initial prompt, asking us if we see the game and are able to useit:Replit: Can you see the infinite runner game with a black canvas and a white rectangle (player)? Are you able to make the player jump by pressing spacebar or touching thescreen?Humans: No theres nothing on the screen except the words distance: 0m and coins: 0. And nothing isworkingReplit: Ill check why the game canvas isnt showing up and fix the display and functionality issues.After that, we were actually amazed that there was a functioning game! It was rudimentary but functional and fun. The kids were delighted with the initialresults.The initial version of Bird Dash (then called Bird Runner) was functional and fun. There was one problem, the obstacles (red squares) were not at the same level as the character (white square) so you couldntfail.At this point, we decided to head to Vercel v0 and see what it could do. With the same prompt, we received a somewhat more transactional, though useful, response telling us the steps itd take to develop ourgame.Vercel v0 was a bit more straight to the point, telling us the steps it would take to build theapp.With a comical shrug from the kids (who cares, looks good), we hit enter and Vercel did its thing and returned an error. After telling v0 that we were kids and didnt understand what was happening, it fixed theboo-boo.We told Vercel v0 to treat us like kids and it fixed the scaryerror.Now, to Vercels credit, v0 was creating this app to run on a server with a database and probably some sophisticated routing and whatnot, but we were here to see how far we could get withoutcoding.Unfortunately, that was as far as we were able to get with v0. After a few tries to get a functional version of Bird Dash, we abandoned ship and headed back toReplit.After several attempts at getting something working, Vercel v0 delivered this gem. With more time, I suspect we could have made this functional, but these new tools are raising the standards of expectation prettyquickly.We did like a splash screen that Vercel decided to add to the game, so we took that idea and headed back to Replit. After instructing Replit to add said screen, the game was starting to lookgood.There was one problem, the character (represented by a white square) was not aligned with the obstacles on the stage (represented by red squares) so it was impossible to run into an obstacle.The white square, our character placeholder, would slide under the red obstacles.This became the most frustrating part of creating our game. We tried 7 different prompts to get the objects to align and appear on the same x-axis. We eventually got it good enough and movedon.After 7 different attempts, the purple bird and the spikey obstacle were aligned, but are rendered floating above the x-axis of thestage.Ready fortakeoffAfter a few more failed tweaksincluding trying our best to change the black background to white and adjust the stage placementwe decided good enough was good enough and deployed.Interestingly, out of this whole experiment, the most difficult thing was remembering my hosting account and resetting the SSL certificate for SimpleKidGames.com on Namecheap.After getting accustomed to Vercel and Replit, I dont know that Ill ever go back to traditional hosting solutionsa surprising outcome I hadnt expected out of this experiment.Both Vercel and Replit have built-in hosting and deployment options with cloud scaling and other features.Not great, but actually prettygreatIts amazing that Im dissatisfied with the results at all. The quality is not great, but then again, it would have taken me multiple days to get the game to this point with my ownhands.In 1.5 hours on a snow day, my kids and I were able to think of an idea for a game, experiment with a few different tools for building it, and ship a functioning version of the idea to ourwebsite.Give Bird Dash (the AI called it Bird Runner in the UI) a try at SimpleKidsGames.com and let us know what youthink.If dad was building this game, it would be much more accurate but take a lot longer time.MysonMy kids and I used AI to build a game was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An AI system is only as good as the stories it learns, but what happens when those stories are incomplete or one-sided?CunhatainAntropofagia musical, 2018Denilson BaniwaPicture by:DuHarteAI systems, trained on data reflecting historical power imbalances, often encode and reinforce inequalities, leading to discriminatory outcomes for marginalised communities.There is an urgent need to explore ideas on how to Decolonise AI, examining how UX can play an essential role in addressing cultural biases and power dynamics. deeply ethical and political one that requires interdisciplinary collaboration and a fundamental shift in perspective.The colonial echo in algorithmic designAI systems are not neutral arbiters; they are reflections of the data they are trained on and the values of their creators. Too often, this data is sourced from Western-centric datasets, embedding cultural assumptions and biases that disadvantage non-Western populations. This phenomenon echoes Boaventura de Sousa Santoss concept of epistemicide, where Western knowledge systems systematically suppress alternative forms of knowledge.Consider, for example, image recognition algorithms that struggle to accurately identify faces from diverse ethnic backgrounds, or natural language processing models that perform poorly on non-English languages or dialects. These failures are not simply technical glitches; they are manifestations of a biased system that prioritises certain cultural perspectives while marginalising others.Source: Humans Are Biased. Generative AI Is Even WorseBy Leonardo Nicoletti and Dina Bass Technology + EqualityJune,2023.The subaltern and the algorithm: Who gets tospeak?The issue of algorithmic bias is further complicated by the fact that marginalised communities often lack the power to shape the development and deployment of AI systems that affect their lives. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivaks seminal essay, Can the Subaltern Speak? (1988), highlights the challenges faced by marginalised groups in having their voices heard within dominant power structures. This resonates strongly with the issue of algorithmic bias, where certain voices are systematically excluded from the data used to train AIsystems.The consequences of this exclusion can be shocking. AI systems used in law enforcement, for example, have been shown to disproportionately target communities of colour. Similarly, AI-powered hiring tools can perpetuate existing inequalities by penalising candidates from non-Western backgrounds. Achille Mbembes Necropolitics (2003) examines how power operates through the control of life and death. AI systems, used in areas like law enforcement and border control, can become instruments of necropolitics, disproportionately impacting marginalised communities.Frantz Fanons work, particularly Black Skin, White Masks (1952), explores the psychological effects of colonialism and the ways in which it internalises feelings of inferiority and alienation. Similarly, Walter Mignolos, The Darker Side of Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options (2011) exposes how coloniality is inherent to modernity, and remainsunseen.These insights can inform our understanding of how AI systems can perpetuate colonial patterns, even when they are not explicitly biased. To truly decolonise AI, we must challenge the concentration of power in the hands of a few tech companies and governments.We must promote the development of AI systems that are democratically controlled and accountable to the communities theyserve.AI Decolonial Manyfesto, pushing for a re-evaluation of AI through diverse cultural viewpoints, and Tierra Comn, which campaigns for interventions against data colonialism.UX as a tool for decolonisationUX, with its focus on people and empathy, can be a powerful tool for decolonising AI. By centring the experiences and perspectives of marginalised communities, UX teams can help identifying and mitigating biases in AI systems before it causes realharm.Questioning who AI truly serves and whose voices are missing from the design process, AI risks being shaped by a narrow set of experiences, reinforcing existing power structures rather than challenging them.The UX for Decolonial AI frameworkSome of the key strategies that UX practitioners can add to their frameworks to identify and prevent harmful experiences could relyon:Diversifying data sets: Actively seek out and incorporate data & feedback from diverse cultural backgrounds to ensure that AI systems are trained on a representative sample of the population.Engaging in participatory design: Involve members of marginalised communities in the design process, giving them a voice in shaping the development of AI systems that affect theirlives.Promoting transparency and explainability: Make AI systems more transparent and explainable, so that users can understand how they work and challenge potentially biased outcomes.Embracing cultural sensitivity: Design interfaces that are culturally sensitive and inclusive, taking into account the diverse needs and preferences of users from different backgrounds. Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, a Bolivian sociologist, emphasizes the importance of chixi thinkingembracing contradiction and ambiguityin challenging colonial power structures. In AI, this could mean designing systems that acknowledge and celebrate cultural differences rather than striving for a single, universal standard.The pathforwardDecolonising human-AI interactions is a complex and ongoing process that demands a collective effort. By embracing a decolonial lens, we can design AI systems that are not only accurate and reliable but also truly inclusive.This requires us to recognise the colonial legacy embedded in AI by acknowledging the historical power imbalances that have shaped its development and deployment. It also means centring the voices of marginalised communities, prioritising their experiences and perspectives as those most affected by algorithmic bias.But notonly.How can we all commit to building an environment where AI empowers rather than marginalises?Decolonising AI: A UX approach to cultural biases and power dynamics was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Owning a car is expensiveeven new cars need tune-ups, regular maintenance, and occasional repair, and it all adds up (to an average of about $1,452 every year). Car warranties help mitigate those costs, but they typically only cover three years or up to 36,000 miles, which goes by pretty fast, considering most people drive about 15,000 miles per year.That drives people to look for ways to save money on car repairs, especially if the car is outside the warranty period. But are you sure your car is out of warranty? Its possible that even if the official warranty has expired, your car is covered to some extent by whats variously known as policy adjustments, service campaigns, or good-will programs. Whatever the official name, lets call them what they really are: Theyre secret warranties, and they could potentially save you a lot of money.Whats a secret warranty?A secret warranty comes into being when a car manufacturer realizes that a part or component in one of their car models is defective, usually due to unusually high failure rates or other problems. To manage the situation and protect themselves from liability, they will extend the warranty on that part, offering free replacement parts using new versions or discounts on service work.So what makes them secret? These warranty extensions arent official recallstheyre voluntary programs from the manufacturerso theres actually no law that compels them to notify people. While vehicle owners are sometimes notified of these extended warranties, this is usually done by mail and many people simply dont read the letters. Additionally, no effort is made to contact secondary owners who bought the vehicle pre-owned, and dealers rarely reach out to publicize free or discounted repairs.The Center for Auto Safety estimates that at any given time there are more than 500 secret warranties active from all the auto manufacturers combined. Each one represents repair and safety work you might be able to get at no cost or at a discounted rateif you can find out about them.How to checkSecret warranties are typically communicated to dealers via whats known as a technical service bulletin (TSB), which lets the dealer know that they can replace a part or perform some kind of service on specific models (sometimes even specific ranges of Vehicle Identification Numbers, or VINs) at a reduced rate or no cost.You can potentially find out about TSBs and secret warranties in three ways:State laws. While no federal law exists requiring the disclosure of secret warranties, five states have these laws on the books: California, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, and Wisconsin. These states require car dealerships to notify you when the warranty on your car is extended or otherwise modified.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) site. The NHTSA maintains a database of TSBs. You can enter your cars information and see a list of Manufacturer Communications. These can be a chore to read through and understand, but it can be worth the trouble if you find out you can have your car serviced for free. For example, heres a memo from Ford detailing an extended warranty on a range of Escape SUVs and Fusion sedans.One caveat: Just because theres a TSB (or several) for your cars make and model doesnt mean theres a secret warrantythey just indicate that a problem exists and the dealer has been given instructions on how to fix it. But having a copy of that communication from the manufacturer will help you find out from your dealer if theres a secret warranty you can take advantage of.Call the dealer. Finally, you can try simply calling the dealer who sold you the car and ask. Have your VIN ready and ask them to check for warranty adjustments or extensions.Note that just like the original warranty, these secret warranties have deadlines. If you find out about them after their effective period has expired, you wont be able to take advantage of them.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.You've probably heard of Sonos smart speakers and soundbars. They're one of the best in the market for audio quality and simple user experience. But unless you're in the weeds of tech audio, you probably missed their debut in the headphone space with the Sonos Ace, which was released last summer. You can get the Sonos Ace for $349 (originally $449), the lowest price they've been according to price tracking tools. Sonos Ace $349.00 at Amazon $449.00 Save $100.00 Get Deal Get Deal $349.00 at Amazon $449.00 Save $100.00 The Sonos Ace are soft, comfortable, and adaptable to different head sizes, thanks to their plastic design. You actually get buttons to control the headphones, which I personally consider a huge plus. The battery life is impressive, with about 30 hours with either the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) or Aware Mode settings active or about 40 hours with both of those off. The Bluetooth multipoint connectivity means you can connect up to two devices at once and switch seamlessly between them. The headphones perform well, according to PCMag's "excellent" review. The sound is balanced with an EQ adjuster in the app, and the ANC and Aware Mode are top-tier, competing with the best headphones in the market. Unfortunately, the Sonos Ace aren't wifi-enabled, meaning you can't stream media into them like you can with Sonos speakers. However, you can connect to Sonos speakers through Bluetooth and listen to your media that way (if you own Sonos speakers). At their current price, the Sonos Ace are competitive with the best headphones for Apple users, the AirPods Max, and the best headphones for Android users, Sony's WH-1000XM5. If you care about transparency mode or have Sonos speakers are home, the Sonos Ace is your best choice. Otherwise, consider the AirPods Max or the WH-1000XM5.

Annapurna Interactive is holding a games showcase on February 24. It streams live at 12PM ET via the companys YouTube page. The publisher has released a short teaser video to hold us over until Monday.This is the first event Annapurna Interactive has held since the entire staff, including the executives, resigned from the company last year. That mass walkout occurred after a failed attempt to spin off the games division from the remainder of the company."All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned," the team said in a joint statement. "This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly."Annapurna hired new people to replace those who left, which was pretty much everyone. This is the first time well get to see what the revamped publishing house has been working on.So what can we expect? The company says the showcase will be 30 minutes long and will focus on its 2025 lineup of releases. These include titles like Wanderstop, Skin Deep, Wheel World, Faraway, Lushfoil, To a T and Morsels, among others. We are especially excited for Wheel World, which was formerly called Ghost Bike. Faraway also looks pretty cool. Annapurna promises a few more surprises in addition to the aforementioned games.The publisher is primarily known for games like Stray, which recently launched for Nintendo Switch, and What Remains of Edith Finch. It also published Cocoon, Outer Wilds and the absolutely fantastic Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-annapurnas-publisher-showcase-on-february-24-193539718.html?src=rss

Meta just announced its first-ever LlamaCon, a dev conference dedicated to generative AI. Its scheduled for April 29. Why the llama-based naming convention? The company titled the event after its family of generative AI models.Meta promises to share the latest on our open source AI developments to help developers do what they do best: build amazing apps and products. Beyond that vague description, we dont know much. Theres no information regarding speakers or potential products being shown. We know that the companys working on Llama 4, with an early 2025 release window, so well most likely get a sizzle reel of some kind.The company notes itll have more to share about LlamaCon in the coming weeks. Meta also says that 2025 is shaping up to be another banger of a year. To that end, it has scheduled the next major Connect event for September 17. It promises plenty of reveals that should please virtual and mixed reality developers, content creators, metaverse mavens and AI glasses enthusiasts. Meta Connect 2024 gave us the Quest 3S and the fancy-pants Orion prototype AR glasses.According to TechCrunch, Meta has been scrambling to figure out how AI rival DeepSeek has managed to create tech that rivals its own at a fraction of the development cost. The report suggests that DeepSeeks upcoming models could outperform the aforementioned Llama 4. The companys also currently embroiled in a lawsuit that accuses it of training Llama models on copyrighted book materials without permission.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-just-scheduled-a-generative-ai-conference-called-llamacon-for-april-29-181351134.html?src=rss

Lee Child on Reacher season 3, why the TV series is more faithful to the books and whether we could see the film stories retold in the Prime Video show.