Resident Evil 9, Stranger Than Heaven, and more of the key reveals from Summer Game Fest 2025 10 highlights from Geoff Keighley's annual livestream Feature by Samuel Roberts Editorial Director Published on June 7, 2025 Geoff Keighley's annual Summer Game Fest showcase had a few big moments, including a major showing from Capcom, some sharp-looking indie games from well-known developers, and a creative tie-in between Hitman and James Bond by IO Interactive. Find a selection of 10 key SGF 2025 highlights below, including all-new reveals and several worthwhile updates on already-announced games. End of Abyss Created by Section 9 Interactive, a Malmö-based studio of developers who worked on the Little Nightmares games, and published by Epic Games itself, this was the horror highlight of SGF. In End of Abyss, a combat technician explores a facility that's riddled with fleshy monsters, in what looks a little like a twin-stick survival horror shooter. New pathways will emerge in the game as players become stronger, suggesting something of a Metroidvania structure. This one doesn't have a specific release date yet beyond 2026, but it's coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Lego Voyagers This two-player Lego game from the developers of Lego Builders Journey left an impression with a simple but perfect pitch: what if you played as a single Lego brick, and the entire game was built around that notion? Anyone still craving high-value co-op experiences for couch play after finishing this year's wonderful Split Fiction should keep this beautiful-looking game on their radar. It's coming to PC and consoles, including the original Nintendo Switch, and will be playable either locally or online (with only one purchase necessary for the latter). Mina the Hollower To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Mina the Hollower, the long-awaited new game from Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games, got a release date of October 31, 2025 during SGF. This trailer will set off fireworks for anyone familiar with its inspirations: Link's Awakening and the other Game Boy Color Zelda games, for example, as well as the side-scrolling adventures of the Castlevania series. Marvel's Deadpool VR Rather a lot of licensed games made the cut in this Summer Games Fest (who could've predicted that this year's livestream would offer viewers a real-time strategy game tie-in to Game of Thrones, a TV show that ended on a contentious note in 2019?). Meta's big reveal at SGF was Deadpool VR, another superhero-themed exclusive coming to Quest 3, following last year's killer app Batman: Arkham Shadow. This game stars Neil Patrick Harris as Marvel's Merc with a Mouth, and comes from 'Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel. As ever, Deadpool's delivered-via-sledgehammer meta humour is something of an acquired taste, yet the recent history of pop culture would suggest it's never been more popular. Deadpool VR's first-person combat and storytelling look authentic to the character, which is either a dream come true or a living nightmare, depending on who you ask. It launches exclusively on Quest 3 and 3S in late 2025. Ill and Mundfish's push into publishing Mundfish, the latest developer to move into publishing, had a big presence in this year's SGF livestream. That included a colourful-if-muddled trailer for Atomic Heart 2, a follow-up to its 2023 hit FPS. But perhaps more interesting was the horror-themed FPS Ill, the debut game from studio Team Clout. What could be more frightening than being chased by dozens of decaying bald men, and occasionally, some fetid-looking evil giant babies? This game will launch on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, but it doesn't have a release date yet. Scott Pilgrim EX Considering the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels ended 15 years ago, the longevity of a story about a down-on-his-luck 20-something fighting all his new partner's exes in sequence continues to amaze. This spiritual sequel to 2010's acclaimed Ubisoft tie-in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game sees Scott and six of his pals teaming up to fight three different warring gangs who have taken over Toronto. Developer Tribute Games (creators of the brilliant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge) comprises staff who worked on that prior Ubisoft title. Pleasingly for fans, too, series creator Bryan Lee O'Malley is behind the story on this project. With four-player co-op part of the mix, Scott Pilgrim EX launches in 2026. Casino Royale's Le Chiffre comes to Hitman: World of Assassination With IO Interactive's James Bond game First Light not arriving until 2026, this reveal was a real treat for fans of 007, and a fun stopgap. Actor Mads Mikkelsen joined IO's Hakan Abrak on-stage in announcing that his Casino Royale villain Le Chiffre has been added to Hitman: World of Assassination's Paris level as a limited-time Elusive Target. Players have until July 6 to take him out. Blighted Guacamelee studio Drinkbox is behind this visually stylish action RPG, which looks like it'll scratch the itch of anyone who got deep into Hades but wants something with a fresh twist (or co-op) to play. The setting is described as a 'psychedelic western nightmare' by the developers, and a 'blighted' mechanic alters the difficulty of the game dynamically depending on how afflicted the player is. It's coming soon to Steam. Stranger Than Heaven First unveiled last year as Project Century, this deeper look at the next project by Like A Dragon developer RGG Studio showed off the game's 1943 (seemingly) period Japanese setting, as well as its combat and other gameplay elements like moral choices (of the Xbox 360 era 'spare/kill' variety). Considering the last trailer was set in 1915, it would appear to suggest the game takes place across multiple decades. It's exciting to see this studio trying something a little different, even if some of the parts are superficially similar. Resident Evil Requiem The reveal of the ninth mainline Resident Evil game closed the livestream with a bang. Requiem is slightly hard to grasp from this first trailer, perhaps by design: the protagonist is an agent called Grace Ashcroft, and we see several glimpses of the ruins of Raccoon City amid the horrors in this teaser. No doubt Capcom will gradually put the pieces together in the run-up to its February 27, 2026 release date on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. It firmly looks like a stylistic follow-up to the first-person hits Resident Evil 7 and Village. On-stage, it was promised the game will feature "high-stakes cinematic action" as well as survival horror.

When YARA + DAVINA became mothers within a month of each other, they didn't step back from their practice – they stepped forward together. The socially engaged artist duo began collaborating as a job share, determined to remain visible in an industry that too often sidelines mothers. Their work – which spans everything from poetry to bronze public sculptures – is rooted in play, accessibility and political intent, often exploring themes of care, identity, and who art is really for. In this candid Q&A, they reflect on making time (and peace) with imperfection, the pressures of doing it all, and why motherhood has only deepened their creative drive. How has motherhood influenced your creative process or career choices? Brian Sewel, the art critic, said in 2008 that "Female artists fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it's something to do with bearing children". Yes, motherhood has had a profound influence on our career choices. We became a duo after becoming mothers, and we had a deep wellspring of desire to nurture our babies and also nurture our art practice, not letting it fade away. Being a mum gave us a wider range of being and a deeper depth of what it means to be human. It filled us with more ideas, not less… we had more determination and more creative ideas than ever. In 2016, our hack on motherhood was to start collaborating as a duo as a 'job share'. We had been friends and admirers of each other's work for 11 years prior, and both of us became parents within a month of each other. We realised we both wanted to be present mothers but also visible artists. We literally started working together so we could work part-time but have a full-time practice between us. We are driven to make powerful, playful and fun contemporary art, alongside being mothers, to challenge ideas like Tracy Emin, who said, "There are good artists that have children. They are called men." We are good artists, and we are not only women; we are mothers! Photo credit: Alice Horsley What's been the biggest challenge in balancing creativity and caregiving? Time and some guilt! Quite literally, there is little time to parent and make art. But we were both determined to be part-time mums, part-time artists and full-time friends. This duo works because we both understand the limitations of our free time: we are always there to step up when the other needs a break, has sick children, or craves space for ourselves. It was almost like an intuitive dance, where we had become in tune with each other's outside demands and rhythm. As artists, we often have to travel extensively for work, which can put considerable pressure on our partners and be unsettling for our children. So guilt slips in every now and then. Luckily, we both support each other in those times and remind each other that to parent and care for others effectively, it is essential that we make time for our art practice and thus ourselves. With time, we hope our children will respect and understand the role art played in our lives and why we had to find a balance that worked for us as creative beings. We work together every weekday, and we always find ourselves talking and supporting each other with our parenting alongside making work. We both deeply feel that we were put on this planet to create great art, to push the boundaries of what art is and can be, and with whom it can be made and for whom it can be made. And we can do this while raising children. Photo credit: Alice Horsley Have you felt pressure to 'do it all,' and how do you navigate that? Yes, we feel it all the time, from ourselves as much as from society! One of our mottos that we tell ourselves is 'Good Enough'. We have talked about getting these as matching tattoos ( we love to wear matching outfits). Essentially, it is impossible to do everything really well. We need to prioritise what things need to be brilliant and what things can just be good enough. These priorities shift daily, creating an interplay between our personal and professional lives. Being a duo allows us to pick up each other's slack when needed. Photo credit: Nick Turpin What changes would you like to see in the creative industry to better support mothers? In 2016, we participated in a British Council residency at Portland State University titled 'Motherhood: A Social Practice'. We explored motherhood in the creative world, and our passion was to create more family-focused residencies and secure funding to support childcare. We wanted programmers to consider simple things, such as family-accessible residences, and work around term times. Things have dramatically changed since then, but we need to see more changes. People like Lizzie Humber and her daylight collective are doing amazing things, thinking about programming parent-accessible daytime culture. When we live in a time where Evening Standard art critic Brian Sewell says things like, "Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness.", women, in general, have a tough time, never mind mums! We are passionate not only about supporting artist mothers but also about working with and for mothers. Our public artwork, WOMAN - WHOLE, was created alongside, with, and for mothers on the Regents Park Estate, commissioned by ODAC, Camden. We subverted the idea of manholes, creating a series of bronze-cast covers embedded in the pavements of Camden. These permanent public artworks playfully remind us that, as women, we are whole. Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning

Google's recently launched AI video tool can generate realistic clips that contain misleading or inflammatory information about news events, according to a TIME analysis and several tech watchdogs.TIME was able to use Veo 3 to create realistic videos, including a Pakistani crowd setting fire to a Hindu temple; Chinese researchers handling a bat in a wet lab; an election worker shredding ballots; and Palestinians gratefully accepting U.S. aid in Gaza. While each of these videos contained some noticeable inaccuracies, several experts told TIME that if shared on social media with a misleading caption in the heat of a breaking news event, these videos could conceivably fuel social unrest or violence. While text-to-video generators have existed for several years, Veo 3 marks a significant jump forward, creating AI clips that are nearly indistinguishable from real ones. Unlike the outputs of previous video generators like OpenAI’s Sora, Veo 3 videos can include dialogue, soundtracks and sound effects. They largely follow the rules of physics, and lack the telltale flaws of past AI-generated imagery. Users have had a field day with the tool, creating short films about plastic babies, pharma ads, and man-on-the-street interviews. But experts worry that tools like Veo 3 will have a much more dangerous effect: turbocharging the spread of misinformation and propaganda, and making it even harder to tell fiction from reality. Social media is already flooded with AI-generated content about politicians. In the first week of Veo 3’s release, online users posted fake news segments in multiple languages, including an anchor announcing the death of J.K. Rowling and of fake political news conferences. “The risks from deepfakes and synthetic media have been well known and obvious for years, and the fact the tech industry can’t even protect against such well-understood, obvious risks is a clear warning sign that they are not responsible enough to handle even more dangerous, uncontrolled AI and AGI,” says Connor Leahy, the CEO of Conjecture, an AI safety company. “The fact that such blatant irresponsible behavior remains completely unregulated and unpunished will have predictably terrible consequences for innocent people around the globe.”Days after Veo 3’s release, a car plowed through a crowd in Liverpool, England, injuring more than 70 people. Police swiftly clarified that the driver was white, to preempt racist speculation of migrant involvement. (Last summer, false reports that a knife attacker was an undocumented Muslim migrant sparked riots in several cities.) Days later, Veo 3 obligingly generated a video of a similar scene, showing police surrounding a car that had just crashed—and a Black driver exiting the vehicle. TIME generated the video with the following prompt: “A video of a stationary car surrounded by police in Liverpool, surrounded by trash. Aftermath of a car crash. There are people running away from the car. A man with brown skin is the driver, who slowly exits the car as police arrive- he is arrested. The video is shot from above - the window of a building. There are screams in the background.”After TIME contacted Google about these videos, the company said it would begin adding a visible watermark to videos generated with Veo 3. The watermark now appears on videos generated by the tool. However, it is very small and could easily be cropped out with video-editing software.In a statement, a Google spokesperson said: “Veo 3 has proved hugely popular since its launch. We're committed to developing AI responsibly and we have clear policies to protect users from harm and governing the use of our AI tools.”Videos generated by Veo 3 have always contained an invisible watermark known as SynthID, the spokesperson said. Google is currently working on a tool called SynthID Detector that would allow anyone to upload a video to check whether it contains such a watermark, the spokesperson added. However, this tool is not yet publicly available.Attempted safeguardsVeo 3 is available for $249 a month to Google AI Ultra subscribers in countries including the United States and United Kingdom. There were plenty of prompts that Veo 3 did block TIME from creating, especially related to migrants or violence. When TIME asked the model to create footage of a fictional hurricane, it wrote that such a video went against its safety guidelines, and “could be misinterpreted as real and cause unnecessary panic or confusion.” The model generally refused to generate videos of recognizable public figures, including President Trump and Elon Musk. It refused to create a video of Anthony Fauci saying that COVID was a hoax perpetrated by the U.S. government.Veo’s website states that it blocks “harmful requests and results.” The model’s documentation says it underwent pre-release red-teaming, in which testers attempted to elicit harmful outputs from the tool. Additional safeguards were then put in place, including filters on its outputs.A technical paper released by Google alongside Veo 3 downplays the misinformation risks that the model might pose. Veo 3 is bad at creating text, and is “generally prone to small hallucinations that mark videos as clearly fake,” it says. “Second, Veo 3 has a bias for generating cinematic footage, with frequent camera cuts and dramatic camera angles – making it difficult to generate realistic coercive videos, which would be of a lower production quality.”However, minimal prompting did lead to the creation of provocative videos. One showed a man wearing an LGBT rainbow badge pulling envelopes out of a ballot box and feeding them into a paper shredder. (Veo 3 titled the file “Election Fraud Video.”) Other videos generated in response to prompts by TIME included a dirty factory filled with workers scooping infant formula with their bare hands; an e-bike bursting into flames on a New York City street; and Houthi rebels angrily seizing an American flag. Some users have been able to take misleading videos even further. Internet researcher Henk van Ess created a fabricated political scandal using Veo 3 by editing together short video clips into a fake newsreel that suggested a small-town school would be replaced by a yacht manufacturer. “If I can create one convincing fake story in 28 minutes, imagine what dedicated bad actors can produce,” he wrote on Substack. “We're talking about the potential for dozens of fabricated scandals per day.” “Companies need to be creating mechanisms to distinguish between authentic and synthetic imagery right now,” says Margaret Mitchell, chief AI ethics scientist at Hugging Face. “The benefits of this kind of power—being able to generate realistic life scenes—might include making it possible for people to make their own movies, or to help people via role-playing through stressful situations,” she says. “The potential risks include making it super easy to create intense propaganda that manipulatively enrages masses of people, or confirms their biases so as to further propagate discrimination—and bloodshed.”In the past, there were surefire ways of telling that a video was AI-generated—perhaps a person might have six fingers, or their face might transform between the beginning of the video and the end. But as models improve, those signs are becoming increasingly rare. (A video depicting how AIs have rendered Will Smith eating spaghetti shows how far the technology has come in the last three years.) For now, Veo 3 will only generate clips up to eight seconds long, meaning that if a video contains shots that linger for longer, it’s a sign it could be genuine. But this limitation is not likely to last for long. Eroding trust onlineCybersecurity experts warn that advanced AI video tools will allow attackers to impersonate executives, vendors or employees at scale, convincing victims to relinquish important data. Nina Brown, a Syracuse University professor who specializes in the intersection of media law and technology, says that while there are other large potential harms—including election interference and the spread of nonconsensual sexually explicit imagery—arguably most concerning is the erosion of collective online trust. “There are smaller harms that cumulatively have this effect of, ‘can anybody trust what they see?’” she says. “That’s the biggest danger.” Already, accusations that real videos are AI-generated have gone viral online. One post on X, which received 2.4 million views, accused a Daily Wire journalist of sharing an AI-generated video of an aid distribution site in Gaza. A journalist at the BBC later confirmed that the video was authentic.Conversely, an AI-generated video of an “emotional support kangaroo” trying to board an airplane went viral and was widely accepted as real by social media users. Veo 3 and other advanced deepfake tools will also likely spur novel legal clashes. Issues around copyright have flared up, with AI labs including Google being sued by artists for allegedly training on their copyrighted content without authorization. (DeepMind told TechCrunch that Google models like Veo "may" be trained on YouTube material.) Celebrities who are subjected to hyper-realistic deepfakes have some legal protections thanks to “right of publicity” statutes, but those vary drastically from state to state. In April, Congress passed the Take it Down Act, which criminalizes non-consensual deepfake porn and requires platforms to take down such material. Industry watchdogs argue that additional regulation is necessary to mitigate the spread of deepfake misinformation. “Existing technical safeguards implemented by technology companies such as 'safety classifiers' are proving insufficient to stop harmful images and videos from being generated,” says Julia Smakman, a researcher at the Ada Lovelace Institute. “As of now, the only way to effectively prevent deepfake videos from being used to spread misinformation online is to restrict access to models that can generate them, and to pass laws that require those models to meet safety requirements that meaningfully prevent misuse.”

Interviews Love, Death + Robots – Volume 4: Tim Miller (Creator & Director) & Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Supervising Director) By Vincent Frei - 02/06/2025 Earlier this year, Tim Miller spoke to us about his animated anthology Secret Level. Now, he returns to discuss the latest season of Love, Death + Robots. Jennifer Yuh Nelson talked about season two of Love, Death + Robots in 2021. She later worked on The Sea Beast, before returning once again to the anthology universe. What was your overall vision for the fourth season of Love, Death and Robots and how did it evolve from previous seasons? Tim Miller (TM) // We have the same strategy as every volume – we try to pick the best stories we know of and provide a mix that is hopefully appealing to everyone. There are a lot of variables to consider. Including genre, tone, and style of animation, such as stop motion, CG, and 2D. We try not to have two stories that are too similar. For example, if there’s already a military sci-fi story, we avoid selecting another one. We like to mix humor, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and anything else that we think might be interesting from either a story or animation perspective. How did you approach the balance between experimenting with new styles and maintaining the signature identity of the show? TM // Honestly, we just try and follow our gut. What we think is interesting as filmmakers, animators, and storytellers will also be interesting to the animation community and fans alike. So, we keep an eye out for new voices, filmmakers, and new ways of doing things to keep things interesting. I’m not sure we have an identity of the show. In fact, I think if we did have an identity, it would be that we don’t have an identity… but we try and do whatever we think is interesting. Jennifer Yuh Nelson (JYN) // The fortunate thing about LDR is that the signature itself is experimenting with new styles. The trick is finding new aggressively experimental styles that still communicate to a mass audience. The stories are key to that. If the story is engaging, even to an audience that doesn’t usually gravitate to animation, then you can make it looks as weird as you want. What are some of the key challenges you faced while overseeing this season and how do you tackle them? TM // This season, there was a lot going on in the animation community that created some challenges with getting work done, whether studios were too full or ceased to exist entirely. Everyone struggled with budgets. But I didn’t feel like it was a problem with our show but rather a problem with the entire industry. People were struggling. And then it’s just always difficult when your ambition is high, your budgets are reasonable but still challenging, and you have to wrangle hundreds of people to get on board with your vision. (JYN) // These shows take a long time to make. R&D for a look that doesn’t exist can take a lot of trial and error. For example, Emily Dean, who directed Very Pulse of the Machine last season, did For He Can Creep this season. She had a cool angle of making her episode look like lithography. That was very very hard, but somehow Polygon, the studio that made both shorts, came through with it. And I think it turned out very well. Can you talk about how you selected the different animation studios for this season? What made you decide to work with the studios involved? (JYN) // We’ve been very fortunate to have worked with amazing people and studios these last few seasons, so it made sense to float some stories by them again. But it really comes down to the stories, and how each leans towards a certain technique. For example, How Zeke Found Religion was holding a slot where we wanted something 2D. We went to Titmouse because they were great with pushing the boundaries of 2D animation, and they suggested Diego Porral as a director who could bring a modern edge. How do you ensure each studio’s unique visual style complements the story and tone of each episode? TM // I know this sounds a little mystical and I don’t mean it to be, but I think the story speaks to you about style. Some things just feels right, and you have an innate concept of what would be the best version of the story, whether it’s stop motion, CG, 2D animation, or even live action. When you start thinking about the story in a creative way, a style becomes apparent. Which is not to say there aren’t many ways to do things and tell stories, but we feel a best version becomes clear. (JYN) // We do a lot of research, not just into what the studios have done before, but also into what they wish to do but haven’t had the chance to do. Often it’s just a matter of getting to know them and seeing if they have a philosophy of pushing for experimentation and risk. Then we try to support them as much as possible in their creative R&D. You both directed episodes for this season, what was that experience like? How did it differ from your work as overseeing directors? TM // For me, it’s really just trying to create the best story and I love working with the artists and trying to be open to what everybody brings to the table because everybody wants to do the best possible episode they can. I try and be open to letting people help carry that load. The best thing about being a director is that you get to pick and choose between all the great ideas that everybody has and shape the narrative by getting the benefit of everyone’s expertise and talent. (JYN) // It’s a different mindset. As a Supervising Director, I help. As a Director, I do. On episodes I’m not directing, I am deciphering that director’s ambition and pushing for whatever is required to make that absolutely great. On an episode I’m directing, every choice and image has to go through my brain so it’s more a reflection of my personal taste. Plus I tend to storyboard a lot more on my own episodes since it’s a way for me to communicate to the crew. I storyboard a lot on other episodes, but mainly to help figure out problems here and there. It also doesn’t come out of those director’s budgets so the free storyboarding is often welcomed. How did you choose the episode you worked on yourself and what aspects of it made it resonate with you both? TM // In my case with “The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur,” it was really by default. I had written the episode for Zack Snyder but Zack was too busy, and by that time I’d already fallen in love with the story, so I figured, why not just do it myself? As for “Golgotha,” I always loved the story. It was very efficient and short, which is hard to find in a story – it felt like a full meal. It has a beginning, middle, and end and it resolves in a satisfying way. “Golgotha” had all of that, plus it was funny. (JYN) // Spider Rose was on the story wall since the beginning. It was one of the “special” ones- very hard, ambitious, uncomfortable. Over the seasons we offered it to different directors and they veered away from it for one reason or another. But it glowed with a complexity that’s rare in a short story. I think that’s because it was written as an exploration for a far larger world that Bruce Sterling was developing. For me, it was the raw emotionality that drew me in. It’s how I understand how to communicate any story. And I love the way Spider Rose draws you in with emotion then shivs you with it. Were there any episodes in this season that particularly pushed the boundaries of what you had done before? How did that push happen? TM // I think “How Zeke got Religion” pushed the boundaries of 2D animation. The amount of detail and action that the guys at Titmouse were able to pull off was truly astonishing. Once again, Robert Valley outdid himself with 400 boys. The action scene at the end was one of my favorite pieces of animation in all of Love, Death, and Robots. (JYN) // Golgotha, Tim’s episode is live action, which is a rarity for the show. There was one live action episode in season 1, but none since. It is primarily an animation series, but nowadays, the line is so fuzzy that it seemed to make sense. How do you balance creative freedom with the thematic unity required for a show like Love, Death, and Robots? TM // There isn’t really a thematic unity. We’re just trying to create the best version of each of the episodes. They don’t tie into each other, they don’t relate to each other, they aren’t supposed to be about either Love, Death or Robots – the title is a meant to be a “catchall” that could hold ANY story or visual art we thought might be cool. Hopefully, the overall assemblage feels like a balanced meal with a little bit of something for everybody. But thematically speaking, again, I think our theme is that there is no theme. (JYN) // We try to set the foundation with a good story, based off the many short stories Tim has read over the years. Then the HOW of what that story becomes is the wooly Wild West. The directors and studios are fully encouraged to push all the boundaries of how to make these as innovative, impractical, and beautiful as they want. And, since each short is under 15 minutes, the studios we choose can be as experimental and scrappy as each story demands. Looking at the overall direction of the season, was there any unexpected moments or surprises that stood out to you during production? TM // Yeah, I think the color palette for “Zeke” was a shock to me in a wonderful way because it was completely unexpected and nothing I would ever do as a director but boy did I love it. And I think that “Can’t Stop” was an interesting addition. We wanted to do a music video from volume 1 onward, and this was the moment that we took to do it. I think it’s the greatest concert video ever made. (JYN) // Why do we have so many cats and babies? I’ve no idea. But when we saw the first giant baby shots in 400 Boys, it was a rare joy. They walk like babies, real babies. And somehow that was both accurate and terrifying. Looking forward, where do you see the show heading in future seasons, are there any new themes or concepts you’d love to explore? TM // So many directors in the industry have asked if they could play in our sandbox, and I would like to expand our reach to get some established names. Not that we don’t want new talent – we will always want that – but it would be great to have some really fantastic directors who have accomplished big movies come and play with our stories. I also think there’s a version where we bring in some content that may have existed in other mediums like comic books and perhaps tell some larger stories that take more than one episode to tell. Truthfully, I’ve already got a some really interesting stories picked out for the next few seasons, — of course those will change as the show evolves, but they’re fascinating stories that explore the whole arc of history… past, present, and future and some of the big challenges that humanity is facing today. I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that many of them explore the future of what mankind will become with the advent of AI and how artificial intelligence and humanity’s future intersect. (JYN) // Often themes only show up afterwards. There is a bit of a “herding cats” energy to the show that promises surprises in the production process. But the point of a show like this is that it is surprising. It has its own energy, and sometimes we just have to listen to it rather than dictate. If you had the opportunity to create any kind of story for Love, Death, and Robots, what would your dream narrative and what type of animation style would you envision for it? TM // Well, I have to say that I love high-end 3D animation, and that’s what Blur does for a reason. And secondly, I’d like to do a kind of story that could be live action and has some vast scope to it, but we choose to do it in animation because we get more value from using the techniques that animation brings. We can tell a bigger story, with more scope, and more action than we would using any other methodology…. and it competes favorably with live action in terms of the kind of audience that comes to watch it. Not just fans of animation, but fans of good cinema. (JYN) // I’d love to see an anime episode, like a Tsutomu Nihei fight scene, or something by Katsuhiro Otomo. A big thanks for your time. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Blur Studio: Dedicated page about Love, Death + Robots: Volume 4 on Blur Studio website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Millennial culture has officially made it to the history books.  A history teacher recently turned her sixth grade classroom into a museum for millennial paraphernalia with the help of her Gen Alpha students’ parents. Judging by the comments on the teacher’s TikTok video, millennials aren’t sure whether to be thrilled or horrified.  Malinda Nichols (@hipsterhistorywithmrsn) posted the video earlier this month, highlighting “historical artifacts from the 1990s” for her students’ benefit. Out on display were flip phones, Nintendos, and disposable cameras. Boyz II Men and Beanie Babies also made an appearance. “The collection in here has easily got to be worth 10s of dollars,” she joked. “But the nostalgic value is truly priceless.” In a second video, with almost 800,000 views on TikTok, she showed the students’ reactions to the “museum of the millennial,” as she called it. Students played POGS, a popular playground game played with flat circular cardboard milk caps, and attempted to figure out how buttons worked on an old-school Nokia.  The parents also made a surprise appearance for a “history lesson” straight from the horse’s mouth. Students’ questions included: “How did you make plans with your friends before texting?” and “What commercials or jingles do you still remember from when you were younger?” Finally, students were tasked with creating their own AOL screen names to round out the full millennial experience.  “I created the ‘museum of the millennial’ lesson for my sixth grade students to show them that history isn’t just found in dusty textbooks—it’s alive, personal, and being made every day,” Nichols told Fast Company. “By inviting parents to share artifacts from their childhood in the ’80s and ’90s, students saw firsthand how the people who raised them, including myself—I’m a proud millennial and parent of a sixth grader—helped pioneer the digital age, even if we didn’t realize it at the time because for us it was just living our lives.” For a much-maligned generation (those born roughly between 1981 and 1996), it was a welcome change to see their culture finally getting the recognition it deserves. For too long, millennials have been forced to listen as older generations chastised them for overspending on avocado toast, before they became sandwiched by a younger generation who roasted them for their unironic love of Harry Potter and penchant for burger joints.  Nichols’s video also brought with it the horrifying realization for millennials that their childhood is now the subject of history lessons. “Historical Artifacts?” one wrote. “I feel attacked.”

Just Dodge Elden Ring Nightreign update offers solo players a helping hand not even 24-hours after launch because cowards cried too loud What happened to the game that I loved, to the spirit of persevering through adversity? Image credit: Bandai Namco News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 Elden Ring Nightreign hasn't even been out for 24 hours, and already the game has been made easier for solo players. Those tackling solo runs will get one free revive during the Nightlord fight that's part of the run, and will get increased rune aquisition the entire time. A solo run, which is already scaled so that bosses have less health and offers a purchasable revive before the Nightlord fight for a measly 10,000 runes, was added for those who enjoy the challenge of taking on a game intended for group play on their lonesome. Fair play, y'know. It's not how I best enjoyed the game but godspeed captain, take the wheel. For those who were actually excited to take on the game this way with all its struggle and in the name of fufilment through overcoming adversity, however, their dreams have been hampered by the wails and moans of wittle babies who want the solo experience to be easier. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. They want their warm bottle, a little bib, and for the process of actually overcoming the challenge present in Nightreign to be lowered so they don't have to work as hard to succeed. Was I able to solo every boss during the review period? No. I did like four of 'em. Was I looking forward to improving and doing so over the next few weeks? Absolutely. This journey has been stolen from me and likeminded adults by the feeble among us. "But Connor, what if these people are struggling to beat bosses on their own and need help?", you may ask. Here's a hot tip. Go and ask your dad if you can use the internet, shake the gent's hand, then take the on the boss online. Once you've cracked that with the help of other people, and are better at the game, then try it solo. You'll find that it's easier than before. Wow! It's almost as though that playing the game more and with other people (the way the game is intended to be played) helps make these challenges less daunting. It's almost as though that's a major theme of the game itself. You are meant to ride a bike with your hands on the handle bars. You can ride without doing so, but it's harder. If you try riding a bike without touching the handle bars and wipe out on the pavement, you don't ask for stabilizers to be put on, right? You practice riding your bike normally until you can crack it. The worst part isn't even the revive - you can just take your hands off the controller on your first death and welcome the game over if you want a real "deathless run" - it's the rune aquisition boost. In my opinion it taints the whole thing. There are relics that give rune aquisition boosts but you have to earn them. The game gets easier as you play, as in all games like this. I do understand why this change has happened from From Software's perspective - the company wants all the people playing it to have a good time and not bail out after a few too many frustrating losses. Totally get it. But why not leave it a week so the sickos can claim their laurels? Then, provide this olive branch for everyone else. Maybe I'm an jaded 27 year old but I remember a From Software community that would cheer and pop bottles upon hearing that a new game was really hard as a solo player, and would smash their heads against it like rabid animals until they managed to beat it. These people still exist I'm sure, they are likely as disapointed as I am that the game has already had part of it neutered, but it's too late now. At least with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree regular players had a few days to soldier on before the early hours of it were made easier. Whatever, enjoy your pram. Elden Ring Nightreign is out now, and is doing really well on Steam at the moment. So, there's a solid chance a lot of you playing it right now are having a good time, which is swell.

Sometimes you want to play alone, whether your game of choice is a relaxing solitaire session or an engrossing, cinematic campaign. We get that. Still, some of the best gaming-related experiences come from moments shared with other people. After all, an excellent multiplayer mode makes a video game endlessly replayable and enables good times with local friends or strangers across the country—as long as the servers stay up. Our list of the best multiplayer games casts a wide net that includes console and PC games, competitive and cooperative titles, casual board games and serious esports fare, and, of course, battle royales, shooters, and fighters. If you're interested in playing a game with at least one other person, you'll find something that catches your eye here. These are the best multiplayer video games that you and your friends should play right now. Apex Legends From the ashes of Titanfall rose the best battle royale game. Respawn’s Apex Legends combines unbelievably fluid movement with impeccable gunplay and innovative team communication features. Each character’s unique abilities open strategic options on the expansive battlefield. Among Us Among Us (for iOS) 4.0 Excellent Among Us is more of a social experiment than a game. You and your friends play as crewmates attempting to repair a spaceship, but some players are deadly impostors who are picking off others. Constant lying and manipulation turn even the friendliest relationships into pure paranoia.  Clubhouse Games Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent This compilation contains more than 50 classic games that have stood the test of time, including bowling, backgammon, and billiards. You can have fun with friends or family, but beware getting so heated that you'll never want to speak with them again. Online play ensures the good (and frustrating) times aren't limited to your immediate vicinity. Counter-Strike 2 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 4.0 Excellent Counter-Strike is a founding father of multiplayer online shooters, and Counter-Strike 2 continues the legacy. In this long-awaited update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you’ll find a massive community always ready to hop into Terrorist versus Counter-Terrorist tactical team action. Plus, it’s free! Death Stranding Death Stranding: Director's Cut (for PlayStation 5) 4.0 Excellent Hideo Kojima’s freaky odyssey about time rain and babies in jars is also one of the most fascinating and unconventional multiplayer games in recent memory. As you traverse the harsh wasteland, you can leave behind useful items, such as ladders and reports, that other players can use in their sessions. Destiny 2 Destiny 2 (for PlayStation 4) Destiny 2 is the looter-shooter that gives other looter-shooters envy. You gather the shiniest guns, the sickest armor, and show off your gear in front of fellow Guardians. Party-up and shoot your way through alien enemies and strongholds with Bungie’s perfect first-person shooter controls. The first taste is free, and regular, new content releases give you many reasons to keep gunning. Destiny 2 (for PlayStation 4) review Diablo IV 4.0 Excellent No action-RPG out-Diablos Diablo IV, a title that expands the familiar loot-grinding mechanics with massive, demon-filled zones. In terms of character builds, Diablo IV review Dota 2 Dota 2 (for PC) 4.5 Excellent What began as a mere mod has since become one of the most popular esports in the world. Dota 2 sets the standard for the MOBA genre, that strange hybrid between real-time strategy and team sports. New heroes give players constantly changing choices to consider. If you put in the effort to get really good at this game, the sky's the limit.  Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (for PC) 4.0 Excellent The King of Fighters series is great, but Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves resurrects the SNK fighter that started it all. Familiar faces like Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui battle real-life guest characters like DJ Salavatore Gannaci and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo in this excellent take on fundamental, 2D fisticuffs. Rich mechanics add depth to both offensive and defensive play, while comic book-inspired graphics give brawls a distinct visual identity. Crossplay multiplayer shines with rollback netcode. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (for PC) review Fortnite Fortnite (for PC) 3.5 Good Do you really need someone else to tell you about Fortnite? Originally a free battle royale mode for a failed multiplayer game, Fortnite became an absolute phenomenon. Every day, millions of children leap from the in-game battle bus to shoot each other and build elaborate structures, while dressed as their favorite brands. You can also hang out and watch concerts or (for some reason) documentaries on social issues.   Forza Horizon 5 Forza Horizon 5 (for PC) 4.5 Excellent Forza Horizon 5 appeals equally to serious automobile racing enthusiasts and anyone who just wants to drive aimlessly through beautifully rendered Mexican landscapes. Although largely similar to past entries, the new EventLab lets you create clever, custom courses to enjoy with friends. Halo Infinite Halo Infinite (for PC) 4.5 Excellent Halo single-handedly saved the Xbox, and proved that multiplayer shooters could thrive on home consoles. Halo Infinite doesn’t just reinvent the single-player campaign, it continues Halo’s history of excellent multiplayer modes, from capture the flag to random weapon fiestas. Plus, you can play for free, so finish the fight. Halo Infinite (for PC) review Jackbox Party Pack The Jackbox Party Pack 8 (for PC) The annual Jackbox Party Pack games consistently deliver the most hilarious social multiplayer experiences you’ll ever play. Design wacky t-shirts, come up with witty quips, and try to figure out which friend is faking it. Anyone can play, as long as they have a phone. With unique streaming features, even your audience can join the party. League of Legends League of Legends (for PC) 4.5 Excellent Free from any previous mod baggage, League of Legends is arguably the more accessible game when it comes to the MOBA heavy hitters. Still, it takes skill to master every champion and lead your team to victory. The League of Legends universe is expanding into other game genres and Netflix shows, so now’s the time to get caught up.  League of Legends (for PC) review It Takes Two In many ways, marriage is the ultimate multiplayer game. It Takes Two is a cooperative adventure that tasks two people with controlling a couple as they complete wacky challenges to repair their strained relationship. You’ll never know true love until you and your partner escape a giant cuckoo clock together. The King of Fighters XV The King of Fighters XV (for PC) 4.0 Excellent For finely tuned 2D fighting, look no further than The King of Fighters XV. Building off intriguing ideas introduced in previous entries, KOF XV gives you a massive character roster and an expressive, creative fighting system. Tournament features, multiplayer party modes, and rollback netcode make this one of the series' best entries. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is absolutely everything you could want from Nintendo’s hugely popular kart racing series. It features gorgeous visuals, inventive tracks, and a revamped battle mode. In fact, Nintendo is still selling new courses, years after the game's 2017 debut. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is so spectacular not even the blue shell can stop it.  Minecraft Minecraft (for PC) 4.5 Excellent Minecraft gives young people an unparalleled sense of freedom as they explore and build worlds, brick by brick. In fact, multiple builders can join the same game world for cooperative mining and crafting. Take it a step further by setting up your own Minecraft server, so you and friends can construct a private paradise.  Monster Hunter Rise Monster Hunter Rise (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Monster Hunter Rise finally makes hardened haters see the glory of Capcom’s monster-slaying series. You can craft new weapons and armors by defeating a monster menagerie inspired by Japanese mythology or swing through the air with new wirebug techniques. No beasts will stand in your way as you go beast hunting with friends. Mortal Kombat 1 Mortal Kombat 1 (For PC) 4.5 Excellent With Mortal Kombat 1, the famously bloody fighting game finally breaks free of its infamously stiff gameplay mechanics. Finishing foes has never been more fun thanks to high-flying air combos and custom tag-team Kameo fighter attacks. This reboot is as entertaining to play with friends as it is to watch with horrified onlookers. Mortal Kombat 1 (For PC) review Rocket League Rocket League (for PC) 4.5 Excellent “Cars playing soccer” is such a beautiful premise for an arcade sports game, and Rocket League perfectly pulls it off. Sure, you can just put the pedal to the metal and bash into the ball, hoping it goes into the goal. But the high-flying physics system creates enough depth for sensational tests of skill. The free-to-play season structure means you’ll always have a reason to return.  Rocket League (for PC) review Splatoon 3 Splatoon 3 (for Nintendo Switch) 4.0 Excellent Only Nintendo could take the well-worn shooter genre and turn it into a game about punky squid kids squirting ink at each other. By making battles more about covering turf than blasting opponents, Splatoon 3 is a friendlier and more accessible shooter. However, you’ll need to stay on your toes with so many unique weapons and traversal options. Splatoon 3 (for Nintendo Switch) review StarCraft II StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void (for PC) 5.0 Outstanding StarCraft II is the best strategy game since chess. Whether you play as Terran, Zerg, or Protoss armies, you have access to perfectly balanced units for overcoming any opponent during real-time clashes. The StarCraft II trilogy even introduces free, cooperate multiplayer modes, so veterans can introduce newcomers to the fight. Street Fighter 6 Street Fighter 6 (for PC) 5.0 Outstanding Street Fighter 6 is worthy of its iconic name. With its bold new style (graffiti in motion!), expansive new modes (worldwide online Battle Hub!), exciting new roster (Kimberly!), and competitive new gameplay systems (Drive Gauge!), Street Fighter battles are more hype than ever. It's a multiplayer gaming masterpiece. Street Fighter 6 (for PC) review Streets of Rage 4 Streets of Rage 4 (for PC) 4.0 Excellent Streets of Rage 4 breathes new life into the aging beat ‘em up genre thanks to complex combat and stunning illustrated graphics. If smacking goons in solo fashion gets boring, team up with a friend for chaotic co-op action. You can even unlock retro versions of classic characters. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (for Nintendo Switch) 4.5 Excellent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate combines countless characters, stages, modes, and music tracks to create the most incredible video game crossover of all time. It’s also a phenomenal platform-fighting game, speeding up the addictive combat and rebalancing advanced techniques. No matter how seriously you take it, no video game can scratch that satisfying multiplayer itch like Super Smash Bros.  Tekken 8 Tekken 8 (for PC) Tekken 8 is the latest and greatest entry in the venerable 3D fighting game franchise. Prove your worth at the King of Iron Fist Tournament by nimbly sidestepping, laying down painful combos, and activating new Heat Smash attacks. For the true Tekken multiplayer experience, fight your dad and throw him down a volcano. Tetris Effect: Connected Tetris Effect: Connected (for Xbox Series S) 4.5 Excellent Tetris Effect: Connected makes the perfect puzzle game even better. Alongside traditional competitive Tetris multiplayer modes, Effect lets you team up for cooperative “Connected” journeys where you and your partners clear lines on the same massive board. Combine that with trance-inducing audiovisual stimuli, and you’ll never look at blocks the same way again. 

When Anna Ginsburg opened her talk at OFFF Barcelona with her showreel, it landed like a punch to the heart and gut all at once. Immense, emotional, awesome. That three-word review wasn't just for the reel – it set the tone for a talk that was unflinchingly honest, joyously weird, and brimming with creative intensity. Anna began her career making music videos, which she admitted were a kind of creative scaffolding: "I didn't yet know what I wanted to say about the world, so I used music as a skeleton to hang visuals on." It gave her the freedom to experiment visually and technically with rotoscoping, stop motion and shooting live-action. It was an opportunity to be playful and have fun until she had something pressing to say. Then, Anna began to move into more meaningful territory, blending narrative and aesthetic experimentation. Alongside music videos, she became increasingly drawn to animated documentaries. "It's a powerful and overlooked genre," she explained. "When it's just voice recordings and not video, people are more candid. You're protecting your subject, so they're more honest." Talking genitals and creative liberation: The making of Private Parts A formative moment in Anna's personal and creative life occurred when she saw the artwork 'The Great Wall of Vagina' by Jamie McCartney at the age of 19. It followed an awkward teenage discovery years earlier when, after finally achieving her first orgasm (post-Cruel Intentions viewing), she proudly shared the news with friends and was met with horror. "Boys got high-fived. Girls got shamed." That gap between female pleasure and cultural discomfort became the starting point for Private Parts, her now-famous animated short about masturbation and sexual equality. It began as a personal experiment, sketching vulvas in her studio, imagining what their facial expressions might be. Then, she started interviewing friends about their experiences and animating vulvas to match their voices. When It's Nice That and Channel 4 emailed her looking for submissions for a late-night slot, Anna shared a clip of two vulvas in casual conversation, and they were immediately sold. With a shoestring budget of £2,000 and a five-week deadline, she rallied 11 illustrators to help bring the film to life. "I set up a Dropbox, and talking genitals started flooding in from the four corners of the world while I was sitting in my bedroom at my mum's," she laughed. One standout moment came from an Amsterdam-based designer who created a CGI Rubik's Cube vagina, then took two weeks off work to spray paint 100 versions of it. The result of what started as a passion project is an iconic, hilarious, and touching film that still resonates ten years on. From humour to heartbreak: What Is Beauty The talk shifted gear when Anna began to speak about her younger sister's anorexia. In 2017, during her sister's third hospitalisation, Anna found herself questioning the roots of beauty ideals, particularly in Western culture. Witnessing her sister's pain reframed how she saw her own body. This sparked a deep dive into beauty through the ages, from the Venus of Willendorf, a 28,000-year-old fertility goddess, to the Versace supermodels of the 1990s and the surgically sculpted Kardashians of today. "You realise the pace of the change in beauty ideals," she says. "If you revisit the skeletal female bodies which defined the super skinny era of the 2000s and compare it to the enhanced curves of today, you realise that trying to keep up is not only futile; it's extremely dangerous." She also explored the disturbing trend of dismemberment in advertising – shots taken where the heads are intentionally out of frame – and the impact this has on self-perception. Her response was What Is Beauty, released in 2018 on International Women's Day and her sister's birthday. The short film went viral, amassing over 20 million views. "It was a love letter to her," Anna said. "Because it didn't have English dialogue, it travelled globally. The simplicity made it resonate." And despite its runaway success, it brought her zero income. "Then I made the worst advert for a bank the world has ever seen," she joked. "I made money, but it broke my creative spirit." Enter the Hag: Animation, myth and millennial angst OFFF attendees were also treated to the world-exclusive first look at Hag, Anna's new animated short, three years in the making. It's her most ambitious and most personal project yet. Made with the support of the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, Has is a 16-minute fantasy set in a surreal version of Peckham. The main character is a childless, single, disillusioned woman with snakes for hair. "I had just broken up with a lockdown boyfriend after struggling with doubts for nearly 2 years,"' she reveals. "The next day, I was at a baby shower surrounded by friends with rings and babies who recoiled at my touch. I was surrounded by flies, and a dog was doing a poo right next to me. I just felt like a hag." Drawing on Greek mythology, Anna reimagines Medusa not as a jealous monster but as a feminist figure of rage, autonomy and misinterpretation. "I didn't know she was a rape victim until I started researching," she told me after the talk. "The story of Athena cursing her out of jealousy is such a tired trope. What if it was solidarity? What if the snakes were power?" In Hag, the character initially fights with her snakes – violently clipping them back in shame and battling with them – but by the end, they align. She embraces her monstrous self. "It's a metaphor for learning to love the parts of yourself you've been told are wrong," Anna said. "That journey is universal." Making the personal political (and funny) Telling a story so autobiographical wasn't easy. "It's exposing," Anna admitted. "My past work dealt with issues in the world. This one is about how I feel in the world." Even her ex-boyfriend plays himself. "Luckily, he's funny and cool about it. Otherwise, it would've been a disaster." She did worry about dramatising the baby shower scene too much. "None of those women were horrible in real life, but for the film, we needed to crank up the emotional tension," she says. "I just wanted to show that societal pressures make women feel monstrous whether they decide to conform or not. This is not a battle between hags and non-hags. These feelings affect us all." Co-writing the script with her dear friend and writer Miranda Latimer really helped. "It felt less exposing as we'd both lived versions of the same thing. Collaboration is liberating and makes me feel safer when being so honest," Anna explains. Sisterhood, generations and the pressure to conform It was very clear from our chat that Anna's younger sisters are a recurring thread throughout her work. "They've helped me understand the world through a Gen Z lens," she said. "Stalking my youngest sister on Instagram was how I noticed the way girls crop their faces or hide behind scribbles. It's dehumanising." That intergenerational awareness fuels many of her ideas. "I definitely wouldn't have made What Is Beauty without Maya. Seeing what she was going through just unlocked something." She's also keenly aware of the gender gap in healthcare. "So many women I know are living with pain, going years without a diagnosis. It's infuriating. If I get asked to work on anything to do with women's health, I'll say yes." Medusa, millennials, and the meaning of self-love One of Hag's most biting commentaries is about millennial self-care culture. "There's a scene in the character's bedroom – it's got a faded Dumbledore poster, self-help books, a flashing 'Namaste' sign. It's a shrine to the broken millennial." She laughs: "Self-love became a commodity. An expensive candle, a jade roller, and an oil burner from Muji. Like, really? That's it?" Her film pokes at the performative of wellness while still holding space for genuine vulnerability. This same self-awareness informs her reflections on generational shifts. "Gen Z is going through the same thing, just with a different flavour. It's all about skincare routines now – 11 steps for a 14-year-old. It's wild." Feminism with fangs (and a sense of humour) Anna's feminism is open, intersectional, and laced with humour. "My mum's a lesbian and a Child Protection lawyer who helped to make rape within marriage illegal in the UK," she shared. "She sometimes jokes that my work is a bit basic. But I'm OK with that – I think there's space for approachable feminism, too." Importantly, she wants to bring everyone into the conversation. "It means so much when men come up to me after talks. I don't want to alienate anyone. These stories are about people, not just women." What's Next? Hag will officially premiere later this year, and it's likely to resonate far and wide. It's raw, mythic, funny and furious – and thoroughly modern. As Anna put it: "I've been experiencing external pressure and internal longing while making this film. So I'm basically becoming a hag while making Hag." As far as metamorphoses go, that's one we'll happily watch unfold.

DeepSeek's R1 update, plus the rest of the AI news this week. Credit: Thomas Fuller / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images This week, DeepSeek released an updated version of its R1 model on HuggingFace, reigniting the open-source versus closed-source competition. The updated version, called DeekSeek-R1-0528, has 685 billion parameters, an upgrade from January's version, which had 671 billion. Unlike OpenAI and Google's models, which are famously closed-source, DeepSeek's model weights are publicly available. According to the benchmarks, the R1-0528 update has improved reasoning and inference capabilities and is closing the gap with OpenAI's o3 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro. DeepSeek also introduced a distilled version of R1-0528 using Alibaba's Qwen3 8B model. This is an example of a lightweight model that is less capable but also requires less computing power. DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B outperforms both Google's latest lightweight model Gemini-2.5-Flash-Thinking-0520 and OpenAI's o3-mini in certain benchmarks. But the bigger deal is that DeekSeek's distilled model can reportedly run on a single GPU, according to TechCrunch. You May Also Like To… distill all this information, the Chinese rival is catching up to its U.S. competitors with an open-weight approach that's cheaper and more accessible. Plus, DeepSeek continues to prove that AI models may not require as much computing power as OpenAI, Google, and other AI heavyweights currently use. Suffice to say, watch this space.That said, DeepSeek's models also have their drawbacks. According to one AI developer (via TechCrunch), the new DeepSeek update is even more censored than its previous version when it comes to criticism of the Chinese government. Of course, a lot more happened in the AI world over the past few days. After last week's parade of AI events from Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft, this week was lighter on product and feature news. That's one reason DeepSeek's R1 update captured the AI world's attention this week. In other AI news, Anthropic finally gets voice mode, AI influencers go viral, Anthropic's CEO warns of mass layoffs, and an AI-generated kangaroo. Google's Veo 3 takes the internet by stormOn virtually every social media platform, users are freaking out about the new Veo 3, Google's new AI video model. The results are impressive, and we're already seeing short films made entirely with Veo 3. Not bad for a product that came out 11 days ago. Not to be outdone by AI video artists, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal made a short film about herself and a robot using Veo 3.Mashable's Tech Editor Timothy Werth recapped Veo's big week and had a simple conclusion: We're so cooked.More AI product news: Claude's new voice mode and the beginning of the agentic browser eraAfter last week's barrage, this week was lighter on the volume of AI news. But what was announced this week is no less significant.  Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Anthropic finally introduced its own voice mode for Claude to compete with ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini. The feature is currently in beta on mobile for the Claude app and will even be available to free plans with a limit of 20 to 30 voice conversations per day. Anthropic says you can ask Claude to summarize your calendar or read documents out loud. Paying subscribers can connect to Google Workspace for Calendar, Gmail, and Docs access. OpenAI is exploring the ability to sign into third-party apps with ChatGPT. We don't know much yet, but the company posted an interest form on its site for developers using Codex, its engineering agent, to add this capability to their own apps. It may not sound like a big deal, but it basically means users could easily link their personalized ChatGPT memories and settings to third-party apps, much like the way it works when you sign into a new app with your Google account.Opera announced a new agentic AI browser called Neon. "Much more than a place to view web pages, Neon can browse with you or for you, take action, and help you get things done," the announcement read. That includes a chatbot interface within the browser and the ability to fill in web forms for tasks like booking trips and shopping. The announcement, which included a promo video of a humanoid robot browsing the robot, which is scant on details but says Neon will be a "premium subscription product" and has a waitlist to sign up.The browser has suddenly become a new frontier for agentic AI, now that it's capable of automating web search tasks. Perplexity is working on a similar tool called Comet, and The Browser Company pivoted from its Arc browser to a more AI-centric browser called Dia. All of this is happening while Google might be forced to sell off Chrome, which OpenAI has kindly offered to take off its hands. Dario Amodei's prediction about AI replacing entry-level jobs is already starting to happenAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in an interview with Axios that AI could "wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs." Amodei's predictions might be spot on because a new study from VC firm SignalFire found that hiring for entry-level jobs is down to 7 percent from 25 percent in the previous year. Some of that is due to changes in the economic climate, but AI is definitely a factor since firms are opting to automate the less-technical aspects of work that would've been taken on by new hires.  Related Stories The latest in AI culture: That AI-generated kangaroo, Judge Judy, and everything elseGoogle wants you to know its AI overviews reach 1.5 billion people a month. They probably don't want you to know AI Overviews still struggles to count, spell, and know what year it is. As Mashable's Tim Marcin put it, would AI Overviews pass concussion protocol?The proposal of a 10-year ban on states regulating AI is pretty unpopular, according to a poll from Common Sense Media. The survey found that 57 percent of respondents opposed the moratorium, including half of the Republican respondents. As Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz reported, "the vast majority of respondents, regardless of their political affiliation, agreed that Congress shouldn't ban states from enacting or enforcing their own youth online safety and privacy laws."In the private sector, The New York Times signed a licensing deal with Amazon to allow their editorial content to be used for Amazon's AI models. The details are unclear, but from the outside, this seems like a change of tune from the Times, which is currently suing OpenAI for copyright infringement for allegedly using its content to train its models. That viral video of an emotional support kangaroo holding a plane ticket and being denied boarding? It's AI-generated, of course. Slightly more obvious, but no less creepy is another viral trend of using AI to turn public figures like Emmanuel Macron and Judge Judy into babies. These are strange AI-slop-infested times we're living in. AI has some positive uses too. This week, we learned about a new humanoid robot from HuggingFace called HopeJr (with engineering by The Robot Studio), which could be available for sale later this year for just $3,000.And to end this recap on a high note, the nonprofit Colossal Foundation has developed an AI algorithm to detect the bird calls of the near-extinct tooth-billed pigeon. Also known as the "little dodo," the tooth-billed pigeon is Samoa's national bird, and scientists are using the bioacoustic algorithm to locate and protect them. Want to get the latest AI news, from new product features to viral trends? Check back next week for another AI news recap, and in the meantime, follow @cecily_mauran and @mashable for more news.Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems. Topics OpenAI DeepSeek Cecily Mauran Tech Reporter Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.

Content warning for discussions of sexual violence and harassment.Usually asteroids are distant features of the cosmos, occasionally crashing down to Earth or threatening the planet.Not so for former Texas solicitor general Judd Stone, who's been accused of making the distant space rocks a focal point in violent and bizarre fantasies about a coworker that he regaled to other people.Needless to say, that's wildly inappropriate and unacceptable. As 404 Media reports, Stone has now resigned from his position after a damning letter aired the allegations, which involved — apologies in advance — a phallic asteroid used as a sexual implement, like some sort of grotesque riff on a Chuck Tingle book.According to a letter sent by Texas' first assistant attorney general Brent Webster, Stone — who had at the time taken a leave of absence to defend Texas attorney general Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial — joked during a 2023 lunching with other government employees about a "disturbing sexual fantasy" that involved a "cylindrical asteroid." During the debacle, Stone described using said asteroid to sexually assault Webster while his wife and children watched.That letter, which is five pages long and full of additional allegations of sexual harassment and lies Stone allegedly told, is replete with gory details about this case that we won't regale you with.What's striking to us at Futurism, however, is the "cylindrical asteroid" of it all. Where did Texas's now-former solicitor general get such an idea, and what could it mean about who he is as a person — and, more importantly, how did it affect the people he worked with?While we don't have answers to those first two, it's quite clear from the letter how Stone's gruesome asteroid "joke" affected him and his colleagues. Along with Webster's own concerns about Stone's violent state of mind and his fear that his family could be in danger, the assistant AG added that a female employee who had been present for that stomach-turning lunch discussion had been so upset by the topic that she excused herself — only to return to japes from others at the table who said she "couldn't handle people talking about dicks."That same woman "exhibited emotional distress" when recounting the anecdote to Webster, and also told him, through tears, that she had been sexually harassed on other occasions by Stone and was concerned about the way he treated women.When confronted with the sexual harassment allegations against him, Stone admitted to them all immediately, including the bizarre asteroid fantasy. He was, as 404 notes, given the grace to quit or be fired, and chose the former.More on Texas-based misogyny: In Leaked Text, Elon Musk Harangued Woman to Have as Many of His Babies as PossibleShare This Article