DICEThe first entry of the beloved Battlefield: Bad Company series debuted in 2008 and was well-received. Two years later, its sequel was launched and sold over 2.5 million copies within its first month. Although the franchise seemed to have a promising beginning, the third game was never out, and no one clearly knows the reason.Recently, David Goldfarb, lead designer of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, has shared some details about the third game. On March 5, he found some forgotten antiques, which were the first three pages of the unreleased scripts that he wrote, and shared this finding on social media.Replying to a fans thought that EA never considered it even as a concept, Goldfarb said he just wrote them anyway for himself, although the studio didnt entertain the idea of BC3. Obviously, it had surprised him how accurate some elements might be to the extent that freaked him out. Short version is, russia won and partially took over alaska, he summarized.A few days later, a snippet of the script was posted, showing a scene featuring Haggard, the squads demolitions expert, working in the convenience shop Adiosvidaniya, interacting with a kid who got caught stealing snacks and smokes. A player had speculated the plot based on the scenario that they got kicked out of the military clearly Im guess theres a gang gets back together for a special(impossible) mission that theyre only willing to use expendable team like them to do. A confirmative reply was given by the developer, who said yes to the speculation.Although its been around 15 years since Bad Company 2 was released, the hope of getting a new BC game isnt dying out completely in the community. Unfortunately, this doesnt sound possible at this moment. Some fans also expressed their hopes of getting the script finished due to relevance, which is something Goldfarb might consider doing.Dont forget tojoin our80 Level Talent platformand ournew Discord server, follow us onInstagram,Twitter,LinkedIn,Telegram,TikTok, andThreads,where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.Source link The post Ex-Battlefield Dev Got Freaked Out By His Bad Company 3 Plot Accuracy appeared first on CG SHARES.

Zombies have long since been a source of scares for people far and wide, appearing in movies as far back as the 1930s in Victor Halperin's White Zombie, and novels such as Frankenstein and Seabrook's Magical Island proved instrumental in introducing the concept to Western culture. And, with anything that can delight and terrify their audience, these creatures were also adapted into the world of gaming.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard gives players three types of classes, each with their own specializations. The game also has seven companions that can join players on their journey. Each of these characters has their own playstyle that is reminiscent of these specializations.

Hideo Kojima took to the stage at SXSW today and joined by some special guests discussed new details about Kojima Productions Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Those details included the reveal of the games release date: June 26, 2025. To mark the announcement and pre-orders going live March 17* attendees enjoyed a first look at a special Kojima-directed Pre-Order trailer, which you can watch in full below.Play VideoDeath Stranding 2: On the Beach will launch in a range of different versions. This includes a Collectors Edition, which will be available to pre-order in select retailers worldwide. Please check with your local retailers (https://www.playstation.com/local/retailers/) for pre-order details and availability.Details on the different versions you can find below.View and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageDeath Stranding 2: On the Beach Collectors Edition** | SGD 318.90 / MYR 969 / IDR 3,349,000 / THB 7,449 / PHP 11,490 / VND 5,799,000Full Game Digital DownloadCollectors Box48-hour Early Access to the game15 Magellan Man Statue3 Dollman figurineArt cardsLetter from Hideo KojimaIn-game itemsMachine Gun (MP Bullets) LV1 early unlockBattle Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)Boost Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)Bokka Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)Quokka PatchChiral Feline PatchWhy Me? PatchIf you pre-order the Collectors Edition, youll also receive:Quokka HologramBattle Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)Boost Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)Bokka Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)View and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageDeath Stranding 2: On the Beach Digital Deluxe Edition | SGD 109 / MYR 339 / IDR 1,179,000 / THB 2,590Full Game Digital Download48-hour Early Access to the gameIn-game itemsMachine Gun (MP Bullets) LV1 early unlockBattle Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)Boost Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)Bokka Skeleton: Gold (LV1, LV2, LV3)Quokka PatchChiral Feline PatchWhy Me? PatchIf you pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition, youll also receive:Quokka HologramBattle Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)Boost Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)Bokka Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)View and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageDeath Stranding 2: On the Beach Physical and Digital Standard Edition | SGD 97.90 / MYR 299 / IDR 1,029,000 / THB 2,290 / PHP 3,490 / VND 1,799,000Full Game Digital Download for Digital EditionIf you pre-order the Standard Edition, youll also receive:Quokka HologramBattle Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)Boost Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)Bokka Skeleton: Silver (LV1, LV2, LV3)Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Stranding Harmony Concert SeriesAlso announced today was a special concert tour to celebrate the music of Death Stranding. This tour, featuring a full orchestra performing music from the series, will commence November 8, 2025, beginning with a performance at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, followed by dates around the world. Youll find more information on the tour here.Death Stranding 2: On the Beach new screenshotsTo mark the SXSW 2025 Special Panel, Kojima Productions also released all-new screenshots for the game, which you can look through below.View and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this imageView and download imageDownload the imagecloseCloseDownload this image*Death Stranding 2: On the Beach pre-orders go live March 17.**Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Collectors Edition includes a voucher code to redeem Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and digital bonuses. Account for PlayStation Network, and internet connection required for code redemption.

Max has unveiled the highly anticipated official trailer for The Last of Us Season 2, continuing the gripping post-apocalyptic journey of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Based on the critically acclaimed video game by Naughty Dog, the new season promises intense drama, brutal survival, and emotional storytelling as the duo faces new dangers in a world ravaged by the infected.With stunning cinematography, hauntingly realistic VFX, and a deeper dive into Ellies arc, Season 2 brings fan-favorite characters and pivotal storylines to life. Expect high-stakes action, complex relationships, and the introduction of major figures from The Last of Us Part II, including Abby.The trailer teases a harrowing, action-packed season that will test the characters like never before. The Last of Us Season 2 premieres exclusively on Maxget ready for another unforgettable journey.The post The Last of Us Season 2 Official Trailer appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Sony Pictures Imageworks brings the supernatural chills of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire to life with seamless compositing work that blends CGI ghosts, icy environments, and electrifying proton streams into the real world.he VFX team masterfully integrates digital effects with live-action elements, ensuring every ghostly encounter feels both immersive and terrifying. Their compositing expertise enhances key action sequences, from proton pack battles to large-scale supernatural events, maintaining the films signature blend of comedy and eerie spectacle.Sony Pictures Imageworks once again proves its excellence in visual effects, delivering a haunting yet visually stunning experience that expands the Ghostbusters universe with seamless digital artistry.The post Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Compositing Breakdown by Sony Pictures Imageworks appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Theres a special place in you-know-where for spam callers. Theyre annoying. They waste time. Theyre also dangerous.And while its challenging to eliminate spam calls entirely, the good news is that with a little time and effort, you can significantly reduce the number of spam calls you receive. Heres what to do.Add yourself to the FTCs Do Not Call listOne of the easiest and longest-lasting ways to reduce spam calls is to add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry, which is a free service managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).Once youve added your number, telemarketers have a month to remove you from their lists so you dont get any more calls. These days, however, whether they will abide by these rules is another story, so read on for some more effective alternatives.Use call-blocking features and/or appsWhile the Do Not Call list relies on the . . . ahem . . . good nature of above-board telemarketers to take you off their lists, its largely ineffective against the real culprits: scammers and illegal telemarketers.Luckily, modern smartphones are packed with features designed to help combat spam.Most have built-in features that allow you to block individual numbers. While this wont stop spoofed numbers, it can help you get rid of repeat offenders.Heres how to block numbers on iPhone, and heres how to do it on Android if you use Googles Phone app.You can also send unknown callers to voicemail. This is a handy feature that lets legitimate callers leave a message while ideally discouraging nefarious callers from doing the same. The two links in the previous paragraph contains information about how to enable the feature.And if all else fails, consider third-party call-blocking apps. Popular options include Hiya, Robokiller, Truecaller, and Nomorobo. These apps use crowdsourced data, known-offender databases, and AI to identify and automatically block or flag potential spam calls.While theyre not perfect, they can significantly reduce the number of unwanted calls you receive.Protect your personal info in the first placeSpammers thrive on data, so the less information you share, the less likely you are to be targeted.Make sure to be cautious online. Think twice before entering your phone number on websites, especially those that seem suspicious or offer freebies in exchange for your information.If the caution ship has already sailed, look into opting out of data brokerages. Data brokers collect and sell your personal information, including your phone number, to just about anyone willing to pay for it.While it takes some effort, you can opt out of these services to reduce your online footprint. A quick Google search for opt out data brokers will provide a list of resources to help you get started.And finally, just dont engage. Never answer calls from unknown numbers, and never provide any personal information to callers you dont recognize. Even answering the phone signals to spammers that youve got a live, active number. Just let the call go to voicemail and screen it later.

Noticed all the blondes going back to their natural hair color lately? As much as many try to claim its because of a hair health journey, other factors seem to be at play here.Hows the economy? one TikTok user asks in a viral video. Well, hasnt been good for a while seems like my indicators tell me, the former blonde says, measuring the inches of her incoming roots with her fingers.THIS IS SO ACCURATE, one commenter responded. @reb_ellion #hair #blonde #hairtok #usa #recession #nobuy original sound Rebekah | Bewitched Beauty Im no expert, but root length has always been a pretty solid way to tell how people are doing financially. Remember when balayage became really popular in 2009? asked one person in the comments. During the 2007-to-2009 recession, blonde celebrities were embracing their darker roots, a trend that mirrored the economic downturn. Now, in 2025, were seeing the same thing happening all over again.One in six Americans admit to spending more on beauty and wellness than they can afford and, if youve ever colored your hair, you know how expensive the upkeep is. So, when purse strings tighten, expensive salon visits are the first to go.With some hairstylists interviewed in a recent Washington Post piece charging at least $100 an hour for cuts, color, bleaching and balayage, being blonde is a luxury not everyone can afford. Suddenly, grown-out roots have become the hottest trendand a leading economic indicator.When someone says they like my natural hair color better and I agree, when in reality I can no longer afford to upkeep the blonde, and this is my brunette recession era, one TikTok post with 2.3 million views reads. Recession brunette is back, another TikTok user declared. @talie028 the length of my money pieces growing out is an indicator of my current savings #enconmy #brunette #reletable original sound The Wall Street Journal reported that lived-in color, referring to partial highlights or balayage, was last years trend among hairstylists. Not unlike the lipstick effectthe phenomenon, during an economic downturn, of consumers continuing to spend on small luxury items, such as lipsticklived-in color and the recession brunette may be the latest stylish indicators of an economy in crisis. Bottom line: If blondes really do have more fun, these days its fair to presume they also have more money.

The rapid growth of web content presents a challenge for efficiently extracting and summarizing relevant information. In this tutorial, we demonstrate how to leverage Firecrawl for web scraping and process the extracted data using AI models like Google Gemini. By integrating these tools in Google Colab, we create an end-to-end workflow that scrapes web pages, retrieves meaningful content, and generates concise summaries using state-of-the-art language models. Whether you want to automate research, extract insights from articles, or build AI-powered applications, this tutorial provides a robust and adaptable solution.!pip install google-generativeai firecrawl-pyFirst, we install google-generativeai firecrawl-py, which installs two essential libraries required for this tutorial. google-generativeai provides access to Googles Gemini API for AI-powered text generation, while firecrawl-py enables web scraping by fetching content from web pages in a structured format.import osfrom getpass import getpass# Input your API keys (they will be hidden as you type)os.environ["FIRECRAWL_API_KEY"] = getpass("Enter your Firecrawl API key: ")Then we securely set the Firecrawl API key as an environment variable in Google Colab. It uses getpass() to prompt the user for the API key without displaying it, ensuring confidentiality. Storing the key in os.environ allows seamless authentication for Firecrawls web scraping functions throughout the session.from firecrawl import FirecrawlAppfirecrawl_app = FirecrawlApp(api_key=os.environ["FIRECRAWL_API_KEY"])target_url = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)"result = firecrawl_app.scrape_url(target_url)page_content = result.get("markdown", "")print("Scraped content length:", len(page_content))We initialize Firecrawl by creating a FirecrawlApp instance using the stored API key. It then scrapes the content of a specified webpage (in this case, Wikipedias Python programming language page) and extracts the data in Markdown format. Finally, it prints the length of the scraped content, allowing us to verify successful retrieval before further processing.import google.generativeai as genaifrom getpass import getpass# Securely input your Gemini API KeyGEMINI_API_KEY = getpass("Enter your Google Gemini API Key: ")genai.configure(api_key=GEMINI_API_KEY)We initialize Google Gemini API by securely capturing the API key using getpass(), preventing it from being displayed in plain text. The genai.configure(api_key=GEMINI_API_KEY) command sets up the API client, allowing seamless interaction with Googles Gemini AI for text generation and summarization tasks. This ensures secure authentication before making requests to the AI model.for model in genai.list_models(): print(model.name)We iterate through the available models in Google Gemini API using genai.list_models() and print their names. This helps users verify which models are accessible with their API key and select the appropriate one for tasks like text generation or summarization. If a model is not found, this step aids debugging and choosing an alternative.model = genai.GenerativeModel("gemini-1.5-pro")response = model.generate_content(f"Summarize this:\n\n{page_content[:4000]}")print("Summary:\n", response.text)Finally, we initialize the Gemini 1.5 Pro model using genai.GenerativeModel(gemini-1.5-pro) sends a request to generate a summary of the scraped content. It limits the input text to 4,000 characters to stay within API constraints. The model processes the request and returns a concise summary, which is then printed, providing a structured and AI-generated overview of the extracted webpage content.In conclusion, by combining Firecrawl and Google Gemini, we have created an automated pipeline that scrapes web content and generates meaningful summaries with minimal effort. This tutorial showcased multiple AI-powered solutions, allowing flexibility based on API availability and quota constraints. Whether youre working on NLP applications, research automation, or content aggregation, this approach enables efficient data extraction and summarization at scale.Here is the Colab Notebook. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitterand join ourTelegram ChannelandLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our80k+ ML SubReddit. Asif RazzaqWebsite| + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Step by Step Guide to Build a Trend Finder Tool with Python: Web Scraping, NLP (Sentiment Analysis & Topic Modeling), and Word Cloud VisualizationAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Meet Manus: A New AI Agent from China with Deep Research + Operator + Computer Use + Lovable + MemoryAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Tufa Labs Introduced LADDER: A Recursive Learning Framework Enabling Large Language Models to Self-Improve without Human InterventionAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/CMU Researchers Introduce PAPRIKA: A Fine-Tuning Approach that Enables Language Models to Develop General Decision-Making Capabilities Not Confined to Particular Environment Parlant: Build Reliable AI Customer Facing Agents with LLMs (Promoted)

Mar 10, 2025Ravie LakshmananThreat Intelligence / CybercrimeA new mass malware campaign is infecting users with a cryptocurrency miner named SilentCryptoMiner by masquerading it as a tool designed to circumvent internet blocks and restrictions around online services.Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said the activity is part of a larger trend where cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging Windows Packet Divert (WPD) tools to distribute malware under the guise of restriction bypass programs."Such software is often distributed in the form of archives with text installation instructions, in which the developers recommend disabling security solutions, citing false positives," researchers Leonid Bezvershenko, Dmitry Pikush, and Oleg Kupreev said. "This plays into the hands of attackers by allowing them to persist in an unprotected system without the risk of detection."The approach has been used as part of schemes that propagate stealers, remote access tools (RATs), trojans that provide hidden remote access, and cryptocurrency miners like NJRat, XWorm, Phemedrone, and DCRat.The latest twist in this tactic is a campaign that has compromised over 2,000 Russian users with a miner disguised as a tool for getting around blocks based on deep packet inspection (DPI). The program is said to have been advertised in the form of a link to a malicious archive via a YouTube channel with 60,000 subscribers.In a subsequent escalation of the tactics spotted in November 2024, the threat actors have been found impersonating such tool developers to threaten channel owners with bogus copyright strike notices and demand that they post videos with malicious links or risk getting their channels shut down due to supposed infringement."And in December 2024, users reported the distribution of a miner-infected version of the same tool through other Telegram and YouTube channels, which have since been shut down," Kaspersky said.The booby-trapped archives have been found to pack an extra executable, with one of the legitimate batch scripts modified to run the binary via PowerShell. In the event antivirus software installed in the system interferes with the attack chain and deletes the malicious binary, users are displayed an error message that urges them to re-download the file and run it after disabling security solutions.The executable is a Python-based loader that's designed to retrieve a next-stage malware, another Python script that downloads the SilentCryptoMiner miner payload and establishes persistence, but not before checking if it's running in a sandbox and configuring Windows Defender exclusions.The miner, based on the open-source miner XMRig, is padded with random blocks of data to artificially inflate the file size to 690 MB and ultimately hinder automatic analysis by antivirus solutions and sandboxes."For stealth, SilentCryptoMiner employs process hollowing to inject the miner code into a system process (in this case, dwm.exe)," Kaspersky said. "The malware is able to stop mining while the processes specified in the configuration are active. It can be controlled remotely via a web panel."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE