Last spring, I flew to Thailand to visit the set of Alien: Earth, the upcoming FX and Hulu TV series based on Ridley Scott's beloved series. As a horror fan, it was incredible to place myself in the middle of some iconic imagery from the series. A VR game like Alien: Rogue Incursion offers a similar promise: Immerse yourself in the world of Alien in a way no game has previously allowed--natively anyway, as Alien: Isolation does enjoy some player-made VR mods today. But Rogue Incursion can't quite capture the essence of the series for a multitude of reasons, but chief among them is a starring monster who feels suddenly toothless.Alien: Rogue Incursion is a VR-only entry in the long history of video games based on Alien. Typically, those titled Alien--singular--look to the slow-paced original for inspiration, while those prefixed with the plural, Aliens, go for a more action-oriented take akin to James Cameron's sequel. That's the first oddity of Rogue Incursion. It's not necessarily beholden to this naming convention, but the game has you spraying-and-praying at so many Xenos that it feels more like an action game than the survival-horror experience you might expect.This is despite the fact that the developers clearly looked toward Alien: Isolation for inspiration, from the look of the androids--which Creative Assembly had introduced to the mythology back in 2014--to the signature movement scanner that you can now physically pull from your inventory in VR. Isolation protagonist Amanda Ripley is even name-dropped at one moment, so it seems Rogue Incursion wants to harken back to its predecessor... until it doesn't.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Gamers will find various characters on the Fortnite Battle Royale island, and they all add something unique to the game. There are two types of NPCs in Fortnite, friendly characters that provide helpful services and hostile characters that will shoot on sight.

If you're looking for a new gaming TV for your PS5, Xbox Series X, or PC, now is a great time to pull the plug on the Hisense U7N. This mid-range mini-LED TV touts features normally found on high-end TVs, and you can grab the 55-inch model right now for just under $500.

Stephen King is not writing for Mike Flanagans anticipated Dark Tower series, after all. Contrary to the Internet (which usually is never wrong), I am NOT writing for Mike Flanagans DARK TOWER, the author posted on Bluesky Monday afternoon.On Monday morning, IGN reported that King would be working with Flanagan on the upcoming TV series, and would even be writing new material outside of whats been established in the books. Per IGN, when asked about his interest in contributing to the adaptation, King said: All I can say is its happening. I am writing stuff now and I think thats all I want to say because the next thing you know, Ill stir up a bunch of stuff I dont necessarily want to stir up yet. Im in process right now, and to say too much feels like a jinx.This wouldnt have been the first time King contributed new material to adaptations of his works. He wrote a new ending for 2020s The Stand miniseries, which was generally received as an improvement on the books original conclusion. Given the sprawling and cyclical nature of the Dark Tower book series, there would be ample room for King to tweak the story elements without diluting what fans love about the books.However, it appears this isnt whats in the cards for The Dark Tower adaptation though it remains unclear what King was referring to when he told IGN I am writing stuff now.Even without Kings direct involvement, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited about the Dark Tower series. Flanagan has repeatedly proven to be a deft shepherd in bringing Kings works to screen, as evidenced by his acclaimed adaptations of Geralds Game and Doctor Sleep. In addition to the upcoming Dark Tower series, Flanagan has two more King adaptations in the works: a film adaptation of The Life of Chuck coming this May, and a Carrie TV series in development at Amazon.Update (Feb 24): King took to Bluesky to refute an earlier claim that he was writing for the Dark Tower series. Weve updated this story to reflect that statement.

After somehow both teasing it a month ago and shadow-dropping it Monday alongside Annapurna Interactives 2025 showcase, Sayonara Wild Hearts is now available on PlayStation 5. Granted, youve been able to play the PlayStation 4 version on PS5 forever, but now you can play in 4k with 120 fps visuals and haptic feedback in the DualSense. All of which is to say: This is the best version of one of the best music games ever released.To recap: Back in 2019, Sayonara Wild Hearts was Simogos attempt at pulling a 180 the instinct and sensory overload counterpoint to notebook-required puzzle games like Year Walk and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. The pop album masquerading as a game is basically a series of simple commands requiring quick reflexes, played out as over-the-top music videos set to a soundtrack the Apple Music listing describes as part dreamy synth-pop, part chase score, part atmospheric chill-out. The companys website has a great look back at the games development.Apart from the technical improvements, the big new feature on PS5 is the Remix Arcade mode, which takes a bit of effort to unlock. While the games PS5 version is available as a free upgrade for anyone who owns the PS4 version, your progress doesnt carry over. So if, like me, youve played the PS4 version many times over, youll still need to play through the games story and then the Album Arcade mode to unlock Remix Arcade.Thatll take you a few hours, then once you get to Remix Arcade the experience gets flipped. Like Album Arcade, its a play on the idea of putting the games playlist of stages on shuffle, and playing them in a random order but here instead of playing full levels, youre playing short segments of those levels, each hovering at around 10 seconds. The pace feels similar to that of a WarioWare game.The segments dont start out especially challenging some you can get through without touching your controller but if you get hit once, its game over. After you clear 10 of these micro stages, the game speeds up the next 10, a process that seems to repeat every 10 stages (though I havent gotten far enough yet to know how that plays out as you progress further). The trailer promises the mode gets progressively faster and increasingly devilish.Ill have to play more to see how the mode progresses, but its already a great way to bounce between key moments in the game. And with the rest of the game already looking and playing better than ever, its easy to call it and say if you never played it the first time around, theres no better time than now.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.I am always down to try a new social app (a face I have made so, so clear), especially when it involves sharing photos. And the trendy photo-sharing app of the the moment is Yope (available on iOS and Android). Launched in September 2024, it currently has 2.2 million monthly active users and 800,000 daily active users, many of whom are in the investor-coveted Gen Z demographic. I am not a part of Gen Z, but as of today, I am one of the millions of people who used the app this month. It's fun and all, but I'm not sure I'll make it into that 800,000+ cohort of daily users. Here's why, and what you need to know about Yope.So, what's Yope?The easiest way to describe Yope is to say it's kind of like a private Instagram crossed with a group chat. (I have never understood the appeal of having a private Instagram account, so I likewise don't see the appeal of posting to an app designed to hide your content from the majority of users, but that's me.) You can create and name groups, add friends to them, and then post your pictures to those groups. And that's basically it. The pics create a stream that anyone in the small group can look at, and you can choose to have them appear on your lock screen. It that sense, it reminds me of Locket, an app I tested out three years ago that also sent your photos to your friends' lock screens. The problem for me was a lack of friends to put into a group. I synced my contacts right away, but out of 1,500 people on my phone, exactly zero of them were already on the app, signaling that all the hype around this being big for Gen Z might be truethough I definitely have some Gen-Z cousins saved in my phone, and none of them had it either. To put the app through its paces, I had to send my referral link to a bunch of my friends and plead with them to download it, which they are sick of doing, given I am cajoling them into a new app every other week or so as it is. Only one, my lovely friend Danielle, agreed to it. This, at least, allowed me to create my first group.I named it "pals" and Dani and I spent some time uploading pictures to the stream. It was cool for a few minutes, but with just two people, it got old quickly. It honestly wasn't too different from how we used to use Snapchat, ages ago: Here's a picture of what I'm looking at. There's a picture of your face. OK, here's one of my face. You can respond to a photo without sending a photo, so the stream also functions as a basic chat. You can send real-time photos or pics from your camera roll, but that's about it. Is Yope worth downloading? Yope is easy to use, but this is basically all it does. Credit: Yope/Lindsey Ellefson I've read a lot of discourse over the past few years about how the pendulum is swinging away from a cultural desire to post for the masses, and back to a compulsion to post for and interact with more tight-knit groups. Instead of tweeting or posting to a public Instagram, a lot of people do seem to enjoy being in small, interest-specific Discord or Telegram channels, in a way reminiscent of an earlier internet era that required one to seek out chatrooms to find like-minded people. Personally, I am not one who desires a more curated online interactive experience, so I don't really Vibe with Yope. Even if a lot of my friends were using it, I'd prefer to see everything in a jumble than sift through curated group feeds. But maybe that sounds good to you.Yope positives:Account setup is easyThe contact-syncing function is seamless (provided you have contacts who actually use the app)There aren't any filters, and there's minimal risk your photos will be seen by anyone you don't want to see them, unless your friends screenshot and share them (taking a screenshot does not trigger a notification to the group)The lock screen function works well and updates immediatelyThere lack of features means it doesn't feel overwhelming; all you can do is post photos into your group streamIt's freeYope negatives:It gets a little boring if you don't have a lot of people to share photos withIt's yet another photo-sharing app to add to the list of ones you already have, each of which probably already includes the same group of friends you'd be sharing with on YopeThe bottom line: NopeI personally won't keep using Yope, at least not the way I used the similar BeReal for a long stretch in the summer of 2022. That doesn't mean it won't continue to gain traction with users who actually want an app that mixes Instagram with a group chat. It seems to have enough momentum to drum up investor capital, which could result in increased visibility and attract more users. Someone you know might even be using it by next month, even if you're older than 27.

Last week, Apple launched their developer beta for iOS 18.4. The update brings fresh changes to iOS, including Priority Notifications, a new Genmoji button, and additional supported languages. While it may be some time before iOS 18.4 is launched to all iPhone users, those curious to try out the new features can do so by installing the beta. However, doing so may cause some issues, so proceed with caution. How to install the iOS 18.4 developer betaIt's worth mentioning that there is some risk involved in installing a developer beta. The software can be unstable, as it is currently in testing and designed mainly for developers to make sure their apps are compatible with the latest iOS update. There are also likely bugs and glitches in this developer beta, which Apple is still working on fixing ahead of the public rollout. Those bugs can lead to data loss if you don't properly back up your device before installing the beta. If you have a idea of what you're doing and still want to try the new features, then go forth and have fun with the beta. However, it may not be a great idea to install the beta on your main iPhone.As mentioned, you should back up your iPhone before installing the iOS 18.4 beta on your iPhone. I recommend backing up with your Mac or PC using Finder or iTunes. While you can use iCloud to back up your iPhone, this can be tricky with betas: If your iPhone backs up to iCloud while running iOS 18.4, you won't be able to retrieve the data should you need to downgrade to the public iOS version. Backing up to your computer helps to ensure all your data from your iPhone stays intact. Next, you'll need to enroll your Apple ID in Apple's developer program. To do so, first head to the Apple Developer site, then select Enroll. Log in to your Apple ID, fill out your information, and agree to Apple's terms and conditions. While Apple has made it free to access developer betas, if you want to publish apps to the App Store, you'll still need to pay Apple's $99 yearly fee for full access to their developer program. Once you've backed up your iPhone and enrolled your Apple ID, you're ready to install the new developer beta. To install the beta, open Settings > General > Software Update. Below Automatic Updates, you should see an option for Beta Updates. Choose iOS 18.4 Developer Beta, then hit Back. Let iOS load for a moment, and you'll see an option to Download and Install the beta.

Despelote is heading to Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on May 1. Despelote is a super stylish soccer game that's secretly about life in the Ecuadorian city of Quito in 2001, and it comes from local developers Julin Cordero and Sebastin Valbuena, and published by Panic.You play as 8-year-old Julin, and spend your time kicking the ball, meeting people and exploring life during Ecuador's economic recovery just ahead of the unifying 2002 World Cup. The in-game city comprises actual photographs of places around Quito, but the backgrounds are covered in a layer of high-contrast grit, while people and the soccer ball stand out as stark line drawings. The audio was recorded on location, too, and the result is a game that looks and sounds like a soothing memory.Despelote was announced in 2023 and originally due to land in 2024, but it now has a firm date of May 1. It's already picked up a handful of accolades, including four nominations at the 2025 Independent Games Festival. There's a demo on Steam, if you're intrigued.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/slice-of-life-soccer-game-despelote-kicks-off-on-may-1-234256915.html?src=rss

Sigma has announced the BF, a new 24.6-megapixel full-frame, mirrorless camera that has a built-in SSD rather than an a CFexpress or SD card slot. The company is known for making lenses and unconventional cameras, and the BF's design and unique approach to storage definitely fit the bill.The Sigma BF is milled from a single block of aluminum, and looks it, with mostly flat, angular edges that don't seem entirely designed for human hands, save for a thumb rest on the back. This is all part of the BF's deliberately minimalist approach, which extends to the lack of text on the body of the camera and the camera's haptic buttons. Besides the thumb rest, the back of the BF features a high-resolution display, pill-shaped status monitor for highlighting whatever setting you're adjusting, a dial for navigating menus, an option button, a power button and a playback button. The top of the BF is even simpler: there's just two microphones and a shutter button.The BF is compatible with L-mount lenses, and on top of photos, its 35mm full-frame sensor can capture 6K video, and supports things like HEVC encoding and recording at up to 120 frames per second. The built-in 230GB SSD in the BF is "capable of storing more than 14,000 JPEG files, 4,300 uncompressed RAW images or 2.5 hours of video at the highest-quality setting," according to Sigma. Like plenty of modern mirrorless cameras, the BF also comes with several different color modes that can tweak the look of your photo. Options include modes like standard and rich, and color specific settings like powder blue, forest green and sunset red.SigmaAll of that sounds cool in theory, especially if you're interested in a camera with an idiosyncratic design, but you have to be willing to pay for it. PetaPixel writes that the Sigma BF will be available body-only for $1,999 in April 2025, in either black or silver.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/sigmas-latest-camera-is-so-minimalist-it-doesnt-have-a-memory-card-slot-223502411.html?src=rss

Netflix adds controversial AI voice to murder documentary.